Restaurants
“My grandfather was Archduke Ferdinand,” says Laura casually. “He was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914.” Whoa. The assassination that started World War One? Her grandfather? Laura and Bosko, her husband, definitely hail from the Serbian …
“What time is it?” “Six-thirty in the am.” “Where are we?” “Don’t even look, pappy. We’re in the Philippines. Can’t you smell the food?” I can. Vinegar, fish, BBQ. Ria, my beloved stepkid who’s no …
The angel Gabriel blasts his golden trumpet high above Fifth Avenue. It glints in the evening sun from the dome of The Abbey, the massive onetime church across the road. “I am worth it,” I …
Where is everybody? This was last Tuesday, in Oceanside. I was looking for food. Don’t look for food on Tuesday afternoons. So many places are closed. Specially last Tuesday, the day the whole nation fell …
“We don’t talk a lot, but we do yell a lot,” says Jamie Dambois. Yah, for sure, there’s a lot of shouting at the screens here. Small surprise: this is the last week of the …
Purple gives way to pink gives way to blue. Dawn is cracking late here in the Southern Hemisphere. We’re at a tiny country railroad station at seven on this winter’s morning, waiting for the train. …
“New Season First Grade Bluff Oysters! Here we go, mate,” says Russell. “This is the one. This place is da bomb.” We’re sitting beside a small sign: “Fed Up Restaurant & Takeaway,” here in Paraparaumu, …
“Just don’t ask me to taste mutton or lamb,” says my neighbor Kevin. “That’s all I ask.” Uh-oh. I have this bee in my bonnet about lamb. And about burgers. I want to see the …
Barrio Logan? It’s hopping. A sort of food cluster is forming right around Thorn Brewing’s Barrio Logan factory. They’ve opened a big eatery called ReBru Spirits, where — don’t ask me how — they convert …
“So long, Huey.” It’s a biker muttering this. He ain’t old enough to have picked up that Vietnam moniker for the sun, but he says it anyway. Because yes, that last moment’s coming. People have …
“It was beauty that killed the beast,” reads the sentence etched into the blond bar counter. “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” On and on. Sayings, thoughts, bon mots, the …
“Eee-yew! Spongey!” cries my buddy Tim. “And you have to eat with your fingers? A mess! Why can’t we have a knife and fork like at any other place?” He has just unrolled a section …
Oh wow. Ducks. They’re swimming up to me. I can see their little webbed feet pumping hard against the current. Wish I had something in my pocket for them. I’m standing by this beautiful pool …
“Let me show you my favorite chicken neck place.” That’s me. Neighbor Kevin and I are crossing the border, heading south. “Your favorite chicken…what?” “Chicken necks, dude. You ever tried them?” He looks at me …
What Meshal is going through right now — “now” being the holy month of Ramadan, with its ban on eating while the sun is up — is not easy. But it has its consolations. “The …