Hungry Travelers - Page 12 of 82 - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Come on into my kitchen: food in Valencian tiles

Posted on April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 by Pat and David

We've always had a soft spot for Spanish tiles. Ever since our first visit to Madrid's decorative arts museum, our Platonic ideal of a kitchen has been the museum's 18th century tiled kitchen from Valencia. That was until we came to spend some extended time in Valencia. Many parts of Spain have ceramic traditions, some dating back to Roman Hispania. (Sevilla sisters Justa and Rufina were martyred in the 2nd century for refusing to make ceramics for a pagan festival.) The Moors brought their own pottery traditions with them and the Spaniards kept soaking up the influences like sponges. The Valencia region—especially the village of Manises—reached its ceramic apogee in the 17th–20th centuries. Now a neighborhood of Valencia on the airport Metro line, Manises still...Read More

Going to the source at the Albufera

Posted on April 20, 2022April 20, 2022 by Pat and David

We thought maybe we'd had our fill of rice dishes for a while once Tastarròs concluded. True, but we had not had our fill of Valencia's natural attractions. The rice-growing village of El Palmar, just six miles south of the city on the #24 bus (emtvalencia.es), sits on the shore of the Albufera. That's the Arabic name for a big, shallow lake that was once a saltwater lagoon. Judging by the prevalence of Phragmites reeds on the shores and in small reed islands, the lake still gets some saltwater inundation. Several kinds of ducks, bitterns, egrets, and herons use the reeds for shelter. Some local residents thatch their roofs with reeds. The lake teems with eels, bream, and mullet. Hm-m-m-m … rice and fish. Sounds...Read More

Monas de Pascua are edible Easter treats

Posted on April 17, 2022April 16, 2022 by Pat and David

We both grew up with the American tradition of Easter baskets—baskets with cellophane “grass” that were filled—ostensibly, by the Easter bunny—with candy. Easter after church was always the time for kids to spoil their appetites by gorging on jelly beans, chocolate eggs, and marshmallow peeps. (For our European readers, “peeps” are small yellow chicks made of marshmallow.) Here in Valencia, the tradition is a little different. The mona de Pascua is a baked Easter sweet bread with a decorated hard-boiled egg on top. Some sources call it a cake, but the texture is very much like a sweet brioche. In recent years, the hard-boiled egg has been widely replaced by a Kinder chocolate egg, and many bakeries (like the one at the bottom of this...Read More

Learning about all the Valencian rice dishes

Posted on April 14, 2022April 12, 2022 by Pat and David

Just walking around the Tastarròs festival provides an education in the astonishing variety of Valencian rice dishes. By far, the bulk of them are cooked in the wide, flat pans that we tend to associate with paella. In fact, the pan is called una paellera. The photo sequence above shows the first steps in making a paella. The paellas range in color from a ruddy yellow to deep red. Here is celebrity chef Santi Garrido of La Pepa Bluespace (lapepabluespace.com/) serving his arroz rojo de carabineros, which had eager diners lined up in a queue that stretched halfway around the plaza. Part of the appeal was his fame (he's a Valencian culinary rock star) and partly that he was using the huge red prawns (carabineros)...Read More

Empanadas make the handiest of lunches

Posted on April 12, 2022April 12, 2022 by Pat and David

When we first started writing guidebooks to Spain, we had so much ground to cover that we never had time for the two-hour midday lunch. Fortunately, we quickly discovered that most bread bakeries made great turnovers with various savory fillings. An empanada or two of tuna, ground beef and onions, or ham and cheese could keep us going all afternoon. We have more time now, but we still love empanadas. Moreover, they help with balancing the food budget since some cost just over a euro each. Here in Valencia, we've discovered a couple of stalls in the Mercado Central that offer tasty empanadas at a good price. We usually go to Pan Estelles (bottom of the post on the right) for their excellent French bread....Read More

Tastarròs, when the city plaza is a giant cookout

Posted on April 11, 2022April 11, 2022 by Pat and David

We're not quite sure what people like most about Tastarròs. Without a doubt, they love the opportunity to sample a whole range of rice dishes from some of the city's and region's best chefs. They also welcome the opportunity to rub elbows. Maybe all the more so after two years of quarantines and mask regulations. As a people, Spaniards are about as social as any nationality on earth. They are in their element in a crowd of other Spaniards eating and drinking. (No wonder we feel at home here!) The organization of the ticketing system is quite good. Instead of fumbling to pay at each table, participants line up and purchase color-coded tickets. Rice dishes were €4, wine and beer €1 and €1.5, respectively. Appropriately...Read More

Tastarròs toasts Valencia’s gastronomic heritage

Posted on April 8, 2022April 8, 2022 by Pat and David

Once in a while, we have perfect timing by accident. One year, when we arrived in Spain to research a new guidebook, we stumbled into the Trujillo National Cheese Festival in Extremadura. Us and 10,000 or so Spaniards. When we landed in Valencia on a Friday this year, we had just enough time to shake off our jet lag before Tastarròs began the next day. Spaniards rarely miss a chance to throw a party, and when they can combine the party with the celebration of some kind of food—all the better. “Tastarròs” is a Valencian word that translates more or less as “taste of rice.” The rices of Valencia have protected status in the European Union and are considered part of the region's heritage. The...Read More

Lost in Valencia’s cathedral of food

Posted on April 6, 2022April 6, 2022 by Pat and David

When we stepped into the Mercado Central in Valencia, the first thing we did was to plan where we'd meet when we got separated. We're really not as direction-challenged as that might sound. It's hard to imagine – even when you're standing inside – but the market has a remarkable 929 stalls covering roughly two acres. It's pretty easy to lose your bearings. The market is not only one of the largest in Europe. It's arguably one of the most beautiful. We decided that we would rendezvous at the spot that we couldn't miss: the central dome where the nave and apse of this gastronomic cathedral cross. Rising above the angular arches of the roofline like a tunnel to the sky, the dome is the...Read More

Back to Spain – and the great Valencia market

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

Since flying back from Paris in early February 2020, we basically stayed home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the last two years, we got fully vaccinated and boosted, washed our hands raw, and wore KN95 masks everywhere except in open spaces. We continued to test negative after a few close exposures to COVID-19, so all the precautions seemed to be working. (Fingers crossed.) It was time to return to Europe. As soon as we began looking for an apartment in Spain, one jumped out at us. It was in Valencia (visitvalencia.com), a city we wanted to know better but where we had already discovered that the food was fantastic. When we saw a spacious one-bedroom literally across the street from the Mercado Central, we leapt at...Read More

Tortilla soup: Mexico’s world class comfort bowl

Posted on March 26, 2022March 23, 2022 by Pat and David

Because our trips to Mexico have mostly focused on the central highlands, we've been acquainted with tortilla soup as long as we've been going to Mexico. You might find it in some coastal resorts, but it's primarily a staple of the inland Mexican cities. We can't count how many different versions we've eaten over the years. Sometimes the soup is gussied up with fresh chopped herbs, cubes of avocado, or diced hard-boiled egg. Often it is simply thin chicken broth thickened with fried tortilla strips. But we've never eaten a bad version of tortilla soup. Sitting in a small back room or under the arcade (as in Morelia, above), tortilla soup makes a dependably tasty and economical lunch. Over the years, we've perfected a version...Read More