"Travel is one of the finest and most life-enhancing stimulants to health, happiness and longevity."

Continuing from the last column, some more tips on enjoyable eating:

4. Dining with the Stars

Unless we're talking "under the stars," which can be a delightful dining experience anywhere in the world, avoid most other 'stars" if you can. Particularly avoid those name-dropping places claimed to be the hangout of celebrities, Hollywood stars, mega-buck tycoons and the hip "in-crowd". It's not that the food is bad and overpriced (although it often is), but celebs are a fickle lot and, as it can take up to two years to publish updated editions of the "latest" guidebooks and the like, they've usually moved on, leaving a wash of wannabes wondering where all the glimmer and glamour went.

And as for the great star-studded restaurant guides -- Michelin particularly -- their issuance of these elusive tokens to top-class establishments is often based upon a set of criteria in which the quality of the food itself is only one consideration. In addition, stars often result in complacency, arrogance, impossibly long "book-ahead" periods, prices in the stratosphere and, occasionally, the sudden departure of the celebrated chef, lured off by loads of lucre to another establishment anxious to capitalize on his fame. So, rather than beg and grovel for admittance to such star-spangled places, look around the immediate vicinity for other less revered places trying to entice the fallout from the big-name restaurant; they are usually working a lot harder and less expensively to meet your expectations. Alternatively, try the single star places rather than the impossibly glamorous 3-star restaurants for the same reasons.

5. If You're Really Hungry

If hunger, rather than exotic gustatory experiences, is the driving force behind your restaurant search, look out for places where the amount and range of food consumed is left pretty much up to you. The USA is particularly notable in this regard. Wherever you travel you'll find excellent buffet restaurants (yes, this usually means steam trays, so choose your dishes selectively) and enormous help-yourself Sunday brunches, particularly in large city hotels. Here you can usually dine for a couple of hours or so on dozens of ultra-gourmet selections, all washed down with endless champagne, for the price of a mediocre meal elsewhere.

And also, don't forget those thousands of US restaurants (usually steak and seafood establishments) with glorious, help-yourself salad bars. However, if you're not careful, you can overindulge so outrageously on the myriad choices of salads and accoutrements that the main entrée becomes almost an irritating irrelevance!

Other nations are trying to capitalize on these US-inspired ideas, but not always successfully. In Britain for example, renowned for its somewhat mean mentality in the area of culinary abundance, buffets are often priced by the plate-load, i.e., the more trips to the table, the higher the cost! This, of course, inevitably results in patrons piling their one plate grotesquely high with ghastly mixes of meats, sauces, salads and pickles to the point where one wonders how they can possibly bring themselves to eat any of it. They usually do (the British are a determined lot) but it's not a pleasant sight! Sweden does it a lot better. Russia too. And of course there are those endless Middle Eastern "mezzes." Don't miss any opportunity to sample these!

6. Eat Street Food!

Please! It's inexpensive, usually freshly cooked (the sizzle=safe food!), delicious, fun and refreshingly experiential. I've enjoyed street food bacchanals in almost every country I visit and have never (honestly!) suffered any indigestion or other punishments from my indulgences. The Far East has some of the best -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines -- but the Middle Eastern nations, South American cities, and Europe generally are equally diverse in their enticing offerings. For some odd reason the USA lags way behind in this area and seems to be stuck permanently in the hot dog-pretzel category, with a few notable exceptions in Manhattan and San Francisco.

7. Skip the Fancy Wines When Eating

Well -- I had to put something in these columns to raise the ire of vinophiles wordwide -- but I truly believe that it's verging on sacrilege (not to mention a terrible waste of a lot of money) to imbibe great vintages of cabernet sauvignon or pinot noir or merlot when your taste buds are already overladen with the tastes, textures and aromas of food. When you think of all the effort that's put into producing and refining a fine vintage wine -- all the love, caring and expertise of the vintner and his team -- it seems to me to be an insult to try to appreciate its amazingly subtle nuances of bouquet, flavor and body when your mouth is full of garlic, peppers, meats, aromatic vegetables, rich redolent sauces, spices, condiments and even real palate-zingers like ginger, mustard, horseradish, soy sauce, wasabi and -- who knows -- maybe even ten-alarm Tabasco-like chili dips. A good ordinary (bold flavored!) wine of no particular vintage will do just fine with such dishes. Keep the show-off, big name bottles for pre- or post-meal appreciation with minimal and bland accompaniments such as bread, crackers, cheese (if you must) -- or nothing at all. You wouldn't dream of savoring a rare port or cognac with your mouth crammed full of competing flavors. So why do it with a fine wine? I now await the cries of outrage and angst from wine-aficionados worldwide!

8. Keep Notes

I find one of the most delightful bonuses of eating unusual and exotic foods around the world is the opportunity to "bring home" some of the ideas, recipes and ingredients I've experienced and try to replicate the dishes I've enjoyed (with a touch of imaginative "improv-cooking" too!). But I have to keep fastidious notes -- even talk with chefs if I need specific advice or information on recipes (they're often delighted by your interest and you may end up with a few delicious additional tid-bits with your dinner). And your friends will thank you enthusiastically when you provide a superb dinner of unfamiliar dishes. And if they don't -- either keep better notes or find new friends!