Food

As the new year dawns, my body, as if on queue, begins to crave lighter, healthier foods after all the (wonderful) excesses of the holiday season.   Visions of sugar plums are replaced with visions of healthy grains and veggies, …

It’s wintertime, and around my house that means long, slow meat braises. It’s my pleasure to share with you my family’s favorite cold weather meal, Brasato al Barolo. Fork-tender chuck roast braised in a full bottle of Barolo wine will …

Pop the corks, and let the new year of 2015 begin.  2014 by any wine follower’s yardstick was a beauty.  As we noted in an earlier TASTE OF WINE, the price point for a bottle of wine and a night at a …

About 2 hours drive time from the hustle and bustle of the San Diego coast, spread out like a canvas panorama at the base of  Highway 74, lies a group of desert communities that includes:  Palm Springs,  Rancho Mirage, Palm  Desert, Indian Wells and …

It’s not often you find someone who can tell you flat out what he loves about life beside his family, and then go about putting those choices together  to make the world a better place. Skip Coomber and his wife Maureen …

Saturday March 7th and 8th, the bloom is on the vines of Temecula when more than 30 wineries, together, open their barrels for introductory tastes and bites, for guests with self-guided passports, at the World of Wine event (WoW). I’m up …

It’s that time of the year again: Carnevale is almost here!   Carnevale means floats, costumes, confetti, big party everywhere you go in Italy and it’s a lot of fun, not only for kids! We also have many traditional recipes …

When a chill fills the air, few meals up the comfort factor more than a succulent, warming braise…that fork-tender cut of meat bathing in some sort of aromatic bath of stock, or perhaps wine and plenty of aromatic, fresh herbs. …

It’s the dead of winter, when one’s tastes go to deep earthy root vegetables such as beets and lentils. Never mind that it’s 70 degrees in Los Angeles! That makes exploring urban farmers’ markets for candy cane beets and other …

In my last column, I shared some recent experiences in the great desert, from Rancho Mirage to La Quinta.  Palatial resorts, princely restaurants and the hauntingly beautiful Santa Rosa Mountains all caught my attention. In Palm Desert on El Paseo at Portola, a relaxed European style restaurant, …