From the category archives:

Sugar Apple On the Road

Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival

September 3, 2010
Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival

Greetings from your guest blogger! I’m Amy Davis, sister of Abigail, faithful reader of Sugar Apple and sometime recipe tester. A couple of weeks ago my husband, Ted, and I attended The Second Annual Attack of the Killer Tomato Festival here in Atlanta and Abigail graciously invited me to blog about it.

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Karen Getting Married

August 29, 2010
Thumbnail image for Karen Getting Married

Good day and Sita Ram!  That’s a Hindu greeting I learned this weekend in Trinidad.  In fact, I learned a lot of things this weekend, most of them having to do with the incredible hospitality of the people of Trinidad.  I’ve always thought Southerners had a lock on first place in that area.  But after the past weekend, [...]

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Pappardelle al Cinghiale

August 21, 2010
Pappardelle al Cinghiale

This is the first time in several years that we haven’t attended the Sagra della Pappardelle al Cinghiale in Torre Alfina, Italy, and I must admit I’m missing it.  The tables lined up in the piazza, the village children serving the grownups, chicken and wild boar sausages hot off the grill, good local red wine, and the star of [...]

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Mezcal in Mexico

May 18, 2010
Roasted maguey pinas

I’m still trying to sort out our summer vacation but at least Christmas is already in the bag.  We’re going back to Mexico to stay at the Casa Raab in the tiny village of San Pablo Etla, a few miles outside of Oaxaca.  Bones put together a slide show of his photos from our last trip about six years [...]

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Love and Monsters

October 31, 2009
Mouth of the ogre

It’s 1750.  You’re riding through the woods of northern Lazio in central Italy, a stranger to the area.  Suddenly, a massive, moss-covered stone ogre appears in the fog.  If you have the nerve to go inside, you find a central stone table encircled by carved benches.  It’s dark, damp, eerie.  A site for macabre dinner parties?  Ritual sacrifice?

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In Defense of America

September 18, 2009
Mexican seafood cocktail

Our Italian holiday is now but a pleasant memory and life is back to normal.  The kids are in school, the cruise ships are starting to come back and the dinner parties are in full swing.  There was the usual international island crowd at our friend Michael Helm’s on Wednesday.  There were fifteen dinner guests from five different countries [...]

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Back on the Balcony

September 14, 2009
Queen Mary II

Home.  It took 3 airplanes and 23 of hours traveling through 4 countries to get back.  Amazingly, every single flight took off and landed on schedule.  We had tapas in the very modern and very cool Madrid airport.  Tropical Storm Erika was cooperative and didn’t delay us (though she did bring some much needed rain to the B.V.I.).  A kind U.S. Customs agent [...]

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Hitting the Chianti Trail

September 9, 2009
Castello di Poppiano

I’ve never been one for touring vineyards.  The thought of tripping through Napa with the wine snooties certainly doesn’t appeal.  I do like to drink wine, but never bothered to find out much about the places that produce it.  Though I always admire a pretty vineyard view in the countryside.  Hell, I’ve never even seen Sideways. 

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Lunch With The Grouch

September 2, 2009
Pasta with truffles

To paraphrase (very loosely) Ebenezer Scrooge - if I had my way, every restaurateur who goes about with truffle oil on his menu would be boiled in a vat of truffle oil and buried with a vial of the vile stuff stuck through his heart.  There may be good truffle oil out there, but I haven’t tasted it yet.  I detest [...]

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Osteria al Pugnalone

August 31, 2009
Chef Francesco Sacco

In case anyone was wondering if the Verizon Global Access international wireless modem works, the answer is basically…no.  We arrived in Rome on Saturday and I’ve had no internet access since we left the house in Benano.  After about a thousand dollars worth of Rome-USA cellphone calls with Verizon, I am on line.  At least [...]

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Benano Barbecue

August 28, 2009
Benano barbecue

I remember you.  So said the extremely attractive lady manning the counter at the butcher shop in Torre Alfina.  And Bones is certainly memorable.  For starters, he is six and a half feet tall.  This makes him a good foot or so taller than most of the population of Torre Alfina.  Then there is his Italian.  Bones’ [...]

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Cucina di Bambini

August 28, 2009
Fettucine with Shrimp and Cream

It’s not all sagras and restaurants.  Hotel rooms are fine for a day or two, and I love a good restaurant meal.  But I need a kitchen.  I need to shop the local markets, check out the local ingredients.  I need to cook.

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Market Day in Orvieto

August 24, 2009
Pretty pink things

We’re all rather fond of the local Coop supermarket.  The girls like being able to get Italian Cocoa Pops and I’ve become embarrassingly addicted to the Coop brand of sliced, pre-packaged mortadella.  I think it reminds me of the bologna I ate as a child.  Whatever the reason, I go through an average of a package a [...]

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Lake Bolsena

August 23, 2009
Tiny car

When two food-crazy grownups travel with two not-quite-teenage girls, some compromise is necessary.  This particular grownup would be happy with a visit to the local market in the morning followed by a leisurely three hour lunch, an afternoon nap, and then dinner.  Throw in the exploration of a few ancient villages, a cathedral or two, and a museum, and that’s all I [...]

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My House in Umbria

August 23, 2009
Sorting fennel

No train attacks, no mute children, no carpenter ants, no Maggie Smith.  But, like the character, Aimee, in the movie My House in Umbria, I’d like to stay forever.  My house in Umbria is the Rocca di Benano, in the tiny hamlet of Benano, just up the hill from Orvieto.

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