travel

The best travel locations for foodies around the world.

The French take on a trendy 'superfood'
As Scarlette Le Corre edges slowly through the sun-blazed shallows at low tide, emerald sea lettuce and ginger sea spaghetti kaleidoscope around her rubber boots like two-tone marbling ink. No step is taken without first scrutinising the marine life at her feet – this highly trained eye doesn't miss a subaqueous beat. Snip. A head of rock-clinging sea lettuce unveiled by the ebbing ocean is deftly cut off and popped in her bucket of water. Snip. A fistful of coarse red dulse and clumps of green hairy cheveux de mer (grass kelp) – which sea-vegetable gourmets in France simply rinse, twirl in olive oil and eat – get the chop.
By Mejra3 years ago in Feast
London's most authentic Indian food?
You could easily miss Drummond Street. Just west of Euston Station in central London, it's an unassuming stretch of townhouses, basement flats, restaurants and shops, easily walked in a couple of minutes.
By Turnell Feliu3 years ago in Feast
France's undisputed queens of cheese
In the months leading up to the very first cheese-focused iteration of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) competition, held every few years to recognise the country's the best craftspeople, Nathalie Quatrehomme remembers her cheesemonger mother, Marie, taking over the family living room, assembling and disassembling a plexiglass apparatus supporting dozens of different cheeses.
By Mejra3 years ago in Feast
England's 'nose-twisting' superfood salad
It was a sunny July day and I felt as though I was standing in a 19th-Century film set. The whistle of the steam train sounded as I waited on the perfectly preserved Victorian platform at Alresford station in Hampshire. The pale yellow and green station palette, barley twist lamp posts and original signage was virtually the same scene as 100 years ago, and colourful blooms amplified the serene setting. The historical hissing sound marked the beginning of my journey back in time to when the county's famed watercress began to spread nationwide.
By Sweet Holdeman3 years ago in Feast
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