Lina Zeldovich

Nearly 200 years before slavery was abolished in the US, Black freedom-seekers journeyed south instead of north to a place that promised freedom.

In October 1687, a dugout canoe arrived at the shores of St Augustine, then a settlement in Spanish Florida and now the oldest continuously occupied city in the mainland US. The canoe carried eight men and two women, one of whom was holding a toddler in her arms...

It’s a crisp Saturday morning and Naschmarkt—Vienna’s famed food market that dates to the 16th century—is bustling with life and provisions. Here, more than 100 stands brim with pastries, breads, cheeses, cured meats and fresh produce. I am hungry, so I eagerly follow my tour guide, to the stand that serves kaiserschmarrn—a light and fluffy shredded pancake eaten with plum and apple…

Villainised, stigmatised and still officially outlawed, the indigenous beverage chicha has been making a comeback.

"You know you're breaking the law by drinking this?" teased my tour guide Andrea Izquierdo, as she placed a pitcher filled with a frothy, pale peach-coloured drink on the tasting table in front of us. We were at Casa Galeria, a restaurant in Bogotá's Candelaria district, the historic and colourful centre of Colombia's capital. The illegal substance she was about to serve me was ...

Many come for the sun, sand and surf—but stay for the exceptional French and Creole cuisine.

It’s about noon on a Saturday and tables at La Terrasse already are filling up quickly. This rooftop restaurant with outdoor and indoor spaces overlooks the ocean and the bustling center of Marigot, the capital of the Caribbean island of French St. Martin. Owner Dylan Wagner, a transplant from Southeast France, serves me a classic French dish: slow-roasted duck, garlic butter snails and egg cocotte...

With no cities or courts, the formidable and nomadic Xiongnu kingdom sent princess emissaries to control its frontiers.

The raiders came from the north. They came on horseback, the skilled bowmen shooting powerful arrows with expert precision. They ruined and burned the crops, which the Han Chinese villagers living on China's northern frontiers in about 200 BCE tended to with great attention. The Han Chinese called the invaders "Xiongnu", which meant...

The polar bear approaches slowly, its huge paws leaving massive footprints in the fresh snow — closer and closer, until we can almost feel it breathing. Face to face, the bear stares at us with an inquisitive look. We hold our breaths and wonder if maybe we’re too close....

Every year, humpback whales travel for thousands of miles from the polar regions down to the tropics for a variety of reasons, including to give birth to their young. So do billions of other animals, each year on land, in the oceans and skies. They cross countries and continents, with some traveling thousands of miles to feed, breed or overwinter. But a new United Nations report reveals the shocking and dire state of our planet’s animal pilgrims...

In the lush forests of Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines, dwells Rafflesia, one of the most mysterious and enigmatic flowers on Earth. After four to six years of germination, the Rafflesia pops a bud—a brown cabbage-like sphere the size of a soccer ball—through its host’s tissue that may take up to nin...

Take a stroll anywhere in Vancouver, British Columbia, and you instantly recognize that you are walking on the Indigenous lands.

Vegetable-focused dining in the Austrian capital is winning over even the most dedicated meat lovers.

Karl Wrenkh, chef and co-owner of Wrenkh restaurant in Vienna, is determined to convince me that his oyster-mushroom schnitzel – a vegetarian version of Austria’s celebrated veal escalope – is just as good if not better. As a schnitzel aficionado, I’m a bit sceptical. Besides, I had a terrific one for lunch earlier – ultra-thin and fried to a perfect crisp. Surprisingly, the first bites of...

I’m bashing fried plantains and crispy pigskins into a mush using a pilón—the wooden, Puerto Rican version of a mortar and pestle. And though the pilón is small, it’s not easy. The pigskins, called chicharron in Spanish, are hard and resistant to pressure. Even the plantains, which look fairly soft, don’t want to be squashed. I’m making mofongo, a quintessential Puerto Rican dish, with Pablo García, who leads Spoon Food Tours of San Juan, the island’s capital. But he explains I’m almost there...

“We’ve got a sleeper,” the radio crackles suddenly, and our driver throws our Tundra Rover into gear. That means that the other vehicle, carrying the second half of our group, has spotted a polar bear sleeping in the bushes. By the time we arrive, the bear is walking towards us, checking us out. When it reaches our Rover, it stands up on its hind legs, trying to get a closer look at us, its huge paws touching the back ramp. It’s so close we can see its eyes — shimmering black against its ivor...

Curator Peter Whiteley stepped up to the podium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York to make a statement. Next to him stood guests from the First Nations communities whose carved wooden house posts, ceremonial poles, and masks, clothing, baskets, and tools were on display throughout the hall they were in. The Haida, Tlingit, Kwakwaka’wakw, and Nuu-chah-nulth people had flown ...

Once thought to be a land-only phenomenon, pollination may have existed in the ocean millions of years before terrestrial plants appeared.

Meandering through the short tundra brush, the polar bear comes to us slowly. Once close, it sizes us up, wondering if we can be of use — perhaps as a snack on this crispy arctic midmorning. Luckily, it can’t get us. We are standing on an elevated platform of our Tundra Rover, a vehicle equipped with massive wheels designed to seamlessly traverse the un...