L.A. Food Crazy is now BREAKING BREAD NEWS

It's been three years since I posted here. A lot has changed. Open Table, Yelp, Siri, and OK Google are full of ideas for where you should eat. FourSquare is still a thing. Or has it come and gone already? The world is melting. Donald Trump is being taken seriously.

There are a lot more food resources on the Interwebs than there were in 2012. You really don't need yet another self-appointed expert going on about the epicurean qualities of this or that chili cheese dog. That's what Yelp and a hundred other sites out there are for.

So sitting down today to relaunch my blog, I stared at it, and thought: "How boring and trivial. I have so much more to talk about than just food. I'm interested in politics, ethics, literature, film, TV, art, pop culture...If only there were a way to incorporate that stuff into a food blog."

Then it came to me: Food is about more than just ingredients, recipes and seasoning. Dining out is about more than value, preparation, and presentation. At its best a good meal is what we bond over with friends, loved ones, and colleagues while we talk about the news of the day and try to align it with our hopes and dreams for ourselves and for the world. As we order one or two more beers, glasses of wine, or cocktails, we talk ever more vociferously. We might argue. We might agree.

But at the end of the day, we have broken bread together. We've shared ideas and opinions, and perhaps even posited a course of action. We've reaffirmed that we're friends and fellow travelers on this careening orb.

So that's what I plan to focus on here.

I'll try to find interesting people to dine with, and I'll ply them for their views on whatever is making headlines, or perhaps inexplicably not making headlines. I'll still seek out and find new places and tip you off about my current favorite Mexican food truck, or dim sum place in the 626. But I'll also revisit places. Perhaps, with the new perspective offered by a different dining partner(s), or something new on the menu, there'll be a new insight or opinion.

If I dine alone (and I should do less of that!) I'll try to at least debate with myself  about the food, and discuss what drove me to eat out alone in the first place. If I'm dining with someone else, I'll discuss what we discussed: What we agreed on, what we disagreed on (be it the appetizer or US policy in the Middle East) and whether we were able to find room, even where we disagree, to open our minds and our mouths to new things.

Finally and most importantly, this is a conversation I want to have not just with myself and my dining companions, but with YOU. I hope you'll comment, complain, kibitz, whatever—just join the conversation, because we're all in this together.

If this sounds like something you might like, I hope you'll tell people about this blog via bookmark, share, follow, like, tweet, pin, tumbl—whatever it is you do to engage with the world. Sheet, you could even tell a friend about it over lunch!

Which reminds me...would you like to have lunch sometime? Dutch treat. ;-)

Look for my first "Breaking Bread" post on Thursday. Until then, good news and bon appétit!