This is the world’s most expensive rice. But what does it taste like?
By Maureen O’Hare, CNN
(CNN) — In travel news this week: the world’s most expensive rice, trouble at Rome’s Trevi Fountain, plus how the hotel bathroom door situation has gotten out of hand.
World-class rice
Kinmemai Premium has been certified by Guinness World Records as the most expensive rice on the planet, but what is it that makes it so special?
Only 1,000 boxes of the Japanese grains are made each year, selling for around $73 each. Top-class, award-winning rice varieties are selected for flavor and texture, before their enzyme levels are tested for vitality and “life force,” explains Keiji Saika, the 91-year-old president of Toyo Rice Corporation.
One chef told CNN the rice grains were shiny like “diamonds,” but read the story to find out how it did on the taste test.
Another unusual item is on the menu at Les KaneKIYOs restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan. With fatal bear attacks an increasing problem in the country, Chef Kiyoshi Fujimoto started specializing in bear meat cuisine. He tells CNN that diners find it “less gamey than expected,” with a “refreshing taste.” Watch here.
La dolce vita
There’s a new $2 fee to throw coins in Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain, but when the new system started on Monday, not everyone was playing nice. Paying visitors were forced to take cover when some tourists stood behind the barriers and flung coins down on them from above.
In a formerly quiet village in the Italian Dolomites, the Instagram-famous church of Santa Maddalena attracts up to 600 visitors per day in high season. Now, authorities are stepping in to slow the flow, introducing new restrictions aimed at curbing day-trip tourism.
The Winter Olympics got underway this week in the Dolomites and across northern Italy. One Italian ritual is essential for visitors to understand, be they athletes or tourists: the unwritten rules of Italian coffee. Here’s our video guide.
CNN Sports has the latest chatter from inside the Winter Olympic Village and incredible stories of athletic achievement. Click here to sign up for the Milano Memo newsletter – it’s free!
Great escapes
In the latest installment from our new “Great Escapes” series, we bring you the story of two American sisters who found themselves trapped in a Scottish castle.
Niki Ghofranian and Ritta Nielsen visited Dunstaffnage in 2019, but never planned to put the 14th-century building’s fortress skills to the test. They found themselves there past closing time, with the gates padlocked shut and their one cell phone with a dying battery.
Ghofranian climbed to the top of the castle walls and spotted a child running out of some nearby woods.“Tell your mom we’re locked in the castle,” she cried out. “Go get your mom!”
Here’s what happened next.
The sisters’ story wasn’t the only dramatic rescue CNN covered recently.
Last week, a 13-year-old boy swam for hours to shore to get help for his mother and siblings after the family was swept out to sea. The group had been kayaking and paddleboarding while on vacation in Western Australia. See Austin Appelbee tell his story.
Finally, last month a cruise ship got trapped in ice in Antarctica, and a US Coast Guard ice-breaker had to come to free it from its frosty prison. Watch the mission here.
Jackie Kennedy’s lipstick
In 1967, four years after she became the most recognizable widow in the world, Jackie Kennedy visited Cambodia. Her lipstick-stained cocktail glass is just one of the items kept on display in her honor.
In case you missed it
See the first baby elephant born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in nearly 25 years.
And there are plenty more infant critters in these Wildlife Photographer of the Year images, including a possum, a crab, kestrels and bear cubs galore.
When did the Winter Olympics start? Who has hosted the Games most often? How many medals are up for grabs in total?
Test your Winter Olympics knowledge in this quiz.
The hotel bathroom door situation has gotten completely out of hand.
Travelers are getting more intimacy than they bargained for.
Final destination.
Where deceased airplane passengers go when their journey ends early.
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