Sauces and flavorings from The New Mediterranean Table

I checked out Sameh Wadi's The New Mediterranean Table from the library, and it was OK, but I'm not going to make most of those dishes.  They sound great, and like something I would prefer to pay someone else to make for me. Wadi often cites Saffron, his restaurant in Minneapolis, and I plan to go there when I am visiting next year and tell you all about it.

What I do make again and again from this book are these sauces and spice mixture. They make so many dishes better, keep in the fridge for weeks, and they're really not that much of a pain to make.



Tahini Sauce: 1 cup tahini, 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 grated garlic cloves, 3/4 cup water, salt
Use it: as a dip for vegetables; watered down as dressing for a buddha bowl or salad; tossed with hot pasta and steamed broccoli with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.




Charmoula: 1/4 cup garlic cloves

1/4 lemon juice
sea salt
3 tablespoons cumin
3 tablespoons sweet smoked paprika
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 cup cilantro, finely chopped
1 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups canola oil
Make a paste of the garlic, lemon juice, and salt.  Stir in remaining ingredients. Will keep refrigerated for 1 month.
Use it: as a sauce over fish, grilled tofu steaks, or meat; drizzled over fresh sliced tomatoes before sprinkling with fresh mozarella in a variation on a Caprese salad, stirred into rice with slivered almonds, smeared onto eggplant slices before grilling or broiling.




Za'atar: 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons dried oregano, 1 tablespoon dried thyme, 1 tablespoon dried marjoram, 3 tablespoons ground sumac, 1 teaspoon salt
Use it: sprinkle on popcorn, hummus, guacamole, pureed white beans, or any other dip; over fish or chicken; stirred through quinoa with steamed vegetables.

Black Pepper Tofu and other Genius Recipes

The good folks at Food52 have come out with an in-print book, Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook. It's actually a compendium of other famous chefs' recipes throughout the ages (including Julia Child's lovely grated zucchini casserole and Marcella Hazan's weirdly boring tomato sauce with onions and butter). Notes from the editors at Food52 explain how and why the recipe works and include "kitchen hacks" like "you can cut the amount of butter if you want."  So really, they've done a great job of rounding up some excellent recipes and putting them in one place for us to use.  It's debatably ironic for a well-established food blog to be in the printed cookbook business at this point in the 21st Century, but I still enjoy the tactile sensation of flipping through it, at any rate. And the photos are very nice.

Two of my favorite recipes are pretty modern in origin, including one from fellow blogger Smitten Kitchen.  I have included my own substitutions (or "hacks", if we must). Buy the book if you want, or just subscribe to Food52's excellent blog. You really will learn new things.

Yotam Ottolenghi's delicious Black Pepper Tofu recipe

with these substitutions:

• just use 9 tablespoons of soy sauce, and add one more tablespoon of sugar
• I used four small serrano peppers because it's what I had
• I could not for the life of me crush my black pepper by hand--it just kept jumping out of the bowl. So I used a pepper grinder and did more like 3 tablespoons (to make up for the heat of the serranos)
• I used 6 green onions and about 2 cups of steamed broccoli

Another great recipe included is Debra Perlman's (Smitten Kitchen) Mushroom Bourguignon. I actually used a mix of white and shitake mushrooms, because it's what I had, and I definitely had to add some water to keep the gravy from being too pasty in the end.  I also added salt, because I apparently like it more than she does.  But it's a totally solid foundation for a recipe. 

Vegan cooking with the Shannons (+ recipe)

Dan and Annie Shannon must be the cutest damn couple.  They have kids and they're fun-loving, frugal vegans!  Nah, I shouldn't make fun--I wanted to like their book, Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking. They want to use (mostly) common ingredients, they want to be cheap (they even break down the cost per serving of making each dish), and they're open about ways to use leftovers.  What's not to like?  But many of the recipes are just bland, some measurements don't work (the lemon-tahini sauce turned out to be a gloppy mess of tahini with some things stuck in it), and they rely too heavily, IMHO, on meat replacements, which are ironically expensive, and totally unnecessary if you can just get past the mindset of needing a serving of meat on each plate. (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall offers a great restructuring of the common meal, for instance.)

But here's a version of a recipe I really liked (though I doubled the amount of pepper to give it some kick). This works great with some steamed veggies and cooked rice (you can actually use the leftover marinade, whisk in a little corn starch and chili-garlic sauce, and cook it up as a sauce for the veggies), but it's also a great snack by itself for cocktail hour with friends. The authors also suggest tucking the tofu into a sandwich, and if I did that, I think I'd make a bright little vinegary cole slaw to throw on top. 

Black Tea and Pepper Tofu

Adapted from Shannon, Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking

Serves 4

2 cups strong brewed black tea, room temperature (I like Russian Caravan for its smokiness)

2 tablespoons crushed black peppercorns, plus more to sprinkle on top

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 16-oz. package extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into squares or strips

¼ cup neutral oil (grapeseed, canola,…)

Lemon wedges, for serving

In a shallow dish, whisk together the tea, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, and soy sauce.

Pat tofu dry and place in the marinade (above). Leave for 10 minutes, then flip and marinade for another 5 minutes.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Working in batches, fry the tofu on both sides to golden. Drain pieces on a paper towel-lined plate.

Serve hot, seasoned with more pepper if desired and lemon wedges for squeezing over the top. 

Eating Dim Sum at Star Kitchen in Denver

Cantonese food can be kind of bland, but I love the adventure of eating it as dim sum for an early lunch. There are a few places in Denver that serve it--I've already reviewed Empress here--but I think Star Kitchen has the best variety, and the freshest fish, in Little Saigon (which seems to be as close as we come to a Chinatown here).

Dim sum is served here from 10:30am to 3pm.  If you go close to 3pm, it's still pretty tasty, but not so fresh, and the servers don't get to eat their's until you've gotten to try from all of the carts, so they tend to sort of rush you through and quit early in order to have their own meal.  It's best to go from opening til about 1pm, but if you can handle eating your sim sum as an early lunch before noon, it will be as hot and fresh as it's going to get. Traditionally, dim sum is enjoyed mid-morning over some mahjongg, I'm told, so you're just keeping it authentic.  Ish. 

Star Kitchen is the real deal, and the cavernous room feeds mostly Chinese and other Asian locals. I always take this as a good endorsement. The fish is well-prepared and seasoned, and there's a much bigger variety on the menu than other places in the area. Vegetables are not terribly popular as dim sum, but the Chinese broccoli here is beautifully steamed and served with a generous drizzle of homemade, super-salty oyster sauce; it's actually one of my favorite things here. 

Steamed BBQ pork buns are solid, and the dense, football-like fried pork dumplings are weirdly sweet and satisfyingly salty at the same time.  I also love the pan-fried leek dumplings, shrimp & cilantro dumplings, steamed meatballs, and fried fish balls. The sticky rice in lotus leaf is generously filled with sausage and ground pork and well-seasoned, and the fried sesame balls are a nice, relatively light dessert item.  But my favorite dish, pictured below, is the fried calamari.  As you can see, it was a huge pile of the battered, fried little guys along with quite a lot of fried jalapeno slices.  The batter itself is nicely salty and actually has a good deal of minced onion in it, so it's kind of like eating really good onion rings with calamari meat in the middle. 

There's something luxuriously appropriate about getting dim sum in the summer.  It's cool and dark inside, you're not in a rush to get anywhere, people keeping dragging carts towards you with all kinds of crazy things on little plates.  And you eat a little too much and are amazed by it all.  Why not?  The world is your oyster. 

Star Kitchen 

2917 W Mississippi Ave #5, Denver, CO 80219

(303) 936-0089

Monday - Friday: 10:30 - Midnight

Saturday - Sunday: 10:00 - Midnight

Clockwise from left: fried calamari with jalapenos,
Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce, and fried pork dumpling. 

Eating at The Kitchen in Fort Collins

I hate paying too much for chicken and mashed potatoes.  I hate the unnecessarily fancy service, the Pottery Barn atmosphere, the glass of wine that costs as much as the whole bottle, all of it.  And thus, I avoided visiting The Kitchen in Fort Collins for a long time.

This mini-empire was started in Boulder in the early 00s by Kimbal Musk, brother of the eccentric Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, among other things. The claim is that community is important to them, so they locally source what they can and also host "community hours" in which patrons are encouraged to sit with strangers and make new friends while eating.  I didn't do that. I just ate with my friend who is not strange.  I also saw a whole lot of non-local elements on the menu, like the oysters (not of the Rocky Mountain variety) and octopus, for instance.

But I soldiered on.  After all, although a glance at the website invokes South Park-like images of Prius drivers enjoying the smell of their own farts, I didn't get any of that feeling when seated by my earnest, perky hostess or served by my down-to-Earth, keepin'-it-real-y'all waitress. The hardwood floors and spare furniture were also stunning.

I ordered a glass of sparkling cab franc because, what the hell? That exists? It does, and you should get it.  Because when a glass of Kitchen White is $8 (I had just paid $9 for the entire bottle down the street at Wilbur's Total Beverage an hour earlier), you might as well try something you can't find easily in stores.  It was dry, refreshing, and a bit mineral-iffic.  I loved it.

The garlic fries were pleasant, but nothing special, and they badly needed salt. The Hazel Dell Mushroom Risotto was rich and creamy, and the seasoning in the slightly brothy mushrooms running over the top of the rice like a deep, dark river was just perfect. The Roasted Cauliflower with charred spring onions, beluga lentil puree, pickled radishes and breadcrumbs was kind of amazing.  The lentils really made the meal--super garlicky, creamy and comforting, and well-salted, they formed the base of the dish.  The cauliflower was well browned but seemed not to be seasoned at all, so it was important to always smear it around in the lentils.  The spring onions were so vivid there must have been some vinegar involved, and the bread crumbs were buttery, evenly toasted, and made from some beautiful, many-seeded bread.

There was, indeed, chicken and mashed potatoes (with lemon sauce), but it was moist and divine.

The food at The Kitchen is definitely elevated comfort food; I'm not sure how "New" it is, though the ingredients are definitely "American".  Head chef Joel Ryan seems to display a fair amount of French influence in his flavors, making the dishes I tried in no way challenging or surprising, but certainly homey and fun to eat. Classical proportion and subtlety are in here; bold flavors and creative combinations are not.

Will I go back? Probably not. But I've got some new ideas about how to cook what's already in my kitchen when I'm not feeling adventurous, and I had a really nice time last night.  So there.

How do I love thee? Let me blah blah blah...

Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks fame

I love sharing brilliant blog posts from all over in the hopes that you will be as inspired as I am by some of the creative, intelligent ideas in food floating around out there.  Some blogs have become staple references for me because their writers just seem to hit the bullseye repeatedly. Today, I'd like to give a shout-out to one of the blogs I've been reading for years, 101 Cookbooks. Food photographer and excellent cook Heidi Swanson blogs from San Francisco about healthy vegetarian meals, often creatively adapted from others' recipes, accompanied by her ethereal, absolutely beautiful photos. I think of her as the Sophia Coppola of food blogs.  She's one of the first places I go when I come home from the store (or inside from the garden) with a piece of produce and no plan for preparing it.  Witness my two latest quandaries, the lacinato kale I brought home and then decided I could not stand one more raw kale salad with pecans and raisins, and the head of cauliflower I always have to dress up in order to get it eaten in my house:

KALE

Kale Rice Bowl It's like a beautiful ramen bowl but with rice, and Middle Eastern sauce and seasonings! This is what Swanson does best, I think: mixes and matches different international traditions with ease.  And you can prepare most of the ingredients ahead of time and just build the thing when you come home starving and read to give in to to the Doritos in the pantry. Note to self: stop buying Doritos.

Kale Market Salad OK, it's a salad again, but this dressing is a real keeper for any kind of salad, and the addition of the farro makes this a worthy meal instead of merely another mouthful of raw, scratchy greens.

CAULIFLOWER

Spicy Cauliflower with Sesame This works well as a side dish, but it's also delicious tossed some some slippery, still-hot udon and an extra splash of rice vinegar for a lovely lunch.

Black Pepper Cauliflower Salad  I could mention here that I am now too old to digest raw cauliflower.  Go ahead and make a horrified face, you Millennials, you'll get there someday, too.  This recipe is the best of both worlds: a vibrantly flavored salad, cooked enough that I am not doubled over in pain all night.  And with that bit of too much information, I bid you adieu for the weekend...

A poignant essay against the selfie stick

Is the Selfie Stick already over? Perhaps when Walmart is selling them, the trend is dying.  Then again, maybe the next wave of annoying tourist is merely upon us.



This beautifully worded essay from New York Times, although slightly dated, is about more than just the ridiculousness of the selfie stick.  It's about how we capture memories, and why we embark upon the adventures that create them in the first place.  Are weirdly angled snaps of us photobombing national monuments the best way to remember what it felt like to be there, or just good fodder for showing off in our created Facebook lives?  Does a blog (like this one) do a better job of capturing the temporary community you make with the people around you, the sights, the smells, the zeitgeist of a place, or are you just "living" out loud for an audience?

  

Springy links for the weekend!

It's not quite spring yet, but in most parts of the country, it really feels like it! I don't care if it snows three feet tomorrow, today I am going to make the most of this.

DRINK

When is there a better time to dust off your tiki bar cocktail mixing skills than right now? Rated R Cocktails is campy, fun, and has great recipes. (Ahem...the R is rum.  Get your minds out of the gutters!)

It may not be a recipe blog, but I love a good story, and Tell the Bartender is my favorite house-cleaning companion on Saturday mornings.  Give it a listen.

FOOD

Heidi Swanson's blog, 101 Cookbooks, is always delicious, beautiful, and inspiring.  But her Cali-style cooking just seems especially compelling this time of year.

Isn't this Easter bunny cake from The Cake Blog gorgeous? I am too lazy to make it, but I enjoy looking at the nice photos.

TRAVEL

Interested in eating and drinking in the Denver area?  5280 magazine just came out with their annual "best new restaurants" issue with some great-sounding suggestions.  And if you're headed there, see what museums are free to complete the trip.

(PS--If you really want to get serious about plunging into a springy environment, check out my post on weekend getaways from earlier this month.)

An homage to ever-practical food trends, with links

I always enjoy reading about the upcoming year's food trends because they're so funny.  Not only are they often a forced attempt to push food that no one is eating, it's just a ridiculous January ritual that takes itself way too seriously.  But of course, you do have this ritual to thank for bacon-sprinkled EVERYTHING and all those pins for avocado toast cropping up every other day on Pinterest.  Perhaps this will be the year of celery...

Here's what some of the real predictions are for 2015...

Cauliflower rice?!  Really--try this recipe.  It is actually delicious.

Kimchi.  Brilliant.  Try my recipe for kimchi hash or my reimagining of Roy Choi's kimchi quesadillas. And make your own fermented treat with Vegetarian Times' easy recipe.




Foraging.  I love this, as I have many weeds in my yard every summer, and some of them might be edible. My favorite discovery has been wild purslane, which looks like this:

And the leaves are actually really lemony and refreshing.  Learn all about it here.


Ramen.  Well, then I guess Denver is way ahead of the curve.


Milling your own grain.  Now there we go.  That is satisfyingly douchey.


Goat meat.  I got nothin' for that one. But please enjoy this video and don't eat nice, cute goats. They can't be that delicious.

Best Cookbooks of 2014

In my humble opinion, these cookbooks were worth buying in 2014.  My criteria were:

1) I wanted to copy over 60% of the recipes in the book for regular future use

2) Most recipes did not require trumped-up bullshit ingredients that I have to special order from Tunisia, etc.

3) Recipes were strong on flavor, moderate-to-low on time and effort (because I do have other things to accomplish during the day besides make one freaking meal)

4) Swear words.  Only one cookbook fit this category, but it was pretty fun.

The Kitchn Cookbook: Recipes. Kitchens and Tips to Inspire Your Cooking, by Sara Kate Gillingham and Faith Durand





America Farm to Table: Simple, Delicious Recipes Celebrating Local Farmers, by Mario Batali and Jim Webster

Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes, by Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck 

by Thug Kitchen

Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food by Jody Williams

Gifts for the traveler in your life

Whether you travel by car, plane, or train (ah, but who does that in this country? Stupid lack of public transportation *shaking tiny fist*), sometimes being on the road is just a little uncomfortable.  Or maybe it's just a good excuse to use cool gadgets.  I hate large and/or overpriced things, but I would be totally into receiving any one of the following for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus...


Electronics

Audio-Technica QuietPoint Active Noise-Cancelling In-Ear Headphones I don't like flying near kids. Unfortunately, everyone has kids. These ear buds successfully quiet them while providing pretty good sound quality for your music or audio book, and they even come with a nifty volume control slide built into the wire for easy access. 

The Branch Earphone Splitter allows up to three people to listen to the same music, audio book, or movie at once.  It's cheap, tiny, and keeps you from drifting off into the crappy movies you pay for on the plane out of sheer desperation. 

Not sure if your bag is overweight? Use the tiny portable Heys Touch Scale to find out. It's also fun to strap your cat up and see how much he's weighing these days, along with any inanimate objects that fit easily on to the hook...

Tired of holding up your phone and/or asking random strangers to take your picture?  Don't get a stupid selfie stick--get the Keizus Quadropod + Clamp.  The photo on eBay shows a smart phone ever-so-smartly wrapped around a tree for some reason, but I think it would be nice to just stop holding my phone in my cramped hands when reading on long trips. 

Sleep phones are a dorky looking (but very soft and plushy) headband with a wireless, bluetooth-enabled set of headphones inside.  Having trouble getting to sleep in your weird-ass Motel 6? Turn on a podcast about the Senates's performance or the Supreme Court's terrible decisions, crank up the sleep phones, and you'll be snoring in no time.

Ultra-Compact External Battery Charger for SmartPhones and Other Portable Devices This nifty little guy is the size of a tube of chapstick and is one of the cheaper options on the market. 

Hygiene

La Fresh Travel Wipes, because after you've been in the car for fourteen hours, it's nice if your family doesn't have to smell your truly rotten self right away.  Come to think of it, these antiperspirant wipes, too. And sunscreen wipes. Yeah!

Not Your Mother's Girl Powder Volumizing Hair Powder sops up the grease when you can't get to a sink with some proper shampoo, and it comes in a travel-friendly, non-aerosol application (we're OK with powder on airplanes these days, right?)

  

Scrubba, the world's first pocket-sized washing machine! After a few days, and particularly if you are trying to pack light, you need more than your hands in the hotel sink to get some of your stuff clean. Click on the link for a cute demo video. 

Tide To Go Mini Instant Stain Remover because sometimes you eat spaghetti while wearing a white shirt, or any number of foibles that happen both close to and far from home.  I keep these in every bag I ever use when I walk out the door. 

Luggage

eBags Pack-it-Flat Toiletry Kit has lots of compartments so you won't spend five minutes digging around for your floss after a long night, and it really does pack about as close to flat as you can get.

Eagle Creek Pack-It Folder allows you to make your clothes as flat as they can possibly be (I promise it's even better than rolling), and even a blazer comes out looking relatively wearable. 

Travel Guide: Denver's Art District on Santa Fe

Thanksgiving has passed, and shopping insanity has begun.  I implore you to shop locally wherever you are this year for Black Friday, and whenever you happen to be in Denver next, consider visiting the super-cool Art District on Santa Fe. It's a neighborhood with over 60 galleries, restaurants and shops located just a few blocks from downtown Denver, Colorado, and several of the gallery spaces also host casual, integrative performances like the ones we used to do with Telling Stories (R.I.P).

Location: Just East of I-25 and South of US-287, straddling 6th Avenue up and down Santa Fe Drive (hence the name). There's a great interactive map to help you get around.

Favorite galleries: Ugh, there are so many.  A good sampling might include Denver Photo Gallery, Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Art, Consortium 861, VERTIGO, Kashi Kari Gallery, and Bhar Art Gallery, which has free poetry and tea every first Wednesday from 8-10pm.

Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative Arts is an Art Deco lover's dream.

Other cultural good stuff here: Colorado Ballet, Stories on Stage, Spark Theater, and the improbable Awaken: Gymnastics-Inspired Fitness, among others.

Drink and Food: Black Sky Brewery, El Noa Noa Mexican Restaurant, iSushi, mmm...COFFEE!, and Renegade Brewing. Yes to all of these.

Events to plan for: First Friday Art Walk, held every first Friday of the month; Preview Night, a more intimate gathering in the galleries held every third Friday of the month. And of course, check the calendar before you go for specific events.

Inspirations, with links

I may not do the Facebook thing, where I post what I'm grateful for every day until everyone I know and love unfriends me, but I'm plenty grateful. As a writer, blogger, musician, and teacher, I am graced by the presence of many people every day who are kind, generous, thoughtful, hard-working, intelligent, talented, humble...anyway, I know a lot of super cool people. And they are all inspirations to me in one way or another (and often, in many ways!): the flutist who develops new techniques for playing and general wellness after suffering from debilitating injuries; the teacher who insists on creating a nurturing environment in his studio despite the harshness of the "real world" out there; the colleagues who so generously share their advice on getting gigs and taking care of finances; the students who work so damn hard every day and always believe me when I tell them what to do; and even the random fellow blogger who logs on and gives me the thumbs up for a recipe post or restaurant review now and again.

This weekend, I'm celebrating all my professional and social (Platonic) crushes and exploring the great life lessons I can cull from their work.

Heidi Swanson talks about maintaining her blog thoughtfully over the last 12 years on 101 cookbooks. I don't care if you never blog, this poetic essay about deliberately and devotedly practicing your craft should make us all want to be better people.  (It is also great advice for bloggers, BTW.)

When I am home working all day on multiple projects, my head can start to spin.  I'm glad I'm not the only one.  I've been trying to incorporate the Pomodoro Technique into my life, and it's really helping. It's also nice to get online and see how many other people are struggling with the same stupid thing as me--staying focused!

Bullet Proof Musician may sound like a highly specialized blog for music geeks, but with posts about dealing with sleep deprivation, public speaking skills, work-life balance, and performance anxiety, I think Dr. Noa Kageyama is being truly generous in sharing his research, experience, and practical advice with the world to help us all just calm the hell down and enjoy our work.

I've really been digging my new Thug Kitchen cookbook, and their blog is a great place to share and appreciate others' recipes, as well.  I will admit that the insistence on using as many swear words as possible per recipe gets a little tiresome (really guys, we already think you're cool as shit), but the mission to create super delish, easy recipes from vegan ingredients while schooling readers on issues like environmental waste and world hunger is truly awesome.

Serious Eats is such a great food blog.  I learn all kinds of things from it. And maybe this shouldn't go into the "inspirations" category, but I sure do appreciate their article about how to buy affordable Scotch that's worth drinking.  Because I still don't know what I'm doing in that aisle of the liquor store.

Also Scotch eggs.  I love Scotch eggs. 

Eating in unlikely places

In the spirit of open-mindedness, we all try some things we probably shouldn't: street food in a town with no street food tradition, a city-wide festival in the summer heat with weak refrigeration units, or maybe a sushi restaurant in small-town Wyoming.  But you know what? I still think it's worth it.  So here's to all the adventures we embark upon in the name of food exploration and faith (albeit misplaced at times) in local foodies everywhere.

Crappy Crepes in Fort Collins

Cultivating a dislike for celebrity chefs

Eating Italian in a Cow Town (hint: don't)

Everyone's Favorite Hot Dog and Doughnut Themed Restaurant

Getting a little too fancy with eggplant

But there is such a thing as a Guide to Edible Airport Food

The Illusive Search for Pie

Looking for a Sidewalk in the O.C.

The Misery of Shirataki Noodles

Ode to the Horseshoe Sandwich

Sometimes Beer Just Isn't Enough


And from elsewhere on the web...

Why that last food festival you attending wasn't so satisfying

And believe it or not, The broadening experience of eating at Epcot

Downtown Chicago in 48 hours

I just got back from an inspiring National Flute Association convention, where I joined a new music commissioning consortium, played some tunes, and got up close and personal with one of the craziest ensembles I've had the privilege of seeing perform.  This all happened in the swanky (and uber-expensive) Hilton Chicago, so of course, I didn't get out of the building much, but I managed to spy a few deals and steal a quick, satisfying moment here and there to enjoy the lake breeze.  If you're headed there in the future, there are a few spots I can recommend:





It's pricey staying downtown, no matter what you do.  But for a much lower price you can get a private room in Hostelling International's downtown location that comes with a free breakfast, too!  The facility is very conveniently located, clean, friendly, and well-secured at night.

Next door, stuff your face with beautiful pressed sandwiches, homemade soups, and Cuban-style coffee for prices you usually only find in the outer 'burbs at Cafecito. I went twice: once for the traditional Cubano (roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, and pickles), and again for the Chimichurri (steak, tomato, and super-garlicky chimichurri sauce).  The grilled cheese with guava was awfully tempting, though...








Want to pig out on delicious eggs?  Go to Yolk (which I reviewed a couple of years ago.)

Booze is expensive in fancy hotels. Gino's East South Loop has deep dish pizza, if you eat that crap, but they also have a great list of local beers, something I never thought I'd see catch on when I was growing up in Chicagoland in the 80s.  So, go here, because you know someone you're with is going to want to eat that ridiculous pizza-casserole. Then you can walk a few blocks towards the lake and hear some great bands at Buddy Guy's Legends.  It's a little touristy, but the music is legit.

If you are in no hurry (really, the service is terrible), stop by the old crusty Artist's Cafe across the street from the Art Institute museum and school.  The cappuccino is the best, and the decor is old-school Chicago:

Touristy stuff to do along Lake Michigan, in no particular order: visit Millenium Park and gawk at the weird interactive art, stare at the giant metal bean, and run through the fountains; go to the Art Institute, for goodness' sake!; rent city bikes and ride along Lake Michigan; visit the museum campus, which includes the Shedd Acquarium, Adler Planitarium, and The Field Museum; go to a Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert; visit the amazingly beautiful public library at State Street and Congress; shop for stuff on State Street; people watch in Grant Park (and on summer mornings, hear the Grant Park Symphony rehearse for free); visit the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Michigan and Harrison; take advantage of public transportation as often as you can, because it will take you anywhere you need to go!

This is all within walking distance, basically up and down Michigan Avenue and thereabouts, but you can see it all on a map here. 

Western Wyoming sights, and my favorite travel links

Water rushing into the sink at Sinks Canyon State Park. 

Last weekend I spent three blissful days travelling around near-Western Wyoming. What I learned:

Casper has a new(ish) Vietnamese place called Pho Saigon, and it is delicious.  It's in a grubby little strip mall area in the middle of town and has that characteristic Asian immigrant restaurant look to it (so, not pretty inside), but the food is great, the portions are huge, and you will definitely not need another meal for at least 12 hours.  I got Bun Cha Gio (egg roll, vermicelli, vegetables, lime, chili, and fish sauce).  I thought I would explode.


Wonder Bar (also in Casper) is home of Wyoming State Brewery and has a great statewide tap takeover going on right now.  $5 gets you three 6 oz. samples of any Wyoming brew you want to try, which is a mad deal.  I loved Black Tooth Saddle Bronc Brown the most, but everything was worth drinking. (The current taps are to the left, and this menu was printed on the back of some recycled financial document.)


The only place to get shakes in Shoshoni now is at Fat Boy's.  You can't miss it, because I think it's the only restaurant open. I got a small chocolate marshmallow with extra malt and I still can't stop thinking about it.

Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis can be completely free.  There is no entrance fee and the public pool, kept at a cozy 104 degrees, is free and unbelievably clean.  There are long hikes, short hikes, a bison viewing area, and a walk along the river.  I can't believe you could live in Thermopolis and this would be your city park. Here's a little photo I took of the trailhead of my morning hike on the outskirts of the park:

Jason has finally found his true home in Thermopolis.

Sinks Canyon State Park in Lander is also free and offers two long (4- and 6-mile) hikes along with a lot of gawking near water.  It is also a geologist's dream, so if you like rocks and stuff, you should go.

The Sink of Sinks Canyon State Park

NOLS is in Lander, too, and they'll rent you a room for $15/day if classes are not in session.  Last weekend classes were in session, and it was a no-go.  We didn't call ahead, but you could.  It was OK, though, because Lander Brewing Company was within walking distance to console us. Adjacent Gannett Grill has great burgers for lunch.


I found a couple of apps particularly useful on the road:

Gas Buddy locates all nearby gas stations with current prices so you can be as cheap as you want to be.

Hotels.com has an app that connects to your account to credit you nights toward a free stay when you spot a place and want to book it without missing out on the deal. And their prices are often lower.

And for your longer-term planning:

Smart Travel has great guides and tips, and I find this poster of classic American road trips so inspiring.  I want to do one every summer!

 

Venturing into Saratoga…

Saratoga, Wyoming is not a large town, and it doesn’t offer much.  But because it is in a quaint mountain setting, there are a couple of nice places to eat, some local beer to drink, and of course, some excellent examples of taxidermy in the local grocery store.  More on that later.

It’s easy to fill the day with work back at the artists’ camp, but eventually, we are all slowly making time to explore Saratoga, like the mental patients being brought into town for a field trip to experience normal life and test our social boundaries. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it is weirdly diverse and fast-paced in town compared to the ranch. And it’s not actually at all diverse or fast-paced in town, if you get my drift.  If you happen to find yourself passing through (or visiting), which many people do here in Southern Wyoming, here are my recommendations:

Saratoga Hot Springs: A couple of the expensive hotels in town have their own private hot tubs, but the public pool (charmingly called the Hobo Pool) is friendly, unassuming, and free.  And it’s right off the main road.

Bella’s Bistro Italian Restaurant is delicious, and the service is very friendly (although they definitely run on mountain time, like everywhere).  It's also a pretty tiny place, so if you're going during normal meal times with more than one other person, call ahead for reservations.

Snowy Mountain Brewery at Saratoga Resort and Spa: The beer is good, the accommodations are beautiful, and they make a lot of different brews.  Right now, my favorites on tap are the Indian Rye IPA, Macadamia Nut Brown Ale, and Dirty Blond, which is a light blonde with honey and coffee in it.

Saratoga IGA: I wasn’t kidding--do your grocery shopping in high mountain style surrounded by a stuffed black bear and mounted elk (multiple), moose, and more.  The owner either has a sense of humor or he has never visited other towns to see how unsettling this is.  I particularly appreciate the increased number of fine mounted specimen near the butcher’s area in the store.

Beaver Liquor: You can buy liquor here.  And take your photo with the sign.