“I found my love in Avalon, beside the bay …” / AL JOLSON’S WORDS STILL RING TRUE
By Larry Levine – My love affair with Avalon, Catalina Island began before I ever saw it. As a boy in Brooklyn, I listened devotedly to variety shows on the Crosley tabletop radio next to my bed. I heard Al Jolson sing, “I found my love in Avalon, besides the... Read More
A CENTURY OF MEXICAN FOOD HISTORY / 90-year-old Ron Salisbury is overseeing the 100th anniversary of El Cholo restaurant
Ron Salisbury wakes up every morning and, like millions of others, he heads for work. That’s where the similarity ends. Ron is 90 years old. That puts him among the oldest one-half of one percent of the people in the United States. Then there’s the matter of where Ron... Read More
IT’S ALWAYS THE KITCHEN / A guide to successful vacation house rentals
By Larry Levine – It was like being handed a get-out-of-jail-free card. Feb. 23, 2021, the nurse at Kaiser Permanente Medical Clinic signed the card attesting that I had received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. I floated up to the top floor of the... Read More
ESSAYS FROM IRELAND AND ENGLAND – 2022
By Larry Levine – CHAPTER ONE – GETTING THERE NO LONGER IS HALF THE FUN OF TRAVEL There’s an old saying among vacation travelers: Getting there is half the fun. It’s clearly is from another time, a distant memory of an era when travel was more glamourous and far... Read More
WE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE / a travel and food memoir
By Larry Levine – BROOKLYN, JULY 2019 – It’s the hot dog. It’s the grill. It’s the legend, the lore and the location. It’s all these and more. “It” is Nathan’s Famous, the 103-year-old hot dog shrine at the corner of Stillwell and Surf, Coney Island,... Read More
DOES ANYONE GO TO HAWAII FOR THE FOOD?
The voice came from behind me as we waited to board our flight to Maui at L.A. International Airport: “You go to Hawaii for a lot of things, but food isn’t one of them,” it said. By the time I turned to see who said it, I was too late. I didn’t hear the voice again... Read More
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE HIGHWAY
UNDER WAY – Sunday morning. Easter Sunday. We’re in the car early to head north for a visit with son John and his family in Issaquah WA, close by Seattle. Granddaughter Ella is appearing in High School Musical and grandson Miles will be defending the goal for... Read More
THIS TIME I WILL EAT HAGGIS / a tale of table and tee in the land where golf was born
By Larry Levine – This time I will eat haggis. I didn’t eat it last time I was in Scotland because of its off-putting reputation. I had long heard haggis referred to disparagingly as some kind of low-class food eaten only by people whose economic circumstances... Read More
AN AMERICAN ABROAD AT A STRANGE TIME – Part four / D-Day at Normandy, then and now
By Larry Levine – I stood on the sand at Utah Beach and felt history sweep over me. I walked the sands of Omaha Beach, looked out at the roiling sea and envisioned the waves of American soldiers landing on the shore. It was June 6, 2017 – the 73rd anniversary of... Read More
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