Quantum Leap Offers a New Approach to Winemaking
Quantum Leap (noun): an abrupt change, sudden increase, or dramatic advance. A quantum leap is what vintners Jill Ramsier and David Forrester took when they opened Quantum Leap Winery. Located in Orlando, Quantum Leap certainly represents a “dramatic advance" in...
Vecchio Amaro del Capo
You've probably never head of this amazing after-dinner drink, perfect for the conclusion of a heavy holiday repast! A digestif and a liqueur, Vecchio Amaro del Capo is sweeter than the former but sharper than the latter: Grand Marnier meets Fernet Branca....
Sipping the Light Fantastic
Here's a light and lovely red that has all the charm of a Beaujolais but is made right here in California. I admit that I knew nothing about this grape variety, which is also known as Napa Gamay or Napa Gamay 15. At its point of origin in the Longueduc-Rousillon...
The Pros of Prosecco
The “pro” in Prosecco might just mean that this reasonably priced Italian charmer is one to consider if Champagne—the real stuff—is not in your budget. If you like champagne but don't appreciate the price tag, I'd like to suggest a high quality Prosecco. While true...
A Grenache with Panache
Among the offerings at a recent Rhone tasting in SF, I found several bottles to share with readers, and I want to start with a red that's geared to summer and that can be sipped alone or put beside food. This marvel of versatility and panache is the 2013 Seven Oxen...
Thomas Jefferson: America’s First Oenophile and Foodie
On a family vacation in c. 1990 to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s 5,000-acre plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia, I visited his house, his vegetable garden and his vineyards, the first ones in the United States, although his repeated attempts to plant various...
Pinot Precision
Once again there was an embarrassment of riches among the many excellent Pinot Noir offerings at the May 2016 SLH Gala. Pinots from the Santa Lucia Highlands tend to be bigger and bolder than their Burgundian counterparts, darker and denser and milder in their...
A Duet of Cuisine and Wine at ECHO: King and Prince Beach and Golf Resort, St. Simons Island, Georgia
When a stellar chef combines his skill and great food with the knowledge of a passionate wine expert, the result is a memorable dinner by which all others will now be compared. As my friends and I gazed outside the windows of the oceanfront Retreat Room at King and...
Venice Drinking
The truism “you can’t get a bad meal in Italy” takes a beating in Venice, sad to say. Venice scores low in fine dining, and it’s inevitable. Ninety-nine percent of visitors have one meal and never return, and that doesn’t inspire restaurateurs to always do their best....
Grenache Blanc for savory egg dishes
Egg-based dishes present a problem from a wine-pairing standpoint; Rieslings, even dry ones, are too citrus-forward and acid-edged, and any other white will overpower the delicate fluffy-flavored egg-cheese balance. So I'm happy to say that I've found a wine that...
MEALS IN ROME’S MONUMENTS
Romans, the world’s first recorded gourmets, today called buone forchette here in caput mundi, owe their obsession with food, at least in part, to fellow citizen Marcus Gabius. Better-known as "Apicius", he was a wealthy and decadent epicure who in the first century...
Pumpkin Bread vs. Pumpkin Teacake
Pumpkin Bread Two recipes for this winter favorite, plus two uses for the opened pumpkin purée can! One is a bread, the other more like a cake...try them both. This one is more of a bread than a cake; the slices want to be buttered! The recipe calls for butter instead...
IL MARITOZZO: Rome’s Only Native-Son Sweet
While gelato, panettone, cannoli, torrone, and tiramisù are beloved worldwide, other Italian sweets are less well-known and even regional. Some examples are bônet in Piemonte, sbrisolona in Lombardy, torta Barozzi in Emilia-Romagna, tozzetti in Tuscany and Umbria,...
Update About Twissen’s Tiramisù World Championship
Two years ago, just after its first championship, businessman/tourism promoter Francesco Redi, the creator and organizer of the Tiramisù World Cup, came to the headquarters of the Associazione della Stampa Estera (Foreign Press Association) in Rome to promote his...
Dog Day Salads
In this heat, it's time to round up some terrific salads, by which I mean hearty ones that are more than lettuce leaves with dressing. Pasta salads are of course a favorite but today I'm going to replace the pasta with couscous, according to Food.com, “a granular...
Jicama & Orange Salad
A perennial favorite, this refreshing veggie/fruit salad is perfect for indoor and outdoor meals during the hottest days of summer. Jicama is a tuberous root packed with potassium, rich in fiber and vitamin C, its flavor a crunchy cross between an apple and a water...
Scott Wiener and His New York City Pizza Tours
Born in suburban New Jersey, Scott Wiener has no Italian blood. His ancestry is Jewish Russian and Polish. Yet from an early age pizza became Scott’s favorite food. And now, for the past eleven years, since April 27, 2008 to be exact, this Neapolitan specialty has...
Tommaso Lacanfora: Lucano In and Outside His Kitchen (Basilicata 3)
The Margherita family built the Palazzo Margherita in Bernalda (Matera) during 1892. This small town in Basilicata was the birthplace of Agostino Coppola (1883-1964), the grandfather of the American movie-director, Francis Ford Coppola. Agostino always referred to...
Basilicata (Part Two) : Massimo Cifarelli: Third-Generation Baker In Matera
“Because of its history of regional political division,” Wikipedia tells us, “Italy specializes in many different kinds of bread, reflecting its great regional variation and widely different bread-making recipes and traditions. In general rolls are typical of the...
Root Soup
Trifecta of winter vegetables to keep you warm inside Hearty and healthy and perfect for the long cold spells ahead, this earthy, budget-friendly soup should satisfy just about everyone. Ingredient quantities are very loosely measured here...just how big is a large...
A Lake District Idyll
The Lake District has inspired some of England’s most beloved poets and authors, including William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. I never imagined that world still existed in the 21st century, but I found it in Rothswaite in Borrowdale, at Hazel Bank Country House...
RELIGIOUS HOSPITALITY IN ITALY
For several years now I’ve received the annual online guide from the non-profit Association Ospitalità Religiosa Italiana (Italian Religious Hospitality) (www.ospitalitareligiosa.it), headquartered at Via Molina 10 in Varese, a city in Lombardy northwest of Milan,...
Rome Celebrates Raphael Superstar
This year the world is celebrating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death with exhibitions in London at both the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in Paris at the Louvre, and in Washington D.C. at the National Gallery. However, the mega-show, to...
Historical Eateries in and around Piazza San Marco in Venice
Italy’s major cities count at least one world-famous piazza. From south to north: Naples: Piazza del Plebiscito; Rome: Piazza Navona, Piazza Barberini, and Piazza di Spagna; Florence: Piazza della Signoria; Bologna: Piazza Maggiore; Genoa: Piazza de Ferrari; Turin:...
The Truth about November 12’s acqua alta in Venice
There seems to be differences of opinion about when and to whom the well-traveled American journalist/humorist Robert Benchley sent his telegram on his first visit to Venice: “Streets full of water. Please Advise.” The most credible attribution is that it was a gag...
BARI’S NEWEST MUSEUM
In July 2018 I published “The Best of Bari”. Six months later a new museum, known by its acronym “Munbam” which stands for the Children’s (Bambini) Museum of St. Nicholas, opened in the Norman Swabian Castle. Much to the joy of all three generations of my family on a...
Spending a Few Days in the Birthplace of Rock and Roll – Memphis!
I was aware of how hot it was going to be in Memphis and had prepared myself accordingly when I visited the first time. I had visited a few years previously with two girlfriends and when we stepped out of our car, I was shocked at the thick, hot, damp weather that...
Second Day in Memphis at Graceland and Beale Street
We had big plans for our few days in the birthplace of Rock N Roll - Memphis - but two of those plans included tours of Graceland and the area of Beale Street. My husband was the instigator of this trip after indicating he would love to see Graceland, so that was one...
Finding the Essential Greek Food Experience in Santorini’s Tavernas
Walking into a traditional Greek Taverna is like being welcomed into a close friend’s home for a lovingly prepared homestyle meal. Plan to linger, savor local wine, inhale the enticing scents wafting from the kitchen, and eat delicious, wholesome food. The taverna is...
Chuck Williams’ Culinary Arts Museum Opens at CIA in Copia
Most readers of Epicurean-Traveler.com will know that in the food world CIA does not stand for “Central Intelligence Agency”, but rather The Culinary Institute of America. Founded in 1946 in Hyde Park, the birthplace of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 70 miles up...