"Delhi, India - Designer Delhi" by Kerryn Burgess

Full article: "Delhi, India - Designer Delhi" in Gourmet Traveller

Designer Fleur Wood (Source: Gourmet Traveller)

This piece of feature is what I call lazy journalism.

This travel feature by Kerryn Burgess about Delhi, India is an interview with Australian fashion designer Fleur Wood, who shares her travelling secrets with the readers.

At the beginning of the story, Burgess introduces Wood, an experienced India-phile, and explains Wood’s love of and familiarity with India as the reasons for the feature. Nevertheless, this part of the article is probably the only part the writer has contributed.

Out of the 2500 words of this story, around 2200 words are quotes and another 100 are addresses of the sights to visit. Burgess bombards readers with blocks of quotes by Wood and these quotes are only separated by subheadings of where to see, shop and eat.

Why would readers want to read a transcript of interview?

Initially, I was drawn to the article because I wanted to learn about Delhi. However, a feature purely based on the opinions of one particular person will only works if the readers can connect with that person. Sadly, I couldn’t. I didn’t know who Fleur Wood was and I doubted a lot of readers would. So right there, readers are starting to lose interest.

On top of that, the lack of visual supports, such as videos or images, further draws the readers away. It’s hard to visualise the attractions Wood recommends simply by relying on her quotes (after all, she’s a fashion designer, not a writer). The article did put hyperlinks to a few of these attractions, but the hassle of clicking these links and having to wait for the websites to appear can frustrate readers - at least me.

The way the article is structured may appeal more to readers that are actually planning to visit India as they can treat the article as a guidebook. But for readers who genuinely want to see India through the portrait of excellent travel writing, this article disappoints.

I think this is simply a perfunctory article put together to take advantage of the Commonwealth Games. It’s a pity that it fails to engage readers with this enchanting place, India.

"A saga of war and wine" by Leisa Tyler

Full article: "A saga of war and wine" in Sydney Morning Herald 

Further reading: "A wine worth fighting for" (2004) by Elizabeth Gilbert in GQ magazine

Source: www.marcopolis.net

Once I’d read the first paragraph of this article in SMH, I couldn’t help but compare it with a feature written by Elizabeth Gilbert in 2004. Both articles are on winemaking in war-torn Lebanon, but one appears in a newspaper and the other in a lifestyle magazine. Two disparate articles on the same topic? Very interesting.

In “A saga of war and wine”, Leisa Tyler wrote about a revival of winemaking industry in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. The vignerons even had plans to transform the place to a destination of wine tourism – hotels, wineries, vineyard restaurants and even the first winemaking museum in Arabic world.

She intertwined some notes on transportation and accommodations, history of the place, and an important sightseeing spot with the story. Excluding the fast facts of “getting and tasting there”, the almost mandatory element of a SMH’s travel article, the article is around 1200-word long – a typical length for a newspapers’ feature.

Given the limited space for the large amount of materials Tyler put it, I have to say she had fallen into the traps of “tell, rather than show” and “use more adjectives than active verbs”.

A 17-word sentence like this: “Led by Guiberteau, we make our way into the cellars where last year's vintage fills stainless-steel barrels” could have been tightened to a vigorous 13-word one like this: “Guiberteau led us into the cellars where…”. Of course it can still get better, but you see my point.

The story is informative but too journalistic for my liking. I much prefer the narrative style in “A wine worth fighting for” by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Source: www.marcopolis.net

This 2004 feature in GQ magazine is a 6000-word profile of a winemaker, Serge Hochar, who had been making wine in Lebanon during the war. Of course, Gilbert must have faced a more lenient deadline and more words to work with.

The time and length allowed her to inject anecdotes, set scene, show significant details of the people, craft better sentences, and include longer quotes. The story flows so nicely that it sounds like a conversation with a friend.

Most importantly, she brought out the passion and artistic persona of her subject - winemaking as an art and a creation of life.

Two articles are as disparate as Lafite and Burgundy. Which one do you feel like?

"New wave of foodies want their caviar, too" by Jane E. Fraser

Full article: New wave of foodies want their caviar, too in Sydney Morning Herald.

Source: Whybin TBWA

In this article, travel writer, Jane E. Fraser wrote that there is a growing trend among Australian foodies to look for gourmet experiences in unexpected destinations. Replacing traditional food travel destinations such as France and Italy are Thailand, Japan, Iceland, Spain, Greece and basically everywhere else.

She said there is a shift in what these foodies are looking for. Instead of merely looking for good food, thanks to the MasterChef effect, they now look more for the culinary experience - fishing in traditional Vietnamese way, wine-tasting in Thailand, or tyring out “the world’s only ecologically certified caviar” in Spain.

I think this is an exciting new angle to food travelling. The logic of such trend makes sense, but Fraser did not provide enough support and evidence to prove such a trend exists.

She quoted only two sources in this article: the owner of Food and Wine Travel, Karen Ridge and the managing director of Biznaga Travel Company, Casey Death. The majority of information was provided by Ridge while Death was only cited in two paragraphs about their company’s two-week travel package to Spain.

I seriously doubt the credibility of the sources. They are owner and manager of travel businesses, and it’s reasonable for me to assume certain level of bias in their stances.

The lack of figures and statistics to back up the trend is a serious flaw in this article. Is there any figure from the Australian government? Why not interview this new trend of travellers and hear what they say?

It seems that we can only take Fraser’s words for it. I didn’t know her so I checked her website, which said she’s one of Australia’s renowned and award-winning travel writers. However, readers always doubt what travel writers say in general, don’t we? We are sceptical because we think they are usually endorsed by the travel industry.

This article gives this feeling. The last paragraph about a STA’s travel deal smells “endorsement” – it is awkwardly placed; it isn’t directly related to the article; it sounds absolutely commercial.

Lastly, something minor. At the beginning of the article, Fraser used “that” cooking show to allude to MasterChef. But why not name it to avoid any ambiguity? Also, there is a grammatical mistake in the title – it should have been “new wave of foodies ‘wants’ their caviar, too”.

The Oyster Trail

Full article: The Oyster Trail  in Australian Traveller

By Lee Atkinson. Source: Australian Traveller

This article depicts a holy trail for oyster lovers – a string of oyster farms in NSW mid-north coast that is now opened to public.

Without a doubt, the article is targeted to oyster lovers in NSW that also like a bit of travelling.

To start the article, Lee Atkinson intrigues readers by telling them myths about oysters - Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, emerged from the sea on an oyster shell; Roman emperors cherished them like they did with gold; Casanova was rumoured to have eaten dozens of them off the breasts of his mistress.

These stories arouse readers’ interest and put oysters on a pedestal for worship.  Atkinson also starts by joking, “oysters are one of the world’s ugliest foods”, making the bivalve all more interesting.

However, Atkinson fails to weave these elements into the article and to resonate the end with the mythical beginning, making the article seem incomplete.

The writer also provides readers with some distinctive features of each farm, such as what readers can do there apart from eating oysters.  But again, there are not enough significant details to distinguish one farm from the other. After reading the whole article, only two farms stand out in my mind – whose owners are mentioned or quoted in the article.

This brings us to an element that would have greatly enhanced the value of the article if it had been emphasised – the people. Why not bring the people who work there, travel there, slurp oysters there, to life? What are they like? What do they say about the farms and the oysters? Is there any anecdote?

Even though the article is lacking some sensory details, the pictures that go with it help readers to image themselves slurping the silky, creamy oysters and sipping a glass of white wine, while floating in the sound of ocean.

The article is informative but it’s short of being exceptional. I love oysters, so I’m interested in the content of the article. But the article lacks some elements that I’ve mentioned in this critique.

Tetsuya's Tokyo

by Tom Bonaventure 

Full article: Tetsuya's Tokyo in Gourmet Traveller


This is an excellent Tokyo food map by one of the world’s renowned Japanese chefs in recent years - Tetsuya Wakuda. In the article, the writer, Pat Nourse, takes us to all of Wakuda’s favourite eateries in Tokyo, Japan.

Nourse introduces Wakuda at the onset to make sure readers know who and how important he is in the culinary world and hence, set the authoritative voice in the article.

Since this is a feature article, it’s rather long. But the length let Nourse cover a wide range of Japanese dining styles in great details.

The immense amount of details in the article drags readers immediately to the dining table: seeing a master of Japanese fancy ice cutting cubes from block ice to prepare for your drinks at Star Bar; enjoying a flood of flavour while chewing a slice of unctuous tuna belly that has just been cut by the sushi master; watching a seasoned fugu fillet sizzling over bincho in front of you.


Gourmet dining in Tokyo is not a new topic. However, Nourse has still managed to provide surprises and wonders (grilled foie gras with miso and turnips, anyone?). This is mainly because Wakuda is such an authority in Japanese cuisine and his analysis on his favourite eateries is unique and persuasive. Who’s better than Wakuda to show you where to eat in Tokyo if you’re willing to splurge?

The article not only accurately portrays different styles of Japanese cuisine (including a couple of western cuisines with a Japanese twist), but it also depicts the Japanese’s adherence to excellence. For example, when explaining why most of his favourite eateries are in Ginza, Wakuda said “Tokyo is Ginza” because for any business, simply being in Ginza is an assurance of excellence. Also, many restaurants in Japan specialize in a single style of dining, because specialization ensures perfection.

I presume this article is targeting affluent Australian readers who are interested in travelling and Japanese cuisine.  Given the high quality of food in these eateries, one has to be prepared to splurge.