My blog "Thought for Food" appears irregularly and covers a wide range of topics, from food, cooking, drink, and barbecue, to politics. Don't get me started. Or I'll blog on you.
2008-07-22 Just stay home if you're that persnickety. So the City of Chicago has demanded that the actors in the hit musical Jersey Boys stop smoking on stage, no doubt to remind the world of the time we busted Lenny Bruce for using naughty words and when we fined chefs for serving foie gras.
2008-07-07 BBQ Diplomacy at LBJ's Texas White House. Barbecue has been used as a tool in American political campaigns for more than a century, and will no doubt be employed extensively this summer, especially by John McCain, who has been known to brag about his skill with the grill. But no politician ever used the conviviality and informality of cooking and eating outdoors than the 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who stepped away from the Oval Office 40 years ago.
2008-07-07 Touring the Austin BBQ Belt. Barbecue is king in Texas, and if you haven't experienced it first hand, you have nooooo idea. Texas barbecue is as different from Kansas City, Memphis, and Carolina as a cow is from a steer. This article takes you for a photo tour of the Austin BBQ Belt.
2008-07-07 Stopping the email lies (as published in the Chicago Tribune). In the past year email hoaxes have forced me to tell two dear friends that I never want to hear from them again. Both seem compelled to send sham news to me and everyone else they know. Although they do not own mainstream broadcast networks, they are broadcasters, a fact they do not seem understand, and their emails contain a form of computer virus that, instead of destroying files, destroys the truth.
2008-06-07 Coalition of the Weeding (as published in the Washington Post). I have adopted the Bush Doctrine. I am planning pre-emptive attacks against an adversary so insidious that it menaces not only my own home but threatens to destabilize my entire neighborhood.
2008-05-16 Robert Mondavi, the art lover. The thing that always impressed me about Bob was that you could talk to him about anything, art, music, politics. So many winemakers know only winespeak. And, in fact, on the numerous occasions we met, we rarely talked wine.
2007-07-20 Funny food. I have just had some of the most amazing smoked pork I have ever tasted. And it was not at Memphis in May or served on butcher paper south of the Mason Dixon Line. It was at a cutting edge restaurant with a Japanese name in Chicago.
2007-03-12 Fie on foie gras bans. State Representative Robert Molaro (D-21st) has proposed a ban on foie gras in Illinois. Apparently he has not paid attention to the the fallout from a similar ban in Chicago or the facts that have been revealed in the debate surrounding it. He is either gullible or just publicity hungry, in which case, he should not force feed his silliness on the citizens of Illinois.
2007-03-09 Ernest Gallo: A conundrum. Ernest Gallo died March 6 at age 97, but when I had dinner with him in 1978 he was at the height of his powers, running the largest wine selling machine in the world, and, after a long dinner, in one telling sentence, he demonstrated why he was such a conundrum, why he was both hallowed and hated.
2007-03-06 Sending the illegals home. A letter-writer to the Chicago Tribune, Leon Crews, said "Send all illegal immigrants home." Why didn't I think of this sooner? Obviously I'm not listening to the right talk shows! I think I've figured out how this can work.
2006-10-24 South Carolina contrarians. In South Carolina they do things differently.
2006-05-26 Kansas City road trip. A quick summary of my expedition from the National Restaurant Show in Chicago through Southern Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa.
2007-02-26 Struttin With Some Barbecue. Just what was Louis Armstrong singing about in his classic tune? Not pulled pork!
