It’s hard to believe it’s fall here in Chile. On one hand, the leaves are falling and turning lovely shades of crimson. However, temperatures are still oddly hovering around 27-28C (high 80s). Being a warm weather lover, I never thought I would say this, but I...
Sunday night we came back from what I can only qualify as a mind-blowing four days in Patagonia. We headed down to cover a new gastronomic program called Tasting Chile with the “extreme” fly-fishing/ecotourism cruise called Nomads of the Seas. The objective?...
Although chimichurri may be a staple condiment on every Argentinean table, versions are as varied as there are cooks. On my last trip to Mendoza, we stayed overnight in the Uco Valley at Casa Antucura. At dinner that night, the talented cook, Estefania Tolaba, served...
Entertaining at our place has been on hiatus for the past couple months as work, life, and trips enveloped us and left me wanting to order out, not cook in for a crowd. This past long weekend over Easter in Santiago was very quiet. A small exodus to the beaches had...
On her last visit to Chile, my fellow IACP member, Elena Hernandez , brought me a selection of Panama’s finest organic coffee. Elena is a chef living in Panama City who runs the Academia de Artes Culinarias. Since she has the in on everything foodie in country,...
I had a big bowl of aromatic lemons sitting in the kitchen. Last Sunday morning, upon discovering that there was no bread in the house, I decided to turn my kitchen into an impromptu bakery and make Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Surfing the web for some easy...
The change of weather, and produce, has been totally refreshing. I never thought I would actually say this but I am officially over berries and anything melon until next summer. On a typical shopping high in La Vega, our Wholesale farmer’s market, I bought...
While in Chile, any seeing person will inevitably spot a Chilean, or a dozen, skillfully shoving collossial, avocado and mayonaise-laden hot dogs into their mouth at full speed. Somehow, like an accident, you cannot help but look. It is disturbing, and impressive, at...
I will admit that of all the foods in this world it has taken me years to get around to even putting a banana in my mouth. Something about the smell, the texture, the slimy sweetness, just wasn't happening for my palate. I occasionally buy bananas at the market for...
For years, I dreamed about owning a Kitchen Aid Mixer. A bright cherry red one. It was my ultimate baking toy. I thought of all the amazing Christmas cookies I would whip up, the creamiest mashed potatoes I would make. Then I realized that my love for the mixer...
Of all the edible things I am pining for at breakfast from the US (short list: light organic soy milk, Go Lean cereal, sesame bagels, and 0% greek yogurt), English muffins still rank as number 1. I think I literally ate them close to every other day for almost a month...
I wanted to give a heads up though about a great show airing in the US on PBS: The Diary of a Foodie. The Chile episode, called Chile Mestizo, is presently broadcasting across the US. It’s an episode rather dear to my heart since I was brought in to collaborate...
Lessons learned? Go with the local (beverage) culture, definitely pack lightly and if you really, REALLY want to take some wine, take one bottle, not four. But as they say in Brazil, TUDO BEM Okay, I will admit that there are times when wine just won’t fit the bill...
Living down here in South America, at times I feel a little out of the gourmet loop in terms of kitchen gadgets. While we have the basics, there is no Williams-Sonoma, Sur Le Table, and imagine, Food Network. Back in October, a couple food-and-wine minded clients were...
Published in Placeres Magazine-January/February 2007 When it comes to Indian food, what the majority of the world considers as authentic, being most of the food served in restaurants is in essence Northern Indian cuisine; a meat-based cuisine passed down from the...
Appeared in LAN Airlines-IN Magazine: November 2006 Unedited version: In Mendoza, it seems that all roads lead to a winery given that more than 70% of all wine production in Argentina is concentrated here. Mendoza’s wine scene is booming and has come into its...
I asked this somewhat grotesque wine question at a dinner party not long ago, although my intentions were quite innocent; I simply wanted to understand why more and more I was running across these somewhat jarring “mousey”, “poopy”, “sweaty saddle” or “barnyard”...
Ahhh, the smell of meat grilling. Santiago has gone up in a big cloud of smoke--from the carbon on the grills that is. Today is Day 4 of the 5-day Independence Day long weekend here in Chile; today being the actual Independence Day, September 18. Festivities...
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