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Chile’s Quintessential Cranberry Bean, Pumpkin & Sweet Corn Stew
Recently arrived back in Chile after my two week soirée in the Colorado Rockies and beaches of St. Augustine, Florida, I am in serious need of returning to my normal, healthy diet before my next (meat and dulce de leche laden) trip to Uruguay in three weeks. In this...
Lights, Camera, Aspen
Well, it's over. The Food & Wine Classic in Aspen that is. What an intense weekend. Literally about four days of work and schmoozing in my case. For those of you not familiar with the event, let me enlighten you. It all started 28 years ago when Food & Wine...
A Whole New World
Friday I had a tecnological meltdown. I had been on the fence for months about whether or not to trade in old faithful, the crackberry-blackberry, for an iPhone. I was already sold on the concept, the Mac, but something had been holding me back—and no, it wasn’t the...
Five Tips to Taste Wine Like a Pro
1. To Spit or Swallow This is the epic question that no doubt most wine lovers struggle with when it comes to tastings. While wine is pleasureable to drink, when it comes to evaluating wine in a formal tasting, my opinion is that you need to spit and yes, there's a...
My Two Americas
This year I celebrate a decade living in Chile. Ten years. It has flown by. I have noticed by my expat, and Chilean friends, who have arrived and left. And I stay. If you were to ask me why, I would respond quite simply, "For love". Love for Chile, the life I have...
Funky, Ethnic, Vibrant Patronato
A couple weeks ago, I took you all on a joy walk through my hood, Lastarria / Bellas Artes. Santiago’s neighborhoods are the soul of this city. The press and travel guides, whose names shall remain unmentioned, have done a dismal job of portraying this aspect of...
Fork Up: Noso Chef’s Table at the W Santiago
Drop Jean Paul Bondoux’s name in foodie circles in the Southern Cone and heads turn. No, he’s not a star on elgourmet.com, the South American version of the Food Network. Think more along the line of revered French chefs like Alain Ducasse. Chefs that take food from...
My Fair Mendoza: Winter 2010
June is less than a week away and winter is officially here. It's like the mercury suddenly dropped as Mother Nature knew Fall was over. A second rainfall recently covered the Andes with snow and according to the folks at Portillo and Las Leñas, ski season is about to...
Italy, Spain, California…CHILE.
For decades, North Americans have been flocking to Mediterranean destinations like Italy, Spain, Greece, the French Riviera, Turkey for the culture—and let’s face it, seeking sunny holidays. Looking at the climate of the coastal fringes of the sea, it is not hard to...
Is Chile the next Australia?
There's no question that Chilean wines are starting to experience a sort of Boom Time in the US market. The price is right, you get a lot of great wine for your buck, and there is t-o-n-s of variety and depth. But with all this recent growth, is Chile really just...
Nature’s Botox: Drink Your Tannat
If there was a natural “juice” that tasted great, gave you a little buzz, kept your heart healthy, AND maintained those wrinkles at bay, wouldn’t you be sprinting to get your hands on it? Ok, rhetorical question. There’s been a lot of press hoopla as of late around...
Eating Up Napa
As many of you know, in late April, I paid a visit to some dear friends in the Napa Valley for a second time. The mission? To hang out with them, obviously, and soak up that "Napa" vibe. The "good life" vibe is definitely happening there--and I am totally down with...
My Favorite Hood in Santiago: Bellas Artes/Lastarria
My disappearance from the blogosphere in the past 2 weeks has largely been due to another move. Yes, after 8 months of living in the farther reaches of the Ñuñoa burbs far, far, far away from the metro and signs of urban life, I am back DOWNTOWN in my favorite...
Hot Potato
Fall in Chile is synonymous with the potato harvest in the south where dozens upon dozens of colorful native potatoes are unearthed from dark, fertile soil. Purple, red, pink, yellow, spotted, striped, tinged, oblong, round, knobby, and thin, they are infinite in...
Operation Carry-On
Friday night I jetted from Chile up to the west coast of the US for a quick trip— 9 days--of business and pleasure in the Napa Valley and Portland, Oregon. In tow I had only two small suitcases: a Roller carry-on and my computer bag. Back up to two nights before the...
Destination Miami: Now for Foodies
This Friday, I take off to two of the biggest foodie zip codes in the US (Napa and Portland, woohoo) and it got me thinking about what qualifies, in my mind at least, a place as a “foodie” city. Immediately New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Chicago all spring...
O. Fournier is in the House (Part II): Tasting Notes
Centaurí Sauvignon Blanc 2009 US$16 Although O.Fournier’s future winery will soon call Lo Abarca home alongside prestigious neighbors like Casa Marin, for the interim as the project takes off, they are making this super fresh Sauvignon Blanc with grapes hailing from...
O. Fournier’s in the House–in Chile (Part I)
Energetic. Passionate. Humble. Determined. Frank. Sophisticated and maybe even a little quirky. These are all adjectives I used to describe the wines in my recent tasting of O. Fournier's most recent vintage in Chile. As I scanned over my notes and reflections from...
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