The Damavand mountains can only be seen from the north of Tehran. One night, we went up there for dinner at a traditional tea house. Damavand mountains The tea house which is situated beside a river, is a place where they used to serve the flavoured tobacco used in hubbly bubbly or shisha. However, the [...]

Listen… You can hear the tranquility. I am at one of the most beautiful restaurant locations in the world. Locanda dell’Isola Comacina is situated at the tip of Isola Comacina, a small island in the middle of Lake Como that holds a mysterious curse. The restaurant boasts a stellar clientèle of the rich and famous, with [...]

A sweet scent of flowers perfumes the night air. Beneath the stillness of palm trees, we relax on comfortable sofas under majlis-style tents that make up the outdoor dining area of Al Khaima Restaurant, one of the fourteen dining establishments belonging to Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa in Dubai. Al Khaima Restaurant* Al [...]

A surreal element suddenly washes over me. We are seated in a crimson velvet banquette named after Joséphine de Beauharnais. The one beside us belongs to Napoleon Bonaparte. This is where they used to meet and exchange tactics. We clink our glasses of Taitinger Reserve Champagne, twice, once for our wedding anniversary, the other for [...]

Hangover food. The food you have when you’ve had a heavy night on heavy drinks. The food you have when you want something inherently evil to ingest. Sheer dunderheaded stupidity. It could be any one of these motivations that would lead you to head out to North Adelaide and consume one of these monstrosities. I [...]

Looking at the steam and bubbles from the cup of chocolat chaud before me, it was beyond any doubt the best hot chocolate I had in Paris so far. Of course, it did not rival Angélina’s famous chocolat chaud africain. But when my fingers turned to icicles and my brain froze from the cold snap [...]

A trickle of rain turns into a heavy downpour. We seek shelter under the rue de Rivoli archway, and like many Parisians on this Sunday afternoon, we join the long queue for Angelina Salon de Thé. Famous for its hot chocolate, or chocolat chaud, this Paris institution dating back to 1903 has been a meeting [...]