Year: 2009

Tips for packing food and wine in a suitcase

Posted on by Pat and David
When we posted What to buy in an Italian grocery store and What to buy in a Spanish grocery store, we neglected to mention how to get those delicacies home. International airline security restrictions limiting liquids, gels, and pastes (including most soft foods) to 3 ounces in carry-on luggage means entrusting your goodies to the gorillas who slam around checked luggage. Leaving home, we try to fill our checked bags only halfway, taking up the extra space with bubble wrap and really large plastic bags. (A friend once suggested we have a bag fetish.) Hefty One-Zip 2 1/2 gallon bags are ideal. A few 1-gallon sliding zipper plastic bags are also handy. Small items like jars of anchovies, truffle oil, or pistachio butter from Sicily...Read More

Sonoma Christmas cookie

Posted on by Pat
I like California's Sonoma County because viticulture and winemaking haven't yet overwhelmed traditional farming. Almost everything seems to grow there, and one great place to sample the agricultural traditions is Kozlowski Farms (5566 Gravenstein Highway 116, Forestville, California, 707-887-1587), one of the oldest family farms in the county. The farm store is open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. When Carol Kozlowski's parents bought the farm nearly 60 years ago, they began growing apples and then branched out into raspberries. "We had an overabundance and began to make jam," she says. "So we put a sign on the side of the road and that launched our business." The family still grows apples and makes cider, but concentrates on developing new products and operating a farm stand stocked...Read More

What to buy in an Italian grocery store

Posted on by Pat and David
Since so many of the regional Italian cuisines are based on food that is fresh, fresh, fresh, we're limited in what we can bring back home. But there are some dry goods and conserves that turn out to be very useful in cooking Italian dishes. We've learned not to bother with colored pastas, which cook up to a gray mess anyway, because we can buy good imported dry pasta for about the same price we'd pay for it in Italy. Here's our Italian grocery list: Anchovies. Many Americans think they don't like anchovies because they have never tasted good ones used with the restraint characteristic of Italian recipes. We look for anchovies packed in glass jars so we can make sure they are firm and...Read More

Meeting the master of meat

Posted on by David
Bruno Bassetto of Treviso, Italy, knows meat. The 61-year-old butcher set a Guinness World Record in October by crafting a salamella—a kind of fresh pork sausage—more than 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) long. I had the good fortune to watch him trim a piece of round and make steak tartare in seconds with a pair of huge knives. But beyond his obvious showmanship, Bassetto is also a master of charcuterie. In addition to fresh meat, his butcher shop (via Mantiero 22, Treviso; 011-39-0422-231-945, www.brunobassettocarni.it) also carries fresh and cured sausages, which range from slender little pepperoni to a great expression of the local Veneto sopressa (a soft, cured sausage about 3 inches in diameter). In late fall and winter, he also makes a cooked pork sausage...Read More

What to buy in a Spanish grocery store

Posted on by Pat and David
We love visiting fresh markets when we travel. But except for dried herbs and spices, most of the goods won't make it through US Customs. Once we've snapped dozens of photos of mounds of vegetables and tables of glistening fish on ice, we head to a neighborhood grocery store (the kind where homemakers, not tourists, shop) to stock up on food essentials to bring home. Here’s our Spanish grocery list: Saffron Spaniards claim their saffron is the world’s best and price it accordingly. The larger the container, the better the deal. We usually purchase saffron in 20-gram boxes or larger. (A half gram is sufficient for a 15-inch paella.) Stored in an airtight container out of the light, it will keep up to seven years—or...Read More

Bringing food through US Customs

Posted on by Pat and David
Sometimes you can’t bring the taste of travel back home. We learned the hard way by trying to bring in a large block of mountain ham from Spain. Mind you, this was the choicest grade of jamón ibérico (from acorn-fattened black-footed pigs), and priced accordingly. The salesperson at the factory in Jabugo assured us that it would go right through U.S. Customs because it was vacuum-sealed. When we declared the ham, Customs promptly confiscated it as if we were smuggling uncle Guido’s homemade country sausage. You can argue the validity of the policy all you want, but Customs people do not make policy. They only enforce it. One of us was already tired of pungent Spanish ham anyway. To avoid disappointment, costly or not, it...Read More

Is it the beer—or the pour?

Posted on by David
[caption id="attachment_476" align="alignright" width="264" caption="The Bestowal"][/caption] I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I just learned that Avril Maxwell of New Zealand won the 2009 Stella Artois World Draught Master competition, which was held in New York on October 29. She beat representatives from 25 other countries in what might be the most harrowing bartenders' competition in the world. It's a promotion for Stella Artois that fixates on the brand's nine-step pouring ritual. If you want to practice at home, you'll need a pressurized keg with a proper tap. The steps go like this: 1. "The Purification." Clean and rinse the glass. 2. "The Sacrifice." Open and close the tap quickly to clear the line. 3. "Liquid Alchemy." Place the glass under (not against)...Read More

Cold turkey warms to the Hot Brown

Posted on by Pat and David
[caption id="attachment_459" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Hot Brown sandwich"][/caption] The chefs at the Brown Hotel, which has been one of Louisville’s social centers since it opened in 1923, probably didn’t have Thanksgiving leftovers in mind when they created the Hot Brown Sandwich. But it’s one of our favorite ways to use up excess turkey. Chef Fred Schmidt dreamed up the open-faced turkey and bacon sandwich in 1926 as a treat for up to 1,000 hungry dancers at the hotel’s swanky soirees. Schmidt’s solution to the light-night rush on the kitchen used ingredients readily at hand: toast, roast turkey, Mornay sauce, and bacon strips. With the unbeatable combination of bacon and cheese sauce, it’s no surprise that the popularity of the Hot Brown has spread well beyond the...Read More

Duran Central Pharmacy — a prescription for chile cuisine

Posted on by Pat
[caption id="attachment_449" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Counter at Duran Central Pharmacy"][/caption] The drugstore lunch counter is a dying breed all over the country, but it's alive and well in Albuquerque, N.M. Duran Central Pharmacy (1815 Central NW, Albuquerque, N.M., 505-247-4141) has been around for 45 years and in the same location since 1975. It's close to the tourist-haunted Old Town, yet locals make up most of the clientele. The food isn't fancy, but it's definitely special and highly local. Because it's full of chile peppers, it's good for you. The red chile sauce avoids beans and it also eschews such adulterants as cumin. The green chile is also a straight-ahead stew of chopped green chile peppers with just a little sautéed onion and garlic. [caption id="attachment_450" align="alignleft"...Read More

Warming up with green chile chicken stew

Posted on by Pat
[caption id="attachment_428" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Green chile chicken stew"][/caption] El Pinto Restaurant (10500 4th Street NW, Albuquerque, NM, 505-898-1771, www.elpinto.com) may seat up to 1,000 people at a time, yet the quality of the handmade New Mexican food belies the size. Maybe that's because it is a family restaurant run by the grandsons of Josephina Chavez-Griggs. Her daughter Katy opened La Posta de la Mesilla in 1939, and Katy's nephews Jim and John Thomas Meek ("the salsa twins") operate El Pinto. Many of their recipes, though, go back to Josephina. When I was there recently on a cold November night, the green chile chicken stew lifted both the chill and my mood. It's a perfect winter warmer and simple to make at home once you have...Read More