I, personally, think there is a really danger of taking food too seriously. Food should be part of the bigger picture.

I'm certainly dismayed by what I'm seeing now. There's a lot of ugliness of a kind I've never seen in my lifetime, or heard in my lifetime. But, look, I'm a romantic. I'm hopeful.

Don't dunk your nigiri in the soy sauce. Don't mix your wasabi in the soy sauce. If the rice is good, complement your sushi chef on the rice.

The journey is part of the experience - an expression of the seriousness of one's intent. One doesn't take the A train to Mecca.

Naturally, I'm misanthropic. But the Negronis are helping considerably.

I think there's a tendency to over-jack and over-umami food these days.

Always was Morocco. And recently the country's leadership seems to have embraced it in all its ill-reputed glory. The days of predatory poets in search of literary inspiration and young flesh are probably over for good. Hippies can just as easily get their bong riffs in Portland or Peoria. But the good stuff, the real good stuff, the sounds and smells and the look of Tangier -- what you see and hear when you lean out the window and take it all in -- that's here to stay.