Great food/great cities of the world, Travel+Leisure top new hotels (no Canada)

The latest Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel is dedicated to food, and good for them. It's one of the main reasons we travel, right? Try new stuff, or simply revel in old favourites such as a blackened grouper sandwich on the beach in Florida.

The magazine has a small bit where readers talked about everything from sheep's head in Morocco to an Egyptian dish called Koushari, with macaroni, lentils and rice piled on a plate and topped with crispy fried onions. Yum. Also mentioned were alpaca burgers in Ecuador and ahi poke in Los Angeles. Poke is quite good; raw fish that's marinated like ceviche. It's hugely popular in Hawaii, which has some of the best food in the world given its vast multiculturalism (Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian, Portuguese and more).

Honolulu gets singled out as a great city for food as does LA, Houston and Marseille. Wales gets a mention, and it's fully deserved. I was on a golf trip there a couple years back and had absolutely fabulous, fresh food everywhere I went, from Cardiff up to Nefyn (not far from Will and Kate's place now that I check it on the map).

The magazine also has a funny bit about weird potato chips, including Garlic Pea Flavour in Taiwain, Falafel flavour in Israel, Mint Chutney in India and Spicy Rice Cake in Korea. Oh, and "Voodoo Gumbo" in Louisiana and Squid Flavour in Japan. I did a google search and also found Hot Chili Squid. Super Yum!

I didn't see any mentions of Canada, although it's possible I missed the fine print. I don't think too many folks in the world think of great produce and local meats and inventive cuisine when they think of us, which is too bad...

TRAVEL + LEISURE TOP NEW HOTELS

Also in the department of leaving Canada out of the party comes the latest Travel + Leisure magazine, with a list of the hottest new hotels in the world. Alas, no mention for Canada here, either. I guess the new Ritz-Carlton in Toronto isn't quite up to their standards, although we gave it a very nice review in the Star recently.

Among T+L's top new spots are the Cosmpolitan in Las Vegas (also written about in the Star), the Hotel Beaux Arts in Miami, the Trump SoHo in New York City (no thanks, meaning to Trump, not NYC), the Armani Hotel in Dubai (I saw the lobby and thought it pretentious as all get out, but that's just me) and Matakauri Lodge in Queenstown, New Zealand, which I've heard marvellous things about.

Good stuff and almost all of them would be worth checking out on your next "I've won 10 million in the Lotto and don't know what to do with it" trip around the world.

 

 

Comments

[Spencer]

Surprised not to see Tennessee on the list. Mind you there are so many great places to eat you can't possibly list them all!