REFRESHING ALBARIÑO
©2008 Perusing wine lists on a recent visit to New Orleans I kept gravitating toward Albariño, attracted by its ability to pair with spicy cuisine, as wells as by its value. Albariño is a hot variety these days, as Pinot Grigio lovers look for similarly crisp...
CHILE – Oenological Eden!
Arriving in Santiago for the first time is thrilling: from the plane the Andes rear up but faintly, as though behind a scrim. You expect the curtain to rise any moment, then it does, and there is the city, cupped and tucked beneath the massive mountains. I would...
Sylvan Siren — Franconia
photo courtesy Weingut Hans Wirsching So many wonderful wineries located in some of the most beautiful small villages in all of Germany: welcome to Franconia. Located about a two-hour train trip southeast of Frankfurt, Franconia is home to one of the world’s most...
DISCOVERING CACHAÇA
text ©2008 France has cognac, Scotland has scotch, Peru and Chile claim pisco as their national spirit, and yet until recently few of us in the United States had heard of cachaça, Brazil’s spirit of choice. With the caipirinha craze, as well as the opening of...
Exploring South Africa’s Cape Winelands
text & photos ©2010 Host country for the World Cup 2010 Soccer Games, South Africa’s time has come. Buffed and polished to the nth degree, the nine host cities exude excitement and pride. Cape Town is where the June 11 kick-off begins and the “Mother City” of...
Romancing the Rhones 2012
Text and photos ©2012 The Rhone valley came to the San Francisco mint on July 14th to celebrate Bastille Day and give aficionados a chance to savor some of these blended beauties. We found a lot to like! The SF Mint is a truly marvelous venue for a wine tasting:...
ALTO-ADIGE COMES TO SAN FRANCISCO
©2010 Like many border areas in Europe, this precious parcel of wine-making heaven has been tossed between nations — here, Austria and Italy — and the wines reflect this double heritage. The Dolomites protect the vineyards from wind and allow the 300+ days of sunshine...
TASMANIA: A Land Apart
Barossa. McLaren Vale. Coonawarra, Margaret River. Most U.S. wine consumers are familiar with these names for they are the Australian wine regions which export abundantly overseas: those chesty Chardonnays and heady reds from Western Australia and the old-...
Swiss Idyll
I recently went on a wine safari of Switzerland. This is the only way to define a voyage of discovery as filled with tantalizing tastes and sights as you might experience during a safari through the African veldt. Only here the exotic flora is rare grape...
The Ostschweiz: Northeastern Switzerland
text and photos © by Susanna Gaertner Our jumbo Airbus 340, on its recently inaugurated non-stop service from San Francisco to Zurich, with its exuberantly colorful markings is a novel sight. As I look down on it before departure, the man next to me wants to know...
Restaurant IPO in Baton Rouge, LA: Ingenious Ingredients Blazing with Flavor
It is very easy to see why faculty and students from LSU would be drawn to Restaurant IPO, not to mention the movers and shakers in and around Louisiana's State Capitol. But, I have it on good authority that a couple of Baby Boomers from Alabama recently found it to...
Galatoire’s Bistro: Elegant French Dining in Baton Rouge, LA
Hailed by 225 Magazine as the "Best French Dining in Baton Rouge," Galatoire's Bistro presents an appearance of taste and elegance that matches the incredible food it serves. Guests enter under a black canopy surrounded by white brick walls, green shutters and black...
Presto Pasta
For a last-minute entertainment emergency, you might have use for this fast yet fancy pasta. It will take you no more than 15 minutes to put this together! You can use any short-cut pasta but I like campanelle, or “little bells.” Other favorites are gemelli (twins),...
Georgia Sea Grill: Leading the Golden Isles in Farm to Table Cuisine
Located on Georgia’s picturesque St. Simon’s Island, this seafood restaurant was a not-to-be missed highlight of our visit to this award-winning Golden Isle. As one island resident proclaimed to a couple browsing the menu outside the restaurant “Trust me. If you only...
BLUEGILL: Flaming Oysters Served with Seafood, Sunsets and Live Music on Alabama’s Mobile Bay
The Bluegill Restaurant has been serving oysters, alligator, shrimp and many varieties of Gulf fish continuously since 1958, with only brief interruptions for repairs after hurricanes. The exterior is deceptively unassuming, but step inside and you will be swept into...
FISHER’S: A Rare Culinary Gem on Alabama’s Gulf Coast
Discovering Fisher's nestled in the Orange Beach Marina on Alabama's Gulf Coast is akin to finding an unblemished Junonia shell washed up on the nearby white sandy shoreline. Rare. Unexpected. Exhilarating. Fisher's is in a gorgeous setting with a truly exceptional...
Basta Pizza e Pasta: Rome’s Best Non-Italian Restaurants
When I first arrived in Rome in 1972 as a young bride, I could count the number of “foreign” restaurants on one hand. Now I only remember three: French “Charly’s Saucerie” between the Colosseum and St. John Lateran, Japanese “Hamasei” downtown near Piazza di Spagna,...
Ginger Pumpkin Bread
Here's another take on a seasonal favorite. This is more of a bread than a cake; the slices want to be buttered! This recipe calls for butter instead of oil and is delicately ginger flavored. I always add more ginger, or grate in a touch of fresh. Nuts add vital...
Panettone: The Story of Italy’s Ubiquitous Christmas Cake
Panettone translates as “a large loaf of bread”. Actually, it’s a large sweet bready cake with various creamy fillings, raisins and candied fruits; its dome’s covered with toppings of different flavors. Panettone’s origins probably date to the Roman Empire:...
Lucky New Year’s Foods
New Year’s Eve is Saint Sylvester’s Night. If an east wind is blowing, it promises a calamitous next twelve months. Roman-born Pope Sylvester I was pope from January 31, 314 to his death on December 31,,335. He is buried in Rome’s Catacombs of Priscilla. During his...
A Taste of Harmonie: Mauricie et Lanaudière
Our 550 km adventure swept us northward from Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal to two regions within Québec, Canada’s largest province. The aerial approach to YUL hinted at the watery proportions below, as did the myriad blue squiggles on my...
Traveling in Italy, Crowd-Free
You’ve wanted to go to Italy your whole life, and now the dream is coming true. You can already taste the fresh mozzarella in Rome and hear the soft, rhythmic splash of the gondolier’s oar as it slowly propels you through the quiet, moonlit canals of...
St. Augustine, Florida: Feliz Cumpleaños!
St. Augustine, Florida is like an ancient Castilian princesa. Dressed in a gown of grass-green velvet, draped in a veil of Spanish moss, she invites you to celebrate her 450th birthday, September 4-8, 2015. She wants you to know all her long and diverse...
FIKA
Every so often one stumbles upon a culinary gem in the most unexpected place, as happened to me recently on a visit to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. Even without the restaurant, a visit to the institute would be worth a side trip if you're in...
Napa and San Francisco on a Budget
While every state now has a winery, when one hears the term “wine country,” I’d bet the farm that California is the first thought that comes to mind. Each of California’s wine regions has its charms, and you really can’t go wrong in visiting any of them. ...
Why Stay at a Bed and Breakfast?
Hotels of all shapes, sizes, and price ranges exist all over the world and you can have privacy, room service, an amazing array of amenities, and the convenience of never having to clean the room yourself. Restaurants, shops, tours, transportation are all available...
That Sinking Feeling
In which our Far-Flung Correspondent heads for Venice for the world’s greatest muscle-powered nautical event: the Vogalonga. Four decades ago in a galaxy far, far away—that is to say, Venice, which is, yes, in Italy, but no, not of this world—Toni Rosa Salva...
Simply Seggiano
The little red Fiat took the curves and inclines in 360 degrees of glorious countryside and tiny villages on the Cassia from Firenze. Spring showed its presence in wildflowers, mustard, shocks of wisteria, roses, supernatural green quilted fields, and hints of...
The Janiculum: Rome’s Eighth Hill
The refrain of the Morcheeba, a British trip hop Band, tells us repeatedly in the most famous hit of their 2000 album, “Fragments of Freedom,” “Don’t you know that Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Indeed so, Rome, a layer-cake of history built on seven hills, is...
Experience a Gondola Cruise in America: La Gondola in Providence, Rhode Island
It is not necessary to travel all the way to Venice to experience your first delightful cruise on a gondola; on the contrary, all you need to do is make a quick trip to Providence, Rhode Island. Surprisingly enough, you can enjoy a lovely gondola cruise on the...