oysters Archives - Hungry Travelers

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Industrial chic brings treats to eat at Chelsea Market

Posted on November 27, 2023November 23, 2023 by Pat and David

Despite the proliferation of food halls in New York, Chelsea Market (75 9th Avenue, New York NY; 212-243-6005; chelseamarket.com) remains one of the best. Its 1997 debut established the template that Essex Market copied a decade later. But Chelsea Market got one thing right that no other food hall has been able to replicate. It occupies the 1890s factory building where the National Biscuit Company (aka Nabisco) invented and manufactured the Oreo. Chelsea Market founder Irving Cohen didn't pretty up the industrial architecture. The result is a tunnel of brick walls and massive pipes. Journeying through the complex feels a little like navigating the landscape of a dark-themed video game to find a bunch of gem-filled rooms. The brawny, gritty style of the overall market...Read More

Beard-honored chef draws on deep roots

Posted on June 27, 2023June 27, 2023 by Pat and David

Chef Sherry Pocknett broke new ground when she was named the 2023 Best Chef Northeast by the James Beard Foundation. Pocknett is the first Indigenous chef to win the honor. A member of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, she got her start in the restaurant industry years ago at the Flume in Mashpee, Massachusetts. Her uncle Earl Mills, who championed Native foods at the Flume, was famous for his shad roe preparations. She spent many years catering powwows and special events. She also served as food and beverage manager at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center adjacent to the Foxwoods casino. Her current restaurant is a small spot on the side of Rhode Island's Route 2 with overflow seating at outdoor picnic tables. It's casual...Read More

Honeywood showcases updated Kentucky cuisine

Posted on January 31, 2020January 16, 2020 by Pat and David

When we visit our friends in Lexington, Kentucky, they usually can guess our first question. “What's Ouita been up to?” we ask, referring to chef Ouita Michel. In the two decades since she and her husband Chris Michel opened Holly Hill Inn (426 N. Winter St., Midway, hollyhillinn.com) in a mid-19th century Greek Revival home, Ouita has led the dining revolution in Bluegrass Country. Ouita is fiercely committed to local growers and producers and is equally at home showcasing Kentucky products in fine and casual dining establishments. She now oversees nine restaurants and cafes, including two outlets of Smithtown Seafood (501 W. Sixth St., Lexington and 119 Marion St., Suite 160, Lexington, smithtownseafood.com). Here's the link https://hungrytravelers.com/at-smithtown-seafood-local-is-measured-in-feet-2/ to our earlier post about this unique collaboration...Read More

Chefs and growers jointly hail the versatile cranberry

Posted on November 18, 2019November 18, 2019 by Pat and David

The motto of HungryTravelers is “bringing the taste of travel back home,” but sometimes we don't have to go very far for extraordinary flavor. The Ocean Spray Cooperative (oceanspray.com) is headquartered just 50 miles south-southeast from our home in Cambridge, Mass., but its 700-plus members in North and South America represent a world of flavor. They grow 80 percent of the globe's cranberries. Similarly, Puritan & Company restaurant is a 13-minute walk from home. Chef-owner Will Gilson champions New England cuisine, so it was logical that the restaurant host a debut dinner by the Cranberry Chef Collective last week. The CCC connects chefs to the member farmers of the cranberry cooperative. Ocean Spray estimates that more than 100 billion cranberries will be consumed this holiday...Read More

Long Island’s North Fork is gourmand heaven

Posted on June 28, 2019 by Pat and David

We recently sailed the Cross Sound Ferry (longislandferry.com) from New London, Connecticut, to Orient Point on the North Fork of New York's Long Island to sip and nibble our way through an agricultural region we don't visit often enough. If you look at a map, you'll see that the landmass logically belongs with southern New England instead of New York. It's all part of the glacial moraine—the deposit of sand and gravel that marks the southern extent of the last glaciers about 15,000 years ago. A lot of silt has settled over that gritty base, and the warm currents of Long Island Sound help make the North Fork into prime farm country just 80 miles east of Manhattan. In 1988, the area was designated as...Read More

Small-town culinary greatness: Patty Queen’s Cottage

Posted on February 11, 2018February 24, 2018 by Pat and David

One of the pleasures of touring rural France, Italy, or Spain is discovering amazing country restaurants far from population centers. The U.S. has some places like that, too. But few of them can match the Cottage Restaurant & Cafe (427 Farmington Ave, Plainville, Conn.; 860-793-8888, cottagerestaurantandcafe.com) for staying power and consistently terrific food. Located at a nondescript crossroads in Plainville, Connecticut, a little southwest of Hartford, the Cottage should be celebrated as a Nutmeg State treasure. Full disclosure: We met Patty Queen at a 1996 book party celebrating the publication of Julie Stillman's Great Women Chefs (https://goo.gl/Rxutaq). Queen was among the youngest chefs featured. Ever since, we've been driving more than 100 miles to eat at the Cottage three or four times a year. We're...Read More

Tasting Mondavi whites with New England seafood

Posted on August 4, 2017June 6, 2020 by Pat and David

In our next lives we want to come back as Mondavis. Every American branch of the clan seems to have a purple thumb ever since Cesare and his sons Robert and Peter took over the Charles Krug winery in 1943. As one of two winemakers at the Michael Mondavi Family Estate (michaelmondavifamilyestate.com), Rob Mondavi Jr. has developed quite a reputation for his quality Napa Cabernets. So we wondered: What about the whites? In New England, where we live, summer means seafood. While we might sip a red with bluefish, we really need white wines for the kings of ocean: oysters and lobster. So we tossed a bottle each of 2015 Emblem Chardonnay Carneros and 2015 Animo Napa Valley Heritage Sauvignon Blanc into a cooler, placed...Read More

Vineland Estates Winery: a clone of one’s own

Posted on August 1, 2017June 6, 2020 by Pat and David

“These trees are the beginnings of Canada,” David Hulley told us as he welcomed us to the cathedral-like log barn that serves as the tasting room of Vineland Estates Winery (vineland.com). “Trees were being cut down for warships. Some of them weren't needed, so they were used for this barn.” The 1877 structure and the landmark stone tower are among several practical and handsome buildings remaining from a 19th century Mennonite homestead. They perch on an elevated slope along the Twenty Mile Bench of the Niagara escarpment. The chinked log-cabin barn certainly makes the region's most dramatic tasting room. The winery's setting atop the rise among vineyards makes it among the most picturesque estates in the Niagara region. The buildings anchor 42 acres of vineyards,...Read More

Popping into Portland’s Danforth for Natalie’s popup

Posted on April 5, 2017 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

Lincoln Inn emerges as Vermont’s gourmet destination

Posted on September 22, 2016September 19, 2016 by Pat and David

The Lincoln Inn in Woodstock is among the most European of the little inns in Vermont, and not just because chef Jevgenija Saromova hails from Latvia. She and innkeeper partner Mara Mehlman describe the property as a “restaurant with rooms.” That's a model common in the European countryside, and often signals great dining. Think, for example, of Maison Troisgros, one of the pioneers of modern French cuisine. Woodstock isn't Roanne, of course, and Jevgenija Saromova (or Chef Saromova, as she prefers) isn't Jean or Pierre Troisgros. Not yet, anyway. But she has impressive classical culinary credentials and a personal style unique in northern New England. She worked in top restaurants in Italy, France, and England before joining Mehlman in Vermont. The two women have applied...Read More