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A noodle soup lover's guide to Bangkok
iReport: Favorite China destinations picked by travelers
Hunting black gold at the Canberra truffle festival
Insider Guide: Best of Langkawi

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT

by Mrigaa Sethi

Bangkok's streets are crammed with food stalls on every corner, many of them selling some version of noodle soup, or kway tiew nahm, the locals' easy and cheap comfort food.

But if you don't know what you're doing, the array of options is intimidating and may even scare you away.

To avoid missing out, follow this handy guide to the five most common noodle soups available on the streets of Bangkok.

Three local food experts -- writer/photographer Austin Bush of Austin Bush Photography, Jarrett Wrisley of Bangkok restaurant Soul Food Mahanakorn and food writer Chawadee Nualkhair of Bangkok Glutton -- weigh in and offer advice on how to tell good noodles from mediocre.

Here they are, arguably in ascending order of flavor intensity.

iReport: Favorite China destinations picked by travelers

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 05:35 PM PDT

by CNNGo staff

iReporters are great tour guides.

In our recent iReport assignment, we asked readers to name their favorite China destinations and iReporters came back with a list that rivals fancy guidebooks -- tempting both conventional tourists and adventurous souls.

These iReporters have traveled all around China, and here are the memories that stood out the most.

1. The Forbidden City, Beijing

Favorite China destinations -- forbidden city Join the queue to see the throne occupied by China's last emperors.

This rare shot of Beijing with an incredible blue sky was submitted by 34-year-old iReporter Jennifer Garcia-Alonso.

Hunting black gold at the Canberra truffle festival

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT

by Ian Lloyd Neubauer

Since Roman times at least, foodies in Europe have been going gaga for truffles -- specifically, the Black, or Périgord, Truffle -- as one of the rarest treats a gourmand can find on a dinner plate.

A subterranean fungus that under certain conditions grows around the roots of oak, willow and hazelnut trees, the Black Truffle is among the most elusive and expensive foodstuffs on earth, selling for up to US$2,500 a kilo.

Horticulturalists in North America, China, New Zealand and other locations with a suitable climate have tried cash in on the craze by starting trufferies -- yes, it's a word -- of their own.

But the results have been more hit than miss.

A successful New World truffery might harvest its first truffle within 10 years or so, though most will never grow a single truffle at all.

Insider Guide: Best of Langkawi

Posted: 22 Jul 2012 11:40 AM PDT

by Simon Ostheimer

Long a sleepy, near-deserted backwater, Langkawi's fortunes took a major upturn in the mid-1980s when Malaysia's then prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad laid out a blueprint of the island as a tropical tourist paradise.

Today, it's a fine example of how to satisfy the needs of travelers while still protecting the very environment that attracted them in the first place.

But Langkawi -- "red eagle" in Bahasa Malaysia -- ain't no tiny, run-of-the-mill slice of idyll.

The Andaman Sea island has plenty to offer besides beach bumming. Here's a quick guide to the best of Langkawi.

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