Howdy, dear readers! How’ve you been lately?

For much of April, I’ve been endlessly recovering from walking pneumonia, planning an impending/exciting/fun/eventually romantic/hopefully-not-too-exhausting month-long trip to Europe (more on that next week) and writing two Los Angeles-area guides for USA Today.com‘s travel section, which I’ll happily share just as soon as they’re ready.

What I haven’t been doing? Writing anything new here on Travels With Two.

A lovely coincidence, then, that my guest post for Boingo Wireless has just been published!

Boingo, my favorite international Wi-Fi-hotspot provider, has asked me to share my top five off-the-beaten-path pursuits when visiting Los Angeles (or even just LAX, our semi-delightful airport). I hope you enjoy these recommendations for exploring my home city, and become inspired to seek out your own adventures here.

Here’s the link, and I wish you a great weekend — wherever you are!

Melanie Waldman’s Eclectic Guide to LA 2012: Roller Derby, Dumplings and Pop Art

Travels With Two

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Continued from
Go West, I Said

 
The first two days of my road trip around the American West were just spectacular:

There were tumbleweeds, Joshua trees and enormous crows beneath a metal-bright blue sky.

I raced mile-long technicolor trains and waved to other drivers, grinning like a fool.

I stayed the night in a former brothel along Route 66, where I had a damn fine cappuccino.

And then I walked along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, eyes agog.

It’s really good out here.

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, I hopped off the freeway to follow Historic Route 66 for a bit -- and was captivated by this abandoned trading post

The closer I got to Arizona, the sandy Mojave soil became darker and the clouds stretched long across the sky

After six hours of driving, I pulled into Williams, Arizona along the old Route 66

Williams calls itself "Gateway to the Grand Canyon," and is the starting point for the Grand Canyon Railway

View from the Grand Canyon Railway depot in Williams, Arizona at 5pm in late winter

Across the street from the train depot, my home for the night: The Red Garter Bed and Bakery, a former 1897 saloon and brothel

Yes, the mannequin in the window of the Red Garter IS a hooker

Room No. 2 at the Red Garter, with a cozy bed and free wi-fi

Red Raven Restaurant, which was recommended to me for dinner by Deb at the Red Garter

At the cozy Red Raven, I had a delicious dinner of salmon with pesto, asparagus and mashed potatoes, and a fine Pinot Noir

A wander around Williams takes about 45 minutes, and you'll see lots of Hopi images

And what would a Wild West town be without a wooden Indian, I ask you? (*sigh*)

After the 30-mile drive up from Williams, this was my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon in 22 years!

The walking paths around the South Rim of the Grand Canyon were, in early March, cleared only slightly of ice and snow

The snow and ice on the Canyon itself? Much easier to manage -- and gorgeous

Yes, the Canyon is incredible, but the gnarled trees -- and sheer number of languages you'll hear spoken -- are also impressive

Stumbled across the mule corral near the South Rim, and fell in love with these woolly cuties and their trippy tails

I took a park shuttle driver's advice and saw the 2o-minute movie at the Grand Canyon's South Rim/ Mather Point Visitor's Center (narrated, of course, by Peter Coyote), and learned a lot about this natural wonder -- definitely check it out if you find yourself up this way

RESOURCES

The town of Williams, Arizona
Red Garter Bed and Bakery
Red Raven Restaurant
Grand Canyon Railway
National Park Service’s Grand Canyon website
Info on the film, Grand Canyon: A Journey of Wonder

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Continued in

Driving the American West: Monument Valley to Canyonlands

Travels With Two

Call it a test of my own gumption or a simple thirst for adventure:

I’m hopping in my car and hitting the road to explore the American West!

In an effort to banish writer’s block, stir up my routine and physically reconnect with my passion for travel, I’m uncharacteristically striking out on my own to visit:

• The South Rim of the Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona
• Monument Valley, Arches and Canyonlands in southeastern Utah
• Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Carbondale and more in western Colorado
• Yellowstone National Park Jackson Hole and the historic town of Cody in northern Wyoming
• The Thousand Springs Scenic Byway and Boise in southern Idaho
• Bend and Crater Lake Portland in northwestern Oregon
• The west coast of Oregon
• Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California

Travels With Two

Literary mural at Caulfield's Restaurant in Beverly Hills

Hotel restaurants in Los Angeles generally provide a swanky night out, even for locals. These days, they’re where couples go to be seen booth-canoodling while drinking artful cocktails and elegantly mainlining macaroni and cheese.

Caulfield’s Restaurant at the Thompson Beverly Hills hits all these notes, providing a romantic evening out in L.A. that feels removed from its busy city street corner — as well as from the present day.

The Thompson Beverly Hills is a modern, stylish boutique hotel full of dark wood, pale suede and stainless steel, but Caulfield’s is a slightly different animal: the glassy glow from the marble-topped bar, the padded leather booths, low lighting and jazzy soundtrack vibe the late 1930s and early 1940s. Murals of famous writers (including J.D. Salinger, creator of Holden Caulfield) make a tenuous allusion to a literary haunt,  but I feel this is simply a great place to take a deep breath, settle in and linger over a well-crafted cocktail and a delicious meal.

The bar manages to be modern and vintage at once

The drink menu is a mix of classic and high-falutin’ ingredients (e.g., amaro, an Italian herbal liqueur), with something for every taste in the booze spectrum.

The Stiletto, a delicate blend of vodka, cucumber and strawberry, apparently turns some guys off with its girly name, but Adam chose to think of it as an alley-fight switchblade rather than a high-heeled shoe. I preferred my Caulfield’s Martini a bit sweeter (it was perfect with the addition of a little citrus), but would go back just for the sophisticated tequila-agave Siciliano.

Clockwise from L: Caulfield's Martini, the Stiletto and the Siciliano

Cuisine here is French bistro by way of a California farmers’ market, with bold, simple arrangements of flavors. There’s a full raw bar menu, with cheese and charcuterie aplenty, but we chose to focus on the dinner menu. And by “focus,” I mean “eat almost the entire.”

You can raw bar it up or sit down to a multi-course dinner

Loved the tender brussels sprouts with bacon, as well as the brightness of the chopped salad with grapes, chickpeas and a little feta. As an East Coaster by birth, I’m highly critical of crab cakes, but theirs were stars: light and lemony, full of honest-to-God crab.

The short rib ravioli in parmesan broth was every bit as sexy as it sounds, managing to be simultaneously creative and cozy. And the whole branzino with grilled onions? One of the most beautifully-cooked sea creatures I’ve ever eaten.

Caulfield's crab cakes and short rib ravioli are standouts

But while the menu has a lot of comfort food to offer, I don’t feel these are their standouts. Their mac-and-cheese is the same hearty recipe from sister restaurant Magnolia, and while I found it rich and satisfying, a little crunch and a drizzle of truffle oil would certainly have given it more depth. The chubby little chicken pot pie scored with a thick, flaky crust, but its lightly-spiced interior stew was merely a secondary character in the story.

The key lime pie, though, was a slice of pure wow. We’ve had the pleasure of sampling this delight all over Key West, and Caulfield’s silky, pistachio-dusted, graham-wedged version delivers a Florida-worthy pop of citrus. We weren’t remotely hungry by the time dessert arrived, and yet we annihilated our wedge as if it was the end of our last meal.

Well hi there, key lime pie

My takeaways: come here for warm, friendly service; cozy booths and a bit of sparkle that encourage lingering; and rather than sticking to starches, immerse yourselves in the artful salads and proteins. Walking past tourists and their rolling luggage in the hotel lobby made me feel like I was traveling here, but once I was settled into a banquette, I felt like we were in a vintage version of home.

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Caulfield’s, 9360 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(800) 441-5050 or (310) 273-1400
Open seven days a week from 8am to 11pm, for breakfast, lunch and dinner

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While our meal was provided courtesy of Caulfield’s, all observations and opinions are my own.

Travels With Two

El Matador Beach, Malibu, California

I’m excited to present my first published article for the San Francisco Chronicle‘s travel section!

Malibu’s surf and sand a respite from urban L.A. is a “Weekend Getaway” for the Chron, and takes you on a journey to only a handful of my favorite spots in my favorite 27-mile stretch of Los Angeles-area coastline.

Please enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions about Malibu!

(Or if you’d like to go — I’d happily be your tour guide.)

- Melanie

Travels With Two

Just the other night we left the menorah a-burnin’ on the mantle and headed out in search of Christmas lights, just like we do every year.

Tooling around San Marino, a fancy suburb near Pasadena, California, we found some pretty spectacular lights on St. Albans Road (see photo above). Adam came across this sparkling annual community effort in a cool article on the best places to see Christmas lights in the Los Angeles area, causing me to reconsider my firm conviction that I already knew all the best places for lights in this great big crazy town.

As we stood out on St. Albans’ weed-free sidewalk, thin-blooded and shivering in our shirtsleeves, oohing and aahing over the splendor of it all,  I was reminded anew that a shared adventure need not take you far from home. It just needs to take you out of yourselves for a while.

So wherever you’re headed this holiday season, please enjoy, be patient with traffic and/or the often-humorless TSA, and know that I’m wishing you exploration, happiness, wine, song, a nap or two, and the romantic glow of just about a million colored lights.

XOXO,

Melanie

Travels With Two

Boardwalk at Moonstone Beach, Cambria, Californa

In the last few weeks, I haven’t been doing a whole lot of writing here.

Instead, I’ve been writing a novel.

Y’know, like one does.

But for the Thanksgiving holiday I’ll be traveling again: Adam and I are heading up to Central California to go cove exploring, wine tasting and beachcombing in Morro Bay, Paso Robles and Cambria.

Y’know, like two do.

The novel is a project I first started back in 1998 and have been skillfully avoiding ever since. Novel-writing has been to me what air travel is to the flying-phobic. However, since they don’t make Xanax for novelists, I’ve just had to duck, dodge, weave and finally just choose the right time in my life to get started.

Apparently, the right time is now.

Set in a fictional version of the Age of Exploration, my book-in-process is a Young Adult tale of a witty young princess who feels she’s been born to the wrong family. She’s happiest having adventures with her science-geek best friend, who is unrequitedly in love with her. When our heroine is faced with a potentially disastrous arranged marriage, she and her pal stow away onboard a ship taking a trip ’round a fantasy version of the world; by the time this eye-opening journey is over, she discovers that she wants to be a leader, in her own right.

I figure a trilogy ought to do it, but let’s start with the one book, shall we?

I’m grateful that I can actually string together paragraphs of fiction, after not testing this theory since about, oh, the second Clinton Administration. 

In addition to noveling, I’ll soon be sporting a site re-design here at Travels With Two, as well as debuting a new website altogether: Have Snark, Will Travel will feature comedic photos and micro-stories from around the world.

I’m grateful that my chosen domain name wasn’t taken. I’m also grateful to have found a helpful, communicative coder/designer.

But not so grateful that I’m unwilling to take a break from the computer for a few days.

On Thanksgiving morning, we’ll climb in the car and drive four hours north. We’ll stay at The Fogcatcher Inn right on Moonstone Beach and have a hopefully delightful four-course dinner at the Cass House in nearby Cayucos. Then we’ll spend the weekend trolling around the rocky shores of Morro Bay, the wine tasting rooms of Paso Robles, the elephant seal breeding grounds at Piedras Blancas, and the sweet little village of Cambria itself.

Aside from the weekend to come, it”ll be nice to be back in Los Angeles for a good long while. It feels like about half of this year has been spent away from home and/or each other; just lately, I’ve been in Arizona and Maryland for 10 days combined…and that’s just lately.

In the weeks to come, keep an eye out for:

-the kick-off of the 4th annual Passports with Purpose
-a link to my radio interview by travel guru Peter Greenberg
-tales of resorts in sunny Arizona
-a layover plan for Sydney, Australia
-a visit to a seaside inn in central Belize
-the surprising foodie scene in Tijuana, Mexico
-further explorations in Taiwan
-and of course…more

For now, I wish you all a happy holiday of togetherness, tryptophan and travel, wherever it may be!

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See also
Central California: Cambria
A Dog-Friendly Stay by the Cambria Shore
Weird House of Cambria: Nitt Witt Ridge
Central California: Paso Robles
A Weekend of Wine in Paso Robles
Central California: Morro Bay
Central California: San Simeon
TWT Travel Binder: California

Travels With Two

Placemat at L.A.'s Caffe Bella Roma

Courtesy of Bertolli, we recently took a unique 9-hour tour of Los Angeles, indulging in Italian food from restaurants and purveyors all across town.

The verdict? A truly delicious day spent enjoying a version of our home city that we’d never seen — or tasted.

Francesco Bertolli started a little food shop in Lucca, Italy back in 1865, but these days, you’ll find Bertolli products in supermarkets across Europe, New Zealand, Australia and North America. They still make excellent olive oil and pasta sauces (which I’ve used for years), but I just recently learned that they also make prepared meals of traditional Italian dishes (like, say, Chicken alla Vodka & Farfalle). They value Italian regional cuisines and ingredients, and put this tour together  – with the help of local sommelier, food writer and lovely human being Stacie Hunt – to celebrate their connection to Italy, anywhere and everywhere.

Here’s how our staggering culinary adventure went down:

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Café Bella Roma SPQR
1513 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035 –  (310) 277-7662

We started our day here with cappuccinos and cornetti…and for that half-hour, all was right with the world.

At this small and cheerful bakery (along an otherwise faceless, concrete swath of the Westside), Roman expat Robert Amico specializes in cornetti, the Italian version of croissants. These flaky little pockets of magic use just about half the butter of their French cousins, plus a dash of shortening and a sprinkling of powdered sugar. Some have a marzipan-style cream inside, some are plain, both are delightful. Pair either with a strong espresso drink that’ll have you dreaming of the Spanish Steps, then consider hanging out until the antipasti starts appearing.

Caffeine and cornetti at Cafe Bella Roma SPQR

Obika Mozzarella Bar
Westfield Century City Shopping Center, 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Upper Level, Los Angeles, CA 90067 – (310) 556-2452

This modern, glassy space in what’s colloquially known as the Century City Mall is one of two local outposts of an Italian chain (the other L.A. Obika is in the Beverly Center). Obika’s Chef Simone Santopietro offers a passionate introduction to the world of bufala mozzarella, which is made from honest-to-God water buffalo milk and imported here three times a week from Italy’s southern Campania region. If you still think of mozzarella as off-white sticks of string cheese, check out a tasting of two to five ball-shaped varieties paired with arugula, tomatoes and a little spring-grassy olive oil; I swooned over the creamy and intense pontina, while Adam, who generally prefers sharp, aged cheeses, was partial to the firm, smoked affumicata. You can come here from morning ’til night, but I’d suggest trying out the prosecco-laced romance of Aperitivo Hour (4:30 to 7:30). Skip the awkward metal stools by the bar and head outside to the umbrella-shaded patio.

At Obika, the chef shows off bufala mozzarella from Italy's Campania region

Primi al Mercato and Norcino Salumeria
The Market at Santa Monica Place, 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica, CA 90401 – (888) 530-5204

All hail Piero Selvaggio: the maestro of one of America’s greatest special-occasion restaurants, Valentino, has created a relaxed, affordable way to transport yourselves to southern Italy. Primi al Mercato is half a take-home deli, half a warm, friendly, white-tablecloth restaurant, a lovely place to pick up a meal to share with friends or sit down to a grown-up dinner together; Norcino is a reverent homage to meat and cheese.

We hadn’t yet been to The Market, the swanky high-end food court at the formerly dowdy, now glittering mall at Santa Monica Place, and our head was turned every few seconds by something that looked tasty — that is, until Primi al Mercato’s pasta-making demonstration caught our full attention. Chef Fernando and his wife (who make a great team) spread out flour, eggs and skill across the white-marble counter and got down to gnocchi-ing. By the time they’d finished, we’d see the birth of beet-red “Venus’ Bellybuttons” and spinach-tinted cavatelli, forming a big yummy bowl of Italian flag-i-tude. These demonstrations happen every hour, and you can purchase the spoils — even a gluten-free version — for later use. 

We headed next door to the restaurant to see what the kitchen would do with all that pasta. The crowd favorite seemed to be a lamb ragu, but I fell utterly in love with a Tuscan pici with pecorino and fava beans as big as my pinky finger. Also exciting: the wine list focuses on the Earth’s south, from Italy right ’round to Southern California; we were both pleasantly surprised by elegant, not-too-dry whites and reds from Sicily.

By now we didn’t need to eat anything else — but that was too darn bad. We hoisted ourselves 100 feet across The Market to Norcino Salumeria and cozied up to a table laid with wafer-thin slices of acorn-fed prosciutto and flute-fulls of prosecco. Sounds delightful, yes? Well, our sommelier friend Stacie insisted that, it being summertime during this tour, sparkling red Lambrusco would be the far better tipple — and in a flash, Piero made it so. Turns out this often dry, sweet and/or entirely overlooked wine makes the ideal palate-cleansing complement to the fatty richness of salumi. 

Pasta making, serving and red olives at Primi al Mercato's "laboratorio," and salumi alchemy at Norcino

Caffé Bellagio
Third Street Promenade and Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401 – (310) 394-3400

So, you know what goes perfectly with eating too much? Gelato.

We rolled like barrels for a few blocks to the center of Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, right up to the door of a glass-covered kiosk we’d probably walked by 50 times in our young lives. (To be fair to myself, though, it’s right in front of a super-distracting Anthropologie.) Inside, magical fresh-fruit gelatos (featuring milk instead of cream) are whipped up using produce from the area’s famous farmers’ market. Beside a straight-outta-Italy orange Vespa parked inside the shop, we were treated to cool, velvety spoonfuls of the best strawberry gelato we’d ever had…all apologies to Florence.

At Caffe Bellagio, the sign behind the Vespa on which I'm sitting says: "Please don't sit on the Vespa" (*cough*)

Osteria Mamma
5730 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90038 – (323) 284-7060

Our last stop of the day was way on the other side of town, in the Larchmont neighborhood near Paramount Studios. In a cozy space that for years was one of our Mexican favorites, Osteria Mamma is now a paean to the Paduan home cooking of the Cortivo family. Smiling, blond and shy, Loredana Cecchinato is the Osteria’s resident Mamma, leading her kitchen to an unassuming brilliance. Our group, far from actually hungry by now, fairly devoured a flotilla of her dishes, which were all too gorgeous to refuse.

I have only a few wonderful things to mention: fig and gorgonzola risotto; gnocchi with porcini mushrooms; sardines with ribbons of onion and plump raisins (stay with me, here, and have faith); and fig and prosciutto bruschetta with fancy little dollops of mascarpone. I’d also recommend reservations, as the two-sided dining room here is none too large. Be sure to check out the far eastern wall, lined with Cortivo family photos — including one of bombshell Mamma, where she looks a little like Sophia Loren.

Homestyle dishes from Padua and family photos at Osteria Mamma

If high airline prices to Europe are getting you down this year,
go ahead and design your own Italian food tour right outside your own front door.

Or maybe just stay in and make an Italian meal together by candlelight. (*Ahem.*)

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I love that we got to share this day with some wonderful local folks.

 From left to right:

Romy Schorr of Romy Raves  
Amir of Duo Dishes   
Andrea Fellman of Savvy Sassy Moms 
Sharon Garofalow of  Cupcakes & Cutlery  
Loredana Cecchinato, aka “Mamma”
Chrystal of Duo Dishes
Filippo Cortivo, Loredana’s son and Osteria Mamma’s manager
And beside us, sommelier and writer Stacie Hunt

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This fabulous day of stuffing our faces across L.A. was sponsored by Bertolli,
whose olive oil I’ve been cooking with since 1990.

All observations and opinions here are my own.

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Travels With Two