When it comes to cuisines, a city’s status isn’t just about collecting restaurants with 3 Michelin stars. These days it’s all about a holistic approach: numerous hole-in-the-walls serving up hard-to-find goods, ample access to fresh and local (preferably organic) produce, a local wine culture. Just as the underground food movement has taken hold, making it cool to make your own food, harvest your own vegetables and buy a share in a community-run vineyard, so has the definition of food culture.

You think food-centric cities and the usual suspects pop up: New York, …

Of all the 2011 shelter trends, this one is near and dear to my heart. There’s something about riads, Marrakech, and Morocco that make me swoon (you can likely blame Casa Blanca). I have long been obsessed with the Kingdom of Morocco. Watching the vivid patterns and geometric shapes of Moroccan culture infiltrate interiors and design is pure bliss.

Here’s an example of a riad (a traditional Moroccan house with an interior garden) in Medina that will have you swooning for Moroccan details, too.

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The idea of a mail order bride has a wild reputation. It brings to mind a woman climbing into a crate that the post office handles. On the other side of the world, the woman leaps out and into the arms of her new husband, thrilled to be starting a new life. Happiness abounds! Until new bride gets sick of her unattractive new husband and takes off with her trainer, Fabio, to hit the club scene in Miami. Sadness flourishes. Or does everyone live happily ever after in domestic bliss? Hope …

With the Academy Awards taking place on February 27, Suzi Amis Cameron, wife of legendary Oscar award-winning producer, director, and writer James Cameron, is calling all designers 18 and over with $75 in their pocket to think about creating a dress for her Red Carpet, Green Dress competition.

Not just any dress of course, but a sustainable red carpet stunner that Cameron will wear as she walks down the strip at the Global Green pre-Oscar Party in Hollywood, California on February 23. While none of James Cameron’s movies …

EcoSalon recently published the hit article, “20 Must Read Books for Women,” in which you probably noticed a few books you’ve read and a few others that you’d like to read, as well. What you might have also noticed was that the list included no books written by men.

Might there be must-reads for women written by male authors? We’re not talking about tomes that you’d file under the “how to better understand the blue side of the species” (read: self-help for guys, porn, or maybe bios on Messrs. Churchill …

I have a theory that the more often one cooks, the easier it is for one to cook more often. I know from experience that this is true for me. Back when I worked at night in the restaurant business, I loved to cook at home on my nights off. Being a busy student and worker, my refrigerator was always bare so I’d pore over cookbooks, decide what to make, then head to the store (or stores) for the ingredients. Every time I cooked, I’d have to start from …

As a fellow writer friend of mine recently said, “City = landscape. Treat it that way.” Sometimes we’re so caught up in doing the right things to get away from city life that we forget how rich the urban landscape itself can be. We all know that we should be making an effort to spend more time outdoors, but if you’re not lucky enough to live with acres of, say, a protected wildlife refuge in your backyard, it can be difficult to find the time to invest in driving a …

Sometimes, an article needs to be set to song. Go ahead, click, and come back to us in a new window. We trust you. All set? Great. Our February Man We Love had to be introduced against Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For a Hero” because he is all things dreamy and heroic. He is actor Jake Gyllenhaal, and here’s why we adore him.

First, look at him. Dreamy! With an “everyman” look about him, he could be your hunky next-door-neighbor with a penchant for sit ups. He’s the …