Food & Wine

NEWS FROM ITALY…

On a custom tour our family took to Panama in June-July ’09 (Oct. ’09, pg. 32 & Nov. ’09, pg 31), we stayed in BOQUETE at Finca Lérida (P.O. Box 0413-00146, Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama; phone/fax +011 [507] 720-2285), a small hotel on a gorgeous coffee plantation on the mountainside outside of town. Although the hotel was outside the city, a taxi to/from town cost only $5.

In Delhi, India, I recommend the splendid Spice Route Restaurant in the Imperial Hotel (Janpath, New Delhi 110001, India; phone +91 11 2334 1234). The venue itself is like visiting an art gallery.

We were there in January ’09 and the Thai food was outstanding. It was a little on the expensive side for India but well worth it.

JUDIE KESSON

Coronado, CA

An Express Lunch at The Spice Route costs INR2,000 (near $47) per person.

by Sandra Scott

The discovery of a handwritten family tree led me to the “old country” of Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, from which my great grandfather, Martin Jakljevic, emigrated in the late 1880s. His village of Metlika, in the Bela Krajina region, is known for vineyards, wine making and sheep breeding and is a mere hour away from the capital, Ljubljana.

When in Bucharest, beer lovers should not, repeat not, miss Caru’ cu Bere (Stavropoleos St. #5, Bucharest, Romania; phone 021 313 75 60, www.carucubere.ro). It is a two-story rococo Bavarian brauhaus dishing up plentiful servings of Romanian food plus a good assortment of European beers, including their own. It is very popular with tourists and natives alike, but we had no trouble getting a table anytime we went. (Lunch from RON22.4 [near $7] and beer RON4.80-RON9).

GEORGE M. GREIDER, East Haddam, CT

NEWS FROM FRANCE…

Okay, so you have read the Rick Steves guidebook and the Rough Guide to wherever it is you want to go in Europe. You have decided to see the wildflowers in one village and a museum in another and to go wine tasting someplace else, but you have no idea how to get to them all. The answer is the “European Rail Timetable” by Thomas Cook.

My husband and I took the “Arts and Culture of Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia” tour, Jan. 11-Feb. 4, 2009, with Danu Enterprises (Capitola, CA; 888/476-0543) — a great trip. The land part cost $3,332 per person, and the air portion, out of San Francisco and including all internal flights overseas, cost $2,256 each.

Except for breakfasts, most meals were not included. For two people, restaurant meals (with wine or beer) ran $40 in Vietnam, $20-$30 in Laos and $10 in Cambodia.

News from NETHERLANDS