So consider this a guest post… Garrick, take it away!

GRANADA – Palacio del Patos
This is the place Amy said was way too cool for her.  It is probably the most stylish room I’ve ever stayed in.  In true TabletHotel fashion, style trumped substance, but what a fun place to stay!

GRANADA – Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol
This is the best place we stayed in Spain.  Simple, yet tasteful B&B style house with wonderful garden that overlooked the city and the mountains.  The soul of this place is the owner.  Unbeatable.

BARCELONA - Hotel Pulitzer
One of the best hotels we stayed at in Spain.  Everything was flawless: design, cleanliness, service and food.  Amazing rooftop bar.  Located centrally on the Placa Catalunya.  Would stay a month here.

BARCELONA – Cocoon Apartment
We got a studio with private deck from this rental company.  It was located in the uber-hip (think SF Mission District, but more sulking) El Raval neighborhood.

CORDOBA – Palacio del Bailio
Same owners as the Palacio del Patos.  Contemporary modern design.  Built over Roman ruins.  Fabulous garden/pool area.  Check out the pics.  Their amazing.  Again, style over substance, but again, we had a blast.  The food is insanely good.

SEVILLA - Petit Palace
This is probalby the most mediocre hotel of the trip, but was totally fine.  Like a stylish Holiday Inn.  Can’t beat the location, down the street from very fun tapas bars and the famous cathedral.

SEVILLA – Loft 3
This place was too good to be true.  A *beautiful* new condo in a great neighborhood for $150 euros a night!  Way too cheap for this place.  The building incorporates an ancient wall in it’s design.

ALGECIRAS – AC Algeciras
Totally serviceable hotel from ubiquitous chain.  Like the Petit Palace, stylsih but ultimately staid.

MALAGA - Molina Lario
GREAT hotel.  This place was akin to the Hotel Pulitzer in Barcelona.  Totally contemporary design with great food and service.  Highly recommended.

Dar Roumana

FES, MOROCCO - Dar Roumana
Probably the most amazing hotel of our trip.  You have to see it to believe it.  The detail of this refurbished old Dar is astounding.  The staff, food, rooms and common areas were amazing.  Great outdoor, rooftop lounge area with view of the entire medina.  I would go to Morocco again just to stay here.

LONDON – The Hoxton Hotel
This place ruled.  Totally stylish, super cheap (under 99 pounds) and location couldn’t be better.  In the hip Hoxton/Shoreditch area, which is walking distance to all the tourist spots as well.

Related posts:

1. {rainbows} Magical Rainbow Museum in Leon, Spain (**not its real name**) The MUSAC (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León)...
2. {wordless wednesday} Why Yes, I AM Extremely Immature, Why Do You Ask? (London) The worst part is that I don’t even know...
3. {northern lights} Kakslauttanen Glass Igloos in Finland When folks heard we were heading to Northeastern China for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This recent trip was my first time in Maui, and the first thing that became clear is that Maui is for locavores. Other than fish, which I assumed would be local, I didn’t imagine the island being so prolific with the livestock and vegetables, but Maui is great in that respect. Grass-fed beef cattle and chickens are raised “up-country” along with asparagus, Maui onions, avocadoes, sweet corn, and much more. They even have a goat cheese dairy on Maui, the cheese of which is featured on many menus. Let me assure you that the local products not only have the feel-good factor of being locally and sustainably produced, they have that all important taste-good factor as well. It goes without saying that the fish you get on Maui is fresh and delicious no matter what.

We were staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Kapalua, so most of the places we ate were in that area (west Maui). The Ritz-Carlton is an amazing property which we normally wouldn’t have splurged for, but we got a really good deal as part of an Orbitz package. (I mean a really good deal… the recession is hurting tourism, for sure.) If you can get a good deal there, I highly recommend it.

After a delayed flight, a traffic jam, and a much longer drive to Kapalua than expected… I was starving and cranky. Enter my savior.

Oh wait. Not that savior. (Although it’s comforting to know he’s “coming soon”- like the next summer blockbuster!) This one: ahi poke from The Fish Market.

The Fish Market is in an unassuming strip mall just northwest of Lahaina, on Lower Honoapallini Road. Their ahi poke is excellent- tell them how spicy you want it, and they’ll grab some fresh raw ahi cubes, Maui sweet onion slices, and scallions, then doctor up the mixture with soy sauce and sriracha. I could eat it every morning for breakfast. Did I say “could”? I meant “did”. It’s a small styrofoam cup of heaven. In my starving cranky state, it was one of the best things I had ever eaten. Revisiting in a non-cranky, non-starving, relaxed I’m-on-vacation-in-Hawaii state did not change my view.

Of course, you can’t just keep eating the same poke when you know there are so many pokes out there for you to try. A great place to experiment is Lahaina Farms, which is a Whole Foods-esque Hawaiian grocery store in Lahaina Town (in another strip mall, natch.) Lahaina Farms has a poke counter with 8 different pokes, and the guy will let you, nay, he will encourage you, to try a taste of each and every one before deciding. All of the pokes were fresh and delicious, and the mango black pepper was a standout.

My birthday occurred while we were there, and not being the type to leave things to chance, I had made myself a sunset hour birthday reservation at Merriman’s (great thing about the internet: you can look up the time of sunset in any location in the world, and plan your romantic dinner accordingly.) This was an outstanding meal and one I will definitely repeat on my next trip. Every ingredient on the menu was from Maui- barring a few cases where a few things were from other Hawaiian islands. The service could not have been better, and the food was absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend it. The view wasn’t too shabby either…

Of the sushi places we tried, we liked 2 the best: Kai in the Ritz-Carlton, and Sansei in the same area. Sansei was majorly talked up because it’s good, and because they have some half price thing late at night or at 5 PM, yada yada yada, but I gotta be honest with you- vacation is not the time for worrying about half price or eating dinner at 5. Vacation is for being awesome and doing whatever you feel like. I will say that I think Kai had better quality sushi, but Sansei was more fun. One thing Sansei had was a kick-a$$ Mai Tai- one of the best I’ve ever had. So I would recommend taking a seat at the bar and getting some Mai Tais and their best-known roll, the panko-crusted ahi roll. It’s the best-known for a reason. It’s hella good. Kai is in a beautiful setting above the ocean, and the fish was absolutely fresh and so tasty, especially the sake sashimi. They also had some interesting appetizers, like a scrumptious short rib gyoza.

One day we were really jetlagged and woke up around 5:30 AM. We took a harrowing coastal drive on a 1-lane road to the town of Wailuku for hot malasadas (Portuguese donuts) and coffee from Home Maid Bakery. They only have hot ones between 5-10 AM and 4-10 PM, and you’re definitely gonna want hot ones.

On our last day, we drove through upcountry on the way to the Haleakala Volcano National Park.We passed through several different landscapes on the way up the mountain, with stunning views of Maui all the way up. It was a gorgeous drive but very curvy- luckily we don’t get carsick!

After all the raw fish, we were craving something a little different. We found it in Makawao, a sweet little cowboy town with several art galleries and glassblowers along the main strip. At first blush, we weren’t too sure about the banging screen door and mismatched furniture at Pizza Fresh, but one bite of the pizza and our worries melted away. The owner uses only the freshest ingredients, locally grown when possible, and the crust was perfectly doughy and crispy. It was just what we needed to fuel our hike on martian landscapes of the volcano.

Our last stop before heading to the airport for a red-eye was Mama’s Fish House in Paia, a cute hippie-ish town near the Kahului airport. Mama’s was heartily recommended by a whole bunch of people we know, and not similar people either- folks who have very different ideas about what makes a good dining experience. It’s a little tricky to find, and it’s pretty pricey, but it’s a neat experience. My favorite thing about Mama’s was that for each fish dish listed on the menu, they literally call out the fisherman by name and note where exactly the fish was caught (e.g. “line-caught by John Smith off the Taka Atoll”). I have never seen that on a menu, and I like it!

It happened to be Mother’s Day and an elegantly dressed older woman came by each table to check in- it was Mama herself. This place is so popular and with such a well-defined (read: crazy Tiki Hawaiian) style that I have no doubt Mama has been approached many times about franchising the business. She hasn’t done it, there is only one Mama’s. It’s the real deal.

We enjoyed one last technicolor sunset from the beach at Mama’s before saying Aloha to Maui.

View Maui Eats on Off The (Meat)Hook in a larger map

Related posts:

1. {recipe} Ginger Sesame Ahi Poke Recently a friend was coming over for dinner, and asked...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The gingerbread casbah came into being because every year, we throw a themed Christmas party for around 100 of our closest friends. Since we just took a honeymoon to the Middle East, we thought we could try out some new tricks at a Middle East-themed Christmas party. After all, that is where the whole Christmas thing started, right? An evite full of bad puns later (“we are Beiruting for you to come”, and so forth) we had our “Christmas at the Casbah” party ready to go, and all we needed was an impressive centerpiece.

This is not really a casbah, but a typical courtyard house. (Casbah sounds cooler though, so that’s more of a marketing-focused name for it.) On our honeymoon, we stayed in a beautiful hotel in Old City of Damascus called Beit Al Mamlouka, and I very loosely modeled the casbah on my recollections of how it looked. I say “very loosely” because their floors weren’t made of sour belts and jujubes, and their walls weren’t edible.

For the gingerbread, I used a recipe that C&H tweeted me- and it was great. Alas, I haven’t actually tasted it, but from a construction point of view it was tops – simple to make, very easy to roll out, not too sticky, sturdy, and kept its shape during baking. Also, it smells delicious, which adds a nice extra sensory dimension to the house. The royal icing that glues the whole thing together is just a stiff mixture of egg whites and powdered sugar with a pinch of cream of tartar, mixed with the paddle attachment of a Kitchen-Aid.

I did most of the shape-cutting freehand, but used a star cutters for the front windows. To make the windows, we rolled out the dough and put it on a silpat. Then we cut shapes out and arranged crushed jolly ranchers inside. When they baked, they became clear and solid. You have to let them cool while carefully loosening them from the silpat, as the candy stays soft and molten for about 30 minutes after coming out of the oven. Once they harden fully, they are structurally quite sound.

I thought that doing this alone would be both boring and incredibly frustrating and also not come out as well, so I assembled a crack team to help out. Rodney the pastry chef is always an excellent addition to this type of team, and did lots of the rolling, fine icing work, and construction assistance. Heather took care of cobblestones and windows, while MJ formed small furnishings including the excellent hookah.

I am a firm believer that everything on a true gingerbread house should be edible, and should be candy. Also, I can make like anything out of marzipan or fondant- ergo, marzipan and fondant are cheating. Sculpting something out of a tootsie roll is so much more impressive. So I refused to allow any non-edible, non-candy/gingerbread/icing objects adorn the house.

I bought electric flicker tea lights to illuminate it during the party, to make the windows shine. Merry Christmas everyone!

Here’s the breakdown of what’s what:

• Windows: crushed jolly ranchers baked into the gingerbread
• Tile floor: rainbow sour belts, jujubes, licorice wheels, and silver dragees
• Balcony floors: red hots, tic tacs, and silver dragees
• Balcony railings: sesame candies, licorice wheels (unrolled), jujubes
• Cobblestones: formed tootsie roll slices with yellow sprinkles
• Hanging lamps: licorice wheels and Haribo raspberry gummies
• Hookah: deconstructed tootsie rolls, sour belts, and licorice wheels
• Table: gingerbread star with dragees and jujubes
• Chair: sesame candies and tootsie rolls
• Tree: iced cookie with Haribo raspberry gummy and tootsie roll
• Camels: iced cookies with sprinkles

I wasn’t able to find any other instances of Middle Eastern gingerbread architecture on the web, but I did come across some gingerbread structures of note. Here are a few of my favorites from around teh interwebz.

• Max’s cave from Where The Wild Things Are, from A Table for Two <<<btw, AMAZING!!!>>>
• Gingerbread Houseboat from Houseboat Eats
• Gingerbread Woodcutters Cabin from Sweetopia
• Not gingerbread, bacon and licorice house from Almost Bourdain
• Cool 2 story house by Brown Sugar Bee

Related posts:

1. {something for the kiddos} Easy Car Cake My nephew turned 5 recently and swore he wanted a...
2. {recipe from the internetz} Strawberry Sour Cream Pie from Worth the Whisk I saw this strawberry sour cream pie mentioned on my...
3. {recipe + pottymouth} Pancake Ice Cream with Bacon Candy My last couple posts have been kind of weird and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

But it looks like you can get the best of both worlds at the Kakslauttanen Hotel in Finland by staying in these glass igloos.

They say:

Whoa, you had me there all they way up to “swim in an ice hole.” But the rest sounds A-OK. Also I like saying “Kakslauttanen” in a fake Nordic accent.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Visit the Homestead Resort site for more info.

Related posts:

1. {I heart SF} Aquatic Park This weekend I went with Ross to Aquatic Park so...
2. {recipe} Springy Super Salad This salad is so super it will give you magical...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Don’t fool yourself, Mexico City (DF to locals- which stands for “Distrito Federal) changes hotspots faster than NYC- with a population of 20+ million, there are sure to be a fair number of hipsters and trendsetters living and playing there. Here are some classic spots, as well as some joints du jour you should eat and drink at if you find yourself there.

One more note: cabs are cheap, but the Metro system can be fun too. The metro cars go surprisingly fast, considering they run on rubber tires instead of tracks. The fare will cost you mere pennies but you’ll probably reach your destination more quickly than in a car- and you’ll have a little more fun doing it. On to the list!

• El Cardenal- the best breakfast ever. Amazing fruit smoothie thingies and mouth-watering tamales. This is a nice place that folks go with their families.
• Cafe Tacuba- an old and famous favorite. Beware the machitos on the menu. That means bull penis!
• Xel Ha- the new hip tapas spot to hit.
• Los Danzantes- right on the Plaza de Coyoacan, they have been serving awesome Mexican fusion for quite a few years now.
• La Bipolar- if you are in Coyoacan and you are a starf***er go to Diego Luna’s kitschy hipster restaurant.
• Ligaya- If you’re young and hip you will be hanging out in Condesa or Roma, and someone will suggest you go to Ligaya for a meal. The space is intimate and modern with a surprising little indoor courtyard.
• Casa Merlos- Admittedly I have never been here but have been dying to. It is lauded throughout the land.

Para pasar el tiempo entre comiendo, tomando, y durmiendose… the 3 best DF activities, which also happen to be 3 of the best activities worldwide.

• Get to Xochimilco, which has canals still around from Aztec times. Hire a boat (lancha), buy beers or Cokes off a passing skiff, and pay a band to strap itself to your boat and keep you entertained.

• Head to the Arena Mexico for a real live lucha libre- the masked wrestling sensation that’s almost too ridiculous. Sit up front if you can.
• Drive an hour out of town to check out the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Climb to the top and take in the view. Feel free to pretend you are in pre-Columbian times and living in the largest New World city of your era.

Listings:

• El Cardenal: Avenida de las Palmas 215, Lomas de Chapultepec, DF
• Cafe Tacuba: Tacuba 28, Colonia Centro, DF
• Xel-Ha: Parral 78 Bis, Colonia Condesa, DF
• Los Danzantes: Plaza Jardin Centenario 12, Colonia Coyoacan, DF  {website}
• La Bipolar: Malitzin 155, Colonia Coyoacan, DF
• Ligaya: Nuevo Leon 68, Colonia Condesa, DF {website}
• Casa Merlos: Victoriano Zepeda 80, Observatorio, DF
• La Pata Negra: Tamaulipas 30, Colonia Condesa, DF
• La Bodega: Popocatepetl 25, Hipodromo, DF {website}
• Spanish Cultural Center:
• Hotel Condesa DF
• Hotel Habita
• W Hotel Mexico City

View Mexico City on Off The (Meat)Hook in a larger map

Related posts:

1. {getaway} Eating in (Mostly West) Maui Maui is a tropical paradise- what’s not to like? It’s...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We stayed at the Hope Springs Resort, in Desert Hot Springs, about a 20 minute drive out of Palm Springs. We were angling for some Joshua Tree action so we wanted to be a little farther along the road, and we were intrigued by this hidden gem. Traveling through a wholly unprepossessing strip-mall exurb, you arrive at a funky old motel sign, but beyond the little post-modern entryway you find a pocket-sized oasis of tranquility. There are only 10 rooms, and 3 pools fed by natural hot springs to enjoy. The atmosphere makes you feel like you have a very very rich friend who is letting you crash at their vacation getaway. They serve a charming, sort of DIY breakfast, but the con of the place is that you do have to leave for other meals (although some rooms have little motel kitchens- so ostensibly you could remain in your cocoon here with some planning ahead.)

So. Where to eat? I’m assuming you can’t afford to stay at the Parker Palm Springs (although, they do have a hidden deal for folks under 30- you get to stay there half price if you’re ID proves you’re a 20-something.) No matter. Go for breakfast or lunch at Norma’s, sit on the deck, and watch the beautiful LA people making deals on their cell phones while you tuck into a brunch that’s tasty if a tad too pricey. They even give you a breakfast amuse bouche of a little smoothie- how sweet. Bring a book so that after stuffing your face, you can walk the grounds and settle into one of their many little magical nooks and crannies for a relaxing literary digestif. For something a little more low-key, you might try Cheeky’s- a casual and hip breakfast spot that has a bacon tasting plate, which obviously earns them a gold star in my book.

If you want a great dinner in Palm Springs, I recommend Zin. It looks so-so, but the food is absolutely fantastic. Hand-cut steak tartare. Are you kidding me? How awesome is that? The service was perfect and the meal couldn’t have been better. The wine list was well-rounded and affordable. I only wish we had room for dessert. We had a fun and perfectly pleasant people-watching lunch at the Mexican charmer Las Casuelas, a restaurant that turns clubby after dinner. The top-shelf margaritas were strong and above-par, and the food was satisfying if not exciting. Spencer’s at the Mountain also offers great food, but the setting is the real draw: an open-air restaurant with a beautiful patio right at the foot of Mount Jacinto. The sleek, contemporary design serves as a great backdrop for all those Martinis whizzing by. It’s also a great place to go for a drink at sunset.

The furniture and home stores in Palm Springs provide just as positive and educational an experience as visiting a well-curated museum. The breadth of the mid-century modern and modern designs they showcase is incredible, and you will see things you haven’t seen anywhere before. Whether you’re buying or just looking, there is enough eye candy to keep you engaged for a couple of hours. If I could just pick 2 and no more, they would be House 849- a neverending maze of rooms housing a dizzying array of styles and pieces- and the all modern Interior Illusions, across the street, which had me wishing I had some way to justify spending $5K on a light-up coffee table or an enormous mirrored sculpture. There is a cluster of other, smaller shops within a couple blocks.

Once you’ve had your fill of man-made beauty, go for the Palm Springs tram ride- the tram car rotates while it heads precipitously up Chino Canyon, and leaves you at the very tippy top of the mountain, looking down at the vast expanse of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. The views are breathtaking, and if the ride had you on edge, you can grab a drink at the ski-lodgey bar up at the top before making your descent.

We spent a practically perfect day at Joshua Tree National Park. Instead of taking one long hike, we opted to explore many different areas of the park, alternating between these great 1-mile loops they’ve set up, and going off on our own scrambling up and over the rock formations, getting momentarily lost off the trails.

Heading out of the park after a picture-perfect sunset, we stopped at the 29 Palms Inn, a kitschy old inn with a terrific restaurant. The menu choices skew towards the old-fashioned– think, steak and baked potato, chicken marsala, spaghetti bolognese- but everything is done very well. They use produce and herbs from their own organic garden out back. Their wine list is small but careful, with all good choices, and the cocktails are top-notch. Plus, you can eat sitting around the pool while enjoying live entertainment of the lounge-iest sort. A truly lovable spot, and the perfect ending to a Palm Springs weekend.

Listings:

View Palm Springs on Off The (Meat)Hook in a larger map

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.