Hungry Travelers - Page 19 of 82 - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

Timely ‘Soupology’ arrives as the weather cools

Posted on October 20, 2020October 17, 2020 by Pat and David

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

World on a Plate: Tybee Island boils

Posted on October 17, 2020October 16, 2020 by Pat and David

Even the alligators eat well at The Crab Shack (40 Estill Hammock Road, Tybee Island, Georgia; 912-786-9857, thecrabshack.com). The casual eatery seems to have evolved from a casual marina and even more casual beer store on Tybee Island, the laid-back, barefoot suburb of genteel Savannah. A barrier island backed by a stunning salt marsh, Tybee Island is literally a crab shell's throw away from the South Carolina-Georgia state line that cleaves the main channel of the Savannah River. Subtropical waters lap Tybee's shores, making it warm enough to go fishing or kayaking in the middle of the winter. Or to feast on the deck of The Crab Shack. This is Low Country cooking par excellence. The cuisine has strong elements of African dishes, a lot...Read More

Pastry can whisk you back to Paris

Posted on October 13, 2020October 12, 2020 by Pat and David

We love to visit Paris for the sales, for the museums, and for the sheer ambiance. But as long as we're being honest, we love to visit Paris for the patisseries. Small French pastries are always a highlight of any trip to the City of Light. Combine our love of French pastry with our longing for far-too-distant Paris, and Petite Patisserie couldn't have crossed our desk at a better time. It gives a shot at baking our way back into the Bois de Boulogne—or at least one of our favorite pastry shops in the Marais. Petite Patisserie: 180 Easy Recipes for Elegant French Treats by Christophe Felder and Camille Lesecq (Rizzoli, 2020, $45) is a 350-page guide to financiers, madeleines, Napoleons, petit fours, tartlets, and...Read More

World on a Plate: Pastitsio’s immigrant life as Cincinnati chili

Posted on October 10, 2020October 9, 2020 by Pat and David

In our last post, we ended our exploration of Greek cooking with a recipe for pastitsio, the hearty dish of layered meat sauce, noodles, and béchamel. As we made the cinnamon-laced meat sauce, we realized it tasted hauntingly familiar. We hadn't encountered in it Greece, but in Cincinnati at Camp Washington Chili (3005 Colerain Ave., Cincinnati; 513-541-0061; campwashingtonchili.com). It turns out that Cincinnati chili is actually a New World adaptation of Greek pastitsio. Greek immigrants opened the Empress restaurant in Cincinnati in 1922 and began serving the deconstructed pastitsio. It became such a huge hit that other restaurants run by Greek immigrants began making their own versions. Unless you are an aficionado, they all seem pretty similar, though Cincinnatians are always ready to debate the...Read More

Pastitsio ends our Greek sojourn with comfort fare

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Pat and David

Our nearly four-month exploration of Greek cuisine has netted us some dishes that we expect to stay in the rotation for years to come. Most rely on the goodness of fresh local produce, so we thought the arrival of autumn was an auspicious time to conclude our research. Frost is on the way, and outdoor grilling gets harder and harder as the temperature drops and darkness falls earlier and earlier. We decided that the best cool-weather Greek dish for us to perfect would not be any of the many variations of Greek lamb stews, but instead the dish sometimes called ‶Greek lasagna.″ A baked casserole, pastitsio contains layers of tubular noodles, a meat sauce, and a cheese-laden béchamel. While the tomatoes in the meat sauce...Read More

World on a Plate: Shrimp and grits

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Pat and David

Some dishes so speak of a region that they are touchstones of the local cuisine. In general, we think of shrimp and grits as quintessentially Southern. Let's face it—most Yankees can't tell grits, cornmeal, and polenta apart. More specifically, we think of shrimp and grits as a signature dish of the coasts of both Carolinas and Georgia. In the best possible scenario, the dish employs fresh shrimp just off the boat. But the wide availability of excellent flash-frozen shrimp has certainly spread the dish far from its origins. One of the most memorable versions we've had was prepared at the Lexington, Kentucky branch of Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse (101 West Vine St., Lexington, Ky.; 859-554-7000; jeffruby.com/lexington). The small regional chain originated in Cincinnati and has since...Read More

Apple of concord: a Greek cake for autumn

Posted on September 29, 2020September 23, 2020 by Pat and David

We've always thought of apples as the quintessential New England fruit brought from Old England. But apples lie at the heart of some of the best of the ancient Greek stories. Gods and humans alike coveted the golden apples that Gaia presented to Hera and Zeus as a wedding present. They were said to confer immortality and promised immunity to hunger, thirst, and illness. To cause trouble, the goddess of discord (Eris) stole an apple, inscribed it ‶to the fairest,″ and lobbed the Apple of Discord into the wedding crowd. Goddesses scrambled for it, arguing to whom it should belong. Paris was drafted to decide. In the Judgment of Paris, he awarded it to Aphrodite, who in turn awarded him Helen of Troy. Cue the...Read More

World on a Plate: couscous in Marrakech

Posted on September 25, 2020September 23, 2020 by Pat and David

If you're as crazy as we are for the melange of spices in ras el hanout, you're also probably equally fond of couscous and the various soups, or tagines, that accompany it. Couscous is treated like a grain, but it's actually a pasta made from semolina flour. We know that because one of us spent a significant amount of time rubbing and rubbing the granules with olive oil to ensure that the couscous would ‶steam up light as air,″ in the words of our teacher at Marrakech's Souk Cuisine Cooking School (soukcuisine.com). It was a cooking class that radically changed our cooking habits. In fact, that's the couscous we helped make pictured above. It happens to be with a tagine featuring pumpkin, sweet onions, carrots,...Read More

Branzino on the Weber—that’s Greek for fish

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Pat and David

Greeks consume about 43 pounds of fish per capita every year, roughly comparable to American consumption. The main difference is that Americans eat a lot of fried fish (calamari, clams, popcorn shrimp, fish filet sandwiches) and Greeks who can afford it favor fin fish. Part of making fish affordable is sustainable aquaculture. Greek aquaculture produces almost all of the world's supply of branzino. The European sea bass, which the French call loup de mer is also a restaurant staple from New York to San Francisco. It's the fish you'll probably get in Athens when you order whole fish—unless you get gilthead bream, another farmed fish. Above, the photo shows grilled seabream from a little street cafe just down Veikou from our rental apartment. It's simply...Read More

World on a Plate: beet salad in Jordan, Ontario

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Pat and David

As harvest season bears down on us here in northeastern North America, we're reminded of some of the great dishes we enjoyed during visits to the wine country of Ontario's Niagara Peninsula. Beets are popping up in all colors at our Cambridge, Massachusetts farmers markets, and they only make us hanker for the beet salad (shown above) that we enjoyed at On the Twenty (3845 Main St., Jordan, ON; 905-562-5336, vintage-hotels.com/inn-on-the-twenty/dining-experience/) in Jordan Village, Ontario. The restaurant is part of Inn on the Twenty, the classy getaway hotel across the street. It's part of the Vintage Hotels group, which emphasizes luxury stays in Niagara wine country. We are happy to note that On the Twenty restaurant was able to reopen for patio and indoor dining...Read More