All in Food & Drink
The Eastern & Oriental Express is known as one of the world's most renowned luxury trains, and probably the best known in Asia. It's 5-star dining all the way with exotic cocktails and unlimited French champagne, but at over US$3,400 per person for four days and three nights, is it really worth the financial outlay? Here's what to know about what you will get for your money.
If you are visiting Sri Lanka and enjoy eating crab, don’t miss the opportunity to sample the award-winning seafood menu at the Ministry of Crab in downtown Colombo. It’s housed in the heritage-listed Dutch Hospital building in the historic Fort precinct and is the only Sri Lankan restaurant to make the Asia’s Top 50 restaurants list.
Thailand’s Koh Lanta has a reputation for being a tranquil alternative to more popular islands like Phuket and Koh Samui. But depending on where you stay, that’s not always the case. However, Koh Lanta is a great destination for foodies travelling on a budget as it has many excellent eating places at much lower prices than other tourist spots.
Could your idea of a dream Asian holiday be a three-week bar hop visiting some of the best cocktail bars in Asia? If so, here’s an itinerary that you can combine with visits to some of the most exciting cities in Asia, enjoying their cultural and culinary delights during the day, and dressing up for a relaxing evening to sample exquisite cocktails created by Asia’s best mixologists using local ingredients blended with traditional spirits.
The Authors’ Lounge in the historic Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, pays homage to the many writers and artists who have frequented the hotel since the late 19th century during their visits to the city. It’s well worth a visit to learn about the history of the hotel and its many famous guests, and to enjoy the sweet and savoury delicacies served for the Oriental Afternoon Tea in the beautiful Somerset Maugham lounge.
Kampot in southern Cambodia has gained a well-deserved reputation as a destination for foodies in Southeast Asia. But there is more to do in this laidback river town than just eating your way through the menus of the many excellent restaurants. It’s a great spot to unwind and enjoy some relaxing back-to-nature experiences.
Baku is an oil-rich city that is somewhat off the beaten track but is worth visiting because it has a history dating back many centuries. This gives it a unique amalgamation of old and new, with buildings dating back more than 800 years overshadowed by new high-rises and interesting structures from its Soviet era.
In recent years, Georgia has gained a reputation as one of the best destinations in western Asia for food and wine lovers. Its Kartvelian cuisine, which takes inspiration from its Slavic, Turkish, and Persian neighbours, can be an indulgent experience, and its traditional home-brewed wines in clay vessels represent one of the oldest wine cultures in the world.
The Singapore Sling is a drink that most visitors to Singapore will try at least once. This legendary cocktail, created by a barman at the Raffles Hotel over 100 years ago, has retained its distinctive taste and flashiness over the years, but now the Raffles is working to reduce its carbon footprint and make the Singapore Sling a more sustainable and eco-friendly drink for the environment.
Kuala Lumpur’s historic Coliseum Café was preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2021. Instead, it announced it was closing permanently – a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept customers away. It’s a sad end for a restaurant built at the height of British rule that retained its quirky colonial charm even as Malaysia changed around it.
If you crave for spicy Korean food and would like to learn how to cook it, then leave time for a cooking class when you are next in South Korea. The country’s capital, Seoul, has many classes on offer, but major cities like Busan – Korea’s seafood capital – have classes available too. This class will have you cooking Korean dishes like an expert.
Re-creating dishes at home that you’ve sampled on visits to Asia is a way to bring back memories of trips away, and partially satisfy the travel bug whilst we are confined to within our own borders. Many of the dishes of Southeast Asia are easy to cook at home and provide a way to recall enjoyable culinary experiences from your favourite destinations.
As Vietnam grows in popularity as a holiday destination, it is gaining a well-deserved reputation for being a haven for foodies. And that’s not just for Vietnamese food, but for many other cuisines as well. We take a look at five places to eat in Vietnam that provide a perfect introduction for the first-time visitor.
South Korea is not often thought of as a wine-producing country. But it does have one large winery producing some surprisingly good wines. And then there’s soju — the world’s top selling spirit — which comes in a range of fruit flavours and can be drunk like wine. This comprehensive guide to Korea’s wines and spirits will help those visiting the country to choose a drink that will most suit their palate.
There are many different tropical fruits available from markets and street stalls throughout Asia. Not all of them may be familiar to visitors from other parts of the world because some tropical fruits do not travel well, so are only readily available in the countries where they are grown. Travellers should therefore try to sample local fruits that are in season whenever the opportunity arises. Here are six of our “must try” fruits for visitors to the region.
For those who enjoy a tipple, one of the pleasures of travelling in Asia is sampling some of the locally-produced drinks. A wide selection of alcoholic drinks is available, with many countries producing not only their own beer and wine but a sometimes surprising range of spirits.
