[Sca-cooks] What the tourist cannot know

[Lilinah]

Well, i can make a plug for a local TV show here in the San Francisco 
Bay area, aired on our PBS channel.

It's called "Check, Please! Bay Area". On each show three "ordinary" 
locals pick their favorite restaurant, then all three people visit 
all three restaurants, and have a discussion about them. Sometimes 
everyone is happy with all three, sometimes people can have very 
strong opinions or particular expectations.

Most of the restaurants are in the $15 to $30 per meal range ($30 is 
moderate for a nice restaurant). Some are extraordinarily expensive - 
so either for the well-heeled or the confirmed foodie. A few are not 
cheap but are memorable and unusual experiences, like the restaurant 
that's out in the Bay on a boat.

Apparently it's a spin-off of a show that originated in Chicago, on 
the Chicago area PBS station. And there's also a spin-off show for 
South Florida.

For the San Francisco Bay area show:
http://www.kqed.org/checkplease
and
http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=14084
(not quite the same pages)
Show segments are viewable on-line.

Although most restaurants are in San Francisco, the others are 
located all around the Bay, sometimes even a bit of a drive north. 
Many are neighborhood restaurants, and probably don't show up in 
guide books, although many do turn up in Zagat guides.

Zagat publishes restaurant guides for a few specific US cities - here 
it's the whole Bay area, but listed on their site under "San 
Francisco" - based on recommendations by locals, so they're useful 
for anyone spending a few days in certain major US cities.
http://www.zagat.com
I gather they also have hotel guides, too, although I've never seen one.

Someone sometimes called Urtatim
-- 
The system works because we're not all nuts on the same day.