Check out Native Traveler's full-length WALKING CITIES show!

There's just no substitute for covering the ground, step by step—noting landmarks, feeling the lay of the land, mind-mapping the pattern of streets. I'm a big fan of walking cities to know better both the place and the people. In this show, we learn all the good reasons to lace up and stride out. Come along.

Leslie Garrett // Journalist & Author

Our feature contributor this week, Leslie Garrett is an award-winning journalist and author of more than a dozen books.

Suzanne Urpecz // Co-Founder & Lead Culinary Ambassador of Savour Toronto

At 34 years old, Suzanne was living the dream—she was her own boss, had just married the love of her life, and was planning on buying a home and starting a family. Those plans came to a screeching halt when, upon returning from a trip to Australia, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Read the rest of Suzanne's story here.

Savour Toronto:

Founded in 2013, Savour Toronto is an award-winning company specializing in creating exceptional tailor-made food and drink experiences. They are dedicated to supporting Toronto's food and dining scene with a team of passionate and dynamic local experts.

Jane's Walk

Jane’s Walks are free, locally-organized walking tours in which people get together to explore, talk about, and celebrate their neighbourhoods. Where more traditional tours are a bit like walking lectures, a Jane’s Walk is more of a walking conversation.

A Jane’s Walk can focus on almost any aspect of a neighbourhood, and on almost any topic you can think of. Walks can be serious or funny, informative or exploratory; they can look at the history of a place, or at what’s happening there right now. Anyone can lead a walk, because everyone is an expert on the place where they live!

A Taste of Savour Toronto

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Check out Native Traveler's full-length ARIZONA show!

I've fallen in love with Southern Arizona, thanks to the contributors and guests of today's show. San Francisco-based journalist Breena Kerr shines a light on the colourful, quirky afterworld of old copper mining town, Bisbee. I love this piece. Megan Kimble of Edible Baja Arizona reveals Tucson's rich, inclusive, community-based food scene, of which great restaurants are just one thing. And the writing of award-winning author/journalist Tom Miller beguiles me. Even if you never go to Southern Arizona, you'll be better off for having read one of Tom's books. I know I am. Nine more to go.

Writer, Breena Kerr

San Francisco writer, Breena Kerr, takes us to Southern Arizona's wild west afterworld in her Native Traveler feature, The Ghosts of Bisbee.  

Author/Journalist Tom Miller

Award-winning author and journalist, Tom Miller, shares his affectionate, funny, always clever take on his beloved Southwest.

The voice of all things food in Tucson,

Edible Baja Arizona

Edible Baja Arizona editor Megan Kimble reveals the wide-ranging, community-wide vision of food in Tuscon that helped the city earn a recent UNESCO World Food Heritage Designation.

Tucson Becomes an Unlikely Food Star // Kim Severson, The New York Times

 

A great overview of why Tuscon has been catapulted onto a world foodie stage.

There are food deserts, those urban neighborhoods where finding healthful food is nearly impossible, and then there is Tucson.

When the rain comes down hard on a hot summer afternoon here, locals start acting like Cindy Lou Who on Christmas morning. They turn their faces to the sky and celebrate with prickly pear margaritas. When you get only 12 inches of rain a year, every drop matters.

Coaxing a vibrant food culture from this land of heat and cactuses an hour’s drive north of the Mexican border seems an exhausting and impossible quest. But it’s never a good idea to underestimate a desert rat. Tucson, it turns out, is a muscular food town.

Images of Bisbee Arizona

(Thanks to Breena Kerr and the Town of Bisbee)

Linda Ronstadt's Borderland // Lawrence Downes,

The New York Times

We love the insight here, both into the borderlands of Southern Arizona and Linda Ronstadt.

We are driving outside Naco, Ariz., near the Mexico border, on a two-lane blacktop under a half-moon and stars. The distant mountains are lost in shadow, and there’s not much to look at beyond the headlight beams and the rolling highway stripes.

In the middle seat of the minivan, Linda Ronstadt is talking about her childhood.

Beyond Noma: Why Denmark Is Europe's Best Country for Food // Condé Nast Traveler

Copenhagen has rightly earned a name for itself as one of the best culinary destinations in the world, thanks largely in part to the much-lauded Noma. But it's not the only reason Denmark should be on your foodie bucket list—Henne Kirkeby Kro, a cluster of homey, thatched cottages nestled in the Jutland far west of the city, has a charm (and a mouthwatering menu) all its own.

New Openings: Copenhagen's top five new restaurants // The Telegraph

From smørrebrød to flæskesteg, Danish cuisine is the best part of any trip to Denmark—and no city does ultra-local, modern dishes better than Copenhagen. Take a look at The Telegraph's list of the best new restaurants in town:

Chat 'n' Chill's Famous Conch Salad

Conch (commonly pronounced "konk") is the Bahamas' national food and a true Bahamian delicacy. It can be eaten steamed or deep-fried, but we would argue that the best way to try it is freshly chopped in a conch salad.

Chat 'n' Chill, located on Stocking Island just across from Exuma's main harbour, is famous for its open-air bar and waterside conch salad shack—well worth a visit if you're in town! The chef will take the conch from the sea, crack it open, and prepare it right in front of your eyes. Mix in some locally-grown tomatoes, onions, peppers, and Bahamian sea salt, and voila! Your fresh-from-the-ocean meal is ready.

Watch Chat 'n' Chill's Chef Ronaldo expertly whipping up some conch salad in the video below.

3 Guys and a Stove

Whether for a hearty breakfast or the first civilized dinner you've had after a few days tripping, 3 Guys and a Stove is a must-stop on Highway 60, just east of Huntsville. One of the best breakfasts I've ever had.  

10 Foods Introduced to Us by the Ancient Maya

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALDO PAVAN, GRAND TOUR/CORBIS

The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant indigenous societies of Mesoamerica, its population spanning modern-day Guatemala, the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, western Honduras and El Salvador, and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas.

Reaching their cultural peak around the sixth century A.D., the ancient Maya are remembered as a powerful civilization who excelled in agriculture, mathematics, calendar-making, pottery, and architecture. But their lofty accomplishments often eclipse a much humbler legacy that lives on in kitchens around the world today—food.

That guacamole you love to add to every burger, burrito, and bowl originated centuries ago in the Maya cities of southern Mexico and Guatemala. Savoury, steamed tamales were enjoyed by the Maya long before the Spanish invasion as a staple of holiday celebrations and festivals. Even chocolate—probably one of the most universally-loved foods of all time—was invented by the Maya, who were the first to take the seeds of the cacao fruit and roast them to make hot chocolate.

Check out National Geographic’s article on the Top 10 Foods of the Maya World to discover what other culinary delights were introduced to us by this ancient culture.