Slurping wetly and noisily at the nourishment that is New Orleans
Not to start any inter-city rivalry, but I think I live in one of the best neighborhoods in New Orleans, especially when it comes to food. It’s only four blocks to Spoon Bread at Dante’s Kitchen, three to a pork tenderloin & Gouda cheese Canoe at Barcelona Tapas Cafe or the best burgers […]
As a Bay Area native, when I first heard the story of “Monkey Hill” in Audubon Zoo, I thought someone was yanking my chain. During the Great Depression, an artificial hill was constructed inside the zoo to show the children of New Orleans what a hill looked like. Even today, […]
I had just left my house and was driving around the corner, when I was forced to stop the car. One of my neighbors has a collection of birdhouses and bird feeders in their front yard and they must have recently put out some more food because there was a […]
On my way back home, I had a two-hour layover in LAX and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Stretching, eating, roaming around and chatting on the phone only managed to burn about 45 minutes and I began feeling anxious. Wandering into one of the many bookstores, I […]
Ever since I read about the recently re-opened Katie’s in Mid-City, I became anxious to give it a try. After all, Katie’s has been around since 1984 and though it’s not as old as Mandina’s or College Inn, staying in business for over twenty years is nothing to sneeze at. […]
Several years ago, John’s mom Glenda drove down from Ponchatoula to visit with us for the day. Although she had lived almost her whole life only an hour’s drive away, she never really had the opportunity to explore New Orleans and John and I thought we might take her somewhere […]
Like the Circle Bar, the Half Moon Bar & Restaurant on the corner of St. Mary Street is a local watering hole that I used to frequent quite often. It was at the Half Moon that I heard about a shooting that happened on St. Charles Avenue during Mardi Gras […]
One of the biggest surprises I encountered while working downtown was the inability to find a great doughnut shop. Isn’t there a corporate law somewhere stating that doughnuts are mandatory for good employee morale and longevity? Admittedly, I was certainly not one to turn down a slice of doberge cake […]
When Shalom and I get together, a brief lunch stop can unravel into a day-long binge and that’s exactly what happened when we stopped into The Chieftain. We had planned to stop by her office in San Francisco and then head to the grocery store, so I could make dinner […]
After we left Mexicali Rose, my friends wanted to introduce me to one of the coolest jazz clubs in Oakland, Cafe Van Kleef. Known for a killer Greyhound, Cafe Van Kleef is located in the “Oaksterdam” district of downtown Oakland at 1621 Telegraph Avenue. The nickname developed quite recently due […]
Since I have been visiting my family in California, my eating regimen has been a total bust. Although I have been getting out and about more than usual, I have been balancing the new exercise with a healthy dose of local cuisine. For example, the other day my mother offered […]
It seems that more than allergies, large hips and early onset gray hair runs in my family, there’s also the love of pho! Just the other day, my sister suggested lunch at a small Vietnamese restaurant in Foster City called Pho Saigon and much to my surprise, my mother and […]