IN THE MIND OF A FOOD WRITER WHILE WALKING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
By Larry Levine – I step off the curb to set out on my half-hour walk in the neighborhood. That’s what my doctors recommend in normal times, 30 minutes of exercise five days a week. Walking counts. We’ve lived here nearly 40 years and I never walked the neighborhood... Read More
A TALE OF TWO MARKETS / Shopping under the cloud of a pandemic
By Larry Levine – Grocery shopping today is not a question of “what do I need.” It’s as much a matter of “what do they have.” This was driven home to me this morning when I needed to shop at two different supermarkets to find almost everything on my shopping list... Read More
FLEXIBILITY / THE KEY TO SHOPPING AND HAPPY DINING WHILE SHELTERED-IN-PLACE
By Larry Levine – If you are reading this food magazine, it’s a good bet you don’t need someone to teach you how to shop for groceries. Good chance you do that frequently. But in the spirit of the we’re-all-in-it-together times in which live, I’m going to offer... Read More
NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION AS WE WAIT OUT THE CORONAVIRUS.
By Larry Levine – I shopped today, not to hoard groceries but to buy enough stuff to last a few days so I won’t have to go out too often. I wound up with more than enough, even though the shelves were far from well-stocked. Yes, I’m a pretty good home cook. But... Read More
MELISSE / a story of the life-cycle of a Michelin-starred restaurant
By Larry Levine – Five hours before the opening of Josiah Citrin’s newly re-christened restaurant, Citrin, in the Santa Monica CA space in which he previously operated the Michelin-starred Melisse, we sat down for a scheduled half hour interview about the... Read More
I APOLOGIZE IF MY CIGARETTES RUINED YOUR MEALS / a brief history of smoking in restaurants
By Larry Levine – I want to take this opportunity to apologize to everyone whose meals I diminished by smoking at the dinner table in a restaurant. That includes not just my dinner companions, but also those who might have been at nearby tables and were not... Read More
THE FOUR-CENTURY JOURNEY OF THE UBIQUITOUS BAGEL
Let us consider the ubiquitous bagel, that round piece of dough with a hole in the middle that has transformed itself from the food of old country Ashkenazi Jews into a symbol of cross-cultural unity. As a youngster growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1940s, I... Read More
The one true international food / DUMPLINGS
By Larry Levine – Call them piroshky, or pierogi, or kreplach, sui mai, won tons, or quenelles, matzo balls, gefelte fish, ravioli or any of a thousand other names. You can boil them, steam them, fry them, bake them, or cook them pretty much any way you want. You can... Read More
A BIG STEP FOR A SUSHI CHEF AND HIS WIFE / the challenge of restaurant ownership
By Larry Levine – First, a question for our male readers: you are 36 years old; you are married and have two children – a boy, Shaun, 11, and a girl, Kairi, 10; you live with your wife and children in an upscale neighborhood in the suburbs of Los Angeles; you are a... Read More
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