Deborama’s Kitchen — Summer into autumn as the plague stays on

As autumn crept in, I started roasting squashes in my Cuisinart toaster oven. Salad has previously roasted honeynut squash, blueberries, pomegranate, pepitas, vinaigrette. Sausages are Beyond Breakfast.

This post is a catch-up and a mixed bag.

In June, the publisher of Southside Pride (my side hustle) approved reviving the restaurant review column I wrote before the pandemic, called “The Dish.” I was still struggling with the insane heat in my apartment so I welcomed an excuse to go hang out in restaurants. But very few were open even then apart from patio dining, which is not my bag.

I changed the format of the restaurant column. Before the pandemic, it was a standard review, in most cases, of just a single restaurant. Sometimes I did two or three united by a theme, like leveraging my 13 years living as a “foodie” in England to compare the British menus of several popular pubs, with points for authenticity as well as flavor, etc.

If you’re a constant reader of mine, you’ll know that I love to go on tangents. The new format allows liberally for that. I do a quick news bit about the local food scene, including grocers, farmers markets, delis, breweries, and even food shelves and other food distro programs along with the usual restaurants and cafes. In this part, I cover openings and closings, labor issues including union drives and strikes, famous chef news, food trends, and whatever else looks interesting. The middle third of the piece is a longer exposition on something food-related…