Soup Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Hungry Travelers

Soup

Ligurian minestrone recalls tastes from the land of pesto

Posted on February 19, 2022February 18, 2022 by Pat and David

One of the smallest regions of Italy, Liguria wraps around the salty rim of the northern Mediterranean. It is a great place to eat. The mountain conifers and herds of sheep provide Liguria's pine nuts and cheese. Groves on the foothills above the sea yield a delicate olive oil. The farms sprouting on the thin strip of arable coastline abound in intensely perfumed basil. The village of Boccadasse, on the east end of the capital city of Genoa, is home to fishing boats that supply the city's restaurants. When David visited a few years ago, he wandered the ancient streets of Genoa, marveling over Baroque palaces built with wealth from bankrolling Spain's New World adventures. Even some of the most modest 17th century homes on...Read More

Sopa de ajo cures whatever ails you

Posted on February 12, 2022February 10, 2022 by Pat and David

When we were working on our various guidebooks to Spain, we would often spend an intense period of time researching and photographing from dawn into dark. We really couldn't afford any down time. But when we arrived in Madrid one January for a month of work, David was completely knocked out by a head and chest cold. He picked up an over-the-counter cold syrup from a friendly farmacia and promptly went to bed. Pat hit the streets with notebook and camera in hand. When she returned to our room at the Room Mate Oscar (room-matehotels.com) in Chueca that evening, she dragged David from the bed, made him get dressed, and headed for the outdoor dining spots around Plaza Mayor (photo above). Her answer for David's...Read More

An Irish solution to dark and dank winter days

Posted on February 5, 2022February 3, 2022 by Pat and David

Not long ago, when travel was a tad more carefree, we spent Boxing Week in Dublin. That's the week between Christmas and New Years. December 26 has been ‶boxing day″ forever, but the merchants of Ireland and the United Kingdom have made what evolved into a one-day sale into a week-long event of inventory-trimming bargains. The mercantile nature of Boxing Week, it turns out, transforms a potentially grim and depressing holiday letdown period into a social occasion that turns out crowds in the streets. It also fills the cafes and pubs with shoppers whose cheeks are ruddy with the cold. Truth be told, it's a lot warmer in Dublin than in Boston. For us, visiting at the turn of the year was actually a respite...Read More

Hearty fare from the Dolomites in Alto Adige

Posted on January 29, 2022February 3, 2022 by Pat and David

You might be wondering what the heck this photo has to do with soup. The picture shows the unveiling of the speck at a Speckfest. David attended the festival in the mountains of Alto Adige near the Austrian border. Like so many of the edges of what is now Italy, Alto Adige was long considered part of another country—Austria, to be exact. In fact, it's known in the local German dialect as Sudtirol, or South Tyrol. Our soup this Saturday (when we are forecast to receive around 2 feet/60 centimeters of snow) is warming winter fare. The Alto Adige version of barley soup gets much of its flavor from speck, the smoked mountain ham that is something of a fetish in the region. It's such...Read More

French onion soup chases ‘les températures glaciales’

Posted on January 22, 2022February 3, 2022 by Pat and David

When we arrived in Paris in January 2020, the French were shivering and complaining that the temperature was downright glacial. Of course, that meant ‶freezing,″ as in 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. For New Englanders, that was winter as usual. We could always duck indoors to warm up. But not the Parisians. For all their griping, they flocked to their beloved sidewalk cafes. Come hell, high water—or hell frozen over—they were determined to eat outdoors. And following their example, so were we. The French have perfected winter outdoor dining. A combination of windbreaks, awnings, and overhead sidewalk heaters combine to make the tables in the salle à manger en plein air passably comfortable. As you might expect, Parisians also know how to dress—and...Read More

Hungarian gulyás launches Soup Saturday

Posted on January 15, 2022February 3, 2022 by Pat and David

A small tuxedo-clad orchestra doesn't serenade us when we eat Hungarian gulyás soup at home. Too bad. It was a nice touch when we tasted our first authentic Magyar version of the dish in Budapest at the legendary Gundel restaurant (HU-1146, Gundel Károly út 4., Budapest; +36 30 603 2480; gundel.hu). Often bastardized as ‶goulash,″ gulyás (pronounced GOO-yash) has been the country's national dish since the early 19th century. That designation was made to differentiate Hungarian cuisine from the Austrian cooking of their oppressors of the moment. The soup's historic roots offer a nice international analogy to the chile con carne of Texas. Magyar herdsmen would spice, cook, and dry the flesh of lean cows culled from their herds and pack the meat into their...Read More

Newagen Inn in Southport, Maine, inspires asparagus soup

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

When we spent the better part of a week in Maine recently, we spent a day exploring some of the touchstone haunts of the modern-day patron saint of the environmental movement, Rachel Carson. She was the epitome of scientific and literary rigor—the long-time chief editor of U.S. Bureau of Fish and Wildlife publications and the impassioned popular science writer whom some credit for saving whole swathes of the avian world from extinction. Between tidepools and typewriter, though, she knew how to relax and enjoy herself. She often treated herself to the restaurant at the Newagen Inn (60 Newagen Colony Road, Southport, Maine; 207-633-5242, newagenseasideinn.com). So we did the same. The photo at the top of this post shows the view from the restaurant's outdoor porch...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

Timely ‘Soupology’ arrives as the weather cools

Posted on October 20, 2020October 17, 2020 by Pat and David

As soon as we catch the first whiff of frost, we mentally switch cooking modes from salads, stir fries, and grilled vegetables to ragouts, daubes, and rich stocks. In perfect synchrony with the falling thermometer, the North American edition of Soupology: The Art of Soup from Six Simple Broths by Drew Smith (Rizzoli, 2020, $29.99) launched last month. Earlier in his career, Smith was a deft restaurant reviewer for The Guardian and for many years edited The Good Food Guide, an annual review of Britain's best restaurants. This volume is more about home cooking and the tone is friendly and intimate. It's easy to imagine looking over his shoulder as he shows how to make a delicious range of soups. Don't be put off by...Read More

Chicken meat enriches classic Greek egg-lemon soup

Posted on September 15, 2020September 14, 2020 by Pat and David

The moment we saw eggs stacked up in the Athens Central Market—all sold individually by weight!—we had an immediate hankering for egg-lemon soup. It had been one of our lunchtime standards at home even before we ever got to visit Greece. David has fond memories of the soup because he once edited a small weekly paper housed upstairs from a diner run by Greek immigrants. As he and the production crew would fuss over page layouts (this was in the day of paste-ups of paper type laid down with hot wax), they would send downstairs for cartons of egg-lemon soup. Each came with its own rolled and lightly steamed round of pita bread. The key was not spilling any eggy soup on the layouts. By...Read More