I was cooking at Louie’s Backyard in Key West when the real awakening to my love of specifically tropical produce came into full flower. It should not have taken me so long to become the evangelical I did given the bounty of the fruits and historical use of them in…

What an unfortunate name for something so sensual! This is definitely not what Katherine Hepburn objected to with Humphrey Bogart in the classic movie “The African Queen”! She was speaking of leeches.  Earlier this week we were standing on the sidewalk in Wynwood where it is often best to practically…

I would guess that the first time I had any kind of bone marrow was when our mother would cook a pot roast and there would be that small, odd bit of fat within the well of a short bone that a brave adult would gobble up with a look…

Like so many of you we have not been on an airplane in over a year. For us traveling was part of our work, our life and our identities. So many aspects of life have been informed by the trips we take which, by and large are done to participate…

We are still a ways off from Father’s Day coming up in June. So this show is not on that. This is about the foods that well up out of our memories unbidden… a surprise recalling of the things our fathers ate .. but we had forgotten about for a…

Spring is in the air across the land. Even in Chicago .. the closest city to where I was born feels it. There are few things that push forth out of the life sustaining mud during this season … that send hunger pangs to my belly and flame to my…

The plan was to see a movie. I bought our tickets online which seemed like a safe bet. But when we got to the theater at the large mall it was locked up. Easter being the reason. Despite the tickets we realized we’d not be watching the great Frances McDormand…

This year I am doing something different with my diary. It is my quotidian  record of where life is with me. 17th century diarist Londoner Samuel Pepys has a lot to do with my habit. Having read his work during that special period of time when I was no longer…

My wife, Janet and I have both been fully vaccinated, for which we are very grateful. We look forward to the months ahead and everyone that wants them gets them. Still we are precautious when we go to a place and make sure that it is safely operated. Recently we…

Historically lamb was the main course for Easter dinner and it still is in many parts of the world. It’s a tradition that’s about 3,000 years old and stems from the Jewish holiday Passover, which celebrates Israelites being liberated and their exodus from Egypt. The tradition held up in the…

We ate a lot more raw food as an earlier species. We simply had to in order to survive. Hunting is hard work. Ask a fisherman. We were much more capable at foraging and gathering for our calories. And besides that fire was not something humans had on hand for…

Sometimes they are called Cuban Hamburgers but I think that is more of an accommodation for those uninitiated in true Cuban food culture. Most folks drop the word ‘burgers’ and simply call them Fritas. So we will too.  Recently we got to know some folks in town that we are…

We are on the cusp of a day that is steeped in a mix of traditions. The prevailing one is of strong drink and celebrations across the land! Like many traditions things began in a much different way than they are today. Here’s a biggie. St. Patrick was born in…

Such a small word. Such a simple word. Love is like that too. I didn’t grow up knowing and loving greens like so many in our American South. In Northern Illinois where I tromped, crawled, ran, ambled, slid, skidded and stumbled through childhood greens were not bubbling in a black…

We went to a restaurant that has history in Miami but a new story in that they have moved to a more permanent and spacious location. For now all of the seating is outside in a lovely courtyard. My wife Janet and I met up with our son Justin for…

There are clusters of ethnicities in every city. Immigrants, encouraged by pioneers find a home within many urban centers in close proximity to others from their shared homelands. Chinatowns are the most obvious examples of them. Oftentimes when things turned threatening in ones home country people … wanting better for…