Woman snagged at airport for packing banana plants in her underwear

by Jamie Rhein on

I suppose if you’re flying domestically in the U.S. and had three banana plants in your underwear while going through a security check, particularly if you’re female, you’d attract attention. But, after discovering you were packing banana plants and not a pistol, you might be allowed to walk on your merry way.

Although, just how well one could walk is another issue. Seriously, if you had three banana plants in your underwear, could you walk?

In the airport in Sydney, Australia, according to this story published in the Sydney Morning Herald, if you have even one banana plant in your underwear, you’d be in a whole mess of trouble. A whole world of trouble. More trouble than you probably ever imagined.

You’d be in trouble even if the plant was not in your underwear but tucked under your arm like a rolled up newspaper–Or if you were wearing it like a hat.

It’s illegal to bring banana plants into Australia no matter how you are carrying them. Banana plants carry nasty ailments that sound as if they could be sexually transmitted diseases.

“Better not, I have black sigatoka disease,” one might say. Or how about “fusarium wilt?”– or “moko disease?”

The woman apprehended by customs officials at the airport in Australia was trying to smuggle the plants in from Samoa. Although she doesn’t have any funky sounding diseases, she could be looking at 10 years in jail and a $66,000 Australian dollar fine for threating Australia’s banana industry.

Dine for charity at The Palm

by Jamie Rhein on

If you’re looking for a reason to splurge on a restaurant meal, here’s one. The Palm Restaurant group, as part of its aim to raise money for the non-profit organization Dress for Success, has a special menu for lunch and dinner through October 31.

If you order from the Fall for Success lunch or dinner menus, part of the proceeds will go to this charity that provides “economic independence of disadvantaged women.”

Menu items are creative and yummy. Ordering a meal isn’t required. There are appetizers, side dishes, salad and a desert if you’re on a tighter budget.

I’d go for the Parmesan Truffle fries for $8, or for a splurge the Nova Scotia Lobster Nachos for $18. Molten Chocolate cake is the desert offering. (Click here for the rest of the menu.)

The history of the restaurant is another reason to head here regardless of giving money to a worthy cause.

Although there are 25 Palm restaurant locations from Boston to L.A., and in Mexico City and San Juan, the Palm Group is still owned by the family who founded it. The original Palm Restaurant on 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, now a historic landmark opened its doors in 1926 as an Italian eatery featuring dishes from Parma Italy.

This restaurant is one of those famous places worth heading to for its history alone. Back when it first opened, the family couldn’t afford artwork so whenever local newspaper men came to eat, they were given a free plate of spaghetti in exchange for a drawing on the wall. The walls still boast the caricatures and cartoons of their efforts.

Here’s a detail that anyone who has traveled to another country and has struggled to say the name of a place correctly can relate to. The family really wanted the name of the restaurant to be Parma, but when applying for a business license the person who applied had an accent that made Parma sounded like Palm. Considering the restaurant’s expansion to California, perhaps this was unwittingly visionary.

Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern partners up with Pepto-Bismol

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Now this is a match made in heaven.

Travel Channel host Andrew Zimmern, whose show Bizarre Foods has made him famous for his love of unusual, stomach-churning fare, has agreed to endorse the famed indigestion-reliever, Pepto-Bismol. (Was Imodium AD’s offer too low, Andrew?)

Zimmern’s new Taste Adventure Guides, which provide the low-down on the culinary scene in several US cities, are featured on the CherryPepto website— which, I know, you already have bookmarked.

Zimmern’s guides might be helpful on your next trip around the US, especially if you’re interested in sampling some one-of-a-kind food, but if you head over there to check them out, be ready for a very pink website.

Crashing parties to get free food and drink is on the rise

by Jamie Rhein on

If you saw Wedding Crashers, you are familiar with the story idea of people pretending to be connected to the bride or groom in some manner in order to have access to the single women attendees.

The possibility of a sexual tryst is not the only reason to pretend to be what you’re not.

According to this article at am New York, there are some people in New York City who pose as reporters in order to get into “swanky” events. The desire for free food and drinks is presented as one of the motivations. Another is to have up close and personal access to important people.

Lately, according to the article, the number of folks sporting fake ID or phony media-style business cards to gain access to party bliss, has dramatically increased. Another result of the economic doldrums, perhaps? Maybe it’s the stockbrokers who are off the A-list looking to regain the glory days?

It doesn’t sound as if those who try this tactic have a heck of a lot of success, although, they must have some because they keep trying.

A psychology professor who was asked to come up with reasons why people might attempt such antics said that it might be because people who try to get into fancy events who don’t belong may have a low sense of self worth and want to feel better about themselves.

Harumph! I’m thinking it’s because it’s a game to play. That, and the free food and libations.

Who hasn’t eyed that pastry tray laden with goodies or enormous piles of cubed cheese with toothpicks for dainty eating, the cornerstone of convention center events. There they are just inside the door of the room that is connected to the hallway through which you’re passing. So yummy looking. . . So free.

I’m not saying I’d grab one, not even an almond croissant, but isn’t temptation one of those fleeting thoughts?

Cocktails from around the world, and where to try them

by Jeffrey White on

Scene 1: It’s 6 a.m. on a weekday a few years ago, and I am waiting for a flight at Iceland’s main airport outside Reykjavik. I’m sitting at a bar, wiping sleep from my eyes, while those around me are drinking beer to chase shots of something clear from small glasses. I fall into conversation with a man who tells me it’s Brennivan, Iceland’s national spirit. Basically, it’s fermented potato pulp. I down a shot. It’s not unlike vodka, but not like vodka either. Maybe it’s the caraway seeds. It’s bracing, like a bath in ice water. The man pats me on the back, and orders us two more.

Scene 2: I’m in Berlin, at a cocktail bar with a few friends from out of town who I know from my days living in Prague. One orders a Pisco Sour, explaining that it’s made of a grape liqueur, brandy, lemon and egg white, and I think some milk. It looks like lemonade with a cappuccino head (pictured). As someone who avoids milk-like drinks, with or without alcohol, I reluctantly tried it. It was seriously good, almost like desert in a glass, which the most dangerous cocktails always evoke.

Both scenes are related.In a sense, in both cases I considered a country’s national beverage, or at least a beverage that originated in a particular country. But in only one was I actually drinking it at the place of origin. The Pisco Sour is the national drink of Peru, my friend having just returned from there where she had fallen in love with the drink.

Does it matter if you drink Brennivan in Iceland or Iowa? Not really, though there is the Guinness case to be made with many drinks: They taste different there versus here (though one cannot really say this about Brennivan, since you’ll only drink it in Des Moines if you bring a bottle back from Reykjavik).

It was perhaps in the spirit of linking famous cocktails and spirits with their place of origin that lead MSNBC.com recently to list where to go to get certain tipples at their best. So, go to Reykjavik for potato pulp, or Lima for the best Pisco Sour.

The list does have some surprises. Of course you know that a Cosmopolitan is best found in New York, and surely a good Irish Coffee is at home in Dublin. But what about the Bloody Mary and a Sex on the Beach? Try Paris, France, for the former — where it was invented — and Ibiza, Spain, for latter, where it competes only with Sangria for supremacy.

According to MSNBC, the best Mojito is in Miami, the best Caipirinha in Rio and — duh — the best Gin & Tonic is in London. Berlin is known for the Watermelon Man (news to me), Singapore, not surprisingly, for the Singapore Sling and Cape Town is home to the Elephant’s Ear. Head to Stockholm for pretty much any flavored Absolute you fancy.

Curious to learn what some of these drinks are? Head over to MSNBC, where you can find photos, directions for making them and specific spots to try them in your future travels.