By Casey Fahrer Premium economy seating is one of many options airlines offer passengers to improve the experience of their flight. Airline traffic has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, meaning that many flights are now almost fully booked. So, who wants to be shoehorned into a coach seat when premium economy seating beckons? Premium…
By David DeVoss For the better part of three years Macau slumbered, its public squares subdued, its major shopping streets shuttered. On two occasions the entire city locked down on orders from Beijing. For a city of 713,000 that makes all its money selling the luck of the draw, the consequences of reduced tourism were…
Drinking beer is woven into the social fabric of Vietnam. At family affairs and business lunches, impromptu meetings and private karaoke parties, beer flows like water. Cartons of beer — Saigon Special and Bia Hanoi, 333 and Larue, 24 cans to a box — balance in towering store displays and on the backs of motorbikes that careen through swarming traffic en route to their final destinations. A 2022 survey reported that Vietnam’s annual per capita beer consumption is 41.6 liters (over 11 gallons), or about 125 standard-sized cans per person.
By Teresa Bergen As I enter the Terror Ship, the captain tells me that he and his crew have been marooned here for fifty years and all of them have a terrible virus. I can just make out in the near darkness that something is very wrong with his face. Indeed, a closer look reveals…
By Richard Varr Boiling water shoots through a glass flask and into an upper chamber that resembles a flask you might see in a chemistry lab. The water mixes with crushed Colombia coffee beans and begins to percolate. The complex beverage that soon will emerge represents coffee’s “fourth wave” movement. “We are brewing an amazing…
By Marisa D’Vari Tempranillo’s tale begins during the Middle Ages, a turbulent yet transformational period for Spanish viticulture. As the Moors retreated south, the Christian reconquest brought a resurgence of wine production across the Iberian Peninsula. In the wake of Islam’s retreat, people could enjoy drinking again. Historians speculate that the Tempranillo grape was cultivated…
Airline loyalty programs and their banking partners have begun waging war in airport hubs around the country by upgrading and opening new lounges with hopes to conciliate top members’ frustrations with club availability and quality. Delta and United are opening opulent airport lounges. So are JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and Capital One. Read More
Travelers often find themselves seeking unusual items while on the road. These curios may be explained by the psychology behind the souvenir–the French word for “memory.” As we hold a souvenir in our hands—a model of the Eiffel Tower, a postcard of Angkor Wat, a silk scarf from Vietnam—we are transported back in time…
By Teresa Bitler A flight of five bourbons sits on the thickly varnished wooden bar inside a Louisville, KY tavern. Nearby, office workers and tourists escaping the heat of the day enjoy the tavern’s justifiably famous fried chicken and pork ribs. The food is tempting, but I’m going with samples of middle-of-the-road Kentucky whiskey simply…
In April 1904, Chinese Prince Pu Lun, the 32-year-old heir apparent to the throne of the Manchu Empire, sailed to the United States, the first member of the Qing Dynasty ever to cross the Pacific. He was a “Kodak fiend” fascinated by everything he saw and Americans readily embraced him. En route to the St. Louis World’s Fair, where he would serve as China’s Imperial Commissioner, he attended a banquet where the host provided a dish he hoped would remind the young prince of home. Pu Lun looked at the platter curiously and asked his host what it was. “Why, that’s chop suey, Prince,” said the American. Eager to discover something new and foreign, Pu Lun smiled at this revelation, nodded his head slowly, and asked, “What is…chop suey?”