This is a recipe for garlic soup, sopa de ajo – a classic Basque and western Spain dish. Basque housewives believe in “waste not, want not” so this is an excellent and very tasty way to use (and not waste) old bread!
I receive many sample wine bottles so that I can taste and review the wines. I recently received a few “second wine” samples and that reminded me that I had a few older ones in my cellar that I had purchased in the past, which I had never tasted. So I uncorked one of them.
One of the best American New York City-based chefs, David Boulay, passed away February 12, 2024 from a heart attack.
Yes… keeping a respectful distance, I spoke with a sea lion (the Southern cousin of the walrus) during our recent Antarctica trip on board Quark Expeditions’ Ultramarine, an expedition vessel plying the waters of the Beagle Channel and the Drake Passage at the tip of Argentinean Patagonia, the Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn, and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Risotto alla Milanese is a classic dish from Lombardy in northern Italy. Making risotto the right way may seem like an intimidating undertaking, but with the right ingredients and technique, it’s a dish that’s easy to master and well worth the effort.
One of my favorite dishes is “Imam Bayildi,” a classic Ottoman dish traditionally cooked using Italian eggplant in Turkey and long (Asian) eggplant in Greece with plenty of olive oil. It is an integral part of both Turkish and Greek gastronomy, with variants in Lebanese and Egyptian cookery.
North Staffordshire is the heart of the celebrated English pottery industry. The decorative European porcelain industry started in the late 16th century when traders traveling the Silk Road brought back decorated porcelains mostly from Cathay (China) to grace the palaces and tables of royal houses and European aristocracy.
The Peninsula, the “Grand Dame of the Far East,” is one of the world’s legendary hotels with an atmosphere of unmatched grandeur and timeless elegance. Completely renovated and refurbished, it has kept the elegance of a bygone era and the tradition of service excellence and combined them with the most up-to-date technological innovations.
The story of wine is as old as civilization itself. Most evidence points to Georgia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia, or even China, where literary mentions of what sounds like wine are found in ancient manuscripts, as well as modern archaeological finds. While the hows of neolithic wine production are still a mystery, what seem to be wine traces have been analyzed on neolithic tools where chemicals found in wine were discovered.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this restaurant is the world’s oldest continuously operating eating establishment. Tucked into the street of the Cuchilleros, i.e. the Knifemakers, just a stone’s throw off Plaza Mayor, Sobrino de Botín (the name means Botín’s Nephew) is a famous Madrileño restaurant that I’m very fond of. I try to eat there every time I’m in Madrid.
One of the tastier traditional French soups is the Vichyssoise. It is a thick and creamy puréed potato and leek soup in chicken stock, mixed with heavy cream or other thick dairy product (sour cream or even drained yogurt). It can be delicious either cold – the classic version – or warm.
In the heart of Madrid, a few blocks from the Atocha railway station, is one of the Madrileño eating and drinking stalwarts, Cervecería Alemana. Established in 1904, it’s a bar devoted to drinking beer and munching on tapas, the savory tidbits that always accompany beverages in Spain.
Anto is the U.S. venture of Korean chef Jeong Muk Kim who has been at the helm as executive chef of the famous Myomi (“subtle charm”) restaurant in Seoul that has garnered and maintained a Michelin star for a number of years.
Pets.com’s demise raises a question: Does spending millions on advertising and promotion make a difference in the Web Age as self-serving advertising and promotion companies would have you believe? And what do companies have to do to adapt to “Web Reality”?
In Madrid’s Plaza de Oriente, across the street from the Royal Palace (Palacio Real) and very near to Madrid’s Royal Theater and Opera House, is a restaurant called Café de Oriente with a long history of excellent food that respects Spain’s culinary tradition, catering to a distinguished clientele. Sometimes, the King of Spain has been seen dining with his guests in one of the private rooms.
There’s a unique joy in sharing culinary delights, especially when it involves baguette slices adorned with authentic caviar, complemented by a glass of effervescent wine — be it Champagne, Prosecco, or Cava — while surrounded by friends and loved ones. This holiday season, thanks to Sturia, a renowned French caviar producer, I had the pleasure of indulging in this very experience alongside my beloved companion and wife of 54 years.
The popular Las Vegas eatery, the Sugar Factory, opened on Manhattan’s corner of 8th Ave. and 44th Street. It is considered an American brasserie with a large confectionary component.
If you are a lover of art or history, then Arles in South France is definitely a place that should be visited. The combination of monumental Roman architecture and Van Gogh’s presence still felt through his numerous paintings of the area, are reasons enough to draw you to this remarkable city.
It’s called The Dolder Grand, and it’s an incomparable example of what made the Swiss “Grand Dame” hotels coveted by royalty and celebrities alike in the 19th and 20th centuries. Now upgraded for the 21st century, with the addition of two modern wings – the Spa Wing and the Golf Wing – behind the original 1899 historic building, The Dolder Grand still maintains the elegance of a bygone day.
Geneva is a major European cosmopolitan city and is the second largest city in Switzerland located on the shores of the eponymous lake.
Turkish cuisine dates back to the 6th century CE, when the Turkish people were nomads in Central Asia, and their diet consisted of mainly meat, dairy and a few, gathered by their campsites, fruits and vegetables. Early in the 11th century, a number of Turkoman...
Many tavernas in Rome serve the earthy and piquant Bucatini all’ Amatriciana. The pasta is cooked with a sauce that combines tomato pulp, guanciale (pork cheek) or diced pancetta, onion, garlic, an assortment of pepper flakes and white wine and is covered with grated pecorino cheese.
Spain’s Catalonia has a very high concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants. However, even small, local restaurants, tascas and rural retreats create delicious food that do not need Michelin stars to be mouth-watering.
In the heart of Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district is the MGallery Galata Istanbul Hotel, a Sofitel property that can be a base for starting a special vacation in Turkey’s largest and most intriguing city.
Whiskey JYPSI Legacy Batch 001 is fairly traditional-tasting delightfully blended, finished and bottled by Whiskey JYPSI in Tennessee and tastes like a true bourbon. However, legally, I don’t think it can be called a bourbon because a bourbon has to be completely made in the USA and JYPSI blends 21% Canadian rye with the US produced other components.
Travelling around the world in search of the perfect meal, I realized that etiquette regarding food is considerably different from one culture to another. For instance, most of us were raised with the idea that finishing your plate is respectful. But, in places like China and some Arab nations, this could suggest your host didn’t provide enough food, which could be viewed as a “loss of face” on their part. That’s why, in Chinese meals, soup is usually served last to ensure you’re full.
I’ve gotten some nice rosés from France, Italy and Chile so I decided to call together some members of the “gang of the usual suspects” and try them on a rare cool summer evening, on the rooftop “garden” of a friend in Manhattan. The same day I also tasted at home an elegant rosé from Domains Ott.
One more time the master winemaker Enrique Tirado enchants us with a new vintage of Don Melchor, the iconic flagship wine of Chile’s Concha y Toro.
For avid coffee drinkers the Turkish, Greek or Arabic version of the beverage is a satisfying sip of a “coffee delight.” It is an integral part of the Arabic, Eastern Mediterranean and Balkan as well as North African culture and social life.
During a recent press trip to Switzerland, we were lucky enough to spend a few days at the landmark Hôtel Bristol in Geneva, near the Mont Blanc Bridge and Rue du Rhône. A hotel location is paramount, and Hotel Bristol is perfectly positioned between the main railway station and the lake.
Whether you call it Lucerne in French or Luzerne in German, it is a very old Swiss city with many of the buildings still in use dating back to the 14th or 15th century. These buildings and the iconic Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), which was built in 1333 and links the Old Town to the Reuss River’s right bank, are lovingly restored and maintained to keep the city’s character alive.
Since the 1300s the Florentine Frescobaldi family, a family that started their fortunes as medieval bankers, produces some of the best known Sangiovese-based wines in a number of estates throughout Central Italy. The family owns 11 different estates in Italy, with 6 of them in Tuscany proper.
Hamdi is a restaurant in Istanbul with three venues located in key city neighborhoods. The locations are: the original in Eminönü, where we have eaten a number of times and like the dishes very much, one in Pera at the Radisson Blu hotel and one in Şişli also at the Radisson Blu.
Our 13-day Legendary Rhine & Moselle* River Cruise with the top ranked UNIWORLD Boutique River Cruise Collection began in Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands, with a canal sightseeing cruise.
Antigua, the “Land of 365 Beaches” is in the middle of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, a few degrees north of the Equator. Its culture has been strongly influenced by the British Empire, of which the country was formerly a part. I visited the island in April of 2019 to observe the annual Antigua Sailing Week; a few days of competitive sailboat racing off the rugged southern coast, and a fabulous party atmosphere ashore.
Ouzeri is the Greek equivalent to a Spanish tapas bar that serves ouzo – a potent distillate from grape or grain-based alcohol, which is distilled with anise, fennel, and other herbs and is similar to the French Pastis, only drier – to accompany a multitude of small plates featuring classic dishes beloved by the Greeks.
My most current cookbook discovery is Özlem Warren’s “Turkish Table” with recipes from Southern Turkey and more specifically Southern Anatolia.
Great food is at the pinnacle of gastronomy in Québec. Absolutely fresh, local, seasonal ingredients are starring in Québecoise kitchens, whether eating at home or in a reknowned restaurant.
Located in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, with coasts fronting both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, lies the second largest autonomous region in Spain: Andalucía. It is best known for gifting to the world Flamenco, Bullfighting, and its own adaptation of Moorish architecture and arts that were developed through nearly 800 years of occupation by North African Muslim tribes.
Modern gastronomy has arrived in Québec and has been influencing in a molecular-gastronomy manner a number of the younger chefs, with kitchens that can rival in inventiveness and quality the dishes of top European and Asian restaurants offering a style of cooking well worth exploring.
I recently received 2 cookbooks that made me revise my thinking about Irish cookery.
There is much talk and fear about AI and the use of robotics and robots in everyday work, such as in restaurants, in retail, in warehousing, in manufacturing etc.
After an absence of a few years because of COVID, the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux had its yearly tasting at the converted bank hall that is now New York’s Cipriani restaurant on 42nd Street, across from the Grand Central Station. The tasting was organized by Balzac Communications from California.
CZEN (pronounced seaZon) is located next to the Bergen Performing Arts Center Theater on one of the town’s main thoroughfares. Entering into this bespoke eatery is like being transported instantly from New Jersey to the Caribbean… but with a very pronounced Asian accent. You are greeted by a festival of colors, music to grove to, and a menu of delectable selections of fusion dishes.
After a 3 year hiatus because of COVID, the Royal Wine Corp. re-established their annual Kosher Food & Wine Experience at New York’s Chelsea Piers. I have been writing about kosher wines for a number of years, and there is still quite a story to tell.
While visiting Zimbabwe, we were lucky enough to be invited to spend one night at Somalisa Camp, located in the heart of the Hwange National Park that hosts more than 100 types of mammals and more than 400 bird species.
You don’t have to be Dutch, or Swedish, or a citizen of any of the nations that border Europe’s North and Baltic Seas to appreciate herring.
At a recent tasting that took place in Manhattan, at Il Gattopardo restaurant on 54 Street, we had a chance to taste some white and red libations from Irpinia, an Italian region near Naples that produces exceptional wines.
I and a few other wine writers had lunch in Manhattan with Sosanna Katsikosta of Acheon Winery to taste her more recent creations; 4 wines created with indigenous grapes; a few of these grapes have been cultivated in the Achaia and Patras areas since time immemorial.
The Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, is one of the newer boutique properties where I spent a couple nights during my recent trip to Athens. It’s located in a repurposed building at the corner of Akademias Avenue and Omirou Street.