January 14, 2011 · 9:57 pm

Dreaming of: Panama

What better way to spend a gray, snowy, very cold January day in Iowa than reading up on Panama, where we’ll be in less than a month. I’ve got most of the itinerary nailed down except the last day or so when we have to somehow get from Boquete in the western highlands to the Bocas, del Toro, the Caribbean town to the north and west. Driving our rental car appears to be out since there’s no drop off. So we’ll either take a bus or hire a driver. It’s the one place I’m not sure we’ll really like so won’t be there that long – only one night – but am curious to see.

I did find about that with the rental car, buying the agency’s insurance is mandatory – unless your credit card company covers. Which I think ours does. But need to check.

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January 10, 2011 · 11:08 pm

Flying home from Atlanta on Wednesday?

My husband D is supposed to fly home from Atlanta on Wednesday after a business meeting there. Here’s hoping – He reports it’s “pretty awful” there right now due to a huge winter storm that is moving across the south and up the east coast. the airport there, the world’s busiest we’re told, was pretty much shut down today. And tomorrow doesn’t look much better. Meanwhile, here in Iowa, we’re having our very own little snowstorm which is supposed to dump up to 9 inches – last I heard – by the time it ends sometimes tomorrow. Ahhh winter.

D did report that he had a terrific meal in Atlanta at the Woodfire Grill, whose executive chef is  Kevin Gillespie (of Top Chef fame.)…so now we’ve each eaten at a Top Chef contestant’s restaurant (mine was Stephanie Izard’s The Girl and the Goat in Chicago.)

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January 9, 2011 · 5:26 pm

Struggling to get my bearings in the wake of the Tucson shootings

The horrific shootings in Tucson yesterday hit close to home for several reasons including that the Safeway where they occurred is very close to where my father lives in Oro Valley/northwest Tucson. I don’t think I’ve been to that Safeway but I’ve driven by it dozens of times and been to stores and restaurants nearby.

There are so many businesses on that suburban strip that it’s hard to place the exact location of the Safeway, in my mind.  One of the many news reports I’ve watched showed a  sign for “Beyond Bread” – which confused me since last I knew,  Beyond Bread (a favorite restaurant)  is on Campbell – not Oracle where the Safeway is located.  A minor point, obviously, given the overall tragedy. But maybe my determined effort, in the wake of the shootings,  to get my physical bearings is also, deep-down, an attempt to get my psychological bearings, to figure out how close we are, as we go about our everyday lives,  to danger.

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January 6, 2011 · 11:16 pm

NYC recommendations from a friend

A friend just returned from a trip to NYC and reports enjoying:  “Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson”, the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand exhibit at the Met and Upright Citizen’s Brigade.

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January 2, 2011 · 10:53 pm

Take me to: Istanbul

No big surprise that the NYTimes reports that its readers most want to visit: Istanbul. It’s one of the cities I’d most like to re-visit, having enjoyed my first and only trip there in 1982. Someday.

I didn’t plan to go to Istanbul when I was wandering around Europe but my plans changed when I arrived in Athens to visit an American friend living there. Looking through her photos to decide where to visit in Greece, I kept picking out photos that were in Turkey instead. So I took the Magic Bus from Athens to Greece with a newly acquired Australian friend named Lyndal and we not only went to Istanbul but roamed around the country for several weeks, exploring to the north with a ride along the Bosporus to the Black Sea; the other-worldly central Turkey area of Cappadocia, the “Turkish Riveria” to the south and  the remarkable ruins at Ephesus on the western coast. Lots of adventures.

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January 1, 2011 · 7:46 pm

New big-budget bohemain spots in Paris

The new bohemian spots in Paris (p0ssibly not for long since they’ve just been outed by the NYTimes) include two neighborhoods – Belleville and Pigalle (a former red-light district.

Along Belleville’s “steep hilltop streets” are galleries and fashion designers and upscale winebars and restaurants.

In Pigalle, are artsy hotels (the Hotel Amour) , designer boutiques popular with the likes of Lady Gaga (jean-charles de castelbajac) ns of course more great restaurants (Nomiya). The gentrified Canal St. -Martin sounds like a charming place to wander. Also the Du Pain et Des Idees boulangerie.

These must be Bohemians with a big budget. for more see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19hours-paris.html

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December 31, 2010 · 3:19 pm

Inexpensive restaurants in NYC

The NYTimes ran a list of the best new inexpensive restaurants in NYC this week so here are a few for future reference. (A list of non-inexpensive restaurants also ran but I’m assuming they’re not in my budget.) I skipped most of  the ones beyond Manhattan:

BAOHAUS  … bun (the bao) brimming with Niman Ranch pork belly, glossy with fat and topped with the classic Taiwanese condiments: sweet pulverized peanuts, pickled mustard greens and cilantro. 137 Rivington Street (Norfolk Street), Lower East Side; (646) 684-3835, baohausnyc.com.

CAFE ‘AT YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW’ two blocks from the boardwalk; Eastern European, Korean and Uzbek dishes from Russian-speaking ethnic Koreans hailing from Tashkent.  3071 Brighton Fourth Street (Brighton Beach Avenue), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn; (718) 942-4088. (HAS to be better than the awful place we went to in Brighton Beach in 2009.

CAMPO DE’ FIORI pizza and more in my brother’s neighborhood…. 187 Fifth Avenue (Berkeley Place), Park Slope, Brooklyn; (347) 763-0933, pizzacampodefiori.com.

DOS TOROS ….fresh, quick and cheap eating akin to that found at Mexican joints in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Oliver Strand) 137 Fourth Avenue (13th Street); (212) 677-7300, dostorosnyc.com.

HECHO EN DUMBO big flavors of Mexico City  stripped down…short-rib tacos 354 Bowery (East Fourth Street), East Village; (212) 937-4245, hechoendumbo.com.

HILL COUNTRY CHICKEN  fried chicken and other Southern dishes. 1123 Broadway (25th Street); (212) 257-6446, hillcountrychicken.com.

KUTI’S Tmarries West African and Middle Eastern flavors from  Ivory Coast, and insinuates a few French techniques in dishes like shrimp piri-piri,  355 West 116th Street (between Manhattan and Morningside Avenues); (212) 222-1127.

THE NORTHERN SPY FOOD COMPAN Greenmarket-driven restaurant 511 East 12th Street (Avenue A), East Village; (212) 228-5100, northernspyfoodco.com.

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December 28, 2010 · 2:50 am

From Wright,Ks. back to Des Moines

No weather problems this time – and smooth sailing the entire nine hours, for which we were grateful, especially given what friends and family are dealing with on the East Coast. We stopped in the slowly reviving town of Greensburg – which was devastated by a tornado several years ago – at a hip looking coffee shop, then onto Wichita where we opted for our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon, which was packed and has the world’s fastest service, and pleasant service, and mighty good Bun (all around us people seemed to be ordering what N and I ordered #45  Bun – noodles, shredded lettuce – with char-broiled pork and a fried spring roll. We stopped at N&J, our favorite middle eastern place, to pick up some humus and homemade chips and one, just one, piece of baklava, to bring home. In Kansas City, we dropped by Gates to pick up ribs to take home for dinner. Yes, it’s all about the food. Good to be back here, although it’s at least 20 degrees colder and a lot snowier than Kansas.

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December 26, 2010 · 7:12 pm

Dodge City, day 3 (or 4)? I’ve lost track

Well, another day in Dodge City – and my question: Are there more liquor stores or nail salons in this town? Seems a draw to me – my son says liquor stores, I say nail salons. The most intriguing business award goes to a place just down the road from this nursing home called: Destructive Behavior Alternatives? Maybe the people who frequent the liquor stores are instructed to switch to nail salons. Or vice versa.

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December 25, 2010 · 8:48 pm

Christmas in Kansas

I’m typing from the “bird room” at  the  nursing home in Dodge City where my in-laws live. The birds are quiet today – as is the rest of this place. Outside, it’s sunny and windy. No snow. The ground is hard, dry, flat, shorn of wheat so stubbly and tan. The sky is mostly blue with a few clouds. It always takes me aback how stark and harsh this landscape is, beautiful in it’s own way – so vivid and plain. You can really see for miles with little to block your view but a white concrete grain elevator or some unknown industry, liquid something-or-other, billowing out smoke. The “overlook” at the edge of Wyatt Earp Blvd. looks out onto a sea of cattle in a feedlot. No need to put “scenic” in front of outlook.

Wright, the unincorporated town where my in-laws live, about ten miles east of Dodge, even quieter than usual today. The only signs of life we saw during a brief walk this morning were a few dogs roaming around like the owned the place.

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