Category: Intro Letter

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.” – Langston Hughes I am off to London, then Ireland, for two weeks of exploring restaurants, distilleries, cocktail havens, pubs, the Irish countryside, theaters, bookshops, and seeing old (and new) friends. As I won’t be back before… Read more →

“Light the first light of evening, as in a room/ In which we rest and, for small reason, think/ The world imagined is the ultimate good.” – Wallace Stevens, “Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour” Spring rushes on with numerous Napa and Sonoma weekends, family visits, the occasional quick rainshower, and the smell of blossoms in the air. Top Tastes… Read more →

The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going,… Read more →

“It seems a pity that the world should throw away so many good things merely because they are unwholesome. I doubt if God has given us any refreshment which, taken in moderation, is unwholesome… Yet there are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They… Read more →

“What she [M.F.K. Fisher] may not have realized was how paying such great attention to her senses would change her. Knowing she would write home about almost everything she ate and saw, she became increasingly observant.” – Anne Zimmerman, “An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher” Savoring the current warm, clear nights, Spring is in full force, and… Read more →

“… the sun started to set and we lit the paper bag luminaria, which burned soft glowing amber, punctuating the meadow and the night, and the lamb was crisp-skinned and sticky from slow roasting, and the root beer was frigid and it caught, like an emotion, in the back of my throat.“ – Gabrielle Hamilton, “Blood, Bones & Butter” In… Read more →

“When I was young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch… Now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked… The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping shod of hooves on the pavement brings on… Read more →

“… some wines and beers and spirits are among the most finely crafted foods there are, the best that the world and care have to offer. Their flavor can be so rich, balanced, dynamic, and persistent that they touch the mind not with release from the world, but with a heightened attentiveness and connection to it.” – Harold McGee, “On… Read more →

“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.” – Anais Nin This issue, Top Tastes savors “sushi burritos”, coffee and affogato in Parkside, dishes from Fifth Floor’s new chef, impeccable (and affordable) sushi, truffled egg and salmon, heartwarming French and Roman fare. The Latest delights in Austrian food and wine at brand new Leopold’s. Around the Bay visits… Read more →

“I wanted to get lost and love the questions there Beauty and the truth I could breathe like air Then I finally found the signposts in a strange land.” – Sam Phillips’ song “Signposts” The new year is certainly in full swing already. My moments of solitude and reflection have been sweet but I’m already fighting to keep them in… Read more →