PALERMO – Mom and Dad are gone and I have Palermo to myself for the morning. I walk behind the Teatro Massimo in the city center, find a bakery where fresh, hot, ricotta-laden pastries come out of the back room just as I enter.

Sold.

Outside, a helicopter whoops mysteriously. I down my coffee and head outside with breakfast to see what the fuss is about.

The theater has moved outdoors.

“You can’t stand there,” says someone who I’ll later realize is a plainclothes police officer.
Twenty-odd mobsters have been rounded up and, one by one, under cover of the helicopter and an impressive line of carabinieri cars, they are escorted out of a special police station, down a set of stairs and into a waiting car.

Wives and grandmothers dissolve into tears and collapse to the sidewalk. News crews and families are pushed around. Tragedy! Comedy! Italians have a particular capacity for making the serious look ridiculous.

Some of the cons come out of the door and pause at the top of the stairs with a look of dread. Newbies. Others grin and give a handcuffed wave with a look that says, "Don’t worry honey, I’ll be outta the clink in a couple of days.''

One guy has a plastic bag that looks like it’s stuffed with a three-day supply of pasta and cannoli.

I pop the last bite of pastry, take a nervous picture of the chaos and wander toward my gelato.
Da Carlo is as fantastic as ever. I have scoops of yogurt and cantaloupe gelato in a brioche capped by a beautifully not-too-sweet whipped cream.

Later, I wash it down with a standup coffee at Caffé del Moro where the barista blurs the line between man and machine.

Without looking, he flips a clean espresso cup from the top of machine to his other hand, waiting for it next to the portafilter. Steam rises from the used grounds in the knockbox.
I ask if I can make a photo and while his machine gurgles, he sizes me up with a look that says, "Why bother?'' combined with "I don’t care.''

“Fa,” comes the response. Do it.

I’ll miss this city.

Caffé del Moro
Via Giovanni Da Procida, 3
Palermo

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

PARIS – It’s perplexing when a new favorite doesn’t live up to what you remember.
A few months ago, I went to F.S. favorite Au Bascou and had a transcendent dish that, when I looked at the price -- a bit more than what I’m used to paying with mains in the low to mid twenty euro range -- still said ‘'well worth it.'’ I knew I’d go back.

Tonight, on my return, I thought of the restaurant as a place that out of town guests would never find on a first trip to Paris and it was…good.

Scallops tasted like scallops. Pigeon like pigeon. Cooking temperatures were perfect, yet nothing was lifted to that happy level where what’s in your mouth becomes more interesting what you’re talking about.

Fittingly, a thirty-odd euro Corbières was never mentioned as good or bad. The service was as slightly understaffed and flighty as ever – nothing to complain about at a corner café, but here, it feels like you’re paying for a bit more and not quite getting it.
I want to like this place as much as I did before. I want my meal to interrupt.

Au Bascou
38, rue Réaumur,
75003 Paris
011 33 1 42 72 69 25

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Though the 5 day festival honoring the patron saint of the fishermen, St. Peter, began on the 24th, there are still 4 days left to join in the celebration. The festival is put on by the spirited Italian-American community of Gloucester, Mass. The St. Peter's Fiesta has been featured on The Discovery Channel, PBS's United Tastes of America and New England's own, Yankee Magazine. The 2009 festival started June 24 and ends this Sunday, June 28.

In 1927 an Italian-American fishing captain, Savatore Favazza, ordered a life-sized statue of St. Peter to be enshrined in the heart of the Italian district. The fishermen and their families began to pray to their patron saint and it wasn't too long after, that the wives and mothers of the fishermen made plans for an annual religious procession on June 29 in honor of St. Peter. Slowly through the years, this annual procession grew to a day-long demonstration of faith to the protector of all fishermen, which then of course turned into the 5-day celebration Gloucester still holds today.

Beyond the procession, the prayers and the mass, lies a full schedule of music, sports, activities, feasts and drink. Perhaps the most anticipated events are the Seine Boat Races and the Greasy Pole. The schedule is here, so you can plan you trip.

Photo courtesy of St. Peter's Festival Committee

I love the food in Spain, but you can only eat wood-grilled lamb, roast hake, and huge juicy veal chops so many days in a row. And I confess to having trouble knowing quite WHAT I was eating in Basque country. It all tasted great but I couldn’t pronounce the dishes because their Basque names were composed primarily of the consonants x, z ,and q. So it was a relief and delight to reach Aranjuez (about 30 miles outside of Madrid), a farming region famous for its white asparagus and strawberries. Asparagus is available April-June, strawberries May-July. I came in June, went to Casa Juli (on Gobernación 12, [tel] 011-91-892-58-43) and had both. Mmmmmmm.....

Posted by Patricia Harris, Globe Correspondent

Photos by Patricia Harris for the Boston Globe

I thought Ciccio Sultano was the only Sicilian serving sex food – the kind of stuff that makes you want to forget you’re in a public place, vault the table and make a meal out of your date.
RRROWWW!!!

One of the things I like about Chef Caravanserraglio and his eponymous Ragusa restaurant is that he’s not afraid to do pizzas that tend to be in the 5-10 euro range on a menu that also includes a 58 euro tasting menu; both are great values, but it’s rare to see someone with the guts and skill to do it all right.

Naturally, Caravanserraglio is a product freak and his menu lists four types of olive oil, six salts and five kinds of pepper. Apparently, we both share a dislike for Peugeot pepper grinders (no coarse grind) but he’s ordering a special German grinder normally used by scientists to extract the most from his peppercorns. Until then, he uses a mortar and pestle crushing pepper to order.

One of the first plates with a tasting menu is an index card-sized slice of fat from a Spanish pata negra cured ham atop a similar-sized thick slice of lightly-smoked beef carpaccio with Maldon salt and specially-imported Szechuan pepper so fresh that it actually fizzes in your mouth.

Everything happens at once: textures and flavors, smoky, salty and slippery, fizzy and raw.
Damn these public places. I want to vault the table.

Ristorante - Pizzeria Caravanserraglio
via P.Nenni 78
Ragusa
http://www.caravanserraglioragusa.com/

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

While I have a crush on most berries, there is none more flexible and satisfying than a ripe strawberry. Perhaps I am a bit biased having grown up among countless strawberry picking fields, with a mom and grandmother making the sweetest jams, and the makings for shortcake were always at an arm's reach. June in New England is strawberry picking month, and festivals celebrating the fruit can be found all over. This Saturday, June 20, is Canterbury Shaker Village's 1st Annual Strawberry Jamboree.

Celebrating the onset of summer and the village’s longtime love for strawberries, the jamboree is an open mic musical jam session featuring TJ Wheeler and Patrick “Hatrack” Gallagher, where visitors can sign up to play or simply enjoy the music. A Strawberry Bake-Off with Professional and Home Chef divisions will fill the air with some more sweet music. Visitors can also shop for fun and unique products, take home strawberries and strawberry plants, and enjoy the many children’s activities.

Tickets are $17 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-17, and children 5 and under visit free. In keeping with the times, there is also a $42 family rate. Check online to register for bake-off and other details, or call 603-783-9511.

Spanish super chef Martín Berasategui is one of a small group of creative cooks who revolutionized Basque cuisine, and his three Michelin stars were part of what set French chefs sputtering about the Spaniards a few years back. But Berasategui is also something of a populist, and his new restaurant at San Sebastian’s performance center is priced for accessibility, with set menus starting at 24 euros (about $34). An even better bet at Kursaal MB, as it’s known, is the tasting menu of pintxos (as the Basques call tapas): 3 courses for 10 euros (about $14). For lunch I had this fresh goat cheese and spinach salad, stewed spider crab with parsley foam gel, and a soup with mussels and scallops—and alioli. Oh, and the price included a generous pour of a good Rioja.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe correspondent

Photo by David Lyon for the Boston Globe

It’s fine. I just don’t get what the fuss is about. Maybe I miss my old bakery - L’Autre Boulange in the 11th.

Belleville’s Au 140 bakery won Best Baguette in Paris in 2001 and the way they string the accolades up around the bakery, you’d think it was last week.

There are more scientific ways to do this, but the most Parisian baguette test is to nibble off the end on the way home. A really good one won’t be sticking out of the top of your bag by the time you unlock the door.

Still, it’s fine. There’s a trace of an almost sourdough-y bite, but I’d be hard pressed to say it’s much better than most. Top 40 percent? Mine was a bit past its prime freshness and mysteriously cool on the inside, but that might just be me being sensitive and wanting it to live up to expectations.

Up in this neck of the woods, there’s La Flûte Gana on the Rue des Pyramides which is technically a flute and not a baguette, but it blows the doors off of Au 140.

L’Autre Boulang
43 rue de Montreuil
75011 Paris
011 33 1 43 72 86 04
http://www.lautreboulange.com/

La Flûte Gana
226 Rue des Pyrénées
75020 Paris
011 33 1 43 58 42 62

Au 140
140 rue de Belleville
75019 Paris

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Just about every February, when my kids are beginning to tire of the snow and cold, they think to summer and immediately ask, "How long until the rib fest?" It's really a strange notion that they look forward to an event featuring a food they really could take or leave, but they do, and year after year, I notice the event getting more kid-friendly, as organizers have taken note that there are more strollers than Carter's got bibs.

Professional 'Ribbers' from the northeast gather to cook-off for the Best Ribs title at the 7th Annual Rock 'N Rib Fest held at the Anheuser Busch Factory in Merrimack, N.H., on June 19-21. Lines get long -- like 30 minutes or more long, so plan to eat whenever you see short lines on off hours. Another obvious hint, is the longer the line, usually the better the food. We take note of who's got the business, wander and roam, and then hit that rib tent when it slows some. Possibly better than the ribs, is the musical line-up this year. Continuous live music on several stages include bands for children, teens and adults. Musical acts playing the main stage throughout the weekend include Brickyard Blues, The James Montgomery Blues Band and special guest J. Geils, Jimmy’s Down, and my personal favorite, Mama Kicks. There is a very popular teen band competition on Friday, with the winner getting a chance to perform Sunday on the main stage. In addition to food and music, there are hot air balloon rides, wildlife encounters and tons of children's activities including jump houses. Tickets are just $5 with children under 8 getting in free, making it a perfect day-long activity for most families.

Catalan Carme Ruscalleda, Spain’s first female chef with three Michelin stars, will open her first restaurant in Barcelona at the city’s Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Ruscalleda has three stars for her Restaurant Sant Pau in the town of Sant Pol de Mar and two more for the Tokyo version of the restaurant.

Who’s cooking in Barcelona? Her son, Raül Balam, who’s been working beside his mother in Sant Pol de Mar for years.

Doors are scheduled to open at the end of the year.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of Carme Ruscalleda and son Raül Balam by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

RAGUSA, Sicily -- Whenever I’m in the Motherland, Francesco, my good pal and stalwart guide, humors my quest to find the best pizza in Sicily.

There’s some good stuff in the south where he’s from, strong examples in Palermo and more unique, thicker pies in Trapani. We ignore the question of ‘what is real Sicilian pizza?’ and just go with our taste buds.

In the end, we got to the point where, instead of calling places by their names, we’d just call them by their score on a ten-point scale. The place in the hotel down the hill with Speedy Gonzales on the takeout box? Pizza Sette. The seaside place? Sette Punto Cinque. Reigning southern champion? La Contea in Modica, where a pie with rocket, cured wild boar and parmesan (a combination that tends to send me over the moon with glee no mater in which state I find it) which earned it the Pizza Otto title.

Before I came back to the Motherland, Francesco started hinting at a new find: a place he was calling "Pizza Nove Plus.'' The "plus'' being for the food at Ristorante - Pizzeria Caravanserraglio (which we’ll get to in another post) hidden in the outskirts of Ragusa.
As a group appetizer, we order a tomato, mozzarella and basil pie. The sauce is sweet and acidic, the crust crisp and soft with wood-fired flavor. Plus, there’s milky sensuality from the mozzarella and a crisp, fresh bite from the basil.

Pizza Otto was dethroned in one bite.

Later, after a full non-pizza meal, I get edgy, thinking that I might not be back here for a while.

After the cheese course, I find chef Francesco Caravanserraglio wandering the floor and ask for another pizza.

Full to the gills, everyone at the table stares at me funny until it shows up, but Francesco dutifully has a slice.

The pie has a sort of flight path: “This won’t change my life,” I think over my first bites, but then the Parmesan and cured meat sweeten and begin working together.
I look over and Francesco has broken his fork-and-knife protocol and eats his pie with his hands. He pops the last bite of crust into his mouth with an "I-told-you-so'' smile.

Then he asks for another slice.

Ristorante - Pizzeria Caravanserraglio
via P.Nenni 78
Ragusa
http://www.caravanserraglioragusa.com/

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

“Francesco – let’s grab my folks and get dinner on the ocean. You know that place I went for pizza at this place a couple years ago… in one of those towns at the southern tip of the island…you weren’t there…know the place I’m talking about?”
I fear for my memory when I’m older.

Strangely, he knew. Or thought he did. Maybe we’re both doomed.

In any case, the place we went – La Giara – was much better than the one I could only vaguely remember.

The good stuff comes first – we get fish called neonatu if you’re Sicilian, bianchetti if you’re Italian and gianchetti if you’re Ligurian (it’s big up there, too.)

Three names for a fish that’s as long as my thumb is wide? Turns out there are many species that can fall into the neonatu category – the baby form of anchovies, sardines and many other fish lumped into a group known as pesce azzurro – the veal of anchovies.

Until this night, I couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about. Bianchetti are often breaded individually, fried up and served on a plate – in Barcelona, they pay through the nose for this stuff – but being so tiny, their delicate flavor is overwhelmed by breading and fry oil.

Here, they make fritters out of them. Little balls of little fish where the outside stays nice and crunchy – that good fried-ness – and inside, you get sweet, delicate fish flavor. Realizing there’s only one left, Mom and I briefly glare at each other, but I realize I should be a good Sicilian boy and defer with a grunt.

We also have an octopus carpaccio – which almost seems like a contract between chef and customer that says, “You trust us and we’ll do it right.”
They do. Serving it on a bed of rocket and spiced up with red pepper flakes, Mom, who prefers everything she eats well done has several bites.

Wine worth noting: 2006 Sicilia by MandraRossa using the fiano grape. The father/uncle of the Planeta clan shows the grace and restraint of a proud patriarch.

The pasta (a bit more photogenic than fried fritters) is honest and good. At the end of my meal, I make a note – ‘There are thousands of places like this in Italy, and we’re lucky every time we eat in one.”

La Giara
Portopalo di Capo Passero (Along the port.)
Sicily
011 39 0931 843217
Closed Monday

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of La Giara by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

The phenomenon of the tapas competition seems to be spreading all over Spain, and it’s all to the good for a traveler with a taste for the new Spanish cuisine. The competitions are usually organized by town and run anywhere from a week to two months. Each participating chef offers a special creation, usually at a bargain price. (In Zamora, for example, all competition tapas are priced at 1 euro, or about $1.40.) In Bilbao, the plates are called “pintxos,” and they’re a little bigger than tapas in other regions. The best combo I’ve tasted here was at Bar Zuga on Plaza Nueva in Bilbao’s old town. Chef David Asteinza created this complex dish of a square of seared codfish, a squiggle of mango cream, crispy fried mint leaves, and a bonbon of red tuna coated with unsweetened dark chocolate. The spoon holds little beads of sweet garlic “caviar.” Not bad for $4.50.

Posted by David Lyon

Photo by David Lyon for the Boston Globe

To prepare for the cookout, Dad sits with the English-Italian dictionary to figure out the first thing he’d like to say upon meeting our gregarious host, Guido: "You are my brother from another mother.''

Guido, my pal Francesco’s uncle, was born with the gift of making whoever he’s with feel like they’re two peas in a pod, and this day was no different. He lent me his daughter’s scooter the first time I lived here, and though I only have what the French would call notions of Italian, language never seems to be a barrier when talking with him.

My parents came to Sicily on vacation to learn about the Motherland and our family history here – Dad’s maternal grandparents emigrated from the tiny town of Altavilla Milicia in the early 1900s – and being together in the place where our ancestors were from is a potent emotional experience connecting us with the past and each other.

Guido’s wife Pina and Francesco’s mother make a feast that includes roasted peppers, sautéed mushrooms and grilled meat a go-go and I’ve smuggled an entire jamón Ibérico – black hoof and all – through customs as a gift from our family to theirs.

Today, however, food (very tasty food at that) was simply a way to bring us together, and I’d trade every amazing Sicilian restaurant meal for this one feast.
Being made to feel like family can be as important as finding the real one.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Tourism folks on Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island are hoping to give visitors a true taste of their place, which has been compared to Nantucket, only much, much smaller and way, way cheaper. A Taste of Block Island, the first such event on the island and one organized by local businesses, is on tap for June 12-14 with more than 60 island businesses participating.

For the cost of a $5 button, available on the Block Island Ferry from Point Judith, R.I., participants get discounts and specials at island businesses, including two-for-one moped rentals (besides bicycles, the best way to get around the 11-square-mile island), lobster lunch and dinner specials, and kayaking tours of Great Salt Pond.

With the button, participants get a listing of all discounts and specials. Buttons may also be purchased at the Point Judith ferry ticket office, the Block Island Chamber of Commerce just off the ferry landing on the island, and the National Hotel and Harborside Inn, both on the island.

The Nature Conservancy has designated Block Island “One of the last 12 great places in the Western Hemisphere,” and the taste tourists can get that weekend in June aims to point out why, said Susan Linda, president of the Block Island Ferry.

For more information, visit blockislandinfo.com or call 800-383-2474.

By Paul E. Kandarian, Globe correspondent

Photo of National Hotel with shops below by Paul E. Kandarian for The Boston Globe

PRELUDE
Driving through Sicily, Mom asks whether there are many foxes roaming the island – a question completely out of left field, and as likely a subject as if she had a sudden interest in stock quotes.

FOOD
Dinner at Nangalarruni in Castelbuono is a snapshot of Sicilian cuisine. A starter salad of blood oranges and pearl onions is served with thin slices of tobacco-smoked pork, sprinkled with salt flakes and dappled with olive oil and deeply-flavored musto cotto from 1987. The dish shows a native love for sweet and savory, reverence for history and an inventive playfulness. Much of that can also be seen in the following course -- a bread pie served next to a big, comma-shaped swirl of ricotta cream.
It’s at this point in the meal where chef Peppino Carollo, who I’ve blogged and written about, sits down one table away to have dinner with his brother on a quiet Monday night. Staying undercover would have been nearly impossible, not to mention really awkward. Besides, it’s hard to braise a wild boar shank (our next course) in 10 minutes.

Instead, we talk. The brother is in town from Rome to hunt mushrooms with chef in the hills above town – Nangalarruni may mean "jew’s harp'' but the restaurant is a mushroom-lover’s heaven and the walls here are covered with paintings of fungi and pictures of Chef and friends after successful mushroom hunts.

Who’s manning the kitchen while chef is having dinner with his brother?
“He’s young,” Chef says of sous-chef Giandomenico Lammonica, but it’s not hard to understand why he is Carollo’s right-hand man – Lammonica has a mushroom farm above town that he tends to as a hobby.

A several-course tasting meal at Nangalarruni is a bargain at 30 euros and the great wine list has gentle prices, perhaps owing a bit to Chef’s wife running two small wine shops in town.

FULL CIRCLE
Walking back after a late-night stroll through town, a fox appears in front of our door.

…

When in Castelbuono, stay at the Casa Ilaria B&B. It’s hidden, quiet, beautiful, spacious and run by gracious owners. It’s also a steal at 30 euros per person per night.

Nangalarruni
Via delle Confraternite, 5/7
Castelbuono
011 39 0921 671428
www.hostarianangalarruni.it

Casa Ilaria
Piazza Tenente Schicchi, 5
Castelbuono
011 39 0921 676268
http://www.casailaria.it/

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Lobster College sounds like a hungry Mainiac’s dream: all lobster, all the time. Ah, but it’s real, if only for one weekend, Sept. 17-20. In past years, Lobster College has attracted folks from as near as Maine, as far as Illinois, Michigan, Florida, and Australia. Along with retirees and other curious fans of the crustacean, there have been restaurant owners and students of marine science for whom this is a serious hands-on learning experience.
Instructors are University of Maine faculty and lobster fishermen and dealers who serve up generous lessons on lobster biology and ecology, stock management, branding and marketing, and related environmental issues. Students learn to bait traps and go out on a working lobster boat. They hear about lobster products and taste recipes at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Last year they ate at least ten lobster dishes in four days.
The program is run by the Lobster Institute, a coalition of University of Maine faculty and those working in the industry, focused on research and education outreach to protect, conserve and enhance a healthy lobster fishery as a resource, and lobstering as both an industry and a way of life. Lobster College is also a fundraiser for the institute. Sessions takes place in and around Boothbay Harbor, among the prettiest sections along Midcoast Maine’s rocky coast. Participants stay at Kenniston Hill Inn Bed & Breakfast in Boothbay. The charming shipbuilder’s mansion was built in 1786.
Enrollment is limited to 20; the deadline is August 31. Tuition is $575 per person, including all lobster meals, plus room rates which range from $450-$570 for the weekend. Details are at www.lobsterinstitute.org or call 207-581-2751 or 207-581-1443.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe Correspondent

Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff

We took my friend, almond and olive oil producer Francesco Padova, to lunch at Ragusa Ibla’s Il Duomo restaurant – not an easy feat, considering Sicilians’ amazing hosting skills. It was a great way to see what chef Ciccio Sultano’s been up to – more a check on concepts than a critique.

Chef, who I’ve written about previously, came out to say hello and explained a few dishes, but was almost completely knocked out by a cold.

Highlights from the tasting included fusilli lunghi alle rose – long fusilli supporting rockfish fillets, a bed of fennel and a tiny skewer of sautéed fish liver. The fish was firm, the fusilli floppy, the fennel … feral – at least in the ‘'wild’' and more alliterate sense of the word. The liver? That just melts on your tongue.

The secret weapon, however, is in the sauce: rose water. Light, like you’re smelling perfume without drinking it, and, as Sultano says, a wink at Sicily’s history, where it showed up as a luxurious ingredient.

Rose water shows up again at dessert, this time in the sorbet accompanying a ‘pistachio couscous’ dessert. The dish is playful in concept – couscous being another wink at Sicilian history – but serious in execution, giving it a divine, cake-like quality.
At 100 euros including wine, the tasting menu is a splurge but still a great value.

Il Duomo
Via Capitano Bocchieri, 31
Ragusa Ibla, Sicily
011 39-0932-651265
www.ristoranteduomo.it

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

I’m back in The Motherland.

It’s a work/play trip that includes bringing my parents to the land of our Sicilian ancestors for the first time. My sister and I are English, Irish, French, Italian, Dutch and German mutts, but it’s always been the Sicilian side – via our paternal grandmother – that we identify with most as a family.

I’m playing tour guide so the induction is based on food and Day One includes a visit to pastry chef Corrado Assenza’s appropriately named Caffè Sicilia.

While Assenza’s ideas and creations can be otherworldly, he’s a product-sourcing freak. If he can’t do it perfectly, he won’t do it.

His almond gelato not only tastes like an almond in another state, but even has the slight tannic tang from the almond skin along with a mix of minerals and salt in the skin that makes Sicilian almonds unique.

We also try a “Traversata del Deserto” – a cake that includes mint, black tea, lemon rind, sea salt and “lyophilized” (freeze-dried) algae. It’s the kind of thing that Mom would try but stop after one bite.

Instead, she makes a funny grunting noise, almost like she’s disappointed.
“I’m sorry for all the cakes that will come after this in my life.”

Caffè Sicilia
Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 125
Noto, Sicily

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Get there before it’s overrun with ministers.
Maybe because it’s brand new and hasn’t been discovered yet. Maybe it’s because it was a vacation week or just a slow day, but four of us had Le 122, smack in the heart of ministry central to ourselves.
Instead of that depressing, feel bad for the owners, ‘why are we whispering?’ feeling, it was perfect. The chef and his wife came over to talk once in a while and the waiter nosed in with an off the cuff crack that had huge crash and burn potential, but instead, he had read us perfectly.
Chef’s pedigree shows in his fish dishes like a toothy and full of flavor smoked sardine and anise-tomato marmelade appetizer and a cod pissaladière – a Provencal pizza cousin, this one doing a wonderful job of respecting the fish.
We share a Coteaux du Vendomois that chef calls his wine of the month. It’s made by a friend of his and so good and well-priced, I hope everything on the wine list is made by his friends.
Dessert? Strawberries with a tea foam that sits in a glass bowl and looks like a floating flower.
A friend was supposed to leave early, instead, she asked for another spoon.

Le 122
122 rue de Grenelle
75007 Paris

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Call me a traitor, but here I go.
Though it might look like pink champagne, the apéro of the summer is a beer, and not one for the faint of heart.
Cantillon’s Kriek 100% Lambic is an eye-popper that will stand your taste buds happily on end.
It’s also a dive into the deep end of Belgian beer vocabulary. In short, lambics are natural fermentation beers that are aged for at least three years in oak barrels. A kriek, is a lambic (or a gueuze) made with sour cherries known as griottes.
While some companies have turned kriek into a sweet and sticky mess, those worth their salt are bracingly sour.
Cantillon’s kriek has just a hint of creamy suds on top and gets its cooked cherry color from the griottes. Poke your nose into the top of a glass and you’ll get a blast the grapefruit smell that is the hallmark of many good lambics, along with a hint of green apples. If your salivary glands haven’t kicked in by now, blow your nose.
Take a sip and you’ll get a kick of that fantastic sour and acidic grapefruit flavor.
If you can find any way to get your stomach and taste buds more ready for a meal, the comment box is one click away…

P.S. In Paris, I found my bottle at Pommier inside the Marché Beauvau - the covered market at Marché d’Aligre in the 11th arrondissement.
Cantillon has a handy place to start your quest with a partial list of wholesalers and places to buy your bottle here.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

A few weeks ago I wrote about walking the hills of Sierra de Aracena where the Iberian pig is as beloved as bullfighting and fandango. In the fall when breeders perform the matanza, or ritual slaughter, neighbors help neighbors and outdoor cook pots smolder with delicious food for helping hands. Since I couldn’t extend my stay to participate, the Chestertons who raise pigs on their farm Finca Buenvino sent a few pictures of a matanza in their village of Los Marines. I don’t know if this was a kindness or not – the pictures make me hungry just looking at them!

Besides the pork loin with chestnut sauce at Bar Carlos in Los Marines, Carlos Jr. makes a zesty fresh tomato and spare-rib stew for the helpers at his family’s matanza.

The pig livers are combined with turmeric and bread over an outdoor cook fire for this traditional stew.

The Chestertons often make this big paella for winter picnics as well as a hard day’s reward.

Jeannie Chesterton adds a touch of Cordon Bleu training with grilled aubergine, zucchini, and goat’s cheese spread with sun-dried tomato and pine-nut pesto. Her cooking classes are popular with Finca Buenvino guests.

Posted by Patricia Borns, Globe correspondent

Photos by Sam Chesterton for The Boston Globe

Since discovering that some of Florida’s African American landscape artists known as the Highwaymen are still painting in Fort Pierce I’ve been returning to the southeast Florida city with photographer Gary Monroe for a book about the artists’ original home turf.
Recently, Monroe and I had lunch at Granny’s on Avenue D with artist Al Black whose prison murals can be seen for the first time outside the jail in Al Black’s Concrete Dreams, The Highwaymen Murals (Gary Monroe, University Press of Florida).
The oxtail stew was good as before, but now Hassie and Charles Russ’s restaurant and other Avenue D businesses are getting a face lift thanks to Fort Pierce’s Redevelopment Agency headed by Jon Ward. Besides an interpretive Highwaymen trail planned for the Lincoln Park neighborhood -- among possible landmarks is a spot outside the former juke joint Eddie’s Place where Highwaymen Alfred Hair was shot -- we found more great food on Avenue D:
Hot Stop Food Market opens at 5 a.m. for the citrus picking crowd. The fried grouper and-eggs breakfast with grits is excellent and one portion fed both of us ($6). 1702 Avenue D, 772- 465-8040.
A smoker was going full tilt at Tillman’s Backyard BBQ, newly opened next to 1523 at 16th Street and Ave. D. A group led by neighborhood redevelopment mover-and-shaker Elise Rollins was headed there for lunch. They raved about the ribs. 772-828-6261.
At Scott’s Deli and Grocery, owner Randall Scott’s wife Debbie makes a butter cream cake that equals Granny’s peach cobbler. (1507 Avenue D, open 11:30 am to 8 pm).
“This recipe came from the Arawak Indians,” said Vincent Barnett who was stirring a pot of brown stew at C-N-C restaurant. “In Jamaica, we make it with fresh pimento leaves, scallions, garlic, ginger and thyme.” The restaurant with its mural, "Ode to a Buffalo Soldier,'' by local artist Ade Rossman is unmistakable, and so is the stew. (#1143 Avenue D.)
Before leaving town we poked our heads in at D.G. Grocery and stayed for the barbecued pork ribs – smoked with oak in a brick oven at the back of the store – with collard greens done just right and sweet tea. $12/pp. (2311 Avenue D, 772-462-5172.)

Posted by Patricia Borns, Globe correspondent

Owner and chef Hassie Russ serves oxtails at Granny's Restaurant on Avenue D.
Photo by Patricia Borns for the Boston Globe

At last look there were only 14 slots open for the F1 Grand Prix Monaco VIP Experience May 22-24. But since the starting price is $30,000 a person, there still may be room for you. The experience includes a private jet charter or a first-class cabin on a regularly scheduled flight, a helicopter transfer from Nice into Monaco, a private car and driver, a suite at the Hotel de Paris, VIP access aboard My Yacht Monaco, meetings with race people and guided tours of race sites, dinner at Joël Robuchon, Louis XV, and at the Hotel de Paris private wine cellar, an introduction to Prince Albert and his royal guests at the My Yacht Monaco party, VIP party, and show entrances, and access to a private VIP Grand Prix party and after-party on the Penthouse of Shangri-La, above the start-finish line.
Call 949-429-8117 or e-mail contact@echelonexp.com.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Who knew a bitter aftertaste was a good thing?
On a suggestion from the bed and breakfast owner, I check out Brasserie de l’Union on the Parvis Saint-Gilles, which, in my case, was literally off the map.
I have an Orval, mostly because I haven’t yet, and watch the world go by. Spring is in the air – trees are budding and everybody in out on les terrasses, following the afternoon sun like flowers.
There are scads of other places to check out on the square: head across the street (sun or no) to Le Librar for leather jackets, piercings, tattoos and a blessed lack of gawkers or double back to the Maison du Peuple for an afternoon’s worth of Wi-Fi and bourgeoisie.
There, however, a local points me further up the street (and further off the map) to Chez Moeder Lambic where the beer list is long and the service and cheeses are raw – one of the best finds of the trip. If they’ve got it, the Trappist Val-Dieu comes highly recommended, but I start with a Gouyasse the end my Belgian beer quest the way I started – with a St. Bernardus wit.
I’ll be back.

Parvis Saint-Gilles

Chez Moeder Lambic – MAP
Savoiestraat 68, Belgium
011 34 02 539 14 19‎

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

After a good round of gueuze, barman Sebastien starts talking about Westvleteren 12, a Trappist brew that’s rare as hen’s teeth and a whole lot better tasting. It’s often raked as the best beer in the world and is the crown jewel of Café la Brocante.
“Super rare,” says Sebastian, delicately teasing out the bait. “First you have to call them 400 times, and they never pick up the phone. And they’re monks, so they don’t have answering machines.”
Later, he explains, if you get through, you schedule a pickup at the abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren where the monks will give you a case (“Two if you’re lucky”) and write down your license plate number so you can’t come back for more.
Sold.
He pours a chalice-type glass, leaving the last bit of sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
The beer’s so deep colored that the thick foam takes on a coffee-with-cream color that gives off a toffee and licorice nose so strong it almost makes you want to cut it with a bit of water to get the full bouquet. At 10.5 percent alcohol -- more than twice of what’s in a bottle of Bud -- the idea’s not that far-fetched.
Sip.
A wall of flavor pushes through my mouth and out the sides of my tongue.
There are the toffee and licorice flavors, but a concentrated, sweet and malty earthiness, too. It’s the perfect way to end a beer trip to Brussels and cheaper than a bad pint in Paris.
I buy one for the road.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

A quick pause from Belgian beer to say that when it comes to finding the best Italian in the 11th arrondissement, you win, Francois.
Last night, taking the advice of locals and friends, a sommelier friend and I went to Casa Vigata for Sicilian on rue Léon Frot for a hit and miss extravaganza.

The hits:
The Seafood – a clam and artichoke appetizer full of flavor and sauce made for bread dipping, whole-roasted octopus served with just a slice of lemon and a perfectly-cooked breaded swordfish main. Paris can be disastrous when you’re looking for good fish and these guys nail it.
The Cannoli – Leave the gun. The friendly owner makes these daily using a crispy shell, light, tangy ricotta and just a touch of candied orange peel. If there’s better in Paris I haven’t found it.

The misses:
Consistency: Our neighbors ordered two of the same dishes as we did; their octopus was cooked better (mine was slightly over) and their swordfish/caponata portions were significantly larger. They also got a shot of lemoncello with their check. The last is certainly at the owner’s discretion, but all three together leave a bitter taste.

The worst:
The wine – overpriced and/or not that good. A red Sicilian table wine for 40 euros? I love a good Nero d’Avola, but please.
It took us 10 minutes looking at the wine list to essentially decide how we were going to be fleeced, and we still lost. My friend was talking about … something when I got distracted by a sip of the white we ordered…
Me: “This is bad.”
Sommelier friend: “Very bad.”

The verdict?
I’ll try again in a year. Maybe.

Casa Vigata
44 rue Léon Frot
75011 Paris
011 33.1.43.56.38.66

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

My Brussels beer luck holds true at Café La Brocante, found by asking two friendly-looking locals (with all the groceries they were carrying, they couldn’t have been going far) where to go. The café/bar/restaurant is on the square that hosts Brussels’ sprawling and kitschy flea market, and all the signs were good – better said, the sign on the front door announces a beer list that included 3 Fonteinen, Oud Beersel, and Cantillon – whose brewers I’ve been interviewing in the last few days.
Inside, old regulars play backgammon, there’s a stag’s head on the wall with a pipe in its mouth and a sign that says "Please don’t feed the dog'' in three languages. There’s a local dish called stoemp made with mashed potatoes, and theirs comes topped with slices of homemade meatloaf; my father would be in heaven.
The barman, Sebastien, coaches us through a couple of beer selections and his knowledge extends not only to what’s on the menu, but what’s not, including a rare kriek lambic (in short, a barrel-aged beer flavored with sour cherries) from 3 Fonteinen.
We order two drinks and when they arrive, he’s got a bit of a doubt so he opens the first, gets both of our opinions on it and, assured, opens the other.
“I love this place, and I’ve got plans,” he says, alluding to an idea of taking over the bar when the owners retire.
Perfect.

Café La Brocante
Blaesstraat 170
Brussels
011 32 (0) 2 512 13 43

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Long before TV celebrity chefs, home kitchens were the main stage. Since Colonial times, its where families and servants acted out dramas, told stories, tried new technology, experimented with ingredients, fed bellies and comforted souls. Declaring 2009 the Year of the Kitchen, Historic New England has planned house tours and special events at their properties in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Spanning centuries, they range from the Coffin House, c.1678, in Newbury to Gropius House, c.1938, the first architectural commission in America designed by German Bauhaus movement founder Walter Gropius, in Lincoln.
House tours are open on a regular schedule. Special programs include wine tastings, hearth cooking and an afternoon tea. Late April, stock up at an Herb Sale at Lyman House Greenhouses, Waltham. In June, learn about New England Victorian Cookery at Castle Tucker, Wiscasset, Maine. America’s Kitchens, a new exhibit with vignettes and interactive experiences, opens June 11 at the New Hampshire Historical Society museum in Concord, N.H., then travels in 2010 to Long Island and, in 2011, to Cape Cod. There’s also a new America’s Kitchens book.

Posted by Janet Mendelsohn, Globe correspondent

Trade card for Pure Refined Paraffine by the Standard Oil Company. Collection of Historic New England

I dropped Copenhagen brewer Anders Kissmeyer a note saying I was en route to Brussels and wanted to know where to go for good beer. Within a day, Kissmeyer and his two brewers, Shaun Hill and Kasper Larsen, had a list of brewers, beer halls, and lambic blenders to contact.
Shaun recommended the Poechenellekelder bar, a stone’s throw (a short squirt?) from the city’s bizarre Mannekin Pis statue. This close to the touristic center of most cities, it’s generally good to keep your guard up. Instead we were more than impressed by both the selection and the product knowledge.
The list of choices is extensive – even for a beer enthusiast it can be baffling – yet a lot of selection doesn’t mean much without good guidance – “at that point they’re just a stockist” someone said later. Here, however, our waiter Cedric Jamar - a philosophy student who could easily pass for a sommelier - guided by asking just a couple of questions about what we know and what we like and, without presenting options, simply said, “I’ll be right back.”
He came back with two different beers – one exactly what I asked for, and the other, St. Bernardus wheat beer that – with gentle berry smells and crisp flavors, I’d rank among the top ten beers of my life.
I told Jamar so and, with a bit of clever salesmanship, said, “Ah, that’s nothing – if you like that, come back tomorrow and I’ll give you something that’ll knock your socks off.”
I’m on my way.

P.S. – Hot off the press – I just got word from Copenhagen that Nørrebro Bryghus is going carbon neutral. Cheers, Anders!

Poechenellekelder
Rue du Chêne, 5
Brussels

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of waiter Cedric Jamar at Poechenellekelder by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

You may not think of the Nutmeg State as wine country, but the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Groton would like to prove you wrong. In addition to a deluxe room, the Connecticut Wine Country Experience includes tastings and tours at the Jonathan Edwards Winery and Stonington Vineyards and a bottle of wine at each place; a wine-themed amenity; dinner for two at Octagon, a steak house, paired with Jonathan Edwards wines; a $100 Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa gift card; and a breakfast buffet for two. Prices start at $575, and the offer is valid through Dec. 12.
Visit www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/gonmm-mystic-marriott-hotel-and-spa or call 860-446-2600. Use promotional code CUE.

There are times that I can just wince at a high price others where I just balk.
The other day, I balked.
I met a friend to catch up over a beer in the center of Paris at the bar, Le Montorgueil on the street of the same name. The bar has a great location on a trendy street but a is a dive, complete with a circular Plexiglas aquarium-like thing with swirling glitter on the bar.
We caught up, decided to move on and I went to the bar to pay for a pint and a demi (25 cl draft) of the cheap stuff.
“Thirteen twenty,” said the barman, the euro equivalent of more than seventeen bucks.
I stared blankly. My eyes started to do that top-left, top-right, while-I do-the-math thing, but with nothing adding up, they went blank again.
“Thirteen twenty,” repeated the barman.
Saying nothing, I went over to verify on the little board with the drink prices.
Sure enough.
My friend had come over by this point to see what was taking so long.
“Thirteen twenty,” I told him.
He turned directly to the barman and without hesitating said, “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s absurd.”
I agree. I get the part about paying for the trendy location. I realize the prices are posted for everyone to see, but give me a break. I’d later bump into a Parisian friend who had the same experience, noting their drinks cost what I’d roughly translate as “the skin off of our rear ends.”
Thirteen euros is over 17 bucks and there are places where I’ll just wince at a price like that – the big, beautiful and similarly priced Café Beaubourg, right down the street, for example. Here, however, it’s absurd.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of objet at Le Montorgueil by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

I wheedled my way into a Krug Champagne tasting in Barcelona the other day – my birthday no less! - getting a chance to sip on some pretty fancy stuff.
I can’t say buying a bottle of their bubbly is the first thing I’d do with a few extra c-notes, but I liked LVMH (Krug’s parent company) enologist Xavier Montclús’ back-to-basics, grapes-to-glass approach to the tasting, even in a room full of food-industry pros that included sommeliers and Michelin-starred chefs. A few highlights:

THE GRAPES:
Montclús’ metaphors to understand part of each grape’s role in Champagne…
Pinot Noir – “The backbone and the muscles that hold up the wine” – anti-flab, if you will.
Pinot Meunier – “The bones which give fruit flavors like pear, peach and quince…remember that the best taste in meat is closest to the bone.”
Chardonnay – “The skin.” The skin? Eww. “Like on a peach. It contributes smell (honey, for one) and golden color.” Mmm.

PRESENTATION:
The Cork - “Loosen the cage that holds the cork, but keep it on top of the bottle, with your hand on it at all times,” he says, reminding me of a moment when I was a waiter on a San Francisco Bay dinner cruise (dressed like Gopher from “The Love Boat,” no less) and put a quarter-inch dent in a ceiling tile with a cork before beaning a woman on the top of her head. Hoo, dear, I couldn’t stop laughing. “Hold the cage & cork in one hand and turn the bottle with the other.”

THE BUCKET:
“Fill it three-quarters of the way with ice, then halfway up with water.” A bottle that hasn’t been cooled should be kept on ice ½ hour, but not more. “Minimum temperature should be five degrees Celsius (41 F) – lower than that just brings out the defects.”

THE POUR:
“Never serve more than half a flute.”
Bottoms up!

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Although Boston Restaurant Week began last Sunday, you haven’t even missed your appetizer.
That’s because the event, a favorite of residents and visitors alike, spans two weeks. Through Friday diners can savor three-course lunches for $20.09 or dinners for $33.09 at restaurants throughout Boston, Cambridge, the suburbs, and beyond.
On Cape Cod, the Chatham Bars Inn has a Restaurant Week Retreat package starting at $239 that includes overnight accommodations and a three-course dinner.
Visit www.bostonusa.com/restaurantweek for a list of participants. For the Cape package, visit www.chathambarsinn.com or call 800-527-4884 or 508-945-0096.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Bad news, bar fans!
Even in Barcelona, word got to me that after decades of running one of my favorite spots for a Paris apéro, Elyette Planchon has hung up her high heels and sold Au Reve, her 18th arrondissement landmark bar, and retired. For the returning traveler, Elyette and Au Reve were the perfect way to feel back at home in the City of Light.
Not for lack of trying, but one of my biggest food regrets in Paris is never having had one of her semi-secret Wednesday lunches.
Sniff!
Instead of crying in my beer, let's raise a glass of wine to Elyette, wish her well, and do as it said on her apron – la geste qui sauve les vignerons* – take a sip.
Click here to see my Boston Globe Travel article, “Paris dreams of things to come – after an apéro” which features Elyette and Au Reve.

* “The gesture that saves winemakers”

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of Elyette by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

I’ve always had an aversion to taking antibiotics unless someone could really convince me they were worth it.
A few ex-girlfriends might say otherwise, but it’s a good thing I’m not a pig in the United States.
Nicholas Kristof wrote a recent zinger about big agriculture’s use of antibiotics in animal feed that can lead to an antibiotic-resistant staph infection called MRSA, which, as he notes, “kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does.”
In an article full of jaw-droppers, he also cites a 2008 article in Medical Clinics of North America that said “more antibiotics were fed to animals in North Carolina alone than were administered to the nation’s entire human population.”
Go get ‘em Tar Heels!
On March 17, New York State congresswoman and microbiologist Louise Slaughter reintroduced legislation to curb the use of antibiotics in agriculture.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Brian Moore International Tours modestly calls its five-day, late-autumn trip Ireland’s Finest Pub Tour. Although the escorted tour visits the Emerald Isle’s most popular sights, the emphasis is on spending time at pubs in Dublin, Killarney, and Bunratty. The price is $599 plus air fare and dates are Nov. 4-9, 11-16, 18-23, and Dec. 2-7.
Included are transfers, hotel stays, motorcoach transportation, the services of a tour director, Irish breakfasts, two dinners, an Irish coffee gathering, and entrance fees to attractions. You can buy your own Guinness.
Visit www.bmit.com or call 800-982-2299.

Posted By Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

I can get caught up in the primordial pleasures of food – a caveman's instinct that can obscure technique, artistry and emotion. A freelancer's budget will also curb the reflex of heading to a fancy restaurant in a hurry, but Mauro Uliassi who runs his two-star restaurant Uliassi in Senigallia, Italy and is the consulting chef for the brand-new Domani in Hong Kong, helped glue the pieces together the other day at the Forum Girona food show.
I originally met Uliassi in Paris where he was showing off a dish called cuttlefish carbonara -- shaved ribbons of al dente cuttlefish, cooked sous vide, topped with oven-crisped pancetta and Cryovacked egg yolk -- a well thought-out and perfectly executed dish that made a clever wink at the classics.
To bridge the gap between food as fuel and food as inspiration, however, the Italian chef talks about sex.
"There's a huge parallel between food and sex. If you don't eat, you die. If you don't make love, there aren't more people,” he says, with a blunt and curious blend of math and biology, “but when you get past that, eroticism and food are pleasure.”
“If we're just hungry, I take a pig, cut it in half, stick it on a fire and eat it with my hands,” he continues, appealing to the primal needs while augmenting with a bit of spectacle, “but evolved cultures eat for pleasure.
“When you eat, you must 'ooh!' and 'ahh!' -- it's very important. Musicians have guitars, painters have canvases. Food is a way for me to show enthusiasm for life.”

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

I got a whirlwind tour of the Alícia food research center today at Món St. Benet, about an hour outside of Barcelona.
The center, whose name is a mix of the Catalan words alimentació and ciència (food and science) is chef Ferran Adrià's dream child, focusing on gastronomic research, improving eating habits, including pushing for better school and hospital lunches. It’s sort of like an Alice Waters dream project with more test tubes and scientific gear.
It was an unfortunately quick tour, but at first glance, I love the idea that kids come here to learn good eating habits. Instead of a field trip to the museum, you go to the lab of food. Pay attention America.
Another favorite is a quote from Alícia coordinator Pepe Zapata – “We don’t deal with processed food here. You can put vitamins in milk, but why not get them from the products they originally come from?”

Alícia
info@alicia.cat
011 34 938 759 402
workshops and guided tours
info@monstbenet.com
011 34 902 875 353

P.S. - Speaking of Alice and school lunches, Mrs. Waters and collaborator Katrina Heron had a February 19 op-ed piece in the New York Times – “No Lunch Left Behind” – detailing what is needed to help make school lunches better – a worthy read.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo of Ferran Adrìa by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Carlo Cracco is onstage at Girona's Forum Gastronomic holding a deep orangish-red egg yolk in his plastic-gloved hand. He squeezes it, pokes it, talks about it, and instead of turning into a gooey mess that drizzles unflatteringly down his arm, it holds firm.
The yolk is part of his "marinated egg yolk with light Parmesan cream'' -- a deconstructed egg yolk that is one of the Italian's signature dishes at his eponymous restaurant in Milan. It's a play on textures and preconceptions, a chef having thought-out fun.
Marinated?
Yes. For four or five hours, each yolk in a tin cupcake cup with a mixture of salt, sugar and bean flour that sucks much of the moisture from the yolk, leaving it like putty in his hands.
“Up to now, everyone pushed limits,” he tells me later, referring to the long burst of creativity and science that's been coming out of high-end kitchens. “Now, we need to slow down and look at what's worth it and what's not.”
I can't help but wonder what the controversial chef does with all of the extra egg yolks at the end of the day and curiously, he devotes much of the rest of the demonstration to just that.
With most of the liquid pulled from the yolk, he mashes a few of them together creating a thick, bright paste that looks like it's been pimped from his pastry chef. This he spreads between two sheets of oiled wax paper and rolls flat into a translucent pasta that practically glows orange. He runs half the sheet through a pasta machine that turns it into thin noodles which he suggests heating for a minute and serving with a tomato sauce. The other half becomes meat ravioli that look as delicate as a Pierre Herme macaron. This, he serves raw -- a mini steak tartare encased in its yolk.
This is worth it.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

An old standby is a new favorite.
I’d been to L’Escargot, tucked away in the far reaches of Belleville, years ago when Canadian singer Sarah Slean and her entourage were in town and they turned to me for a place to go.
It’s been a bit too long to remember what we ate, but my favorite moment was when the diva’s dad turned to me and said, “That was the best meal we’ve had in France.”
Recently, I ate at L’Escargot a couple times in a two-week span – enough to notice that chef Frederic Valade had the guts to propose gizzards as a bar snack. Earning more points, I also learned he runs a triperie (hard-core butcher shop) down the street.
… but I’m putting the cart in front of the horse.
Like Mehdi As-Siyad, what Valade is doing is some of my favorite stuff in Paris right now – young chefs, making some seriously good food and having fun.
One night, Valade walked out into the open kitchen in a pink wig, then giant sunglasses, then a cabaret-style sequined hat, all of which would have made him look really dumb if the food wasn’t good.
Instead, his duck confît is among the best in town – crunchy on the outside, melting on the inside and packed with flavor. Add to the plate a little tower of mashed potatoes with truffle oil and a salad with a vinaigrette that keeps your taste buds awake and -- Petit Fer A Cheval take note -- you’ve got something comforting, luxurious and well-priced.
Almost every dish at L’Escargot is this good – a venison steak with winter vegetables, braised lamb shank that bursts with flavor, incredibly tender kangaroo (!) filet and ‘beef bo bun’ – a bowl of bite-sized seared flank steak in a lemongrass sauce.
Dessert? The only problem with the crispy crepe (think: thin cousin of a sugar cone, broken up, and shaped into a little puck of goodness nestled under a dense cloud of whipped cream) was that I got a little aggressive with my spoon and launched half of the dish onto the table and my lap.

I ate it anyway.

L’Escargot
50, rue de La Villette
75019 Paris
011 33 1 42 06 03 96

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

Mandarin Oriental, Boston has teamed with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for a package that highlights the new museum exhibition ‘‘Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection.’’ The package, available until May 15, includes a night’s accommodations, breakfast at the hotel’s Asana restaurant, two tickets to the exhibit, and limo service to and from the museum. Prices begin at $605.
Visit www.mandarinoriental.com/boston and click on Tempting Offers or call 617-535-8880 or 866-526-6567.

Amid the numbing gray of the season, you become convinced that dinner out is what you need. But you want something different; haut is too fussy and fusion is just a culinary mutt putting on airs.
So why not go for a drive and dine in the 19th century.
This Saturday, Old Sturbridge Village will offer ’’Dinner in a Country Village,’’ an adults-only program that allows a group of up to 14 visitors to prepare and indulge in an 1830s New England-style feast. The village holds these dinners on Saturdays from November through March. It also throws offers similar events for families, called ‘‘Families Cook,’’ typically during school vacation weeks.
Guests arrive at Sturbridge around 5 p.m. after the living history museum has closed for the day. They are met by costumed interpreters who take them to the parsonage and help oversee preparations, but guests do all the chopping, stirring, and mixing, using period kitchen tools and methods.
Perhaps the prospect of Calvinist-influenced cuisine seems unpromising? One look at the multicourse menu should offer comfort: pounded cheese, mulled cider, winter vegetable soup, crookneck squash pudding, pear pie, dressed macaroni, stewed red cabbage, roast stuffed chicken, Scots collops (beef with apples), cranberry sauce, long rolls, raspberry charlotte, coffee, and sparkling cider.
For more information contact Old Sturbridge Village at 508-347-3362 or check out the website. Reservations are required, and the cost is $85 per person.

Winvian, an upscale resort in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, is featuring a Puddle Jumper package through April 30, which includes accommodations for two in a cozy cottage, all meals and snacks, all open bars (excluding wines) and an in-cottage wet bar; one spa treatment per person, a Winvian umbrella; and two tickets to a show at the Palace Theater in Waterbury. Rates per couple for a two-night minimum stay are from $2,200 midweek (a Sunday-Wednesday arrival) and $2,700 weekends (Thursday-Saturday).
Visit the website or call 860-567-9600.

Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe correspondent

Bloomberg News is reporting that American will halt free meal service in coach on flights between the United State and Latin America and the Dominican Republic. Snacks will be sold for $3 or $4 on flights longer two hours starting March 1. And on longer flights passengers can buy sandwiches for $6.

In nearly a decade living in Paris, I had never been to the Montparnasse brasserie La Coupole -- it’s the Bostonian’s equivalent of never having been to Legal Sea Foods.
Part of the reason for not going was that I snobbishly avoid chains on principle and La Coupole is owned by the Flo group, which owns or bought up more a dozen brasseries in Paris and across Europe including Bofinger, Brasserie Flo and Julien.

I’d also be justified in staying away for nothing more than wanting to boycott those cheap-looking sandwich board that each Flo brasserie has out on the sidewalk advertising something like a 19-euro prix fixe menu. It looks like they pimped them from the semi-ubiquitous French steakhouse chain called Hippopotamus. I imagine the original owner of each brasserie groaning every time they walk past those things.
But the other afternoon, it was cold and we needed a coffee, went inside and I immediately wondered aloud why I had stayed away so long. Like brasserie Wepler, it’s got that great, big-town feeling that envelops you as soon as you walk through the door. Everything from the big, beautiful cupola that floats over the room to the waiters in their black and whites swooping around with big plates of shellfish to the sense of space the mammoth room affords – it all gives a sort of city comfort.
What I’d really like to applaud is the price of La Coupole’s coffee and hot chocolate. Though 4,10 euros for cappuccino makes me groan, particularly considering the poor quality of most French coffee, I’d pay a similar price at my neighborhood café. La Coupole’s hot chocolate, made with high-end Valrhona chocolate, costs about the same and it beats the pants off the powdered junk with the pony on the label that most cafes use.

La Cupole
102, bd du Montparnasse
75014 Paris
011 33 1 43 20 14 20

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Photo by Joe Ray for The Boston Globe

I’m in luv. I met Alfonso during a wine tour and tasting at Herdade da Malhadinha Nova in the Portuguese Alentejo (malhadinhanova.pt/). Big, blonde, deep-voiced, he was incredibly low-keyed as Mediterranean temperaments go. Throughout my stay he followed me with brown doe eyes rather than footsteps, never underfoot but always there. Girlfriends, you know what I mean. See his picture.

While the Obamas lean toward one of Alfonso’s countryman for White House mascot (the Portuguese Water Dog), my pooch idol has at least one thing in common with our new president: his breed known as Rafeiro do Alentejo roughly translate’s to Obama’s self-described ‘mutt.’ The Rafeiros make especially great watch dogs as well as fall-all-over-him boyfriend substitutes. The breeders’ association is Associação de Criadores do Rafeiro
do Alentejo based in Monforte, e-mail: acra@portugalmail.pt. Eduardo Lucas is an English-speaking breeder I met there (Tel. +351 266 612 023; elucas@gescruzeiros.com.)

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The Escape Romance Package from the Renaissance Resort in St. Augustine, Fla., offers accommodations in a newly-renovated room with a resort view. Couples get a choice of a bottle of champagne or wine, chocolate-covered strawberries, and breakfast-for-two daily. Rates are $154-$214 per room, per night. And because love isn’t confined to just the is not confined to only the month of valentines, the offer is good through May 19.
Visit the website and use promotional code LVU cq or call 888-740-7020.
Posted by Richard P. Carpenter, Globe Correspondent

How does pan-seared sea scallops with chocolate balsamic reduction sound paired with a chilled 2008 Zorvino Vineyards Pearz? How about chocolate crepes topped with pistachio and dark rum caramel sauce paired with an NV Cavino Mavrodafne of Patras sweet wine from Greece? Ah-ha, I know. Delightfully perfect.
On Thursday, Feb. 5, Zorvino Vineyards of Sandown, N.H., hosts their very popular Chocolate Madness Wine Tasting & Food Pairing. The evening consists of Zorvino pairing 6 carefully selected wines that complement 3 appetizers - all prepared with chocolate. Cocktail hour starts at 6:30 p.m. and the wine tasting starts promptly at 7:30 p.m. All this indulgence for only $25. To make reservations call 603-887-8463.

I arrived a few minutes early to lunch the other day at Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes and knew I was in good shape by watching the table of businessmen across the room.
Before the food arrived, everyone was fidgety – they clearly didn’t know each other too well and spent time pulling their cell phones from those goofy belt-holster things to check messages instead of talking with one another.
Their wine showed up and the mood lifted, but the big change came with the first plate. A fortysomething guy with glasses and salt and pepper hair watched a neighbor’s plate arrive and his face sort of melted. Then he switched to a big, childlike grin.
The noise level picked up noticeably as the plates arrived. Everyone was smiling. Suddenly, everyone had something to say. The bridge between business and pleasure had been crossed and one of the men lifted a glass and offered a toast.
“Bon appétit, les amis!”
Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes is not for the slightly peckish – this is the cuisine of la France profonde, complete with hunting lodge décor, and built for that kind of appetite: a standard lunch might be a big lentil salad, a wonderful cassoulet, and a fantastic tarte tatin that comes (as it should) with its own bowl of crème fraiche.
The 30-euro menu (about $39) is more than you need at lunch (price included), but at dinner, it would just make you feel spoiled and happy.

Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes
106, Rue de la Folie Méricourt
75011 Paris, France
011 33 1 43 57 33 78

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

In this, the era of the staycation or naycation, there still exist the fortunate few who can afford to travel. But even among that select group most are not above looking to trim expenses here or there.
That's why it may behoove they of the traveling pants to study this list of the 10 fast-food chains that came out on top of a customer satisfaction survey done by Sandelman & Associates, a San Clemente, Calif., market research firm.
Consumers were asked to rank food chains in a series of categories, including quality of food and service, cleanliness and value for the money.
Here is the ranking, along with each chain's percentage of “excellent” overall rating:
1. In-N-Out Burger, Irvine, Calif., 60%
2. Raising Cane’s, Baton Rouge, La., 59%
3. Giordano’s Pizza, Chicago, 56%
4. Chick-fil-A, Atlanta, 55%
5. Panera Bread, St. Louis, 54%
6. Chipotle, Denver, 52%
7. Pei Wei, Scottsdale, Ariz., 51%
8. Firehouse Subs, Jacksonville, Fla., 51%
9. Taco Tote, El Paso, Texas, 50%
10. Qdoba, Wheat Ridge, Colo., 49%
You'll notice that many of the winners were regional chains. What about the national ones?
Subway earned a top rating for healthy and nutritious food; McDonald’s was, no surprise, tops with kids, and Little Caesars got nods for value and affordability.
For more on the survey, check out the Wall Street Journal's Independent Street blog.

Thanks to a dinner at a friend’s house in Barcelona and another at one of my new Paris faves, l’Escargot, I’ve recently been lured back into loving confît de canard.
Crunchy on the outside, melting and moist on the inside, these two dinners reminded me why the dish is a classic.
This afternoon, however, at Le Petit Fer à Cheval – a Marais classic in its own right and a place that prides itself on the dish – I remembered why it’s been so long.

Allow me to work through my plate in reverse…
Yes, it’s winter and the selections at the vegetable stands are pretty grim at this time of year, but this was particularly depressing. There was a vague wave in the direction of seasonality with some cabbage, and there was even a bit of variety, but everything either squeaked on my teeth or was mushy.
C’mon guys…live a little and drizzle some olive oil on the steamed broccoli, try finishing the green beans with some butter and shallots or just punt and swap the veggies out for a salad. I love being in the Clean Plate Club, but not today.
The potatoes next to the veggies were hand cut and crunchy on the outside - Hooray! - but more than a few were crunchy on the inside, too. Ick.
Finally, the duck itself reminded me why I hadn’t had this dish in so long – it was crunchy on the outside (though I almost wonder if, considering the laziness of the preparation for the rest of the dish, they just crisped it up by throwing it into the Frialator with my spuds), but inside it was lifeless.
What’s frustrating is that I like this place – the well-dressed waiters, the U-shaped bar that gives the restaurant its name, the big wall clock that goes backward, the good Parisian feeling that you get here – but I think it’ll be a while before I come back.
I lied unconvincingly when my waiter asked me how it was but the kicker, and a good part of the reason why I’m writing this, was the ridiculous price tag: 20 euros (!!!) or the equivalent of 26 bucks. At L’Escargot, where I would eat it again and again, their confît comes with a potato puree with truffle oil and a beautiful salad for 17 euros.
Expensive and good I can deal with. Expensive and bad just makes me angry.
“Really?” I blurted out to the poor bartender.
“The duck is the specialty of the house,” he said.
It has nothing to do with the guy behind the bar, but quit insulting me.

L’Escargot
50, rue de la Villette
75019 Paris
011 33 1 42 06 03 96

Le Petit Fer à Cheval
28, Rue Vieille du Temple
75004 Paris‎
011 33 9 62 09 23 38‎

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I like to decide quickly what I’m going to eat in a restaurant. I usually have a good instinct for what will be good, and more particularly what won’t, and if I stare at the menu too long, I start feeling like I’m in a video store without knowing what to rent.
Despite a recent, glowing recommendation by you-know-who about Au Bascou’s Lievre à la Royale, (there’s a framed version of his Le Figaro review on the bar), I was curious to try the wild pigeon cooked two ways.
I love this kind of thing; a few years back while shooting pictures for a story about Spring, chef Daniel Rose served lamb three ways and I still remember the spoonful of tartare he slid under my nose. (Squirm all you want – more for me.)
Here at Au Bascou, the deep, earthy flavor of roast breast of wild pigeon reminded me why I love game, but les cuisses were the showstoppers: black-as-night thighs, legs and claws(!), on either side of the plate that looked like set pieces pinched from “The Dark Crystal.” I wondered aloud if they were to eat or just a gutsy garnish.
Me of little faith.
I took a bite and my hand did that thing where it involuntarily flies up in the faces of my dining companions, quaintly indicating something like "Shut up and let me taste this." The preparation -- en salmi -- a sauce made with the bird’s carcass and, as chef Bertrand Gueneron puts it, “lots of time bubbling away in wine,” give it a depth flavor that demands all of your attention.
Deep and primordial, it made me salivate so much, I almost drooled.
The service was a bit spotty – they seemed weirdly short-staffed and flighty for a place this nice – and two of us were crammed into strange theater chairs not made for eating, in but in one bite, a return customer was born.

Au Bascou
38, rue Réaumur,
75003 Paris
011 33 1 42 72 69 25

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Head on down to the Haight-Brown Vineyard [HBV] in Litchfield, Conn., this weekend for an everything-you-can-think-of-French celebration of wine, food, music and culture.
A Beaujolais style wine is the closest to a white wine that a red can get...which yes, makes Beaujolais a light bodied, easy-to-drink red. This Saturday and Sunday, at 1,2 or 3 p.m., HBV welcomes visitors into their wine cellar to learn about their 2009 Beaujolais debut. With the lesson fini, you can head upstairs to the winery to taste other HBV wines, French foods, bask in the French music, and have a glass of the new Beaujolais named, Nouveau Foch. Limited release HBV wine glass, hot cocoa and hot cider included in $20 admission cost. Call to reserve your preferred cellar tour and tasting time. Take a look online for directions and information.

Put to the test on where to go in the neighborhood to fulfill a French onion soup quest, the team at La Cave à Jojo floundered.
“That’s tricky around here,” said Jojo, batting ideas around with clients at the bar, before smiling. “I’ve got it.”

We walked back into the night, skirting the base of Montmartre and bringing our bodies down to the right temperature for soupe à l’oignon.
On the way to our table, a man alone ate oysters from a raised platter, following each with brown bread and sweet butter, then luxuriously washing it down with some white wine; we were in the right place.
I’ve known this -- the one-man reward in a bistro -- and seeing the man made me think of doing the same several years ago, filing a story at some ungodly hour and heading to Au Général Lafayette for pig knuckle, choucroute, and beer. Similarly, every year when I get a new carte de séjour, I straight from the prefecture to the Petit Fer à Cheval where I order steak tartare, silently toast my grandma, and thank God I don’t have to renew the damn thing for another year.
Back at Wepler, the breeze blowing through an open door shook me from my reverie -- Paris city air sweetened with the sea salt it picked up blowing across the oysters kept outside.
Inside, three men who have ordered two coffees look up as the waiter arrives.
Garcon smiled, placing the coffee on the table and slipping a chocolate to the guy who didn’t need any more caffeine.
In this temple of consumption, the thought of it all made the conversation better, made me hungrier.
We ordered soup, my friends agreed to split a chèvre chaud, but they stared at me funny when I ordered a pig knuckle.
I raised a silent toast to grandma and dug in.

Brasserie Wepler
14, Place de Clichy
75018 Paris
011 33 1 42 93 70 84

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

To me, this explains it all.
How is it that when the EU bans imports of hormone-treated beef from the United States, the Americans triple the import tariff on French Roquefort…a cheese made with unpasteurized milk that comes from sheep that are fed a chemical-free diet?
Not to gloat, but it’s snack time and I’ve got some really good raw-milk Camembert in the fridge…

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Call it the spread of sexpresso in America.
Just in case you missed it my pal Brian McQuarrie had an interesting little story in Monday’s Globe about a Maine entrepreneur who’s trying to open a topless coffee shop amid the reeling economy in a small rural town north of Augusta.
This has set off quite a stir in the region. But this is really only the most recent incarnation of a larger trend in which coffee joints are deploying the scantily-clad and pulchritudinous to stand apart from competitors and pump up profits. And one of the things that's most surprising about it is that it has nothing to do with the state of Florida, a veritable business incubator for semi-nude start-ups.
In Greater Seattle, the self-appointed mecca of coffee culture in America -- and home to the unfortunately ubiquitous Starbucks -- there has been a battle of bikinied baristas raging.
The area has seen the arrival of the likes of Cowgirls Espresso, a pioneer in the niche with 16 shops in Washington (photos at right and below), Java Girls (now with 14 locations in 11 states), and The Sweet Spot Cafe in the past couple years.
In neighboring Oregon come reports of Bikini Coffee Company (with three stores in the state and a half dozen others in various locales on the drawing board) and in Vegas, Sexxpresso (which does Starbucks’ Short, Tall, Grande and Vente system one better by offering cup sizes in A, B, and DD).

For the most part, these ventures have involved young women in bikinis or other fantasy costumes. Not topless. And while the introduction of all these businesses met with some initial raised eyebrows and the usual howling from the starboard side they’ve come to be accepted.
That is, except in the cases of a couple of shops that pushed the envelope by dispensing with the tops in favor of pasties -- think cover-ups as small as a few Susan B. Anthonys. One place in Belfair, Wash., was temporarily closed, and others retreated to more acceptably titillating attire under public and governmental pressure.
These places, however, differ somewhat from the Maine plans. They were, for the most part, drive-throughs. The shop in Vassalboro will be in a building, offer the option of half-dressed male servers, have blacked-out windows, and some security presumably to bar a younger, more hormonally-charged and less self-controlled clientele.
The good underlying news in all this is that as far as I can tell the coffee in all these places tends to be pretty good. Which would, of course, be the main reason I personally would go.

Headed to the Caribbean this winter? Go ahead and aim your expectations at sun, surf, sand, and sweet rum drinks. If, however, you’re looking for local tropical fruit as well as fresh, cheap, local seafood, you may be disappointed. During a recent stay on St. John in the US Virgin
Photo and text by Veronika Trufanova, Globe Correpondent

Islands, our food diary looked something like this:
Day 1: Fish and chips at JJ’s Tex Mex, Ben & Jerry's ice cream bar, and local beer
Day 2: Raspberry-strawberry smoothie, Uncle Joe's BBQ, painkillers made from local rum
Day 3: Vacuum-sealed scallops (origins unknown), mussels from Prince Edward Island, champagne, and Nutter Butters … and bushwhackers on the beach
Finding something more exotic was not for lack of trying. Early on, I was befuddled by the lack of local dishes and the shortage of tropical fruit at the smoothie stands, which are instead decorated with plastic bananas and juices in cans. During dinners out, we were informed by servers that mussels are flown down from Prince Edward Island, and the king crab special hails from Alaska.

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It’s SO worth splurging on Whistler’s Fresh Tracks program. For $17.25 adult, $12.60 ages 6 to 12, you get to board the Whistler gondola between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., have a full hot breakfast at the Roundhouse at the gondola summit, then hit the slopes when patrol rings the bell. That gives you about 45 minutes to make first tracks on the Upper Mountain, before the hordes from below arrive.
While breakfast is nothing to rave about, it’s hearty and good: scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, breads and pastries, cereals, fresh fruit, juice, coffee, tea. It’s all served cafeteria style.
You can take your chances, or make reservations online. It’s limited to 650, and it does sell out, especially on powder days.
Posted By Hilary Nangle, Globe Correspondent

Photo of Whistler Blackcomb by Paul Morrison

Under the stars in the Algerian Sahara, our guides make bread in the sand.
One kneads dough in a mixing bowl while another prepares the fire. When the cinders are ready, Salah moves them to the side, and creates a saucer-shaped crater in the sand into which goes the flat round of dough. The whole thing is covered with the cinders and left to cook.
Half an hour later, they again move the cinders and lo, the bread.
Curiously, the sand doesn’t really stick – there’s a thickness to the crust that doesn’t allow it to grab and any little bits disappear with a quick rinse of water.
We’re so far from the rest of the world that at night, there’s no light pollution. Warm bread under the stars.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

How to make tea in the Sahara. Brewing tips and desert wisdom shared by Abdoudaim Zounga, Touareg nomad.

1. The guy who does the tea does the tea. That’s it. He tends to the fire and the tea. Everyone sits in a circle around him.
2. The tea is kept in a leather bag on his left.
3. Put one teacup of tea per person in the pot, plus a little more.
4. Use a little water to rinse off the leaves, fill the pot and set it on the embers. No sugar yet! It’ll caramelize!
5. Once it bubbles over twice, take it off the heat.
6. Pour the foam (not the liquid) into the teacups. The foam is good - imagine you’re under a tree and a wind comes up – the sand stays on the foam!
7. Tea without foam is like a Touareg without a cheche (headscarf).
8. Pour the tea into an empty pot and from there, into a larger glass with lots of sugar, going back and forth between the two to completely mix the sugar into the tea.
9. Pour the tea into teacups from a great height.
10. The best things are done by masters.
11. Refill the original pot (the one with the leaves) with water and put on the embers. Repeat for two more rounds of tea.
12. Everybody runs around all the time. Mom here, dad there, but when you drink tea, you stop. You’re together.

Bonus: Abdou’s camel wisdom
*Never have more than one male in a group. Otherwise, it’s a battle to the death.
*When you make camel jerky, sometimes it’s so good, you bite your fingers.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Why do I keep coming back to this place? Beautiful and flawed, Aux Negociants is still one of those places (like Au Reve across the street) that’s the perfect place to come when you get off the plane for a fast dose of Parisian Paris.
One of the most glaring idiosyncrasies is the chef. What’s he doing in the front of the house at suppertime? Shouldn’t he be out back cooking our dinners?
Instead, he seems to have come up with a menu that allows him to spend most of the service time at dinner out at the bar shooting the breeze with his pétanque buddies or time to get mad at me for sending the wine back.
There’s stuffed cabbage, saucisse de Montbeliard, confît de canard -- all stuff that you either make ahead of time and/or just heat up… I can’t tell if I’m miffed that he isn’t out back doting on my food or impressed at the preparation that goes into it.
In any case, the food’s good and there’s the friendly crowd, good wine and that funny feeling that I want to come back again.

Aux Negociants
27 rue Lambert
011 33 1 46 06 15 11

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I’ve been lucky enough to go to the Bistrot Paul Bert twice in the past month or so. Simon Says’ namesake and I have a fondness for this place to the point where it’s surprising we haven’t bumped into each other.
Truth be told, the last couple of times have been… OK. Perhaps both the chef and I have been a bit too game for game. I had a partridge dish which I liked principally because it had some buckshot in it and lievre à la royale (hare with foie gras and a deep-colored wine sauce) that left me, if we call a spade a spade, with a lot of connective tissue on my plate.
BUT! There have been plenty of reminders why I love this place: particularly a heaping dish of tiny, fried sardines which must have taken advantage of the P-B’s husband and wife team which also runs the neighboring seafood specialist, L’Ecallier du Bistrot. The only way to win with a dish like this is to hit it out of the park; nothing leaves a worse impression than bad fish.
I love a place that’s got the confidence in itself and its customers to serve a "low" fish… which is why I’ll keep going back.

Bistrot Paul Bert
18, rue Paul Bert
75011 Paris
011 33 1 43 72 24 01
Noon-2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sunday and Monday

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

One of the most intimidating things to do in a Parisian restaurant is to send back a bottle of wine.
It’s a shaky gamble; unless the thing just stinks like a bottle of wet newspaper, it could just be that you’re tasting a wine that’s just not that great. Your nose could be lying. Who knows?
We ordered a bottle of Anjou the other night at Aux Negociants – which proclaims itself a "bistrot a vins." “Wine” is their middle name … or something like that.
The chef, who often serves as a waiter, plunked the bottle down and walked away before we could taste it.
Sniff, sniff.
To my nose, it alternates between smelling like a fair-to-middlin’ wine and something worse.
Sip.
It tastes like fair-to-middlin’ wine and something worse.
"The chef is going to have a field day with me if I’m wrong," I think, followed closely by, "I don’t feel like paying 20 euros for this crap."
“Is this what this should taste like?” I ask trying to be polite while getting my point across.
He grabs the bottle, grunts and walks it back behind the bar where his wife (?) runs the show. She pours a bit in a glass, sniffs, and the only word I catch in her aside to the chef is "bouchonné," “skunked,” as she dumps it. She dispatches chef with a new bottle and clean glasses that he wordlessly plunks on the table.
Sniff.
Next to the old one, it smells like a bouquet of flowers.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Everywhere you turn someone is talking about a stimulus package, and now it's the restaurants in Times Square.
Throughout January, some hot spots in that prime tourist zone will offer discounts — from a three-course lunch at Havana Central for $19.95, to Bar 10’s 30 percent discount on bar dining.
Times Square Alliance will eventually publish the entire list but here is a preview, courtesy of Newyorkology:

Azalea’s $24 prix fix three-course lunch
B. Smith’s 15 percent discount on all menu items, lunch and dinner
Bar 10’s 30 percent discount on bar dining
Bourbon Street Grille’s “10 items for $10” lunch
Ciro Trattoria’s $28.95 prix fix dinner
Havana Central’s $19.95 “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” three-course lunch
Joshua Tree’s 10 percent discount on all menu items, lunch and dinner
Le Rivage’s $22 three-course Prix Fixe
Pergola Des Artistes’ 10 percent dinner discount
Playwright Celtic Pub’s 20 percent discount on all menu items, lunch and dinner
Rosie O’Grady’s $29.95 prix fix dinner
Shula’s $35 prix fix dinner
Two Times Square’s 15% discount on all menu items, lunch and dinner

PARIS – Normally, I’m a salted butter man. The other night, however, I made an exception at a birthday party held at Nono in Belleville. I arrived when dinner was about to be cleared away, but immediately noticed bowls of little wax paper-wrapped butter packets marked with the word "cru'' – literally, "raw" or, in this case, unpasteurized.

Without even checking to see whether the coast was clear, I grabbed a handful and plunged them into my large coat pocket normally reserved for recently-downed game birds. All in the name of science, of course.
Curiously, I’d been making my way through a set of articles about butter in an old copy Saveur magazine, secure in the idea that though it all sounded good, I’d forever be a devotee to beurre demi-sel – tasty butter with big flecks of salt that go "bing!" in your mouth like Pop Rocks.
At the end of my third piece of toast this morning, the coffee kicked in and the butter – sans sel – let me know what I had been missing. For you, gentle reader, I made more toast.
The butter, still unmelted, starts as cool comfort, curious as it’s exactly freezing in Paris this morning. I feel it melt and coat my tongue and the toast’s heat releases its creamy flavors and promotes a gentle sweetness that lingers so long, a wine would blush with embarrassment.
Note: the picture above is the last butter packet that I haven’t devoured – I just noticed this one is both raw and salted. I might explode.

Nono
43 rue de Tourtille
75020 PARIS
011 33 1 43 49 37 79

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

PARIS – A restaurant is always doing well if a mother and son dining in their premises feel comfortable enough to have a conversation about French infidelity habits.
This happens to Mom and I at La Table De Claire, a place I’ve been curious about for months, thanks to its obscure location, curious wife, er, chef-swapping habits and deceptively simple-sounding menu.
Hidden away on rue Emile-Lepeu in the 11th, the restaurant has a growing reputation for bringing guest chefs in once a month and giving them carte blanche to do what they will along with giving the sous chef free reign two nights a week (note to struggling restaurant owners: Great way to keep local clients interested!).
Product quality is the guide here, yielding short and occasionally cute dish names; La Table’s magic is getting the flavors to marry. “Fish, scales and rocket” uses thin potato "scales" to surround the fish and gently absorb its sea and salty goodness. Beet and walnut risotto is something that would keep you coming back to a lover who cooked it. A rutabaga and foie gras appetizer sounds a bit gimmicky, but the tuber, sliced in rounds and lightly sautéed soaks up everything that’s good about goose liver.
The only problem is the rocket, sitting as a simple salad next to mom’s fish.
“Tastes like every dandelion I’ve ever picked in my life,” says the gardener, voicing a distaste for the greens I haven’t inherited as she nibbles on a frond.
“Damn things…” she mutters.
“More for me,” I say, taking advantage of her distracted state to swap plates with her.
Somewhere in there, we have a bottle of white, Claire’s list augmented by a revolving selection on blackboards with clever red or white frames. Mirroring the dining menu’s gracious restraint, no bottle appears to climb above 30 euros.
Aided by the latter, I explain to Mom the cinq à sept – the delicately named “five to seven” or post-work time reserved for affairs.

Me: From there, there’s an apéro and after that, dinner.
Mom: And that’s every night?
Me: If they’re doing well.

For dessert, mom orders a near-perfect crème brulée with a beautiful chestnut confît bulging above the surface in the center. For reasons I struggle to understand, Mom doesn’t like the nut but loves everything around it.

Me: This is worth coming back for.
Mom: Just leave the nut out.

La Table de Claire
30, rue Emile-Lepeu
75011 Paris
latabledeclaire@wanadoo.fr
011 33.1.43.70.59.84
Closed Sunday

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Paris – I want Stéphane Chevassus to cook all of my vegetables.
This is my first impression when I taste his braised cabbage with butter that held my fish aloft at Au Vieux Chêne. If a chef can knock your socks off with plat du jour cabbage, he’s got my vote. Plus, I tried it at home and though it was tasty, I couldn’t hold a candle to Chevassus’s cabbage.
I checked in again recently with mom and everything was up to snuff – a light but creamy pumpkin velouté, fish dishes done just right, little chocolate pastilles (white, milk and dark) served with coffee. Prix fixe lunch for 14 euros and cabbage from heaven.

Au Vieux Chêne
7, rue Dahomey
75011 Paris
+33.1.43.71.67.69
Closed Saturday & Sunday

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Barcelona -- Same story, better end.
Caffé Moro, take note; this is how to create repeat customers...
With my favorite Barcelona café closed for the day and looking for a new place to work, I found the new Sifó Xico in my old neighborhood of Poble Sec.
Instead of giving me lip and a lecture when I asked for a glass of water with my coffee, the bartender poured a glass, looked at it for a second, pitched it in the sink (Barcelona’s tap water can be nasty) and gave me a bottle of water. Free of charge.
I’ll be back.

Sifó Xico
C/Roser 82
Barcelona
011 34.663.762.035

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

PARIS – There are places I go to again and again because there are friends in town or they are a great value or because they are good.
Aux Lyonnais fits all of these bills. Mom is in town and we get the 30 euro prix fixe, each trying one of the two offerings. Our mains are pike quenelles and blood sausage, neither one being the first thing Mom (still an adventurous eater, along with being a prize-winning gardener) would choose.
I’m a little nervous until she bites the quenelle – a fish dumpling that’s decorated on either side with a pair pink-orange of crayfish tails. It’s light enough to be a soufflé cousin happily wading in a sauce of creamy brown butter and fish stock. Mom’s face slackens as the dish does its good work.
My boudin is unadorned; the magic is inside. Our waitress explains that their recipe – they make their own – uses shredded meat from pigs’ feet and cheeks. It’s less common than the apples, onions or tasty bits of fat commonly found in boudin noir from the butcher, but this historic recipe creates a tenderness and depth of flavor reminiscent of beef bourguignon. Yow, yow, yow!
When we arrived for lunch, I told Mom about the value of their prix fixe menu – a particularly good deal for dinner – but aided by good food and wine that bring up stories of family and friends I haven’t heard before, I leave with a new appreciation and another reason to come back.

Aux Lyonnais
32, rue St-Marc
75002 Paris
011 33 1 42 96 65 04

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Feeling guilty about leaving your dog alone when you go on vacation? Make it up to him by taking him out to dinner. Every Tuesday night from 5:30 to
9 p.m. the Wildcat Tavern in Jackson, N.H., hosts Dinner With Your Dog Night. They'll seat you and your leashed best friend in the tavern area (sorry, the dining room is for humans only). In warmer months you'll sit out back in the Wildcat's comfortable garden. Order what you like from the menu, and the good-natured staff will make a general fuss over you and your dog, treating him with water, dog snacks, and a souvenir bandana to take home. Need a place to stay? The Village House just down the road in Jackson is a pet-friendly place to bunk down for the night.

The folks at TSA know that the holidays are -- how to put it -- a stressful time. Most people who fly know the carry-on rules, but for some reason it becomes easy to forget that the rules apply even to holiday goodies. To wit, the TSA reminds travelers that the following foodstuffs and beverages need to packed in luggage and checked:
* gravy (??)
* salad dressing
* oils and vinegars (who travels with oil and vinegar?)
* cranberry sauce
* salsa
* sauces
* maple syrup
* creamy dips (then noncreamy, less fattening varieties are OK?)
* wine, liquor and beer
* jams
* jellies
* soups (excuse me sir, is that a soup in your pocket or are you just happy....)

And who says these TSA guy don't have a sense of humor? Check out this last bit of advice from the website:

Note: You can bring pies and cakes through the security checkpoint, but be advised that they might be subject to additional screening. (italics mine)

Ya gotta love these guys.

I may be a knight, but nobody bothered to tell me that the king’s garden closes in November.
I will remember this the next time I want to bring my mother, an award-winning gardener, to Versailles.
The Potager du Roi –-a garden designed for Louis XIV so the Sun King would have fresh vegetables –- closes for the winter on Nov. 1. Oops.
Hungry –- which, in this case rhymes particularly well with angry –- and needing to win back a few points, I couldn’t take bringing Mom to one of those restaurants that ring the chateau’s entrance advertising ten kinds of pizza on a Plexiglas sign.
I ask the gardener who's very gently told us we won't be getting in (and even if we did, our feet would get muddy), who sends us across town to l'aparthé, a restaurant and tea room tucked away next to the Notre Dame church.
Pulling aside the big velour curtain that kept the cold, wet day outside we were greeted with the buzz of French locals.
We split a ‘'five vegetable’' soup, a beet and mozzarella salad, and a big salad with lardons, potatoes, Roquefort, apples and sun-dried tomatoes put to surprisingly good use.
There’s a solid wine selection, 20 teas (Mariage Frères, bien sûr) and coffee comes with a Carambar candy.
“C’est une bonne adresse,” confirmed a local woman who later sat next to us with her family, probably wondering how we lucked into finding the place.
They’re not reinventing the wheel, but finding a place you’d like to have around the corner from your apartment when your primary concern is just getting something good is a real treat.
Lunch for two and peace of mind for 37 euros.
L’aparthé
1bis rue Ste Genevieve
Versailles 78000
France
011.33.1.30.21.26.57

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Barcelona's canned goods quality fanatic Quim Perez should know about this place.
I find the Lisbon landmark, the Conserveira de Lisboa (The Lisbon Cannery) -- famous for their Tricana line of high-end canned seafood, completely by accident.
After I pay for a few tins, cannery owner Regina Ferreria walks out of the back room. She asks me what I've found, grimaces, and walks to the side wall of her tiny, picturesque shop and pulls down a 125 gram tin of ovas de sardinha –- sardine eggs (how do they catch only the females?). She uses both of her hands to place her gift into mine.
"Open them gently. Place them on a plate. Place them on bread –- not toast -– so the olive oil gets soaked up," she says. "No forks! It bothers them - use a spatula. Serve these to your sweetie with vinho verde."
I need to stop traveling alone.

Conserveira de Lisboa
Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, 34
Lisbon
011 351.218.871.058

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

After finding pork and seafood variations on recent trips to Barcelona, Paris and Belle-Ile, clams and ham struck again during my first moments in Lisbon.
“We eat our words,” says my friend Pedro who’s shared a lifelong favorite place to eat, O Cacho Dourado, while explaining why the ‘o’s are often lopped off of either end of ‘obrigado’ when some Portuguese say thank you. We also eat carne de porco à alentejana with my lesson in local Portuguese 101.
As opposed to Cal Pep’s take on things LINK, where the flavor the pork fat lends to the dish steals the show, here, it lends subtle depth of flavor, almost like tucking an anchovy or three into a slow-cooked meat dish.
Or, as Pedro puts it, “It keeps it from being boring.”

O Cacho Dourado
Rua Eca de Queirós, 5
Lisbon
011 351.213.543.671

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

After a few blissful days in Lisbon, a local friend who lives in NYC and is back visiting her hometown takes her brother and me out to the Moinho de Baixo (a.k.a. “Meco”) beach about 40 minutes outside of town. It’s a perfect break from the city: beaches and dunes, breaking turquoise waves and not a tourist in sight. It’s amazing to think that it’s this easy to get out of town.
Once the sun goes down, we head to the Bar do Peixe, have a seat and dig in. Dinner starts with Azeitao cheese, the main course is half of a grilled Robalo (tasty snook) caught by the owner’s fisherman husband and we drink a white from the Setubal Peninsula – everything comes from less than 40 minutes away.
“The fish comes from there,” says the owner, eyeing the horizon. Cut in half lengthwise, grilled and drizzled with olive oil, it’s a lesson in simplicity.
“When I come home,” says my friend, “this is what I want.”
Bar do Peixe
Rua Praia do Moinho de Baixo
Near the town of Alfarim, Portugal
011 351.21.684.732

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

PARIS -- Today, after a hot chocolate and a decent espresso (a sad rarity in this town) at Caffè Moro, I was refused a glass of water larger than the thimble-sized one I received.
"You can come back three, four, five times if you like," said the waitress, noting the café's absence of table service.
"It's a style," chimed in a loud and grouchy woman who had been bossing the staff around for the previous half-hour while floating in and out of the back room, yet claimed not to be the boss.
I stared at them in disbelief, at a loss to think of a more annoying or petty 'style' to lose customers.
"If you want, you can buy an Evian," added the waitress.
Please. If somebody's going to plunk the better part of ten euros down in a half-empty café and ask for a glass of water that's larger than their thumb, have the good sense to give them a carafe or fill up a bigger glass and not give them any lip.
Caffè Moro
31, rue de Charonne
75011 Paris
011 33.1.43.14.06.39

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

The rest of America is finding out what New Englanders have known for a long time. Portsmouth, N.H., is one of the best cities of its size in the country. Its Seacoast location, historic downtown, and abundance of dining and shopping options have lured folks for decades -- we discovered it in the early 1980s and from what we can tell, it has only gotten better. Now the national honors are rolling in: No. 4 on Outside magazine’s Top 20 Towns in America; one of the dozen “Distinctive Destinations” for 2008 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; one of “America’s Prettiest Towns” by ForbesTraveler.com. Here’s a perfect excuse to return to the “Port City”: Restaurant Week Portsmouth, from Nov. 10-16. This city of about 21,000 boasts 252 restaurants, giving it one of the highest concentrations of restaurants per capita in the nation. Restaurant Week will feature three-course prix fixe menus: $16.95 per person for lunch and $29.95 per person for dinner, which does not include beverages, taxes, or gratuity. Reservations are recommended, but not required. To book reservations, diners must contact the restaurant of their choice. For a list of participating restaurants, visit restaurantweekportsmouth.com or call 603-436-3988. Part of the proceeds will benefit Seacoast Local, Inc., a non-profit that promotes “Buy Local” and “Eat Local” initiatives. The Sheraton Harborside Portsmouth Hotel is offering a package that includes two Restaurant Week dinners in Harbor’s Edge restaurant and overnight accommodations starting at $199 (sheratonportsmouth.com). Organizers plan to repeat Restaurant Week in March 2009, but why wait?

Nothing eases the sting of disappointment over the Sox like a free taco. You know. Like the kind mom used to make.
With the Phillies-Rays series opening tonight (yeah, yeah, who cares, right?), Taco Bell is launching a Steal a Base, Steal a Taco promotion, in which they plan to give out free tacos to mark stolen bases. This is the way it works:
If a player on either team steals a base in Games 1-4 on Oct. 22, 23, 25 or 26, customers can score a free beef taco on Tuesday Oct. 28 from 2 p.m.-6 p.m. at any participating store. If there's a stolen base in Games 5-7, Oct. 27, 29 or 30, the redemption day is Monday Nov. 3 from 2 to 6.
Yes, it's a promotion and, yes, there's there's no shortage of fine print, but if you're jonesing for a free taco . . .
Not sure where the nearest store is or perhaps planning on being on the road on the redemption days? Here's a store locator.

It is a sublime pleasure to realize that you’re in the middle of one the best moments of your life.

Last week over lunch at the Pinotxo food kiosk at Barcelona’s Boqueria market, I smiled so much that I hit a point where I couldn’t speak.
It happened like this…A very good friend and I sat at a pair of Pinotxo’s stools with three years of catching up to do. Beer and Cava are ordered. I recall the time where I spent a day shooting pictures for a story, wedged behind the bar in the galley kitchen and of the incredible meals I’ve eaten here.
Mushrooms appear, wading in an elixir of olive oil, vinegar, garlic and goodness, dusted with big flakes of salt. Did we order those? Is that important? I take a bite and my right leg starts jiggling.
Razor clams show up next, cooked a la plancha (think: screaming hot greaseless griddle), garnished with nothing and drizzled with olive oil that mingles with their liquor, followed by a plate of clams that are cousins of those at Cal Pep.
A roaring crowd mills through the market, and we talk about life, love, family, tragedy and happiness: the floodgates of three years of busy lives in different places burst out onto the bar. The axis of the world shifts to the center point between our stools and our plates.
My favorite Pinotxo dish arrives – baby squid known as xipirones sautéed with tiny white beans. Along with the drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt, there’s a swirl of a balsamic glaze that sharpens flavors and adds subtle sweetness. My left leg starts jiggling, independent of its neighbor.
More Cava, more connecting. I can’t stop smiling. If food can bring you to a higher place, I don’t know what that is.
Take all the three-star restaurants and elaborate presentations you want, this is purity in many forms - the center of the universe.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I’m being stalked by pork and shellfish.
Following cockles in meat sauce on the French island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, fortune smiled on me again by mixing meat and bivalves, this time in Catalonia.
A few days ago at the Barcelona landmark restaurant, Cal Pep, I had tiny clams in white wine, parsley, garlic and … what was it???
Too thick to be olive oil, I asked chef, owner and landmark in his own right Pep Manubens if it was butter (an unlikely candidate in these parts) that gave the sauce such a wonderful texture.
He bristled, recovered, placed a hand on my shoulder and whispered his raspy voice into my half-deaf ear.
“It’s the ham.”
I smirked with pleasure as a larger understanding fluttered down; the little bits of the famous jamon iberico were indeed tasty, but what really contributed the flavor and texture that made me chortle with pleasure was the fat that surrounded the little bits of meat. Giving up the ghost on remaining a solid, the fat surrendered itself to heat and higher purpose, rendering a sauce custom-made to be mopped up with pa amb tomaquet – “tomato bread” rubbed with garlic and coated with olive oil. Yow. Yow. Yow.

Cal Pep – Placa de les Olles, 8 Barcelona - 011 34.93.3107961

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Perhaps I spend too much time wanting to eat on the rue Paul Bert, but needing to find a good restaurant nearby on a Monday changed all that. Mikael, man of good wines at Crus et Decouvertes, told me about Le Coup de Feu – “the gunshot” - not too far away on the rue Léon Frot – a parallel universe with a foursome of restaurants – Coup de Feu, the Italian Casa Vigata and the bistrot à vins Melac, and La Table de Claire (actually on the rue Emile Lepeu) that quietly give rue Paul Bert a run for its money.

Along with a tasty, organic-oriented wine list, we went three for three on mains at Le Coup de Feu – beef cheeks with root vegetables, flank steak with a soy-based yakitori sauce and calamari with pork belly and piperade (onions, peppers & tomatoes: blub, blub, yum, yum). Though nothing was Bistro-Paul-Bert-engraved-in-your-memory-good, the price was right and the food solid: main course for three and a nice bottle of K.O.’s cot (malbec) and a dessert split three ways for 25€ each. As a bonus, they threw in a tasty, honey-scented white as an apéro.
There’s good neighborhood buzz around the other three restaurants, particularly Casa Vigata, though I’ve heard a reports that the waiters at Melac tend to be on the crotchety side. Also of note is the café/bar/bistrot Carbon 14 – site of the last bougnat (coal depot) in Paris - specialists in good beer and good cheer.
Le Coup de Feu – 48 rue Léon Frot 75011 Paris – 01.43.67.23.48 – contact@lecoupdefeu.fr
Le Carbone 14 – bar/café/bistrot - 6, rue Emile Lepeu 75011 - 01.46.59.04.28
Casa Vigata - 44, Rue Léon Frot - 75011 - 01 43 56 38 66‎
Melac - 42, Rue Léon Frot, 75011 - 01 43 70 59 27‎

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes his own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I recently interviewed American food icon Alice Waters for a story I’m working on – Alice is down on France – particularly on the way the farming industry is run – now preferring to go to Italy where they still “get it.”
She should meet Baptiste Vasseur, an organic farmer in Belle Ile’s tiny town of Kerzo. I met Vasseur, 26, while wandering the cliffs of Belle-Ile. He was out there with his friends, 100 feet above the ocean, fishing for the sea bass known as bar and “whatever else will bite” using shore casting rods to cast their bait a country mile out into the water. How they got the fish up to the top of the cliff remained a mystery.
Vasseur is in his second year of production on his farm with no name, now harvesting late-season tomatoes along with eggplant, cabbage, leeks, turnips, pumpkins and spuds.
It seems a lonely existence for a young guy (Kerzo is a tiny town on an island with a total population of only about 5,000 and mainland France is alternately known as “The Continent” or just “The Other Side”), so why here?
“I’ve got some family here, but mostly I just like it,” he explained. “I found a farm, I studied to make sure it was going to work and got a farmer’s loan. We’ve got a lot of debt, but the loan helped us get going.”
I ask the same question everyone eventually asks me as a freelance journalist: “You can make a living doing this?”
“I sell in the market in Le Palais, to restaurants, at the farm itself, and once a week a group of island farmers sells at the aerodrome. That’s it – that’s all I can grow.
What he doesn’t say (I’ll later learn this from chef Epron, who buys Vasseur’s tomatoes for his restaurant, La Table de la Desirade) is that some jerk once came by and poured pesticide in the cistern Vasseur uses to water his plants. This could strip a farmer of his organic certification in a heartbeat, but Vasseur rapidly realized the problem with a minimum of damage.
“It can get political,” he adds, “but in the end, it’s working. We work hard and believe in what we do.”

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

I spoke too soon. Belle-Ile chef Pacôme Epron has brought me back in from the seawall with one dish.
Though the man has mastered roasting turbot at La Desirade, it was his dish based around cockles (cockles!) that brought me in. His recent millefeuille de coques, rosace de pomme de terre et courgettes au thym, jus viande au foie gras might be a little long in name, but what’s most important is the mix of cockles and meat jus. Some here will cry heresy at the idea of mixing of meat and fish, but theirs is a waste of hot air.
Pouring what tastes like the delicious fond from the bottom of a roast beef pan over the dish turns it from a dainty seafood course to something almost carnal – I wish I was eating this on a date.
Francois Mitterand might have preferred the frou-frou of the nearby Castel Clara (think: thalassotherapy, buffet tables and crisp white jackets), but I like Epron’s and La Table’s simplicity.

La Table de La Desirade – “Le Petit Cosquet – 56360 Belle-Ile-En-Mer - +33 (0)2 97 31 70 70

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Maybe it’s all the clean air, but I’m getting into this ‘lunch on the seawall’ idea. Perhaps it’s because everyone in Le Palais, Belle-Ile’s biggest town, shrugs when I ask for a good place to eat (there are a few), but I’m learning that while the towns are picturesque, people don’t leave “Le Continent” for the island’s social scene or a destination restaurant. It’s more about taking a long walk or watching the waves crash.
I realize this while leaning against one of the two mini-lighthouses (the red one) that mark the entrance to Le Palais’ tiny port. I’ve brought a baguette, a half-dozen plates (flat oysters) from Quiberon, a tomato from a little farm one side of the island and a pepper-coated dome of fresh goat cheese from a cheese maker the other.
Here, this may be the version of ‘"eating out'’ I like the most.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says!, the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Wine cruises may be a way to save as well as savor. ‘‘Given skyrocketing airline costs and the devaluation of the dollar to the euro, a wine cruise by far offers the wine lover the best value,’’ says Larry Martin, president of Food & Wine Trails, which offers the trips. A typical one-week wine tour of France in 2009 could cost $6,000-$7,000 per person including airfare, but not all meals, entertainment, or gratuities. A Food & Wine Trails wine cruise costs about half that, the company says. For a list of sailings go the company's website or call 800-367-5348.
Posted by Richard C. Carpenter, Globe Correspondent

QUIBERON - A Provencal friend of mine who claims to be "allergic to butter" would perish in this town. Good thing she’s not here – more for me! Last night I had wonderful crèpes at La Duchesse Anne where melted butter is brushed on the hot galette (a crèpe made with buckwheat flour) before the ingredients are added and often brushed again before the finished dish goes out to the floor.
This morning, I stopped at the Boulangerie Bihan “Trois Marches” and picked up a pair of kouign amann – Breton for “cake” and “butter,” though they should have also added Breton for “lots of extra sugar,” which caramelizes around the whole thing and makes life good. Though they’re not particularly large, I learned that eating two is a bit like trying to get through an entrecôte pour deux personnes alone.
Luckily, my arteries and I were up for it. There’s a moment of crunchy, sugary goodness where your teeth stick together, then all at once, the butter gives up the ghost and becomes a liquid, full of so much flavor, I giggle.
Later, on the train back to Paris, I tasted another kouign amann that I brought from Quiberon’s famous Maison Riguidel - touted to be the city’s best. These were excellent – flatter and more cake-like in form, but Boulangerie Bihan’s got them beat, hands down.
SPECIAL NOTE: People of Quiberon, unite! Go to the Boulangerie Bihan (where I found my favorite kouign amann) and encourage the good woman running it not to close the bakery doors for good following the death of her brother the baker – she’s kept on running the bakery, but is talking of shutting it down within a month, taking one of the city’s tiny treasures with her.

Boulangerie Bihan “Trois Marches” 34 rue de Verdun QUIBERON – 02.97.50.14.96
Creperie Duchesse Anne - 10, Place Duchesse Anne QUIBERON 02 97 30 49 33
Maison Riguidel – 38, Rue de Port Maria, Quiberon. 02.97.50.07.41

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says! the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

QUIBERON – After three and a half hours on an early train from Paris and another hour on the bus, the idea of sitting around tourists and retirees in a restaurant didn’t really float my boat. Returning from a meeting to set up an outing with a gooseneck barnacle fisherman, I walked right in front of the solution: La Belle-Iloise cannery.
Five minutes and a six-can variety pack of sardines later – everything from the little silver fish marinated in muscadet to two peppers, olive oil and lemon – I was in business. Sitting on the seawall, I ate a tin of sardine à la tomate served on pain Poilâne that I smuggled from Paris. Though there’s a fierce debate as to whether La Belle-Iloise or La Quiberonnaise makes the better sardine it didn’t seem to matter; in the space of five minutes, three people walked by jealously eyeing my picnic and smiling. One guy even offered up a “Bon Appetit!”
On the bus, I had listened to an interview with Alice Waters who extolled the virtues of both cooking and eating with friends, yet here I was, straddling the seawall by myself, getting a sense of place from a can.

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Globe travel correspondent Joe Ray writes own blog, Eating The Motherland and contributes to the English language version of Simon Says!, the French food and lifestyle blog run by French food critic Francois Simon.

Call it more a la carte pricing. Literally. JetBlue says it's thinking about adding a premium snack service, although the company hastens to add that it will still offer free snacks. This from AP:

Forest Hills, N.Y.-based JetBlue already offers a "premium" drink service that includes VitaminWater and Rockstar Energy Drinks for $3.
Speaking at an investors conference, chief financial officer Ed Barnes said the carrier will consider charging extra fees, but insisted that it will not look to charge customers for basic items.
JetBlue currently charges for things like extra legroom, pillows, and blankets.

Francophiles need head northwest this weekend to find a festival celebrating French Canadian heritage. Festival LaMoelle will give its visitors the opportunities to explore French Canadian music, art, craft, literature, genealogy, cooking demos and tastings, history lessons, storytelling and more. The name comes from the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain, who named the center most river in Vermont, the Lamoille River.

The festival takes place in downtown Morrisville on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. to dusk. This celebration is centered on family-friendly fun, as well as, free and open to all. Check the schedule of events to make sure you don't miss a thing.

My mother can barely stand to be in the same room as me after I cook with garlic. When a recipe calls for two cloves, I use eight. When the recipe calls for six cloves, I might throw in two whole bulbs. I love garlic and that's true for fresh herbs that bust with flavor. Apparently I am not alone. Bennington, Vt. holds its 13th Annual Southern Vermont Garlic and Herb festival August 30-31.

Never had garlic ice cream? How about garlic jelly? Come experience area restaurants as they rendezvous under one tent and get cooking with a large variety of garlic-inspired dishes from their respective menus. Garlic bulbs of every variety will be available to sample and purchase. Kids will be entertained with a slew of children's games and activities such as a hay maze, face painting, giant inflatables, and hair braiding. There's even garlic golf. Live music plays in the backdrop all festival long as well.

Having once lived in the vicinity of a meat-packing plant in Des Moines, I'm not a huge fan of hot dogs. (Enough said.) Since then, however, I have made an exception: New York System hot wieners, the kind you find only in Rhode Island. Perhaps it's the onions, celery salt, mustard, and meat sauce that make me forget about Des Moines, but I could eat half a dozen in one sitting. Happily, I can justify burning a tank of gas to go get them since July happens to be National Hot Dog Month. According to the National Hog Dog & Sausage Council, Americans will devour 7 billion wieners between Memorial Day and Labor Day. New Yorkers happen to consume more hot dogs than any other city, beating out Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore/Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston. Celebrate a rite of summer: click here to test your hot dog knowledge.

East Lyme, Ct. gives you three good reasons to spend your long holiday weekend within its town lines. First and second, is the Niantic Lions Club 30th Annual Lobsterfest and Chicken BBQ which is held in the same location as the 48th Annual Niantic Outdoor Arts & Crafts show. Anyone cooking lobsters in mass quantities for nearly 3 decades is surely to have it down pat, and if you couple that with over 100 artists and crafters spread over vast green lawns, you've got the makings for a wonderful summer tradition. Both events will be held on Saturday and Sunday, July 5-6, on the East Lyme Town Hall grounds.

Those same days, not far from all the lobster and art, the East Lyme Historical Society will host their Annual Flea Market, Crafts and Collectibles Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the Thomas Lee House on West Main in Niantic. These kinds of markets where donations are collected randomly, sometimes provide the most rich shopping experiences. And all of the above benefits some of Niantic's best charitable organizations.

Hey baby, how about I spring for a little "husband and wife's lung slice?" Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that's your sister's favorite. Don't tell me. "Chicken without sexual life," yes? No? Then how about some "government abused chicken?''
Those wacky Chinese. Just in time for the Olympics, Beijing is suggesting that restaurants change the names of dishes with bizarre names to make them more, well, attractive for the 50,000 visitors expected to arrive in August for the games, according to CNN and China Daily.
To help things along the Beijing municipal government's foreign affairs office and the Beijing tourism bureau have published a 170-page guide, "Chinese Menu in English Version.'' In it "husband and wife's lung slice'' becomes beef and ox tripe in chili sauce; "government abused chicken'' is transformed into kung pao chicken; and "chicken without sexual life'' turns into steamed pullet.
Thank god. Americans traveling to China may or may not be Ugly but at least now there's less chance they'll go hungry.

Stowe, Vermont, is known for its gorgeous views and amazing skiing, but from June 13 through June 22 it'll become a foodie destination as well, as it hosts the Vermont Culinary Classic. The festival is packed with chef-hosted seminars, cheese crawls (think pub crawls without the beer and grease), cooking classics, farm tours, a pancake-eating contest, among other things -- luckily, you have 10 days in which to take it all in. The extravaganza is bookended by two must-attend events: The Bounty Festival on Saturday, June 14, and the 10th annual Stowe Wine & Food Classic, June 20-22. The Bounty Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Stowe Mountain resort (admission is free). The Wine & Food classic is a benefit for Copley Hospital in New Hampshire, with a gala dinner, wine tasting, and silent auctions (ticket prices vary). For more information, visit vermontculinaryclassic.com, stowefoodandwine.com, or gostowe.com (or call 802-253-7321).
Posted by Lylah M. Alphonse, Globe Staff

So, you still haven’t been to Paris? What exactly are you waiting for? The euro to shrivel? Oil to cheapen? The natives to speak English? Americans to be ever again welcomed as amusing, moneyed innocents abroad?
There is only one thing to know about Paris: It will be the City of Light long after all of us have returned to our stardust state.
In a previous century, I took my preschooler and her umbrella stroller to Paris for two weeks in June. Shepherded by my fluent sister and game young nephew, we visited towers and tombs and gardens and museums and churches and boats and bookstores and ice cream parlors (one of us napping almost daily while the other pushed en route to somewhere), climbed Notre-Dame, ate little sandwiches on the street for lunch, were invited to the countryside, dined with an au pair who had survived us, sampled pastries and roast chicken and even happened on some mediocre food. None of it on the scale of Carmella Soprano’s visit, but we were every bit as impressed.
For those of you who need more written encouragement to gauge how short is life and how grand is Paris, there are writers at your service – fluent in English, too. But all their words will have failed them and you if one does not command the day: Go.

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A year ago, Francesco and I would sit in the office at the end of a long day, uncork a bottle of Nero d'Avola and work on gaining a better understanding of the characteristics of Sicily's best-known grape. Professional wine tastings can be a bit force fed – a winemaker might quickly say what you should be seeing, smelling and tasting. Picking these characteristics out on your own inevitably forces you to go slower than they guy at the front of the room. Taking the time to really understand just one wine is a luxury. And you can really learn something.
A year later, I learned something different.
"Nero," says Francesco, making a diving motion with his hand, "is having a tough time."
We opened a 2006 Nero di Lupo (a 2003 version of which we tasted last year when it was called Pojo di Lupo) and talked about it.
"Traveling in Italy and abroad, I started to notice its absence in the last couple of months," says Francesco.
At Milan's best wine shop, the owner put it to him bluntly. "Nero d'Avola? It's over."
The Nero di Lupo name change was a clue; after a several-year run as one of Italy's trendiest wines, everybody wanted a piece of wines made with Nero. Producers started growing the grape in regions less suited to its production -- often far from Avola. Though quality winemakers are still making excellent wines, the bottom of the market has been flooded, dragging the good wine's good name down with it.
"It's been sold improperly," says Sicily's top chef, Ciccio Sultano, who is upset with both rising Nero prices and an overall quality decline. "Demand grew, but the wineries multiplied…It's too much."
"Take Bordeaux - it's crazy," he says, pointing to his head, "you can't justify the price. It's for the Russians.
"What's the difference between this and a Mouton Rothschild?" he asks, holding up a glass. "Is that 30 or 40 times better? It's marketing. Wine is like a cuisine – there is art and craftsmanship, but it's outrageous to pay too much for food and wine."

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The Today Show had a very cool story about this eatery in Biddeford, Maine, Dan's Restaurant, that lets customers negotiate prices a bit. This is the way it works: Let's say you want a scallop plate; it costs $18, but you only have $10 on you. So you tell the waitress, and she brings you $10 worth.
Apparently Dan's has been doing this for a couple months now. The whole thing started when an elderly woman stopped in a bit ago and after eating said she really enjoyed it and would come more often but couldn't afford it. So, an idea was born.
Obviously, the policy has drawn a good bit of attention. And a waitress there said that she's been told it will go on indefinitely -- particularly given the current tough times.
Bon appetit.

Free food, travelers. Let's plan our day. From 7-10:30 this morning participating Mickey D's gave free Southern Style Chicken Biscuits if you bought a medium or large drink. Then, from 10:30 to 7 this evening they're giving away free Southern Style
Chicken Sandwiches -- again if you buy a drink.
Still thirsty? Our pals at Dunkin' have declared this Free Iced Coffee Day. From 10 to 10 you can walk into any participating store, sidle up to the bar, and score a 16-ouncer.
Free food and coffee is a sweet thing -- and the whole experience is only enhanced if you manage to sneak out of work to get it.

OK, so you totally didn’t get Pi Day back in March. Will the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter feed the soul like your grandmother’s lemon meringue? No! It’s time to raid the recipe box for Canterbury Shaker Village’s Everybody Loves Pie pie contest May 31 in Canterbury, N.H. Any homemade pie is welcome, from traditional apple to one of your own invention. Prizes (which include cooking classes and gift certificates from The Shaker Table) will be awarded to the top winners. The entry fee is $10, and procrastinators are in luck: Pies will be accepted through noon on May 31. The pie contest is one of the highlights of Canterbury Shaker Village’s Simply Food Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be cooking classes, craft demonstrations, hayrides, tours, and food samples galore. (General admission: adults $15; 60 and over $13; $7 kids 17 and under, free for children under 6.) According to its website, Canterbury Shaker Village is ‘‘dedicated to preserving the 200-year legacy of the Canterbury Shakers and to providing a place for learning, reflection, and renewal of the human spirit.’’ If that renewal includes eating pie, count me in.

Finally, a vacation package that lets you travel at your own pace, without the big group-dynamic thing. And here's the kicker: Airfare is included.

Canadian travel company Maxxim Vacations is offering a seven-night self-drive vacation that begins and ends in Halifax, Nova Scotia. For $1,679 per person you get round-trip airfare from Boston, seven nights' lodging, seven-day car rental with unlimited mileage, and seven breakfasts. First you'll get some help from a "travel specialist" to fashion your personal itinerary. From Halifax it's off to Lunenburg, Digby, and Wolfville along scenic coastal roads and through picturesque fishing villages. You'll spend each night in a reserved room at a country inn, B&B, or hotel.

This package isn't called "A Taste of Nova Scotia" for nothing: the emphasis is on stopping along the way for lobster, scallops, clams, mussels, fiddleheads, a local appetizer called "Solomon Grundy" (marinated herring and onion with sour cream), chowder, black pudding, and scones with cream and strawberry preserves.

Extras include dinner at Digby Pines Golf Resort and Spa, dining and entertainment at the Halifax Feast Dinner Theatre, and guided tours of three wineries.

I wrote a story recently about Alabama barbecue, and not long after, a reader sent an email:

"This note is to urge you, if you are in Atlanta anytime (on your way to
Alabama?), to try Harold's Barbecue (not far from the Braves field on
the south side), Williamson Brothers Barbecue (near Rte. 41 in Marietta
on the north side), Georgia Barbecue (in Smyrna to the northwest), or
an Old Hickory House (several I think in a chain, but good). With
your chopped pork sandwich and cole slaw I would more than urge you to
have some Brunswick Stew (more of a thick soup than a stew as we might
know it here) and corn bread. Every place in the southeast serves
Brunswick Stew, the Georgia variety, not the Virginia style.

(A rack of ribs at Dreamland Bar-B-Q, in Tuscaloosa.)

"Whenever I see the name of a new barbecue place around Boston I call
and ask if they serve Brunswick Stew. So far, I have found none that
do, though a few say they do know what it is. I'm hoping I will find
one that does serve it."

The reader wrote again the next day:

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Yes, it's that time of year again. It's a no-brainer. Sneak a peek at the website and head to the participating shop nearest you, belly up to the counter and score a free cone. This being their 30th year, B&J's is offering up a few new flavors: Coconut Seven Layer Bar (coconut ice cream, fudge flakes, walnuts, graham cracker and butterscotch), Imagine Whirled Peace (caramel and sweet cream ice creams with fudge peace signs and toffee cookies), One Cheesecake Brownie (yes, cheesecake ice cream and brownie chunks), and Cake Batter.
OK, so it could be warmer outside. But we're talking free ice cream here.

The sap has been flowing in St. Albans, Vt., for about two months and buckets of the clear liquid drawn from maple trees have been turned into syrup inside steaming sugarhouses.

Now it’s time to celebrate with the 42d annual Vermont Maple Festival from Friday to Sunday.
Here by the shores of Lake Champlain, St. Albans taps its talent with hearty pancake breakfasts, cooking demonstrations, antiques, a maple exhibit hall, craft and specialty food shows, face painting, sugarhouse tours, a parade, a road race, and plenty of entertainment.
Stroll the streets. Rock, jazz, and country sounds flow from the outdoor Main Street Stage, the thoroughfare lined with purveyors of county fair cuisine. Relax a bit on the benches in Taylor Park under the maple trees.
On Saturday night, get those toes tapping during the two-hour Fiddlers’ Variety Show in the Bellows Free Academy auditorium.
For those who feel the need for a quick nibble on sweets, head to the Exhibit Hall off Fairfield Street. Inside, first sniff and then sample a seasonal cornucopia: maple cream doughnuts, maple syrup, maple fudge, and maple candy.
Sunday’s Grand Parade at 1 p.m. is straight down Main Street, and features marching bands, prancing horses, Vermont Maple King and Queen, shiny fire trucks, and homespun floats.
Many events are free; others require admission: pancake breakfast $6 adults, $3 children from 7-noon at City Elementary School, Bellows Street and fiddlers show 7 p.m. Saturday, with tickets $7.
Posted By Marty Basch, Globe Correspondent

Do you know the difference between "amatriciana'' and "arrabbiata''? (Both are spicey tomato sauces, the former with bacon, the latter with herbs.) Can you order your mineral water carbonated? (Acqua gasata)

If your answers were no, then Andy Herbach has the book for you. Part translator, part restaurant guide, the updated "Eating & Drinking in Italy'' (Open Road, $9.95) is slim enough to fit in your pocket and informative enough to ensure you'll know what you're ordering.

The crux of the book, the Italian to English word list, takes up more than half of the pages and is simple to use. The pronunciation guide is helpful as well.

I'm reminded of a tip from a good friend who joined us on a trip to Italy's hilltowns: Never eat in a place that posts a tourist menu outside. With Herbach's little guide, you won't have to.

"Zagat Boston Restaurants 2008/09'' ($14.95) is out and I was thumbing through it recently, checking ratings of places I knew. Though it's mostly a list of Boston establishments the cover does tout that it includes Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

That it also covers "surrounding 'burbs'' made sense as well, but I was surprised to find ratings for eateries an hour away on the North Shore. That's good news for folks who don't mind a bit of a ride for a good meal. But it's bad news when the food at one of your favorites is rated in the "extraordinary to perfection'' category, with service "very good to excellent.''

It's hard enough to get a reservation now. Here's hoping Zagat followers won't read too closely.

Snow may have evaporated from most of New England’s neighborhoods and forest floors, but up in O Canada --- namely, at Rigaud, Québec’s Sucrerie Lavigne, about an hour west of Montreal --- you can still experience maple sugaring season, and eat yourself silly on a traditional Quebecois brunch. To a half century-old sugar shack, Jean-Paul and Claire L. Lavigne added a rambling and folksy dining hall where locals mingle with weekenders to scarf down the $20 all-you-can-eat buffet. The menu includes potatoes, beans, eggs, sausage, ham, homemade pickles --- plus some unexpected, local specialties like a custardy, eggy concoction called “omelette au lard”; pork cracklings; pea soup; squares of pork fat pate called “cretons”; and, for dessert, luscious, thick pancakes (more the consistency of crepes than pancakes) and maple sugar pie. All drenched in real maple syrup. If you’re not already bloated to bursting, waddle outside to the window where you can sample fresh sugar-on-snow taffy on a stick. There’s also horse drawn wagon rides, walking trails and sugar shack to poke into.

The sign outside Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini)

If the depressing exchange-rate has you staying stateside more than you'd like, there's a bar in Venice that wants to ease your economic travel woes. Harry's Bar, which was frequented by libation-loving scribe Ernest Hemingway, is offering a 20 percent discount to American travelers in the restaurant portion of the eatery. Now the only thing left to do is figure out how to say "Another round please" in Italian…

We were recently in Vermont to celebrate my niece’s 17th birthday (you go, Sarah!!) and we made our traditional March visit to Bragg Farm on Route 14 in East Montpelier for sugar on snow, with the obligatory raised doughnut and pickle on the side. What that’s, you ask? Yeah, I said a pickle. You take the cup of fresh-made maple syrup, which is after all what you came here for, and drizzle it over the snow in the bowl. The warm syrup-and-snow combination becomes somewhat stringy, and the flavor of the syrup on the snow is so sweet that .... well, most people find that they need something to “cut” the incredibly sugary concoction. That’s where the doughnut and the pickle come in. Sounds weird, but it works – just don’t ask how they came up with the combination. You get a drink (coffee, juice, etc.), the syrup, a clump of snow, pickle, and doughnut for about $4, and you can enjoy the snack at one of the picnic tables set up inside. You might want to try a maple creemee (for you flatlanders, that’s a soft ice-cream cone) if the sugar on snow doesn’t entice you. Bragg Farm will be serving sugar on snow at least through the end of April, and this has been a record-setting year for snowfall in much of the state. The Bragg family has been producing maple syrup by traditional methods for five generations, and many retired tools of the trade are on display. The farm has a gift shop featuring (duh) their own syrup and other maple products, plus a wide selection of cheese and other food treats and gifts that just say “Vermont.” You can also watch the boiling-down process in the next room and ask questions of the people who are doing the work. FYI: it takes about 40 gallons of maple sap to produce a gallon of syrup, which receives one of four “grades” based on the color and thickness of the syrup. If you are in the Barre-Montpelier area (known up here as the Twin Cities), Bragg Farm is within a few miles of each metropolis. Call 800-376-5757 or go here for more information. You can also go to the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association website for a list of maple syrup makers throughout the state.

Okay, foodies (and you know who you are), take out your credit cards and book a flight to Miami. Today. Forget the beach, the palm trees, the cute spring break lads and lassies. Rent a car—or hail a cab—and head straight for Brosia in the Design District where Chef Arthur Antilles turns simple foods from the Mediterranean into conversation-stopping wonders. This sounds like I’m exaggerating but I’m not. You know how sometimes you’re in a restaurant and someone is telling a story and someone else takes a bite of something and says, “Oh. My. God. Have you tasted this?” And then all talking stops—no matter what was being said—and then everyone is eating and kind of moaning in delight? That’s what happened at Brosia this week—with every dish we sampled.
Chef Arthur Artiles worked at Norman’s for eight years, and thus knows his way around a kitchen. He also seems to know his way around the cuisines of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, and Morocco, saying he likes to “keep it simple” while “playing with fusing the five main regions.”
At Brosia, you can eat your way across the Continent without spending a Euro. Highlights: Piri-piri shrimp (lip-smacking spicy with cooling cucumber sambal), gazpacho caprese (pureed with a touch of aged sherry), Catalan-style shrimp and clams (with grilled bread and sublime dipping sauce), seared ahi tuna (with Spanish ratatouille and Tuscan white bean puree), grilled pork tenderloin (French bistro style with sautéed chicory and crab apple mustard), and last and maybe the most conversation-stopping, grilled New York strip steak with blue cheese and caramelized onion stuffed Spanish piquillo peppers. For dessert: Illy coffee panna cotta with vanilla espuma and chocolate cookie.
With food like this, who can talk? (Ahhhhh…Mmmmmm…Oooooh.)

One of the nation’s leading maritime museums, with more than over 300,000 annual visitors, will serve up drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and stories surrounding Bill McCoy, the infamous Florida boat builder turned Prohibition hero.

This Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m., Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea Mystic Seaport and its co-sponsor, Flat Hammock Press, invites lecturer and editor, Robert McKenna to discuss, ‘‘Rum Runners, the Prohibition Battle and a Sip of the Real McCoy.’’ Behind the infamous phrase, ‘‘It’s the real McCoy,’’ lies a legend of a man who built a bootlegging empire worth millions of dollars during Prohibition by promising quality liquor and fair business practices.

The lecture will look at the profound effect on American culture and business of those rum-running days. Prohibition started the same year women were given the right to vote and helped bolster the US Coast Guard, which was a leader in the in fight against rum runners. The period from 1920-33 also brought technological advances to marine engines and improvements to hull design.

Enjoy a drink from the cash bar with liquor made famous by McCoy, including Gordon’s gin and White Horse scotch. Arrive early and peruse the bookshop’s offerings on rum running, offering 6 published books on rum running and dine at the Seamen’s Inne with a 20 percent discount. Admission is $15 for museum members and $18 for nonmembers.
Posted by Kimberly Sherman, Globe Correspondent

Whatcha doin' for dinner Friday night? Sam Hayward, James Beard award-winning chef at Portland's Fore Street, is taking a road trip to Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Nah, he's not skiing at the 'loaf; he's volunteered to prepare a five-course fund-raising dinner at the newly opened Poplar Stream hut, the first in the new Maine Huts & Trails network.

For $250, you get to work up an appetite by hiking, skiing, or snowshoeing about 2.5 uphill miles into the snowy Maine wilds , bed down (don't forget your sleeping bag) in one of the four- to 12-bunk dorms, and savor both that five-course dinner--with wine pairings--and breakfast prepared by Hayward. Space is limited. For more info and the menu go to the site; for reservations, call 877-634-8824.

After returning to civilization on Saturday, mosey over to Sugarloaf to watch the US Alpine Championships downhill race, which will feature some of the best Alpine skiers in the country, many fresh off the World Cup trail. The championships continue through March 26.

Posted by Hilary Nangle, Globe Correspondent

¡Que tremendo! I arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday. Here’s what to expect when you get here:
At least 15 percent of the population will be dancing tango in the streets. Most everybody else will be eating beef (meat the tour books describe as “succulent”) rushed in from the Pampas by gauchos.
Eva Perón has been dead 55 years, but crowds at the Casa Rosada will still be chanting “Evita! Evita!” And if a soccer match is just ending, at least 1.3 million futbol fans will be on the rampage.
Those who are not tangoing, eating beef, or rampaging will be shopping, hanging out at a sidewalk café, or agonizing at a therapy session. No matter who or where they are, invariably they will be well-dressed, attractive, and flirtatious.

Posted by John P. Harrington, Globe Staff

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As far as cool neighborhoods go, Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown is near the top of my list. The shops, boutique hotels, restaurants, bars, and bookstores could make you forget it’s almost cherry blossom time over at the Tidal Basin. Hotel Monticello (on Thomas Jefferson Street off M Street) is a comfortable, spacious, quiet, recently renovated all-suite small hotel that offers packages for weekends of pampering, romance, or traveling with family. A deluxe king suite starts at $149 (but prices go up as the weather warms up). The Old Stone House, D.C.'s oldest known dwelling, is just up the street. Nosh on sushi, gourmet pizza, or pastry with a mean cup of cappuccino at Marvelous Market (on P Street at Wisconsin Avenue). Snack on shawarma or a falafel at George’s, King of Falafel on 28th Street off M. Next door is a great place for dinner: Zed’s Ethiopian Cuisine, where you’ll scoop up spicy chicken and beef dishes with injira, a spongy bread. A romantic dinner for two, with drinks, is around $50. If you don’t mind the 15-minute walk to the Foggy Bottom Metro station, Georgetown is a great area to stay for a weekend getaway.

Where else but in Miami can you find a Japanese restaurant with a half-Spanish name operating with a Caribbean chef de cuisine working alongside a Japanese sushi chef for an Israeli owner in a former post office building?

In Miami’s evolving Design District, one of the newest kids on the culinary block is Domo Japones, a stylish Japanese Bistro serving innovative food in a stylish setting. What is innovative food, you ask? Well, there’s white fish sashimi with jalapeno and blood orange yuzu sauce, yellowtail tartare with kimchee sauce, and box-style sushi with Japanese pickled rice topped with edible orchids. (See latter two in photo.) And those are just the appetizers.

Open since December 2007, in a renovated former post office, Domo Japones’ atmosphere is Miami-hip: modern, intimate, cool, and casual. Open till 3:00 a.m. (unheard of in Boston!) the place gets going late and is hopping most days of the week and weekends. Those “in with the in-crowd” may recognize “Maitre D’va” Donna Hughes, the statuesque beauty whose ex-hubby Allen owned the popular 190 restaurant further up the street. (We hear he’s recently reopened on the beach! More on that later.) Once we spotted Donna, we knew this was the place to see and be seen — and to eat.

Here’s my Mom. She’s 92 years old and lives in Marietta, Ga., about a half hour northwest of Atlanta. When I visited this month, we indulged in one of our favorite activities: we jumped in the car and headed to the Australian Bakery in the restored historic town center named Marietta Square. In the center of the square is Glover Park, nicely landscaped with a fountain, gazebo and flowering crape myrtle and okame cherry trees. The surrounding streets have late 19th and early 20th century buildings that house specialty boutiques, restaurants, and antique shops.

For being in the heart of the south, it’s a pretty international place. If you want to eat there’s authentic Turkish, Slovakian, Italian, Celtic, and Cajun food all within a three-block radius, But our favorite place is the Australian Bakery which offers 16 varieties of meat pies, including an English pork pie, a traditional Cornish Pastie, curry lamb, and the basic Aussie meat pie — savory ground sirloin and seasoned gravy baked in a flaky pastry crust. We always order the same thing: I get the curried chicken pie, and mom gets the sausage baked in a pastry roll.

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Magellan Press is out with a guide for hungry travelers: ''Where the Locals Eat: The 100 Best Restaurants in the Top 50 Cities.'' That's US cities, and Boston is included.

Entries include a range of food and prices. Boston restaurants include Brown Sugar Cafe for the best Thai and the Cask 'n Flagon for the best sports bar.

If you think the $11.95 price is too steep, particularly for a guide that includes only one New England city, check their website for more foodie news and blogs.

And if you have your own local winner, share your tip with us.

It's the fourth annual "Chocolate Covered February'' in Hershey, Pa., and this year offers new enticements: a chocolate chef’s table, "chocolatology” and “chocolate mixology,” and a Chocolate Fantasy Tea Party.

In this all-things-chocolate universe there are tastings and dessert decorating demonstrations at Hershey’s Chocolate World, guest chefs at Hershey Lodge, a showing of the film "Chocolat'' at Hershey Theatre, and chocolate chats at Hershey Museum.

Need more? Check the website for a complete list of activities. Several events are free, reservations are required at some.

And if you're in Hershey on Tuesday nights this month, plan to attend The Hotel Hershey Chocolate Cooking School. The cost is $50 but you'll learn to make chocolate pasta, chocolate peanut butter bon bons, and chocolate rocky road clusters.

Now that's worth the price of admission.

During the month of February passengers on select JetBlue flights out of Boston and a few other cities will be treated to breakfast with new Philadelphia 1/3 Less Fat Soft Cream Cheese.

In these days of limited, if any, meal service, breakfast for 500,000 is a welcome announcement.

No word on whether it comes with a bagel, though.

I figured I better start listing some ways to reach your sweetheart's soft spot on Valentine's Day -- heaven knows most of you men need quite a bit of help being creative. A card? Well, sure if you write it. Roses? Good lord please no....not roses, peonies maybe, roses no. Think outside Russell Stover's box [and please don't tell me you buy Russell Stover's]...get up and go some where...plan a day, plan a night, take time to make plans...that's what she wants...to be shown that you took time to think about what she might really like on Valentine's Day. Oh stop whimpering, here's 3 choices to bring your love and your lover to...

1. 5th Annual American Heritage Chocolate Celebration – Feb. 9 - Just before Valentine’s Day [which will tell her you're even thinking ahead!], Deerfield, Mass. Sweep the love of your life off her feet and participate in chocolate tastings, demonstrations, and a hands-on opportunity to create a special Valentine together. Call 413-775-7214 for more information.

2. OK father-in-law, this is a test to see if you are really reading my blog! Couldn't be easier...right in your own Salem, Mass., the 5th Annual Salem’s So Sweet Chocolate & Ice Sculpture Festival takes place between Feb. 8-14. Many of the town's restaurants will feature unique chocolate offerings in the form of desserts, tea, cocktails and signature sauces. A special chocolate and wine tasting starts off the week on Feb. 8. The festival is free...as is love.

and

3. Possibly the best for last...that is if quantity overrides quality, not that quality is even going to suffer here! Find a Saturday afternoon and bring her to the Langham Hotel’s Deluxe Chocolate Bar. This all-you-can-enjoy-without-really-making-a-horrific-scene buffet offers more than 125 chocolate desserts to include mousses, made-to-order chocolate crêpes, milk chocolate passion fruit tarts, truffles, chocolate fondues and more. MORE! Billy...it doesn't get any more clear. THIS is what I want for Valentine's Day.

And if you want to top it off on the official day, go back for Valentine's Day Dinner with seatings from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. A cost of $80 per person includes champagne on arrival to set the tone for the night. The dinner INCLUDES the only-in-your-dreams-chocolate-buffet mentioned above. Call 617-956-8751 for heaven.

Last winter Patricia Harris and I had a very cool winter break in
Provincetown, which, as we reported, does NOT go into hibernation until
muscle-shirt weather. In fact, from November into April the community takes
on a friendly vibe of cozy, bright spaces that banish the chill of winter.
At the time, we met Dan Hoort, who runs the Somerset House Inn, one of those
stalwart guest houses that keeps its doors open all year. Last year Hoort
started a restaurant guide for his guests so they could figure out where to
eat in the off season. It was a hit, and went up on the town tourism site.
This winter he's gone one better, adding shopping, services, and events on
his own site. Want to know which bar or club
is open? What's playing at the Provincetown Theater? When Leather Night is
at the Crown & Anchor's Vault Bar? Dan's got it all.

Posted by David Lyon, Globe Correspondent

The temperature has dropped below freezing in Indianapolis, flurries are blowing around the State House, the locals are in mourning after the death of the Colts and I'm snowed out of Boston. The upside is an opportunity to gnaw upon one final slab of beef before I leave.

With due respect to Chicago up the road, Indy is, block-for-block, the steakhouse capital of America. Not counting Steak 'n Shake (which is open around the clock), there are at least a dozen places in or near downtown where you can get a red meat fix. Besides the national establishments -- Ruth's Chris, Morton's, Shula's, Capital Grille -- there's Bynum's, Mo's, Harry & Izzy's and the new Weber Grill restaurant, where a massive red kettle hangs over the entrance and the steaks are cooked over a modified version of what you use in your backyard.

The granddaddy, of course, is St. Elmo's on South Illinois Street, which has been searing and sizzling on the same spot since 1902. St. Elmo's, whose book-sized wine list includes a 1902 Chateau Lafite Rothschild for $8,500, offers eight classic filets, strips, ribeyes and porterhouses.

But the specialty is the 32-ounce bone-in prime rib, which is roasted and served up with cups of jus and horseradish sauce for $42.95. Along with the blindingly-spicy shrimp cocktail (the only appetizer), the navy bean soup, a tomato-and-onion salad with crumbled bleu cheese and a baked potato, it'll take care of you for a weekend.

Posted by John Powers, Globe staff

With the increasing popularity of food tours that focus on local cuisine, even celebrity chefs, it's no surprise that someone is offering kosher cooking vacations.

Cookeuro has scheduled one-week programs in Emilia Romagna in May, Tuscany in July, and Provence in November. Besides shopping, sightseeing, and cooking demonstrations with local experts, participants will learn about Jewish communities in the region.

Cost is a steep $3,400, air fare not included. But if your interest is piqued, this might seal the deal. A sample menu in Tuscany: bread salad, pasta, veal with a sauce from stock, stewed peppers, and chestnut cake.