I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this upon seeing it in a Cusco, Peru supermarket. I have seen raviolis made from Coca flour, along with cookies, tea, candy, and everything else, but this is the first I have seen of Coca leaf beer. I’m not sure why one bottle says Premium and the [...]

Dave Cook of the New York Times included three South American Restaurants in his recent $25 and Under Restaurant write up. Their first mention is of the excellent Cafecito Bogota, just right down the street from my apartment in Greenpoint. I have been here before, though not since they remodeled, and, from what I can [...]

In Peru around Christmas time, Paneton is everywhere. They sell it in the grocery stores, you get it free when you buy 10 gallons of gas, kids beg for it in the street. Everywhere. There are good brands and bad brands. They even have tiny versions that get stuffed in stockings and goodie bags at [...]

Gourmet supermarket in Dean& Deluca in NYC has begun selling upmarket chocolate bars from a slew of Latin American countries as well as other destinations. About half of these Origin bars focus on Latin American nations. Each are single estate chocolates and have the following percentages of cocoa: Costa Rica 38%, Venezuela 43%, Peru 64%, [...]

Finally, Frommer’s Central America Guidebookhas been released. The upscale guidebook publisher has lacked a full Central America guide for some time, while Footprint, Lonely Planet, and others have released numerous editions. I actually wrote the Honduras chapter from scratch. The guide marks the first time Frommer’s has included Honduras in their publications and a full [...]

LAN Airlines is having a killer sale on weekend flights to Chile and Argentina from either New York or Toronto. This includes Easter Island. With roundtrip flights to Easter Island from Santiago normally hovering around $800, these $999 fares from New York are about as good as it is going to get. Click on the [...]

Something is happening in New Orleans’s culinary evolution. Something big. Bigger than even before the hurricane.

Katrina flood waters destroyed much of the culinary pedigree in New Orleans for several years. In the past year though, the oldies have been returning: Gautreau’s, Camellia Grill, Emeril’s Delmonico, Willie Mae’s Scotch House, Eleven 79, and several others. Not only has there been a historic resurgence of New Orleans dining, a new scene is emerging defined by the openings of dessert boutiques like Sucré on Magazine Street, three new Brazilian restaurants, a Colombian bistro and Tapas bar, and John Besh’s city wide expansion.

I hadn’t visited the city since the hurricane. I kept being told to stay away and for some reason I listened. Then I kept seeing airline tickets popping up for ridiculously cheap prices, as well as cheap car rentals, and four star hotels going for half price. I gave in.

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in north-central Costa Rica is one of the most visited sites in Costa Rica and one of the world’s supreme wildlife reserves. The cloud forest is the ideal example of the rainforest you hear about in film and books. Lush plants grow in every direction and rare and diverse wildlife is abundant.

There are five species of South American camelids: alpaca, llama, vicuña, guanaco, and huarizo. They are found throughout the Andes mountains in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. Unlike the camel though, the South American camelids thrive at high altitudes.

Peru’s north coast town of Chiclayo, about halfway between Lima and the border with Ecuador right on the Pan-American highway, is rich with archeological sites, beaches, and museums that make it a must on any trip in the north of the country.