Lessons learned? Go with the local (beverage) culture, definitely pack lightly and if you really, REALLY want to take some wine, take one bottle, not four. But as they say in Brazil, TUDO BEM Okay, I will admit that there are times when wine just won’t fit the bill...
The Spice of Life
Published in Placeres Magazine-January/February 2007 When it comes to Indian food, what the majority of the world considers as authentic, being most of the food served in restaurants is in essence Northern Indian cuisine; a meat-based cuisine passed down from the...
Buenos Aires is Smoke Free
Well, back from BA on a recent business trip, I could hardly believe this shocker: BA is smoke free, that is the restaurants, bars, and (cough) even cafés. For years, I always contemplated and experienced BA and its culture through a lingering, thick haze of nicotine...
Wining & Dining Mendoza Wine Country
Appeared in LAN Airlines-IN Magazine: November 2006 Unedited version: In Mendoza, it seems that all roads lead to a winery given that more than 70% of all wine production in Argentina is concentrated here. Mendoza’s wine scene is booming and has come into its...
Feliz 18: Empanada and BBQ mania
Ahhh, the smell of meat grilling. Santiago has gone up in a big cloud of smoke--from the carbon on the grills that is. Today is Day 4 of the 5-day Independence Day long weekend here in Chile; today being the actual Independence Day, September 18. Festivities...
El Principal: Pure High Maipo Terroir
The Story, The basic story is one repeated time and again in South America: French know-how plus Chilean terroir equals outstanding wines—or in the case of El Principal winery, that is how the story originally started, but from their it morphed into its own. The late...
Made in Chile: Emporio Nacional
I just stumbled upon my gastronomic discovery of 2006 in Santiago: Emporio Nacional. It is a “Made in Chile” goodie store; a gourmet delicatessen sporting Chile’s finest temptations from jams like Cochayuyo (that seaweed I never know WHAT to do with) or spicy...
New World “Fun”
Friday night, innocent cosmopolitans with friends at the Ritz’s new martini lounge led to an impromptu dinner party at my apartment. With freshly made Moussaka lurking in my oven and no company to share it with, I decided to invite over my drinking companions and have...
More than Malbec: Bodega O. Fournier (Mendoza, Argentina)
For those who have been following the Argentine wine industry over the past years, you may be aware that there is much more out there than Malbec, and well, more Malbec. Sparkling wine powerhouses like Chandon have maintained investments in Mendoza for more than 4...
Las Doscientas: 200% Olive Oil
In Chile there has been a major increase in good quality, low-acid extra virgin olive oil production in the past couple years, although still only a fraction of it is being exported. That picture is rapidly changing and soon, I imagine that many Chilean oils will end...
Debunking the Chilean Seabass Myth
As of late when dining out in restaurants in and around Chile, I have come to notice (and am alarmed) that most menus do a horrendous translation job when it comes to accurately defining what Chilean Seabass is in English. For those readers traveling in Chile, please...
Just Say No
It is 10:30 p.m. and only two of my 13 guests have arrived. The invitation stated 9:30 p.m. very clearly as the time that the party would start. Everyone invited RSVP-ed that they were coming. “So why are they all so late?”, I grumble to my boyfriend and two other...
Stratégie du Supermarché
I will admit that I am somewhat “under-studied” in French wines. The problem is, for as much as great wine as Chile produces, that is all we get here. Hence, a wine knowledge deficit is inevitably created. To combat this void, I decided to go to France for Vinexpo in...
My So-Called Career: How did I end up here?
“En cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno, vamos con Liz!”. The lights flash on and the cameras swivel around to lock their focus on me in the studio kitchen. Here we go. We are broadcasting live; cooking for all of Chile for the next five to ten minutes. In those brief...
Vinexpo 2005: The Wine Olympics, (VITIVINICULTURA Magazine: July, 2005)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall whose stand looks best of all?”. Certainly this could have been the familiar nursery rhyme that many of the 2,400 exhibitors were silently singing to themselves at the recent Vinexpo 2005, the 13th, held from June 19-23 in Bordeaux,...
and the meaningful