Farsighted Fly Girl

Fall represents harvest time in many countries. I'm thrilled to return to Spain  this week to witness the famous grape harvests of Rueda and Ribera Del Duero.   I will be hosted by the Tourism Office of Spain and I'll be exploring the provinces of Burgos and Valladolid and the region of Castile-Leon. My itinerary features vineyards, castles and lots of restaurants! Spanish wine country holds a lot of history and cultural traditions that I will be  highlighting so please look out for posts and lots of wine pix!

I like rum. The smooth, spicy flavor enhances anything it touches, from cakes to cola. Now, I'm not an expert rum connoisseur like my friend Steve at Uncommon Caribbean,  but I know my way around most of the Caribbean's rums. So I was surprised that I had never tasted St. Maarten's signature guavaberry rum.   Wandering into the main Guavaberry emporium in Philipsburg,  I sipped a sample and immediately fell in love with this sweetly potent folk liquor that hold the title of National Liqueur of Dutch and French St. Martin. Guavaberries grow high in the hills of St. Maarten and are related to clove. No, the berries don't taste anything like guavas but when they are aged for the liquor, they taste spicy and woodsy. The Guavaberry company makes lots of flavored rums like passionfruit and lime but I prefer the guavaberry classic, especially in the form of a guavaberry colada. If you haven't downed a bottle of Guavaberry rum, you haven't really traveled ...

Despite the stereotypes, African food is as varied and amazing as the continent itself. I'm lucky that I live in a city that offers an array of West, East and North African cuisine so I arrived in Ghana expecting to enjoy classic dishes like waakye  (black eyed peas with rice), banku  (fermented corn and cassava dough formed into balls to accompany fish or meat) and heaps of fresh fish. What I wasn't prepared for was the sheer variety and complexity of Ghanaian cuisine . Yes, there were the classics that I was familiar with but there were also variations according to region and city as well as modern interpretations and fusion meals. I was overwhelmed with the culture and history that I experienced in Ghana and I was also overstuffed with food every single day of my travels. I ate a lot.  I discovered that my favorite was palava sauce , a  savory sauce made with kontomire  greens that are little like mustard greens and bitter melon seeds, served with fish. H...

I don't discuss it too often but I'm kind of, sort of, a healthy food fan. I don't drink coffee or anything caffeinated, don't eat meat and rarely indulge in fast food. I'm basically a pescatarian who sometimes eats poultry. So aside from my love of sugar (which has lessened over the years) I try to keep it healthy. On most of my travels, I like to sample the local cuisine while keeping it as fresh and wholesome as possible. While I was in Turks and Caicos,  that meant fish, veggie patties and salad since I wasn't able to try the national dish of peas and grits . But I was lucky to discover another local specialty; kombucha in exciting tropical flavors was being hand crafted by the owners of my Airbnb. Kombucha or booch, as locals call it, is fermented tea with loads of probiotics and health benefits.  As a tea connoisseur, I love drinking kombucha as an alternative to my regular teas. Regina and Jack run Island Raw  to create juices and kombucha from loca...

Connecting with the landscape and native plants of a destination is one of my favorite activities when I travel so I was excited to have a personalized farm-to table experience in St.Lucia . But I had no idea just how pivotal the visit would be.  The I-tal , organic farm-to-table experience  at The Body Holiday is an absolute must. St. Lucia is an especially lush, verdant island so wandering through the restaurant's garden with Chef Damien would have been fun even if we weren't gathering food to eat. He pointed out essential plants like callaloo, breadfruit and papaya and explained local uses for herbs like peppermint, basil and rosemary. I picked a big basket of callaloo, which is one of my beloved island veggies. The sun was so intense that the plants buoyant leaves started wilting as soon as I cut them. Our group picked baskets and baskets of produce for our vegan meal. And that's not where the participation ended. We diced tomatoes, eggplants, carro...

Montreal is a foodie paradise. Whatever cuisine or dining experience you desire, you will find an excellent version in Montreal. The restaurant scene bubbles with cafes, chic dining spots and casual eateries on every other corner. But there are a few culinary requirements for every visitor. You must try an authentic Montreal bagel and you must sample poutine. Bagels are a very serious thing in Montreal. They were brought by Eastern European Jews in the early 20th century and they quickly grew into an essential Montreal food. Now I'm not a huge bagel fan but Montreal bagels differ from the more familiar New York bagel. Montreal bagels are smaller, sweeter and less doughy. They are cooked in a honey water solution and then baked in a wood fire oven. They are not meant to be sliced but are munched warm from the oven and dunked in flavored creme cheese if you like. There's a contentious rivalry between Fairmount and St, Viateur Bagel Shops and locals pledge their alleg...

Many visitors head to the French Quarter when they want to sample the famously flavorful New Orleans cuisine but I prefer to eat where the locals go. So I asked Zydeco star and foodie Sean Ardoin for his recommendations and he insisted that Willie Mae's is the ultimate NOLA restaurant. We rolled up to Willie Mae's restaurant in Treme and the long line of patient customers outside the spot demonstrated that Sean told no lies. We waited for about 35 minutes as a waitress came out to estimate how many tables could be filled every 20 minutes. But once we were inside the historic restaurant that opened in 1957, we could see that the wait was worth it. There's a homey feel to Willie Mae's, like you're eating at your grandma's house. The food arrived quickly and the crunch and flavor of the fried chicken helped me understand why Sean called it the best in New Orleans. We shoveled in green beans, beans and rice and biscuits and my family, all of whom...

The Yucatan is famous for dazzling beaches but the bustling capital city of Merida  makes you forget that you're surrounded by coastline. So I was taken aback to glimpse the pearly sands of Progreso Beach just 20 minutes outside of the city center. Old fishing boats decorate the end of the beach and vendors stroll with Mexican candies and fruits. Palapas line the beach for fresh seafood but I focused on the flawless stretch and gentle waves. The beach was quiet with only a few strolling locals but on weekends, it's a popular spot. I splashed through the Gulf of Mexico and lounged on the sand until I couldn't ignore the prospect of fresh fish any longer. Yucatan cuisine is one of my favorites so I immediately ordered pescado tikin-xic,  a regional fave of fish seasoned with achiote and other herbs and baked in banana leaves. Nothing beats the taste of freshly caught fish with an ocean breeze washing over you. Afterwards, I meandered down the malecon  and soak...

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain and known for it's pretty palm-tree lined streets and mix of old world and modern architecture. But I was most excited about Valencia's other claim to fame as the birthplace of paella. If you're like me, you've enjoyed countless pans of paella and eagerly order it whenever you see it on a menu. Well, I took two cooking classes in Valencia (I'll explore the details in later posts) and what I quickly discovered is that what passes for paella in the U.S. is rarely the real thing. There are so many details that are needed to create authentic paella but the most significant is an open fire of orange wood. That's right, paella is a rural tradition and it is cooked in front of  baraccas  or small country houses. I visited the small farm and restaurant of   Barraca Toni Montoliu . I picked the vegetables that you see Toni cooking over the orange wood in the video. The flavor that the open fire and orange wood gives to paell...

In remembrance of the nine people who lost their lives in the Charleston Massacre, this is my second re-blogged post about South Carolina Gullah culture, which holds a strong connection with Mother Emmanuel AME Church. Like the resilient Gullah culture that continues to live on after hundreds of years, the spirit and names of    DePayne Middleton Doctor, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, The Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, The Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons Sr., Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson will also live on. Learning about a destination's culture and history are important aspects of the travel experience for me. I enjoy gathering insight into a place from a cultural perspective. One of the most fascinating culture's I've ever encountered is Gullah culture. This week, I have a feature story about Gullah culture in  Travel Muse . The piece focuses on Gullah history in Hilton Head and St.Helena, South Carolina but the culture extends way ...

The quickest way to understand a place is to dive into the culture. In Stockholm, I was extremely lucky to be invited to experience the Swedish ritual of fika . An important part of Swedish life that involves enjoying coffee and pastries with friends, family or co-workers, fika reveals the Swedish love of home life and sweets. Strolling the narrow streets of Stockholm, I noticed that every cafe was crammed with people lingering over coffee and big, puffy, rolls. Turns out those rolls, called Semla, are a hugely popular part of the Lenten ritual of fattening up before the fast. Only people seem to gobble more Semlor (plural) than they practice Lenten fasting these days. I was fortunate to arrive in February, just when the Semla craze stirs up and even more fortunate to have two Stockholm based friends, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom  and Germaine Thomas  to invite me to fika  and guide me through the tradition.   Fika (pronounced fee-cah)  is like a coffee br...

It's a new year and I've decided to revive the popular Taste Trippin' series where I take readers on culinary journeys around Chicago. The polar vortex has returned and there's no place cozier than the tropical confines of a tiki bar. Filled with all of the kitsch and fun that's required for an authentic tiki experience, Three Dots And A Dash is the city's best tiki bar since Trader Vic's. With a nod to Chicago's speakeasy past, the bar is hard to spot if you don't know where to look. Despite a respectable Clark Street address, you can only access the lounge through a dark alley that provides little assurance that you're not headed down to a den of debauchery and crime. You're required to make your way down a staircase adorned with a collection of eerie skulls, shown above.   Pushing through a door and a velvet curtain, the lounge is finally revealed, complete with ukuleles, thatched roof bar and tikis from the original Trader V...

I'm still absorbing the whirlwind of sights, sounds and tastes that encompass the allure of Macao. It is unlike anyplace that I've experienced before and I think it will take a little time for me to completely translate my perspective. When I think about what stood out, it's definitely the unusual blend of Chinese and Portuguese cultures. I experienced them separately and together in the special Macanese style, beginning with a stunning Chinese cultural dinner at the Sheraton Macao, Cotai Central . It started with the Qin dynasty warrior pictured above. There were two of them, silently guarding the the dining room. And why would a room need guarding you ask? I thought the same thing until I walked into this; a spectacle of sumptuous red fabrics, orchids and fine china, complete with a stage. A six-course feast awaited us, starting with slices of sucking pig, marinated cucumber and wasabi-infused jellyfish, pictured above. The dishes represented traditional Chi...