"Travel" news and stories

What a difference a year makes when you're hungry for adventure, and just plain hungry. For the thirtysomething Elyse Pasquale, the past 11 months have been spent eating a hundred meals and accumulating a truckload of frequent-flyer miles as she traveled about 95,000 miles around the world to try as many indigenous and off-the-wall foods as she could find. And, of course, blogging about it as the self-dubbed Foodie International.

A "random salty, crispy, meaty Kalfsveeskroket" in Amsterdam; sliced tofu with pork jelly and black truffle in Beijing's Forbidden City; a lesson in rolling pici (pasta) in Siena, Italy.... Pasquale's tried it all (and loved most of it). But what was her motivation, and how has she kept eating for a year? A cast-iron stomach, perhaps? Read Terry Ward's fascinating profile of Pasquale for the inside scoop on her adventures, in "Have Passport, Will Eat," at AOL Travel.

Intrepid diners who were nervously approaching the final suggestions on Alabama's official "100 Dishes to Eat Before Your Die" list now have 67 new reasons to keep on eating.

The state's department of tourism this month issued a third edition of its phenomenally popular brochure, which now features 215 signature plates. While a few dishes have dropped off the list since its first printing in 2005, the department has understandably refused to let go of favorites like Dreamland's ribs and white bread, Ezell's catfish and Irondale Café's fried green tomatoes.

"We'd like everyone to try all 215 dishes," department spokeswoman Edith Parten says.

This year's new additions span the state, from Huntsville – where the Cotton Row Restaurant serves up peanut butter and jelly in phylo – to Mobile, home of NoJa's ginger donut. As the brochure's adjoining cover photos of high-end chef Frank Stitt and cheeseburger maven Lucy Buffett suggest, the showcased dishes run the gamut from homespun to hoity-toity: The 2010 list includes smoked meat and homemade stew, slaw dogs, green beans, strawberry salad, prime rib and day boat scallops with wild mushroom risotto.

While I must steer clear of nuts, I've never let that affect my travel plans, although I imagine I'd have to be prepared if I ever make it to the land of the curry and cashews. So, what do you do if you're headed somewhere and have to keep an eye on your allergies?

CNN has a great list up, which suggests everything from the classic "talk to the chef," to traveling with cards that list your allergies in the language spoken at your destination. How neat is that? Just buy the card you need, and you won't have to worry about trying to translate yourself and accidentally telling someone you're allergic to shoes instead of shellfish.

I'm one of those people who is pretty laid back about their allergy, and even I see the benefit of this. Do you want to get stuck in some foreign hospital, or die before you finish your vacation? How inconvenient!

If you have any allergy travel tips, share below!

This one is a little different from the regular Food Porn Daily pic I normally pick. I went searching for pepper images and when I came across this one, it struck me as particularly beautiful, with that vast tangle of hot red peppers and the women with the smiling faces. The flavor potential (as well as the amount of heat) contained in that pile of peppers is hard to even imagine.

If you have gorgeous travel/food pictures, join us over at the Slashfood Flickr group and add them to the pool. We'd love to see them!

Source

Amtrak has a new feature in store for its riders, and luckily, it's better than random bag checks.

If you get hungry on your Amtrak or Acela ride, forget those sub-par turkey sandwiches and tiny pretzels - you can now purchase a "GoPicnic" meal from the cafe car. The meals are perfect for long train rides, as they don't require refrigeration or heating and have a long shelf life. What makes them special? They're all-natural and organic, and don't contain partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, or MSG.

As most airline and train meals aren't exactly a picture of nutrition, these sound promising. There are a ton of meal choices, and some even come in vegetarian, kosher, and halal options. But a closer look reveals that, like most prepackaged meals, most are too good to be true. Remember: just because a meal is trans fat-free, doesn't automatically make it healthy. Some of the meals are ostensibly good for you, but their ingredients contain copious amounts of sugar, salt, and calories. For instance, the "Anytime Break" meal comes with pretzels, white cheddar corn puffs, mixed nuts and chocolate chunk cookies. And the "Deli Break" meal isn't much better - mini salami slices, peppercorn cheese spread, crackers, chips, and those cookies again.

The company does provide other meals that contain more lean fish, dried fruit, and healthy protein sources like hummus and skim-milk cheeses, but you won't find these choices on Amtrak.

The meals are okay if you're caught without food on a long trip, but if you know you're going to be train traveling, bring your own snacks. You'll save calories and money.