Flavours of the Yucatecan

If you're planning a trip to the Riviera Maya, Mexico there's a neat one-day course that is now being offered by the 29-room luxury Esencia Resort.

Adults and children can now take cooking lessons from celebrated Chef Alejandro Rojas of Four Seasons and James Beard House fame.

As Executive Chef of Sal y Fuego, the resort's signature restaurant highlighting Meso-American cuisine, Chef Rojas promises to teach you the finer points of botanas, Yucatecan appetizers, and the secrets of tasty salsas.

Foodies can take the $100 one-day executive chef course.

"Adults assume the task of preparing a six-course traditional Mexican meal. Chef Alejandro shares his tips on how to properly treat ingredients with love and respect. First, chefs prepare botanas like empanadas or ceviche. Next, soups, salsas and moles (Mexican sauces) are prepared. Entrees often include Chile Relleno (stuffed chiles), and Tikin Xic Fish (Yucatecan baked fish). Each lesson ends with dessert. To accompany the meal, chefs will learn how to make Esencia's signature cocktail, Caribeña, inspired by the tropical flavors of the Caribbean," reads the press release.

The Esencia Resort is Llocated in Playa Xpu-Ha, Mexico on a two-mile stretch of fine white sand beach, 46 miles south of Cancun.

Beyond animation

Leave it to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to decide to bring the hugely successful exhibition Once Upon A Time Walt Disney to our fair city in its only stop in North America from March 8, to June 24.

It's difficult to imagine good old Walt sitting side by side with the great masters, but there it is.

"Walt Disney belongs alongside the most important figures of cinema and, more generally, twentieth-century art," concludes the MMFA web site.

And who can argue with that? If Andy Warhol can get away with Campbell's soup can paintings then why can't Disney rise to pop-art stardom.

"Although he cannot be considered as the inventor of the cartoon, he was the first to give it such careful artistic treatment: the quality of the Disney Studios’ drawings is one of the discoveries of this exhibition," claims the site.

The jury is still out -- I'll share my take on it after I make the trip.

Travellin' Fool

Do you remember searching for hotel and flight information before the internet existed?

Neither do I.

OK - I am kidding. Unfortunately I DO remember getting on the horn with a travel agent to book my holiday to Italy and relying on a dog-eared copy of Let’s Go, Italy! to plan my trip.

Well, with apologies to Virginia Slims, we’ve come a long way, baby!

I started writing about online travel about 10 years ago. Back then everything was new and only a few people trusted the net to make their bookings.

Now there’s no shortage of helpful travel sites and cool travel advice on the net.

As a travel info junkie (Condé Nast Traveller is like porn to me) I love to peruse sites, blogs and your basic cool travel sites. When I find some, I’ll bring ‘em to you.

Lemme know what you think about my choices. This should be a fun trip!