Author Archive

FEELING MY OATS / funny and serious facts about oatmeal

By Larry Sheingold - This is about oat groats. Not haute groats, which sounds the same but connotes groats more chic than just oats. This is groats vs. grotesque. The difference between one of nature’s perfect foods and the junk food McDonalds and others make from it. What set me off are groat quotes by [...]
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THE AGE OF COMMENTARYUS / strange happenings from the world of food blogs

By Larry Sheingold - (This is one of an occasional series by Larry Sheingold exploring the world of volunteer internet dining reviews.) With apologies to the musical, Hair. This is the dawning of the Age of Commentaryus. We’ve always had opinions. Always shared them. But thanks to the internet, never has so much commentary been offered for [...]
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FUSION WITHOUT CONFUSION / from youthful necessity to Hawaiian sophistication

By Larry Sheingold - I was a fusion food pioneer. Didn’t intend to be. But surviving the 1960’s on dollars a day meant recipes-of-necessity. And that often called for blending culinary cultures. So blend I did. Spaghetti topped with canned chili. Tortillas and peanut butter. Or my staple: “idiot’s delight,” an inspired sauté of cabbage, [...]
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FED UP – is extreme eating really eating, or fun to watch

By Larry Sheingold - Unless your tastes run to watching rows of drooling contestants go totally Donner Party on heaps of hotdogs, matzo balls, tamales or sticks of butter, you’re probably as fed up with competitive eating exhibitions as I am. A couple minutes of champ Joey Chestnut penguining soggy hot dogs and buns this [...]
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FALL OFF THE BONE BBQ RIBS – The Detachable Meat Mystery

By Larry Sheingold - This is about falling off. Falling off a log is easy. Falling off the roof is bad. So is falling off the face of the earth, though it’s a longer fall. You can fall off the wagon and the turnip truck, perhaps both in the same day. But falling off the [...]
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THE FOOD TOURIST

By Larry Sheingold - Food tourism probably dates back centuries to the invention of pocket-sized currency, a giant step that first allowed early travelers to pay for meals with coins instead of chickens or spare relatives. The evolution of dining excursionism traces to the appearance of wandering hunters and gatherers, followed by road creation, the [...]
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ONLINE EDIBLES – Spices by Mail

By Larry Sheingold - Can you tell fresh-ground coffee from instant? A supermarket tomato from one perfectly ripened in your garden? Then you will notice instantly that spices from Whole Spice in Petaluma are unlike anything you are likely to get in a store. Who knew toasted ground cumin could taste and smell like this. [...]
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BOMBAY BAR AND GRILL – Restaurant of the Week

By Larry Sheingold – For anyone doubting a review’s influence on local dining choices – and sometimes the success or failure of a restaurant – I offer you Sacramento’s Bombay Bar and Grill, purveyor of Indian cuisine. My wife and I go there often. We like the food, the sauces, the garlic basil naan. We [...]
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MAD MENU DISEASE – What’s afflicting today’s menu writers?

By Larry Sheingold – Hidden behind the kitchen doors of some upscale restaurant near you, a culinary maestro is composing a masterpiece. What sweet harmonies he coaxes from his ingredients. What exquisite presentations. Too bad our chef’s elegant eatery isn’t equally adept at setting his performances to words. I’m talking about the menus. Scan many [...]
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MY MOST MEMORABLE MEAL – SuperDawg in Chicago

(MY MOST MEMORABLE MEAL is an occasional feature at Table Talk atLarrys.com, written by co-hosts of the restaurant web site atLarrys.com) By Larry Sheingold - Most people can remember special meals, those inedible little life moments, as vividly now as the moment they put down the fork and looked up with that is-there-any-more expression on [...]
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