Monday, Feb. 14, 2005
Spicing Up Your Winter Travel
By Alice Feiring
Learn Local Cooking Traditions in Morocco
If you crave a walk on the exotic side and want to learn some ancient cooking techniques as well, "A Feast for the Senses" in Morocco might be the trip for you. It's run by food enthusiast and entrepreneur Peggy Markel, who started Culinary Adventures in 1992. Her small outfit specializes in unique journeys that promise to immerse participants in local cooking traditions. So don't expect slickly trained chefs. Instead Markel prefers local cooks who can impart techniques that have been passed through generations.
Markel's Moroccan excursion lasts about 10 days (March 19 to 28; $3,895 to $4,195 a person), and there is plenty of sightseeing in between the grinding and stewing. She tends to attract a small (no more than 10 people) but inquisitive group aged in the mid-40s and older, all bound by a love of adventure and traditional foods.
Morocco is a relatively new destination for Markel, who had been limited to cooking tours of Italy. The trip adds a range of new flavors to her palette. The northern African cuisine is known for its fragrance and spice. Cumin, preserved lemons, orange-blossom water and slow-baked foods dominate. Home base is mostly at the Jnane Tamsna, a lushly appointed boutique guesthouse with organic gardens created by an American ethnobotanist and a designer who are friends of Markel's. This 17-room, six-acre estate is smack in the middle of date palms in the heart of the Palmeraie Oasis near the city of Marrakech. There is no restaurant, but there is a resident chef, and Bajia is your teacher. By the time you leave, you will never again make couscous from a box but will have learned to roll it (do not let it clump) sensually in your fingers. Your harissa (a fiery blend of cumin, garlic and red chilis) will be spiced perfectly, and cooking up sumptuous masterpieces in a peaked clay tagine will be your new dinner-party staple.
But you don't travel across the world to stay cooped up in a kitchen all day. While the kitchen experience is germane (mornings or afternoons are centered on cooking your lunch or dinner), Markel has built in plenty of activities and road trips to round out the journey. After a few days of acclimation, there are new restaurants and teahouses in Marrakech to experience, plus gentle hikes in the Atlas Mountains, nights sleeping in the casbah and visits to the aromatherapy garden of Jalil Belkamel in the Ourika Valley. One of the most fascinating afternoons is spent in the village of Fouloust, where the argan tree, prized for its oil, is indigenous. Village women show how they crack the argan nuts in the traditional way between stones. After a lunch of grilled fish, hop on the back of a camel for a romp on a deserted beach.
This sort of roughing it will probably get you in the mood for a glass of wine or two. Wine production is on the upswing here. Much of it is based on the grapes of southern France, and they are full of simple but sunbaked fruit flavors. Markel makes sure there's plenty of opportunity for tasting.
And there is also time for yourself. Guides are available (should you want one) to ensure that you don't get lost in the suq; they can direct you to the best bargains in Moroccan tiles or fabrics. Always seeking to improve her offerings, Markel tells me that this year she is adding an optional three-day literary salon at Jnane Tamsna. New York Times writer Alan Riding will be there, as well as other authors. Bookworms who like to explore a new culture should start booking now.
Balmy Breezes and A Pinot Noir Fest
Season swapping in New Zealand is an ideal way to spend a winter vacation. In December things are just beginning to heat up here, offering a hospitable climate to enjoy soothing air and a wonderful Pinot Noir festival.
Now in its fourth year, the Central Otago Pinot Noir celebration (pinot celebration.co.nz) is staged in the South Island town of Queenstown in Central Otago, one of New Zealand's fastest-growing regions for the Pinot Noir grape. Modeled after an established Pinot Noir festival held in the summer in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, New Zealand's celebration is still in its early years and is brimming with innocence and enthusiasm.
Be prepared for two packed days starting on the morning of Friday, Jan. 28, and ending sometime in the wee hours on Sunday as Saturday night's gala grand dinner winds down. The days offer ample opportunity for tasting wines from the 42 Central Otago wineries as well as those from some international guests, which this year include the British wine writer Jancis Robinson and some famous Burgundy producers. Many of the local bottles are quite rare and never make it out of the area, unless they are packed home in a suitcase. There are also winery visits, intense debates about farming and winemaking and a chance for the best chefs in New Zealand to tempt palates too.
A few words of advice. For starters, you're on your own for lodging, but the options are pretty spiffy. Matakauri Lodge is the tony spot of the moment, and it's located just outside town. It offers packages that include meals. Another fine option is the Dairy Private Hotel-- luxury smack in the middle of town but with a great right-at-home feel.
Most important, book early. The instant you make up your mind to attend the festival, start booking the air travel and accommodations. The event is limited to 240 people and usually sells out by the end of December. Even with the new direct air service from Los Angeles, this is a long way to travel, and you'll want to stay for more than a weekend. Besides great food and Pinot Noir, Central Otago is filled with worthy inns, spas, water sports and top-notch fly-fishing. So come prepared to stay a while. And once you arrive, arm yourself with tips from the locals who will befriend you over the weekend. One to get you started: don't miss a chance to grab breakfast at Joe's Garage in Queenstown.
Looking for Truffle?
Try a Visit to Italy
For many foodies, white truffles might as well be gold. These clumps of fungal fruit grow in the damp crevasses beneath oak trees in only a few places on earth. They are extremely rare and cannot be cultivated. They also stir the hearts of many chefs and can cost a small fortune to purvey. If you want to see for yourself the land of the truffle hunter, then take a plane to the Italian region of Piedmont in the Langhe hills. Alba, a two-hour drive north from Milan, is considered the spiritual city of the treasure, and prime truffle time spans from November to Christmas.
This region isn't the only great truffle turf--white truffles can be found in Croatia's Istria region too. But the Langhe hills have it over Istria in one major respect: they're home to the Nebbiolo grape, which produces some of the best wines to complement your truffles. These red and noble Barolos and Barbarescos match beautifully with the musky truffle. This is a pleasant trip any time of year, but the late fall and early winter are the only times you can experience this gustatory extravagance. Even if you have never eaten a truffle, don't be intimidated. Everyone has a first time. Why not make yours while on vacation in these vineyard-laced hills?
White truffles are foraged by truffle hunters, unearthed by their expensive dogs in the dark predawn hours. By early December the truffles are still in high season. You will see the lovely lumps on the city's main drag, Vittoria Emmanuel, where cheese-shop windows display truffles the way that Harry Winston's shows off jewels--and the truffles are almost as expensive. You probably won't be buying any to take home because they get moldy rather fast. But you are here to eat as many as possible, and Alba is a good first stop.
A convenient place to stay is the Hotel Savona. Though Spartan, it's in the thick of the city. Build up your appetite on Saturday morning walking through the street market that snakes through the town center. Here you will find everything from suits and shoes and leather to sexy wool underwear. While in Alba, you will want to tuck into the most popular wine bar, VinCafe, for lunch or late-afternoon coffee or wine. For a casual truffle dinner, I'm fond of La Liberia, which serves the homey food of the region and is one of the few places in the entire region where you can order a salad as well as typical risotto Piedmontese with a blanket of truffle shavings.
Along the road from Alba to Asti, a must stop is Elena Rovera's organic cooperative, Cascina del Cornale, for lunch or dinner at the restaurant and take-home goodies in the store. The restaurant serves up flavorful cuisine, mostly to locals but also to a few intense food hounds who have somehow heard of Rovera. Everything served is grown, produced or foraged (as with the truffles) by the members of her cooperative. Rovera is also mother hen to many local organic-wine producers who are not well known but top-notch. Ask her to set up some visits for you.
If the need for a spa calls, head to the Hotel Relais San Maurizio in San Stefano Belbo. It will take 25 minutes from Alba. This luxely transformed old monastery in the middle of vineyards has crisp linen sheets, a Caudalie of Bordeaux, France, Vinotherapie Spa and one of the finest restaurants in the area. Da Guido recently moved into the hotel's subterranean quarters--renovated, vaulted-ceiling wine cellars--from its previous home in Asti. The cooking is elegant in its simplicity. Perfectly memorable were the chunks of cardoons (a close cousin of the artichoke) punctuating a puddle of potent, artery-clogging fonduta, and the dish is covered with, you guessed it, shavings of truffles.
Biking Through The Bush in Style
If you're going to eat your way through your vacation, you may as well get some exercise too. Since 1966, Butterfield & Robinson has been hauling bicycle enthusiasts around the globe. The company made its name in Burgundy, France, and has expanded to include two dozen countries. What's more, it does it in luxury, creating trips that are cushier than a padded bicycle seat. Its South African excursion is a great escape from the winter blues in the U.S. South Africa's summer is our winter, and temperatures in March are about 77DEG for the highs and 57DEG for the lows--perfect for biking.
It's also the perfect time for the prewine harvest, when produce is peaking. You'll discover that South Africa's chefs have the freshest of raw materials to play with. And you might even lose a couple of pounds, since you'll be able to bike from 14 to 50 miles a day.
The tour, which lasts 10 days, starts in Cape Town, just outside of the Stellenbosch, South Africa's most famed wine-producing area. You'll be biking through some of the most beautiful viticultural landscapes in the world. Wines to look for are Pinotage (an odd cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, a South African original) and Chenin Blanc. The area produces excellent Sauvignon Blancs as well. And the wine flavors line up beautifully with the fragrant cuisine.
Some of the imaginative food you'll get to experience? How about double-baked beetroot and rocket souffle, springbok loin in balsamic broth with curried gnocchi, orange-glazed ostrich filet with sweet-corn and basil pancakes or bobotie (a curried meat and custard dish)? Or maybe you're hankering for karroo lamb and rose-petal ice cream.
The accommodations aren't bad either. Lodging is either Relais & Chateaux or equivalent. That includes the safari nights in the bush, where elephant and giraffe sightings are common. Yes, even in the bush there are modern conveniences to comfort you on the darkest nights, with wild and fascinating animals howling in the very near distance.
Blessed Are The Burgundy
Winemakers
For the Burgundy fanatic--and I admit to being one--there is no wrong time to visit the object of our affection, even January, when most normal people are dreaming about running around scantily clad on a warm, sunny beach. But for two days beginning Jan. 29, 2005, the St. Vincent Tournante, a 61-year-old wine festival, will take over the city of Beaune, just two hours or so from Paris by train. Expect chilly temps (in the low 40s) and wet weather, but the event is sure to be a slice of sweet local wine culture in one of the most exalted wine lands in the world.
I've been to weekend wine festivities in Beaune, and the town knows how to throw a party. St. Vincent is the patron saint of the grape harvest, and several thousand people--locals and international guests--are expected to fete him and put in a good word for the 2005 vintage.
The event begins with a 7 a.m. procession, followed by a music-rich Mass and a lunch banquet that should stretch on to dinner. The cost of the multi-course, multiwine meal is $194. (Get your ticket and a rundown of complete weekend events from the Beaune Tourist Board). On Saturday and Sunday the streets will be filled with performers and musicians and several major tastings where you can sample from many of the vineyards in the beautiful Cote de Beaune. This is the time you can finally get to know the taste differences between Burgundy vineyards.
Make sure to save a day for tooling about the town, which is small enough to walk and large enough to surprise. You'll want to visit the Hotel de Dieu with its stunning multicolor-tile peaked roofs. Now a museum, it is filled with nice details of its former incarnation as a medieval hospital. Housed inside is The Last Judgment, an extraordinary painting in polyptych by Flemish painter Roger van der Weyden.
On the Sunny Side
So you want a good old-fashioned hot vacation? Here are a couple of spots that can fill the basic need for midwinter pampering in all ways solar, culinary and vinous
SOUTHERN CAL
In San Diego, you can indulgently veg out at the Lodge at Torrey Pines (www. lodgetorreypines.com) Book in January, and reserve one of your days to tag along on a day trip offered by Nick Burns, wine director of nearby Arterra restaurant (Bradley Ogden's splashy restaurant ensconced in the San Diego Marriott Del Mar). This "Arterra Wine of the Earth" is a voyage to Baja wineries in the Guadalupe Valley. The day includes winery visits, lunch at a winery, a walk through warm vineyards, then a return to the hotel that evening for a four-course meal paired with the best wines of the area. Should you prefer, you can take advantage of the package deal at the Marriott: two nights, $675 for two, plus of course the Arterra dinner. Call 1-858-369-6032 for more information.
ISLAND PARADISE
If you've avoided island R. & R. because of a reputation for bad food and overpriced wines, there is salvation at Sandy Lane, the place in Barbados that made news as the location of Tiger Woods' wedding. Sandy Lane has the obligatory brilliant beach, spa, golf course, tennis courts and all the trimmings, but besides being a slice of paradise, it has a handful of interesting, on-premises restaurants and one of the few really decent, not totally outrageously priced beach- resort wine lists, as a recent spotting of the fine Picq Petit Chablis for about $50 confirms. From $700 a night. www.sandylane.com