If you live in the New York area or planning a visit there - be sure to stop by The New York Botanical Garden this summer.
They will be having a summer long celebration of growing great food. The theme this summer is “The Edible Garden“. Tickets cost for this event is between $20 - $35.
It will be starting this weekend, from June 27 through September 13th.
This is part of the Nancy Bryan Luce Herb Garden. It must smell nice here. Photo from NY Botanical Garden. The place covers 250 acres and has 50 gardens and plant collections. So there’s something to see in every season, from flowers to herb.
The Garden-wide, summer-long celebration features horticulture displays, fun-filled food and gardening festivals, and programs that demonstrate the bounty of edible plants, teach vegetable growing and garden design, and offer demonstrations from celebrity chefs and experts.
Starting on the weekend of June 27 to 28, they will celebrate local food with cooking demonstrations and lectures featuring Martha Stewart, Dan Barber, and Amy Goldman.
For fans of Emeril Lagasse, be sure to visit on September 12 and 13. Festival highlights “Buy local, cook global”. There will be lively festival of food, culture, and plants.
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The Travel Channel has some neat shows I try to watch when I get the chance, especially No Reservations and Bizarre Foods. Bizarre Foods can creep me out most of the time, but it is interesting to know that what’s so bizarre to you is really part of the the world’s diet.
Andrew Zimmerman, friendly host of Bizarre Foods, came upon the shark and bake sandwich and just loved it. Andrew said it was amongst his top 10 sandwiches he’s ever ate in his life. So it must be pretty good!
Shark and bake is a popular Trinidad “deep-fried” pocket sandwich made of shark meat. The name reminds me of “shake n bake”. It is found at beach shacks and street stalls throughout the island.
Andrew mentioned that it wasn’t the shark meat alone that made it good, it was the choices of sauce they add to it. His favorite being the tamarind sauce. Others include mango chutney with sliced cucumbers. But I still don’t know if I would eat shark meat, unless I happen to be in Trinidad.
The folks at epicurios.com suggested we substitute it with tilapia or catfish. But then it wouldn’t be so bizarre anymore and probably not taste as good right? A cook from Trinidad and Tobago posted this comment in epicurious.com.
No no no!!! Its called shark and bake for a reason… You MUST use shark! The taste of shark is incredible! Bake is in the name because thats what you sandwich the shark in… BAKE! Fried bake to be specific! Oh fadda! This recipe is just wrong! I’m sure the taste of the fish is decent but don’t deconstruct perfection nuh!
Well, it’s not like we can just go out and get shark meat at the fish market or catch one in the ocean. But I thought that comment was just too funny!
Travel + Leisure also included in their “Top 10 World’s Strangest Street Food.” The tasty photo of the shark and bake sandwich from Travel + Leisure here does look very appetizing to me. Except for maybe the mystery sauce on top, looks like chutney. And maybe a bit too greasy because it’s deep-fried, but I guess that’s the sauces help balance it out. And at least it’s got the familiar lettuce and tomatoes.
Lonely Planet Travel Guide - Trinidad & Tobago.
Photo from Travel + Leisure by M. Timothy O’Keefe / Alamy.
If I could pick a city to travel to in Europe, I would first chose to go to Portofino, Italy. Even more so then Paris, France! Portofino, Italy is is a small fishing village located in the province of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. It is considered to be among the most beautiful Mediterranean ports. I think it would be a simply cheerful and relaxing place to visit.
So in the meantime, I wanted to collect some nice photos or paintings of the place. Then I came across a painting of Portofino by John Ruth. He did a beautiful job of capturing the colorful harbor in Portofino. John Ruth is an artist who lives and works in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
You can visit his gallery here and see more of his lovely paintings. There are more paintings of other charming European towns from Portugal to Amsterdam.
A little bit more about John Ruth:
“Most of my paintings are landscapes, but other themes have been family, figure studies, portraits, domestic interiors and fantasy. I strive to convey my sense of wonder at the world around me through my art and to bring out the magic of commonplace things and ‘the everyday. I paint mainly in acrylic on board, using the versatility of the paint to create delicate watercolour effects and overlay with stronger pigments. I like to use repetition and rhythm of line to suggest the rhythms and oneness of life.”
Here is another photo of Portofino, Italy from Wikipedia. Interesting steps leading up to the homes via the ocean.
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The happiest country in the world is Denmark. I would have guessed Norway or Belize, but this is just as good. When I think of Denmark, I usually think of blondes that eat lots of pastries and cookies. When we were kids, we always ate cookies from Denmark. They came in round tin containers with pictures of a quaint European village.
But I guess there’s more to Denmark then desserts. Not to mention, it’s still very sweet to be Danish. As mentioned from Reuters the reason behind this state of contentment is, “its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere.” Definitely important in any country, to have the ability to be heard and feel safe in their homes and city.
Cris Benton of Kite Aerial Photography took this beautiful photo of Copenhagen, Denmark. I like the contrasting colors of the roofs , the green of the trees, and the blue of the river and horizon ahead.
The study was done by surveying 350,000 people. Ingelhart and his team published it’s result in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. “Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives,” Inglehart told reporters at Rueters.
I can agree with that!
