As winter slowly encroaches upon much of the U.S., let’s warm up a little by taking a Mexico City food tour. We’ll start with two examples of comida callejera, or street food. Green chorizo, what?! Nope, it’s not from using avocados. Hailing from the city of Toluca in the state of Mexico (the latter of […]
Travel Photography
Manhattan’s Newest Beach
I present to you, Manhattan’s newest beach: Fine, the official title of Manhattan’s newest beach is Gansevoort Peninsula. And if you thought it was the first beach in Manhattan, well … it’s the first public beach. You see, there’s a small patch of flotsam and debris way up north on the island, near Spuyten Duyvil […]
Coins, Coins, Obnoxious Coins
Coins are obnoxious. Kudos to Canada for stopping the minting of the tangible penny. Denmark’s central bank hasn’t produced paper money or coins, nor did it have a single bank robbery in 2022. Moreover, why can’t we change this metal at a currency exchange place? Too many irritating reasons. Yet on the flip side, a […]
Never Flying Again
That’s right! These airlines are never flying again. Yes, these carriers once served a purpose, be it skidding off of runways, or skidding back onto runways. Occasionally, they took to the air. Now, their memories for me last only in the form of years-old digital photos taken back when I was a more jittery flier…which, […]
A Tale of Six Ceviche
Ceviche (seh-VEE-chay) — or, is it cebiche? — is one of Peru’s most famous culinary exports, although its origins are indeed a mystery. It might have stemmed from the Incas, who discovered that chicha, or fermented maize, could help preserve seafood. Perhaps it was the Spanish conquistadors from Andalusia, who introduced different citruses such as […]
Fun with Airline Route Maps
Let’s have some fun with airline route maps. With any luck — and memory — this will probably be a thread I’ll continually update, especially once I’m able to find the Delta inflight magazine that showed Kampuchea instead of Cambodia, or the one where Xian, China is listed as the more archaic Chang’an. Until those […]
Architectural Tourism
Architectural tourism is one of my priorities when traveling. However, there are undoubtedly some controversies involved in how certain structures are maintained. One of the most controversial topics is façadism. In the simplest terms, façadism – also known as facadism – refers to when the front-facing exterior (façade) of a building is preserved. This is […]
Japan Trip Report: JR East Pass (Tohoku Area)
Although I’ve traveled throughout much of Japan, I embarrassingly didn’t once set foot in the Tohoku region until a few days ago. That’s where the rail pass, the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area), was of tremendous benefit. Firstly, let’s define the Tohoku region (in Japanese, 東北 touhoku, meaning northeastern): The Tohoku region is generally characterized […]