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V-day chocolate mousse made easy

Posted on February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Pat and David

This post is admittedly a rerun, but this dish continues to be a favorite in our household as the final act in a Valentine Day's dinner. We simply lack the skills to reproduce our all-time favorite dessert from Fauchon, the amazing gourmet shop, tea house, and pastisserie on Place de Madeleine in Paris. That would be Mejêve cake—perfect thin layers of crisp meringue with chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. But this dynamite, simple, foolproof version of chocolate mousse given to us by a French cook, Madame Picavet, fills in nicely. She could effortlessly serve a perfect blanquette de veau or tomatoes stuffed with homemade pâté de campagne, but she also knew a good simple dessert recipe when she saw on. Given that Monsieur Picavet was...Read More

Launching 2026 with tea at The Newbury

Posted on January 6, 2026January 6, 2026 by Pat and David

It's a Boston reflex to speed the day by grabbing a cup of Dunkin' to go. But sometimes it's better to engage in a ruminative pot of tea, a few scones, and successive tiers of finger sandwiches and sweet bites. Few places anywhere observe the tea ceremony with such a sense of occasion as Boston's landmark hotel, The Newbury. Served in the Street Bar facing the Public Garden, the hotel's afternoon tea demonstrates the timelessness of tradition. Originally opened in 1927 as the Ritz-Carlton, The Newbury seemed a perfect spot for us to launch the new year. Like the month of January, it captures the spirit of the Roman god Janus — looking both to the past and the future. Done right, a formal afternoon...Read More

‘Winter in Tuscany’ cooks up cozy, rustic cuisine

Posted on December 2, 2025December 2, 2025 by Pat and David

Tuscany has been so well marketed in the English-speaking world that the name immediately conjures images of rolling green hills (crumbling castle optional), vast verdant vineyards, and occasional forays into the sophisticated urban centers of Florence and Siena. To diners, Tuscany is roasted meats and bold red wines. Born in London but raised in Arniano, Italy, cook and food writer Amber Guinness knows her way around Tuscany. Last spring we wrote about her book Italian Coastal, the follow-up to A House Party in Tuscany. We think that her just-published third book, Winter in Tuscany: Cozy Recipes and the Quanto Basta Way, expresses the spirit of the region even better. The book is rooted in the quiet season when most of the tourists are gone and...Read More

Great bargain rosé for autumn roast chicken

Posted on October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 by Pat and David

Earlier this fall we made the case for continuing to drink rosé wines after Labor Day. Now that the weather is turning colder and grayer, we'd like to double down with an unusual rosé from the Camargue. Pink Flamingo (as its producer, Domaine Royal de Jarras, calls it) is a gris de gris — a very specific type of rosé made from the Grenache Gris grape. We are fans of Grenache in all its permutations. The ‶gray″ Grenache is a mutation specific to the marshy soils of the Camargue wetlands that are part of the Rhône river delta. Pink Flamingo Gris de Gris, Sable de Camargue AOC is made with first-press juices from organically grown grapes. The name strikes us as an example of misguided...Read More

Wine revelations in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley

Posted on August 18, 2025August 16, 2025 by Pat and David

It's probably been a decade since we first tasted a Nova Scotia wine at a dinner hosted by Canada Tourism. It was an excellent cold-climate Chardonnay — steely dry but full of characteristic fruit. We filed that tidbit for future reference. Then this summer we finally drove to Cape Breton Island, a trip we'd planned years ago before COVID closed the border. We also had the chance to stop in the Annapolis Valley along the way for a snapshot of Nova Scotia's fast-maturing wine industry. We're glad we did. We half expected a slew of fruit wines (and there were some) and a lot of wines made from French-American hybrid grapes bred for cold climates. (There were some of those too.) What we didn't expect...Read More

Eating at the omphalos of the breakfast burrito

Posted on September 10, 2024September 10, 2024 by Pat and David

At the temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece, a round stone covers a deep hole that plunges into the earth. According to myth, this well stone is a sacred spot that marks the center of the earth — the bellybutton from which all creation sprang. If you like breakfast as much as we do, Tia Sophia’s (210 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM; 505-983-9880, tiasophias.com) is the omphalos of the breakfast burrito. A breakfast and lunch stalwart just off the plaza in downtown Santa Fe since 1975, Tia Sophia's specializes in New Mexican comidas nativas, or local cooking. Founders Ann and Jim Maryol aspired to create a casual diner serving good food at good prices and catering to local tastes. This was back...Read More

Lombardi’s, where New York pizza got its start

Posted on November 13, 2023November 12, 2023 by Pat and David

Even Google doesn't know how many pizzerias there are in New York, but various uninformed estimates place the number between 1,000 and 32,000. What we do know is that it seems there's a pizza joint on every block and many of them sell slices to go. That fits with the NYC culture of literally eating on the run, or on the walk. New Yorkers seem to be constantly eating in public. But we digress. Surrounded by pizza from the moment we arrived in New York, we immediately gave up on trying to find the “best” pizza in the city. We were just happy to visit what might be the oldest pizzeria in New York. At least that's what Lombardi's claims. It was established in 1905....Read More

A New Mexican take on The Bear’s omelet

Posted on September 3, 2023September 3, 2023 by Pat and David

Like many food-obsessed fans of Hulu's The Bear, we had to replicate the omelet that Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) makes in episode 9 of the final season as a gesture of love and comfort for a pregnant Natalie (Abby Elliott). Assuming you have a decent non-stick pan, it's an easy dish. But a few key elements set it apart from the standard omelet. For starters, Sydney whisks three eggs together and then forces them through a medium sieve. We'd never heard to sieving your eggs for an omelet, but it does break down the egg whites so they blend more cleanly with the yolks. That eliminates streaky white sections in the omelet. Sydney also uses three tablespoons of butter in the omelet pan. Pretty much anything...Read More

Going to the source for dinnerware design

Posted on July 8, 2023July 8, 2023 by Pat and David

Regular followers of HungryTravelers might have noticed that most of the food we present is served on the same set of dishes. Those of you who haunt flea markets and shops that traffic in collectibles might even recognize them. They're all ‶Iroquois Casual China by Russel Wright,″ launched in 1946. The dinnerware was meant to make modern design accessible to the masses. A teacher or a cab driver could afford the dishes. Decades later, so could freelance writers. Antiques malls and flea markets yielded our collection of Iroquois Casual in four colors: Sugar White, Charcoal, Oyster, and what we think is probably Chartreuse. True to the original advertising, they've proven surprisingly durable. Wright has been a fixture in our home for years. When we learned...Read More

What a burger! Like the name says…

Posted on January 2, 2023December 21, 2022 by Pat

My friend Patti was incredulous when I told her that I had never eaten a Whataburger. For the uninitiated, that's the signature burger of the chain of the same name. It launched in Texas in 1950. As far as Patti is concerned, few, if any, burgers rival a Whataburger. She was born and raised in Texas, so I might have written off her enthusiasm as local pride. But we share a taste for really good hamburgers, so I was eager to give Whataburger a try when we visited San Antonio. From one burger stand in Corpus Christi, Whataburger now has outposts in 14 states, but none in New England. Transplanted Texans like Patti, who now lives in Whataburger-free Kentucky, often make the orange and white...Read More