Archive for the “travel” Category

I’ve spent some time analyzing the comparison of the Mass Bay area with the SF Bay Area, and occasionally even commented on the Red Sox – Yankees rivalry, but a recent trip to Europe has brought to the fore another instructive comparison.

You may not realize it, but it turns out that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is almost exactly the same size as the autonomous Italian region of Sicily – 10,555 and 9,926 square miles respectively.  Mass has the edge in population – 6.5 million vs 5 million – but that won’t stop me from pointing out…. five reasons why Sicily is better than Massachusetts:

Sicily has the largest active volcano in Europe. (That’s Mt. Etna, which is 10,890 feet high) Massachusetts has the largest Federal highway project in the USA.  (That’s the Big Dig, which is about $22 Billion deep)

In Sicily, shops close in the afternoon for a long lunch. In Massachusetts, banks and bars close early.

Sicily was colonized by the ancient Greeks over 2,000 years ago and later became an important part of the Roman empire. Many of the events in the Iliad and the Odyssey take place in Sicily.  Massachusetts was colonized by uptight English religious fanatics 400 years ago.  Many of the events in Ally McBeal take place in Massachusetts.

In Sicily, you can get a good espresso almost anywhere for about a Euro. In Massachusetts, you can get Dunkin Donuts coffee almost anywhere.

Sicily gave the world the Cannoli. Massachusetts contributed, um, well, there’s no cuisine section in the wikipedia entry on Massachusetts, so I’ll just stop here.

I try not to be too much of a food snob but there are a few things that just sort of make me nervous for no good reason, and having sushi far from the open sea is one of them.  This is bogus for any number of reasons, most notably that a great deal of all restaurant sushi even in Japan is frozen at some point – either at sea, right on the fishing boat, or later on for the purpose of shipping or killing parasites.  (If you need a citation on that, check the NYT, and especially note the quick list at the end of what’s usually frozen and what’s usually fresh.) Nonetheless I maintain a Spurious Sushi Exclusion Zone of about 100 miles beyond which distance from open water I am loath to order sushi.

Naturally, once you’ve created an admittedly pointless geographic entity, at least if you’re me, the next step would be to map it.  Sure, it’s usually pretty easy to know if you’re near the ocean or not, and pretty easy to measure on a map to any given place.  But where can I get a map of everyplace that’s more than 100 miles from the ocean?  Sadly, I came up empty, but along the way, I noted this map of the coastline as altered by rising sea levels of various magnitudes.  Limeduck world HQ seems safe to +13 meters, more if I’m willing to commute by canoe directly from the window.

Naturally, this level of flooding would only push the SSEZ deeper inland.

Another note on this topic is that by my rule, there is nowhere in all of Japan where I would not order sushi, because  in Japan the farthest from the sea you can get is only 120km (~75mi), in Maebashi.  This leads me to consider reducing the SSEZ to 120 km.  Because I need the greatest precision in my bogus heuristics.

Chicago is all about meat.  Chicago Beef hot dogs.  The Bulls.  The Bears.  Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.  So naturally, on a recent semi-professional jaunt with Prof. M, we sought out some excellent vegetarian food with photo power-couple LKB+BEM.  Our destination: Green Zebra.  Our lament: how can there not be a modern American veggie restaurant anywhere near this good in the greater Peoples Republic of Cambridge area?  (Feel free to skip directly to the comments to point our my oversight on this count, I’ll be doing a rollup [sic] of high-end veggie options around Boston in a future post.)

Green Zebra is a real find in an unassuming Chicago neighborhood, not so far from a place that advertises burritos “as big as your head.”  Orthodox vegetarians and vegans be warned, it’s not 100% vegetarian (there’s usually one seafood item on the menu, scallops this time) and there’s plenty of butter, eggs and cheese.  I don’t know how many dishes were strictly vegan, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed with dairy as sometimes happens with Indian vegetarian food, at least in the USA.

We enjoyed an array of small plates and my camera skills declined as the evening wore on and bottles were drained, so I can’t say for 100% certain that these items are exactly as labeled.  They aren’t really in order either, but there were to a plate, delicious and beautifully constructed. I would single out the spinach crepe with oyster mushrooms as a standout, but the field was very competitive.

The waitstaff surely thought us mad, cackling with glee as we divided even the smallest plate in four.  Green Zebra isn’t cheap, it’s certainly a special occasion place, but if you don’t live in Chicago, every time you visit is arguably a special occasion.  Meat eaters might question the bill with “that much for just vegetables?” but we were more than satisfied.  If I had to give a down note in my review, I would say that the place is a little too quiet, as if full of monks gravely consuming their gruel.  Food in general is worth celebrating, and food this good deserves some hoopla.  One could also quibble that the ingredients couldn’t possibly all be local or seasonal (tangerines in Chicago in February?) but I hope that at least some were from the great farms of the midwest.

So… back in Boston, we ponder the conundrum: how can such vegetarian excellence exist in the midst of cattle country and but not here in enlightened liberal studentopolis?

Surely the demand exists.  Students might not be able to afford the likes of Green Zebra often, but their parents must visit sometimes.  Organic food, yoga studios, Buddhist temples, pet spas all suggest affluent vegetarians are about.

Surely the raw materials exist.  Farms and farmers markets thrive.  Locovorism is on the rise.  Even accounting for

Surely the talent is here.  Boston ranks well for both density and quality of restaurants and boasts some top-notch culinary schools.

Surely the business model is proven.  Restaurants are tough business no matter what, but low-end vegetarian restaurants get by, and high-end omnivore joints too, so why couldn’t a high-end veggie place?  Green Zebra seems to have no trouble with high prices and full tables.

I’m at a loss, and it’s Boston’s loss too.  Until then, when you’re in Chicago, be sure to balance out your beef intake with a visit to Green Zebra.