The author should revisit Japan during the annual Bon

A Taste for Travel Your April Food Issue is now my bible and guidebook. In one all-encompassing magazine, you covered many of the places my wife and I are visiting this year: London, Marseilles, Singapore, Spain, Istanbul. It’s as though you published it just for us. —Peter Volny, Fountain Hills, Ariz. Kitchen Confidential As an aspiring chef, I deeply connected with “The Cookbook Collectors” [April], about Matt Lee and Ted Lee’s fondness for diving into a cookbook. I remember reaching to the top of my mom’s bookshelf and reading every one I could access, from Wolfgang Puck’s Live, Love, Eat! to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. With the aid of a cookbook, I too was able to travel the world in my own kitchen. This article reminded me of that. —Patrick Glenn, North Caldwell, N.J. Season’s Eatings Aleksandra Crapanzano’s “Summer Is Served” [April] stirred up so many wonderful memories of food and place: soft breezes with burgers on the grill at our summer cottage, and stark winter nights with plates of osso buco distributed slopeside at my favorite mountain resort. Thank you for transporting me. —Peter Uhl, via e-mail Big in Japan I read “Bone Soup: A Love Story” [April] with gusto but was puzzled by the writer’s claim that “Japan doesn’t have a culture of street food.” This is simply untrue. Among the delights of more than a dozen years of living in and traveling throughout Japan, I found the street food—especially ramen and oden handcarts—to be as satisfying as any sushi bar or formal washoku restaurant.

The author should revisit Japan during the annual Bon festival in August and focus on local matsuri (festivals), where street food takes on a very different significance for the Japanese. —Joe Hlebica, Red Bluff, Calif. structural rivets Reader’s Find My wife and I often seek out movie locations while we travel, so when I read about the French village of St.-Jeannet in “Retu to Provence” [April], I recalled the property in town used as John Robie’s house in Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. It can be seen from the Frogs’ House, the base for our explorations. The owners give tours to nearby wineries—be sure to taste the local Bellet. It’s not made anywhere else. —Richard Oldham, Orlando, Fla. Chatter Readers sound off about “100 Places to Eat Like a Local” [April]. What’s the best gelateria in Rome? Why no mention of sushi in Taipei? You had plenty to say about where to eat now: Windy City residents were especially vocal. “How does Chicago goose-egg the entire article when there’s so much great food?” questioned one reader. “The Chicago Dog is the best representation of the All-American hot dog.” From another local: “O’Connell’s Pub, in St. Louis, is laughable compared to our burger joints.” T+L’s breakfast picks, however, gaered praise. Others agreed that New Orleans, Nashville, and Austin, Texas, deserved the accolades, though one felt that fried chicken is better had in Memphis. Food for thought? Another reader tweeted it best: “About to head out. Maybe an impromptu food tour?”