Food & Drink

Since reading Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana many years ago I wanted to visit Iran, the heart of the ancient Persian empire, to see the ruins of Persepolis, the beehive-like ice houses in the desert, the ancient palaces and mosques, the scented gardens and of course to taste the food. I was fortunate enough

As you go south along the coast road from Trapani to Marsala in western Sicily you come upon an unusual and beautiful panorama. There is a geometric pattern of canals and multi-coloured ponds – sea blue, dark blue, pink and white – extending for some kilometers. Windmills dot the landscape amid the ponds, and nearer

The food of Georgia ‘You aren’t a vegetarian, are you?’ enquired my Georgian host as we sat down to lunch in a light airy restaurant on the edge of one of Tbilisi’s parks. I assured him I was not, but discovered in the next ten days that I could have lived well on fruit and

Pongal is the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu, celebrated over four days in mid-January. It marks the beginning of the Tamil month Thai, and is to thank the Sun God for a successful harvest. The atmosphere everywhere is joyful, happy and relaxed. People greet each other in the street with cries of ‘Happy Pongal!’ The