FOOD MILEAGE

Catch up on the latest openings, eats and reads around the world with travel editor Rhiannon Batten

Latest global foodie travel trends

Make

Here at O we’re firm believers in the joy of homemade Christmas gifts, especially edible ones.

If you could use a bit of direction when it comes to rustling up your own tea infusions, herb salt, lactofermented hot sauce or pineapple vinegar, however, then sign up for A Handmade Christmas on 23 November. This one-day workshop takes place at Gartur Stitch Farm in Perthshire, a smallholding run by Kat Goldin and Kevin Harrison. As well as edible gifts, participants will learn how to make handmade salves, decorations and hand-poured candles – and also enjoy a delicious farm-to-table lunch. Tickets cost £85 pp (garturstitchfarm.com).

Read

If our recent features on Japan have got you itching to delve a bit deeper into the country’s food culture, help is at hand in the shape of two new cookbooks. In The Japanese Table: Small Plates for Simple Meals, Swedish Japanophile Sofia Hellsten focusses on home cooking, with recipes such as miso and aubergine yuzu, or pickled herring and cucumber sesame salad, based on the custom of ichiju-sansai: one soup, three dishes (£18, Hardie Grant). Food Artisans of Japan: Recipes and Stories steers a path through the country’s culinary landscape, celebrating its most dedicated chefs and food artisans. Written by Nancy Singleton Hachisu, a resident of Saitama, it highlights the great diversity in Japan’s professional kitchens, blending interviews with recipes (£25, Hardie Grant, out 14 November).

Sleep

The company may be new to the Indian hotel scene but Postcard Hotels’ three Goan properties (more are due to open in India and Sri Lanka) have experience behind them: the brand’s founder, Kapil Chopra, was previously group president of Oberoi Hotels. The focus at his latest venture is adding a local flavour to luxury hospitality, both physically (Postcard Moira is set within a 200-year-old building) and culinary. Local specialities include fried banana snacks and prawn balchão. For a more in-depth introduction to Goan food, guests can book a four-hour Pure Taste experience and be guided around markets, fishmongers and spice stores before returning for a lunch made by a local home cook. Doubles start from £170, b&b, Pure Taste experiences from £22 (postcardresorts.com).