Brotherly Love (part 1)

This winter I went to Philadelphia to visit SSS while she was on a break from school. I manged to get myself sick as a dog in time for my arrival. Despite my weakened state, sickly appearance and slightly lessened gusto we still had a great time! I was the one in the corner of Independence Hall trying to discreetly drink from the cough syrup bottle....

SSS took me to two Stephen Starr Restaurants. He is Philadelphia's restaurant entrepreneur extraordinaire. He opens the kinds of restaurants that are full concepts and designed from ceiling to floor. From swinging chairs, to couches, to spinning bikes he has incorporated everything. Look at his website and peruse some of the restaurants. The websites are as designed and atmospheric as the places they represent!

The first place that we went to was El Vez. They had golden velvet booths, a giant bar and a revolving tequila display with a glowing moped atop it all. The bathroom mirror was two way, so while you are waiting outside you can see all the faces someone makes at herself in the mirror. We went for margaritas and guacamole. Both were perfect. Refreshing, sweet, and salty. So satisfying after a day of sickly sightseeing! We ended up ordering the street corn and some tacos. They were good, interesting, prepared with great skill. If I didn't know otherwise i would rave. However, I believe that I prefer the house corn and tacos from boston's own La Verdad (surprising I haven't done an entry for that yet...).One of the best parts of this restaurant is that they had a photomaton! SSS was having none of it so I went into the photobooth alone and tried to capture the essence of ill in philly. Of course, after she saw my photostrip she wanted to go! I could do these for days!
The next night we went to a potluck at SSS's friends house. SSS made a surprisingly simple upside down vegetable tart. After dinner we went out for dessert at another Stephen Starr restaurant, Continental - midtown. This place had two floors. The ground floor then had multiple levels. Upstairs was the bar and tables whose chairs were swinging baskets. From the ceiling hung an elaborate light display of many glowing orbs. There were so many interestingly and differently defined seating areas in this giant restaurant.
I didn't realy read the regular menu that claimed to be "world tapas". I went straight for dessert. They had a brilliant thing: Dessert Tapas! We had fried truffles, cotton candy, popsicles, deconstructed strawberry shortcake, somesort of peanut butter chocolate ice cream situation. I'll be honest I don't remember it all. I do remember that they had Sophia Coppola bubbly in a can with a straw.

Chocolate from the Source

In Panama we went to a family farm of ex pats called, Green Acres. They were located on the mainland of Bocas del Toro. When Linda and David Cerutti bought this land they didn't think very much about the cocoa trees that covered it. After reading more about them they learned how these trees are essential to the survival of the Rainforest. They began to cultivate the trees in the name of the environment and chocolate!





In a little tin shed at the bottom of a hill Mr. Cerutti turns the pods into chocolate. He cracks open the giant pods and pops out the 30-40 seeds inside. The he ferments the beans and drys them in the sun. Next he roasts them and chops them into nibs. After that he process them down into a liquid. He puts the chocolate into molds and then freezes them. Voila: Unsweetened chocolate right from the source! Of course this has taken years of experimenting and testing and inventing his own equipment to get all of the timing and technique just right on his little secluded part of Panama. Tranquillo Bay makes all of their chocolates desserts from their neighbor's farm.

Batidos - yet another way to love a shake!

I recently returned from a trip to Panama.

We stayed at Tranquillo Bay," an eco adventure lodge," on an island on the Caribbean side of the country off of Bocas Del Toro. Two American families built and own the place and take care of you every second of the day. They have intelligent, friendly and very enjoyable guides (biologists doing something with their time in the turtle off season) that take you on excursions to explore the surroundings. I have included some pics so that you can get a feel for my time in the jungle!

The food that we had at the resort was for the most part familiar, Salads, curry and chicken rice, salsa and chips, doritos, cookies etc... We were busy in the sun all day and only ate when breakfast lunch or dinner was served. Because of this every meal felt very fortifying. I really felt like I was eating because I needed to it refuel, replenish. We did have a few things that really gave a nod to where we were. We had an appetizer made of plantains, cuban rum and one night we had fish that was from the pacific side of the country. We learned from our host that this is because the Panamanian fishermen on the Caribbean side don't ice their fish but the fishermen on the Pacific side do.

The best thing for me was the Batidos! I had one every morning that I was there. Basically it is a fruit shake (so, no surprise that it was my favorite thing). Fresh fruit is blended with ice, milk, and a sprinkle of sugar and that's it! I had watermelon on most days but they also had cantaloupe, pineapple and banana to choose from. This could be done with any fruits - Mangos, papayas, strawberries. Anything.

I am pretty sure that I have never looked forward to watermelon season more than right now.
The summer of Batidos? Time will tell...

Have some!

Here are two takeaway products from my trip abroad.

1)I used to think that Icelandic yogurt was just another fancy food store gimmick to make people feel good. I had Skyr (yogurt) in iceland and it was so thick and smooth. I'll say it. It was better than the yogurt I usually eat.

So many yogurts in the U.S. are made lowfat, rendering them less creamy and a little chalky. Skyr is naturally fat free and doesn't leave me wondering what it would taste like with a little milk fat in it. I'd recommend Skyr to you no matter what the back of the container said, but I can't help noting when there is a good nutrition facts-good taste anomaly. Skyr is expensive at the Whole Foods, I can't get around it. But, it is a real treat and what a yogurt should be. (Not to mention all the nostalgia it fills me with!)


2)Norwegians eat chocolate bars to keep themselves going. I admire this about them. In addition, most of the time it is milk chocolate. Really good milk chocolate (not always an easy thing to find). I haven't found Norwegian chocolate here, but luckily I brought some back and luckily my parents are in Norway and I put in a request for a small supply.

Living off the Norwegian Land (Part 2: Fisk!)

One of the most invigorating parts of my vacation was when I went fishing. I strapped a knife to my belt, put on a life vest and headed to the boat. SEM knew what she was doing and GA and I were ready to learn. We put the oars in the water and once we had a good pace we put in the otter trawler.

The otter is this little plank of wood with a long fishing line with 10 hooks and flies coming off of it. The line is connected to a piece of metal that pivots backs and forth so that it can change directions. As long as someone keeps rowing it looks like there are 10 flies dancing across the water. Irresistible. We made loops between the two island in the lake hoping something would bite. Sure enough, one did.

GA was holding the line and it started to pull. I was rowing at the time and to keep the fish on the line it didn't matter where I took us as long as I kept moving and avoided running ashore. SEM winded it slowly back in, being sure not to slice her hand with one of the other hooks. GA scooped it up with a net and brought into the boat. Finally, we had it! SEM took it off the hook, squeezed hard and clubbed it with an old wooden mallet designed just for this (sorry, there is no other way to describe what happened).

The otter went back in, GA guided it, I rowed and SEM pulled in the fish. After two more catches I was ready to change roles. I pulled in a fish of my own, unhooked it and then killed it.

We caught a total of 6 trout that day. After we anchored our little row boat and tied it to the dock I learned how to clean them too. Sem carefully and craftily showed me how to gut the fish. I slid the knife on my belt out of its sheath, cut the fish open and emptied it out.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this whole excursion. I felt a little squeamish and bad at the though of deceiving and killing something. But, the more I thought about it, I felt that I needed to do it. I needed to be a part of the whole (mild water) hunting process and know how it feels.

It took three of us to catch one fish. We were tired and had worked hard and for hours. I felt truly powerful. I had to use the power of my arms, stomach and legs to keep us going in the rowboat. I almost squeezed a fish to death because I didn't want to screw up when I clubbed it. I slit the fish open and made it ready to eat. I helped feed my friends. We didn't need any middle men. It was SEM, GA and I that took care of it on this day.

(To be historically accurate I should note that we had a second excursion that day to catch our 6th and final fish. JB helped to bring this one in.)


Below are a few very short clips of demonstrations the start of cleaning a fish and taking the skin of in order to eat it (please note KH having her way with the fish behind SEM's slow speed demo.)

Eating off the Norwegian Land: (Part 1: the Berry Edition)

These days eating directly from the earth usually means visiting a farm with a "pick-your-own" crop; shopping at the farmers market or growing a few vegetables as experiments in the backyard, or on the deck in pots or a little patch of well fertilized dirt. This is a glorious and satisfying way to get my food, but, never before have I just been able to feel like the casual roaming reindeer eating what the land provided for me!

One of the most magical parts of the second half of my vacation was the time that I spent in a cabin in rural Norway. Just up from a glacial fed lake that provided the drinking, washing, and swimming water, the cabin was our cozy home for 6 days.

There were two things that covered the ground: Blueberry bushes and reindeer moss. Luckily we were there at the height of the blueberry season. (Reindeer moss is actually a slow growing lichen that has a misty green hue that makes everything look enchanted.)

We had blueberries for breakfast. We put blueberries in our cocktails. We made blueberry galettes and blueberry crumble. We ate blueberries on the way to the lake. We ate blue berries on the way to the outhouse. And never did I feel like I had too many!

On our last day we took a long, dramatic and beautiful hike. Like good Norwegians we had chocolate bars with us for energy and morale. However, there was nothing better to keep me going than the occasional mountain raspberry that we found along the way. It is hard to tell, but here GA is picking one.

Bright pink-red berries peeked out of bushes on the sides of mountain cliffs. They may be the sweetest, softest berries I have eaten.

Oh, Norway, I’ll eat your berries anytime!

Hot diggity dog!

There is a little place to stop in between the United States and the rest of Europe called, Iceland. The landscape is stark; the blue lagoon is hot; the population is small; the capital is small; the puffins are small.

I had two days and I was focused on two things: baby puffins and hot dogs. In my pre-trip research I learned that while we were arriving a week after pride in the only country with an openly gay head of state that at least we were in time for watching puffins!
I also learned that among various forms of putrefied shark meat this little country was known for a delicious hot dog. This information proved to be the anchors of our loose agenda.

Hot dogs in Europe are different. They are crunchier and spicier and well topped. In Iceland the absolute best place for one of these deluxe dogs is Bæjarins Beztu, a metal stand down by the water. The classic is served up with a dark & sweet mustard, ketchup, fried onions and raw onions on a bun. In 48 hours, more than one trip was made here. What tasty and satisfying food which proved to be the cheapest meal on my vacation!

It was only upon going through customs on the way home that we learned Icelandic hot dogs are one of the few meat products the discerning U.S. of A. will not confiscate.
I really blew that opportunity. If anyone is going…pick me up a pack?






(don’t worry, I also went on a puffin watch and got the best view of the city while watching the struggle that is the flight of the odd little puffin. Two members of our group even enthusiastically ate puffin at a local restaurant. I understand that it was very smoked.)