Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
Published Work
ARCHIVE OF THE YEAR 2006
December 24, 2006 - The Santa Fe New Mexican
Indulging oyster lovers with a sea of change in paradise
Nothing announces the arrival of fall in France like the sight of a perfectly dressed, slightly older women sitting alone in a PariÂsian café, eating a plate of oysters and drinkÂing a glass of champagne. Come the holiday season, the daintiness goes out the window and Frenchmen slurp them like they’re going out of style.
November 26, 2006 - The Santa Fe New Mexican
Teaching New Tricks in Greenland
A little tenderness comes to the harsh lives of Greenland’s sled dogs.
November 12, 2006 - brandchannel.com
Cultivating a French Oysterevolution
...This summer, the French oyster industry underwent a bit of its own shell shock. Oysters from the southwestern coastal town of Arcachon were linked with a pair of deaths, and though the bivalves were later determined not to be the cause (as of press time, the French Agriculture Ministry has not released any further details), the damage was done…
November 12, 2006 - Agence France Presse
Tradition, appetite keep Marseille’s ‘golden’ fish soup alive
Once considered a poor man’s dish and now a rich man’s treat, bouillabaisse, Marseille’s traditional fish stew, has always stopped this southern French port city from toppling into the culinary abyss.
With its mix of pungently-rich, long-simmered fish broth served with potatoes and copious amounts of fleshy-textured local rockfish, such as conger eel and scorpionfish, the Provencal dish is an inextricable part of the city’s soul.
The emblematic “golden soup,” formerly a daily staple for fishermen who cooked it at sea, became a family favorite but now relies on a handful of restaurants to uphold its traditions.
October 16, 2006 - Agence France Presse
Secret’s out on tasty French art of ‘vac-pac’ cooking
PARIS (AFP) - At first glance, it is reminiscent of war-time rations or TV dinners. Perhaps that’s why this French-invented culinary trend has taken 30 years to catch on here.
‘Sous vide’, French for ‘under vacuum’, and also known as vac-pac or Cryovack cooking, is a technique where food is vacuum packed in a special plastic bag then slow cooked at low temperatures.
Compared to the traditional hustle-bustle found in kitchens with their usual multitude of quick-cooking saute pans, sous vide might be the least flashy method of cooking around.
brandchannel.com - October 2, 2006
Olivier Decelle - Harvests the green
In winter, the French Maury region looks like it’s been scorched by a wildfire. In a valley below ruins of Cathar fortresses, dark vine stumps poke out of dense schist-laden soil. On a quiet day, it almost seems the fire might have been intentional and the winemakers headed north for the greener pastures of Corbières.
Strange to think that it’s here, on one of the region’s only green plots, that the stalled French wine industry is getting a much-needed kick-start from a former frozen-food mogul.
October 1, 2006 - The Star Ledger - Op-Ed
Losing Ground: French winemakers struggle with global competition
As the wine harvest kicks into full swing in France, big gears are slowly beginning to turn in an industry thrown into crisis mode, reflecting a very French ability to simultaneously seduce and infuriate themselves and the rest of the world.
brandchannel.com - September 25, 2006
Defrosting Greenland’s Image
The problem is, Sigur Rós is from Iceland, and while that little country revels in hip Arctic limelight, Greenland (population 57,000) is like the redheaded Viking step-cousin, relatively ignored in a frozen wasteland far away from the rest of the …
brandchannel.com - August 28, 2006
French Forego Organic Labels
“Going organic” seems to become more vague and less a guarantee of quality by the day. The movement, which is still trying to establish itself as a mark of excellence and healthy living, is ending up on the shelves of big box stores before the kinks are worked out of the system. Something is clearly amiss.
August 23, 2006 - The Santa Fe New Mexican
The Joys and Woes of Trying to be Julia
Foodies beware: There might be a whisk on the cover of Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen—and the promise of a cool idea inside—but the proof of this pudding isn’t exactly in the tasting.
The Boston Globe - July 12, 2006
Culinary Copenhagen
Northern European countries have never been terribly tantalizing destinations for the food-obsessed voyager. When you think of the Continent’s gastronomic hotbeds, a list of destinations always crops up, and Copenhagen isn’t on it.
Two Danes in Copenhagen, a city much better known for hot dogs and Hans Christian Andersen than top-flight food and drink, are working on the problem.
July 2, 2006 - The Star-Ledger
A climb to the height of tradition
In Barcelona, human towers build a link to Catalonia’s culture.
June 30, 2006 - Agence France Presse
Getting to The Heart and Guts of Spanish Cuisine
For many lovers of good cuisine, offal is where they draw the line, thinking it best swiftly dumped in the garbage bin or left to hard-core foodies. After years of steady decline, offal is making a steady comeback after years of decline in Spain.
June 21, 2006 - Agence France Presse
Paris Bouquinistes: part of a dying breed
“That guy’s a book thief.” Twenty seconds later, “this one is a well-known, third-generation photographer. I’ve known all three.” After 30 years on the Paris quays, Alain Frolich seems to know every other person who walks past his second-hand book …
May 31, 2006 - Newsday
Beyond Spain’s Master
Despite the propensity of the press to cover Ferran Adria’s every move, there’s other food and wine news on The Continent.