recipe Archives - Page 9 of 30

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Dining (and drinking) through Encore Boston Harbor

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Pat and David

On this inaugural New Year's Eve at the Encore Boston Harbor (www.encorebostonharbor.com/), a good time will be had by many. That's one sure bet at the luxury casino and resort owned by Wynn Resorts. Open since late June, Encore features 15 places to eat and drink, which is more up our alley than games of chance. We recently attended a dine-around to get a taste of several of the venues. We were so engrossed with the food and cocktails that we forgot to lose any money at the tables or slots. But one thing was obvious: Encore Boston Harbor is hell-bent on showing its customers a good time. That starts when you walk in the main entrance to a fanciful carousel slowly spinning in the...Read More

Risotto and Giotto, Padua’s bitter and sweet

Posted on December 23, 2019December 20, 2019 by Pat and David

The “sweet” spot of the Venetian city of Padua (or Padova, as the Italians have it) is the Scrovegni Chapel (cappelladegliscrovegni.it). Its walls and ceilings hold the masterpiece fresco cycle painted 1303–05 by Giotto di Bondone, the late medieval Florentine painter who invented the Renaissance almost single-handedly. Neither of us had ever seen the frescoes in person, and we built part of October's Italy trip around a couple of days in Padua and our reserved 15-minute time slot in the chapel. After more than 700 years and a couple of post-earthquake restorations, the paintings are in startlingly good condition. The strict limitations on visitation are designed to keep temperature and humidity stable. The image at the top of this post is the Last Judgment. Let's...Read More

Lunch with class and style on Trieste’s Piazza della Borsa

Posted on December 19, 2019December 18, 2019 by Pat and David

Certain dishes taste their best in special surroundings—prosecco and potato chips on Venice's Piazza San Marco, for example. Our latest pairing of plate and place is pumpkin and sausage risotto on the glorious Piazza della Borsa in Trieste. In case you don't know the city, it's just barely in Italy, sitting on the Slovenian border a few kilometers from Croatia. In fact, it's only been Italian since 1919. For hundreds of years, it was the chief shipping port for the Austrian empire. Most significantly, it was the chief importer of coffee for all of Mitteleuropa. Without Trieste, there would be no such thing as “Vienna roast.” To this day, its citizens drink nearly twice as much coffee as the average Italian. But we digress. The...Read More

Cook on the dark side with ‘Ferrandi Chocolate’

Posted on November 22, 2019November 21, 2019 by Pat and David

As the gift-giving season approaches, we've found the perfect pick for aspirational cooks who love chocolate. (And who doesn't?) Ferrandi Paris (www.ferrandi-paris.com/) is coming up on its centennial in 2020. That's 100 years as one of top culinary schools in France. Two years ago, the school issued its pâtisserie cook book for cooks who want to know everything possible about making French pastry. This year's English translation of Ferrandi Chocolate (Flammarion, Paris, $35 US, $47 Canadian) does the same for chocolate, chocolate confections, and chocolate desserts. (The French version appeared simultaneously in France.) This book is more than a compendium of chocolate recipes and techniques. It's one of the most straightforward, easily understood guides to building skills and techniques to work with chocolate. While the...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

Chicken Pastis: Liquor cabinet cookery

Posted on November 14, 2019November 9, 2019 by Pat and David

As most of our readers have already surmised, we are first and foremost wine drinkers. But we are also travelers, and sometimes the taste of place comes from a headier libation. Over the years, we have accumulated a liquor cabinet of spirits, apertifs, cordials, and what David's father used to call “snorts.” (When the last of the sipping whiskey was gone on a Sunday afternoon and the stores were all closed, he'd invariably go to the mixer cabinet and announce, “Let's have a snort!” Sometimes that meant an evening of Drambuie or anisette, but too sweet was better than dry.) Some of the bottles shown above are more than mere snorts. They make excellent sippers by themselves. It's just that we don't sit around sipping...Read More

Pan de Muerto: sustenance for Día de los Muertos

Posted on October 31, 2019September 26, 2019 by Pat and David

We don't need to be convinced that food plays a central role in people's lives and cultures that goes way beyond the basic need for sustenance. But if we did need proof, Mexico's Day of the Dead observances would be Exhibit A. On November 1, families decorate the graves of their lost loved ones with marigold flowers. It's a custom, several women told us, that brings them close to their loved ones and makes them feel contento (content). The bright orange flowers almost cover the gravestones and their pungent aroma fills the air. We've really never seen anything else quite like it. As we looked more closely, we realized that families also leave personal belongings and mementos that their loved ones had enjoyed in life....Read More

What’s for dinner? Meike Peters has a plan for that

Posted on October 20, 2019October 14, 2019 by Pat and David

We consider ourselves adventurous eaters who enjoy trying out recipes and experimenting with new dishes at home. But, like most people, we have a few old reliable dishes. This summer, we ate lots of Caprese salads with just-picked garden tomatoes and a cold pasta that we concocted with basil pesto, corn, and grilled chicken. We can't help but be impressed with Meike Peters, who chronicles a new dish for every day in 365: A Year of Everyday Cooking & Baking, Prestel, $40). Peters has been sharing recipes on her Eat in My Kitchen blog (meikepeters.com) since 2013, drawing inspiration from the hearty German comfort food of her youth and the lighter Mediterranean diet of Malta, where she spends part of the year. Even so, coming...Read More

Deco decadence at The Bar at Palm Court

Posted on October 18, 2019June 6, 2020 by Pat and David

Even if we didn't enjoy a good cocktail or a nice glass of wine, we would find an excuse to visit the Bar at Palm Court. It occupies a prime spot in the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel. One of the most glamorous buildings in the city, it's at 35 West 5th Street. The hotel, which opened in 1931, oozes French Art Deco style. There's barely a surface that's not embellished with a lotus pattern, a bird, or a sun. One of the best places to admire the masterful mix of rich woods, polished marble, frescoes, and ceiling painting is from a padded fan-shaped banquette in the bar. (The wooden bar itself, by the way, was originally a ticket booth at Union Terminal, the city's...Read More

California vermouth? T.W. Hollister answers, Of course!

Posted on September 19, 2019September 4, 2019 by Pat and David

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that vermouth (or vermut) is having a moment, both in Spain and the U.S. Our own history with fortified wine muddled with botanicals and aged in a barrel goes back a few decades when Lillet was still hip in certain suburban settings. We were quite taken with the ice-cold, slightly sweet and bitter aperitif when the late, great mystery and suspense writer Andrew Coburn poured us some on his back deck one evening. He'd picked up the habit on the French set of Un dimanche de flic, a film adaptation of his novel, Off Duty. Lillet is not vermouth, but they are kissing cousins. In today's vermouth fever, almost any aromatized wine passes muster...Read More