by Mohezin Tejani
This morning, perched on a wooden chair in my teeming tropical garden in northern Thailand, I am writing about Africa, the continent that still holds a firm grip on me. The sun’s warmth, after the heavy dawn shower, has brought plants and insects to life. Brown centipedes and gray snails are crawling towards [...]

by Darrin DuFord

Can two hundred tons of chili save a city?
Exciting events are not supposed to happen in the suburbs.  I mean, what would the neighbors think?
So I wondered what the neighbors thought as I cruised past their curtained living rooms while shell casings flew in front of my nose.  It was midnight and I [...]

by Tom Weller
No Chadian village is complete without a fou.  I discovered this in 1993 while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Beinamar, Chad.
The fou is the village crazy person.  Beinamar’s fou was typical of the fous I encountered in villages all over Southern Chad.  A middle-aged man, he wore only a pair [...]

by Eileeen Cunniffe
Visions of French food danced through my mind, prompted no doubt by my growling stomach, as the train pulled into Chartres. We were stopping there to rendezvous with the other half of our six-person traveling party and to move our body clocks ahead by six hours. The next day we would begin the [...]

by Darrin DuFord
A gastronomic exploration of Nicaragua’s post-war highlands reveals renewed talent for suckling and a stubborn joie de vivre.
“Chicken, chicken, soda, soda!”
I was sweating in a parked bus, serenaded by barks from Managua’s take on curb service. I didn’t believe the vendors would be able to stand tall enough to push their products [...]

by Janet Forman
After thirty years of Khao Pad Naem, Gaeng Bawt and Curry Kapitan, my rulebook for eating in Asia has evolved into one simple dictum: Never set foot in a restaurant. At least not one with a roof or walls. While most gourmands analyze guidebooks and scrutinize blogs for the sleekest temples of haute [...]

By Bharti Kirchner
It was with an eager, vegetarian appetite that I arrived in Seoul. Korean restaurants in the U.S. had spoiled me with their soups, noodles, and dumplings, but I instinctively understood that a great deal more could be expected from this earthy, fiery cuisine.
My layover here would amount to only a few days before [...]

By Tom Weller
The soldier sat down, uninvited, next to me. He wore dusty, faded green fatigues and shower sandals. He swung his battered automatic riffle off his shoulder and leaned it against the table nonchalantly, like a man shrugging off a golf bag after playing a quick nine holes. He turned toward me with an [...]

By Matthew Frank
The front room is filled with fresh pastas and truffle emulsions, meter-long grissini breadsticks and lady-kiss baci di dama cookies. I am in Barolo, Italy’s Panetteria, the sole local bakery, and am enjoying its silence, its farmland smells, the sight of three shadowed heads work-bobbing behind the kitchen’s glass door. They don’t see [...]

by Dave Mondy
I don’t idolize pig parts and I don’t own a Kiss the Cook apron. I don’t search for secret spices. Which is to say, I’m no barbeque fanatic; I came to Memphis for the music, not messy meals.
But after giving a dollar to a homeless man, I asked, “Where’s a good [...]