The 12 Best Restaurants in Charleston to Add to Your Eating Itinerary

Before visiting any new city, town, or hamlet, I have to research it online to find the best possible places to eat and drink. My attitude is that if I’m only going to have a few meals in a place, they better be the absolute best meals around…

Before visiting any new city, town, or hamlet, I have to research it online to find the best possible places to eat and drink. My attitude is that if I'm only going to have a few meals in a place, they better be the absolute best meals around. It is an obsession that often annoys those traveling with me, but once we're presented with a plate of [insert local specialty here], the complaints magically stop.

Therefore, I want to present you with the cream of the crop. Fortunately (and unfortunately), if you're looking for an incredible meal or a picturesque stroll, Charleston has almost too many choices. Not only is it enchantingly beautiful (Travel + Leisure named it the most romantic city in America), but it's also one of the most vibrant, creative, and welcoming places I've ever experienced.

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A Local’s Guide to San Diego, aka the Ultimate Winter Getaway

We’ve partnered with Hilton to share a few local favorites for your next trip to San Diego, California—aka the perfect cold-weather getaway. Think: beachfront restaurants, laidback bakeries, one-of-a-kind shops, and more. For extra-comfy accommodations…

We've partnered with Hilton to share a few local favorites for your next trip to San Diego, California—aka the perfect cold-weather getaway. Think: beachfront restaurants, laidback bakeries, one-of-a-kind shops, and more. For extra-comfy accommodations, check out one of Hilton's 37 locations throughout the city, from the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in downtown to the Cape Rey Carlsbad Beach, a Hilton Resort and Spa.


San Diego’s easygoing attitude and pretty-much-always-perfect weather has made it a go-to vacation destination for decades, but its food scene hasn’t always gotten the same love. That’s changed in recent years with the city taking advantage of its plum location, which happens to be near farms, ranches, the ocean, and vineyards.

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The Charming City of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana, the city of dragons, may be one of the smallest European capital cities, but it is certainly not lacking in terms of personality, history and charm. After a few short days you’ll be so in love with this livable, walkable, and lovable city that you won’t want to leave! An easy 90 minute drive […]

Ljubljana, the city of dragons, may be one of the smallest European capital cities, but it is certainly not lacking in terms of personality, history and charm. After a few short days you’ll be so in love with this livable, walkable, and lovable city that you won’t want to leave!

An easy 90 minute drive from Zagreb, Ljubljana makes a great side trip if you’re visiting Croatia. It’s a city of many influences, managing to feel a little bit Eastern European and Mediterranean at the same time. In other words: it’s downright charming!

A pretty pink building with purple wisteria flowers against a blue sky, Ljubljana, Slovenia

We had 3 unaccounted-for nights in our Croatia trip, and couldn’t decide if we wanted to explore Croatia’s Istrian peninsula or head north to Slovenia. We hemmed and hawed over this for weeks before finally deciding (we really need to get better about making decisions without obsessing over them).

In the end, we figured that by this point in the trip, we would have seen plenty of quaint beach towns, and a change of scenery might be appreciated. Plus, it gave us a chance to check another country off our list too!

We definitely made the right call: Ljubljana turned out to be absolutely delightful, and one of our favorite places of the entire trip.

Once we figured out how to pronounce it, that is. (Hint: treat the j’s more like y’s… so it’s pronounced something like lube-lee-ah-na).

Looking across the river to the Central Market building in Ljubljana, Slovenia

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In Malaysia, Banana Plants Give More Than Just Fruit

When I think about bananas, my mind wanders beyond the realm of fruit, smoothie fodder, and the perennial slipping-on-banana-peel gag. Because in Malaysia, and many other Asian countries around the equator where bananas grow in abundance, our cuisines …

When I think about bananas, my mind wanders beyond the realm of fruit, smoothie fodder, and the perennial slipping-on-banana-peel gag. Because in Malaysia, and many other Asian countries around the equator where bananas grow in abundance, our cuisines are laden not just with the fruit of the plant, but its droopy, fan-like leaves too.

While banana leaves are far too fibrous to be eaten raw or even cooked, they serve as excellent wrappers for food. Just like how parchment paper keeps fish en papillote moist and steamy, and how the grape leaves in Mediterranean dolmas hold and concentrate the juices of the meat and rice within, banana leaves can do the same.

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Meet the Chef Who’s Celebrating Indigenous Mayan Food

It’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit and pouring rain on the beach in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Nature Reserve, located in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Despite the intermittent torrential downpours, the Caribbean Sea is bright turquoise beneath the dark rain clouds in t…

It’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit and pouring rain on the beach in the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Nature Reserve, located in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Despite the intermittent torrential downpours, the Caribbean Sea is bright turquoise beneath the dark rain clouds in the distance.

Under a large hut made of bamboo and palms, a chef is quietly running his kitchen. This kitchen is unlike any other restaurant kitchen I’ve been in.

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Why I Go to Maine in the Winter

Table for One is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves cooking for himself—and only himself—and seeks to explore solitude in its many forms.

I had always wanted to go to Maine. I once took a fiction writing course in college where a boy name…

Table for One is a column by Senior Editor Eric Kim, who loves cooking for himself—and only himself—and seeks to explore solitude in its many forms.


I had always wanted to go to Maine. I once took a fiction writing course in college where a boy named Patrik, who was from Portland, Maine, sat next to me all semester. Tall, blonde, and lanky, he wore oversized green sweaters and had a smile as big as his face. He was a lovely writer. He’d catch me staring at him, wait for me after class, and invite me to parties where he and his friends would lug huge kegs of beer into the bathtub. Because he was from Maine, I’d always associated the state with his boyish charm, his kindness.

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The Hot Chocolate Bread Pudding That Makes My Peruvian Christmas

For many Peruvians, there is no Christmas without panetón (this is the local Spanish pronunciation of panettone, a northern Italian sweet bread studded with dried and candied fruit). In Peru, it also includes candied papaya. The reason why this Italian…

For many Peruvians, there is no Christmas without panetón (this is the local Spanish pronunciation of panettone, a northern Italian sweet bread studded with dried and candied fruit). In Peru, it also includes candied papaya. The reason why this Italian baked good ended up so firmly embedded in Peruvian culture is the same reason why we ended up with dishes like tallarines verdes and sopa seca. Peru is home to a significant Italian immigrant population, which has greatly influenced the local cuisine, particularly around Christmas.

In my family, we often varied what we had for dinner on Christmas Eve, and I grew up not really knowing what a traditional Peruvian Christmas looked like. My dad, who always tried to infuse every occasion with some Peruvian flavor, fell in love with American-style roast beef and ended up making that every Dec. 24. He never faltered, however, from serving the most traditional Peruvian Christmas element for dessert: panetón and hot chocolate. It was easy to include panetón on the Christmas Eve table as it’s something you buy rather than make yourself. Considering that my dad never really learned to cook Peruvian food, this was a saving grace.

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The Austrian Canned-Peach Cake I Ate When I Was Snowed In

In Alpine Cooking, Meredith Erickson captures the experience of eating and traveling through the Alps—Gstaad, Verbier, St. Moritz, Courmayeur—not “as all high-end glitz and glamour” nor as “a backpacker’s dream ski vacation,” but as a cultural foray in…

In Alpine Cooking, Meredith Erickson captures the experience of eating and traveling through the Alps—Gstaad, Verbier, St. Moritz, Courmayeur—not "as all high-end glitz and glamour" nor as "a backpacker's dream ski vacation," but as a cultural foray into the nuances of Alpine cuisine and how to eat it at home. Today, she shares with us a special cake recipe that calls specifically for canned peaches, not fresh.


In all the years I spent researching this book, the only time I was really snowed in was in the Stubai Alps, southwest of Innsbruck and north of the Ötztal Alps. I was staying at a Jagdschloss (hunting lodge) in the small, compact, yet very dramatic village of Kühtai.

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In Paris, All I Wanted for Christmas Was a CVS Aisle

Several years ago, in September, I packed an enormous bag and boarded an airplane bound for Paris. I was 21, and headed toward a job I’d found on Craigslist. For the next 10 months, I’d agreed to be what the French call a fille au pair—an au pair girl—…

Several years ago, in September, I packed an enormous bag and boarded an airplane bound for Paris. I was 21, and headed toward a job I’d found on Craigslist. For the next 10 months, I’d agreed to be what the French call a fille au pair—an au pair girl—to a family with a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old. Hours later, when my flight landed at Charles de Gaulle, I took a bus to the Arc de Triomphe and a cab to the address I’d been given, hauled my suitcase up a spiral wooden staircase to a tiny seventh-floor apartment, and passed out.

I’d taken the position in exchange for this room—a chambre de bonne, as it's called; a former maid’s room in the building’s attic—and 350 euros a month. In addition to picking up the kids from school, helping with their English, preparing dinner, overseeing their nightly routines, and taking them to museums and activities, I’d be part of the family, the parents said. The interview process had consisted of Skyping with the family twice. They seemed lovely. So I went.

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17 Italian Cookies You Can Make Without a Nonna to Teach You How

I’m not Italian, and I’m still waiting to go to Italy. I can’t share my favorite Italian wine bar to tuck away in or make you feel like you’re standing in an Italian market. I wouldn’t know the first thing about navigating the country and I don’t know …

I’m not Italian, and I'm still waiting to go to Italy. I can’t share my favorite Italian wine bar to tuck away in or make you feel like you’re standing in an Italian market. I wouldn’t know the first thing about navigating the country and I don’t know how to cook a steak half as good as the ones that are served in Florence. But one thing I do know is cookies—and Italy has some of the finest.

Unfussy, traditional, and always just the right amount of sweet, Italian cookies of any sort never fail to to end a meal (or start a day) on the perfect note. Make these 17 Italian cookie recipes to dunk into your coffee—you don't even need to travel to Italy to learn how.

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