Last week, Virgin America launched new flights from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. What better way to get into the espíritu than with a Mariachi band? Frommers editor and Flickr user DavityDave was on board to get this shot and taste some Mexican goodies. We wonder if the band had to purchase an additional seat for their guitars or if they could just fit them in the overhead bin. Did they perform the safety demo too?
Have you ever flown on an inaugural flight? Seen anything else fun on a plane? Add your best shots to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may use it for a future Photo of the Day.
Taking glamping and the idea of pop ups to a new level is the innovative hotel group Design Hotels with the launch yesterday of the Papaya Playa Project, a temporary “pop up” camp with 99 rustic cabanas on a 900-meter stretch of Caribbean coastline in Tulum, Mexico.
Starting at just $25 a night for what amounts to a cot on the beach to $675 a night for one of the more luxe accommodations, the rooms will be a mix of private cabanas and casitas and shared, dormitory-style accommodations featuring shared baths and bunk beds.
Lest you wonder about whether or not building such a project wreaked havoc on the area’s natural surroundings – it isn’t. It’s “a spiffed-up campus of cabanas once belonging to three now-shuttered resorts,” according to The New York Times, but it’s the first such large-scale hotel pop up we’ve seen. The only other that exists? Hotels offering limited term “glamping” excursions and a British company called “The Pop Up Hotel” which really specializes in crafting limited-term spaces for events and retreats.
Barring some traveler’s unwillingness to visit Mexico due to continued violence in the country, Papaya Playa seems an easy fit for those looking for alternative travel experiences – a true “glamping” trip that integrates local materials and nature with luxe elements like high thread count sheets and private cabanas, plus amenities like food from KaterHolzig of Berlin’s Bar 25 fame and a spa incorporating Mayan shamanism.
Design Hotels founder and now Tulum resident Claus Sendlinger plans to bring in famous DJs and musicians to perform on the beach’s “natural ampitheater” as well as perks for the luxe seeker including local and sustainable foods plus organic “nutrient-rich food-on-the-go,” plus an on-site boutique with local and international designers.
The only thing we can’t figure out? What Design Hotels plans to do with the space when it closes in May of 2012.
Tori-Tori, a new Japanese restaurant located in Polanco in Mexico City, Mexico, has recently finished completion. The project began in 2009 as a joint venture between the Mexico-based firm rojkind arquitectos and the design company Esrawe Studio, with the aim to create a unique contemporary space.
While the restaurant serves Japanese cuisine, the ambiance is more cosmopolitan than many other Japanese restaurants on the market. Imagine an interior full of open spaces, a bar, and terraces that always keep the guest close to natural vegetation.
The inside is actually an extension of the outside, where the facade seems to grow organically from the ground in a mass of steel ivy. You can see through to the restaurant and vice versa, and the pattern on Tori-Tori’s outside controls the ambiance on the inside by filtering light, shadows, and views.
As for the food, guests can expect an array of options, including salads, curries, pastas, fish dishes, beef, chicken, sushi, sashimi, nigri, and more. For more information, click here. Or, to get a better idea of the design of Tori-Tori, check out the gallery below. All photos are courtesy of photographer Paúl Rivera.
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Americans aren’t very creative when it comes to traditional holiday beverages (do, however, look for my upcoming story on Boulder’s banging mixology scene, which includes some killer contemporary winter cocktails). Historically, though, we’re more of an eggnog/mulled cider/hot chocolate kind of society.
I’m not knocking our Christmas beverages of choice. Properly made, they’re delicious, and certainly festive. But some countries really know how to roll when it comes to holiday imbibing (especially Latin America. One word: rum.).
Below, a compilation of some of the more interesting boozy holiday beverages from around the world that can be easily recreated in your own kitchen. Online recipes abound, and all of these are (almost) as tasty sans alcohol.
Coquito: Puerto Ricans are great because they’re not afraid to embrace their love of saturated fats (lard, coconut milk, etc.) or rum. In case you’ve been living under a rock, coconut is the new fat du jour (read more about its health attributes here). Everything in moderation, including moderation, as I always say.
Coquito recipes vary, but in general, this rich, blended Christmas concoction is a froth of spiced rum, condensed milk, coconut milk or cream of coconut, vanilla, and spices such as cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Some versions may include ginger or ground nuts, but it’s always served chilled, in a small glass. Heavy, yes, but both sexy and satisfying. Add some eggs, and you’ll have ponche, the Venezuelan or Dominican version of eggnog.
Mulled wine: Variations on this warm, spiced, sugared, and otherwise enhanced wine (usually red) are served throughout Europe. There’s Nordic gløgg redolent of cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and bitter orange (and perhaps a helping of aquavit). It’s very similar to German glühwein made with lemon, cinnamon sticks, cardamom or ginger, and cloves; in Alsace (the French region bordering Germany), they also add vanilla bean.
In Bulgaria, greyano vino contains honey, peppercorns, and often, apple or citrus. Polish grzane wino is more of a traditional mulled wine, but they also make grzane piwo, in which mulled beer (try a Hefeweizen or Belgian ale which are lighter and sweeter) is substituted for the wine. Na zdrowie (“To your health”)!
[Photo credit: Flicker user Akane86]Ponche Navideño: Not to be confused with those other luscious ponches, this Mexican version is made with sugar cane, apples and/or pears or citrus, raisins, prunes, and tejocotes–an indigenous fruit used by the Aztecs, who called them texocotl. Add tequila, brandy, or rum; heat, and instant fiesta. At Christmastime, ponche vendors can be found on the street, ladling out cupfuls of good cheer.
Another popular Mexican holiday beverage is champurrado, a version of atole (warmed cornmeal thinned to a pourable consistency) flavored with chocolate. It tastes much better than it sounds, and is delicious on a chilly day.
Sorrel Punch: This Jamaican Christmas drink is made from the petals of a species of hibiscus (jamaica in Latin America), locally known as sorrel. In Australia it’s known as rosella, and where it makes a lovely, delicate, fruity red jam. This isn’t the same plant Americans know as sorrel or French sorrel. That’s a bitter wild green, which would make for a truly revolting cocktail, unless you’re one of those people who find wheat grass juice “refreshing.”
Dried hibiscus buds can be purchased at Hispanic or Caribbean markets; the recipe varies, but it’s usually some combination of the flowers, sugar, smashed fresh ginger, water, lime juice, and rum (dark is more traditional than light). Mix, stir, turn on your light box (fellow Seattleites know what I’m talking about), and crank your fave reggae CD. It ain’t the islands but it’s a nice change of pace from all that mulled wine.
Wassail: Did any American not grow up hearing about or actually going “wassailing,” aka carolling? This mulled British cider is synonymous with knocking on stranger’s doors and breaking into song. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to hit the wassail bowl after mandatory childhood post-carolling; parents should remember that singing in public is the worst possible form of torture for a geeky, tone-deaf pre-teen. Wassail has been a Christmas classic across the pond for centuries, so I’m sure generations of British children suffered the same fate.
Cola de mono: Although Chile is better known for its pisco sours (Peru also claims this libation as its own, but both countries produce it and they’re still duking it out over who actually invented this potent grape brandy) and wine, Christmastime means a glass of “monkey’s tail.” Combine aguardiente (sub pisco or a neutral firewater) with milk, coffee, vanilla bean, and cloves. I have no idea what this has to do with the tail of a monkey, but it’s a cute name. Uh, bottom’s up.
[Photo credit: eggnog, Flicker user elana’s pantry; wassail, Flicker user jeremytarling]