Category Archives: Historic Sites

Rehoboth Beach and Harrisburg: an art and culinary drive

Harrisburg the capital of Pennsylvania and Rehoboth Beach in far southern Delaware may be 165 miles apart, but they share similar European colonial origins, the Susquehanna/Chesapeake Bay river basin and legendary farmlands.

Wearable art at the Art League of Rehoboth
Wearable art at the Art League of Rehoboth
Larry Ringgold,  driftwood horse sculpture,  Peninsula Gallery
Larry Ringgold, driftwood horse sculpture, Peninsula Gallery

 

From plein air painters feasting on the raw natural beauty of beaches and marshland to cutting edge jewelry design, southern Delaware has nurtured the arts for the past century.  As the motto of the Art League of Rehoboth says, Art Grows Here.™

 

 

Abraxas Hudson, artist , owner Abraxas Studio of Art, Lewes, DE.
Abraxas Hudson, artist , owner Abraxas Studio of Art, Lewes, DE.

 

View eleven of Sussex County’s best galleries at…

 Southern Delaware art galleries break design barriers

 

Cafe Fresco's Dim Sum Donuts
Cafe Fresco’s Dim Sum Donuts

 

a Pennsylvania dairy farm
a Pennsylvania dairy farm

Before there was state government, before there was coal, iron, steel and chocolate, farm and tavern table were always next-door. The ingredients to make a creamy mushroom risotto, charcuterie, or a Polish vegetarian chili are still from the earth surrounding the Harrisburg/Hershey region.

Bar at Devon Seafood Grill
Bar at Devon Seafood Grill

 

A spotlight on eight venues offering  culinary creativity…

Where farm and table are always next door 

 

Scrambled eggs w/truffles, pheasant sausage at Suba
Scrambled eggs w/truffles, pheasant sausage at Suba

 

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Insights

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Alonissos, Greece: Touch the Soul

 

robetiko musicians at To Kamaki
robetiko musicians at To Kamaki

 

Alonissos Island
Alonissos Island

“Alonissos is a close knit community,” British expats Dave Court and Gerry Ivison said. For me it’s the robetiko ballads that touch the soul of both Alonissos and Greece.

Not all Greek islands are similar. In this most northerly of the Sporades islands, the towering pine forests tumble down the rocky cliffs to the sea.

 

Tsoukali beach windmill
Tsoukali beach windmill

 

Palio Horio, Alonissos
Palio Horio, Alonissos

Secluded beaches, historic towns, lush pine forests, the land gives way to solitude as one drives north from the port capital of Patitiri to Gerka. Cafes, tavernas, museums, hotels, artists all make Alonissos home, and so did pirates.

At the Museum  of Alonissos
At the Museum of Alonissos

 

Read more in my Hellenic News of America column on this alluring central Aegean island…

Alonissos Island is a floating spoon sweet

 

Sunset on Alonissos
Sunset on Alonissos

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Insights

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Fort Hunter: slavery, the Gilded Age and philanthropy

Party games at Fort Hunter Mansion late 1800s
Party games at Fort Hunter Mansion late 1800s
View of the Susquehanna River from a mansion window
View of the Susquehanna River from a mansion window

 

Fort Hunter captures a sweeping 200-year panoply of Pennsylvania.  From frontier outpost, slavery, Revolution, the promise of canals, Civil War, the age of steel to modern philanthropy, this bucolic site was at the center of history.

 

 

 

From 1786 to 1831 over 20 enslaved African-Americans made the soap, ironed the clothes, cooked and cleaned the house, worked the farm and its businesses. Narrowly avoiding being in the center of the Civil War, Fort Hunter entered an era as a focal point for Harrisburg society in the 1880s.

Fort Hunter Mansion
Fort Hunter Mansion

With over 80% of the mansion’s furnishings, antiques and art original to the families that called Fort Hunter home, a tour of the house provides a rare glimpse into 200 years of American life.  Read the intriguing story…

A Harrisburg historical site mirrors American history

 

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You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

An Acadian chef comments on Cajun cuisine

at Legnon
at Legnon

 

classic Cajun fried seafood platter
classic Cajun fried seafood platter

As an Acadian historian and cultural anthropologist I sing the praises of my family heritage and its extraordinary history. Yet as a chef…both Acadian and Cajun foods are misunderstood and misrepresented in the North American rush to celebrate regional cuisine. They’re worthy but limited.

Tabasco store, Avery Island
Tabasco store, Avery Island

The greatest difference separating Cajun and Acadian cooking is spices. Cajun uses spices borrowed from Creole cuisine – a different fusion altogether. Of course world famous Tabasco sauce  has become a Cajun standard even though its origin is clearly West Indian.

Read my story on discovering the cuisine of my ancestry:

Cajun cuisine: the food of exiles and survivors

 

(Saturday zydeco breakfast at Cafe des Amis in Breaux Bridge, LA)

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Mount Olympus is more than legend

Mt. Olympus & the village of Litohoro
Mt. Olympus & the village of Litohoro
Within the Mt. Olympus range
Within the Mt. Olympus range

Home to Zeus and his family of gods, declared the first Greek national park in 1938, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981 and a European Union “Most Important Bird” area, the region includes 120 species of flowers, 1,700 species of plants with 23 exclusive to the Mount Olympus microclimate.

The Bath of Zeus
The Bath of Zeus

No wonder the gods wanted this prime real estate. At its base is Dion, the nearly three-millennium old holy city of ancient Macedonia dedicated to Olympian Zeus. Within the confines of the park is the 600-year-old Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Dionysios of Olympus. And scattered throughout are sites steeped in legend and history.

Read what has attracted the multitudes for eons in my column for the Hellenic News of America

Restoration of Monastery of St. Dionysios of Olympus
Restoration of Monastery of St. Dionysios of Olympus

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Vermilionville Living History and Folk Life Park

 

L'École (the schoolhouse) at Vermilionville
L’École (the schoolhouse) at Vermilionville

 

Vermilionville
Vermilionville

 

Virmilionville holds the spirits and memories of the people who lived, loved and worked in them for over two centuries

Vermilionville
Vermilionville

There is much to see and learn at Vermilionville. The self-guided walking tour gives the visitor the opportunity to linger and absorb the feeling of life in a pre-20th century village.

 

Cajuns are the survivors of ethnic cleansing carried out of a grand scale in the 1760s…I know. As the direct descendant of survivors I grew up with the history as bed-time stories… read at

Vermilionville honors Cajun culture in Lafayette Parish

 

Virmilionville
Virmilionville

 

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Aristotle, Monks and the Alexandros Palace Hotel

 

Mt. Athos at dawn
Mt. Athos at dawn
mosaic floor at the excavations Monastery of Zygos
mosaic floor at the excavations Monastery of Zygos

The evidence of Greece’s long and turbulent civilization lay scattered throughout the country.  It was as easy to stumble across remnants of an ancient site in the middle of a farm field as it was to visit the impressive ruins of the 10th century Monastery of Zygos

Ancient Stagira
Ancient Stagira
Alexandros Palace Hotel
Alexandros Palace Hotel

Between Mt. Athos and  Stagira the 250-room Alexandros Palace Hotel resort complex, a veritable village on a 90-acre hillside just outside Ouranoupolis, is an ideal location to explore this fabled peninsula.

My article details it all…

The many layers of Greece on Athos

 

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Zero distance from farm to table on the Greek island of Santorini

 

Santorini vista from Pyrgos
Santorini vista from Pyrgos

DSC02442The volcano that blew Santorini into history 3,500 years ago is responsible  for a combination of natural forces creating ideal conditions for agricultural products sought after throughout Greece.

Georgia Tsara and Yiorgos Hatziyannakis
Georgia Tsara and Yiorgos Hatziyannakis

Georgia is the foremost expert on the island’s unique agriculture, coordinates and teaches many of the cooking, cheese and wine classes held at Selene and was a major force behind Santorini’s Year of Gastronomy designation in 2013.

Read my exclusive interview with Georgia…

A Santorini lunch with Selene’s Georgia Tsara

 

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You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

Philippi: In the footsteps of Alexander and St. Paul

 

Philippi, Macedonia, Greece
Philippi, Macedonia, Greece

 

Archaeological Museum of Philippi.
Archaeological Museum of Philippi.

Philippi would be a doorway to Asia Minor. It would serve three empires. It would be a major player in creating history.

 

 

Lydia of Philippisia became St. Paul’s first convert in 49 A.C.E. receiving baptism in the Zygaktis River – a gesture with international ramifications.

Read the rest of this dramatic story…

In Greece, Philippi made history

 

St. Lydia's baptismal site
St. Lydia’s baptismal site

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner

New Orleans is SoFAB

 

A Garden District queen
A Garden District queen

DSC00260Legendary New Orleans: hurricanes can’t destroy it; corrupt politics can’t infect it; potholes can’t deter its beauty.

 

 

Sazerac: the "official" drink of New Orleans
Sazerac: the “official” drink of New Orleans
Napoleon House (circa 1791)
Napoleon House (circa 1791)

 

Food and drink sustain it: “We’ll always have hospitality,” says celebrity chef Frank Brigtsen.

 

Chef Frank Brigtsen at the New Orleans Cooking Experience
Chef Frank Brigtsen at the New Orleans Cooking Experience

“I was taught by Paul Prudhomme; it was one the greatest blessings in my life, and I want to give back and foster the next generation of New Orleanians to at least learn and respect the cuisine.”

Gumbo
Gumbo

“As we diversify the types of food being cooked in the city of New Orleans, it’s even more important to me to make gumbo and keep that going.”

 

 

Read my exclusive interview with famed chef Frank Brigtsen.

Chef Frank Brigtsen is a New Orleans Cooking Experience

 

Liz Williams, director of SoFAB
Liz Williams, director of SoFAB
Lobster, crab & avocado cocktail
Lobster, crab & avocado cocktail

“Creole cuisine, the food of New Orleans, it’s a living thing. Nobody’s trying to stop it from changing; nobody said its got to end, so that’s why it’s still alive.”

 

Is there a beverage that defines the South? Creole and Cajun fusion? (or confusion)  In my interview with Liz Williams, director of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum (SoFAB), she answers all and states the mission of this unique institution, “Look at cultural attitudes towards the foods, not just a recipe.”

Liz Williams is SoFAB in New Orleans

 

Cajun Alligator sausage
Cajun Alligator sausage

 

You can read all my articles at:

Hellenic News of America

Original World Travel

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

Food & Recipes Examiner