Travel Confidently When You Pack This Book

By Anna Dantoni - This is the month for firming up those summer travel plans with hotel, flight and cruise ship reservations, a draft itinerary, and a list of those famous restaurants you want to try during your adventures. There’s a book that should be tucked into your carry-on luggage. It’s a paperback with a long title, Let’s Eat Out with Celiac/Coeliac & Food Allergies! and its a reference for special diets that will...

Regional Celebrity Chefs Excel at Cookbooks

By Marsha Fottler - One of the best things about travel lately for culinary adventurers is the plethora of wonderful regional cookbooks written by local celebrity chefs. Collecting one in each city that you visit is a sure way to maintain a connection with the cuisine of that area. You cook from the book and recall good times. A regional cookbook is a memory keeper and a practical guide to expanding your repertoire in your...

“Heigh-ho the derry-o/the cheese stands alone.”...

By Herb Gardener - While singing “The Farmer in the Dell” to my two year old, Fauna, I was struck by the peculiar “cheese” reference above. It sounded like part of a coded exchange between spies on a park bench. And besides, cheese is a convivial food that belongs in the company of others. In my free associative state I thought about Steven Raichlen, the live-fire master who, for me, stands alone as preeminent exponent and...

Holiday Cooking from Beautiful Belize

By Marsha Fottler - You only have to watch a few episodes of the HGTV series House Hunters International to realize how popular Belize has become as a travel destination, location for a second home or as a landing place for American and British retirees. The beautiful beaches, relatively low cost of living, great variety of scenery and the food beckon people daily to this Central American country of of 321,000 people. The...

Bringing Portland, Maine Flavors Home

By Anna Dantoni - Anyone who has ever spent a table-hopping weekend or a longer culinary vacation in Portland, Maine, appreciates and wants to join the chorus of praise for that city’s reputation as a genuine eating town. Portland is famous for its restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, seafood shacks, dives and diners. Like New Orleans, it’s hard to get a bad meal in that town. Portland’s proximity to the farms of southern...

Vegan Food With Flair

By Marsha Fottler - There are approximately 7,500,000 vegans in America and they’re probably the only ones who can pronounce correctly what they are. So, for the rest of us here it is: VEE-gun. A vegan follows a vegetarian diet but also excludes eggs, dairy products and all other animal-derived ingredients. Many vegans omit foods that are processed using animal products. Vegans who extend their dietary choices into their...