What with our long absence from the interweb, you may think we have been subsisting on water and dry crackers for the past two years. To the contrary, my friends. I've just been too busy to write - practicing law full-time while teaching on the side can do that to you. But given that my new career depends on my ability to put the proverbial pen to paper and produce words of insight, I am training myself to exercise my writing muscles daily ... even if the subject is tortes rather than torts.

Unfortunately for you, the reader, we actually enjoyed some mighty good chow during our hiatus, though I have neither the memory nor the time to fill you in on the details. But if there is one lesson that Carl and I learned during this time that we can share with [what remains of] our readership, it is this: We heart Marigold Kitchen. We heart Michael, we heart Brett, we heart all the staff. We heart the food, the ambiance, and the bathroom. We heart them with all our heart. The folks there are miracle workers and deserve some Nobel Prize for improving the world through food. Which is why we're so excited about the public announcement of Zahav, the new restaurant Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook are opening sometime early next spring. The theme? Israeli street food. The website-in-progress? So charming, I want to give it a hug. You can follow Zahav's progress at the Philadelphia Inquirer link above, courtesy of Michael Klein.