Category Archives: Food

Girls Gone Ojai: Beef Jerky, Booze and Hippie Hunting

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Ojai Valley
The Ojai Valley (Photo: Ken Lund)

My friend Trisha lives in Los Angeles, Jackie lives in Dallas, and I am in New York City — basically, it’s hard to get together. So when Trisha suggested a girls getaway in Ojai, Calif., just 75 miles north of Los Angeles, Jackie and I jumped.

At first I was skeptical.

Ojai has gotten an annoying rap in the past as a healthy, vegan, spiritual hippie hangout.

And there are still some things that make you roll your eyes and giggle a bit. The “No Talking!” signs posted alongside the anti-cellphone warnings at the famed Meditation Mount lookout are a bit much, as are the plethora of signs warning you that everything is organic. (Doesn’t it all become a little like a double negative after a while? Like: “organic organics,” “vegan organic,” “farm fresh organic vegan.” At some point you just want to say, “Come on — I know this is all made from genetically modified cow hoofs!” Except, fun fact, vegans don’t have the most developed sense of humor and probably wouldn’t think that’s funny. Must be the lack of protein.) Or the shops that sell dream catchers alongside crystals and spiritual self-help books.

But I was about to get schooled.

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The Ojai Valley Inn is a little slice of heaven. (Photo: Ojai Valley Inn & Spa)

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Crazy Boogers and Spam: The Weird Food Hawaiians Love

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Hawaii is a fascinating place for many reasons – least of which is the food. Where else in the world can you find spam musubi (a spam sushi roll the size of a nerf ball)? Or anywhere for that matter that still not only eats spam but may actually consider it a lost food group?  Or take the favorite (and delicious) breakfast dish, the Loco Moco, whose name literally translated means  “Crazy Booger.”

Related: The Magic of Night Swimming With the Gentle Giants of Hawaii 

The foodie scene on the islands is a lot different than on the mainland — watch this video for the rundown of the top seven foods you may not find anywhere else… but should.

Wrestling, Archery and Horses: Steven Seagal Checks Out Genghis Khan’s War Draft

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In mid July every year, all over Mongolia, business in the boomtown capital of Ulaanbaatar and in the tiny towns dotting the country comes to a standstill — as day laborers, miners, shopkeepers and almost every man, woman, and child head to their yurts to prepare for the Naadam Festival.

(Photo: Mark Fischer/Flickr)

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Going Full Nomad in Mongolia – It Can be Done!

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This summer, I fulfilled a lifelong dream: visiting Mongolia. I’d read about Genghis Khan and his conquests for years and had always wanted to visit — a bucket list dream come true, if you will. I decided to do a road trip, as, 800 years after the Great Khan died, over one-third of the population still leads a nomadic lifestyle, living in gers (yurts), with their cattle (camels, cows, goats, and yaks) roaming the fields outside. Not much has changed over the years except for the method of transportation. In the older days, the ger would be wrapped up and put on a camel’s back for the move to fertile fields, while today, it is loaded up on a truck.

Related: The Ancient Trading Towns of Oman – An Explorer’s Dream

How to Be a True Nomad: Milking Camels in Mongolia

My chariot on the ultimate Mongolian road trip — an old-school, soviet-style van with no shocks and no seat belts. (Photo: Paula Froelich) 

And, as there are few hotels outside of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, one must rely on the Nomad Code to survive. Which basically means rolling up on an unsuspecting family and asking to spend the night.

My guide, Timor from Intrepid Travel, explained.

“If someone comes to your door, you must give them food and shelter,” Timor said. “Or they might not survive. And the next time you are traveling, they will give you shelter — or you might not survive.”

Related: Travel Back in Time With the Bedouin of Jordan

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Welcome. Yurts, or gers, like this are seen throughout the country. (Photo: Paula Froelich)

The first ger we rolled up to was outside of the singing sand dunes. It had been a long day and I had climbed a 50-meter-high sand dune. I was hungry, dirty, and tired. Thankfully, Ankhaa, the owner of the yurt, was hospitable.

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Ankhaa in his ger, looking very Jean Paul Gaultier. (Photo: Paula Froelich)

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The Hottest New Foodie Scene is in … Greenland? No, Really!

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When someone brings up the hottest gourmet, gastronomic foodie scenes in the world, places like Paris, San Francisco, or Madrid come to mind. But ever since Noma, in Copenhagen, was named best restaurant in the world in 2010 (and several times after that), the focus has moved north. And even farther north than Scandinavia is Nuuk, Greenland, which has two world-class gastronome restaurants in a town that has a population of 17,000 people.

There is Nipisa, on the edge of the Labrador Bay, andSarfalik, located in the Hotel Hans Egede — the four-star hotel of Greenland (yes, there is one). The chefs at both are Danish, but Bjorn Johanssen, the chef at Sarfalik, is the new Wylie Dufresne (aka molecular gastronomy genius) of the Arctic.

Related: Taste-Testing Greenland’s Finest Microbrews

The Latest Foodie Hot Spot Is … Greenland? No, Really!

Bjorn Johanssen, hard at work.

Luckily, while I was snowed in in Greenland, I stayed at the Hotel Hans Egede and got to eat at Sarfalik several nights, sampling dishes made with local meats.

“In Greenland it’s OK to hunt whale and seal,” Johanssen explained. “We all hunt here, and we use everything on the animal.” The local meat is also cheaper. As expected, not much grows in Greenland, and despite a few greenhouses in the southern part of the country, most fresh vegetables have to be shipped or flown in at considerable cost.

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The first of nine courses … it was a long night.

Johanssen has a nine-course tasting menu — which combines Arctic fowl, duck, muskox, lumpfish, lumpfish roe, seal, whale, and whale skin — some served with something called “hot shell foam” yogurt, shaved ice, and frozen berries. Every now and then there will be polar bear meat (you read that right), but “it’s not so tasty,” Johanssen said.

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About to dig in to some serious yumminess.

Final verdict: Seal, meh. Whale — tasty! Whale skin: tough and gummy. Muskox: delicious — like lamb and beef, but better! If you get the chance, eat it. Greenland, the cuisine capital? Who knew?

I Love Me Some Bedouin Hospitality – And Their Goats

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Hundreds of years ago, nomadic tribes roamed the Arabian and Syrian deserts. Living in tents and traveling on camels, they were the merchants of the desert — operating trade routes and bartering livestock. Over the years, they converted to Islam, and some settled down into villages, and nowadays most carry cellphones; but in one corner of the Dana Nature Reserve in the southern Jordanian desert, not much else has changed except the transportation.

Travel Back In Time With the Bedouin of Jordan

Little has changed for the Jordanian Bedouin in centuries. 

Suleiman Hassasseen, 26, helps run the the Feynan Eco Lodge, a fully sustainable hotel in the Dana Reserve that uses solar power, solar heating, and composting to reduce its environmental impact. While he and his family cater to foreigners who come for the nearby 12,000-year-old archaeology sites or the nature hikes, Suleiman still lives much as his ancestors did at the turn of the last century.

Related: How to Go Full Local in Jordan

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Hanging with Suleiman.

About a mile from the lodge is Suleiman’s (main) family tent, woven by his mother and composed of woolen blankets and plastic sheeting, and another smaller tent, which houses his father’s second wife. Surrounding the tents are pens for the goats and sheep, which Suleiman and his family herd into the nearby mountains daily, and two pickup trucks — the only concession to modernism.

“We move twice a year with the seasons,” Suleiman said. “In the summer we go to the shade of the mountains, and in the winter we move out of the wind.”

Related: Ladies’ Night in Amman, Jordan

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The Broad Did It! She Schooled Foodie King Eric Ripert on the BEST Fish Taco. Ever.

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It’s not easy to introduce the king of restaurants, chef Eric Ripert, to a Puerto Rico seafood shack he’s never heard of. The restauranteur and host of the Cooking Channel show “Avec Eric” is married to a Puerto Rican (my pal Sondra) and has visited the island at least three times a year for the past 20 years. But I did it. (!!)

Eric was shooting his show in Puerto Rico and called to see if I wanted to come down and learn to surf. Obviously, I said (HECK) yes.

Related: Top 5 Reasons to Visit Puerto Rico — Right Now

WATCH: Schooling The Food King, Eric Ripert, In Puerto Rico

We met up at his hotel, the Condado Vanderbilt (as opposed to my hotel — the Courtyard Marriott), and when I found out he hadn’t been to my favorite food shack, Tresbe, I was shocked. Floored, even.

“But it has the best fish tacos ever,” I said.

“OK, we go then!” Eric said.

Related: How to Go Full Local in Puerto Rico 

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A half hour later we were digging into the dream tacos, ceviche, empanadas and … pretty much everything on the menu.

“Oh, this is gooood,” Eric said. “So light, so fresh!”

And somewhere, I felt like I won the food gods’ approval.

Go now and school your friends and family. It’s that good.

Related: Old San Juan, the Best Quick (and Cheap) Weekend Getaway

*Weird editor’s note: There are times in traveling when you think no one is around. Someone asks you to do something like, say, sing on top of a piano in a bar and you think, “Why not? I’ll never see any of these people again?” And then you… do. I hadn’t seen Eric in a while — but he’d seen me. A few years back, while in Hanoi, Vietnam, I’d been invited out by a couple communist officials who wanted to play a joke on the American — by taking me to lunch where only hard alcohol was served and instead of water there was beer. Little did they know I was raised on and below the Mason Dixon Line. Six hours later, not unlike that scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” they were on the floor and I was at the bar of the Sofiftel Metropole Hotel belting out show tunes. Apparently, Eric was shooting a show there at the time, was walking through and …

“Hey, I saw you!” he said. “I was so dirty — I had been out in the fields all day so I thought, ‘I will go change and come down, but then I fell asleep. You were having so much fun and entertaining the room.’”

Enter the face palm.

5 Reasons to Hit Puerto Rico – RIGHT NOW

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I’ll admit it: I was a little late to the Puerto Rico game. Thankfully, due to Snowmageddon this year, I finally cottoned on to our cousin in the Caribbean. Now that I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid, I’m bound and determined to get everyone there — if only so that when people ask me, “Where should I go for a quick, easy, cheap getaway?” (this happens all the time) I can point them to this article.

Here are five reasons you really should go now.

1. It’s cheap and easy.

WATCH: Top 5 Reasons to Go to Puerto Rico Now

Most major airlines fly there, including JetBlue, and the price of a ticket can be up to $200 cheaper than a flight to Miami. Bonus: If you live on the East Coast, it’s quick. From JFK airport, for example, it’s only three and a half hours to San Juan, which is just slightly longer than a flight to Miami.

Related: How to Go Full Local in Puerto Rico

2. You can vacation like J.Lo at half the price.

The hotels in San Juan are some of the chicest I’ve ever seen. Jennifer Lopez stayed at Hotel El Convento — the Chateau Marmont of the Caribbean, located in the heart of the Old City — which has weekend rates starting at less than $500 a night. If you want to bump up the price a bit, check out theCondado Vanderbilt. The recently refurbished hotel was built in 1912 by Frederick William Vanderbilt in a Spanish revival style, and has been the height of luxury ever since. Rates start at around $300 a night — expensive, but still a fraction of the cost of a luxury hotel in Miami.

3. History, history, history!

While the beach is nice, it’s even nicer that if you need a break, there’s actually something else to do. Puerto Rico’s forts and cathedrals date back to the 16th century, when Spain ruled the island.

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I love San Juan, But Damn, Pigeons Freak Me Out

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Just a few hours away from New York City is a history lover’s dream: Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Founded by the Spanish over 500 years ago, it’s a perfectly preserved time portal. Walk around Castillo San Felipe del Morro, the ancient Spanish fort that surrounds the old city. Inside the walls, ramble through narrow cobblestone streets and past the cathedral (where Jennifer Lopez married Marc Anthony) and pick up a piragua — a Puerto Rican snow cone that comes in flavors like passion fruit, mango, and tangerine.

Half the price of Miami and without the club music booming through the streets, Old San Juan is the perfect place to get away from it all — no passport required.

Just watch out for the pigeons. One of the most popular spots in the old city is Plaza de Armas, located up the hill from where the cruise ships park, it is the main point of entry to the old city for many tourists. It is also a pigeon mecca. Thousands of the birds flock there and, despite Puerto Rico having a large cat population, they waddle, sit, and roost unmolested. This would be fine if they also hadn’t gotten into the habit of hanging out, sitting and roosting on people. On any given day, tourists will throw breadcrumbs and turn into living pigeon trees. This is problematic for so, so many reasons, least of which is THEY ARE BASICALLY FLYING RATS! Do you know how many diseased pigeons carry? (answer: LOTS!). That and they have no sphincter muscles so the poop just flies at will. Enter that park at your own risk.

WATCH: Old San Juan — the Best Quick (and Cheap!) Weekend Getaway

Old San Juan has absolutely everything you need for the perfect getaway. (Photo: ABA Staff)

Here’s everything you need to know to do the city properly.

Warning: From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the cruise ships hit and certain areas of the old city are packed with cruisers. Hit the shops before or after this time to avoid a massive headache.

Stay: Hotel El Convento, the Chateau Marmont of the Caribbean. Housed in a former convent, the rooms surround an inner terrace with huge trees. The rooftop pool offers some of the best views in the city, and the restaurant is legendary.

Shop: Ole Curiosidades. This famous hat store lets you get measured, pick your ribbon color, and walk out with a personally fitted, handmade Panama-style hat for around $70 — three times less than almost anywhere else in the world.

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This was not the first hat that Paula tried on. 

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Thanks to Dracula, Whitby Is the Creepiest Town in England (I Hearts It)

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Long a vacation spot for Brits, it has also historically given inspiration to writers like Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and Bram Stoker — who based one of the most famous scenes from Dracula in the town.

I Want to Suck Your Blood (Cocktail) in Whitby, England

It’s creepy and romantic all at once. This is Whitby. (All photos: ABA team)

In the book, Dracula (the name itself taken from a name Stoker found in the Whitby public library) arrives in England on the ship Demeter, which crashes into the port. The captain is strapped to the wheel and no one else is alive. The cargo: coffins full of dirt (from Transylvania). After the crash, a large black dog is seen bounding from the ship and running up the cliff stairs to the ruins of Whitby Abbey — which is as creepy in real life as it is in the book [Editor’s note: Who the heck walks around a graveyard at night — it’s like asking to be bitten].

Related: How to Hunt for Buried Treasure in England

There’s been an Abbey on this cliff since 664, when it was established by the Celts, and it operated until 1583 when Henry the VIII closed all Roman Catholic places of worship. Alongside the old Roman Catholic ruins is a new(er) protestant abbey — complete with an ancient graveyard and mists that roll in a few times a day, adding to the creep factor.

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The town is actually adorable. 

The town has embraced the famous literature it has inspired. Twice a year there’s a huge annual goth fest called the Whitby Gothic Weekend, during which thousands of people arrive in their best corsets, fangs, and dark eyeliner to troll the streets.

Related: The Ultimate Guide to an Epic British Pub Crawl

But the real attraction is Whitby Abbey itself, which looms large over the town. Inside the attached museum you will find historical artifacts, stories, and remnants of the town’s past — before strolling through the Abbey ruins.

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I wasn’t sure where I was going to buy a sword for my buddy’s birthday. This gift shop had me covered. 

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