The Food Section: Appetizers

Eating L.A. Without Valet Parking

A guide to dining by rail along L.A.'s subway and light rail stops

Repast on Rails

Ekiben, short for eki bento ("station lunchbox"), combine two pleasures of visiting Japan: traveling by rail and eating. See also: Photos posted to flickr by ekiben devotees and a map for navigating ekiben by train station.

Frank Talk

The Los Angeles Times rounds up the diverse doggeries of L.A.

Top Sandwiches

Travel + Leisure susses out Europe's best sandwiches.

Taste of Vegas

The Los Angeles Times tours the new wave of celebrity chef restaurants that have just opened at the Palazzo hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Turnpike Tables

Who knew that such deliciousness was just off the New Jersey Turnpike? Follow the exit signs for giant pastrami sandwiches (almost comical in their enormity) to Indian junglee jumbo sandwiches (which remind me of a Banh Mi, without meat).

Eating Ireland

Matt Lee and Ted Lee head to County Cork -- "epicenter of the Slow Food movement in Ireland" -- for artisanal cheese, pubs, oysters and a butter museum.

Road Trip

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni picks 10 of the top new restaurants beyond New York City.

Good Morning!

Where to find the best breakfasts in America.

Tokyo Grumbles About Michelin

Despite granting more stars to restaurants in Tokyo (191) than in Paris (97), the first Michelin guide for Tokyo is getting a poor reception from the food establishment there.

Top Chef Travels

Star chefs Thomas Keller, Tom Colicchio, and Suzanne Goin, among others, dish about their favorite places to eat, drink, and stay around the world.

Sweet Sojourn

Traveling the Wisconsin Candy Delta, a bastion of old-school mom-and-pop candy shops where the chocolates are made using milk from local cows.

Smoking Ban Takes Effect

A new ban on smoking in restaurants takes effect today in France. Some lament the what the measure will mean for Parisian cafe culture.

Where to Go Window-Licking in Paris

Savoring the meats, cheeses, and desserts displayed behind the storefronts that line Rue St.-Louis-en-l’Île.

Waffle Meets Hot Dog

An unlikely marriage of sweet and salty on a stick at a night market in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Via cp.

Strange Street Foods

Travel + Leisure collects the world's strangest sidewalk snacks.

Mussel Bound

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni heads to Canada's Prince Edward Island in search of its bivalve bounty.

Taste of Trinidad

Exploring the flavors of Port of Spain, "one of the great eating towns in the Caribbean."

Top Tapas

Travel + Leisure searches Spain for the best tapas. Plus: A tapas glossary.

Eat Out

Places for a picnic in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Taste of Tokyo

Spago chef Lee Hefter takes the Los Angeles Times on a course-by-course tour of Japanese cuisine. Plus: How to navigate your way through Japan's top restaurants.

Bruni Does Bari

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni explores Puglia. Related: Early to market in Bisceglie, Moira and Mussoli, and Puglia in pictures.

Eating Around Florence

CHOW's guide to dining, drinking, and lodging in Florence.

World's Best Restaurants

Travel + Leisure picks the world's best new restaurants for 2007.

Cake Tourism

"We are intrepid cake tourists, travelling the globe in search of amazing cake. Aghast at the lack of cake information in tour guides we will tell you the reader where to go for the best cake, wherever you are in the world." Via I Like.

"From Pork to Port"

At epicurious, where to eat and drink in Portugal.

One Hundred Beers of Solitude

Gridskipper's Gabriel Garcia Marquez-inspired guide to the 10 best bars in Mexico City.

Interstellar Oops

 Astronauts experience a "wasabi spill" aboard the international space station.

Gyoza Stadium

Travel: Visiting Japanese dumpling shrine "Gyoza Stadium": "It's not a stadium. But imagine, if you will, a very quaint Japanese town in the year 1953. Stone-lined winding alleyways with beat-up posters, tangled wiring, neon signs and lanterns, with classic Japanese 50's music playing from tinny radios. Now imagine that the street is lined with lots and lots of tiny little gyoza restaurants, each serving a different kind of gyoza invented by a different famous chef, each unique, and all made to order."

Gourmet Launches Travel Blog

Travel: Gourmet magazine launches Daily Planetary travel blog. See also: Colman Andrews picks his five favorite restaurants in Italy.

Forbidden Foods

Travel: Exploring the allure of forbidden foods and the pleasure of smuggling raw-milk Camembert in your suitcase.

Frank Bruni's Rome

Travel: How to spend 36 hours in Rome, according to New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.

Savory Serbian Salsa

Travel: November means it's time for ajvar in the Balkans, Serbian salsa made with roasted red peppers, eggplant, garlic, oil and vinegar. 

Autumnal Eating: Italy and Paris

Travel: Autumnal eating in Italy and Paris.

Ode to Autogrill

Travel: New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni sings the praises of the Autogrill.

Affordable Lunches in London

Travel: A guide to affordable lunches in London.

Going Vegetarian in Paris

Travel: Vegetarians can eat well in Paris as long as they avoid restaurants that cater to vegetarians.

Solociccio

Travel: Dining at Solociccio, the new restaurant from legendary Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini.

Traveling Through Piedmont

Travel: In Travel + Leisure, Matt and Ted Lee  take "the culinary journey of a lifetime" through Piedmont, Italy.

Lobster Roll Road Trip

Travel: Road tripping through Maine, one lobster roll at a time.

Bourdain on Beirut

Travel: At Salon, chef/author Anthony Bourdain on Beirut: "We went to Beirut to film a TV show about the city's newly vibrant culinary and cultural scene. Then the bombs started falling, and we could only stand on the barricades of our hotel balcony and watch it all disappear -- again."

Chasing Tacos

Travel: Chasing tacos along the California coast.

Bourdain Stranded in Beirut

Travel: Chef/author Anthony Bourdain is stranded in the center of war-torn Beirut. Via ah.

Are Airline Meals Getting Better?

Travel: Do airline meals still deserve their age-old bad rap? After flying Virgin Airways and dining on first rate sausages and chicken tikka masala in first class, chef Marcus Wareing argues that mile-high meals are better than ever.

Real Life Wonka Factory Coming to Amsterdam

Travel: A new theme park, inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is coming to Amsterdam. The attraction, which will be built in a former railway tunnel, will produce chocolate and feature a glass elevator and chocolate fountain (more, in Dutch, at De Chocoladefabriek).

When Chefs Travel

Travel: When chefs journey far from home, they take more than their knives with them.

Eating in Cuba

Travel: A culinary guide to Cuba.

Donut Shops Worth Visiting

Travel: Courtesy of Blognut -- a blog all about donuts (natch) -- seven donut shops worth visiting throughout the United States.

Bruni Drives Thru America

Travel: New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni gets behind the wheel for a coast to coast tour of America's fast food landscape: "My goal wasn't to supersize myself. It was to size up and single out the best fast food from familiar national chains, relatively unfamiliar regional chains and tiny local chains I had never encountered" (map).

Olive Oil Country

Travel: Tasting your way through California's olive oil country.

Best of Paris

Travel: The 80 best places to eat in Paris.

Museum of the American Cocktail

Travel: Visiting the Museum of the American Cocktail, relocated from New Orleans to Las Vegas in the wake of Katrina.

The Go List

Travel: The Go List compiles 376 restaurant picks from "plugged-in correspondents" around the globe, including bloggers Chez Pim and noodlepie.

Tamale Trail

Travel: Tamales in the deep South? "Isn't this just an aberration? Like finding curried conch in Collierville, Tennessee or foie gras in Fort Smith, Arkansas?" Hit the The Mississippi Delta Hot Tamale Trail and tour the region husk by husk.

Best of Brittany

Travel: In Travel + Leisure, the brothers Lee set out on a gastronomic tour of northwest France in search of oysters, fleur de sel, and other specialties of Brittany.

Eating in Venice

Travel: Eating in Venice.

Roman Holiday

Travel: Former New York Times food critic Mimi Sheraton documents a gastronomic tour into the heart of Rome. See also: TFS on last summer's brief, but tasty Roman holiday.

SoCal Gastro Road Trip

Travel: A gastronomic guide to road-tripping through Southern California.

Dining in London, Food Halls of the World

Travel: Small-plate dining in London; favorite food halls around the globe.

Truffle Hunting

Travel: A tale of truffle hunting in the hills of Croatia, home of the largest truffle ever discovered.

Gourmet Goes to Montreal

Travel: The March issue of Gourmet magazine is devoted to the food and culture of Montreal, one of our favorite destinations. A few of the articles are online, but most remain in the print edition. See also: TFS on Montreal.

Best European Restaurants

Travel: Travel + Leisure magazine rounds up the best European restaurants of 2005.

Chinese Food in L.A.

Travel: In Travel + Leisure, the brothers Lee pick five spots for Chinese food in Los Angeles.

Sweet Kyoto

Travel: Sweet tooth blog Lovescool takes to the streets of Kyoto on a "Baker's Path" in search of the city's best pastries.

Gael Greene's Venice

Travel: In Travel + Leisure, Gael Greene's Venice.

San Sebastián

Travel: New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni eats his way around San Sebastián, along the Basque coast of northern Spain.

Artisanal Tuscany

Travel: From vintners to cheesemakers, the best artisanal producers in Tuscany, as picked by Travel & Leisure.

L.A.'s "Delicious Deals"

Travel: The Los Angeles Times rounds up 20 "delicious deals" in Los Angeles: "From Little Saigon to Studio City, from East L.A. to Pacific Palisades. We found them in taquerías and trattorias, bustling pho houses and chic new dining rooms."

Dining in Mumbai

Travel: Dining in Mumbai, India's gastronomic and financial capital.

BBQ Pilgrimage

Travel: At Slate, David Plotz embarks on a barbecue pilgrimage "in search of the greatest barbecue joints in America, an R.W. Apple-ian gut-stuffing to sample as much 'cue of as many different varieties as I could in a week."

Travel Treats

Travel: Sexiest food shops in Paris. Best xiao long baos in Shanghai.

Year of Beer

Travel: Visit Belgium and celebrate the Year of Beer.

Clotilde Dusoulier's Paris

Travel: Clotilde Dusoulier's Paris is better than yours. Plus: Q&A on Paris dining and travel.

Dining in Scandinavia

Travel: Ten top restaurants in Scandinavia.

Tortillas

Travel: Visiting Luna's Tortilla Factory in Dallas, Texas (plus, Diana Kennedy's recipe for making handmade corn tortillas).

Spanish Olive Oil

Travel: Foraging for Spanish olive oil at the Patrimonio Comunal Olivarero in Madrid.

Clotilde's Moblog

Travel: Feed your inner Francophile with Clotilde Dusoulier's daily snaps of her Paris eats and environs.

Affordable Bistro Search

Travel: In the New York Times, Mark Bittman searches Paris for the affordable bistro.

Catching Crabs

Travel: Catching crabs (of the Dungeness variety) off the coast of Northern California.

Jonesing for Tea

Travel: British writer Stuart Payne finds himself jonesing for tea on a trip to California.

Sake Tour

Travel: Seeing Japan through its sake breweries.

Pizza Provençale

Travel: Pizza Provençale.

Puerto Rican Cuisine

Travel: In the New York Times, R. W. Apple Jr. explores the international flavors of Puerto Rico.

T+L Design Awards

Travel: Travel + Leisure names London dim sum spot Yauatcha best restaurant in its first annual design awards.

Notting Hill Finds

Travel: Where to go in Notting Hill "if you are an eager cook."

Gorgonzola

Travel: Visiting Gorgonzola, birthplace of the creamy, smelly Italian cheese of the same name.

The Macarons of Tokyo

Travel: Touring the macarons of Tokyo.

Yorkshire Eats

Travel: Pontefract-Cake Custards, Leek and Wensleydale Pithiviers, and other flavors of Yorkshire, England.

Fashion World's Lunch Spot

Travel: The epicenter of the fashion world is a Chinese restaurant in Paris.

FoodBall

Travel: Food and Wine explores FoodBall, the new Barcelona fast food restaurant from Spanish shoe company Camper (FoodBall official site).

Pizza Porn

Travel: Beautiful, mouthwatering pizza porn from Rome's Forno Campo de Fiori.

Celeb Chefs Dive Into Caribbean

Travel: Celebrity chefs dive into the Caribbean -- Vongerichten, Matsuhisa, and Flay to open restaurants at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.

Texas Burger Reviews

Travel: Texas Burger Guy tracks and reviews "the best mom and pop burger joints" in the lone star state.

Hotdog Hunt Falls Short

Travel: Searching for a great hot dog in Vietnam . . . and coming up short.

Ramen Theme Park

Travel: Video game producer Namco announces plans to build a ramen theme park in Southern Japan. Nagoya Noodle Shop Alley will open for business on February 25. Via bb.

Exploring Hudson Valley Wine Country

Travel: Exploring the Hudson Valley wine country.

Viking Vacation

Travel: Greenwood, Mississippi, home of the Viking range.

Best S.F. Pho

Travel: Where to find the best pho in San Francisco's Little Saigon.

Live from Salone del Gusto

Travel: Philadelphia Inquirer food critic Craig LaBan, blogging live from Slow Food's Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy. Via bv.

Persepolis Redux

Travel: The ancient Persian city of Persepolis rises on the grounds of the Darioush winery in Napa Valley (more photos).

Facing an Armada of Patatas in Spain

Travel: On a visit to Spain, a low-carb dieter finds that the patata reigns supreme.

"Britain's Most Northerly Chippie"

Travel: Touring the Shetland Islands in search of "Britain's most northerly chippie."

Breakfast in the Tropics

Travel: Could there be anything more refreshing than breakfast in the tropics?

Nutshell Pub

Travel: Britain's smallest pub, measuring just 15 ft. by 7 ft., is threatened with closure. Via BeerLog.

Le Fooding

Travel: In the Los Angeles Times, Clotilde Dusoulier explores the Parisian culinary movement known as Le Fooding, a contraction of "food" and "feeling."

Pub Crawl Generator

Travel: The Pub Crawl Generator provides customized drunken walking tours of 120 neighborhoods in London and around the UK. Via List.

Curry Crisis

Travel: Immigration restrictions on migrants from Bangladesh are causing a "curry crisis" for Britain's Indian restaurants.

Fast Good

Travel: The New York Times explores the fast food concept developed by famed Catalan chef Ferran Adrià for the NH hotel chain. In Madrid, where the first of of his Fast Good restaurants has opened, diners are lining up for hamburgers with black olive tapenade, french fries cooked in olive oil, and gazpacho in a bottle.

Tofu Fest

Travel: This weekend's L.A. Tofu Festival will feature more than 100 tofu and soy dishes, a tofu-eating contest, and a special appearance by festival mascot Tofu Ninja, described here as "an oversized and slightly menacing slab of tofu." Via The Corner Table.

Defending the Pub

Travel: In Waitrose Food Illustrated, Joseph Micklewhite decries the proliferation of gastropubs and offers a stirring defense of the traditional British pub: "It used to be a place you could go and fraternise with a diverse mix of characters, each of whom were all, essentially, there for the same reason: to have a decent pint of beer or two and a chitchat."

National Museum of Pasta Foods

Travel: Rome's National Museum of Pasta Foods bills itself as "the only one of its kind in the world." Located near the Trevi Fountain, the museum contains 11 exhibition rooms tracing the history of Italian pasta making methods and machinery. Don't miss the Valeriani Room, which features photographs of famous celebrities "enjoying delicious plates of pasta . . . witnesses to the link between pasta and cinematographic culture."