White & Church in TriBeCa, New York, serves worm, scorpion, and cricket cocktails

by Jessica Festa on

This past summer, White & Church opened in TriBeCa, New York, as an inventive Italian restaurant with an extensive cocktail list. On the drink menu, not only will you find interesting food-based cocktails such as a Bloody Mary mixed with mussels, as well as nature-inspired libations including a martini made from smoked tree-bark, you will also find cocktails that include bugs.

No more are the days when you can get a drink on the house if you find an insect in your vodka. At White & Church, that insect is actually a garnish.

Some of the bug cocktail options you can sample here, according to Brian Niemietz of the New York Post, include:

  • Summer-This piña-colada style drink is garnished with bamboo (don’t eat) and crickets (eat). Supposedly, they add an element of sweetness to the cocktail.
  • Blue Velvet– This brandy-based libation is a mixture of Sambucca and Créme de Menthe and is topped with a scorpion. Don’t worry, it’s not alive.
  • Why Not– This frozen cocktail is similar to a margarita with the addition of avocado, red pepper, and spicy worms.

Want to see how these cocktails are made for yourself? Check out this video:


Ajungo, the new social network platform just for travelers

by Jessica Festa on

Sick of searching through advice sites and hearing reviews from who only knows? Wish you could connect with other travelers about past or upcoming trips and events? Love social networking but wish you could interact with others in your travel niche? Then there is a brand new social media website just for travelers that brings together all of these platforms into one site.

Ajungo, created by Ben Barton and Steve Shea, is a brand new networking site that allows travelers to connect before, during, and after a trip. Here is how it works:

1) Create a profile and link all of your social networking sites. What this does is allows the site to funnel through your social networking platforms to pull information and funnel it around specific
destinations.

2) Find others who have been to your destination of choice and look through their posted trip or ask them for advice. Or, you can find others who will be in your destination of choice and plan to meet up or travel together.

3) Create your trip canvas, which consists of enabling the sites real-time travel guide feature so that the site can pull your photos and updates while you’re on your trip. This allows other travelers to learn from your experience as well as acts like a blog or trip journal by keeping your trip memories organized and sharing them with friends.

The goal of the site is to make travel more social as well as more comfortable for people going to new destinations. And, if there is any information that you do not want shared, the site will not post it without your permission.

Make connections with travelers, view their trips, find travel buddies, or just interact with others in the travel community. It is all possible on Ajungo.

Young climber falls to his death in the Adirondacks

by Kraig Becker on

A young climber by the name of Matthew Potel was leading a group of college classmates on a hike through the Adirondacks last week when he slipped and fell to his death. Potel, who was the co-president of his university’s outdoors club, was assisting two other hikers past a waterfall when he lost his footing on slick rocks.

The seven-person group, all from Binghamton University in New York, were climbing up Trap Dike, a popular route on Mount Colden, when the accident occurred. That approach is a steep and challenging, non-technical, climb to the top of the 4715-foot peak that can present some challenges to inexperienced hikers. Potel reportedly helped one of his classmates negotiate a particularly tricky section, then turned to assist another when he lost his footing and fell 25-feet. The 22-year old, who was not wearing a helmet, died from an injury to his head.

Potel was an experienced outdoorsman who loved the Adirondack Mountains. In fact, he had recently become a member of the “46ers,” a term given to anyone who has climbed all 46 of the mountains in that range that are at least 4000 feet in height. He had also served as a camp counselor and was majoring in environmental studies.

This is a sad story that underscores the importance of safety in all of our outdoor endeavors. Matthew wasn’t climbing an especially tall or dangerous mountain, and yet he still lost his life while on the trail. According to his father however, this is exactly how the young man would have wanted to go – doing something he loved.

Our condolences to his friends and family.

Inside Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual Chile Pepper Fiesta

by Jessica Festa on

Last Saturday, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden held their annual Chile Pepper Fiesta, a mix of music, dancing, beer, chocolate, and, best of all, chile peppers. Being a hot sauce junky myself, I was really excited for my quest around the numerous kimchee and spicy pickle stalls to try to find something that would really make my throat burn.

While the event hosted various educational lectures on green living, gardening, and cooking, the real fun here was the samples. Various spicy dips, vegetables, condiments, salsa’s and more were dispersed around the gardens, allowing for a picturesque setting while you (willingly) set your mouth on fire. Although I can honestly say that there was nothing I didn’t enjoy trying, my top pick for tasty and spicy sauces was Grace Foods. They sell a line of Caribbean-style products, and their Grace Jerk Hot Seasoning, which has hot peppers from Jamaica as well as Scotch Bonnet peppers, was flavorful while creating that intense but enjoyable spice that creeps up on you at the end. Karma Sauce also had an array of sauce flavors to sample, including Good, Bad, Curry, Smokey, and Catsup. The Bad was actually really Good, tasting like a sweet red pepper and then slowly bringing on the heat. I was definitely thankful for the live bands at the event and the beer tent to be able to relax and reset my palate.

While sampling the savory sauces, drinking pumpkin beer, and watching Caribbean dancers made for a great day, the real highlight was in Osbourne Garden, which had been transformed into a Chile Chocolate Wonderland. While I always put hot sauce and peppers on my meals, the concept of mixing chiles with desert was new to me. However, after sampling the various spicy cookies, chile-infused chocolate bars, and pepper-flavored truffles, I was instantly addicted. I also learned there is a demand for spicy chocolate in Brooklyn, New York, as there were tons of chile-chocolate connoisseurs at the event. My absolute favorite treat in this area was, without a doubt, Tumbador Chocolate’s Hot Hot Chocolate. For $1 you could buy a small Dixie cup of the stuff, which was thick and creamy and, of course, spicy.

If you’re in Brooklyn, New York, and want to sample some spicy chocolate of your own, here is a list of excellent places to try:

Tumbador Chocolate
34 34th St., Brooklyn
(718) 788 0200

nunu chocolates
529 Atlantic Ave., between 3rd and 4th Ave., Brooklyn
(917) 776 7102

The Chocolate Room
86 Fifth Ave., Park Slope, Brooklyn
(718) 783 2900

269 Court St.,Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
(718) 246 2600

Liddabit Sweets
Check out the Brooklyn Flea Market on Saturdays for their stall at 45 Main St., Brooklyn
info@liddabitsweets.com

Mast Brother’s Chocolate
105A North 3rd St., Brooklyn
(718) 388 2625

Interesting indoor spaces around the world

by Laurel Miller on

I love the outdoors, to the extent that I tend to bypass or overlook exceptional indoor spaces when I’m traveling or recounting a great trip. Fortunately, Lonely Planet author/former Gadling contributor Leif Pettersen’s recent list on LP’s website has reminded me that—as many a grandmother has said—beauty is on the inside.

Pettersen says only in recent years has he developed a special appreciation for the indoors. He had ample time to contemplate his new interest “during two sadistically cold weeks last winter when I voluntarily confined myself to the Minneapolis Skyway System as a livability experiment for an article I was working on.”

He’s since started a list of “singular, practical” indoor spaces (traveloguebookdealforthewin!) of note, including (obviously) Minneapolis’ Skyway System (“The largest contiguous skyway system in the world, connecting what may be the largest contiguous indoor space anywhere.”); Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar; Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure; NYC’s Grand Central Terminal (aka Grand Central Station); St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and the Queen Mary 2. Here’s to keeping warm indoors this winter.

[Photo credit: Flickr user davedehetre]