Sorry if I am boring you, but we are back on the Seattle trip again this week. Seriously, if you haven’t been there, you NEED to go. The food scene is wide and deep and there is so much to choose from that in a 5 day trip I gathered enough info to hopefully keep you entertained for another week.

When we travel for work, we always try to sneak in a little fun too. The bonus on this trip is that we have friends who live up there and we were able to see ALL of them on one trip. And this trip was FULL of Happy Accidents (from now on called HA).

After a fantastic night of dining and drinking with friends Byron and Christine, we headed to the docks early the next morning to catch the Victoria Clipper to go to British Columbia. John was a little worse for wear having indulged at Pike’s, Elysian, Quinn’s and Tavern Law. HA #1 – we met a retired couple on the boat who loved travel and dining as much as we do. They informed us that the Chihuly Museum and restaurant were now open, so our plan for Monday was changed (Moment of Truth – John was supposed to work on Monday, but pushed those tasks to Tuesday so he could museum hop with me!). Bloody Marys were ordered and it was suggested to me that I do a whole blog on them…hmmm. Tasty future topic with fun research on the horizon!

Victoria, British Columbia is astoundingly beautiful and we were so lucky to have ex-pat Las Vegas friends, Diane and Mary, to show us around. After 3 brewery restaurants and a quick trip to their “house in the woods” we were well lubricated and laughing and delighted we had made the journey. Don’t ask me anything about Victoria, we were there to spend time with friends, not sight see, and what I saw was lovely, but I was more interested in the time we spent with them. I will admit, however, to be very happy to live in the USA where beer and liquor are CONSIDERABLY more affordable ($26 Canadian for a 12 pack of Corona – yes, Corona!) Of course when in Canada, you must eat Poutine – it IS the national dish of Canada (at least that is what I kept telling myself). I had a great one with pulled pork.
Poutine!

Drinking with our buds, Diane and Mary!

As stated before, John skipped out on the tasks he had to do to museum hop with me, so we headed in a vaguely Space Needle direction having learned that the Chihuly Garden was directly in its slim shadow. Because it was early, breakfast was on the agenda and after passing up Top Pot Donuts, we found a quirky little bar/café called 5 Point Café – HA #2. The waiter looked like D-Day from Animal House and our food was diner perfect!

HA #3 – As we made our way to the Chihuly Museum, we found the Experience Music Project (EMP)! I knew it was in Seattle, but I didn’t realize we were literally going to trip over it! WOW! Great music, musical instrument, and artist exhibits in addition to Sci-Fi icons and horror movies. A perfectly HA!

Chihuly’s Museum was more than I could have hoped for or imagined, and the restaurant on site, Collections, was charming and entertaining as well. Each table top had a sunken shadow box of treats to look at, and all the visible areas were covered different collections of items from Dale Chihuly’s past.

Then of course there was HA #4 that I gushed about last week.

And of course the Pike Place Market! HA #5 – Finally after repeated trips to the Market I got to see the guys throw a fish! They did it just for me, they usually only toss the fish when someone is purchasing, so it was a rare treat and they even let me film it. To see the video go to my FB page Good for Spooning.
Cheese counter at Beecher’s Cheese makers!

Enjoy these pics and make time to go to Seattle! It is a food lover’s paradise and there is so much to see and do.
Curried Beef Buns at Mee Sum Pastry – another HA! Totally Cheap eats at $2.50!

Charcuterie at Elysian

Oysters at Elliott’s

My Food Memories this week are Girls Night Happy Hour and dinner with friend Lynn, junk food with my favorite kid, and testing out some new recipes in preparation for late summer visitors.

Until next week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!

For those of you who don’t know, Seattle is called the Emerald City. Seattle has great food, sights, shopping and lovely scenery. Recently John and I made our second trip up and it was a trip full of happy accidents. One of those happy accidents was coming in contact with Tom Douglas’ Restaurants. I am now convinced that Tom Douglas IS The Wizard!!! And he is now on the “boyfriend” list.

When I fall in love with a Chef’s food I always remember my first experience. It’s like a great kiss, I don’t want to forget it. High School Friend Neil drove into town to meet John and me for dinner, and due to John’s arriving conference colleagues, we needed to stay close to the hotel. Neil suggested Dahlia, about a block from where we were staying. Excellent choice! The food was FABULOUS!! Since Copper River Salmon was in season that was featured on the menu (all over the city) and it was beautiful. I strayed from my “no tongue” comfort zone and had lamb tongue confit and was pleasantly surprised at how tender and flavorful it was. When offered to John, he declined saying he didn’t want to kiss a sheep! As we left the restaurant, I snagged a flyer outlining Tom Douglas’s operations.

Lamb Tongue Confit

I immediately fell in love. There are 12 locations, plus a farm that provides organic produce and herbs to all the locations, taking the farm to table concept to a more personal level. They grow their own, just like farming communities have done for ages. One of the 12 locations is a bakery supplying bread (or in the case of some items, recipes) to all the others. I made it my mission to visit as many of the sites as possible, and I only had 2 days from the dinner at Dahlia to the flight on Thursday afternoon!

Seattle is a great walking town, and I walked everywhere, and thank goodness for that, otherwise I’d have gained 10 lbs instead of the 5 lbs that actually ended up in my jeans. The following morning, after having hit the web and realizing the BBQ rub shop I had seen earlier on the trip was in fact a Tom Douglas enterprise, I headed out to locate it. What I found right next door was Seatown, where I promptly ordered oysters and a Bloody Mary for breakfast. The guy down the bar from me ordered the biscuits and gravy with sausage. GK, the server/barmaid, informed him the sausage was house made and smoked. Upon hearing that, I felt cheated with my oysters, so I had that too. The sausage melted in the mouth and the biscuits were first rate as well. Then it was on to the Rub with Love Shack where 9 rubs were purchased and later shipped home.

I also made a trip to Tom Douglas’ Brave Horse Tavern. Great local beers on tap and the most delicious and beautiful pretzels I have ever seen. A burger so juicy that the juice was LITERALLY dripping off my arm completed that trip. And don’t even get me started on the fries! Crispy outside, tender inside, popping hot and the perfect amount of salt. Special thanks to Drew my bartender!

Without fail, I have to say every single server and employee at the locations mentioned above was happy to be there, helpful and very knowledgeable about the operation, products and company. What a treat! What a joy to hear employees speak glowingly of their boss and owner. Tom Douglas is doing LOTS of things right. The food and the vibe in all the places I visited are fantastic. I didn’t see everything Tom Douglas has to offer, but what I did see was heightened by happy servers and knowledgeable staff members. What I didn’t see/hear were frowns, snarky comments, back biting among the waitstaff or sloppy presentations. Wahoo!

I can’t wait to revisit The Emerald City and hit up more of Tom Douglas’ joints. I think I will need to go on a diet before liftoff…

In addition to the Food Memories listed above I had a great week – house made corned beef hash at a little divey bar/café, dinner and drinks with friends Byron and Christine, brewery visits, eating in a Chihuly inspired restaurant and multiple visits to Pike Place Market. For more info on this Seattle trip, check back next week. There was so much great stuff that I couldn’t put it in one week!

Until next week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!

For me there is nothing better than eating with people who love me and whom I love. That’s what dining should be about. This past week I had the great good fortune of eating with people I truly enjoy being with, and I didn’t cook ANYTHING!

My sister in law, Bonnie, and her wife, Gretchen, came in for a few days and we had a great time. We normally stay in to eat and this time we went out. We had Brazilian BBQ for Jack’s 19th birthday and a second memorable dinner was at RM Seafood (that seems to be my happy place these days) with Friend Lynn. Because we are friends of the Moonen family we always feel like family there and the food is ALWAYS great! My sisters in law were here for the entire weekend, but I didn’t cook anything – really! We spent time enjoying each other’s company and dining out. Weird, I know! I even convinced Gretchen to go on a marathon shopping expedition with me (we had pizza and salad for lunch). Usually Gretchen and I like to cook together and this time we just sat by the pool and relaxed. Refreshing!

While Bonnie & Gretchen were here I had to leave to go to LA. High School friend Dave Trudell has a one man show that I needed to go see and this was the ONLY weekend during his original scheduled run that I could go. Of course after the tix were bought and plans made, his run was extended (good for him, bad for my house guests). The show was great and Friend Lynn traveled with me so I didn’t have to make the drive alone. The show was great, but the dining ran a close second in the race for which was the best part of the day.

Lynn and I started with a tremendously bad breakfast with good Bloody Marys. Let’s not go into it, but I will say breakfast orders shouldn’t take 45 minutes and come to the table wrong. Yes, the manager was spoken to (and without profanity believe it or not). We proceeded to the Roosevelt Hotel where a charming bartender, Graham, made us lovely gin cocktails. The conversation from Graham was as good as the cocktails (Moment of Truth – I LOVE a chatty barkeep who is a good conversationalist).

Then it was on to the show. If you are in LA and have the inkling to see a one man show I highly recommend “In Heat in Hollywood”. Brash, funny and at times poignant, Lynn and I loved it. We were welcomed into Dave’s friend group immediately and proceeded to have a great time with the guys eating our way around the theatre’s neighborhood. Snacks at a bar called Rockwell and great Chinese food at Chi Dynasty followed by pie at House of Pies. The laughs and camaraderie were as good as the food.

Isn’t that what dining with friends and/or family supposed to be? Laughter, conversation, and friendship always makes even the worst food (like our breakfast) memorable and worth doing again!

My Food Memories of this past week are outlined above. Enjoy the pics!

Until next time, go out and make your OWN Food Memories. I will be on vacation in Seattle next week, so you won’t get a missive from me. Be patient for the info from The Emerald City.

My blog is late this week because I just returned from San Antonio (SATX) late last night.

I took a week to visit friends, eat my way thru the city and spend some time doing the job that actually pays me (believe it or not – no one pays me to write this blog – I do it for fun – hehe). The fun thing was hanging out with my friends and returning to the places I frequented when I lived there. I skipped the Alamo because I had been there numerous times and I know there is no basement where Pee Wee’s bike could be hidden.

Sometimes when you are away from a place for a while, you romanticize the experiences and foods that made it so special. Either because you had a good time or because you were with dear friends, you mis-remember the experience. I was really afraid that would happen on this trip. Thankfully that was only true for ONE of the places I visited. On the whole, everything was just as good as I remembered. (Moment of truth – I don’t think I ate any veggies while I was gone except for a salad…)

As soon as I got off the plane and retrieved my rental car I went straight to Lulu’s. They make the best chicken fried steak. Light and crispy on the outside (breaded on premises, the cubed steak does not arrive frozen and pre-breaded), moist and tender on the inside. The biggest failing here? The sides don’t live up to the standard of the steak. And of course this is the home of the 3lb cinnamon rolls (I avoided that too). And the fried food didn’t stop there…I pretty much ate everything fried I could get my hands on. I’d lay even odds that Texas has one of the highest heart attack rates in the country!

Oh the joy of freshly breaded and fried Chicken Fried Steak!

If you have never been to SATX – all I can say is that it is against the law to go there and NOT eat Mexican food! There are SO many great family owned places that it is tough to choose. I went to 2 different ones and had enchiladas at both and was deliriously happy both times. One of the COOLEST things about Mexican food in SATX is that all self respecting places make their own tortillas! They all make their own flour tortillas and some even make their own corn tortillas well. And don’t even get me started on tamales. I found it best for my waistline to NOT seek them out on this trip…just sayin’ (but for the record my faves are Delicious Tamales on Nacogdoches).

Shrimp Enchiladas, rice only, no beans

The biggest disappointment was Shilo’s. It is a downtown SATX institution, on street level above the River Walk, and I remembered it being SO much better. It is a German Deli. Yes, the center part of Texas was settled by Germans, so in addition to great Mexican food, you can also get fantastic German food – especially in New Braunfels, but apparently not at Shilo’s anymore. The only things that were good were the JUGS being together for lunch, the pickles and the house made root beer.

The counter at Shilo’s – always packed and always with a barrel of root beer

And speaking of beer…if you are a fan of Shiner Bock, I am about to make you totally jealous! They have a new beer called Wild Hare Pale Ale – with the slogan “hop to it”. Cute right? Tasty, but not as hoppy as I like, but still infinitely drinkable. So far as I know it is only available in Texas at this time.

The icing on the cake was going to HEB Central Market. It puts Whole Foods to shame in a MAJOR way. I know I am paying more than a regular grocery store, but I don’t feel like I have to give a pint of blood or give up my first born when I am shopping there. Don’t bother looking for an HEB grocery unless you live in Texas, they are isolated to the Lone Star State, and IMHO, one of the best grocery chains in the country. Needless to say, I couldn’t bring a whole lot home because I was flying, but I did pick up some coffee for John, handmade soap from Austin, and dark chocolate covered chipotle almonds. Had I means to bring perishables back, I would have come home with sausages, cheeses, chorizo and a bunch of other great stuff. Maybe next time….

So here is the tally for the week:
Chicken Fried Steak – 1
Mexican – 2
Italian – 2
Cajun – 1
Deli – 1
British Pub – 1

My Food Memories from this past week are mostly outlined above, but of special note are lunch and dinner with my JUGS, drinking beer on the porch with buddies Mary and Al (thanks for hosting me), cooking with my sales TEAM, and reacquainting myself with friend Marsha at Pappadeaux.
Marsha and I dining at the bar at Pappadeaux

Fried crawfish and crawfish etoufee with dirty rice, preceded by crawfish bisque – it was a “mudbug fest”! Of course I started eating before I took the pic!

Until next time – go out and make your OWN Food Memories

Now I know there have been TONS of articles about food trucks and the new “pop up” culture they are creating, but I have a personal link to food trucks that few of you know about.

Food trucks have forever been a mainstay of NYC (think pretzels, “dirty water” hot dogs, felafel, coffee, etc.) and construction sites. Most workers who don’t bring their own lunch have a short time span in which to eat and need it fast and dirty, so to speak. And in the construction business they are frequently either too filthy to eat IN anywhere or there is nothing nearby. But did you know in 1992 that I worked on a “lunch truck” aka “roach coach”?

Years ago, before Jack was born, from 1986 – 1992 to be exact (yes, the dark ages before the internet and the blogosphere), I waited tables. I was a very good waitress. I was so good that I was able to pay for my wedding in CASH – nothing was financed. My very last waitressing job was in northern Maine at a place which shall remain nameless. While the Chef was a very talented Johnson & Wales graduate, he also had an ego the size of Canada and an attitude as mean as a pit viper. It was one of the WORST places I ever worked, mainly because the Chef had NO accountability because his parents owned the restaurant. Get the picture? It was so bad that it soured me forever on walking in those shoes ever again.

There was a lot of construction going on in the area and Chef D decided that going out to the remote construction sites was a great idea for business. They already owned a “roach coach” so it was just a matter of making that HUGE construction site one of the stops. He quickly learned that he couldn’t do it alone, so he asked me to ride along. Once on site it became abundantly clear WHY he wanted me there. And it wasn’t for my math skills, selling skills or sparkling personality. I was thin and curvy, I wore tight pants and I was pretty easy on the eyes for a bunch of guys at a construction site. I was MOBBED the minute I stepped out of the truck. Luckily for me I could add up their orders in my head and being a born salesperson, smiled at each “diner” like they were the biggest sale of the day. I was there because if they had to wait in line, they might as well wait in line for chick to take care of them. And I will admit that having 100 guys fawning over you is a big ego booster (Moment of Truth – I knew it wasn’t me, it was all Chef D’s food).

The interesting thing is that Chef D brought GREAT food to these guys. All prepared and ready to grab and go. Of course there were the expected items – soda, chips, sandwiches, baked goods, etc., but there was also Chicken Parmigiana with pasta, Seafood Newburg, Pot Roast and mashed potatoes, Chef Salads, Enchiladas, and a dozen other main dishes packed into round foil containers with see thru plastic lids. This was SO FAR from anything I had ever seen on a lunch truck ANYWHERE. We sold out every day.

Flash forward to 2012 – twenty years changes a lot of things. The Food Truck culture has expanded to so much more than hot dogs in NYC and sandwiches on construction sites. I doubt Chef D even saw this coming (hell, even the Food Network jumped on the bandwagon). I am quite sure he didn’t know he was on the cutting edge of something spectacular. I know it wouldn’t have changed his approach on how to do it. He felt that people wanted to “grab and go”, so everything arrived on site ready to be eaten; there was nothing cooked to order on his truck. He may have evolved to incorporate that aspect had the restaurant and the business survived. I never thought I would see people LINED UP and waiting for food from a truck like I did on that construction site in 1992, yet here it is again. This new breed of diner is waiting for the orders to be made FRESH and they are happy to do it. And BTW – it’s FUN! You get to meet and interact with people from all walks of life and basically just chill out!

This past weekend I FINALLY made it to the Saturday Night Truckstop at Tommy Rocker’s here in Vegas. FYI ya’ll, it’s in the middle of the night. I decided to go because it was a fundraiser for the Silverado High School Culinary TEAM. They want to travel to a competition in Baltimore and this was a fun way to raise cash. The best part was that there was a competition between 2 well known “Strip” Chefs and if you ate both dishes you got a vote. I was chowing down on first rate food at 1 a.m. from a lunch truck! Sadly, the Chef with the best dish IMHO didn’t win, but I was lucky to get to eat BOTH and have a great time. A quick salute to friend Al Mancini for being one of the celebrity judges (who came to a draw BTW – so the crowd votes were the ones that counted) and for donating 60% of the sales of his collaboration book “Eating Las Vegas” to the cause.

My Food Memories this week are botching a batch of gnocchi for the first time EVER, planting my garden (San Marzano tomatoes here I come), watching my oyster mushrooms grow in my kitchen, dining out after the first ever Las Vegas Cash Mob, and eating first rate food in the middle of the night in a parking lot of a bar!

The ridiculously delish offering from Chef Brian Howard (Comme Ca) – curried macarons with foie gras mousse and a PORK-tacular sandwich! This should have won! Photo courtesy of my friend, The Vegas Foodie. Thanks a MILLION!

Friends from Texas, Aaron and April at the Saturday Night Truckstop

Chef Sean Griffin (Prime) in the Lola D’s Kitchen Truck with Lola!

The Oyster Mushrooms growing in my kitchen from a super easy kit from Back to the Roots

Until next week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!

Many Thanks to all the NEW people who clicked in last week to read about the wedding and repeated thanks to those of you who stick with me each week!!

When most Foodies go to NYC they have a list of places they want to visit that they have read about or seen on TV. Typically those places are high end, tough to get reservations for and over the top on service and flavor. And while I would have loved to go to Eric Ripert’s Le Bernardin, Marcus Samuelsson’s Red Rooster and Jonathan Waxman’s Barbuto, this trip was about eating the classics, drinking beer and hanging out with old friends. We decided this trip was all about Cheap Eats for us. We knew, since we were attending wedding festivities, that we’d get quality food and wanted to have fun eating the grub from our youth outside of the nuptial celebrations.

Our first morning we decided to eat in a REAL diner. Open 24 hours, with breakfast served all day and a beautiful rotating case full of delicious looking desserts. John’s breakfast of ham steak and eggs was perfect. I wish I could say the same for mine. Over cooked scrambled eggs (they were brown-ish) are not my idea of a good thing.

If you are from NY, you know there is no better pizza in the world outside of Italy. Even a “bad” slice is better than most pizza you get elsewhere in the country. Now before you Chicagoans get your panties in a twist, I enjoy Chicago style pies as well, but there is something nostalgic and perfect about a NY slice at a hole in the wall joint. This trip we went to “Original Famous Ray’s” on 54th & 7th TWICE. And employee Mike made the trip PERFECT. The place was packed and seating was at a premium with a huge group of High Schoolers and other people jostling for position. Some of the things we heard come out of Mike’s mouth were these:
• “Did I tell you to sit there? No! You sit over here, this table has your name on it.”
• “You wanna sit here? Fine. There’s only 2 of you, I’ll need the other half of this table” (this was said to us and we ended up sitting with a gal from Atlanta much to our delight).
• “Move all the way in – sit next to the wall – leave the end open so other people can sit with you.”
• “YOU! (pointing) Sit over here and bring 3 of your friends.”
He was hilarious! Needless to say I was openly laughing, feeling like I got a meal and a show minutes from Broadway. And he informed me if I needed work done on my computer he could do it by remote access, “I don’t care if you are in Bulgaria. I can fix it.”

Another thing we HAD to have was a decent bagel. Like my Mother, I am convinced that the secret to a great bagel is the water in NYC and the greater metro area. It doesn’t matter how closely a recipe is followed, if you aren’t using the right water it won’t taste like a REAL bagel. There are places here in Vegas that make bagels, but only a few make the ever elusive salt bagel. Imagine all the salty goodness of a pretzel, but a bagel, not a pretzel. And the ones here in Vegas aren’t QUITE right, they only put salt on the top, it’s supposed to be top AND bottom! Yeah, I had that for breakfast 2 days in a row (with lox cream cheese), and on one occassion I split a knish with John too. I haven’t had a knish in YEARS – literally. John says you know you got a good bagel when it is so chewy and thick that your jaw hurts half way through the bagel. Our jaws ached.

My bagel in the foreground and the 1/2 knish in the back

And of course there was the beer and bar food (steamed mussels in garlic and wine, Korean BBQ wings, burgers, etc). We drank locally brewed whenever possible. We particularly liked Captain Lawrence (of course we kept calling it Walter Lawrence). We truly loved Valhalla in Hell’s Kitchen. As John, Geoff and Tim were the fallen warriors, I was a Valkyrie.

The “show” taps at House of Brews on 51st St.

The taps at Valhalla

Three perfectly poured libations at Valhalla

When we make our triumphant return in June, with Jack, we’ll be going to Barbuto for Jonathan Waxman’s perfect roasted chicken. We’ll be choosing more upscale eateries since son Jack is a foodie, and has been since he was 5 and wanted to eat his first raw oyster (Moment of Truth: we made him wait until he was 12 and he had his first at the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans). We may even make it to Red Rooster to enjoy more of Marcus Samuelsson’s food. Details to be determined and of course YOU will all hear about it.

This week’s Food Memories are eating with son Jack who was home on his first Spring Break, an impromptu BBQ at Friend Becky’s house, and a lovely Pork Pie I made using a recipe from Canadian Sugar Shack Au Pied du Cochon.

Until next time – go out and make your OWN Food Memories.

This past week I went to San Diego to spend some time with my Mom who was visiting from Florida, and my Aunt (really an older cousin) who is re-habbing from surgery. Of course I ate out and some was good and some not so good.

If Mom and I are together, we get a little nostalgic about NY food. We talk about good deli, good Chinese and good pizza. And let’s not forget the desserts! Since Mom and I no longer have access to the staples we were brought up on, we frequently search and find suitable replacements. Sometimes the searches are longer and more arduous than others. It’s almost become a game for us; kind of a badge of honor if we can find what we are really craving. Well Cousin John did right by us on this trip! We went to dinner with John and Kayla and had the best deli experience I have had in YEARS at D.Z. Akins. Like any self respecting deli on the east coast, there was a crock of good pickles on the table to start off with. The sandwich I ordered was so big, I could only finish half of it and the chopped chicken liver took me right back to NY! There will be a do-over in my future. The only disappointment here was that the bakery counter looked better than it tasted. I was so excited about the “black & whites” and they weren’t fresh and neither were the Linzer tarts (Moment of Truth – Linzer Tarts are my second favorite cookie in all creation and I never make them because they are a pain in the ass.)
This is Pastrami, Swiss and Roast Beef on Sourdough. There are FRIES on the other side of the plate, but the sandwich was so large that it was a barrier to seeing anything else.

Whenever I go to San Diego, there is one place that I HAVE to visit. I MUST go to Point Loma Seafood whenever I am in town and I took Mom with me this time. They have the BEST fried calamari sandwich ever! It is actually a huge calamari steak, cut into strips and flash fried so it isn’t greasy or tough, served on untoasted, thick sliced sourdough bread. It’s really delish! The first time I went there was in April 1987 with my dear, departed Uncle Bruce. He wasn’t s’posed to be eating anything fried, so he said, “You will not discuss this lunch with anyone.” And we proceeded to have fries, fried calamari sandwiches and ice cold beer. I never told anyone about that “secret” lunch until he passed away 3 years ago, but each time I went to San Diego, I went to Point Loma and thought of him. No, there is no photo of the food, I ate it too fast! Usually I take an ice chest, make Point Loma my final stop in town, and bring home fresh fish. This time I forgot the cooler, so it was sandwiches only. Sometimes the Food Memories are so good that it makes you think the food was actually better than it was. That is not the case with Point Loma. Over the past 25 years I have gone there and eaten numerous times and I am never disappointed. It’s always wonderful, fresh and fun. It’s pandemonium when you go to order, it’s a free for all at the counter and you better know what you want before you get up there!

Time with my family is a rare thing. None of them live here in Vegas – including my only child – so when we get together we do the things we like to do best. Sister Nancy and I eat and drink our way around town. Mom and I find the foods we are craving. Sister in Law Gretchen and I cook together, and when Dad comes, I show off my Big Green Egg BBQ. Because I don’t get to see the extended family as much as I would like, I encourage you to spend as much time with your loved ones as humanly possible. Eat together, create Food Memories and laugh!
The gang at Point Loma in October 2006. A few years before Uncle Bruce passed.

This week’s Food Memories include a sushi dinner for Goddess Lill’s birthday, the “deli experience” with family in San Diego, Point Loma Seafood and briefing Rick Moonen and RM Seafood on Restaurant Week which starts today! If you live in Vegas, or are visiting this week, be sure to check out this website and choose to dine from THESE special menus. Part of your purchase price will be donated to Three Square Food Bank to feed the hungry.

Las Vegas Restaurant Week

Until Next Week, go out and make your OWN Food Memories!