Mezcal comes with worms, scorpions, in various flavours, simple aged mezcal is a smooth surprise.
“Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien, también.” (For all ills, mezcal; and when all is well too)
Most countries have their panacea and their toasting beverage. In Scotland, one drinks Scotch. In Cuba, it’s rum. In Mexico, it’s tequila – or is it?
In the Southern state of Oaxaca, it’s mezcal. Continue reading
Markets have always been the heart and soul of any community. If you want to understand the culture of a city, visit the market. In Tel Aviv, three very different markets tell me a great deal about the little communities that surround them.
Shlomo is a happy man. He serves me a strong cup of his own roasted coffee. His grandfather, a Yemenite immigrant in the early 1900s, started this little roastery in Carmel Market. But Shlomo is likely to be the last of his family to roast and sell coffee.
There are many like him, in markets around the world. The younger generation, he tells us, isn’t interested in working in a market. Curiously, despite this attitude, markets are making a huge comeback and more and more people are turning to local farmers and producers. It’s not surprising. Markets have always been the heart and soul of any community. If you want to understand the culture of a city, visit the market.
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The lake is frozen but the welcome is warm at Viamede Resort.
Let’s face it. Winter in Canada is all about the cold. There’s nothing growing in the garden, the lakes are frozen, and the gloves are on. But Canadians know how to make the best of winter. Continue reading
What’s your comfort food?
For British people it might be custard or a full English breakfast of fried eggs and toast with beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and sausages. For French Canadians it might be ragoût de boulettes (meatball stew) or tourtière (meat pie). Americans might long for mom’s apple pie. And Germans for a fat wurst and sauerkraut.
But for Mexicans, it’s tamales.
Tamales are composed of masa (corn meal based wet dough) and a filling, wrapped in a corn husk (though in parts of Central America they use a banana leaf). They may be filled with vegetables, pork, chicken, beef, and even with sugar, cinnamon, cheese and raisins, pineapple, and other fruits. Continue reading
It was 1851 and Harmon Heald, like many of California’s first settlers, was looking for gold.
And like most, he found no nuggets. But he built his cabin, and later a general store on the main road between the gold fields and San Francisco. So he found a share in the gold that had already ignited the economy of the recently created state of California. And he built the beginning of small town perfection – Healdsburg.
As his success attracted more settlers to the area, Heald designed the first plaza and laid out the streets that would become the town of Healdsburg. The newcomers quickly discovered that the fertile California soil could grown anything, especially grapes. By the mid-1880s, a flourishing wine industry had already begun to develop, and despite a blip during Prohibition, this region has become one of the world’s premier wine producing regions. In fact, Healdsburg is at the center of three wine areas – Russian River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, with plenty of tasting rooms to sample their wines. And where there’s wine, there’s great food. Continue reading
