Barack Obama, among his policy priorities, wants you to “smoke and be happy.” He shared that wish with the purveyors at the Paradox Coffee Shop, who passed it along during my recent visit to Amsterdam. These guys seem to know him pretty well – they even sell (along with weed and smoothies) a limited-edition poster [...]
A few months ago, I interviewed Daniel Rose for United’s Hemispheres magazine. During the two hours we spent together, his phone rang about 47 times. It wasn’t a good thing, he explained, because those callers wanted… a reservation. Rather than pick up and tell the would-be suiters that Spring was booked four months in advance, [...]
Not long ago, I sat down with some friends to try a new restaurant called Frenchie. Of the two entrées on offer, I chose a simple-sounding truite fumée, asperges (smoked trout, asparagus) over the too-simple-sounding salade tomates cerises. I mean, who serves cherry tomatoes in May?*
I must’ve looked puzzled when my starter arrived, because Clotilde [...]
When I walk through the door at Goumanyat et son Royaume, I’m greeted by a cascade of bells and then the trickle of an indoor waterfall. It’s a brief moment of calm before the sensory overload begins. I’m in the best spice shop in Paris, and my eyes and nose are going to be working [...]
After four years of living in Paris, I probably qualify as something of a cheese snob. But because French fromagers rarely stock foreign cheese, I’m also pretty ignorant to the traditions of other countries. During a recent jaunt to Brussels, I asked a food-obsessed local friend where I could learn more about Belgian cheese. He [...]
