The Ghost Town That Wasn’t
We were in San Miguel de Allende, enjoying all the classic traits of a pretty Mexican town – a gorgeous church dominating the skyline on the main plaza, colonial architecture with carved wooden doors and wrought-iron balconies, winding cobblestone streets, and quaint local markets where indigenous women sold traditional crafts. […]
From Tulum Trauma to San Miguel Magic
Our flight to Monterrey got cancelled again. The first time, a year ago, we rebooked it for Mexico City, but this time airfare to León was cheap enough to make us consider going there… again. We had already taken the same flight a few years earlier and spent three wonderful […]
Mexican Chicago
Back in 2003, when I’d just arrived in Chicago, my first apartment was in Hermosa on the city’s northwest side. One evening, when I was in the back porch relaxing after a day of work, the street was suddenly filled with the sound of the revving engines. Motorcycles and cars […]
Go For Gözleme
The previous post about fish, bread, and never giving up on food dreams reminded me of something that happened two years ago, during a road trip from Izmir to Antalya in Türkiye. We left our Airbnb early in the morning, eager to start a long day of sightseeing, and skipped […]
Searching for Fish and Bread in Istanbul
Two years ago, when we did a road trip through southwest Türkiye, I kept looking for balık ekmek. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry. Neither did I. But Victor kept mentioning how he and his parents enjoyed a delicious balık ekmek in a restaurant by the Bosphorus […]
Sardines and Egg Custard Tarts – The Overlooked Cuisine of Portugal
We were standing in a giant store where every wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling shelves, displaying thousands of cans of sardines. “Is this… a sardines store?” Julia asked no one in particular. Her question echoed off endlessly stacked cans and down the airport hallway. We had arrived on an overnight […]
NSFW Temples or How Victor and I became Temporary Celebrities
Buckle in, the day has come. This is our very first NSFW post. None of this previous “Asian Massage but no Happy Ending” or “Pot Pizza without Any Actual Pot” nonsense. This post is going to contain the most non-family-friendly pictures so far, at least until we get to posting […]
Familiar and Strange – The Cuisine of Mexico
Before we ever visited Mexico, one thing we thought we understood well about it was the food. Fajitas, nachos, and tacos are our go-to comfort foods. Imagine our surprise when we found very different menu offerings south of the border, with most of our favorites conspicuously missing. It turned out […]
Village Homestay in India – New Year, Goats, and Bootleg Brandy
Ever since we started seriously traveling, we usually take two weeks either around Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Year for a long trip out of the country. To date, we have celebrated New Year watching fireworks while wearing white and drinking champagne with locals on a beach in Brazil; lost in a […]
Música Brasileira – The Music of Brazil
The word “Brazil” means so many different things for me-world-renowned beaches, the national soccer team, and 1980s telenovelas with enough twists and turns to bring the whole of the USSR to a standstill. But above all, Brazil is all about its music-samba, bossa nova, samba-reggae. While we didn’t visit Brazil […]
Egypt in the Spring – Arab Spring
“Mohammed! Mohammed! Cairo is burning!” We are in the middle of the international terminal of the O’Hare airport, staring transfixed at the multiple TV screens showing fire and mayhem on the streets of Cairo. Victor is holding a phone, with the faint voice of Mohammed, our hired Egyptian guide, on […]