Free Republic

PARIS (Reuters) – Peking Opera, Spanish Flamenco and the art of French gastronomy won places Tuesday on UNESCO's list of intangible world heritages to preserve. The U.N. culture and education agency deemed the traditions and 43 others from a total of 11 countries worthy of recognition on the list at a meeting in Nairobi. Among the more obscure traditions, Luxembourg won recognition for a centuries-old annual hopping procession in the eastern border village of Echternach. The blade-twirling of a scissor-dancing ritual in Peru's Chanka region, which has roots going back to the 16th century, was also nominated as was Turkey's...

(edit) Details of the techniques that restaurateurs use to make customers part with their senses and money have been revealed by monthly food magazine, Olive.  Here are the top ten tricks and some advice from the experts who compiled the list to help avoid overspending:  1 MENU MANIPULATION: Techniques include putting items the restaurant is keen to promote in the right-hand corner where the eye is drawn or putting costly dishes next to even more expensive ones, making them appear comparatively good value.  ADVICE: Don't fall for the cleverly laid- out menu. And be wary of French terms, often used to make...

A marvelous painting of a gourmand at his table hangs in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris — a portly, pink-faced figure happily gorging on a regal casserole, with a bottle of wine at one elbow and a luscious-looking soufflé at the other. It is traditionally believed to be a portrait of Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière, an aristocrat notorious in Napoleonic France for gratifying his palate with the same abandon as his contemporary the Marquis de Sade showed in indulging carnal desires. Whether or not the painting is actually Grimod’s likeness, it captures the eccentric, omnivorous spirit that made him...

Earlier this year at Luc Salsedo, a charming little restaurant in the old city of Nice, our glasses of excellent Crozes-Hermitage 2004 were still about half full. Christine Salsedo, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Luc, the chef, suggested cheese. The selection included a St.-Marcellin, one of my favorites. “Do you have any white wines by the glass?” I asked, and ordered a Château Trians, a Coteaux Varois, from the region. Christine Salsedo seemed somewhat surprised. “Most of the time people drink red with cheese,” she said. “We’re French, so we definitely prefer red.” Ever since I was taught,...

New Orleans - Sam Uglesich grew up among mariners and fishermen off the coast of Croatia on rocky Dugi Otok, whose name means "long island," surrounded by the azure waters of the Adriatic. Twice he set out for the United States. The first time, he jumped ship in New York, but was caught and sent home. The second time, he made his break in New Orleans, then as now a more permissive city, and got away with it. Naturally enough, he opened a seafood restaurant in his adopted city, specializing in the local shrimp, soft-shell crabs, lake trout and oysters....