It's our last night in Chiang Mai, our next stop after Bangkok. It's much busier than I expected, but it's still a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Our first day here we spent the day cooking and eating at the Thai Farm Cooking School. We started with a visit to Ruamchook Market — I could have stayed here for hours gazing at (and tasting) the culinary offerings. Turns out the folks in Chiang Mai are huge fans of pork rinds among other fried delights, and they're sold in sizes ranging from a small sack to a bag the size of a large pillowcase.  Next we were off to the farm for an orientation to Thai ingredients, many of which are grown on-site, and an all-day cooking lesson. Note to friends and family — there will be some Thai dinners at my place in your future. If I can find all the ingredients, I"ll even make my own curry paste.  This day was a major highlight of my trip, not surprisingly.

Today we spent more time in the countryside — if I ever come back to this part of the world, I hope to spend much more time exploring the countryside, including hikes in the mountains and perhaps some cycling in some of the flatter regions. My favorite part of the day was a peaceful and relaxing ride down the Ping river on a bamboo raft, with a stunning mountain view in the distance.  And now, we're off to seek out some khao soi for dinner — the local specialty.  Tomorrow we'll be heading to Doi Suthep before flying to Phuket and traveling to our final destination, an island called Koh Naka Yai. 

It's looking more and more like you'll have to wait for the pictures. Don't worry — they're worth it!

I hardly know where to begin in describing Bangkok. It's a bustling and vibrant urban center, a mix of old and new, with the dirty, gritty and run-down squeezed in next to the luxe and modern. In three days I have taken all forms of public transportation: the SkyTrain, the subway, and the public ferry, I have argued with a taxi driver about using the meter (common attempt to scam tourists), I survived a crazy tuk-tuk ride, coming within inches of a pack of scooters while making a turn, and have improved my street-crossing skills (no small feat). I have had coffee in the luxurious Erawan Tea Room, eaten street food for breakfast, had lunch at Chote Chitr, noted in my book of 500 best food destinations in the world, was given a personal tour of Chinatown, tasting along the way, and sipped cocktails 50 floors above the street overlooking Bangkok at night. I've seen temples and buddhas, some beautiful, some over-the-top gaudy. I've visited the impressive Grand Palace and the elegant teak Jim Thompson House.  I've got one more dinner here and about three different places that have been recommended to me by people whose culinary tastes I trust — may have to squeeze one more in on my way back through at the end of next week.

I'm having some technical issues getting my photos up as quickly as I'd like, so you'll just have to wait, I'm afraid.  There's so much to take in that I feel like my pictures can hardly do it justice. I truly adore it here so far. Next stop is Chiang Mai, which will be quite different, or so I'm told. Looking forward to it!

 
Spent this weekend in Boston, primarily visiting my brother, but catching up with friends and family, and taking a walk down memory lane. My brother moved to Davis Square, just near Tufts, my alma mater. It has changed dramatically since I last lived there (which, to be fair, was 19 years ago. ACK!), but it was still comforting in some ways to stroll around familiar neighborhoods and the Tufts campus, letting the memories flow back.  It was also fun to check out a bit of what's new in Boston, including the gorgeous waterfront in the Fort Point area and the new Greenway parks.  I also did a bit of wedding dress shopping with my sister — probably the girliest thing we ever have or will do together — and not at all what you imagine when you think of wedding dress shopping. It basically involved 40 minutes at Anthropologie, but I think we were successful.

Food and drink highlights: a visit to Drink for bespoke cocktails and snacks, dinner at Redbones, lunch at Zoe's Gourmet Chinese.  Now that my bro's up there, I'll likely go visit a bit more often, and will get to see those I missed this weekend!

 
Back from a week at the beach and I think half my brain is still out there. Managed to dip in the ocean, cook up a storm, ride a beat up bike around the island, get a massage, catch up on my New Yorkers, and doze off on the beach, listening to the sound of the ocean. I'm thinking I somehow need to get out there again before Fall sets in for good. Pictures from the week are here.

With apologies for the delay, here's a brief recap of my Chicago trip (which I am now re-writing, since I managed to accidentally erase the entire post I wrote. Grr.)

First of all, a huge thanks to @Daisy17, who did an amazing job planning our trip, even when I wasn't focused on it, and who was able to turn my attention to it with a beautiful balance of determination and gentleness at just the right times. Second, a big thank you to @TroySidle, who reached out to many of his Chi-town friends on our behalf; we were treated like rock stars.

Our home base for the weekend was the Palomar, home to Sable, which would become our "local" for the weekend.  Once we were settled in, we headed over to the Purple Pig for lunch (my favorites were the fried manchego with membrillo and the asparagus & hazelnuts salad with arugula & treviso), then walked around for a bit. Later we headed for an early cocktail at the Violet Hour, then a Mexican nibble or two at Big Star across the street. We were slated for a 10pm dinner at the Girl and the Goat, but arrived around 9 and luckily scored seats at the bar (where we prefer to eat anyway). We ate some of their lighter dishes, having been nibbling the past few hours, and quickly befriended the bartender, Nate, as we arrived amidst Friday night douchebag central — many dudes in their 20's ordering Stoli O and soda. He was thrilled to have two customers who showed genuine interest in the food and proper cocktails. He even made us a delicious digestif cocktail after our dinner.

 Saturday morning I headed to the gym (balance!), then met Karen and her friend for (healthy) brunch at Sable. Surprisingly, we spent a good chunk of our day NOT eating or drinking, but on a boat, getting an architechtural tour of Chicago — a great way to see the city. After a brief rest and an outfit change, we were off to the main event, courtesy of Grant Achatz: avant garde and innovative cocktails and bites at The Aviary followed by dinner featuring recipes from Escoffier (circa 1906 Paris) at Next.  Bottom line — really interesting cocktails happening at Aviary and certainly worth a visit, and Next was fabulous, but incredibly rich and decadent.  They certainly don't make sauces now like they did in Escoffier's day. Have been repenting ever since. We ambled back to Sable for a digestif, but were pretty much toast at that point. Weak showing.

We made a quick pre-brunch pit stop at Star Lounge for coffee, and then headed over to the Publican for our last meal in Chicago. I've been thinking about their pork rinds ever since I went there in 2008! A soft-shell crab sandwich (and pork rinds) kept me happy throughout the entire flight home. Looking forward to my next trip to catch all that we missed this time around, and perhaps to do some cycling around the city!

Photos from the trip are here.

Before I get to the highlights of the MCC (which I'll be summarizing here and elsewhere), I wanted to give a little rundown of my time in Vegas.  I was there for the Equal Justice Conference, which brings together pro bono and public interest law types from across the country. Included in that group are Vivian and Carolyn, who both used to live in NYC and now live elsewhere, and given that the three of us were all going to be in Vegas, friends Emilia and Betsy (who are public interest lawyers as well but weren't attending the conference) timed their trips to coincide with the conference.

Per my usual travel mode, I spent a great deal of time researching food and drink options.  Arriving on Wednesday night, we started off with a drink at Vesper, and then had a tasty Chino-Latino dinner at China Poblano.  We wandered around the strip a bit afterwards, mostly Caesar's Palace, but we had trouble finding the exit and ended up in a random back alley/parking lot, still searching for the street and a cab to take us home.

Thursday after a full day of conference sessions, I had put together a large group dinner (for 28) at Firefly — tapas and paella — and then we were off to the Bellagio for some gambling.  I'm not much of a gambler. Over the course of the weekend I played the slots a bit as well as some roulette, but once I lost my $50 I was pretty much done. That left me to one of my favorite pastimes in Vegas: people watching. One of the things I was constantly wondering is how the women managed to walk around in their crazy killer heels. I have very low tolerance for uncomfortable shoes, and they seemed to be everywhere in Vegas (along with lots of sequins and some of the trashiest looking micro-mini dresses I've seen).  I kept surpressing the urge to stop one of the women and ask them how they did it and if they had any practical tips for me.

Friday was more conference sessions, and then a workout and a quick nap to gear up for the big event — dinner at E by Jose Andres. E is an 8 seat restaurant inside Jaleo in the Cosmopolitan that offers two "shows" per night, with the courses plated in front of us. Viv and I went to the early seating for a 15+ course meal with beverage pairings (don't worry — the courses were small). I'm not even going to begin to describe the meal except by saying that it was incredible, and I'll definitely be going back.  Pictures from dinner, with descriptions of the courses are here.  After a digestif at Vesper, we spent the evening at the Hard Rock, Em's favorite, and ended up spending quite a bit of time at the dueling piano bar there (and yes, they let me sing backup a bit).

We got off to a slow start Saturday morning, and had brunch at the Peppermill, an institution known more for the decor than the food, but definitely worth a visit. We then wandered through Encore and the Wynn, and relaxed for the afternoon.  Dinner was at Raku, a small Japanese robata grill off the strip.  I had heard about Raku from my friend Zach, a chef who now lives out there, and it was great — housemade tofu and soy sauce, and probably the best Agedashi tofu I've ever had.  After dinner, we headed to B&B at the Venitian to say hi to him and have a drink and dessert.

Sunday we had to head out, but not without one more stop: my first visit to In-n-Out Burger, where we got drive-thru on the way to the airport (as a NYer, I tend to forget about the drive-thru option. Props to Viv for that one!). We had a mini picnic at the airport — a double double animal style and extra crispy fries for each of us.

Finally getting back into the swing of things; more writing to come!!