Restaurants
“We’re eating British tonight, alright?” says Annie in that voice of hers. It’s been a hard day. We’ve been working together. Both beat. She’s my friend. You’d think she was my wife. But hey, she’s …
“Och, dreich. Ye coulda picked a better night, sailor,” says Annie. “It’s chucking it down.” Annie’s my Scottish friend. She’s right about the rain. Says it takes her back to “Caledonia.” That’s the old name …
I came for yak, the classic mountain meat from the Himalayas. I ended up with tikka masala, the classic Indian dish from, uh, Scotland? But I’m getting ahead of myself. It was the yak that …
“Let me get this right,” I say to this fellow Jeff. “You’re offering me a shot of whiskey and a can of beer for $6. Six bucks?” “Yes, sir, that’s it,” says Jeff. He’s the …
“How to find the Salk Cafe?” replies this kindly professor type to my query. “And you’re walking? Ha! Head west on Gilman Drive. Turn right onto Mandeville Lane. Turn right onto Muir Lane. Turn left …
It took me years to realize that Welsh rarebit wasn’t eating about bunnies at all. A little while after I learned the truth, I was up in Oceanside — Mission San Luis Rey — at …
Oh yes. THIS is how to start your day. Fire-roasted Arabica coffee beans sending their smoky aroma up my nostrils, right beside a blue pylon of incense smoke. We’re talking coffee beans that have come …
“That used to be the beef jerky place,” says Will. He lives around here. “See? It’s in one of the apartments of that building. Weird. Pretty popular, though.” We’re sitting in Will’s ’95 Bronco, in …
He’s waiting as we come in: my window-cleaner friend Tim. His motto is “Your Panes Are My Pleasure.” Cheeriest chappie I know. He gets around, and he’s always steering me to the places near where …
“Think globally, drink locally,” says this one guy’s T-shirt. And people are sure obeying that law here. Whole long table of mostly guys, back from a sport fishing trip and whooping it up. “That’s one …
“Eat hot to cool down,” my aunt used to say. “And drink hot, too.” “What does that mean?” says my neighbor Kevin when I quote her to him on this stinking hot day last week. …
Wow. Red peppers in the sunset! They shine scarlet in the late afternoon light. Calabrian chile. The peppers are about the only “real” thing in this vegan meal I’m eating. But the rest of the …
“Oh no!” This is Diane. New to ’Diego. She has just picked up her gobernador taco, chomped in, and watched a splot of orange taco juice squirt out onto her shirt. Her white shirt. “Tacos!” …
There’s Thai and there’s Thai. You have Thai down south near Malaysia, where we’re talking fish, thick curries, coconuts. Up north, far from the sea, near the mountains of Laos and China, we’ve got freshwater …
“Nothing demoralizes an aspiring escoffier faster than requiring him to cook eggs over easy.” That’s Anthony Bourdain, quoted on the menu I’m looking at. Happily, I can see that this is not going to be …