Hi, I'm Lara

I'm here to answer any questions you have about travel and food, cooking and eating, writing and blogging, you name it... for the price of a cup of coffee. Buy me a coffee and ask your question in the comments and I'll respond in a post.

Why? My husband and I lost all our work, projects, clients, and income in March 2020 when the world shut down. I'm experimenting with 'Buy Me a Coffee' to see if we can earn some income here by sharing our knowledge, expertise, advice, info, and inspiration.

A Bit More About Me/Us

I'm an Australian-born travel and food writer, guidebook author, editor, and publisher based in Siem Reap with my writer-photographer and co-publisher husband Terence Carter. Prior to the pandemic, we'd earned an income from our digital media business, travel and restaurant consulting, and holding writing and photography retreats. I also crafted bespoke travel itineraries, planned trips and hosted culinary tours. A former filmmaker and academic, I now spend most of my time researching culinary history and with husband Terence recipe-testing and developing cookbooks.

We have travelled to close to 80 countries and lived and worked abroad since 1998. At various times I've been a foreign student, expat and digital nomad. We've spent the last decade in Southeast Asia, before that we were on the road living out of suitcases, bouncing around the world on assignments everywhere from Argentina to Australia, and prior to that we were based in the UAE and focused our travels on the Middle East and Europe. 

Since the 1st January 2010 we have published Grantourismo, a culinary travel website that advocates slow, local and experiential travel, forms of travel we believe to be more engaging, immersive and enriching, and more sustainable, responsible and ethical. We launched the site with a mission to make travel more meaningful and more memorable.

For the last 8 years, we've also been researching, writing and shooting an epic original Cambodia culinary history and cookbook, which I hope will change the way the world thinks about Cambodian food.

Like so many creatives in travel and food, we lost all our work, projects, clients, and income in March 2020. As we're Australians in Cambodia, we're not eligible for support and have relied on patrons, donations, loans and gifts to survive the pandemic. We've learnt a lot from what has been a very humbling experience.

If you'd like to help support our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history research; you've used our site Grantourismo and found our stories, itineraries and guides helpful and inspiring, or cooked our recipes and enjoyed them; or you've been a client or tour/retreat participant and appreciated my services, then you're very welcome to buy us a coffee and we will be very grateful.

If you have any questions whatsoever about our work, about writing, editing, photography, blogging, or publishing; about travel and food, and specifically Southeast Asian and Cambodian food, then ask away in the comment when you make a donation and I'll answer your question in a post, and bring in Terence to respond when his expertise is needed.

Lara x