If you’ve ever thought, “Gee, chocolate bars would be great if they weren’t cluttered up with nuts and caramel,” then Max Brenner’s is the place for you. The Australian chain of chocolate cafes (which also has shops in New York, Philadelphia and several other non-Aussie places) has the genius to serve chocolate in its most […]

Warning: Those with squeamish stomachs might wish to skip this post. I’m just saying. Throughout my week in Peru, one dish popped out on almost every menu: cuy. I saw it on chalkboard lists on roadside stands in the Andes. I spotted it on fancy menus in Lima hotels. It came to seem like a […]

I’m a bit behind on listening to my podcasts of the always-fascinating CBC Radio One foreign-affairs show “Dispatches,” so I just heard an intriguing report from late March about the class differences in fast food in Pakistan. Western tourists (myself included) are often convinced that one way to get into the “authentic” culture of a […]

Quick, now: Name a use for nutmeg. I’m willing to wager the vast majority of the people reading this post immediately answered, “Eggnog!” And while the spice is indeed a vital topping for the Christmas beverage, it’s used in lots of other things, too, from cookies to sausages. You’ll even find nutmeg and its sister […]

I discovered the St. Kilda Pier Kiosk cafe by accident. I’d strolled up the long pier in the beachfront Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda just to check out the view. And quite a view it is. The fact that I could munch on a decent, inexpensive sandwich while absorbing the scenery was a bonus. To […]

I’m just back from Wales and will put up some longer posts about my trip soon, but in the meantime I had to share my latest pastry addiction with you: Welsh cakes. Yummy-looking, yes? They’re a bit like flattened scones and they are maddeningly addictive. I came to crave one at every tea break during […]

When you think of Swiss chocolate, you probably think of slabs of sweet, light milk chocolate. Or perhaps you think of the global reach of Nestlé, the iconic Swiss company headquartered in Vevey, a small city overlooking Lake Geneva. But do you think of dark chocolate combined with lemongrass, pepper or wasabi? Likely not. Chocolatier […]

OK, this is a first for this blog: a recipe! But when I recently stayed at Tara Farms, a bed and breakfast in Brenham, Texas, I fell in love with their pecan pie muffins (even though mine were made with walnuts, they still had a pecan pie vibe). I fell so in love, in fact, […]

I arrived in Richmond, B.C., this morning for a conference jet lagged and hungry. So after checking into the conference hotel, the River Rock Casino Resort, I asked the concierge in the casino where I could find some good Asian food within a short walk. Even though the hotel lies on the edge of Richmond’s […]

My husband and I stood uncertainly on the front step of a tall, 17th-century canal house in Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District. We’d never done anything like this before, and we weren’t at all sure how it was going to turn out. We’d even come up with a signal we could use if one of […]