GadlingTV’s Travel Talk, episode 10 – Click above to watch video after the jump
Travel Talk has hit double digits!! To celebrate, we have an incredible lineup of adventures from San Diego, California – including a short dash over the border to Tijuana, Mexico!
This week we talk about Kim Jong-Il as a fashion icon, a new great way to hail a cab in NYC, and share a book that covers how to travel by freight ship! We have an answer in the debate of whether or not sarcasm exists in every culture, and of course we’ll show you pictures of the disruptive Eyjafjallajökull (Icelandic Volcano) that has shut down flights throughout Europe this week.
Stick with us as we try paragliding for the first time, learn how to brew beer from the masters at Stone Brewery, and do our best to surf the Wave House’s Bruticus Maximus. We’ll also take a peek onboard the USS Midway and show you how tourism has affected Tijuana in the past 5 years. Enjoy!
If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.
My first impression of Ethiopia was that the Ethiopians are a lot like us, and by us I mean Mediterranean Europeans. One of the ways they’re similar to us is they like to have a drink every now and then, but don’t make a habit of drinking to excess.
For the cross-cultural drinker, Ethiopia has a lot to offer.
The best and most unique drink is tej, a honey wine like European mead. As any mead drinker knows, the taste can be very different depending on the region, because bees collect pollen from very different flowers. Mead made in Germany tastes different than that made in England. Since the plants in Ethiopia are so unlike those in Europe or North America, even experienced mead drinkers trying tej for the first time will be tasting something quite new to them.
And it tastes wonderful–sweet, but not overly so, and wonderfully smooth. The best place to sample tej is at a tejbet, a bar that specializes in the drink. It generally comes in strengths of mild, medium, and strong. Mild has very little alcohol and is essentially honey water. Strong is very strong, and while it does the job I found the taste of the alcohol interfered with the pleasant taste of the honey. Medium is the way to go for a good balance between flavor and effect.
Tej is usually served in bottles like the one pictured here and should be held the way our excellent driver/translator/fixer, Sntayehu Mekonen, is demonstrating. For the record he drank very little, because he was driving! It’s best to flick a bit out on the floor to get rid of the congealed honey on top. Then pour into a glass and enjoy.
Another unusual Ethiopian drink is tella, a beer made from various cereal grains. If you want to visit a tellabet and sample some, you won’t have far to look. Every village has at least one, and the highways are lined with them. They are almost always in regular homes and the only sign that it isn’t just another house is a plastic bag or cup put upside down on a stick out front. Guests sit in the living room, gossip about local events, and watch the family television. The tella I tried was made from barley and was fairly weak. Imagine Scottish barley water and you have a fair approximation. While I was not impressed by the drink, I did get to watch Sntayehu try to placate the local crazy man, who insisted he knew Sntayehu’s father in between ordering drinks and pouring them on the floor! Sntayehu was as polite as ever, but for some reason didn’t want to stay for another round.
%Gallery-90852%Ethiopia also makes arak, a local brand of fire water I didn’t try. Every country has its variation–ouzo, raki, orujo, etc.–and I can’t stand any of them. They’re good for cleaning the teeth, but bad for the internal organs. You’ll just have to try Ethiopian arak for yourself and report back to me.
Beer and wine drinkers aren’t left out either. Ethiopian beer is mostly lager and there are many regional brands. St. George is the oldest and one of the best, but strangely it is now owned by a French firm. Why one country not known for beer owns a brewery in another country not known for beer is a bit of a mystery, but there it is. There’s also a brand of stout made in a brewery in Harar. The wine comes in both red and white and tends to be very young and sweet. I suspect the large Armenian community that has lived in Ethiopia for many generations has something to do with this. The only other non-dessert wine I’ve tried that comes close to the sweetness of Ethiopian wine is from Armenia.
So if you like to drink, you can have some interesting times in Ethiopia. The tejbet often feature live traditional music, and going to a tellabet is a good way to see the inside of a village home. You’ll get a friendly reception. When we left the tellabet, the whole family came out onto the street to wave goodbye!
Next time: Lalibela: Ethiopia’s ancient jewel. (Yes, I know I said in my article on observations about Ethiopia that I’d write up Lalibela next, but it’s such a stunning, otherworldly place I’m having trouble finding the words)
Every Sunday all across this green and pleasant land pubs serve up a fine roast. The Sunday roast is an old tradition here. It generally includes chicken, beef, pork, or lamb, along with vegetables, potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding, all washed down with a pint or two of real ale. Some pubs even serve vegetarian roasts.
The quality of the pub roast varies widely, so it’s best to get some local advice. Many pubs don’t have a real kitchen but rather a microwave where they heat up packaged meals. A true pub will spend hours getting their roast together and you can taste the difference with your first bite.
If you’re in London, the folks at Time Out have made an excellent guide to the best Sunday lunches in town. Many are pub roasts, but there are other meals on offer too. We’ve also written up some suggestions for gastropubs, which are pubs that specialize in gourmet cooking.
In Oxford, there’s an excellent pub roast at The Fir Tree, which is where I took this photo today. As you can see, I’ll be skipping dinner.
So next time you’re enjoying a Sunday afternoon in England, take a break from their amazing and countless curry joints and tuck in to some fine British cooking.
On a recent trip to Antwerp, I toured the De Koninck brewery, then did some darn fine pre-noon drinking with a couple of Belgians to increase my knowledge about drinking in Belgium. You can do this too, albeit not before noon; just show up at the De Koninck brewery at 3:00 PM on a Saturday and you can get a tour and tasting for €7.50.
Brewery of the Hand
De Koninck was originally known as “Brewery of the Hand.” Back in the 1800s, one had to pay taxes to sell goods in Antwerp, and the hand was the universal symbol for “pay up.” There was an actual stone statue which looked like this hand at the border of Antwerp and Berchem.
Though the beer is now called The King (that’s what “De Koninck” means), the hand is still used as their logo. I rather like this. Instead of saying “I’m going to go for a beer,” I think I’ll start saying “I’m going to go pay the king.”
My tour guide at the brewery was none other than CEO Dominique Van Den Bogaert, a third generation brewer of De Koninck with a family history of brewing that goes back as far as five or six generations. The Bogaerts, who were brewing in Willebroek, helped reopen De Koninck after World War I.
Basically, Van Den Bogaert was born into beer.
He showed us around the charming brewery and talked some shop, but it was when we got to the bar next door that I started to learn what drinking in Belgium is all about.
%Gallery-89309%Drinking in Belgium
In Belgium, the bars never close. My hosts explained that this actually prevents public disorder. “There’s no ‘drink up’ time,” said Van Den Bogaert, adding that Belgium has less trouble with teen drinking than the United States, even though their drinking age begins at 16. And here’s an interesting, possibly related linguistic fact: Belgians don’t say drink a beer, they say taste a beer.
The word Belgians use to toast is Schol! — which is not a Flemish or French word. It’s actually an old Scandinavian word for skull. Viking warriors used to drink from the skulls of their defeated enemies as a (moderately uncivilized) way of celebrating their victories.
The proper thing to drink De Koninck from is not a skull (surprise). It’s a bolleke, or small ball; one of those fancy stemmed beer glasses (above right). There’s also the prinske (little prince, above left), a smaller-looking glass which was created for women so that they would look more ladylike. It holds the same amount of beer.
After drinking several De Konincks (the blond was my personal favorite — it’s light bodied and vibrant) from our bollekes and prinskes, we also had a traditional snack: meat and cheese from West Flanders. Both were served with mustard.
I think Unnecessary Mustard would be a good band name. (But not a great one.)
You’ll actually find a lot of bars without food in Antwerp, because smoking has been banned in establishments which serve food. However, as my host explained: “When in Belgium there is a law, there is always a way to avoid.” Bars where you can smoke will often allow you to bring food in — or even go as far as to serve you food outside and let you bring it in.
Last month, the writers at Gadling spent a lot of time at the pub, creating this list of The 24 greatest cities in the world for drinking beer. We had so much fun and got so many great comments, we decided we couldn’t stop: we headed back to the bar and asked for another round. Here’s 15 more of our favorite cities in the world for drinking great beer.Did we include your favorite? Take a look.
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Edinburgh locals proudly boast to have the highest concentration of pubs of any city in Europe. Nightly pub crawls of all varieties and themes weave an intoxicated web through both the New and Old towns, dutifully infiltrating once-sleepy pubs and leaving empty pint glasses littered in their wake. If you want to get closer to the source, head over to the Caledonian Brewery, a place where beer is proudly “brewed by men, not machines.” Wellington, New Zealand
This funky little capital city at the base of New Zealand’s North Island is teeming with Kiwis who are keen for their beer. While nationally popular Monteith’s is brewed on the South Island in the sleepy town of Greymouth, Wellington Brewery still has beers ending up in the hopping bars and nightclubs lining the infamous Cuba Street. No stranger to hosting events, Wellington will open its doors in 2010 to the New Zealand Beer Festival, only serving to further the raucous bar scene this city churns out nightly.Prague, Czech Republic
Beer drinking visitors agree: there’s nothing quite like a tall stein of pivo in Praha, the traditional home of Pilsner and arguably the world’s best beer. Allegedly consuming 156 liters of beer per capita each year–the most of any nation–beer is a simple life necessity for the Czechs. Long a staple city on the European beer circuit, the glory of Czech beer is highlighted nowhere more than at the annual Czech Beer Festival, held in Prague each May. Homer, Alaska
While not exactly what many would consider a city, Homer is one of those “drinking villages with a fishing problem” that exudes nothing but good-natured charm. All of the action in town is centered around the Homer Spit, a flat outcropping of land that holds all of the town’s bars, most notably the world-famous Salty Dawg Saloon. After hauling in a 300-pound halibut, most fishermen head out to the Spit to celebrate with one of the many flavors of the Homer Brewing Company, or perhaps even an “import” from the Alaskan Brewing Company in the far away capital of Juneau.
Austin, Texas
If good beer has partners in crime, it would be good music and eager twenty-somethings ready to let it all hang out. Fortunately for anyone visiting Austin, there is absolutely no shortage of either. Host to two of the largest music festivals in the nation, Austin City Limits and South by Southwest, Austin frequently swells from the University of Texas all the way down to 6th Street with beer-battered locals and music lovers alike. A number of microbreweries are scattered around town, and with top acts and loads of talent moving through the city, the opportunity to imbibe is never far away. Phnomh Penh, Cambodia Phnomh Penh comes in on this list for one reason alone: $.25 beers on tap. Not only is a draft beer only a quarter, but the Cambodian national brew, Angkor Beer, is one of the finest lagers in all of Asia. Aside from the cheap price and the smooth taste, modern-day Phnomh Penh is lined with French cafes overlooking the mighty Mekong River, all serving obscenely cheap Angkor on draft. For those wanting to take the Angkor deep into the night, the city boasts an impressive nightclub scene, and for anyone really wanting to get creative with their drinking, every evening there are mass public aerobic sessions in the many parks across the city.
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
You know any beer served this close to the Arctic is going to be cold. A rugged outpost town that is known for its rough mining history and plentiful outdoor adventure opportunities, hardy souls have been putting back the beers in Whitehorse since the gold miners and prospectors first came to town. These days, the Yukon Brewing Company keeps everyone in town from going thirsty, and their Yukon Red was just recently awarded the Canadian Brewing Awards 2009 Canadian Beer of the Year.
Sydney, Australia
Few cultures are as receptive to a good time as are the Aussies, and the wide beaches and deep discos of Sydney provide the perfect venue for such carefree merriment. Frowning upon their Melbourne neighbors who would rather swill Victoria Bitter, Sydney locals will proudly partake in the locally-brewed Toohey’s, most likely beach-side at Bondi between the bikinis and the BBQ.
Lewes, Delaware
Don’t tell anyone, but this sleepy former whaling village may or may not be the oldest town in America – the Lewes town sign proclaims it “the first town in the first state”. Lewes is home to the stellar Dogfish Head brewery, which makes a particularly good early summer beer called Aprihop. For those who typically ignore fruit-tinged beer, this brew carries enough dried-hop bite and pleasant fragrance to remind us of that time of year when the air is warm but the ground is still cold. Look west and the bay bends in a way that the sun actually sets into a watery horizon. That alone is worth the trip.
Ensenada, Mexico
Ensenada’s colonial past creeps just below the city’s surface: Spanish architecture and design are evident everywhere, and the town is sprinkled with old missions glowing under shiny terracotta tile roofs. There’s a bar in town called Hussong’s which seems to creak and moan like an ancient sailing vessel, and whose bar is packed with taps for German beers. The place was founded by a German prospector who followed rumors of gold to Mexico in the late 1800’s and never left. This is also the place to savor a Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23– if you don’t know what that is, maybe it’s time to strap that old waxy shortboard to the roof and drive south for a couple hours.
Toronto, Canada
Toronto is a city best viewed from on high, the ideal spot being the CN Tower, which attracts 2 million visitors annually. It’s the kind of view that can make the bottom of your feet tingle, and by the time you return to solid ground, you’ll be ready for a cold one. If you’ve only had Canadian beers in green bottles, you’ve missed the rich variety our northern neighbors have to offer: Unibroue Brewing makes beer called Maudite which has a deep copper color and a pert aroma of wild spices and floral hop notes. It’s a complex brew, deep and intoxicating in taste and smell. They also make a white ale, Blanche de Chambly, which sounds like something Austin Powers would say, but satiates thirsty travelers in a way that no beer with a “moose on the label” ever could.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
This desert town that has become synonymous with Pale Ale is a beer drinker’s delight. Hot, dry, and handsome, the town teems with artistry, old hippie money and raw desert beauty. Few experiences stimulate the senses like watching the sun rise across the desert floor while the light paints a mural of reds blues and oranges. Best to see it after staying up all night drinking Santa Fe State Pen Porter, a smoky and mysterious experience that compliments the desert night air.
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado has a reputation as the “church of the outdoors” – when people aren’t hiking, they’re skiiing. And they’re young: the median age is 29, a time when your body is best suited to burning off those extra beer carbs. Boulder is home to the state’s first microbrewery, Boulder Beer Company, whose products include a dry-hopped ale called Hazed and infused for it’s multiple hop aromas that result from introducing the hops late in the brewing process. The bar also sports a “Magical Mystery Tap” which seems to exist solely to tempt the thrill-seeker within each of us.
Portsmouth New Hampshire
If you like seafood, but have never eaten at a northeastern lobster shack, you haven’t had the full experience. Along the coasts of Maine and new Hampshire, there are smallish, greying buildings that serve pots of steamed seafood right from on the dock. Portsmouth in particular has a number which carry the local brewer Smuttynose. Known for their Big Beer Series, few epicurean experiences compare with the steamy smell of lobster and clams alongside a big mug of Farmhouse Ale.
North Hollywood, California
A place where weird is normal and the absurd is commonplace, you’re as likely to see Flea bouncing a basketball down Otsega toward the park as you are to see a homeless guy wearing a red dress. It’s happy hour all day long here, and the neighborhood moniker “NoHo Arts district” seems to have multiple levels of meanings. As in Europe, a cold beer isn’t usually frowned on at lunch, and it’s easy to slip into that hazy way of thinking, maybe after three of Mendocino Brewing Company’sRed Seal Ales, continuing the charade that is North Hollywood is still a good idea.