Bon Voyage & Bon Appetit!

For me, the way to a country's heart has always been through its stomach. When planning trips abroad most people start with the sights they want to see. I start with what I want to eat and work backwards ‒ from dish to restaurant to a  particular area or city. Visits to major landmarks are fitted around where I can find  the tastiest churros for breakfast or the hottest curry for lunch.  Monuments once seen go straight onto my been-there-done-that list but I would seriously consider returning to a place just to relive a delicious meal (and already have quite a long countries-I-must-eat-in-again list).

The idea of setting up a travel food blog has been simmering on the back burner for almost three years. Each time I visit a new country or try out a type of cuisine I've never eaten before (Kyrgyzstani was the latest experiment) I've
sworn to myself ‒ and often to whoever I'm eating with at the time ‒ that I'm going to have my blog up and running within the week.

Well this is finally it! Yes, it needs tweaking and yes the design could do with some help, but hopefully in time I'll get there.

People who know me well know there are two things that make me happy ‒ travelling and eating. I'm not sure which makes me happier but I'm pretty sure I'm happiest when I can do both at the same time. Writing is a close third so in a way this blog will allow me to do what I love best ‒ write about all the weird and wonderful ingredients, unusual recipes and great restaurants I’ve stumbled across on my travels as well as the memorable meals and dishes I've enjoyed or hope to enjoy on journeys to come.

I hope my blog will offer you a new way of looking at places and food you are familiar with as well as inspire you to keep discovering those that you aren't. 

Join me as I eat my way around the globe!

About me

I'm Radhina Almeida Coutinho. If you know anyone with exactly the same name, it's probably me. In all my 20-odd years I have yet to find a namesake. Someone once told me I had a name made for a byline. That's probably a good thing considering that I write for a living. I think I can claim a good range when it comes to what I write about. Let's see... in the past decade some of the stuff I've written about includes saving heritage buildings in Bangalore, riding shotgun in an Aston Martin DBR9, selling bridal lingerie in the Gulf and extolling the virtues of supercooled buses made for the Middle East. But what I really love writing about is food and travel. At the moment I live in Dubai - a great city for anyone who loves to eat or who has perpetually itchy feet - but I consider Goa (India) to be my home and that's where my love for all things culinary began. I come from a family of restaurateurs and I've always been told to eat well, taste everything at least once and learn about the cuisine of other countries and cultures whenever I get the chance. It's advice that has served me well so far.