So you’re thinking about visiting Iceland — for the starkly beautiful landscapes, a glimpse at the Northern Lights, or to learn more about the Viking sagas. But Iceland as a culinary destination? Well, you should visit Iceland for all of the reasons above, including some of the freshest and best food you’ll ever eat. Brown break baked in a geothermal vent! (Cafe at Fontana.) You can even get ice cream in Iceland! (Gelato from Valdis) Some foods consumed traditionally in Icela

By now, some of you might have divined that I enjoy cooking. The truth is, I just enjoy EATING, and my desire to eat every recipe I read is one reason I like to cook — the other being I love to feed people. I think I’m a decent home chef, but I don’t have much patience for technique or foods that take a long time  or multiple steps to prepare. If there’s a faster way to make Hollandaise or risotto, I’ll find it (and there is, btw). Luckily, my taste lends itself to my cooking

Oysters taste like the water they were grown in — more specifically, the food they grew up eating. If you were to apply this as a metaphor to people, I would probably taste like a Rudy’s hot Italian sub and an Iron City beer. My palate has become slightly more refined and my nutritional habits have evolved, but Rudy’s is still the standard by which I measure subs.  And now I have a standard by which to measure oysters. The Pacific Northwest has always spoiled me for seafood,

Although I’ve lived in Southern California for almost 30 years,  the Pacific Northwest — particularly Seattle and more specifically, Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula — has a hold on me I can’t explain.  I think it tugs at my native Pennsylvanian sense memory — it’s verdant with cedar, fir, rhododendron; brisk from breaking water and crisp winter air.  It gives me a reason to wear wool and eat soups.  It’s a climate that breeds characters that I feel at home with — people tha