Virtual travel experts have created the world’s first four-day holiday, that you can experience from the comfort of your own home.
The holiday has been designed by Virtually Visiting to be experienced through your own computer, tablet or phone.
The Arctic adventure puts you right in the center of the holiday with new experiences released each day over a four-day complete trip.
The first holiday will start on Saturday April 18. It has been designed to take guests on a wintery tour of the Arctic region of Swedish Lapland. “We wanted to put you right in the action, allowing you to experience tours as though you were there,” says Jonny Cooper, founder of Virtually Visiting. “This is about keeping the travel experience real; we meet some of the best local guides who walk us through local life to give guests the real-life experience – from their own homes.”
What’s more, this bucket-list four-day holiday is completely free for people to experience and will unfold one day at a time at https://virtuallyvisiting.com/360-journeys/.
Your Virtual Travel Itinerary
Guests will virtually arrive 144km north of the Arctic Circle into Kiruna. The first stop has been perfectly timed just as the ICEHOTEL closes the doors on ICEHOTEL 30 for the last time this year, before it is left to melt back into the river – and it is here that the adventure begins.
Ice Bar at the ICEHOTEL
The first experience on Saturday April 18 sees our ICEHOTEL guide Matilda give a personal tour around four of the jaw-dropping, individually designed and carved ice rooms and explain how it all comes together – from the frozen water in the river flowing beside the hotel, to being transformed into these beautiful masterpieces you see before you.
The tour will not only allow you to hear from Matilda but also look around the amazing space created entirely from ice and snow – a breathtaking combination of an art-exhibition and a hotel in one. ICEHOTEL
Yellow Snow Husky Tour
Monday April 20 brings a more leisurely pace and a chance to join Kent Lindvall, the founder and visionary behind the world famous Treehotel. Today, Kent will take us on a personal tour of Treehotel where guests learn about the history of the hotel including a tour inside four of the seven amazing tree-top hotel rooms. Each room has its own theme which is showcased in the design of the exterior and interior.
TreeHotel Tour
The final day of the tour, Tuesday April 21, the adventure will take guests east 90km to the wilderness around Kroktask. Here we join Erik Hordijk from Yellow Snow Husky tours to learn how to harness a team of huskies in preparation for the journey across the frozen landscape, before setting of on our dogsled adventure.
Each day a new virtual experience and additional information will be released allowing visitors to immerse themselves in a journey through the region getting a real sense of the people and place as you travel through it.
The team behind Virtually Visiting will launch more experience and tours after this with the chance to visit Storforsen middle falls nature walk, join a tour of the new Arctic Bath, visit ICEHOTEL 365; meet the Mooseand Reindeer, learn about the Sami culture, go Kayaking, and explore the Aurora Safari Camp.
Virtually Visiting founder, Jonny Cooper, added, “As well as our new virtual holiday, we’re also working hard to add further capabilities allowing us to run live VR tours in the future, adding even more real-time interaction with guides.”
To join the free four-day Virtual Arctic adventure from Saturday April 18 – Tuesday April 21, visit https://virtuallyvisiting.com/360-journeys/ (and don’t worry, if you miss one of the days, the video can be accessed at the same link).
High in the Sierra Madres, we follow the twisting road from Puerto Vallarta and the seaside on our way to San Sebastian del Oeste, once a booming mining town in the Sierra Madres northeast of the city and one of the wonderful Pueblos Magicos or magic towns on Mexico. Our journey took us through green jungles and blue plantations. The latter are agave farms, owned for generations by jimadores or farmers who specialize in growing, harvesting and distilling the pinon or heart of the agave into gold and silver tequila and reposado, a type of tequila aged in oak.
Crossing the long spanned bridge over Rio Ameca, the road curves around a ridge and into the tiny village of La Estancia near Hacienda San Sebastián, a family owned raicilla and tequila distillery (for raicilla think tequila only much stronger and likely of inducing hallucinations in anyone who drinks too much).
San Sebastian, now on the way to nowhere, was for years a major stop between the Bay of Banderas on the Pacific Ocean to Guadalajara when its mines produced riches of silver.
When San Sebastian was at its glory, the residents of Puerto Vallarta, then a tiny port and fishing hamlet called Las Penas, were harvesting salt–a necessary ingredients for smelting the ores taken from the mines– loading it onto mules and trekking 4500-feet up to San Sebastian. The bridge we cross into San Sebastian takes us from the paved highway main street made of dirt and pitted with rocks. It probably hasn’t change that much since the mules came through carrying salt centuries ago.
Founded in 1605, San Sebastian’s boom lasted until the early 1900s. Because it was so remote, modernization never came again to sweep away the historic buildings dating back centuries.
The families of many who live here now can trace their lineage back to the early Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain period and the town was wealthy, with some 25 mines producing lead, silver and gold.
Walking along the cobblestone streets, past walls covered with red, purple and orange bougainvillea, we take a turn past the town’s zocolo centered around an ornate gazebo. Nearby is the Colonial Spanish Baroque Iglesia de San Sebastian, notable for such architectural flourishes as Corinthian columns, ornate bell tower, and vaulted ceilings painted with frescos. Dedicated to San Sebastian, the church was built in the 1600s and then, after an earthquake, rebuilt in 1868. As we continue on, we pass the Hotel Los Arcos de Sol with its white washed exterior. It too is old, built more than 200 years with a restaurant that gets good reviews. Along the way there ae small stores, housed in historic buildings, offering a variety of goods but we don’t stop to shop.
Casa Museo de Dona Conchita Encarnacion
Instead we’re on a mission to visit Casa Museo de Doña Conchita Encarnación the small museum run by Lupita Bermudez Encarnacion, the great times four granddaughter of a Spaniard who came here to run Santa Gertrudis, one of the mines here, in the 1770s. There is a hiking path to the old mine.
The museum, once the home and office of Santa Gertrudis and built in 1774, is packed with an array of family momentos, furniture, silver studded trunks, books, photos, clothing such as lace and satin christening gowns more than 150 years old and odd artifacts including 3D pornography with its own special reader dating back to 1904 and a 19th century photo of the family holding a cadaver. It seems that, according to Lupita, it was a family tradition that when a family member died, before they were buried (and remember it’s very hot here), a photographer was summoned to take a photo of the deceased. It could take days, but that’s how it was done.
Over all the story of San Sebastian del Oeste is one of glory and loss. At one time the town had a population of 20,000; now there are about 1000. San Sebastian was founded by three families who immigrated from Spain and to keep their blood lines pure, they only intermarried with each other. So through the centuries uncles married nieces and aunts married nephews. Thus Lupita says that her mother, Dona Conchita, married a man who was her cousin and nephew and so Lupita’s father was also her nephew, cousin and uncle.
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As our guide Victor Avila continues to translate Lupita’s many tales, we learn her great great uncle Jose Rogello Alvarez (and who knows how else they were related) and other men, carrying rifles and riding on horseback, guarded 40 mules loaded with silver and gold as they made the five day trip through the mountains to Guadalajara to deposit their money. Then it was five days back on the narrow mountain passage. Of the many runs they made–at least five a year– bandits only managed to rob them twice. Even then the weight of the metal made it impossible for the bandits to carry only much away.
Pancho Villa Ruins It All
In 1910, as the Mexican Revolution raged, Lupita’s family’s wealth disappeared. She blames Pancho Villa and his men who kept raiding the town demanding ransom and money until it was all gone.
Those that probably never got rich were the laborers in the mine who were paid by money printed in the office here by Lupita’s family which made spending it anywhere else except San Sebastian almost impossible. Talk about owing your soul to the company store. As an aside, I’ve visited other mines in Mexico and was told that on the average, because of the dangers of mining (no OSHA here), the life span of a miner was ten years.
Plantacion de Cafe
Organic Coffee Farm
Owners Rafael Sanchez, his wife Rosa and Lola, Rafael’s sister are the fifth generation family members to grow coffee hereLa Quinta Café de Altura, an organic coffee farm.
The family’s home and business is located in a building dating back more than 140 years. Out back they tend 11 acres of coffee trees, some as old as the house. The family handpicks 30 tons of beans each year. They’re then dried, roasted, and gound. Sometimes sold just like that, the family also makes blends such as a mixture of ground beans with cinnamon and sugar for the making traditional Mexican coffee–now hard to find, Hot coffee samples are provided and Rosa’s sells her homemade candies such as guava rolls and sweets made from goat’s milk. In an interesting aside, we learn that the Sanchez’s parents married early (the Don was 15), a union lasting 68 years and producing 21 children. Their grandfather did even better, having 28 children, though that took both a wife and several mistresses.
Comedor Lupita
Walking along the cobblestone road, past a massive 300 year plus ash tree and cascading white frizzes of el manto de la virgin, we enter Comedor Lupita. Here terra cotta platters loaded with chicken mole, fresh handmade tortillas (in America they’d be called artisan tortillas), refried beans and something I’ve never tasted before – machaca, a dish of dried beef mixed with spices and eggs, are placed in front of us. As we eat, we watch the family busy behind the tiled counter, making even more food. One woman’s sole job seems to be quickly patting masa into paper thin tortillas. Victor Avila, who lives in Puerto Vallarta, is entranced with that.
“It’s so hard to find handmade tortillas anymore,” he says.
Through the windows we see splashes of bright purple from the masses of bougainvillea that drape the stone exterior walls and here the sounds of caballeros, their horses’ hooves striking the centuries old street. We sip our sweet agua de Jamaica water, eat tortillas fresh from the griddle and help ourselves from heaping platters, we all feel time slipping backwards into the past.
Machaca Marinade:
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce Juice of 4 limes 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 tablespoon cumin 1 tablespoon chili powder 1/2 tablespoon salt 1/2 tablespoon black pepper 1/2 cup olive oil
Machaca:
2 lbs. skirt steak, cut into strips 1 large sweet onion, diced 1 green bell pepper, chopped 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies 1/2 cup beef broth 1 tablespoon oregano 1 tablespoon cumin 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or a Mexican brand, such a Valencia) Salt and pepper 2 tablespoons oil
Whisk all the marinade ingredients together, and then add the skirt steak. Marinate at least 6 hours or overnight tablespoon Remove meat from marinade, drain, and pat dry. Bring to room temperature. Discard marinade. In a large heavy pot, heat oil. Sear the meat well on both sides, in batches so as not to crowd them. Remove the meat as it is browned and set aside.
Drain fat. Add in the onion, peppers, and garlic, cook until tender, then add tomatoes, broth, pepper sauce and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot. Return beef and simmer, covered, for two hours, stirring from time to time until tender. Cool and shred.
Lay meat on a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 250º for 20 minutes or until meat is dry.
Machaca con Huevos
2 chopped scallions (white part only) 1 hot green chili 2 tomatoes 1 cup dried machaca 2 eggs Chopped cilantro
Sauté scallions and peppers in oil until tender, add tomatoes and beef until heated. Remove from pan, add eggs and cumin. Scramble, then stir machata mixture. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot tortillas.
Following the Rueda Wine Trail, a historic route through the provinces of Valladolid and Ávila where the viticulture dates back to the 11th century, leads me this evening to Calle St. Maria, one of the main streets in the Medieval city of Tordesillas.
Helena Muelas Fernandez, one of two sisters who fun their 4th generation winery in Tordesillas, Spain.
My destination is Bodega Muelas de Tordesillas, housed in a tall and narrow stone building dating back centuries where the two Muelas sisters—Helena Muelas Fernandez and Reyes Muelas Fernandez– continue running the winery started by their great, great grandfather.
“This is where we learned to make wine,” Helena tells us as she leads us down uneven steps cut out of rock to the first level of the vast cave like cellars that lie underneath the building. It is here, she tells me, where they’re aging their Alidobas Vino Blanca in casks of French Oak.
A wine barrel deep in the cellars of Bodega Muelas de Tordesillas.
“This is very cry and crisp,” she says of the wine while we take a taste. “It was a very desert year in 2017, we had no rain which is why it has such a flavor as this.”
I like the taste and allow her to fill my glass once more. There’s a delicate light green cast to its yellow color that match its slight grassy aromas. It is amazing to me that the wines of the Rueda and nearby Ribera del Duero, two grape growing regions with harsh climates, produce such wonderful harvests of grapes. But, Helena explains, the hot summers and long cold winters create perfect growing conditions for varietals of the Verdejo grape.
The wine shop.
As she talks, we navigate the stone steps further down into the cellars which ultimately some 60 feet underground. The walls are carved out of hard stone and I marvel at how difficult it must have been to hew the rock by hand which is how they did it back in the 1700s when the house was built. Each landing is stacked with barrels and wine bottles and each as a significance to Helena who talks about the vintage and the weather conditions the year they were bottled. The caves get darker, the light less bright the further down we go. On the next level, dust covers the exteriors of unlabeled bottles, vaulted tunnels disappear into darkness and iron grates protect rare vintages. We are descending into wine history and the history of a family who has dedicated themselves to making wine.
Now we’ve explored the depths of the cellars, we follow Helena through the shop and up to the second floor. Here, sunlight streams through the lace curtained windows. We’re in the tasting room where there’s a long table, large enough to hold us all. The cabinets and furniture look original, maybe even dating back to when the house was built which only adds to the charm. Helena passes tapas, those great small plates of Spanish food—who would know I would come to love potato salad sandwiches—and samples of their wines. There’s their Velay Vermouth made from 100% tempranillo, a 2008 Grand Reserve Muedra also from tempranillo grape (that and the Verdejo used for making white wine are the predominant grapes here), a semi-sweet Alidobas and a nice dry rose.
Their vineyards include the La Josa Estate where the Verdejo varietals are planted; their tempranillo are grown at La Almendrera estate, located in La Peña. At present their production is diversified.
“We make young white wines, white on lees and generous white; rosé wines; young and aged red,” says Helena.
The sisters are totally enthralled to be working in the old family business, in the old family home, using both their great, great grandfather’s wine recipes and developing their own. For those who want to learn some of the secrets of this venerable wine house, they offer several types of visits from tastings to an initiation into understanding the nuances of the wine.
That night, after we’ve said goodbye at the doorway and traveled back along the cobbled streets to the historic Parador Nacional de Turismo de Tordesillas, where we’re spending the night, the moon glows softly over the old stones and gardens, creating a dreamlike quality. Is it the past approaching? But then maybe it was the tempranillo.
America’s favorite president sure got around. From his time as a child in Kentucky, as a lawyer in Illinois, and all the way to the Oval Office, Abraham Lincoln toured across the countryside and cities and stayed at some amazing locations.
Lincoln dined at the Log Inn in 1844 when he returned to Indiana to campaign for Henry Clay. The inn, once a stagecoach stop has been in continuous operation since opening in 1825. You can dine in the room where Lincoln ate.
In Lincoln Road Trip:The Back-Roads Guide to America’s Favorite President, Jane Simon Ammeson will help you step back into history by visiting the sites where Abe lived and visited. This fun and entertaining travel guide includes the stories behind the quintessential Lincoln sites, but also takes you off the beaten path to fascinating and lesser-known historical places. Visit the Log Inn in Warrenton, Indiana (now the oldest restaurant in the state), which opened in 1825 and where Lincoln stayed in 1844, when he was campaigning for Henry Clay. You can also visit key places in Lincoln’s life, like the home of merchant Colonel Jones,who allowed a young Abe to read all his books, or Ward’s Academy, where Mary Todd Lincoln attended school.
Along with both famous and overlooked Lincoln attractions, Jane Simon Ammeson profiles near by attractions to round out your trip, like Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari,a third-generation family-owned amusement park that can be partnered with a trip to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial and Lincoln State Park. Featuring new and exciting Lincoln tales from Springfield, IL; Bardstown, KY;Booneville, IN; Alton, IL; and many more, Lincoln Road Trip is a fun adventure through America’s heartland that will bring Lincoln’s incredible story to life.
Following the Muhlbach Stream as it gently flows through downtown Oberkirch, a marvelous collection of timber-framed, multi-stories houses, cobblestone streets, brightly painted shutters and window boxes overflowing with cascading blooms, we bounce along in Martin Renner’s topless Range Rover into the vast orchards and vineyards, climbing the ever narrowing road up the verdant hills of the Black Forest.
The journey is Renner’s Weinburg Safari, which in better weather includes both the Range Rover ride and a hike. But today it’s raining and though Renner, who is giving the tour, has handed us layers of warm clothing, I’m guessing that the reason why none of us are complaining about getting pelted by rain are the samples of wine we had earlier at Julius Renner Weinhaus & Weinkellerei, his family’s third generation business founded by his grandfather, Julius, in 1937.
The wines we tasted are made from the classic varieties such as Klingelberger, Muller-Thurgen, Ruländer and Blauer Spätburgunder that thrive in the special climate and topography that makes this part of the Black Forest perfect for growing a cornucopia of luscious fruit. As usual, I’m impressed not only by the quality of German wines but also their low cost. Indeed, their Pinot Rose Brut at the time was 9.99 euros and the dry Oberkircher Blanc de Noir, made from Blue Pinot Noir grapes, went fo for 5.99.
To add to the picturesque scene, lovely even in rain, the Renner vineyards are nestled beneath the ruins of Schauenburg Castle, a long abandoned citadel built in the 10th century, part of the dowry that Uta, Duchess of Eberstein, the richest heiress in Germany at the time, brought to her marriage to Duke Welf VI in 1131.
But if we’re looking for real history, Martin Renner tells me after we’ve returned to the weinhaus, housed in what was once a butcher shop built in 1708 (you can tell by the sketch of a butcher’s clever along with the date on the building’s corner edge), you won’t find it here. After all, he says, as if the event just happened a few months ago, French troops sacked Oberkirch, burning the Medieval village to the ground in the late 1600s during one of those interminable European wars—this one lasted 30 years which is much better than the 100 year war waged by the French and British from 1337 to 1453. As an aside, if you’re wondering about the disparity between the dates and the name of that war, they took a few years off to rest before fighting again.
There’s disdain in his voice about the newness of it all and I try to explain how in America, old is anything built before 1950 and that we probably have fewer than fifty or so buildings in the entire country dating back to 1700. But then this is Germany where you can walk into the Kessler Champagne cellar in Esslingen and when you ask the guide how old the place is, there’s a nonchalant shrug accompanied with the year 1200 as if it’s no big deal. So maybe 1708 is a little too nouveau after all. Martin Renner and writer Jane Simon Ammeson
Next door to the wine store, the Renner Wine Tavern is all cozy Germanic charm. The menu is intriguing and very reasonably priced and more so when I make the conversion from Euros to dollars for such items as lamb chops with rosemary potatoes and homemade garlic sauce, Walachian trout with creamy horseradish, Strasbourg sausage salad with Gruyere cheese and spaetzli–those wonderful German dumplings often baked with ham and cheese. There’s also bread served with either butter or Bohnert’s apple lard. Lard is frequently on menus here in southwest Germany and it is amazingly delicious. A quick fact check: Pure lard, rendered from pork, is much healthier—yes, really—than the oleos and processed shortenings we consume here.
Noticing that the restaurant doesn’t open until 6 p.m., I ask why so late?
“We’re farmers and wine makers,” Martin, a graduate engineer in viticulture and oenology, tells me. “We don’t eat until then.”
Karotten or karotten in bier gedunstet (carrots in beer) and spaetzli are both on the menu at Renner Wine Tavern. Here are Americanized versions of those dishes.
Karotten (Carrots in Beer)
4 large carrots
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup dark beer, any brand
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Peel and slice carrots into long, thin slices.
Melt butter in medium-size frypan; add beer and carrots. Cook slowly until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in salt and sugar.
Cook for another 2 minutes and serve hot.
Spaetzli
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Making a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in the egg-milk mixture. Gradually mix well until the dough should be smooth and thick. Let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
Bring 3 quarts of salted water to a boil in a large pot, then reduce to a simmer. To form the spaetzli, hold a large holed colander or slotted spoon over the simmering water and push the dough through the holes with a spatula or spoon. Do this in batches so you don’t overcrowd the pot. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until the spaetzli floats to the surface, stirring gently to prevent sticking. Dump the spaetzli into a colander and rinse quickly in cool water.
Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat and add the spaetzli and toss to coat. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes and then sprinkle with the chopped chives. Season with salt and pepper before serving.
On a languid afternoon after too much time in the sun in Gulf Shores, Alabama, I decided to follow the coastline along the Eastern Shore through Fairhope to Magnolia Springs, a small town along the headwaters of the Magnolia River. With jasmine and bougainvillea in bloom, it seems like a true Southern Gothic (in the good sense of the word) type of place with historic mansions, postal delivery by boat (one of the few places in America to do so) and a great place to eat—the award winning Jesse’s Restaurant, in what was once the Moore Brothers General Store, which first opened in 1922. The building is on the National List of Historic Places. They’re a award winner of Wine Spectator. As for the hamlet where it’s located, Southern Living named Magnolia Springs one of The Most Charming Small Towns in Alabama.
Their specialties include unique cuts of dry and wet-aged steaks, bone-in cuts and fresh fish brought in daily. I ordered the shrimp and grits and more oysters than I should have and then headed down Oak Street, where live oak trees create a living canopy above the roadway, past the 19th century Episcopal Church and to the Magnolia Springs Bed and Breakfast, which dates to 1897, for a peak inside.
Co-owner Dave Worthington quickly volunteered to take me on a tour of the place, which has been a hotel since it opened. Leafing through a guest book dating back to the early 1900s, I can see this place was a hit, even though for visitors from Grand Rapids and Lawton, Michigan as well as Chicago and other far away northern climes it took two days and three modes of transportation to get down there back then first by train, then by boat, and finally by horse and buggy. And there wasn’t even air conditioning when they arrived.
But the food was good, the landscape serene and the fishing, I’m told, was great. I don’t know about the fishing now, but the town is beautiful and the inn serves a wonderful breakfast.
To give you a taste, here are some recipes Dave shared.
David’s Apple Dumplings
·1 red Delicious apple
·1 can crescent rolls
Cinnamon Sauce:
·Warm the following three ingredients until dissolved:
·1 1/2 cup orange juice
·3/4 cup sugar
·1/2 stick butter
Peel, core and cut apple into quarters or thirds. (You also can use a pear, peach, blackberries or a ball of cranberries anything that makes a good cobbler will be great for the filling).
Wrap 1/4 of Apple with one piece of crescent roll and seal all edges.
Place seam side down in Pyrex pan (9×13-inches).
Pour sauce over them then sprinkle with cinnamon.
Cook at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. till done.
Baste dumplings with sauce in the pan before moving to plate.
I drizzle a small amount of sweetened vanilla yogurt on top as icing.
Makes 8 dumplings cut in half to make 16 servings.
Dave also drizzles a small amount of sweetened vanilla yogurt on top as icing.
David’s Eggs
8 eggs
1 can green chilies
16 ounce cottage cheese large curd
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons flour
Shred cheese and coat with flour. Beat eggs with green chilies. Add cottage cheese, then cheddar cheese, and mix.
Pour into 9inch pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
Imagine strolling through Paris with a friend, one who knows the greatest little patisseries, cafes, outdoor markets and shops tucked along winding cobbled streets. Together the two of us try on amazingly chic designer dresses at La boutique Didier Ludot and amble through the courtyard gardens and gaze at the Swedish art work at Institut Suedois located in the Hôtel de Marle, a 16th century mansion in the heart of the central Marais district.
We order small plates of fantastic food amidst 19th century murals of clowns at the appropriately named Clown Bar, considered one of the city’s finest restaurants. After stopping to admire the Eiffel Tower, we trek even more before stopping to reward ourselves with ice cream at Berthillon Glacier. We are, definitely, Parisian insiders.
Wait—don’t have a friend in Paris? Don’t even have tickets or plans to go sometime soon? Well, Rick of Casablanca told Else they’d always have Paris and for the rest of us, before we get there, we’ll have the recently released Paris in Stride: An Insider’s Walking Guide(Rizzoli 2018; $27.50), co-authored by Jessie Kanelos Weiner, a Chicago gal who grew up on the Northside and Sarah Moroz both of whom have lived in Paris for the last decade. Charmingly illustrated with over 150 of Weiner’s delicate watercolors, the book curates walking itineraries the authors put together to go beyond the typical guidebooks.
“We wanted to put together walking tours of a timeless Paris, the type of Paris that will always be the same,” says Weiner. “We wanted something that wasn’t too text heavy, a book that was a jumping off point to see what you want to see, one that wasn’t prescriptive but takes you down the side streets.”
Paris is Weiner’s passion and wandering its streets is what she loves to do.
“It’s a city based on pleasure,” she says, “and one with many beguiling things along the way.”
I was invited to attend the International Puerto Vallarta Gourmet Food Festival, where chefs from around the world including the U.S., India, Sweden, Australia, South America and Europe, join the executive chefs of the many sophisticated city restaurants, developing recipes and menus during the weeklong annual event.
It’s a great time and way too much food and for a break, our host Gustavo Rivas-Sollis signed us up for a decidedly less upscale but just as delicious street food tour through downtown Puerto Vallarta. The 1.5-mile, four hour tour met at Vallarta and Aquiles Serdán Streets in the city’s Romantic Zone where Ricardo, our guide, gave us a list of the places we’d be visiting and an overview of the history and culture of the foods we’d be tasting as well as some of the sights we’d be passing such as Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a beautiful cathedral with Renaissance-styled towers and magnificent views of the city and water.
The stops, he told us, would include Mariscos El Güero where since 1989 the owners have shopped for fresh fish at the market early each morning, bringing back the best catch of the day to make their ceviche tostadas and other seafood dishes.
Not on our list, we also made an unplanned stop at the seafood market where Antonio from Mariscos El Güero and many other restaurateurs get their fish. I was invited to go out at 3 a.m. the next morning to experience the actual adventure of fishing but declined not being that early of a riser. Besides, I figured having been surrounded by the bins of octopus, shrimp, snapper and tuna was experience enough.
To finish up, Ricardo told us, we’d walk the Malecón—the lively and long boardwalk which stretches along the bay– for a taste of tuba, a type of drink made from coconut palm juice, walnuts, apples, sugar and several other “secret” ingredients all of which were marinated overnight. This tuba vendor, he told us, got to work at 7 a.m and dressed in all white including a large white hat, sold his drink until late at night. Intrigued, I tried to Google a recipe for tuba as we walked, but alas couldn’t find one. That was because, Ricardo told me, tuba wasn’t well known outside of Puerto Vallarta.
Our first stop was at Robles Birria Tacos, a more or less permanent food truck which has been in business since 1986. Luckily Ricardo has pull because there was a long line of people waiting to order but he was able to circumvent the queue. All the tables were taken and so once we got our tacos, we sat on the curb and ate—something many others were doing as well.
Cesar’s Coconut Stand was even less fancy. Set up on the sidewalk of Avenida Mexico, Cesar, who has been in business there since 1984, used a machete to slice open the hulls of coconuts he plucked from a large pile (he had even more in the back of his pickup truck which was parked next to the stand). Then using the tip of his machete, he gouged a hole in the top, stuck in a straw and handed one to each of us.
Ricardo described him as one of the busiest coconut vendors in the city, saying he sold over 900 coconuts a week. In what might be the ultimate drive through, people would pull their cars close to the stand, lower the window and place an order. Cesar handed them their drinks and bagged chunks of coconut meat in exchange for payment. Ricardo extolled the vir
Probably less healthy was our stop at Con Orgullo La Azteca Candy Store, a crowded place stacked with bags and bags of candies made with regional ingredients such as guava fruit, papaya, coconut, cane sugar, vanilla and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. More like a shrine than a bustling confectionary, the nearby Xocodiva, an artisanal chocolate shop, gave us samples and also a history lesson about the Mexican cacao bean which Ricardo assured us was the source of the world’s first chocolate and still the best.
El Güero Fish Tostados
2 pounds firm, fresh red snapper fillets (or other firm-fleshed fish), cut into 1/2 inch pieces, completely deboned
1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 cup of chopped fresh seeded tomatoes
1 serrano chili, seeded and finely diced
2 teaspoons of salt
Dash of ground oregano
Dash of Tabasco or a light pinch of cayenne pepper
Cilantro, Avocado, and Tostadas
In a non-reactive casserole dish, either Pyrex or ceramic, place the fish, onion, tomatoes, chili, salt, Tabasco, and oregano. Cover with lime and lemon juice. Let sit covered in the refrigerator for an hour, then stir, making sure more of the fish gets exposed to the acidic lime and lemon juices. Let sit for several hours, giving time for the flavors to blend.
Chop cilantro into tiny pieces. Cut avocado into cubes. Fry tostados in oil until crispy. Top with fish mixture and then cilantro and avocado.
Con Orgullo La Azteca Candy Store’s Cocada or Coconut Bark
1 large coconut, drained, peeled and grated
1 cup water or more as needed
1 pound sugar
3 beaten egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
Ground cinnamon to taste
Measure the liquid drained from the coconut, and add enough water to make three cups liquid. Place the liquid and the sugar in a saucepan and cook until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat, stir in beaten egg yolks and the grated coconut meat.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the bottom of the pan is visible. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Spread the cocada in a baking tray, sprinkle with cinnamon and allow it to cool completely before cutting into squares.
“We wanted to put together walking tours of a timeless Paris, the type of Paris that will always be the same,” says Weiner. “We wanted something that wasn’t too text heavy, a book that was a jumping off point to see what you want to see, one that wasn’t prescriptive but takes you down the side streets.”
The stops, he told us, would include 
