[photo © BG Street View]

Chicago: Sentinels Of The Gold Coast

 

[photo © BG Street View]

Paris 8e · La Place de Dublin

avec

Rue de Paris, Temps de Pluie [1877] —peint par Gustave Caillebotte

 

[photo © BG Street View]

Breakfast in Buenos Aires: Medialunas and Café at Florida Garden

In Argentina, they don't call 'em croissants.

Le Cimetière Américain de Colleville-sur-Mer 

[photo © BG Street View]

The Train To Caen

The Price Is Not Always The Same

[n.b.: That first phrase doesn't rhyme, and you should start with the French version of the SNCF website.]

The success of low-cost airlines in Europe has not eliminated train travel as a desirable option. If anything, travel by train is getting better all the time in many countries. France continues to expand its famous TGV service, with high-speed service to many parts of the hexagon and neighboring countries, and Spain's counterpart, the Tren AVE, has spread out in all directions from Madrid.

In this instance, I refer to a day trip to Caen, the coastal town in Normandy close to the D-Day landing beaches and home to Le Mémorial de Caen —a fascinating museum dedicated to the D-Day landings— as well as a jumping-off point for guided tours of the beaches themselves and a visit to the American WWII cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

From Paris, there are loads of trains, taking either about 2 hours or about an hour and forty-five minutes, and numerous fare deals [from 12.00-37.50€ one-way, with 1e classe available for as little as 18€, Billet non échangeable et non remboursable] available on http://www.sncf.fr.

The choices on the French national railway [SNCF] website can be dizzying and the procedure a bit tedious even if one understands French, but it's key to getting the best deal —provided one pays close attention.

Since I have no carte de fidelité, no abonnement or any other entitlement with SNCF,  I was initially puzzled by some of the choices in the little windows and pull-down menus, specifically regarding the Abonnement and Programme de fidélité items.  Moreover, it seemed at first that there was no "none of the above" choice, but I was somehow able on another try to bypass them simply by leaving them blank and proceeding, using as an example an aller simple for a theoretical date.

Aside from this one issue [which may not even be an issue], my only complaint with the SNCF site is that it's a bit slow, displaying lots of "merci de patienter" messages.

However, note that while on the French version of the SNCF website, make sure to choose France as "le pays de réception ou de retrait des billets," lest you be shunted over to the RailEurope site. You can then pick up your ticket at any SNCF station or travel agency —as I did, inside 30 seconds, with five minutes to go at the Gare de l'Est, in November 2007.

Also be aware that if you choose the English version of the website, you're shunted over to RailEurope from the start.  There the absolutely lowest fare is $38.00, not including an $18 "handling fee," making the cost greater than the highest SNCF price [31.20 €, which comes to about $37.00 before bank charges].

Most RailEurope starting prices for the trip are in the neighborhood of $50.00 not including fees.

Prices subject to change based on exchange rates.

 

You probably won't read this in the Tribune travel section.

 The Hemingway Memorial

[photo © BG Street View]

Trail Creek Road | Ketchum, Idaho

[Sun Valley]

installed 1966 | sculptor Robert Berks

Inscription:

Best of all he loved the fall

The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods

Leaves floating on the trout streams

and above the hills

The high blue wilderness skies

… Now he will be a part of them forever

[part of 1939 eulogy by Hemingway for local friend Gene Van Guilder]

[photo © BG Street View]

Steely Dan In Concert "Aja"

 

I keep looking —without success— for this group of buildings …

 

Formerly Known As The John Hancock Center

[photo © BG Street View]

 

[photo © BG Street View]

"A Little Bar In Barcelona"

 

More Recent Destinations About Which I Will Eventually Write Something

• Waterloo IA
• Minneapolis MN
• St. Paul MN
• Aranjuez, Spain
• Pedraza, Spain
• Nice, France
• St. Paul, France [not Minnesota]
• Vence, France
• Monaco

[photo © BG Street View] 

ATLANTA NICE

The north suburban Atlanta edge city of Dunwoody —or was it Sandy Springs?— was the site of this year's International Tourism Management Institute "Symposium," an annual gathering for alumni of ITMI, a school specializing in training tour directors. Attending in addition to grads of the program were a couple dozen tour companies presumably looking to recruit tour directors, and about a dozen expert presenters speaking on industry-related topics. The quality of this last group has noticeably bumped up since I last attended a Symposium.

And I hadn't been to Atlanta in years —way before the Olympics, way before their excellent rail rapid-transit system, MARTA. Although I saw little of the core city, I believe I did get a feel for today's Atlanta, and the impression was positive.

What struck me most was the combination of Southern courtesy and the absence of a regional narrowness.

The strongest impression perhaps, came shortly after my arrival at Hartsfield-Jackson airport when I sought out MARTA.

Operation of the fare-vending machines is not quite as intuitive or transparent as I might have expected. It seemed there was every option available except that of buying a simple one-way fare.

After a couple of failed attempts at figuring out these devices, I turned —at first reluctantly, in part on account of my experience with their Chicago counterparts— to the MARTA representative who was out among the public to offer help to confused travelers.

From the start, the rep could not have been more of a gentleman, courteous and patient with my Northern impatience and ultimately disarming. He guided me like a kindly uncle through the not-exactly-intuitive steps required for me to buy my fare. Oh, and, yes, he was, um, African-American and I, a, um, melanin-challenged American. The absence of any attitudes on his part stemming from such ethnic differences was also notable —another aspect of this town that I would repeatedly note.

What I did manage to see of the city itself was limited and for another post, but the courtesy and competence that met me on arrival seemed to set the tone for what proved a pleasant visit in this surprising city.

Picasso Sent Me?
In Search of the Best Paella in the World

″Retrato de Picasso″ —Pau Gargallo [1913] | MNAC · Barcelona

[photo © BG Street View]

Call it quixotic. This was, after all, the land of Cervantes —and, for that matter, of Picasso. In late January 2009, while in Valencia, Spain's third-largest city, home of paella and a town with a million places to get it, I made a point of searching out an obscure little spot that had been praised by Mark Bittman, New York Times food writer and cast member of the popular PBS gastrotravelogue, "Spain On The Road Again," while he was covering 2007 America's Cup race. I went to down to Picassent —about ten miles south of town and which, for all that it may sound as if it does, has nothing at all to do with Pablo— and to Restaurante L'Alter.

Theirs was not the first of the two paellas I enjoyed while in the area, but it was surely the most home-made and the most authentic. Outside the country, and even in Madrid, Valencia may have the reputation as the birthplace of Spain's best-known culinary export, but experts say the best versions are found outside town, in places like Picassent, near L'Albufera, the marshy, rice-growing region just down the Mediterranean coast from Valencia.

Like Bittman, I also got to visit the kitchen at L'Alter. I spoke with Vicenta —a.k.a. Vice [pronounced "vee say"] if you're part of the Crespo family who are now in the third generation of ownership of the restaurant— who was preparing mine over an orange wood fire. It was a slow, casual afternoon at the lunch-only restaurant, and I was no intrusion.

At the suggestion of the friendly, highly professional waiter, Enrique, whom I'd taken for the owner but who was, he said, a 40-year "employee," I went for the traditional Paella à la Valenciana, made with rabbit, chicken, and two kinds of beans : judías verdes, a.k.a. green beans, and garrafones, large flat beans similar to lima beans. The use of orange wood, the aroma of whose smoke lightly scented the dining room, was another key touch. The birthplace of Spain's most emblematic dish is the Valencia of oranges, too.

Enrique also offered two tips to enjoying Paella no matter what the ingredients : eat it straight out of the pan and go for the socarrat, the caramelized crust that forms underneath the cooked rice at the bottom of the pan.

I enjoyed my meal with a local wine : a 2006 Hoya de Castillo, a young Denominación de Origen white from nearby Bodegas Polo Monleón in the hilly Alto Turia region just northwest of Valencia and up near the source of the Turia River that empties into the sea at Valencia. This refreshing, aromatic, relatively low-alcohol wine made from Merseguera and Macabeo grapes was a perfect companion to my big pan of "rice with things."

Despite the slightly out-of-the-way location, getting to L'Alter proved easy, if just slightly adventurous, thanks to Valencia's light-rail regional metro. Bittman had been driven there by a friend who knew the place. I went alone by train and by foot. By complete coincidence, it turned out that Line 1 —with a stop a block from my hotel near the Feria Valencia convention center— ran right down to Picassent.

The adventure centered on my walk from the Picassent metro station to the restaurant itself. L'Alter is at the northern edge of the small town, but no one at the station had any idea where it was.

Fortunately I'd called the day before and came prepared with a Google Maps print-out of the location, and over the phone, Carmina Crespo had told me their restaurant was about a 15-minute walk from the train.

This proved about exactly right. And a block or two from the station was a small sign pointing the way to L'Alter —matching the orientation of my map— and indicating that the place was located next to a soccer field. All I really had to do was follow the road around. Maybe the folks who work for the metro have never gone much beyond the station.

In the Southern California-like weather, I felt like I was walking through an outpost of LA on a nice winter day. In fact, the trek from and back to the Valencia metro undoubtedly helped burn off some of the calories from lunch. Paella is traditionally made for two, and I'd had to order the obligatory double portion.

My entire meal —salad, a bottle of wine, a liter of Vichy Catalán sparkling water, coffee, the double portion of paella, plus Enrique's advice and the visit to the kitchen— came to less than 40 Euros, or about $50.

If you plan to visit L'Alter, reservations are always a good idea, particularly on weekends and during the week-long annual Fallas Valencianas festivities, which take place in mid-March.

Restaurante L'Alter
Camino Juliet, 3
46220 Picassent
Comunitat Valenciana
España
tel : +34.96.123.05.37

Links

• L'Alter website : http://www.restaurantlalter.com/
• Bittman article : http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/travel/08Bite.html
• Las Provincias article [Spanish] in re Bittman's visit to L'Alter : http://www.lasprovincias.es/valencia/20080307/local/vida-ocio/york-times-saborea-valencia-200803071104.html
• Official site [in English] for Fallas de Valencia from the Communitat Valencia : http://fallas.comunitatvalenciana.com/fallas-2009.htm

When the Snow Comes
to Cover the Ground
Adventures in a Marshmallow World

It was going to be a quick trip to Manhattan, nominally to attend a program information session at NYU, with an extra day in town, since the cheapest flight-and-hotel package available on the usual travel sites was barely more for a two-night stay in Midtown than for just one night.

Fully aware of the risk that in the event of bad weather, flights scheduled late in the day leave travelers open to cancellation with no hope for a same-day rebooking, I opted for a late flight out of LaGuardia on my final day in order to have the maximum time in New York.

And everything went as planned, right up until an hour before I was to leave for the airport, via public transportation —no extra expense— on my already purchased MetroCard "Fun Pass," when I got a text message that my flight had just been canceled.

I'm still trying to figure out what lesson, if any, I learned from the 36 extra hours —and two motel nights in an airport-area motel within walking distance of nowhere— of protracted doubt and uncertainty I spent in the New York area thanks to the Nth big snow-and-ice storm to mess with air traffic last December. One thing had led to another : cancellations, rebookings, change of airports, more cancellations —and trying to find somewhere affordable to stay amidst the merry-go-round of uncertainties.

As I read stories of travelers stranded at airports coast-to-coast, on Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, however, my sorry saga seems minor, indeed, but questions remain :

Was the fatal flaw my decision not to purchase optional fifty-dollar "Trip Protection" offered by the travel website I used —which included travel delay coverage? The policy would've added about ten percent to the basic cost of the trip. Checking the weather —a few days out, obviously— and factoring in both the reliability of forecasting and what seemed the worst-case probability of an extended delay, I chose not to buy it.

All considerations aside as to why —in the old glass-half-full-half-empty cliché— half a glass, be it full or empty, is the default [an assumption designed simply to facilitate the parable : Why not simply a full glass?], let's look at what went right.

• I knew the territory. I had some idea of my options. I didn't have to rely completely on the patronizing, helplessness-inducing pronouncements of hapless customer service representatives. I had a fully charged cell phone. I was persistent, more or less politely so, depending, in pursuit of a solution.
• I didn't have to sleep on the floor anywhere. The motel I found once I'd managed to get an alternate flight was [relatively] cheap and offered free shuttle service to the airport 24 hours a day.
• I wasn't expected back immediately by anyone. I was traveling alone and only had to worry about my own well-being.
• "Trip Protection" wouldn't have prevented any of these hassles, nor would it have compensated me for pain, suffering, whining and general neurosis —and I would've had to file a claim. Paperwork.
• And, wonder of wonders, the airline waived the fifteen-dollar checked bag fee on my return trip —without my even having to ask.

Doing the math, I see I spent roughly $233 out-of-pocket more than planned due to the delays, most of it on food and lodging. Other expenses included $20.50 for transportation via rail from Midtown Manhattan to [the ironically named] Newark Liberty Airport —from where I would leave instead of LaGuardia— and about the same amount for internet access to search for the extra overnight lodging and to book my first night at the airport-area motel. Subtracting the fifty dollar insurance fee and the waived checked bag fee, my net overage was $168. Yes, it would have been nice to have been reimbursed this amount.

Travel has its risks, even if the probability of running afoul of them is low.

And what, really, could I have done differently? Having scheduled either an earlier or later departure would've a.) cut short my visit to New York or b.) not necessarily spared me cancellations or delays this time, thanks to the persistently difficult and unpredictable weather.

Perhaps the experience will serve as a new benchmark of travel misery against which to measure future trips, which then will prove even easier and more enjoyable than they may otherwise have seemed. But a hundred and sixty-eight dollars does still buy a lot of marshmallows.

Newton In Nashville
The blowback is not just from the engines any more

Last March, I wrote about confiscatory luggage surcharges on low-cost airlines in Europe. Little did I know how soon the majors here at home were to follow.

Neither, however, have the airlines figured on Newton's Third Law of Motion : "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction." —at least as it applies to the passengers. Read Chicago Tribune food writer Phil Vettel's story on his recent experience on a United Airlines flight from Nashville back to Chicago :

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-jet-weight-1109_r_t_pnov09,0,1421291.story

A Fine Mess …

Just Don't Call 'Em Cheese Fries

On a recent visit to Montréal, I finally took the plunge and tried poutine. For the uninitiated, poutine is a mix of fresh cheese curds —an intermediate step on the way to actual cheese— and French fries topped with a light gravy or sauce. It's a former working-class snack, '50s comfort food that's morphed into a foodie favorite that's as much a symbol of local pride in Québec as deep-dish pizza and cheesesteaks are in Chicago and Philadelphia. The term itself is said to have come into French as a loan-word from the English word "pudding" and essentially means "a mess."

I've visited Montréal several times over the years, but something about the combination always sounded unappetizing, and the few references to it I'd seen, even those written by its fans, did little to dispel the impression. But not only is the mix not all that odd a combination —potatoes and cheese, basically— it's not really even much of a mess. More to the point, it simply tastes good and can accommodate a wide variety of added ingredients to produce numerous appealing main-dish possibilities.

Location is key : just east of Montréal is Québec's cheese making region, with the towns of Drummondville, Victoriaville and Warwick —recently referred to as The Poutine Triangle— each of which has a claim as the birthplace of poutine. Freshness is of the essence with cheese curds.

Parenthetically, although poutine itself is still a rarity in Chicago, fresh curds are a popular snack all by themselves in neighboring Wisconsin. You can even find them at some Chicago farmers' markets, specialized dairy shops and available fried on the menus of some neighborhood bars owned by and run for expatriate Wisconsinites.

Poutine additionally profits from the devotion both in Québec and Ontario to the art of French fries that makes them special even when plain. Eastern Canada —just north of Maine— is known for great spuds, and in cities like Toronto and Ottawa, you'll find "chip wagons" parked downtown : big lunch trucks serving delicious fresh hot fries, often made using the classic double-fry method pioneered in France and Belgium. Potatoes prepared this way are soft inside, crisp outside and imbued with a rich flavor.

Many chip wagons also sell poutine, and on my visits to these Ontario cities, I always make a point of getting something from a chip wagon. The quality of the basic fries emboldened my curiosity. It finally just seemed foolish not to give poutine a try, especially in its home province.

It's important to keep in mind that poutine is not French for cheese fries. Cheese fries are widely available in Chicago, and there are many variations on cheese fires across the US —including "disco fries" in New York and New Jersey, and "hobo fries" around Washington DC, but they both involve melted cheese. Fresh curds may soften, but they don't melt, and —this is, too, key— when fresh, they snap and squeak when bitten into. Cheese fries are simply not poutine.

It's probably no surprise that poutine is not a health food, but it is in fact nourishing: a typical 12-ounce serving has 29 grams of protein —nearly half the daily requirement for a six-foot man doing endurance training. And potatoes being a low-fat food on their own, it's possible to lower the overall fat content of the dish substituting oven fries for deep-fried potatoes and going easy on the butter in the sauce, typically based on beef or chicken stock with added roux.


And poutine has its fun side. At a Michigan Presidential campaign rally back in 2000, for instance, a Canadian humorist approached candidate George Bush, informing him that the country's Prime Minister Jean Poutine was a supporter —never mind that the PM's last name was Chrétien and that Canadian officials don't endorse US candidates. Bush —having been famously tripped up on the subject of world leaders in an earlier gotcha interview— gamely accepted the endorsement, even pledging close cooperation with Poutine. The interview then aired on national TV in Canada, doubtless to the amusement of everyone north of the border. On his first visit to Canada as US President, however, Bush seemed to enjoy having been punked, taking time to say that he wanted to thank this Monsieur Poutine for the endorsement, expressing mock disappointment at not having had the chance to meet him.



So where to get this mythical dish in its homeland? Drummondville eatery Le Roy Jucep —once owned by Jean-Paul Roy, self-proclaimed inventor of poutine— offers 15 varieties in addition to the classic, each as a main course. In Montréal, the place to go day or night is La Banquise, open 'round the clock since 1968, with 25 varieties —including Tabasco sauce-laced Kamikaze Poutine, Three Amigos Poutine [three kinds of sausage], Elvis Poutine [made with ground beef, peppers and sautéed mushrooms —none of which immediately comes to mind as a favorite of The King]— and even an Obélix Poutine, named for a popular French comic book character and made with smoked meat, another local specialty that's basically a cousin of pastrami. Gourmets head for chef Marc Beaudin's Au Pied de Cochon to sample his version made with duck foie gras. Both Montréal eateries are in the city's busy, fashionable Plateau-Mont Royal neighborhood.

Throughout Québec, you can even order Poutine at major chains like McDonald's, perhaps as an accompaniment to un Sandwich Poulet Grillé Classique, but most Montréal locals favor the neighborhood spots like Alto on Avenue du Parc, near McGill University, the Roi d'Ontario in the city's historically blue-collar Hochelaga Maisonneuve neighborhood, or any one of several branches of small local chains like Frite Alors, Lafleur, and La Belle Province, this last being synonymous with Québec's nickname, located variously around Montréal island. For the truly devoted, there is the Festival de la Poutine in Drummondville, an annual event whose first edition was just celebrated last August, and rival Warwick claims that its annual Festival des Fromages —held each June and said to be the largest festival dedicated to fine cheeses in North America—actually began as the first-ever poutine gala back in 1993.



I had my poutine out in the back garden of the lively, casual La Banquise —choosing the classic for this inaugural experience. And while this dish began life as a kind of snack-food / junk-food item, today's poutine is best paired with a good wine or microbrew. I technically dined alone but in fact enjoyed my meal with a couple of blondes: Boréale Blonde —brewed just north of Montréal in Blainville. Either the coppery Boréale Cuivrée ale or the brewery's stout, Boréale Noire, might have been a better match, but I had to go with what was available in the house.

Where poutine has appeared in the US —mostly in trendy areas in large cities— it is often, not surprisingly, at places with Canadian ownership. This is the case, for example, in Los Angeles, where both Soleil in Westwood, with its Poutine Christine, and Dusty's in Silverlake, feature the item as a side dish. Elsewhere on the West Coast, the Salt House in San Francisco's South of Market offers a version made with short ribs gravy and cheddar cheese —but purists might want to head straight for the Steelhead Diner in Seattle's Pike Place Market, where the chef-owner and his partner-wife serve poutine made with cheese curds produced right next door at artisanal cheesemaker Beecher's Cheese. Needless to say, these are all upscale versions.


In New York, the dish is a cosmopolitan affair, available both on the menu of the Australian gastropub Sheep Station in Brooklyn's Park Slope and at the East Village Belgian-inspired hole-in-the-wall French-fry emporium Pommes Frites —on Second Avenue between 7th Street and St. Mark's Place, around the corner from Cooper Union. At Pommes Frites, said frites are fried right before your eyes, served no-frills with cheddar curds and chicken gravy, all in a styrofoam cup. Sheep Station offers poutine as a side to accompany main dishes such as salmon salad or grilled lamb chops.

Of the made-in-USA varieties of poutine that I've had, the Pommes Frites version probably comes closest to the blue-collar Québec original, even if the East Village staff is Filipino and the neighborhood is an old Ukranian section of Manhattan as well as home to New York's oldest Irish bar, McSorley's Old Ale House. In fact, McSorley's, open 1854, is just around the corner —at 7th Street and Taras Shevchenko Place, across from the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church— and a great place to grab a beer afterwards, as I did. Two, actually.

Chicagoans can sample poutine, or something like it, at at least two locations: across from Millennium Park, gastropub The Gage —one of whose owners is French-Canadian— features an upscale, main-dish sized side-dish version made with elk ragout, while Edgewater's Pizzeria Aroma, formerly owned by a Canadian, serves one, though with a decidedly Chicago accent, topped with Italian beef sauce and mozzarella cheese —but this version definitely is cheese fries. Note also that The Gage, obviously, has a nice selection of beer and wine, while at Pizzeria Aroma, the drinks are exclusively soft.


If you needed an excuse for a trip to La Belle Province any time of year, perhaps this is it. One caveat : while stick-to-your-ribs poutine makes a hearty winter warmer and Montréal is a great four-season destination, you may want to wait for spring to eat out in the garden.


Poutine Preparation :

This is the basic recipe for two to four servings of classic poutine. You can add other ingredients to the sauce or to the final mixture.

Ingredients

• 1 quart of chicken, beef, or veal stock; vegetarians could substitute vegetable stock here
• 2 ounces flour
• 2 ounces butter or oil for the sauce
• 4 large russet potatoes
• 3 quarts of frying oil —e.g, peanut oil
• ½ pound fresh cheese curds

Sauce

• Prepare a roux by cooking the flour in the butter or oil in a saucepan until the flour begins to turn golden, about two minutes.
• Add the stock to the roux and bring to a boil. Simmer for about a half hour, occasionally skimming the surface. The idea here is to reduce the liquid to half or a quarter of the original amount
• Strain the sauce through a cheesecloth-lined strainer
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Potatoes

This is the classic double-frying method

• Peel the potatoes and cut into quarter-inch square strips of equal length
• Place the strips into a bowl of cold water as you slice them
• When all the potatoes are sliced, drain the strips to remove all water
• Have an oven preheated to 200°F [n.b. 425°F for "oven fries"]
  

• Fry the potatoes in small batches for 2 to 3 minutes in the oil heated to about 320°F in a large dutch oven or a potato fryer
• Remove the potatoes —which should be semi-translucent and limp— from the hot oil, drain on a paper towel and cool to room temperature
• Increase the oil temperature to 375°F
• Cook the potatoes a second time an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until crisp and golden brown
• Remove the potatoes and drain again
• Season with salt
• Keep the small batches warm in the 200° F oven until all are cooked

Here is the reduced-fat "oven fries" method

• Once the potatoes are sliced, washed and drained , toss the slices with about 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil until they are lightly coated. If you like, season the potato slices before baking with garlic powder, paprika or parmesan cheese added to the oil
• Spread the slices evenly in (a) single layer(s) on one or more baking sheets and place in the 425°F oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown and tender
• Turn the potatoes over once during baking

Assembling the Poutine

• Cover the bottom of a bowl or oblong serving dish with a layer of cheese curds
• Cover this layer with fries
• Cover the layer of fries with additional curds
• Spoon the sauce over the mixture of fries and curds
• Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro
• Bon Appétit!
  

Places Mentioned in the Article :

Drummondville

Le Roy Jucep
1050 Boulevard St-Joseph
Drummondville QC J2C 2C6
tel : 514.478.4848
http://www.jucep.com

Festival de la Poutine
http://www.festivaldelapoutine.com
n.b. : website in French only
in 2009 : scheduled for the entire month of August


Warwick

Festival des Fromages de Warwick
http://www.festivaldesfromages.qc.ca
n.b. : website in French only
2009 dates : Thursday-Sunday 18-21 June


Montréal

La Banquise
994 rue Rachel Est
Montréal QC H2J 2J3
tel : 514.525.2415
http://www.restolabanquise.com

Restaurant au Pied de Cochon
536 Avenue Duluth Est
Montréal QC H2L 1A9
tel : 514.281.1114
http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca


Chicago

Gage Restaurant & Tavern
24 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago IL 60603
tel : 312.3724243
http://www.thegagechicago.com

Pizzeria Aroma
1125 W. Berwyn Avenue
Chicago IL 60640
tel : 773.769.4900
http://www.pizzeriaaroma.com


New York

Pommes Frites
123 2nd Avenue
New York NY 10003
tel : 212.674.1234
http://www.pommesfrites.ws

McSorley's Old Ale House
15 E. 7th Street
New York NY 10003
tel : 212.474.9148
http://www.mcsorleysnewyork.com/home.html#

Travel tip : you can reach both Pommes Frites and McSorley's from Midtown by subway —either by Line 6 to Astor Place or Lines N or R to Eighth Street.

Sheep Station
149 4th Avenue
Brooklyn NY 11217
tel : 718.857.4337
http://www.sheepstation.net


Los Angeles

Soleil Westwood
1386 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90024
tel: 310.441.5384
http://www.soleilwestwood.com/

Dusty's French-American Bistro
3200 W Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90026
tel : 323.906.1018
http://www.dustysbistro.com


San Francisco

Salt House
2 Shaw Alley
San Francisco CA 94105
tel : 415.543.8900
http://www.salthousesf.com/


Seattle

Steelhead Diner
95 Pine Street
Seattle WA 98101
tel: 206.625.0129
http://www.steelheaddiner.com/

Recent Destinations

Montréal, Québec

• La Banquise : la Poutine 24 sur 24
  
• Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraïque : haut-lieu de la viande fumée
  
• Le Bilbouquet : glacier artisanal
  
• Fairmont / Saint-Viateur : bagels montréalais
  
• Ile des Soeurs : Mies van der Rohe station service Esso
• Centre de l'Architecture Canadien
• les Marchés Atwater et Jean-Talon
• Le Canal Lachine
  

Farm Progress Show 2008

• Boone IA
• Des Moines IA
• Living History Farms
• Iowa 80 Truck Stop

Historic Route 66

• Wilmington IL : The Launching Pad
• Gardner IL : wrong turn onto Campus Road; good thing I had a detailed Illinois map
  
• Odell IL : the restored Standard Oil station
• Cayuga IL : the Meramec Caverns barn; and "Cayuga's waters" as a thunderstorm cell douses everyone
• Pontiac IL : 1st fill-up and a look at the courthouse
  
• Springfield IL : Cozy Dog and the Lincoln Home National Historic Site
  
• St. Louis MO : Budweiser and Ted Drewes
  
• Meramec Caverns MO : the old barns are the most interesting thing, but I didn't actually visit the caves
  
• Rolla MO : the Boys From Brazil were obsessed with the name
  
• Springfield MO : Bass Pro Shops
  
• Joplin MO :
  
• Baxter Springs KS : somehow missed Riverton and the Rainbow Bridge
  
• Commerce OK : Mickey Mantle
  
• Miami OK : eight-foot wide "sidewalk highway" portion of Route 66
  
• Tulsa OK : Route 66 Harley-Davidson and The 5 & Diner
  
• Catoosa OK : the Blue Whale
  
• Oklahoma City OK : INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center
  
• Amarillo TX : The Big Texan
  
• Adrian TX : Midpoint Café
  
• Tucumcari NM : um churrasco brasileiro
  
• Santa Fe NM : La Fiesta Lounge [La Fonda on the Plaza]; a Lisa Gilkyson CD
• The Turquoise Trail : the Road Not Taken by [most of ] the Boys From Brazil
  
• Albuquerque NM : Sandia Peak Tramway
  
• Gallup NM : The El Rancho Hotel & Motel National Historical Site —The El Rancho Restaurant
• Holbrook AZ : Mesa Italian Restaurant
  
• Flagstaff AZ : the Museum Café
  
• Williams AZ : Cruisers Cafe 66
  
• Hackberry AZ :
  
• Kingman AZ : Kingman Regional Medical Center
  
• Seligman AZ : R.I.P. Angel + Juan Delgadillo; no relation to Martin E.P. ~
  
• Oatman AZ :
  
• Barstow CA :
  
• Los Angeles CA :
  
• Santa Monica CA : still "wunnerful, wunnerful" after all these years
  

US 101 / California Highway 1

• Oxnard
• Buellton : "Pea Soup Andersen's " —back to the Fifties
  
• San Luis Obispo : student Pinot Noir and California Barbera
  
• Cambria
• San Simeon : where "Tanya" unironically narrates the video
  
• Big Sur
• Carmel

San Francisco Bay Area

• San Francisco : "Bay To Breakers"
  
• Berkeley
• Oakland
• San Rafael : Wright In Marin
  
• Napa Valley : Taylor's Automatic Refresher; COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts; the Silverado Trail, and Daryl Sattui's "Castello di Amorosa"
  

The Good, The Bad, and The Luggage
It All Depends on What the Meaning of Low-Cost Is

In my earlier post, Caveat Aviator, How Do 20 Euro Cents Become 68 —even 79— Euros? I wrote of unknown unknowns when flying low-cost airlines. And like Donald Rumsfeld, I didn't know the half of it, literally.

I made all the connections according to plan, but I'd significantly underestimated the cost. Instead of 79 Euros, the Madrid-Marseille round trip added up to over 200 Euros, more than $300, thanks to Ryanair's checked luggage policy. That this was still half the next lowest fare I could find for the trip was small consolation.

The information is surely buried somewhere on the airline's cluttered website, but little did I know on arrival at the spartan Ryanair counter in Madrid that they impose a charge for exceeding their weight limit on checked baggage. The limit is low and the charge is stiff : 8 Euros per kilogram —about $5.50 a pound at today's exchange rates — beyond 15 kg. / 33 pounds. I was dinged 40 Euros going to Marseille, and thanks to my purchase of a bottle of wine and a couple of books, they hit me up for another 80 on the return.

Surcharges and extra fees seem to have become a way of life with everything travel-related. Looking over at the website of Ryanair's major European competitor, EasyJet, I see they have similar, if slightly less confiscatory baggage limits. And this is a harbinger of things to come at home. United Airlines has just announced that passengers —with exemptions for "Premier" frequent-flyer status or higher and those flying first or business class or on military and government fares— will be allowed only one free checked bag. The US low-cost leader, Southwest, has also tightened up but still allows passengers to check two bags at no charge.

It thus appears the old rule of taking half the luggage you think you'll need and twice the money applies now more than ever. Except, I suppose, in the case of Jason Bourne. [Half his luggage, if I recall, is cash, anyhow.] So unless your trip has been scripted in Hollywood, Caveat voyager.

Recent Destinations

FRANCE

• Avignon
• Nîmes
• Saint-Rémy de Provence
  
• Arles
  
• Aix-en-Provence
• Châteauneuf-du-Pape

SPAIN

• Madrid
• La Rioja Alavesa
  

Caveat Aviator
How Do 20 Euro Cents Become 68 —even 79— Euros?
Unknown Unknowns in the New Old Europe

Travel within Europe has gotten much easier in the last decade thanks to low-cost airlines. No longer is the once-storied train —great for certain trips, overrated on many others— the only way to go. But with these new choices come new variables, and a host of ways in which the buyer —or flyer— needs to beware. Reading the fine print is only the beginning. Here is one traveler's experience.

On a forthcoming trip to Spain, I'm including a side trip over to Provence to begin as soon as I land in Madrid. Before the low-cost era, this sort of add-on would've been prohibitively expensive, complicated, time-consuming, or all three. Now —particularly with Madrid being a major low-cost hub— the temptation is almost unavoidable.

An initial look on the website of eDreams —a Barcelona-based online travel agency which I've used for low-cost air travel in Europe— reveals a low price of 20 Euros for the Madrid-Marseille round trip. Although this price included fees, it came with the small-print caveat "Service fees not included." All right, where have we not heard this before?

I suppose, as they say, it all depends on what the meaning of "fees" is, but even at today's scary exchange rates, this amounted to only about 30 dollars. How much more could they tack on? The next best fare was 74.59 Euros, with prices climbing to 1670.55 Euros and possibly higher. In all, the site IDed 494 possibilities, and I got tired of clicking through them.

The choice of airlines was huge and the potential routings read like the treatment for the next Bourne Ultimatum. Many flights included stopovers, predictably at hub airports for the carriers in question : I could travel British Airways, Air Europa, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Iberia, Czech Airlines, Spanair, Alitalia, KLM, even Royal Air Maroc, changing planes at Gatwick, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Prague, Milan, Barcelona, Orly —even Casablanca. Gee, maybe there'd even be time for couscous.

So I clicked on the 20 Euro option. Direct flight on a no-name airline, noted merely as "Low Cost." No odd airports, no 3 a.m. departure times. Why pay more?


But, of course, it wasn't so simple, and it was amazing what that 20 Euro charge —which , given that 19.98 was taxes and some fees, could even have been posted as the more enticing 2 Euro cents— didn't include. To eDreams' credit, while they didn't post the name of the airline, they did post a break-out of charges. Not included in the 20 Euro fare were the following : an airport check-in fee, fees for checked baggage, and a fee for using a credit card.

They really had me there. While Jason Bourne may manage to travel without checked bags, even he has to check in at the airport, and were there an alternative to credit cards for payment, I'm sure there would've been a fee for that, too. By the time I made it to the final purchase screen, I found I'd racked up a total of 79 Euros. This is still not bad, but it's not what I thought I'd signed on for.

But what lay ahead before that last mouse click? We already know food is "for purchase." Would there also be a charge for a seat? A seat belt? Donald Rumsfeld may have not had it quite right in the eyes of some with his remarks about Old Europe and New Europe, but in low-cost Europe, his notion of "unknown unknowns" seems the order of the day.

So I backed off, and just out of curiosity, researched what airline this might be. It turned out to be Ryanair, one of Europe's low-cost pioneers. I then wondered if this fare was available directly through Ryanair. It was. And while there were still the checked baggage and credit card extras, the total total added up only to 68 Euros, 14% less than with eDreams.

So much for customer loyalty. I clicked and bought direct from Ryanair.


Now the challenge will be getting to Madrid on time. I bought my ticket from Chicago with frequent-flyer miles and thus have to go via Miami, with a mere hour and a half between scheduled arrival in Florida and departure for Spain. With all the flight delays at O'Hare so far this season, an on-time Miami arrival is not exactly a sure thing. And while Ryanair also sells travel insurance, they offer nothing if you don't show up in time for their flight.

Rummy doesn't know the half of it —and word is Jason Bourne avoids O'Hare whenever he can.


Links :

• eDreams : http://www.edreams.com
• Ryanair : http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/

Recent Destinations

Paris FRANCE
Alsace, la Route du Vin

• Strasbourg
• Riquewihr
• Ribeauvillé
• Colmar