500 places for food & wine lovers

Frommer’s guides are always interesting and well-researched, and 500 places for food & wine lovers is no exception.

This guide allows the traveller to not just access a bunch of restaurant reviews and find vineyard tours, but to make food and wine the centre of an adventurous experience.

Find a gourmet specialty shop on every continent—such as the four-storey Peck Market in Milan or a Dutch cheese museum.

If you want white truffles, smoked eel or Chicago’s best hotdog, it’s all in here. This guide is elegant, but never snobby, as the broadest range of palates will be fully entertained by its contents.

I would have been happier if the index were expanded. I went to look up “cheese” to see where I could travel for the next six months, but the index is not set up that way.

There are actually two indexes—one by region, which is great; and the alphabetical index.

I get the sense that 500 places for food & wine lovers is more geared toward those who have decided which region to visit and will allow them an in-depth epicurean journey. Who plans their trip by cheese, anyway?

If you do want to plan by holiday time, check out the Calendar of Food Fairs & Festivals appendix. From ice wine festivals in January to corn festivals in August, this nice addition will draw you to regional delights at the height of their season.

The most amazing thing about this guide is how vast it is. It covers the entire world, and everything from markets and cooking schools to cookbooks and cookbook stores, to signature dishes, desserts, wine, spirits, coffee and tea.

500 places for food & wine lovers is wonderfully researched, vividly written and an absolute adventure.