Portland Oregon is the perfect little city and the most desirable city for 25 to 35 year olds to move to! Taking the best from Seattle, Vancouver and San Francisco, this city has more to offer than each one of the others.

David Chang is the talented chef/owner of the hugely popular noodle house Momofuku (163 First Ave.) in New York's East Village. I hesitate to call this a fusion noodle house although there are elements in the dishes of other cultures, as well as some very American ones. The restaurant is more a testament to Chang's background, training, passion and talent, a place where he can showcase his style of market-driven looking rather than sticking to a fusion label.

During a recent weekend in Paris, my husband and I sought out restaurants that were very fine but not Michelin starred. We wanted to go to bistros that were chef-owned and where the food was prepared with love and skill. The cutting-edge trend that I noticed was the return to simple homey dishes, full flavoured and rich but with reduced sauces, not cream. I also discovered a new lettuce I had not seen before called sucre, which looks a little like a mini romaine. It appeared as garnishes in two out of the three places we visited.

Puglia, located on the heel of Italy, is a little known tourist destination but Italians, who realize its beauty and appreciate its charming way of life, flock there during the months of July and August. Puglia is surrounded by two seas, the Ionian on the south and the Adriatic on the north, so it is home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Slightly seedy estates sit along the coast road, their gardens tumbling down into the sea. It feels like the French or Italian Riviera must have felt like in the ‘30s--the whole area is from another time.