Hungry Travelers - Page 10 of 82 - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Mei Mei chef Irene Li is double awesome herself

Posted on November 4, 2022November 4, 2022 by Pat and David

For our readers not from the Greater Boston area, Irene Li and her siblings are the force behind the Mei Mei food truck and (now closed) Mei Mei Dumpling House (meimeidumplings.com). They're also the authors of one of the best cookbooks to hit the shelves just before the pandemic shut down the world. It's called Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen. The ‶double awesome″ refers to Mei Mei's signature scallion pancake sandwich. Two flaky scallion pancakes spread with a little basil pesto enclose some cheddar cheese and two oozing eggs. The Double Awesome comes with spicy ketchup on the side for dipping. The name says it all. Part of what we love about the dish is that it...Read More

What to eat at the Málaga airport (AGP)

Posted on October 26, 2022October 20, 2022 by Pat and David

Many of Spain's leading chefs have a way of remembering their roots — and wanting to appeal to a wider audience. It could be a financial stretch to feast at the French dining room Babette or the grill house Leña, both at Puente Romana resort in Marbella. But you can at least get a taste of star chef Dani García's cuisine at the airport. BiBo Dani García (+34 607 528 879) is open every day from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. in the passenger-only zone of the first floor departures area at Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP). We've been following García since his first high profile job leading the kitchen at Tragabuches in Ronda. That was literally decades ago, but he's always remained a champion...Read More

Table wines return to the Málaga region

Posted on October 23, 2022October 20, 2022 by Pat and David

There' s a quiet wine revolution brewing in the Axarquía hills between Málaga and Nerja along Spain's southern coast. And it's based on a grape that either the Greeks or the Carthaginians brought here roughly 3,000 years ago. Locals call it Moscatel de Alejandría, though much of the international wine industry knows the grape as Muscat of Alexandria. North African in origin, it requires an incredibly dry climate because the grapes are very prone to mold. That makes it perfect for the mountains just inland from the Málaga coast. It's usually associated with dessert wines. But Moscatel can be coaxed to produce a delicious table wine. Just ask Clara Verheij, the winemaker at Bodegas Bentomiz (Finca El Almendro, Pago Cuesta Robano, Sayalonga; +34 633 049...Read More

Chiringuitos champion fresh fish of the Costa del Sol

Posted on October 19, 2022October 14, 2022 by Pat and David

We sing the song of chiringuitos. They are the kitchens of summer along the Costa del Sol. When the sun shines and Spaniards and tourists alike bask in the light, chiringuitos are ready to feed you at the end of day. Historically, a chiringuito was a casual beach bar, maybe even a makeshift operation. But from Marbella east to Málaga, they have evolved into permanent structures that line the beach. One of our favorites in Torremolinos is Restaurante Los Pescadores Playa (Paseo Marítimo Bajondillo, R5, Torremolinos; +34 95 205 83 37; lospescadoresplaya.es). The photo at the top of the post shows a slice of the indoor dining room at the midday meal on a Sunday. When we're looking for a good restaurant for dinner, we...Read More

The elegant simplicity of fish on a stick

Posted on October 14, 2022October 14, 2022 by Pat and David

We spent a good part of last month in Spain working on a book update. That's our excuse for the lapse in posting here. This trip involved an extended stay in Málaga. It was the perfect time to get reacquainted with the fish of the Costa del Sol — and with the delights of eating on the beach. The photo above shows the espartero of Restaurante Andrés Maricuchi (Paseo Marítimo el Pedregal, 14, Málaga; +34 952 20 06 12; andresmaricuchi.com). He's broiling fish on a stake against wood coals burning in a rowboat filled with sand on Pedregalejo beach. To be specific, he's broiling sardines because that's we ordered just minutes before. Maricuchi is one of a long line of beach restaurants in this former...Read More

Clean-crafted wines show their mettle

Posted on September 6, 2022August 31, 2022 by Pat and David

We're suspicious of food or drink that purports to have certain health benefits. The recent boom in ‶clean wine″ is a case in point. From the marketing, we expect every low-fat vegan bottle to arrive rolled up in a yoga mat. That's not wine. But in the world of clean wine, there's a refreshing alternative that seems well-grounded in both taste and science. Scout & Cellar (scoutandcellar.com) is a 5-year-old company that makes and markets wine that comes with what they call a Clean Crafted Commitment®. It's their registered trademark. They apply it to wine that's grown with no synthetic pesticides, vinified without synthetic additives or added sweetener, then lab tested after bottling to confirm that nothing untoward snuck in. Many of the wines carry...Read More

Putting Wisconsin prizewinners on the cheese board

Posted on August 30, 2022August 30, 2022 by Pat and David

We hail from New England, home of some of the finest artisanal cheeses in America. But our whole region can't begin to compete with Wisconsin. That state has 1,200 licensed cheesemakers who produce more than 600 varieties of cheese. They convert 90 percent of the state's milk into cheese, accounting for half the specialty cheese production in the United States. Moreover, Wisconsin has a three-year certification program for Master Cheesemakers, who must already have a decade of experience making cheese. Once certified, they can place a distinctive blue Master’s Mark® on their products, indicating that they have supervised each step of the process. So maybe it's not a surprise that Wisconsin did so well in the last round of the American Cheese Society awards. Our...Read More

Wisconsin triumphed in American Cheese Society awards

Posted on August 15, 2022August 15, 2022 by Pat and David

As one of America's big dairy states, Wisconsin takes special pride in its cheeses. Even the fans of the Green Bay Packers NFL football team call themselves ‶cheeseheads.″ They wear ridiculous hats that look a bit like a Swiss cheese, complete with plenty of holes in their heads. The cheese industry's promotional arm brags that the state makes ‶more flavors, varieties, and styles of cheese than anywhere else in the world.″ We do wish that Wisconsin cheese companies wouldn't appropriate cheese names that obviously belong to other places in the world. Wisconsin parmesan, for example, is a fine grating and flaking cheese in its own right. If it were called something else, it wouldn't invite comparison to Parmigiano-Reggiano, to which it displays only a distant...Read More

Banks Fish House throws some kind of birthday party

Posted on August 5, 2022August 5, 2022 by Pat and David

It's been a harrowing couple of years in the restaurant trade here in Greater Boston. As we've been watching this summer on Hulu's ‶The Bear,″ small restaurants struggle to keep their heads above water in the best of times. During pandemic shutdowns, the waves got too choppy and many of them sank. One such casualty was the Post 390 chop house in Boston, a friendly spot with a great wine list and bar program that lasted for a decade. But last summer, the owners gave the space new life by opening The Banks Fish House (406 Stuart St, Boston, 617-399-0015, thebanksboston.com). For us, it became the new upscale answer to the question we receive most from out-of-towners: Where do I go for good fish in...Read More

‘Serafina’ capitalizes on tender summer harvests

Posted on July 16, 2022July 8, 2022 by Pat and David

How this cookbook would have made the late Tony May smile! The champion of Italian food in America always insisted that Italian cuisine had been emphasizing fresh ingredients centuries before the farm-to-table fad. The Italian penchant for combining a few terrific fresh ingredients to make a dish underlies Serafina: Modern Italian Cuisine for Everyday Home Cooking by Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato, text by Lavinia Branca Snyder (Rizzoli, New York, 2022, $39.95). Of course, a good origin story never hurts. Assaf and Granato were lost at sea in a small sailboat. They comforted each other by vowing that if they survived, they'd open a restaurant serving the best pizza and pasta in the world. And so they did, launching Serafina in New York in 1995....Read More