Laughing Ass Brewery

by Dave (Blogsmith Old) on

It looks like The Laughing Ass Brewing Company has the life: “Where we brew, drink, travel for and blog about beer.” Can’t get much better than that huh? For beer lovers at least…

Patrick Childress travels the world in search of good beer, and blogs about it when he’s not throwing them back. He’s been to the 24 Hours of Beer Festival and the Belgian Beer Fest, as well as parts of Germany and the Czech Republic. He is currently traveling through northern Belgium and just recently visited Dublin too. Follow along at his Laughing Ass blog – there are photos and brewers notes too.

One for the Road: Amazon Extreme

by Erik Olsen on

Despite first impressions,

Amazon Extreme is not the name of a new marketing program by the online bookseller. It is the name of the first
book by Colin Angus about a trip taken by him and two of his friends about rafting down (and almost dying on) the
Amazon river. They made the trip from the headwaters to the mouth in September 1999, and had several close calls
due, mostly, to lack of planning and negligence. But such things are often the stuff of tragedy which is, after all,
the soul of humor, and the book is said to deliver ample doses of both. Because of a personal fascination with the
Amazon River, I have added this book to my current reading list.

The Kungsleden in Sweden

by Erik Olsen on

It’s nice to see the Times do a bona-fide adventure piece. Seems like it’s been a while since I’ve read something
like this. And

this is a real sweet one, too. The author takes us to King’s Trail, or Kungsleden, in Sweden, a 265-mile trail that
can be traversed by cross-country skis and dog sled. And all along the way, you rest your weary bod down on beds/cots
in numerous comfy mountain huts. What a dream. The only thing missing, this being Sweden, after all, is the bikini
team. (just kidding!). But seriously, Scandinavia has got loads of places like this, where you can ski from hut to hut,
stopping beneath the gaping, Borealis smeared sky to take hefty gulps of Aquavit. It’s a white winter paradise if you
ask me. If you don’t, take a look at the excellent

gallery that accompanies this piece.

Vegetate

by Adrienne Wilson on

Even though the new vegetarian digs in D.C.’s historic Shaw neighborhood is facing a little trouble
getting their liquor license, the menu for delicious mostly animal-free bites sounds
promising. (See the news piece on the petition against the license.) For starters,
Vegetate promises to deliver only one thing and
that one thing is great food. Thank heavens! Think Jerk Tempeh, a mouth-watering large plate of sweet potato
latkes, greens, and a coconut jerk sauce or the goat cheese and sundried tomato tart.  Stomach growling yet?
Looking over the menu you’ll see a large mixture of ambrosial vegan dishes for those looking to chow on completely
animal-free meals. Vegetate makes no claim to be fully vegan or vegetarian as they realize the different forms the two
come in. 

In addition to healthy dinner plates the restaurant will also be serving musical tunes from DJ Dredd in the lounge
as well as an “On n Pop’n” art exhibit by Billy Colbert. If you’re anywhere in north
D.C.’s neck of the woods it might be quite beneficial to your palette to stop in. Vegetate is located at 1414 9th
Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

via TryVeg

One for the Road: Hungry Planet

by Kelly Amabile on

Today’s featured book chronicles in words and photos the weekly consumption of families around the globe.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats was created by the husband and wife team of photographer Peter Mensel and writer
Faith D’Aluisio, whose previous book,
Material
World, captured photos of people’s worldly possessions. For this new book, they visited 30 families in 24 countries
to compile a collection of eating habits around the world. Each chapter of the book features a family photo with the
entire family pictured alongside a week’s worth of groceries. A detailed list of all the food and the total cost is
also included for each family. NPR has a great
interview with the
couple about their experiences while traveling to create the book.