BITE will keep you in touch with what I’m eating and what I love and what I left on my plate. I’ll share dialogues I have with heroes and divas, princes and barracudas and what I overhear from the next table. Not every day will I have a meal worth writing about, I suspect, not good enough, not bad enough. Dear friends have asked me if I could try to be meaner so I fit in better on the net. I intend to try. As any man who has lived with me will tell you, I was born to be a critic. Of course, isn’t it the critic who has the thinnest skin of all? I must admit to a certain anxiety. It’s been a long time since I wrote without an editor, a fact checker and a copy-reader to catch my errors, misspellings and typos. I apologize in advance. I’m left-handed and that can sometimes be confusing. I might have stopped reviewing restaurants twenty-five years ago when my first novel, Blue Skies, No Candy lingered on the best seller list. But I am addicted to instant gratification. So I’m still here. On my death bed, I am sure my last words will echo those of the sister of Brillat Savarin:
“Bring on dessert.”
January 7, 2019 | BITE: My Journal
Insults on the Menu
Perhaps you were still in your high chair dribbling mashed banana…
December 17, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Best Bites 2018
I tried to recall the last time I’d bitten into a noodle so perfectly al dente…
December 10, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Christmas Vibrations
I wanted a real tree, tall and dripping needles, smelling green…
December 3, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Unfinished Tastings
I’m shocked how many restaurants I loved…have closed....
November 26, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Eléa
Transplanted floorwalkers are eager but seem a little nervous…
November 19, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Ask Gael
Anytime is a good time to update my...
November 12, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Misi
I’m remembering that prime corner table at Lilia, covered with bowls of pasta...
November 5, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
A Life in Food
To have a mortgage, to carry bonds. It sounded...
October 22, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Sala Thai
We have to push through the bar crowd in the narrow space leading to a hostess…
October 15, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Gazala's
Nothing is usual about the remarkable food coming out of the kitchen…
October 8, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Sushi Inoue
Now my sidekick in raw-fish ceremonies is Lauren…
October 1, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Bluebird London
Then came my post-adolescent crush on Meghan and…
September 24, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Ibiza Tapas
I’m not exactly eager to drive an hour to...
September 17, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Henry by JJ
The shocking pink neon JJ in the window as you arrive stakes his claim…
September 10, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Jolly Good Fiorello
One day a brass marker with our names joined...
September 3, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue
Smoked wings drizzled with buffalo sauce and irresistible fritos pie smothered with chili…
August 27, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Le Bernardin
A waiter brings a velvet footstool to hold my handbag and the foldup umbrella I refuse to check...
August 20, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Manhatta High
You’ll find binoculars on the window sill and the chef with tattooed arms bared calling the plays outside the open kitchen…
August 13, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Avena Again
I’m meeting fussy friends I want to impress…
August 6, 2018 | BITE: My Journal
Bistro Pierre Lapin
I’m especially taken by the menu choices, so all over the place…