Beer Me, Berlin!

You know it's been a long day at the beer festival when guys in lederhosen start doing the moonwalk.

— The essence of the moment, Saturday night at the Berlin beerfest.

More than 2,000 beers from over 300 breweries hailing from 86 countries — all spread out over two kilometers in the middle of the city. No, this is not Oktoberfest.

So many beers yet so little time. That's the Berlin Beer Festival.

Continue Reading

Bali Food: A Balinese Culinary Travel Guide

Ah, Bali food. Our relationship with Balinese cuisine got off to a rocky start, but a Balinese cooking class in Ubud, night markets in Sanur and simple restaurants called warungs conspired to change our minds and inform our palates. The result: an overview of the components of Balinese cooking, common Balinese dishes and where to find them when you visit Bali.

Continue Reading

South Indian Food: A Few Favorites

So you think Indian food is just chicken tikka masala and palak paneer?  Think again.

Recently, I’ve settled into a familiar morning routine: a masala dosa and sweet milk coffee in a simple canteen just down the street.  Attendants make their rounds with metal pails full of sambar and colorful wet chutneys, ensuring that all customers have ample supply, more than enough to eat.

Continue Reading

Every Döner Tells a Story, Don’t It? It does in Berlin.

Berlin döner kebabs, a local classic

Istanbul is like Kreuzberg, but less Turkish.

— A Berlin cabbie puts the city's Turkish neighborhood in perspective.

Take a walk down any street in Kreuzberg, Berlin and you'll find scads of döner shops offering shaved, spiced meat (usually lamb) served inside rolled flatbread or in a bread pocket. At a distance, all döner shops look similar – meat sears away on a giant spindle, colorful salads await, and a few guys of Turkish origin zip around putting it all together.

Continue Reading

A Little Bite of Buenos Aires

When we poked around Buenos Aires earlier this year, our food quests were focused not only on understanding Argentine cuisine but also seeking out various ethnic cuisines that we hadn't encountered much while traveling the Andes and Paraguay. A couple of times a week, we’d head out with a restaurant recommendation, a gigantic map of the city, and scribbled notes as to our bus route.

We often got lost. We always ate. And we discovered something.

Continue Reading

Nibbles That Give Me the Shivers (or, Sh*t I Wouldn’t Eat Again)

The key to eating grilled mutton is to chew and swallow it before the fat cools and congeals on the roof of your mouth.

Our guerrilla eating tip for Central Asia

“You guys seem to have only good things to say about your experiences, especially the food. Have you ever had a bad meal? Something disappointing, gross, or even repulsive?”

You bet.

Continue Reading

Guerilla Food Photography: 10 Tips for Taking Great Food Photos

How do you get food to look like that? What kind of camera do you use? Do you use any special lenses?

Go to a big food website and the food glistens, the light is perfect and everything is in its place. But let's say you are a traveler carrying a pocket or DSLR camera and you have a fascinating, colorful spread before you that you'd like to share with others or capture for your own memories. Conditions are tricky and time is limited.

What to do?

Continue Reading