Results tagged “New York Times” from Intelligent Travel Blog

After reading an article in this weekend's New York Times about Utah's unique Pastrami Burger, National Geographic writer Catherine L. Barker blogged about her own reporting on obscure regional foods a few years ago, when she discovered such local favorites as the Kringle, a round, flaky pastry in Racine, Wisconsin, or Livermush, a North Carolina delicacy that is exactly what it sounds like. It she also learned how passionate people are about their local tastes:

Early in my reporting I realized that people become strangely emotional when they are asked about their favorite foods. It's as if Moon Pie or a conch fritter acts as the proverbial Madeleine, sparking a rush of memories--and a growling stomach. Some of my sources became defensive, some got excited; pretty much all of them were nostalgic. I spoke to one woman in Hawaii about Spam Musubi, a sort of sushi made with Spam, for at least an hour. Did you know that there's a festival dedicated to this canned pork product every year in Waikiki? That's devotion! And a bartender from Nevada was so enthusiastic about Picon Punch, he mailed me everything I needed to mix the potent drink beloved by many of the west's Basque émigrés. Some North Carolina residents waxed poetic in emails they sent me about livermush, a culinary mishmash of pig parts and cornmeal. I thought it sounded pretty revolting, and I spoke with other Southerners who agreed. From California to Connecticut, everyone I talked to had an opinion about their local food, and where to find the best of it.

Catherine is gathering more regional dishes over at NG Blog Central. Go share your favorites with her there. And check out the entire "United Tastes" series from the Times here.

Photo: A Kringle pastry, via NG Blog Central

There are some things that are on everyone's life list. Running with the bulls in Pamplona may be on your list, but it sure ain't on mine. I'm a slow traveler, so running through any city isn't my idea of a good time, and the threat of being gored doesn't make it any more enticing. Factor in that last week saw the terrible death of a 27-year-old runner (the first such death since 2003), and the severe injury of two other participants, and it secures my status on the sideline for good.

Which is why I was glad to see this article by Lionel Beehner in the New York Times this weekend highlighting Pamplona's softer, slower side. The city gained international fame in Ernest Hemingway's classic novel, The Sun Also Rises, and according to Beehner, little has changed.

First-timers can spend hours getting happily lost in the Old Quarter's maze of narrow canyonlike alleyways, hopping from bar to bar and sampling exotic examples of the small-plate combinations of colorful finger food locally called pinchos -- like pigeons stuffed with truffles and foie gras -- and filling up on a favorite local libation, the tangy red liqueur called pacharán.

Sounds tasty. Read the full story for more tips on the city. It may be less of an adrenaline rush, but I think I prefer it that way.

[The New York Times]

Have you been to Pamplona for the running of the bulls... or otherwise? What's your take?

Photo: Lola Akinmade

We'd like to introduce "Here Is Where," the latest column on the Intelligent Travel blog. In conjunction with his upcoming book, "Here Is Where: In Search of America's Great Forgotten History" we're going to follow historian and Legacy Project founder Andrew Carroll as he drives, flies, walks, boats, buses, bikes, and hikes to seek out little-known historic sites in all 50 states. And here is where he introduces himself and the project. Find all of his posts here.

Although today marks the official launch of my 50-state trip to find forgotten history sites throughout the U.S., I've been seeking out these unmarked spots for 15 years now. This began essentially as a hobby. Whenever I traveled to a new city I tried, time permitting, to hunt down unmarked places associated with little-known events and people.

Sometimes I was successful; during a recent trip to Los Angeles I found the baseball fields in Encino where U.S. military officer Gary Powers died after his KNBC helicopter crashed in August 1977. (Ironically, Powers had survived being shot down over the Soviet Union seventeen years earlier--an incident with enormous historical implications--when he was flying U-2 spy planes for the CIA.) Other times I was less so; while in Missouri last year I tried to locate any site related to George Eyser, a one-legged gymnast who won three gold medals in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics. No luck. But regardless of what I do or don't find, the search is what's exhilarating, and these mini-adventures have prompted me to explore neighborhoods and parts of towns I might otherwise not have visited. 

Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lifted its ban on nonessential travel to Mexico on May 15th, I've been wondering how the H1N1 flu virus, aka swine flu, has affected tourism to Mexico and how the country is poised to recover from the hysteria.

The World Health Organization estimated that 23,000 individuals in Mexico were infected with the virus during its peak in late April. During that time and in the past few weeks, travel bookings to Mexico fell some 80 percent. The Cancun Hotel Association reports a loss of some $2.4 million in tourism revenue. Cruise ships canceled 64 port calls that would have brought 134,000 tourists to Mexico. Some hotels temporarily closed down. The flu certainly had a devastating effect, in many ways still not completely quantified, on Mexico's bottom line as tourism is the country's third largest source of legal foreign income (some 0.3 percent of its GDP).

To bounce back, the Mexican Tourism Board has launched a $90 million recovery plan to boost tourism and many hotels throughout the country are offering deals; two-for-one offers, discounts of up to 70 percent, extras like yoga classes, additional nights, nature treks, and a slew of add-ons. President Calderón says he'll invite international celebrities, including Plácido Domingo and golfer Lorena Ochoa, to visit Mexico to elevate its image as a safe and healthy travel destination. Many hotels and resorts are redoubling their cleaning efforts, installing hand sanitizer dispensers, and offering travelers refunds in the unlikely case they would fall ill after their visit.

In the New York Times, Michelle Higgins details some of the deals now available in Mexico. High-end hotel consortium Mexico Boutique Hotels is also offering many deals at it member properties. Specials are available in Cancún, the Riviera Maya, Los Cabos, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and just about everywhere in between.

Is it now time to rally around Mexico as we overcome what some have called an "epidemic of fear" to help save our neighbor from a tourism crisis? Or, do you feel that snatching up today's prevalent deals is somehow taking advantage of the situation?

Photo: Cabo San Lucas, by Janelle Nanos

Whenever I'm traveling, I'm eager to try the foods of a new place no matter where they're served; seat me at a restaurant with white-linen tablecloths or an oilcloth-covered table in a plastic lawn chair, and I'll eat whatever is in front of me. But my favorite kind of eating doesn't involves seating at all, the al fresco dining offered by a street vendors is my choice way try authentic eats.* Of course, this kind of dining can also be elusive, as it's apt to pack up and drive away, or move to another corner without warning. So I was psyched to learn that a new form of traveling food truck has emerged in Los Angeles. Both the LA Times and the New York Times have reported that Kogi Korean BBQ has created a brilliant business model which enables the hungry masses to track their truck via Twitter (@kogibbq). The New York Times piece describes the craze:

The food at Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, the taco vendor that has overtaken Los Angeles, does not fit into any known culinary category. One man overheard on his cellphone as he waited in line on a recent night said it best: "It's like this Korean-Mexican-fusion thing of crazy deliciousness."

All of which makes me think that the Twitter idea for street food make a lot of sense.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is arguably one of the most influential voices in current American journalism, easily dissecting such heavy-duty subjects as immigration law, oil addiction, and outsourcing for public consumption. His examination of globalism, The World is Flat, has sold two million copies, and he is a solid favorite to win his fourth Pulitzer Prize for his latest best-seller, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. No ivory-tower thinker, he's connecting with people in real life about the power of retooling the world's economy by preserving the planet. In this month's issue of Traveler, he speaks with Editor in Chief Keith Bellows about how travel influences his world view. Read the full interview here.

Photo: Jennifer S. Altman