Smorgasburg

Just bought BlogPress, a new app that allows me to blog from my iPhone. This is my first mobile post! Here we are at Smorgasburg, the food vendor flea market in Williamsburg. Here is what we have sampled so far:


One huarache (very tasty)








One chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich sprinkled with sea salt (also very tasty)








One peach basil ice cream float (not so tasty in my opinion, but according to Brandon it starts to grow on you)








And one watermelon shaved ice which was shaved by hand by this fellow

The Queen of Soul

Went to a little concert on Coney Island that, incredibly, was FREE (or you could pay $5 for a chair, which we did).  She's almost 70 years old, but she still knows how to bring it!  

 

Summer Treats

Hot days in New York City demand cool treats.  Here are a few of my favorites so far (in no particular order)

1. Imperial Woodpecker Snoballs-- this shop in the West Village is only open for the summer season.  They serve you a nice pile of shaved ice in a Chinese take-out container and you can choose one or two flavored syrups to have poured over the top.  These were refreshing on a hot day, but I have to say, the syrups were a little overly sweet, and this comes from someone with a serious sweet tooth.

2. Kelvin Natural Slush-- We managed to chase down this mobile slush truck on the hottest day of the summer (see the temperature display on the CNN building, and this is at close to 7 PM mind you).  These were quite delicious.  You choose a slush base of either citrus, iced tea or ginger and then you choose a real fruit puree to mix in.  I got the citrus with pink guava which was pretty good, but a little on the tart side.  Brandon made the better selection, the "Arnold Palmer" (a mix of citrus and tea slush) with white peach.  The tea cut down on the tartness of the citrus a bit and made it very refreshing.  I suspect I will be calling the "Slush phone" again someday soon, to find out where this guy is parked.

3. Cookie ice cream sandwiches from Melt Bakery-- Tamar and I had ice cream sandwiches on the brain from the moment we stepped on to the High Line.  Melt Bakery has a stand set up towards the beginning of the walking route, and on our first pass by the stand we were tempted, but resisted.  By the time we reached the end of the walk, we realized the pull of ice cream sandwiches was just too strong and we had to walk back to the beginning to pick one up.  Well worth it.  They had various flavors, but we both stuck with the classic: chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream.  YUM!

Apple Cake

Lately I've become a fan of a new blog called Smitten Kitchen.  Perhaps I feel some kind of kinship with the woman who writes it as we are both cooking out of tiny NYC kitchens.  And I like the fact that she publishes recipes with down to earth ingredients; none of that fancy, hard to find stuff that you'll only use for that one recipe and then allow to sit on your shelf for eternity.  So after a few weeks of poking around on the blog, I decided to try one of her recipes--apple cake.  I didn't have a tube pan, which the original recipe used, so I used a bundt pan instead and dressed it up with a little cinnamon-brown sugar glaze and streusel topping.  Came out pretty tasty!

Classy

Guest Blogging and Graffiti

Greetings from Kristen's blog! My name's Brandon and I've had a chance to join Kristen in some of her adventures here in New York City. Whether you're looking for tasty new snacks, good music, fun things to do, or nice spaces to relax in, it seems the city has it all and that Kristen has a terrific knack for finding them. We joked about having me guest blog about some of the things we've seen and done in NYC...it turns out she wasn't joking and now here I am!

We saw a documentary about street art called "Exit Through the Gift Shop" a little while ago, which gave an interesting backstory to graffiti here in the U.S. and other parts of the world. We later found out a "graffiti Mecca" named 5 Pointz was located right in Long Island City, and thanks to the interest sparked by the documentary, we decided to take a look around. Street art seems to have an underground culture of its own, and part of what makes 5 Pointz neat to visit is feeling like you've stepped into someplace very different. The buildings in the area are nearly covered from bottom to top (roofs included) with bold colors, designs, insignias, sayings, and cartoons that range from the cute to the quirky. And the walls are full of signatures by artists with nicknames like "Shiro," "PGC," and "Dixone" that have come from around the world to leave their marks here. The entire complex feels like a sprawling art gallery that hasn't been organized much, but it's the randomness of everything that definitely makes 5 Pointz a fun place to check out.

The view when first stepping into 5 Pointz:

Hot pink photo-op:

And a little baby blue for good measure:

one of my favorites...

Santa Marta and Parque Tayrona

You may recall my mention of foreshadowing in regards to two women we met on a bus going from Villa de Leyva to Bogota.  Well here we meet again, in Santa Marta!  In our conversation on that bus to Bogota, we found out that Janet and Harlee were in Colombia as part of a surgical mission run by Heal the Children.  Heal the Children often does surgical missions to repair cleft lip and cleft palate, but this mission was specifically geared toward surgeries for children with burns.  They invited us to come to the hospital in Santa Marta for a couple of days to help out doing translation work.  It was truly a great experience.  All the American doctors and nurses as well as the Colombian women who organized the mission were really wonderful people and we felt very fortunate to be able to help out.  I even expanded my Spanish vocabulary with words and phrases such as "skin graft" "splint" and "gauze."

The lovely ladies of UNIMA (a Colombian NGO)

At this point, we are nearing the end of our trip.  It was time for once last hurrah at the beach, so we headed for Parque Nacional Tayrona, which is supposed to have some of the most beautiful beaches in Colombia.  The park is only about 45 minutes from Santa Marta, and here we are pictured at the entrance.  From the entrance, you have to hike for about two hours to get to the beach, but you are rewarded with beautiful views along the way.

After sweating it out on the hike you arrive at Cabo San Juan del Guía where there is a lovely beach with inviting turquoise water.  The small hut on top of the hill in the picture below was our sleeping quarters.

And these were our beds...

A rainbow and a sunset rounded out our two days of near paradise at Parque Tayrona.  

Cartagena

Ahhh, beautiful Cartagena.  A colonial city on the Caribbean coast full of pastel-colored buildings, bright flowers, and fresh seafood.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves in this case...

Medellin

In an Amazing Race like feat, Tamar and I packed our bags to leave Villa de Leyva at 1 PM, hopped a van and a bus to arrive in Bogota about four hours later, hailed a taxi and went directly to the airport where we purchased plane tickets to Medellin and boarded the plane an hour later.  Phew!  I should add that on the aforementioned van and bus back to Bogota, we met two women who would alter the course of our trip (consider this a bit of foreshadowing--look out my blog is getting all literary-like).

Medellin has a reputation as a city rife with drug violence.  This may have been the case in the late 80s and early 90s, but it has certainly turned itself around since then.  The city is very modern and cosmopolitan, and felt very safe.  While we were there we actually took a Pablo Escobar tour to learn about the Medellin cartel and the history of the drug wars.  Pablo Escobar was the leader of the Medellin cartel, and was responsible for much of the violence that plagued the city until he was killed by police in 1993.  After 1993 things began to change for the better and now Medellin seems like a nice, laid back city with beautiful spring-like weather year round, a clean, modern metro system, and a cute sculpture park filled with works by Fernando Botero.

Boarding the flight to Medellin:

The only city in Colombia with a Metro

Medellin Botanical Garden

Sculpture plaza filled with works of our friend Fernando Botero

Villa de Leyva

In a valley three and a half hours northeast of Bogota lies the beautiful town of Villa de Leyva.  Whitewashed buildings, orange tile roofs, cobblestone streets--it's a perfect place to relax, stroll around and take in your surroundings.

Church on the main plaza

Supposedly Colombia's largest plaza

Ajiaco santafereño: a hearty soup filled with chicken, corn, and potatoes and served with rice, avocado and capers.  Muy rico!

Our colorful and kitschy guesthouse...

Cobblestone streets

Awww...

A view from the hills

Colombia, part I

I know, I know, it has been a long time since my last post.  So, I have some catching up to do.  Let us begin with Colombia...

The last two weeks of May were spent traveling around Colombia with my wonderful friend Tamar.  We began in Bogota, where we were met with cloudy skies, rain and chilly weather.  But our adventurous spirit prevailed, so we threw our bags down at the hostel, grabbed raincoats and umbrellas, and set out to see the local sites and try the local foods.

First food in Colombia: arepa de huevo (arepa with fried egg)

First beverage in Colombia: Colombiana soda...tastes kind of like cream soda

Main plaza in Bogota, Plaza de Bolivar

Day 2: The rain finally stopped, and we even got a few glimpses of sun.  Day 2 was a Sunday, and every Sunday in Bogota is Ciclovia, an event in which many streets are closed to vehicles and open for pedestrian traffic.  The streets are full of people biking, rollerblading, running, walking their dogs, etc.  

After a lot of walking around, a snack was in order.  Hot chocolate with cheese!  It sounds like a strange combination, but it was delicious.  The hot chocolate was amazing by itself and the cheese gets a little melty and adds a nice salty contrast to the chocolate.  Don't knock it till you try it!

The afternoon involved a visit to the Botero museum.  Fernando Botero is one of Colombia's most famous artists.  He is known for painting all of his subjects a little bit chubby, as in his rendition of the Mona Lisa below.  A must visit if you are in Bogota.