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Digital stories

What It's Like When You Can't Go Home

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

In Turkey, the travel ban means flights have been canceled to and from more than 71 countries. Soon, we expect home will be completely unreachable. A few American friends left, but most stayed. For now we sit alone with our uncertainty and brace for the door to shut. It's hard to believe that only 10 days ago I was in New York, at JFK, halfway between home and here. Watching flights to Italy get canceled, it faintly occurred to me that perhaps I should change my ticket to San Francisco instead of Istanbul. But that seemed dramatic. Now I'm resigned to Istanbul—the responsibility right now is to be still and this is simply where I was when this unfolded.

..... keep reading

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Turkey's Unique Hand-Sanitising Method 

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BBC

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As a deep-rooted custom of hospitality and symbol of good health, kolonya provides more than a practical disinfectant – it’s a source of comfort for many of my Turkish friends here at a time of uncertainty. In the year and a half I’ve lived in Istanbul, I’ve had my palms doused with it at countless restaurants, shops and homes. And now, even as many of us apply kolonya alone while self-quarantining, it evokes a nostalgic sense of closeness and taking care of one another. Long before kolonya, there was rose water. Beginning in the 9th Century, cultures across the Arabian Peninsula used this rose petal-seeped fragrance for aromatic, culinary, beauty, religious and medicinal purposes, with the Persians, Egyptians and Ottomans also using it to cleanse themselves and welcome guests .... keep reading

For Americans Abroad, the Level 4 Travel Advisory Could Impact Insurance

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

When the U.S. State Department issued a global Level 4 travel advisory this month, it effectively deemed every country on the planet a high-risk country. A Level 4 advisory is the State Department's highest advisory level, usually reserved for war zones and countries experiencing a natural disaster or severe unrest. In the official statement, the U.S. advised its citizens to avoid all international travel and return to the U.S. immediately. While the directive is clear, for many travelers—especially expats, digital nomads, and those in the midst of a year abroad—the reality of following it is far from simple. There are many reasons why those who live abroad might stay there instead of returning stateside, but if you're one of them, it's essential to know how doing so might impact one of the most important things you have right now: your travel or medical insurance. ..... keep reading

The Unlikely New Dance Scene Sweeping Istanbul

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

Dancers tap their plimsoll shoes and slide across the floor in wingtips, busting out retro moves like the toss-across and the swingout. The room echoes with claps and shouts as a troupe whirls around me. The King of Swing, Benny Goodman, blares through the speakers. It's not Harlem's Savoy Ballroom circa 1939, but Istanbul in 2019—an unlikely but pertinent place for the revival of Lindy Hop swing dancing. I'm at Swing Istanbul, a dance studio off the city's crowded promenade, Istiklal Caddesi, around midnight on a Friday. With discreet signage and a code to get in, it feels like a speakeasy—except there's no booze, only teacups littering a lone table that's been shoved into a far corner. Behind it a neon sign ..... keep reading

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Turkey's New Destination Museum

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

While works by international artists are worth a trip alone (don’t miss the sculptures by Barcelona artist Jaume Plensa or the massive bamboo installation by Japan’s Tanabe Chikuunsai IV), it's the collection of some of Turkey’s most prominent and outspoken living artists that are the most compelling. Works by Gülsün Karamustafa, for example, explore the complexities of migration, exile, and globalization, while controversial photo-realist Taner Ceylan confronts issues like homophobia in Turkey and Western orientalism, and Haluk Akakçe, an Ankara-born animation and sound-installation artist, examines the intersection of technology and society. ..... keep reading

The Midnight Train to a Tokyo Tradition

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BBC

 

Each stall was packed with stacks of styrofoam coolers filled with ice water and fish – mackerel, eel, prawn, salmon trout, abalone, herring roe, ark shell, sea urchin – illuminated by bare incandescent bulbs. Just as I paused to gawk at a man severing a tuna head, a forklift truck came barrelling toward me. The teenage driver, a cigarette pinched between his cold blue lips, madly waved at me to get out of the way. I leapt into a stall where the floor was a mess of melted ice and flounder blood, staining the white soles of my tennis shoes an intestinal pink. Tsukiji was never intended to be a tourist attraction ­– .... keep reading

What It's Really Like to Stay at A New-Age Wellness Retreat

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Jetsetter

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It’s a balmy 77 degrees at the top of Latigo Canyon—one of those perfectly clear Malibu afternoons when the view extends all the way to the Channel Islands. For the last three weeks leading up to my stay at Aja Malibu, a new wellness retreat near California’s southern coast, I’d envisioned drifting across an ozonized swimming pool, reading book after book on a bench in a garden, and watching time pass from a crochet hammock overlooking Malibu Beach.

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Instead, I’m sitting at a bonfire, passing around a black coral skull and sipping from a Taiwanese tea cup filled with rose petal, mugwort, and guava leaves. A Mayan shaman is leading us in a fire ceremony, tossing kindling and colored wax candles into the growing flame. His wife, seated next to him, is in labor. Her water broke on the way over, but today marks the biggest super moon in 68 years, and they want to finish the ceremony before going to the hospital. So, for the meantime, she’s sitting on a meditation cushion, rubbing wide circles over her belly as we chant together. Is this part of a new level of experiential travel? Or just another average day at Aja Malibu.... keep reading

Inside San Francisco's Industrial Mission District

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Travel + Leisure

 

For decades, the eastern side of San Francisco’s Mission District (sometimes referred to as “Mission Creek”) has housed industrial warehouses, wedged between the trendier parts of the Mission and residential Potrero Hill. But recently, many of the city’s craftspeople and artisans have been moving into the area, christening it as the city’s new center for creativity and ingenuity. The big distinction between this side of the Mission and San Francisco’s other creative neighborhoods? The craftspeople here put their wares on display—showing off their creative process from start to finish in the many factory-showroom spaces fixed to their storefronts—from clothes to pottery to gourmet food. It’s an exciting few blocks to explore where everything up-and-coming is happening in San Francisco. As master chocolatier, Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates says, “Nothing formulaic is coming into or out of this neighborhood.”.... keep reading

King Of The Mill

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Mr. Porter

 

Tucked away on a quiet side street along Mount Tamalpais’ gentle curves in Mill Valley, an affluent suburb of San Francisco, you might expect Molina to adhere to the same formula as its neighbours: starched white tablecloths and orderly dishes. Not so. Molina is a deliciously insubordinate newcomer, where Mr Todd Shoberg uses a brick oven, originally built for baking pizzas and hearty breads, to bring out new flavours and textures from fresh Bay Area ingredients – black cod hauled from the briny waters of Fort Bragg, chanterelles foraged from the Mendocino mountains. “I want the dishes to be a little f*cked up,” says Mr Shoberg, a 36-year-old burly Midwesterner with tribal tattoos, an affinity for fire and, today, a form-fitting T-shirt with the logo of the mountain which his restaurant is perched on. “Loose, a little crazy, and relaxed. To me, that’s perfection.” ... keep reading

The Places: Austin

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

The trick to uncovering Austin's weirdness under its newfound techie, hipster sheen is to pick your "thing"—be it breakfast tacos, hiking trails, line dancing, mezcal, food trucks, or even just brunch—and dive deep, real deep. Because for all the hype, Austin’s charms don't sit obviously at the surface..... keep reading

A Modern Feast in Tradtional Lyon

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Travel + Leisure

 

With more than a thousand restaurants in its grasp, Lyon famously has one of the highest concentrations of eateries in France. The bouchon, with its homely wood-paneled walls, its paraffin candles melting onto the checkered cloth table, has long been the primary dining option. Chalkboard menus abound with sauce-smothered meats, terrines and farmhouse patés from the Monts du Lyonnais, alongside hearty coq au vin recipes passed down from the Meres Lyonnaises, a contingent of women who put Lyon on the food map in the 18th century.

 

But recently, an increasing number of young chefs are departing from the Lyonnaise culinary cannon, opening their own modern restaurants that are local in their fare and adventurous in their technique. Most recently is Gaetan Gentil’s Prairial Restaurant, which opened in May on the thin slice of land between the Rhône & Saône Rivers.... keep reading

The Places: San Francisco

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Conde Nast Traveler

 

Tech money may be gentrifying much of this former nexus of counter-culture, but San Francisco remains an incubator of innovation—and not just in the city's start-up offices. California Cuisine was born in the Bay Area, after all; and the world-class museums and cultural institutions rival any on the planet — remarkable for a city of fewer than a million people. The adventurous spirit that made San Francisco what it is today thrives in the new restaurants, cafes, shops and galleries sprinkled throughout what is, arguably, the most beautiful city in the U.S..... keep reading

Get Lost in Japan's Ancient Samurai Town

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BBC

 

Following Nagashima into the labyrinth of teahouses, temples and restored samurai houses, I felt like Alice slipping into the rabbit hole. We walked along the row of beautiful latticed buildings and turned down a narrow street lined with yellowing gingko trees. Then we careened up a steep path that was so slender and discreet, I thought we were trespassing in a private driveway. When we arrived at the top, however, the path branched out into more narrow, winding roads. Kanazawa’s streets were partly designed to mislead and disorient outsiders, and I was learning firsthand, they do so effectively..... keep reading

How the Bar Became a

Hot Table

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Mr. Porter

 

It makes perfect sense as a solution (one might even say disruption) to an OpenTable obsession gone mad that’s led to over-packed reservation systems and spin-offs auctioning coveted tables at a premium. Many of the city’s top restaurants have stepped in to help out more spontaneous diners, quietly allowing quick-thinking walk-ins to taste the most talked-about food in town without waiting forever for the privilege. Here’s the best bar stools with food adjacent... keep reading

Interview with Stella Santana

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Marie Claire

 

MC: Why did you title your album Selfish? 

SS: Because I've been called that a lot of times. I would ask myself am I an asshole? But then I realized people would call me that just because I wasn't doing what that person wanted me to do. I think, with women especially, it can be hard to say no to someone else and say yes to themselves.

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Travel + Leisure

 

In the hotel’s Istrian-Italian brasserie, works bend the idea of space and time. Enlarged photos of Rovinj’s archipelago appear almost like windows to the natural world, a trick to communicate visually with the hotel’s surroundings. Three identical stuffed owls leap from the ceiling in succession, toward the well-heeled diners, as if to introduce stop-motion into the reality of a restaurant. In the lobby bar (which boasts Croatia’s largest whiskey selection), bartenders and servers float by in grey and denim workshop aprons by Zagreb-based designers, I-GLE. On the walls, framed grey splotches are allusions to condensation dripping on the inside pane of a greenhouse. Almost every artist who created a piece for the property—from Croatian artists like Igor Eškinja and Goran Petercol, and international artists such as Chris Goennawein to Abdelkader Benchamma—created them within the hotel’s walls, as a nod to the Adriatic’s long history as a place of encounter between locals and travelers .... keep reading

Hotel Adriatic Gives Croatia New Meaning to the Term 'Art Hotel'

Lisbon Has a New Crown Jewel

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Travel + Leisure

 

Its grand exterior showcases the same custard yellow as Lisbon’s prided pastel da nata tarts, and is framed by dramatic concrete ledges and wrought iron fixtures. Inside, the 90-room hotel doubles as a Portuguese museum, with lobby and floor niches throughout displaying national art handpicked from local museums.... keep reading

Nonstop to Vancouver

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San Francisco magazine

 

The unabashedly adventurous Wildebeest restaurant is Vancouver’s newest spot to express the snout-to-tail movement. Once inside its weighty doors of the long and narrow Brooklyn-style digs, you’ll quickly notice this is perhaps one of the only restaurants to bridge the worlds of macho and molecular gastronomy. Artfully crafted squares of lamb tartar arrive specked with dehydrated olives crushed to the consistency of cracked pepper, and thick slices of pork jowls lie on a bed of oats drizzled with viscous bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup. Bonus: Manly cocktails and an underground wine bar and... keep reading.

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