Pat and David, Author at Hungry Travelers

Pat and David

As the mercury rises, time for appetites to chill

Posted on May 19, 2021May 19, 2021 by Pat and David

We confess that when we saw advance copy on Eat Cool: Good Food for Hot Days (Rizzoli $39.95) back in February, we were more inclined to stews, braises, roasts, and similar rib-sticking fare for a frigid Boston. Then the mercury began to climb into the 80s and the humidity started to rise from comfortable to steamy to downright tropical. Suddenly Eat Cool sounded downright enthralling. The sub-subtitle of the book said exactly what we wanted to hear: ‶100 easy, satisfying and refreshing recipes that won't heat up your kitchen.″ Author Vanessa Seder is a chef and cooking teacher with a bent toward simple family-friendly recipes that look more labor-intensive than they are. She gives a lot of straight-from-the-shoulder advice about technique, too. Best of all,...Read More

Journey to Sicily with pasta alla Norma

Posted on April 17, 2021April 17, 2021 by Pat and David

Somehow it seemed fitting that Stanley Tucci's quick survey of Italian cooking on CNN concluded in Sicily, a rugged land with overlays of Greek, Arab, and even Norman traditions. Because so many sons and daughters of the island emigrated to the U.S., Sicilian cooking became the departure point for many Italian-American dishes. Admittedly, American Italians show a penchant for piling on the cheese. Order eggplant parm in the U.S., and the hearty dish will probably have more ricotta and mozzarella than eggplant. Yet the original Sicilian cuisine is the model of a healthy Mediterranean diet. It emphasizes fresh vegetables—Sicily supplies the rest of Italy with winter produce—and goes light on the animal protein. Yes, many dishes are fried, but they're fried in extra virgin olive...Read More

Polenta, the thrifty side of Milanese cuisine

Posted on March 20, 2021March 20, 2021 by Pat and David

Given the cost of saffron, risotto alla milanese can be an indulgence. But the folks in Milan also favor maize (as they call American corn) as a base for many great dishes. Polenta is nothing more than coarse cornmeal cooked into a kind of porridge. That's a little like saying great bread is ‶nothing more″ than ground up wheat. Polenta can be a subtle treat on its own and makes a versatile base for almost any kind of sauce or even leftovers. In Milan, as Stanley Tucci pointed out in part four of Searching for Italy, it's often served topped with pot roast. Maize was introduced to Italy when Columbus sent corn to the Vatican in the 1490s. In the half millennium since, Italians have...Read More

In Milan, a little wealth helps make rich risotto

Posted on March 13, 2021March 13, 2021 by Pat and David

Our experience with Milan is a little like Stanley Tucci's before he started shooting the Searching for Italy series now running on CNN. It was always a place we admired from afar and but visited mostly when we were changing trains or planes. For many years, Alitalia had direct flights between Boston and Milan, so we often flew through Malpensa when we were visiting northern Italy. As Tucci observed, the first thing that hit us about Milan is the pace. The city has a hurry-scurry that almost makes Manhattan feel laid-back. That's probably because the Milanese are so busy making money. The city is home to the Italian stock market, the furniture industry, and to Italian fashion and design. It helps to have all that...Read More

Tortellini and Ferrari, Modena’s gifts to the world

Posted on March 6, 2021March 6, 2021 by Pat and David

Episode 3 of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy on CNN was ostensibly devoted to the food of Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna. But our restless Italian gourmand does wander a bit from the hometown of mortadella (the more sophisticated ancestor of American ‶baloney″) to visit Parma (amazing prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano) and even Modena. We'd contend that Modena has given the world two of the most beautiful things to come out of Italy: the sleek red racing machines of Enzo Ferrari's automotive company, and the navel-shaped filled pasta called tortellini. (It's also the home of the greatest balsamic vinegar in the world, but that's another story.) Bologna may be the premier university city but Modena has a powerful and ancient university of its own. It also...Read More

Tucci’s Roman pasta experience was a déjà vu

Posted on February 28, 2021February 28, 2021 by Pat and David

Watching Stanley Tucci sample the classic pastas of Rome was a déjà vu experience for us—especially when he showed up at a restaurant on Piazza della Rotondo to launch the episode. We had a similar experience just a few years ago, also in front of the Pantheon at Ristorante di Rienzo. It's now Bistrot al Pantheon di Rienzo (Salita de’ Crescenzi 3, 06-687-7404, www.bistrotalpantheon.it) and in one incarnation or another dates back to 1952. Thanks to an introduction by an Italian chef friend, the daughter of the founder invited us to come back at dinner time so the chef could show us how to prepare some classic Roman pasta dishes. When we returned around 6 p.m., chef Alessandro Sillani and his assistant Tsatsu Nicholas Awuku...Read More

Town by town Italian cooking with Stanley Tucci

Posted on February 20, 2021February 20, 2021 by Pat and David

Like a lot of Americans, we're watching Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy on CNN. It airs on Sunday nights, though we confess to watching it on a weekend afternoon, thanks to the magic of a DVR. Now that football season is over, it's our excuse to slack off for part of the day with the excuse that we're working, right? (This blog post is supposed to make us feel less guilty.) Tucci's schtick in the series is that food tells the story of place, and that each place is unique. We wrote something to that effect ourselves some years ago in the PBS series companion book, The Meaning of Food. Episode 1 was devoted to Naples (pizza), Ischia (rabbit in tomato sauce), and the Amalfi...Read More

Amazing chocolate mousse for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 8, 2021February 8, 2021 by Pat and David

This post is admittedly a rerun from 2010, but this dish continues to be a favorite in our household as the final act in a Valentine Day's dinner. We simply lack the skills to reproduce our all-time favorite dessert from Fauchon, the amazing gourmet shop, tea house, and pastisserie on Place de Madeleine in Paris. That would be Mejêve cake—perfect thin layers of crisp meringue with chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. But this dynamite, simple, foolproof version of chocolate mousse given to us by a French cook, Madame Picavet, fills in nicely. She could effortlessly serve a perfect blanquette de veau or tomatoes stuffed with homemade pâté de campagne, but she also knew a good simple dessert recipe when she saw on. Given that Monsieur...Read More

Chichilo, Oaxaca’s forgotten classic mole

Posted on January 30, 2021February 2, 2021 by Pat and David

Chichilo is perhaps the most unorthodox of Oaxaca's seven classic moles. Thickened with corn masa, it lacks the fatty richness of seeds or nuts. Nor does it boast the sweet and round flavors of the tomatoes, tomatillos, raisins, or plantains found in other moles. The simplicity of chichilo is very similar to a Texas all-meat chili con carne. It consists primarily of meat stewed in a sauce of puréed chile peppers. But chichilo is also one of the Oaxacan ‶burnt″ dishes that get part of their flavor from charred ingredients. Some of those recipes call for blackened onions, fire-roasted tomatoes, or even fire-roasted green chiles with the charred flesh left on. This version of chichilo, adapted from Zarela Martinez's seminal The Food and Life of...Read More

The fruit-laden surprise of manchamanteles

Posted on January 23, 2021January 22, 2021 by Pat and David

We've always thought that part of the appeal of mole poblano to American palates is the sweetness imparted by Mexican chocolate in the sauce. By that standard, manchamanteles should be an even bigger hit. This bright sauce always features chunks of pineapple and fried plantains. We've been curious to try making it since first tasting it in a restaurant years ago. Adapted from recipes by Rick Bayless, Zarela Martinez, and Diana Kennedy, this variant also adds sweet potato pieces to the stew. Some cooks make this classic Oaxacan mole with a dizzying array of chiles and dried fruits. We've opted for a streamlined version of this labor-intensive recipe. In the interest of simplicity, we've specified lard as the cooking fat. Vegetable shortening is a perfectly...Read More