In Chile and Argentina and throughout Latin America, empanadas are ubiquitous. They’re on café menus, prepared at home, served to kids at school, and packed into lunches to take to work. An empanada is basically a turnover with a savory filling inside. In Argentina, two types of dough can encase the filling: a flaky dough […]

Italians who immigrated to Argentina in the late 1800s definitely left their mark on its cuisine. They brought their love for pizza, pasta, and gelato, called helado here. Every block or two in Buenos Aires, helado shops are as common as those for lattes in Seattle. Instead of round scoops, helado is piled into an […]

On the drive from Santiago to the Colchagua Valley, if a friend told me I was in Southern California, I would believe her. The dry rolling hills, the front range, and tall mountains beyond (the Andes instead of the Sierra Nevadas) look like the terrain where I grew up. Even the produce is similar. We […]

In the heart of Santiago, Chile, a huge fish market spans an entire city block. Since 1872, fish vendors at Mercado Central have been selling their bounty from waters touching Chile’s long coastline. When I stepped inside, I was shoulder-to-shoulder with families crowding the narrow aisles between rows of stalls and rows of huge bags […]

The Maori people have been eating local New Zealand foods from the land, skies, and waters for more than a thousand years. They arrived from the Polynesian Islands in the South Pacific, bringing favorite ingredients to cultivate, such as kumara (sweet potato). They also brought a way to cook for big groups called Hangi, an […]

Woo-hoo! My 3-month adventure began in Queenstown, on the south island of New Zealand. The mountains here are impossibly steep, plunging into Lake Wakatipu, used as dramatic background in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. We drove east-ish to Central Otago, home to about 175 wineries, producing mainly pinot noir. It looks so much […]

Cheers! In just a few days I leave for an adventure to seven countries to learn about local food and farming – and to have fun! I’ll be going to New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, Italy, Denmark, Scotland, and Ireland. Glad you’re joining me! e!

On an earlier trip, I hiked to a rifugio (mountain hut or lodge) called Tiersr Alpl Hutte http://www.tierseralpl.com/en.html in the Dolomites, the Italian Alps in the Alto Adige region. It’s only accessible by hiking up glorious mountains, past open grassy areas of grazing cows wearing clanging bells around their necks. Tiersr Alpl Hutte is run […]