Matador Network's Blog, page 755

Avoid quarantine in New York City

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo just announced new guidelines out-of-state visitors can follow to be exempt from a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

All travelers to New York have been required to quarantine for two weeks unless they’re coming from a state that’s contiguous with New York. Starting November 4, however, you can test out of the quarantine requirement by taking a COVID-19 test three days prior to arriving in New York, quarantining for three days upon arrival, and getting a second test on day four of your stay.

According to Cuomo, “The ship of State is sailing well: New York is the third lowest positivity rate in the nation and New Yorkers should be very proud of what they’re doing. However, travel has become an issue — the rest of the states pose a threat. We’re going to a new plan given the changing facts, and the experts suggest we shift to a testing policy. So there will be no quarantine list; there will be one rule that applies across the country. We bent the curve of this virus by following the data and the science, and we are continuing that approach with these new guidelines.”

In addition to the testing and three-day quarantine, all incoming travelers must also fill out a Traveler Health Form. If you spent less than 24 hours in another state before returning to New York, you aren’t required to test or quarantine.

Tests will be validated by local health departments, which will issue isolation orders if results are positive.

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Work for the British royal family

Fans of the British royal family can now do more than just follow the news and watch The Crown. Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are looking for a housekeeper at Kensington Palace.

According to the job description, they are looking for a housekeeper “able to manage a varied workload, show initiative, [and] be content to work flexibly, including being able to travel,” and of course, “maintaining confidentiality and exercising discretion at all times is paramount.”

The role will require the successful applicant to support the management of all housekeeping operations and “proactively deputise for the Senior Housekeeper, being accountable in their absence.” Just remember that the couple has three children under the age of 10, so housekeeping will not be a walk in the park.

As for personal traits, you’re also expected to be a “self-starter who also enjoys working collaboratively. You will be keen to take on new challenges as these arise and develop your own knowledge and skills.”

It’s currently the only position open with the royal family. No salary range is listed right now.

Kensington Palace is the official home of Prince William and Kate Middleton. They have lived in a 20-room, four-story apartment there since 2013.

Applications for the position will be open until November 7.

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LaGuardia airport free COVID tests

Following in the footsteps of other domestic airports, New York’s LaGuardia is now offering COVID-19 testing with one important difference — it’s free. The testing will take place in Terminal B, on the first floor of the parking garage just as you exit the elevator. Standard PCR nose swabs will be conducted by NYC Health & Hospitals clinicians, and travelers will receive the results within 48 hours by phone.

Upon arriving you’ll find six mobile trailers with two check-in windows for registration and testing.

You won’t have to pay for the test, but you will be asked to provide your health insurance information if you have it.

The center will be open seven days a week from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM with no advance appointment required. All passengers are welcome, whether arriving or departing, though right now the facility is only operating at 25 percent capacity, admitting no more than around 100 people per day.

A similar testing site is currently in the works at JFK Airport, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks.

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What is carveboarding

2020 has made a lot of outdoor gear scarce, and a 25-year-old invention designed for surfers and snowboarders is no exception. Unfortunately, this year’s shortage of carveboards wasn’t entirely for the reasons you’d expect.

Ask a surfer or a snowboarder for a pet peeve of their sport, and the response is likely to include at least one of the following: flat days where the conditions aren’t rideable or overcrowding at their favorite spots.

This was the inspiration behind a new type of land board. In 1996, Brad Gerlach and his father Joe, two longtime California surfers, were tired of not being able to practice their passions on down days and developed an idea to fill the void. Their creative new take on the skateboard more closely emulated the feeling of turning on a surfboard or snowboard, allowing boardriders to practice their turns even when wave or snow conditions didn’t allow.

Their invention led to the evolution of a new take on the increasingly popular sport of skateboarding — dubbed carveboarding and headlined by the company Carveboard USA, founded by Brad Gerlach and fellow California rider David Colley.

Feeling stoked on the street

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“You’re like Bambi,” says Ryan Franz, who has been with the Carveboard brand since 1999 and on a board for even longer, describing the feeling of making turns on one of its boards. “You’re walking away and your legs are completely jello, and everyone’s got a smile on their face from ear to ear, you know?”

It was this feeling of stoke that hooked riders on the boards during the skateboarding boom of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Pro riders like Tony Hawk, Shaun White, and Kelly Slater became household names in this era, and interest in board sports was through the roof. Careveboard developed a way to bring the three most popular boardsports — skateboarding, snowboarding, and surfing — together into one. The kicker was that Carveboard’s product gave its customers the ability to shred every day of the year.

“There is nothing on the street that so closely emulates the feeling and ‘stoke’ of surfing or snowboarding,” founders Brad Gerlach and David Colley say on the company’s website. “There are so many down days when you just can’t get a surf or snowboard session and you’re just itching to get in some turns. With a little imagination and one of our boards, there is always a couple feet of fresh powder or [six to eight] foot and glassy sets coming in right outside your door.”

An unexpected year

Photo: alan_carveboard/Instagram

Carveboarding became part of the skateboarding lexicon for nearly a quarter-century, and the company’s products became established staples at skate shops not just across the country but also in some other places around the world. Carveboarding has a huge following, particularly among surf-crazy Brazilians.

Then 2020 happened. This year, interest in carveboarding and other longboarding offshoots exploded among athletes unable to practice their favorite sport, as ski resorts turned off their chair lifts early and many beaches were closed off for a time; searches for the sport of carveboarding and buying Carveboards have exploded in the last few months on Google.

But in early fall, the sport’s pioneer Joe Gerlach suffered a stroke and was forced to step away from the company he’d helped found. As a result, Carveboards are now in tight supply — many online skate shops including Warehouse Skateboards and Salty Peaks are out of stock.

Although tough to come by, Carveboards are available in limited quantity through the brand directly by emailing them. The company hopes to restock shelves soon, though you’ll have to shell out a few bucks in order to give one of these boards a whirl. Carveboard offers multiple models of its patented design, with its traditional carveboard running $365 to $385 and its entry-level “Surfstik” running $215 to $235.

With the setback and the pandemic, the Carveboard brand is “regrouping” and developing its path for going forward, beginning with a fresh stock of boards, says Franz. He adds that Joe’s son Brad and his daughter Corinne are both engaged in the effort.

How Carveboards work

Photo: alan_carveboard/Instagram

Though the sport most closely resembles longboarding — that is, using a specific “longboard” skateboard — the ability to “carve” takes the equipment and its riders to the next level. One of the tougher aspects to master on a longboard is the powerslide, the quick push of the board into a direction perpendicular to the pavement that allows the rider to slow down or stop.

Carveboarding solves this issue by incorporating the “carve” used by surfers and snowboarders to cut their way through a wave or slope. Unlike the trucks — the metal t-shaped underside pieces that connect the skateboard deck to its bearings and wheels — on a traditional longboard, which are fixed, those on a carveboard actually rotate on a joint connected to the top.

In addition, Carveboards have large wheels placed outside of the skateboard deck, rather than underneath it. The truck rotation and this design provide much greater maneuverability — allowing the rider to lean into the “carves” of each turn in a manner more similar to surfing or snowboarding than to traditional skateboarding.

“The cool thing is that if you are serious about whatever board sport you’re in, it allows you to work on technique and style,” Franz says. “So not only are you getting your workout in, but if you’re a moderate to experienced boardrider you’re working on the things you want to work on. It’s mind and body.”

Looking at a Carveboard, its evolution from skateboarding seems natural. Gerlach and his father increased the point-to-point turning radius of traditional longboard trucks to 45 degrees. The wide turning radius and a board length of at least 34 inches allow the trucks to operate independently of each other in a manner similar to a 4-wheel-drive automobile. This flexibility allows the rider to more closely emulate the carve of surfing and snowboarding.

The Carveboarding future

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Dogs dressed as sharks at aquarium

In early October, the Georgia Aquarium offered a sneak peek of its newest exhibit, called “Sharks! Predators of the Deep.” The lucky visitors, however, weren’t the VIPs you might expect. The aquarium partnered with the Atlanta Humane Society to open the exhibit to six canine visitors. And they dressed for the occasion too. The puppies explored the new gallery all while dressed up in shark costumes — fitting attire both for the upcoming holiday and for the exhibit itself.

A video of their visit was released by the aquarium.

It’s a finned and furry monster-mash-bash!

Dracula’s Castle virtual Halloween

Halloween parties are going to be extra creepy this year, and it’s mostly because people will be “partying” from behind their computer screens. Clubs, bars, and traditional parties are out, but the trend of virtual events wouldn’t be complete without virtual Halloween parties. Bran Castle (Dracula’s Castle) in Romania is the pinnacle of spooky Halloween destinations, and this weekend you can attend a virtual party streamed live from the castle.

The “Horroween” event is sponsored by party-hosting company elrow. Their Facebook page reads, “We are going to celebrate an online Horroween from Dracula’s Castle, in Romania. Get ready for Saturday 31st at 6pm (CET). Once you’re inside, just remember, there’s no getting out, just non-stop panic partying.”

For those stateside, that’s 1 PM Eastern time.

Elrow is famous for hosting epic parties all over the world. According to them, an elrow party is “an experience where spectacle, music, color and happiness, essential elements of elrows DNA, get together to create that unique and involving experience that our clients get themselves into as soon as they cross the front door of any of our events, regardless of city, country, continent or time of the day.”

“Horrorween” will take place live on elrow’s Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube channels. If you can’t make it on Saturday, the event will be available to rewatch on elrow’s social channels, so you won’t totally miss out.

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Interview of author Suzanne Roberts

Author and travel writer Suzanne Roberts has a way with mobile-minded romance. Her new travel memoir, Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel is a mesmeric collection, spanning decades and countries but always harking a single theme — the heart wants what it wants. What happens to the heart’s desire for travel and romance when a global pandemic strikes? Roberts, who has been stuck at home in Lake Tahoe throughout most of the pandemic, is figuring this out on the fly.

The stories — many heartwarming, some heart wrenching — are the perfect way for travelers to fill the wanderlust void when global travel isn’t on the table. After months of being cooped up, it appears they need it. Bad Tourist follows Roberts’ first memoir,Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail, which won the National Outdoor Book Award in 2012. This time, Roberts recounts adventures through India, Greece, and Latin America; touches on encounters including a long-distance romance that first budded in Cuernavaca; and notes how the affair played out back in the States. Matador spoke with her about how that’s going and about her new book, out now from University of Nebraska Press.

How did you bring these stories from just being stories into a finished book?

Photo: Suzanne Roberts

I started this book in earnest in 2011, but the earliest essay takes place in 2002. The essays span 16 years, and I didn’t know I was writing a book — I just write when I have something I want to write about. I’m a terrible travel writer because I just write the essay and then see if anybody wants it. And I realized that they went into a collection and that they have the same theme.

You return to Latin America over and over in the book. The term “escapism” comes to mind — is that accurate?

In some ways, visiting Latin America over and over was kind of an excuse. Yes, I was getting my Ph.D., and I had to be fluent. But I was really escaping my life. The first time I went to language school, I really went by myself to go travel alone because I was super unhappy in my first marriage.

It was an excuse to spend what little money we had on a trip to Latin America in order to further my studies. As I learned more Spanish, I got more out of being a traveler in Latin American because I could talk to people. I got to know people, and I got to know the culture in a way that you don’t if you don’t know the language.

And I love everything about Latin America — I love the food, I love the people, I love the climate.

In the book you say, “Worrying is living in the future.” Right now, the future is all we have — is it okay to worry a bit right now?

Photo: Suzanne Roberts

I don’t think the future is all we have; we also have the past. I was writing about Hungary this morning, and I went back and looked at my pictures, and I feel so nostalgic for travel. But I really am grateful for all the traveling I’ve done. This is the longest I’ve been in my adult life of having not been on an airplane. I’m hopeful that there’s going to be a vaccine and that enough people will take it. If we had rapid testing that was accurate, we could all travel again, even without a vaccine.

At this point, I don’t feel safe [about international travel in the COVID era]. We’re being really conservative and careful, mostly because I don’t want to feel like I’ve given this to someone else who has a negative outcome. I’m reading so many things about people who are [traveling abroad] and it’s like, you better get tested and be sure you’re not bringing COVID to these places.

We’ve done something that is cliche. My husband and I bought a van. We are traveling in it, camping in places that are pretty close so it’s safe. It’s the pandemic mobile. The hope is this winter we’ll drive our van to Mexico and spend a month or two down there, depending on if it’s safe and responsible.

What do you think will happen going forward with travel?

We can go on some travels that maybe we would be too frugal to go on, like Tahiti or Bora Bora, because we’ve saved so much money not traveling during COVID. It is fun to think about and I do think the world may never go back to what it was, but it will go back to something different from this. It will be, I hope, open again because travel is such an important part of my life and so many people’s lives.

Until there’s rapid testing or a vaccine, I probably won’t be getting on a long-haul flight. But I’m hopeful, though I’m worried too because a lot of people say they won’t take [a vaccine.] But I can’t wait to get back to travel.

The increased adoption of remote work is bound to help get people back on the road once it’s safe.

It’s interesting because it’s bringing us this idea of what is home and where is home. It’s so interesting that people are reevaluating home, and it’s made me grateful that I’ve chosen to live in a landscape where I can still have a life and enjoy myself.

So many people have moved from San Francisco and Sacramento to Lake Tahoe because they can work from here now. This has made my home much more crowded, but I’m really grateful that I have chosen a home that is in a landscape where I can still have a life and enjoy myself.

Interestingly, my husband and I had not lived together the past six years. He lived in Sacramento during the week because he works down there. Since March, we’ve lived together full time. It’s really great and also difficult. It’s difficult to cohabitate when you haven’t in a long time under the conditions of COVID. These are all things I have been thinking about and writing about.

In the meantime, what else has changed for you this year?

I miss having big parties, I miss hugging people, and I wonder, did I appreciate that enough? I wonder, did I appreciate being able to get on a plane at a moment’s notice and go somewhere new? I really hope that I will appreciate those things much more in the future.

We always say, “This thing is going to make me really appreciate my partner, really appreciate things even more,” and then we forget about it. I hope we do this time. And with this book coming out, it’s putting my history right on the page. I feel like I did so much work and a lot of the work was through travel and escaping, but I was also trying to figure out who I was so that I could come home and be happy at home. I left my first husband, and I really thank my younger self for doing all of the things I did. All of those mistakes brought me to where I am, which I’m really grateful for.

[My husband and I] were supposed to be traveling the world right now, but that’s not happening. But we are planning to travel — we just don’t know what it will look like. I’m excited about it. It’s hard to know it’s not going to happen as I’d hoped, but that’s kinda how life is.

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Why casseroles are popular in Mid US

Search online for classic Midwestern casseroles and you’ll be met with a tidal wave of recipes. Taste of Home lists 90 in its collection of the “very best casseroles from the midwest,” while Midwest Living has two pages of stories under the “casserole” tag. Only, if you’re in the upper portion of the Midwest, it’s not a casserole, it’s a hotdish, as people from the region are quick to point out.

A casserole can be many things. At its most simple, a casserole is a one-pot meal or side dish made from a starch or grain, a protein, and vegetables. Some type of dairy is often thrown into the mix as well. It gets its name from the French word for the dish cooked in: a casserole, which is a large pan with a glass top. Hotdishes are similar, but have a creamy soup involved. Regardless of what you call them, there are indeed many of them — and many fervent fans in the Midwest.

“The casserole really hit its peak in the 1950s, when prepared soups (Campbell’s notably) became all the rage,” says Jim Mumford, who is a life-long Midwesterner and runs the recipe blog Jim Cooks Good Food. “Part of their marketing strategy was, in fact, creating cookbooks based upon these new foods.”

The then-new condensed soups were cheap and fast, Mumford adds, making them an easy choice for anyone who needed to feed a large number of hungry people without much effort or cost.

The idea of the casserole didn’t originate in the Midwest, or even the United States. Despite the French name, it’d be a tall task to declare any one cuisine as the original casserole inventor — layers of grains and proteins and vegetables slow cooked in the same dish is hardly a revolutionary idea. Nevertheless, casseroles (and hotdishes) hold a special place in the heartland.

“Due to chilly temperatures throughout the winter, the Midwest is best known for hearty, stick-to-your ribs comfort food, including casseroles,” says Kate Shungu, who runs the food blog Gift of Hospitality. “Many of the ingredients and inspiration behind these casseroles came from our European ancestors who settled in the Midwest, such as noodle casseroles from Germany, potato gratins from France, and shepherds’ pies and pot pies from England.”

Casseroles aren’t restricted to a season, but few things hit like a hot casserole in the winter. Comfort is key, says Luke Zahm, a James Beard nominated chef who hosts the PBS show Wisconsin Foodie and owns Driftless Cafe in Viroqua, WI. Whether it’s the bitter cold of Wisconsin in February, Minnesota’s long winter nights, or gray Iowa Decembers, few things can cure chills like a hotdish or casserole, Zahm says.

“Casseroles are all about comfort and efficiency,” he adds. “There is something soothing and familiar about an entire meal composed of starch, frozen vegetables, protein — all tied together with cream of mushroom soup as a unifying base. Is it fancy? No. Is it healthy? Maybe. Does it take away the sting of a Midwestern winter? Yes.”

Traditional recipes reign — or, as Zahm puts it: “Modernize casseroles? Blasphemy! If your grandmother was cold, would you hand her some modern ‘space blanket’ or the quilt she made 5 years ago?”

Still, some ingredients are swapped or added — a touch of spice to punch up the heat, for example — and Shungu says Instant Pot casseroles have been popular of late. Few things are off limits when it comes to Midwest casseroles and hotdishes.

Before tackling the dozens of Midwest casseroles out there, these are the ones to know.

Green bean casserole

Photo: Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock

As straightforward a dish as it sounds. Green bean casserole is made with cream of mushroom soup, green beans, and fried onions. Cream of mushroom soup dates back to 1934, according to History, and it was so often used in Minnesotan hotdish recipes that it picked up the nickname “Lutheran binder.” The trio in green bean casserole came together in 1955 thanks to a Campbell’s recipe developer named Dorcas Reilly. People haven’t looked back since. Campbell’s estimates 40 percent of its cream of mushroom soup sold domestically is used for the dish.

“Everything has canned ‘cream of something’ in it here,” says Angela, the Minnesota-based food blogger behind Bake it With Love. “If you aren’t serving the easy version of green bean casserole at Thanksgiving, you’re an out-of-towner for sure!”

Tater tot hotdish

Photo: Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock

A favorite that’s typically made with ground beef, frozen green beans or peas, onions, and cream of mushroom soup. Tater tot hotdish is just about as hearty of an Upper Midwest classic you can find.

“This was a college staple commonly referred to as ‘grub,’” Zahm says. “Nothing sexy about it, but after a night of drinking in Madison and waking home in the frigid night air there isn’t anything more satisfying for even the most discerning diner.”

The dish has even been invoked for political uses. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar rolled out her version of the tater tot hotdish during her primary run for president. Klobuchar didn’t win the nomination, but her Hot Dish House Parties were a smash.

Wild rice hotdish

Photo: Lost Mountain Studio/Shutterstock

Along with the mandatory ground beef and cream of mushroom, the name-giving ingredient to this dish is wild rice from Minnesota.

The region’s wild rice is made with the grain from the Zizania family of grasses, which grows naturally in shallow water in some of Minnesota’s many lakes. Wild rice has long been an important crop for Indigenous people in the area. It was traditionally harvested by canoe by the Ojibwe people, who called it manoomin. The grains were a sacred part of their culture, and it’s still sustainably harvested in the traditional way today. Just keep an eye out for paddy rice, which appears to be wild rice but is cultivated, not wild.

Hamburger casserole

Photo: MSPhotographic/Shutterstock

Sometimes called hamburger hotdish despite lacking the necessary creamy soup factor, this simple casserole is a blank paint-by-numbers board just waiting to be filled in. Start with hamburger meat, add some pasta, tomato sauce, and onions, and then top it with cheddar cheese before baking. Any spices and extras thrown in are what make it a staple.

Tuna surprise

Photo: Joe Gough/Shutterstock

Perhaps “surprise” isn’t in your list of most appealing food descriptions, but this one is just as classic as green bean casserole. Bess Truman, President Harry Truman’s wife, even made a famous one that was one of the late president’s favorite meals. Tuna surprise is a tuna casserole made with egg noodles, tuna, peas, cheddar cheese, cream of mushroom soup, and fried onions.

“Midwesterners tend to shy away from seafood unless it’s canned tuna,” Angela says, “and leave it to New Englanders to make casseroles with oysters and clams.”

Though tuna surprise will always have its history, its popularity has waned in recent years, Mumford says.

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Italy’s new coast-to-coast trail

The southern Italian region of Calabria is giving you yet another incentive to visit Italy with a new hiking trail that runs from the Ionian Sea to the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Kalabria Coast to Coast trail runs for 34 miles from the town of Soverato to the town of Pizzo, passing through mountains and along beaches.

The trail was created by the Kalabria Trekking association in an attempt to create a picturesque adventure through the heart of Calabria. It’s divided into three 12-mile sections, each with different levels of difficulty so people of all ability levels can enjoy the trail. Kalabria Trekking’s volunteers will be available by phone throughout the experience if you need assistance, and visitors are also encouraged to check in and out of the trail so their trip can be supervised for safety purposes.

Photo: Kalabria Coast to Coast/Facebook

According to the official website, the trail is meant to be “savored at a slow pace among expanses of secular olive trees, rows of vines, fields of wheat and prickly pears, woods of chestnut trees and secular beeches, picturesque granite stones shaped by time and the magnificent oasis nature of the Angitola lake.”

The trail also comes with a passport feature, which allows hikers to mark their progress with stamps from each town along the way. The passport also grants discounts in local restaurants and hotels.

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Veterans, fifth graders visit NPs

As part of a new program to increase access to public lands and encourage visits by people of all ages, veterans and fifth graders will get free entry to national parks and wildlife refuges until August 31, 2021. This is also partly to ensure that kids who missed out on the “Every Kid Outdoors Annual 4th Grade Pass” program due to COVID-19 can still visit parks for free.

US Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt said in a statement, “Programming was limited at times for last year’s fourth graders…so we’re allowing this year’s 5th graders free access to our public lands throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. We hope these kids and their families take advantage of the incredible physical and mental benefits of getting outside and visiting a park, refuge or campground near them.”

Vouchers for fifth graders can be printed online at the NPS website, while passes for fourth grade students can be accessed on the Every Kid Outdoors website. Veterans and Gold Star families will also have free access starting on November 11 (Veterans Day). According to Bernhardt, veterans should be able to have easy access to “the iconic and treasured lands they fought to protect.”

Free or discounted passes are also available to those with permanent disabilities, volunteers, and anyone over 62 years old.

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