Cooking Tours

by Neil Woodburn on

With the rise of celebrity chefs and the 24-hour Food Network, more and more travelers are incorporating a new-found love for cooking into their international travels. 

A recent article in Time Magazine tracks a family’s journey to Oaxaca, Mexico for a week-long cooking course that embraces the wonderful flavors of the region’s tasty foods–such as spicy mole negro and mango-jicama salad.

Mexico is a popular destination for culinary tours, but quite frankly, the world is your oyster, as they say, when it comes to international cooking classes.  For example,  A Cook’s Tour–just one of a handful of companies that specialize in such trips–is offering more than 30 classes in the upcoming year to such locations as Italy, France, South Africa, and of course, Mexico. 

“A Taste of White Truffles” scheduled for October in Piedmont, Italy has really got my drool going.  Mmmmmmm.

Pology – June Issue

by Adrienne Wilson on

Should you be having an easy going kind of Saturday evening with nothing on your agenda except doing the laundry and viewing a few World Cup games you may also wish to swing by Pology online. We’ve mentioned it before here at Gadling, but the June issue is so darn good I felt the need to give it a plug once more. I usually head over to get the latest in culture topics around the planet, but today I was only there for the eye candy. Start with Thailand in pictures where you’ll find women in hill tribes playing on laptops and a smiling toothless Thai woman. It may sound odd here, but you’ll need to see it for yourself. I haven’t seen such a beautiful well-rounded batch of photos from the area in a long while. That alone makes it worth the visit.

Word for the Travel Wise (05/14/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Word around town is it’s Mother’s Day and since we here at Gadling love mom’s worldwide I figured I’d provide you with a number of ways to wish your own mum the happiest of days. The New York Public Library online has a list of greetings and expressions for several holidays so use it today and then prepare for Father’s day just around the corner. Here’s a just few from their list:

  • Catalan – Feliç Dia de la Mare
  • Dutch – Gelukkig Moederdag
  • Hebrew – Yom ha’em sameah
  • Italian – Buona festa della Mamma
  • Japanese – Haha nohi omedeto
  • Norwegian – Mors dag
  • Russian –  S dnëm Materi

And again, Happy Mummies day to all the mummies of the world!!!!

Secretplaces.com

by Karen Walrond on

So, the other day, I mentioned I’d stumbled across Unusual Hotels of the World — a website featuring … well, unusual hotels of the world.  Well, I found a similar site, with more of a niche market:  Secretplaces.com.

This website features beautiful little hideaways in five countries:  Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, and Morocco.  According to the site, the founders, Michael Bendixen and Beatriz Parra Stucky, profile “a superb collection of hotels that stand for something very special, be it their excellent service, tasteful decoration, singular architecture or beautiful surroundings.”

Definitely worth a look if your next vacation will be taking you to one of these five countries. 

Birthplace of Pizza

by Neil Woodburn on

Frankly, I
was a bit disappointed with the pizza I ate in Italy.  The crust was too thick, there was only a little sauce, and
really no cheese at all.  I only realized after leaving the country what I had done wrong: I was eating from food
stands (I was a poor college student at the time) and I never visited Naples, the true home of the pizza pie. 

Times reporter Anthony Capella, is much smarter than I was.  He headed straight to Naples to introduce his
16-year-old son to a slew of perfect pizzerias—and he shares the very best with us, as well as the most historic. 

Along the way, we discover that Naples is also the birthplace of fast food—according to Capella—due to
its abundance of other goodies such as fried donuts and sfogliatelle (cream-filled pastries).

In fact, the whole article is an orgy of hearty Italian victuals that make the reader drool with every
mouth-watering adjective and variety of cheese which Capella so lovingly incorporates in his writing.  His
inspiration has obviously come from the food itself, so passionately prepared by Neapolitan chefs—as it has been
for centuries.  Mmmmmm….