Beach or Desert?

So if you had the chance, where would you go? To the beach or to the desert?

A friend recently asked me some questions about Antigua, my beautiful island homeland :) While doing a quick search for her, I noticed that this fall, before Christmas, you can totally find some deals. I found a great sale at a very small hotel (just the way I like it) for a nice price (Check it out!). Alas, we are supposedly going here in a few weeks:

(source)

Yep, the Grand Canyon!

I know that I haven't talked about it much, but that's because I've barely thought about it. Perhaps this is my bias against domestic travel (or maybe it's 'cause I'm not outdoorsy), but I have to remind myself that I am going there in a few weeks. I think it's also extra hard to get excited because Husband J's job has been pretty busy lately, which is kinda hysterical because the main reason he even thought that we should go out there was to merge our trip with a WORK conference he has in the Phoenix area. He may not even be able to go to the conference, and the trip may not even happen!

Anyhoo, researching Antigua made me miss the island and my family. I have not been back in a few years and that makes me sad. I think I piqued Husband J's interest though with the prices we'd get for accommodations (although the flights are not too hot. Boo!!). Wouldn't you want to be here for Thanksgiving?

My cousin, who lived in the US for awhile and moved back to Antigua, makes Thanksgiving dinner now anyway. He even watches the Thanksgiving Day Parade! It would be like being here in NYC (except way better weather, accents and fruit). :) Maybe I'm thinking this way because I should technically be hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I'm scared that I've never made a turkey. Maybe I'm punkin' out?

I doubt we'll cancel the Grand Canyon trip and go to Antigua instead. Why can't we just do both? Why can't I be independently wealthy? Sigh.... (By the way, feel free to give me the side eye for any of this "complaining.")

Anyway, I know that not everyone likes the beach, and I do know that I have got some readers who are avid campers. Would you prefer a long weekend in the Caribbean on a beach or a long weekend seeing one of the greatest natural wonders in the world?

Weigh in in the comments section!

Woo hoo! Amazing Race Preview

I just spotted this. One of my favorite travel shows, The Amazing Race, is starting up soon (September 26 to be exact), and I am happy to have it back on TV. I love to see where the contestants land (pun intended) at each stop. I wonder if they truly get to enjoy the countries they visit. Hmmm...

Can't wait for the first pit stop!

33

Technically, the tagline of this blog is "Exploring Food, Continents & Life." I don't really delve into the life part too much. For someone who blogs, I am a relatively private person.

Well, today I am going to try to open up a little bit, and let you know a little more about me. One thing that I should mention is that today is my birthday. Yes, that's right. I'm getting OLD. I'm going back and forth about how I feel about my birthday since I am definitely starting to see the numbers creep higher and higher. When someone shows you a picture of themselves in 1993, and they're in a baby carrier, and you clearly remember 1993 as your sohpmore year of high school; then yes, you start to feel old. Luckily, Husband J is older than me, so I feel a little better. :)

I thought I would reveal a little about myself by listing some of the things that I wanted to do for myself this year. I found out about cool lists like these from my blogger friends. Often these are 101 things to do 1,001 days. Some of my blogging friends like Brooke over at Claremont Road; the lovely Liz over at E. Louise; or Amy at The Nifty Foodie (who has a great food blog by the way; her recipes and food porn are great!) all have 101 in 1,001 days lists. Another blogger friend, Nodakademic, has recently made one with her 30th birthday as the deadline. Alas, my 30th birthday has come and gone quite awhile ago, so I am just going to focus on this year.

I thought I would be a little bit ambitious and do 33 things in my 33rd year. Yes. I am THAT old.

I think I look pretty good for my age (except for the Crow's Feet, of course).

I make yearly goals the beginning of each year, but those are the more heady things for like finances, spirituality, etc. This will be fun stuff, so please excuse the fluff. I do have serious goals too. :)

33 Things in my 33rd Year

Travel

1. Go the to the TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange) Conference in Vancouver in June 2011. Let's see if I can even get tickets to this. I think I missed the latest round of tickets sales.

2. Go to India and/or Southeast Asia (preferably a trip around Vietnam, Thailand & Cambodia all at one time)- If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I am currently obsessed with these areas of the world. I also want to go to these places because I am slowly realizing that certain future life changes will not make it easy to travel any and everywhere I want. By the way, when I mentioned this, Husband J said, "Didn't you just go to Southeast Asia?" UMMM...SO WHAT? Geesh, Husband J. Get with the program. ;)

3. Go to Egypt with Husband J. This actually might happen. Stay tuned....

Food

4. Shop at a farmer's market 2x per month - This should be interesting 'cause I find the farmer's market to be more expensive, but I really want to switch to local, seasonal produce as much as I can.

5. Master a cookie, cake and pie recipe - I am intimidated by my Kitchen Aid mixer. 'Nuff said.

6. Learn how to make many of the Antiguan dishes that I should know how to make by now. This embarasses me that I don't know how to make many of the dishes from Antigua that my Mom made for me growing up. I should do this not only for myself but my future children. What kind of dishes am I talking about? See below. By the way, I chuckle at the TGI Friday's Caribbean menu.

Clockwise: Fungee (boiled cornmeal with okra), codfish/saltfish (what the rest of the world calls bacalao), spinach, troba (sauteed eggplant), okra

Blogging

7. Get a professional (even if just professional looking) head shot for this blog.

8. Increase traffic to this site up to __ visit per day. I know how many visits, I'd be happy with.

Health

9. Run (well really jog) on a treadmill at least once per week.

10. Complete a 5K race. I'm not doing Couch to 5k. I've just recently gotten over my fear of the treadmill (Yes, people like me exist). I've just essentially started running on the treadmill, and so far Husband J and I have been running/jogging once per week as well. So far I can go about 20 minutes at okay pace. I'd like to extend my running time and increase speed. Husband J thinks we should do a 5k this fall, but I doubt I will be ready.

11. Do a 5 day fast again. I've done it before, and I am hoping to do a good job transitioning in and out of the fasting period. I did the Blueprint Cleanse, which I liked quite a bit. No thought required.

12. Take vitamins 3-4x per week. I have a really hard time taking vitamins, which is why I didn't say everyday because I know that's not happening. The bottle could be right in front of me, and I STILL ignore it. No joke. Any recs for how to get better at this?

13. Take a Yoga class 4x per month. I'm not interested in becoming a big time yoga person, but I would like to increase my flexibility.

Beauty

14. Get better at taking care of my hair, i.e. more hair treatments weekly or bi-weekly, etc. Good background on my hair.

15. Get a facial from someone who knows something about people with melanin. I'm thinking about Mamie's Skin Care Center. Angela Bassett and Queen Latifah have been there, so it can't be all that bad.

16.

Learn how to put on makeup. I'm a makeup dunce. Plain and simple. At my age that's not so good. I barely wear anything on my face, but sometimes it would be nice to wear something for special occasions or just 'cause I want to.

Artsy Fun

17. Take a dance class once per week for 30 weeks. I danced for many years, and I miss it.

18. Read an actual BOOK (NOT a magazine OR blog) one hour per night at least 5 nights per week.

19. Go to an art museum or gallery once per month (and get rid of my fear of art galleries). For some reason, private NYC galleries intimidate me. I need to get over it.

20. Go to 5 museums that I've never been to before. We've got so many museums here in NYC: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Museum of American Finance, the Rubin Museum of Art, the Museum of Sex (hey, it's real!), and there's tons more! I've never been to any of these listed, and there are several more I'd like to see.

21. Learn to knit.

22. Go to 4 dance performances. I danced when I was younger. I enjoy going to see modern dance mostly, but I have not really gone in the past few years.

Relating to others

23. Volunteer somehow somewhere. Volunteering has been a part of my life in the past, but the past several years I haven't done anything. I'd like to change that.

24. Call or see Goddaughter at least once per month. She started her first day of high school today!! ACK!!

25. Get involved in a young professionals group for an industry that interests me.

26. Serve actively on advisory board for the cafe/community center project in Buffalo, NY. A friend is working on a great new project in Buffalo, NY. I'll hopefully be helping with their food related portions of the project and their online presence.

Random

27. Learn video/movie editing on my new computer (coming February hopefully).

28. Finish training for Project X. Training for something that may or may not pan out into something new career-wise.

29. Make 10 Ipod playlists that I actually like (random indeed)

30. Write 5 and 10 year goals.

31. Find way to reuse or recycle the books on my bookshelf. I've been using Paperback Swap, but maybe something more proactive perhaps?

32. Buy a purse that's not $25, bought on the street and will last more than a few months.

33. Play mas during carnival in Antigua. This may be some of the last moments in my life where I have a body to wear something like this:

(source)

Okay, you have to promise not to tell my Mom. She'll freak :)

So what do you think? Ambitious, isn't it? I think some of these will be manageable while others, who knows?! At the very least, I have some fun things to strive for this year.

Have you written any fun or serious goals lately? What's your favorite one?

Food Porn Friday (Early!) - Colicchio & Sons

I know it's not Friday, but I enjoyed just looking at the pictures for this post, so I figured I'd just post it now.

Anyway, I don't like it when friends move away. While I am very excited for my friend, E, who is moving to Washington, DC, I will miss our afternoon outings. We had our own private goodbye lunch, and she indulged me by agreeing to go to Colicchio & Sons. Yes, y'all that Colicchio.

(source)

Congratulations on the Emmy, Tom!

I had heard that he'd opened a somewhat newer restaurant (Colicchio & Sons was formerly CraftSteak) and wanted to see how it would stack up to his other restaurants like Craft & CraftBar. Sam Sifton of the New York Times liked it, so would we?

Lunch at C & Sons is a three course pre-fixe and offered in the front tap room (the main dining room is in the back). I like the space.

To start, I had the:

Romaine with Anchovy Vinaigrette Parmesan & Fried Egg

I loved that this was extremely savory and light all at the same time. I'm beginning to like anchovies.

E had:

Watermelon with Cucumber, Arugula, Mint & Jalepeno-Lime Vinaigrette

Perfectly refreshing for the heat wave we were having that week.

For my my main dish, I had:

Pan-Seared Skate Wing with Zucchini-Potato Pancake and Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette

I was thoroughly in love with the refreshing lemon vinaigrette, and the skate wing was cooked perfectly. I liked its crispy skin. The biggest surprised were the fresh herbs (thyme and chives, I think, please correct me). I would love to make preserved lemon vinaigrette. I have some preserved lemon at home that I'd like to finish off. Anyone know a good recipe source for something like this?

E had:

BLT with Pork Belly, Romaine, Heirloom Tomato & Lemon Aoli

THIS is a sandwich. It was huge, but E said it was quite good.

Finally, the most important course...dessert!

For me:

Peach Tatin with Cream Cheese Ice Cream

Loved this!! I knew that peaches would be out of season soon, so it was important to have this now. SOOO good.

E had the:

Raspberry Shortcake Lemon Creme & Thyme Sorbet

Overall a great meal! I would definitely go back to Colicchio & Sons.

If any of you DC area folks have any restaurant recs for E, please definitely let me know in the comments.

I'll miss you, E!

Oh Mario! A Quick Visit to Eataly

Fans of food, Italy and Italian food have been abuzz this week. The Mario Batali-spearheaded superstore, eatery, meeting place, bookstore, wine shop, gelateria, etc., etc., aka Italian Food Heaven, Eataly, opened this week across the street from Madison Square Park (and Shake Shack) in Manhattan. I know you already know Mario Batali.

(source)

He's been on Top Chef multiple times, Iron Chef America, likes to film TV shows where he traipses across Spain with Gwenyth Paltrow and wears orange Crocs.

First of all, I know that many of you who live in places where your supermarkets are large and spread out are probably like, "What's the big deal?" Well, for us here in NYC, Eataly is a big deal. Why?

This is an approximately 50, 000 square feet SPECIALTY food store that only sells things from or about, or in the style of Italy. While probably not as big as a Walmart, for the middle of Manhattan, this is enormous. Whole Foods, this is not. If you want to find any food stuff from Italy or anything to help you cook any Italian cuisine, then you are going to have to come here at some point.

What's there?

A bookstore. Mario's books will be there too. Don't worry.

All kinds of Italian bottled water that you haven't heard of.

Handmade pasta. It's an Italian grocery store. Hello!

There's also lots of pasta that you might not have heard of. Have you heard of Ruote? I haven't. Don't front. You know you haven't as well. :)

Tajarin? Haven't heard of that one either, but I'm now interested in learning.

No shortage of bread

Lots of game. I'm glad to know that I know have a reliable source for rabbit (Sorry, Bugs).

Seafood. The seafood guy says that they're getting so much more stuff in the next few weeks. Might be a reason for another pass through.

An extremely important section, the chocolate...

Could you get through a big ol' slab of chocolate like this one?

This is not just a place to buy grocreies or books for your fabulous at home Italian meal, but it's also an opportunity to eat Italian food. While I did not eat here, there are small mini-restaurants emphasizing a certian ingredient or type of food whether it be fish, cheese, charcuterie, and, most importantly, pizza. People can eat here at La Piazza (pictured below) or at any of the sections devoted to that mini-restarant.

There's also a more high-end mini-restaurant with a wine emphasis lest we leave out the high rollers.

If you just want dessert, you can find that too. What CAN'T you find here?

Sigh...so in other words you can live here all day (I'm not sure if there is free wi-fi), and then buy stuff to make dinner at home. I'm still pretty much in awe. While I was there I walked right next to Joe Bastianich. You know who this guy is. He's the dude with the soul patch on Master Chef on Fox, BUT he's also a powerful restaurateur and, along with Mario Batali, has established a restaurant empire here in New York City. His mother, Lidia, is a legend herself.

Ooppss..I was about to forget the wine shop in part because I almost walked past it on the way out. New York State does not allow the sale of wine (or liquor) in grocery stores (you can buy beer. There's a section for that too...but of course!), so while attached to the main building, the wine shop has a separate entrance. I was still doing legislative work when the "wine in grocery stores" issue was up for consideration. It didn't pass this year either.

There are reasonably priced bottles here, so if you need something under $20, you can add this to your list of wine shops.

My only issue with Eataly would be prices. I remember this guy whispering to his friend, "Dude, this is $18." He was talking about a very small whole chicken (maybe it was squab?). I know we are used to high prices here in New York City, but I wonder if Eataly can keep us coming back for more imported Italian goodness in this economy and in the years to come.

Anyway, at least I have a place where I can get my pappardelle when I can't find it at Whole Foods.

Do you have any favorite local specialty shops?

Eataly

200 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York

Tourist In My Own Town - DUMBO & Brooklyn Bridge Park

Even though I've lived in New York City for about 20 non-consecutive years of my life, there are still places that I have never been or there are new places within the city that I am discovering or even rediscovering. With my Tourist in my Own Town posts, I'll take you to those places both old and new.

This past weekend, my brother-in-law (we'll call him BLT) and his wife, SLJ, came for a very short visit. I was just impressed that they made it because SLJ is going to be a Mommy sometime within the next month! I'm going to be an aunty!

Anyway, Husband J and I took them to one of my favorite areas in Brooklyn, the DUMBO/Fulton Ferry Landing area.

Fulton Ferry Landing is called so because for many years, until the Brooklyn Bridge was built in 1877, Brooklyn residents had to take the Fulton Ferry across the East River to Manhattan.

I love this view of the Brooklyn Bridge from Fulton Ferry Landing. It's kinda like iconic New York City for me.

You can also catch the NYC Water Taxi from here, a hop-on/hop-off ferry service.

The newest addition to this area is Brooklyn Bridge Park, a beautiful new city park that took years of governmental wrangling to finally get built. It's part of a large plan to revitalize Brooklyn's waterfront, and this park will be a major part of that development. The first portion of the park to be finished, Pier 1, opened earlier this year in late March. I have a spot in my heart for Pier 1 because the temporary park (built a year or two before this one) was where Husband J proposed to me. :)

I love that there are so many benches. You will not lack for a place to sit.

Slowly but surely, food and drink vendors are being added to the park. Right now, a wine bar is open. I also saw a cart from Calexico, a local Mexican restaurant/roaming food cart, in the park when we were there. Calexico was recently voted Best New Mexican Restaurant by Time Out NY.

We also ventured to the other side of the park. Just so you know, there is currently a lot of construction going on. Water Street, the street closest to the river, is a bit of a mess.

BLT and SLJ take a look at a sign explaining the significance of this area as part of the Battle of Long Island. Technically, Brooklyn is on the land mass that is Long Island, but we're still a part of NYC (For your safety, please don't tell anyone from Brooklyn that they are from Long Island...just sayin'.)

I joked with SLJ that this our northern Brooklyn version of a beach. There are beaches in Brooklyn in the south at Brighton Beach and Coney Island.

The most pleasant surprise of our little outing: THE FOOD! Of course...... ;)

In addition to restaurants in the DUMBO area, Fulton Ferry Landing has its own dining spots that are new for this summer or have been around a long time. We went to both.

New for this summer, the Red Hook Lobster Pound, has set up a nice area right on the dock to buy what they are calling the "Best Lobster Roll in New York City." The Red Hook Lobster Pound specializes in supplying New York City with the freshest Maine lobsters possible. They also have their own store in Red Hook, Brooklyn where they sell their lobster as well as have seating space during the warm weather for eating their lobster rolls and other food and drink. Apparently, they've got a Washington, DC outpost as well.

Husband J grew up in New England, spent his summers boating and that means a whole lotta time in Maine. He LOVES lobster rolls. It was HIS idea to try them.

The Red Hook Lobster Pound's tent area

Not a bad place to dine

Just in case you're wondering, the lobster rolls were close to perfect for me. Husband J was pretty impressed too. Large, succulent chunks of a lobster (not shredded lobster), just a hint of mayonaisse, well-seasoned on a buttered toasted bun. Sigh.....

We then went over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, a ice cream shop that's been around for awhile. Their claim to fame is using fresh ingredients and making ice cream the old-fashioned way.

Yes, it does look like a lighthouse. Michelle Obama got ice cream there earlier this year. If it's good enough for her...

I got peach ice cream. Less artifical flavors meant less powerful peach taste. Still good though. Odd looking pic, I know.

Who's that? ;)

BLT and SLJ got a coffee milkshakes. I promised I wouldn't put their faces on the blog. :) It's too late for Husband J. BLT said the milkshake was perfectly thick, and the coffee ice cream tasted like grounds. Perfect for a coffee drinker like him.

So that is our little outing to one of my favorite spots in Brooklyn.

Do you have a favorite spot in your city or town that you like to visit and/or show off to out-of-towners? Where?