Worldcrunch
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese products, Europe is expecting similar announcements. France, whose wines and spirits are a traditional target in trade conflicts with the EU, is particularly at risk. Its cognac is already being targeted by China.
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s flurry of tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese products, Europe is expecting similar announcements. France, whose wines and spirits are a traditional target in trade conflicts with the EU, is particularly at risk. Its cognac is already being targeted by China.
It’s hard to find a starred halal or kosher restaurant, but scattered about the French capital, such upscale restaurants do exist.
BOGOTA — During the difficult months of the rainy season, when daily downpours put a damper on hunting and fishing, the Tatuyo indigenous people of Vaupés, in Colombia’s Amazonian region, spend entire days in the jungle collecting fruit. The purpose of the forest harvest? To make yapurá. A black paste with a pungent odor that […]
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s enormous appetite for seafood and its role as a hub for the global seafood trade is having an unfortunate impact on endangered fish species. Chinese cuisine prizes seafood, so it’s perhaps not surprising that per capita seafood consumption in Hong Kong averages 70 kilograms a year, about four times the global average. But the city is also a hub for trade into mainland China, where consumption is on the rise. All of that is putting a strain on endangered marine life and driving an unexpected sustainability push. On a busy Saturday morning at Hong Kong’s […]
Every French region has its own version of brioche, which has a solid but modest history. But now in some corners, this lightly sweet breakfast bread is taking on a high-end air.
A Russian embargo bans imports of French cheese and other Western products. But one farmer has the answer: bring in French cheesemakers to teach him to make his own.
After spreading in the U.S. in the wake of the financial crisis, food trucks are arriving in Brazilian cities such as Sao Paulo, which are eager for culinary adventure at a low price.
ATHENS — We were staying in the downtown area close to Athens’ Kotzia Square, walking distance from the local fish market, the hardware market and local spice vendors. So a fishy mist weighs down the air, mingled with the opulent, nostalgic aroma of mastic (a resin used in the manufacturing of ouzo and mastika, a […]
The protein-rich algae spirulina is abundant and affordable in the Central African Republic, making it a nutritional alternative to help feed kids in the developing world.
HO CHI MINH CITY — The night begins with a concerto of motor bike horns as the heat lies like a damp rag over everything. All the mopeds take off at the light, tooting their horns at once, and in the twilight we leave behind Ho Chi Minh City’s tourist district, with its French-colonial buildings, […]
Coravin, which allows you to sample the finest bottle without uncorking it, is being hailed as a game-changer for the wine industry. It was greeted with mixed reviews in the city that may still matter most.
A second Obica location has now opened in New York, bringing the global chain’s high-end authentic mozzarella experience to a new level of global expansion.
LAURINO — On the way to the mill, I stopped in Stazzema, in the heart of the Apuan Alps, where it was raining. I followed the step-by-step directions that Silvia gave me. She knows the trail well, as she and her partner Alex decided to move to the mill five years ago. This is “Friar’s […]
TURIN — As surprising as it may sound, what we order in restaurants has very little to do with what we actually want. It’s all about the menu. A recent study, conducted by Cornell University researchers on more than 200 menus and 300 meals in New York, shows that only two things really dictate what […]
MUNICH — At a simple café near the main street, a group of mountain bikers comes in, and they’re thirsty. “What kinds of beer do you have?” one of them asks the server. He starts reciting: Amber Ale. India Pale Ale. Summer Ale. White Ale. Porter. Stout. Then he adds Lager — a little sheepishly, […]
Master Chef and other TV shows celebrating fine food are all the rage. But in real life, both rich and poor are increasingly buying pre-packaged meals. Reflections from a London-based Sicilian.
Quality matters even if you want to eat-on-the-go, and pay less. Paris is putting its touch on fast food by improving offerings like kebabs, as well as handing out haute cuisine for the masses.
French hotelier Alain Auneveux moved to Buenos Aires eight years ago and is utterly enchanted by the Argentine capital, which some have called the Paris of Latin America.
PARIS — For the last few years, cheese has been at the center of a debate that is as gastronomic as it is economic and sociocultural. Facing increasingly strict regulations, many producers are concerned about the future of cheese made with ancestral methods, and the anxiety is particularly high in France and Italy, which each […]
Taybeh was also the toast of a unique Oktoberfest celebration in Ramallah.
Here, the cheese is so pure that if the wheel is yellow, you know the cows have been eating dandelions…
GENEVA – From one culture to another, the temperature of what people drink during their meals can vary. In many Asian countries for instance, people like to drink a hot beverage while they eat. Europeans for their part tend to favor drinks at room temperature, while North Americans prefer them ice-cold – on the rocks. […]
SANTIAGO – We know that Chilean writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was a serious gourmet – something that his considerable girth attested to. So it’s no surprise if among his many poems there’s also an Ode to Conger Chowder. The conger – a giant eel called congrio in Chile – […]
SAINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHATEAUX – Three steps in from the side of the path are enough for Cédric Denaux to identify a veritable pantry. Where we only see a field of flowers and weeds exploding in springtime chaos, this botanist-cum-cook spots the pointed flower of the buckhorn plantain, the bubble-shaped one belonging to the bladder campion, a tuft […]
Eat that octopus before it slithers away, call the maggots to your turning cheese, and other moving selections from the living menu.
BORDEAUX – There are always a handful of professional wine-tasters who will question the legitimacy of the Bordeaux “primeurs” week. Still, the event not only endures, but actually gets bigger and better-attended every year. The skeptics note that the entire process is built around rating a wine that is only just beginning to age in […]
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA – For days, Teresa Maldonado has only had bad news for waiting passengers. “No room on the plane today! We’ve got to fly the lobsters out!” Showing the lady a valid ticket issued by the plane company does not help. The lobsters have priority; they have to get to Santiago alive. Nobody […]
Worldcrunch OSAKA – Tired of getting the same cup o” Joe every morning? Think your Starbucks barista should be more of a bartista? Meet Kazuki Yamamoto, a 26-year-old Japanese “cappuccino painter” based in Osaka, who took latte art (drawing on espresso with milk) to the next level. No doubt Yamamoto’s unbelievable 2D and 3D moch’art […]
Worldcrunch BUENOS AIRES – Last week, a study was released that showed Argentinians drink 100 liters of mate per capita annually, double their consumption of beer or wine. It’s even more popular than tea and coffee which, for most of the rest of the world, are the go-to hot drinks. Food and drink traditions are […]
BUENOS AIRES – Eating is no longer just the primitive act of satiating hunger. It is a process that includes production, consumption, and evaluation for preparation of the next gastronomical experience. It’s a hedonistic experience with a concern for nutritional value, especially as the ”o” word – obesity – keeps cropping up. For most people, […]
PARIS – Using a three-pronged ice crusher, the bartender strikes the massive frozen block with practiced precision. In no time at all, he is able to shape the ice block into a tiny ball – small enough to fit into a whisky glass. He pours the Hibiki 12, a 12-year-old whiskey, one of the prime […]
MAGNATE – The jeep makes its way along a path of red earth, bordered on either side by forest trees. We have not passed a living soul for miles, apart from a few baboon troops scampering away as we approach, quickly climbing up trees for a better perch to watch us drive by. We are […]
Cost-conscious chefs in Buenos Aires veer away from top sirloin to lesser cuts — and pork and poultry too.
SAINT-TROPEZ – Star, entrepreneur, chef, and the most decorated cook in the world, Alain Ducasse always has a place to be. He’s perpetually traveling around the world from one of his restaurants to another: from Paris to Tokyo, from Abu Dhabi to Las Vegas, he’s always curious to see where the flavors will take him. […]
COLMAR – The world’s love affair with French macarons is here to stay. In order to meet global demands, the pastry chef who made macarons famous, Pierre Hermé, is about to step up production in the factory where most of his macarons are created – always by hand. “The goal is to triple production from […]
PARIS – The wine cellar of the French Presidential Palace – the Elysée – where President François Hollande now resides, is not that far from the command center of France’s nuclear arsenal. Its location remains just as much a mystery. Except for authorized personnel, it is impossible to visit the wine cellar, with the entrance […]
GENEVA – Pontus Elofsson, head sommelier at Copenhagen’s Noma restaurant, ranked best restaurant in the world for the past three years, swears by them: natural wines. These are the wines with “nothing added, nothing taken away” – no sulfites, no foreign yeasts, no added sugars, no enzymes. Traditional wines, on the other hand, are “corrected […]
BUENOS AIRES – Steak sushi (a sushi roll filled with cooked steak), served with grape leaves, quinoa and Malbec barbecue sauce. From the very first pages, the new authority on Argentine cuisine, entitled New Argentine Cooking, is provocative, to say the least. In this book of 224 recipes from 31 Argentine chefs, mountain empanadas made […]