Food

Discover the best food, farms, and dining in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires, and Litchfield Hills. Rural Intelligence shares local restaurant reviews, seasonal recipes, and stories celebrating regional flavor.

Food

Foodies-and-Farmers Mix it Up at "Carhartts and Cocktails"

Ever wonder about all those farms referred to on menus? Who is the farm girl behind Farm Girl Farm? Now's your chance to find out. This Sunday, March 1, Mezze Bistro + Bar in Williamstown and Allium in Great Barrington will host simultaneous afternoon farm-to-table mixers. The public is

By Editor

Food

Food Shopping: In Praise of Otto's of Germantown

Designer Carey Maloney of M (Group) normally writes our Rural Restoration Blog in the Style Section, but this week he delivers a paean to his local grocer instead. 215 Main Street in Germantown was the home of the Central Market from 1927 until two years ago when the doors closed.

By Editor

Food

Winter Dinner Party 101

Though the cold is lifting, neither true spring weather nor the new harvest will arrive for a bit, so to make it through these next few muddy and cold weeks, why not give a dinner party? The shtick in my house (i.e., my husband's shtick) is that

By Editor

Food

Allium and the Mahaiwe: Their Funny Valentine Special

Local restaurateurs and chefs are letting their imaginations run wild for Valentine's Day. Take, for example, Halle Heyman, manager at Allium in Great Barrington. As if free chocolate petit fours at the end of the meal aren't enough to seal the deal, she has created a

By Editor

Food

Perfect for Late Winter: Summer Fish Curry

When the weather turns, as it has this week, from merely cold to utterly brutal, I retreat, as much as possible, to the kitchen. The numbing weather presents cooks with a fork in the road: either make rib-sticking, hearty comfort food (nothing wrong with that, except what it will do

By Editor

Food

Olde Hudson Wants To Do Your Shopping For You

"I was bored," says Dena Moran when asked why she decided to open an antique-furniture/body-and-bath shop in Hudson in 2001. In Manhattan, she had worked with her husband Dick Moran in the domestic textiles business—designing, merchandising and selling. Initially, their house in Claverack had been a

By Editor

Food

Local 111 Among Top 25 Farm-to-Table Restaurants in U.S.

There it is in the pages of the February 2009 issue (and on the website, naturally) of Best Life, a men's magazine from Rodale Press, our own Local 111 in Philmont, cited by a blue-ribbon jury as one of the top 25 farm-to-table restaurants in the United States.

By Editor

Food

Adventures in Slow Cooking: Moroccan Chicken Stew

Since starting my adventures in food here at Rural Intelligence, I've received a few requests from readers. Some I've tried to address, some I'm still working on, and one, until now, had me stumped: recipes designed for a slow cooker. I am, theoretically, the

By Editor

Food

Cooking With Chef Jeff

Fresh from a working vacation in Nice, caterer Jeff Loshinsky [that's him, in the white jacket, in the market there] is bursting with new techniques and recipes he wants to share. "Nice has one of the best markets, Cours Saleya, in the world," he says. "

By Editor

Food

Peace, Love & Chocolate in Stockbridge

Peace, Love & Chocolate sounds like the name of a shop run by an old hippie, but Ali Aronoff is more of a hipster. A personal trainer and chef who's lived in Stockbridge for fifteen years, she opened a chocolate boutique six weeks ago in The Mews next

By Editor

Food

Fit for A Dinner Party: Kasha with Preserved Lemons

I know some people who are perfectly confident in most areas of their lives—and perfectly capable in the kitchen—who become paralyzed at the idea of throwing a dinner party. The thing I've learned is that dinner parties aren't necessarily any more work than a

By Editor

Food

A Jolt of Green: Bravo for Broccoli Rabe

I'm surprised—happily so—whenever I find broccoli rabe, also know as rapini, on a menu. Whether in a restaurant or a friend's home, I always feel like my host and I have a shared secret, because I can't believe how few people appreciate—

By Editor