Waving 🌊a Fond Farewell to 2023🥳
Where we went, what we ate, more dining adventures in Osaka and a lucky hat!
Happy New Year!
Instead of writing a thought-provoking year-end piece, I’ve been hanging out at the beach watching the waves slamming against our pier, wondering how the little octagonal aquarium at the end can possibly withstand the pounding surf. The contemplative part of me thinks it’s a fitting metaphor for the human condition at the end of 2023, battered by the winds of change, strife and politics yet stubbornly enduring. Another part of me says, “Wow, let’s shoot another picture before I get wiped out by the next wave!”
But now, as it will be 2024 in a few hours, it’s time to cast a backward glance.
When I consider the 33 posts I wrote in 2023, I’m more than a little surprised to find that 17 of them came out of our travels. When I started this blog in April 2020, I thought it would be a close-to-home affair, with interviews of family, friends and fellow foodies about their favorite dishes, wisdom, and recipes. But soon the newsletter took on a life of its own—or, more accurately, it reflected me and my life.
This past year, we traveled to places near and far, including Palm Desert and Solvang (California), Nova Scotia, Maine, Japan (twice!), the West, the Great Plains and Columbus, Ohio. For the impetus to take to the road, the air, the rails and the water, I largely credit my ever-restless husband Jefferson Graham, who started a PhotowalksTV travel channel on YouTube that is always in need of material. He posted his own record of his top 10 travel photography adventures for 2023, which you can find here. I was along for about half of them, and while Jeff was busy seeking the best photo and video-worthy spots, I was often nosing around the shops hunting for local foods, eateries or personalities. Below are a few links to some stories I enjoyed telling and that some of you said you liked reading. Possibly you missed some of them or want to revisit.
Aebleskivers and Danish pastry
Solvang offers a slice of Denmark some 5,600 miles from Copenhagen. This isn’t particularly surprising as the town was founded by Danes in 1911. Danish pastry, history, crafts and architecture are on full display, plus many wine-tasting opportunities, which though Californian rather than Danish, are a delightful part of any trip to the region. We were particularly taken with the town’s five bakeries and a slew of restaurants serving popular treats like aebleskivers, spherical pancakes filled or topped with jam. Here’s the link:
I ❤️ Huckleberries‼️
Ever since we first encountered huckleberries one summer many years ago in Montana, we’ve been a bit obsessed with these strange bluish-purple berries that look a whole lot like blueberries but are more tart in flavor and usually must be foraged, for they grow wild in the mountains where bears love them as much as humans do. Rediscovering them in Idaho, Wyoming and Utah and savoring them in milkshakes, ice cream and pies during a monthlong roadtrip last summer was a joy. Here’s a link to that post:
Other travel tales
An old notebook yielded a memory that led to a story about an ill-fated family trip in late August 2001 to Cinque Terre on the glorious coastal region known as the Italian Riviera. As we contemplate a possible return trip this spring, I realize I’d better work on improving my Italian. It would definitely come in handy when it comes to catching the right train or connecting with a lost spouse.
In Maine, I went a little nuts over blueberry jam and had a wonderful time with fellow blogger and friend Amie McGraham, who showed me and Jeff around the gorgeous little island where she grew up and still spends her summers. Amie said she’d pit Maine blueberries, the state fruit, against huckleberries any day. After tasting some blueberry pancakes and gorging on the jam, I’m not sure I’d take that bet! Be sure to check out Amie’s Cook & Tell newsletter here as well as the piece I wrote about her here.
In addition to learning about Christmas celebrations in Japan a few weeks ago while visiting our son and daughter-in-law, last spring we discovered a small synagogue in Kobe where Passover was celebrated with a diverse group of locals, ex-pats and retirees. We also were introduced to a fun and fascinating food scene in Osaka by a friend, Matthew Kaufman, deputy editor of Osaka.com. Along the way, we discovered the addictive, insanely popular, light-as-air Rikuro cheesecake.
You can read more about the cheesecake, a great chicken restaurant Matt took us to, and more on the local food scene here:
More Japanese food adventures
On our latest trip, Matt took us on a dizzying but fun journey to some out-of-the-way places in Osaka, including a somewhat run-down but fascinating century-old shopping arcade in the Shinsekai region near the landmark Tsutenkaku Tower, an edifice built with the Eiffel Tower in mind.
The little arcade market was being revived with new vendors, colorful red lanterns and street vendors aiming to appeal to the influx of tourists and locals eager to return to outdoor life after the pandemic. We happily munched on spice-topped Chinese-style gyoza (dumplings) and others topped with melted cheese.
Later, we joined fellow Osaka.com writers Alan Shelton and Wes Wesson and four others at a place so hidden none of us would have ever been able to find it without directions. It’s called a robatayaki, sometimes simply "robata. It’s a type of meal that is cooked in multiple courses over hot charcoal and served to individual diners gathered around the grill over the course of the evening.
We were nine, and there were about that many courses. Matt had rented out the entire lower level of the restaurant, Robatayaki Wako. Chef Takuya Nagasawa, said to be a former rugby player, cooked each dish separately over the coals and served us with a bit of flare from a wooden plank that looked like a long oar.
Among the dishes: sea eel, clams, smoked duck kabobs, bacon-wrapped asparagus, sliced baby potatoes, chicken with chives, bamboo shoots with kombu, and surimi (fish) and potato cakes.
The dishes were all extremely fresh, perfectly prepared, delicious and fun to eat, but the great pleasure of the evening was sitting around the horseshoe counter gabbing with my neighbors, including Tatsuya “Tats” Inaoka, an excellent English speaker and an enjoyable companion who told me that for the Japanese the quality of the ingredients themselves is most important. That’s something we’ve discovered again and again during our trips to Japan (now numbering seven!), from apples and strawberries we’ve bought at local markets to the kaiten zushi (conveyor-belt sushi) to the excellent dishes our daughter-in-law Nagisa has prepared for us. (Here’s the Instagram link to Nagisa’s Kitchen.)
The Hat
Speaking of Nova Scotia, a place we loved and hope to return to, as we were driving down the historic Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, we stopped into a roadside store called Sew Inclined in Englishtown. Barbara Longva, the outgoing proprietor and gifted seamstress behind the delightfully whimsical shop, flew out of the back and placed one of her handmade creations on my head.
“This is perfect for you!” she said.
I took a selfie, but balked at the price and bought a scarf instead. After we got home, my husband called up Barbara, purchased the hat and arranged to have it shipped. It arrived in time for Christmas. I’ll be wearing it for the New Year. It feels like it will bring good luck!
I hope 2024 brings you good luck, health, happiness—and maybe a new hat! World peace would be nice, but perhaps that’s too much to wish for. Maybe less division and more empathy are more reasonable goals.
Thanks for being here. I appreciate every reader and subscriber and look forward to sharing more stories of food, family, friends and travel adventures over the next 12 months. Where will we go? What will we eat? Who will we meet? What recipes will we bring home? Still a bit of a mystery. Unlike my husband, I’m not much of a planner. If you have some ideas, please be sure to share them, along with comments, likes, shares, etc.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!🎉
Happy New Year! What an amazing year of travel! The hat looks fabulous on you, what a fun surprise. Looking forward to reading more of your writing in 2024.
Happy New Year, Ruth, what a beautiful roundup. You look adorable in your lucky hat! Thank you for all you do, my friend! 🤗 🎊❤️