Hey all,
We’re noticing a lot of new visitors to the site thanks to our nomination for Best Culinary Travel Blog from Saveur magazine. I thought I’d do a quick post to say hey, give you a short run down of what we’re about, and a sampling of some of our articles. So if you’re visiting Accidental Epicurean for the first time or want a refresher…hit the jump.

We do a lot of restaurant reviews as we travel around. For both Joanna and myself, one of the best ways to really engage a culture and experience the energy of a city is to simply sit down for a meal. When we cover a new city we like to start in the places all the guide books will tell you to try, places like – Iggy’s in Singapore, M on the Bund in Shanghai, Gonpachi (the “Kill Bill” restaurant) the biggest tourist restaurant in Tokyo, and Made in China, contender for best Beijing style roast duck. These places aren’t always the best representatives of their cities, but are the places most people will first look as they seek to find their footing in a new location.

But eating and living well isn’t always about the marquee, big-name places. So we do our best to balance things out with local, out-of-the-way places. Since we’ve lived in Asia for a while and have epicurean friends living in different countries, we’ve been able to find local meals that present value in both cost and flavor. Places that will last in my memory as some of the best food experiences of my life. Like eating tuna jaw and live Abalone in Tokyo, enjoying a freshly toasted Banh My on the street of Hanoi, watching waves slam into the rocky beach at Kep, Cambodia while feasting on crabs peppered with pepper harvested from nearby fields, and my all-time favorite Thai food meal – Soi Polo fried chicken in Bangkok.

I’ve highlighted a lot of our food content for our Saveur visitors, but we believe being an epicurean isn’t just about eating well. As such we’ve also started to write more articles on things like wellness retreats & Traditional Chinese Medicine. Travel is also a key component to living well and to help you get the most of your vacation we’ve published various guides to cities and areas.

Looking to the future I’ll attend culinary school beginning in April and will document my progress through the course. I’m hoping to be completely transparent… it’s only fair that others get a chance to rip on my feeble attempts at cooking since I’ve reviewed so many myself We’re also going to be expanding more of our lifestyle categories, covering things like Boot Camps, outdoor activities, and more as we continue to explore all the components necessary for living well.

Thank for visiting the site and we hope to hear from you as you visit. Drop us a line and let us know what’s useful and what you’d like to see in the future, and please feel free to ask us any questions.

Paul

To learn about the Blog itself check out our about section.

If you were wanting more info about the two of us behind the site check out our individual pages Joanna and Paul.