Category Archive: Food

If you emerge from a visit to Jordan and you haven’t had enough to eat, you’ve clearly done something wrong. Or in the words of an American friend of Jordanian heritage, “If you don’t leave Jordan heavier, we haven’t done our job.”

Mansaf, the Jordanian national dish.

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So you think Indian food is just chicken tikka masala and palak paneer?  Think again.

Recently, I’ve settled into a familiar morning routine: a masala dosa and sweet milk coffee in a simple canteen just down the street.  Attendants make their rounds with metal pails full of sambar and colorful wet chutneys, ensuring that all customers have ample supply, more than enough to eat.

The activity, the flow, the smell and most certainly the taste all make me feel at home. Continue Reading »

Oh, Thai cuisine: complexity in flavor, simplicity in process. The flavors are so vast and so varied that the thought of cooking something so rich, so in-the-mouth dazzling is daunting, to some insurmountable.

It doesn’t need to be. Continue Reading »

Istanbul is like Kreuzberg, but less Turkish.

– A Berlin cabbie puts the city’s Turkish neighborhood in perspective.

Take a walk down any street in Kreuzberg, Berlin and you’ll find scads of döner shops offering shaved, spiced meat (usually lamb) served inside rolled flatbread or in a bread pocket. At a distance, all döner shops look similar – meat sears away on a giant spindle, colorful salads await, and a few guys of Turkish origin zip around putting it all together.

Panorama: Inside Tekbir Döner, in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood

For best panorama viewing results, press fullscreen (four arrows) and navigate around with your mouse.

But looks can be deceiving: every döner shop – and indeed every döner – is unique. Continue Reading »

Chancellor Angela Merkel recently declared that Germany’s experiment with multiculturalism had “utterly failed.” Perhaps, but in our recent experience in Berlin, the city’s multicultural landscape made eating there a treasure.

During our time in Berlin we lived near Kottbusser Tor in the Kreuzberg neighborhood, smack in middle of what our visiting friends deemed “little Turkey.” Food was fresh, accessible, brimming with flavor and typically served by folks who took pride in their cuisine, interest in us as human beings, and great pleasure in serving up an experience.

So here’s our top ten cheap eats in Berlin. Many Turkish, some German, one Asian. Mind you, this list reflects not only what is inexpensive, but more importantly what is high-quality.

1. Gel Gör Inegöl Köfteci
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Article Series - Berlin Food

1. Berlin Cheap Eats: Top 10 Under 5 Euros
2. Berlin Food Rally: Beyond the Plate
3. Berlin Food: Favorite Neighborhood Meals Under €10

How do you like our wild pig?

–- A cook in Tuscany’s Maremma region pauses to ask us one of life’s burning questions.

When we think of Italy, we think of vineyard orchards populated by wild boars, happy cows and people who talk with their hands and sound like they’re yelling at each other all the time even though they are really just talking about how great the tagliatelle is.
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Article Series - Tuscany 10th Anniversary Trip

1. Panorama of the Week: Pienza, Tuscany — A UNESCO Site Worth Getting Married In
2. Life Lessons from A Tuscan Wedding
3. Panorama of the Week: The Makings of a Great Brunello di Montalcino
4. Eat Your Heart Out, Tuscany!
5. Maremma: Hidden Tuscany (an Audio Slideshow)
6. From Hilltowns to Harvest: Tuscany in Autumn
7. Accommodation Italy: Participating vs. Spectating

When you hear “German wine,” what comes to mind?

For many it means “Riesling, white wines, sweet.” With the help of VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter) and their 100th anniversary celebration, we aimed to better understand what German wines are all about.

The roster: 200 of Germany’s best wineries. The backdrop: 70 of Berlin’s trendiest art galleries. Continue Reading »

As we look out the window of our sublet in Berlin today, leaves are changing colors, temperatures are dropping, and intermittent rain storms are battling with a sun that struggles to peek through the clouds. No doubt about it: summer is fading away in the northern hemisphere.

So we offer a suggestion on how to hold on to the taste and freshness of summer: Vietnamese summer rolls. Good thing is, they’re easier to make than you think.

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When we poked around Buenos Aires earlier this year, our food quests were focused not only on understanding Argentine cuisine but also seeking out various ethnic cuisines that we hadn’t encountered much while traveling the Andes and Paraguay. A couple of times a week, we’d head out with a restaurant recommendation, a gigantic map of the city, and scribbled notes as to our bus route.

We often got lost. We always ate. And we discovered something.
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When I think about my first contact with the concept of Argentine cuisine, I recall a discussion twelve years ago with an unassuming foodie friend in San Francisco.

“I bet the food in Argentina is great!” I offered with blind optimism as visions of gauchos stepping to a tango beat danced in my head.  Argentina seemed so damn far away; therefore the food must be exotic and varied.

My food-wise friend brushed off my enthusiasm without skipping a beat, “Yeah, if the only thing you like is steak and wine.”

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