Deep End Dining: Great Food Blog

by Erik Olsen on

Megan McCormick seems to have a pretty fine life-style. Not only
does she get to blog about food, but she’s done a bunch of traveling
with the show called Globe Trekker, where she works as
a “presenter”. Megan has been all over Asia and Europe, including trips to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China,
Inner Mongolia, France, Belgium, England and Ireland, Java and Sumatra. Whew. Her food blog, which she runs with Eddie
Lin, is called
Deep End
Dining and is a superb site providing advice and reviews on dishes and places. If you never thought your mouth
would water reading about sea cucumbers, well,
read
this.

Obviously these folks have got some cred. Eddie’s writing will be featured in the Best Food Writing 2005
anthology.

Angkor Wat’s FCC

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just a hop, skip, and jump away from Angkor Wat, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) makes for complete slightly affordable luxury retreat while staying in
Cambodia. Making the July pages of Wallpaper*, the accommodation has
29 rooms, two suites with polished concrete floors and open-plan bathrooms. Catering to those wandering folks
with modern tastes the FCC was once a vacation home to the former French
governor. I wouldn’t mind staying here a night or two after chasing some of Cambodia’s more budget places. 

Sri Lankan World Spice Summit

by Adrienne Wilson on

For me, the tear-drop shaped country of Sri Lanka is synonymous to words likes spices, cinnamon,
and cardamom. The country supplies about 90 percent of the world’s cinnamon supply also
being a large supplier of cloves, nutmeg, pepper and mace. So it’s no surprise that they would host its first
World Spice Summit this October 7-16, 2005. The summit
will be used to promote Sri Lanka’s long association with spices as far back as the 15th century. Other
countries to participate in the week long spicy foods festivities include others with a history of setting taste buds
on fire like, Mexico, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand.

I heart extremely spicy foods, but for those of you who can’t take the hotness make sure you take several tissues to
pat the sweaty forehead, wipe the runny nose and drink tons of cold water to cool you down. I’m sure Sri
Lanka’s temperatures won’t help the very heated affair. 

The Allure of Noto

by Erik Olsen on


While we’re on the topic of uncrowded places in places you least expect…

Consider Japan. Now here’s a country with a population almost half that of the United States, and yet all these folks
are squished into a country mass about the size of California. That’s crowded. But

in the New York Times, we learn about the Noto Peninsula, an area about midway along the western coast of Japan and
200 miles or so northwest of Tokyo where a “raw, unspoiled Japan” still exists.

The photos of Noto are beautiful, and a little Googling
reveals that Noto is an excellent kayaking
spot, with long rocky shore and place to pull up to walk local markets.

Hidden Italian Islands

by Erik Olsen on

In places like Europe and the US, it’s hard to find anyplace “hidden” these days. Most places that have any value as
destinations are peopled with tourists, and in worst cases, riddled with awful trinket and knick-knack shops.

But according to
this piece
in Travel and Leisure there are some fine island destinations in Italy that are close to being “hidden”. Michael
Gross goes in search of these  goes in search of these “rustic hideaways”, places where you’re not going to get by
on English alone, and where you better be ready to be happy just hanging out. The Tuscan Archipelago is one such place,
a cozy and quiet necklace of islands where you can find solace, few crowds, and, of course (it’s Italy, after all),
amazing food. Another destination reviewed here is the Pontines, an island group I’d never even heard of (yeah, I guess
I’m not going to win the geographic Olympics any time soon).

T and L’s recs can be expensive, so take care, but there are some fine travel ideas here.