A trip to Japan is always a promise of culinary adventures. The country is home to arguably the best fish and meat in the world, some of the most ludicrously pampered fruits you’ll ever lay eyes on, and a culture where cooking is elevated to an art form. It’s also a place where food safety […]

Kathmandu! Say it out loud. Feel it roll and fall out of one’s mouth like a pebble down some glacial river. The sounds of named things in Nepal; Dwarika’s, Phaplu, Lo Manthang. I can’t stop saying these words, whispering them to myself in a jet lagged state, over and over like a madman tourist.  I […]

In a few very bumpy turns in the road up from Pokhara, languages and religions shift, landscapes morph, weather patterns evolve, and then you are in a wee corner of the geopolitical map of Nepal called Mustang, but you have entered a larger cultural region that stretches across Tibet and Xinjiang all the way to […]

We had finished dinner and the rain was setting in when I decided to put on my biking kit and head up the mountain pass.  The valley I was in, the Phobjikha Valley, at 10,000 feet, is a sanctuary for the Black neck crane, a medium-sized crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau […]

Please form an orderly line… Doors are opening for a new Asia planner at Trufflepig. See the page on Work At Trufflepig for details of our employment practises, and here for the unlikely backstories of our current team. You might also want to read about our Hoofprint Project, or look under the hood for a […]

The Pearl River Delta, in the early 2000’s, was a place of heavy industry, pollution, run off, waste and ruin. It was rubble and rebar.  Home to factories like Yue Yuen (a company that produces the majority of the shoes for Nike, Crocs, Adidas, Reebok, Asics, New Balance, Puma, Timberland and Rockport)  and Samsung, the […]

This week, Cambodia, the land of funk, rhythm, blues, and rock.  That’s right, this slice of southeast Asia is steeped in the cult of rock and let me tell you there are some gems to look out for.  Anthony Weersing and Tyler Dillon have put their collective minds together to bring you an hour of […]

The drive from the new Chengis Khann International Airport to city center in Ulaanbaatar is 55 km. Initial planning for the airport was done in 2006 with a US$385 million 40-year loan agreement signed between the Government of Mongolia and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It was built and opened on the 4th of […]

There was a time period at the end of the 70’s, when rock and roll belched up 15 minute ballads sticky with hairspray, and the efficiency of a 2-4 beat and counterculture got lost in the woods and egos of stadium shows. We ended up with “Paradise By The Dashboard Light”. Fortunately punk rock and […]

Drop it like it’s hot, peoples –  pick up them vibes, grab a wishbone, call a friend and celebrate thanks. We figured we could all use the funk to soak up some of that gravy. Here are 45 minutes of funk, rock, soul, jazz, all loosely based on the theme of that holiday we all […]

I like Pete Wells; I like to read his reviews of restaurants in the New York Times. He can be tough and snarky, but at least he is also witty and right. A Pete Wells classic from his review of Per Se: “I don’t know what could have saved limp, dispiriting yam dumplings, but it […]

the post office essays There is a particular magic we humans get to do. We can have an idea then translate it into a series of symbols which others, years later, can read, so that the idea enters into their mind. We can write and create books and essays and letters, and mark down our […]

I used to watch this man construct a handmade parasol in Myanmar.  He was on a long drive from the airport in Heho to Inle Lake in the hill country of the Shan state. He would make the most intricate workings, all out of bamboo and a home smelted blade and lathe, he would perform […]

The Post Office Essays There is a particular magic we humans get to do. We can have an idea then translate it into a series of symbols which others, years later, can read, so that the idea enters into their mind. We can write and create books and essays and letters, and mark down our […]

Arabic is spoken by about half a billion people around the world and is the language of the Islamic religion – from Jakharta to Casablanca, the reading of the Qu’ran and prayers are in Arabic. Muslims revere the Qu’ran as the literal word of God as recited to the Prophet Muhammad, so the written book […]

  I like to dig, search, and poke around, and to stir up different ways to connect with a place. How to look at a city or a region with a different set of eyes, or better yet, with a different approach, like the way a pilot gauges the wind direction to land correctly on […]