Posted in British, cucumber, England, Europe, fish, German, healthy, history, holiday, holidays, Iceland, Jewish, salami, salmon, salt, smoking, tradition, vodka on Dec 24th, 2012
A typical Sunday morning (or afternoon depending on what time they crawl out of bed) for a New Yorker involves brunch. And what, perhaps, characterizes brunch in New York more than anything else is bagels, cream cheese and lox. However, few, if any, New Yorkers, I would guess, think about lox very much, probably because [...]
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Posted in African, appetizer, castille, chile, Garlic, herbs, history, Meat, Mexican, Olive Oil, pepper, peppers, pimenton, pinchos, pork, racione, Spain, tapas, thyme, tradition, travel on Jun 6th, 2012
St. George, the patron saint of England, whose plucky, dragon-slaying derring-do is taken as emblematic of the English spirit, far from being a native of the British Isles, or for that matter, far from ever having come close to visiting them, was actually an adventurous squire of the modern-day country of Georgia who lived around [...]
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Posted in Beach, Garlic, history, Olive Oil, olives, onions, oregano, Puerto Rican, rice, side dish, tradition, travel on May 3rd, 2012
Named for the grandson of Puerto Rico’s first governor, the southern city of Ponce is blessed with appropriately distinguished architecture. The equal of few in the Americas, it is a delightful surprise for the visitor. That conquering Americans were responsible for the preservation of the city’s historic district is equally surprising.
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Posted in America, Beach, Caribbean, cilantro, fish, fried, fritters, history, octopus, patriotism, Puerto Rican, pulpo, restaurant, Restaurant Review, South America, tourism, tradition, travel on Mar 20th, 2012
Conventional wisdom dictates that one should never eat at an empty restaurant, especially early in the week, but if there is absolutely nowhere else open and you have no choice, do yourself a favor and avoid the seafood. Happily, Vieques, a 55-square mile island off the east end of Puerto Rico, and former bombing range [...]
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Posted in alcohol, alcoholic drink, almond, Garlic, history, pork, sauce, sherry, Spain, tradition, travel on Feb 25th, 2012
With wine there is probably more room for personal interpretation and opinion than in any other area of gastronomy. The sheer variety of wines available from across the globe encourages this, but the reputation of the wine connoisseur and his often ridiculous descriptions of the perfumes to be nosed out of the glass makes wine-tasting [...]
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Posted in alcohol, baking, British, butter, Christmas, culture, custard, Delia Smith, dessert, easy, England, festival, festivals, fruit, history, holiday, holidays, nuts, spices, tradition, winter on Jan 2nd, 2012
Most Brits associate mincemeat with Christmas – its intoxicating mix of fruit, spices, booze, nuts and mixed peel provide Pavlovian stimuli, stirring memories of cherubic choirs a-caroling, roasted poultry, and the Queen’s speech – whereas I associate it with Easter, because it was always around then that we finally ran out of mince pies. I [...]
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Posted in beans, British, cognac, easy, family, fennel, fish, France, Garlic, history, Manchester, Provencal, Provence, spicy, white fish on Dec 3rd, 2011
I’m not very old, but for much of my youth in the north west of England, it was almost impossible to find fresh foods that weren’t local. Today such a statement seems like an echo of Victorian times, but, literally, that’s how it was until a supermarket was built behind the Knutsford courthouse in the [...]
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Posted in butter, cheap meal, France, French, game, Garlic, history, lemon, offal, parsley, pigs, pork, Potato, shanks, slow cooking, tourism, tradition, travel, trotter on Oct 4th, 2011
The largely unknown city of Compiegne, France, has the distinction of being the site of one of Louis XV’s most extravagant homes away from home. Under him, the Chateau de Compiegne became one of three distinctly opulent seats of government alongside Versailles and Fontainbleau. The latter French monarchs were hardly known for their desire to [...]
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Posted in almond, anchovies, anise, bucatini, culture, fennel, Garlic, history, Italian, Italy, Olive Oil, Pasta, saffron, Sicilian, tradition, wine on Apr 5th, 2011
Greeks, Romans, Moors, Normans, Spaniards, Garibaldi and his thousand, and finally hordes of tourists have visited Sicily over the milennia. Some stayed for centuries, some only for generations, but even those whose sojourn was comparatively brief played a role in the island’s blending of cultures and traditions. If this human concoction can be distilled into [...]
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Posted in America, Brooklyn, cafe, history, Italian, Italian-American, meatballs, octopus, offal, Park Slope, pulpo, restaurant, Restaurant Review, ricotta, tradition on Mar 18th, 2011
When you think of old-style Italian-American restaurants does red sauce spring to mind? Red check wax table cloths, family-style servings, a free salad with your entree, rotund red-faced guys with their sleeves rolled-up, going “ey!” and slapping each other on the back? Sure, it’s a cliché, but it’s also close to the truth in a [...]
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Posted in America, Asturias, beans, cabrales, Chorizo, cocido, fabada, Garlic, history, Meat, morcilla, Olive Oil, paprika, pimenton, pork, saffron, tradition, travel on Mar 11th, 2011
Almost seven years ago I journeyed from Santillana del Mar to Santa Maria de Lebaña via San Vicente de la Barquera. So many saints, so much devotion, that it was little surprise to learn that beyond the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana and through the Picos de Europe lies the hallowed ground of Covadonga. [...]
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Posted in appetizer, Barcelona, fried, Garlic, ham, history, Madrid, pimenton, pinchos, pintxos, Potato, prosciutto, racione, side dish, Spain, spicy, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel on Nov 17th, 2010
Towards the end of what is, in my opinion, his finest work, Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell tells of the bitter street fighting he witnessed in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War when the delicate alliance between communist, socialist, and anarchist factions of the Republican army finally collapsed. While certainly not the bloodiest scene in [...]
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