The Culinary Diplomat

Annabelle Adds a Touch of Glamor to Northwest DC

The Culinary Diplomat has featured plenty of restaurant discoveries from our travels, but it’s nice also to share the joys of discovering new places in your own backyard. While having favorite local restaurants to call “home” has no equivalent, it’s also wonderful to discover new arrivals to the restaurant scene in familiar places. This week,…

How to cook a wolf? Seattle may have the answer

How do you cook a wolf? One Seattle restaurant may not answer that question for you, but it is likely to convince you that if anyone could cook a wolf, it would be Ethan Stowell Restaurants group’s two Seattle jewels. Around the Christmas holidays, I had the rare pleasure of a sisters’ night out with…

Stary Dom: Warsaw wins over the heart with hearty comfort food

While Krakow is known as the gem of Poland’s tourist industry, with its beautiful old town spared from the ravages of World War II (and The Culinary Diplomat certainly loved it – see below for links), Warsaw is its underappreciated capital – and it has a lively international food scene befitting of any European capital….

Throwback Thursday: DC’s Masseria – a Michelin Experience during COVID-19

eateries and a distillery, Masseria marries a spacious Italian farm aesthetic with the elegance of dedicated service and perfect touches that give away the restaurant’s secret – this is no rustic countryside cafe. It might attempt to look unassuming, but the food is so exquisite, delicately styled, and nuanced that it could only come from a classically trained chef. At first look, you’ll notice a cute, stylized version of your typical urban center’s farm to table restaurant, but this is no cookie-cutter knock off.

Blue Hill NYC: Where Farm to Table found its soul

Hello, readers! The Culinary Diplomat really does still exist!* Join me on a renaissance of sorts with the soulful cuisine of New York City’s Blue Hill restaurant. It may be neither new nor undiscovered, but one visit revealed why the restaurant and its chef-founder, Dan Barber, achieved fame for this restaurant and its subsequent sister…

COVID Throwback Thursdays: Vermont’s Trail Break Taps and Tacos

Inventive tacos, killer burritos, grilled watermelon, and craft beer – what’s not to love? For this week’s CD, make sure to bring your appetite for a memorable Vermont spin on Mexican food – and, because this is New England, plenty of interesting beer – at White River Junction’s Trail Break Taps and Tacos. At…

Manta, a Sunset, and Copper Bar: Big Dining on the Big Island

Hawaii is a magical place for so many. As the most accessible of Pacific island chains and with so much to offer, it’s no wonder it is an easy choice for a tropical getaway, family vacation, or corporate retreat. While many travelers enjoy the accessibility and vast options of Oahu, or the luxury of Maui,…

Concluding COVID Winter with a Meal to Remember at Boston’s No. 9 Park

After a long COVID winter with limited or no dining in at restaurants, a special four-course meal at Boston’s No. 9 Park was even sweeter. Located in Beacon Hill and directly across from the famed Boston Common, chef-restauranteur Barbara Lynch’s flagship restaurant has continued to deliver perfect French-Italian dishes for more than two decades. On…

Throwback Thursdays: Dining in the dark at Montreal’s ONoir

We’re back with another #throwbackthursday post bringing us back to the days of easy cross-border travel. Today, I recount an exciting culinary experience at Montreal’s ONoir, which forces you to experience the joy of a great meal – but without using one’s sense of sight. It was a meaningful experience that reminded me that our…

Throwback Thursdays: Lodging and Dining at the real-life ‘Hotel Rwanda’

Join us for another installment of ‘Throwback Thursdays,’ where we travel around the world to share cuisine and culture from some of our most interesting trips. Today, we head over to Kigali, Rwanda, where I found myself an overnight guest at the Hotel des Mille Collines, the same hotel that was the subject of the…

The Culinary Diplomat

Wedel chocolate cafe: Polish confections for a chocoholic

Peru: More than ceviche, Pisco, and Machu Picchu

A tour of Belgium’s chocolatiers

Healthy Diplomat: Chocolate superfood cookies – paleo, vegan, and packed with chocolate

Extreme chocolates in the Baltic States

You, too, can make French macarons – trois façons