Royal Scotsman

We’ve enjoyed multi-night train journeys in historic train cars on several occasions in the past, including the Venice-Simplon Orient Express from Venice to Paris, and the Eastern and Oriental in Southeast Asia. A run around the Scottish Highlands on the Royal Scotsman, now owned by the Belmond group, has been on Troy’s bucket list for some while, so it was time for another “cruising by rail” journey.

Belmond’s Classic journey is a 4 night/5 day loop around Scotland, beginning in Edinburgh travelling through the highlands, past its capital Inverness, and reaching Kyle of Lochalsh—which translates to "strait of the foaming loch" and which is the crossing to the Isle of Skye.

Click to read more ...

Sonoran Desert

Tucson sits at 2600 feet in the high Sonoran dessert, surrounded by mountains on four sides--the conical peaks and sharp ridges of the Tucson mountains to the west, the long, craggy ridge of the Santa Catalina mountains to the north, where mount Lemmon peaks at over 9,000 feet, the Rincons to the east, which contains the eastern portion of Saguaro National Park, and further to the south, around forty miles, the Santa Rita's. The vistas are stunning in all directions, and one can understand why this place was settled in the opening of the west.

Click to read more ...

Restaurant Pujol--the finest dining in Mexico City

Over the last few years chef Enrique Olvera has made Pujol (poo-yol) into the most celebrated restaurant in Mexico City, and one of the top in the world. His approach is to start with the sometimes centuries-old regional food traditions of Mexico, and build on, expand, reinterpret and sometimes deconstruct them into something modern, elegant, and deeply flavorful. He has said: “Our dishes carry that DNA, they carry those ingredients, techniques and ideas. The dishes at Pujol tell a complex, distinct history of flavors—you can find rural flavors, flavors from indigenous cooking: earthier, more direct flavors; but you can also experience others whose references are obviously urban and contemporary. . . . . We adapt to modern technologies that help us work in a more precise way, and we also adapt to todays customers.”

Click to read more ...

Inverness Interlude

No, not near Loch Lomond in the norther wilds of Scotland, but in the conifer covered hills of the Marin coast adjacent to the loch-like finger of Tomales Bay, which cleaves the mainland from the Point Reyes peninsula and forms the eastern boundary of the Point Reyes National Seashore, an outdoor lovers paradise with spectacular and dramatic vistas. Miles of hiking trails in the hills and around winding lagoons, pristine beaches, sand dunes and marshlands provide many activities for the nature and outdoor lover.

Click to read more ...

Hawker Center Food - Singapore

Singapore Hawker Centers -- originally dingy, dim sheds crammed with street vendor carts have morphed into full food courts, are a vital part of Singapore life and the source of some of Singapore’s best food. Lau Pa Sat is perhaps one of the most iconic Hawker Centers, set in a Victorian cast-iron and glass building, but is under renovation and unavailable during our stay.

Click to read more ...

Low Country Cuisine

Food fuels and gastronomy rules Savannah, and there is no shortage of good restaurants, many of which feature southern cuisine: seafood, grits, okra, greens and all things fried.  Shrimp turns out to be trumps for us in the Savannah dining scene...so very fresh, something incredibly hard to find at home. We commence the eating with fried green tomatoes and cold shrimp at Vic's on the River, a classic seafood house. Then comes a small army-feeding platter of flash-fried Georgia white shrimp and gulf oysters atop a mound of grits along with half dozen asparagus spears.

The twenty two garden squares and their surrounding wards that make up historic central Savannah offer just a few dining spots. Six Pence Pub is one, and a local's favorite. The shrimp salad sandwich here was next. We  had to wait a half hour as they boiled and cooled shrimp for a fresh batch, as the'yd run out just as we found a couple of coveted bar seats on Sunday morning. It was worth the wait. An obvious local who sat next to us ordered a bloody mary, "mostly mary". When I asked about that, she  said it signifies heavy on the vodka.

Click to read more ...

Eataly in Rome

Marché, mercado, merkatuan, markt, mercato—markets , food halls are our thing. Every trip to Venice finds us canal-side at the Rialto market; visits to Barcelona, at La Boqueria. In Rome there are always multiple trips to the Campo dei Fiori, but on a recent trip we decided to venture further afield to the Mercato Testaccio south of Rome's center, in the meat packing district. Taking a cab ride to that area, we found the market square and found the wire and wood barricade that boarded the place closed, tighter than a drum. Inquiry in a cafe elicited the fact of permanent closure.

Click to read more ...

The Best Pepper

We've traveled to both ends of the Basque country of Spain --Barcelona to the east and San Sebastian to the west--to sample the delicious and varied bar snacks or finger foods known either as tapas or pintxos. On a trip to Barcelona some years ago, and again recently to San Sebastian, we were served the most astonishing dish called simply Pimientos del Padrón--Peppers of Padrón. These are small, pointed green peppers related to Capsicum annuum (ornamental red pepper) with long stems that are sautéed in olive oil ‘til they blacken a bit and wilt, drained, sprinkled with sea salt and served hot.

They are sweet (most of the time) and amazingly flavorful, a bit nutty, with just a hint of the flavor of okra (possibly as they're eaten seeds and all). There is an element of culinary Russian Roulette, as an occasional pepper (or sometimes more) will be very hot.

A couple years ago I was nosing through the bins of the Tierra Vegetables farmstand just east of 101 in Santa Rosa when I came across a box of these exotic peppers. They were a good bit larger than the ones served in Spain, and one of the farmers stated his belief that the larger ones can be hotter. I bought a couple pounds anyway, and took them home to try my hand. They came out of the sauté pan looking exactly as they ought to, but--wow--most of them, not a few, were quite hot--had the right flavor, but way too much capsaicin (the substance in peppers that makes them hot).

Then last year at the Saturday Farmer's market, I came across a small basket of Padrones at the Crescent Moon Farm stand. Quite small, I bought what was left--about a half pound.  David Moring, Crescent Moon's co-owner stated that his Padrones are almost all taken by restaurants or reserved in advance by aficionados. He also said that in his experience about one in twenty is spicy. These tiny examples were perfect. Warm from the frying pan, sweet, salty, with that faint okra tang--so delicious. At a recent Friday Sonoma farmer's market, I spoke with David, one of the farmers responsible for peppers at Oak Hill Farms. Their Padrones were larger that day, and I asked if they intended to harvest any smaller. He said that these had gotten away from them a bit, and they intended to get the size back down, but interestingly disputed the idea that larger size correlates to higher heat, continuing "I had a tiny one the other night that was the hottest I'd ever had--blew my head off".

Some farmers also apparently believe that Padrones grown in June/July tend to be milder, while those grown in August/September tend to pack more heat. There is a reported study done in Spain on Padrón peppers that found all the peppers to have pronounced heat if the plants were water stressed. (It's said to be true that hot peppers will be hotter if grown in drought-like conditions.)

Last week the Orchard Farms stand at the Saturday Santa Rosa market had a huge basket of them--all perfectly tiny. Once again the result of a quick pan-fry was sublime: close your eyes, take a sip of dry sherry, pop those babies into your mouth, and instant transport to the pintxos bars of Basque Spain.
padron plants

The history of the Pimientos del Padrón was described by Calvin Trillin in the November 1999 issue of Gourmet Magazine. According to Trillin, Franciscan monks at the monastery in Herbón in Spain's northern Galicia province first tried growing the pepper seeds they’d brought back from the New World in the 18th century. This place still remains the heart of the Pimientos belt today. ”Nowadays there is a Padrón Festival in the town of that name every August and Pimientos de Padrón are becoming one of the most popular tapas all through Spain."

To prepare:
Clean and dry the peppers. Heat a skillet with 1/4" of olive oil in it until very hot but not smoking. Dump the peppers carefully into the hot oil--they will sizzle and pop--a splash guard helps. Turn frequently with tongs until blistered, wilted and partially blackened. Drain in a strainer, spread on layers of paper towels and pat to absorb some oil. Transfer to a hot plate, sprinkle liberally with sea salt, and commence eating--mind the roulette.