In honor of Wanderfood Wednesday, I’d like to tell you a wee little bit about manakish made by Muhammed:

About forty minutes (give or take) out of Amman on the way to Petra, on your right under three giant billboards for Rivage Dead Sea beauty products, there’s the Jordanian equivalent of a truck stop. It’s an unassuming stucco building chock full of handmade textile souvenirs, tchotchkes, touristy knick knacks like these sand paintings, and clean bathrooms.

Stuck in the very front, far, far left corner of the store you’ll find Muhammed hand crafting the finest flatbread topped with thyme, olive oil, pine nuts (sesame?) and fresh white mixed cheeses.  It’s called manakish (manaeesh?) generally for the pizza-like creation (as far as I can tell) and zattar specifically when topped with the green thyme mixture of herbs, olive oil and pine nuts or sesame.

(Note: Jordanian olive oil was far better than its Italian counterpart and I would like to know who imports it. I’d also like to go back to Jordan on a foodies’ trip and taste oil at the producers. Wanna come?)

His oven reminded me so much of the Italian pizza ovens where I live.  He even hand tossed the dough the same way they do here.

He was thrilled I was snapping his photo (as my compradres were all shopping and paying him not one wink of attention).

I think I may have distracted him, resulting in the dark edges on the bread. Still… behold their beauty! They were tasty. Everyone especially loved the cheeses.

Here are a few similar recipes I found online:

an interesting take on Lebanese breakfast

another zattar manakish post

And here’s a recipe with white cheese. Yum!

Enjoy!

There are those among you who believe that wanderers are lost souls.  On the contrary, we are explorers.  Discoverers.  Seekers.  Lovers of beauty and adventure.

We go for the sake of going, to feel the sting of hot summer sun on our faces and hear the howling wind in high branches on cold autumn evenings, to know tall mountain peaks and valleys lower than we could have imagined before we stood on their edges and gazed out over their wide expanses.

We go to meet colorful characters along the way, descendants of priests and nomads, shamans themselves, dreamers and keepers of the world’s sacred places.

We know loneliness and exhilaration, peace and wonder at the marvels of time and age, art and nature. We have seen them with our own two eyes.

We set out when we feel the pull of the unknown, the far-off, the unimagined. We long to pack into this lifetime more than is possible, to see it all. It is a quest never finished, not realized, a quest for the sake of forever questing.  It ends in us only with our last breaths and continues in the travelers we have taught and inspired.

Not all who wander are lost. We are brave souls, archivers and aficionados, living our dreams, following a call from deep within. We beg of you, each and every last one, “Now is the time.  The world is a magical place laid out before you. What’s your adventure?”

My Mother made a traveler of me, and it was her birthday yesterday. She seems to age backwards. Benjamin Button’s got nothing on her. In honor of her birthday and because I only got to wish her Happy Birthday over an in-and-out Skype call from Jordan, I thought I’d share this little excerpt from a summer 2009 post and a video I just made for her:

…“It was my Mother who made a traveler out of me, not so much because of the places where she went as because of her yearning to go.”  My own Mother went to travel agent school when I was a kid just to learn how to get better deals.  I remember her standing in our kitchen talking on the phone, the long curly cord stretched all the way out across the 1970s goldenrod wallpaper and olive green appliances. She beamed as she asked the airline reservationist if an open jaw fare to TPA would be a better deal than flying back into SRQ.  She learned the lingo of travel and away we went across Europe and the South, to places she’d read about in Gourmet and Southern Living.  So, like Mary Morris, it was my Mother who made a traveler out of me.  I have loved to plan and embark on adventures my whole life.  For a while there I’d forgotten.

My adventures are making my Mother’s true traveler nature emerge with remarkable frequency and force. She visits a lot.  I received this email from her out of the blue yesterday, under the subject line, “Thought from Mom”:

I have been checking frequent flier into Nice thinking I could get to Gordes for lavender and R & R but it takes 170,000+ miles so not possible.

I have a ticket in and out of Milan on hold until the 31st of July.  It is a 6+ hour drive from Lugano to Provence as best I can tell and a train ride is about the same.

So-because I have a window between Aug 6-17 I am thinking maybe four or five days at the Serbelloni would be what the doc ordered? I have emailed them about an apt and will see what the response is. Mufasa probably would like to take a trip!

And so it goes with my Mom. Here are a bunch of reasons I love her:

And for your further viewing entertainment I offer once again her Tarasp, Switzerland 2008 Julie Andrews a la The Sound of Music impersonation:

Thanks, Mom, for making a traveler out of me. Happy Birthday!

I am on a new quest, inspired by a new friend, Jacquelien. She decided she needed to upgrade what she wanted in her life, so she made a list of 101 Desires in 1001 Days. Sounds a little risqué, doesn’t it?  It’s not (well, neither for her nor me). Instead, it’s a fun way to get clear what you’re up to for the next 2 to 3 years.  On her list? A new home, parasailing…

And on mine?  Well, I said we should meet to parasail because it’s been on my list for quite some time. And skiing. For a couple of years going to Ski College in Park City, UT has been on my list.  This year I’m adding a new goal: ski Switzerland at least 14 days in each of the next two ski seasons.

We were just in Portes du Soleil with our friend, Amy. One thing I loved about skiing there was that if you’re not careful with the trail/run signs, you’ll wind up across the French border without your passport! HA! That just cracked me up. There were mid-mountain restaurants where you could get steaming Nutella crepes, All ski resorts should have those, don’t you think?

It was a beautiful day, and the place lived up to its name — look at all that sun!

I’ll share more of the list as it develops. What would be on your 101 Desires in 1001 Days?

]]> http://www.xpatadventures.com/skiing-switzerland/feed 8 http://www.xpatadventures.com/check-out-the-best-worst-of-2009 http://www.xpatadventures.com/check-out-the-best-worst-of-2009#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:29:40 +0000 Rebecca http://www.xpatadventures.com/?p=1847

Click here or on the tab at the top of the page to see some of XpatAdventures’ stand-outs of 2009 and the first XpatAdventures rant!

Here’s an excerpt from the rant, for those of you who enjoy things like that. Check it out to find out where we were…

The food…hmmm… there were people who seemed to enjoy themselves in the dining areas.  If you’re going for quantity and like packaged, processed, food-like substances, this is your place! There were more deserts made with gelatin than I have ever seen in my entire life.  I don’t mean the really good stuff on the top of paté.  All week, we saw almost no fresh, high-quality foods; I was *starving* by the end of the trip. Johnny Rockets was the highlight of our on-board food experiences and the music was great in there, too.

I got so far behind in January this year, an old friend suggested (on facebook) that we could just celebrate New Year’s at the Chinese New Year, February 14 this year.  So that’s what I’m doing… 2010 will launch officially in about a week!

In the meantime, I’m getting things from 2009 complete, cleaned up and put away. Drastic things are about to happen to my email inbox. How’s yours looking?

The truth is, I’ve been procrastinating a little and thinking about 2009 a lot. Here’s why:

For me, despite all the happy little videos and everything you’ve seen here, 2009 was not a great year. Actually, that’s me being nice and slightly superficial because now people from all over the world read this blog and I am still sometimes unsure how much of the truth I should say.  Here’s the deal: you know those years that are like giant roller coasters, the ones that are so big they hurt?  The ones with highs that leave you giddy and breathless and lows that feel like a few too many Gs before you hit the bottom? The ones that are supposed to be fun but bump and jar and turn out painful?  2009 was one of those years.

In coaching, there’s a commonly used model called the Wheel of Life.  It’s a way to visually display how things are going in each area of your life (you can change the categories based on what’s important to you), and see quickly and easily where attention should be focused, where things are out of balance, and where things are going well.  It looks like this and you assign points, 0 to 10, in each area or domain. For me in 2009 a couple of domains were going well and several (way more than one) domains should have been officially declared disaster areas. They now require long-overdue rescue and relief efforts.

So 2010 is about balancing that wheel. That can be much more difficult as an Expat than it is in your home country, because, for example, at home I loved my UU church. Here there isn’t one, or a writing group or a cadre of old cronies from the Ph.D. program, or a gaggle of girlfriends who’ve stayed all four years I’ve been here. I’ve had a challenging time finding a doctor who delivers the quality of care to which I’m accustomed… I’ve even flown back to the US to visit doctors and have tests paying personally out-of-pocket.  That just doesn’t work in the long run… and still all these areas need to be addressed, not simply avoided. So big changes are afoot here at XpatAdventures.  In the meantime, I’m still cleaning up from 2009. Here are some impressions from the year:

Some things I’m grateful for from 2009

- seeing so many parts of the world I’d never seen: Nepal, India, China, Prague…

- fabulous work leading courses to corporate leaders worldwide.

- Mom coming to visit so much!

- great dogsitters for Mufasa. Thank you!

- meeting so many women I’d only encountered on their blogs or recordings: Maggie Doyne, Jonatha Brooke, Letha Sandison, Jen Lemen, Andrea Scher, Jen Lee, Christine Mason Miller, Stacey Monk and many more…

- my friend in real life & co-Adventurer A. Davenporto, who moved back to the US. I miss her so.

Highlight Moments of the year:

When a survivor of the Rwandan genocide stood up at the European Summit and said out of the weekend she felt like she could fully engage in life again.

Watching Mama Lucy Painting for Peace at the European Summit for Global Transformation!

Thursday night of the training course with corporate leaders in Cambridge, England and they want to play SingStar (?) on the Wii.  I’ve never seen a Wii, but they had no idea I could sing and I am sooo competitive.  I beat them all bad with my rendition of the Soft Cell 1981 classic, Tainted Love. That was fun!

After Alesia dragged me walking all up and down the hills of Prague she sees a Thai foot massage place and jokingly says, “You want a foot massage?”  Most co-travelers might say no, too expensive, whatever… but I said, “YEAH I want a foot massage!  You just dragged me up and down both those giant hills behind us!”  It was fun.  I’m pretty sure it was Sawasdee Thai Foot Massage, the Hroznová 5 branch.

2010 promises to be a better year than 2009 because I am addressing the wheel, each and every domain. So many areas have been neglected while I traipsed around the world. It’s time to get back to basics. How about you? What areas on your Wheel need some time and attention?

Stefan’s company sprung for a weekend trip to Saas-Fee, and we tacked on a couple extra nights to make a little holiday of it. Fun!  Here’s a wee bit of our trip (unfortunately not much of Stefan’s beautiful skiing, he can shoot and ski at the same time so he did most of the filming).

I’d never taken a funicular inside a tunnel — exciting! It’s the way up to the world’s highest revolving restaurant and a large under-glacier ice pavillion. There were lots of non-skiers up there, too.

I rented different skis every day because I’m looking to buy new ones. I can really tell the differences now. Don’t think I’d buy any that I tried. I had Salomon Equipe 3V Powerline racing skis one day — grippingest skis I’ve ever used, and it made a big difference!  I was able to easily go faster than ever before.  They were soooo heavy to carry around, though. They might have been more ski than I need now… but in a year? Who knows!

Note: Rates for the historic Hotel du Glacier on Expedia are per room and pretty much everywhere else it’s per person (read: double the price).

Saas-Fee Set to Song from Rebecca Self on Vimeo.

The song is Heartsounds by David Lanz from this Grand Piano compilation.

That’s a message for you at the end, Mom…

I know it’s three four five weeks into January, I really do.

It’s just I’m not caught up yet. Bear with me.

Better than waiting til next Christmas, I thought I’d share this great day we had in Como, Italy this holiday season so you can plan to be here next year. Mark your calendars now.

It was the Sunday after Christmas, the 27th of December. In Lugano almost everything is closed on Sundays, but you get luckier in Como. Big grocery stores, cafes, a lot more things are open across the border than here. I can’t explain why. Take my word for it.

We went in search of a turkey because I hadn’t had a turkey dinner in five years.  Mom was here to cook with me and after another turkey-less Thanksgiving and Christmas I wanted a turkey. I’d seen an ad in a flyer for a big Italian grocery store… some sale on whole turkeys… so off we went. By the way, they eat salmon on Christmas in Italy and Germany, as far as I can tell.  From hotels to family homes that is what I’ve been served on Christmas Eve for five years straight. Great for the Perricone Diet, not at all what I want on Christmas.  So we went looking in Italy for a turkey.

None of us had ever explored the historic center of Como, so we headed there first. We parked on the street near the cathedral, just outside the old city walls, and started wandering.  It was late in the afternoon and we couldn’t find open lunch places.  So what did we do?  A trick we learned from a cop friend in the U.S.  Ask the police for good, local lunch spots.  They always know.

The place they told us was closed, too, though… so we walked into Il Vecchio Borgo right on the lake, thinking it would be a tourist trap. It was not!  It was full of locals and this fabulous tiramisu.

Then we were thrilled to discover a tiny Christmas market still going on right in the heart of town…

All these cookies? I’d eat ‘em.

Pig’s feet? Would not eat them.

This poor guy doesn’t realize the sign right next to him indicates the sausage is made of the rest of him…

Should you find yourself in Lugano on a Sunday and there’s nothing to do, consider Como. Lovely cathedral, good food, handsome people, la dolce vita. Enjoy!

Oh! And we made that turkey dinner, yes we did:

We’re almost three weeks into the New Year and I still haven’t finished the Mondo Beyondo list I normally do for the New Year. Here’s what I’m not saying:

My soul… It is hungry for a new adventure.

As much as this seemed fun at first, the truth is

I need to stop working in my pajamas on the living room couch.

Have you seen this great video, “The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun?” It’s time for me to get back out there and shake things up a bit, step up into the next level of being fully me. New and next adventures await! This video says it better than I ever could. It takes five minutes and thirteen seconds. Here’s a matching flyer, too. I’m pretty sure it just reset the course of my whole year.

What if we all followed these principles?  What would you do if you were being more fully you, living your life’s adventure to the hilt?

It’s time for me to start teaching again. Or get back to school, get networked with mentors, get into a creative community.
Send the book proposal out again. (That can be done on the couch and seems to work pretty well in pajamas.)
I wish we could have the European Summit all year long. Imagine what we’d create! We’ll connect again in 2010.

I don’t know who these Box of Crayons people are but I love them already. I found this through Susannah Conway’s blog; she found it through Chris Brogan, who also has a nice little post up about Cafe du Monde’s beignets, which makes him an even better blogger than he already was. Lord knows where else it’s been. This little video’s getting around. Enjoy! May it make your heart sing, too. What would be fun for you this year?

I hear a lot of people say, “I don’t like Florence.”

To be honest with you, it upsets me a little every time… and not just because I went to school there decades ago and love it in the strange way you do places where you step foot off the train and it feels like home. It’s not just that.

It’s that, yes, there can be many tourists nel centro, in the heart of Firenze…  but there is also Michaelangleo’s Davide, Brunelleschi’s Dome, the Ponte Vecchio, the beautiful Piazza della Signoria, the cobblestoned streets where the Dark Ages blossomed into the Renaissance… and we’re going to let scheduling our visits at the same time as hordes of other tourists ruin our profound appreciation of the largest intact Renaissance city on the planet?  Come on, people!

This, by the way, is the Ponte Vecchio from my Mom’s room… there is no photo trickery here, there were no other buildings in between them.

What gets me even more is when people say they can’t find good food so they only ate panini or foccaccia standing up  in touristy bars. People, people, people.  If you can’t eat well in Florence, I’m not quite sure how I can help…

Here’s where we’ll start: one trick in places like this = in the early moments of meal times (as the bells strike noon, for example, or even a little earlier) follow the old ladies in very nice coats.

You think I’m kidding?

I’m not.

They will lead you to places like Fedra and Daniele’s All’Antico Vinaio, Via dei Neri 65/r, which we headed toward for lunch Friday (It’s closed on Mondays.).

It’s a rosticceria (think extensive deli, roast chicken, roast pork, simple enoteca) between the Piazza della Signoria and Santa Croce and has just a few tables in the back. It’s not fancy. I mean plastic plates not fancy, but  throughout our meal a steady stream of local Mammas and Nonnas purchased container after container of pasta & vegetables, and chickens ready for or fresh from the oven.

The best part? For 10 euros (!!!) you can get a large first course of pasta (including the hearty lasagna of many layers with a creamy bechamel) and a second course of 1/4 roasted chicken or other meat dish plus vegetables. I couldn’t believe the price was so low so I only ordered 1 vegetable (brussel sprouts, I love them!) but I could have gotten more. 10 euros! It was amazing. Never, ever say you can’t find good, cheap, quick food in central Florence. It was enough for two, especially with the lasagna as the first course.

Where to next?  Depends on what you’re looking for. If it’s cold and you’ve toured the Uffizi after lunch, have the thick and creamy hot chocolate at Rivoire, which has been serving since 1872 right in the Piazza della Signoria. It’ll cost almost as much as your lunch, but the people watching is fantastic. Linger. There are snacks at the bar I wish we’d noshed on.  We could have stayed longer and had hot cioccolata then segued right into prosecco and snacks at the bar before dinner. The people watching was that good. Could’ve stayed for hours.

For dinner right in the heart of town I like the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco. We had two great pasta dishes this visit: the papardelle with cinghiale and tagliaerini with truffles. Yum. Dessert was oustanding: we had tiramisu, profiteroles and panna cotta. I’m not a big fan of panna cotta, but anything with that chocolate sauce on top would be great!

We had another outstanding dessert at La Giostra, a place where the waiters speak a disturbing amount of English and are super-helpful. I’d say visit this place mostly for the experience of meeting the closest thing to Jack Sparrow you’ll ever see alive and in person in this lifetime (unless, of course, you are lucky enough to work on the films or know Johnny Depp in person) and the semifreddo drenched in freshly carmelized, hot raspberries and strawberries. It was marvelous.  If you know Johnny Depp, the Jack Sparrow-like owner is fabulous and the dessert is well worth the trip. The berries had a slight warm crunch to them from the just-hardening sugar. Note to Self: Must try that at home.

A mi piace molto Firenze. We enjoyed our trip very much and hope you will too… at least you’ll eat well now for sure!

They say if you rub the boar’s snout you’ll return to Florence again and again.  Maybe since I kissed him one day I will live there…