soni yoga (cambridge)

Found my new yoga home!

Last year, I tried out and liked a Community Yoga class for only $5 in Davis Square (Somerville), but they are now called Samara Yoga and don’t have that dirt-cheap weekly class anymore. It still sounds like a cool place, and I’d probably go back if I lived in the neighborhood: http://samarayogastudio.com/

But since I also wanted to find something a little closer to home, I started poking around and stumbled on some reviews of this place in Huron Village, my favorite neighborhood in Cambridge: http://www.soniyoga.com/

So I went there and tried out the Hatha for Women class, and holy cow, was it amazing! Soni, the studio’s owner, was the teacher, and she was there to meet and greet the students, including me and one or two other first-timers. They recommend on their website that you get there early, both for the parking situation, and because they actually close the doors before class starts so it’s not disruptive to those on time, and I was glad I had followed the advice, so I had some time to settle in and pick a good spot.

They loan out mats, blocks, straps, and blankets, and there is beautiful hardwood flooring, low lighting, and a very subtle scent of incense in the background. One of the reviewers mentioned that they designed the space without the typical huge mirror, and I have to agree that although it had seemed odd at first, I was totally fine without it. It was good to concentrate on feeling instead of seeing the poses.

I’ve done a fair bit of yoga at home, and some in classes, and I was pleased to feel like I actually got a real workout, both for body and mind. Granted, it was like 90 degrees on the evening I took the class, but it broke a sweat on me, and I  hardly ever sweat. At the same time, it was also relaxing and refreshing, so it was the perfect match for me.

Soni has a radiant smile and demeanor, and is an excellent teacher. I will definitely be taking a class there again. Now to find a babysitter …

Tortilla Española

Every time I make a tortilla, I am amazed how six of the most simple ingredients in the world can come together to become something so delicious. All it takes is:

  • potatoes (3 large)
  • eggs (8 large)
  • onion (about 2/3 of a medium-sized one)
  • garlic (1 large clove)
  • olive oil
  • salt

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Not only is it made up from simple ingredients, but it’s pretty quick and super-easy to prepare. The only challenging part is the flipping. We’ll get to that in a minute. The first thing to do is to prepare the potatoes. Peel and wash them, and then cut into small thin slices. With a large potato, cut it in half lengthwise, and then cut each half in half lengthwise (so you have 4 long quarters), and then just start slicing away.

Start heating up a pot of olive oil on high temperature when you start slicing the potatoes, so that it’s hot and ready as soon as the potatoes are. The oil has to be deep enough to cover the potatoes, so make sure your pot is deep enough. Get all the potatoes in the pot, and then carefully scrape the bottom of the pot so that things don’t start sticking right away. You’ll need to do that every few minutes to make sure all your slices are evenly cooked and that none of them are sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Once they’re on the stove, dice your onion and finely chop your garlic. Your’re ready for your nonstick frying pan now. The size of the pan is important here too – I use a 10-inch pan, which is perfect for an 8-egger with the proportions listed above. Grab about 2 tablespoons of olive oil from your potato pot (reuse, recycle), and coat the bottom of your frying pan, and set it on medium-high heat. Throw in the onion and garlic, and just give the pan a shake every now and then to make sure it’s not burning. Don’t forget about checking on the potatoes!

Things are starting to come together now, so it’s time to prepare the last 2 ingredients. Crack your 8 eggs into a large bowl, beat them with a wisk, and then add a good heaping teaspoon of salt. This is a little hard to judge at first, since you can’t taste it in the raw eggs, and you can definitely adjust to taste the next tortilla you make, so make a not of how much you put in if you are the sort who measures.

By now, the potatoes and onions/garlic should be done, so carefully spoon them all into the egg mixture (use a straining spoon for the potatoes so you don’t take the whole pot of oil with you), and stir up your mixture a bit before pouring it into the pan.

Add another 2 tablespoons of your potato-oil into your frying pan, and then pour everything right in. Give it a stir or two with a wooden spoon and then pat it down to settle it into a good position. It should still move slightly at the edges when you give it a little shake – this will be important for the flipping. Start it off on medium-high heat, and then reduce it to medium once you flip.

And the flip! This is pretty much the only time when you can mess up your tortilla, so good luck! Once you start to see browning at the edges or smell cooked potatoes, you know it’s time to flip. You’ll need a fairly light plate that is the same diameter as your frying pan to cover the pan. Place the plate over the pan, and flip the tortilla right onto the plate. If all went well, you can place the pan back on the stove, add a bit more oil if you have a free hand, and then slide in the flipped tortilla, uncooked side down in the pan.

However, there are times when things can go terribly wrong:

  • You could get burned by the pan, oil, or tortilla. To avoid this, you can place a towel on the top of the arm holding the plate. It definitely helps with minor accidents.
  • Tortilla on floor, stove, or everywhere. Sigh. This happens to everyone from time to time, especially if you are on the tiny side and your tortilla is heavy. To avoid this, you can ask a bigger friend to help you out. This is the one part I ask my Spanish husband to help me out with often. Additionally, you can normally repair missing chunks of tortilla by sliding them back into the pan underneath the main chunk of tortilla.
  • Huge chunks of tortilla on floor, stove, or everywhere. If the above doesn’t help, you can quickly beat up another egg and use it as glue to pull the chunks you’ve gathered back together in the pan. Obviously this should only be attempted if you have a very clean stove or floor, or if you don’t really like the people you’ve invited over.

¡Buen provecho!

a coffee addict’s dream

If you find yourself in Spain with a hearty coffee addiction, you will feel like you’ve finally come home.

To begin with, the sheer number of coffee varieties will amaze and astound. I’m not talking about the double-shot-grande-no-foam types of choices, but a panoply of completely different ways to transform a simple espresso into something magnificent. Choices include:

  • café solo (espresso – the simplest and sometimes most delicious choice)
  • café cortado (espresso cortado, or “cut” with milk)
  • café con leche (espresso with milk – similar to a latte, this is the typical breakfast drink in Spain)
  • café bonbon (espresso with sweetened condensed milk)
  • café del tiempo (espresso served over ice)

If for some terrible reason you must resign yourself to a decaffeinated coffee, never fear. Ask for a café descafeinado and when they ask you de máquina o de sobre (“from the machine or a packet”), make sure to request de máquina, and you might not even be able to tell the difference.


st. peter’s fiesta

A little bit about Gloucester …

First off, it’s pronounced GLAH-stah (and not GLAW-ches-ter or anything similarly ridiculous). Second, the city’s claims to fame are all closely linked to the sea. Gloucester is known as:

  • America’s oldest seaport
  • The home of the Gorton’s fisherman
  • The home base of the ship and crew of the Andrea Gail, lost in the Perfect Storm.

For residents of Gloucester, MA, the most important festival of the year occurs in late June: St. Peter’s Fiesta, honoring the patron saint of fishermen.

If you want to spend some peaceful time strolling along the Boulevard overlooking the harbor or contemplating the city’s rich history or surrounding natural beauty, then don’t go during fiesta.

Events include religious activities, such as a procession, Mass, and the blessing of the boats. To lighten up the mood, there is also a whole lot of craziness.

Starting with one of the craziest things ever imagined, you can’t make it through fiesta without witnessing the Greasy Pole Contest off Pavilion Beach in the harbor.

All year long, the wooden platform in the harbor just off the beach stands there menacing with an attached telephone pole hanging out parallel to the water below. This is not just any pole, but the infamous Greasy Pole.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings during fiesta, hundreds of locals and tourists line the Boulevard, the beach, and the side streets to catch a glimpse of the contest. From a distance, you can see the thick coat of grease slathered over the top of the pole.

Boatloads of eager young men are ferried over to the platform, where they crowd for a space while waiting their turn to try and capture the flag at the end of the pole. Once the contest begins, cheers and cries erupt from the crowd, as some of the contestants run, slide, or crash various body parts into the pole on their way down to the water below.

If that isn’t exciting enough, there is also the thrill of watching the Seine boat races or riding on any of the various amusement part rides.

As for food, you can find just about the best festival food anywhere here. Everything smells soooo good, from the chocolate-covered fried dough to the sausage and peppers to the chicken parm. And once you’re clogged up with enough grease, they have delicious slushies in really great flavors like watermelon, mmm.

It’s definitely a must-see if you happen to be up in Gloucester in June, but don’t worry, the craziness is still there the rest of the year too. Just remember the famous line from The Perfect Storm: “They’re always from Gloucester …”

Yep, they sure are.

24 hours in the historical triangle

First off, a primer for those who don’t know what the historical triangle is:

  • Williamsburg
  • Yorktown
  • Jamestown

They are all on the east coast of Virginia, very close to one another, and chock-full of historical significance (hence the name).

When we went there a few weekends ago, we didn’t think we’d hit all 3 angles of the triangle, since we only had about 24 hours. Plus, with toddler twins and general exhaustion, we figured it was best not to plan too much.

However, what we ended up doing was a great balance between doing stuff and not doing stuff (aka relaxing). Anyone on a speedy tour could definitely make this winning combination work!

Saturday:

  • Sleep in if you can
  • Travel to the Triangle (this took us 3 hours)
  • Arrive early afternoon
  • Instead of going to the Visitors’ Center and buying expensive tickets to the Williamsburg sights, drive right into the heart of downtown and park for free in a lot or for $1/hour in a garage
  • Have a tasty lunch at The Cheese Shop in Merchants’ Square in Williamsburg (http://www.cheeseshopwilliamsburg.com/)
  • Go to your hotel for a dip in the pool, a nap, or a chance to chill
  • Whenever you’re ready later in the afternoon, head out to the Yorktown Battlefield – the Visitors’ Center closes at 5:00, but you can still wander around the redoubts, climb the canons, and stop by Surrender Field – and it’s free after closing! This option probably only works in the summer though, because they close off all the other areas at sunset.
  • Get a good dinner – at a colonial Williamsburg tavern if you made a reservation and can shell out the cash, or at an Italian place like Maurizio’s on Route 60 – yum!

Sunday:

  • Start your day off early with a good breakfast and a drive out to Jamestown – you’ll be surprised at how much it’s like a quite famous Disney movie!
  • If it’s going to be a hot one, do yourself a favor and skip right past all the indoor exhibits when you arrive. Breeze past all of the cool and interesting parts of the grounds, and hurry out all the way to where the boat replicas are. Since you have to come back the same way anyway, you can get to the farthest point, and then take your time strolling back through the fort, the Indian Village and anything else you want to see!
  • Time for one more meal before heading out! Whatever you do, don’t go to an old tavern hoping you’ll get in because it’s only lunchtime. You’ll end up out in the Biergarten, eating hot dogs off paper plates like all the other poor slobs who didn’t beat the rush to make it to an inside table.

A few general notes:

  • If you have older kids, they might be ready for and enjoy the pricey Williamsburg tickets to walk through some of the renovated buildings etc. Don’t even bother with toddlers!
  • Of the three sights, Yorktown was my favorite, and it was the one we just kind of squeezed in at the last minute, so you never know. Enjoy your trip!

places to go in Virginia

If you happen to be traveling down I-81 between somewhere and somewhere else, here are a few spots in the Shenandoah Valley region that are worth a visit:

  • Edelweiss German Restaurant, south of Staunton, Virginia, and just off 81 (exit 213). Delicious and authentic flavors. You can even get a bag of Semmel to go if you miss your morning rolls.
  • Gypsy Hill Park, Staunton, VA. I went there once and the kids loved it – fun train to ride on, nice playground and cute pond with ducks and swans etc. Last time I tried to go there I couldn’t find it though – it is somewhat elusive.
  • Virginia Safari Park, just south of Lexington, VA. Once again, a big hit with the kiddies. You can see a bunch of animals in a zoo-like setting close up (tigers, monkeys, giraffes), and also drive your car through the safari park, where you can get your car licked by all kinds of llamas, bison, deer, camels, and zebras.
  • Monticello (very close to Charlottesville, so a little farther east off 81)
  • downtown Charlottesville – cute! Lots of nice restaurants and shops

Places I’d like to get to:

  • Skyline drive and Shenandoah National park

Places people have told me are worth a visit, but are not really my thang:

  • All those caves and caverns they have around here

movie review: Broken Embraces

In some ways, it’s a typical Almodovar/Cruz movie: love, sex, relationships, complications. But let’s face it, I really like most Almodovar movies anyway. Why?

  • They are set in Spain.
  • They speak Castillian, sounding almost as nice as my Spanish husband.
  • They are generally both uplifting and depressing, with a bit of humor sprinkled in.
  • He (or they, I should say) generally gets really good actors. And lets face it, Penélope Cruz has come a long way from Jamón Jamón, not that that was a bad movie itself.

On top of that, this had some great intrigue that kept you guessing, and some really intricate, layered characters.

Overall, highly recommended.

yummy restaurants in DC

Now that I’ve been there enough times to go to a bunch of places (some multiple times), I think I have a decent list of favorite places to eat in DC:

  • Jaleo (Spanish, Chef José Andres) – delicious traditional tapas as well as some good modern twists, out-of-this-world gazpacho
  • Ping Pong (Chinese, dim sum) – very modern dim sum, much more expensive than your traditional dim sum, but totally worth it
  • La Madeline (French, bakery) – tasty tomato soup, decent croissants (not as good as Clear Flour in Boston of course)
  • Bistro Francais – typical French bistro with service to match, nothing out of this world (not as good as Les Halles in NYC) but quite good
  • Legal Sea Foods – yes, it’s a chain, but when you’re craving your chowda from Boston, here’s where you can get it!

and it begins: LitWitReWriMo

November 1, 2009:

Along with everyone in my super-duper critique group, the LitWits, I am rewriting my WIP, Dancing the Orange, this month.

My unrealistic goal is to rewrite the entire first half of the novel (82 pages at the moment) so I can continue with the (unwritten) second half in December. My realistic goal is to rewrite at least 2 pages a day.

Stay tuned for daily progress!