Quarantine is now just about at its year point, which is kind of mind-blowing. Fortunately, the world has a lot of countries to visit by way of a virtual date night! This time around, we head to Mongolia, the big splotch of country between China and Russia that nobody seems to know much about outside…
I'm blessed in my life to have a local Mexican restaurant that not only do I love, but is also owned by a close family friend. (Los Angeles folks, check out Joselito's, especially if you live in the San Fernando Valley or its environs.) So when Jose, the owner, auctioned off a zoom cooking class…
Sometimes a country is so wonderful that one date night won't do. Such is the case with Japan, one of my favorite places I've ever visited, and the country my family had planned to see in 2020 and now is hoping to reach in 2022. Do you remember our first Japanese date night? Well, this…
Iceland, the land of fire and ice, and a place I've never been but that has always been near the top of my wish list. The idea for this date night came when A and I watched a Netflix comedy special from Ari Eldjarn entitled "Pardon My Icelandic." Loving it - seriously, watch it -…
If there is truly a case of a single thing dictating a date night destination, this is it. Coming in, I knew basically nothing about El Salvador, outside of it leading the world in murders per capita. Oh, and pupusas. Pupusas, one of my favorite foods, light and fluffy, filled with yumminess and griddled to…
Let's start off this way: Turkey is an incredible place. It is amazing. I've been to both Istanbul and Izmir (as a gateway to Ephesus) and read Sam's recent piece about Cappadocia. There is so much history and culture there that one could dedicate an entire website just to Turkey. As a tourist, I have…
Canada. The Great White North. For many Americans, it's the closest country to visit (Mexico for me living in Los Angeles), and yet, beyond a few large cities, few of us have seen much of what this amazing country has to offer. I've been to Canada at least eight times I can easily recall, but…
Time is a funny thing. It seems both like only yesterday and like forever ago that I was living in Lisbon. Way back in January, before Covid was a thing, I spent a month in this amazing country, and a gift of a lovely bottle of port from my father gave us the excuse to…
This fall, I was vaguely planning a trip back to Thailand. I was there several years ago, part of a cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong, spending two days in Bangkok and a day on Koh Samui. That introduction was enough to tell me I wanted to go back. And then Covid happened and all…
One of the common misconceptions many Americans have is that countries we think of as "third-world" have little to offer in terms of either food or culture. Especially when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa, we - myself included - tend to know little, thinking of these countries only as destinations for a safari. This week,…