Pat and David

A is for Asparagus in new Alain Ducasse cookbook

A is for Asparagus in new Alain Ducasse cookbook

Posted on by Pat and David
It's asparagus season in our neighborhood. The fields of Hadley, Massachusetts are yielding the delicious spears that once made the Connecticut River Valley the asparagus capital of North America. The industry has never quite recovered from a mid-20th century blight, but the farms are producing some stunning asparagus for a few weeks each year. We are eating as much as we can while it is in season. Alain Ducasse grabbed our attention with a brilliant recipe for asparagus and soft-boiled egg in his new cookbook. It's called Simple Nature: 150 New Recipes for Fresh, Healthy Dishes. Ducasse launched his first “Simple Nature” cookbook five years ago. This second installment is, if anything, simpler and more natural. The celebrity French chef penned it with chef Christophe...Read More

Utiel Requena wines conjure tastes of northeast Spain

Posted on by Pat and David
We're convinced that there is nothing like taste to evoke memories of place. A sip of wine will call back the flavor of the food, the sun on our faces, the wobbly leg of the cafe table, and the street life around us. We're just starting to taste several wines from the Utiel Requena region in the northwest corner of the autonomous region of Valencia. As we taste, we're reliving trips to Catalunya, Aragón, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. In addition to speaking variants of Catalan, these regions feature cuisines that pair very well with the Bobal wines of Utiel Requena. We'll be enjoying them with some of our favorite dishes. As shown in this photo just below, D.O. Utiel Requena sits in the rain...Read More

Fall River has grip on wacky sandwiches

Posted on by Pat and David
In its heyday, Fall River, Massachusetts, was a factory town par excellence. And that's just the sort of place where the need for economy meets the imagination of restaurateurs to produce some of the most innovative and inexpensive casual eats. Just as ballplayers of old seemed to spring full-formed from the soil of America's farms, some of the wackiest contributions to American handheld cuisine spring from the creativity of grill cooks and chefs of the country's lunch counters and diners. And Fall River has some great ones, as we detailed this past Sunday in the Boston Globe's travel section. (Read the story here.) It doesn't spoil the fun to hint at the menu. It includes the chouriço and fries sub at Nick's Coney Island Hot...Read More

As spring blooms, Sancerre launches season for whites

Posted on by Pat and David
Pat has fond memories of traipsing through the Loire Valley one summer. As much as the rolling green land and the amazing fairy-tale châteaux, she remembers the food-friendly local wines. Then this winter we encountered some Cabernet Franc that reminded us how good Loire Valley reds can be with fish and lighter summer fare. The valley is home base to some of the greatest French wine grapes not called Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay. With summer on the horizon, we realized it was time to rectify our lack of attention to Loire Valley wines—some of which are the quintessential sips at the end of long, warm day. We got a respite from our chilly, damp spring last week in time for the forsythia to burst into...Read More

Montreal Poutinefest moves to August on 375th

Posted on by Pat and David
This summer is a big birthday season in Canada. The country is marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation, and the city of Montreal is marking the 375th anniversary of its founding. As you can imagine, the period between the Quebec National Day (June 24) and Canada Day (July 1) is more hectic than usual in Montreal. So the Monteal Poutinefest, on which we reported last June, is making way for other celebrations on the Quai de l'Horloge in the Old Port. But it's expected to be back—bigger and better than ever—in August. So start making plans now. The Poutinefest is scheduled for August 15-20. Admission will again be free, but you might want to reserve a room in Montreal now. Don't say we didn't warn...Read More

Getting ready for summer with ‘Le Picnic’ recipes

Posted on by Pat and David
Talk about timing! Le Picnic: Chic Food for On-The-Go crossed our desk just as the azaleas burst into bloom and the purple finches laid their first clutch of eggs in the blue spruce outside our desk window. This Australian book by food writer Suzy Ashford is published by Smith Street Books in Melbourne, but it's distributed in North America by Rizzoli. Suzy had us with the cover shot of a roast chicken and Camembert baguette (see above). By the way, the two photos in this post are courtesy of Smith Street Books. The book breaks down roughly into gorgeous sandwiches, baked tarts or flatbreads, salads you want to eat with your eyes, and drop-dead gorgeous desserts that seem a little delicate to transport to a...Read More

Cochon555 highlights winning tastes of heritage pigs

Posted on by Pat and David
Roughly five hundred folks feasted on about 1,500 pounds of succulent heritage pork last weekend at the Boston stop on the Cochon555 (cochon555.com) national barbecue competition tour. And they drank a surprisingly broad array of wines, cocktails, punches, and spirits selected by local sommeliers to pair with the cuisines. The winning team opted for a Mexican menu with six different dishes served on two separate plates. Working with a 281-pound Mulefoot hog from Dogpatch Farm in Maine, the “Deporkables” were led by Matt Jennings of Townsman (townsmanboston.com), a brasserie-inspired restaurant on Boston's Greenway. The plate at right included bbq pork head tamales with a thin slice of a pork loin burrito. They were contributed by team member Will Gilson of Puritan & Co. (puritancambridge.com) in...Read More

Natalie’s winning Butter-Poached Lobster recipe

Posted on by Pat and David
Prepared with grilled maitake and oyster mushrooms along with a corn-parsnip ragout, this is the recipe that won Chris Long plaudits as the 2013 Maine Lobster Chef of the Year. The recipe below and photo above are adapted with permission from Natalie’s Restaurant (nataliesrestaurant.com) at the Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com). (The corn stock directions are ours, so don't blame Chris and Shelby.) Ingredients 1 Maine lobster 1 pound butter at room temperature 2 ounces fresh thyme 1 shallot, minced 1 cup corn stock * 1 cup corn kernels 1/2 cup chopped parsnips 1 lemon salt and pepper to taste 2 ounces wild mushrooms parsnip chips micro arugula basil flowers Directions Boil lobster in salted water, 7 minutes for claws and 3 minutes for tail. Shock-chill...Read More

Natalie’s celebrates lobster on its home waters

Posted on by Pat and David
Natalie's co-chef Shelby Stevens is a Mainer, but she's not from lobster country. She grew up in Farmington, an inland town where mountain timber meets upcountry lakes. But perched on the hillside over picturesque Camden harbor, Natalie's occupies a prominent spot on the Times Square of Lobster Land. Roughly half of the state's annual lobster catch—130 million pounds in 2016—is landed at Penobscot Bay ports. Stevens and her husband, co-chef Chris Long (pictured above in their official portrait), naturally developed an extensive repertoire of lobster fine-dining dishes to wow the guests at the tony Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com). When the crustacean is in season, Natalie's offers a five-course tasting menu of four lobster dishes and a dessert as one of its menu options. When we...Read More

Popping into Portland’s Danforth for Natalie’s popup

Posted on by Pat and David
With nine handsome rooms in an 1823 Federal mansion, Portland's Danforth Inn (danforthinn.com) is a nifty hideaway in Maine's biggest city. That's what hoteliers Raymond Brunyanszki and Oscar Verest, owners of the Camden Harbour Inn (camdenharbourinn.com), had in mind when they purchased the Danforth in 2014. Their extensive upgrades included creating Tempo Dulu (tempodulu.restaurant), a fine-dining restaurant focused on Southeast Asian, Indonesian, and Malaysian cuisines. Chef Michael McDonnell recently got a few days off from riffing on rijsttafel. At the end of March, Tempo Dulu hosted a popup of Natalie's (nataliesrestaurant.com), the Camden Harbour Inn's gastronomic showcase. It was a homecoming of sorts. Natalie's co-chefs Shelby Stevens and Chris Long were married at the Danforth last year. (That's a picture of the dining room below.)...Read More