This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on October 5, 2005 Getting the chance to renew a childhood friendship as an adult is truly a gift. Ronnie and I had been good pals since our wild and crazy junior high days. Somehow, post-college, we managed to lose touch, so I was tickled to…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on September 21, 2005 Growing up American these days, you could be forgiven for thinking that meat arrives from nature in Styrofoam packaging, that lettuce is harvested in tidy plastic bags and that the words “processed cheese food” mean anything good. The legions of us who…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on September 7, 2005 Electrified with the fiery, fruity heat of fresh chiles, tempered by the sweetness of ripe tomatoes and the pungent edge of cilantro – a classic salsa cruda gladdens your mouth and sends your heart racing. Salsas may be close to being my…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on August 24, 2005 “Wow, this is amazing,” I heard one woman say at the tomato tasting at last Saturday’s farmer’s market. “It tastes just like fruit.” “It is fruit,” her male companion replied. She looked blank. “It is?” Yes, it is. Technically, if not legally…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on August 10, 2005 I spent most of my summers up till the time I was about 16 on the wind-swept, duney shores of Lake Michigan.  Everything about going to the lake was bliss to me – a world apart from my life in New York,…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on July 27, 2005 There are some places in the world where not being a meat eater is harder than others.  South Korea  comes to mind, where our hosts constantly wanted to honor us by serving us meat, only to be bemused when I refused the…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on July 13, 2005 Some people say beets taste like dirt and, I’m just guessing, they don’t see that as a plus. But in a strange and lovely way beets do taste of the Earth – of rain and rocks and minerals overlaid with a profound…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on June 29, 2005 Well, I’m back. It’s been four months since my last column on these pages, or at least, on pages that looked like these, only bigger. Geesh, you turn your back for a few months and look what happens. My word allotment slashed…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on February 23, 2005 It’s just a dish of melted cheese, after all. Kind of like a grilled cheese sandwich, without the bread. It’s got no added beer or wine or kirsch, like a fondue or a rarebit; no additional cream or spices like chile con…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on February 9, 2005 From the soggy, muddy depths of a most peculiar Bloomington winter,  here is a little good food news to brighten those February blahs, awaken your palate and put a little spring in your step. Starting Saturday, Bloomington will  have its own winter…

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on January 26, 2005 They say it’s a mood altering drug, and I believe it. Full of more than 300 chemicals it revs up your heart, increases your sense of well-being, and makes you feel like you are in love. They also say it would take…

This post appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on January 12, 2005 How ironic is it that here in bucolic Bloomington I  often find myself pining for the small town amenities of New York City? One of my favorite things about New York is that,  for all its big-city splendor, it is really just a…