I travel, cook, eat, observe, interact, live and write.
As a culinary and cultural travel writer I seek connections among people, activities, the environment and what they eat that tell the story of a region/culture, whether that be in the remote Andes Mountains or the streets of Philadelphia.
Publications include my travel web site on Argentina (www.travel-with-pen-and-palate-argentina.com) and articles covering a diverse range of countries and cultures at www.travelpenandpalate.com and both the digital and print editions of the Hellenic News of America.
Industry experience includes over 45 years as a chef, chef educator, hotel and restaurant manager, catering as well as teaching history, writing, theater, culinary arts and business.
I'm an active member in the American Culinary Federation.
Neal’s Yard, LondonOrange marmalade with gold leaf
Amidst the frenzy of summer in London, it’s comforting to know that scotch eggs and marmalade with gold leaf can still be part of your customized picnic basket from Fortnum & Mason. In three hours, Context Travel’s Janine Catalano narrates a three century evolution in British gastronomy with “a walk through central London from less than a common perspective.”
Roasted Bone Marrow with toastSt. John Bar & Restaurant, London
Chef Fergus Henderson’s 1999 book, “Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking,” caused a sensation when published. It placed Chef Henderson and St. John’s at the forefront of an omnivore movement, in direct opposition to modern meat consumption, in which the whole animal is eaten – trotters, tripe, kidneys, heart, sweetbreads …
It would be easy to walk right past The Little French Restaurant on London’s narrow Hogarth Street. The diminutive road, opposite Earls Court underground station, is lined with at least a half dozen small cafes, shops and quaint flower bedecked townhouses. Yet a passerby would be hard pressed to dine in a more charming French bistro.
Grilled goat cheese at The Little French Restaurant, London
Grilled calamari stuffed with cheese, As Greet As It Gets, London
Not only is London’s population a polyglot of the former empire, but Britons have embraced an unprecedented broadening of their culinary palate. As Greek As It Gets, a restaurant in fashionable Earls Court, says it all in words and in the authenticity of its menu offerings.
As Philadelphia continues refining its vibrant Center City restaurant scene, the suburbs, a former culinary wasteland, are blooming with innovation in attractive locations.
The lowering sun casts a gold light on the swift flowing Delaware River as diners at Charcoal tuck into tender chunks of hanger steak, superbly seasoned octopus and wild mushroom soup with green curry.
It’s 9:00 pm on a Thursday evening and the Kitchen Bar Restaurant is nearly full. For a weekday night in leafy suburban Abington Township, where even most of the fast food chains are already closed, this is uncommon.
There’s a lot of competition for customers seeking good dining on Philadelphia’s Sansom Street since it’s in proximity to everything of interest in center city.
“The idea of the Laos government is to become the battery of Southeast Asia,” Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, Time, 12/09/2010
According to the teachings of the Buddha, life is comparable to a river. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, where as in reality it is not. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or other from moment to moment. (The Buddhist Concept of Impermanence)
Is Laos in the 19th century racing towards the 21st? Not since the 1970’s has this most relaxed of southeast Asian societies faced the prospect of monumental changes globalization is bringing to this ancient land. In a series of articles for Suite101 and the Examiner, I explore these shifting forces even as I experience centuries of tradition.
Muang Ngoi on the Nam Ou, Laos
Forested mountains and ethnic villages may dominate photos of northern Laos, but it’s the region’s swift rivers an energy hungry southeast Asia covets.
In the misty mountain provincial capital of Luang Namtha in northern Laos, a mere 50 miles from the Chinese border, a traveler would not normally expect to enjoy a perfect grilled cheese sandwich, stuffed with banana, while sipping a shot of Lao Lao.
In the far north of Laos, overlooking the swift flowing Nam Oh River as it cuts a path through towering forest covered limestone mountains, the Nong Kiau Riverside Resort and Restaurant melts into the lush countryside.
An aromatic mix of onions, garlic, herbs and chili enveloping slices of fresh fish fillet may be the ingredients for Mok Pa, but the banana leaves are the secret.
galangal, on left, is darker, related but not the same as ginger, on right
Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have been on the Asian trade routes to Europe for millennium. Southeast Asia was adept at fusing earlier European, Chinese and Japanese culinary influences and a century of Western colonial cuisine. The kitchens at restaurants of today’s tourist route destinations continue to preserve the past as well as innovate.
Laotian cuisine, like the nation, is much more than that land between Thailand and Vietnam. Neither as sweet nor spicy as its neighbors, the dishes of Laos are multi-layered creations of herbs, greens, meats, fish, vegetables and spices not used in Western cooking. Yum Kai Tom is one such dish that’s both easy to master as well as being quintessential Laos.
ingredients for Yum Kai TomArthouse Cafe
There’s no lack of fine restaurants in Laos’ UNESCO World Heritage City of Luang Prabang. Once the royal and spiritual capital of several southeast Asian kingdoms, Luang Prabang epitomizes tropical post-colonial romanticism. The historic core rests high on a peninsula and restaurants take advantage of the spectacular mountain scenery of northern Laos. The Arthouse Cafe, on Kingkitsarath Road, is no exception.
Purple sticky rice
Luang Prabang’s popular and excellent Tamarind Restaurant makes a terrific Khao Gam.
Stuffed Lemongrass is delicious, as the lemongrass permeates the meat with its citrus flavor.
Stuffed Lemongrass
Vientiane, the capital of Laos, has no lack of interesting dining opportunities from a vibrant street food scene to the legendary Mekong River at sunset providing a stunning backdrop for a relaxing dinner at the Kong View Restaurant.
Kong View restaurant, Vientiane, Laos
A tuk-tuk full of saffron robed monks pass by the entrance to Ban Vilaylac. Their Wat is directly across the street. Appropriate location since Ban Vilaylac’s potted garden entrance bridges centuries of traditional Vientiane and French colonial Laos cuisine. Next door, reservations for either lunch or dinner are hard to come by at Makphet Restaurant, yet there are no celebrity chefs, yet the lines of appreciative diners can be long.
view from the Charming Lao Hotel
Much overlooked, Laos north central town of Oudomxai is surrounded by stunning scenery to view while enjoying good Laotian cuisine at The Charming Lao Hotel.
Stuffed squid at Dibuk Restaurant
In a building as old as many bistros in Paris, under ceiling fans stirring the languid tropical air, guests of the Dibuk Restaurant in Thailand’s old Phuket Town can spend time dining with the Indian Ocean lapping nearby.
Tom Kha Gai and its ingredientsChef Wan at Look-In restaurant
The Look-in Restaurant, just off Bangkok’s busy Sukhumvit Road, is not on most visitors’ tourist map – not yet.
Tom Kha Gai, Thailand’s incomparable coconut soup with chicken and flavored with galangal is a Look-in knockout.
The finest restaurant in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi is also its most fascinating. Koto, next to the Temple of Learning, is in an elegant, three-story French Art Nouveau townhouse.
Koto, Hanoi, Vietnam
There’s a quiet side to Cambodia’s bustling Siem Reap, home to Angkor Wat, on the banks of the Siem Reap River. The town’s best restaurant and small hotel, Bopha, is located at 512 Acharsva Street facing the east bank. It’s a haven of calm.
at Bopha, Siem Reap, Cambodia: traditional fish stew
Pho at La Viet
The Italian Market/Queen Village district, to any resident of Philadelphia, is inexorably morphing into a little Southeast Asia. A stroll through these historic colonial neighborhoods provides visual evidence of Asian grocery stores, restaurants and professional offices catering to this increasing community. The area around 11th Street and Washington Avenue includes a sizable number of Asian businesses and one very good Vietnamese fine dining restaurant, Le Viet.
Butterfish at Kinnaree restaurant
Set in an unassuming strip mall in suburban Philadelphia, Kinnaree Thai French Cuisine balances traditional Thai dishes with centuries old French influences.
You can read more articles by Marc d’Entremont at:
Throughout Zimbabwe visitors have abundant opportunities to view Africa’s array of animal life on a guided safari photo tour or from their room’s balcony.
Breakfast on the lawn at Antelope Park Lodge, Gweru, Zimbabwe
Within National Parks
Sikumi Tree Lodge, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
At stunning natural wonders
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
At historic sits
(top & bottom center) stairway & doorway at Great Zimbabwe, (lower left) a room at Lodge at the Ancient City
People have been staring at neon sign’s ever since French inventor George Claude sold Packard Motor Cars the first two in the early 1920’s. Yet it’s in America’s Las Vegas of the 1940’s–1950’s that the neon sign came of age as an artistic medium.
Although most of the millions of annual visitors roam the Strip with its larger-than-life tropical islands, fountains and canals, it’s in the original Vegas downtown that nostalgia reigns – still titillating but on a human scale.
The centerpiece of this revival of interest and effort in neon preservation has been the commercial success of the Fremont Street Experience. The corner of Fremont & Main is the 1905 birthplace of Las Vegas so it’s appropriate that Fremont Street should anchor the revival of “downtown.” For several blocks it’s covered like a European market yet a pulsing high-tech Las Vegas one of restored icons, such as the legendary El Cortez and Golden Nugget hotels, penny casinos, live bands, buskers, fried Twinkies and neon lights.
The mission of the Las Vegas Neon Museum, founded in 1996, is to preserve early signs from now defunct businesses as works of public/commercial art.
In a city both American and international Las Vegas is fittingly ablaze each evening with the inventive genius of a Frenchman.
From post-revolutionary obscurity, the once ancient kingdom of Champasak is at the center of southern Laos’ eco-tourism incentive.
On Don Khone, the Siphandon, Champasak Province, Laos
Cheap airfares, especially from Australia, and even cheaper cost of living attracted budget seekers of alternative vacations in the early 1990’s to the sleepy isolated islands of the Siphandon.
The Siphandon (4,000 Islands), from Don Khong, Champasak Province, Laos
Just 25 miles from the Cambodian border, Laos’ Mekong spreads up to 8 miles wide creating a delta-like region, the Siphandon, sheltering human and wildlife.
Hotel Senesothxeune and the Siphandon
Don Deth and Don Khone epitomize the Western vision of a tropical existence, sleeping in a hammock with mosquito netting, playing the guitar at night, picking fruit and spending as little money as possible.
Purple sticky rice: this nutty deep purple variety of Laos’ ubiquitous grain is usually reserved for desserts. Although a festive addition to dinner and delicious even when not sweetened, I was reminded of my favorite recipe for Purple Sticky Rice in Coconut Sauce.
varieties of sticky rice
You can read about all these topics in my latest articles on Suite101:
Four cities, three countries, four restaurants serving superior food, providing community training and accepting reservations – you’ll need one.
Place setting at Koto, Hanoi, VietnamCarrot cake at Koto, Hanoi, Vietnam
Koto, Hanoi, Vietnam (Know One, Teach One), founded in 1996 by Australian Vietnamese Jimmy Pham, has set the standard for grassroots not-for-profit restaurant ventures.
Forest Refuge & Papaya Cafe, Luang Namtha, Laos
Trekking first brought Karen and Andrej Brummer from New Zealand to Luang Namtha, just like nearly all visitors. Yet they soon felt a desire to remain and do something: Forest Refuge Bamboo Lounge.
Cabbages & Condoms Restaurant, Bangkok, Thailand, is famous, amusing and serious. Where else in Southeast Asia will there be a condom decorated Christmas Tree.
I tried to dine at Makphet three times during two trips to the Laotian capital of Vientiane. Given the hype about this must-go-to restaurant, I was pleased that the experience was worth the wait.
Ingredients for Yum Khi Tom
A classic recipe, Yum Kai Tom incorporates all the basics that elevate Laos cuisine to a food experience.
Interior of Dibuk Restaurant, Phuket Town, Thailand
For the best bistro (far) east of Paris, try Dibuk Restaurant, old Phuket Town, Phuket Island, Thailand – no joke.
Bangkok, Thailand and Vientiane, Laos provide an abundance of eateries from street vendors to luxury hotel venues like Bangkok’s Centara Grand Hotel’s 55th/56th floor Red Sky dining room and Sky Bar.
Bangkok from the Sky Bar on the 56th floor of the Centara Grand Hotel
Yet in remote villages, some reachable only by boat, tools invented centuries ago are still used for preparing important aspects of traditional cooking such as sticky rice, eaten at every meal.
Sticky Rice drying in the sun
Grains of sticky rice are sun dried and then the hard hull must be broken and sifted away using large woven baskets. The young mother of this household gave me permission to film her children providing the power to operate the hull cracking tool.
The abundance of South East Asia’s food supply is not lost on its restaurants.
Mekong River at sunset from the Kong View Restaurant
In the Laotian capital, Vientiane’s Kong View provides beautiful vistas of the Mekong River while preparing excellent dishes such as salt grilled river fish.
Ban Vilaylac, Vientiane, Laos
On a quiet street within the historic French colonial core of Vientiane, reservations may be necessary on weekends for Dining at Ban Vilaylac.
The mother of all food markets, London’s 13th century Borough Market is appropriately located near Borough High Street station delivering the world’s food to ancient Southwark Cathedral’s door.
Borough Market & Southwark Cathedral
Moving patiently with the crowds through narrow aisles, the experience is both exotic yet modern.
The Market is an international food court
Organic, unpasteurized, artesian, locally sourced, urban honey are all terms that have certified clout in England’s regulated farming and food industry and are the norm at the Market.
Travel with Pen and Palate 
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