Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz
If vibrant, multicultural San Francisco is not playground enough, it is surrounded by more playgrounds on the coast south of the city. Every Friday afternoon, the cream of corporate America […]
A Dose of Dosa in San Francisco
Food trucks and food carts used to be about fast, cheap food that comes to you—watery coffee, soggy hot dogs, and cold pastries served up by people punching a time […]
If It’s Bakersfield, It’s Basque
I can’t say I spend much time in Bakersfield, CA. It’s a convenient stopover when traveling from socal to norcal and back, but it’s too hot in the summer and […]
San Diego’s Best Restaurant: A Review of Juniper and Ivy
OK. Well that headline is a bit hard to prove—best according to what standard? So let me say something about what a “best restaurant” should be. When I go out […]
Seattle’s Strange Icons
Seattle has its share of trendy restaurants and creative chefs, and like Portland, its fellow food-centric city to the south, Seattle’s culinarians are committed to using locally-sourced, fresh ingredients. But […]
Walla Walla Blues
The color blue is often associated with sadness but, as many a great artist has shown, blue is rich in symbolic associations. From blue skies to ocean blue to blue […]
Willamette Valley: The Search for the Perfect Pinot
“Observe what thy nature requires, so far as thou art governed by nature only: then do it and accept it, if thy nature, so far as thou art a living […]
The Paradox That is Portland
Prior to the invention of modern, industrial agriculture, all cuisine was farm-to-table cuisine. But the idea of cooking only what is fresh and local has emerged in recent years as […]
Desert Wines
From the early gold miners, who would stake a claim based on a few flakes of placer gold in a river, to the hordes of gamblers who flock to “Vegas” […]
What is Sonoran-style Mexican Food?
Does Arizona have a distinctive regional cuisine it can call its own? Like much of the U.S., Arizona is a melting pot of many cultures, and its food reflects those […]
Roving Decanter 