World food
World food and the local cuisine, is for us one of the essential elements of travel. It is one of the most important ways of understanding local culture and therefore a huge part of our enjoyment of a new destination. We put real effort into discovering where the locals like to eat, what makes up the local cuisine, and consequently getting away from the tourist areas. It’s fair to say we would try virtually anything. Probably the most unusual food we have eaten is insects. Street food, bar food, upmarket restaurants and dodgy dives all have a part to play in this journey of discovery. As we seek out new experiences we are in search of even more unusual food. You won’t get these experiences from hiding in your hotel!
- Central America, History, Independent travel, Photography, Travel Blog, Walking, Wildlife, World food
Spiders, Snakes & Reggae: Tales Of The Caribbean
Cahuita village sits neatly on a small rounded headland jutting out into the Caribbean from the lush green jungle, with two very different beaches either side of its centre, Playa Negra and Playa Blanca. As the names would suggest, one consists of black volcanic sand, the other the pristine white sand of tropical paradise, the latter inside the national park. In between the two, rocky deposits of dead coral form a natural barrier. After a couple of false starts we find some properly tasty Caribbean food, our enjoyment of which is enhanced by the live music of a local character nicknamed the “Latin Hendrix”. We’d actually read about this guy…
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Quepos: Animal Magic & Other Stories
By the end of our second day in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, we have covered every inch of its trails and hiked to every corner, and had many wonderful close encounters with amazing and exotic creatures. For our third day in the Park, we hire a guide to see if we can dig deeper and see things which our untrained eyes may have missed. But first, that second unguided day is truly magical. It really is very hard to put into words the unbridled joy of seeing exotic wildlife at close quarters, and marvelling not just at this wonderful, environmentally conscious country, but also at the magnificence of nature. In…
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London: Simply The Best
We live only about 65 miles from central London, we’ve literally made hundreds of visits between us, we’ve travelled to many cities in many countries, but London still stands out as one of the great destinations of the world, somewhere where it’s impossible not to have a good time. And this week, we certainly had a good time…. Tina Turner in her heyday was a magnificent performer, the shows I was lucky enough to witness back then were just plain brilliant, and we still both enjoy giving Tina a spin on nights in: so it was with some considerable excitement that we entered the Aldwych Theatre in Drury Lane to…
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Padstow And The Rick Stein Phenomenon
Having been a regular visitor to Padstow over so many years, it’s been interesting to watch the influence of internationally famous chef Rick Stein develop and evolve over the years. Its most obvious effect has been to create a micro economy in a county which generally offers low employment prospects. Rick Stein was actually born in Oxfordshire, but relocated to Padstow at the age of 24, having fallen in love with the area on family stays at their nearby holiday home, even though one such visit ended in tragedy by way of his father’s suicide. Mobile discotheques and night clubs were among Stein’s early failed businesses before the first restaurant…
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Journeys In Greek Food
Our very good friend Terrie, food specialist and food historian, always wants to know more about our food experiences on our travels, so this post is for you, Terrie. Taking time to travel through a country brings with it interesting regional variations to cuisine, and our recent Greek trip was a good example. Some dishes stayed pretty constant, some showed subtle changes as we moved through the regions, others were peculiar to a specific region and disappeared from menus as we moved on. Feast your eyes on this selection….
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Last Of The Islands: Marvellous Milos
We have mixed emotions when we discover that our last ferry journey of this long Greek sojourn is a hulking great catamaran named Champion Jet 2. On the one hand, it’s disappointing that our final crossing won’t be on a quaint island ferry; on the other, there’s a gale blowing and the seas are extremely rough. The powerful craft ploughs through the heaving waves with barely a roll. And so on to Milos which, if we hadn’t been forced to change our plans back in the first week of August, would have been our third island call rather than our last. After Milos we will take six days touring a new…
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Paros In Perspective
Our conclusion after spending a few days on Paros and touring most of the island via hire car is that we probably chose the wrong place to stay. Exquisitely picturesque as it is, the truth is that there are some lovely little corners of this island away from the fat prices of fine dining restaurants and Gucci stockists of well heeled Naoussa and away from the quasi-city buzz of port town Parikia. Tucked away elsewhere are the beautiful hilltop villages of Lefkes (yes a tourist trap but wonderfully quaint) and Kostos (much more still a locals’ village), but take a drive around the coastline and you unearth some seaside getaways…
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Chalki: Less Wind, More Chill
Sophia and her friend, the Greek islands’ answer to Mrs Brown and Winnie McGoogan, are sitting on the steps chatting, as they usually are, as we say our goodbyes and head off to the ferry port. “Always take your key”, she had told us when we arrived, “because I never know what time I sleep”. Such is island life. After the Greece mainland, the large island of Crete, and the pleasant buzz of Karpathos, we are now looking for something more remote, more peaceful, so with our first glimpse of what lays before us as the ferry pulls into the tiny island of Chalki, the smallest inhabited island of the…
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Karpathos: The Windy Island
As the early morning ferry leaves its white surf wake in a curve away from Siteia harbour, we bid farewell to Crete after a varied and interesting two weeks on the island. It’s just over a month now since we left the UK and the island hopping that we had envisaged to be earlier on this journey now begins in earnest: if our plans don’t change we are due to call in to at least ten islands in the next four weeks. Our last night on Crete is in Siteia, which we thought was just a port town but turns out to be so much more. Our one night stay…
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Cafes And Culture: Five Days In Thessaloniki
How typically Greek it is of our host to thoughtfully provide stocks of decent coffee and proper filters for an apartment where the coffee machine is broken and doesn’t work. You have to love the Greeks! Our other quirk here is a shower which, when placed in its holder, slowly drops down so as to shower the back wall instead of your body. Thus, to get my head in the water, it’s necessary to hold the shower head in its holder with one hand whilst approaching the water face up. I can’t help but think that I must be the spitting image of a naked Liam Gallagher coming to the…
