Top 5 Persian Food & Culture Persian is one of the world’s oldest and most sophisticated cultures and cuisines. Aqueducts built around 3,000 years ago are still used to grow produce in the arid interior of modern-day Iran, and 2,000-year-old buildings, used to keep ice frozen through summer for drinks and desserts, are still standing. […]
The inner western suburb of Petersham is Sydney’s ‘Little Portugal’ – with everything you need for a vicarious Portuguese gourmet tour in a short strip of New Canterbury Road. There’s a butcher, a baker, a deli, liquor store and authentic Portuguese chicken shop. Here’s where to stock up on Sydney’s best Portuguese food and drink. […]
Before refrigeration and modern transport, especially in remote mountain regions like the Alps, butter-making and cheesemaking were important ways of preserving milk. Large, cooked, well-pressed wheels, with as much whey as possible extracted, had a long shelf life and could survive the journey to distant markets. Some of Italy’s best known cow’s milk cheeses are […]
Sometimes half the fun of cooking can be exploring specialty stores full of exotic Ingredients – it’s like a mini holiday to a distant land. Apart from the dizzying array of spices, Indian food shops are a wonderful place to discover the vast array of rice (and rice products), legumes and condiments used in […]
I love French markets – not just for the fresh produce, though there’s always something new to discover, but also the traditional baked goods, distinctive charcuterie and local cheeses that give an insight into the regional cuisine. There’s also the voyeuristic pleasure of watching locals go about their daily business and the chance to find […]
Paris is a wonderful city to stroll around. It’s full of gardens, monuments and beautiful shops – galleries, boutiques, perfumeries, bookshops, antiques, bric a brac and some really quirky stores. Wandering aimlessly in a city this size can seem a bit daunting though, so on my last visit I created a DIY walking tour centred […]
One of my favourite pastimes in Italy is browsing the food markets found in every city, neighbourhood, town and village. It’s a wonderful way to join the locals going about their daily business; and the variety of cheese, salumi, preserves, meat, seafood, bread, vegetables and fruit is head-spinning … I always discover something I’ve never […]
Top 5 Food Markets Before the days of “super” markets, people all over the world bought their food from local producers gathered together in a collection of dismountable stalls. Some operated daily in dedicated halls, others weekly, often in the town square, place or piazza. In large cities these markets grew into warrens of cobbled […]
Paris has many beautiful public squares (‘place’ in French), but none more attractive to lovers of good food and drink than the one built around the imposing 19th century neoclassical Madeleine Church (L’église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine). Ringed with gorgeous, indulgent food shops, Place de la Madeleine is always my first stop in Paris. Whether I want to […]
