“Chain” isn’t always a dirty word in the Bangkok dining scene, especially at CentralWorld Plaza, home to over 100 restaurants and many of the city’s best chains, including Kuu, Chabuton, and Din Tai Fung, whose Hong Kong branch earned a Michelin star in 2010. Sukishi is another one worth checking out.

According to their menu, Sukishi’s Korean and Japanese fare “doesn’t just fill your stomach, [but also] provide warmth to your heart, and that is pure fun magical”. That’s mostly because of the hallucinogenic mushrooms used in many of their sauces. Kidding. The salmon agemusubi, however, has indeed brought pure fun magical warmth to my heart on many occasions.

This is basically a fried triangle of fried rice with salmon, topped with hunks of fresh salmon and sweet mayonnaise, and thoughtfully served with thin sheets of seaweed so you can pick it up without getting your fingers greasy. Perfectly crisped and an effective hangover antidote packed with protein, these are great for lunch (especially paired with salmon oshi sushi bricks, if you’re hungry) or for a big snack. The price is right, too, at just 80 baht for two pieces.

Okay, okay, it’s also really fucking rich and not exactly healthy, but those are facts to happily overlook and, once you take a few bites, ones you’ll be celebrating.

Must-eat food in Bangkok?

We could play this game every day for years and still have plenty of culinary fodder to feature. In that sense, the ongoing “BKK Must Eats” series certainly doesn’t aim to be comprehensive, nor will it exclusively list dishes that are “the best” of anything (though it might, from time to time). This series is decidely modest in that the one and only goal is to spotlight, somewhat randomly, damned delicious dishes in Bangkok that I’ve indulged on many occasions, and that I recommend you indulge too.

More BKK Must Eats:
+ Early Evening Pad Thai on Soi Chidlom

_{Photo credit and copyright Brian Spencer}

Ever thought about what events may have happened in history on the streets and roads you travel every day? Perhaps you live in a place where history and heritage is very present — and perhaps you do not. Connection with land and landscape and those people who have come before is always present though, and it is not confined to museums. Consider, for instance, that I am writing this in a building that was built in the 1970s, on part of land that was once the farm fields of a Spanish mission in the 1700s, farmed by First Peoples who had, before the Spanish came, used it both as a place to grow crops and as a road between a two towns.

When I am in Ireland, I am often aware that history is walking right with me, whether I am in a site known for its historical connections or not. Quite true, and meant to be remembered, Ireland north and south are twenty first century countries vibrant with twenty first century life. Still, history is very present as well.

That connection with history is what is being noted during Heritage Week in Ireland, which will be marked this year from August 20th through August 28th. All sorts of activities will be on offer, from talks, walks, and musical performances to historical re enactments, museum days out, and other sorts of things to encourage both residents and visitors, children and adults alike, to consider, remember, and celebrate Ireland’s heritage and history.

Whether you will be in Ireland for this celebration or not, perhaps it’s a good moment to pause and reflect on the history all around you, wherever you may be.

find out more about
Heritage Week in Ireland

Other European countries celebrate heritage weeks as well, and you will find links to information about this at the Heritage Week Ireland site also.

I suspect that most people afflicted with wanderlust categorize the moment they got their first car with the same pile of memories that include the first time they had a passport stamped, or the first time they traveled anywhere all on their own.

This was not the case for me. Although I have always loved to travel, I’ve never harbored a great deal of fondness for the act of driving. I did come late to the driving game, in fact, I had a marriage license before I got my driver’s license.

In response to your quizzical look, I will explain that:

a) I was a child bride (age 21);

and

b) I grew up in Manhattan. When good people visited my high school, as they do, to lecture on the evils of drunk driving, I wondered why the intoxicated didn’t simply take the subway.

I am aware that neither of these are reasonable excuses. My husband, for instance, was but a few months older than I when we wed, and also grew up in Manhattan, and yet got his driver’s license at the first possible legal moment — age 16 in New York State, I do believe. Many of our friends did the same.

And we’ve had a place outside the city for some years now, and, as a point of fact, there’s never been a time in my adult life that my household has lacked a car. But I have been the driver only when I can’t figure out a way not to be.

Perhaps I can blame my lack of driving enthusiasm on my husband. He loves to drive, in fact, his hobby is auto racing (both the watching and the doing), so his eagerness to take the wheel made it easier for me to stay a passenger over the years.

In fairness to him, I am, I should note, an exceedingly good passenger. I never scream, even if a collision appears imminent, nor do I fiddle with any controls, nor do I offer critiques of driving strategy or technique. But I am very good at keeping up a conversation for a long time even when sleepy, or, when required, am capable of keeping quiet. I have carefully maintained my expertise in the selection of road food snacks.

You can see why he wouldn’t want to give all that up.

Anyway, whoever bears the blame, the fact remains that I have passenged more than I have driven in my life. But this era seems to be at its end. This week, I became the proud owner of a very cheap, very old, very high mileage Mercedes Benz.

I got it because I am frequently without wheels up in the country place — a situation that occurs whenever my husband goes someplace in our family car and I don’t go with him.

Since the subway is not an option up there, and since there are times when not having transport is simply annoying, like the time we desperately needed cat litter and the cat categorically refused to even try to hold it in until Phil came back with the car, and since there are places I’d like to see in New York’s Hudson Valley and the Berkshires, my immediate rural neighborhood…the time for Craig’s List was clearly at hand.

This past week, we exchanged cash for key and title, a trip to the DMV was made. There are now license plates in my husband’s backpack, ready to head up to the country and this weekend we — all right, he — will attach them to my new car.  And then I’ll be off.

Watch this space for reports of my all-new motoring adventures.

And pedestrians beware.

If you’ve ever dreamed of taking a trip into outer space but can’t afford the price tag – seats on the Virgin Galactic, after all, cost $200,000 – Seattle’s Space Needle might be able to help.

Next year, the iconic Space Needle turns 50. And to celebrate this momentous anniversary, they are planning on sending one lucky (and adventurous) person into outer space.

Partnering with Space Adventures, a private spaceflight company, they have created the multi-tiered Space Race 2012 contest.

Tier one involves keen space tourists entering the online sweepstakes at the Space Needle website by November 30^th.

Then, in early December, a random draw of 1000 people will take place. The chosen 1000 will be asked to submit one-minute videos promoting why they should be the winning space traveler.

Public voting will then narrow down the number of entrants and from there, a panel will choose the winner.

Mid August in Wisconsin: that means it must be time when a bit of Milwaukee turns into a bit of Ireland, at Irish Fest

This year, the four day festival begins with the Grand Hooley gathering on the evening of August 18th and runs through the traditional closing musical concert and fireworks on August 21st.During the time between festival goers can enjoy music, food, talks, crafts, workshops, travel ideas, all sorts of activities for children, storytelling, and more music. They could also find tips on how to trace Irish ancestors, learn how Irish lace is made, take in a play in Irish or brush up Irish language skills, and perhaps learn a bit more about the iconic Irish wolfhound breed.

It was three decades ago that a group of friends, volunteering to help out at Milwaukee’s Italian heritage festival, began taking about how they could start a festival to celebrate the Irish community. With less than three hundred dollars in the bank, a handful of committed volunteers, and a big idea, they did. All these years on, Irish Fest is considered a landmark event among the world’s festivals. In addition to the festival events, which now draw more than half a million visitors to the festival grounds on the shores of Lake Michigan,. Irish Fest has been able to sponsor a yearly music and culture series of workshops, an Irish music archive, scholarships for study of Ireland, and traveling exhibits on Irish culture, as well as contributions to charity. In addition festival organizers have become sources of advice for those planning festivals across the US and in other countries.

Each year different parts of the Irish world are featured during Irish Fest, and this year it is the turn of Ireland’s far northwest, the counties of Donegal in the republic and Derry in the north. There will be special exhibits and tourism information from these places, and musicians from Derry and Donegal are honored guests on the music stages as well.

Although there’s enough going on that you could spend your entire time at Irish Fest in the Cultural Village or with the food vendors or talking with the Celtic canines and never go to the music stages, music is really at the center of things, and there are plenty of chances to take it in. There will be more than one hundred acts appearing on sixteen stages, from big concert venues to children’s areas to small pubs. Corey Taratuta, .who publishes Irish Fireside, has found a way to balance things out. “The main stage acts are great,” he says, “but they can get chock a block with people. I like to wander by the the Snug and the Village Pub, too. You can pull up a stool and enjoy some great tunes.”

That sharing of music is part of things whatever size stage you visit. “People come, and they stay, whether it’s bright sunshine or lashings of rain,” says singer Aoife Clancy, who has appeared at the festival with her own band in a reunion show with Cherish the Ladies. The fiery fiddle work and inspires singing of Altan, from Donegal,t rising Scottish stars the Paul McKenna Band from Glasgow, and the hot fiddle based group Fidil from Donegal are among the headliners this year. Festival founder Ed Ward’s band B;larney will be having a reunion concert. Atlantic Wave and Bantry Bay are among other midwest based bands who’ll add their take on Irish music to the proceedings.

here is information about schedules, tickets, location and all sorts of other useful stuff for Irish Fest in Milwaukee.
The site is a lively read even if you’ll not be making it to shores of Lake Michigan in mid August, and there is information about Irish Fest sponsored events through the year there as well.

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