Category Archives: Travel

Cultural Sites, European Travel, Food, Restaurants and hotels, Travel, Travel and Food

Four Days in Flanders

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Brugge, Flanders, Belgium

In the land of Bruegel, chocolate and mussels, the lush green land of Flanders is punctuated by towns of extraordinary beauty. Medieval castles, Renaissance houses, canals and cafes are in view with every convoluted turn in the ancient streets. Yet in Brussels, larger than life cartoon wall art decorates, and compliments, its historic core.

wall art in Brussels depicting popular Belgian cartoon characters

In four days, VisitFlanders introduced me to three cities rich in layers of culture, four restaurants bursting with layers of flavor as well as beer and chocolate as it ought to be enjoyed. Articles, as they appear, will be added to this post, so please check back often.

Dominique Personne chocolates, Brugge, for Hertog Jan and Gruut Brown herb beer, Gent

Flanders, today, is at the vanguard of a new wave in international gastronomy that’s pairing the freshest of locally sourced ingredients with 21st century culinary techniques.

With 3 Michelin Stars already….

Restaurant Hertog Jan, in Brugge, brings their farm to their table

A Walk through the garden at Hertog Jan

The mild climate may have favored Flanders own agricultural abundance, but access to the world through trade constantly brought new products, such as the potato and chocolate, fueling today’s Michelin starred restaurants, creating chocolate beer and celebrity chocolatiers, although Dominique Personne is considered the bad boy of Brugge – watch the You Tube video in my latest article.

Belgium celebrates eating during its 2012 Year of Gastronomy

Dominique Personne with chocolate gun and the Chocolate Shooter

Ghent’s de Vitrine is Kobe Desramaults little city bistro. Yet the secret these young chefs are revealing is simple, fresh regional ingredients treated with respect and given pride of place. “I think about the vegetable,” Speybreck says, “not what meat or fish it goes with. What can I do with a nice cauliflower. Each ingredient has its own place.”

Ghent’s restaurant de Vitrine is a showcase for each ingredient

mussels with cucumber, eggplant sauce and sour cream foam

Ensconced in Brussels’s elegant Radisson Blu Hotel, Chef Yves Mattagne’s two Michelin star Sea Grill serves art to the power brokers of Europe.

Brussels’s Sea Grill catches Michelin stars

Caviar Royal Belgium, Sea Grill, Brussels, Belgium
European Travel, Food, Restaurants and hotels, Travel and Food

London Gastronomy in the Jubilee Year

 

From scotch eggs to stinking bishop, Context Travel nibbles through London

Neal’s Yard, London
Orange 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.”

 

 

London’s St. John Bar and Restaurant transforms offal into delectable

Roasted Bone Marrow with toast
St. 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 …

 

 

 

 

 

London’s The Little French Restaurant is big on flavor

The Little French Restaurant, London

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

 

 

As Greek As It Gets restaurant brings the Aegean to 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 Greet As It Gets, London

Read all my Examiner.com articles as

Culinary Travel Examiner

 International Dining Examiner

International Travel Examiner

Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner

and

 Food & Recipes Examiner

Cultural Sites, Food, Historic Sites, Restaurants and hotels, Southeast Asia, Travel, Travel and Food

Laos in the North: Poised for Change

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“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.

Visit northern Laos timeless scene before time runs out 

 

The Forest Retreat Laos cafe, Luang Namtha, Laos

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.

The Forest Retreat Laos cafe and bar makes a mean grilled cheese

the Nam Oh, upriver of Nong Kiau in northern Laos

For eons, Laos 270 mile long Nam Ou has cut a path of incredible beauty providing easy transport and fertility to the northern interior.

The Nam Ou: Laos Rice Bowl River Changing Course

al fresco lunch in the Nam Ha National Biodiversity Conservation Area

Roasting eggplant and tomatoes imparts an earthy flavor to these two quick and easy Laotian dips or spreads.

Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes: Two Easy Laotian Appetizers

Nong Kiau Riverside Resort & Restaurant, Nong Kiau, Laos

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.

The view from Nong Kiau Riverside Resort and Restaurant is worth the trek

Mok Pa

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.

Mok Pa: Laotian Fish Steamed in Banana Leaves

A relaxing ecotourism center spanning the Nam Ou, Nong Kiau is positioned to be a major player in Laos northern economic development.

Nong Kiau, Laos: Poised for Change

Ban Samsaath, Laos – a traditional weaving village
Restaurants and hotels, Southeast Asia, Travel, Travel and Food, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

New Southeast Asian Cuisine: from Galangal to Philly Cheese Steak

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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 Tom
Arthouse 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 ingredients
Chef 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:

Hellenic News of America

Travel Pen and Palate Argentina

Original World Insights

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Cultural Sites, Photography, Travel, USA Travel

Las Vegas: where neon became art.

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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.

Enjoy all my articles as Feature Writer for Travel & Food Suite101.com, International Dining Examiner and Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner for Examiner.com

Food, Southeast Asia, Travel, Travel and Food

Southeast Asian Restaurants on a Mission: Feeding Body and Soul

 Four cities, three countries, four restaurants serving superior food, providing community training and accepting reservations – you’ll need one.

Place setting at Koto, Hanoi, Vietnam
Carrot 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.

Makphet Restaurant/Friends-International, Vientiane, Laos

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.

Thailand, Laos & Vietnam: Southeast Asian Restaurants on a Mission

Enjoy all my articles at Suite101.com, International Dining Examiner and Philadelphia Fine Dining Examiner for Examiner.com

Bangkok 2012
European Travel, Food, Historic Sites, Travel and Food

Borough Market, London England: the Empire Lives on in Food

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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.

 

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Cultural Sites, Food, Restaurants and hotels, Travel and Food, USA Travel

New Native American Cuisine at Kai, Sheraton Wild Horse Pass

“Welcome to my home. Good to see you. May the Creator be with you,”

Ginger Songbird Martin, Cultural Concierge at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, explains that the Pima and Maricopa people have no words for “hello” and “goodbye.” Rather the greeting is, “Welcome to my home. Good to see you. May the Creator be with you,” and the salutation, “Hope to see you soon.”

Wild Horse Pass Resort and Spa is a luxurious adobe-like structure set amidst a lush desert landscape on the banks of the Gila River. It’s as perfect a classic southwest setting as it gets.

table at Kai, Yukon Gold Potato hor’s doeuvre

Kai is the Resort’s award winning restaurant and an innovator of Native American cuisine. The menu is a fusion of traditional native foods, locally sourced, time honored classic preparations and stunningly imaginative reductions, pairings of grains, vegetables and use of herbs.

Kai Grilled Buffalo Steak and assorted local cheeses, dried fruits, nuts and seeds

 Articles and recipes:

“Hope to see you soon.”
Cultural Sites, Food, Travel and Food, USA Travel

Geechee Kunda Cultural Center and Low Country Cuisine

Americans want to believe we’re a homogeneous society. Wake up, we’re not. A visit to the Geeche Kunda Cultural Center explodes another cultural myth.

The Geechee Kunda Cultural Center, Riceboro, Georgia

African victims of the slave trade brought with them the cooking traditions of their homeland creating what we know today as Low Country Cuisine.

(clockwise) smoked chicken, rice and black beans, Crab Boil, Boiled Peanuts

Read more:

Geechee Kunda Cultural Center: Georgia’s “Lost” Culture Revived

and

Boiled Peanuts and Georgia’s Geechee Gullah Low Country Cuisine

Cultural Sites, Food, Restaurants and hotels, Southeast Asia, Travel, Travel and Food, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Luang Prabang, Laos: Ban Phousy Market & Tamarind Cafe

View from, and interior of, Tamarind Cafe, Luang Prabang, Laos

Long the ancient royal capital of Laos’ many national permutations, Luang Prabang was a favorite of the French during their century of domination with their architecture, but not their cuisine, influencing and complimenting the Laotians own superb sensibilities.  The city is stunning, serene and a foodie mecca.

Ban Phousy Morning Market, Luang Prabang, Laos

Laos and its food is fascinating, relaxed, less spicy and refined.

Ban Phousy Market, Luang Prabang, Laos

In a city known for its cooking classes, Tamarind offers unique full day experiences starting with a shopping expedition to the morning market.

spices, herbs and rice: Luang Prabang, Laos

 Read more at Suite101 – my latest Featured Article on the Food & Drink page’s Culinary Tourism section, including the recipe.

Luang Prabang, Laos: Tamarind Cafe’s Stuffed Lemongrass