LOCAL BOUNTY.(takeout food in San Francisco, California and Manhattan, New York)

Although a grandparent who arrives on the scene after the birth of a child is traditionally pictured cooking dinner for sleep-deprived parents or stuffing the freezer with casseroles, I can tell you that these days it's mostly takeout. That is not simply the narrow view of a male grandparent who, admittedly, would have little to offer by way of home-cooked meals once he'd served the second dinner of meat loaf, accompanied by a salad of prewashed mesclun and a reminder of his mother's belief that meat loaf is one of the many dishes that always taste better the next day. As I was about to leave for San Francisco last spring to inspect my daughter Abigail's first baby, my ...