Quintal combines the quality of cooking and service found in a first-rate restaurant with the experience of being invited into someone’s tasteful home for a leisurely dinner party. Quintal’s proprietor and chef — known in town fondly as "Neilso" — spent 20 years running a successful restaurant in Brazil’s capital city of Brasilia before semi-retiring to Buzios. Here he opens his home in the hills above Manguinhos Bay on Friday and Saturday nights to a lucky group of no more than 35 people who are ‘in the know’ about Buzios’ dining scene. Reservations are essential, especially during the summer season and on holidays when affluent visitors from Rio and São Paulo populate the town.

We're still here in Buzios, weathering the occasional tropical storm, high humidity and relentless mosquitoes, but nevertheless are happy and content thanks to the natural beauty and friendly people of this Brazilian gem. We’re settling for more home-cooked meals these days, because moonlit nights on our terrace overlooking the ocean and fresh local lobsters ($4.70 apiece at the fish market) grilled over charcoal and served with a chilled, crisp Chilean sauvignon blanc are pretty hard to beat.

Sawasdee is located in the more trendy Orla Bardot section of downtown, near Buzios’ two nightclubs – Zapata and Privilege. Diners can choose to be seated at candlelit sidewalk tables with a view across the bay, or in the tastefully decorated dining room with its Buddha sculptures and other Asian motifs. Even though the restaurant serves only Thai cuisine – or more accurately, Thai-inspired cuisine – its chef and proprietor is an amiable Brazilian from Rio de Janero, Marcos Sodre, who freely admits to adjusting authentic recipes to please his clientele’s tastes.

And that he does – Sawasdee is popular with visitors and locals alike, who consistently rate it as Buzios’ best or second-best place for dinner. So we had high expectations on our first visit, and I was admittedly looking forward to enjoying some jasmine rice, a personal favorite of mine.

We opted for an outdoor table and were greeted warmly by our waiter, who remained very attentive and helpful throughout the evening, offering mosquito repellent – no getting away from those critters – and materializing a pair of reading glasses we failed to bring along.

The GastroNomad team is presently taking in sights and local culture in the quaint fishing village of Buzios, located 2.5 hours by car north of Rio de Janeiro. This town of 20,000 people occupies a peninsula featuring a variety of beaches ranging from longer stretches of sand to small hidden coves. Conditions are ideal for all water sports from world-class kite- and windsurfing to snorkeling and scuba diving.

Due to its proximity to Rio, Buzios hosts up to 80,000 visitors during the weeklong national holiday of Carnival, and is also a popular weekend destination during Brazil's summer months. The town offers numerous small hotels, bed and breakfast’s called “pousadas”, and an array of private vacation homes and condominiums for rent. Thankfully, there are no high-rise developments due to stringent local building codes, and outside of the high season Buzios remains a place of authentic Brazilian small-town life.

As we quickly are leaving the year 2006 behind, a number of choices from Gourmet Magazine’s Top 50 list of America’s best restaurants are worth mentioning here for those of you who may have missed Gourmet’s October issue.

Alinea in Chicago, where Chef Grant Achatz is redefining cooking as well as the eating-out experience, newly took the Number One honors.

The “less-is-more” sophistication of luxury “tented” resorts operated in Africa and Asia emerged as the newest travel trend in 2006. These camps offer guests a unique experience in that they retain a true sense of place and culture, rather than being a transplant of the American resort model to an exotic locale. The resorts listed here – with the exception of the Four Seasons – are located in close proximity to national parks and wildlife reserves, and they emphasize ecological harmony and sustainability in their design, operation, and choice of activities. Maybe a visit to one of them should be on your globetrotting list.

With Easter fast approaching, here are some "sweet" gift ideas for that special sweetheart in your life. How about leaving those ganache eggs in a Sunday morning Easter basket? Or ordering some out-of-this-world artisanal chocolate from one of these chocolatiers extraordinaire?

And what would be more “Easter heavenly” than cleaning the palate with a cool, bubbly sip of champagne in between bites of hazelnut praline and espresso caramel? Here are some top picks which not only deliver world-class taste, but also delight the eye with beautifully designed bottles and wrappers…

Based on past experiences, we chose to stay at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan Hotel, Spa and Casino. Unfortunately, the hotel is located on the beach in an uncomfortable proximity to the airport with regards to aircraft noise and exhaust fumes drifting across the property.

After a mediocre breakfast at the all-day dining Caribbean Grill and a look at the pricey menu of the hotel’s dinner-only Prime 787 steakhouse, we decided against exploring the Ritz’s various dining venues.

We did have a few lunches at the poolside The Ocean Bar & Grill which offers casual fare such as pizza, pasta, sandwiches and salads, as well as a delectable seafood ceviche. There is also a sushi bar adjacent to the Prime 787 space, and a Chinese restaurant located inside the casino.

The Lobby Lounge as well as The Casino Lounge offer live evening entertainment along with cocktails and a light hors d'oeuvre selection throughout the day.

We researched a number of local clubs for live music and DJ dancing, especially trying to find a venue for Puerto Rico's own “Reggaeton” style of music.

Here's a list of clubs recommended to us by Puerto Ricans in the know who wouldn't miss an opportunity to move their feet to the beat:

Accommodations: The Peninsula Beverly Hills located at the corner of Wilshire and South Santa Monica Blvds. in easy walking distance to the famous boutiques of Rodeo Drive.

196 luxuriously appointed rooms include 36 suites and 16 “villas” set in the hotel’s lush tropical gardens. There’s a 60 foot rooftop pool surrounded by private cabanas, an adjacent terrace where California and Spa Cuisine is served in a casual el fresco environment, a modern fitness center, and the Peninsula Spa offering an extensive array of treatments.

All day light dining and afternoon tea is served in The Living Room and The Club Bar offers entertainment and cocktails and snacks at night.

The hotel’s main restaurant, The Belvedere, specializes in modern American cuisine served in an elegant dining room or a garden patio, weather permitting.

“The taste and the sense of smell form but one sense, of which the mouth is the laboratory and the nose the chimney.” This quote from Jean –Anthelme Brillat-Savarin considered the father of modern gastronomy, lays the foundation for Olfactory Cuisine. Meaning the addition of fragrances before and during your meal to enhance or titillate the eating experience. Rosemary twigs are burned to team it popular fragrance with meat, poultry or even shellfish dishes. For an autumn version, some restaurants place steaming bowls of oak leaves, pumpkin seeds, apples, cinnamon and hay on their tables. Olfactory Cuisine gives diners a “very visceral emotional experience” suggests Grant Achatz, chef at Alina in Chicago.