On my last day in San Diego my boss took me out for a leisurely, long lunch at one of San Diego’s monumental seafood-with-a-view restaurants, The Fish Market Seafood Market and Restaurant’s Top of the Market, overlooking the San Diego Bay. The market is basically divided into a ground-level counter, where passers-by can pick up…
A few weeks ago in Nanhui, Shanghai I went out with a college student whom I was working with for a bite to eat, something spicy to warm me up after having lost my coat at the Beijing airport and thus having been freezing my butt off for days. Long story, but suffice it to…
On my recent trip to San Diego, my local colleague and guide suggested that we pop across the border and have some fun in Tijuana. Always open to new cultural experiences, I agreed. So, after 25 minutes and absolutely no border hassle whatsover, we found ourselves in a taxi cab in Mexico, headed for a…
For Valentine’s Day this year I received a wonderful gift from one of my favorite chocolatiers in Boston, L.A. Burdick. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of their thick and wonderful hot chocolates and mochas, their collection of cocoa and coffee beans from different regions of the world. Their pastries, cakes and multicolored…
On the first night of my trip to Miami a few weeks ago, I begged my dinner companion to take me to a place representative of the cliché Miami experience. My flight had just barely made it out of Boston because of what at that point had been the 5th or 6th slushy, disgusting snowstorm of…
I have to admit, I wasn’t too thrilled to go here when my local dinner companion recommended it. It has a painfully tacky lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) running through it, complete with the masks, the fake gold trophies, signed photos of fighters and a hot pink wall, all of which reminded me of that horrible little movie…
Chef/Owner Michael Schwaertz clearly had a mission in mind when opening Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink in 2007 – to source local as often as possible and establish enduring partnerships with suppliers, to visit the origins of his ingredients and keep track of their seasonal variations (even if from out-of-state), to have a life story ready…
During my stay in Nanhui, a suburban district of Shanghai, I had to get used to the fact that there simply was no good coffee accessible to me for days. Really, the only option would have been to search for a dust-coated jar of old Nescafé at the local supermarket, and pay an outrageous price for…
In honor of the first Shake Shack opening in Boston tomorrow, on Chestnut Hill – goddamnit, those spoiled B.C. kids get everything… first El Pelon 2 after EP 1 next to my place burned down, and now this! – I decided to publish an article I had been saving for later about an experience I…
One pretty gentrified (now) but super lively little neighborhood in San Diego is Little Italy, where I was staying during my trip out there. The place has been largely polished up and, with the exception of a few old timer nonno’s and nonna’s left over from the tuna-fishing days and the occasional grandchildren who are eager to…
That Best Bite 