When you think of the Mediterranean, what comes to mind? Perhaps sipping an espresso at a cafe tucked along the French riviera? Cruising in a sailboat between rocky Greek islands? How about soaking up the sun on the beaches of Tunisia?
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Take two tins of tuna: one from Ortiz, one typical of the supermarket. They came from the same animal living in the same ocean. One costs twice as much as the other. Why?
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Some foods are so much a part of a place that you never think of one without the other. Belgium’s got their waffles. Champagne has their bubbly. Buffalo has its chicken wings; Nashville has its hot fried chicken. In the Spanish village of Almoharín, they’re all about their figs.
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Even among the most exceptional foods, there are a few makers that go beyond the standard. There’s Champagne, and then there’s vintage Dom Perignon. There’s Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and then there’s Valserena. There’s jamón Ibérico de bellota—the crown jewel of Spanish cured ham—and then there’s Arturo Sanchez.
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It’s a cliché to say that anchovies get a bad rap. Everyone knows they’re polarizing—and most people avoid the pole altogether. The thing is, it’s not anchovies’ fault. It’s ours. Just-caught anchovies are universally delicious. It’s mis-steps taken to cure, prepare, store and serve that cause such ruin.
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White asparagus isn’t all that popular in the US. In Europe, though, it’s practically a rock star. Home cooks snatch it up. Chefs design entire menus around it. Even the king of Spain gets excited about it. And when it’s not in season, people buy it in cans and gobble it up.
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You are what you eat. Your mom told you that. Turns out it’s true for farm animals, too. When animals live on pasture, they eat a more varied diet of different grasses, herbs, and flowers. The diet has an enormous impact on the flavor of meat it produces. Perhaps the most famous example is Ibérico […]
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Four hundred years ago to the year, in 1615, Miguel de Cervantes published the second edition of Don Quixote de la Mancha. The world’s first novel has a couple dozen references to cheese, and you can bet that Cervantes was thinking of a cheese we’d recognize today as Manchego. Manchego was made in the La […]
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Our spring shipment of imports arrived at our warehouse a few weeks ago. Each year, this delivery is the one that includes our newest harvest of olive oils—in this case, we just got the 2014 harvest. It takes until May for the new oils to arrive because after the olives are picked and pressed around […]
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In the last two decades, piquillo peppers have taken the culinary world by storm. From nowhere they became the darling ingredient of chefs across the world, including Michelin-starred gastronomic titans Alain Ducasse and Ferran Adria. What’s different about piquillos from nearly every other vegetable making it big time (I’m talking to you, kale) is that […]
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