food (192)

9009047697?profile=originalThere's little doubt that food is a major part of the tourism experience.  If tourism is about seeing new sights and having new and unique experiences, then the culinary world is a major part of the tourism experience.  Because eating is an essential part of living, food or culinary tourism has a broad base of appeal.  In fact, often when visitors return home, one of the first questions that people ask is ‘how is the food?” 

The interaction between tourism and food is often called culinary tour

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Original Seafood Paella in Valencia, Spain

The famed El Cid battled the Moorish invaders in the area around Valencia during the Middle Ages of Spain.  Unless El Cid held dinner parties with the remaining Moors, it is unlikely that he enjoyed Valencian seafood paella because its origins in Spain developed later from the Moors influences on cooking with rice.

 

Where is Valencia, Spain?

Valencia is on the eastern shore of Spain, about half way between the Pyrenees border with France, and the thorn in Spanish pride at British-occupied Gibralta

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Hungary's Pride and Joy: Paprika

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I've been experimenting a bit more than usual with spices recently, and so pungent Hungarian paprika has been very much on my radar, bringing back memories of a three-week stint in Hungary several years ago. This spice is used in cookery throughout much of the world, but boy do Magyars love them some reddish pepper powder – and in some cases in much stronger versions than the capsicum annuum you might use in your own kitchen.

The word paprika is itself Hungarian but derives from Serbo-Croat

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by Nellie Huang

9296575690?profile=originalWith its romantic Mediterranean flair, rich cuisine and millennia-old history, Spain has captured the hearts of many – including world-famous Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow. There’s no denying that the 40-year-old celebrity has had a long love affair with Spain: she speaks almost perfect Spanish with an Iberian accent, she’s worked closely with several Spanish directors and she’s even hosted her own culinary show based in Spain.

Paltrow Hails Spain as Her Second Home

“Spain

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After living in Australia more than 20 years, I can say that there are still aspect of Australian cuisine that I find worth exploring and learning about. What defines food of the country I now call home? Traditionally a lot of meat, but since the whole continent is surrounded by the sea/ocean there is an abundance of seafood. That is what I loved about Australia: fresh, healthy variety of the seafood platter. Add some original brands of wine and good beer and you have a recipe for success in eve

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Long gone are the times when a tapa, Spain´s most famous and much loved snack, was just a piece of tortilla de patatas (potato omelette), three meatballs in tomato sauce with a toothpick or a saucer of boquerones.  Tapas have become sophisticated and the chefs are inventing ever new variations to tease the plate and the eyes.

In the province of Alicante, the city of Torrevieja´s yearly Ruta de las Tapas (Tapas Route) with 54 restaurants and tapas bars participating, is a hunt to find the best t

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Hamming It Up in Spain

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Among various other things, Spain to me represents one enormous banquet table, laden with distinctive and delicious treats from every corner of the land and surrounding seas. But I daresay there’s nothing more distinctive in the country – or in Europe, for that matter – than the ubiquitous sight of cured ham hanging in bars, tabernas, and restaurants throughout this country (not even in Italy do you see this, despite the popularity of its similar ham, prosciutto, and Italians eat just half the

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At a Temecula, California media event for International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association (FWTWA), we had an opportunity to learn about Cultivating Good, which encompasses E.A.T. (Extraordinary Artisan Table) Marketplace, Harvest 2U, and EAT@Home.  The architects of Cultivating Good, Don Webber and Leah Di Bernardo, have a noble mission:  to support the local food economy by providing fresh, healthy food to the community.  As an advocate for the area’s farmers, ranchers, and food artisans,

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VTTastingCenter.jpg?width=450There's a movement underway spanning from Burlington VT to Northeast Kingdom towns like Newport, Hardwick, and St. Johnsbury. For many visitors, perceptions of Vermont center on bucolic foliage scenes, maple syrup, and skiing. But residents are increasingly making their living from the area's booming farm-to-table movement.

The Vermont Fresh Network (VFN) is a big driver behind getting seasonal produce from local farms & small-batch 

northest-kingdom-535x1024.png?width=535artisans directly to your favorite restaurants' menus. This mu

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Dining at a chef’s table should always be a titillating treat of tantalizing tastes. Traditionally, a chef’s table is located in the kitchen – where the guests can watch, and “ooh” and “ahh” as the chef and his/her team work their culinary magic. That was not how it was at the table of Chef Ottavio Bellesi aboard Princess Cruises' Golden Princess – and here’s why.

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From the Beginning

Soon after boarding the Golden Princess in San Francisco, we had a meeting with the ship’s maître d'hôtel, Neville

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'Fruitcake of God' in Oregon's Willamette Valley

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Above: One of the Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe's sumptuous fruitcakes, awaiting an evening snack down.

The “Fruitcake of God” that is produced from the hands of monks at Our Lady of Guadalupe near Carlton, Oregon in the heart of Willamette Valley wine country is changing the minds and palates of fine food fanciers around North America. Whereas fruitcake has gotten a bad name – and perhaps rightfully so when you are thinking of the dry, citron bitter fruitcake that seems to be a decade old righ

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Walking tours are wonderful especially if they have a specific topic and cover only a small area.  Thus it is with “Burgh Bits and Bites” tour of Pittsburgh’s Strip District.  At one time the Strip District, located along the Allegheny River, was home to many mills and factories that later became an area of wholesalers of fresh produce and meat with restaurants to serve shift workers at any hour of the day. Things change and today most of the produce industry, manufacturing plants and mills ha

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Opa! It's Greek Cuisine

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The olive fields, lemon trees, and vegetables splashed across the Greek landscape bear testimony to a rich, varied and dynamic cuisine connected to the environment. The Greek lifestyle is reflected in its cuisine – full of flavor and nothing pretentious. The fresh products which end up on Greek stoves demonstrate the care and passion that they put into their selection of  raw ingredients. Greek cuisine is based on the Mediterranean diet, although it has both eastern and western influences.

Alt

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Along with showcasing exceptional wines, paired with equally spectacular food, the partnership of Martin Corso (Chef Marty) of The M Group, and Ken Barnes of Temecula Night Out, has fostered a sense of camaraderie and fellowship in the Temecula Valley Wine Country community in presenting “Good Times in the Vines.”  The beautiful wine country home of Al and Jean Glaser on a lovely summer evening made for a perfect setting. The evocative musical ambience – a walk down memory lane with Neil Diamond

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What do you get when you build the world’s highest-altitude glass-walled rotating restaurant overlooking a 360-degree panorama of the Swiss Alps? What if deep below this restaurant carved into glacial ice, you can explore lit passageways connecting large grottos filled with ornate ice carvings, an ice altar for celebrating weddings, and another room completely outfitted as a playground with slides and ladders for the children? My first words to describe these wonders high above Sass Fee atop th

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Greenwich, Connecticut's Wine & Food Festival

9008886459?profile=originalEach year, the Greenwich Wine & Food Festival proves that it represents so much more than a celebration of premier food and wine tastings. As a baseline of activity, nearly 100 wine and spirits vendors, local restaurants and artisan food producers share their goods under The Culinary Village Tent in Roger Sherman Park overlooking Greenwich Harbor and Long Island Sound.

This year you had highlights like Stella Artois pulling glasses of their opulent Belgian Pale Lager and Cidre into take-home souv

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A former gas station with picnic tables out front and neatly stacked locally harvested Oak firewood alongside is the site of Southern Soul, one of Georgia's best BBQ joints. Situated right in the middle of St. Simons Island's village center, whole rib racks and other freshly butchered cuts are seasoned to perfection before being cooked outside in their monstrous smokers. Additional real deal soul food offerings on the menu include a heavenly moist smoked turkey, Hoppin' John (black peas & rice)

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Irish Blancmange, Begorra!


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Sarah Browne, nutritionist and chef from Roscommon, Ireland, strives to use all natural foods locally produced or found in Ireland.  Her carrageen pudding makes use of a species of red algae that is found along the rocky coast of the Atlantic in Europe and North America but it is also sold commercially. Carrageen is commonly used as a thickener but is has health benefits as it is rich in vitamins and minerals… so the pudding is not only delicious it is good for you.

 

Carrageen Moss Blanc Mange

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Choose any flavor.  The gelati at Balducci’s are imported from Italy and taste like no other ice cream – milky, not fatty, with a light, slightly icy texture (without being teeth-shattering), and with just the right amount of sweetness.

Emil Grosso, VP of the Balducci development at the new 2,150-square-foot Gourmet on the Go Café at 300 West 56th Street, asked if I’d care to have a gelato sandwich. Never having tasted it, I was intrigued and mumbled OK, watching while he slit opened a big, soft

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You haven’t truly eaten cake until you’ve taken in some of the beautiful Hungarian capital’s more than 200 bakeries, or café-cum-bakeries. Patisserie in Budapest is sheer perfection and a stop in at least one of its famous bakeries is a must during a tour of the city.

The often tragic ups and downs of recent history have made prestigious cakes such as the Viennese Sacher Torte and the German Schwarzwälder- kirschtorte (Black Forest gateau) internationally popular, as well as a host of equally

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