Soup

Sopa de ajo cures whatever ails you

Sopa de ajo cures whatever ails you

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

An Irish solution to dark and dank winter days

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

Hearty fare from the Dolomites in Alto Adige

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’

French onion soup chases ‘les températures glaciales’

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

Hungarian gulyás launches Soup Saturday

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

Newagen Inn in Southport, Maine, inspires asparagus soup

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

Tortellini and Ferrari, Modena’s gifts to the world

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

Timely ‘Soupology’ arrives as the weather cools

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

Chicken meat enriches classic Greek egg-lemon soup

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
Greek tomato soup far surpasses anything canned

Greek tomato soup far surpasses anything canned

The Greeks have legitimate claims on inventing western civilization, but we're pretty sure that they didn't invent tomato soup. But they might have perfected it, which doesn't really surprise us given all the delicious tomatoes we ate while we were in Greece. After a hot, humid summer, we're delighting in the kind of bright, fresh early fall days that New England is known for. That first hit of cool air always makes us start thinking about soup and this Greek recipe for tomato soup is a great way to use up the less gorgeous but still tasty end-of-season ripe tomatoes. It makes a rich and satisfying soup that has only the most remote kinship with the stuff that comes in cans. We like our soup...Read More