I travel, cook, eat, observe, interact, live and write.
As a culinary and cultural travel writer I seek connections among people, activities, the environment and what they eat that tell the story of a region/culture, whether that be in the remote Andes Mountains or the streets of Philadelphia.
Publications include my travel web site on Argentina (www.travel-with-pen-and-palate-argentina.com) and articles covering a diverse range of countries and cultures at www.travelpenandpalate.com and both the digital and print editions of the Hellenic News of America.
Industry experience includes over 45 years as a chef, chef educator, hotel and restaurant manager, catering as well as teaching history, writing, theater, culinary arts and business.
I'm an active member in the American Culinary Federation.
Spend time talking to the owners of the Paros Land Hotel and their promising young chef and you understand the resilience that has sustained Greece for millenniums.
It’s a creative force responsible for this enterprise and it will propel Greece beyond a temporary financial crisis.
Mrs. Tricha Stavroula, owner of Paros Land Hotel
Brothers, sisters, in-laws and grandchildren have all had a hand in the design, rebuilding and the myriad operational details required of a hotel. Their pride was palpable when they sat down each night at a long wooden table in the airy dining room for lengthy multi-course meals.
Summer: a time for fresh fruit, vegetables and taking time off from the daily grind. Do something different. Revert to the past when we all made our own and didn’t just buy it ready to eat. Enjoy!
Mango chutney
The interplay of sweet fruit, astringent vinegar, fresh ginger, savory onions, spices, a bit of hot pepper and rich brown sugar is not only appealing but a great way to use fresh produce as it comes into season.
I like figs and chevre and caramelized onions. Of course who doesn’t like pizza? And summer time is California fig season in the USA. They’re low in calories, high in potassium, not too sweet and hold up nicely when gently cooked.
By the early 20th century California fig production was second only to Turkey, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
These iconic circular stone structures dot the land – both islands and mainland – and their images adorn countless postcards. Their stark beauty as ruins of a bygone agricultural age and the bird-like sails of restored mills stiff in the wind, evoke the same timelessness as the Acropolis of Athens or sacred Mt. Athos.
Wind permitting, a mill could grind up to 150 pounds of grain per hour. The mill men needed to develop skills to read the weather and gauge the strength of winds.
On the island of Sifnos, in the Cyclades group, Mr. Ionnis Trinas has constructed what very well may be the first fully functioning mill in over a century.
It’s a story worthy of Shakespeare’s Tempest – millionaires and a dark and stormy night… One can imagine the longing for peace and tranquility that celebrities seek.
Seven square miles of the Sithonia peninsula, five miles of pristine EU certified Blue Flag beaches… After all Greeks deified the very concept of hospitality. It’s unthinkable to change perfection.
In the Tudor kitchen at Hampton Court Palace, London, UK
Robert Fitch answered my question, “porridge was the staff of life” for the common person until the 18th century. No wonder working the palace was a coveted job – even for a spit turner.
The Hampton Court Palace kitchen cooked two meals for approximately 600 people daily consuming in one 16th century year 1,240 oxen, 8,200 sheep, 2,330 deer, 760 calves, 1,870 pigs and 53 wild boar.
A pudding steaming in the hearth at the Thomas Massey House (c.1696) Broomall, PA
Puddings were a major component of the English and American table during these centuries and often served as the foundation of a one dish meal in this age of cooking on an open wood fired hearth.
Clarissa Dillon, one of the foremost authorities on 16th-18th century English and colonial American cooking, tackles the often confusing interpretations of our shared culinary past.
Dr. Clarissa Dillon
I believe both Fergus and Clarissa would agree that a 17th/18th century middle class diet was healthy only if the diner was physically very active, but it’s tasty. London’s Chef Fergus Henderson and Philadelphia’s Dr. Clarissa Dillon have never met yet share a no-nonsense and unsentimental approach towards the diet of their 17th and 18th century Anglo ancestors.
Marrow bones at St. John Bar & Restaurant, London, UK
When St. John Bar & Restaurant at 26 St. John Street, London, was a smokehouse in the 18th century, located a couple blocks from the centuries old Smithfield Market, Hampton Court Palace had a chocolate kitchen catering exclusively to the large royal household.
Sitting at a beach side café in Possidi on the Halkidiki peninsula of Kassandra, this North American was struck by an unfamiliar scene. People were reading.
Fingers of land jutting into the Aegean, Kassandra, Sithonia and sacred Athos have, like all of Macedonia, been at the center of turbulent times since the 4th century B.C.E. In the 21st century the only turbulence seemed to be the long lines of cars every summer weekend that bring holiday seekers from Thessaloniki and Eastern Europe.
water sports in Sithonia
Family owned since it opened in 1989, the rooms surround an opulent pool that is the focal point of the Flegra Palace Hotel including the Soleil Bar with its dramatic glass floor jutting over the water.
Fortunately mere mortals can dine at Ambrosia, the open-air dining room at the Flegra Palace Hotel in the Halkidiki seaside resort town of Pefkohori, Greece.
At a recent press lunch for journalists of the International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association and New Jersey Press Association, Yang Chao Lu, owner of 88 Palace, presented a veritable banquet of dim sum dishes over several hours.
Gail Gerson-Whitte & 88 Palace manager Shi Fan Lu
But 88 Palace is more than a restaurant. It’s a microcosm of any Chinatown street, fun to explore and taste. Read more at…
Sitting stadium style looking out an entire glass walled side and half the ceiling of the specially outfitted bus, The Ride talks, in a deep resonating voice, not just to its customers but to people on the street as well.
The Ride, Chrysler Building ornament
The Ride deftly weaves Manhattan to give the audience a sense of the city’s energy and comedy. Read more at…
Mike’s Deli, David Grecodried tomatoes at Arthur Avenue Market
“I’m the mozzarella man,” says David Greco, and there’s a cigar man, cannoli women, a microbrewer and six other purveyors at the venerable Arthur Avenue Market in the Bronx.
Mario’s owner chef Joseph Migliuccis
New York still has neighborhoods such as Belmont in the Bronx and streets like Arthur Avenue that are pockets of an almost forgotten urban reality. Read more at…
Banyan on the Thames restaurant, Hotel Rafayel, London
The Hotel Rafayel is part of the remarkable 21st century transformation of the Docklands, the East End and South London from post industrial wasteland into the vibrant, upscale, multi-ethnic residential and commercial city London’s east side of the Thames has become.
Lobby of the Rafayel on the Left Bank, Falcon Wharf, London, UK
Hotel Rafayel on the Left Bank has garnered praise for its attention to environmental details. From components for the actual building’s construction to its water catchment system, its eco-conscisousness only adds to its 21st century 5-Star charm.
Banyan on the Thames restaurant, Hotel Rafayel, London, UK
Rapid urban change has remodeled the river scape along the Thames recreating the bustle of a modern port of international commerce. Except now the product is more than likely to be transported by computer or jet than freighter.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Olympic Park, London, UK (scheduled to open 04/2014 )
With a city as cosmopolitan as London, there could only be more articles appearing shortly on Travel with Pen and Palate.
London from the observation deck of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, London, UK
The Tate Modern Gallery is housed in a converted art deco power plant within walking distance along the Thames River walk just up from the Globe Theater. The clean lines of the sprawling space gives justice to both the subjects and size of many great and imaginative works. A voiceless short documentary from the Tate is an urban ballet.
Most state capitals were chosen for political reasons, frequently condemning them to regions of inconsequential and dubious economic value other than politics.
The candy bra at The Chocolate Bar, 805 W. Bannock, Boise, ID
But in Boise, Idaho, an entrepreneurial spirit is resulting in unique pockets of cultural activity.
The 25-mile Greenbelt along the Boise River in the Idaho capital is a haven for recreation, sustainable river ecology and a pollution free bike and pedestrian path connecting downtown with Boise State University as well as numerous hotels and cafes. This video highlights a spillway popular with surfers and kayakers. Video credit: Marc d’Entremont (travel with pen and palate)
Dinner at Sawtooth Winery, Nampa, ID – Zee Catering
The potato may still reign as Idaho’s number one production crop but in the agriculture section of the Twin Falls Sunday Times-News is a long list of local farmers selling everything from grass fed Tibetan yak to heirloom Anasazi® beans.
Salad of baby vegetables & foraged greens – Zee Catering at Sawtooth Winery
Sun Valley and adjacent Ketchum are by far Idaho’s wealthiest communities, yet that does not mean the offerings at the Sun Valley Harvest Festival are esoteric. From the many exhibitors this journalist learned that quinoa is a complete protein. Salting a sauté pan before frying vegetables prevents sticking. Hemp seeds are high in fiber, low in carbs and packed with iron.
Kelley of Manitoba Harvest’s Hemp Hearts – raw shelled hemp seeds
Out in the cooking tents a number of chefs demonstrated a range of foods. Award winning vegetarian chefs to A-list celebrities Tal Ronnen and Scot Jones of West Hollywood’s Crossroads restaurant presented a twist on traditional caponata as an entrée served on black quinoa and toasted buckwheat.
Chef Ronnen and Jones eggplant caponata over buckwheat and black quinoa
Even unique music was featured on the last day. Spike Coggins, primitive musician, enthralled guests with unique and original compositions accompanied by the banjo, harmonica and percussion instruments ranging from chains, spurs and metal cleated boots tapping out the rhythm on old railroad spikes.
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