The first time we came to Avenues was pre-COVID. We brought my dad, who's "get off my lawn" sensibilities were kicked into high gear by...

May 16, 2020 Day 60 of Shelter-In-Place

This is not a blog about Japanese food. Japanese food is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, stuffed in a seaweed I've never heard of. But...

And one day, unto the earth, there was a man who was called Nick. And he did say Let There Be Tacos, and forsooth a crunchy taco shall...

This hurts. I want to write a rave. But Andytown has me feeling so very Get-Off-My-Lawn. Every new space in the city is now done in...

The Riptide is a proper phoenix. When this place burned down, it singed a lot of salty hearts. There's always excessive hand-wringing...

How To Season a Carbon Steel Wok (at the beach, or anywhere) The owner of the Wok Shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown stopped me on the way...

One of the many advantages of living in an Asian neighborhood is cheap produce. And once in a while this ‘hood really outdoes itself and...

San Francisco Beer Week is here. Across the Bay Area taps are spewing the modern day versions of frankincense and myrrh; stuff so...

Tired of food trucks phoning it in? Riding the wave of food truck mania and slinging mediocre food? Check out the Chairman's legit Gua...

Stonestown Farmer's Market When I grow up, I'll eat dumplings for breakfast. Every. Day.

This was supposed to be the first generation ‘test run’ of a more sophisticated (read: complicated) burger that would evolve to...

Black Bean Turkey Pot Pies and 5-Spice Cranberry Sauce The Pilgrims were fortunate. They didn’t have access to Asian food, and therefore...

The Curry That Saved Christmas Aaaand now it’s Sunday. Day three after the holiday, and the last of that turkey had. to. go. If we threw...

Hint: Not at the misleadingly named Cost Plus “World Market”.  Not only will you NOT find lemongrass there, you may awake from a...

Americans love pickup trucks. We love liberty. We love Coca-Cola and bikinis and cherry lip gloss and handguns. And Americans love…...

A cunning ruse resulting in involuntary vegetable consumption by minors. This is the bloody tale of how two children fought to the death...

Chinese Long Beans with Chilies and Garlic Sometimes home cooking can induce just as powerful a craving as your favorite restaurant dish....

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Yep, even after 3 years of Mandarin classes I still say it the super-whitey way. It’s a hard language, OK? With the...

Why are there so few Hunan restaurants?  It’s a mystery and a travesty.  Every time I go to Henry’s Hunan I’m terrified that my...