Category: Food and Drink

  • Chow Time

    What was once a kicky, quirky food magazine is now a kicky, quirky website. Chow was bought by the guys at CNet, about the same time they decided to re-work my favorite Chowhounds site. Now the two sites are working together to bring fun and un-stuffy food articles to eaters. With pieces on how to…

  • that Speaks French

    Of all the depressing novels I know, Jude the Obscure takes the prize for sustained doom and gloom. Don’t let the film mislead you; it is far too pretty. All those authentic Victorian sets (not to mention the delightfully authentic Kate Winslet) undermine the exposition of Jude’s law, that Sod and Murphy were incurable optimists,…

  • Homage to a Dead Duck

    Autumn is my favorite time of year. Add the beauty of the harvest to deep-blue skies, brilliant foliage, and crisp, cool mornings, and you have the perfect eating season. Throw open the windows, crank up the oven, throw some cinnamon about, and life is perfect. Except Sundays. On autumnal Sundays, as I focus on the…

  • Of Corn Mazes and Goats

    The barn at Deer Lake Orchards. Suddenly, the weekends belong to the apple orchards. They’ve figured out it’s quite a business, luring familys with hot cider, mini-donuts, jumping goats and corn mazes. My cynical side bemoans the crowds and trampled fields and toddlers with farm cats in a love-strangle. But I am renewed when, during…

  • Service Gods

    Dear Crappy Restaurants, I know you probably don’t care, but just in case you are having a moment of self-reflection, please go out and buy the current copy of FastCompany magazine. The cover features the ragerific comedian Lewis Black, whom you should recognize as your typical customer: frustrated, agitated, walking away and screaming his story…

  • Doggin'

    here puppy, puppy I’m surprisingly OK with the upscaling/gourmandizing/Starbucking of the hot dog. Because once we get through lauding the foie dog, the salmon dog, the wasabi coated tuna dog, the kobe dog, the tofu dog or whatever they decide to come up with, there will be a backlash. All of a sudden classic hot…