Golden Oldies

This article is fascinating to me, for a few reasons. I love the premise, retracing the steps of an old time foodie, Duncan Hines, who must have been quite an interesting person to have written "Adventures in Good Eating" dining guide in 1939. Clearly he and the author of the article are people I can identify with. Duncan found that traveling and documenting his food experiences was a worthwhile thing to do, even in the 1930's. I mean how can I NOT relate to that? Since it is my passion. The article is written by Allen Abel, about him following up on restaurants in Washington DC, from Duncans dining guide, 70 years after the book was published.

I stumbled into this article while I was trying to remember/find the name of the pizza shop I worked at in the 80's, in the Connecticut Connection at the Farragut North Metro stop food court, It was Valentinos ;) I was very surprised that it features a picture and a couple sentences about an old friend of mine, Phil Caruso, known to me as Daisy (that would need to be a different post...) I read the article before it clicked who Phil Caruso was, it was a funny moment for me.

The reminder about how divine Normandie Farm was before it was ripped down and turned into a McMansion townhouse community. The charming story of how Duncan Hines began his reviewing career and how and why his name is on the box of yellow cake mix on my shelf. He is my kind of guy. His writing style, content and his clear sensibility assure me of that, not to mention that cake mix.

How simple life would be if I could just write about the places I go and the food adventures I experience. But alas this is 2016 where my shared experiences are not relevant unless they are accompanied by magazine quality photos and a marketing team working to get me CLICKS. Generally I am a techy kind of girl and I love that I am alive in this era but this article takes me to a time when life was simpler and possibly more beautiful...

Please enjoy the Washingtonian article and I hope it inspires you, as it did me, to remember great places (and people) that are gone, a few that have survived and to contemplate how unoriginal we really are, in our high tech and superior day and age ;)

Washingtonian Article"Golden Oldies"

Photograph by Scott Suchman

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