“Sinpannay; conpannay.” A man holding a white pad stood by our weatherbeaten outdoor table, gesturing from me to the Salad Queen. His face was turning red. We were so frazzed by our drive that we just didn’t get it. “Sinpannay. Conpannay.” He gestured back and forth, threw up his arms and stalked off. His thin […]
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The tongue of heat that laps at the Maremma’s hardened landscape takes away our breath. We’re only three hundred feet down the trail that leads to the sea and already gasping for water. Not only is the heat scalding our lungs, but the signs warning of malaria mosquito are freaking us out. A long-horned bull […] A gaggle of women in brightly colored saris choose snacks from shelves behind a long counter, their dark eyes widening as bags of goodies change hands. I watch the gulab jamon man to one side pouring a thin ribbon of saffron-yellow batter onto hot oil. He works his funnel quickly, creating a pattern of looping […] In cavelike darkness, my bare feet touch the varnished tile and I negotiate the quirky antiques that fill our room: the base of an ornate brass bedstead, a chair I’m afraid to touch because the carved arm wants to come off, an old Singer sewing machine table that supports a Sony flat-screen tv. I pull […] The tang of coal smoke hangs in the air as we heft our packs and make our way through the cobbled streets of Glossop. Out past the clusters of stone houses, all tumbled together, we rise to a low ridge that takes in views of glorious dales gleaming in hazy sunshine. The air up here […] I thumbed through the wine-stained menu at a popular taverna in Aghios Nikolais on the eastern edge of Crete. Meat, lamb and meat it said in four languages; in a succession of loud tourist restaurants it had been the same now every night for a week. Here, jammed up against the wall of the kitchen, […] I dip my paddle and pause in the late morning stillness. A hundred feet away a head emerges, dog-like and sleek, counterpoint to the barely rippled water. Moments later, as if by magic, another head appears. Two sets of dark mud-puddle eyes look at me for a few seconds and then, as quietly and mysteriously […] West of Sienna, sunflowers paint the softly rolling hills as far as the eye can see. The road dips and sways through the Tuscan landscape, with shoulder high banks that rise to either side. Swallows glide on late afternoon thermals in the clear blue sky. At an opening to one field a man holds up […] Mauro with the woodfired oven at San Carlo on Granby Street in Leicester The following are notes from Sortachef’s recent trip to the UK. July 21st, Bloomsbury, Central London While walking to Covent Garden after depositing our bags at the hotel, I spy a well-dressed man at a […] Ancient stands of redwood trees loom majestically, lords of the forest. Clinging to great swaths of land along California’s northern coast, they foster an astonishing density of life – birds, animals, mosses, shrubs, and wildflowers. On entering the forest, you feel exhilarated and at the same time very small. Once you have been to the […] |
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