You never know how Christmas is going to fall out. Even with the simplest of plans. A few days before Christmas, my brother’s wife panicked about the prosciutto crudo, the cured ham sliced from, depending on the source, a special breed of pig legs. The Bristol Farms in the area had closed, and it was... Continue Reading →
Discovering the meaning of dim sum in Seattle
by Janice Nigro Being a nomad is great. Until you realize that your closest friends live nowhere close. So when the last minute opportunity came up a few weekends ago to travel to Seattle to see some friends from the USA who I met in Norway and now live in Tasmania, I took it (yes,... Continue Reading →
Easy Reader News 49th Anniversary contest: Counting Cronuts
A bit of luck with a story published in the Easy Reader Beach magazine this summer. Just an adventure in Los Angeles that really started somewhere else in the world. Great fun in seeing a piece in print. Enjoy! P.S. It's the last story in the link... https://easyreadernews.com/49th-anniversary-easy-reader-beach-writing-contest-winners-and-honorable-mentions-2019/
Please humor me while I try to learn your language
I didn’t think too hard when the taxi driver in Sorrento (Italy) asked me what I had for dinner. The words just rolled off my tongue. “Pasta ai frutti di mare.” I don’t remember how my travel companions responded. All I remember is what Bartolo the taxi driver said next. “Buon italiano!” “Good Italian!” I... Continue Reading →
Home is where my pasta machine is
by Janice Nigro A plane is that modern vehicle of irony, speeding you through the air at times to areas of the Earth that might still be in the stone age. Or at least into another apparent universe where we don’t understand the language, we don’t look like anyone else, and we don't have the... Continue Reading →
Taking French lessons in Indonesia
by Janice Nigro I took a last-minute trip to an island in Indonesia I had never been to in September. I don't know how a person can do that, but I did. Cheaper fares if you fly through Hong Kong when it's typhoon season, helped maybe. I even bought a new underwater camera rig before... Continue Reading →
The Christmas pasta
by Janice Nigro Families get together over the holidays. Exchanging gifts and watching movies. And eating. And well... eating. Growing up I would say Christmas food for me was a lot about the cookies. My grandmother made the best cookies on the planet. She always had cookies in a cookie box, a rectangular Tupperware number,... Continue Reading →
Next stop, Omaha
by Janice Nigro The odd bit about some of the less famous (small) places in the USA is that most of us start our lives in them. Or the only other way you might learn about them is by taking Southwest Airlines to fly across the country from one big city to reach another. Last... Continue Reading →
Around the world at the Hermosa Beach Farmers Market
Around the world at the Hermosa Beach Farmers Market by Janice Nigro The sign as you enter says no bikes, no skateboards, no dogs, and no parrots. No parrots? Jack Sparrow, leave your parrot at home if you are coming to the Hermosa Beach Farmers Market. On Friday mornings, I roll my vendor-in-a-suitcase up from... Continue Reading →
Conversations over pasta
Conversations over pasta by Janice Nigro When you are living alone, there isn’t normally much preparation for dinner. Eggs, salad, a roasted chicken from the grocery store, or maybe even a bag of popcorn. And do you have that with a glass of wine or not? I am not so difficult to please when it... Continue Reading →