Jim Leff's Home Page
Selected Writings by Me
a work in progress!
Take the Three Food Personality Test!
My Matzoh Brei recipe.
The Evil That Is Panera (or...Why Adam Smith's Invisible Hand Reaches For Lousy Chow)
A very trippy dinner ten years ago at the mysterious Dreamaway Lodge. Note that the Lodge is now under new ownership, and completely different
Eating by the Numbers (my capricious system for rating things on a scale from one to ten that weirdly turns out to have some depth to it).
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Artificial Flavors (note: I don't see many people out there predicting where food culture's headed in the next few decades. Let's see if my predictions pan out!).
My Cookies, My Life My multi-decade obsession with an unexceptional supermarket brand of Italian cookies.
My Quisp Page (including a link to my "Email Exchange With Quisp") is back!
Pat Hammond's fascination with Portuguese perceves
A Chowhound editorial (which doesn't sound so radical anymore, but represented a fresh viewpoint back when Chowhound first started)
The Sainted Arepa Lady (also: take my audio tour)
A Tale of Two Chowhounds
My Slate Diary (click the numbers in the header to advance through the five daily reports).
The most ambitious writing project I've ever attempted: a ten week Chow Tour (8000 miles driven, 600 eateries sampled). Here are some of the most entertaining reports:
Biltmore Blueblood Blues (Plus Barbecue) (suffering in splendor at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC)
The Greatest (Chowhounding) Story Ever Told (in rural Kentucky)
36 Sublime Hours in Newfoundland
The Enchanted Misty Mountain of Tea and Excrement
Chow Tour Redux (or, Lots and Lots of Millet) (thinking back on What It All Meant)
and...
Vacation Tamales (incredible tamale place in Puerto Vallarta)
An account I wrote for the Toronto Star, of a particularly amazing day.
A photo essay of a trip I took to Tucson with Chowhound co-founder Bob Okumura. It's quite old at this point, but people still request it...
[I'll add more...meanwhile, feel free to mail suggestions to my address, on the main page]