Hungry Travelers - Bringing the tastes of travel back home

V-day chocolate mousse made easy

Posted on February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 by Pat and David

This post is admittedly a rerun, but this dish continues to be a favorite in our household as the final act in a Valentine Day's dinner. We simply lack the skills to reproduce our all-time favorite dessert from Fauchon, the amazing gourmet shop, tea house, and pastisserie on Place de Madeleine in Paris. That would be Mejêve cake—perfect thin layers of crisp meringue with chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. But this dynamite, simple, foolproof version of chocolate mousse given to us by a French cook, Madame Picavet, fills in nicely. She could effortlessly serve a perfect blanquette de veau or tomatoes stuffed with homemade pâté de campagne, but she also knew a good simple dessert recipe when she saw on. Given that Monsieur Picavet was...Read More

Launching 2026 with tea at The Newbury

Posted on January 6, 2026January 6, 2026 by Pat and David

It's a Boston reflex to speed the day by grabbing a cup of Dunkin' to go. But sometimes it's better to engage in a ruminative pot of tea, a few scones, and successive tiers of finger sandwiches and sweet bites. Few places anywhere observe the tea ceremony with such a sense of occasion as Boston's landmark hotel, The Newbury. Served in the Street Bar facing the Public Garden, the hotel's afternoon tea demonstrates the timelessness of tradition. Originally opened in 1927 as the Ritz-Carlton, The Newbury seemed a perfect spot for us to launch the new year. Like the month of January, it captures the spirit of the Roman god Janus — looking both to the past and the future. Done right, a formal afternoon...Read More

‘Winter in Tuscany’ cooks up cozy, rustic cuisine

Posted on December 2, 2025December 2, 2025 by Pat and David

Tuscany has been so well marketed in the English-speaking world that the name immediately conjures images of rolling green hills (crumbling castle optional), vast verdant vineyards, and occasional forays into the sophisticated urban centers of Florence and Siena. To diners, Tuscany is roasted meats and bold red wines. Born in London but raised in Arniano, Italy, cook and food writer Amber Guinness knows her way around Tuscany. Last spring we wrote about her book Italian Coastal, the follow-up to A House Party in Tuscany. We think that her just-published third book, Winter in Tuscany: Cozy Recipes and the Quanto Basta Way, expresses the spirit of the region even better. The book is rooted in the quiet season when most of the tourists are gone and...Read More

Great bargain rosé for autumn roast chicken

Posted on October 29, 2025October 29, 2025 by Pat and David

Earlier this fall we made the case for continuing to drink rosé wines after Labor Day. Now that the weather is turning colder and grayer, we'd like to double down with an unusual rosé from the Camargue. Pink Flamingo (as its producer, Domaine Royal de Jarras, calls it) is a gris de gris — a very specific type of rosé made from the Grenache Gris grape. We are fans of Grenache in all its permutations. The ‶gray″ Grenache is a mutation specific to the marshy soils of the Camargue wetlands that are part of the Rhône river delta. Pink Flamingo Gris de Gris, Sable de Camargue AOC is made with first-press juices from organically grown grapes. The name strikes us as an example of misguided...Read More

CLINK. locks up Benziger wines for showcase dinner

Posted on September 29, 2025September 29, 2025 by Pat and David

Chris Benzinger, vintner at Benziger Family Winery (benziger.com), was full of stories when he co-hosted a harvest wine dinner at CLINK. restaurant in Boston's luxury Liberty Hotel (libertyhotel.com). He relates that his family's first foray into the alcohol business was his grandfather's bootleg operation supplying New York City speakeasys. Chris's father became a legitimate importer. The whole family got into the winemaking business when Chris's older brother Mike moved to California in 1973 and came back a few years later to pitch the clan on the idea of a family winery in then-rustic Sonoma County. ‶So my dad bought this land with three acres of chardonnay and 10 acres of cannabis,″ Chris said. ‶It was a golden time when all you needed was passion.″ The...Read More

Rosé after Labor Day? Ô yes!

Posted on September 5, 2025August 25, 2025 by Pat and David

Fashion has all sorts of silly rules. ‶No white after Labor Day″ used to be scripture for appropriate dress. Even Vogue put that outdated idea to rest. Equally ridiculous is the idea that all the bottles of rosé must go back into the cellar once that September turning point arrives. Balderdash! As fans of rosé as the kinder, gentler red, we think autumn is a truly splendid time to indulge. In fact, rosé wines are a perfect pairing with dishes that celebrate the end-of-summer, advent-of-fall harvest season. We recently got our hands on a delightful Languedoc wine from Lorgeril (lorgeril.wine) called Ô de Rosé. It's an interesting blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah, and 10% Viognier that's harvested at daybreak when the vineyards are cool...Read More

Wine revelations in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley

Posted on August 18, 2025August 16, 2025 by Pat and David

It's probably been a decade since we first tasted a Nova Scotia wine at a dinner hosted by Canada Tourism. It was an excellent cold-climate Chardonnay — steely dry but full of characteristic fruit. We filed that tidbit for future reference. Then this summer we finally drove to Cape Breton Island, a trip we'd planned years ago before COVID closed the border. We also had the chance to stop in the Annapolis Valley along the way for a snapshot of Nova Scotia's fast-maturing wine industry. We're glad we did. We half expected a slew of fruit wines (and there were some) and a lot of wines made from French-American hybrid grapes bred for cold climates. (There were some of those too.) What we didn't expect...Read More

Two Lustau twists on sips for Father’s Day

Posted on June 9, 2025June 9, 2025 by Pat and David

Spain celebrates Father's Day as the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, which is the kickoff of spring. Here in North America, Father's Day marks the transition into summer. We've chosen two stupendous wines from the Andalucían sherry producer, Lustau, for diametrically opposite approaches to sipping on a summer evening. It really comes down to whether your dad is a Manhattan or a Martini drinker. Either goes well with a Spanish snack plate of marcona almonds, potato chips, and slices of Manchego cheese. How sweet it is On the sweet side, we've picked the often overlooked cream sherry category. At Lustau, that's East India Solera Sherry — a style designed to mimic historic sweet sherries aged at sea in casks that shuttled from Spain to...Read More

Handheld wonders of National Hamburger Day

Posted on May 27, 2025May 27, 2025 by Pat and David

The food and restaurant industries goes a little wild with so-called ‶national day″ designation for most foodstuffs, from pickles to pancakes to peanuts to vanilla pudding. (That's November 14, March 4, September 13, and May 22, if you're keeping track.) But if ever an edible deserved a proper celebration, it's the hamburger. Its day is May 28. We've always found that (apart from fast food chains) you can get a good hamburger almost anywhere in the USA, from downtown diners in Manhattan NYC to saloons and tap houses of Manhattan, Kansas. We're particularly taken with some of the regional specialties, including Oklahoma's own onion burger (See here). New Mexico has the great green chile cheeseburger, whether at a rustic lodge (see here or a swank...Read More

Saffron, Spain’s gastronomic gold, shines at La Melguiza

Posted on May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 by Pat and David

Ask Spaniards where the world's best saffron comes from and they'll proudly tell you Spain. Ask David Saenz Condado and he'll tell you why. Saenz is the proprietor of a smart little Madrid boutique called La Melguiza (c/de Santiago, 12; +34 91-547-9323, lamelguiza.es). Just a block and a half from the Mercado San Miguel off Plaza Mayor, the shop promises ‶tesoros de azafrán.″ It delivers those treasures in spades with containers of saffron as well as saffron honey, saffron chocolate, saffron hard candies, and saffron body products. (The shop also offers sweet, smoked, and hot Spanish paprikas.) For the uninitiated, saffron is the world's most expensive spice. It consists of the dried stigmas of the fall-blooming flower of crocus sativa. Fortunately, only a few threads...Read More