You know how sometimes we point out when an out-of-town publication takes an outside-in look at our fair city? We've pointed to such pieces in the L.A. Times and the Economist even recently.

Well, our lovely sister site, LAist, did much the same, criticizing San Francisco Chronicle Food Maestro Michael Bauer's recent take on the L.A. Food scene.

You can respectively call it nepotism and homerism, but we thought both were good articles!

We saw Bauer's piece as a San Franciscan on a trip to another city writing about stuff -- nuthin' wrong with that!

We also truly appreciate the vigor with which LAist slammed him, though, because we, too, have had our own fair city's cuisine dissed by foodies from other cities (hate to be a broken record, but, yeah, we're linking up that San Diego thing again). You've gotta defend your turf, after all. Plus it was funny. -ists rule.

Today, on his blog, Mr. Bauer has responded to the apparent flap he caused, basically saying that the critics took most of his commentary out of context, that he quite enjoyed his experience, and he ". . . loved much of the food" and is "already anticipating a return visit this fall."

Ahh, does anyone remember the good old days when the SF vs. LA arguments were mostly about baseball and state water rights? All this flap about food just means we've become rather civilized. (And it's making us hungry).

UPDATE: Those classy folks down in L.A. have posted a follow-up to Bauer's follow-up. Whew, this is like a tennis match.

through the lens of his San Francisco sensibilities