Posted in Autumn, beans, Castilla y Léon, Castilla-La Mancha, Castillano, castille, Chorizo, Europe, French, history, Madrid, Meat, pigs, pork, Restaurant Review, Segovia, soup, Spain, suckling pig, sweetbreads, tourism, tradition, travel, Uncategorized, unhealthy on Mar 24th, 2016
It must go down among the biggest porkies a man ever told a woman – right after Christopher Columbus telling his mother he wouldn’t be long; he and a few friends were just taking their boats out for a spin. And, never has the term “farm”* been used more euphemistically than when Felipe V of […]
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Posted in appetizer, bacon, brains, bread, breadcrumbs, Castilla-La Mancha, Castillano, castille, cheap meal, Chorizo, cumin, easy, Garlic, hearty, manchego, offal, peppers, pigs, racione, Restaurant Review, Spain, Spanish, tourism, tradition, travel, trotter, unhealthy on Feb 16th, 2016
“The pen is the tongue of the mind.” – Don Quixote de La Mancha I have been told that the Inuit have more than 30 words for snow and a similar number of descriptors for the myriad tones of white, blue and grey that color their environment. If desert-dwelling Arabs had a similarly nuanced vocabulary […]
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Posted in Castilla y Léon, Castillano, castille, Chorizo, Fall, Madrid, Meat, morcilla, octopus, offal, pigs, pork, pulpo, racione, Restaurant Review, Segovia, Spain, Spanish, suckling pig, tourism, tradition, travel on Jan 4th, 2016
Five years in the making, and after at least six months’ meticulous planning, this was not an auspicious start. Within twenty minutes of claiming our luggage off the futuristically-plastic baggage carousel at Madrid-Barajas, and after spending the few coins we brought with us on a pair of sorely-needed cortados, we stood, incredulous and cash-less, in […]
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Posted in alcoholic drink, breadcrumbs, eastern europe, Europe, hearty, Meat, paprika, pigs, Poland, pork, Potato, slovakia on Apr 13th, 2013
“A smooth sea never a skilled mariner made.” – English proverb In the summer of 1997, two friends and I decided it would be a hoot to spend six weeks visiting a variety of countries that had recently emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. It turned out to be rather more of a hoot than […]
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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 pigs, pork, top five on Feb 7th, 2009
I think in this case, the real winner here is the almighty pig. There is nothing not delicious about this animal. From its ears to its snout to its lovely trotters, every single bit of this animal is edible and useable. Pig is the number one reason I would never, ever be able to go […]
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Posted in bacon, chicharron, chops, Chorizo, guanciale, ham, iberico, jamon, Meat, pancetta, Pernil, pigs, pork, salami, sausage, soppressata on Jan 25th, 2009
Anyone who takes even the briefest glance at our body of work on this blog cannot fail to notice that we have a definite proclivity towards the porcine, and so it is that this top five is perhaps the most hotly contested monthly selection thus far. The pig is, in our humble opinion, the greatest […]
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Posted in America, chops, gravy, Italian, Italian-American, Meat, New Jersey, offal, Pasta, Philadelphia, pigs, Recipe, Recipes, sauce, sausage, slow cooking, trotter, unhealthy on Jan 19th, 2009
They (we) call it a Sunday Gravy because it really suits a Sunday best. The long simmering, the wine drinking, the letting-it-sit-on-the-stove-till-the-family-arrives kind of gravy. Thanks to the Sopranos, people all over the world have heard of Sunday Gravy. Some scratch their heads in wonder as to why some call it sauce and others call […]
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Posted in animals, British, dining, duck, eating, England, family, Fergus Henderson, Food Commentary, Gabrielle Hamilton, holiday, London, lunch, mutton, parsley, pigs, podcast, Prune, restaurant, Restaurant Review, tourism, travel, trotter on Dec 3rd, 2008
Since Amy and I have been together I think we’ve only spent two Thanksgivings in America – not because we don’t enjoy turkey, but because it is often the cheapest time of the year to leave the country as many expat Americans are returning home. And true to form, this year, despite a sizable delay […]
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Posted in acorns, balsamico, delicacy, Emilia Romagna, indulgent meal, Italian, Italy, lard, lardo, Modena, pigs, Pizza, Recipe, rosemary, salami, tourism, travel, Tuscan, unhealthy, vinegar on Nov 7th, 2008
Have you ever eaten something so fabulous, so lucious, so decadent that you almost felt the need to run to confession (to confess your indulgent food “sins”), say three Hail Mary’s (that’s for you Catholics out there) and pray really hard that you can zip your jeans up again? Ok, a bit exaggerated, but looking […]
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Posted in alligator, America, blood, boudin, braised, Cajun, Canada, corn, eating, Food Commentary, French, grilled, hominy, lentils, Louisiana, offal, pigs, Recipe, Recipes, sausage, shrimp, tradition, unhealthy on Aug 28th, 2008
A few months ago I was contacted by a representative of a site called cajungrocer.com. He offered to send us some Cajun treats if we would do a bit of a write-up on their products. Well, what else could I say but “Hell YEAH!”. We had our choice to sample crayfish, turducken or boudin. It […]
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Posted in acorns, anchovies, appetizer, bread, culture, delicacy, easy, Europe, Garlic, grilled, grilling, ham, holiday, iberico, jamon, Madrid, pigs, pinchos, piquillo peppers, racione, Recipe, Recipes, Spain, tapas, tomato, tourism, tradition, travel on Jul 18th, 2008
Not long ago our good friend Nuria at Recipes Pic by Pic offered to do a food exchange with us, knowing both how obsessed we are with Spanish food and their comparative scarcity over here in the States. In return she asked that we send her some typical American products of our choice as well […]
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Posted in America, cheap meal, cornmeal, culture, Food Commentary, ground meat, indulgent meal, offal, pigs, pork, quick meal, unhealthy on Mar 16th, 2008
Ok, so I’m a little bit gross this last Sunday of Lent asking you, dear readers, to not “pork this roll”. I’ll pray extra hard next weekend that I’m not damned to hell (even though I’m on my way anyways). I thought I’d spend a moment to introduce all our readers to a bit of […]
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Posted in alcohol, alcoholic drink, appetizer, Asturias, beans, beverage, blood, chops, Chorizo, embarrassment, Europe, fabada, Food Commentary, indulgent meal, lunch, Madrid, morcilla, offal, pigs, pork, sausage, Spain, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, unhealthy on Mar 7th, 2008
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” – William Blake Have you ever thought, as you sit red-faced, breathing shallowly, “just… one… more… bite”? Have you ever then taken that extra bite and thought to yourself — in your blood-starved brain — “maybe, after all, I could manage another one”? And, finally, […]
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Posted in acorns, Castillano, castille, delicacy, ham, healthy, history, holiday, iberico, important details, jamon, language, Madrid, pigs, pork, racione, serrano, Spain, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel on Feb 5th, 2008
Penelope Cruz’s “break-out” film was a lusty, comedic tale called Jamon, Jamon in which one of her suitors tells her that her breasts taste like serrano ham. Throughout the film (in which Cruz frequently appears partially clothed) there are many shots of legs of jamon serrano and iberico hanging in store windows, and the film […]
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Posted in Europe, Food Commentary, grilled, indulgent meal, Madrid, offal, pigs, pinchos, pintxos, pork, Spain, spicy, tapas, tourism, tradition, travel, tripe, unhealthy on Jan 26th, 2008
As my wife accurately put it in her post of the other day, we ate a lot of interesting tapas during our time in Madrid. Several of these are specialities of the city and cannot be found elsewhere. We felt it our duty then, to give at least some of them a try. Long-term readers […]
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