Audio By Carbonatix
The process of choosing which restaurants to review is a perennial subject of inquiry.
How do you decided where to go? Does someone assign it to you?
Actually, I pick the places, although I’m always open to suggestions (especially since I spend so much time picking people’s brains about where they’ve been lately). Over the years, I’ve gotten good recommendations from readers, coworkers, my editor/good friend/brainstorming whiz Amy Silverman, and total strangers who just love to chat about food.
It’s tricky to cover the waterfront in such a large city, but my general approach is just to mix things up — cheap hole-in-the-wall joints, fancy new spots that are getting buzz, different kinds of ethnic cuisines, and different neighborhoods.
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My intuition and my appetite play equal parts in determining where to go next. Ultimately, I try to imagine what restaurants my friends would be interested in reading about — not just my food-obsessed pals, who are up on cutting-edge cuisine and the local restaurant scene, but my friends who simply want to know which places are worth their time and money.
I like to ask people, “Been anywhere good lately? Or been anywhere really bad?” That always gets interesting responses.
Got a question — or a suggestion — for me? Email me at michele dot laudig at newtimes dot com.
