travel

The best travel locations for foodies around the world.

Chhurpi: The world's hardest cheese?
Enveloped in a thick veil of grey mist, Nepal's remote Himalayan village of Parvathy Kund was nearly deserted. One of the few people in sight was an old woman sitting in the doorway of a wooden house, who flashed a welcoming, toothless smile at my friend and I. "Would you like to eat some chhurpi?" my friend asked the woman, having just bought a few kilograms of the local cheese from a factory opposite her home.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Where it's forbidden to serve meat
Inhabited since at least 1800 BC, Varanasi is well known for being among the oldest living cities on Earth, and one of the holiest for the world's estimated 1.2 billion Hindus. Every day, as the sound of ringing temple bells echo overhead, tens of thousands of devotees descend the city's 88 stone ghat steps and dip themselves into the Ganges river to wash away their sins. Bereaved relatives flock to Varanasi's two cremation grounds where funeral pyres burn around the clock, believing that Shiva himself whispers the Tarak mantra (chant of liberation) into the ears of all those cremated here, granting them instant moksha or salvation.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
The UK village that lost its cheese
Stilton, Cheshire, red Leicester. There are more than 700 cheeses produced in the UK, but in parts of the English-speaking world, a certain type is so ubiquitous that it's simply referred to as "cheese".
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Teh tarik: Malaysia's frothy 'national drink'
An arc of piping-hot tea streamed high above my head as the waiter poured the frothy concoction from one tin cup to another, increasing the distance with each pass. In an act that seemingly defied physics, he angled the stream further over my table and channelled the miniature waterfall flawlessly into my glass.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
St Louis: The US city transformed by heartbreak
The retro sign on top of the two-storey brick building in St Louis, Missouri, reads "Lemmons Fine Food" with a giant arrow pointing towards the door. At night, the sign's light casts red and green reflections on the windows, diverting attention from a mural of a can of beer covering the right side of the building.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Trieste: Italy's surprising capital of coffee
In every Italian city, the day's rhythm begins at the cafe. But in Trieste, a city on Italy's north-east coast, that rhythm comes with a twist. Wander into any cafe here and, in addition to the familiar clinks of cups and hissing of steaming milk, you'll hear people ordering "capo in b": a mini cappuccino served in a glass that's a favourite of Triestini.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Hercules Posey: George Washington's unsung enslaved chef
Each year, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sees millions of heritage-seeking tourists who traipse the reconstructed brick pathways of the old city, eager to see the sites that birthed ideas of American liberty such as Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, and the iconic Liberty Bell. But like its ties to democracy, Philadelphia's connection to great American food culture has roots that reach into the distant past, roots that until recently have been obscured in the history books.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Bsissa: North Africa's ancient convenience food
Along the curving bay of Tunisia's southern Gulf of Hammamet is the pretty village of Lamta, marked by its ornate blue and white doorways, eclectic architecture and shops selling bsissa, a nutritious food that has been loved and eaten by Tunisians and Libyans for millennia.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
The hidden legacy of the Seychelles' island cuisine
In a steep valley high on the eastern slopes of the Seychelles island of Mahé, the spice garden of Le Jardin du Roi tells a story of unimaginable variety. Anchored by a graceful 19th-Century home of white wood, soaring ceilings and big windows designed to catch a cooling mountain breeze, Le Jardin du Roi is a window on so much that is good about traditional Seychelles Creole cooking.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
Italy's rare, surprisingly bitter honey
Corbezzolo honey tricks the palate. Instead of the sweetness one would expect, this extremely rare honey, born in the mountains of the Italian island of Sardinia, is surprisingly bitter, with notes of leather, liquorice and smoke. Nomadic beekeepers have been setting up beehives in the region to collect this aromatic treat – derived from the white, bell-shaped flowers of the wild strawberry tree – for more than 2,000 years.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast
Hong Kong's 'greasy spoon' cafes
With a fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic washing over Hong Kong, all restaurants in the city have been ordered to pull down their shutters by 18:00. Daytime business in the city's cha chaan tengs has mostly remained brisk, however. The quirky, no-nonsense cafes have long served up affordable staples to busy people needing to get in, chow down and get out in a hurry.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
The return of France's lost lemon
If you want to know just how attached the people of the coastal town of Menton are to their beloved lemon, look no further than the legend that credits its arrival on the French Riviera to Eve.
By Gay3 years ago in Feast