I was doing some research on Ridge, when I finally learned that Optima is the font that the winery has used as its brand for the last 40 years. I’ve always admired the look of Ridge’s packaging, and the wines themselves have delivered so much personality, they have remained a perennial favorite as well. In [...]

I was hoping that this warmish December weather would tease out a few late-season porcinis at Salt Point State Park this week, but I couldn’t find anything edible today. Mushrooms are often mysterious, but I suspect that once the first frost of winter occurs, porcinis may go dormant for the year (in which case, their [...]

My tendency to pair dim sum with trips to the de Young Museum is two-fold: (1) there are some noteworthy dim sum restaurants in the Richmond District, just a few blocks north of Golden Gate Park, and (2) since I have very little will power with dim sum, the de Young is a great venue [...]

Mandina’s is probably my favorite restaurant in New Orleans, at least when I’m in the mood for a shrimp poboy and a bowl of turtle soup. I found this photo online at wikimedia.org, and I really like how the neon pops against the dark background. Following its demise after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the restaurant [...]

Here are a couple more scans from the book “Janet Fish: Paintings” by Vincent Katz. As you can see, Windex bottles were a whole lot sexier in 1972 than they are now (I do realize that, technically, Windex is not food). Jars of mustard pickles, on the other hand, haven’t seemed to change a bit.
As [...]

I purchased a copy of Ferran Adrià’s “A Day at elBulli” today, although I wondered if I even had any business doing so. After all, Catalonia’s famed elBulli restaurant is at the epicenter of the molecular gastronomy movement, and Adrià’s culinary techniques often employ chemicals and equipment that would be very difficult to turn up, [...]

I don’t know much about Jack Kleinberg, but I found these images while reminiscing over Gene’s Po-Boy the other day. From the date of his work, I assume that Kleinberg relocated to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina. I find it strangely fascinating that one of Kleinberg’s Los Angeles subjects is Tito’s Tacos, which was one [...]

This old wall advertisement for Emerson’s Ginger-Mint Julep features great lettering, great patina, and the drink itself sounds delicious (some of these ads coincide with Prohibition, so this product was more of a soda than a cocktail, as far as I can tell). Isaac Edward Emerson was also the inventor of Bromo-Seltzer, which still exists [...]

I’ve always admired the famous “Hot Dog” painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Even though the hot dog itself resembles a logo more than anything edible, I can appreciate the fact that Lichtenstein makes the hot dog appear to glisten and shine. In that sense, the painting is very appealing from a “theoretical taste” standpoint, as if [...]

Vintage produce labels often feature amazing artwork and interesting fonts. On the sole basis of design, these advertisements represent some of the brightest and most interesting examples of product branding. Some of these labels were pasted onto 40-lb fruit crates, while others were created for canned goods (not that peas from a can were ever [...]