Elegant and trendy – Helsinki wears both well, as this harbourside capital of Finland caters to a smorgasbord of interests. Helsinki Food Guide written for Fine Dining Lovers. The culturally-curious, design and architecture nerds, snow-bunnies who seek cross-country skiing and ice–swimming, and gourmands, are amply provided for. REINDEER, SALMON & BERRIES Liisa Eskelinen, who founded Day With [...]
Kalsarikännit for SAA Sawubona magazine Pantless drinking at home – Ishay Govender gets to grips with kalsarikännit in Finland. Written for SAA Sawubona inflight magazine, July 2017. You’ll remember this. Opening credits roll to Bridget Jones’s Diary. Renee Zellweger’s character sits on the couch in her Christmas PJs, glugging wine, staring down her [...]
This cultured dairy just might be Iceland’s most adored export.Written for Culture Cheese Magazine, for the Wheys Less Traveled column, July 2017. (This article is written in American English) skyr breakfast bowl With its coal-black volcanic rock beaches, bright blue glaciers, steaming hot springs, and thundering waterfalls, Iceland is stunning. Most of its 325,000 [...]
A selection of popular and lesser-known cultured dairy for Fine Dining Lovers, 21 March 2016. Icelandic Skyr There’s renewed enthusiasm about the cultured dairy products of our forefathers. Food historian Anne Mendelson (Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages) thinks the interest in ancient milkways may stem from the “growing “know [...]
Ishay Govender-Ypma dines with Slow Food founder and president Carlo Petrini in Paternoster, and holds back on the big questions. Inevitably some of the big answers reveal themselves over delectable skewers of springbok with wild rosemary. Written for Taste Magazine Springbok with wild rosemary It was a moment meant for the [...]
Wattleseeds Aboriginal cooks and chefs weigh in on the native ingredients made popular by famous restaurants in Australia. Written for Fine Dining Lovers, 1 June 2017. Rayleen Brown A Café Up North At Kungas Can Cook, a café in Alice Springs serving food like burgers, salads, ice teas, pies and brownies, [...]
Waterfront. Perth Food Guide. Perth, in Australia’s southwest, is said to be the most isolated city in the country. It’s calm and laid back with a young but growing food scene. This Perth Food Guide was written for Fine Dining Lovers, 7 June 2017. American English used. Central Bites Moana Coffee - [...]
Nostalgia, for a homeland long departed, lies at the core of the Cuban diaspora’s quest for cultural identity. Dishing out memories at the kitchen table is one way that the legacy is passed on. Written for Financial Mail Travel Magazine, May 2017 Dining on Memories of La Patria by Ishay Govender-Ypma written for Financial [...]
Zayaan Khan, image by Ishay Govender-Ypma Food activist, seed librarian and community-driven leader, Zayaan Khan is changing the foodscape from the ground up. Written for Kulula's inflight magazine, Khuluma, 21 June 2017 Food As Sustenance, Knowledge, Life “Try this,” Capetonian Zayaan Khan (32) says, a headscarf draped loosely bandana-style over her cropped [...]
Following the evocative rhythms of a city in rapid flux, Ishay Govender-Ypma immerses herself in the soundtrack of Havana, looking for clues that reveal its heartbeat. Havana, Cuba's Vibey Capital. For Marie Claire SA, May 2017. Lunch Time Band THEY SAY YOU HEAR THE LIFE before you see it in Havana. Prior to my travels last November [...]
Drive the country from coast-to-coast searching for the best in street food, cheese, convent pastries and cannoli. Ishay Govender-Ypma explores Sicily on a culinary road trip. This article was written for SAA Sawubona inflight magazine, June 2017. A ghostly mist settles over Erice on Sicily’s hilly western face, once a medieval fortress town and the [...]
Green Berlin is not the future, it is happening today. Berliners are propagating the message that cramped urban cities can transform to accommodate a safer, more sustainable future. Ishay Govender-Ypma examines three projects in progressive Kreuzberg for Business Day Wanted Magazine. In 2011 former French Minister of Culture Jack Lang remarked: “Paris is always Paris, but [...]
On the southern shore of Lake Geneva, the pretty French belle époque town of Évian-les-Bains, an hour away from Switzerland’s Geneva, offers slow walks along the promenade and healing treatments with therapeutic Évian water. For SAA Sawubona. Vevey, an hour away. From the Source At Source Cachat, in the spa town of Évian-les [...]
Poland’s beloved herb and fruit liqueur, once the ambit of women brewers only, has been made famous by a man operating from his family’s garden. For Roads & Kingdoms, August 2016. The garden is resplendent in the glow of autumn. Thirty minutes outside Warsaw central, Karol Majewski, widely regarded the country’s top small-batch nalewka manufacturer [...]
Yum Cha! Yum cha, or dim sum as it’s known in the West, refers to the act of taking tea. Here’s a countrywide dim sum restaurant round-up to satisfy your cravings for these moreish bites. Dim Sum Restaurants in South Africa, written by Ishay Govender-Ypma (@IshayGovender) for Financial Mail. Dim sum has its roots in the [...]
If there’s a single nation whose food has received worldwide attention (and deserved adoration) of late, it must be that of Korea – South Korea, to be clear. And New York City serves up exemplary Korean food. Written for Fine Dining Lovers. Mokbar Korean Ramen - provided by Mokbar Last year, in the [...]
Photo by Ishay Govender-Ypma I arrived in New York on a day that the world changed. I had to lend my voice. For Marie Claire SA, 2 February 2017 I arrived in New York City, via John F Kennedy airport on 28 January 2017 around 11AM. Unbeknown to me, at almost the same [...]
Riding the Hallyu, the impressive K-pop culture wave, Korean food has won the hearts and bellies of the food world. For Etihad in-flight magazine, August 2016. Korean fried chicken (or cauliflower, in some circles) is widely hyped as the new KFC. While Colonel Sanders may need to spill the 11 secret herbs and spices to [...]
Food Trends - from vegetable-only menus to shorter, less pricey tasting menus, Ishay Govender-Ypma delves into what's predicted to dominate the dining calendar. For SAA Sawubona, November 2016. If you went out to a restaurant last night, you might have experienced these changes already. From neighbourhood bistros to upmarket establishments, menus are being influenced by an [...]
Haute-Savoie Food & Fun Guide. The slopes of the Haut-Savoie in Eastern France invites families of skiers and snowboarding daredevils. Ishay Govender-Ypma opts for slower hikes on snowshoes and Savoyard specialities by crackling fireplaces. Written for Travel Update Magazine. It’s in Megève, in the Rhone Alps that I experience a proper snowfall for the first [...]
