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SPECIALTIES & INGREDIENTS

No food is as evocative of its source of origin than the wonderful array of seafood that is harvested from the world’s shorelines and coastal waters, whether simply cooked or combined with other ingredients.

For those who love good food, the chance to sample local specialties is one of the greatest joys of travel, and there is no better way to appreciate the heart and soul of a place and its people than to share their harvests, the hard-won catches of their fishermen, the delicacies fashioned by their bakers, and the treasured recipes showing these ingredients at their best.

The journeys that follow take you to some of the world’s most enticing landscapes, such as the ancient olive groves of Greece, the rose-red cherry orchards of rural Michigan, and rocky coves on the Massachusetts coast, where the Atlantic tide nurtures clams and oysters to be savored in their raw, briny state, or simmered, or fried. Chili-aficionados can follow a fiery odyssey into the heart of Mexico, exploring the nuances of smokiness and sweetness in spectacular dishes devised by Mexican cooks. There are urban adventures, too, such as the disciplined frenzy of Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, where perfect specimens of tuna are auctioned daily to the master sushimakers of Japan—a formidable breed of culinary artists.

CANADA

LOBSTERS AND OYSTERS

Piles of wooden lobster traps are a common sight on the wharves of New Brunswick’s coastal towns.

Sample some of the Atlantic’s tastiest seafood along New Brunswick’s eastern shore.

If you are searching for just-off-the-boat seafood, there is no better place to start than Shediac, northeast of the city of Moncton, where you can join a cruise to learn about lobstering as you feast on whole steamed lobster. North of Shediac, a series of seaside villages provides the opportunity to sample lobster stews and bisques, pastas with lobster sauce, and lobster rolls made with moist chunks of meat mixed with a touch of mayonnaise. Beausoleil oysters are harvested just offshore, and in Bouctouche and Shippagan they are on the menu either steamed, grilled, sautéed, or in thick, hearty chowders, while near the Acadian community of Caraquet you can savor the buttery-sweet Caraquet oysters from nearby Chaleur Bay. Heading back south, cross to Prince Edward Island (PEI) via the Confederation Bridge for a taste of Malpeque Bay oysters—an oversized bivalve with a sweet, mild flavor harvested from the eponymous bay on the island’s northwestern shore. In Hope River, in central PEI, look out for St. Ann’s Church, where you may see a sign announcing a lobster supper.

Fresh lobster is a regular fixture on many of the area’s menus.

Seafood Festivals

■ Shediac, which bills itself as the Lobster Capital of the World, has held an annual Lobster Festival, featuring lobster-eating contests and lobster dinners, every July since 1949.

■ Plan your itinerary around the Atlantic Seafood Festival held in Moncton in August. The festival combines celebrity-chef demonstrations, wine and food tastings, and culinary competitions with musical entertainment. Competitors vie for the title of fastest oyster-shucker or top chef for the best seafood chowder.

■ The Prince Edward Island International Shellfish Festival in Charlottetown features three different oyster-shucking competitions pitting the world’s best shuckers against each other. The September event also includes championships for best potato seafood chowder and best cream chowder, as well as shellfish cooking demonstrations presented by the Culinary Institute of Canada.

VERMONT

MAPLE SYRUP

Each bucket is hung on the sugar maple on a spout through which sap flows when conditions are ideal for the sap run.

As winter draws to a close, visit Vermont to find yourself in maple heaven.

A cloud of steam envelops visitors as they push open the door to a Vermont sugarhouse where sap from the local “sugarbush” (stand of maples) is boiling down in large metal pans known as evaporators. The sugarmaker raises a dipper of the amber liquid and watches as it drips back into the evaporator to test whether it “aprons” (drips off the end of the dipper in sheets)—an indication that the sap has reduced to a syrup and is ready for pouring off. It is a scene repeated in sugarhouses across Vermont from late February through early April, when a succession of freezing nights followed by warm days causes the sap to run. To tap the trees, holes are drilled through the sapwood (outer tree trunk) at a slightly upward angle and fitted with spouts or taps. The sap flows out through the tapholes and is collected either in buckets hung on the taps or via plastic tubing. Purchase a gallon of maple syrup and a handful of maple-sugar cakes, or head to a sugar-on-snow party at one of the local town festivals or sugarhouse open house weekends. At these, hot syrup is dribbled over a dish of fresh snow and hardens in lacy patterns as it cools. Scoop up the maple with a popsicle stick and take a lick. You can cut the sweetness with a bite of a sour dill pickle.

Maple Products

Maple syrup is best known as a topping for pancakes and waffles-but that’s just the beginning. The sweet, thick liquid is added as a flavoring to everything from meats to desserts, including even vodka. And, like the early Native Americans, many sugarmakers make maple or Indian sugar by boiling syrup until most of the water has evaporated, leaving a crumbly, granular sugar.

Syrup boiled down to a thick consistency can be pressed into molds and hardened to make small candies known as sugar cakes. Maple cream or maple butter, used as a spread for toast and muffins, is another Vermont favorite. The sweet cream results from boiling the syrup, cooling it rapidly, and stirring until it is smooth.

The bottles travel a circuitous route as they are filled, checked, and capped in the bottling plant at World of Coca-Cola.

MASSACHUSETTS

IPSWICH CLAMS

A yacht swings gently at anchor, with one of Cape Ann’s six lighthouses poking up on a headland beyond.

The mudflats and estuaries of the Massachusetts coast provide the main ingredient for some iconic seafood dishes.

A long Massachusetts Route 133 from Gloucester to Essex and Ipswich at low tide, the briny smell of the intertidal flats hangs in the air, mingling with the distinctive aroma of fried seafood. Where the road merges with Route 1-A, continue north toward Newburyport. Known locally as Clam Shack Alley, this stretch of road is a mecca for clam-lovers. Long lines snake out of the Clam Box of Ipswich, J.T. Farnham’s, and other popular eateries. Regulars and first-time customers crowd into wooden booths at Woodman’s of Essex, home of the original fried clam: cooked-to-order, crunchy-crisp clam bellies to be dunked into tangy, homemade tartar sauce. The iconic Ipswich soft-shell clam is hand-harvested from the clam flats of the Great Marsh, a diverse environment of salt marshes and estuaries stretching from Cape Ann north into New Hampshire. Along this coast, you can sample a traditional New England clambake, where clams and sides of corn on the cob, mussels, lobsters, sausages, and potatoes are steamed on a layer of wet seaweed over heated stones.

Portuguese Steamed Clams

The addition of Portuguese sausage during cooking gives the clams a spicy piquancy.

Rinse the clams well until you stop seeing sand. Sort through the clams and discard any with broken or cracked shells. Tap any open clams sharply and discard them if they do not close. Your aim is to throw out clams that have died; eating them can cause food poisoning.

Fill a clean sink or large pan with cold water. Add the salt (2 tbsp/1 oz/50 g salt to 1 gal/4L water) and cornmeal and stir. Add the clams and let stand for an hour or two. Rinse again.

Put the clams in the cooking pot with 2 cups/16 fl oz/475 ml water. Add the sausage. Cover and cook for 5-10 minutes until the clams open. Transfer the clams to serving plates. Pour the clam water (liquor) through a mesh or tea strainer into a pitcher.

Serve bowls of clams with liquor in one small dish, melted butter in another. Peel off the dark membrane over the neck before dipping and eating the clams. Dip first in liquor to rinse off any remaining sand, then in the butter. Discard any clams that have not opened. Real New Englanders drink the liquor at the end of the meal.

MICHIGAN

CHERRIES IN TRAVERSE CITY

Clusters of fruit ripen in the cherry orchards around Grand Traverse Bay.

Immerse yourself in all aspects of cherry cuisine in the self-proclaimed Cherry Capital of the World.

The pastoral back roads of Leelanau Peninsula, on the west side of Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay, are surrounded by miles of cherry orchards. If you travel the route in July, when the trees are dense with fat clusters of ruby red fruit, you will come across farm stands, their wooden counters groaning from the weight of heaped baskets of just-picked, tart, Montmorency cherries, cherry-filled pies standing 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) high, and jars of chunky cherry preserves. At some of the farms you can pick your own fruit. While here, you could also visit one of more than a dozen wineries in this bucolic countryside—reminiscent of Tuscany—to sample cherry wine, before reaching Traverse City. Cherries have been an integral part of this northern Michigan city’s economy and cuisine for more than 150 years, giving rise to an industry whose roots go back to 1852, when a Presbyterian missionary planted the first orchard on nearby Old Mission Peninsula. Inventive chefs at local restaurants showcase cherries in season with such creations as whitefish in cherry sauce, cherry chicken soup, and cherry pulled pork. Locally produced cherry products fill the shelves at area shops, with cherry pies, dried cherries, cherry jams, and chocolate-covered cherries sharing shelf-space with the more unusual cherry Dijon mustard, cherry barbecue sauce, cherry salsa, cherry tea, and cherry-blueberry popcorn.

National Cherry Festival

Nearly 75 percent of the world’s tart cherries—the type used for pies, cakes, jams, jellies, and preserves—and 20 percent of the world’s sweet cherries are produced in orchards along Grand Traverse Bay, a fact celebrated with the National Cherry Festival held annually in Traverse City.

Marvel at the many foods on sale made with cherries, including specialty foods, such as cherry bratwurst and hamburgers made with added ground cherries and topped with zippy cherry mustard.

Cherry-lovers vie for top honors in the Sweet Treats Cherry Recipe Contest and compete in cherry-pie eating and cherry-pit spitting contests.

CALIFORNIA

CALIFORNIA’S ARTISAN CHEESES

A wide range of artisan cheeses from California (and the rest of the world) are on sale at the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco.

The lush farmlands of northern California provide the perfect setting for a tour of specialty cheese-makers.

California claims the greatest number of artisan cheese-producers in the U.S., but there’s one small niche north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate that is making a special name for itself. Tucked among the rolling grasslands and misty mountains of the North Bay (essentially Marin and Sonoma Counties), small farms have been producing specialty cheeses since the early 1980s. That’s when Laura Chenel, who originated creamy, sumptuous American chèvre using the milk of her beloved goats on her Sonoma farm, was discovered by chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame. Since then, artisan North Bay cheese-makers have earned national and international reputations, and their cheeses—which include soft, creamy bries, earthy California crottins, and soft, light-textured chèvre—are sold in some of the nation’s most exclusive restaurants and shops as well as in local farmers’ markets. Head out on the region’s gloriously rural, untrafficked roads to tour the farms and see how the cheeses are made. Most farms also offer cheese tastings. Along the way, you can purchase your favorites for the epitome of a gourmet picnic—and don’t forget that you are in the nation’s most celebrated wine country as well.

Cheese-makers

■ Founded in 1865, Marin French Cheese in Petaluma, Sonoma County, specializes in soft-ripening cheese, such as brie, camembert, and schloss, plus new offerings such as triple-cream and goat-milk brie.

■ The family-run Redwood Hill Farm in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, produces award-winning, small-batch goat cheeses, such as their musky crottin (only sold fresh).

■ Cowgirl Creamery at Point Reyes Station in Marin County and at Petaluma produces buttery, triple-cream Mount Tam and a slew of organic cheeses.

■ Bodega Artisan Cheese in Sonoma County produces a sour-cream-like crema, ideal for strawberry dipping, and offers tours and cheese samplings.

MEXICO

IN SEARCH OF THE HOTTEST CHILI

Long bundles of dried peppers adorn the markets in Mexico’s towns and villages.

Native to the Americas, chili pepper is a signature flavor in several of Mexico’s regional cuisines, some hotter than others.

The best place to set out on the chili trail is Mexico City, at the heart of the country, and the best way to taste chilies is in the wide variety of salsas served in the city’s taquerías, each with its own distinctive recipe for adding heat to tacos. From the capital, travel south for increasingly piquant flavors. The pickled chipotles of Puebla can be sampled in the markets, and are an essential ingredient in the cemita, a huge meat, cheese, and avocado sandwich served on a crusty sesame roll, sold in small eateries where it is the only menu item. Farther south, the seductive, smoky flavor of Oaxaca’s pasilla oaxaqueña, cured on wooden racks over fire pits, is best tasted in the regional mole negro sauce, featured in restaurants on the city’s central plaza. From here, the chili aficionado can travel to the Yucatán, where the habanero, ranking highest on the Scoville scale used to measure capsaicin, or “chili heat factor,” is used in fiery salsas. Try habanero salsa with the regional specialty, cochinita pibil (marinated roast pork). Other fresh hot chilies include the chilaca, jalepeño, and serrano. The dried versions are found most frequently in the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Chiapas. Fresh and dried chilies are stuffed to make chiles rellenos, filled with a variety of ingredients including meat, cheese, beans, and seafood.

Chiles en Nogada is the national dish of Mexico.

Chiles en Nogada

Considered by Mexicans to be the culinary emblem of their country, chiles en nogada (chilies in walnut sauce) was created at the time of Independence from Spain in the early 19th century. Its colors represent those of the Mexican flag: poblano chiles for the green, nogada—walnut cream sauce—for the white, and pomegranate seeds for the red.

The large, medium-hot, green chili poblano is roasted, seeded, peeled, and filled with chopped meat and the seasonal fruit of late summer in central Mexico—apples, pears, peaches—plus raisins, almonds, citron, and spices. It is served bathed in the nogada sauce and garnished with the seeds.

Families have their own generations-old recipes for this labor-intensive delicacy, and it is usually prepared as a group effort. It is offered in restaurants throughout the country in August and September, when all the ingredients that go into it are freshest.

Koreans traditionally cook bulgogi over a tabletop grill.

A market worker chooses a prime specimen from bins of octopus.

JAPAN

TSUKIJI MARKET SUSHI

A perfect plate of sashimi

Take a tour of Tokyo’s famous fish market and sample the freshest sushi.

Five o’clock in the morning along the Tokyo waterfront and the Tsukiji Fish Market is already at fever pitch, workers whisking seafood around in wooden handcarts and electrified ta-rays that look like futuristic golf carts. The market’s inner sanctum is a warehouse where the world’s best tuna is auctioned each morning to professional buyers under contract to the leading fishmongers and restaurants around Tokyo. A label on each fish identifies its point of origin—Somalia, Tahiti, Ireland. The action is frenzied, the auctioneer standing on a wooden box as the buyers shout their bids. Many of the tuna wind up in Tsukiji’s warren of 1,500 stalls, where around 450 types of seafood are sold on any given day, including the ingredients that go into Tokyo’s prized sushi. Most of the stalls have been family run since the 1920s, when Tsukiji was established, and many of them specialize in a particular type of seafood—tako (octopus), ika (squid), unagi (freshwater eel), hamachi (yellowtail tuna), and so on. Sushi was originally created as a way to preserve seafood in salt and rice in the era before refrigeration, and there are now hundreds of types ranging from ancient narezushi (salted, fermented fish layered with rice and left for six months before eating) to modern forms like the California roll that includes avocado and imitation crabmeat.

Wasabi and Other Condiments

Sashimi and sushi comprise many of the same seafoods. But while sashimi is generally eaten solo, sushi is always bundled together with a bite-sized portion of white rice. They also share several popular condiments, including soy sauce, wasabi (mustard), and gari (pickled ginger). Although purists declare that wasabi and soy sauce should never be mixed prior to their arrival in your mouth, even in Japan it is common to blend them into a dipping sauce that dilutes the fiery green mustard.

Wasabi is made from the thick roots of a leafy green plant called Wasabia japonica. In olden days, a sharkskin grater was used to produce the flakes that were ground into a mustard paste.

Although wasabi complements the taste of sushi and sashimi, it may also contain compounds that kill the microbes and parasites found in raw fish.

Indigenous to the Japanese archipelago, wasabi once flourished along mountain streams, but is nowadays more commonly farmed. Demand is such that Japan must now import wasabi from China, Taiwan, and even as far away as New Zealand.

CHINA

WHITE SILVER TIP TEA

Pickers select buds that are on the verge of opening.

The palest, most delicately flavored of all teas can be found in Fujian province.

The Fujian Mountains in southeast China are the Champagne of white tea regions. Tea is a great deal like wine: The terroir and the variety are as important as they are for grapes. The best teas are found in mountain regions where the tea plant is indigenous and thrives. The air is clean and the environment untouched, which is rare in modern China. The finest type of white tea is called bai hao yin zhen, or silver tip, and it comes from bushes grown on tea farms high in the mountains of Fujian. The tea is picked in the spring, when the new leaves are mature but still tightly furled in needle-like buds. Moving imperceptibly through the terraces, experienced pickers carefully pinch out the delicate green, silver-tipped buds, picking them in the early mornings just as the buds are about to open. At lunchtime everyone returns to the farm for a lunch of boiled eggs in a sugary soup. Then the tea buds are laid out on flat bamboo trays, and, talking softly, the workers sift through the buds and painstakingly remove extraneous leaves and twigs. The silver tips are laid out to dry on huge bamboo racks positioned to catch the best of the soft afternoon sun. At this time of day, roofs and terraces on the farm are covered in tea.

White Tea

All teas-white, green, and black-come from the leaves and buds of the Camellia sinensis bush. Differences in plant variety, terrain, growing conditions, and processing create the different types of tea.

Exceptionally pure and natural, white silver tips undergo the least processing of any type of tea, and retain higher levels of antioxidants.

White tea is always drunk without accompaniment-it is so light and delicate that it would be overpowered by the strong flavors of the local food. When they have finished a cup of tea, the locals often leave the silver tips in the cup and continue adding hot water to make additional cups.

TURKEY

FIG HARVEST

Plump, ripe, succulent figs can be found on sale at market and roadside stalls throughout Turkey.

Southwest Turkey has the perfect climate and soil for growing a fruit that local people regard as sacred.

At the first blush of daybreak, fig-growers gather to harvest the plump fruit grown on the fertile plains of Aydin province in southwest Turkey, the center of Turkey’s dried-fig production. The annual incir harmani (fig harvest) requires many hands, and family members and friends assemble in the coolness of the morning to collect ripened figs that have fallen to the hard-packed earth overnight. Women clad in salvar (loose trousers), their colorful headscarves a bright contrast to the smooth gray trunks of the 15- to 30-foot (4.5–9 meter) tall fig trees, spread buckets of sweet, honeyed figs on mats and racks in orchard clearings so that they can dry under the Mediterranean sun. All work halts for the midday meal, which consists of a seemingly endless procession of dishes set out on makeshift tables under the spreading branches of sun-dappled trees. A meze (appetizer) of cacik (thick yogurt and cucumber seasoned with fresh dill and garlic) is followed by çöp sis (lamb kebabs) and baba gannus (mashed eggplant dip) served with pide (Turkish flatbread). Glasses of ayran, a yogurt drink, cool the palette and provide a nice accompaniment to the incir tatlisi (walnut-stuffed dried figs) that cap off the meal.

Fig Desserts

While dried figs are often eaten in Turkey as a snack, they are more commonly used in desserts such as incir tatlisi—the dried figs are poached in syrup before being filled with walnuts and are served with cream and a sprinkling of chopped walnuts or pistachios.

Dried figs are also added to baklava, a layered pastry filled with honey and chopped pistachios or walnuts, or stewed with spices to make compotes, which are then topped with kaymak, or Turkish clotted cream, a thick, rich cream made by heating cream to evaporate some of the liquid.

Asure (wheat pudding, or the Pudding of Noah), one of the oldest and most traditional desserts in Turkey, also calls for dried figs in addition to about 15 other ingredients, including dövme (dehusked wheat), chickpeas, rice, white beans, apricots, and raisins. It is traditionally served during the month following Kurban Bayrami, the Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, and symbolizes the pudding made by Noah after the ark landed on Mount Ararat, using food left from the journey.

Workers harvest olives the old-fashioned way.

GREECE

OLIVE HARVEST

The picked olives are ready for processing.

Visit Crete during the olive harvest, and sample some of the best products in the birthplace of olive farming.

It is a cold October morning on the island of Crete. As the sun breaks through gray skies, the stillness is broken as women from the village of Kato Zakros lay nets under the trees in their local olive grove. This is the first stage of the olive harvest, an activity that takes place all over Crete and mainland Greece between now and February, depending on the variety of olive and whether it is picked unripe and green or left to ripen and turn purple or black. Crete is one of the biggest olive-growing areas in the country. Indeed, it was on this lovely island that olive cultivation is said to have originated more than 4,000 years ago. Although most harvesting is now done mechanically, using a flail, there are many places where families and villages use the traditional method—the nets are sometimes left down for weeks to allow the olives to drop naturally, but mostly nature is given a helping hand and the trees are shaken or prodded with a long stick to help them yield more fruit. Then the delicate and crucial work begins of separating the olives from the silvery green leaves without crushing the precious fruit, which is carefully piled into baskets or sacks for transportation to the local olive press, or eliotriveia, where it is transformed into the liquid gold that is olive oil. The highest-quality oil is Extra Virgin, followed by Virgin. Both come from the first pressing without any refining with hot water or chemicals. Plain olive oil is a refined oil with a little Extra Virgin or Virgin oil added to improve its flavor and color.

Greek Olives

During its most productive years, each tree produces an annual average of 132 lb (60 kg) of olives. Crete produces many varieties, including the koroneiki, throumbolia, and tsounati, which are used mainly to make olive oil.

Olive varieties from other parts of Greece are cured in brine and served as table olives. The kalamata is a large, almond-shaped black olive with a rich, fruity flavor and meatlike texture, produced in the region of Messinia in the western Peloponnese.

The round or oval konservolia is the best-known variety of table olive in Greece.

The halkidiki (or chalkidiki) is a large, pale green olive from the Halkidiki region of northern Greece. It has a peppery, slightly sharp flavor and because it is large it is often stuffed with fillings such as cheese or dried tomatoes.

The megaritiki is a small olive cultivated in the Attica region in southeastern Greece. It is dry-salted to produce a naturally wrinkled olive.

ITALY

SAN DANIELE HAM

San Daniele hams are air-dried. The quality of the air is essential to the success of the process-too warm or dry and the hams will be ruined.

Natural sea salt and the fresh mountain air of northeastern Italy contribute to the fine flavor of this cured, aged ham.

Mention the words “Italian ham,” or “prosciutto,” and the town of Parma comes instantly to mind. But there is another Italian town whose name is synonymous with a ham that, many consider, far surpasses Parma’s in texture and flavor. The town is San Daniele, in the gentle countryside of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and the ham is prosciutto di San Daniele del Friuli—a delicate, rose-pink meat with a sublimely sweet flavor. San Daniele ham undergoes the same stages of seasoning, pressing, and aging as other Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) hams, and as with those hams, only natural sea salt is used. Unusually, the pig’s trotter is included in the pressing, giving the ham its distinctive guitar shape. After pressing, the hams are aged in naturally ventilated rooms for up to 18 months to remove the saltiness. The unique flavor is attributed to the pigs themselves (they must come from one of ten designated regions) and the ideal maturing conditions offered by the combination of natural salt, humidity, and mountain air in the town itself. Positioned where the Adriatic Sea meets the Alps, it seems that San Daniele del Friuli was especially created for ham-making. Try the results for yourself in one of the town’s many prosciuttifici, or curing houses, where you can sample the ham—sliced paper thin, wrapped around grissini (crisp Italian breadsticks) or on its own with a glass of local Friuliano wine. You will be converted.

San Daniele Ham

■ Visit the Aria di Festa, San Daniele’s annual four-day ham fair held at the end of June. You can enjoy tastings, concerts, and visits to traditional prosciuttifici.

■ There are many salumerie, or delicatessens, on the town’s main square where you can buy and taste the ham. If you buy a whole ham, look for the San Daniele PDO logo (DOP in Italy).

■ La Casa del Prosciutto on the main square is a small, family-run curing house where you can see the different stages of the process; there is a café where you can try out the ham, on its own or with local cheeses.

■ Another family company, Prosciutti Coradazzi, on the outskirts of the town, offers tastings and short tours of their production center.

ITALY

BALSAMIC VINEGAR OF MODENA

Modena’s balsamic vinegar is traditionally aged for 12 years; bottles marked extravecchio are 25 years old or more.

The complex, sweet-sour flavor of balsamic vinegar features widely in the traditional cuisine of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.

Walk into almost any building in the centro storico, or historic center, of Modena in northern Italy, and your senses will be seduced by the heady aroma of the town’s most famous export, balsamic vinegar. On the top story of many a Modenese building, families still make their own vinegar, patiently waiting at least 12 years from grape to first drop of the dark, unctuous, sweet yet sour, authentic Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena (traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena). Any tour of Modena should start at its gastronomical heart—the mercato coperto, or covered market. Here you will find a wealth of local produce, ranging from wheels of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to handmade tortellini, ready to be served in chicken broth—another specialty of the town. Try Schiavone, a tiny bar in the corner of the market, for a panino (lightly toasted sandwich) filled with smoked goose breast, Parmesan shavings, and traditional balsamic vinegar, all washed down with a glass of local, Lambrusco wine. For a sit-down meal, Trattoria Ermes is hosted by the genial Ermes himself. All the traditionally Modenese dishes are freshly prepared by his wife, including scaloppine all’aceto balsamico (veal escalopes in balsamic vinegar), wild strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and the strangely delightful ice cream with—no surprise here—balsamic vinegar.

The region’s grapes are the main ingredient in balsamic vinegar.

Balsamic Vinegar

True traditional balsamic vinegar can be identified by the unique, 3.4 fl oz (100 ml), orb-shaped, glass container designed by the famous car designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro. The vinegar comes in two ages: 12-25 years old (identified by a red cap) and more than 25 years old, or extravecchio (identified by a gold cap).

A series of barrels made from different types of wood, including juniper, cherry, oak, and chestnut, each diminishing in size, hold progressively more concentrated forms of the original cooked grape must (traditionally made from local trebbiano or lambrusco grapes).

The tradition of making balsamic vinegar at home has become increasingly popular during recent years, and many couples request a set of barrels as a wedding gift—a present that will last the family a lifetime.

ITALY

PIEDMONT’S CHEESES

Cows grazing the alpine meadows of the Piedmont region produce high-quality milk for the region’s cheeses.

Tucked away in the northwest corner of Italy is a beautiful region of mountains, lakes, rolling hills, and a rich cuisine.

Located between the Alps and the Apennines, Piedmont is a land of mountain pastures, lush valleys, and vineyard-clad hillsides; of quiet mountain villages housing crumbling castles and ancient churches, and modern, industrial cities, such as the regional capital, Turin, that offer glamorous fashion and food shopping. Dining ranges from bustling trattorias and baroque-ceilinged wine bars to modern, minimalist, innovative restaurants. Any eatery worth its salt will present a remarkably varied cheeseboard providing fresh-curd or gently oozing, mold-ripened cheeses, briny, crumbly, “grating” ones, and the smooth tang of the finest blues, all produced within Piedmont and including cow’s-, goat’s-, and sheep’s-milk cheeses, and some that are a blend of all three. No fewer than six of Piedmont’s cheeses boast the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO, DOP in Italy) marque; many other cheeses are unique to a single valley or two—too scarce to boast a DOP but well worth seeking out. You might encounter them in a city deli, a wine bar, or the local market; or arm yourself with a map and meander along the valleys to remote artisan producers. Lovers of cheese should visit the biennial cheese festival in Bra, when the streets of this small town near Turin offer an endless feast for eyes, nose, and palate.

Piedmont Cheeseboard

Toma del Maccagno is an alpine cheese from the towns of Biella and Vercelli. Sold in varying degrees of maturity, it ranges from subtly mild to tangy.

Robiola di Roccaverano DOP is a small, soft, ivory-colored cheese (check that only raw goat milk has been used).

Castelmagno DOP is produced in only three communes in the province of Cuneo.

Murazzano DOP is made from Alta Langa ewe’s milk and sold soft and subtle at seven days old or mature, firm, and tangy after two months.

ITALY

ORANGES FROM MOUNT ETNA

Mount Etna’s oranges look like regular oranges on the outside, but inside they have crimson to deep-red flesh.

Eastern Sicily produces the jewel-colored blood orange, or arancia rossa di Sicilia, one of the island’s most prized fruits.

Visit Catania, in southeast Sicily, in spring and you will catch the unmistakable scent of the zagara, or orange blossom, drifting from groves that blanket the lower slopes of Mount Etna. The location is no accident as the ash spewed out by Europe’s highest active volcano makes the best fertilizer on earth. Pistachio, lemon, and peach trees also mix with vines here, but it is the thousands of orange trees, with their jewel-like fruit and glossy leaves, that have a special story, for the naturally rich soil, changes in temperature (hot days and cold nights), and quality of light at the mountain’s base have combined to create one of nature’s greatest miracles: the blood orange, or arancia rossa, characterized by a deep-red, juicy flesh and a raspberry-sweet taste. The oranges have a higher-than-average vitamin C content, while their coloring comes from an antioxidant called anthocyanin, which also has remarkable health-giving properties. The arancia rossa comes in three main types: the Sanguinello is a full-blood orange with red skin and flesh, and is sweet and tender; the Moro, the most acidic, is small and has deep crimson flesh; and the Tarocco has orange skin and slightly red flesh. Seedless, and with the sweetest flavor, the Tarocco is said to have the highest vitamin C content of any orange in the world and is Sicily’s most popular table orange. Try the oranges the Sicilian way, in a salad with fennel and olives, or enjoy their exquisite flavor in a health-packed juice that is guaranteed to revive even the most tired of taste buds.

Sicilian Orange Salad ’Nzalata d’Aranci

This salad is sometimes made without the olives, sometimes with a sliced onion instead of fennel, and sometimes very simply with just oranges and a scattering of pepper, oil, and parsley.

Peel the oranges, being careful to remove all of the pith. Save any juice and pour into a large, shallow serving bowl. Slice the oranges and arrange in overlapping circles in the bowl; pour over any more juice. Slice the fennel very thinly and scatter it over the oranges. Drizzle with olive oil, season well with black pepper and salt, and garnish with olives.

GERMANY

WESTPHALIAN PUMPERNICKEL

Loaves of pumpernickel are displayed with other local breads.

Pumpernickel originated in northwest Germany, a land of ancient forests and medieval towns.

The origins of the name “pumpernickel” may be debated, but no one can argue with the delicious taste and texture of this typical Westphalian sourdough bread. Westphalia, part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is a region of small towns with half-timbered houses and moated castles nestling among lush pastures and dark woods. From Münster, a bustling university town in the north of the region, eastwards to the town of Detmold in the Teutoburger forest, local foods are highly valued. Westphalian pumpernickel is made the same way it has been for centuries—baked slowly in a steam-filled oven at around 212–230°F (100–110°C) for 24 hours, giving the crustless bread its characteristic sweetness, dark color, and texture. No sweeteners or coloring agents are added. Germany’s oldest pumpernickel bakery, Haverlands, founded in 1570 in the medieval city of Soest, is still in business, selling pumpernickel that has been made in the same way for twelve generations—using only rye, water, and a slice of old pumpernickel to start the fermentation. The process can be seen at the Bread Museum, part of the Westfalen Culinarium in the town of Nieheim (south of Detmold). Pumpernickel is best eaten plain with a little butter, but it goes well with almost any cheese—layered sandwiches with cream cheese are a German staple. The sweet, crustless bread is even used in desserts, soaked in kirsch and topped with cherry compote and whipped cream.

Westphalian Treats

■ Westphalian ham is also referred to as Knochenschinken (bone ham) because it is produced with the bone left in. The meat is dry-cured, then smoked. The best-quality hams come from acorn-fattened pigs.

■ Altbier (old beer), a type of ale, is the traditional beer of Westphalia and is still produced at the Pinkus Müller brewery in Münster, Germany’s oldest certified organic brewery. The Westfalen Culinarium’s Museum of Beer and Schnapps produces bock beer (a strong, dark, malty beer) and holds brewing classes.

■ Try Tecklenburger Hosenknopf, which is a soft, camembert-like goat cheese, or Nieheimer, a sour-milk cheese flavored with caraway, produced at the Westfalen Culinarium’s Cheese Museum.

SCOTLAND

WILD SCOTLAND

Fresh salmon from one of Scotland’s many famous rivers Is a regular on many menus.

A surfeit of produce from the country’s rivers, lochs, moors, forests, and coastline has given rise to a distinctive cuisine.

At times, the mountains and moors of Scotland can seem the wildest and most desolate places on Earth—if you cross Rannoch Moor when the fall mists lie suffocatingly low, or when rain drives like shards of glass and the purple tops of the mountains merge seamlessly into an unforgiving sky; but on a bright, breezy day in early summer, sun-lit lochs form a glassy contrast to sandy bays, and waves of grass give way to still stretches of purple heather. Small wonder that the flavors of foraged foods, fish, seafood, and game also range from the soft and gentle to the wild and near-savage. Scottish game, both furred and feathered, is justly famous, as are its wild mushrooms and berries, and its trout, salmon, and seafood. Visitors can go wild camping, hiking, and wildlife spotting; or foraging, fishing, and shooting; or follow a route that takes in country inns, city restaurants, or Highland hotels adept at presenting game, fish, and forage dishes in traditional or novel combinations. There can be no better way to feel closer to, and curiously content with, wild nature after a day’s hike through a wet wilderness than by relaxing beside a welcoming log fire followed by a warming meal composed of produce that carries the taste of heather, bracken, and brine.

Scotland’s Wild Larder

The most popular and delicious fungi are the chanterelles and ceps of autumn.

Langoustines caught In West Coast lochs have a fresh, sweet flavor and firm, juicy texture. They are best from April through November. Scotland’s native oysters are meatier and pricier than their Atlantic cousins. They are available when there is an “r” in the name of the month.

Venison may be red deer, roe, fallow, or Sika. Flavor and tenderness vary according to source, age, sex, and length of hanging; availability varies within the shooting season.

Scotland offers a range of game birds. Whether your preference is for the milder pheasant and partridge or gamier grouse, check that the source is wild, not farmed.

Montana’s Madison River combines dramatic scenery and world-renowned trout fishing.

FRANCE

FLAVORS OF THE SEA

Muscadet, a fruity, but dry, white wine is the popular choice of drink with a plate of fresh oysters along the coast of Brittany.

Along Brittany’s Atlantic coast, intricately scalloped with bays, inlets, and islands, the oyster reigns supreme.

The cold French coastal waters from the city of Brest south to the Guérande salt flats near the resort of La Baule-Escoublac yield a remarkable variety of oysters, and one of the best places to sample them is around the Golfe du Morbihan. South of the city of Vannes, the Route de l’Huître (Oyster Trail) begins at the town of Sarzeau and runs along the Rhuys peninsula to the Port-Navalo headland. Scanning the island-studded gulf waters, you can see the slanted posts that mark 1,200 acres (485 hectares) of oyster beds, now farmed, where natural oyster banks once thrived. The oysters on local menus are usually listed simply as huîtres du golfe, but occasionally huîtres boudeuse (“sulky” oysters) are available. Gathered after three to five years, these small, plump oysters have a flavor that is rich with aromas of the sea. The gulf is also home to Belon oysters. These flat, round mollusks with firm meat and a nutty finish are moved from deep-water nurseries in Quiberon Bay to oyster beds in the Belon River estuary near the city of Pont-Aven, where saltwater flows in with the tide and the Belons take on their distinctive flavor. Farther down the coast, paludiers (salt-rakers) can be seen on Guérande’s salt flats on warm summer days, harvesting fleur de sel by skimming a fine crust of crystals off the base layer of coarser gray sea salt. Fleur de sel is a table salt and adds a final touch to a meal, while the sea salt lying below it is the chef’s choice for cooking.

Other Breton Fare

■ Try a hot crepe or a buckwheat galette artfully folded around a savory filling of Breton ham. And, just as the locals do, sip a bowl of refreshing, slightly alcoholic cider.

■ Watch for posters in harbor stores and bars announcing a Fest Noz—a local music session that may include local foods as well–and stop in for a bracing chouchen, Breton mead made with honey and yeast.

■ Near Vannes, stop in the city of Theix at the brewery, Brasserie Mor Braz, for a sample of beer made with seawater—lending a hint of marine aroma.

■ Sharpen your sweet tooth with salted-butter carmels (caramels) or a niniche (a long, thin caramel lollipop) from Quiberon.

FRANCE

BEST BAGUETTE IN PARIS

Paris abounds with traditional boulangeries, where you can buy baguettes, croissants, and a variety of pastries.

Parisian bakers compete to produce the crustiest, softest, most delicious baguette of the year.

As iconic as a black beret or the Eiffel Tower in evoking French culture, the baguette (literally, a wand), has been a Parisian staple since the 1920s. Each baker uses the simplest ingredients: flour, salt, and water mixed with natural leavening, but the way in which he or she gently kneads the dough and the time the loaves spend in the traditional wood-fired oven are closely guarded secrets. It is this individuality in approach that results in 12 judges being shut away in a room to sniff, prod, taste, and chew samples of 140 loaves in a blind tasting to find the Best Baguette in Paris. The winning baker is awarded a cash prize and a 12-month contract to provide bread for the president’s table at the Élysée Palace. No machine-mixed, pre-frozen, or underbaked loaves need apply. The prize is open to all Paris bakers who produce additive-free baguettes made by hand, and competition is stiff. As you buy a loaf in one of Paris’s many boulangeries (bakeries), you be the judge: Is the 27-inch (70 centimeter) long, golden crust blister-free? Are the slashes across the top of the loaf evenly and harmoniously spaced? Then break off an end and catch the aroma of wheat with a hint of hazelnuts. And before you bite, take a moment to admire the honeycombed crumbs, plump and pearly, in your hand.

Baguettes and Bakers

■ 2009 Best Baguette winner is Franck Tombarel of Le Grenier de Félix in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

■ In mid-May, don’t miss the Fête du Pain (bread festival), which takes place in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Bakers demonstrate their craft, and competitors shape their entries in the master baguette competition. There are hands-on workshops for children.

■ Not all bakers make baguettes. The famed Poilâne bakery, with shops in the 6th and 15th arrondissements (and one in London’s Belgravia), is best known for its sourdough boule, a round, crusty loaf.

■ Bread-history lovers should visit Du Pain et Des Idées, master baker Christophe Vasseur’s corner shop at 34 rue Yves Toudic in the 10th arrondissement, which is full of copper molds and antique baking tools. The fancifully painted ceiling is a listed historic monument.

The display within a traditional French fromagerie can only hint at the wealth of variety of the country’s regional cheeses.

SPAIN

LA MANCHA’S SAFFRON HARVEST

The saffron harvest is dependent on the climate. It begins as soon as the first flowers emerge from the earth and lasts up to ten days.

An ancient Spanish tradition, the timing of the saffron harvest in La Mancha is crucial.

It is a late-October morning outside the town of Almagro in Castile-La Mancha, central Spain. As the first streaks of light appear on the horizon, time is running out for the workers bending to pick the purple crocus flowers that blanket the fields here for just two weeks each year. This is the annual saffron harvest, and each six-petaled flower must be picked before it opens—and before sunrise—so that the heat does not dry out its precious contents. For inside each bloom lie three delicate, blood-red stigmas that, when dried, produce the sweetly pungent spice that is saffron, or azafrán—the defining ingredient of Spain’s classic paella, amongst other dishes. The ten-day harvest can be seen in many nearby villages, such as Barrax, San Pedro, and Consuegra. It also takes place in the northeastern province of Aragon. But it is the windmill-dotted region of La Mancha, the fabled land of Don Quixote, that is said to produce the very best saffron, with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) classification to prove it. Those fortunate enough to time a visit well might take part in the harvest—some tour operators can arrange this. Then join generations of families for the monda, in which the stigmas are stripped from the petals before being dried in the oven. And, best of all, savor the spice itself in exquisite, saffron-infused fish and seafood dishes, paella, and other delicacies from the local cuisine.

Saffron Facts

■ More than 60,000 flowers need to be harvested to produce 1 lb (450 grams) of dry saffron. It is one of the most expensive spices in the world.

■ Saffron powder is often adulterated with the addition of turmeric. Buy threads instead—the redder the better.

■ Stored in a cool place, in an airtight container, saffron threads will keep for as long as two to three years.

■ To use saffron, steep a few threads in hot water for at least 20 minutes, then use the soaked threads and liquid in your recipe.

SPAIN

JAMÓN IBÉRICO

Rows of ibérico hams hang alongside other traditional, regional cured foods in a typical Spanish charcutería.

Lovers of this revered ham will find some of the country’s finest producers in the southwestern regions of Spain.

You see them in every traditional bar and restaurant in Spain—haunches of ham hanging from the ceiling, confirming their status as the nation’s favorite snack food. In Spain, ham, or jamón, is an integral part of life and the choice of varieties can seem overwhelming. But for most food lovers there is only one contender: jamón ibérico, the finest and most aristocratic of them all. Characterized by its rich, red flesh marbled with translucent fat, jamón ibérico has an earthy, nutty flavor that is the by-product of the black-footed Iberian pig’s diet of plump acorns, or bellotas. It is produced in many parts of Spain, but the best is said to come from the regions of Extremadura and Andalusia, where, alongside buttercup-strewn fields and olive groves, specially maintained forests of holm oak and cork shed the acorns that are the pigs’ favorite food. The montanera, or fattening-up period, lasts for about four months. The hams are seasoned and cured by traditional methods, then aged for nine to 36 months depending on the quality of the ham, producing a distinctly flavored meat that is rich in monounsaturated fat. To find jamón ibérico at its source, visit the tiny village of Montánchez in Extremadura. Explore the narrow alleyways with their many charcuterías (delicatessens), where you can sample this crown jewel of hams—thinly sliced from a tabla (board)—with the local pitarra wine or a glass of chilled sherry.

Ham Varieties

Spain’s acclaimed ham accounts for only around six percent of the country’s ham production and is made according to strict Protected Designation of Origin (PDO, DOC in Spain) regulations. It is always made from the ibérico pig, but there are several varieties.

The three main types, defined according to the pig’s diet, and in ascending order of quality (though all are excellent), are: jamón ibérico de pienso (fed on grain only), jamón ibérico de recebo (fed on acorns and grains), and jamón ibérico de bellota (fed only on acorns). Bellota is the finest. Anything sold as paletilla comes from the foreleg and is therefore not strictly ham, though it has a good flavor.

If you are cutting from a whole ham, slice as thinly as possible and do so just before serving to retain the moisture.

ETHIOPIA

THE HOME OF COFFEE

Coffee bushes produce berries that are bright red when ripe. In the center of each berry is a pair of blue-green beans.

Coffee has been grown in the highland forests of southwest Ethiopia for at least a thousand years.

The ancient province of Kaffa in southwest Ethiopia is the proud birthplace and namesake of coffee. Legend has it that a young boy, Kaldi, was alerted to the energizing properties of coffee beans when his goats started to leap and dance after eating them. A road trip to a coffee plantation in this densely forested area provides a fascinating insight into the origins of the bean loved all over the world. Much of the area’s coffee is grown in remote forest plantations, the bushes shaded by fine, tall trees alive with brightly colored birds and black-and-white colobus monkeys. Plantations also grow papaya, ginger, cardamom, and mango. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is central to daily life on the plantations and around the country. The person conducting the ceremony, often a young woman, roasts the green beans over a charcoal burner and then grinds them by hand, adding her own choice of spices. She then brews the coffee in a long-necked clay pot, or jebena. Popcorn and roasted barley are the traditional accompaniments, and sweet grasses and flowers are scattered on the floor. It is polite to drink at least three cups, which will be small but strong.

Ethiopian Dishes

■ Injera—a large fermented pancake with a distinctively sour taste that is used as a shared plate—is the staple food.

■ Doro wat is a rich chicken stew made with hard-boiled eggs and sweet onions caramelized in butter for several hours. It is served on special occasions.

■ Warming, substantial, and served in a clay pot, shiro—ground chickpea sauce with garlic, tomatoes, and rosemary—is everyday food for millions and no less delicious for that.

■ Beef is popular in a spicy or mild stew (kai or alicha wat); fried in bite-sized pieces with chili and onions (tibs); or as ground fillet steak (kitfo) with spiced butter and sharp white cheese.

RÉUNION/MADAGASCAR

VANILLA

Following the harvest, vanilla pods are dried in the sun for three to four weeks. They are then sorted into different grades according to size and quality.

In 1841, a 12-year-old slave boy single-handedly discovered how to make vanilla available to the world.

The boy was one Edmond Albius, and he had perfected a simple way to artificially pollinate vanilla flowers on the tropical island of Réunion. This made commercial cultivation possible for the first time and spurred a vanilla boom on the islands of the western Indian Ocean. More than 160 years later, vanilla is a culinary icon (and major export earner) in Réunion, Madagascar, and the Comoros archipelago. The aromatic plant with thin, dark pods is now also attracting tourists as vanilla plantations have thrown open their gates to curious visitors. “The temperature and humidity of these islands are ideal for growing vanilla,” says François Mayer, manager of Réunion’s Coopérative de Vanille. “Réunion doesn’t produce an awful lot of vanilla compared to places like Madagascar and the Comoros, but we like to think that we grow the best. And the savoir faire, the know-how, comes from Réunion and spread from here to the rest of the world.” At the Coopérative de Vanille, a working plantation near the village of Bras-Panon on Réunion, you can see historical exhibits and vanilla-processing demonstrations. While most of the vanilla produced on these islands is exported to Europe, the islanders do keep some for themselves. Among typical dishes that you come across in Réunion’s Creole restaurants are chicken or duck à la vanille, as well as incredibly tasty vanilla ice cream, crepes, and rum punch.

Vanilla Sugar

This vanilla-spiked sugar adds a hit of vanilla to all your recipes. It is delicious sprinkled on strawberries or your morning porridge.

Pour the sugar into an airtight cannister. Using a sharp knife, slice each pod in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and put them into the sugar. Stir to mix. Poke the pods into the sugar, making sure they are completely covered, and seal the cannister.

After two days, the sugar will take on a vanilla scent and flavor. Use as you would regular sugar.

Vanilla sugar keeps for months. As you use it up, top up with more sugar until the beans lose their scent.