Forage for lunch?

How to forage for lunch: cook's guide to hunting & gathering

What’s the best thing to take with you on a rural food-gathering trip? Well, obviously, it’s an award-winning chef keen to return to nature, and preferably one in possession of a little bit of wilderness to return to.

Fortunately, such a man exists and, counter-intuitively, can be found in central London. He’s Adam Byatt, Essex-born chef proprietor of much-lauded Trinity on Clapham Common, Bistro Union and, latterly, Upstairs at Trinity. Read more on the Telegraph website here.

Top 10 foods to try before you die!

Sampling the local cuisine can help you make friends, understand the history, politics or religion of the place you're visiting and provide a lasting memory of your trip. Food and travel go hand in hand, and there's no better way to delve deep into a destination than to try its most famous dishes.

No matter where you go around the world, every culture puts its own spin on food, whether they're serving a slightly different version of a familiar favorite or a strange (to you) dish sure to challenge even the most adventurous eater.

From China's famous Peking duck to good old US barbecue, here are ten iconic dishes from around the world that every traveler should try at least once!

Check them all out here.

And to taste some of the best check out our Malaysia food tour (seafood curry laksa), our South India food tour (masala dosa), our China food tour (Peking duck) and our Thailand food tours (Som tam/green papaya salad). Enjoy!

Turkish Airlines Food Named No. 1

A panel of international travelers has spoken and named Turkish Airlines' cuisine the best in-flight food, beating out 18 other airlines around the world. The survey, coordinated by flight comparison site Skyscanner, asked passengers to judge airline food based on presentation and taste. Turkish Airlines menu, which includes such dishes as Turkish meatballs, stuffed eggplant, caprese salad, and walnut pear tart, took first place with a score of 86%. Read more

Northern Thailand Red Curry (local style) ... it's a little different!

MasterChef finalist Andy Oliver visited Chiang Mai and discovered a very different type of Thai red curry

In Northern Thailand, they do red curries a little differently from the rest of the country. They are red curries in that the paste is deep-red due to the dried long red chillies pounded into it. But it's not like the red curry most people will be familiar with.

Why? Well mainly because a) there's no coconut cream used, and b) the paste has much fewer ingredients in and is boiled, not fried.

So if you're craving that classic ubiquitous style of Thai red curry then this isn't it.

But if you want to try something different, a slightly spicy, pork and vegetable curry with clean flavours and a richness of good dried chilli, then give this one a go. To me, it's a great introduction to the style of some Northern Thai dishes. Read more.

See our Thailand food tours here.

Cabernet with your curry?

What wine should be drunk with a spicy, silky green Thai curry, accompany a Korean stew laden with fiery chili and garlic, or, perhaps, a delicate sliver of raw sea bream dipped ever-so-lightly into soy sauce?

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Or check out our fascinating and delicious Asian food tours

Calf's head, pickled pig's feet and England's 'first ever' curry recipe... just some of the dishes found in 200-year-old cookbook

A 200 year-old cookbook by the 18th century equivalent to 'Fanny Craddock' found in the back of an old kitchen drawer - contains the first ever English recipe for curry. The rare recipe book, 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy', lifts the lid on the unusual culinary tastes of Georgian Britain and includes baked calf's head and pickled pig's feet.
The crumbling book, written by renowned author Hannah Glasse, dates back to 1796 and features hundreds of recipes and dozens of cures for ailments for things like rabies and the plague.


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Or learn to make REAL curry on one of our India food tours

Meatgrower's Guide to hogwash and BS

Consciously limiting your carbon footprint has become quite trendy among many young, urban Americans. It’s a practice I whole-heartedly support – it’s just that their ideas to achieve their goal are often way off the mark. This week produced another round of anti-meat chatter with the release of the “Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health” by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington-based non-profit “organization that advocates on Capitol Hill for health-protective and subsidy-shifting policies.”

The research by EWG examined every stage of food production, processing, consumption and waste disposal, and determined that if everyone in the U.S. eliminated meat and cheese from their diet just one day a week for a year, “the effect on greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road.”

Read more >>

Japan wants its cuisine added to UN heritage list

From sushi to tempura, okonomiyaki, ramen and yakitori, Japanese dishes are in line to be added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's list of cuisine designated as an intangible cultural heritage.

The agriculture ministry in Tokyo has announced that it will put forward the nation's food culture - which includes the utensils used in preparing and eating food and Japan's unique table manners - for inclusion on the list.

The ministry aims to file the application with UNESCO in March next year and a decision on whether it is worthy of inclusion may be reached as early as November 2013, ministry officials said in a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Read more in the Independent.

Beyond Sushi... discover Osaka

Osaka has a style and charisma unlike anywhere else in Japan. The country’s third-largest city can’t compete with Tokyo for scale; it doesn’t have the capital’s vast range of bars, clubs and restaurants. And nearby Kyoto, with its famously quaint temples, gardens and tea houses, beats it for classic Japanese charm.

But Osaka more than makes up for that with its food scene—considered by many to be the most exciting in Japan—its lively nightlife and its friendly people. Osakans are known as great talkers, and many of Japan’s top comedians come from the city.

The 2011 Michelin guide gives three Osaka restaurants the highest rating of three stars. Read more

Curry is good for your sex life... how to really spice up your life!

Helping yourself to a serving of curry might not be the most obvious way to boost your sex life.

But a study by Australian researchers claims that it could be just the thing, as the herb fenugreek has been shown to improve sexual appetite.

In a six-week study, men who took an extract of the herb, commonly used in curries, reported a 28 per cent increase in sexual arousal.

And the good news is that just about every other herb or spice used in the spicy meal has similar health-giving properties. Here's a look at how to spice up your life.

GARLIC

Garlic has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral properties, which is why it's a common ingredient in traditional medicine. It also acts as a stimulant, giving a natural energy release.

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Can ordinary mortals ever experience the subtleties of flavour that the world's top chefs do?

I have always hated cabbage. Whether it's down to the overcooked sludge served up at school, or the smell of it drifting from the dinner hall, it is one of the few foods that I genuinely dislike. And yet here I am, eating not only cabbage, but an entire plate of cabbage-related vegetables at the Michelin-starred Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in Nottingham.

I am here in a bid to expand my palate and educate my tastebuds, and, rather fortuitously, Sat Bains has decided to present me with cabbage. But this cabbage is delicious, cooked down to a cream, and piled high with contrasting textures of burnt onion ash, braised turnips, raw broccoli stalks in lemon vinaigrette, radish and puréed broccoli, all brought together with a luxurious smoked hollandaise. 

Read more in the Independent