Fresh Fruits and the Nude Beach of Sauvie Island, Oregon

by Iva Skoch on

Portland, Oregon, is home to some wonderful sights and is a terrific, vibrant town nestled in some of the best scenery in the country. But, however picturesque the city is, you might still need to “get away from it all.” One of the best places to go is a small alluvial island near the convergence of the Columbia and Willamette (pronounced will-A-mit, sounds like “dammit”) rivers, called Sauvie Island.

It’s actually minutes from the center of town, but it’s worlds away. Here, the lovable hippie-grunginess of the Pacific Northwest meets the quaintness of Tuscany and the vistas of Switzerland. You can find ‘u-pick’ farms growing vegetables and flowers, along with dairy cows, horses, and a big wildlife preserve. There are camping locations, nature trails and beaches.

Right now is the time to head there to grab your late-summer-harvest fresh foods. Make sure to try the different berries indigenous to this region, such as the marionberry, which even grow wild on the roadsides. If you are not afraid of starches, test your orientation skills in the Corn Maize, an annual maze cut through a farmer’s field. A tip for runners or cyclists: the paved portion of the island is a scenic 12-mile loop of good, flat pavement.

The best time to go is early morning, when the quiet little rural island is still waking up. Clear days offer gorgeous views of both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood and very little traffic. It’s common legend that it has Portland’s only nude beach; but this, I can neither confirm or deny. I can confirm, however, as a former resident, that the legendary Pacific Northwest “Pillsbury-doughboy tan” can be spotted here, in the wild.

Oxtail Stew

by Adrienne Wilson on

Over the weekend my mother made some delicious oxtail stew. I slurped up the soup/stew base and noshed on the oxtails quietly with an extreme amount of guilt. Normally I’d sling back oxtails like it were broccoli or brussel sprouts, but all my marathon preparation and running has me feeling as if oxtails don’t quite make winning race formula. I should be eating fish, veggies, chicken and avoiding the hard to digest red-meats, pork and oxtail according to training know-it-all’s. And I’ll tell you this – I can’t wait until the race is over so I can fire all the know-it-alls and sit in my mama’s warm kitchen guilt-free.

In the meantime I figured Oxtail Stew isn’t the kind of dish shared by all cultures and people, but anyone wanting to try eating or cooking can start with these two recipes. The first from Jamaicans.com includes an assortment of veggies along with butter beans where this second recipe is accompanied by one man’s tale on how he fell in love with the stew on chilly days in the Alps. Erik, who creates the recipe from memory, suggests having some Pilsner around to wash the oxtail stew down. The photo above comes from Jamaicans.com, but Erik’s descriptions (without pictures) make me want to try his first. Check out the two options and tell us about your first encounter with oxtail stew. Was it in mama’s kitchen or someplace like the Alps?

Yum.

Budget Travel Online on Istanbul

by Adrienne Wilson on

My flight departs from Istanbul into Dushanbe at 8:30 PM next Thursday so I doubt I’ll be able to experience the nighttime splendors discussed in this Budget Travel Online piece. Bummer. My travel agent tried his best to convince me to stay in Istanbul for a few days before going into Takjikistan, but I told him another time. Part of me is wishing I hadn’t. The article compares the Bosporus megaclubs to Beyoglu’s European charm on the opposite of the Bosporus.

The Beyoglu area was once a scary, filthy part of Turkey where the story states people often came in groups of four since traveling as a pair to the area wasn’t a sufficient safety measure. Today the Beyoglu is home to various art nouveau buildings, galleries, restaurants and upscale boutiques. Travelers looking for a new taste of Turkey may want to visit this piece and later stop in to places like Araf (pictured) where a Turkish clarinetist, Selim Sesler plays atop of the roof on Tuesday nights. Drinking, laughter and one jammed-packed dance floor make this spot sound like one of many happening nighttime Istanbul places and space.

Party for me!

Traveling Food Festivals

by Erik Olsen on

Few things go better with travel than food. Isn’t that a big part of the whole reason we travel? I mean, one of the great wonders of the human race is how, over all the centuries and millennia we’ve been around, we’ve managed to create so many different cuisines, from the greasy, hyper-fattening, bland awfulness of British food (fish and chips excepted) to the mouth-searing, but divinely delicious bliss of Thai food.

So this lumbering preamble is to say that I think you should check out this post over at Slashfood that looks at some of the big food festivals around the country this year. Yes, I was talking in a more international sense, but here in the US we have all sorts of regions with their own specific cuisine or product worth celebrating. take, for example, the Gilroy garlic Festival. Sure, the town stinks (literally), but the festival, I have heard, is a really interesting and yummy experience. So pack your bags, warm up the car, and plan on hitting one of these festivals.

Red Corner: Vodka Hangover Cure

by Neil Woodburn on

Anyone who has ever been to Russia is very familiar with the Slavic passion for drink. Indeed, it is almost impossible to get in and out of the country without some friendly Russian sharing this passion with their new found friend: you!

There is simply no avoiding it. “I don’t want to drink,” is met with peer pressure far more intense than that experienced at an American high school dance with a smuggled bottle of Jack Daniels.

“But,” you are told by your new Russian buddy, “We drink to friendship. Friendship!” Realizing only a complete ass would turn down such a heartfelt toast, you acquiesce. Immediately thereafter, the horizontal surface upon which you took your first shot becomes a dangerously slippery slope, at the bottom of which you find yourself vomitous and eventually, deathly hung over.

The usual suspect in this obligatory Russian demise is vodka. Strangely, this Slavic turpentine rarely seems to have much of an effect upon your new Russian friends; not only are they less drunk than you, but the following morning they have almost no hangover.

How to Drink Vodka and Stay Sober is a wonderful post I ran across on Russian Blog (thanks to a tip from carpetblogger in Azerbaijan). It should be required reading for anyone applying for a Russian visa.

The post walks you through the pre-drinking stage (eat raw eggs), the drinking stage (post-shot herrings and sardines) the morning after (pound some pickle brine) as well as a number of other strange, but apparently effective cures.

Cheers!