Our own Brendan Spiegel is down in Panama this week and will be reporting back on all that he's seen and done. Whether or not he's wearing a Panama Hat, we can't say. But if you have any questions or suggestions for him, let us know.

When traveling in less developed countries, we're of mixed opinion about street food. The pros are obvious: genuine, not-for-tourist grub at prices often cheaper than a stateside pack of gum. The cons are also obvious, and evident when you spend a significant portion of vacation in the bathroom.

So we don't recommend partaking in street food everywhere you visit, but we're definitely declaring that Panama falls in the category of "bring some back-up stomach meds and pig out." ]]> BS 2009-03-26T08:56:29-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/10/9364/13161

No Reservations wrapped up with a semi-season finale this week (part 2 of the season airs this summer), and Anthony Bourdain revisited one of his favorite food destinations, Vietnam.

Bourdain originally did Saigon way back on his Food Network show A Cook's Tour, and he waxed poetic about memories of pho during this season's food porn episode. But the Vietnam Bouridan sees this year is a contrast—you can still slurp snails streetside or stumble down a back alley and find live shrimp on a grill—but the Capital is also overrun with new motorbikes, Gucci stores, and thousands of tourists. Even the "soup lady" street vendor serving steaming bowls of pork blood has now been over-documented by American food bloggers.

Yet Tony still isn't turned off—in fact he spends much of the episode whining about how badly he wants to live in Vietnam, displaying a sentimental attachment to the country that we haven't seen from him before, anywhere. He even checks out some houses and laments that he isn't wealthy enough to ditch everything and move here. Although we're gonna have to call BS on Mr. Restaurateur/TV star/bestselling author not being able to afford a house in Vietnam. Maybe we should start a donation fund?

Related Stories:
· Vietnam travel guide [No Reservations]
· Anthony Bourdain Directs a Food Porn [Jaunted]
· Anthony Bourdain travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Travel Channel] ]]> BS 2009-03-10T10:37:26-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/5/234432/1971

Five seasons into "No Reservations" and Anthony Bourdain is running a little low on far-flung locales to eat his way though, so it's no surprise that this season starts in not-all-that-exotic Mexico City.

But Bourdain promises to show us that Mexico is about more than just tacos, tortas and quesadillas, and then proceeds to, well, eat a hell of a lot of tacos, tortas and quesadillas. Of course his are filled with tongue, tripe, brains and eyeballs, so what the ep lacks in imagination it more than makes up for in offal.]]> BS 2009-01-06T09:34:06-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/11/9/181641/812

With fewer people eating out, food prices soaring and credit drying up, restaurateurs are being forced to make tough choices these days, like deciding between stocking the high-class ingredients the foodie revolution has diners demanding or paying the rent.

Seattle's Skillet Street Food has elected to keep the former and drop the later.

Instead of plunking down the cash for a restaurant space, Skillet's owners operate out of a retrofitted Airstream trailer that has become Seattle's most happening lunchtime eatery, drawing lengthy lines for their very reasonably priced burgers, fries and grilled cheese.

The catch? The burger is grilled Kobe beef topped with cambazola cheese, bacon jam and arugula; the grilled cheese is gouda, Kurobota ham and pesto on rosemary bread; and the fries are poutine, the French Canadian specialty of hand-cut fries topped with white cheddar cheese, herbs and gravy.

Related Stories:
· Skillet Street Food [Official Site]
· Recession Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: dalangalma]]]> BS 2008-11-10T11:06:41-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/10/14/172523/21

The New York food scene is always looking for some fancy-free food to gourmet-up, be it Gorgonzola burgers, duck-fat French fries or thin-crust artichoke pizza.

This year's candidate for yuppie-fication is the simple hot dog, currently being fancified at Dogmatic Sausage Systems, a new Union Square-area eatery run by the former chef at West Village hot spot Employees Only.]]> BS 2008-10-15T12:20:44-05:00 40.7372169 -73.990582 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/2/115744/0087

Hungry? Don't let the photo of deep-fried spiders fool you. Although you can find some weird-ass munchies in Cambodia, the street food here is right up there with the best in the world.

Although you can find delicious bites throughout the country, the capital of Cambodian street food also happens to be the capital of the country. Phnom Penh is foodie paradise, and you don't even need to go into a restaurant to enjoy a delicious meal.

Best of all, a few ragged dollar bills is all it takes to eat like a prince in Phnom Penh. Here's a rundown of street food favorites.]]> Yamabushi 2008-09-04T10:05:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/8/28/182011/779

OK, it's not quite the '92 riots, but the Los Angeles streets are indeed boiling over with the latest friction between cops and everyday folks. The burning topic this time: Bacon hot dogs.

A marquee staple of LA street food, bacon wrapped hot dogs have been declared unsafe by the LA Health Department, which deems bacon too risky health-wise to be fully cooked on the street. The cops have subsequently cracked down on the pork-on-pork action, ticketing offending vendors. Earlier this year, Drew Carey took to the streets for reason.tv to investigate. (He's sympathetic to the hot dog vendors, if you couldn't guess.)

Now LAist reports that just last week, there was a major bust right on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with police literally picking up hot dog carts and throwing them in the garbage. What gives, law enforcement? Those dogs were the only decent eats on Hollywood Boulevard!

Related Stories:
· Battle of the Bacon Hot Dogs [reason.tv]
· Killin' the Bacon [LAist]
· Street Food coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jslander]]]> BS 2008-08-29T10:30:18-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/