point fu

So odd that on the very same day the United's CEO said he never eats the food on a long flight (because " hyyyyyydraaaation and sleeeeeeep ") they also announce a partnership with Chef's Table to bring legendary chefs' cooking to Polaris .  Of course my former-Californian soul jumped for joy when it heard the name Nancy Silverton, but then I remembered the old Anthony Bourdain quote " There's almost never a good reason to eat on a plane… Much better to show up in a new place and be hungry and eat at even a little street stall than arrive gassy and bloated, full, flatulent, hungover." And while I generally agree with that, ANA First exists as proof it can be done.  This has been tried  many times before , both in the 'celebrity chef as airline chef' format and in the 'we'll bring you a Shake Shack burger in the sky' format. I'm absolutely convinced that Nancy and her peers could design something delicious for in-flight dini...

I'm sure the "bring the iconic city restaurants into the airport" trend has been happening intermittently ever since airports first got restaurants ( c'mon Boudin's sourdough bread bowl at SFO! ), but I'm loving this latest little bit of tasty breakfast nosh: Montreal's Air Canada lounge is stocking bagels from the iconic Fairmount Bagel , and Delta is (was?) offering a Russ and Daughters bagel plate on their in-flight menu.  On the positioning flight for my Dallas – Sydney journey , Delta offered a Shake Shack burger and I gotta say it was pretty mid. The bun was sitting on the ceramic serving dish while it was being rewarmed, causing it to be sorta dehydrated, stale-tasting, and hard as a rock. I did get to witness a phenomenon I'd read about online: a grown adult having a meltdown because they'd pre-ordered a Shake Shack burger and there wasn't one for them in the galley. If he hadn't been such a toddler about it, I would have swapped hi...

( updated July 2025 ) Since the Australian border  reopened, we've had a dozen visits to Sydney and have eaten a lot of tasty things in that time. Overall the food scene felt a lot like San Francisco – great Asian food, lots of emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients, some old holdovers from our Anglo-European colonizers, along with some fresh imports.  When I say 'great Asian food', I mean better than New York. Better than San Francisco. Better than Los Angeles. Until I can go on a random Tuesday and get me a salty dou jiang, a hu jiao bing, and a Shanghai-style meat moon cake in Flushing, The Richmond, or the SGV, Sydney stays on top in my book. You can get yum cha (dim sum) for breakfast, a delicious pork roll  (banh mi) for lunch, have salt and pepper squid ( the national dish of Australia ) with a pint at the pub after work, then hit the birria truck for dinner, have sticky toffee pudding for dessert, go clubbing and then scarf down a halal snack pack as y...

UPDATE : I got my fish! It was a big piece, too! == Headed to the Pacific Northwest for my dad's memorial (he passed back in April) and I get this unexpected email from Delta asking me to "select my meal": Yes, I'm traveling up front, but this is something I'd suspect from Singapore airlines or ANA. When I clicked through to the choices, I was surprised to see that there were 5 choices rather than the usual "Chicken, Beef, or Veg" that you find onboard. Who knows if I'll actually get my choice (gotta be honest, this seems well outside their core competency...), but if I do, I'll get to figure out what "beecher’s clothbound cheddar dashi" is. I just checked and this flight appears to be a 757 with DeltaOne (aka lie-flat seats), maybe that explains the nicer food.

Two of my favorite things in life are travel and food. Since I post a lot about earning points to do the former so you can do lots of the latter in new and exciting places, it's no surprise I've got my credit cards enrolled in mileage dining programs . Since I'm fairly savvy on the restaurant scene in my current (NYC) and former hometowns (San Francisco and Seattle), I can tell you that when I see a place show up on the mileage dining roster, it's a good sign the place is circling the drain . I feel bad saying that but with few exceptions, every time I visit one of these places it's a train wreck... like somehow "let's join a mileage dining program" is the restaurant equivalent of "lower the lifeboats!" ( FYI the same restaurants seem to be in all airlines' programs ) Last week I saw an email from Delta mileage dining that a very hip, upscale pizza restaurant we love was "new to the program". I was wary, but the 1000-po...

(Last update April 2023)   UPDATE April 2023: After our most recent visit, can I just say how happy I am that nearly all of our favorite places survived Covid! We get asked a lot about our favorite places to eat in Tokyo. Back in 2016, we lived in southern Shibuya in a neighborhood called Ebisu . We've been back several times since, and it's actually tough giving recommendations because most folks visiting Tokyo have visions of Michelin-starred, special occasion omakase experiences but we spent most of our time looking for folksy, cheap, down-home neighborhood eats. If you're thinking " Jiro: Dreams of Sushi ", I'd say just hit the Michelin guide for Tokyo and let your hotel or Amex concierge book for you. If you're thinking more " Midnight Diner " then continue on... TIP: Some places you may need to look at the Kanji from the Instagram check-in or the Google Street View to help find the place. Also, I've omitted places where you need to...