Thailand Street Food – Gay Supertown Blog

Thailand Street Food - deposit photos

One of the first things you notice when you come to Thailand is the abundance of Street Food Vendors. Sadly, many visitors avoid them for fear of food poisoning.

Eating Thailand street food can be safe as long as proper precautions are taken. 

Tips for Choosing Thailand Street Food

Here are some tips for eating street food safely in Thailand:

• Choose vendors with lots of customers

• Avoid prepared meals, glazes, and sauces

• Look for food with the least number of ingredients

• Only eat what is being cooked at the time

• Avoid dishes that have been in sunlight and on the grill too long

• Buy fruits that come with a peel, such as dragon fruit, mangosteen, and pineapple

• Use common sense and follow your instincts

• Street food is probably safer than some enclosed restaurants as you can see them cooking it.

Full Story at the Gay Supertown Blog

Thailand Gay Travel Resources

Traditional Vietnamese Cuisine – The Nomadic Boys

Traditional Vietnamese Cuisine - The Nomadic Boys

Oh, Vietnam you really blew our minds with all those tasty dishes! Pho, Cao Lau, Mi Quang, Bun Cha – just to name a few… Fellow foodies will be in total paradise in Vietnam. It felt like one big gourmet exploration, discovering a different dish every day, with so many unique flavors and specialties.

We knew quite a bit about Vietnamese cuisine before visiting thanks in part to the large number of Vietnamese restaurants back home in Europe. Most people will no doubt have heard of the ubiquitous Pho, but throw into the mix influences from French colonization and even a few surprises like egg coffee and you’ll really start to appreciate our excitement for this destination!

This is our detailed summary of all our favorites and the tastiest traditional foods of Vietnam that we loved and think you need to discover during your visit.

How did traditional Vietnamese cuisine originate?

Like many Asian countries, Vietnam’s food has been influenced by what naturally grows in the region as well as the history of other cultures coming to a place and then leaving their mark.

Since Vietnam has been invaded/colonized by multiple countries (like China, Japan, France, and America) each one has also influenced the Vietnamese cuisine. With noodles from China and baguettes from France becoming an integral part of Vietnamese cuisine, the Vietnamese have taken these and created their own unique (and super tasty!) dishes.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at the Nomadic Boys

Vietnam Gay Travel Resources

10 Famous Filipino Foods – The Nomadic Boys

Filipino foods are exciting, surprising and full of wonderful flavours.

We travelled around the Philippines extensively as a gay couple and found many traditional yummy prizes to enjoy. With the exception of balut(!), we’ve put together our favourite foods and drinks from the Philippines that we think everyone must try.

This is our video of our travels around the Philippines as a gay couple, focusing on the awesome gay scene of Manila, party island Boracay (pre-cleanup!) and the stunning Palawan.

1. Chicken adobo: the famous Filipino dish

Chicken adobo is one of the most famous Filipino foods to try in the Philippines, known and loved by everyone.

Adobo means “marinade” in Spanish and this is just that: chicken (or pork) marinated in a mixture of soya sauce and vinegar. This was traditionally used as a way of cooking meat because the acid from the vinegar and high salt content of the soya sauce produced an undesirable environment for bacteria. Other ingredients are added depending on whose recipe you follow. 

An authentic adobo is cooked in clay pots, but today it’s more common to see them prepared in a wok or metal pot.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at the Nomadic Boys

Berlin Street Food – Dream Euro Trip

Berlin Street Food - Pixabay

Other than different types of sausage Berlin is not really known for its food. This has changed over the last few years with street food now becoming a big tourist draw. In fact, you could say it is thriving and now cuisine from all around the world can be had in Berlin.

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Gay Taipei’s a Foodie Paradise – Mic.com

gay taipei - crab - pixabay

If your idea of vacation planning is obsessively researching every restaurant, bar, coffee shop and food stand, gay Taipei, Taiwan, belongs on your bucket list. Taiwan’s sprawling capital city is home to 2.7 million residents and what feels like just as many must-visit spots for food and drink.

The island has a contentious history, with bouts of Dutch, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese presence or rule, and Taipei’s rich culinary landscape includes nods to its diverse colonial past as well as the traditions of the indigenous population: fresh Japanese seafood at DOZO Izakaya Bar, superstar soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung, fine-dining French exports like L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, unbelievable street food like stinky tofu, innovative cocktails from the R&D Cocktail Lab, German beer halls like Buckskin Beerhouse, scenic tea houses atop Maokong mountain — and that barely scratches the surface.

There’s never been a better time to visit. In the first Michelin Guide Taipei, the city had 20 restaurants receive stars, with restaurants ranging from the three-star Le Palais, famous for its expertly executed Cantonese fare, to the one-star Taiwanese-meets-Nordic hit Mume.

Thirty-six joints made Michelin’s Bib Gourmand category, including 10 street food stalls scattered throughout the Taipei’s famous night markets, where tourists, locals and everyone in between sample piping-hot black pepper buns and pearl milk tea. You’ll also find plenty of excellent shops, hotels and tourist attractions — Taipei 101, once the world’s tallest building, is definitely worth braving the crowds for — to fill time between meals.

By Meredith Heil – Full Story at Mic.com

Food in Italy – Dolly Travels

Food in Italy

Good morning, all,

As you know, if Italy is not on my mind, food is. When I have the opportunity to enjoy both Italy and the food of Italy, I am in Nirvana. Fortunately, whenever I go to Italy, I have been able to find apartments with a kitchen, no matter how small, and I can cook sometimes. When I am not cooking, I am always on the lookout for restaurants that serve specialties of the area.

This was the beginning of one meal in Rome on my last visit. Notice the stove with its 2 burners, a small sink and countertop, but that was sufficient space for me to make our dinner of tortellini soup and Caprese salad. Notice that I was able to buy the soup vegetables in a package. I love that I can just pick up one package and have carrots, celery, onions and parsley without buying a lot of either vegetable.

Each area of Italy has its own food specialty, according to what grows well in the area, for Italians use foods that are locally grown and not difficult to find.

Risotto, for instance, is a dish that originated in the Lombardia area, for the weather up in that northern part of Italy is cooler, and rice is one of the principal foods grown in that region.

Further south of Lombardia is the Emilia-Romagna region, where Bologna is a major city. It was in that city that the Bolognese sauce was born, as beef and pork are both raised in this area. The traditional meats used in the Bolognese sauce are veal, pork and beef, simmered with garlic, tomatoes and herbs for hours. This sauce is used for lasagne and spaghetti. The trattorie of Bologna specialize in dishes prepared with this sauce.

Corn is another crop grown in this area of Emilia-Romagna, so polenta is another dish you will find on the menu of the area.

Up in the most eastern part of the country is Venice, situated on the Adriatic Sea; therefore, the specialties of Venice are seafood delicacies. My favorite dish from that area is baked sea bass, although many varieties of seafood are available, as one trip to the fish market near the Rialto bridge will tell you.

On the other side of the country, on the Ligurian Sea, is Genoa, home of pesto, and the Cinque Terre, the 5 villages along the rugged coast, where fishing is a major commerce.

Going south and more westward, is Florence, almost in the midway point between east and west, with no seacoast. The most famous dish of Florence is the Bistecca Alla Fiorentina, a porterhouse steak from the Chianina beef that are only raised in Tuscany. These animals are huge!! I went to a festival once that featured the bistecca. The butchers marched into the Piazza Republicca, led by a band and accompanied by lovely ladies in Renaissance costumes. The butchers brought in sides of that Chianina beef and laid them on a big work table and started slicing off steaks. These steaks are cut about 2 inches thick and each steak weighs about 1 kilo (2.2 pounds). The steaks are brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, then thrown onto a grill, they are cooked 5 to 6 minutes on one side, turned over and cooked 5 to 6 minutes on the other. Some chefs brush balsamic vinegar onto the steak after it is cooked, but I have not found if that is the normal way of doing things. It does no good to ask for your steak to be cooked medium or medium well; If you do not like your steak rare and bleeding, don’t order Bistecca alla fiorentina. The beef, though, is very tender and very tasty.

There are numerous farms as well as vineyards in the Tuscany region. Chianti is the most famous of the wines of that area, but farm crops, such as spinach also abound. If you see a dish on the menu that has the word “Florentine” or “Fiorentina” in its title, it probably has spinach in it. One of the dishes I had one of my tour groups make while we stayed in Florence, was Gnocchi alla Fiorentina….little pillows of potato and flour dough, with eggs and spinach incorporated into them. Those little fluffy pillows are cooked in simmering water, drained and served with almost any type of pasta sauce, but they really show off their tastiness with just some browned butter over them and Parmesan cheese.

As you travel further south in Italy, there are numerous hill towns. Wild game is plentiful in the hills and valleys of these areas, so foods made with the wild boar, cinghale, are prominent on the menu.

Rome claims to be the birthplace of pasta all carbonara, where freshly cooked pasta is tossed with egg, bacon and cheese. Pasta Arrabiata is another pasta dish that supposedly originated in Rome. Rome also promotes pasta l’amatriciana as theirs, although that dish actually came from the village of Amatrice, up in the hills east of Rome. That village was nearly destroyed by earthquakes a few years ago. Restaurants all over Italy held fund-raisers for that city by featuring pasta l’amatriciana on their menus, with proceeds from sale of that dish going to earthquake relief of the village.

One word of caution, though, when in Rome, do NOT try to order any pasta with Alfredo sauce. You will be met with cold stares, unfriendly words, for no one in Italy considers Alfredo sauce to be truly Italian. Yes, it was developed by a chef in Rome for a famous Hollywood couple, but it was his invention and not a traditional Italian sauce.

Further south of Rome is Naples, the birthplace of pizza. Traveling even further south we come to Sorrento, known for its lemons (limoncello) and seafood. I look forward to going to Sorrento, to the Ristorante Delfino on the Marina Grande, and enjoying spaghetti with clams, my favorite Italian dish anywhere, but especially when prepared at that ristorante.

No matter what you eat or in what area of Italy you are, there is always time and a place for gelato. And no matter how old you are, you must have a gelato.

So until next time, I hope you have enjoyed a little food tour of Italy.

Ciao for now,
Dolly

Lebanese Cuisine – Keep Calm and Wander

Lebanese Cuisine - Alain

Below are photos of Lebanese cuisine / food I ate while in Beirut for three nights. These are all the dinner food we had for iftar. This is not a regular meal for dinner but it’s a food feast (aka, food porn).

Imagine three adults and a child gorging on these delightful cuisine? We had more than enough for all of us. I never went back to my hotel room every night without feeling bloated and exhausted from eating. Hahahahaha…

Thanks to a high school friend of mine and her generous Lebanese husband who spoiled me with these foods. Their hospitality made me gain extra pounds; Man, I’ve got to try what’s on the table, right? So, you can’t put all the blame on me.

By Alain – Full Story at Keep Calm and Wander

Lebanon Gay Travel Resources

Best Foods in Argentina – Nomadic Boys

Best Foods in Argentina PHWOOOAAAR Argentina – all that delicious meat…you truly spoil us! Steak hunting became a daily pastime in Buenos Aires… “Which parilla shall we hunt out tonight my greedy Frenchman?” The Argentinian cuisine has a lot to offer, but for us meat lovers, we get particularly excited by the different meat cuts, styles of cooking the meat, accompanying sauces for the meats…and and…more and more meeeeeat! Here’s our 10 favourite foods in Argentina, starting with the most famous, the tastiest, the best and one of the main reasons we were so excited to come here. #1 MEAT! STEAK!! BEEF!!! According to The Cattle Network, Argentina is 1 of 5 countries in the world, which has more cattle than people. Uruguay, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia being the other 4. The best way to enjoy a (few) good steaks is at a parilla (pronounced parisha in the Argentinian dialect). These are the steakhouses, with some of the best found in downtown Buenos Aires. The parilla is the name of the large iron grill in which the meat is barbecued, and the occasion of going face down in large plates of barbecued meat with friends, laughter and plenty of wine is called an asado.

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at the Nomadic Boys

Argentina Gay Travel Resources

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Switzerland – Food On the Go

E;vetino Switzerland’s always-on-time transportation system can get you across the country on a fast train, up to the top of a mountain via ski lift, cable car, or cog railway, or around a lake for a leisurely cruise, and in many cases even provide you with a great meal in the process. Most of the country’s trains are part of the SBB (Schweizerische Bundesbahn, Swiss Federal Railway system, www.sbb.ch) and connect with local buses, local railways, municipal light rail (tram) systems, and lake and riverboats, making door-to-door travel as easy as consulting an uncomplicated schedule online or at the station. If grabbing a quick meal on the way to catch your train or even at the station isn’t an option, remember that many Swiss trains offer onboard food service, either from an “elvetino” cart that makes the rounds several times during longer trips on inter-city (IC) and inter-regional (IR) trains. Elvetino, an international company based in Zuerich, is a subsidiary of the SBB and provides 15 point-of-sale counters in train stations in Switzerland, about 100 mini-bar-style food carts, and 88 dining cars on Swiss trains as well as on some international routes that originate in or pass through Switzerland. Elvetino carts come equipped with mineral water, Coke products and Swiss soft drinks, bottled fruit juices, wine and beer, and freshly made coffee, decaf, and tea. A variety of sandwiches and snack foods, both salty and sweet, are also available.

By Nick Malgieri – Full Story at Passport

Switzerland Gay Travel Resources

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Eating My Way Through Northern Italy

Dani Globetrotter Girls One of the things I was most exciting about when I got on the train to Italy? The food, of course! I boarded the train in Germany in the morning knowing that I’d get off the train in Milan a few hours later, and all I could think about was what I’d be eating for my first meal in Italy. I love Italian food – the pastas, pizzas, breads and pastries, risotto and pretty much everything that I can eat as a vegetarian (I am always told I am missing out because the meat dishes and seafood are amazing, apparently). So while I’m inviting you to join me on a culinary tour of Lombardy and Veneto, the regions I traveled to on my recent visit, be warned: this is only a small fraction of all the good food Northern Italy has to offer, and it is the meat free version. When this decadent customs wasn’t feasible anymore because of rising gold prices, Lombardians still wanted their food to look as if gold was used, which is why the color yellow is omnipresent – in the most iconic dish of the region for example, Risotto Alla Milanese. The color comes from the saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world – did you know that? In addition to saffron, lots of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and butter are used. As you can see in the picture below, ‘Alla Milanese’ can also be made with pasta, not just with risotto.milan spaghetti milanesaSpeaking of butter – Lombardians are not afraid to use butter and lard, especially in the polenta dishes. Polenta, a corn meal based dish is together with risotto the most common dish in the region, and is usually served with meat or vegetables.

By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls

Lombardy Gay Travel Resources

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