Daily Pampering: Fall cooking vacation in Provence

by Melanie Nayer on

If you’ve ever wondered why French women don’t get fat, this trip is for you.

The Hotel Crillon le Brave in Provence is hosting all-inclusive package of a five-day (six-night) cooking program this October, meant to give even the most discerning palates a mouth-watering vacation.

Spend a week in the French countryside at a hotel lead by head chef Philippe Monti. You’ll learn to cook authentic Provençal fare during daily classes, enjoy excursions through the local area, and dine at the hotel’s restaurant on chef Monti’s own savory regional dishes, such as filet de rougets (fresh wild sea bass) and confit de canard (duck). If you want to remove your chef’s hat for the day, you can enjoy a treatment at the hotel’s open-air spa, tour the historic village on complimentary bikes or play on the nearby tennis and boules courts.

Where: Hotel Crillon le Brave, Provence, France

When: October 10 – 16 | October 17 – 23

What:

  • Six nights of accommodation
  • All meals included, as well as wine and cocktails upon arrival
  • Five intensive half-day cooking classes, with recipes for five complete menus to take home
  • Afternoon excursions to meet with local purveyors, including truffle hunters, winemakers, cheese makers, bakers and more
  • Tour of Carpentras Market, which has been in existence since 1155. Situated at the foothills of Mount Ventoux, this weekly market is known as being one of the best in France
  • Fine wine tastings
  • Transportation and entry fees for all excursions included

Price: €2900 per person (roughly US$632 per person per night) based on double occupancy; €400 single supplement fee. For “non-cooking” companion, the cost is €1400 if sharing a room with a “cooker”. “Non-cookers” may participate in all events and meals outside of the cooking classes.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

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!

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.