Blogs

by Nellie Huang

With its romantic Mediterranean flair, rich cuisine and millennia-old history, Spain has captured the hearts of many – including world-famous Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow. There’s no denying that the 40-year-old celebrity has had a long love affair with Spain: she speaks almost perfect Spanish with an Iberian accent, she’s worked closely with several Spanish directors and she’s even hosted her own culinary show based in Spain.

Paltrow Hails Spain as Her Second Home

“Spain

Dining is avant-garde at the Shambala Restaurant at Hotel Tropico Latino in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. Now, the restaurant section of the Hotel Tropico Latino website matches the creativity coming out of the kitchen.

Large high-density images flow across the top of the restaurant webpage. Caution: the images of sample dishes may induce drooling. Photographed in such full color detail, you can almost smell and taste the tantalizing cuisine. A video shows off the restaurant of the Santa Teresa beach

After living in Australia more than 20 years, I can say that there are still aspect of Australian cuisine that I find worth exploring and learning about. What defines food of the country I now call home? Traditionally a lot of meat, but since the whole continent is surrounded by the sea/ocean there is an abundance of seafood. That is what I loved about Australia: fresh, healthy variety of the seafood platter. Add some original brands of wine and good beer and you have a recipe for success in eve

“Honey, I still don’t see any action in the restaurant!”  

We were sitting on the balcony of our hotel high above the Adriatic with a view directly into a large, empty, open-air restaurant built in a cave which was also high above the crashing surf. For experienced independent travelers we were getting a little concerned. Did we just make a big leap of faith on a good friend’s recommendation to go to this isolated location for an exceptional dining experience?

The Journey of Faith and a Twinge

At a Temecula, California media event for International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association (FWTWA), we had an opportunity to learn about Cultivating Good, which encompasses E.A.T. (Extraordinary Artisan Table) Marketplace, Harvest 2U, and EAT@Home.  The architects of Cultivating Good, Don Webber and Leah Di Bernardo, have a noble mission:  to support the local food economy by providing fresh, healthy food to the community.  As an advocate for the area’s farmers, ranchers, and food artisans,

by Miguel Martínez Rabanal

As a resident of Mexico City, a lover of Mexican food, and a passionate defender of the arts of the kitchen, I have been finding that if there’s one thing that defines this town in the second decade of the 21st century, it’s the heady feeling of constant change. Inevitably, this dynamism has also had a transformative effect on Mexico City dining in particular as well as, one could argue, on Mexican cuisine in a larger sense. In the capital of Mexico’s dining scene, t

Dining at a chef’s table should always be a titillating treat of tantalizing tastes. Traditionally, a chef’s table is located in the kitchen – where the guests can watch, and “ooh” and “ahh” as the chef and his/her team work their culinary magic. That was not how it was at the table of Chef Ottavio Bellesi aboard Princess Cruises' Golden Princess – and here’s why.

From the Beginning

Soon after boarding the Golden Princess in San Francisco, we had a meeting with the ship’s maître d'hôtel, Neville

While the Great Depression gripped most of the world in 1931, Milton S. Hershey built an opulent hotel atop Pat's Hill overlooking his chocolate factory in Hershey Pennsylvania. The Hershey Hotel is truly a testament to the fact that greatness marches to the beat of a different drum. But eccentricity borne by wealth alone doesn't explain why Mr. Hershey went ahead with such an extravagant project during hard times. Faced with the decision of either employing his town's construction workers or pr

If you have managed to spend the weekend in London and planning to experience the city in these 2 days then gear yourself up, because there is too much to see in a very short span. There is no shortage of tourist staples in this regal city. Being one of the most populous cities, it has lots of attractions for travellers of any age. If you love history and the royal culture, Palace of Westminster, Tower of London and Buckingham Palace are some of the heritage sites you just cannot miss. On the ot

Going through my mind as I took my first bite of steaming, fresh pupusa – after, “oh my god, this is good!” – was, “why don’t I eat pupusas more often?”

There is a pupusa restaurant in my little country town of Atenas, Costa Rica. I’ve eaten there a few times, but now plan to be a regular.

Pupusasare the main national dish in El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. You can find pupusas anywhere in the world where there is a Salvadoran community, and there

The olive fields, lemon trees, and vegetables splashed across the Greek landscape bear testimony to a rich, varied and dynamic cuisine connected to the environment. The Greek lifestyle is reflected in its cuisine – full of flavor and nothing pretentious. The fresh products which end up on Greek stoves demonstrate the care and passion that they put into their selection of  raw ingredients. Greek cuisine is based on the Mediterranean diet, although it has both eastern and western influences.

Alt

Each year, the Greenwich Wine & Food Festival proves that it represents so much more than a celebration of premier food and wine tastings. As a baseline of activity, nearly 100 wine and spirits vendors, local restaurants and artisan food producers share their goods under The Culinary Village Tent in Roger Sherman Park overlooking Greenwich Harbor and Long Island Sound.

This year you had highlights like Stella Artois pulling glasses of their opulent Belgian Pale Lager and Cidre into take-home souv

Sarah Browne, nutritionist and chef from Roscommon, Ireland, strives to use all natural foods locally produced or found in Ireland.  Her carrageen pudding makes use of a species of red algae that is found along the rocky coast of the Atlantic in Europe and North America but it is also sold commercially. Carrageen is commonly used as a thickener but is has health benefits as it is rich in vitamins and minerals… so the pudding is not only delicious it is good for you.

Carrageen Moss Blanc Mange

F

• Large amount of raw food is used in the Japanese cuisine. In fact, you must be aware that the fish served with sushi is raw.
• Dried sardi

The seasoned traveler knows that one of the greatest pleasures in crossing borders and discovering new places is in sampling different countries’ cuisine; giving oneself up to the endless smells and flavorus that flood the senses and imprint lasting memories on the taste buds. Not all destinations are the same of course, but some are particularly special when it comes to the culinary contrast of colors, textures and sensations.  And Bulgaria is one of them.

Bulgarian cuisine is replete with Sl

On a rare, warm, spring-like winter night in a farmhouse in La Marche, Italy, it was also a bright sunny Sunday morning in California.  I was cutting up a chicken and potatoes in my PJ’s, while chef Jason Bartner, in La Marche, instructed me.  Jason told me to make sure my chicken was dry, and to use a towel—it won’t get stuck and it will wash.  All I had to do was roll out of bed, turn on my IPad, click a link, and there he was—live, available for any questions I had.   We braised the chicken a

Think of the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta and chances are that your first thoughts gravitate towards a beach vacation. The majority of visitors are North American, neighbors from the United States and Canada, escaping a colder climate, for a bit of fun in the sun. Offering over 300 days of sunshine, adventures on the  are endless. Perhaps a surf lesson in Sayulita, a round of golf in Nuevo Vallarta, snorkeling at Los Arcos, deep sea fishing and scuba diving in the Marietta Islands are

42 stories above downtown White Plains’ Ritz Carlton, the tallest building between NYC and Boston, the glass paneled walls of 42 The Restaurant offer eye popping views of Westchester County and a distant Manhattan skyline. With 4 kitchens, banquet space, and a lounge that extends up to the 43rd floor, the even bigger attraction here is down home Portuguese cooking in a casual fine-dining setting. Accessible via an elevator ensconced in an alcove well beyond the hotel lobby, you would think that

Why is it that small towns seem to possess a sense of place and taste all their own that a big city just can’t compete with?  Don’t you love it when you stroll a city’s downtown area poking your head into one place, sampling cuisine from another place …and you immediately get the feeling that you’ve arrived at a very special destination? And don’t you get a big kick out of the unique attractions that only a small town can offer?  You know what I think? Hurray for small town America… and giant Di

Recently I came across a slightly dated item about master chef Paul Bocuse; seems this past spring, the Culinary Institute of America declared the Lion of Lyon "Chef of the Century" as part of its annual Augie Awards. No argument from me -- and it got me to reminiscing fondly about my visit three years ago to Monsieur Paul's flagship outside Lyon, L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges.

It was a sunny spring day, and after a lovely, leafy taxi ride up the Saône River, my lyonnaise companion Guillemette