Quick, name the location and year of the first Thanksgiving among European settlers in the United States. If you guessed that the Pilgrims celebrated the first harvest festival in Plymouth in 1621, you’d be wrong.

In 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 Spanish settlers founded the city of St. Augustine in Spanish La Florida. As soon as they were ashore, the landing party celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving.
First pizza, now Thanksgiving. Always the Yankees stealing culinary credit.

These are other intriguing factoids are shared by Captain Jimmy Hill aboard his Adventure Boat Tours sunset and holiday lights excursions, currently cruising in St. Augustine, Florida.

He shares these facts nightly when St. Augustine celebrates its Nights of Lights Festival. The city flips on its lights every November.

Riding the Storm Out

There is even more for which to begrateful this year for the businesses and residents who have repeatedly bounced back after a challenging storm season. Florida’s Historic Coast was flooded by Hurricane Ian in late September and followed by Tropical Storm Nicole just last Thursday, November 10. While there was some coastline erosion and flooding in both storms, the waters receded quickly, and residents and the business community immediately got to work to reopen and return to business as usual.

Florida’s Historic Coast

“We reopened on Saturday with all but one exhibit intact… we thank our grounds crew and everyone who helped us toquickly and safely reopen the park,” said John Fraser, owner of Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archeological Park.

Charlie Robles, General Manager, The Collector Luxury Inn and Gardens said, “I will never cease to be amazed at the resiliency of St. Augustine. Within 24 hours after Nicole, the local hotels, shops and restaurants were up and running as if there was no storm at all!”

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Nicole, the City of St. Augustine worked quickly clearing debris and checking lights to ensure all was safe and ready to go for the 29th Annual Nights of Lights Light Up Night.

“With support from Heath Electric and Angels in the Architecture, city staff will have worked hundreds of man hours tore-hang and rewire the Plaza in preparation for Light-Up Night and the kickoff to Nights of Lights,” said Melissa Wissel, Communications Director for the City of St. Augustine.

Nights of Lights has been listed among the top 10 holiday light displays in the world by National Geographic. During this festival of lights, downtown St. Augustine glows with holiday magic – from the ground to the rooftops, millions of tiny white lights create a festive holiday season atmosphere in the Nation’s Oldest City, and it’s free of charge.

“We are grateful for the actions of the businesses and the city and county governments following the storm to make our destination ready for the Holiday Season,” said Richard Goldman, President and CEO of St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Nearly all tourism businesses on Florida’s Historic Coast are fully operational. To make planning for visits to Florida’s Historic Coast, the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau has published a list of open businesses. All scheduled events on Florida’s Historic Coast are also on track to take place.

Aboard the Adventure Boat

The flip-on is often a half-hour late. Aboard the Adventure Boat tour, guests don’t mind because First Mate Della Hill’s commentary is humorous and fascinating. She’s knowledgeable about the original residents of St. Augustine, the Timucua, a group of Native Americans. “The Spaniards were only five-foot-two to five-foot-four in height,” she explains. By contrast, the Timucua who greeted them were often 6’4 or even taller. What made them so tall?

“Oysters,” Captain Jimmy Hill explains. “They were raised eating oysters daily and it’s a growth stimulant.” Don’t worry, parents. Captain Hill is enlightening but refrains from sharing that other alleged benefit of oysters. Adventure Boat tours include a trip by the site of that first Thanksgiving. Dolphins and rare shorebirds often make an appearance.

Located midway between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, Florida’s Historic Coast includes historic St. Augustine, the outstanding golf and seaside elegance of Ponte Vedra, and 42 miles of pristine Atlantic beaches.

For more information on events, activities, holiday getaways and vacation opportunities in St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches, go to the Visitors and Convention Bureau website at www.FloridasHistoricCoast.com or call 800-653-2489. For more information about Adventure Boat Tours, contact 904-759-2758 or visit www.adventureboat.tours.

Video by Darrell Scatterwood

The post Lighting Up St. Augustine on Adventure Boat Tours appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Early Americans were absolutely oyster crazy. When the first English settlers arrived at Plymouth Rock, oysters were a reliable and tasty source of nutrition. Coastal American Indian Nations had already been harvesting them for at least 3,000 years. As the young colony’s population grew and spread to cover much of the East Coast, folks along the shores devoured oysters. In stuffings, chowders, pan roasts and on the half shell, both rich and poor enjoyed as many oysters as they could eat. America’s oldest still operating restaurant, the Union Oyster House of Boston, opened in 1826 to showcase the bivalve. And New York City pushcarts sold the by the bushel, freshly harvested from the Hudson Bay. A whopping 700 million were harvested from the Bay in 1880 alone.

This oyster bonanza coincided with the mass immigration of Irish settlers to the United States. Even before the Potato Famine of 1845-1852, Irish had ventured to America for better lives and a fresh start in a new land. Of course, the vast majority of these Irish were Catholic. They followed religious dietary customs around holidays, one of which was to abstain from eating meat on Christmas Eve. Fish was the protein of choice instead. Back home in Ireland, the Christmas Eve meal revolved around a fish called the ling. Cooks made a simple stew from dried ling, milk, butter and pepper. The ling was heavily salted for preservation, as well as chewy from being dried for so long. Milk tenderized the fish, and mixed with the butter and salt to create a rich, delicious broth.

Irish cooks could find no dried ling in America, but they did find plenty of oysters. And, as it happens, oysters taste pretty similar to dried ling: they’re salty, briny and can be quite chewy. The ling stew recipe was quickly adapted for oysters. And the cook in charge of the dinner didn’t even have to live near the ocean, either. Oysters were so popular throughout the country that canned, pickled and yes, even dried oysters had made their way across the continent en masse by the 1860s. Perhaps this year it’s time to revisit the oyster stew, and see what made this simple, satisfying dish so popular for so many Irish-American families.

New England Oyster Stew

Ingredients:

1/2 pt. oysters
1/2 stick butter
1/4 c. water
Salt and pepper
1 cup light cream and 1 cup milk
Add celery, scallions or onions if desired

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large pot. Add the oysters with their liquor. Heat until the oysters curl.
2. Meanwhile heat the whole milk and light. Add to the pot when the oysters have curled.
3. Salt and pepper to taste. The stew will take a lot of seasoning.
4. Simmer above ingredients for 5 minutes
5. Serve hot with oyster crackers

The post Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve appeared first on Traveling Archive.

“Restaurant” is a derivative of the Latin word “restore.” Inns were places where travelers could have a simple meal, then hit the road for a continuation of their journey. Today, with the arrival of modern-day tourism, travelers often visit destinations for history, cultural and gastronomic components. Yes, food is the spice of life, and we asked our members to list their favorite state destinations for pleasures of the palate. It’s fun for our readers to see another side of our writers, who have been delivering original content not found anywhere else on the globe.

Richard Carroll – T-Boy Writer:

Louisiana Cooking.

Every trip through Louisiana our taste buds are jumping with delight. Louisiana, highlighted by New Orleans, the most European city in the United States, also have the most distinctively original regional cuisine in the country. The creative cuisine is influenced by Creole and Cajun cooking, and dining for us in New Orleans is an American treasure. Dishes invented in the city include Po’ Boy, Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Bienville, Banana Foster and more. The Cajun Gumbo, Jambalaya, and various crayfish creations are the heart of the city’s cuisine.

New Orleans chefs explain that when the Cajuns migrated from Nova Scotia, the lobster decided to follow and by the time they arrived they had lost so much weight they were renamed crayfish. A resident added, “We have some 2,800 restaurants in New Orleans and if they’re not good they don’t last for three months, crayfish or not”  We have dined from open-air street stalls, where college kids with their foamy Go Cups are roaming the streets, to Armauds, steps off Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter. The famed restaurant in a restored turn of the century building, family owned since 1918, and one of the grande dames of New Orleans, serves award-winning French-New Orleans inspired cuisine. A dress code is enforced, collars for men, and so we found that diners were tastefully dressed in this elegant room enjoying Creole cuisine while listening to live Dixieland jazz.

We feel that Louisiana and New Orleans for aficionados of creative cooking will not disappoint.

Ringo Boitano – T-Boy Writer:

A taste of California history.

It almost seems unfair to list California as my favorite food state destination. With a landscape of approximately 163,696 square miles, it is the most populous and the third-largest U.S. state by area.

The state’s geography is immense with the Sierra Nevada’s Mt. Whitney at 14,505 feet, the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, to the Mojave Desert’s Death Valley, its lowest. Throw in the long Pacific coastline and Salinas Valley, coined the Salad Bowl of the World, plus the urbane euphoria of Cioppino, Ranch Dressing, Avocado Toast, Cobb Salad, French Dip Sandwich, Uramaki (California roll), and even the Fortune Cookie, which all proudly claim California as their birthplace – and you’ll find California’s gastronomic history to be both innnovative and monumental. Native-Americans were the first to arrive with a diet based on fruits, corn, pumpkin, shellfish and beans, followed by the Spanish, who brought the exotic flavors of garlic, peppers and olives, and then the migration of fortune seekers during the 1849 California Gold Rush, creating a fushion of culinary traditions, influenced by dishes from the U.S. East Coast, Latin-America, China and Italy.

And this leads us to Chez Panisse, the Berkeley-based restaurant originated by Alice Waters and film producer Paul Aratow, who ushered in the farm-to-table movement in 1971. The restaurant’s style of cooking emphasized ingredients rather than technique, using food that was fresh and seasonal, grown locally and organically. And because the ingredients were obtained nearby, the food took on a very Californian character, hence creating what is known today as California Cuisine.

Fyllis Hockman – T-Boy Writer

There is no other food!

And just to make a short story shorter. I live in Maryland. By definition that means hard shell crabs with Old Bay. There is no other food!

James Boitano – T-Boy Writer:

Favorite state for a food experience: Louisiana. 

Though I’ve only been there once, Louisiana seems to have quite the edge over other states. Sure, you can find any cuisine in the world in New York, but Louisiana has the trio of local good eating. First off, you get the best of Southern ‘comfort food’. Mac n Cheese, grits, fried chicken, red beans and rice: what’s not to love? And on top of that, Louisiana has the double Creole and Cajun experience. Both down-home and sophisticated. Crawfish, andouille smoked sausage, alligator, gumbo. Something for every mood… if you are hungry.

Phil Marley – Poet:

They have to be from Montréal to be REAL bagels.

Okay, I’m aware that Québéc is a Canadian province, not a U.S. state, but Montréal is the place of my birth and here are some of my favorite gastronomic memories.

Little Italy: Montréal’s Piccola Italia is the second largest Little Italy (after Toronto) in Canada. The community is filled with Italian cafés, restaurants and bars, specialty food shops, cultural landmarks, and Jean-Talon Market, Montréal’s most vibrant open-air food area.

Montréal Bagels: I once took a homeless man, a Montréal expat living in Vancouver, for coffee and asked if he would like a bagel, too. He declined, replying, Those aren’t real bagels, they have to be from Montréal to be REAL bagels. In Montréal you will you hear it pronounced bah-gal and yes, they are different. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, which also contains sourdough, the Montréal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt, and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked.

Montréal Smoked Meat: Most Yanks know all about pastrami and corned beef, but what is smoked meat? Well, it’s basically beef brisket that has been dry-cured, but then soaked (unlike pastrami) to desalinate it before seasoning and smoking. The seasoning is apparently a secret, for no one will divulge anything else other than it makes the most delicious sandwich on the planet. Schwartz’s (circa 1928) is the oldest deli in Canada and is considered an institution, though others will make a case for the newcomer, Reuben’s Deli and Steakhouse, at only a mere 50 years of existence.

Québécois Poutine: This Québécois specialty consists of fresh-cut fries and cheese curds topped with a brown gravy. It emerged in Quebec, in the late 1950s in the rural Centre-du-Québec region. My father believed the name poutine originated from the English word pudding (French, pouding), used to describe a mixture, a particularly messy one, of the three food items. It made sense to me for in Québec, the term poutine  is slang for mess. And, yes, it is a mess, a mess of delightful flavors and textures. Some deem its high caloric character to be essential in dealing with the particularly cold Québec and Ontario winter weather. Its popularity has spread to upscale restaurants and fast-food chains alike, including Canada’s Burger King and McDonalds. Today, poutine has become a symbol of Québécois and Canadian cuisine and culture. For that, I am proud – and ten pounds heavier.

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Ed Boitano – T-Boy Editor

Apples are also good for eating.

I am embarrassed to the point of shame when discussing my favorite food items from my home state of Washington. As an unruly adolescent, I considered the bounty of food available throughout the state to be something that was on the entire world’s table. Crab apples, cherries and blueberries were designated as throwing objects in war games between other neighbors, even at the risk of facing my mother’s disdain for stains on my play clothes; with blueberries on worst. What’s the big deal, I thought, isn’t there an unlimited supply? After all we had apple, pear, apricot and fig trees in our own backyard; that is if the birds didn’t get them first.

But that was yesterday and when I return to my ancestral home in Seattle today, I recognize the immense bounty of delicious Washington state produce, produce which I had took for granted, despite having family connections to its terrain. My great, great cousin was an apple orchardist in the Yakima Valley in 1910, and today Washington produces nearly 60% of all apples consumed in the entire U.S. There’s a chance he actually thought he was responsible for that. Raspberries and blueberries also top the U.S. list in production. My in-laws own and operate Roskamp Vineyards, known for their well-sought-after grapes in central Washington’s Lower Yakima Valley. And just further east, there’s Walla Walla Sweets (onions), where less sulfur means less sharpness and tears. Cherries are delicious, but they’re no match for Rainier Cherries, a hybrid created at Washington State University, named after Mount Rainier, where huckleberries and wildflowers blanket its slopes in late July through early September.

And when the Alaskan fishing boats arrive in Seattle, we have all five species of Pacific salmon on our tables: Chinook (King), Sockeye (Red), Coho (Silver), Humpies (Pink) and Chum (Dog, usually canned for foreign markets, but now locally rebranded as the more palatable Keta).

For preparation, it’s every person for themselves; butterflied and smoked over Alderwood, or Cedar planked (steamed on soaked Cedar) and many home recipes.

Then there’s oysters and clams with the geoduck the largest, generally reaching 1.5 pounds, once sold at the Pike Place Public Market for a penny a pound.

And we have the most flavorful of all crabs, the sweet and delicate Dungeness, named after the Port of Dungeness on the Olympic Peninsula. With apologies to those who yearn for lobster, your crustacean is actually a common everyday food for Nova Scotians and New Englanders, but takes its lofty status due to shrewd marketing on luxury railroad trains to and from Chicago as the most expensive item on the menu.

But an important note should be made to chain restaurants; Dick’s, home to Dick’s Famous Deluxe, and Ivar Haglund’s Ivar’s Salmon House and Ivar’s Aces of Clams, with his famous motto, Keep Clam. Haglund (1905-1985), a city father and Seattle icon, once purchased the Smith Tower – then the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi – under the condition that no later buyer could demolish it. From the tower’s observation deck, I could watch the blaze of 4th of July fireworks over Elliot Bay, paid for out of Ivar’s own pocket.,

Deb Roskamp – T-Boy writer & photographer:

A taste of the Land of Enchantment.

Red, green or Christmas? It took me a minute to realize that the waitperson was asking what my preference was for chili salsa. I was asked that question countless times during my four-day culinary tour of Northern New Mexico, and was excited to succumb to the gastronomic pleasures of this indigenous cuisine that can be found nowhere else in the world. Like the food of Tuscany, New Mexican cuisine – not Mexican, Mexican-American, or Tex-Mex – is virtually devoid of any outside influences. Carne adovada, blue corn tortillas, sopapillas and biscochitos – cookies made with crushed anise seeds, a hint of orange and covered with sugar cinnamon, now New Mexico’s Official State Cookie – are among its many offerings.

Floridians stand warned: Santa Fe is the oldest state capital in the continental U.S. In its over 400 years of existence, a number of flags have flow over the city: Spanish, Mexican, the U.S. and The Southern Confederacy – not to mention the short-lived Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Today, no cars are required in Santa Fe’s enchanting plaza. Simply take a stroll, and bask in the galleries, boutiques and historic structures, and take refuge in many of city’s outstanding restaurants. As the third largest art market in the world, recommended is a self-guild tour of Canyon Road which boasts over 100 art galleries, and, a little further down the road, two centuries of adobe homes and casitas.

Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen requires a short car drive from the Santa Fe Plaza. It’s a true local hangout, with mobs of hungry and thirsty patrons waiting for a table. And when I was last there, Maria’s offered as many as 200 margaritas containing different combinations of tequilas and mezcals, but the pandemic brought the list down to forty.

My time in Taos was limited, but it was essential that I save my last meal for my favorite restaurant in New Mexico, Doc Martin’s at the Historic Taos Inn. Perhaps it was because years ago, my first experience with traditional New Mexican food was at this historic establishment. Or maybe it’s just because the cuisine is so remarkable, it’s my first choice to dine in Taos. Their award-winning chili stew is a Northern New Mexico speciality with potatoes, pork and plenty of Hatch green chili. And what may be labeled as hot might be medium or it might be fiery. As they say in New Mexico, the chili is the chili. Doc Martin’s Restaurant was well worth the drive up north from Santa Fe and proved to be a tantalizing bookend to my culinary tour of the Land of Enchantment.

The post Favorite State for a Food Experience appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Our latest T-Boy Society of Film & Music poll will be of discovery; that is the first time you ate an unknown (to you) International or Domestic food.

It’s always fun to see our esteemed members’ selections, giving us a unique insight into their world.

Susan Breslow | T-Boy writer:

The physical sensation was psychedelic.

The first time I bit into a Szechuan pepper, I thought my friends would have to call the EMTs. This was at Szechuan Taste, a long-gone Chinese restaurant on Chatham Square in New York’s Chinatown. My mouth was on fire, and the physical sensation was psychedelic; I could practically feel concentric rings of flame. Neither water nor milk could quell the heat; it simply took time. And I learned my lesson to always check for peppers in Chinese food so that the experience would never recur.

T-Boy note: The application of Sichuan Peppers (English, Szechuan) to food in China dates back more than two millennia. When eaten, it produces a tingling, numbing effect due to the presence of hydroxy-alpha sanshool.

Weave Cleveland | T-Boy writer, musician, composer and Travel Guys cinematographer:

I hate your kind but I’ll eat your food.

I have a Filipino friend who grew up in Texas. He was used to prejudice. He’s a very funny guy. He made a run of T-shirts that read I HATE YOUR KIND BUT I’LL EAT YOUR FOOD. To this day I regularly run into people that have racist views but love ethnic foods.

When I was 17, I joined my 16-year-old girlfriend on a trip to Vancouver to visit her Scottish relatives. At dinner we were eating something delicious but had no idea what it was. Her aunt replied, Haggis. I remember liking it but I also never plan to eat it again.

T-Boy note: Haggis is a savory Scottish pudding containing sheep’s pluck (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach, though today generally in an artificial casing. As the national dish of Scotland, Haggis is traditionally served with “neeps and tatties,” and a wee dram of whisky.

James Boitano | T-Boy writer:

Oysters on the Half Shell on the Atlantic Coast of France.  

While I’d certainly heard of and even eaten oysters before, they were always cooked. The idea of cracking-open a live oyster and eating it raw on the half shell was something this 17-year-old had never imagined. That’s until this Seattle boy was spending a year as an exchange student in France. During my year, I visited a family in Bordeaux. The host mother treated me like an adult and one day when everyone else was busy, took me to the seaside resort of Arcachon.

There for a mid-afternoon snack, she took me to a beachfront café where the oysters were served, live and on ice, with a freshly sliced baguette, salted butter and even a glass of chilled white wine. My goodness, I sure felt like quite a grown up. As the sea air blew over me, I tasted the salty oysters as they went down my throat. It was delicious and such an adult experience that I will never forget. But they never again tasted quite so good as that first time when I was just a young lad.

T-Boy note: Arcachon Bay oysters had long been savored since Roman times, but it was not until the 19th century that the oyster became popular. Today, the Arcachon Bay has 26 oyster farms, and about 700 acres of oyster beds that produce 8,000 to 10,000 tons of oysters per year. Rich in minerals and vitamins, this shellfish with delicate and tasty flesh, particularly popular at New Year’s Eve, is eaten raw, plain or with a squeeze of lemon.

Ruth J. Katz | T-Boy writer:

I’m not terribly adventurous with food.

But, I remember vividly my first time faced with an artichoke. I was young and completely flummoxed. I had actually seen them growing at our neighbor’s house, in his vegetable garden–on long stems. For the record, in Italy, when you buy artichokes, you get that long stem. Here in America, you do not.

So, there I was, faced with this “flowering” green thing. I waited and watched what everyone was doing — and then I just copied how they attacked the beautiful, verdant orb. To this day–and I make artichokes a lot when I see them in the market–I think of that day. They served them cold, with sour cream as a dipping accompaniment. Soon, I was off and running, serving them more traditionally, with melted butter. And these days, I do not need anything with them–they are so sweet and meaty. I love when the green grocer has HUGE ones–the size of a football (well, not quite), and then I’ll cook up three or four of them and keep them in the fridge–each makes a wonderful luncheon. And since that time, I have taught so many friends how to prepare and make them. They are utterly delicious.

T-Boy note: The artichoke is a 3,000-year-old vegetable believe to be found in the Mediterranean area. Renowned for its potent medicinal properties, the ancient Greeks and Romans valued the edible blossom as ‘food for the Gods’ and reserved for the aristocratic alone.

Michael Rand | T-Boy writer, musician & filmmaker:

Beef Tongue at Canter’s Deli, Los Angeles.

I was 8 years old. My mother tricked me and told me it was corned beef. I didn’t ask for seconds.

T-Boy note: Beef Tongue has a long history, with archeological evidence that East Africa’s were enjoying wildebeest tongue as long as 2.5 million years ago. Canters, a deli in Los Angeles, is famous for its selection of meats, and also as the birthplace the rock band, Guns N’ Roses.

Fyllis Hockman | T-Boy writer:

Something with whom I was making eye contact.

So I was at a travel writer banquet in Guilin, China faced with a vast variety of unidentifiable food — some of which I braved through; others not. I gingerly picked up a fried bee with my chopsticks and as I brought it towards me, I paused. I clearly could not eat something with whom I was making eye contact. Gingerly, I put it back.

T-Boy note: Throughout the history of humankind, eating insects has been popular in utilizing this valuable commodity. Bee larvae are commonly eaten in many countries as they are edible, don’t taste bad, and are packed with nutrients. It turns out eating the larvae is probably the safest and more nutritious way to eat bees. They are moister, less crunchy, and don’t have a stinger!

Sandy Lorrigan | T-Boy writer & former director of Sitka Tourism:

Raw oysters at the Judge Roy Bean Saloon in Daphne, Alabama.

It was a LONG time ago and these cobwebs are pretty broken inside, but I believe my first “unknown to me” were raw oysters (ewwwww and gross) at Judge Roy Bean’s in Daphne, Alabama. The saloon-styled wood and tin hangout, burned down in 2005. It was neat place — used to have goats in the back enclosed area, and was the first time I heard of some “guy” named Jimmy Buffet come in and play (unscheduled and I didn’t know who he was, but he lived in the area).

Richard Frisbie | T-Boy writer:

I Was a Fava Bean Virgin.

As one of seven Journalists in a group of 180 travel agents I got to experience a cattle-car FAM trip to Sardinia firsthand. If it wasn’t for the exotic destination, an off-the-beaten-path Italian island in the Mediterranean just below Corsica, I never would have agreed to that rat race. But Italian Tourism promised separate chauffeured limousines for the journalists, and upgraded accommodations and special culinary events, so I couldn’t refuse.

Sardinia is breath-takingly beautiful. Our personal guide knew everyone and everyplace to take us to experience island life and culture. Most of the time we had our own car and driver, choosing to go to some amazing places, but on one occasion we were joined by the busloads of travel hoi polloi in a rustic agrotourism farm for some local, farm-to-table fare.

It was a walled compound, charming with covered trestle tables along one side facing an interior grassy planting of fig trees. A similar open-sided shed sheltering farm equipment that looked at least a century old commanded another side, and the white-washed residence, with what must have been a huge kitchen, took up the third side, with only bare walls and a huge wooden gate on the fourth. There was no planned seating, so we journalists commandeered an out-of-the-way table near the kitchen which we figured would be quieter and with the best service, leaving the others to fend for themselves in a fight for the scenic outside tables. When it started to rain we laughed because our “undesirable” table was the coziest and driest spot on the farm.

The serving was like the seating, family-style. I sat at one end with the most engaging and glamorous woman named Olivia at the other. She looked and acted like she should be presiding over a huge Italian dinner, making her a gracious hostess. It was a delight to look down the table at her, admiring from afar. We had some empty seats, so I found the nicest couple in the travel agent section and invited them to join us, making us a party of ten counting our guide. They turned out to be part-time travel writers as well as travel agents, so we all got along like peas in a pod.

I liked the company and the food, but nothing stands out today except for one vegetable. Olivia was gushing over a bowl of beans, exclaiming everyone had to try them and circling the table clutching a dish, spooning ordinary looking very large lima beans onto our plates. One taste of the buttery and brothy beans – fava beans to be exact – and I was as excited as Olivia.

These were nothing like the dried or canned fava beans usually found in the states, no – these were freshly grown and harvested and cooked simply to show off their exquisite flavor and texture. Eating them was a transcendent experience. Looking around, I noticed many tables that did not share our enchantment, leaving their fava beans untouched. Of course, I rescued the beans from the philistines and shared them with my enthusiastic friends. While I was at it, I did the same with the untouched pitchers of earthy red wine scattered around the compound. Travel Journalists know how to party.

It was that meal that brought our tableful of strangers to the realization that we were all family, sharing the camaraderie and country cooking of Italy together as if we were born to it. I’ve tasted fava beans many times since, searching for that elusive essence of perfection I found in that rural farm, but I never felt the same lusty rush as on that rainy day in Sardinia when Olivia ladled fava beans onto my plate from a bowl cradled in her bosom.

Skip Kaltenheuser | T-Boy writer:

Endless culinary delights…

But not for me!

Raoul Pascual | T-Boy writer, illustrator and webmaster:

My first reaction to first foods.

SALADS – Growing up in the Philippines, I didn’t eat a lot of vegetables. I ate like a horse … well … more like a carnivorous horse. So when I came to the US and I saw salads as a meal item, I didn’t understand how something so light and tasteless would be even considered a meal. Until now, the most unfulfilling salad for me is a Caesar Salad. Without the dressing, that is not even a desert.

STEAKS – Now you’re talking. When I sunk my teeth into my first ever steak, it awakened the Neanderthal in me. When the fatty juice oozed out, I knew what I’d been missing all my life. Add a glass of red wine and buttered greens and I knew what heaven was going to be like.

BEVERAGES – I grew up with a tight budget. So, I always savored ice cold Coca Cola and freshly squeezed orange juice which were rare. But I had never tasted fresh milk until I arrived here in the US. Prior to that, milk was always powdered, condensed or evaporated. I loved it so much I drank half a gallon in one sitting. I drank it like water. I overdid it the first time (I think I’m lactose intolerant) so I was grateful that there was a bathroom nearby.

FISHES – I had always had fish growing up but it was mostly salted or boiled in a soup — never fresh. I was a teenager when I first tasted Japanese sushi with wasabe. I appreciated the clean fresh taste more than the taste which was too subtle for my buds. (Maybe it was the wasabe that burned my taste buds). It was also very expensive. One summer, I went to a semi-private beach resort in Quezon province in the Philippines. dragging a fish line as we sailed on a motor boat, we caught a 6-foot barracuda. They laid that sucker down a mat made of fresh banana leaves and cut that baby open. I had never had so much sushi in my life. It was amazing.

BEER – My Mom bought a large can of powdered Yeast because she read it was healthy for us. She mixed it in a glass of powdered milk and it was the worst thing I ever tasted. None of my siblings would drink it. It was also very expensive. So, being the official garbage collector, I gulped down every single milk-yeast concoction. Halfway through the can, I had gotten used to the taste so by the end of that nightmare it wasn’t that bad anymore. Years later, my brother and I were handed a bottle of beer for the first time. He didn’t like the bitter taste. I didn’t particularly like it but the taste reminded me so much of that milk-yeast drink so I was able to finish my bottle. To this day, I’m not really a fan of beer but it’s something I drink in social gatherings.

T-Boy note: Wasabi, also called Japanese horseradish, is a plant of the mustard family, which features pungent due to its ground rhizomes. The plant is native to Japan, South Korea, and Sakhalin, Russia, and its cultivation is limited because of its specific growing requirement.

Ringo Boitano | T-Boy Writer:

Fresh anchovies (acciughe) at the Cinque Terre.

In the early afternoon I would watch local fishing people almost stumbling into restaurants and bars for an espresso. The stumbling, I should add, the result of an important day-long of rest due to the intense nocturnal hours of fishing, often times on a rugged sea. Later, I was rewarded by their catch of the night for an introduction to a small, green fish called acciughe, which soon blessed my dinner plate each evening. And, yes, they are different than those packed into a tin can.

Earlier, after I’d completed my trek to each of Cinque Terre’s terraced hillside towns – Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore – I noticed that some featured unique culinary styles of preparation. And I had to try them all: acciughe marinated, acciughe salted, acciughe butterflied and deep-fried acciughe, with a full-flavored garlic/vinegar sauce called Giada. My favorite main course was Tegame alla vernazzana, a layered, casserole-like dish of whole acciughe, potatoes, tomatoes, white wine, oil, and herbs.

Upon my arrival back to the states, I decided that canned anchovies were only fitting for a Caesar Salad. But then remembered that Caesar Cardini, who created the world’s first Caesar Salad at his Tijuana sports bar in 1924, only added canned anchovies months later (some say it was his brother who secretly slipped them in). Though designed as a snack, Cardini insisted that the salad be prepared by a waiter at your table, often times himself, with the protocol of smearing condiments on long, unchopped leafs of romaine lettuce, intended to be eaten with your fingers. Perhaps I should add that chopped lettuce eaten with a fork is only a Caesar Salad imposter.

T-Boy note: Cinque Terre’s anchovies, referred to acciughe in standard Italian, are considered by some to be the most delicious in all of Italy. Due to the saltiness of the Mediterranean Sea, they are endowed with a strong but harmonious taste. They are also called bread of the sea or in the local dialect, “u pan du ma.” The small fish, though much larger than those from a tin can, arrive to the Italian Riviera’s Cinque Terre by way of the Atlantic Ocean every June. The best catch can be expected on the day of San Pietro, June 29.

Tony Chisholm | T-Boy Writer:

 Fresh scallops from the sea.

Several years back I and a group of adventurous Canadians had embarked on a week-long sea kayak adventure in the Baja Mexico on the Sea of Cortez. Our jumping off spot was Loreto in the Baja. This was our second trip, and we loved the place. Especially being the on sea which was full vast varieties of fish and sea birds. At one point we were surrounded by a huge school of fish being chased by a much larger predator. The school near the surface split in two to throw off the marauder and one half took to the air all around us! Not a sight you see every day.

One day crossing a large bay, we came across a very noisy and smelly small fishing boat. Our guide explained that the noise came from a compressor on board supplying air to someone below walking on the bottom of the sea. Really? Yes, he was collecting scallops on the bottom. As he walked along with a bag, he picked up scallops that were then hoisted to the deck of the boat when the bag was full. On deck another person cracked open the shell (shucked) – which was then thrown overboard. These were sea scallops, and the edible part is the white adductor muscle. The rest of the scallop is discarded.

One of the guides was local and as we kayaked alongside the fishing boat, he bartered for some fresh scallops for us which had just been shucked. They were plentiful and huge. That night we cooked them over an open fire on the beach. They were so big we had to cut them into pieces to cook and I’ve never tasted anything so wonderful. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact we were camping on a perfect but very remote white sand beach. Or perhaps the flavour was enhanced by our hunger after a full day of kayaking in the sun on the open sea. Naaaa… they just tasted spectacular.

That night the fisherman came ashore at the other end of the beach. They slept all night under blankets and were gone early in the morning before the rest of us enjoying our holiday. The guide told us the men did not own the boat and they only received a very small pay for this gruesome job. The boat owner evidently made all the money. That explained why the men were so eager to deal directly with us for precious American dollars.

What a way to earn a living. Weighted down, walking on the bottom of the sea, breathing compressed air full of diesel fumes and searching for scallops all day. Probably fighting off sharks, just for a few centavos.

Those scallops were amazing and we ate them for four nights.

T-Boy note: The Silken Scallop (Leopectensericeus), is a member of the Pectinidae Family of Scallop Shells, known in Mexico as vieira de satinada. They are a classic fan shaped scallop with a rounded profile with a straight hinge and equal sized ears. To prepare: place one scallop in half-shell, along with a trickle of olive oil, a sliver of chili and garlic, and a splash of wine. Place the shells directly over the fire embers until ‘nearly cooked.  Remove from the heat and they will continue to cook in the hot shells while you sprinkle over the parsley. Don’t throw away the juices in the shell, they are like nectar!

Ed Boitano | T-Boy editor:

A Tase of Ostalgie in East Berlin.

It was a fascinating step back into history, akin to traveling by a time machine to a preunification GDR restaurant. Nostalgia (Ostalgie) restaurants are now spread across the former GDR, popular with locals for a taste of their past, and curious tourists in understanding the simple dining experiences at the East German table. I looked at my menu and opted for pork chops, with sides of two epic boiled potatoes, and a spinach salad, dressed with a unique concoction from a tube of unknown substance. The chops were tough and rather grisly, and the boiled potatoes tasted like, well, boiled potatoes. The spinach salad was simple and unimaginative. And, the unknown substance in the tube, still remains a mystery to me today, but I was appreciative of the overall meal’s authenticity.

T-Boy note: Since the early 2000s, there has been a wave of nostalgic Ostalgie (a combination of the German words for “east” and “nostalgia”) restaurants opening in East Berlin and the former GDR. The key term is ‘ingredient restrictions,’ where communist comfort food was often born out of necessity. For more Ostalgie experiences, visit Berlin’s colossal war memorials, Checkpoint Charlie, drink Soviet-inspired soft drinks, and drive a smoke-belching Trabant, the GDR’s answer to the West’s Volkswagen, designed as “the people’s affordable car.”

Phil Marley | Poet:

Eating Alligator with the Seminoles.

I was welcomed like a long-lost friend. Several members of the Seminole Tribe shared their thoughts on pride, identity, and the preservation of their culture… and also their tradition of eating alligator. The tradition also included seemingly eating anything else that moved in the Everglades, plus a variety of carefully cultivated grains, vegetables, roots and fruits. Their diet was also endowed by recipes from runaway African-American slaves who found refuge among the Seminoles. And how did the floured and fried alligator taste? Well, dare I say a bit like chicken, though I tried to ignore the repugnant pieces of alligator fat. Sorry, Mr. Boitano; everyone has their limit.

“Respect was our Creed with loyalty and trust. Now we crest new addiction with the white man’s lust. This is no longer a war it’s a Genocide. They’re slowly tearing us apart, this is my war cry.” – Author unknown.

T-Boy note: The Seminole people’s relationship with alligators developed 200 years ago in southern Florida. When the tyrant Andrew Jackson issued the illegal Indian Relocation Act, the Seminole Tribe found safety in the Everglades. By the 19th century, the tribe had practically (strategically) disappeared from Euro-American’s eyes; living in isolation deeper into Everglades, where they had learned to adapt to the dense, bug-infested, sweltering swamps. They never surrendered, never signed a peace treaty. The Seminoles are nothing less than a profile in courage, who outsmarted the U.S. government, whose aim was to forcibly relocate them to Oklahoma “Indian Territory.”

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