Elizabeth Minchilli

Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, exterior

One of traditional decorating elements in Roman trattorias (besides the red and white checked tablecloths, uncomfortable chairs and over bright lighting) are framed photographs of "celebrity" clients. These can often date back decades and whether or not you recognize the face in the frame, it's kind of fun to see the pride that some of these restaurants display in the fact that a B level soccer player or a politician from a long-failed government stopped by in 1978, funky side burns and all.

Here in Rome, our local is no different. Taverna dei Fori Imperiali gladly started framing snapshots of "famous" clients from the get go. There's the American astronaut. And the quarterback from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Photos that took obscure noteriety, at least to many of the regulars, to new levels.

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Clay Larsen

With plenty of serviceable options for wood-fired pizza right here in the city, why would anyone hop into their car for an hours-long ride just to try a pie? And a FLATBREAD pizza at that?! Well, because Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos is fantastic. Sure, it's tucked away at the end of a one-road town along California's Central Coast, where wine grapes outnumber humans by a factor of thousands. And yes, Full of Life seems sprung from the bones of an old general store, with a yawning front porch, wide bar and open, wood-paneled dining room. It even sources all of its organic ingredients locally, some right from its planter-box garden next door.

But the only reason you should care about driving to Full of Life Flatbread is because it's delicious.

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Erin Lyall

The Dining Room at The Barrymore

You will not see it advertised in blinking lights or on a billboard above the Strip. There will be no chef's face atop a cab. You will not wade through a casino and climb escalators of cologne and miniskirts to find it. It feels like a secret -- and it's one of the best new bang-for-buck meals in town.

Squatting in a sad-looking hotel just yards from the Strip (near The Encore & Wynn properties), The Barrymore is exactly what you'd expect in Rat-Pack era Vegas, even though the restaurant is barely a year old. The lighting is low, Sinatra's on the stereo, and the bartender knows what he's doing.

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B. Rodell

The entrance to Bacchanal buffet in Las Vegas

For years, Vegas restaurants have trended towards celebrity chefs and high end dining. The buffet was seen as a throwback, a decent option for the unwashed gambling masses, but not so much a part of the food-glam scene Vegas is now known for.

That is, until Caesars Palace decided to throw $17 million at its own buffet, which used to be known as Lago but is now Bacchanal. Let's get the obvious joke out of the way: No, there's no vomitorium, even as a cute name for the bathrooms.

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Flickr/prayitno

See also: Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately.
See also: 'Stick a Fork in It' column Tijuana Sí!.

Like many Southern Californians and, of course, Anthony Bourdain, we've been relatively obsessed with Baja lately, especially upon hearing that its wine country both "feels like Tuscany" and/or is "like Napa, only better," depending on which region you feel more like one-upping.

This preoccupation led to a conversation with Jim Pickell, CEO of Baja.com, during which he gave us dozens of tips on where to eat, stay, booze and beach all over Baja, most of which are available in detail on his website. The greatest scoop he gave us, however, was that of Fiesta de la Vendimia -- an almost monthlong wine festival and raucous party in Baja that nearly no Americans seem to be aware of.

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Via Travel Channel

Anthony Bourdain relaxing on a Baja beach

The Baja California episode of No Reservations begins with a soundtrack of gunshots and sirens peppering news reports of violence in Tijuana. But against this noise we see Anthony Bourdain strolling into town looking unafraid. He knows what you're thinking: "Wait, isn't Tijuana dangerous?"

The short answer, we learn, is there is no short answer. Yes, it's been a hotbed for drug-related violence in recent years, which has caused Americans largely to stop going. So what does one find just over the border these days? A city that's stopped caring, apparently, about catering to our vices and is now in the midst of a renaissance, especially when it comes to the culinary scene.

Bourdain also reminds us in this episode that Tijuana is merely stop one on your Baja excursion, if you're wise, and that a journey further south will land you in wine country that "feels like Tuscany."

In other words, our SoCal backyard is blooming again, and watching this show will make you want to frolic in it.

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Margy Rochlin

Farmer's Market in Vancouver's West End

We have often studied the notation on our Day-At-A-Time calendars -- Thanksgiving (Canada) -- and wondered what the festival entails. As it turns out, it's a national holiday that lands on the second Monday of October and mirrors our national celebration in menu (turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy), excited swapping of brining recipes, belt-expanding over-consumption and (at least in the case of the bespectacled used bookstore owner too busy talking on the phone with a friend to ring up our purchase) the sharing of squishy yet earnest-sounding platitudes.

Canadian Thanksgiving is older than ours (circa 1578) and involves no buckle-shoed pilgrims or pointy black hats. It traces back to an English explorer named Martin Frobisher who landed in northeastern Canada having not discovered a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean but was so psyched to still be in one piece that he initiated a day of thanks.

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Emma Courtland

A labyrinth of foreign labels

Los Angeles' ethnic neighborhoods often feel impenetrable. Navigating the seas of strip malls signed by foreign characters, and market mounds of various exotic herbs all labeled "peppermint," is a disconcerting task for even the most adventurous flavor foragers. That is, it can be disconcerting, without the proper culinary compass.

Luckily, James Beard Award nominee Chef Robert Danhi, author of Southeast Asian Flavors: Adventures in Cooking the Foods of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, & Singapore -- which he says is "more of a food book than a cook book" -- leads culinary tours of Little Saigon in much that same vein. Through the enormous markets and small shops of the Orange County enclave, home to the highest density of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, Danhi goes beyond names and recipes, he demystifies Vietnamese cuisine, and shows why he fell in love with the Southeast Asian culture -- introducing curious cooks and eager palates to the unique neighborhood flavors, and his adorable wife Estrellita.

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For the group of food writers, bloggers, chefs and restaurateurs that spent this past weekend traveling through Mexico, Saturday morning began at the weekend-only spot, Barbacoa "Ermita". Slurping lamb consommé so thick and soothing that it should replace chicken soup in elementary school thermoses, chomping pansita (Mexican haggis), drinking brightly colored jamaica (hibiscus) and sucking down mutton cooked overnight until it evolved into barbacoa.

N. Galuten

Restaurant Silvestre, hidden in the Valle de Guadalupe.

On the final leg in the journey, we made our way to the coastal town of Ensenada. At La Guerrerense, the 33 year-old seafood cart: tostadas of sea cucumber, warm sea urchin, bacalao (salt cod) and sea snail, topped with various homemade salsas, including one packed with spicy peanuts, were yet further proof of the massive difference between California Mexican and the real thing.

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Jill Mittan looks tired. But despite the looming death of the five year-old winery dream she shared with her husband Kevin, she's still pouring tastes and telling visitors about the local wine scene at Midlife Crisis Winery. On Sunday, July 27th that will end too.

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