December 19, 2010 · 12:44 am

Best Mexican Food in New Mexico?

My ears perked up today when I heard Jane and Michael Stern on the NPR show The Splendid Table talk about the bext Mexican food in New Mexico but I tuned in too late. Thank heavens for the Internet. On the show’s website I found what they were talking about and even better it’s in Albuquerque where my sister-in-law and her family lives and we visit now and then. The restaurant is Garcia’s Kitchen and a highlight is carne adovada for breakfast or super. Having just butchered a pork belly today to make carnitas here in Iowa, I’m more than ready to have someone else cook the pork for me. This dish is made with chile and smothered in an intensely flavored but not knock-your-socks off heat. Good to know.

We’re looking forward to having some very good authentic Mexican food later this week in Dodge City, Kansas where we’ll be for Xmas (with our New Mexico relatives.)

 

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December 17, 2010 · 2:50 pm

Transportation options between Chicago and Traverse City

We were looking lat summer – with little success  – for mass transportation between Chicago and Traverse City, Michigan. And finally decided the best bet was to rent a car.

But there is another option a reader offered:  an Indian Trails bus (indiantrails.com). It is a fairly long trip (9 hours) compared to driving a car (5 hours), but the advance purchase cost is, we’re told, $50.

The other options: take the train from Chicago to Grand Rapids (which takes about 4.5 hours) and then somehow get to Traverse City. Word has it there’s a bus connection but it takes 12 hours.  (that’s crazy.)

 

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December 16, 2010 · 12:53 am

Hotspots in Boulder

A recent NYTimes story recommends when in Boulder to visit:

– Amante Coffee, with not just roasted coffee beans from northern Italy but “calzone-like breggos” (Breggos are apparently a Colorado invention, a baked or fried turnover of pizza dough  stuffed with this and that).

– Bacco Trattoria and Mozzarella Bar – including a quartet of house-made and imported cheese including the cheese-of-the-moment: burrata (made with mozzarella and cream so it’s soft like butta. (Burrata means buttered in Italian.) Delicious but likely to upset my sensitive Jewish stomach.

– I Love to Grow, a garden center with a “hippie-vibe.”

– Absolute Vinyl Records & Stereo – real LPs featuring somewhat obscure music (Pre-World War II jazz anyone?)

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December 15, 2010 · 12:24 am

Urban Plains – “lifestyles of the flyover states”

For ideas of things to do and places to see and eat in the Midwest, check out Urban Plains, the new all-digital lifestyle magazine put out by Drake University’s senior magazine majors.It appears to be primarily about Chicago and the Twin Cities hotspots from what I can tell from a quick browse (not so much Drake’s hometown of Des Moines.)  You can find it at /www.urbanplainsmag-digital.com/urbanplains.

And here’s a commercial on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baJwJ3E15AQ. (which to my surprise includes a shot of a well-known orthodox rabbi in Des Moines…)

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December 6, 2010 · 7:58 pm

Solving your “chip and PIN” debit/credit card problems abroad

A new product could make life – and a plastic charge card rather than cash – much easier for Americans traveling abroad. A currency exchange company called Travelex has begun selling a preloaded debit card that uses the “chip and PIN” technology (the card has an embedded microchip and a PIN number you have to use, like with a debit card) widely used in Europe – rather than the card common in the U.S. that has a magnetic stripe.

I ran into problems with my magnetic stripe credit card when I was in London a few years ago – a few places, especially those off the tourist beaten path, would not accept my card  because it didn’t have the chip and PIN and they didn’t have the machine needed to process my magnetic strip card. (Before this, I didn’t know I HAD a magnetic strip card.)  We also had some troubles in France with this – at gas stations and paying highway tolls at machines that only accept chip-and-PIN cards.

If I’m reading the NYTimes travel story from Dec. 5 about this correctly, the new Cash Passport smart cards will include both the magnetic stripe and the chip and PIN.  They’ll be sold initially at Travelex airport and retail locations and then early next year online. And they’ll be available in euros or pounds and can be used wherever MasterCard is used.  Word has it there’s no fee to buy or use the card from Travelex but some ATM operators abroad may charge fees.  All good but one question: Why don’t U.S. credit card companies adopt the chip-and-PIN technology which I gather better safeguards us if the card is stolen since people can’t use it without knowing the PIN?

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December 5, 2010 · 4:35 pm

Holiday gift idea: a downtown gift card

A few years ago, my dad – at my request – got me a great gift: a gift card I could use to shop in a emerging hip neighborhood of shops and restaurants in downtown Des Moines called the East Village. It was a handy way to shop local AND shop well.  Fielding a request for gift ideas for my son who is a freshman at Northwestern University, I just looked online at the City of Evanston site and found it too has a gift card that can be used for downtown shops. I’m guessing other communities have this too…so worth a look.  My Google search for “downtown gift card”  unearthed cards for downtowns all over – St. Louis, Cincinnati, State College, Pa., Long Beach, California…often this stuff is listed on website for city or local tourism or chamber office.

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December 4, 2010 · 7:45 pm

Old Crow Farm for rescued junk – in Central Iowa

Okay – so here’s the scoop on Old Crow Farm which I found out by trekking to Earlham Iowa today. The three-times-a-year sale that used to happen at the Old Crow Farm is no more I was told. Which was a bit disappointing. It’s been replaced by a soon-t0-be once-a-month sale at Old Crow Farm’s new in-town location, a former 1900’s hardware store that now goes by the name “Rescued Junk” and that’s just what was in there today during the grand opening. Place was packed with people – and there was cider and sweets to mark the occasion. The rescued junk was okay – not as much stuff as I expected, mostly salvaged metal furniture and knickknacks – old tool kits, stools, signs, the kind of old things that were lying around your grandma’s house for years, that need fixing up. The store will be open the next two weekends (Thursday-Saturday)  12/9-12/11 and 12/16-12/18

 

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December 3, 2010 · 10:31 pm

Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood

Flattering story about Andersonville in the Chicago Tribune today http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ct-ott-1203-neighborhood-watch-anders20101203,0,1959260.story…makes it truly seem like a small but not stifling town within a big city! Better yet,  Andersonville seems to have managed to produce a nice, not-always-easy mix of old-timers with their Swedish traditions and newcomers selling hip cutting-edge design, furniture and artwork….

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December 2, 2010 · 10:52 pm

off-beat culinary bike tours – Chicago

Just read (in my son’s Northwestern alumni mag) about a fun way to experience Chicago – by bike, visiting various food outposts.  A Northwestern Alum  opened Fork and the Road, which offers these tours – after a test run with a giro del gelato (you guessed it – a bike tour that braked at five gelaterias in the Windy City). From the website (www.forkandtheroad.com) it looks like the tours are over for the year.  Here’s hoping they start up again next spring. The 2010 tours’ themes included dumplings, international BBQ, and Mediterranean Cruise. (Don’t see mention of the gelato tour…)

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November 30, 2010 · 4:53 pm

West Village, “Eataly” and H&H

Just back from NYC with very clogged ear and stuffy nose after a cold developed just as I was getting on the plane home. Thought my ears were going to explode as we made the long descent onto a landing strip at the Milwaukee airport and bumpy connecting flight on a small plane to Des Moines didn’t help.

But hey, I’d do it all again because our NYC trip was so much fun. Yesterday L and I met my cousin J in the always charming West Village for lunch at Westville on 10th street (between 4th and Bleeker – I can never remember where it is and apparently there’s now a second one in Chelsea somewhere). Good food – fairly reasonable. Had fresh tomato basil soup and shared a plate of four vegetables (broccoli, snow peas, brussel sprouts and mushrooms all prepared so fresh, crisp with light seasoning.) Walked north to Eataly – the huge Italian market/restaurant recently opened on 23rd and 5th Avenue in the shadow of the Flatiron building. Pretty amazing place and if I wasn’t full from lunch and dragging a bit from my advancing cold, would have been tempted to eat a thing or two. Next time.

Met my brother briefly for coffee near Times Square where his office is – had a cappuccino at a too-loud Belgian place (frites looked good but waiter pissy when we just wanted coffee…hey it was 2:30 p.m.) called BXL Cafe (although awning says Duval) on 43rd. st.  Managed to squeeze in a quick stop at H&H bagels on the upper west side (broadway, 81st?) to get some of NYC’s finest to bring back to Iowa and this morning, was glad I did!

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