Of Personal Import

The agony of the food snob - Slate Magazine

Alternative Career?

Weekend in New York: Martinis - Places That Put the Proper Prefix on the -tini - Travel - NYTimes: "Every drink is made with almost appalling care by bartenders who would rather shake up drinks than chat up customers."

Yep, I definitely need to get into this business. Exactly my mentality when I host something... but seriously, excellent article about a return to precision and craftsmanship. Finally!

More Cuisine: This battered isle

Perhaps I'm stretching it a bit by labeling a link to a fish & chips article as "cuisine," but some chippers have totally transformed themselves and are unrecognizable next to their more stereotypical brethren. Check it out:

This battered isle | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

The Economist Does NYC

A bit dated, but here's an excerpt and link to a weekly feature from a week or so back:

"New York is certainly more protean than most European cities, but I wonder whether Mr Whitehead didn’t capture something larger here, something of the wistfulness inherent in urban life. To live in a city is to live in a teeming, hectic present amidst the burnished memories and unblemished hopes of millions of other citizens. Things were great before you got here, and they’ll be wonderful after you leave, but while you are here you are always just the same old you. It’s a horrible fate, I know, and no less horrible for being universal, but I will always be grateful to have suffered it in Brooklyn, if only for a while."

Link to coverage on Economist.com