“If smoking was their sole raison d’être, restaurant matches should by all rights have disappeared by now. After being overtaken by the disposable lighter, they have run into smoking bans of varying severity. (Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia now have laws prohibiting smoking in restaurants, according to the American Lung Association, and local [...]
Archive for October 21st, 2009
Burning Passion: Matchcover Collectors & The Return of a New Old Restaurant Freebie
Posted in Business, Collectors & Collecting, Design, Ephemera, Food & Wine, Media & Advertising, Popular Culture, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Mixed Bits: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Food & Wine, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Is there anything more American than Chinese food? Remember that scene in ‘Manhattan’ where Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway cozy up in bed in his cramped apartment with cardboard boxes of something in black-bean sauce while W. C. Fields plays on the television? Or the scene in ‘A Christmas Story’ when the holiday meal is [...]
The Perils of Pastrami: David Sax’s “Save the Deli”
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Food & Wine, Jewish Life, U.S. Travel on October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“He may have written a book about Jewish food, but David Sax is quite a ham. He refers to a deli’s finances as ‘pastraminomics,’ describes a knish as being ‘baked to a George Hamiltonesque hue,’ and titles a chapter on Las Vegas’s deli scene ‘Luck Be a Brisket Tonight.’ “But in addition to Catskills shtick, [...]
