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On the trail of the King of Mangoes in Ratnagiri

Anuradha Sengupta — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Seasonal bestseller: The mango and cream bowl made with Alphonso mango at Mumbai's Haji Ali Juice Centre.

"Have you come about mangoes?” asks a man before I am fully out of my car. It’s uncanny how everyone in this town seems to anticipate that my presence has something to do with the fruit.

I am in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, home to the Alphonso mango -- also known as the King of Indian mangoes.

From March to July, India produces more than 1,000 varieties of mango. But none of them are as desirable as the Alphonso. Loyalists swear by its rich creaminess. The flesh is saffron-colored and without a hint of fiber. The taste is exquisitely sweet, with none of the tartness or coyness of its cousins.

Every summer, before the monsoon season, India goes mad for the Alphonso. The national obsession is on par with Bollywood and cricket. Hot afternoons are punctuated by cries of "Haaapuuus!" floating through open windows. "Hapus," pronounced with a silent "h," is how the mango is locally known.

Firm breasts, clear skin: Claims of Jakarta's snake blood salesmen

Lydia Tomkiw — Sun, 20 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

by Lydia Tomkiw, Melanie Wood

On any given day on Jalan Mangga Besar in Jakarta, dusk brings a scurry of activity from street stall owners.

Food vendors roll their carts out and start chopping and frying. Fresh juice vendors squeeze and pour.

And between stands of fried rice, tropical fruit and seafood, sharp-eyed travelers in this area in the center-north of the city will spot large cages full of black cobras, slithering and climbing, their tongues flicking between the cage bars.

For vendors like Dani, who owns one of the half dozen cobra stalls on the street, there is nothing terrifying or strange about the cages sitting on the ground on the side of the busy road.

This is his livelihood.

10 best Korean restaurants in Seoul

Alex Jung — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:22:58 +0000

by Alex Jung

'Best of' lists are controversial, unscientific, inherently subjective and are guaranteed to result in bellyaching. But they are good for precisely this reason: they get us talking about food.

In order to compile our own list, we spoke with a number of certified “foodies” – people who obsess about food about as much as we do. One of those people is Jun Kyung-woo, the co-author of best-selling book Dining in Seoul.

“The first question is: how do you define Korean food?” says Jun. “Is it the ingredients? Is it Korean because it exists in Korea? Is it what Korean people actually eat?”

Indeed, the constantly shifting topography of Korean cuisine now includes dishes like pizza topped with fried shrimp and sweet potatoes and Chinese food like jjajjangmyun (black bean noodles). Respectively, they are branded “Italian” and “Chinese” food, but are so heavily Koreanized that they would be unfamiliar to native inhabitants of those countries.

“Korean food has deep roots,” says Jun. There is a long, dynamic history that includes a certain ingredients and flavors like soy, garlic, red pepper and techniques like salting, pickling, and braising. So while an outlandish pizza might be an entirely Korean product, for this list, we are looking at food that has a long genealogy on the Korean peninsula.

That being said, our conception of Korean food isn’t narrow. We value the bowl of naengmyun from the restaurant that has operated for over three decades as much as the artfully constructed plates that filters Korean flavors through molecular gastronomy.

There is an astounding breadth to Korean cuisine. We’d like to think that this is a start.

How to lose your durian virginity quickly and painlessly

Leela Punyaratabandhu — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:55:20 +0000

by Leela Punyaratabandhu

We see you at the mall. We see you on the train to work. You lurk in our neighborhood, pushing grocery carts up and down the same supermarket aisles.

But, all you durian virgins, it’s the dread and yearning in equal measure in your eyes as you behold the "king of fruits" that gives you away.

Quiver behind your white gossamer veil no longer, O chaste ones. For we've put together a guide on how to lose your durian virginity joyously and painlessly -- just in time to enjoy Thailand's durian season.

Prepare yourself mentally

Durian’s larger-than-life persona can be intimidating. No other fruits have been described with so many hyperbolic similes.

It doesn’t help that long before stricter security measures on in-flight luggage and suspicious packages in hotel lobbies were introduced in the face of terror threats, durian had already got its pungent self banned from both places.

More than an airport, Narita is a must-see city

Lisa Jardine — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:55:50 +0000

by Lisa Jardine

A quick stop in London, then on to New York for a few days, before that final stretch in Tokyo -- it sounds like a typical travel itinerary for any modern, jet-setting CEO or a particularly unimaginative traveler.

They are the world’s three busiest cities in terms of air traffic for a reason, after all.

But which of them offers an overnight layover right beside a major airport that’s so accessible and enjoyable you’ll look forward to each takeoff or touchdown there?

If you’ve done London and NYC to death, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s Tokyo.

More specifically, Narita; Japan’s best-known airport, attracting upwards of 35 million fliers annually, but also one of our favorite pre-flight overnighters in any major city.

10 great international cooking classes

Lina Goldberg — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:01:28 +0000

by Lina Goldberg

Some say the best way to get to know a culture is through sampling its food, but even better is learning how to cook it.

These cooking classes give you a hands-on introduction to the cuisines of 10 countries around the world.

Hutong Cuisine: Beijing, China

Traditional lessons in the heart of the city.
Located in one of the tangled neighborhoods of tiny alleys and traditional courtyard family homes that make up Beijing's historic hutongs, Hutong Cuisine offers Chinese cooking classes in the heart of the city.

The instructor, Chunyi Zhou, is well qualified to teach on China's most popular cooking styles: she's originally from Luo Yang, a small town in the area of southern China known for its delicate Cantonese cuisine, then went to culinary school in Chengdu, the heart of spicy Sichuan country, and now resides in Beijing, famous for its aristocratic Mandarin dishes.

In her class, students will learn the most important techniques for Chinese cooking, from stir-frying to steaming to braising.

US$54 for a sandwich -- Paris is the world's priciest city

Hiufu Wong — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:50:07 +0000

by Hiufu Wong

Paris has the world's most expensive club sandwiches.

Research from Hotels.com has found that club sandwiches in Paris cost on average US$33, higher than in Geneva (US$32.40), Oslo (US$30.30) and Tokyo (US$27.50). One five-star hotel in Paris offers a club sandwich for a whopping US$54.

The newly invented Club Sandwich Index (CSI) surveyed 750 hotels with three stars or above in 26 cities worldwide.

With ingredients like egg, chicken, bacon, egg, lettuce and mayo, the club sandwich can be used as a standard to measure the affordability of a city.

Also on CNNGo: World's 15 most expensive hotel suites

America's 50 greatest foods

Dana Joseph — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:01:28 +0000

by Dana Joseph

Fast, junk, processed -- when it comes to food, the United States is best known for the stuff that's described by words better suited to greasy, grinding industrial output.

But Americans have an impressive appetite for good stuff, too.

To celebrate its endless culinary creativity, we’re throwing our list of 50 delicious American foods at you.

We know you’re going to want to throw back. Ground rules: acknowledge that even trying to define American food is tough; further acknowledge that picking favorite American items inevitably means leaving out or accidentally overlooking some much-loved regional specialties.

Tell us about your favorite U.S. foods in the comments!

World’s weirdest themed restaurants

Duncan Forgan — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:01:28 +0000

by Duncan Forgan

Eating out should always be an experience. Yet while the food is generally the star attraction at most decent restaurants, other venues are more memorable for factors other than their bill of fare.

Some might deem them gimmicky. We prefer to use the term "theatrical."

1. Hobbit House: Manila, Philippines

They're not big, but it is clever.
Is it really OK to refer to a dwarf as a Hobbit? Well, it was certainly more acceptable to do so in the early 1970s when Jim Turner, a former college professor and Peace Corps volunteer, not to mention a complete Tolkein geek, opened this long-standing Manila favorite.

Staffed entirely by Filipino dwarfs, the restaurant proudly proclaims it employs "the smallest waiters in the world."

Diners of a sensitive bent might balk at the political incorrectness of it all, but the waiters are of an indisputably sunny disposition. Meanwhile, Turner’s masterful brainwave has had global implications with a similar restaurant -- Dwarves of the East (without the Middle Earth overtones) having opened in Cairo, Egypt.

Varvary: Breaking the image of 'barbaric' Russian food

Hiufu Wong — Tue, 08 May 2012 02:47:50 +0000

by Hiufu Wong

Anatoly Komm, chef of Russia's first haute cuisine restaurant, Varvary, has turned Russian black bread -- that hard-as-cement staple -- into a dainty dollop of brown pudding.

Following a switch in career paths, Komm has been all about using his cooking to alter perceptions of Russian culture. He was a geophysicist and luxury fashion importer in a former life before becoming a chef of haute cuisine.

"When people think about Russia, they only think about vodka and caviar," said Komm. "We also have other amazing ingredients and I want to open people’s eyes to this so that they can better understand the Russian soul."

Komm is in Hong Kong this week at the pop-up Varvary at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, unleashing the Russian spirit onto the city's palates.

The original Varvary, located in Moscow, was included on the list of "World's 50 best restaurants" in 2011 -- the first Russian restaurant to make the cut. The word "varvary" is Russian for "barbarian." It's Komm's touch of confrontational irony.

Insider Guide: Best of Istanbul

Feride Yalav — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:23:27 +0000

by Feride Yalav

Istanbul -- half Europe, half Asia, completely stunning.

Nowhere does fusion like the best of Istanbul, a metropolis that owes as much to its centuries of history as it does to its emergence as one of the most dynamic cities in Asia or Europe.

It's strikingly beautiful. The Bosphorus -- aka the Istanbul Strait, the stretch of water that divides two continents -- stretches calmly before you under the warmth of the sun while the city soars above the shore.

But, mostly, the best of Istanbul is a jumble of activity, 13 million citizens strong, from celebrants staggering out of bars at 4 a.m. to imams calling the faithful out to prayer at dawn.

You can hear the hustle just as surely as you can see it. The horns of impatient taxi drivers. The lilting melodies of street musicians. The laughter of children. The clinking of raki glasses. And always, the whining cries of seagulls overhead.

Clarissa Wei: American-Chinese food is real Chinese food

Clarissa Wei — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:01:28 +0000

by Clarissa Wei

Yes, I’m actually going to defend orange chicken (陈皮鸡).

Fundamentally fried chicken with sauce -- the perfect late-night snack and, quite frankly, great drinking food -- orange chicken is beloved by millions of people of all ethnic groups (including many Chinese) in the United States.

As with most American-Chinese food, however, there’s a stigma attached to orange chicken.

Chinese food snobs call the dish, as well as the restaurants that serve it, “fake” or “not authentic.”

Superior foodies love nothing more than bashing the chefs and restaurant owners for their alleged perversion of the sacred culinary genre -- as if only they know what real Chinese food is, as if someone died and made them arbiter of all Chinese cuisine.

Asiatique: A riverside tourist trap even the locals can love

Sun, 06 May 2012 08:33:11 +0000

Asiatique the Riverfront, a massive new shopping and lifestyle complex beside Bangkok's Chao Phraya river, is set to become one of the city's top entertainment destinations for tourists.

With a design inspired by Bangkok's days as a riverside trading post during King Rama V's reign, from 1868-1910, Asiatique resembles a tradional pier with rows of warehouses. Suitably, it's actually on land once owned by the Danish East Asiatic Company and some of the original architecture, over 100 years old, has been retained.

For now it's packed with locals, many of whom can't help but compare it to the dearly departed Suan Lum Night Bazaar. And with good reason. Open from 5 p.m. to midnight, Asiatique has some of the same shops that were at the Night Bazaar, and the traditional Joe Louis Puppet Theater and Calypso -- the famed ladyboy cabaret -- will be moving in next month.

But that's where the similarities end. Asiatique is far more contrived than the gritty night bazaar, which closed in early 2011 after its lease expired.

More on CNNGo: A new home for Bangkok's masters of puppets

Rene Redzepi, world’s best chef: ‘Sometimes all I want is a steamed leek’

Anthea Gerrie — Fri, 04 May 2012 03:37:21 +0000

by Anthea Gerrie

Rene Redzepi, arguably the world's best chef, likes to keep things local.He may have just been voted best chef in the world for the third year running, but René Redzepi, 34, chef and co-owner at Danish restaurant Noma, is hardly a picture of fame and wealth.

Floppy-haired and boyish, he claims he can only afford one holiday a year and as a young man scraped together just enough cash to get to San Sebastian to eat at Arzak.

Arzak is no. 8 on this year’s list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants and is run by this year's Best Female Chef, Elena Arzak, and her dad, Juan Mari Arzak, who won last year's Lifetime Achievement award.

Now, back in Copenhagen after his win, Redzepi reveals what he keeps in his home larder, how he sees tastes evolving and where he draws the line when it comes to weird food.

Also on CNNGo: World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2012 -- Winners revealed

iReport: My favorite Korean food

Thu, 03 May 2012 16:00:44 +0000

Fermented. Spicy. Stewed.

Descriptions of Korean food may actually be its worst marketing enemy abroad, but as millions of foodies and travelers can attest, the more terrible it sounds, the tastier the dish -- in Korea, anyway.

That's why we asked readers in a CNNGo iReport assignment to submit photos of their favorite Korean dishes.

This gallery showcases the ones that made us blow off that 11 a.m. meeting and head to lunch early.

Also on CNNGo: Seoul's independent coffee culture

iReport: Foodies share their favorite Philippines dishes

Thu, 03 May 2012 03:56:42 +0000

Seafood, tropical fruits, veggies and creative cooks combine to make the cuisine of the Philippines incredibly diverse.

Yet Filipino food isn't that well known outside the country, beyond the mind-boggling balut (duck embryo).

To remedy this gross injustice, we asked iReporters to share their favorite Filipino dishes and offer tips to newcomers looking to explore the cuisine.

Check out the above gallery for some of the highlights, courtesy of iReporters Elaine Baricante, Jerry C. Gonzales, Lia Ocampo and Yla Gracelle Benze B Corotan.

These images were submitted as part of an iReport assignment asking readers to share their favorite Filipino meals. For other assignments, visit the CNNGo iReport page.

What's it like to eat at the world's best sushi bar?

Dan Shapiro — Wed, 02 May 2012 21:55:04 +0000

by Dan Shapiro

Heralded as a Japanese national treasure, Jiro Ono, 86, is the first sushi chef in the world to receive three Michelin stars, and is the proprietor of the world’s most celebrated sushi restaurant, Tokyo’s Sukiyabashi Jiro.

Hidden in a basement attached to the Ginza Metro Station, Sukiyabashi Jiro has vaulted into the worldwide cultural milieu thanks to its appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” TV show and the recent release of the David Gelb feature-length documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.”

Rather than simply watch the mouthwatering food porn that is Gelb’s doc (trailer courtesy of Magnolia Pictures), I went a step further, traveling directly to the source to offer the following account of Chef Jiro’s legendary soft-handed, two-fingered technique that pairs fresh nigiri cuts from the Tsukiji fish market with warm and delicate rice.

Here’s how the evening went -- spoiler: I was not disappointed.

Wisconsin cheese and beer tours: Wine tasting for real men (and women)

Brent Butler — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:00:50 +0000

by Brent Butler

Wisconsin's state motto may be "Forward," but for anyone serious about cheese and beer it might just as easily be "Upward."

At least as far as personal caloric intake is concerned.

When waves of Germans immigrated to the state in the 19th century due to religious persecution in Europe, centuries of brewing traditions met favorable Midwest geography. For more than a century, mega-breweries like Pabst, Blatz, Schlitz and Miller made Milwaukee “the beer capital of the world."

Today, only Miller remains of the large domestics (Pabst, the last to leave, pulled out in 1996), but dozens of independent microbreweries have emerged in their place and have kept Wisconsin at the forefront of the craft-brew revolution.

Wisconsin is also the top cheese-producing state in the country, churning out almost 1.18 billion kilos annually.