Photo Of The Day: St. Pancras

by Alex Robertson Textor on

It’s five years this month since the Eurostar began its run from the renovated St. Pancras train station. The station remains a tour-de-force of a hub. This may be the only train station in the UK that feels truly European, and not only because it connects to the European train grid. St. Pancras is densely useable and grand, with a real buzz – like a train station of yesteryear, the sort of place you might have read about as a child. Flickr user nan palmero captures some of the station’s buzz in the above image.

Upload your best images to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We choose our favorites from the pool to be Photos of the Day.

[Image: nan palmero | Flickr]

See Santa Differently With Fun Alternative Events

by Chris Owen on

A trip to see Santa is part of the holidays for many families with children. Mixed in with shopping at a local mall or a special trip just to visit with Santa and his elves, reindeer or even Mrs. Claus, it’s a required part of holiday tradition. But if standing in a long line has lost a bit of its luster, some alternative events might be worth the trip for a Santa experience like no other.

Santa In The Park– Minnesota
In Minnesota, they know all about cold, snowy holiday weather. On December 8, the Carver County Parks and Carver County Historical Society have a great alternative for standing in line for an hour for three minutes with Santa at the mall. Featuring free snowshoe trails (conditions permitting), holiday trivia games, holiday treat decorating, holiday face painting and more, a variety of family focused holiday activities are available on Saturday, Dec. 8 between 3-5 p.m. Lake Minnewashta Regional Park

Heights And Lights- Connecticut
Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, rappelling from 22 stories high above Stamford Downtown. Watch and cheer for Santa Claus as he makes his daredevil descent, twisting and flying from the top of one of Stamford’s tallest buildings, Landmark Square, at Heights and Lights. Next, follow Santa up Bedford Street to Latham Park for an evening of holiday fun with live music, and join in the countdown of the annual lighting of Stamford’s Holiday Tree. Sunday, December 2, 2012, 5 p.m.High-Speed Santa– Connecticut
Board the locomotive-powered sleigh of the Essex Steam Train for a one-of-a-kind holiday experience aboard festive railway cars adorned with vintage decorations, as Santa and Mrs. Claus visit each child. Rudolph and Pablo the Penguin will be on board to spread holiday cheer. Plus, each child will receive a small holiday gift from Santa’s Elves. Happening now through December 23, tickets start at $20 per person for the one-hour ride with departures at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., and 11:30 a.m. on select operating days.

Skydiving Santa Arrives- Texas
Galveston’s Moody Gardens has a Festival of Lights that has become a Texas holiday tradition. Visitors enjoy more than 1 million lights within 100 sound-enhanced animated light displays and nightly live entertainment. Hosting the area’s only outdoor ice-skating rink and a new ice slide, Santa is on hand too, arriving via parachute as we see in this video:



[Photo Credit- Flickr user Bart Fields]

Hotel News We Noted: November 30, 2012

by McLean Robbins on

Greetings from warm and sunny Miami! Checking out one of the East Coast’s hottest hotel scenes is certainly a nice respite from the chilly temperatures we’ve been having up north. Next week, we’ll have a full report on our visits.

It has been a busy week in the hotel world. Many of our favorite properties offered Cyber Monday deals and even more put out holiday promotions. From Hanukkah to New Year’s Eve, hotels across the world are getting in the festive spirit.

Here’s our weekly roundup of “Hotel News We Noted.”

Want to know what’s coming up? We’re showcasing 12-12-12 and “end of the world” packages next week, as well as seeking out the coolest NYE packages you can find. Send ’em our way!

Cool Contest: Undercover Boss at Diamond Resorts
We generally love anything where we have a chance to win a trip, but this promotion is one of our favorites – because it gives people a chance to experience our jobs in real life! In celebration of Diamond Resorts International’s appearance on “Undercover Boss,” the group is giving ten lucky families the chance to star in their own, real-life version of the hit program. This sweepstakes celebrates the return of Diamond Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen J. Cloobeck to the popular reality series – the first time that any Chief Executive has made a second appearance on the program. Enter here to win a free vacation consisting of a seven-day, six-night stay at select locations within the collection. The families will enjoy the Diamond Resort experience as “undercover” agents, and report directly back to Cloobeck with an evaluation of their stay.

Haute Hotel Restaurants: Element 47 at The Little Nell
It’s officially ski season, although we’re generally more excited about après ski than we are about hitting up the latest double black diamond. Which explains why we can’t wait to visit Element 47 at the acclaimed Little Nell resort, located at the base of Aspen Mountain. The farm-to-table restaurant will include dishes like Wagyu Tartare with gruyere, purple mustard, pastrami spice and quail egg; Sorrel Cured Atlantic Fluke with blood orange, petite lettuce and green olive; Wild and Cultivated Mushrooms with roasted, flan, tortellini and herbs; and Local Anjou Pear Agnolotti with wagyu bresaola, celeriac and pickled chanterelles. Yum. We’re hungry already.Hotel Opening: Singita Mara River
Glamping and luxury lovers rejoice. Acclaimed luxury game reserve brand Singita has opened their latest tented camp in Tanzania, Singita Mara River. Located in the secluded Lamai triangle, the new resort runs entirely on solar power. Extremely intimate (just six tents), the resort is edgy and fun, featuring a lounge, dining area, bar tent and plunge pool. Of course, all good things come at a price – rates are $1,200 per person per night in high season, going up to $1,275 in the new year.

Missed Cyber Monday? Here’s Another “Suite” Deal
Las Alamandas is offering a post Cyber Monday promo of 20% off suites, good for stays between December 19 and January 2, 2013. New Year’s Eve getaway, anyone? The 17-suite resort is located south of Puerto Vallarta and includes amenities like shaded terraces, private Jacuzzis and oversized tubs. A minimum four-night stay is required, and bookings must be made by December 5.

Hotels We’re Dying to Visit: Radisson Blu Nantes
We’ve long been interested in Radisson’s cool boutique brand, Radisson Blu, but even more so now thanks to the opening of their latest property in Nantes, France. The company’s newest flagship debuts after a five-year renovation of an 1851-era building that served as the Nantes Court of Law until 2000. The coolest part? Their restaurant is located in the building’s former grand courtroom and its wine cave is located in the former trial judge’s chambers. We know where we’ll be staying next time we’re in the Loire area.

[Image Credit: Radisson Blu Nantes]

Avoiding Altitude Woes: What To Bring On Your Next Ski Trip

by Laurel Miller on

There are few things that bum out a ski trip more than altitude issues. Even if your symptoms are just in the form of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) – headache, fatigue, dizziness, insomnia or nausea – it’s often enough to make you wish you’d stayed at home.

I live in Colorado, and have resided in a couple of high-altitude ski towns in the past. Since our ski season just kicked off, for the purposes of this post I’m only focusing on AMS, rather than more serious forms of altitude sickness.

Predisposition to AMS is subjective. Age, physiology, genetics, and physical fitness may or may not play a role. If, however, you’ve got congestive heart failure, a nice alpine getaway may not be the best thing. Conversely, if you’re not in the habit of drinking lots of water at elevation, you’re going to feel like hell, regardless of how fit you are.

The higher the elevation, the harder your body has to work, because air pressure is lower (i.e. there’s less oxygen, which is also why it’s dehydrating). The body responds by producing more red blood cells to increase circulation. The short answer is, high elevations stress the body.

To ensure your next visit to the mountains is free of altitude-related woes, follow these tips:

  • Hydrate – with water, not soda or other sugary beverages – then hydrate some more. Amounts vary depending upon your gender, activity level and weight; 2.5 liters a day is considered a rough daily estimate necessary for good health at sea level. If you’re seriously shredding the pow, then a sports drink with electrolytes at day’s end is also a good idea.
  • If you have health concerns, acclimate slowly, if possible. Try to spend a night at a lower elevation before heading to your destination. Example: Fly into Denver (5,280 feet), before heading to Aspen (7,890 feet).
  • Go easy the first 48 hours, as you acclimatize.
  • Since you’re burning and expending more calories, be sure to eat small, regular meals or snacks when you’re out there tearing it up on the slopes.
  • Reduce (I know better than to say “avoid”) consumption of alcohol. At altitude, one drink has double the impact. This makes for a cheap date, but it can do a number on your head and body. Pace yourself, and drink a glass of water in between each alcoholic beverage. You’re welcome.
  • Take Diamox, ibuprofen, or aspirin, which will eliminate many of your symptoms such as headache, sluggishness, or dizziness. When I attended culinary school in Vail, one of our classrooms was located at 11,000 feet. Our first week of school, most of us were nodding off due to the altitude, and aspirin was far more effective than caffeine.
  • If you’re having trouble sleeping, you can try an OTC, or avail yourself of the local hot tub or a warm bath before bed (remember to hydrate afterward!). If you already have insomnia issues, be sure to bring your prescription or regular OTC with you.
  • Slather on the sunscreen. Not only is the sun far stronger at elevation, but its reflection off the snow can reduce your skin and eyes to cinders. Know what else a potent sunburn does? Speeds dehydration. As well as photoaging and skin cancer, but that’s a topic for another article.
  • Don’t get cocky. I live at 5360 feet, and sometimes, even I forget to follow my own advice – a certain crushing hangover in Vail two weeks ago comes to mind. Just because you live at altitude doesn’t mean you’re used to higher altitude. You’ll be better conditioned, yes. But you still need to hydrate regularly, and for the love of god, go easy on the bourbon rocks.

For more detailed information on altitude sickness, including extreme elevations, click here.

Wishing you a safe, happy snow season!

[Photo credits: skier, Flickr user laszlo-photo; tea, Flickr user Kitty Terwolbeck]

Gadling Contributors’ Favorite Restaurants Of 2012

by David Farley on

I take pictures of my food at restaurants. Do you hate me now? Yeah, I thought so. I do it because I’m a food writer and I use the photos to jog my memory when I’m writing about a restaurant. But also sometimes I do it for the same reason a lot of other people do: because I’m so smitten with the taste of what I’m eating that I want something to take with me when the flavor has long disappeared from my palate. There’s an anti-foodie backlash, that dismissive irony that hipsters gave to the world – the one that says: we can’t be enthusiastic about anything and if we appear to look that way, it’s just because we’re being ironic.

Remember when you had to go to an Italian specialty shop to get olive oil? Or when the only tacos you could find were made of ground beef and impossible-to-melt cheddar cheese? No? Well, trust me. The year 2012 is a much better time to be a lover of food than the past decades. It’s a good thing that we care about what we eat; that we want to know where it comes from; that we’re supporting more farmers and fewer corporations. And it’s okay to be so crazy about what you’re eating that you can’t help but snap a picture of your plate. Go ahead.

Below is a list – in alphabetical order – of Gadling writers’ favorite restaurants of 2012. No word on if they snapped shots of their food. They did, though, leave very satisfied.DAVID FARLEY
Gastrologik, Stockholm
There’s been so much talk about the triumph of Nordic cuisine the last couple years. I spent my first time in Scandinavia-in Stockholm, to be exact-eating my way through the handsome city of water and islands. My favorite meal was at chef Jacob Holmstrom’s restaurant, Gastrologik, where I feasted on a multi-course dinner. Dishes included a smooth crème of rooster liver, deep-fried cod belly, and fork-tender reindeer.

L’Osteria Monteverde, Rome
I spent one night in Rome earlier this year and my friend Pancho took me to this unassuming restaurant in the Monteverde neighborhood. It’s part of a trend in Roman dining right now where a talented chef takes over the space of a neighborhood eatery outside the center of town (where the rents are cheaper), does little to the décor, and quickly transforms the place into a destination restaurant. The menu listed what seemed like some tricked-out versions of classics but I went with the traditional carbonara and didn’t regret it.

In New York, there were just too many to keep it to one, so I’ll briefly mention my faves: Ngam in the East Village for an impressive fusion of American comfort food and northern Thai cuisine (the massaman curry pot pie makes me salivate); Mission Chinese Food on the Lower East Side for just about everything on the menu; and ditto for Fort Defiance in Brooklyn’s Red Hook which hit the mark on everything I ate there.

RACHEL FRIEDMAN
Bernys, Bateman’s Bay, Australia
This summer a friend and I drove Australia’s little appreciated south coast roads from Sydney to Eden. Along the way, we stopped off in the seaside town of Bateman’s Bay. Eager to get an insider’s view of the popular tourist destination, we asked a group of local fishermen where to get lunch. They recommended Bernys, a brightly painted but ramshackle place serving up fresh oysters, a dozen for a mere six Aussie dollars. We piled back into the car with two loads and headed to the nearest beach. Parked at a picnic table, we spent a blissfully lazy hour snacking on our mouth-watering mollusks.

ALLISON KADE
Flatbush Farm, Brooklyn
I really loved Flatbush Farm when I was there and had this incredible bean dish, and an incredible polenta dish. But they change their menu all the time, depending on what’s seasonal, which is part of the charm.

COLLEEN KINDER
Barboncino, Brooklyn
I have only love songs to sing for Barboncino, a newish wood oven pizza place on Franklin Avenue. Their basic, cheese-less marinara pizza, as sweet as it is garlicky, makes you wonder whether cheese is a cover-up for inferior sauces. Delicious and the perfect portion for one. For brunch, the egg pizza is surprisingly good, and well-paired with a Nutella calzone. Decadence.

JEREMY KRESSMAN
Pok Pok NY, New York City
New York is probably the last place you’d expect to find mind-blowing Southeast Asian cuisine – many of the tropical herbs and fragrant spices that make cuisines like Thai so wonderful and flavorful are hard to come by on the other side of the world in a cold-weather climate like New York City. So I was dumbstruck to discover earlier this year that Portland chef Andy Ricker would be opening an outpost of his award-winning Thai restaurant near me in Brooklyn. There’s no shortage of standouts on the menu, but the Northern Thai-style specialties are the best: the outstanding Chiang Mai-style Khao Soi soup is a wonderful sensory and flavor overload–crispy noodles, tangy citrus and milky coconut broth held together by a fiery mixture of spices. The “Sai Ua Samun Phrai” (Chiang Mai grilled sausage with spicy green chili dip) is a “punch in the mouth” in the best possible sense of the term – pairing, savory, smoky sausage with bitter squash and a spicy dipping sauce.

PAM MANDEL
Bakery Nouveau. Seattle
Sometimes I go for coffee and baked goods – they make an amazing twice baked almond croissant that’s stuffed with marzipan and smothered in butter, but they also make a beautiful custardy quiche and their California club sandwich is avocado, bacon, Havarti, and a not to garlic-y aoli on their own crumbling, delicate croissants. There’s nearly always a line and it is always worth the wait.

JESSICA MARATI
Wolfnights, New York City
The Brother’s Grimm at Wolfnights NYC is quite possibly the most delicious wrap I have ever had in my life, and I don’t even like wraps. This little roll of heaven contains spicy grilled chicken, pickled shitake mushrooms, raisins, plantain chips, and a generous dose of chipotle aioli sauce, all wrapped in a freshly made chestnut and chilly dough. Cost? A reasonable $7.95. I go at least once a week.

GRANT MARTIN
Longman & Eagle, Chicago
Longman & Eagle has been getting some well-deserved great press for the past couple of years due to a combination of great food, warm atmosphere and the cute six-room inn that they’ve established above their Logan Square restaurant. The fare could be best described as local comfort food that’s pricey but not expensive, while the clientele and staff could be in the same category. The menu changes seasonally, but if you get the chance try the delicious wild boar sloppy joe. And don’t forget to sample part of the whiskey menu – their selection is unparalleled.

LAUREL MILLER
OAK at Fourteenth, Boulder, CO
Dinner with Grant and Liz, last week. They have a dish of San Marzano tomatoes-braised meatballs and burrata cheese, served on Anson Mills grits. It’s like nirvana on a plate.

MEG NESTEROV
Thinking about my travel this year, I’d recommend a few places:

Kantin, Istanbul
One of my favorite neighborhood spots in ladies-who-lunch Nisantasi is open just for lunch. There are no printed menus, just whatever is seasonal and fresh is written on chalkboards. I’m still trying to recreate their watermelon lemonade, and you can’t go wrong with a savory pastry or kebab. Even better is the dukkan (shop) downstairs where you can take more treats home.

Pesti Diszno, Budapest
The chalkboard pig outline logo drew me into this “gastropub” (pork was always inviting when I didn’t get much living in Istanbul), and it was one of my favorite meals in Budapest. The design and lighting feels like a hip bar, but the waiters still treated us like VIPs even with a baby and no Hungarian. I had one of the best hot dogs of my life there, if you could call such a wonder of meat a hot dog. Fun place to try traditional Hungarian food with a twist.

Beast, Brooklyn
I’ve had many a boozy brunch and extended dinner at Beast in years past, and I’ve returned there more than any other place since I’ve moved back to NYC. It feels unpretentious and cozy, yet the food is surprisingly innovative and gourmet. The outstanding burger made with a mix of meats, and the fried manchego cheese bites are so good, you’ll order a second plate. They also have some of my favorite bathroom graffiti ever.

DAVE SEMINARA
Carmelo’s Brick Oven Pizza, New York City
Growing up, my brother Peter was known as the family garbage disposal. You could put a pile of pig slop in front of him and he’d rave that it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. So I was more than a little surprised when he spent a small fortune on a mobile wood-fired pizza oven a couple years back in order to found a small mobile pizza business, Carmelo’s Brick Oven Pizza. He studied the art of pizza making and within a year, he was hitching his mobile oven to the back of his truck and catering parties and events. When he bragged that he made the best pizza in New York, I assumed that he was full of crap. That is, until I actually tried it this year and had to admit that it was just as good as the famous Da Michele in Naples and much better than just about every other Neapolitan-style pizza I’ve had anywhere. Sometimes the most prolific eaters also make very good cooks.

[Photo by David Farley]