Dig deeper in your travel research with the food blog

by Grant Martin on

One of my favorite strategies when doing my travel research is food blog crawling. Food blogs put a unique spin on a destination, have authors who are almost always social and are furthermore great places to find new places to eat. Our own blogger Jeremy Kressmann dominated the gastronomic scene in Seoul this way, and more and more food bloggers are seeping into mainstream shows like No Reservations and Bizarre Foods.

Great case in point? Cafe Fernando. The author, as one commenter puts him a “gourmet of life,” is an Istanbul resident, cooking genius, amateur photographer, and talented blogger, the product of which is a mouth watering journey into pages of crumbcakes, donuts, cheescakes and tarts.

Heading somewhere soon? Give it a try on google: plug “[your city] + food + blog” into a search and see what comes up. You’ll be surprised, delighted and hungry when you’re finished.

The Chicago dog joint worth traveling to — soon to open a new location

by Scott Carmichael on

In May 1948, Maurie and Flaurie Berman opened Superdawg – a authentic drive-in hotdog stand at the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Devon Avenue in Chicago.

That restaurant grew up to be one of the most popular in the city, and made it into the “1000 places to see before you die” list.

Yes – it is that cool. Maurie and Flaurie still run the joint along with their kids, and they still serve their original Superdawg (don’t call it a hot dog).

A Superdawg is something special – they are one of the only in the city to use their own dog recipe instead of the traditional Vienna Beef dog. An authentic Superdawg comes with all the Chicago style trimings packed inside a Superdawg box with crinkle cut fries and a green tomato.

Later this month, Supwerdawg will open their second drive-in location in Wheeling, IL (about 6 miles up the road from the original location). An airport location was opened at Midaway in 2003.

The new Wheeling store will be much larger than the (cramped) Chicago location, but everything has been kept as authentic as possible, down to the “control tower” style order picker room and of course, the Maurie and Flaurie dogs on the roof.

The book is right though – everyone needs to visit Superdawg at least once in their life. The Chicago location can be reached by bus, but there is not much room to eat indoors (they do have a small patio), so the best way to experience Superdawg is to rent yourself a car and hope you keep the seats clean!

Chocolate bars: Ritz-Carlton redefines classic desserts

by Melanie Nayer on

Some things are just necessary for survival, and some of those things come dipped in chocolate. There’s something to be said for the local delicacies in foreign destinations, and as Scott mentioned earlier, the Gadling team would travel around the world for their some of their favorite food. Me? I’ll take chocolate.

While few things will ever top chocolate squares from Belgium, or tiramisu from Italy’s hidden cafes and best restaurants, we can’t always get to our favorite places for our favorite foods. But, if you look close enough in your own backyard, you might be able to taste some of your favorite comfort foods without needing your passport. Enter: The Ritz-Carlton’s decadent chocolate bar.

I’ve made myself comfortable on many a Friday night at Boston’s Ritz-Carlton dining room with a glass of red wine and a plate of goodies from the hotel’s chocolate bar, so when I heard the Ritz was redefining their dessert menu I immediately went into panic mode. I caught up with George McNeill, Ritz-Carlton’s corporate chef, to get a sense of what the new menu will feature. Seems the chefs have taken a new approach to dessert and put a bit of flair on some of their local favorites. From English bread butter pudding to an All-American strawberry shortcake, Ritz-Carlton is giving our classic desserts a bit of a culinary makeover.Why the change? What was the motivation for reinventing the menu?
This is part of our overall strategic direction of making the Ritz-Carlton a more approachable dining experience – our goal is to have a market driven restaurant in every one of our hotels. “Classic Desserts Redefined ” is another example addressing the needs of our evolving customer. The motivation was that as we navigated our way through the economic downturn in 2009, we saw a clear gravitation from our guests to a popularity of more comfort items on our menus. “Classics”, by definition, are items that have stood the test of time and appeal to guest as much today as they have for generations we challenged our pasty chefs to submit their best “classic” dessert recipes, of which were eventually whittled down to what we have today.

The Ritz-Carlton is known for indulgence and luxury – how do these new creations fit within the theme?
In this instance, luxury and indulgence relate to the quality of the ingredients and the flavor profile of the desserts, they are rich and flavorful which translates into a satisfying experience. I believe that we will see an increase in dessert sales and that our guests indulge themselves in desserts that that they may have passed up on due to the recognition factor, if only from childhood memories.

What is your favorite new ‘classic’ on the dessert list? What is the one item you’ll never remove?
My favorite is Bread and Butter Pudding. it is something I have not seen on a menu for a very long time, it congers up childhood memories of sitting at the dinning room table with all of my brothers and sisters for Sunday dinner, which was the only day we had dessert with dinner. What item will never leave the menu? That is difficult to say only time will tell and our guests will be the judges.

My personal suggestion? Enjoy some quality time with the chocolate fountain, then order up some bread pudding, a hot cup of espresso (or the martini version, if you choose) and enjoy yourself a fine dessert on a Friday night.

Food so good, you’ll travel around the world to get it

by Scott Carmichael on

One of the best parts of traveling, is discovering new and exciting food. Of course, adventurous travelers will be on the lookout for the most exotic dishes they can find. Personally, I’m not that adventurous, and I stay away from any food that could be part of Fear Factor.

For our “foodie travel” theme day, I asked our team for the dish they would travel the world for. The kind of dish you are already craving when you get on the plane to return back home, or the dish that reminds you of your fantastic trip just by smelling it, or hearing its name.

Once we have whetted your appetite, why don’t you share your own “will travel for food” in the comment section – you know we love hearing from you!
Scott: My favorite is the Indonesian Rijsttafel. A table filled with up to 30 different Indonesian dishes. You don’t even need to fly to Indonesia to get one – the dish was invented by the Indonesian population in The Netherlands (Indonesia was once a Dutch colony). I’ll also admit that I once flew from Amsterdam to New York just to buy chocolate chip cookies, but I’ll save that one for “most insane trip day”.

Tom: Hot dogs!

Catherine: Curry: green, red, massamam, thai, indian

Grant: One of my big traditions is drinking espresso like crazy when I’m in France — if not for the espresso, proper, for the atmosphere.

Melanie: I’ll swim across the Atlantic and trek my way through Europe for pizza from a cafe in the Piazza Navona in Rome

Annie: Black pepper crab in Singapore is the best thing ever.

Katie: Icelandic hot dogs. Really good jamon from Spain. Pesto from Cinque Terre, Italy. Beer from Denver.

The fig and proscuitto flatbread from Olives in NYC. Macarons (NOT coconut macaroons) from France. BBQ from Slow’s in Detroit. Tapas in San Sebastian, Spain (particularly the seared foie gras at La Cuchara de San Telmo). A meal at Azafran in Mendoza (filet topped with brie, wrapped in puff pastry and served with a malbec reduction sauce). Empanadas from Cumana in Buenos Aires. Pizza topped with faina (a kind of chickpea dough) from Guerrin in Buenos Aires.

Gadling’s tribute to foodie travel

by Grant Martin on

Ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you that I’m probably the worst foodie traveler on the planet. I stood by while my companions ate horse sashimi in Tokyo, politely declined the boiling hot oyster balls in Osaka, ordered the steak instead of the borscht in Russia, and definitely skipped the chicken feet in Hong Kong. Andrew Zimmern makes me uncomfortable, my first tuna roll was in Bangkok last year and even with a Vietnamese mother, I’ll admit that I don’t like phở.

It’s true that gastronomic exploration is an excellent way to experience a culture, eat like a local and try something exotic, but there are more significant components to foodie travel then competing to see who can eat the most outlandish viscera. Food brings people and cultures to a communal table, a place where stories are exchanged, traditions are observed and friends are made. And this can happen at the dive bar in the red light district or at the 4 star Michelin rated restaurant at the top of the finest hotel in the city.

Enjoying food on the road can thus come in many forms, some in plain sight in a guide book and others, more subtle, in a host’s kitchen or at a marketplace vendor. Today at Gadling we’ll be covering all points on the spectrum, from some of our favorite hotspots to strategies for making your meal worth it’s buck. We hope you enjoy it.