Kim Fay

Food & Travel Writing

Since 1995, I have worked as a travel and food writer in Saigon and Los Angeles. My writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Travel + Leisure, Preferred Destinations, Transitions Abroad, the Vietnam Investment Review, and ThingsAsian.com. Among my favorite ThingsAsian articles are “Christmas in Cambodia” and “The Kindness of Strangers,” about being in Laos on 9/11. I also spent four years as the hotel review editor and staff writer for Gayot publications. For Gayot I wrote hundreds of reviews for hotels, spas, cookbooks, food shops, and wine destinations. Following is a selection of articles written for Gayot’s online Tastes and Food Papers.

Food, Wine & Hotel features:

Better Red: Educating Vietnamese Palates One Glass at a Time

Sideways from Seattle:
Exploring the Woodinville Wine Country

A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and Pasolivo Oil

Thinking Outside the Bag: Le Palais des Thés

Book Review: Sustenance & Desire

Book Review: Mangoes & Curry Leaves

Hotel Trends 2005:
Condos, Frank Sinatra Wake-up Calls & Ladies Only Digs

Going To Temple: Le Meridien Angkor

Global Economy: Hotel Carlton

Lisbon (Julie Fay Ashborn)

I am madly in love with food writing, and here's why ...

- MFK Fisher ... anything and everything, but ESPECIALLY The Gastronomical Me and her essay "Borderland" in Serve it Forth.

- I fell for Elizabeth David when I picked up South Wind through the Kitchen. This sampler led me to hunt down a first printing of Italian Food--you must have the first edition, since it was written for post-war rationing. As for her French Provincial Cooking, it is as essential as Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. David is divine.

- I love Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking and More Home Cooking have given me many of my standards, from shortbread to tomato pie. Her essays that include anecdotes about being single in New York have a wit and warmth that leave Carrie Bradshaw standing in the dust.

- While not a volume of food essays, the novel, Book of Salt, by Monique Truong, is essential reading for food lovers. The episode about the pineapple is heartbreaking--you'll know what I mean when you read it. I found it so moving that I even included it in Communion.