Exploring Southeast Connecticut’s Culinary Scene

If there’s one known tourist destination in the state of Connecticut, it’s the coastal town of Mystic. Whether for the seaport museum commemorating its maritime heritage, the aquarium’s sea lions and beluga whales, or the charming downtown, dense with boutiques and anchored by a bascule bridge that is celebrating its 100th anniversary, about 1.5 million…

I Collect Souvenir Spoons. I Can Explain.

In the United States, souvenir-spoon-collecting dates back to the mid-1800s (the first American souvenir spoon, produced in the late 1800s, was outfitted with George Washington’s profile). By the time the Chicago World’s Fair arrived, in 1893, with its 27 million visitors, spoon-collecting had become a pastime. It’s impossible to say what people collecting spoons a…

Coffee From Yemen, With a Literary Connection

In 2018 Dave Eggers wrote the improbable nail-biter, “The Monk of Mokha,” about Mokhtar Alkhanshali — an American citizen of Yemeni parents barely scraping by in San Francisco — who went to Yemen to reestablish the coffee trade in his ancestral country, the place said to be where coffee-drinking originated. He went often to Yemen,…

This Wine Bag Is Ready for the Picnic

Unlike many bags designed for carrying wine, the new canvas tote from Wine Enthusiast also has food in mind. Its new farmers’ market bag is well provisioned with pockets to hold jars, baguettes, even bunches of herbs and flowers, and wine bottles to be sure. It has a removable inner insulated cooler pouch for perishables…

Four Cheeses That Can’t Be Beat

To stock your cheese board it might pay to note this year’s top selections in the annual judging by the American Cheese Society. They were announced last week at the group’s conference in Portland, Ore. There are scores of categories for cheeses, butters and cultured dairy products, with winners in each. But only four were…