Next week is Food Week on Gadling: Submit your photos

by Grant Martin on


It is well-known on the Gadling team that I’m a terrible foodie, and it’s the subject of a great deal of jest (I’m looking at you, David Farley). There’s no doubt that I enjoy heading out with a group of friends for a creative night of eating and drinking, but for me, it’s more about the social aspects rather than the gastronomic.

With that said, I’ve been either on the sidelines or in the press box for most of this food revolution, from the days of Iron Chef and Rachael Ray to our current gastrocompetitive culture. Just last week as I sat at my local Intelligentsia I heard a young woman bragging about how nearly-orgasmic her upcoming meal at Grant Achatz’s Next would be. Delicious? No doubt. $300 delicious? Up to you.

Indulge in it or not, food is a critical part of the travel experience. We travel through our food, by eating it, by remembering the tastes and aromas and experiences from the planet. In a way, it can define the very reason and color of our journey.

That’s why we’re launching food week at Gadling next week, a celebration of all things food about travel, from the richest, most exotic fare in the far reaches of India to the simple pleasure of eating KFC with plastic gloves in Hong Kong.

On Friday, October 21 we’d like to host a series of photos from our readers on the topic of the most exotic foods from across the planet. This could be your favorite food, your least favorite food, you eating your favorite food or any of the above. Just please promise us that the picture is original and is okay to publish on Gadling (a part of the Huffington Post Media Group). Image sizes between 580px and 1000px wide are best and in jpg format. You can email your submission to editor[-at-]gadling{dot}com, and we’ll publish our favorites on Friday, October 21.

Need some inspiration? Check out some of our favorites below.


Matador Network‘s CEO Ross Borden on a fishing trip outside of Rotorua, New Zealand


Blogger Jeremy Kressmann trying out the duck tongue in Hong Kong.


Gadling friend and food advisor Jodi Ettenberg experimenting with the Baba-Nyonya laksa in Malaysia.


Lunch salad? Yes please.


Occasional Gadling contributor Celeste Brash (@radioceleste) considering rat on a stick


Among the finer tacos in the Zocalo of Mexico City, Mexico


Blogger Libby Zay roasting guinea pigs in Quilotoa, Ecuador

Ajungo, the new social network platform just for travelers

by Jessica Festa on

Sick of searching through advice sites and hearing reviews from who only knows? Wish you could connect with other travelers about past or upcoming trips and events? Love social networking but wish you could interact with others in your travel niche? Then there is a brand new social media website just for travelers that brings together all of these platforms into one site.

Ajungo, created by Ben Barton and Steve Shea, is a brand new networking site that allows travelers to connect before, during, and after a trip. Here is how it works:

1) Create a profile and link all of your social networking sites. What this does is allows the site to funnel through your social networking platforms to pull information and funnel it around specific
destinations.

2) Find others who have been to your destination of choice and look through their posted trip or ask them for advice. Or, you can find others who will be in your destination of choice and plan to meet up or travel together.

3) Create your trip canvas, which consists of enabling the sites real-time travel guide feature so that the site can pull your photos and updates while you’re on your trip. This allows other travelers to learn from your experience as well as acts like a blog or trip journal by keeping your trip memories organized and sharing them with friends.

The goal of the site is to make travel more social as well as more comfortable for people going to new destinations. And, if there is any information that you do not want shared, the site will not post it without your permission.

Make connections with travelers, view their trips, find travel buddies, or just interact with others in the travel community. It is all possible on Ajungo.

Interesting indoor spaces around the world

by Laurel Miller on

I love the outdoors, to the extent that I tend to bypass or overlook exceptional indoor spaces when I’m traveling or recounting a great trip. Fortunately, Lonely Planet author/former Gadling contributor Leif Pettersen’s recent list on LP’s website has reminded me that—as many a grandmother has said—beauty is on the inside.

Pettersen says only in recent years has he developed a special appreciation for the indoors. He had ample time to contemplate his new interest “during two sadistically cold weeks last winter when I voluntarily confined myself to the Minneapolis Skyway System as a livability experiment for an article I was working on.”

He’s since started a list of “singular, practical” indoor spaces (traveloguebookdealforthewin!) of note, including (obviously) Minneapolis’ Skyway System (“The largest contiguous skyway system in the world, connecting what may be the largest contiguous indoor space anywhere.”); Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar; Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure; NYC’s Grand Central Terminal (aka Grand Central Station); St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and the Queen Mary 2. Here’s to keeping warm indoors this winter.

[Photo credit: Flickr user davedehetre]

Explore Thailand right from TriBeCa, New York

by Jessica Festa on

On October 17, 2011, from 6:30-9:30 PM, ProjectExplorer.org will debut their fifth film series, “Sawasdee, Thailand”. The film will be in high definition, so if you’ve never walked down the bustling streets of Bangkok or relaxed on a beach in Khao Lak, here is your chance to get a feeling of what it’s like to visit Thailand. The event is being held at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and is being co-hosted by Andrew McCarthy, travel writer and actor, Jenny M. Buccos, the ProjectExplorer.org’s series creator, and another special guest.

Not only is this event a chance for attendees to get a closer look at what Thailand has to offer, it’s also an opportunity to network with other like-minded, travel enthusiasts. There will also be various raffles, giving people a chance to win travel-themed prizes, tickets to live shows, jewelry, lessons, and more. Interested parties should click here to purchase tickets to the event.

ProjectExplorer.org is a nonprofit organization founded by Jenny M. Buccos that produces free, online global travel series. The aim of their work is to expose primary and secondary school students and educators to people and places that they have never seen before. Through their website, teachers and students have access to over 250 videos, more 1,200 images, and over 150 cross-curricular lesson plans.

One man dances in beautiful and remote locations all over the world

by Jessica Festa on




When I first watched this video, “Dance Like Nobody is Watching”, my first instinct was to try to see how many of the places in the montage I recognized. The next time I watched, I became entranced by the talent of Ki’une as he danced and recorded himself in different locations around the world. By my third time watching, my travel itch was feeling like it definitely needed a good scratching.

When I asked what some of the destinations were that he traveled to in order to create this piece, Ki’une responded that he could name about half the regions off the top of his head. Not surprising, since the video encompasses a vast array of locations. Some of these include National Parks such as “Yosemite, Yellowstone, Redwood, Giant Sequoia, Olympic, Cascades, Banff, Badlands and Jasper.” Other regions you may recognize are “Squamish, Vancouver, Toronto, Capilano, Kyoto, Osaka, Quebec City, Hong Kong, provincial parks in Ontario, Oregon Coast, all around California, all around U.S. Midwest, and Kentucky.”

While I can not say for sure what you will feel when watching this video, it would be hard not to feel something. Lissa Rankin, MD, a motivational speaker and founder of Pink Medicine Revolutionary posted on Care2, a healthy living website, “I cried when I watched this video, not just because it was so beautiful, but because it’s such a potent visual reminder of how I define a healthy life. This guy is putting it all out there. He’s living a dream. Taking a risk. Dancing his heart out.”

What will your reaction be?