On Spain’s Asturian coast, in the small fishing town of Puerto de Vega, on Plaza Cupido—Cupid Square—a self-taught cook writes culinary love letters to the Cantabrian Sea. On the northern coast of Spain, where misty mountains slope down toward the Cantabrian Sea, there is a port town of uncommon simplicity and beauty. A fleet of fishing boats painted firetruck red and forest green unload their catch every morning at the rula, the commercial fish market that anchors the port. The buyers—think gruff men in Members Only jackets—eye the fish from the auction floor or from the balcony above it, make…

Ahead of our League of Travelers trip to Mérida and environs, R&K’s Nathan Thornburgh caught up with Jeremiah Tower—Mérida resident, chef, author, diver and now Substacker—for a chat. Chef Jeremiah Tower seems the quintessence of old-world, mannerly cuisine and letters. So what on earth is he doing on the trop nouvelle web platform Substack? Well, it seems he’s having an uncomplicated good time putting memories to paper from his home in Mérida. The joy, the caviar, the mezcal old fashioned recipes, the hauteur: it’s all in there and deeply readable. Part of the appeal is that Tower’s style of writing—heavy…

In a semi-hidden location in the north of Bangkok, an American-Thai chef has, somewhat improbably, opened one of the city’s most well-regarded restaurants. In a semi-hidden location in the north of Bangkok, an American-Thai chef has, somewhat improbably, turned the small shophouse where he lives into Haawm, one of the city’s most well-regarded restaurants. Dylan Eitharong, 31, might seem an unlikely new culinary hero in the Thai capital. He’s a Floridian, born in the US to a Thai father and an American mother, and didn’t even grow up speaking Thai. But food connected him to his father’s culture, and that…

Mestiza de Indias is an innovative, Maya-inspired regenerative farm in the middle of a region threatened by mass tourism and overdevelopment. Its founder has a lot to say about why food matters. Halfway between Merida and the coast in the Yucatán Peninsula, at the end of a winding dirt road through the jungle, a farm called Mestiza de Indias is trying to address some very large challenges with some seemingly small first steps. The goal: practice organic, regenerative agriculture that combines ancient Mayan knowledge and modern techniques. The farm, which our League of Travelers journey will be visiting this December,…

As Europe starts opening up to travelers again, it’s more exciting than ever to think about the cultural treasures that await. For me, one of the great joys of travel is having in-person encounters with great art and architecture — which I’ve collected in a book called Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces. Here’s an ancient favorite:    The caveman man cave at Lascaux is startling for how fashionably it’s decorated. The walls are painted with animals — bears, wolves, bulls, horses, deer, and cats — and even a few animals that are now extinct, like woolly mammoths. There’s scarcely a Homo sapiens in sight,…

The geopolitical struggle between China and the Philippines has strangled Filipino fishermen’s access to some of their richest fishing grounds SAN SALVADOR ISLAND, Zambales, Philippines— “Kaya pa, I can still do it,” Rony Drio takes aim with his handmade speargun. A split second later, the sharp end pierces the wooden target set against a mango tree outside his home on the northern Philippine island of San Salvador. Drio, 56, has been spearfishing since he was a teenager and, like most men in San Salvador, is an expert marksman with the speargun, a classic fishing tool of the Philippines. He can…

For me, one of the great joys of travel is having in-person encounters with great art and architecture — which I’ve collected in a book called Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces. Here’s one of my favorites:    Nowhere else does the splendor of Moorish civilization shine so beautifully than at the Alhambra — this last and greatest Moorish palace in Europe.  For seven centuries (711–1492), much of Spain was Muslim, ruled by the Islamic Moors from North Africa. While the rest of Europe was slumbering through the Dark Ages, Spain blossomed under Moorish rule. The culmination was the Alhambra — a sprawling complex of palaces…

Ask Beatriz Janer about Seville’s storied Feria de Abril, and you’ll get a quick sense of what makes her photographer’s eye for detail so special. Ask Beatriz Janer about Seville’s storied Feria de Abril, and you’ll get a quick sense of what makes her photographer’s eye for detail so special. Sure, she describes the men, women—and horses—all dressed in their finest. The colors. The carriages. But then she talks about the drinks, cold sparkly rebujitos that fight against the heat and keep your feet from hurting and let the dancing go on and on toward dawn. The same passion comes…

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As Europe starts opening up to travelers again, it’s more exciting than ever to think about the cultural treasures that await. For me, one of the great joys of travel is having in-person encounters with great art — which I’ve collected in a book called Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces. Here’s one of my favorites:    For 2,000 years, the Parthenon temple in Athens remained almost perfectly intact. But in 1687, with Athens under siege, the Parthenon was used to store a huge cache of gunpowder. (See where this is going?) Pow! A massive explosion sent huge chunks of the Parthenon everywhere.…