Despite vultures, despite tourists, despite conventions galore, I look forward to the winter season for one reason: Important new restaurants, most of which have been remodeling, writing menus, and hiring staff for months, finally open to the public. In this city that seems to shut down over the summer, a…

“You have a great job,” acquaintances declare when they find out what I do. “You’re so lucky!” “Yup,” I agree unequivocally. Then they turn to my husband. “And do you get to go along?” “Of course,” he nods. “I wouldn’t let her go without me.” “Then you have an even…

I’m a sucker for gossip, which is the sole reason I maintain a subscription to the West Essex Tribune, my hometown paper. These past weeks I’ve gotten a good eyeful — letters to the editor and editorials about Don’s, the landmark eatery in Livingston, New Jersey. Seems that after a…

As long as I’ve lived in this town, I’ve felt guilty for not being Latin. Don’t get me wrong. It may have taken my entire adolescence, but I did learn to love my identity — my Jewishness, my femaleness, my Eastern European ancestry, my northeastern upbringing. All of those components…

I have this recurring nightmare, which always seems to hit me when I’m about to go out to a restaurant I’m almost positive will be very good: I dream I’m a P.R. flak paid to bang out praise, nothing but praise, about every joint in town. I told you it…

South Beach’s Mex Mess Cantina Mexicana and Southwestern Cafe and Tita’s became inexorably linked in my mind when they opened within months of each other last year. Both have Mexican-sounding names — the latter refers to the character from Lara Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, a lovelorn girl who blended…

This week I asked my elementary school creative writing students to compose a haiku about their favorite food. I explained to them that because haiku are so short — three-line poems with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third — every word…

After dining at the month-old Chinese restaurant Wok & Roll, I’ve spent an agonizing week. Not that the fresh fare prepared by two-time Chaine des Rotisseurs (the French culinary society) award-winning chef Michael Choi wasn’t delicious, the service solicitous — they were. Not that the geometric walls (each sponged a…

I often write about my mother, who passed on to me the fine points of fine dining. But I’ve neglected to mention the impression my father made upon me early in my childhood, which molded me into the good eater I am today. My father is a practical man, realistic,…

I’ve been irresponsible. For the past few years I’ve been throwing around the term pan-Asian to label trendier restaurants that utilize Far Eastern ingredients (usually a combination of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese). You’ve probably figured out what I meant from the context — my comments about the menu, specific…

As I see it, women and restaurants are alike in exactly one way: Once they earn a reputation, they’ve got it for life. Only it’s usually “bad” women who can’t shake public disdain, and “good” restaurants that never fall out of public favor even if they should. This month, in…

“The thing I miss most about waitressing,” I told a friend not too long ago, “is the exercise.” Having spent her fair share of time dishing the fish, my friend heartily agreed. She never needed to go to the gym or watch what she ate while she was on the…

In a previous life, when I wrote for a travel magazine, I kept up a running argument with one of the advertising sales representatives. “Without the revenue I bring in, you wouldn’t have a job,” she’d tease after locking up an account such as American Express. “Without the text I…

I’m a sucker for reunions, and this summer I attended a rather offbeat one — the get-together celebrating the 60th anniversary of the New England Music Camp. I spent three consecutive summers of my adolescence there on the shores of Lake Messalonskee, warming the silver of my flute under the…

I was born into a family of suburban fishermen. On weekends, vacations, and holidays while I was growing up, my father, brother, and sister liked nothing better than to drop a line into the water. They were pretty good at it, too. Show them a fast-running stream and they’d show…

I phoned Las Pampas Argentinian Steak and Pasta House, a two-month-old restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami. “Are you open?” I inquired. A reasonable question: It was a Monday night, and some restaurants in that neighborhood of strip malls and business offices find it more practical not to open…

In the movie Big, Tom Hanks plays a young boy who is granted his fervent wish to be a grownup, treating the audience to scene after scene of a twentysomething man scouting out toy stores, engaging in food fights, and decorating his apartment with pinball tables and soda machines. My…

I’ve been accused of writing this column out of spite. She harbors a secret, unfulfilled wish to own a restaurant, some gossips whisper, and that’s why she can be so hypercritical. She’s jealous. Truth is, I would like to own a restaurant. But it’s no secret. My friends (who open…

July is the month for celebrating the existence of America, and I’m all for it. I like where I live. I like the principles on which the United States was founded. I’ve always believed in the strength of diversity and individualism, and though some of our constitutional rights fail us…

Writing about food is a lot like writing about fashion: You know a new trend is going to be unveiled in the fall, but you can’t always predict what it will be. As an observer, you can comment on it, note its good points and bad. As a consumer, you’re…

“All of our restaurants are casual,” the owner of the Seaside Inn on Sanibel Island told us, “and none of them is great.” On a brief weekend getaway from Miami, I had only a few chances to experience local flavor, so I did something I hardly ever do when I’m…

Every night at about ten o’clock, my phone rings just once, as if someone had pinged the bell with a forefinger. If I answer it, I hear only the dial tone. “Power surge,” my husband suggests. But I know better, and my psychic agrees: My grandmother passed away last year,…