Posted by Ed Levine, May 19, 2010 at 2:00 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
Street food can just mean hot dogs or shawarma in many cities, but in Portland, Oregon, sidewalk chefs are reinventing this formerly humble food genre as we speak (or eat, as the case may be). Name a food and it's probably being hawked from a cart, truck, trailer, or even bike. While other cities have onerous laws preventing vendors from securing a permit and setting up at a specific location on a regular basis, Portland is all about the street food culture. There are "pods" all over the city, essentially food courts in parking lots and other open spaces, just devoted to street food. Many of them stay there for regular hours, just like restaurants, so you don't have to chase them around the city.
While I've experienced plenty of delicious fine dining in Portland (like Le Pigeon) I can't help but get excited about the bustling street food scene. There are far too many to pick from, but here are five that really caught my eye. The food is inspired, cheap, and just fun. Obviously there are many more worth noting—chime in with your favorites.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 12, 2010 at 2:00 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
In my hometown of New York City, you can find good eats from just about every nation under the sun. And in the great city of London, that's just as true. While British food has come a long way in recent years—from gastropubs to molecular gastronomy—London is a cosmopolitan city of astonishing cultural breadth, and many of its real culinary treasures come from the rich cuisines of all corners of the globe. From hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese to high-end Italian, cheap Turkish to haute Thai, there's no country you can't visit—with just your Oyster Card and a sense of adventure.
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Posted by Ed Levine, May 5, 2010 at 2:00 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
I recently flew to Houston with my wife, Vicky, to do some exploratory eating around the city for our upcoming Serious Eats book. In a city as large as Houston, it's tough to be comprehensive, so for our purposes, I'm narrowing it down to 6 places there that I really love and think that all serious eaters should try.
Shipley's Do-Nuts (on Ella Boulevard)
[Photograph: ultrakickgirl on Flickr]
The glazed doughnuts are made to order at this particular location and this one only. No one seems to know why. The first one I tried was so hot I burned my mouth and lips on it. Once they recovered, I ate another doughnut, and it was worth every bit of the third-degree burns that accompanied the first. These are doughnuts from God. 3410 Ella Boulevard, Houston TX 77018; shipleydonuts.ws
Pierson & Co. BBQ
[Photograph: Robb Walsh]
East Texas African-American barbecue ribs by way of southwest Louisiana. The ribs at Pierson's are meaty and porky with just enough chew and just enough fat. And the beef links are juicy crazy good, fat-oozing, delicious, and not that spicy. Oh, and did I mention mashed potato salad? Brilliant invention — smooth and creamy. 5110 West T. C. Jester, Houston TX; 713-683-6997; piersonandcompanybbq.com
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 28, 2010 at 2:00 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
[Photograph: Adriano Agulló on Flickr]
Barcelona, on the Mediterranean Coast in northeast Spain, is one of Europe's most-visited cities (fourth, after London, Paris, and Rome). And for good reason. With world-class museums, stunning architecture, a comfortable year-round climate, and a welcoming, laid-back atmosphere, what's not to love? And while Barcelona offers all of these fine qualities, for serious eaters it may just be synonymous with one thing: La Boqueria.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 21, 2010 at 2:00 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
When you're out and about all day sightseeing, sometimes you want a quick meal (or should I say Kwik Meal?). Kwik Meal is one of the serious eaters' favorite on-the-go food-cart stops. [Photograph: Adam Kuban]
Last week we went to Europe with our Tasting Tour, taking a spin of Parisian baked goods. This week, we're on more familiar territory —New York City, where Serious Eats is based. Thanks to all the lively discussion in Serious Eats New York Talk, we have a pretty good idea of what visitors to our fair city want to know. So we're going to give you our guide to eating on the go here. But first ...
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 14, 2010 at 4:45 PM
This post is part of our Tasting Tour series, which is brought to you by Continental Airlines.
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
Any food lover traveling to Paris could easily spend weeks, months, or years gobbling up all the serious eats the City of Lights has to offer. From the brasseries, boulangeries, the bistros, and beyond, it's almost too much to take in. So we decided to turn to our friend David Lebovitz to get a handle on a manageable bite of the France's capital city — its baked goods.
David spent almost 13 years in the pastry department of Chez Panisse, the legendary Berkeley, California, restaurant founded by Alice Waters, and then wrote a number of books covering dessert, chocolate, and life in Paris, where he has been living since 2002. We couldn't imagine a better source to lead us on a virtual tour, particularly since he leads actual gastronomic tours of the city.
"Most people visiting Paris have a checklist of things they want to try," David says, and among the must-eats are croissants, macarons, and madeleines, and the various breads found in the city's boulangeries.
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