Food

Happy New Years + Quebec City Day 1

Posted on by elemonated

Happy New Year everyone! I hope your celebrations went well.

We decided to go visit Edgewater and see if we could get a glimpse of the NYC fireworks this year, as well as get shabu-shabu. The display wasn’t as big as we had hoped, but the food was good and we were in good company.

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We then drove off to Canada, final destination Quebec City! We stopped by in Montreal for breakfast. Shout-out to the two random guys in a car that offered me weed. I appreciate the sentiment, hope you had a great New Year’s. I did not accept, by the way. We stopped into Second Cup before heading off again.

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Starting off November with a bang

Posted on by elemonated

Picture from the NYTimes article linked below

Drinking three glasses of champagne ‘could help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease’
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/drinking-three-glasses-of-champagne-every-day-can-help-prevent-alzheimers-disease-a3109626.html
The article has been amended to say that it’s three glasses of champagne a week, not a day! Which is good because I don’t think anyone was trying to push someone to expensive alcoholism in the pursuit of avoiding mental degradation. As someone with a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, and have a terrible memory in general, I feel like I should probably start drinking champagne just in case. Preventative measures and all. Read More

Business, Food

The Definition of Hospitality

Gallery | Posted on by elemonated

Sean Brock (left) and Kevin Mitchell (right)

Food history is hands down my favorite subject. It’s amazing how a meal can shape a culture, and that’s what we’re faced with when the people of Charleston sit down for the recreated Fuller Dinner. The delicious and historical dishes against the rich and conflicted backdrop absolutely make this event worth writing about, definitely beyond the dime-a-dozen new restaurant openings in NYC. I wish I could find something as cool as things happening near me, but I think I might have to drive down to Philadelphia to get anywhere close.

We Are Chefs's avatarWe Are Chefs

“Yes.” That was Kevin Mitchell’s answer when he was approached by food historian Dr. David Shields to take on the part of 19th century African-American chef Nat Fuller and reenact an 1865 iconic biracial banquet that took place in Charleston, South Carolina. A year later, along with key Charleston community members, Mitchell and Shields pulled off one of the most significant post-Civil War events to happen in the South—again.

Chef Nat Fuller
Nat Fuller was born in 1812 on a plantation on the Ashley River in Charleston. He was sold several times before he was bought by William Gatewood, a 20-year-old lottery agent from Virginia. At age 15, Fuller began his training as a butler and a gourmet cook, because Gatewood was interested in increasing his social standing in Charleston. Fuller apprenticed under some of the best cooks in the area. He had a talent for cooking and became…

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Things I adored about Iceland

Posted on by elemonated

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A picture Mr. Chokkattu took of me while we were on a kayak.

This will be my last post explicitly about Iceland!

So we all know now that I adored the country of Iceland, and I want to go back some day really, really badly, with maybe a job long enough to support me for a few months or just some more cash in my pocket. And that the scenery is beautiful and the landscape breathtaking, etc. But I have to share some of the specifics I jotted down. Some of them are important, some of them are surprising, some are less about Iceland and more about trips in general, and some are pretty stupid but whatever they seemed important enough to write down at the time. This list is a little long, so let’s get started:

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Iceland Day 6: Penultimate Post!

Posted on by elemonated

This will be the second to last post about the most beautiful and refreshing place I’ve ever visited. I will miss a number of things about Iceland, which I will enumerate in my last post, but can be summed up as: how the hell did this little island slip my travel plans. It was only because of Mr. Chokkattu that I thought of this place at all as a potential destination and that’s insane to me now.

We filled our last full day in Iceland with Snæfellsjökull and rounded the trip out back in Reykjavik at the Settlement Museum before we bid the country adieu the next morning. My last glut of pictures, 60 altogether:
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Iceland Day 5

Posted on by elemonated

After the mild debacle the other night, we woke up bright and early and headed to Myvatn under the advisement of the two young women we had met the day before even though we had planned to skip it because of the time we lost. Also as a result of the night before and how lovely and helpful everyone was, we decided to pick up two hitchhikers heading to Dettifoss as we were going to drive in that general direction to Myvatn anyway.

They were a couple that met in Sweden at a landscaping and architectural school, a young man from France, and a young woman from the Czech Republic and beyond comparing our experiences in school (it costs too much, and you learn way more working) and discussing summer employment in Iceland (they both worked at Jokulsarlon, him a boat guide, and her a waitress at the cafe), they recommended us head to the Nature Baths in Myvatn, which is similar to the famed Blue Lagoon except much less expensive.

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Iceland Day 4

Posted on by elemonated

This was both the best and worst day of the trip. We started out wonderfully with a lot of time in my new favorite town, Seyðisfjörður, where I finished the Iceland Day 2.2 post in the Hotel Aldan restaurant and had my first taste of reindeer, which was delicious. We kayaked for a couple of hours and met Mr. Hlynur Oddsson, our guide (the kayak guy, as informed by a waitress at Hotel Aldan) who was as kind and as funny as he was educational. Mr. Chokkattu was also able to wash our car for free, which is good because our little 2×4 was definitely begging to get clean after being covered in mud and dust from our drive. We also got to sing in Tvisongur, which we were told means “Double song/singing” and Mr. Chokkattu lent his lovely bass to the environment and I pittered out my minimally trained alto as accompaniment.

Later on, we had a delicious dinner at the Skaftfell visitor’s center, which also housed some interesting local art I recommend checking out if you go.  Read More

Iceland Day 3

Posted on by elemonated

Obviously, I didn’t really go through with the updating every day thing because of the lack of strong WiFi and time, but I have finally finished editing day 3 pictures, so here you go! It was a little chillier on day 3 than the previous two days, and we saw a little less civilization and a few more sheep, which Mr. Chokkattu and I enjoyed. Day 3 consisted mostly of water and ice, but there were lots of rocks and mountains as well, and I’ll include a bonus gallery about mountain flowers too!

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Iceland Day 2.2

Posted on by elemonated

This will be quick because our day’s already started, but I just wanted to finally share some of the things I saw Thursday now that I have some decent Wifi. I don’t have a chance to edit, so you’ll see my awkward photography skills in all their raw glory (check out Mr. Chokkattu’s blog for better pictures)! Names and everything should show up in the captions, I hope you all enjoy!

And for my scented folk; I’ve been wearing Annick Goutal’s Eau de Camille this entire time. Light, crisp, beautiful, and slightly sweet; just the thing to counteract the Seltun sulfur field and blend in with the grassy meadows and stony fields around us! Also, there’s a lot of lavender in Iceland, so while you’re walking through the fields, you’ll randomly get hits of sweet and spicy real lavender. It’s gorgeous.

Onto the pictures!

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