RFT Editors
Meet your Real Food Traveler editors:
Bobbie Hasselbring, editor-in-chief
RFT co-founder Bobbie Hasselbring has been a travel junkie her entire life. A writer and editor for more than 25 years and author of the regional food-travel bestsellers, The The Chocolate Lover’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest
Born: Culver City, California
Traveled: Peru, Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, England, Italy, China, Spain, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, USA (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Florida, New York, Maine, District of Columbia, North Dakota, New Jersey, Texas, Idaho, Minnesota, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, South Carolina, Wyoming, Georgia, Michigan).
Favorite foods: Really great chocolate, especially fabulous chocolate gelato, fresh pasta with clams, medium rare steak, terrific coffee/espresso, soft shell Maine lobster.
Passions: Travel, great food and cooking, gardening, being on the water, playing with clay.
Best trips: Africa safari, Italy, Thailand, New Mexico.
Strangest travel moment: Eating rat in Thailand.
Travel philosophy: Stay open, flexible and grateful, whether you stay in a cheap flophouse or a posh resort. Eat on the street and travel close to the culture.
Writing Awards
- Northern Lights Travel Writing Award — Best Internet Writing, Univ. of Missouri Sch of Journalism/Canada Media Marketplace, 2010, for her story For the Love of Lavender.
- Gold Award, Writing, CASE, 2005.
- Bronze Award, Best Magazine, The Willamette Lawyer, CASE, 2004.
- Bronze Award, Feature Writing, CASE, 2004.
- Silver Award, Feature Writing, CASE, 2003.
- Author’s Silver Star Award, Addicus Publishing, 2002.
- RX Club Award of Excellence, Feature Writing, 1999.
- American Heart Association Best Magazine Feature Award, 1992 and 1991.
Anne with her camera
RFT co-founder Anne Weaver is always interested in what’s over the next hill or around the next bend. An avid photographer for more than 30 years, her photos have been used by companies like Legacy Health and PGE and published in places like Northwest Palate magazine, Forest World magazine and Reed magazine. In fact, it’s tough to find a photo of her without her camera. In addition to her regular editing duties, Anne is RFT.com’s photo editor and RV editor.
Born: Portland, Oregon.
Traveled: Bhutan, Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, England, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, USA (Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maine, District of Columbia, North Dakota, Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, South Carolina, Wyoming, Michigan, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Maryland, Georgia).
Favorite foods: Fruit, especially Northwest-grown raspberries, boysenberries, strawberries, and tropical fruits such as mangosteens, pineapples, mangoes, and rambutan that are grown and ripened in tropical climates; fish barbecued on a stick with lime in Mexico; potato tacos in Guatemala, wild salmon, halibut cheeks browned in butter.
Passions: Travel, gardening, cooking, photography.
Best trips: Africa safari, Bhutan; Yellowstone; Boundary Waters (Minnesota); Maine. Well, really, anywhere. I delight in my own backyard.
Strangest travel moment: Being blessed by a monk with a symbolic phallus (to increase fertility! at age 55! Really, it was part of the tour!) in the temple of the Divine Madman (built in 1499) in Punakha, Bhutan
Travel philosophy: Go! Don’t wait — go now, go often.
