Destination: Mexico City

12 days of christmas: camara… (2019)

– I remember the first time I met Gabriela Camara. My friends and I were standing on the sidewalk outside of her new restaurant Contramar in Mexico City.  The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and spirits were high. Yet Camara managed to outshine all of it with her colorful entrance. Mexican by birth, […]

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12 days of christmas: camara… (2019)

– I remember the first time I met Gabriela Camara. My friends and I were standing on the sidewalk outside of her new restaurant Contramar in Mexico City.  The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and spirits were high. Yet Camara managed to outshine all of it with her colorful entrance. Mexican by birth, […]

Continue

favorite desserts of 2017…

– Plums, ashen from the hearth, bleeding into gauzy muslin. Figs, syrupy and charred, nestled in a flakey frame. Saffron suspended in a milky cloud glinting with gold. And apricots, fleshy and warm, hugged in a doughy crust, with ice cream beside; a slice of the great American songbook. These are just a few of […]

Continue

favorite desserts of 2017…

– Plums, ashen from the hearth, bleeding into gauzy muslin. Figs, syrupy and charred, nestled in a flakey frame. Saffron suspended in a milky cloud glinting with gold. And apricots, fleshy and warm, hugged in a doughy crust, with ice cream beside; a slice of the great American songbook. These are just a few of […]

Continue

favorite dishes of 2017…

– I took the lessons I learned in 2016 and applied them to 2017. Staying close to familiar quarters, I continued to bet on sure winners.  They did not disappoint. And, although many of my travel destinations in 2017 were not chosen with great food in mind, I found some great food anyway. Let me […]

Continue

favorite dishes of 2017…

– I took the lessons I learned in 2016 and applied them to 2017. Staying close to familiar quarters, I continued to bet on sure winners.  They did not disappoint. And, although many of my travel destinations in 2017 were not chosen with great food in mind, I found some great food anyway. Let me […]

Continue

travel: an education… (2017)

– It has been over a dozen years since I started recording and reporting here.  Yet, despite my dwindling updates, I have not lost enthusiasm or eagerness for it. What little time I manage to devote to writing my blog remains exciting and important to me, because above all, it represents an incredible education. Since […]

Continue

travel: an education… (2017)

– It has been over a dozen years since I started recording and reporting here.  Yet, despite my dwindling updates, I have not lost enthusiasm or eagerness for it. What little time I manage to devote to writing my blog remains exciting and important to me, because above all, it represents an incredible education. Since […]

Continue

travel: less twerk, more cook…

– I have neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. In the months since my trip to Chicago in March (the last, substantive post on this blog), I have seen spring, summer, and autumn happening in fragments all over the Western Hemisphere, both above and below the equator. While I intend to write […]

Continue

travel: less twerk, more cook…

– I have neglected my blog. And I am sorry for it. In the months since my trip to Chicago in March (the last, substantive post on this blog), I have seen spring, summer, and autumn happening in fragments all over the Western Hemisphere, both above and below the equator. While I intend to write […]

Continue

review: telescope… (pujol)

– It’s a revisionist’s world these days, especially in the kitchen. To he (or she) who can retell the past anew, all glory and honor. Spain, of course, has not only updated its own culinary culture, but inspired a refacing of cuisines around the world. In the Distrito Federal, Enrique Olvera is leading the way […]

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review: telescope… (pujol)

– It’s a revisionist’s world these days, especially in the kitchen. To he (or she) who can retell the past anew, all glory and honor. Spain, of course, has not only updated its own culinary culture, but inspired a refacing of cuisines around the world. In the Distrito Federal, Enrique Olvera is leading the way […]

Continue

review: scattershot… (biko)

– And now to Biko in the Distrito Federal, where, as one opinionated observer described it, two Spaniards (Basque, to be specific) are trying, unsuccessfully, to cook Mexican food. I’m no expert on the cuisines of either of those cultures, but, based on the food we were served at Biko last October, that seems to […]

Continue

review: scattershot… (biko)

– And now to Biko in the Distrito Federal, where, as one opinionated observer described it, two Spaniards (Basque, to be specific) are trying, unsuccessfully, to cook Mexican food. I’m no expert on the cuisines of either of those cultures, but, based on the food we were served at Biko last October, that seems to […]

Continue

suitcase party…

Eleven months ago, I took a tremendous leap of faith. I quit my job. Life will catch you, my friends reassured. I wasn’t so convinced. I went to Europe soon thereafter, to think, to eat, to explore, and to spectate. Certain that it was my last hurrah for a while, I was thankful for the […]

Continue

suitcase party…

Eleven months ago, I took a tremendous leap of faith. I quit my job. Life will catch you, my friends reassured. I wasn’t so convinced. I went to Europe soon thereafter, to think, to eat, to explore, and to spectate. Certain that it was my last hurrah for a while, I was thankful for the […]

Continue

travel: camera vivid…

– As an American living in a privileged bubble, it’s hard to know the rawness of life outside, even when I witness it first-hand. I recently took a photography assignment in Honduras.  The last time I was in that country was in 1999, right after Hurricane Mitch had devastated the region. Perhaps a bit naive, […]

Continue

travel: camera vivid…

– As an American living in a privileged bubble, it’s hard to know the rawness of life outside, even when I witness it first-hand. I recently took a photography assignment in Honduras.  The last time I was in that country was in 1999, right after Hurricane Mitch had devastated the region. Perhaps a bit naive, […]

Continue