I love traveling overseas, but I also love returning home -- especially to restaurants where I can understand the menu.

For instance, yesterday GeezBob and I had lunch at Cole's French Dip restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Cole's competes with Phillipe's over which restaurant truly invented the French Dip sandwich one hundred years ago.

Cole's got really run down and closed a couple of years ago. But as part of the rejuvenation of downtown Los Angeles it re-opened last December all scrubbed clean with updated food and updated prices to match.

It's nice enough (and the French Dip sandwich is good) but I have to admit to being partial to the authenticity of Phillipe's.