The year is off to delectable start with gratifying new openings (check out my Top Tastes section), two articles I wrote published in the SF Bay Guardian’s “Hard Times Handbook” cover story, and the Fancy Food Show at the Moscone Center (held in SF and NYC). On Fancy Food: Imagine, if you will, over 80,000 food and beverage artisans from around the world,… Read more →
Author: Virginia Miller
Top Tastes: Of Breakfast, Cheesesteaks, BBQ, Ice Cream, Beer, Coffee & Cocktails
BREAKFAST Since the Meetinghouse closed years ago, I’ve been a sad girl – not only because it was a supreme SF brunch spot, but because Joanna Karlinsky’s biscuits are about the best I’ve ever put in my mouth (and that includes my visits to the South!) Thank you, Joanna, for bringing your buttery biscuits to us at one more location besides the… Read more →
Imbiber
“Fussy and particular, the yuppie… simply would not, could not, bring anything but an imported beer to his lips, or the rarest of single-malt Scotches. In cocktails as in food, he insisted on authenticity, integrity of ingredients, and top quality all the way around. For this let us give thanks, even if snobbery and status seeking often lay behind the… Read more →
Exploring New Orleans’ Treme & Fauborg Neighborhoods
New Orleans, city that enchants me. Even in its gritty crime and scarred, beating heart, it is radiant, full of history, color and hope. I have many places to write about here… too many for even multiple articles. But I’ll share some from time to time, hoping you’ll go and explore like a local. Here are favorites from Treme and… Read more →
January 2009
Happy New Year! I crave new beginnings and love the feel of a “clean slate” each year (even if imagined), to drum up new goals, dream new dreams, and be open to new adventures. 2008 was full of discovery as well as intimacy with those I love. I’m ready for more… Every month, I share Top Tastes, favorite new dishes,… Read more →
Top Tastes: From Peruvian to BBQ, Cameroon to 1930’s-Esque Supperclub
VEGETARIAN If it was on a regular menu, I’d dive again into the (lightly) Buttermilk Fried Cauliflower, warm and dipped in Roasted Carrot Aioli ($5), that creative chef (and pork master – have you had his Chicharrones?) Ryan Farr cooked up last month at Mission Street Food’s brilliant, one-shot only Thursday night dinners at Lung Shan. Berkeley’s Taste of Africa… Read more →
The Magic of Dining at Cyrus in Healdsburg
There is no way to quite do the magical dining experience that is CYRUS justice. Much has already been written about one of the highest-rated restaurants in the nation, and I’ve been dying to go since it opened. The Renaissance Man made it my birthday dinner surprise (we went the weekend before since my birthday is actually Christmas Day). It… Read more →
Bibliophile: Reviewing Gumbo Tales
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table – Sara Roahen Certainly this was the ideal book to read prior to and on my recent trip to New Orleans. But on its own merit, Gumbo Tales is a tender, well-crafted memoir that caused my mouth to water and my heart to constrict with bittersweet longing. One of the… Read more →
Wandering Traveler: Miami
Miami was never on my travel wish list. I don’t find much to excite me about Florida and am not at all drawn to the South Beach party scene in Miami in particular. But I didn’t mind the opportunity to visit close friends there with the Renaissance Man. I knew I’d love South Beach’s Art Deco architecture and Little Havana’s… Read more →
December 2008
“This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepend along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn.” – Bernard DeVoto, The Hour The year has so swiftly reached an end… hard to… Read more →