http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog Romancing the Diner - Alison Arnett Sat, 03 Jul 2010 19:25:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_510" align="alignleft" width="133" caption="Potato chips"][/caption] The food industry has its tentacles around us all, with advertising, market research and trade associations galore. Which is why a snippet the other day caught my eye. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a piece saying that teens who snack were found to ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/07/03/why-does-this-sound-suspect/ [caption id="attachment_504" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Ray Gillespie and me"][/caption] Last Saturday, Raymond Gillespie, chef at Salumeria Italiana in the North End, and I sacrificed a perfect beach day to demonstrate Rubio Aged Balsamic at Shubie's in Marblehead. Here we are (Ray is the cute one on the left). Most of the customers were busy ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/06/21/tasting-rubio/ Listening to Anthony Bourdain last night on Tom Ashbrook's show, you would have thought that restaurant food had been in a steep decline until Top Chef, the Food Network, and of course, his road trip docudramas "No Reservations" came into being. All good, according to Bourdain, who seemed to have ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/06/15/good-tv-does-not-a-chef-make/ [caption id="attachment_429" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chefs Stand with Haiti"] [/caption]     Saturday evening I get an email from Gordon Hamersley. Would I like to blog about the Chefs Stand for Haiti dinner at Rialto the next night? This was not a difficult decision -- the cause is so stellar, the chefs are so fantastic, ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/06/07/a-thrill-and-a-cause-what-could-be-better/ [caption id="attachment_419" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Garden lettuces"][/caption] It's been such a fast and furious spring that the flip switch from scarcity to overload is hitting on Memorial Day. For the last 10 days, I've been harvesting a little arugula, some tiny snippets of lettuces, a small radish or two every evening. But ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/05/31/before-the-flood/ [caption id="attachment_414" align="alignleft" width="143" caption="Austin skyline"][/caption] Nothing like lists to spark interest. Trolling through the maze today, I noticed a WalletPop article listing Austin, Tex., as the top restaurant dining city in the country -- more money is spent on eating out there than anywhere else in the US.  Who knew? And ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/05/14/boston-falls-behind-austin/ Is it because spring, early if fitful this year, has sprung? Or that the economy has stabilized a tiny bit? Or pent-up demand? Or cheap rents?  Whatever. There seem to be new restaurants bouncing up like pink tulips in my yard -- just as freshly minted, just as hopeful. [caption id="attachment_409" ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/04/18/a-new-crop-of-restaurants/ [caption id="attachment_387" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Maxibels are on order"][/caption] With Michele Obama championing gardening, the weather suddenly turning (briefly) warm, and spring official, I finally got around to ordering seeds. It's a gamble -- not the seeds, really, but the balancing act that it takes to home garden. The unpredictable weather, my ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/03/21/its-time-to-dream-of-gardens/ My husband, who first dismisses the trendy -- Twitter, any music after 1970, any clothing past UnderArmour -- and then embraces it with a passion, has discovered food blogging.  It started with his new phone -- a Droid. He began taking photos of dishes I made. Then he started taking photos ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/03/07/oh-no-a-food-blogger-in-the-family/ Remember when the experts advised real foodies to eat out only in the middle of the week, avoiding the dreaded suburbanites on weekends? Remember when being a Special Occasion restaurant could brand a place as cluelessly old-fashioned? Remember when the chef's word ruled -- no substitutions, no questions, no mercy? ... http://www.alisonarnett.com/blog/2010/02/14/so-2008/