Essays Archive

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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FEAST OF THE 7 FISHES / In memory of Jim Tabilio

(We first published this article in January 2011 – a bit late for the 2010 holiday season but we found it warm and tender. Marika Tabilio is the daughter of the late Jim Tabilio, who was one of the original co-hosts at the restaurant recommendation web site atLarrys.com. Some six weeks after we published this [...]
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37 QUINTESSENTIAL RESTAURANTS FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA

By Larry Levine - What is the quintessential restaurant in San Francisco? How about Los Angeles? Sacramento? San Diego? New York? Chicago? Boston? We put those questions to the co-hosts of our sister web site – www.atLarrys.com, where we do restaurant recommendations – and quickly learned the answers get more complicated the more you think [...]
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IRKS, PEEVES AND IRRITANTS FROM THE WORLD OF RESTAURANT DINING / what really bothers you?

By Larry Levine – At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, I want to devote a few paragraphs to a discussion of some of the things that can and do go wrong in a restaurant and things that become either pet peeves, major irritants, or just downright unacceptable. Call it an invitation to [...]
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IT STARTED WITH TAPAS / how small plates swept the nation

By Larry Levine – It started with tapas. About 10 or 11 years ago the Spanish appetizers hit the shores of the U.S. in a big way and quickly spread across the nation. First it was a spate of tapas restaurants. They did so well that other restaurants felt pressure to include tapas sections on [...]
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atLARRYS.COM CELEBRATES 2nd ANNIVERSARY / visitors in 52 countries have looked the restaurant recommendations

By Larry Levine - Our sister web site, atLarrys.com, where you turn for restaurant recommendations, celebrates its second anniversary today (October 6, 2011) and what a two years it has been. Since it was launched, atLarrys.com has drawn visitors from 1,245 cities in 52 countries around the world. Nineteen atLarrys.com co-hosts have posted 219 recommendations [...]
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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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CORTI BROTHERS – Grocer, wine merchant and Sacramento institution that delivers a newsletter to read and reread

By Larry Dietz - I love good writing as much as I love good food – maybe more, since good writing doesn’t have calories, prep time, or clean-up. Mixing good writing and food is truly a recipe for enjoyment, and that brings me to one of the few pieces of mail I read and reread. [...]
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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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RADIOACTIVE ALBACORE TUNA FROM FUKUSHIMA ARE ARRIVING IN U.S. WATERS – How great is the risk to you?

By Larry Levine – Those schools of Pacific albacore tuna that were swimming around off the coast of Japan in the weeks following the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster are starting to arrive along the northwest coast of the U.S. and they are beginning to show up in restaurants and markets. Before they began their [...]
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