Results tagged “Organic” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Kallari bars are considered to be some of the best chocolate around (at least by pastry chef Kate Zuckerman--see this article--and Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert). Available in Whole Foods markets, they are a sweet you can feel good about buying: Over 850 Kichwa families living in the Amazon rain forest region of Ecuador have formed the Kallari Association, which grows the cacao used in the bars AND coordinates the production of chocolate from their own beans. Plus, 100% of profits are returned to the Kallari Association, allowing people in the area to make a living by doing something other than clearing trees in the Amazon. (Watch this NBC video or read this NY Times article to learn more about Kallari.)

Kallari farmers are one of a small number of groups who farm, make, and market their own chocolate (another such group is the Grenada Chocolate Company, which operates from Grenada, in the southeastern Caribbean). But what's unique about Kallari is its foray into cultural tourism: now you have the chance to eat the chocolate in Ecuador, where it's made.

To taste the chocolate in a restaurant setting, head to the Kallari Cafe, in the new town section of Ecuador's capital city, Quito. They offer a three-course cultural dinner, with traditional Amazon dishes and a 15-minute presentation on Kichwa culture, including language, crafts, and methods used in their organic coffee and chocolate production, all for $7.50 per person. (They can handle groups of 10-25 people, but you have to schedule it two weeks in advance.) If you have less time, pick up a sandwich and a smoothie for lunch. And snag a piece of the Amazon to take home in the form of organic chocolate and coffee or Kallari handicrafts.

Fast Facts: Quito's new town neighborhood is known for its shops and restaurants, but be sure to make your way to old town's museums and churches for a cultural experience: La Compania de Jesus and Museo de la Ciudad are favorites. La Mitad del Mundo (The Middle of the World) is a monument just north of the capital that straddles the Equator.

Photo: Kate McCormack

As executive chef and co-owner of two ingredient-centric Blue Hill restaurants in New York, Chef Dan Barber is a leading figure in the nation's farm-to-table movement. In May, Barber's reputation was boosted when he was voted to the Time 100 list of the World's Most Influential People, and by his James Beard Award win for the nation's top chef. Then of course, there was the highly publicized Presidential date night, where Barack and Michelle Obama dined at Barber's New York City restaurant while all the world watched.

While Blue Hill in Manhattan's Greenwich Village satisfies the urbanite's appetite for Barber's innovative cuisine, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, 45 minutes north of the city, has become a destination for food lovers of all sizes and stripes. The restaurant shares 80 acres of Rockefeller family land with the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a diversified organic farm and educational center. The center's rich mix of programs and activities (cooking classes, tastings, farmer-in-training after-school activities) is complemented by the restaurant, which brings field to the plate by highlighting the pleasure of eating seasonal ingredients grown or raised just outside the door. Writer Pat Tanumihardja caught up with Barber at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Sustainable Food Institute to chat.  

Did you have an "aha" moment when you knew you wanted to be a chef? How did the sustainability factor come into play?

I never had an "aha" moment. I wish I did. I'm still having a moment of figuring out what's the best place for me. The sustainability question happened kinda naturally over the course of my life. I grew up working on my family's farm where my grandmother was a proponent of open space and using farming to promote the natural beauty of the land. That's sort of what I became inculcated with. It informs the chef I became.

You are often called a celebrity chef and receive a lot of attention for the work you do to connect the farm to the kitchen, especially at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. How are you dealing with all this fame?

I like celebrating food. I don't know if I like celebrating myself [laughs]. People always talk about Stone Barns and me like I'm this leader leading everyone to a new frontier. I consider myself to be the recipient of a lot of attention based on an issue that has been forced to the forefront, not because of me, but because of visionary people: farmers, writers and serious academics. [These people] have taken fringe ideas and made them more mainstream. So I look at it like crashing a party. I'm lucky to have this canvas of Stone Barns to work on where what I say or do gets the light shining on it. It otherwise wouldn't have happened with our other restaurant in midtown Manhattan.

Senior editor Norie Quintos recently visited New York City with her teenage sons, trying to go as green as possible. Here's Part 2 of her report. To see Part 1, click here.


What to do

We picked up bikes from Bike & Roll (from $10 per hour), which has several locations, including one at Pier 84 along Hudson River Park. New York's Greenway is a bike-friendly series of linked waterfront parks that hug lower Manhattan. The kids loved the ride, filled as it was with pockets of green, waterside views, and joggers. It was sightseeing on steroids, just the way teens like it: We blew by Chelsea Piers, the Frank Gehry-designed IAC building which locals call "The Ice Cube," the Meatpacking District, Battery Park City, the crane-dotted site of the World Trade Center, and ended up at Battery Park, just in time to lock up the bikes to get on the ferry for our rendezvous with Lady Liberty. After a relatively quick howdy-do (purchase your tickets online to cut the waiting time), it was back on the bikes for the ride back.

The rest of the time we walked or took the subway or bus everywhere, just like the locals. Parents: Pick up a subway map (available at hotels or subway stations), hand it to your teens, tell them where you want to go, and let them figure it out; it's good for them.