About Mangoes & Palm Trees
Recipes, travel and the people behind them. We share the food we cook, the places we experience, and the practical and cultural details that give a story its meaning—clearly distinguishing first-hand accounts from research-led guidance.
Mangoes & Palm Trees at a glance
- Food: Home-cooked recipes, ingredient guides and family food traditions
- Travel: 50+ countries across our individual and shared journeys
- Family: Oliver and Natalia Mayerhoffer, with Victor’s perspective on family life
- Approach: First-hand accounts where we have direct experience; research-led guidance where it is needed
- Editorial standard: Original writing, clear sourcing and no invented visits, tests or encounters
What is Mangoes & Palm Trees?
Mangoes & Palm Trees is a family-led food and travel publication co-founded by Oliver and Natalia Mayerhoffer, with their son Victor offering a child’s perspective on food and family travel. It brings together recipes cooked at home, ingredient guides, travel notes and stories about the people and traditions behind food and place. We distinguish first-hand experience from research-led guidance.
Food, Place and the People Behind Both
We started Mangoes & Palm Trees because a recipe or travel recommendation rarely tells the whole story. You may need the detail that determines whether a dish works, the context that explains why people cook it a certain way, or a practical note that makes a journey easier. We bring those strands together and try to leave out claims we cannot support.
The site brings together recipes we cook at home, ingredient and substitution guides, travel guides, restaurant and local-experience notes, cultural stories and practical advice for family travel. Some pages help you make dinner; others help you understand an ingredient, plan a journey or decide whether a particular place suits what you need. The aim is useful detail, not a list of places for its own sake.
Some stories come from first-hand experience: places we have visited, meals we have prepared and people we have met. Others are research-led. We aim to make that distinction clear, and we do not present research as a personal visit or claim to have tested a recipe we have not made. When facts need outside support, we use identifiable sources and link to them where they help readers check the claim.
Details matter because they help readers make their own decisions: how an ingredient behaves, what stood out about a meal, how we got somewhere, what a visit cost when we were there, or what needs checking again before a future trip. We include sensory detail when it comes from memory or evidence, not to decorate a scene we cannot honestly describe. Travel times, prices, opening hours and other changeable information need context and, where possible, a date.
Food and places deserve more care than a single label. Recipes vary between regions, households and generations; one visit cannot explain an entire country. We share what we know, identify where we learned it when relevant, and leave room for the fact that other people may have different experiences.
Mangoes & Palm Trees began in 2018 as a digital publishing project. After losses within our family, the work gradually took on a deeper meaning. Around 2024, we came to see the work more deliberately as a way of honouring Daniel, Oliver’s brother; Julie, his mother; and Natalia’s grandparents, Valentina and Victor Moskalenko. A recipe or a story cannot bring someone back, but it can preserve a part of what they shared with us.
This history sits behind the publication without needing to become the subject of every story. Most pages stay close to the work itself: the meal, the ingredient, the place, the people and the details that make the experience worth sharing.
We returned to Asia in 2025. The site continues to grow through family life, home cooking, travel and the people we encounter. We revisit earlier pages when details need checking and add stories when we have something real and useful to share. It is a record of what was, what is and what comes next.
Explore our recipes, browse our travel guides, read Oliver’s author profile, meet Natalia, or join the family newsletter.
From the Kitchen to the Road
For something to cook, start with our recipes. For routes, places and the practicalities of getting there, browse our travel guides. Our ingredient guides explore flavour, context and substitutions. Follow whichever thread brought you here; the related stories are there when you want to go further.
How the Story Has Grown
- 2018: Mangoes & Palm Trees begins as a digital publishing project focused on food, travel and the subjects that connect them.
- Around 2024: Our work takes on a more personal meaning. Preserving family memory becomes a more deliberate part of what we publish, alongside practical food and travel guidance.
- 2025: The family returns to Asia, continuing to document food, places and people while building on experiences gathered over many years.
- 2026 and beyond: We keep adding stories when we have something real to share, revisit earlier work when details need checking, and distinguish current information from older experience and research.
The Family Behind the Stories
Oliver Mayerhoffer
Co-founder · Lead Author · Publisher
Oliver leads the writing and publishing, bringing together first-hand notes, photographs, research and the practical details readers need to understand a meal or make a travel decision.
Read Oliver’s story →
Natalia Mayerhoffer
Co-founder · Teacher · Dentist by training
Natalia grew up in Krasnoyarsk, where food and family traditions were part of everyday life. A dentist by training and a teacher, she brings that background to the recipes and stories she helps create, from cooking and cultural research to writing, editing, photography and planning family travels.
Meet Natalia →
Victor Mayerhoffer
Son · Chief Taster · Family Reality Check
Victor gives honest feedback on meals and helps us consider the practical side of family travel from a child’s point of view. His preferences are his own—not a promise that every child will enjoy the same food or experience.
One child’s opinion is not a rule for every family. Victor’s feedback helps us describe what he genuinely enjoyed or rejected, while leaving readers to judge what will work for their own children.
Explore next
RecipesMeals cooked at home and recipes shaped by memory
Travel GuidesPlaces, practical details and first-hand stories
Ingredients HubFlavour, context, heritage and useful substitutions
Thailand Food & TravelFamily travel notes, local food and practical planning- Oliver MayerhofferThe experiences behind Oliver’s writing
- Natalia MayerhofferSiberian family memories and cultural perspective
Experience, research and transparency
Readers should be able to tell what sits behind a page. A personal memory is not the same as a verified fact, and a researched guide is not a first-hand report. We distinguish those sources of knowledge and link to appropriate references for claims involving health, safety, food handling, cultural history or travel logistics. When information is likely to change, its date and limitations matter.
Our Editorial Standards
How we approach authorship, first-hand claims, research, updates and corrections.
Affiliate Disclosure
How commercial relationships support the publication and how we separate them from editorial judgment.
| Content type | How we describe it |
|---|---|
| First-hand travel | Based on a place or journey we personally experienced; the timeframe is stated when it affects the reader’s decision. |
| Home cooking and recipe testing | Describes what we actually prepared, tested or changed; limitations are stated where relevant. |
| Research-led guidance | Built from identifiable sources and never presented as a personal visit or test. |
| Commercial relationships | Disclosed through the site’s Affiliate Disclosure and related notices. |
Keep Exploring
Follow a dish, a destination or an ingredient into the stories and practical guides connected to it.
Questions about the publication
What is the purpose of Mangoes & Palm Trees?
How do you create your stories and guides?
Who contributes to Mangoes & Palm Trees?
Are all the guides based on first-hand experience?
How is Mangoes & Palm Trees funded?
Meet the Mayerhoffers
Recipes, places and people—kept in context and shared with care.
Oliver Mayerhoffer
Co-founder · Lead Author · PublisherOliver leads the editorial work, looking for the useful detail that gives a reader a clearer sense of a meal, a place or a decision.
Natalia Mayerhoffer
Co-founder · Teacher · Dentist by trainingNatalia grew up in Krasnoyarsk, where food and family traditions were part of everyday life. A dentist by training and a teacher, she brings those experiences to the recipes and stories she helps create.
Our aim is to keep useful knowledge and meaningful stories together: recipes worth making, places worth understanding and the people whose traditions give them context.
Explore Our Recipes