Eating Without Borders

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Many people travel to enjoy exotic food directly from the source. Who couldn’t argue that Pad Thai tastes exponentially better from a stall on the streets of Bangkok or that Crème Brule has a certain je ne sais quoi when eaten in a Parisian bistro? Sometimes it’s beneficial to get a glimpse of the food served in other countries, if for no other reason than to avoid any surprises; as British food writer, Tom Parker Bowles, describes in his book, The Year of Eating Dangerously: A Global Adventure in Search of Culinary Extremes, sometimes we need to experience cuisine by delving into menu items that define the extreme edges of a culture, the type of food that not everyone would even agree is food. Read more

Broken English: Lessons Given and Received in South Korea

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I may have broken the English language. I may have inflicted a disservice to the linguistic excellence of my mother tongue. I may have shattered the pristine image of the modern world’s lingua franca. I’m sorry I broke it, but giving English lessons to children in South Korea wasn’t easy. Being an ambassador of English, I had all the more reason to treat the language properly, I know; but I wasn’t getting through to them with my wordy sentences, so I needed to break them down. Read more

The Music and Rhythm of the Cuban Spirit

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he waves of the Atlantic Ocean cannot be contained by the walls of the serpentine boardwalk, known as the Malecon, where the northern edge of Havana meets the sea. The swells of the ocean burst into a mist of salty spray over the sidewalks and roadways. Despite the occasional shower of sea water, locals and visitors alike congregate here at all times of day to socialize and it has become the city’s largest hangout. The buildings that line this section of town have the architectural savvy of being majestic even while crumbling and deteriorating from decades of neglect. Contributing to this atmosphere of old-time elegance in Havana are ancient Cadillac and Chevrolet taxis, also in various stages of deterioration, that have paraded the streets of the Malecon since the 1950s. Read more