From SAVEUR Issue #147
It's midafternoon in Dakar, Senegal, and the foot traffic in this narrow, two–story home in the working–class Gibraltar neighborhood is seriously congested. More people arrive every minute — relatives, neighbors, an imam — and collapse in the dark, cool refuge of the living room. In a small kitchen off the courtyard, a handsome, tall woman named Khady Mbow puts the final touches on the soupoukandia, a fiery, gumbolike stew of okra, palm oil, Scotch bonnet peppers, and shellfish served over rice. She and her 30-year-old niece, Sini, have spent the morning pounding vegetables in a mortar and pestle, scraping the mash into a steaming pot and stirring relentlessly. The Gueyes own a food processor, but Khady — the family's matriarch and chief culinary architect — believes the mortar and pestle better preserve flavor. Everything is done by hand. Keep reading »
Credit: Penny De Los Santos
When researching our special feature on American Bread for our May 2012 issue, twenty bakeries across the country stood out above the rest as pioneers and role models in the American artisan bread movement. See the bakeries »
Credit: Rebecca Sullivan (courtesy of Acme Bread)
From SAVEUR Issue #147
My son Leon and his wife, Jenny, joke that their love blossomed over enchiladas. Jenny prepared them for him on one of their early dates. Jenny is from Mexico, and we couldn't have been happier to discover that she is not only an enchanting person, but also a terrific cook. Like Leon, in no time, we fell for her and her delicious food, too. It's hard to choose between Jenny's pozole, a meaty stew made with hominy and chiles; nopales, cactus paddles peeled, sliced, boiled, and served in a salad; chiles rellenos, poblano peppers stuffed with cheese, then lightly battered and fried. Each time she'd visit Mexico, Jenny would return to New York with a mole sauce that only her aunt knows how to prepare, or with tamales that no one makes like her grandma. Keep reading »
From SAVEUR Issue #147
Most visitors to Costa Rica zip through the capital city, San José, on their way to beaches or jungles. But I like to linger there, if only to spend a morning at Mercado Central, a block–long covered market built in 1880 that contains a warren of produce stalls, sodas (small, family–run eateries), bric–a–brac counters, and cafés. Keep reading »
Credit: Courtesy of Andres Madrigal/CRTraveler.com
From SAVEUR Issue #147
In the palm–shaded Corsican city of Ajaccio, I'm standing at an open window overlooking the port, which shimmers in the hot sunlight of a late–spring morning. In the distance, I can make out snow-capped mountains, which rise improbably from the Mediterranean Sea. Carried on the breeze is the incenselike scent of the maquis, the thicket of flowering shrubs and herbs that blanket nearly a fifth of this small island and creep up to the streets of Ajaccio. Keep reading »
Credit: Beth Rooney
From SAVEUR Issue #147
Of pork products that make Iowans proud, the tenderloin is king. We don't mean a roast that requires marinade or seasonings, then gets carved, plated, and eaten with knife and fork; in Iowa the tenderloin is a sandwich. Sometimes abbreviated to BPT for "breaded pork tenderloin," it consists of a trimmed and pounded-tender slice of pork loin that is battered, fried, and sandwiched in a roll along with pickle chips, raw onion, ketchup, and mustard. (It's not a schnitzel because it's deep-fried rather than pan-cooked, and is always served on a bun.) You'll find BPTs at cafés, diners, drive-ins, and eat-shacks that earn partisans because they serve the juiciest or the widest. Keep reading »
Credit: Ariana Lindquist
From SAVEUR Issue #147
The first real modern American restaurant in Paris opened last December. It's called Verjus, it occupies a sunny triplex space in a 19th-century house overlooking the Palais-Royal, and it's run by New Orleans—born, Boston-bred chef Braden Perkins, 32, and his partner in work and life, Saint Paul native Laura Adrian, 27.
After two-plus decades of living in France, unless someone had told me Verjus was owned by Americans, I'd never have suspected—not upon arriving, anyway—that the owners were anything but French, so perfectly does the mise-en-scène of the white-painted dining room with huge picture windows master the codes of the new wave of young-chef-helmed bistros in Paris (mismatched flea market chairs, bare wooden tables). Keep reading »
From SAVEUR Issue #147
Recently at Spot Dessert Bar in Manhattan's East Village, I ate a slice of cake unlike any I'd had before: It was a coconut cheesecake with a thick whipped cream topping, and it looked typical enough. But it was perfumed with musky, flowery aromas and flavored with notes of caramel and smoke. It turns out that Spot's consulting chef, Ian Chalermkittichai, uses a technique from his native Thailand to infuse the cake's cream cheese base with this heady mix of scents and tastes. Keep reading »
Credit: Todd Coleman
From SAVEUR Issue #147
Even by Icelandic standards, the Westfjords is isolated. A cliff-rung peninsula on the island's northwest corner, it is tied to the country only by a four-mile-wide isthmus. Fish air–cure in drying sheds left open to the salty wind. Polar bears stray onto the shore. The hardy souls who reside here make their living in the chilled North Atlantic hunting for cod and haddock. Keep reading »
From SAVEUR Issue #146
With laid-back island tunes drifting overhead and photos of friends and family posted on the wall, this strip-mall restaurant feels more like a weekend cookout. It smells like home, too, with chicken and fish frying away, sweet and sour sauces simmering, and the light scent of our just-ordered poke salad— fresh, raw ahi tuna tossed with sesame and furikake—tempting us to begin our meal.
I'm eating out today with my friend Gary Haleamau. Born on the Big Island and calling Vegas his home for nearly 15 years, Gary is a musician and organizer of festivals that highlight his native culture. He's brought me to Island Flavor, his pick for the most authentic Hawaiian food in Las Vegas, a city they call the Ninth Island for its large islander population. Keep reading »
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