This. I used to comment on Yelp, and I did try to balance things out. My favorites though are where the owners / managers would go to ridiculous lengths to counter my comments and never say, hey we screwed up, let us make it up to you.  Best one--when I commented about a coffee shop using powdered chai mix (we saw…

The first time my in laws came to eat at our humble apartment, I made a simple but elegant dinner.  Being the daughter of a cook, let me tell you I learned about mis en place and garnishes from the time I could cut carrots and shallots for dinner.  My husband and I still joke about it, but my father in law (an avid…

I worked a night shift at a security dispatch job while in Grad school with a Cuban security guard. Let’s just say that cafecito and his mama’s food got me through many a long boring Sunday night shift.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mister-rogers-icon-at-st-pauls-episcopal-church. The Episcopal Church in Nantucket appears to have beaten us all to that canonization.

I left NYC in early 1988 to move to the Bay Area. Its really depressing to me to go anywhere below Union Square when I go back—its like some horrible dystopian nightmare of total gentrification.   I hear from the few that still live in the Tri-state area about the landmarks that seem to disappear on a monthly basis. 

Worn by people who would have gotten the serious heebee-jeebees walking into the original club.  Everyone glorifies it now, but as much as I have a soft spot for the club, it was a hole in the wall by every definition of the phrase.  I saw some great local bands at the place, got pulled out of a mosh pit and put on…

psst.  Ask for the fries extra crispy, if you decide not to boycott.  It improves them quite a bit.

Or as a friend and I once mused over a glass of beer, the NYC that we are homesick for exists only in our memories. Its all gone now—the East Village, good neighborhood diners, CBGBs and yes now the Village Voice.

The last season was sad, with the exception of a few shining bits.  Maybe they take a year off and come back better?

I love covers esp. where an artist can take something so vanilla and ordinary and make it amazing. So without further ado, I give you the one, the only Wicked Wilson Picket absolutely slaying, yes, the Associations “Never my Love”)

Egg Creams and Yoo-hoo are so quintessentially New York City. Its one of those regional things that can taste really odd to people who didn’t grow up having them. I used to love going to the Gem Spa in the East Village and getting one in full punk regalia in the early 1980s.

We had a coworker who every Christmas used to bless us with an abundance of cookies and the best brownies since I left my mom’s abode. The year before she retired I begged her for her recipe. She gave me a side glance, put a finger to her lips and proceed to hand me a hand written note: “It’s duncan hines dark fudge…

Back in the day when I actually ate meat, one of the best meatloafs I ever ate was made by a good friend’s mom who was trying to woo me as a potential girlfriend for her son. Instead of just pork and ground beef, she also added ground venison. They were one of those families who actually ate the deer someone bagged…

Well, if you buy them on Amazon, you’ll have enough to make homemade gin as well ;)

I was an extremely finicky eater as a kid, and I loved Rotkohl.  To this day, I’ll watch for red cabbage at the farmers market and make this along with a schnitzel and some spaetzel.   My Mom’s and Nana’s recipe was pretty much your Oma’s recipe, Kate, with one exception.  My female German forebears also added a few…

The beginning chords on the piano on that song always send chills up my spine and then Aretha’s voice comes in...”You’re a no good heart breaker...”  I’m not big on unrequited or spurned love songs, but that song and Aretha’s voice just slays me every, single, time.  

Was it just me, or was that Gap Ad an example of how predominately white TV still was in the late 1990s?  The only African American couple is shown smiling blithely on the sidelines, probably thinking “How wonderful! Two white couples co-opting a dance craze developed by African Americans in the 1920s!”

A friend’s daughter who is highly allergic had to give up going to a favorite coffee shop because one of the managers decided letting dogs wander around inside the place and lay on the couches was a “great PR idea”. She complained to the owner of the shop, who said, I kid you not “they didn’t want to rile up the dog…

Our city just lifted the dog ban downtown (yes, you couldn’t walk your dog downtown, OH THE HORRORS /sarcasm), and many dog owners have interpreted the lifting of the ban to mean “my dog is acceptable anywhere, and I mean everywhere”.

Let’s see: