Rural Life

I enjoyed rural life; driving on small roads with few cars, surrounded by land of all types (mountains, trees, farms), largely undeveloped and where it is, mostly quaint (maybe that is getting Vermont-specific :) I like having only one or two places to hang out. It's NICE. You aren't overwhelmed with options at every turn.

Opinions aren't fixed, of course. My opinion about rural life is a culmination of many things in my recent life:

(1) Like most city apartment-dwellers I am starved of all the things I got in my VT home: a huge kitchen, multiple rooms - a room for every function!, a kitchen table, a TV, multiple floors and 2 pellet stoves. (Maybe this could wear off with time, as I start to crave culture and chaos?). Similarly, I am NATURE starved!!!

(2) I may feel differently if I were single, at least about the likelihood of meeting guys given the lack of things to do. But at the same time, what a nightmare dating in NY can be. People are friendlier here if there are less of them.

(3) There is another more elusive factor which has to do with my early life in VT in a rural area. While I was here, I visited my old house in Colchester. There is feeling I get when I look at the horse farm at the end of my old street, the expanse of land, sky and skyline - a few steps from our door! A calm feeling, that links me to other points in my life when I felt similarly calm. I know there is a root there that grows a feeling in me, which feels good.

For now, suburban visits and NY life, but hope is ahead...

Food Inc

What inspires me to post? Life seems more normal to me now, even though I am still doing exciting and different things. More on that later. But something else that came my way that I wanted to share was the film Food, Inc. I'm sure many of you have heard of it; it came out over the summer.

It's crucial to be fully educated about our food system because it touches so many important areas of our lives and our community: health (obesity, diabetes, eating habits), safety (e coli and diseases born out of some horrid industrial food systems), worker's rights and immigration (providing opportunities that are humane and viable), policy (the usual story of the big businesses that control our government and government prioritizing those needs over all the vital needs I am listing here), animal cruelty, sustainable development (what jobs are we providing in this food system? and often overlooked, what jobs or tasks are we taking away? ie, small farms, seed saving, etc), environmental impact (livestock is one of the top few contributers to greenhouse gas emissions).

Need I go on? I highly encourage everyone to see this film, and would even go as far as to consider it a matter of personal responsbility. With a movie like this, you can't use ignorance as an excuse as these issues keep growing. For some it will be about being introducted to broad ideas, for others, more about learning new supporting details or even just being reminded.

Their website also lists some take-aways. The most important reminder for me is about meat. Not only eating less meat (the quantities most of us consume is not natural, and because of environment costs), but also avoiding convential meat (tyson, purdue, etc) because of the unsustainable way they do business (environmentally, socially, health-wise). It's easy enough to get meat from farmers markets, farm shares and CSAs, or ordering directly from farms.

Take it in!

Green Mountain Farm to School

Check out this program on Vermont Public Radio about Green Mountain Farm to School (the place I am working this fall)!

http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/85852/
(click on Listen)

Enjoy!

Reviews of Guatemala

Because I have so much time and am so kind-hearted :-), I posted a review of Antigua and Lake Atitlan on the lonely planet forums. Here are links if you want to check them out:

Antigua:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/message.jspa?messageID=16186829#16186829

From Guatemala

Lake Atitlan:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?messageID=16186873&#16186873

fun stuff.

Ventures

Frank started two new websites / companies. One of them got written up (independently) today!
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/firstlinefiction-com-for-all-aspiring-short-novelists

The other one is TykeRider. They are just starting marketing for it, but its a great product so hopefully that won't be a tough task.

It's been fun talking about the sites and strategies. The whole exploit reconfirms my idea and hopes for achieving a happy work/life. Focusing on and redefining (1) who is your boss, what is your motivation, why are you doing your job? (easy questions to answer with your own company) (2) work schedule - flexible is amazingly freeing.

As for me, I start my mini consulting gig this week. Going well so far! I leave for VT Sept 27th.

Coffee Economics

I finished my paper on coffee (for the summer class I took at UCLA) - it ended up being about the economic sustainability of the industry. It was VERY interesting to do the research and write the paper. I talked to so many interesting, smart people, who have great perspective on broad issues, as well as getting to volunteer and become involved with some great organizations. (Maybe I should go to grad school?) I ended up focusing on the economic sustainabilty over the environmental impacts because it was just so obviously wrong. Here is my first paragraph:

Worldwide, coffee is the second largest export commodity after oil, valued at 60 billion dollars annually (PBS). Guatemala is among the top 10 players in this rich business. Not only important in the world market, coffee alternates with sugar as the top export in Guatemala; a key source of the country’s income. In 2005 the agricultural trifecta of coffee, sugar and fruit accounted for 1 billion dollars, or one third of Guatemala’s overall exports (ITC). This number is only a shadow of the total value of the market, realized once these raw materials are converted into end-products and sold to consumers.

Over half of Guatemalans work in the agriculture industry, many nurturing these cash crops. In the face of this wealth, how is it that Guatemala is one of the 10 poorest countries in Latin America, with over three quarters of its residents living below the poverty line (World Bank)? This paper will explore the economic sustainability of the coffee industry in Guatemala, examining the political and social roadblocks and the efforts to forge new paths.

You can read the rest here

And here is the photoessay

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

There and Back Again

I'm back. The first signs of culture shock:
- i keep saying hola, gracias and si (esp to waiters)
- feeling like the airplane toilet was a luxury - you can throw the TP in toilet and hot water comes out of the faucet!
- taking $80 out of the ATM and knowing it will only last me a day, maybe two. ouch.
- i can turn on the tap and DRINK the water!

Other than that, its not too hard to adjust to NY or the US. I have some really great things to look forward to:
- I am doing a short-term consulting project (paid!) gathering/documenting business requirements for new green energy startup. awesome! it only lasts two weeks in sept which is perfect.
- I "move" to VT on Sept 27th to work at Green Mountain Farm to School. I am working there for three months, well volunteering you may call it, getting a stipend and free housing. I am psyched to live in VT and somewhere rural for a bit, and am really excited about the organization and people there.
- Christina's bachelorette weekend is sept 17th! we are all hanging out in NY. Sarah is pregnant! And then going back to LA in Oct for christina's wedding and seeing my sister.
- My friend Dave form Australia (my Asia traveling partner) is coming to visit.

AND I arrived in NY in one of my favorite months. Looking forward to seeing all my friends, hanging out with Frank and enjoying as many restaurants and nights out as I can afford!

2 Weeks at Ijatz

It´s been a long two weeks on the farm, but interesting and full. Eng and I stayed in different homestays to challenge ourselves more - it turned out good but at the moment when we had to split up I wanted to change it! I walked up a long windy dirt path with Josephina, my new house mom, to the little concrete house where she lives, with her husband and 3 kids ages 8, 10, 12. It was a simple three room house - kitchen, and two rooms with beds, one with a TV that functioned as a family room as well. The sink, toilet and shower were outside in little stalls. There was no running water in the house, but they kept a big filtered water jug in the house. So yeah it was different! And they spoke no English, so it was all Spanish all the time, or just silence sometimes. It was great though! It´s amazing how you can really bond with people despite the language barrier. I could even joke around with them or make small talk, etc. It was fun. I bought the little girl shoes for her birthday and would randomly bring home fruit or stuff for the kids. On the last day, they surprised me with this HUGE industrial sized strawberry pie, which I had seen them making in the Farm kitchen but didnt know it was for me. I was so happy! It was amazing. I was so sad to leave them.

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

Work at Ijatz was cool. Everyone was nice and again, it crazy how you can bond and have relationships with people when you can barely speak. My spanish got a lot better, or at least I was forced to be more comfortable giving it a shot, putting together shoddy sentences combined with the occasional charrades. We worked in the office with Victor a lot, sometimes with Pancho with the conjehos (bunnies) or in the gardens, and sometimes with the mujeres (woman) who make snacks and drinks to sell on the street as a side business. The first day was the hardest as we had to scoop up rabbit poo for the organic fertilizer. Yay organic! It was gross but we had a really good time with Pancho and just laughing to each other.

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

We were really glad when it was over though, to be able to come back to San Marcos and enjoy the peace and pleasantness here. And get some normal food. This is a whole other issue, but its really sad how people eat in the small towns, the regular people like the ones we were staying with. It was mostly sweet breads, very sweet watered down coffee, tortillas (fresh and yummy but just carbs), rice, beans and the occasional vegetable, eggs, chicken and carne (least frequent). They dont eat many vegetables. I thought since they were more indigenous they would all have backyard gardens and be really healthy, but just like in the states, people just buy what is cheap, including sugary processed stuff. Anyway, ts nice to get some yogurt, fruit and western-hippy chow here in San Marcos.

Ciao for now!

Que Tal in Guatemala

Xela (Quetzaltenango) is a great city. It's real - chaotic, messy, bustling, and still beautiful. While the more touristy places, including Antigua and San Pedro where we were this weekend, are nice for other reasons - often more preserved, more anemities, more travelers, etc - the thing that I love about traveling is being somewhere different and real. That is where the excitement comes from.

Today we go back to the lake to volunteer at a coffee cooperative. It should be interesting. On Friday I talked to Miguel from Mano Campesinas, an org that works with coffee cooperatives as well. It was really nice to chat with him. Besides learning about the industry, we were able to chat and connect about general life goals, helping people, development, etc. Every once in a while I get to to talk to someone, a genuine person, that seems to echo things I feel and think inside. (Other people that come to mind are Jonathan from Bobolink, and a German farmer I met in Cambodia who volunteers to teach Cambodians more about agriculture.) It's just amazing what people chose to do with their lives; how they can live so in line with their values and be a source of inspiration.

Ciao for now!

From Guatemala

Still Here!

I finished week 2 of spanish school and am still a major beginner...but I have some basis now. This coming week, I am sort of "taking a vacation" - going to Lake Atitlan with 2 friends and then to Xela (Quetzeltenango) to check it out and also meet up with Rafman! He was my most recent / last boss I had a Lehman. I am really excited to see him and his family. Rafman has always been encouraging to me exploring my interests and we always have long conversations about world issues and random things.

From Guatemala

As for my paper - I encountered an organization called As Green As It Gets (per a lead from Eric!). I went and helped them out last week and tomorrow I am going to interview the founder, Franklin, to get more official info for my paper. As Green As It Gets works with local coffee farmers to process, market and sell their coffee at real prices (not the crap prices they get offered by larger farms). Check them out.

After my "vacation" next week, I am going to volunteer for 2 weeks at another collective of coffee farmers, IJATZ. This will be really interesting/hilarious because it is Guatemalan-run and I will be on the only native English-speaker there. But I want to dive in - its probably the only chance I have to improve my skills in so short a time.

From Guatemala

Yes, if you saw my facebook, I had quite a time hiking Pacaya, an active volcano. OMG. 2 hour hike, rain, thunder, lightning, flowing lava, pitch black, holding two walking sticks and my backpack, steep climb through volcanic rock, etc. There is no way in hell you would be allowed to do this in the States. You'd be lucky if they let you stand at the base. Seeing the lava was really cool though, once I realized I'd survived. If I may impart a true by cheesy metaphor - I realized that the worst thing to do when hiking upward is to look up - its totally demotivating. Much better to focus on what's in front of you and just keep ploughing.

From Guatemala

From Guatemala

~~~ shout out to sarah and mark - congrats on the little one on the way!! ~~~~

Status in Guatemala

In Antigua - Week one complete.

I have been taking 4 hours of spanish lesson each day, one on one with Cesar, mi maestro. It is *tough* learning a language from scratch. The first few days I didnt know enough basic words or grammar to say much (although I got by fine with english). It's weird not even being able to say "can I have" "what is that", "that is good" "where is" etc. I am realizing how much French I actually know, ie, vocab and how to make sentences with approximately correct grammar. It's just that I just never got to put my French knowledge into practice. When I open my mouth I keep defaultingto French phrases. My brain seems to equate "speak foreign language" to "speak french." Without thinking I respond with "oui", "c'est bon" "et" "ici" "il y a", etc.

From Guatemala

I plan to take another week of class and in the meantime I am:

(1) working on papers for my Sustainability class. Between that and studying Spanish, my day is quite packed, as is my brain.

(2) looking for volunteer opportunities for August

I am enjoying the social scene here - ex-pats and travelers always make for an interesting bunch. Being a school atmosphere, you also get some more serious types. I've made good friends with a girl from my homestay, Eng. Homestay is not great so we are moving to a new house next week.

I had a great first 4 days with Eric (NY friend), his brother Evan and his girlfriend Betsy. We partied it up on Guatemala City and Antigua and were lucky enough to be able to hang out with his extended family who are locals. They know the areas AND speak Spanish! :)

From Guatemala

Guatemala

I am going to Guatemala tomorrow for 6 weeks, maybe including other countries. We shall see! I wanted to learn more about sustainable agriculture in central america and the effects of US policy decisions on agriculture there. That is the topic of the paper I am writing for me class. Should be interesting! Hopefully I will find some good contacts on this topic while I am there because I havent had much luck getting in touch with anyone in advance. Well, worst case its another good vacation / travel experience :)

Ciao!

The Complete Packing List

Packing info that may come in handy for you or my future self.

I like to organize things by function / frequency of use, because I am that sort of crazy. But its worth the effort when you are living out of a bag.

Toiletry bag #1 - meds:
- Tylenol/Advil
- Pepto and Tums (also put a roll in my daypack)
- Tylenol PMs or Nyquil (emergency sleep aids)
- Bandaids, moleskin (for blisters), gauze, Neosporin
- Mosquito-killing arsenal: repellent with 35% DEET (small), repellent with less or no DEET (larger size), cortizone for bug bites, bug spray for clothes and mosquito nets
- Tampons, backup (hard to find there)
- Nail clippers and nail file
- Laundry detergent, small package (for emergency sock washing)
- Emergen-C or vitamin / hangover cure of choice

Toiletry bag #2 - regular toiletries:
- Your basic toiletries (deodorant, lotion, toothbrush, hair brush, hair bands, etc).
- All purpose liquid soap (camping stores) is nice to have, for hands, backup body wash, washing water bottle, etc

Toiletry bag #3 - shower stuff:
- I separate shower stuff into a separate water resistant bag for easy transport to showers.

In a ziploc or other bag, kept in a handy spot - electronic stuff:
- AC Adaptor
- backup batteries for anything requiring them (flashlight)
- chargers for camera, etc, as needed
- More memory cards for your camera
- Flashdrive, potentially useful

In a handy part of your bag, like the outside or top pocket - general purpose items:
- Iodine (for purifying water...this is the first time I am bringing this, for Central America)
- Travel / quick-dry towel
- Silk sack sleeping "bag" (can buy there ...nice-to-have but not necessary)
- Plastic bags of all sizes
- Padlock for zipping bag shut or for lockers (I rarely use, but always bring)
- Mini roll of toilet paper and/or tissue packs
- Swiss army knife with bottle opener
- Flashlight or headlamp (great for places with no electricity, but I dont have one)
- Sunblock (better to bring from US)
- Extra pens
- Extra books and notebooks (I had trouble finding good books to swap in Asia)
- Playing cards (learn rules to games! well I never do, but it would be useful)
- Water-proof jacket and/or poncho
- Mini umbrella? (nice-to-have but not necessary)
- Water-proof cover for your bag? (nice-to-have but not necessary)

Day pack / purse:
- Passport (for initial flight day, but then I usually keep at the hotel front desk)
- Tissues (which double as TP in times of need)
- Anti-bacterial hand stuff (dont forget to remove before flying)
- Tums (they are a cure-all, im convinced)
- Mini sunblock is nice to have if you come across it, rather than carrying a huge bottle (remove before flight)
- Camera! and related equipment
- Lonely Planet
- Notebook (small/thin, nothing heavy)
- Pens
- Bandana or scarf useful for covering up or random towel use
- Ipod? (I brought mine to Asia and it was useful but I am not bringing it to Central America. I am more worried about crime there and I will be on less long bus trips, and there for a shorter time, etc. Plus I have a lot to read)
- Water bottle? (buying water in plastic bottles is unavoidable but in asia enough places offered filtered water refulls that I think its worth bringing)
- Phone? (unlocked that can take a foreign SIM card. Used mine in Asia but decided to rent a phone in Central America)

Organized into a few packing cubes* - clothes:
- Bottoms - a combination of the following not to exceed approx 6 pieces :) Lighteight pants (potentially the ones that convert to capris), pair of jeans, capris, shorts (less socially acceptable in many developing countries), a jersey skirt and/or sundress for night time or bathing suit cover, comfy pants/capris for sleep or yoga
- Tops: a few tshirts (I may pick up some quick-dry ones), 1 tank top for layering or westernized beaches (not really socially acceptable to wear otherwise), 1 long sleeve shirt, one fleece, one light-weight hoodie (for hoodie addicts)
- for completeness - underwear, sports bras, socks
* packing cubes rock

Floaters:
- Shoes: hiking shoes or running shoes, flip flops for shower and walking, more sturdy walking sandals
- Mesh bag (not a big regular sized ones) for dirty clothes
- Copy of your passport (keep somewhere in your bag)
- Extra cash and extra credit card (keep somewhere in your bag. Good for when (1) you lose you wallet in Italy and need a way to eat or (2) get stuck in a small town with no ATM and need to exchange your stash for local money at a sad exchange rate).
- Cheap watch which can double as an alarm clock

Other to-do:
- Call credit cards re. international travel
- See if a visa is required for any countries
- Check for special vaccinations needed
- Make a list of important phone numbers if you arent bringing your cell phone

SUSTAINABILITY...

It's becoming quite a trendy word.

I am taking a class this summer called Comparative Sustainability Practices in Local/Global Settings. It's an online class through UCLA. I am going to plan some more traveling for my final project (more on that soon). In the meantime, we get to read and write a few short papers on a variety of topics: Transportation, Food, Waste, Economics, etc.

I've found a few interesting tidbits to share...

- What is your ecological footprint? Apparently we need 4 earths to sustain my habits....geez and I dont even have a car!
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

- Fish no-nos. It seems like these days most people are relatively aware of the fact that they should eat less meat, even though most people also dont do anything about it. But another detrimental problem is overfishing, and this seems to be more ignored. Did you know we shouldnt ever be eating Chilean Seabass? At least as of last year, this fish is on almost every restaurant menu in NY. And what about sushi? Cheap & Healthy = Good? Unfortunately the sushi market is huge enough to also cause huge problems for our ecosystems. :( Here's a fish guide to browse:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=17

- I learned an interesting fact at the Brooklyn Food Conference in May, that puts food practices into perspective: apparently eating locally for a year isnt NEARLY as impactful as eating normally, but giving up meat one day a week. (They provided the stats, in food miles, CO waste, etc, which I dont have on hand). Also, did you know Swine Flu and Bird Flu were born out of nasty industrial meat farms...! Eeek. Here is a great quote from Pollin's NY Times article Letter to the Chief:
Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil- fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine.

Enjoy your lunch :)

Guess What?

Asia pictures are up! Well, mostly. So far: for Seoul, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Enjoy! (NB: I also back-posted pictures in my old posts.)

Vietnam:


Seoul & Hong Kong (no autoplay):

Busy-ish Bee

Here is what I have been up to the last two weeks in California (still here!)

(1) Actual, physical stuff:

- Road Trip with sibs and their friends. 2000 miles: LA -> Grand Canyon -> Las Vegas -> Yosemite National PArk -> San Francisco -> Santa Cruz -> Big Sur National Park:


- Chilling with Christina and her adorable newborn, Sophia (better pics pending). Baby yawns = amazing:

- Explored LA food: Highlights so far are Little Ethiopia and Diddy Reise - ice cream sandwiches for $1.50. Drool here: http://www.diddyriese.com/sandwichbuilder.php

(2) Sitting-at-my-computer-or-home stuff:
- Lent money to a farmer in Cambodia on Kiva. SO COOL. Thank you Vijay's friend Kim for introducing me to the organization. Check it out...www.kiva.org
- Phone discussion for a potential opportunity with Save the Children doing data analysis / website requirements
- Looked into all sorts of summer classes, volunteer opps and grad school. Er, that's all I can say at this point.
- Made yogurt

yeah!

Road Trip - California

I've somehow found myself in California. Not that I didn't expect to be here - I had the plans in my head since Asia - but with all the thinking I have been doing about my future, sometimes I feel like a walking zombie. I just looked up and here I was! Walking out of my sister's car onto a jasmine-scented street lined in flowering trees and green grass, just one block from a whizzing highway. Yes, LA it is. Does weather ever get this good on the east coast, even on our best days? If it does, it will never feel as good as it does out here. We are missing the chill vibe that makes it sink in.

I am happy to be here. It's not enough of a change to shock you out of your senses like Asia; rather, its just another location from which I will continue to exist, and continue my stream of thinking. Hopefully the thinking will turn to action soon. I am busy researching variety of things. As a backup plan, I may work on a website for a green energy non-profit out here. Volunteering free services is somewhat of an egotistical endeavor I think - the people will always love and appreciate any work you do. You are working for free! But it is great to help people out, and it's always a good learning experience.

Tomorrow I start a 10 day road trip with my three siblings, two boyfriends (one of each sister), and one sister's friend. Should be a hoot. We are hitting all the big national parks that the lucky west coasters seem to know and love: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Big Sur and other delights. I'll leave you with some words from a Bright Eyes song we played today (which may or may not have anything concrete to say? but somehow still resonates traveling):

Well I'm changing all my strings
I'm gonna write another travelin' song
about all the billion highways
and the cities at the break of dawn
I guess the best that I can do now
is to pretend that I've done nothing wrong
and to dream about a train
that's gonna take me back where I belong

Well now the ocean speaks and spits
and I can hear it from the interstate
and I'm screamin' at my brother on a cellphone
he is far away
And I'm saying nothing in the past or future
ever will feel like today
until we're parking in an alley
just hoping that our shit is safe

So I go back and forth forever
All my thoughts they come in pairs
Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't,
I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared

Options

I started volunteering during the day at City Harvest...doing, brace yourself, technology. Yup, I'm back in the tech world for the next few weeks. But working for a non-profit is SO much more rewarding. The tech life doesn't look so bad from this angle, although I am being cautious :) The mission of City Harvest is to rescue food from restaurants, groceries and deliver it to food pantries and other places of need. It's a good experience to see what it's like in non-profit environment, make connections, and generally see what's out there.

I am helping them with their Access database. I realized that, while I worked/suffered for 5 years, at least I now have some skills and can add real value to an organization. It's hard to believe many people don't know how to do pivot tables in Excel or don't know how to look at their data in Access, which is a relatively user-friendly (if archaic) program. However, I don't blame them - it's not as if I ever learned it in any class. I learned at work. But being comfortable with your data is so important, to be able to converse with it in lots of ways to get the information you need. (Maybe I need to start a company: Data Literacy for Non-Profits?) Anyway, so it's been fun to get my head working again and to be helping out.

In the meantime, I am still thinking about the big question: what next. The answers range from:

- Working at a non-profit, in a desk job basically, or volunteering or interning at one for a short period...could be boring? Is it impactful enough?

- Hands-on volunteering or field work job. Something like Peace Corps, but not as long of a commitment (6 months would be good)

- Starting my own non-profit (or socially conscious for-profit)....the most challenging route

Ex of a cool non-profit: Hot Bread Kitchen - they hire immigrant woman to bake the breads that are native to their homelands and then sell the breads (finding a market for skills)

Ex of a cool for-profit: Tom's Shoes - everyone has probably heard of them now...the guy donates a pair of shoes to poor people for every pair bought.

Intersecting with these options are the fields I could be working in....aka, what kind of help? I've always been interested in food issues: agriculture, healthy, environment effects, etc. Not necessarily separate from food issues, I am also interested in economic development and education and/or types of solutions that last and have a healthy fit into the larger system.

Next move is to start looking into these options further and talk to people who have taken these route. (Anyone have good contacts?)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw a video this morning of Jacques Torres describing life on his houseboat. He is so cute - Mr Chocolate! My thoughts quickly strayed to memories of his Chocolate Chip Cookies...

Speaking of desserts that are Worth It (my previous post), here is the list of chocolate chip cookies that I have tried in the city (....yes, I have been keeping track) and my favorites.


Top Tier - Very Special Cookies

Birdbath (owned by City Bakery): Everyone likes their cookies a different way. As a chewy girl, to me, these cookies are perfect. The flavors are distinct - vanilla, brown sugar, butter, chocolate. The amount of chocolate does not overpower the delicious said flavors. The cookie is rather large (no opinion on that), flat and chewy with parts of softness and crispness. It is not to be missed. I have seen people walk out of the store empty-handed when told that chocolate chips cookies have run out. (I go to the location on 7th ave at Charles St).

Jacques Torres: Get a warm chocolate chip cookie from here and you will be in heaven. His chocolate is so good; it is highlighted by its presence in flat, square slabs within the cookie. And when its melting...! Cookie itself has great flavor, balanced between ingredients.

Jack's Coffee: This is a cookie for traditionalists. Small compared to what we see in bakery cases these days, but about the size of what you would make at home. They are thick and soft, and of course, meet the mandatory criteria of being deliciously flavored. They are labeled Aunt Rosie's Chocolate Chip Cookies, further emphasizing the nod to traditional cookies. By the way, the cookies are in a cake platter at the register, don't be discouraged when you dont see them in the bakery case :)

Levain Bakery: Take at look at that picture in the link and tell me it doesnt make you want to eat one. These cookies are mammoth in size and in history. I brought a few home to my family (cookie lovers too) and the favorite was the one pictured, a chocolate peanut butter one. The chocolate cookie was so richly flavored, and the size/density was unique, adding to the deliciousness.


Second Tier - Very Good, still Exquisite

Milk & Cookies: Delicous cookies, can be made fresh to order, and offers amazing cookie sandwiches, as I mentioned in the last post. Highly recommended.

'wichcraft: Yummy cookie sandwiches called cream'wiches. They are a nice, moderate size too :)

Momofuku Milk Bar: Yummy. I gotta go back and try this one: cornflake-marshmallow-chocolate chip. (Their pies are obscenely good.)


Third Tier - Good but I have some complaint.

Bouchon Bakery: Good! Not blown away. Flavors not as strong as I like and a bit dense for my taste. Browned edges yummy.

Insomnia Cookies: Good but a bit greasy for my taste and far too large. A cookie meal. I also really didnt like the bakery itself/location. Felt like a McDonald's for cookies. Love the delivery concept though.

********************************

Any good places I missed? Let me know in the comments, so I can continue my research. Help a sister out. (You can also take the poll on my page!)

Also, let it be known, that while I love chocolate chip cookies and use them as a standard by which to measure a bakery, my favorite cookie to eat and to make is a ginger cookie (any variation of molassas cookie, gingerbread cookie, ginger snap, etc). And in fact, I am happy with a ginger cookie from almost anywhere, I love them that much. :) Some favorites are from Birdbath and Once Upon a Tart.

The Indulgence Police

As usual, my life in NY revolves much around food. Don't blame me for posting more about it. It's simply that food is one of the most obvious and loved treasures that the city has to offer.

There is nothing worse than wasting calories on a mediocre dessert, am I right? A few of us went to a dessert bar last night (sweetiepie) and the consensus was the only 1 out of the 3 desserts we shared were really worth it; that one being a plate of cookies. And even cookies are not a surefire success in spending dessert calories! We were lucky.

I decided that as I discover them, I will enlighten you as to the best sweets in the city. To think of people, friends!, eating stale croissants, bland cookies and industrial-baked cupcakes is heartbreaking and completely unnecessary, when I am already doing the testing for you.

To start you off, here are two delicious and completely worthwhile desserts I had recently:
- From Milk and Cookies (on 7th and Commerce): Chocolate cookie sandwich, filled with vanilla cream that was so delicious - a magnolia-type cupcake icing. Think oreo - that classic combo of chocolate and vanilla.
- From Ronnybrook Dairy (Chelsea market): In the same vein, another classic also perfectly balanced and flavored, a chocolate cookie ice cream sandwich.

I have also done some extensive research in the past on croissants, grilled cheese sandwiches and pizza (among so many other things!), which I will post for you at some point. :)

By the way, in case your indulgence leaves you with some unforeseen side effects (tight jeans, loosening your belt, etc), worry not. Bring yourself to the Bronx. I was there this weekend for a volunteering event, and my "curves" (ahem) were not unnoticed. I don't mean they were noticed the way they are in the West Village - where you are an outcast if not built like a rail. Rather, they were very much appreciated. (In other words: You don't need to travel across the world to realize the body image issues that are bred in America. That said, I do not endorse eating sweets as a road to health ;-)