In our effort to downsize but continue to have fun, we scrambled
together all our frequent flyer miles and managed to put together two
return flights to London and Italy. Then, by making a small investment
on a home exchange site, we found a young woman in Prato (twenty
minutes from Florence), willing to do a non-simultaneous exchange with
our desert house in Joshua Tree.
Our first stop was London, where a kind friend loaned us her
house. Although I grew up in London I have not lived there in over 30
years. The minute I walked off the plane, I was surprised by the
intense 80-degree heat, a byproduct of global warming, and something I
had never encountered in my childhood, where you were lucky if it
reached the mid 70’s in the summer. After struggling with the new
monetary denominations and a new subway system, I began to feel like a
stranger in my hometown,
Yet, one area that has vastly improved since I lived in London is the food. But like everything else, it is very expensive. Fortunately, another ex-Brit friend had recently visited London and her sage advice was that bargains could be had at posh restaurants if you went at lunch, rather than dinner. Following her recommendation, backed up by “Time out”– still the best magazine to tell you what is going on in London – I made reservations at Gauthier, a French restaurant in Soho.
The state line runs down the middle of Kansas City, one part in Kansas,
one in Missouri. And even though most of the famous barbecue joints
are in Missouri, because of the proximity, you can easily vote in
Kansas and eat barbecue for lunch in Missouri, or visa versa. A little
thing like the state line doesn’'t divide barbecue lovers. Here then,
is a quick run down of my favorite barbecue joints in two states and
one metropolitan area.
I remember a conversation with my good buddy and talented food writer, Monica Parcell, a few years back. The gist was the proliferation of food bloggers and the common themes. We basically bitched 
Recently I was fortunate to journey to Florence, a Renaissance jewel. I caught an Alitalia flight from Birmingham airport that is most convenient for short journeys between the UK and European continent. Flying via Milan, I found the seating aboard this Italian airline very comfortable and enjoyed being bussed to and from the plane. The seats are of grey leather and, although an airbus, quite roomy and spotless unlike so many other airlines I have flown on.
Thirty miles from San Francisco,