Food Stories

May 14, 2024

Belgian chocolate: Private tasting in Belgium a sweet introduction to greatest chocolate in the world

Belgian chocolate is the best in the world and during our recent trip to Ghent I had a two.hour private tasting in which I learned about the history, discovered Belgium’s secret and tasted some of the best chocolate of my life. It’s an interesting story and I may never eat chocolate with palm oil again.

April 30, 2024

My 10 favorite restaurants in Lazio outside Rome

Ever since Marina and I started our TraveLazio blog in January 2023, we have discovered fantastic restaurants in little towns outside. Rome. After traveling to 34 towns in the Lazio region, I came up with my 10 favorite restaurants. They’re in rough order and include contact info, photos and links to the towns we featured in TraveLazio. If you love Italy, this is a must read.

April 16, 2024

Japanese cuisine: Tasty, healthy and — yes! — cheap

Eating healthy while traveling can be challenging. Eating unhealthy in Japan is almost impossible. During our visit three weeks ago, Marina and I ate mostly raw fish, grilled fish, vegetables, rice, noodles and teriyaki. It was not only tasty and healthy but, thanks to the yen tanking, mostly cheap.

January 23, 2024

Termini: Rome’s rough-and-tumble train station has become an international gastro emporium

Rome’s Termini train station has a reputation of being dark and dangerous. It isn’t that bad, a couple of incidents over the last two years notwithstanding. In the last decade, Termini has turned into a place to go instead of a place to escape. Forty eating establishments have been built inside, ranging from hamburger joints to French bakeries. We went through Terrazza Termini Saturday and here’s what we found.

November 14, 2023

Fettuccine Alfredo: It’s only Italian by birth in 1914 and we went to its birthplace in Rome

You can find fettuccine Alfredo in nearly every Italian restaurant in the U.S. but hardly any in Italy where it was invented. Why? We went to its birthplace, Alfredo alla Scrofa, in Rome to find out. We also tasted it for the first time. Here’s what we found.

September 5, 2023

Greek cuisine: World’s No. 2 cuisine healthy and hearty

We’ve come to Greece every August and we’ve gone about 10 times in each our lives. A major draw is the food. In our latest trip, I took extensive notes of what has been ranked as the world’s No. 2 cuisine behind Italy. I also interviewed two renowned chefs for an inside look at what gives me the cravings from md-winter on.

August 1, 2023

Mediterranean diet: It’s why Italians are healthier than Americans and why I’m glad I left the United States

I received a clean bill of health from my annual checkup Wednesday, and I firmly believe a big reason is I moved to Italy nine years ago. Its Mediterranean diet has so many more benefits than the American diet. From its all-natural ingredients to the emphasis of wine over beer, Italians enjoy the sixth-longest life expectancy in the world. The U.S. is 47th.

May 9, 2023

“Eat, Pray, Love” lunch scene puts Ristorante Santa Lucia on city’s crowded tourist trail

Anyone see “Eat, Pray, Love”? It’s the movie where Julia Roberts plays a lost divorcee who travels to Italy, India and Bali to “find herself.” My favorite scenes were shot in Rome, particularly when she’s ordering lunch. The dishes being cooked appear on screen as she orders them. I ate at that Ristorante Santa Lucia Saturday night and talked to the owners about the “chaos” during filming.

April 25, 2023

The Pudding Shop: Istanbul’s famed hippie hangout still has place in the heart of “Midnight Express” writer Billy Hayes

The Pudding Shop is an Istanbul institution that played a role in “Midnight Express,” the international bestseller and Oscar-nominated movie. It is where Billy Hayes met the cab driver who took him to his first hashish deal. The Pudding Shop was the nerve center for backpackers following the Hippy Trail that blossomed at the time. Today it’s a tourist trap but it still has a soft spot in Billy Hayes’ heart. I visited the Pudding Shop last month and talked to Hayes last week.

April 11, 2023

Turkish cuisine: Kabob king has other Delights as well

Everyone knows kabobs. Every town has a kabob shop. Turkey is the birthplace of kabobs and I had my fill during a four-day stay over my birthday two weeks ago. But there is more to Turkish cuisine than long roasted meat rolls. Turkey has the best baklava I’ve ever had (Psst! Greece! Add more syrup!) and an appropriately named snack called Turkish Delight.

March 7, 2023

Andy Luotto: American-Italian chef is Superman in kitchen

Andy Luotto has been a little bit of everything since he left his home in Brooklyn to be with his father in Italy at 14. Actor. Author. Singer. Comedian. Scuba diver. But more than anything he is a chef. He has owned four restaurants and was an executive chef at a five-star restaurant in Venice. He sat down with me for an interview before he did a cooking demonstration at Rome’s Osteria Il Matto.

February 28, 2023

Rome’s ethnic restaurants: As Italians travel more, they are growing in popularity and here are my seven favorites

There once was a time when Italians would rather eat frozen pizza than ethnic food. That is changing. Italians are traveling more. More immigrants are coming to Italy. The combination is a growth of ethnic restaurants. Rome doesn’t have the variety of London or New York but I’m enjoying what we have. Here I pick seven of my favorite ethnic restaurants from Eritrean to Vietnamese.

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