Trevor Huxham

What makes Tempe, Arizona, a great destination for good eatin’? This college town is home to the main campus of Arizona State University. And as you’d expect, thousands of students live here in constant need of snacks and caffeine. Tempe is situated in the core of the Phoenix metro area, which means there are plenty of older constructions with inexpensive rents that independent bars, coffee shops, or restaurants can afford. A handful of regional chain restaurants like Cornish Pasty or Pita Jungle had their start here before branching out to other cities. And Tempe sits at the gateway of the East Valley’s pan-Asian immigrant community. The front patio of Casey Moore’s Oyster House I had the privilege of living in this city for three years—plenty of time to try a variety of coffee shops and restaurants in central Tempe. Moving to Tempe was a great introduction to Arizona for me, and while I’ve since moved across town, I’m glad I still work in Tempe and can keep going back to my...

UPDATE:  I have since published my comprehensive guide on  Where to Eat in Santiago de Compostela, Spain , so I recommend you check that new blog post out for more recommendations! View of the cathedral from the Alameda park at sunset This past school year, I lived and worked in Santiago de Compostela in far northwestern Spain. I love the city’s glorious, grayscale, granite architecture, its many green, tree-lined parks, and its lively old town. But what I love most of all is the FOOD! I’ve had plenty of opportunities to get to know many restaurant-bar-cafés in town (the distinctions are rather blurred here in Spain), from spur-of-the-moment octopus get-togethers to a “special” breakfast before commuting to school. I thought I’d share with y’all my personal favorite haunts in Santiago, the places you’re most likely to find me at—the places where I’ve become “a regular,” from octopus-houses (if steakhouse is a word, then that can be, too) to cozy cafés. Bodegón Os ...

Before I got placed to teach English at a rural elementary school in a village called Abanqueiro, I knew very little about the western coasts of Galicia, Spain’s northwestern region. Although I knew I was going to work in Abanqueiro, the address that my placement letter gave me included “Boiro” in parentheses, something that really threw me off. Was my school in Abanqueiro or Boiro? Boiro, seen from my plane window! Both, actually. Come to find out, the population in Spain’s northern regions is distributed a lot differently than it is down south. Whereas in Andalucía, you have a tight, compact urbanization that belongs to a single municipio  (municipality) with virtually no “settlements” outside the city limits (that’s where all the olive groves are, silly!), in Galicia, things are a lot more spread out. The whole region is broken down into various concellos  (municipalities), each with their own town hall in the main city center. Each concello  is divided into s...

Although living in a town of only 35,000 sometimes had its drawbacks, something I found really refreshing about living in Úbeda this past school year was that there were virtually no chain restaurants (especially American ones), which forced me to patronize local restaurants and eateries instead of corporate carbon-copies. Okay, so there was a Telepizza, but that was it. Eight months of hanging out with friends and going out for tapas later, and I think I may have formed an opinion or two about what places I like in Úbeda. In this post, I’d like to follow the “48 Hours” guide popularized by publications like the New York Times and the Independent , but focusing solely on food. Get hungry! Day 1 Breakfast If you’re craving some chocolate con churros —long, crunchy donuts that you dip in molten chocolate—then  Churrería ANPA is where you need to go. Nº 18 on the busy Avenida Ramón y Cajal (northeast of the Hospital de Santiago), this simple but popular churros joint is wel...