A Recipe for the Sun: Why Spanish Wine & Simple Grilled Salmon

Summer is long days, the sun pouring its song across orange-evening skylines with everything its got. Summer is falling across damp grass, wine bottle in hand, picnic blanket shaken out and mosquito bites. Summer is sun-burns and sand-where-you-don’t-want-it vacations. Summer is lush, drunk on springs abundance. The death of winter is almost forgot, the rebirth of spring …

NaNoWriMo : Into the Wild

Earlier this year, I set a goal to finish a solid draft of my memoir and to achieve this mission i'm going into the wild, er, offline... A MONTHLONG period away from social media, the internet, ethernet and all those nets, in an archaic approach to finish this labor of love that i'm damn excited …

Abbot Kinney Part II: ZenBunni

We stumbled away from Another Kind of Sunrise high on good food and despite this the lure of chocolate never wore off. I felt like a child longing for a view into Willie Wonka's chocolate factory. Knowing that what lies beyond contained the secret of cacao alchemica; that is, the transformation of cacao from plant to …

Tbex and The Great Travel Writers Campaign

Calling all philanthropists, all investors. This year brings my first opportunity to attend the travel writers conference, Tbex, in Cancun, Mexico and i’m looking for a little support in the financial arena. Now, I know that sounds like a load of drunken debauchery in the midst of Maya ruins but there is just so much more …

Abbot Kinney Part I: Another Kind of Sunrise

All cities come equipped with a beating heart. A cultural core that stimulates the genius in urbanites giving them a unique identity to stand apart from the rest of the world. Some cities, like Los Angeles, race to the tune of several hearts and it was on our way out of L.A. that we came across …

How To Kanafeh

This is how I discovered Kanafeh I had been in Jordan for several weeks and my love affair with Arabian sweets had reached a lofty peak. In fact, I would begin and end each day with a platter of pastries, smothered in honeys and syrups that would flood through heaps of pistachios on my plate. I had reached junkie …

Cafe Tajine in the Mountains of Morocco

Ourika, Morocco  Though only 6 hours (460 km) separate Marrakech from the oasis town of M'Hamid I could have dedicated six days between the two place names. The villages that scatter Ourika Valley hold their own against the more popular Imperial Cities (Marrakech, Fes, Meknes and Rabat) and it's out here in the wilderness of the High …

My First Guest Post: Uncovering the Shores of Aqaba

I've met some great people through this blog, twitter and other social media outlets. One person in particular stands out as someone whom I feel especially lucky to have met, the talented creator behind For The Intolerants, JoAnna. JoAnna and I have a lot of similar interests, as do many travel bloggers; exploring exotic lands, …

The City of Roses Part 1: Eats

Landing on "best of" lists every day across the globe Portland, despite it's relatively small population, has created it's very own, unconventional, holistic brand of society. A fusing of localism and sustainability placing PDX as the greenest city in the U.S. For me, PDX has just recently stepped out of the colossal shadow of Seattle. It wasn't …

How To Tagine

Preparing for a trip to Morocco I came across an article covering the tagine. Before I even set foot overseas I was obsessed with international dishes and this one, cooked in a dome-shaped earthenware pot of the same name, sparked my imagination. A quick jaunt to Sur La Table closed the gap between myself and …