October 12th, 2011
The commercial kept calling out to us. A catchy tune and the promise of a round trip ticket to anywhere in Europe for under $500. None of us could resist and the plan was in motion. Andrea and I would fly from L.A. and land in New York for a layover where we’d meet Stacey at JFK. Actually, it might be tricky since my two friends hadn’t even met yet.
It was the dead of winter. Stacey called to let me know about this great coat she bought. She couldn’t wait for me to see it because she just knew I was gonna love it.
Andrea did some research and picked out a boutique hotel, within walking distance of the Spanish steps.
Speaking of walking, those two girls were planning on walking the whole city every day. They are both hardcore exercisers and felt that would be the best way to really see Rome. I tire easily, so that was so not going to be me. But, I would happily arrange to find some great restaurants. We all know what we’re good at. That’s my specialty.
When Andrea and I got off the plane to greet Stacey in the airport, she was hard to miss. Her big, poofy, fuzzy, brown coat made her look like a bear, albeit a bear the color of cat barf and with an extra small head. Yes, I was off to Rome with Fozzie Bear. I couldn’t help myself and burst out laughing the moment I saw her. All that build-up for well … it was indescribable. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Andrea Hackin, Caffarel, Eataly, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Gianduia 1865 candy, girlfriends, hotels in Italy that give out hazelnut candy freebies, Miette candy store in San Francisco, travel to Italy
Posted in Reviews | 11 Comments »
September 28th, 2011
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?
I woke with one of those hormonal migraines. Not a great start to the day. My oldest son, who was staying with me, was born 28 years ago to the day, May 8th. It had made a most wonderful Mother’s Day gift. And now he just announced he’s in a severe depression.
Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards, one blow from caving in?
I spent the next several hours in a dark room, preparing to go to my youngest son’s fourth audition for a singing competition reality show. My headache was getting worse by the hour and I’m secretly praying for the call from Barnaby letting me off the hook. A call in which he will say, oops, he got the time wrong and it’s done. He will be on this new show or he won’t be, and I can then rest comfortably. But no, that doesn’t happen. At around 4:00 p.m. I walk into my husband’s office at home and announce in a very quiet, suffering voice that I will be heading to the downtown venue. I feel for him since he needs to wake up for work at 4:00 a.m. and tell him he can pass on this one. He offers to drive me anyway. What a relief, I accept the generous offer. I’d have jumped at if I weren’t in such pain.
Miraculously, we make it to downtown Los Angeles in twenty minutes. Crossing my fingers, it looks like things might work out well. We turn onto the right street and suddenly what come into focus are long lines with thousands of human beings. It looks like chaos, though I’m sure there is an order to it all. Dread sets in. I hate crowds. I text Barnaby a frantic message. There is a spooky line of regular people. He will know what I mean. I get a text back from Vice, the other member of his group. He says to tell a security guard that I’m a family member of Wild Thingz. I do, and it helps us get in much faster. We are led into a huge arena and herded here and there like cattle until we find our upper level seats. The rest of the place fills with all the “normal” people who waited for hours in line. They start to chant, Simon! Simon! And suddenly it sinks in what is about to play out. I do not watch reality shows very often, if at all. I have never watched the one this Simon was on before. I don’t, however, live under a rock, so I have landed on the channel a few times, long enough to see him abuse random performers. At this point, I’m terrified of what is about to happen to my kid. I look to my husband with sheer panic. “Is this one of those shows where the guy is REALLY mean?” I want him to answer, no, honey. He doesn’t. He tells me the truth as I start to curl into a fetal position. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Church and State restaurant, Disney shows, Fat Burger, Firework by Katy Perry, fredde duke, Katy Perry song, michael barrie, Mother's Day, Shake it Up
Posted in Reviews | 13 Comments »
September 17th, 2011
I heard from Ruth, my erstwhile boyfriend’s mother (and my surrogate mother and neighbor), that she was expecting a young guest. Rumor had it the girl was my age. I got the feeling Ruth wanted me available, though she never framed it that way. But she knew how friendly I was and probably assumed I’d show the “British” girl around.
I was an out-of-work actress with no life whatsoever. The day she arrived, I threw on my new 70’s roller-boogie-disco skates and headed down to introduce myself. “Hi,” I said in my overly friendly, Welcome-to California, not-really laid-back at all kind of way. Hard to ignore my neon blue and yellow roller skates in place of proper shoes, the different colored bobby socks, clashing with all the other colors adorning me, namely the electric-blue-shimmer-spandex pants. Think Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu. Lisa, the girl from London, must have thought central casting had put out a call for a quintessential Hollywood actress type. Welcome to L.A. Let me show you around!!!!
And I did. We missed nothing. Went with my dad to Nate n’ Al’s for deli and wonderful old Jews coming onto her. Day trips to Malibu beach. She looked like me, or rather had very similar taste. We bonded over many like-minded things. Lisa had fantastic style, gorgeous with her naturally dark, curly, perfectly ringleted hair. I’ve paid fortunes for perms that failed to make me look like Lisa. The most beautiful blue eyes. A Jacqueline Bisset type. Lisa wore sleeveless shirts sporting some serious-looking, mysterious scars at her shoulder down to her elbow. And I was so impressed with how she rocked those scars, never covering them and comfortably exposing them. Made them sexy, like maybe I wanted some groovy scars like that. The story was she got them in a gnarly car accident. Pins, rods and all.
[audio:http://www.channelingthefoodcriticinme.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Melanie-Brand-New-Key.mp3|titles=Melanie – Brand New Key]
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Tags: Ayn Robbins, Clement/La Frenais, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, great italian food in new york, Jackie Collins husband Oscar, John Cleese, Lisa Zeff, London, Maurice Duke, nate n' als, Pepolino restaurant new york, Peter Cook, roller skates in 70's, Stocks House, Tramp club, Victor Lownes
Posted in Reviews | 11 Comments »
September 5th, 2011
I’m a looky-loo. I real estate dream shop online, a lot!!!! Late one night when my husband was safely sleeping, I forwarded a photo of a house on a lake I had found and the subject said, “Lets buy this instead of doing an addition to our house. It’s MUCH cheaper.”
So, instead of doing construction , we bought a house online in Quebec. Doesn’t everyone in L.A. do that? Come on. You know you do.
Well, we did.
So, there we were that first week, enjoying our pristine lake when we got our first and possibly only visitor. It was our neighbor, the retired judge who lives up the road on our quiet lake.
He was there to inform us about ecology and keeping the lake from getting that nasty blue algae that was killing a lot of the other lakes. First we heard of that. Perhaps we didn’t research enough. Pollution was the culprit. He told us about phosphates and to use phosphate- free soaps and detergents. We were in. He told us to let our grass grow wild right at the lake’s edge. We were reluctantly in. The former owners had loud parties and cut the grass long after they were told it wasn’t safe for our lake. We would be the good citizens and stay on top of all that we could. Have good lake etiquette. And we did. And we do. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: ask Anthony Bourdain, Au Petit Poucet, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, Gibby's, In Canada, L'Eau Bouche, Lake House, Le Chrysantheme Chinese Restaurant, Lezvos Greek Restaurant, Looky-Loo, mike barrie, Petite Poucette, restaurants, Restaurants in Quebec, st-sauveur, the Laurentians, they eat beaver, Tonkinoise, Val David
Posted in Reviews | 16 Comments »
August 27th, 2011
I sat next to her in the park that day.
She wore a backless Indian print shirt. Might have been a scarf wrapped at the neck then tied low in the back. She reached into her one-of-a-kind (had to get one myself) hippie bag, pulled out her special pot of lip-gloss and patted her very full Bridget Bardot lips, making them appear even fuller. Then she held the lip-gloss out to me and offered a dab. I, too, wore Indian print clothes. I lived in my hippie-chic garb. I dipped my finger in. From that first hit, I was hooked. On my new best friend Libbie and her special pot.
Her opening line was, “I noticed you all last year.” I mirrored the line back. I had noticed her. Tall, unusual model-looks. I admired her great sense of style. This was the start of a mutual admiration society. Propinquity was the name of the store where she purchased the lip-gloss, and from then on the word defined us. The store became a regular stop for me. An incense, peppermints & psychedelic-vibe kind of place, where all the hippies shopped. I wore that lip-gloss for an eternity.
For years to come, we shared clothes, food, homes, friends, even parents.
We could both be a little princess-y, desiring things we couldn’t really afford. Good thing we were both so good at sharing and loved all the same restaurants. That way, there was never an argument where to eat. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Andy Lane, BFF's, Cathy Mogull photo's, chicken cobb salad, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, girlfriends forever, Incense and Peppermints, Kiehl's pharmacy lip-gloss, Le Pain Quotidien restaurant, Libbie Aroff, Libbie Lane, photography by Cathy Mogull, Propinquity store in the late 60's, Summer of Love
Posted in Uncategorized | 23 Comments »
August 11th, 2011
I am writing this from the Roosevelt, a landmark hotel in New Orleans. I am waiting to be whisked off in a private, air-conditioned bus to my daughter Augie’s best friend’s wedding.
Cody is one lucky daughter. She has a lot of moms, a lot of step-moms, a lot of love.
We met Cody her first week at our grammar school. Cody’s mom, Dell, had put in long days at the school handpicking Augie to be Cody’s new friend. Augie is extra friendly and warm. So is Cody. It was a perfect match. I won’t even say how adorable they were. Cause, you know, it goes without saying.
Dell had just moved with Cody from Pasadena. That first week, she knocked on my door to introduce herself. We stood there trying to get acquainted. She disarmed me by announcing she was a lesbian. And I don’t shock easily. In fact, I’m usually the one doing the shocking. But this threw me — probably because the Palisades is so white and straight. Big American flags adorn many houses. You get the picture. So I was a touch taken aback. I stammered awkwardly, something like, “Oh my, God, I think I should be a lesbian too…because ….you know…. you guys, I mean gals, stay with your partners…. and my husband left me for another woman when I was pregnant with my baby….” I had a fantasy that lesbians were like birds, mating for life. Cody’s mother set me straight (no pun intended). Dell said lesbians are notorious players, and that her relationship with Cody’s other mother had recently broken up. She was in a new one now, and this is why she moved to our area. Whew, good that this conversation was out of the way. All of it taking place right there at my front door in about five minutes. Until now, my family had been targeted as the neighborhood freaks. Jews, single mother, who knows or cares why. So, Welcome to the hood, lesbians!!! Thank fucking God!!!!! Let’s be in this together. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: augie duke, beignets, Bourbon House Restaurant, Cafe Du Monde, Cody Clark, Commanders Palace, Coquette Wine bar new orleans, Court of Two Sisters, Dell Pearce, great lesbian mothers, Josh Mannino, Mothers, new orleans, restaurants new orleans, shrimp remoulade, Tena Clark
Posted in Reviews | 18 Comments »
July 31st, 2011
I was born with one lung not working and was promptly whisked away to an incubator. Age two, I got scarlet fever and my parents worried I might not survive. Age three I was fully cross-eyed. But I did not (as yet) have an inferiority complex. I was very happy-go-lucky. Chatting it up all the time with my imaginary friends and all.
Oprah tells this story about herself, a lot. A random woman walked up to her in church one day and commented on her bee-stung lips. She had paid her a compliment on her beauty that was long overdue. Until then, no one had noticed any beauty in Oprah and it meant so much to her that she found the woman, this white woman, many years later and thanked her.
During my cross-eyed period, when I was old enough to be cognizant, people, random people on the street, would turn their heads to look at my brother Alan. He was adorable. They might even comment on his fetching looks, then look back at me and not say a word. Not a word. It would kill me; my fragile little ego, so wounded by a random stranger. And I would wait until I got home to cry from the sting of not being noticed as beautiful.
My mother would look me in the eyes, those crossed eyes with their hideous glasses, and say, “By the time you are 16,” yes, she nailed the number down — not 15, not 18, but at 16 “you will be prettier than them all.” Uh huh. I thought that the crystal ball she was looking into was on crack (and there wasn’t even crack yet). Or perhaps, it was gazing into the far distant future and seeing my drop-dead, gorgeous daughter Augie.
my gorgeous daughter Augie!!!!
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Tags: Beverly High, chocolate bar/cookie, Clairol commercial 70's, coconut, debi fries, Debi Genson, Erik Gibson, Eveylyn Duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Home Economics class, Ryan O'Neal
Posted in Recipes | 20 Comments »
July 23rd, 2011
“We’re from Beverly, we couldn’t be prouder… if you can’t hear us now, we’ll yell a little louder!” Louder. “We’re from Beverly, we couldn’t be prouder… if you can’t hear us now we’ll yell a little louder!!!” Even louder. “WE’RE FROM BEVERLY, WE COULDN’T BE PROUDER, IF YOU CAN’T HEAR US NOW, WE’LL YELL A LITTLE LOUDER.!!!!!!!“
That was our cheer when I was in the drill team at away games. We were letting them know we were there!
Today, we girls from Beverly who are chummy on Facebook, met for lunch at the new Italian restaurant, Villetta, in Chez Mimi’s spot on 26th in Brentwood. We chose it because I really wanted to try it and because of it’s proximity to Janet’s office, a few doors away.
From the moment we sat down in that oh so magical patio area, we were treated like VIP’S. I almost said we were treated like the princesses we are, but I would only be speaking for myself. They “had me” at the great service, which was really over-the-top spectacular. If the food turned out to be as good, it could be the start of a serious relationship. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Antonio De Cecco, artichoke salad, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, janet graham, Jidori chicken, Lindy Dekoven, New Italian restaurant in Brentwood, Villeta Restaurant Brentwood, Villetta Restaurant, women chefs
Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment »
July 15th, 2011
When I have a party, I try to invite everyone. I really do. And if my best friend has another best friend, I invite the other best friend. I include the world. If I happen to run in to you (random person reading this) a week before said party, I will invite you even if we’re not the best of friends. I even like it when people crash my parties or when someone calls me and says boldly “Do you mind? I hear you’re having a party and I’d really like to go.” What I LOVE about that is that the person who makes that kind of call, does know me. They know, I’m so happy to include everyone.
I believe I got this from my mother who would say, “You have to invite the whole class, not just some.” Or my dad, who carried his entourage around with him, leaving no one out. Both my parents never let anyone’s feelings get hurt.
One day, in maybe the 5th or 6th grade, a girl named Debby had a party and it seemed like she invited just about everyone. Except me. And maybe the worst part was that she included my best friend Susie. It felt like a real slight. On that particular weekend of Debby’s party, I remember feeling very alone on Saturday night. Susie and I were pretty inseparable. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: being snubbed, Beverly Vista school, devils food cake with marshmallow frosting, Dorothy Lohn, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, kids parties, Nate n' Als deli, pink Marshmallow frosting, retro cake, slumber parties, Susie Lohn
Posted in Recipes | 7 Comments »
July 3rd, 2011
There is an edible experience I had as a child that remains unsurpassed. The year was 1963, I was ten. I still think about it and have tried many times to recreate it. I need to ask my brother if he remembers the moment as vividly as I do.
We were at our friends’ farm in the country, just outside of Paris. By day, I ran around chasing wild cats and at night, recited (for a very small audience) “Cinderella,” in French. Given as an assignment by my teacher at home, Monsieur Willmaker, I knew it by heart. Other than “Cinderella,” and announcing “Je m’appele Frederique,” I could not understand or speak a word of the language. I rocked the accent though, and I was extra proud of it, which is why I was the biggest show-off with my nightly act.
Right now, year 2011, travelling by train from Paris to St. Tropez, I realize I am mixing Spanish, English and the little French I know. Let’s call it Franglish. And now, I’m thinking, uh-oh, maybe my Spanglish has always been infused with the few French words I know. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: best croissants, bread and chocolate, Eddie Constantine, fredde duke, Gerard Mulot bakery, Maurice Duke, Paris Bakery, Susina Bakery, trains in france
Posted in Reviews | 7 Comments »
