New York City visit

It's been a good trip to New York so far, although I am slightly disappointed that most of this second week I've been sick in bed! It was bound to happen though- that's what happens when things slow down and you finally get a chance to relax, right?

Walking

The first week here was nice and mellow- lots of walking around and exploring. Jim and I are staying at an apartment in the Flat Iron district, on 23rd St and 5th Ave. It's fun because it's a different neighbourhood from where we usually stay (the East Village or Lower East Side). It's not as residential, but is within reasonable walking distance from almost everything. We explored Chelsea, Times Square, Hell's Kitchen, the West Village, Midtown...

It was exciting to finally check out the completed portion of the High Line in Chelsea. Jim and I were fortunate to get a sneak preview of the place about a year ago when it was still under contruction because we were considering it a potential farm dinner site. The High Line was once a raised railway running through the westside of Manhattan, but has now been turned into a beautiful walking park.

The High Line is restored with wild plants and grasses

that were growing there naturally prior to it's

redevlopment as a park

The walking path goes right through some of the buildings in the Meat Packing District, as the freight trains used to stop right at the buildings and unload their cargo

With the redevelopment process all of the railway steel was sandblasted to remove the lead paint that was originally on it

They've been doing a lot of work lately in NYC in terms of public spaces and pedestrian access. In May of this year they turned Times Square into a pedestrian mall. There are little tables and chairs set up along the street along with some vendors. I think it makes the space seem a lot less chaotic, which is nice. Herald Square (which is on 34th and Broadway) is also a pedestrian mall now.

Herald Square pedestrian mall

Times Square

Eating

We've taken it easy on the eating this first week too (read: no farm dinner restaurants where we end up gorging ourselves) and enjoyed Ippudo (a Japanese ramen noodle restaurant), Shang (Toronto chef Susur Lee's first US place) Craftbar (of the Tom Colicchio empire) and my favourite place, just around the corner from the apartment: Shaffer City Oyster Bar. Shaffer City has the best happy hour ever with half price glasses of wine and half price oysters from 4 pm to 8 pm everyday!

We also went to this sandwich place called Eisenberg's downstairs from our apartment, mostly because I was enticed by their sign.

My kind of people...

Seeing

Some of you know that many years ago, during my streak of working many random jobs, I was an usher for Cirque du Soleil's Alegria when it was in Vancouver for a month and a half one summer. Since then I've also seen Varekai, O and Zumanity. When I learned that Wintuk would be playing in New York while we were there I couldn't miss it. It's advertised as a holiday show for the whole family "about a boy's quest for snow." It was being held in the theatre at Madison Square Gardens which was exciting too since I've never been there before.

Wintuk was definitely entertaining, though a little more kid-oriented than I was expecting. The introduction to the show had all of the performers running around on skateboards, BMXs and roller skates doing tricks and going up and down the ramps on the set. Cool, just not very Cirque-like. The second half of the show featured more of the Cirque du Soleil elements that I would expect: the rings/contorsionism, aerial stramps and Russian bars. Overall a good show and worth the price (which was much cheaper than most Cirque shows). I saw the other day that Ovo is a new Cirque show coming to the Bay Area at the end of the year. I'll probably have to drag Jim to that one too so he gets a more authentic experience.

Jim and I had a business meeting with a guy who had his office on the 34th floor of the Novotel Hotel, just North of Times Square. There is a deck on the floor and we got to check out this amazing view.

Looking towards Times Square from the 34th floor

of the Novotel Hotel

Here a few other shots from roaming around the city:

I was walking along 34th St, saw the Macy's

and got this feeling that I recognized it.

Then I saw this window display and realized why!

Macy's sign and the Empire State Building

Looking North on Broadway near 34th St

Busy streets and a beautiful sunset reflecting off the buildings

Another view of the Empire State Building

The subway in New York is so fascinating. I could be fully entertained

by sitting in one of the stations or riding one of the trains for hours.

So many people going places...

The 23rd St subway station has hat mosaics on the walls,

each hat being of a famous person

More subway art - these remind me of the Doozers from Fraggle Rock!

I'm hoping I get better this in the next day or so so I can actually enjoy our last weekend here!

Back from Tour

It's strange to be so intensely involved with something for a period of time and then all of a sudden be done. That's what farm dinner season is like. It's Saturday, October 17th and I have a chance to sit at the coffeeshop, drink a tea and update my much-neglected blog. I have no new emails in my inbox. This is the first real "Saturday" I've experienced probably all year. And I'm going through withdrawls.

But don't mistake me for complaining, because I'm definitely not. I'm a workaholic (I think I've said that before somewhere in this blog). And I love it.

Our farm dinner season was big this year. We've had 56 events since May 16th. My staff is quick to remind me of the short time that I "left them and went to Canada" for my dear friend Heidi's wedding. I missed out on a few dinners then, though it was far from a holiday. On a side note, it just so happens to be Ms. Heidi Clayden's birthday today so happy day to her!

I have a really hard time staying in touch while we're on the road and in the thick of it. This is adequately shown by my lack of blog updates. I think my family and friends are used to it by now. Not to say that it's okay, but I'm thankful that they're satisfied with the short emails/text messages that say "I'm alive" or "Driving through Illinois".

One of the most amazing parts of being on the road is traveling with our crew. We quite literally live on a tour bus together for 3 and a half months. Yes, it is like a rock band. We roll into town, set up our "show", "perform", pack it all up and go onto the next place. Our schedule is just as intensive as a lot of bands too. And the crew has fun, squabbles, sleeps, eats and drives together day in and day out. We started this year's tour with a solid crew of 8, give or take, fluctuated up to 13 at a high point, and finished back in California with 7. They came from all over: Tennessee, Georgia, Vermont, Illinois, California and Canada (that's me!) Everyone ranged in age from 23 to 29 (Jim, who started the company, being older than that of course), with different backgrounds, experiences and roles. The common tie being we were all stoked on visiting farms and doing farm dinners. We started out barely knowing each other but by the end you have no choice but to be close: you know your co-workers best and worst habits, their favourite snacks and every clothing item they have in their suitcase, among other things. You learn to "love each other like family".

It takes a special person to live on the road and do what we do day in and day out for months. With the economy how it was at the beginning of the year, we received many resumes from middle-aged people who had been working in offices the past 20 years, recently lost their jobs, and romanticized about living on the bus and doing farm dinners. Not to say that they wouldn't be able to do it, but I would guess that 99% of those people would have had enough of us after about a week. Best for them to read about it in magazines and follow the blog (when we happen to update it). There's a reason all of the staff is in their 20s. The rest I'll leave to your imagination.

There are many photos and even more stories to share, though today is not the day for that. I've included just a few photos below to give you a taste. I do want to update my map to include more dots of where I've been and maybe some photos/short stories. The way it looks right now is not very representative of the last couple of years....

Just because farm dinner tour is over doesn't mean I'm going to sit still. I have two plane tickets booked already: I found a steal of a deal on a return flight to Seattle ($109!!) next week, from where I'll rent a car and go to Salmon Arm and Vancouver for a week. Back to Santa Cruz for a couple of days and then off to New York City for 3 weeks. I've been there a number of times in the past couple of years, but it's usually a whirlwind of a trip, like 5 farm dinners in 6 days. It'll be great to hang out with some of the great chefs we've met and visit some farms and people. I'm especially looking forward to seeing Ben and Annie at their Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn and of course hanging out with my good chef friend Bill Telepan, who has the best laugh on the East Coast.

That's all for now, but consider me back in touch.

Our 2009 Tour bus

Dinners happen in cities....

... in dry fields...

... and on very green farms.

The chairs in the field at Dingo Farms in Bradford, ON:
one of the most challenging dinners for myself- more on that later.

We survived the Dingo Farms dinner together:
Mark Cutrara from Cowbell Restaurant in Toronto, ON and myself.
He's amazing.

Another beautiful Canadian dinner site:
North Arm Farm in Pemberton, BC.

Family meal with the staff after cleaning up another long table.