Alex Delaware is the same way with lots of his favorite restaurants.
3 Likes
I was going to mention J Kellerman’s series featuring Alex; have read most of the books, but don’t recall him using real restaurant names. Although he did lead you all around LA getting to them!
1 Like
As a lover of the books (have read most twice) I have that nobody is good enough to write Harry or play Harry on TV attitude, but I think Titus Welliver is doing a pretty good job.
1 Like
I told you we’re related! 
2 Likes
In “A Gentleman In Moscow” the protagonist becomes the maitre d in the best restaurant in Moscow in the 20s & 30s. Its an excellent read.
5 Likes
I finished reading The Chicago Way today. Good book. My one major quibble with the author starts on page 177 and ends at 178. Why oh why? No reason for that. Oh well, it’s his book, not mine.
Page 148 - 
“Next time you find a body,” the detective continued, “ pick up the phone and give me a call. I told the guys up front you had the tab for lunch. Pay on the way out.”
“Masters walked out the door. I took a bite of my sandwich and wondered just how much the cop had actually eaten.”
Next up is The Fifth Floor. Michael Harvey is new to me. Thanks for the recommendation.
2 Likes
I ever so rarely read fiction sticking to biographies, history, and poetry.
One of my favorite poets is Pablo Neruda.
Here’s his Ode to Tomatoes
The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it’s time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.
7 Likes
The Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde, has some fun food elements (including the Toast Marketing Board and cheese smuggling).
Beyond the food, it’s a fun series, as is his “Nursery Crime” series (which I wish he’d expand!).
4 Likes
Fom Lawrence Block, The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Setting scene – TJ and [protagonist] Scudder on bagels and doughnuts:
[Scudder narrating] Saturday afternoon I got a call from T J. He said, “You know the bagel shop in the bus station?”
“Like the back of my hand.”
“You ask me, they better at doughnuts than bagels. You want to meet me there?”
“What time?”
“You say. Won’t take me five minutes.”
I said it would take me a little longer than that, and it was closer to half an hour before I was seated next to him at the counter of Lite Bite Bagels on the ground floor of the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He had a doughnut and a Coke. I ordered a cup of coffee.
“They got good doughnuts,” he said. “Sure you don’t want one?”
“Not right now.”
“The bagels is mushy. You eatin’ a bagel, you ’spect it to fight back some. Doughnuts, you don’t mind if they’s mushy. Weird, huh?”
“The world’s a mysterious place.”
4 Likes
I’ll have to search my well worn copy of The Last Picture Show but in the film Sam The Lion, academy award winner Ben Johnson said chicken fry me a steak and try and use meat this time.
Cloris Leachman also won an academy award.
3 Likes
Exceptional cast. Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, and Eileen Brennan who was tasked with the frying.
3 Likes
We recently rewatched The Last Picture Show which has always been one of favorite movies. Maybe it was my mood, but I found it incredibly depressing. Still great though.
1 Like
Page 53:
4 Likes
After too long, we remembered Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storms series. The latest, Tropic of Stupid, gets off to a fast start at page 7 with a tiki bar that has the required smoked fish dip. Turning the page,
" . . . then stand outside with all the construction workers and their pickups, waiting for the clock to strike six, then we all rush inside for nirvana: a Cuban breakfast sandwich. When I first saw it on the menu board., I was like ‘Heart be still! You mean someone has figured out how to genetically splice the ecstasy of an Egg McMuffin and a Cuban sandwich? I don’t think I can handle that much morning goodness.’"
3 Likes
Only just watched this movie for the 1st time about 3 months ago - excellent; also fascinating to take a look at the screenplay & thanks!
A trivia tidbit: After Ken Kesey died, Larry McMurtry married his widow; keeping this food related, am sure many of you know that the Kesey’s ran/run a large dairy in Oregon - Nancy’s Organic Yogurt is one of their products, very tangy stuff.
I just finished John Saternali’s feast. Enjoyed most of it quite a bit. Turned into a love story, which I could have done without, but it wasn’t that distracting.
At page 140 of the latest Michael Connelly installment of Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard, The Dark Hours, the protagonists order a takeout barbecue-sauced chicken from Birds of Hollywood in Franklin Village. Their review on the next page: “It was the kind of food that made you bring a napkin to your mouth after every bite.”
2 Likes
I just finished The Dark Hours. I remember that line. My sister once did a tour of all the places mentioned frequently in the Harry Bosch novels.
1 Like
Good on your sister. We can claim only three in LA for sure: Musso & Frank; Phillipe’s; and Pacific Dining Car. Outside LA, Bern’s in Tampa.
3 Likes
At page 25 of Next to Last Stand, Sheriff Walt Longmire and his undersheriff Vic are investigating at a veteran’s home. Well, . . . Walt is:
"‘Are we done yet?’ I turned to find my undersheriff, having woken up from her nap, scrubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands. ‘I’m hungry’.
"‘Evidently, it’s walleye fillet day.’
" . . .
“‘So long as there’s tartar sauce and Tater Tots. I’m all about the Tots.’”
3 Likes
