Susan has had a parallel career as a columnist and feature writer. While she is primarily focused on food and wine writing, she has covered many other topics during her journalism career. To see more, visit her blog. Link 

…from newspaper feature on adult orthodontia

I’ll never forget the first time I saw my new braces in place. There was my most important facial feature – a gaping trench surrounded by barbed wire.  All I needed was a little mustard gas and I could have fought World War I in my mouth.

….from magazine cover story on Sonoma Coast wine region

This is the Land of a Thousand Microclimates – a narrow band of rugged hills stretching north and south of the Russian River where it meets the sea at Jenner. Forget the usual rolling carpet of grapevines as far as the eye can see. In this most unlikely of wine regions, you’ll find no picnic supply stores, no gourmet restaurants, no tourist maps to the tasting rooms or even any tourists, for that matter.  And it’s darn hard to locate any vineyards because they’re squirreled away in little parcels on 1,000-foot ridges, guarded by the third-growth tan oaks, Douglas fir and other trees that mutely testify to massive clear-cutting of the original-growth coastal forests that began well over a century ago.

In this sparsely populated region, gliding hawks throw moving shadows across the young vines and perhaps the most mind-boggling feature of this wine area is the Pacific – clearly visible from many vineyards, crashing against the rocky coast below.  In a miraculous intersection of meteorology and geography, while beach goers are shivering inside their jackets at misty Jenner, California’s coastal summer fog is lapping gently below the hilltop vineyards, which stand in just enough glorious sunlight to grow cool-climate grapes.

…from magazine feature on professional wrestlers and their groupies

The bird tattooed on Lord Jonathan Boyd’s burly arm seems to flutter as he squeezes his opponent’s head in a shaky hammerlock. The crowd screams curses at Boyd, which just intensifies his efforts. He works on the head like a stubborn pimple.

More audience screams erupt as Boyd’s opponent finally pulls free and turns on Boyd with a well-placed kick that misses Boyd’s head by eight inches yet sends him staggering across the ring, clutching his cranium. Always up for a good act, the crowd goes wild with delight.

….from magazine cover story on chocolate

I’ve met just one person in my life who doesn’t like chocolate – and I still don’t entirely believe her. The stuff of rewards, presents, romance, bribes, addictions and dreams, chocolate might just be the world’s favorite edible substance. There’s something about the mysteriously dark concoction made from equatorial beans – at once gleaming, bitter, unctuous, tropical – that has put chocolate at the pinnacle of the dessert kingdom. And it’s not just the fact that it’s claimed to mimic the physiological and psychological sensations one gets when falling in love (more on that later).

…from magazine cover story on Baby Boomers and aging

The many Northern California residents who were dancing to the lyrics of “Born to be Wild” in their youth might well be humming “Who knows where the time goes?” now that they’re firmly planted in middle age. As part of a renowned population bulge that currently numbers 78 million people nationwide, boomers are at the helm virtually everywhere: in business, politics, art, you name it. Perhaps the old gray mare ain’t what she used to be, but boomers in midlife are still redefining society, just like they always have.

….from magazine feature on Club Med

Imagine yourself sailing, scuba diving and playing tennis in about four square inches of micro-bikini to the strains of rock music under the broiling Mexican (or Caribbean, or South Pacific, or Mediterranean) sun, with a gorgeous French male or female by your side (sexual preference optional).

Sound like heaven? Though moralists would say it sounds more like the other direction, you don’t have to go that far to enjoy the ultimate in sybaritic vacations at one of the 79 worldwide Club Méditerranées scattered like a stripper’s discards from Africa’s Ivory Coast to the turquoise waters of Bora Bora.

…from magazine feature on Japanese small-plates pubs

American bar food is often so grim that it’s more pleasant just to get blotto.  Limp pretzels, stale peanuts and a dusty bowl of mysterious “snack mix” that might date from the Clinton administration — avoiding such options is simple self preservation.  Such an edible vacuum in our drinking culture has helped fuel the popularity of imported pub cuisine traditions.  The wonderful tapas concept from Spain has flooded the South Bay in recent years, while the mezzes of the Mediterranean region are another tasty way to separate local imbibers from a potential hangover. However, the most recent non-native small-plates bar grub is so delicious that many fans are seeking it out, drinks optional. That would be the Japanese pubs, called izakayas, popping up over the region.

…from newspaper feature on foraging


Some people are getting so close to nature that they can taste it. Literally.  Instead of disposing of the dandelions in their yards, they’re sautéing them with a little garlic. They’re rejecting plastic-wrapped supermarket fish and catching their own in Northern California’s teeming waters. And hikes into the woods are turning up a lot more than pretty views.

…from a few restaurant reviews

The sleeping bags, burnt weenies, messy s’mores, insect repellent and off-key versions of “Take Me Home Country Roads” are fortunately in short supply at Camper in Menlo Park. Considered one of the hottest debuts of 2018, this sleek new spot was intended as a hybrid restaurant fusing fine-dining cuisine with a casual ambience. Presumably, that’s what inspired the odd name, which left out the adjective “happy” and refers to the hoped-for response of guests. So far, definitely so good.

Menlo Park’s Sand Hill Road is ground zero for venture capitalists so certain standards apply if you move into the neighborhood.  When the super-posh Rosewood Hotel chain built a luxurious resort and spa a few years ago on what used to be open grassland just over the crest of this famous road, the resort’s restaurant needed to levitate into the heady territory inhabited by those whose second car is a Lamborghini.

Therefore, Madera restaurant is about understated elegance — no gaudy Trump-style decor here — and unlimited wallets. Mere hotel food won’t do for those who have probably dined at the most ritzy establishments in the world.

Damning a serious restaurant as “too expensive” is as common as breadsticks at Olive Garden — whose prices seem to be what such self-appointed critics somehow expect for cutting-edge cuisine. However, savvier diners understand that meals at such exalted food temples with their precious ingredients and squads of culinary school grads aren’t about full tummies but rather delivering a unique experience, which doesn’t come cheap.  The South Bay has recently acquired one of these rarified dining spots, modeled on Napa Valley’s three-star French Laundry, no less.

Protégé in South Palo Alto opened last March and does an excellent job dialing down the $325-per-person French Laundry experience to a more approachable level.

Surveys say the mi favorita kind of restaurant for Americans is unanimously Mexican but it’s ironic that many people still haven had much real Mexican food. Big-as-your-head burritos, cheddar-cheese-drenched crispy tacos and fajitas were all invented north of the border.  But this isn’t to say fresh, regional Mexican dishes don’t have fans for those who can find them. Consider the bang-up success story of Zona Rosa.