Roving Gastronome: The Blog

No, really.

And for once, I didn’t say it. John Vinocur did, in a lovely essay in the International Herald-Tribune.

The only part I’m not so keen on, predictably, is his suggestion to drive a car. And he even admits you can’t get all the way to the beach in a car, because of the parking regulations–so why even start? Though if you were to ride a bike instead, you might not want to bother switching to a horse midway through the trip, as he directs you to.

I’m so busy criticizing, I didn’t get around to posting something fairly well done: Michael Shapiro’s story for the Washington Post last week, Can You Trust Your Travel Guidebook?

I spoke to the reporter (or, really, emailed with), and he didn’t seem to have an agenda going into it, unlike Peter Munro. I think the story’s good mostly because it doesn’t seem bent on tearing down Lonely Planet. And he actually spoke to Thomas Kohnstamm. The really interesting part, though, was a sidebar: Six Guidebook Publishers and Their Policies on Freebies. No heavy-handed analysis, and quotes from execs at each house. This is decent reporting that says, Readers, you’re smart–you can make up your own minds.

First, it was reporters who couldn’t even spell Colombia right, or bother to check the name of LP exec Judy Slatyer. Now it’s another scandal-loving story about Thomas Kohnstamm and Lonely Planet in Melbourne’s Sunday Age: A Guide Delusion Makes It Lonely at the Top.

I had a sinking feeling after my phone interview with Peter Munro. It was a good twenty minutes of him fishing for me to say Lonely Planet was hypocritical. There was also some back-and-forth about whether the only way to properly review a hotel is to stay in the hotel (with questions actually starting with, “So would you say that…?”). The latter I can almost agree with, but of course a flat statement like that is not really accurate. The former, though, I just cannot say.

I spent a lot of time in my phone interview saying, in fact, that I thought LP generally has great intentions, and maybe it had written its freebie policy without a loophole in mind. And executives have been very responsive to my comments on the freebies issue, which is more than I can say for any other employer I’ve ever had.

But because I was uncooperative and my rational response doesn’t make a great story, Munro just resorted to quoting my statements on this blog–without even attributing them, so Age readers can’t come here and read my full comments. Worse, it’s in a larger context that makes it sound like I have taken freebies while on the job with LP, which is completely untrue.

Tacky, lazy journalism.

I may work in an industry that has its share of ethical issues, but I feel pretty good about the work I do. Especially when I consider that I’m not an ax-grinding newspaper reporter.

Wonderful story in the NYT about the president of the Greater Astoria Historical Society. He’s a doorman! Who knew? And he rides his bike to work. We even own some of his books.

Great story in the New York Times yesterday about preserving obscure native foods of the US: An Unlikely Way to Save a Species: Serve It for Dinner.

The main source for the story, Gary Paul Nabhan, raises Churro sheep (an old variety brought by the Spanish, used by the Navajo, but one that fell away when merino wool and associated weaving techniques arrived with later Europeans) and has written a book about Bronx grapes, Datil chiles and Makah ozette potatoes.

He has also divided North America into regions based on their most indigenous flavors. East Coast: Clambake Nation, yo! Though I of course can’t forsake my boyz in Chili Pepper Nation. (Except, uh, Gary, it’s Chile Pepper.) Who knew there was a Sonoran white pomegranate? And I do feel a simple sentimental attachment to Crab Cake Nation. Who’s gonna design the T-shirts?

Three recipes under consideration here at Roving Gastronome HQ, aka Winslow Place, aka the Astoria Museum of Obsolete Technology, aka David Bowie Fan Club, Queens Branch:

1) Six-Minute Chocolate Cake

Under consideration? Hell, I’m eating it right now! It’s from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home book, and I’m sure I’ve praised it before. It is the consummate mood-lifter. I don’t usually eat for mental health (by which I really mean, eat a pint of ice cream while watching chick flicks to make myself feel better). But sometimes I crave a little sweet. And this ridiculous cake (as in ridiculously easy) has a proven track record: I ate it practically every other day while I lived in Cairo, and got through the year without jumping to my death from atop my pile of Arabic homework.

2) Caramelized Onion Tart with Poppy Seeds, Bacon and Dates

OK, I already ate this too. Except I didn’t have the poppy seeds, or the creme fraiche it called for. So I used nothing and yogurt, respectively. This is from Ana Sortun’s fantastic book, Spice, which Tamara has already cooked like a madwoman from. But I was out of town for that (and so couldn’t avert the Starch Stampede), so last week I flipped open the book, I Ching-like, and there was bacon and dates. Like a sign from heaven!

The upshot is that, with the yogurt substitution, it basically wound up tasting like the standard pasta I make, a Greek-before-effed-it-up thing with yogurt, caramelized onions and bacon. Now I’m wondering if I should add dates to that?

3) Central Park Egg

“Into a 12-ounce glass draw 1 ounce of blood orange syrup and 1 ounce of pineapple syrup. Into this break an egg, add a few dashes of acid phosphate and a little finely shaved ice. Shake thoroughly and fill with carbonated water, as is done in preparing all egg phosphates. Strain into a clean glass and serve. Charge 10 cents.”

I’m bawling. I don’t know why. I wasn’t even alive when The Dispenser’s Formulary or Soda Water Guide was published, in 1915. I don’t even know what acid phosphate is. Or that things with the word “egg” in the name actually had an egg in them (you’re saying “Duh!” but I’m thinking “Egg cream!”).

Our friend Katie gave Peter this book, and John, if you’re reading this, yes, it should’ve been yours. But spring has sprung, and a whole season of refreshing fizzy-water drinks is about to open. I’m also considering the Mexican Mint Glace (”The name is suggested by the fact that the beverage duplicates the colors of the Mexican flag”), the Hyacintha (American saffron, juniper berries and dates are the first three ingredients–gets crazier from there–but to be fair, I think it’s a fermented business) and, what the heck, the Celery Cocoa (just what it sounds like).

Yes, I’m getting completely stir-crazy. Hopefully when I’m done reading the next book in the stack, Darra Goldstein’s The Georgian Feast(sour plum sauce? Whaaa?), and done eating all this damn cake I made, summer will be here, for real.

PS: I planted grapevines. Can’t wait.

Not a lot of them, but there is a picture of that weird dead animal I saw in Madrid:

New Mexico April 08 photo set at Flickr.

The fruits of last year’s labor, in the form of Lonely Planet’s Egypt guide, is due on store shelves in a couple of weeks. And while you’re waiting for my masterpiece to arrive, the savvy folks at Lonely Planet have made the full text of the book available in PDF, through its clever “Pick & Mix” program. So if you’re just going to Cairo, by all means, pick up my chapter for just $6. Then you can print it out and have it bound at Kinko’s, and have your own stealth guidebook.

(I recommend printing four pages to a single sheet of 8.5 x 11, then getting it spiral-bound with some blank sheets in the back for your own notes. Add a Moleskine-style piece of elastic and a pocket in the back, and you’re so ready to roll. Costs about $5. Oh, and print out several full-size copies of each map, so you can fold them up and mark them up as you like. There–I’ve just given all my trade secrets away.)

Even if you don’t do any of that, you can preview the Cairo chapter here, and read my introduction. It’s the first place I’ve gotten to use the word ’snot’ in print. A personal victory.

Just a little more light shed on the whole Kohnstamm business: a good essay on World Hum by the always smart Robert Reid, who I also happen to know in passing through LP and other friends.

He has the empathy for Kohnstamm that most don’t (or aren’t willing to have), and he summarizes the small joys of doing the job that few people are mentioning at the moment (skip to the end).

The comments section is a bit odd: people seem unduly obsessed with his finances. It all boils down to getting hitched, folks–for that alone, I recommend it.

I like writing travel guides. I like it a lot, even when I complain.

But I think I like making the maps more. Maybe I wouldn’t like cartography as a full-time job, but as a break from all the damn writing and phone-number-checking, pulling out my ruler, white-out and colored pens and getting down to business on a map is really, really satisfying.

And when I was just in Taos, I found a product that makes me want to do my maps even more: mechanical colored pencils (see product #128-26)! Dude. I can’t tell you how exciting this is. The colors are really sharp and rich too. Years ago, I experimented with colored pencils, but the color was too faint and didn’t read clearly, and I could never get a sharp-enough point. Now I have a random assortment of highlighters and colored gel-ink pens, but the drawback with those is that it’s easy to smear the lines if you’re moving too fast. Also, those gel-ink pens are all sort of glittery, so my maps wind up looking like The World According to Hello Kitty.

But colored mechanical pencils! They never need sharpening, first of all. There are five colors, plus black, in the box. That’s enough for hotels, restaurants, text changes, graphics changes and some wild cards TBD.

OK–must quit mooning over my pencils and get to the writing. We do what we have to do so we can do what we want to do.