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 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 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 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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