jp's food adventures

I like Top Hops. The name sounds like a play on London's Topshop, which took fashion cues from my buddies in the Strokes a number of times. Their music was playing when I walked into the shop, at 94...

When home cooking is your hobby it's easy to become jaded about restaurants. Some high-end places are exciting, but this excitement is not part of my everyday life. Crazy dishes from hole in the wall places manned by immigrants...

I generally take a conservative approach to sushi. I don't have much interest in fast food sushi or novelty rolls. Supposedly sushi is an art it takes a lifetime to master, and I've been lucky enough to have tasted...

When it comes to Mexican fast food some folks are crazy for California style burritos. Others enthuse over tacos, which have practically become a fetish item over the last few years. I'm down with both, but my particular weakness...

I don't eat pizza like I used to. A younger me had it several times a week. But that younger me usually biked 70 miles or so in that week. Current me is a bit more restrained, saving my...

Community Supported Agriculture or CSAs have become increasingly common over the last few years. Sign up for our local CSAs is happening now. The idea is that you pay upfront for a weekly share of local, farm-fresh vegetables. But...

(Today's column was originally published in September of last year) Like many New Yorkers, I take pride in having a list of "off the beaten track" food establishments I hit on a regular basis. This is practically a cliché: it...

I'm pretty sanguine when it comes to nostalgia. Lots of cool stuff has come and gone in fashion's cycles. A rose-tinted recreation of yesteryear doesn't hold a strong appeal to me. A living piece of the past is another...

I like hole in the wall places. To me, it's like magic when a restaurant serves delicious meals in a small, quirky, out of the way space  -- the kind of place where somebody's dream has been shoehorned into...

Last winter Chinese clay pots were often spotted on the bar at Clandestino. The reason was a mini-craze among staff and regulars for bo zai fan, Hong Kong-style rice casserole. The source was A-Wah Restaurant, 5 Catherine Street., a...