barbecue Archives - Hungry Travelers

barbecue

Brazen Cowgirl pulls no punches with True West BBQ

Posted on May 19, 2023May 19, 2023 by Pat and David

You might have caught a hint of praise in our last post for the artfully subtle use of green chile in Sage Bakehouse's compound butter (hungrytravelers.com/from-the-capitols-art-to-sages-artisanry/). Well, we also like a wholehearted embrace of big flavors. Few eateries in Santa Fe employ green chile so potently as Cowgirl BBQ (319 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM; 505-982-2565; cowgirlsantafe.com). Cowgirl is one of the city's most beloved culinary hangouts. Unlike any other barbecue house we know, the kitchen offers a broad vegan menu to supplement the usual carnivore's delights. Established in 1993 as a New Mexico scion of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame Restaurant in New York's West Village, Cowgirl quickly became an anchor of Santa Fe's Guadalupe district. By virtue of its proximity to the...Read More

Greeks know elemental simplicity of kebabs

Posted on August 4, 2020August 2, 2020 by Pat and David

We can just imagine the invention of the kebab sometime in the Paleolithic era. Stone-age Barbecue Bob was grilling a whole haunch of ground sloth impaled on a tree branch over an open fire. As the haunch began to cook, it would eventually fall off the stick into the fire. And Bob would throw a cursing fit. A woman at the cave no doubt looked up from grinding wild grass seeds into flour. She observed that if Bob cut the haunch into smaller pieces, he could thread them on a stick and they would cook faster and remain ash-free. Ta-da! Bob's Kebabs was born. He got all the credit around the cave complex for this wondrous new invention. She got a break from his whining,...Read More

Cincinnati chows down at Montgomery Inn Boathouse

Posted on October 8, 2019September 19, 2019 by Pat and David

Not many people noticed when Ted and Matula Gregory opened the homey Montgomery Inn in Montgomery, Ohio, in 1951. But when Matula started serving her barbecued ribs a few years later, people began to pay attention. You might even say that a dynasty was born. Ted and Matula eventually became known as the king and queen of ribs. Those hand-spiced, slow-roasted ribs are still the foundation of the Gregory family's two-restaurant empire. One of those restaurants is in downtown Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River. The Montgomery Inn Boathouse (925 Riverside Drive, 513-721-7427, montgomeryinn.com) is an impressive curved building with a wall of windows overlooking the river. The interior walls are covered with sports memorabilia which seems fitting since athletes have been known...Read More

Barbecue good enough for a Texas Tech tailgate

Posted on February 28, 2019February 26, 2019 by David

I went to Lubbock, Texas, last fall for Buddy Holly's birthday (September 7) in his home town. I stayed a while to eat and drink, and the next batch of posts will hit a few of the highlights of this truly friendly West Texas city and center of the Texas High Plains American Viticultural Area. And since it was West Texas, the logical place to begin is a magnificent barbecue joint. Evie Mae's Pit Barbecue is ironic in a good way. The meats here are outsized and deeply … meaty. As a Texas pal once said, it's the kind of barbecue that puts hair on your chest. (She meant that figuratively, of course.) It's smoky and just fatty enough and so full of itself that...Read More

El Hidalguense brings real pit barbecue to Mexico City

Posted on December 17, 2018December 2, 2018 by Pat and David

On Sundays in Mexico City, it seems as if all roads lead to Chapultepec Park. We like nothing better than joining local families for a stroll through this green oasis in the middle of the city. Many of the city's best museums are also located in the park and as a bonus, most are free on Sunday. On our recent visit, we spent the morning tracing Mexico's history through the murals at Chapultepec Castle and then marveling at the work by some of the country's greatest artists in a special exhibition at the Modern Art Museum. Alas, it was too cool to spread out a blanket and enjoy a picnic in the park. Instead, we indulged in another local tradition—a late lunch of barbacoa at...Read More

Fundraiser gala fare channels Shaker spirit

Posted on August 15, 2018August 9, 2018 by Pat and David

In early August, we had the pleasure of attending the annual fundraising Gala at Hancock Shaker Village (hancockshakervillage.org). One of the more prosperous of Shaker communities in the Northeast, “The City of Peace,” as its inhabitant called it, reached its height in the 1830s. More than 300 Shakers worked 3,000 acres of land just west of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the heart of the Berkshires. Since 1959, the community has been a history museum with 20 original buildings, a working farm, a wealth of Shaker artifacts, and many excellent interpretive programs. The village's signature building is the Round Stone Barn, pictured at the top of the post. It's a landmark structure in America vernacular architecture. We ate dinner at tables in the hayloft level. Shaker beliefs...Read More

Firing a steak with Argentina’s Francis Mallmann

Posted on February 2, 2018February 22, 2018 by David

Some of the best food writing these days appears in the pages of venerable old Esquire, where the late Jim Harrison set the tone the way Hunter S. Thompson defined the ethos of Rolling Stone in its heyday. I was reminded of that when I got an email tickler in my mailbox pointing me to an overblown but heartfelt profile of one of the greatest chefs I've ever met. The online article (please go read it before it's taken down) by Jeff Gordinier is entitled “Is Francis Mallmann the Most Interesting Chef in the World?” Well, yeah. One of the most memorable evenings of my life was the pre-opening opening of Mallmann's Siete Fuegos at the Vines Resort & Spa (Tunuyan, Mendoza, Argentina, +54 261...Read More

As spring blooms, Sancerre launches season for whites

Posted on May 5, 2017May 4, 2017 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

Cochon555 highlights winning tastes of heritage pigs

Posted on April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 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

Château La Nerthe delivers warmth, finesse, and power

Posted on December 15, 2016June 9, 2020 by Pat and David

Châteauneuf-du-Pape might be the ultimate late autumn comfort wine. At its best, it's rich, nuanced, and warm. It has a gentle power that responds to those hormones that surge when the days get shorter. It also plays very well with food. The 2012 Château La Nerthe is the very model of what Hugh Johnson once called “a glowing, roast-chestnut warmth” characteristic of good Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Admittedly, good wines from this southernmost portion of the Rhone cost enough to be out of our league for everyday drinking. But this bottle comes in at a reasonable $65 suggested retail price—closer to $55 at discount wine shops. Just entering its drinking years (now through 2023, we're told), it blossoms when double-decanted and served at around 60° F. We opened...Read More