Papa, No Come las tortugas!

Some of the press releases I receive are very useful, and some are kind of random. I received an announcement at some point that the baby sea turtles were starting to hatch in Baja. Very adorable, but Baja's not my beat, so I let it go.

A month ago I received another baby sea turtle email announcing that there were still vacancies for the press junket. I read it again. Yes, this definitely looked like an invitation. My blog may be LA-centric, but it also reports on tecchie news and is super-green. Luckily, I had already taken the week off for a workshop. Hmmm, saving baby sea turtles in Cabo vs. staring at hypnotic hotel meeting room carpets? No contest!

But who were these people? Was it all a ruse to kidnap me and sell my kidneys on the black market? I checked them out, and ASUPMATOMA sure looked legit.

The Association for the Protection of the Environment and the Marine Turtle in Southern Baja (ASUPMATOMA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the endangered sea turtles of Baja California Sur, Mexico, and the overall environmental sustainability of Los Cabos’ beautiful beaches, lands and surrounding communities.

ASUPMATOMA was founded more than 18 years ago by René Pinal, a prominent real estate investor and conservationist in Cabo San Lucas, along with a team of biologists and local residents to address the pressing environmental issues facing Los Cabos. In particular, the organization is a leading worldwide advocate of the preservation of the endangered sea turtles, which are now at risk of destruction in the Sea of Cortez region due to rapid land development, pollution, and illegal hunting and fishing practices.

For nearly two decades, at Pinal’s Rancho Punta San Cristobal estate, a three-and-a-half-mile stretch of environmentally protected beaches and lands (located along the Pacific Coast of Baja approx. 15 minutes north of Cabo San Lucas), ASUPMATOMA has saved tens of thousands of sea turtles in the wild and hundreds of thousands of baby sea turtle hatchlings along the beaches of Los Cabos. In addition, Pinal’s natural lands protect more than 17 other species in the area, some which are also endangered.

In the 80s I spent time in Baja with Linda and D Boone, who LOVED sea turtle tacos. Luckily, I had not yet developed an adventurous palate, so I didn't have to deal with any guilt on this trip. OK, I ate Turtle Soup once at Commander's Palace. But who knows what kind of turtle it was? Definitely not one as adorable as these! (I am reminded of the little girls on "Kid Nation" who would only allow the "ugly chickens" to be sacrificed for soup).

The consumption of sea turtle meat and eggs has been illegal in Mexico for over 20 years now, but poachers still supply a thriving black market. One nest can yield 200-dollars worth of eggs, a lot of money in an impoverished country. To address this issue, ASUPMATOMA has a special program for children called, "Papa, no come las tortugas!"
Daddy, Don’t Eat the Sea Turtles!

Daddy, Don’t Eat the Sea Turtles is an environmental program created to educate and raise public awareness about the endangered sea turtles and environment, and in particular, encourage the citizens of Los Cabos, and throughout Mexico, to stop the consumption of eggs and meat of sea turtles which is still considered a delicacy.

OK, so no eating sea turtles. But I hear they do make ant egg tacos in that part of the country. Cabo, here I come!

Blogging's Dirty Little Secret

Tony Pierce is both a madman and a genius. He is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. Should he really apply himself, I suspect he could found his own religious cult. He is also the best mentor a new blogger could have had. A year and a half ago, he encouraged me to write.

I fretted, "I don't have mainstream tastes. What if the readers don't like what I like?" Tony insisted, "It's your job to tell them what they're supposed to like."

Apparently the PR people also believe that is our divine purpose. So along with the satisfaction of an audience for our rants, bloggers sometimes get little perks. PR companies are happy to send along product samples and press releases.

So here it is - my dirty little secret, the magic and the wonder that is blogging. Today it actually happened.

I got beer in the mail.

A six-pack of beer. From DHL. Life is good.

Rock the Crockpot!

Our generation was never quite as obsessed with kitchen gadgetry as our parents were. Most people never seem to venture beyond a blender and a George Foreman Grill. After all, Margaritas and paninis can get you through your 20s just fine.

But maybe you are starting to get a little more excited by all of that shiny, shiny, chrome in the back aisle of Crate and Barrel.

One standard in your parent's pantry is the good old crockpot. Don't allow a few bland dinners of bygone days to tarnish its memory. This is a magic machine. It cooks while keeping the house cool on the warmest of days -- we're all a little tired of salads by now, aren't we? And as the temperature drops, it is the perfect way to make the homey soups and stews of Autumn. You can even ignore it and it won't burn the house down. I can't even say that about a human child.

It's still not quite soup weather, and a human child should never, ever be put in a crockpot, not even during Hide and Seek. So what's cooking? How about a badass pulled pork sandwich from our neighbors in Tennessee?


Pulled Pork

3 to 4 pounds pork shoulder roast, boneless
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 chopped onion
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco or similar hot pepper sauce
1 Tablespoon molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
¼ tsp dry mustard
1 cup ketchup
1/2 lemon, juiced

Throw all of this stuff in the crockpot, turn it on low, and give it a stir. You might want to add a little apple juice or water to cover the meat.

Now go master Guitar Hero, Twitter, get a hip hairstyle, hey, maybe go out and work all day. Whatever. The crockpot doesn't give a damn what you do. Just go away for about 6 to 8 hours. The crockpot needs its alone time.

Shred the pork using 2 forks in a barbarian tearing motion. Toss the fat and bone if you find any. Serve with:

Hamburger buns
A little BBQ sauce (We like Sweet Baby Rays, ourselves)
Coleslaw. (Yes, On the sandwich. That's right. Just do it. It will all make sense in a minute.)

LA Chocolate Salon Gives us Frizzy Perms

When Lindsay was invited to judge The Los Angeles Luxury Chocolate Salon, we imagined chaise lounges and champagne. Unfortunately, it was more like matriculating at your local junior college. The judges were given the impression it was a competition, the chocolatiers were given the impression it was a trade show, and the 20-dollar-a-head guests were given the impression it was an all-you-can-eat chocolate orgy.

Most of the tables had chopped samples up into itsy-bitsy powdery flakes that melted in your hands, not in your mouth. Lindsay, as an official judge, still had to practically beg for samples to judge.

We were glad to see Caroline on Crack, This Delicious Life, E*starLA, and a few other bloggers there. Traditionally loners, bloggers are really fun and kind of scary when we travel in packs.

My two favorites of the day were:

The Ginger English Toffee, an unexpected pairing, from Valerie Confections. The chocolate was smooth and silky on the tongue. The boxes were also tasteful and elegant. Lindsay loved their salted and orange toffees.

The most exciting offering was from Chuao, WOW! Their firecracker chocolates burst on the tongue with a deep chocolate and chipotle, combined with the light crunch of a wafer and a sparking surprise. It IS like celebrating 4th of July - in your MOUTH!

Their new ChocoPods had unusual, yes, pod-shaped chocolates filled with delicious banana goo.



My main photo card went missing, so I'm short on pictures. I will do my best to give you the flavor of the event. I will have to borrow a photo of the trippy rainbow chocolate man from TheFost on Flickr. Let your freak flag fly!



Although Chocolatique had lovely boxed confectionaries, with some truly exciting flavors, the real stars were the chocolate-drizzled nuts.



Screw gingerbread!



The salesman at Vermeer was not only nice enough to give us cool, refreshing shots, but little airline bottles of the chocolate liquer as well. A little less coffee-flavored, and a little more chocolatey than Kahlua, you can down an airline bottle with a xanax and blow that PMS out of the water.



Christopher Michael Chocolates, home of "The Cacao Bar" was having PTSD from what must have been wild hordes of clawing, clutching women devouring all of his chocolate. he had no idea why Lindsay wanted his chocolate. He had no idea it was a competition. He had no idea when the Viet Cong's choppers were landing to attack. I tried a "mojito" that was pretty good, but was so heavily airbrushed with silvery-green paint it looked like I'd just blown Godzilla. The "Lemongrass" tasted like green tea and vomit. So maybe those flavors got mixed up.



Sacred Chocolates had a trippy mushroom flavor that would only have been good if it had contained hallucinogens. But I did like the Hibiscus Chai. This butterfly lady and trippy Willy Wonka hat guy started making out heavily as Caroline approached their table, so she passed on that one.



Sunfood Nutrition offered whole cacao beans and goji berries for making your own trail mix. So they took the hippie crown away from the Cosmic table. The whole raw chocolate was kind of cool, and the people were super groovy, naturally.





Amano had a lot to teach us about chocolate making. But the speakers had been droning on the loudspeaker all day, and if I heard the word "cacao" one more time I was going to scream. So let's just wait and let Lindsay interview them at a later date.



Rushburn offered old-school toffee and super-excellent customer service.



The San Francisco Toffee Company had a white chocolate toffee that was a nice change of pace.

The Chocolate Traveler had cool packaging and interesting gift ideas, but their table was too crowded for me to check out. It was a favorite amongst the kids and I couldn't penetrate the swarm.

Marti Chocolates had the most exotic selection by far. It was exciting to try Durian. Totally worth it. But the goat cheese chocolate? Oh my God, I felt like my mouth had been assaulted! Somebody call the police! This chocolate is a felony!!!

Links to Chocolate Purveyers

Festival Fun!

OK, Had enough of Alaska? Besides being a travelin' kind of summer, it was also one filled with fairs and festivals. Here are links to some of my other posts. I just can't deal with all of the photo uploading. It doesn't mean I love you any less. I love all of my blogs exactly the same.

Brew Ha Ha!

What's Frying at the LA County Fair

Red Hot @ Red Seven

Red Hot @ Red Seven Part 2

Day 13: Anchorage or Bust!

Our last full day in Alaska. Le Sigh. When I woke up, I almost forgot what state I was in. So thank God there was this lamp there to remind me.



And this chair.



And this other lamp.



Secure in the knowledge that I was indeed in Alaska, I packed up and headed for the shuttle. We spent the morning in Talkeetna, my favorite city. For breakfast I hit the Roadhouse, which is famous for - 14-inch pancakes! Yes! Someone is actually going to outdo that size queen The Elbow Room.







Speaking of elbows, I didn't have a measuring tape on me, and this one, although huge, just didn't FEEL like 14 inches to me. So I measured it using my arm, and it was exactly pinkie finger to elbow, which for some reason I know is just over 14 inches. So there you go, let me know when one of you tops that and I'll be on my way!



This blueberry monster was delicious - a little more eggy, like a crepe, perhaps with a little melted butter in the batter. So if it's thickness that counts, well, we're back to The Elbow Room.



Someone else from our pod teasingly asked me to photograph his food, so here is random guy's reindeer meatball sandwich.



While I was enjoying my giant pancake, Ralph ate a sausage from some hooved animal that we hadn't covered yet from this stand. He said it was delicious.



This is where President Warren G Harding stayed in 1923 when he went to Alaska to hammer in the Golden Spike. He had the nerve to room both his wife and mistress here at the same hotel. He died of poisoning in San Francisco less than a week later, causing some people to blame the hotel's seafood. But it is interesting that no one else in the party got poisoned except for the guy who brought his mistress.





I am going to miss Talkeetna, with its quirkiness and gigantic flowers.









Someone has evidently figured out how to tolerate the "Watneys Red Barrel" bus tours



With a perfectly clear sky, it suddenly started raining on us at the train station. Very Charlie Brown-esque.





As the train pulled out, we were instructed to look back for one last view of Denali. Now, everyone had been making this BFD out of the mountain for days, as it played hide and seek. Tour guide after tour guide pointed out, "Look, you can see just the peak... just there ...to the right ..." All I ever saw were clouds.



There was even a Mount McKinley/Denali watch, where you could instruct the front desk to call you if the fickle mountain showed itself. So as I turned back, it was with great sangfroid. Then, peeking out of the clouds - wait, those aren't clouds. For a week, I had gotten used to the mountain line being fairly stable, like the horizon. Denali was like the giant grandpa looming over the rest, shrinking them to the treeline. Now I see what the fuss is about!



A sun dog



Once again, the food on the train was delicious, with the exception of the ribs. I don't recommend them. This is a very nice fish chowder.



After a week of breathtaking coastline and a second week of trees, trees, trees, it was a bit of a culture shock to arrive in Anchorage with its square geometry and block-like buildings. I can see why some people "go bamboo" and head back to the wilderness, never to return to city life.



I walked over to Glacier Brewhouse for a light dinner before turning in at the very strange Captain Kidd Hotel. Or was it Captain Hook? Captain Morgan?

From Glacier Brewhouse's website:

C A S K C O N D I T I O N E D A L E S *
Our cask conditioned ales undergo a secondary fermentation in the cask which creates a natural creamy carbonation. Additional hops are added directly into the cask to provide intense floral, citrus, and fruity aromas and flavors. Served from our beer engine at a traditional cask temperature of 52 F. We aim to always have a cask beer available. Frequently appearing styles on our beer engines are Amber, IPA, Stout, and other seasonal ales. Occasionally, we even run an oak aged ale on cask



Along with an order of delicious fish and chips *where are the chips??? Never mind, the fish was lovely), I enjoyed another Ice Axe, in one of only 2 restaurants that serve it (the other being at the base of Denali). They serve it in a snifter here since it has such a high alcohol content.

IMPERIAL BLONDE, aka ICE AXE ALE *
High alcohol, slightly malty, creamy, and smooth drinking. Technically dubbed the Imperial Blonde by the brewers, this light colored honey ale is also known as Ice Axe Ale. Make sure you are roped in for this one. Served in a snifter. 9.0% alcohol by volume.



I will end this long series of posts as our naturalist on the cruise did so poetically, if a bit melodramatically

...and these...are the echoes...of Alaska

day 12 The goddess of the log

The next day I took the shuttle into Talkeetna, the base for climbers up Mount McKinley (Denali). It is a laid-back town full of artists and outdoors types. It is the place I felt most at home in Alaska. This town was also the inspiration for the TV show Northern Exposure, although it wasn't shot there.









I ate breakfast/lunch at Mountain High Pizza Pie, which was to become my home away from home. Very cool, friendly vibe, lots of beer on tap, and some of the best food I ate this entire trip. Definitely a true Roadfood establishment.



One of their signature dishes is the Italian flatbread sandwich, which is made from their own dough and unlike anything I have ever tried before. This one is stuffed with delicious reindeer sausage.



They have loads of interesting pizza toppings, and you can make your own slice (which is so big it is really two slices). I went for Italian sausage, banana peppers and mushrooms. Swoon.







I wandered down to the river and happened upon a fallen log that fascinated me. A couple of girls were posing on it, and we started trading cameras, trying to come up with the best poses.



Of course, men just naturally know how to pose like they're on the cover of GQ



I found a .45 jacket and one of the campers said they thought they had heard firecrackers on the beach the night before, but apparently it was gunshots. I didn't see any aluminum cans or broken bottles. What the hell were they shooting at? Salmon? (Because if I were really drunk, the salmon were jumping, and I had a .45 in my hand - well, the thought might cross my mind). But it was dark at the time, and salmon were no longer jumping. Someone offered helpfully, "Moose? It is moose season." Who the hell shoots moose with a .45? It's a mystery.



For dinner I met up with my travel partners at West Rib.





Glacier Brewing Company makes a special high-test brew especially for West Rib called Ice Axe Ale.



You can also order "fat ass sauce" for your burgers - a combination of sour cream, bacon and jalapenos. I'm not sure it was the perfect topping for burgers, but may strongly influence my dip-making this coming holiday season.



Ralph got a surf and turf and immediately fell in love with the strong spices on the crab. The caribou was OK, but none of us will be rushing off to buy sides of caribou anytime soon.



I wandered around town taking pictures of giant flowers, then met up with my friends from the beach for beers at Mountain High.







There was a spectacular rainstorm, like nature showing off. It reminded me of the end of The Tiki Room when our sounds of merriment have angered the gods. After about 15 minutes, it calmed down and the sun came back out. It's confusing in Alaska because the sun is still up, and you want to hang out and party, but things still close down just like everywhere else.

The last shuttle back to the lodge was leaving town at 9:30pm and I had to be on it. I called the lodge to see if there was an alternative, and the desk clerk told me that the driver had my name and would not leave without me. There was no way I could just stay in town and get drunk. Costco holidays are great people to entrust your senile aunt to, because you can't even get into trouble when you are genuinely trying.