One of the best ways to support sustainability is to keep your dollars local. There’s a lot of power in your pocketbook and spending money on goods produced in the surrounding area keeps dollars circulating in the community. This is true whether your talking about your home town or that little village in the last place you satisfied your wanderlust. The South End of Boston has a hip vibe along with an energy not felt in other parts of the city. The streets are packed with chic shops, good restaurants and plenty of places that focus on the keeping it local concept. I called this neighborhood home when I had a studio there for over 20 years. It has seen plenty of change, but still remains filled with with au courant atmosphere. Getting off the main drag is where you’ll find a lot of the real treasures. Here are a few of my favorite places to shop.
Twelve Chairs‘ new second floor home right on Washington St is so warm and cozy you might just want to move in and nest. The co-founders have combined their design expertise with a strong belief in beautiful and sustainable products. They personally vet all of their vendors to make sure they meet a standard of local, healthy, and responsible commitment to the environment. Whether you are looking for a gift, artwork or a major investment piece, the well edited selections here will add lots of personality to you abode.
Jewelry designer Michele Mercaldo’s showroom and work space on Shawmut Ave. is filled with beautifully sparkling metal gems. Her Award winning designs feature 100% recycled Harmony Metals. She also features the work of other jewelry designers, many from around the world, as well as unusual artwork to complement the well designed space. Make sure not to miss the front display windows. They often steal the show!
When I walk into a men’s clothing store and get excited, I know I’ve stumbled onto someplace special. Bobby From Boston is just such a place. Customers are immediately taken by the aesthetic of the shop and all the vintage clothing that has been collected over the years. Fashion superstars like Ralph Loren and Tom Ford have looked to his store for inspiration. Stylists frequent regularly. The space gleams with old world charm and if you come looking for vintage, used or repurposed, you won’t be disappointed.
Emerging artists and small batch food makers and gift producers are the focus of Sofi Madison’s Olives & Grace. This delightful shop is helping to spread the good word about quality and provence of all foodstuffs, body care and accessories. Sustainable gift giving at its best. Sofi can put together a box for you and ship it as a housewarming present, birthday gift, or just about any other occasion. She further extends the sense of community with classes and monthly gatherings for clients and area residents. Once inside, you’ll realize the importance of all the tiny stories that make up the world.
Every Sunday, May through October, the SOWA market celebrates homegrown goodness. The enormous space is filled with a farmer’s market and small batch producers, an indie design market featuring artists and craftspeople and a rotating group of enough food trucks to fill an entire parking lot. Come for a few hours, or spend the day. It’s family and dog friendly fun and showcases what the South End is all about.
View all of my Shopping list in Boston’s South End including information on Follain Skin Care, Patch NYC, Sault Mens Wear, Formaggio Kitchen and Union Park St. on AFAR along with more details of each of the shops listed above.
The Bagan Lodge is an oasis amongst the ancient temples in Myanmar’s magnificent city. Located 700 km north of Yangon {a two hour flight}, Bagan is home to the most concentrated collection of ancient Buddhist ruins in the world. Many of the temples and pagodas survive from the 11th and 12th centuries. After a hot and dusty day of visiting a large selection of the over 2500 pagodas and temples still remaining, this property, on the outskirts of the archaeological zone, allows the visitor to recharge and process the abundance of historic structures they have no doubt spendt the day exploring.
While I often lean towards a hotel that sings of the local ambience, the fact that this property has a subtle decor that doesn’t compete with the majesty of Bagan was something I appreciated whole heartedly. The calm of the architecture immediately brings you back to earth and allows the guest to start to take in all the magic of the day’s events. It represents a perfect marriage of old Burma with modern appointments.
Newly opened in August of 2013, the lodge was designed by Brigitte Dumont de Chassart and has a choice of 82 deluxe rooms as well a 3 suites. Key to the design is the central pool, around which everything radiates. The bar, restaurant and lobby are open air and overlook the luxurious water feature. Bagan’s climate is dry and hot, and just the sight of the pool immediately brings a calm to a mind swimming with the sights of the day-a bit of cerebral overload.
Rooms are located in stand alone redbrick structures, the bricks created locally and reflecting the nearby temple designs. Lobby furniture takes it’s cue from the Burmese culture, chairs and tables mimicking the curve and design of furnishings from the Golden Age of Travel. The lobby seats are reminiscent of the curve of old teak houdah used when riding elephants. There is a feeling of British colonialism, combined with a flavor of the exotic travel the country has to offer.
The white tarp roofs on each of the individual structures felt safari like and blended seamlessly into the landscape. Areas are connected by garden pathways. Dark wood enhanced the colonial feel and furnishings were kept minimal and clean lined. Comfortable rattan settees and functional armoires enhanced the homey feel. The jack and jill bath was roomy, held double sinks, a large walk in rain shower and tub. Again materials were local and elegantly minimal. Large windows let in plenty of light and the reflective glass allows guests to take advantage of the views while sheilding others from looking in. Relaxing on the covered porch is a perfect way to recharge before dinner.
What better way to learn about a country’s food and culture than to take a cooking class? Meatless Monday today is from Myanmar’s Inle Lake Fish Curry.
I will be taking you all on tour of Inle Lake in the near future, but for now you’ll have to believe me when I say this meal embodies all that farm to table has to offer. It’s really the way the people eat here, second nature. Fish caught right in the lake, tomatoes grown on the lake, unlike any farming methods I’ve have seen before and fresh onions and scallions from a farm just over on shore.
Ingredients:
- Whole fish filet-skin and head on
- 4″ chunk of ginger
- 2 T. Asian chili sauce
- 1/2 t. salt
- 1 t. dried vegetable broth powder (they used chicken-the end result tasted the same)
- 3 scallions
- salt and pepper
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 clove garlic
- 1″ piece tumeric
- 1 small red onion
- peanut oil
The sauce was a tomato sauce from my perspective, but this is what they called it. Perhaps one of those Lost in Translation moments. Make it first by chopping the tomatoes and onion. Pound 2″ piece of the ginger, the and garlic. Sauté the spices in peanut oil and add together with the tomatoes/onion-cook for 1/2 hour.
For the fish, pound the remaining 2″ of ginger and pour the juice over the inside of your filet. Massage into the fish {they do this to remove the fishy taste}.
Pound the garlic and mix with 1/2 t. salt, 2 T. chili sauce and vegetable broth powder. Massage into the flesh of the fish. Chop scallions, mix with 1/2 t. pepper and 1/2 c. of the tomato sauce and stuff the fish with the mixture. Fold fish in half, and gently fry in the peanut oil {covering the fish, they used a wok and holding it down with a metal spatula so it stays folded}.
One of the things I like best about the internet is the opportunity it affords to meet people with similar interests that you might never have the opportunity to cross paths with in real life. Case in Point-the wonderful Jenni Fuchs, one of the owners and writers of Museum Diary. Let me introduce you….
Hello, my name is Jenni, and I’m a museologist currently living in Berlin. I’ve been blogging about museums for five years now, and working in museums for more than twice that time. During those years I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel, both professionally and privately, around various countries and I’ve seen a lot of weird and wonderful collections and museums along the way.
Many national museum institutions once started out as private collections. Art and antiquities collectors are also often known to donate or bequeath their private collections to existing institutions. But there are also many private collections that open their doors to the public whilst keeping their often very intimate character. One such example is the former Squished Penny Museum in Washington D.C., USA. It was run privately by a couple in their living room, with visits by appointment only. Sadly, despite many visits to D.C., I never made it along to the museum before it closed its doors for ever, but there’s a video about it on YouTube (http://youtu.be/iYl0jYnM32U ).
One museum that started out as a private collection, which I did have the bizarre pleasure of visiting, is the Icelandic Phallological Museum. Also known as the ‘Penis Museum’, it regularly tops the list of the world’s wackiest museums. It is the only one of its kind to exhibit phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country. Starting out with just a single bull’s penis in the 1970, the collection has since grown to encompass over 200 specimens from over 90 different species.
