Hungry Travelers - Page 16 of 82 - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Icelandic sea salt explodes flavors of summer favorites

Posted on August 29, 2021August 29, 2021 by Pat and David

We had planned to be in Iceland about now—until the late summer flareup of the novel coronavirus. We had hoped to go to Reykjanesi way up in the northwest quarter of Iceland called Westfjords. The plan was to visit the Saltverk (saltverk.com) facility there, founded in 2011 by Björn Jónsson and Gísli Grímsson. (If you caught the Iceland segment in season three of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, it's Gísli who shows the Scottish chef around.) Sea salt harvesting has a long history in the Westfjords, where the king of Denmark established a saltworks in the late 18th century. It used geothermal energy, since Iceland is basically one craggy cap on a rift in the earth that leaks hot water, steam, and sometimes lava. The Danes needed...Read More

Artifact Cider hits Central Square with delicious splash

Posted on July 24, 2021July 25, 2021 by Pat and David

In hindsight, Artifact Cider was inevitable. Hard cider, after all, has been a New England thing since the first Brits invaded the region in 1620. Combine the boom in craft brewing with the availability of great historic cider apples in western New England and it leaves us wondering, Why didn't it happen sooner? Rachel Bennett, Head Storyteller for Artifact, presents a cider tasting board The folks at Artifact aim to update the tradition of New England cider-making for modern tastes. They approach that mission with the verve of winemakers seeking to create a range of different beverages to appeal to different palates and to pair with different foods. They treat apples in much the same way winemakers treat different grapes. Thanks to preservationists and enthusiasts,...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

Perfect BLT substitutes lobster for lettuce

Posted on June 28, 2021June 28, 2021 by Pat and David

We just returned from a Maine sojourn, where we observed first-hand two of the most-talked-about phenomena of this summer. National park mania was on full display at Acadia National Park. The massive parking lot at Hulls Cove Visitors Center was jammed. Island Explorer buses whisked in and out of the lot every few minutes, carrying tourists to spots throughout the park and into downtown Bar Harbor. It was a model of efficient crowd management. It was also good to see the National Park system collecting much-needed fees. Wherever we went in Maine, we also observed rampant lobster roll fever. We're finally into the season when freshly caught lobster is abundant. Most Gulf of Maine lobsters haven't molted yet, so the meat remains firm and sweet....Read More

Imagining a legendary dinner with Monet at Giverny

Posted on June 19, 2021June 18, 2021 by Pat and David

Long before there was Instagram, there was Claude Monet. His 1883 painting of peaches could make any art lover's mouth water. The only things Monet loved as much as painting were his family and his meals. Once he tasted Yorkshire pudding at the Savoy Hotel in London, he badgered his cook Marguerite until she could replicate the version. But mostly he indulged in fresh vegetables, many of which he grew in the gardens of Giverny. (‶I am good for nothing but painting or gardening,″ he reportedly quipped.) Monet is just one of the celebrities featured in Legendary Dinners: From Grace Kelly to Jackson Pollock edited by Anne Peterson (Prestel 2021, $40). Dinner guests ranged from painter Paul Cezanne to novelist Guy de Maupassant to the...Read More

‘Legendary Dinners’ comes just in time to entertain

Posted on June 16, 2021June 16, 2021 by Pat and David

We live in one of the most well-vaccinated corners of the world (New England), and that has utterly transformed this summer over the isolation of last year. Not only can we get out and travel, we can have friends over and get reacquainted with the full-length versions rather than the Zoom-screen head and shoulders. So we were very happy to page through Legendary Dinners: From Grace Kelly to Jackson Pollock edited by Anne Peterson (Prestel 2021, $40). It's a literary chimera—half coffee table book about the rich and famous and half surprisingly practical cookbook. Think of it as a mashup of Town & Country and Bon Appétit. The volume is full of tales of the rich and famous. We rubbed shoulders with Coco Chanel, imagined...Read More

When the world reopens with a lobster roll

Posted on June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 by Pat and David

It was a glorious June day with bright sunshine, surf crashing on the ledges, roses blooming profusely on the shore, and the iconic Cape Elizabeth Light (aka Two Lights) winking over our shoulders as we sat down to our first Maine lobster roll of the year. Make that our first since 2019. Since we live in Massachusetts, Maine barred us from crossing the border until recently. But we were chasing a story that took us to the slate shoreline at the southern entrance to Casco Bay. When lunchtime rolled around, the Lobster Shack at Two Lights (lobstershacktwolights.com) was right there. The lobster roll was ‶market price,″ which translated to roughly $20. No matter, we were in heaven. A brief rant interrupts this idyll As we're...Read More

Touring the eastern Mediterranean, one tasty plate at a time

Posted on May 28, 2021May 28, 2021 by Pat and David

Alexandria, Egypt - Photo by Patricia Niven The new book Chasing Smoke: Cooking over fire around the Levant by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich (Pavilion, $35) poses an organizational dilemma for us. Do we file it with our cookbooks—or with the shelves of travel reference? The authors grew up in Haifa and Jerusalem but their home grill, as they put it, radiates from the acclaimed Honey & Smoke restaurant (216 Great Portland Street, London, UK; +44-20-7388-6175; honeyandco.co.uk). It's an extension of their original traditional Middle Eastern eatery in London, Honey & Co. This book is essentially a food diary of their travels in the eastern Mediterranean—Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Greece, Turkey and other points. We don't know whether to swoon more over Patricia Niven's photographs of...Read More

As the mercury rises, time for appetites to chill

Posted on May 19, 2021May 19, 2021 by Pat and David

We confess that when we saw advance copy on Eat Cool: Good Food for Hot Days (Rizzoli $39.95) back in February, we were more inclined to stews, braises, roasts, and similar rib-sticking fare for a frigid Boston. Then the mercury began to climb into the 80s and the humidity started to rise from comfortable to steamy to downright tropical. Suddenly Eat Cool sounded downright enthralling. The sub-subtitle of the book said exactly what we wanted to hear: ‶100 easy, satisfying and refreshing recipes that won't heat up your kitchen.″ Author Vanessa Seder is a chef and cooking teacher with a bent toward simple family-friendly recipes that look more labor-intensive than they are. She gives a lot of straight-from-the-shoulder advice about technique, too. Best of all,...Read More

Journey to Sicily with pasta alla Norma

Posted on April 17, 2021April 17, 2021 by Pat and David

Somehow it seemed fitting that Stanley Tucci's quick survey of Italian cooking on CNN concluded in Sicily, a rugged land with overlays of Greek, Arab, and even Norman traditions. Because so many sons and daughters of the island emigrated to the U.S., Sicilian cooking became the departure point for many Italian-American dishes. Admittedly, American Italians show a penchant for piling on the cheese. Order eggplant parm in the U.S., and the hearty dish will probably have more ricotta and mozzarella than eggplant. Yet the original Sicilian cuisine is the model of a healthy Mediterranean diet. It emphasizes fresh vegetables—Sicily supplies the rest of Italy with winter produce—and goes light on the animal protein. Yes, many dishes are fried, but they're fried in extra virgin olive...Read More