Category Archives: Food

Ambroseli Safari 2019

Ambroseli Safari with 2019 Kili Initiative team. The previous evening at the hotel in Marangu I had eaten goat entrails stew, despite our commander Tim Challen’s warning. I ignored his advice and paid the price. I was deathly ill and the next day we went on a safari to Ambroseli. We sighted lions, elephants, zebra, […]

General Tso’s Blizzard

Prior to Christmas of 2010 my younger sister insisted on my spending the holiday with her in Boston. She was worried about my head, since our beloved father had passed away in November and my wife and kids were on the other side of the world in Thailand. “I don’t want you to be alone.” […]

Our City – Maz et Moi – PJ Clarkes

After COVID struck, the city closed everything. Mazin and I wandered the shorelines of Manhattan and Brooklyn drinking wine in the desolation of uncertainty. Counting the stars. It was our city. One night we sat at a Williamsburg park on the East River. Across lived his sister and he called her to illuminate the Christmas […]

Bad Mouthing the Eagle

Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey for the national bird. The turkey of his era was nothing like the domesticated bird slaughtered for Thanksgiving. The wild turkey was a cunning wood creature living in large communes of fellow avians. Huge flocks of brightly plumed turkeys would cloud the skies. Benjamin Franklin was vehemently against the choice […]

KOSHER PIG by Peter Nolan Smith

Ten years ago business in the Diamond District was almost non-existent during the high holidays of Rosh Shananah and Yom Kippur. The Hassidim disappeared to the various shetls scattered around New York and tourists entered our diamond exchange to gawk at the diamonds and jewelry. At least twice a day out-of-towners asked in complete seriousness, […]