Author: Ms. R.

During Lunar New Year, a prosperous future belongs to those who eat their weight in luck. Diners slurp long noodles to ensure long lives and scarf down bone-in fish to swim to new fortunes. But the sweetest of these auspicious New Year dishes may be nian gao, a sticky cake eaten with the hope that the upcoming year will be more fortunate than the last. Like many symbolic Chinese dishes, nian gao comes with its own set of origin……

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Even in South Africa, African food is not the default. And in Cape Town especially, dining can be quite Eurocentric. Centuries of colonialism erased indigenous foods and entrenched the idea that European food is somehow superior. These effects are still found today, but a microbiologist turned ice-cream maker, Tapiwa Guzha, wants that to change. With every handcrafted scoop served at Cape Town’s Tapi Tapi, he tells the story of his own food history, as well as stories from across……

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As a lizard-loving kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Greg Pauly sometimes found himself running an accidental rehabilitation center for wayward reptiles out of his parents’ house. One neighbor wasn’t particularly sold on the squamates that lived around her yard, he recalls, but her cats, Crackers, Peepers, and Stinkers, kept intercepting them and delivering them to her. Pauly remembers that she paid him a dollar to take the unwelcome gifts off her hands, so he adopted……

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“This flavor is for my grandmother,” says Tapiwa Guzha, pointing to a rooibos and fennel granita on the menu at his ice cream store in Cape Town, South Africa. “She grew fennel in her garden.” Guzha is a microbiologist turned ice-cream maker who was raised to grow and eat fruit and vegetables straight from his grandmother’s garden. Taking inspiration from the flavors of his childhood, he makes his ice cream with indigenous African ingredients such as blackjack, sorghum, millet,……

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At well over 20,000 feet, Mt. Aconcagua is the tallest peak in the Americas. Nestled high in the Andes near the border of Argentina and Chile, it’s the highest mountain anywhere outside of Asia. To mountaineers, it’s not a very technical trek, in that it doesn’t require any specialized equipment to reach the summit. However, the hike can be deceptively dangerous for those who are unprepared. As a stark reminder of that fact, this cemetery is the final resting……

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Propped high at the peak of Mount Gamsutlmeer in Dagestan, Russia, this abandoned ancient village is one of the oldest settlements in the region. In the Gunibsky district of Dagestan lies Mount Gamsutlmeer, and at an altitude of roughly 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level resides the village of Gamsutl. Translated from the Avar (the majority ethnic group of the republic), Gamsutl means “at the foot of the kahn’s fortress,” leading many to assume that a local Khan chose……

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The Stockholm metro has been a staple of the Swedish capital’s public transportation scene since the 1950s. The stations are also home to the world’s longest art gallery and are the center of several ghost stories such as the Kymlinge Ghost Metro Stop. Now, the new C30 trains contribute to Stockholm’s unique metro culture by means of tiny easter eggs hidden away in the train’s ventilation grating.  When reading about the new trains, most articles focus on the spaciousness of the……

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On July 4, 1848, John Bidwell discovered gold in a canyon of the Feather River. The town of Bidwell’s Bar was soon in business. As one of the first mining camps in California, life was difficult. Settlers relied on a ferry to transport people and supplies across the river. A bridge was erected but was destroyed during a flood. In 1854, approval was given to build a stronger, permanent solution to cross the canyon. Constructed in Troy, New York,……

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