I left Buffalo 30 years ago. Since then, I've lived all around the world. From Moscow, to Seoul, to Honolulu, to Paris, to Barcelona, to New York City, to Miami - the list is longer than I care to admit. After so many residences I've come to categorize them by the restaurants they offer. I keep a list of the finest food I've ever eaten; I honestly dream at night of the top five restaurants on that list. I return to those top five cities sometimes just to eat: Barcelona, Paris, New York City, Tokyo and Moscow .
When I moved home to Buffalo last year I thought I'd put that list to rest. You know: carve it in stone, never add to it again. Not a bad thing, when you think about it, since you can't have everything all the time and I was excited to be home again. Besides, I really missed the Buffalo staples you can't get correctly made anywhere in the world: wings, beef on weck and Texas hots. Even kielbasa is better in Buffalo than Krakow.