I'm kidding. Of course, I'm alone. But I'm also taking notes, casually ferreting information out of the staff and following the meals of diners at other tables to get a sense of what people think of a new place. As a result, I'm fairly content to have a plate of noodles as my only dining companion. So when a friend suggested that he will never eat out by himself because it's mortifying - as if he were carrying a sign that says, "I couldn't find someone to eat with me," I was surprised. I didn't realize that in an era where we can bury ourselves in a phone or paper/electronic media, that eating by oneself still had some stigma.
Does it bother you to dine alone?
In an era of culinary experimentation, ice cream has moved far afield from chocolate and vanilla. And the guys most responsible for freezing your brain's capacity to understand what it's eating are likely Jake Godby and Sean Vahey (talking at Google above) - the owners of the Humphry Slocombe ice cream shop in San Francisco and the authors of the new book, Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book.
The Bay area ice creamery has gained acclaim (this New York Times piece is a good primer for the unfamiliar) for its unique flavor combinations, everything from peanut butter curry to salt and pepper to their signature secret breakfast, which somehow mashes up the world of bourbon and cornflakes. Their flavors are not meant to be novelties; they're instead meant to push the envelope of what is possible with ice cream.
Are you willing to experiment with your bowl of dessert or are you an ice cream traditionalist?
Natasha's Mulberry & Mott has brought macarons to the Plaza, and Bloom Baking Co. has a rotating cast of flavors in the City Market. They're also a regular part of Le Fou Frog's dessert menu in Columbus Park, and Au Bon Macaron is helping fill the pastry case at Little Freshie on the West Side. So do you need a little more meringue in your life, or are macarons a bit too precious for you?
When you're caught in the throes of a Chinese craving, who's cooking for you and what's the dish you're eating?
Eater has the story of the 150-minute wait that folks were willing to endure at Doughnut Vault in Chicago, which has been named the number one doughnut shop in the country by Food & Wine. Werner's gets a pretty good line (but it moves quickly) around noon on Saturdays for their sausages, and it's rare that the Oklahoma Joe's line doesn't extend into the parking lot. What's the longest you'd be willing to wait for food?
Odds are, we all don't possess the prodigious appetite of Bill Wisth, but he does represent an extreme ideal of the basic approach for most of us when we go to a buffet - we're determined to get our money's worth. It's why we don't fill up on breadsticks at Olive Garden or the cold salads at Em Chamas. We wait for the prime cuts to come around to the table. Still, should all-you-can-eat really mean all-you-can-eat, or should restaurants be able to cut us off (either because they're out of food or because our breathing has become dangerously labored)?
Chefs are apparently striking back in what Time's Josh Ozersky calls "The New Culture of Culinary Coercion." In the piece, he wonders if a culture of tasting menus and inflexible chefs has gone too far. So, should every restaurant allow substitutions, or are there dishes from chefs of certain renown, bartenders with certain skills, and restaurants at certain price points that we (as nonchefs) shouldn't be allowed to monkey around with?
With or without alcohol, who makes the best cup of lemonade in town?
While it's satisfying to have so many food- and chef-related titles on the shelves, wading through the morass of cookbooks, memoirs and themed titles is getting to feel like the Internet - it's hard to suss out the good from the stinky cheese. In lieu of a book club, we'll just ask: What was the latest great food book you read?
Frank Bruni delves into the world of snarky fortunes in a piece for The New York Times about Cookie Misfortune. "You will die alone and poorly dressed" is the one that rooked the former critic's universe. Beyond the wisdom of determining just how stale a given fortune cookie is before taking a bite, have you ever found wisdom in a fortune cookie?
Milk & Honey has the best I've had in KC. http://milkandhoneykc.com/
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Does it bother you to dine alone?
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