The Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) take on ceviche is tiradito. Like ceviche raw fish is marinated in lime juice, where the citric acid cooks the fish. It is served in a number of ways, but the common traits are thin slices of fish. Usually there is a thick aji-based sauce (a yellow aji amarillo or red rocoto) [...]

In Baños, the semi-tropical Andean town under the shadow of the frequently erupting Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador in a region they call the Avenue of the Volcanoes, nearly every mom and pop soda shop can be seen practicing an art that seems a little bit out of the ordinary.

I don’t think there is much to explain on this one: A Pastrami on Rye sandwich from Katz Delicatessen in New York’s Lower East Side.

I have been consistently disappointed with Mexican food since moving to New York. While there are plenty of Mexican restaurants in every neighborhood, the majority are as basic and uninteresting as your basic Chinese take out. Some even serve Chinese food. I know there are a lot of gems out there; I just haven’t found them as of yet. Until now.

Lots of of food and travel items have popped up in major publications in the past week. Here are some of the highlights.

Rafael Osterling (www.rafaelosterling.com) is a Lima culinary name on par with Gaston Acurio and a growing number of restaurants to match the celebuchef. Satellites of his Rafael restaurant in Lima have opened this year in Bogota and Puerto Madero (Buenos Aires) amid lots of hype, so his Cusco restaurant, Bistrot 370, has opened relatively under the radar. If you were in Cusco and weren’t looking for it, you probably wouldn’t even know it was there.

The first time I really began to love Chilean sandwiches, and notice their mass appeal, was in the Southern Patagonian town – the very last on the continent – of Punta Arenas after a quarter of the earth flight from Quito, Ecuador. I was in airports for close to 15 hours and landed late in the evening, though it was still bright out as the sun didn’t set until early morning in that time of year.

The South American camelids, the Alpaca and Vicuña, produce some of the fnest quality fiber on the planet. Here’s the lowdown.

While Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya have stolen everyone’s attention in Mexico, the chic colonial hideout has reinvented itself. While you won’t find an amusement park, you will find an abundance of quality, style and serenity. Here are my three picks:

John Hemming, the historian who penned Conquest of the Incas, one of the definitive texts on the arrival of the Spanish in Peru and South America and the battles that followed, has released this gem of a book that covers the breadth of Amazon history.