Pittsburgh to Welcome Music Legend Bruce Springsteen to the Stage

Europe's scorching hot summer is showing no signs of cooling down, with Italy facing its warmest weekend of the year so far and heatwave warnings issued in southern France.

The tonka bean, a wizened-looking South American seed, is beloved for its complex almond-vanilla scent, often appearing as an ingredient in perfumes. Outside the United States, it has also long been utilized by chefs, but studies have indicated that coumarin, a chemical compound in the plant, can cause liver damage in animals, and the Food and Drug Administration banned the bean in commercial foods in 1954. Now, with reports that the minuscule amounts used to impart big flavor are harmless (and the F.D.A. seemingly not particularly interested in enforcing the ban in recent years), tonka is showing up on dessert menus here. Thea Gould, 30, the pastry chef at the daytime luncheonette La Cantine and evening wine bar Sunsets in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was introduced to tonka after the restaurant’s owner received a jar from France, where it’s a widely used ingredient. Gould says the bean is an ideal stand-in for nuts — a common allergen — and infuses it into panna cotta, whipped cream and Pavlova. Ana Castro, 35, the chef and owner of the New Orleans seafood restaurant Acamaya, discovered tonka as a young line cook at Betony, the now-closed Midtown Manhattan restaurant. Entranced by the ingredient’s grassy, stone fruit-like notes, she’s used it to flavor a custardy corn nicuatole, steeped it into roasted candy squash purée and grated it fresh over a lush tres leches cake. And at the Musket Room in New York’s NoLIta, the pastry chef Camari Mick, 30, balances tonka’s richness with acidic citrus like satsuma and bergamot. Over the past year, she’s incorporated it into a silky lemon bavarois and a candy cap mushroom pot de crème and whipped it into ganache for a poached pear belle Hélène. “Some people ask our staff, ‘Isn’t tonka illegal?’” she says. Their answer: Our pastry chef’s got a guy. —

Amid Greece’s peak travel season, raging wildfires near Athens are putting tour operators on high alert.

Dangerous wildfires near Athens, Greece forced hundreds to evacuate the suburbs north of the country's capital on Monday, August 12, reported to be the worst fire the Mediterranean country has seen so far this year.

You don’t hear about Central Florida very often, and when you do, chances are it has something to do with Walt Disney World. But just over an hour north of the famed resort complex is the mid-sized city of Ocala, a destination bursting with superlatives, including “America’s largest spring” and “horse capital of the world.”

While most American cities aren’t considered easy to navigate by foot, a recent study by travel insurance experts AllClear ranked one popular Southern city as the most walkable in the country. AllClear examined topographical information for more than 240 cities around the world, taking into account average elevation and range, and assigned each city a score — and ultimately, it was New Orleans that was named the most walkable city in the U.S. and the fourth most walkable city globally.

Europe dominates in a new ranking of the world’s most beautiful cities, filling nine of the top 10 spots.

Landal GreenParks UK, the UK’s fastest growing company offering holiday breaks in nature, has seen a 24% YoY increase in summer bookings driven by longer staycations in the Southwest region.

The Paris Summer Olympic Games are coming to an end this weekend, but there are still plenty of disciplines to go, including a new sport at the Games this year: breaking.

Aug 2, 2024 • 11 min read

DoubleTree by Hilton Rotterdam Centre opens its doors to guests following an extensive re-brand of one of the city’s iconic, landmark properties. The 265-room hotel, located at the base of Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge, is the latest addition to the growing DoubleTree by Hilton portfolio in Europe, and marks a first for the popular hotel brand in the Dutch city.

Holland America is out with another epic itinerary from North America to Europe and back — this time with an unusual twist.