I never planned to be in isolation. I figured my wife and daughter might, but me? What a surprise!
Now, what’s a restaurant reviewer supposed to do when he can’t go to restaurants because he’s supposed to avoid going out, which means he’s stuck at home, trying to put together meals from what he has on hand in the house?
2020—I can see clearly, now…as I look back at The Great Food Search 2019. Over thirty-five different places where I’ve eaten over the year. Which were the best? My top five?
When the weather gets colder, the best-looking thing on a menu might be soup. Since we often go out to eat on Friday nights, clam chowder—New England Clam Chowder (the white stuff)— is my option of choice. This Great Food Search went to great lengths to give you reviews. Yes, there are restaurants in the Valley that we sampled, but we found ourselves all the way out to Monterey’s Fisherman’s Wharf!
Autumn in the San Joaquin Valley. The weather is trying to get cooler. The leaves are trying to turn color and fall. The fog is getting ready to come in “on little cat feet”…or land like a giant pancake. Best of all, there is a hint of turkey in the air. Of course, we will try to wait patiently for Turkey Day, but you can warm up with these sandwich findings from the Great Food Search.
I’ve written about this place, before: twice in articles on places where I eat during the Fresno Rogue Festival, once as a special mention in a piece on ice cream places.
I missed Carrow’s. It was at 2100 Clovis Avenue, just south of Shaw, sort of an upper-scale Denny’s, but it closed. I was sad, but I’m not anymore. The old Carrow’s is now a new Huckleberry’s! For convenience, it’s across the parking lot from the new Costco building, so you can eat before you go to buy 100 rolls of toilet paper.
After stuffing myself with ice cream in June, I turned the Great Food Search toward a more healthy highway of food—salads. Some people look down on salads as that green stuff they have to chomp through before they can really eat something, but the dishes I am about to introduce to you are more than a mouthful—this is FOOD!
In summer, thoughts turn to ice cream, and the Great Food Search has industriously worked its way through ice cream shop after ice cream shop, just to let you know what’s out there. Here are some of the usual suspects…and a few of the unusual ones.
Sure, I’d had sushi, before…I thought. At some Asian buffets, I’d had the California Roll, which is as close to real sushi as a fast-food burger is to a filet mignon. My immersion into Sushiland began when my wife texted about a new place in Sanger, Casa Oinari.
Any way you spell it, it’s serious eating. Best known in the Middle East and Armenia, variants of this grilled meat dish range from Africa to China, with or without skewers.
