Hungry Travelers - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Two Lustau twists on sips for Father’s Day

Posted on June 9, 2025June 9, 2025 by Pat and David

Spain celebrates Father's Day as the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, which is the kickoff of spring. Here in North America, Father's Day marks the transition into summer. We've chosen two stupendous wines from the Andalucían sherry producer, Lustau, for diametrically opposite approaches to sipping on a summer evening. It really comes down to whether your dad is a Manhattan or a Martini drinker. Either goes well with a Spanish snack plate of marcona almonds, potato chips, and slices of Manchego cheese. How sweet it is On the sweet side, we've picked the often overlooked cream sherry category. At Lustau, that's East India Solera Sherry — a style designed to mimic historic sweet sherries aged at sea in casks that shuttled from Spain to...Read More

Handheld wonders of National Hamburger Day

Posted on May 27, 2025May 27, 2025 by Pat and David

The food and restaurant industries goes a little wild with so-called ‶national day″ designation for most foodstuffs, from pickles to pancakes to peanuts to vanilla pudding. (That's November 14, March 4, September 13, and May 22, if you're keeping track.) But if ever an edible deserved a proper celebration, it's the hamburger. Its day is May 28. We've always found that (apart from fast food chains) you can get a good hamburger almost anywhere in the USA, from downtown diners in Manhattan NYC to saloons and tap houses of Manhattan, Kansas. We're particularly taken with some of the regional specialties, including Oklahoma's own onion burger (See here). New Mexico has the great green chile cheeseburger, whether at a rustic lodge (see here or a swank...Read More

Saffron, Spain’s gastronomic gold, shines at La Melguiza

Posted on May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 by Pat and David

Ask Spaniards where the world's best saffron comes from and they'll proudly tell you Spain. Ask David Saenz Condado and he'll tell you why. Saenz is the proprietor of a smart little Madrid boutique called La Melguiza (c/de Santiago, 12; +34 91-547-9323, lamelguiza.es). Just a block and a half from the Mercado San Miguel off Plaza Mayor, the shop promises ‶tesoros de azafrán.″ It delivers those treasures in spades with containers of saffron as well as saffron honey, saffron chocolate, saffron hard candies, and saffron body products. (The shop also offers sweet, smoked, and hot Spanish paprikas.) For the uninitiated, saffron is the world's most expensive spice. It consists of the dried stigmas of the fall-blooming flower of crocus sativa. Fortunately, only a few threads...Read More

Walk the Camino? Piece of cake!

Posted on April 17, 2025April 17, 2025 by Pat and David

We first tasted a tarta de Santiago at a little restaurant in Santiago de Compostela. We were seated outdoors at a small sunny table enjoying the midday menu del día. The food was homey but good: a Galician tuna empanada and simple roast chicken. Even better, we could watch a steady stream of pilgrims leave the Pilgrim's Office where they certified the conclusion of their journey and headed to the cathedral (at right) that holds the purported remains of the apostle St. James. Their sense of joy, relief (and maybe even disbelief) was palpable. When it came time for dessert, we felt there was really only one right choice. We bypassed the flan option in favor of the city's signature tarta de Santiago. From the...Read More

Dublin coddle warms up St. Patrick’s day

Posted on March 1, 2025February 21, 2025 by Pat and David

We've eaten a lot of good meals in Dublin, but we've never had the dish called ‶Dublin Coddle.″ Since we won't be at home — or in Ireland — on St. Patrick's Day, we decided to mark the holiday a little early. We were looking for a homey, comforting dish and figured, what could be better than to be coddled? Dubin coddle seemed like the kind of dish that Pat (always called Patricia by her mother) would have grown up eating if her Irish grandmother had lived long enough to teach Pat's mother and two aunts how to cook. Lacking a family recipe, we consulted the websites of Irish chefs Donal Skehan (donalskehan.com) and Billy Parisi (billyparisi.com). We ended up adapting our own version using...Read More

Magic and nanotech make stunning Irish whiskey

Posted on February 4, 2025February 5, 2025 by Pat and David

Not that many years ago, Irish whiskey was an endangered species. As recently as the 1980s, Ireland was down to just two distillers. The marketing power behind Jameson's, however, sparked new interest and rescued a nearly moribund market. Now Irish whiskey is enjoying a renaissance. Of the more than 40 new Irish distilleries, one of the most exciting is Boann (boanndistillery.ie), named for the goddess of the River Boyne. The firm burst on the scene by winning best ‶new make″ (unaged clear liquor from its pot stills) at the 2021 World Whiskey Awards. After three years in barrels, that same ‶new make″ debuted last summer as Boann Single Pot Still Irish Whiskeys. We say ‶whiskeys″ because they are a trio, each aged in a different...Read More

Playoff pizza with healthy options

Posted on January 24, 2025January 24, 2025 by Pat and David

Improbable as it might be given our personal histories with organized sports, ours is a football household. Throughout the fall and into winter, we watch a lot of games. We are particularly fond of those that are broadcast during the early dinner hour. We call them the ‶pizza games″ because we often watch while eating a homemade pizza and drinking wine. (The NFL beer advertisers would be appalled, but we don't care. We mute their commercials anyway.) This couch-potato indulgence isn't always the healthiest. We might toss pepperoni or some other sausage on top, or use a tomato sauce filled with crumbled bacon. Full-fat fresh mozzarella is sometimes in the mix.We might even go for an extreme like a walnut-based white sauce topped with fig...Read More

Pining away for spicy autumn soup with piñons

Posted on December 13, 2024December 13, 2024 by Pat and David

Driving up a remote single lane road north of Taos, headed to the D.H. Lawrence Ranch, we had to weave around cars and pickup trucks parked on the roadside every 50 yards or so. We saw people of all ages crouched on the ground, picking away at the dirt or picking over something on blankets they'd spread under the bristly branches of roadside pine trees. It finally dawned on us that they were collecting piñons, aka pine nuts. Piñons are one of the great delicacies of New Mexico, and one of the region's most ancient foods. The trees grow wild and the nuts are apparently free for the taking on public land — including the roadside rights of way. Once we started paying attention, we...Read More

Pour a spicy Spanish twist with Thanksgiving dinner

Posted on November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 by Pat and David

We know everyone is suggesting that you pour a Pinot Noir from Oregon with the festive November meal. It's like the new article of faith that turkey and dressing go best with a soft red. Maybe we're traditionalists, but — barring a smoke pit — turkey is a subtle fowl, and fowl (unless we're talking wild duck) generally pairs best with a white wine. But in keeping with the revisionist thinking, we're on board with a spicy, assertive white. Specifically, we're recommending the 2023 Lagar de Cervera Albariño. When we think of spicy whites, three grapes come to mind: Gewürztraminer, Muscat, and Albariño. We've tried all three with autumn dishes, and while we like Muscat with apple and pumpkin pies, it's often a toss-up between...Read More

Pretty in purple at Los Poblanos

Posted on November 1, 2024October 22, 2024 by Pat and David

In an uncharacteristic twist for us, we were drawn to Los Poblanos initially by the architecture rather than the food. We had known the property on the west side of Albuquerque primarily for its lavender products. But the 25 acres of lavender fields are only part of an historic Rio Grande Valley farm. It's actually quite an operation. A boutique hotel and restaurant occupy the ranch house. A farm store with a dizzying array of lavender products fills former dairy barns. Lovely gardens circle the estate. There's also a special event space, La Quinta, in the former cultural center designed in the 1930s by architect John Gaw Meem. At the same time, Meem renovated the ranch house to bring a uniform style to Los Poblanos...Read More