After returning from a recent trip to Bolivia, my friends and family had little to ask me about what I did or where I went. While they had heard of the precarious Death Road, the high altitude city of La Paz and the old mining town of Potosi, what they were really curious to know was what I had eaten.
The cuisine in Bolivia is characterized by the country’s high altitude and Andean landscape, ancient Inca growing methods like terrace farming, and flavors brought over by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Because of their climate and location, an abundance of potatoes, corn and quinoa can be grown. For example, there are about 200 varieties of potatoes, 1,500 varieties of corn and 1,800 varieties of quinoa in the Andean region. Not surprisingly, these foods tend to be incorporated into many meals. Typically, Bolivians eat a simple breakfast, a mid-morning snack, a leisurely lunch consisting of several courses, tea and biscuits around 5 p.m. and a light dinner.
For a more visual idea of the typical food fare in Bolivia, check out the gallery below.
Tomorrow, July 20, thousands of Muslims will wake up around the world and begin a month-long fast for the occasion of Ramadan. From sunrise to sunset, they will abstain from eating, drinking, and smoking, while breaking the fast with lively Ramadan iftar feasts at night. This year is special as it will coincide with the London Olympics, and UK mosques will be welcoming people from all over the world from every faith (or lack there of) to join in the celebratory feasts. If you are visiting London, you can learn more about the Ramadan holy month or join an iftar. You can visit www.iftar2012.com for more information.
If you’d like to share your travel photos or videos with us, add them to the Gadling Flickr pool or post a link below.
President Ronald Reagan dedicated National Ice Cream month in 1984. It’s not like we need an excuse to eat dessert, but, as excuses go, this one is pretty darn good. So grab a spoon and dig in – these great hotels across the country offer up sweet treats ranging from childhood favorites to adults-only concoctions.
Spaghetti al Pomodoro Gelato and a Chocolate Avocado Corn Ice Cream Taco at Four Seasons Hotels
Four Seasons hotels have gotten into the sweet stuff with a passion. A number of hotels are offering special ice cream treats this summer, including the Four Seasons St. Louis, which has a special “spaghetti” gelato, a sweet play on the savory dish made with house-made vanilla gelato pressed through a potato ricer [made to look like pasta], topped with mixed berry sauce, mint and shaved white chocolate. Four Seasons Austin gives a nod to their Tex-Mex roots with “taco” ice cream made with a taco-shaped, house-made vanilla wafer with the creaminess of milk chocolate ice cream. The chef’s milk chocolate ice cream is made with avocado and ancho chile powder for that extra kick, then scooped into individual taco shells and garnished with sliced ancho chiles, creamy avocado and bits of corn and caramel corn.
Spiked Milkshakes at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
The hotel’s Boulevard Pool Deck makes hot summer days a bit more enjoyable with alcohol-infused ice cream sundaes, spiked milkshakes and adult popsicles created by The Cosmopolitan’s resident mixologist. Sundaes include a “Breakfast of Champions” made from Pink Squirrel Ice Cream, topped with Framboise and Cap’n Crunch Crunchberries, and “The Grass is Always Greener,” a mix of Grasshopper Ice Cream with Van Gogh Dutch Caramel Vodka, Salted Caramel Sauce and Thin Mint Cookies.
All You Can Eat Ice Cream at Hotel Triton You can get a sundae anywhere, but what about an entire ice cream suite? The Hotel Triton in San Francisco has a special Ice Cream Suite in their 140-room boutique hotel. The Haagen-Dazs “Sweet Suite” is decorated in colors reminiscent of Vanilla and Caramel and has “flavorful” details like ice cream scented candles. The best part? A “Sweet Spot” in the room – a freezer filled with the brand’s ice cream and ice cream bars, plus bowls, scoops and spoons to enjoy the treats. An overnight comes with an unlimited supply.
Bacon Ice Cream and More at Omni Hotels
The family-friendly brand has launched a special “Art of Water” menu, available now through Labor Day, which features specialty cocktails and treats to keep cold. The most creative addition to the menu is a bacon ice cream sandwich, which features a brown buttered, candied bacon ice cream with chocolate chips, in addition to flavors like chocolate chip and plain ol’ vanilla. The menu is available through Labor Day, so you have an extra month to enjoy these treats.
Do you enjoy drinking booze on your flight, but don’t want to pay for it? Despite many airlines charging extra for window seats, food, luggage and in-flight entertainment, there are still some that serve free alcoholic drinks – and, not just for first and business class passengers.
If you’re flying domestic, you may want to consider Thai Airways, Qantas Airways, KLM, Air China or Air France. Additionally, Air New Zealand serves free drinks during their 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. happy hour, while LAN Airlines does on all flights that serve food.
International fliers have a larger carrier selection. Some big-name airlines that serve free booze in-flight include all the above-mentioned companies, as well as Air Canada, British Airways, China Airlines, Copa Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. Furthermore, Delta serves free beer and wine on flights longer than six hours, while American Airlines does on flights between the U.S. and Europe, Asia and certain countries in South America.
There seems to be a bit of a trend with U.S. airlines not serving free booze, or having stipulations.
For a full list of domestic and international airlines that serve free booze, click here.
God bless the Amish and their otherworldly donuts. In January, I wrote a piece about the “forbidden” Amish donuts and other treats available in Cattaraugus County, New York, and this week I returned to the area for yet another feast. As I wrote in the previous piece, the Route 62 Amish corridor in Western New York is convenient to nothing and en route to nowhere, so anytime I make a trip there, it’s a serious detour.
On my last visit, I practically had to twist my wife’s arm to make the 60-mile detour, and this time, she flat-out refused to go.
“You’re going to drive 60 miles to buy a donut?” she asked condescendingly.
“It’s not just a donut,” I replied. “I’m probably going to get a whole bunch. And there’s the chocolates too.”
My mother, who lives near Buffalo, only 60 miles away from Amish country, but never goes there, was even harsher.
“You’re not going all the way down there for donuts,” she commanded. “We have a place right down the street called Paula’s, which has even better donuts than the Amish.”This sounded like blasphemy to my ears, but after noticing that the place has 38 reviews on Yelp with an average rating of five stars, I figured I had to at least give the place a shot. So my mom and I went to Paula’s the following morning and I bought a half dozen donuts.
How good were they? I have to admit, they were very solid. But their glazed donuts (right) are heavier, and more cake-like than the Amish ones, and most of the glazing caked off and was sitting in little bits on my plate after I finished it. Not only that, the Paula’s donut costs 15 cents more than the Amish one and is about half the size. With all due respect to Paula’s, their product is good, but it’s not a sell-your-soul-to-the-devil-it’s-so-good Amish donut.
The following day, I told my wife and mother – the Amish donut heretics – that I was taking my dad and my two sons, ages 2 and 4, to get some Amish donuts and chocolates with or without them. They elected not to come and we called it a men’s Amish excursion.
I felt nervous as we pulled up in front of the Miller family home at 12624 Rt. 62 in Conewango Valley for two reasons: I always live in fear that they’ll be out of my favorite maple-glazed donuts, and I’d printed out a copy of the Forbidden Donut story I wrote and planned to give it to them.
I’ve written close to 1,000 stories for a wide variety of publications over the years, but, thanks to email, I have never actually printed out a story, hand delivered it to the person I wrote about and then stood there as they read it. But one cannot email the Amish, and I wanted them to see what I wrote about their magnificent donuts, so this was the only option.
In the winter, the Millers sell their baked goods inside their home but in the summer, they use a shed out front, so I stepped into the little shed, surveyed the shelves and panicked when I saw no donuts.
“Please tell me you have some maple-glazed donuts,” I said to the teenage Amish girl sitting at a small counter in the shed.
“They’re all gone,” she said. “Yuri took the whole tray we baked to a wedding.”
I repeated the second half of her statement in complete disbelief. He took the whole tray to a wedding?
“What wedding?” I asked, probably sounding like a lunatic. “Where is it?”
The teen measured me and the wild look in my eyes and wisely chose to change the subject.
“Well, we do have some regular glazed donuts I could give you,” she said.
I took a deep breath and felt a huge sense of relief. I did not want to return to Buffalo with no donuts, only to have the two heretics say, “You drove 120 miles round trip and they didn’t even have donuts!?”
I bought a half dozen of the sweet, beautiful monsters and asked to speak to the teen’s mother. Her mom came out and I introduced myself and handed her the printed copy of the article for her inspection. She stood there reading it on the side of the shed as I bit into my first donut and felt overcome in a wave of euphoria. It wasn’t quite like the maple-glazed baby – damn you Yuri – but it beat the crap out of Paula’s donut and any other one available in a shop.
I watched Mrs. Miller and took delight in noticing a sly, little smile and a sense of satisfaction on her face as she read the piece. But after a minute or two, she looked up from the paper and said, “My name is not Sarah, it’s Barbara!”
I wrote the piece based upon my recollection and had confused her with another Amish shopkeeper I’d met that day. Whoops. But she didn’t seem bent of shape about it, and although she didn’t say so, I could tell she liked the article because after she read it she was beaming.
My dad, my two year old and I sat in the car devouring our donuts in the mid-day sun, as my four year old stubbornly insisted on eating a ring pop rather than the world-class donuts.
“Can we go to the candy shop?” he asked.
Only in Amish country does one not think twice about bringing kids to a donut and bake shop and then proceeding directly to a candy store, but when in Rome, right? So our happy little sweets caravan moseyed over to Malinda’s Candy Shop at 12656 Youngs Road, and I presented Malinda with a copy of the piece I wrote.
She sat and read it while we perused $3 bags of peanut butter bars, coconut clusters, chocolate covered pretzels, cashew clusters and chocolate covered Oreos and then elected to get one of each.
Malinda smiled as she read the article but didn’t offer a comment or opinion on what I wrote. But I knew she liked it, because when I asked to film and photograph her kitchen, where she makes the chocolates, the last time I was there she said no but this time she said, “Well, it’s not very clean but sure, go ahead.”
We made a few more stops, dodging horseshit and buggies in the region’s wonderfully quite, bucolic, hilly country lanes and then returned home to share the booty with the two unbelievers.
“Was it worth it?” my mom asked, her mouth half full of cashew clusters.
“Damn right it was,” I said.
Long live the Amish, and their killer donuts and sweets.
Update July 17: I received a message from a reader (see photo right) who took a detour to get some forbidden donuts and they report that by 4 p.m. the donuts didn’t taste very fresh. Nonetheless, they still enjoyed the experience but this is probably a good tip. There are no preservatives in these donuts and they’re probably best in the morning, right after they are baked. The photo above is of Timmy with some forbidden donuts.