Crete

Six of the Best of Chania

Somewhere between the White Mountains and the blue of the Cretan Sea resides an enchantress, so claims the official tourism website in rather evocative fashion. We wouldn’t disagree, which is why we’re sharing our pick of six of the best of Chania. […]

Europe

Is food in Britain boring?

Food in Britain is boring. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard a variation of this statement in online travel discussions. When I hear the evidence generally provided to back it up, I tend to wonder about the travel habits of those who make it. […]

Food & drink

Going local with gastronomy or doing a Mumford

What’s available locally has a strong bearing on gastronomic specialities in an area. And what those local specialities are tends to be what restaurants do best. In the hills and mountains these dishes are usually meat based; at the coast they’re whatever salty gifts the sea offers. […]

Alentejo

It is simply Alentejo, not the new Tuscany

Driving through an endless savanna where mounds rather than hills rolled lazily toward infinity, a travel article I’d read in The Guardian a couple of years ago popped into my head. It was called ‘A foodie tour of Portugal’s Alentejo’ and claimed that Portugal’s largest region was being touted as the new Tuscany. […]

Food & drink

7 steps to culinary enlightenment

If you’re the sort of person who, in culinary terms, likes and dislikes exactly the same things you enjoyed as a child, stop reading. This will be meaningless. On the other hand, if your palate has evolved over the years, then you might want to try this little exercise yourself. […]

Europe

Choco frito, the taste of Setúbal

The obsession with choco frito is said to have started in the days when cuttlefish had no commercial value. So the fishermen who sailed the waters south of the Tagus, from the Sado Estuary down to Sines, tended to keep chocos for themselves […]