Big Sweet Tooth

2008 is Finally Starting to Unfold....

Ah, to continue the Central America trip...I am on it bigtime as soon as this job in LA ends.  The plan slowly comes together--some days it's all solid, some days it's loose as a goose. 

But, that is what travel is all about, especially long-winded travel.  That's why I work like a maniac for 3 months (literally 18 hour days every day) on shows...it's so I can hit the road and not worry about life...it's so I can just make up my mind on a whim--while quaffing a cold one, while cruising down a back road, while getting all jacked up on some exotic pictures in a magazine.  Whatever I want (I'm sure that is the exact reason I'm still happily single, too).

Here's what the rest of 2008 is looking like--though things tend to change at the very last minute.  As it must for the real adventures to unfold.

I am thinking that mid-May I will drive from LA to my parents place in TN--just to visit with them a spell and eat biscuits and gravy all the live long day.  After that, it's a trip back to my place in Chicago--which is gonna be perfect because I missed ALL OF WINTER.  I wanna chill there a month or so and just regroup, do yoga and pilates, freak out on my place, spring/summer clean, and get my life even more streamlined.   And, hopefully see my pal J before she moves to Germany and gets married!

Then...it's time to get back on the road again.  I'm gonna head back to San Miguel de Allende first--I gotta check in on Yatz, my little trailer and hang out in this wildly special mountain oasis for a bit more.  Explore the magic a little deeper; volunteer some; eat many more pieces of goat cheese cheesecake from Natura; drink loads of cortados from tiny two stool coffee shops and most of all---dive back into my Spanish lessons (rollingrs.com, here I come again)!  *If you are interested in seeing a charming documentary on SMA, check out Caren Cross' take on what its like to become an expat in San Miguel. Good stuff.

After San Miguel, I feel like a pitstop over on my fave little island, Isla Mujeres is in order.  God, maybe a few weeks or a month of snorkeling, early AM Pacifico's at Manana and reading, reading, reading.  Deep tan, more Spanish with Miguel, Jorge and his whole family, the best tostadas ever and a whole lot more of NADA.

Then, it's time for whole new countries...each and every one of them...all the way to Panama.  I've set up volunteering missions in each country, so at least a few weeks will be spent in each one...continuing my research so I can finalize my own NGO that I am working on creating--4th World Love.   

After I hit Panama and the Darien Gap (and check out at 50' schooner that is for sale down there)...well,  hmmmm....that is a whole new beast that I prefer not to tackle quite yet, lest I get overwhelmed.  But, there are the loose plans of heading down to Bolivia to visit a pal I wanna do a TV show with; I gotta get back over to Indonesia to get the first leg of 4th World up and running; I was hoping to pick olives in Italy in late October (for my b-day); I have a whole Turkey/Croatia/Montenegro trip I need to flush out...the list just goes on forever.  Oh, and there's that book I gotta write, too.  And a monster trip back to Africa somewhere on the horizon.  So much...but all such good stuff.

Just over a month, man...and I am back in my true element.  Driving, thinking, assessing, brainstorming, eating, chilling, laughing and living~~and most of all, drinking margarita after margarita~~

Cheap Livin' But The Best Life

The past few years or so have been so dotted with incredible amounts of worldwide travel for me that when I sit down and really think about it, even I am blown away.  Spain, Nicaragua, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, all over the USA, Zanzibar, etc....And, the question I get asked the most is always, always--how the hell can you afford all of this? 

I guess I wonder, how could I afford not to?  First of all, I work alot internationally on TV shows.  That gets me to places free and with a per diem. I try to sked a side trip afterward as a treat for the living hell that was my life during the production.  Second, I have a crapload of frequent flyer miles (all my credit cards gain me FF miles)...so like for instance, on my past two trips to Indonesia, I was able to fly first class for $5.  For real.  I also am very selective about where I travel.  Third World countries are really the only way to go because the dollar stretches on and on and on. 

I do things like buy a sailboat and use it for a season...maybe fix it up a little...and then sell it for more than I paid for it.  I have a little $1000 solar-powered vintage travel trailer that I just hauled through all of Mexico and once this LA job is over in a few months, will continue to drive all the way to the Panama Canal.  No $100 hotel nights for me--it's more like $300 a month in a funky little RV camp (free wi-fi included).  Or,  I do an apartment switch with a couple from Barcelona.  They get my Chicago place and I get theirs--in one of the most expensive cities in the world.  Thanks craigslist.com! 

Plus, I chose wisely and secured an affordable condo right on Lake Michigan in Chicago--in an up-and-coming hood, instead of the friggin' Gold Coast. If I was freaking out about a $2500 a month mortgage every month, life would not be as sweet.  Instead I have a mortgage that is cheaper than when I was paying rent in Roscoe Village.  And, I have more money to spend on personal pilates sessions or day-long spa treatments or volunteer excursions or donations to worthy causes.  Things that are more of a balm to my soul than a pair of $300 sunglasses.

I also double dip alot and have a gazillion jobs going on at once.  I write about food and travel, I work on top-notch TV shows, I produce Pilates/Volunteer retreats...I mean, you gotta keep the ball rolling and have multiple sources of income flowing in all the time.  Never put all the cookies in one basket, you know?

I own my truck--and it's 10 years old.  I don't buy $600 boots.  I live lean and mean (most of my $ goes for travel books, magazines and tech gadgets).  I have no kids.  No high overhead.  I eat out a ton and usually write about where I am eating at, so that is paid for quite often.  I'm a corporation, so the majority of my travel is a total write-off.  I invest wisely--all green for the most part (mutual funds, stocks, ingdirect).   

It's really quite simple actually.  You just gotta be smarter than the system.  Just a little Mistylivin'101 for all you folks who've been askin' lately.

PURE Pilates Retreat Heads to Yelapa, Mexico in March 2009

PURE is hosting another Pilates retreat in 2009. This time though, it will be held in my favorite little village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico---a tiny gem called Yelapa.  This you-can-only-get-there-by-boat hideaway is where I filmed my first TV show (that went on to become Craving Adventure on The Travel Channel) and is literally one of my favorite places in the WORLD. 

We're gonna be kickin' it at Hotel Lagunita and have lined up all sorts of fun things:  jungle trekking to remote waterfalls, medicinal herb workshops, volunteering with children at the local art center, snorkeling with blue-footed boobies on Marietas Island (you can only see them here and the Galapagos), paragliding on the beach, and loads more.  Of course, there's also great food and two Pilates classes per day!

Email me for more details and everything will be spelled out soon on the PURE website.  I can't wait to get back to Yelapa...those stars...that tortilla soup...that just-speared octopus...that limpet scraped off a salty boulder and doused with lime...oh, the joy of it all!

March 23-29, 2009

New Article about Volunteering in WEND magazine

A few months back, I was in Indonesia volunteering in a tiny mountain village on the Muslim island of Lombok.  It was a life-altering journey and I wrote an article about it for one of my favorite adventure travel magazines, WEND. 

The article just came out in the new issue and here it is if you wanna read it.  It's called--

A Lombok Love Affair: Finding a Deeper Sense of Purpose with Voluntourism
Download Voluntourism.pdf

It turned out swell and seriously, if you have never volunteered, do it immediately.  It will change your life.

2008 Is Upon Me

Funny, I just got home to TN for a few weeks to celebrate the holidays...and all I can think about is some sweet honey mango from tropical Indo.  I just can't seem to grasp the idea that it is X-mas, that it is cold, that it is the end of year.  Instead my mind is full, wandering all over the world--literally.

I'm tapped to the brim just thinking about my Central America trip coming up in a few weeks and all the things to do in prep for that:  rig the trailer with solar panels, install the awning, organize all the clothes that loads of mighty kind folks donated for the flood victims of Tabasco, Mexico, pay for my Spanish classes in SMDE, provision out the trailer (really, I guess all I need is my backpack), etc...

And on the other hand, my mind easily rockets off in the direction of the NGO I am working on starting and all the things that people are doing to make the world a better place---volunteering, donating, slowing down, giving back, sharing experiences.

I'm thinking about my return trip to Indo, my upcoming move back to LA, whether or not my sailboat will sell by Spring and what new boat to buy in LA, what stocks to invest in for next year, if I should sell or keep my place in Chi, and really the most important is how much will my niece and nephews love the giant tee-pee I bought them for X-mas. 

Then there are the friends to catch up with, the mail to somehow keep track of while I am on the 5 month way-off-grid volunteering road trip from Mexico to Panama, the articles to write, the yoga I need to get back into, setting up the new little HD camera I just bought, and putting the final tweaks on my Pilates retreat in Mexico in Feb.

Somehow it will all come together and oddly, I'm not stressed a bit.  Just happy and content and in my clearest state of being--organizing, researching, plotting, devising, scheming, giving, raising money, creating awareness, streamlining, stretching, and learning.

There are books to read, places to journey, projects to start and lives to change.  Welcome to 2008.

Livin` Like a Local in Lombok, Indonesia

So sorry that  I have been so off grid for the past month.   I really had no idea that the tiny, very 4th-world village where I was headed in Indonesia (it was on the Muslim island of Lombok just East of Bali) had no phones, no net, no nothing.  Talk about wonderful.  I have no idea what is happening in the world and never have I felt more at peace and content and clean.  The next few weeks are going to be a flurry of updates about my entire volunteer experience in the village of Sembalun Lawang (nestled at the base of majestic Mt. Rinjani) and my explorations of the always magical Bali (I cannot believe that I drank BEER---but I guess I now love Bintang).  This particular trip was epic in a million ways (taught an entire 2nd grade class how to brush their teeth and use soap) and one of those  life/mind altering journeys that very seldom happen unless you are lucky enough to really let down some barriers and crack open a few walls that you didn`t even know you`d built up (sure, I guess I don`t mind taking a river bath and coming out covered in baby leeches).  My mind is twirling with new ideas and directions to take, so be on the lookout...more is on the way...mst

Time Out Chicago Pizza Issue

This weeks Time Out Chicago is all about PIZZA!  And, on their website, you'll find some good clips about what it takes to make a perfect margherita pizza.  My cameraman and I spent a day scooting around to four of the best pizza makers in the city, just chatting them up about all the best ingredients, and I'm here to tell you, crust is the killer.  I came home afterward and tried to toss one simple pie together and after a full day of blood, sweat, and tears, I'd say mine was a 7 out of 10 (nothing a few drinks wouldn't make a 10, though).  Watch the video yourself and see if you think you can do better!  Enjoy~
*********Here's the TOC intro**********
Easy as pie
How do you make the perfect Margherita pizza at home? Four local chefs share their secrets.

Reporting by Misty Tosh and camerawork by Kuba Zelazek
Editing by Scott Smith

In our cover story, “Best of ‘za bunch,” we picked our five favorite spots for Margherita pizza. But you don’t need to leave the house to enjoy the taste of plum tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil on a crispy crust.

In these videos, Jonathan Goldsmith at Spacca Napoli, Phaedre Divres at Gruppo di Amici, Chris Karl at Crust and J. Spillane at Coal Fire take us inside their kitchens and school us on how to make a Margherita pizza at home.

Tabasco, Mexico is in FULL DISASTER MODE!

Tabasco, Mexico:
800,000 Have Been Left Homeless in Just a Few Days Time.

Holy moly, man this picture from a city in Tabasco is totally devastating....very reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina photos that still shock me every time I see them.  The state has lost 100% of their crops and 80% is underwater.  Could you imagine?? My upcoming C. America travels in January are going to take me very close to this region, so my mom and I are working together to bundle up loads and loads of clothes, shoes, belts, etc...for me to haul down there on my journey.  Hopefully, things have settled by then and restoring order is at the forefront. If you have extra goods and want to donate, shoot me an email and we can chat and/or arrange something.  Even a tiny bag of your old stuff will be a massive gift to someone who has lost everything in a flood.  Mother Nature sure works in funny ways...This video says it all...
 

Where Have You Been? Turns Out NOWHERE!!

It's really bizarre, sometimes I'll hook in with a fellow traveler and find myself caught up in spinning tales about places I've been, things I've done, explorations that have unfolded and I think man, compared to anyone I know, I have traveled a boatload.  I'll be chatting it up about charred octopus in Greece, an apartment switch in Spain, a backpacking journey through Switzerland, a TV show in Nicaragua, a volcano trek in Bali, snorkeling in Zanzibar and on and on, you know...just thinking I've been somewhere. Then, I found this little interactive map online--and after I plugged in the countries I've been to, well...its looking like I've not been a damn place (of course, this does not include the handful of countries I've only done plane switches in).  I'm gonna have to fix that straight away, but it's tough because I keep scouting out all these magical places and just want to return to them:  Bali, S. Africa, Baja...it's a hard, hard game this travel bug.  The world is just a mighty big, mighty lovely place.

Sailing Season is Almost Over in Chicago...YIKES!

The horrifying countdown is on...come the end of the month, my sailboat comes out of the water.  And, it doesn't go back in until next May.  I'm not really digging the very idea of it--I mean, 7 months, Chicago?? Of course, it has prompted MAD research involving warmer climes.  I find a place and it's all--Move there?  Just get a boat there?  LA?  Mexico?  RTW trip instead?  Sell it all?  Keep it and just leave for the winter?  The  trying to figure it out part is extremely exciting, though.  God, the choices are so vast and its enough to drive a gal straight to bed.  First lemme get through Indo, then PURE Pilates Retreat, then the Central America Oddysey...then I can assess. Oh, and as for the countdown...I'm at 23 days and counting...Hasta pronto!

PURE Pilates Retreat--Isla Mujeres, Mexico 2008

Good news!  Just when you are ready to slaughter yourself and everyone around you (in the dead of Chicago winter), you now have an opportunity to go on a fantastic pilates retreat in Mexico.  It's from Feb. 12-17, 2008 on my favorite little island, Isla Mujeres and there are only a few rooms left.  Think:  2 Pilate's sessions per day, a cooking workshop, snorkeling excursions and best of all, we'll be volunteering at two different needy organizations on the island.  Plus, there is a learn-to-ride-a-moped session (you know you wanna try).  All details can be found here.

Got Vintage Travel Trailer? Get One....

Per usual, lots of things are happening and on the horizon.  I finish up a very long year of work in a week, I've got a ton of foodie related articles I'm working on (yum), I'm putting together some budgets for some indie films (I really miss those balls-to-the-wall indie days), my month long trip to Lombok, Indonesia to volcano trek, learn-to-scuba and volunteering is just over a month away, I've got to pull the boat out of the water at the end of October (tragedy) and at the top of the pile of upcoming MST doings is this super-magical little vintage trailer I just bought.  It's not much more than 1500 lbs. and it's about 14 ft. or so give or take.  I can just hook it onto my SUV (yeah....gotta that whole hitch thing worked out) and BAM!  I'm ready to hit the road...which brings me to my next adventure.  I'm headed out to Colorado in a few weeks to grab her, then I'm hauling her home to TN where I will quickly pimp her out gypsy-style and rig up some solar panels and then...once the new year hits, I'm going to spend the winter traipsing through Central America.  I just cannot go through another brutally cold Chicago winter, so I've got to get all this life stuff sorted out before years end.  This trip to the Darien Gap has been one in the making for a really long time, so to finally have a minute to do it (especially by myself), well....long time coming.  And, you know I will def. be fluent in Spanish when I return form that one!  There will be one small hiatus in Feb. to scooch over to Isla Mujeres for my PURE Pilates/Volunteer/Cooking retreat that I'm putting together.  Good winter, I can feel it~
*In other horrifying news...Flower from Meerkat Manor (Animal Planet) DIED in last nights episode from a Cobra bite to the head.  She was so busy saving rival gangs lost pup, Axl, that she missed the snake slithering into her den where her newborn pups were resting.  When she went in to save them, he bit her. It was bawl-fest central over at my place, I can tell you that right now.

Save This Restaurant: Peacock Cafe and Restaurant {From this weeks Time Out Chicago}

*Here's a quick little article I did for this weeks TO Chicago.  Save it...and even if you don't eat, the coffee is crack-like killer!

Save this restaurant
Peacock Café and Restaurant
By Misty Tosh

A slew of cabs parked out front is what every restaurateur wants; it’s when those cabs’ drivers are your only customers that times can get a little tough. Such is the case for the Mezengi family, owners of Peacock Café and Restaurant. Resembling something transplanted from a working-class Parisian arrondissement, this no-frills BYOB focuses on fiery Eritrean food, a close cousin of Ethiopian cuisine.

Al dente spaghetti with meat sauce pulls from Eritrea’s Italian colonization in the late 1800s; ditto for an eye-opening pot of strong coffee made the old-school way, the beans pan-roasted, freshly ground and then brewed in a clay carafe on the stove top. Elen Mezengi (pictured), the skilled chef and owner, also turns out Eritrean favorites like tsebhi assa, pan-fried chunks of lemony catfish, and tsebhi begie, tender lamb chops served over sour injera bread. Meanwhile, one of her three children (Yohana, Seare and Noel) acts as waiter, host and buser while Dad drives a taxi.

Business is slow, but this tight-knit family is intent on surviving, and on introducing their native cuisine to Chicagoans. “The Eritrean community in Chicago is only 300, 400 people, so we all eat together, play together and help each other out,” Elen says. “But when [other] people find us,” Yohana adds, “they love the food because it’s different and you just can’t get it anywhere else.

6014 N Broadway at Glenlake Ave (773-262-2005). El: Red to Thorndale. Bus: 36 Broadway, 84 Ridge. Lunch, dinner. Average main course: $9. BYOB.

Taste Quest Rogers Park {Article I did for this weeks Time Out Chicago}--YUM!!

Taste quest: Rogers Park

This weekend’s Celebrate Clark Street Festival is an easy entry into this strip of global eats. Here’s a plan of attack.

By Misty Tosh

Some call North Clark Street the new Pilsen, but we know the stretch of eateries between Devon and Touhy Avenues has a whole lot more going for it than carnitas. This hungry walkers’ paradise will showcase its global cuisine this weekend at the second annual Celebrate Clark Street Festival (Clark St between Morse St and Touhy Ave. Sat noon–8pm; Sun noon–6pm.). This food, art and music fest drew 20,000 people last year and expects to draw even more this year, especially since frosty cervezas will be on offer this time around.

Taste of Peru
If the fest crowd gets to be too much or you can’t take the heat, dip into one of the strip’s many restaurants for a break. That swarm of cabs taking over the meters in front ofAsmara Café (6511 N Clark St, 773-338-9650) belong to drivers who flock to this Eritrean gem for vibrant stacks of fiery food and, on a recent visit, ancient reruns of Lassie on a suspended television. The hearty, Ethiopian-style stewed meats piled high on spongy injera are the popular order, but vegetarians can opt for the hulking veggie platter of spinach, collard greens and lentils.

The Mac is Back {From CS and The Sun Times}

The Sailing Scene in Chicago
By Misty Tosh

*The view is from the cockpit of my C & C 30. Lovely.

Every year, dead in the heat of summer, thousands of sailors overtake choppy Lake Michigan to compete in the longest freshwater sailing competition in the country, the Chicago Mackinac Race. This 333-mile jaunt to Mackinac Island, Michigan starts at Monroe Harbor and attracts elite sailors from around the world, as well as first-timers just looking to get some time in on a sailboat. You can catch the action from most vantage points alongside Lakeshore Drive, but if you don't make it out for this annual primetime spectacle on Saturday, July 14, here's a handy roundup of ways to get your sailing fix in the Windy City. The temp's not going down anytime soon, so you might as well get wet!

I'm a Map Nut (And Book, and Boat, and Travel, and Pilates...)

Ya gotta wonder why some are obsessed with certain things and others could give a flyin' flip about them.  One of my biggies is maps. I love everything about them:  the squiggles that represent rivers, the deep blue that signifies oceans, the shades that equal mountain ranges and most of all the sheer exoticness of the names splashed all across them.  I bought a new bounty of books on half.com last week in a get-me-outta-the-grind frenzy--Tales from Nowhere, Surrender or Starve, Chasing Che, Gringos in Paradise, Waiting for the Barbarians, Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, and Misadventures in the Middle East.  That last one had a really rough and scrubby looking map detailed on the inside cover and when I laid eyes on it, my heart literally soared. I just wanted to be there that second.  I guess you can tell my other biggie is books.  Which by the way, in November, I am going back to Indonesia for a month to volunteer in this tiny village at the base of Mt. Rinjani on the island of Lombok (just east of Bali) to help build a library (among other things).  If you have any books you want to donate, shoot me an email.  Oh, and I'm gonna learn to scuba dive while I am there, too.  Another upcoming obsession, I'm sure.  Oh right--there's the boat, too (that one is the biggest obsession of all).  Gonna sail that thing down the Mississippi to the Carib next year.  I guess I overwhelm myself sometimes with all the obsessions...but at least they are clean, honest fun, though...Hell, wait to you hear about the Mexican Pilates/Cooking/Volunteer Retreat I'm putting together for Feb.  More to come on all of this good stuff and in the meantime...happy obsessing!

OW Leadership Academy in South Africa~Aired on ABC Last Night to LOADS of TEARS~~

Last night was the premiere of a television show I just spent months in Africa working on, Building a Dream: The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy.  Talk about an awe-inspiring hour of television.  Hell, even though I saw most of it unfold, I was bawling during half the show.  The little girls over there are truly special kids and are the future of an already amazing country, South Africa.  I fell head over heels in love with this beautiful country while I was there (especially all of her glorious sunsets) and I cannot wait to go back (wanna drive to Mozambique with a pal, this time).  I got to see quite a bit of the country (driving from JBG to Durban) and everywhere you look, it's just one breathtaking vista after another. Don't let the media fool you--South Africa is a gem and should be visited with great frequency~Plus, I had the BEST mojito at the Westcliff Hotel that I do believe I've ever had (outside of the one I drank with great speed at Casa Iguana on Little Corn Island, Nicaragua).

South African State of Mind

I leave on Wednesday for South Africa.  It couldn't have come at a better time...the weather just turned bone chilling in Chicago and I need some sunny days.  I'll be gone a month and hitting up all the major cities and townships while in the country.  I'm mostly excited to jam down to Cape Town--its always been on my short list of places to go and especially if it is on somebody else's dime (I'm working on a documentary while there so the company gets to absorb that cost).  I absolutely cannot wait to get to the coast, hike thru the mountains, eat a whole new world of cuisine, drink fabulous South African wine, meet crews that call this lovely country home and well, again...EAT! It's all about the food, so expect posts divulging what I've found down every back alley. Ahhhh, just to be south of the equator right now.  48 hours and I am out!~Oh, and the best part is...I go back again in December for even longer....Life is all good in Mistyland.

Save This Restaurant: From Time Out Chicago

Here's my latest article from Time Out Chicago---it's all about Indian lately, si?  If you love the spice, head out to Hoffman Estates and try the $7 buffet---just damn fine stuff...

Spice In Café

No foot traffic? Check. Remote location? Check. Limited Indian population nearby? Check. For most potential restaurant owners trying to make good on the American Dream, those factors would send them running scared. Not so for Bhima Ramineni (pictured), the shy owner of Spice In Café in Hoffman Estates. Starting out his stateside career with an Indian grocery, he then turned it into a small bakery. When the business neighboring the bakery went under earlier this year, he took the plunge and opened his tiny Indian-style restaurant with a menu of both Northern and Southern specialties. “I didn’t want to move to Devon Avenue because if you look closely, it’s not very clean,” Ramineni laughs.

The main draw is the all-you-can-eat buffet, a spread that sends the scents of exotic mustard seed, cardamom, cloves and rose syrup into the street. Vegetarians are addicted to the deep-fried onion ringlets, paneer cheese in spicy-sweet curry and cinnamon-tinged chana masala (chickpeas with chilies), while meat-eaters devour mouth-watering butter chicken in tangy tomato sauce. Every spice-laden dish is procured from a Ramineni family recipe, and the diverse offerings even include some Indo-Chinese cuisine (think fried rice with Indian spices). “A few people have heard about us from word of mouth,” Ramineni says, “but I’m just praying we make it.”—Misty Tosh

1061 W Golf Rd, Hoffman Estates (847-310-5954). Lunch, dinner. Average main course: $10.

Peace of Mind~Where the Heck Are Ya?

I cannot think of a time in my life where I have been busier.  This year has been a banner year for work (sorry, not play) and over the past year, I have found myself traveling to Spain, Nicaragua, Bali and now in a few weeks I'll be heading to Africa.  I'm working on documentary that Oprah is doing (she's opening a girls school with Nelson Mandela) in South Africa and I leave in just a few weeks--looks like I'll be spending X-mas there, too.  I'm super excited (what sort of food will I encounter??), but in the meantime, all I'm really hankering to do is go sailing.  This lovely photo was taken at my favoite harbor in Chicago--Wilmette Harbor--where my pal Rick keep his boat.  Just to get my fix, I've been checking in on all my favorite sailing sites daily--with great heart flurries at not being able to just pick up and go at the drop of a hat (I am on this doc 'til next year).  One good thing, though--I am moving to East Roger's Park in December (where I just bought the cutest place on the lake) and I can literally put in (for when I have time to go kayaking?) within spitting distance from my new little home---and I am just that much closer to Wilmette Harbor.   I guess things are going swimmingly in life~~

22 Minutes Ain't Nothing~~

Okay, I'm making this the last post about my great new TV show, Craving Adventure, that just aired on the Travel Channel.  I want to thank every single person who sent me all those awesome emails about how much they enjoyed the show and I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing it is to know that there are more folks out there who travel (or hanker to travel) the way I do.  Also, I have a strong suspicion that Little Corn Island is gonna get very popular soon and all the peeps from the show are gonna be recognized (after all they are the locals).  And, 22 some odd minutes really didn't allow me to do justice to the friendly people I met along the way who took me into their homes, showed me their family recipes and paraded me through their organic gardens.  I ran across the most wonderful, smiling bunch of people and I hate that not all of them made the show---trust me, though it's not because they weren't naturals on camera---it was all just a timing thing.  And, yes!  for everyone who has asked, LCI really is that lovely and that cheap.  I hope some of you venture on down to Nicaragua and find your own patch of paradise in the Caribbean.  Have a mojito at Twyla's for me, please!  Hell, make it TWO!
p.s.  It didn't make the show, but the mojitos at Casa Iguana are out of this world.   It was a top secret recipe though and rightly so...I knocked back a few dozen during my stay and I'm sure you will too.

Craving Adventure Airs on Travel Channel!!!

Here is a great piece that our awesome post team put together---this is directly from Screen Magazine.

The Journey, Not The Destination: Fatcake Productions Teams With Bridges Media Group On “Craving Adventure”

“Craving Adventure,” a television show from Chicago’s Fatcake Productions, is scheduled to air on The Travel Channel Thursday, August 24, at 8:00 PM CST. The food adventure show follows vivacious host Misty Tosh to exotic locations around the globe as she samples indigenous dishes.

Fatcake Productions tapped the team at Bridges Media Group (BMG, Chicago) for creative editorial as well as graphic elements, including the show’s intro, titles and lower-thirds. BMG and Fatcake worked in tandem for three months to create the 30-minute pilot.

"It was super-important for us to work with all our local vendors on this pilot for The Travel Channel – especially where post was concerned,” says Tosh, who also served as producer, writer and director on the show.

“We needed a post team that was wildly creative and rocked at graphics,” she adds. “Most importantly, they had to understand the way Fatcake rolls – long hours, mad creativity and late night drinks at the bar...BMG fit that description to a T."

Producers at the Travel Channel were impressed with the strength of Fatcake’s initial concept. They decided to skip normal pilot procedures for the show, which was completed in April of 2006, and go straight to on-air.

In the inaugural episode, Tosh travels to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua, and discovers the best place to sample Rondon soup, mojitos and hand-slung coconut bread. Then she goes to the Caribbean where she hunts for barracuda and learns to filet it with a machete.

“Misty is so personable and outgoing – she isn’t afraid of anything,” says BMG Creative Director Christian Robins. “Her personality is the reason why this show is so entertaining.”

For the production, the Fatcake crew traveled to Little Corn Island for a week and came back with 28 hours of footage. “This is only a half-an-hour show, so when the footage arrived I was really excited to start cutting down the 28 hours into 22 minutes,” says Senior Editor John Polk.

“The Fatcake crew got so much great footage on the production that toward the end it became very difficult for us to choose the best shots for each scene.”

BMG’s motion graphics team, led by Robins, went through many different styles for the intro and the titling before narrowing their choices down to one.

“Misty had an artist create these very detailed maps of Little Corn Island using watercolor,” says Robins. “When we got them we played around with them until we created some really nice compositions that accented the energy and vibe of the show.”

“This was an invaluable experience for all of us here at BMG,” added Polk. “We love to collaborate with other creative people in the business to turn out great content. This show is a great example of creative collaboration and we all had a little bit of fun in the process.”

“Craving Adventure” airs on The Travel Channel on Thursday, August 24 at 8:00 PM CST and Friday, August 25 at 11:00 PM CST.

Dispatch from reelchicago.com about "Craving Adventure"

Travel Channel to air Misty Tosh’s food show shot on remote Caribbean island

After more than a year in the works, filmmaker Misty Tosh’s pilot for a half-hour spontaneous food/adventure show will air on the Travel Channel Aug. 24-25.

“Craving Adventure” was shot in Nicaragua’s remote Little Corn Island, “a mere speck of an island in the middle of the Caribbean,” over eight days in December, 2005.

Tosh is justifiably excited that the pilot got a slot on the Travel Channel. The pilot evolved from a five-minute demo Tosh’s Fatcake Productions shot in Yelapa, Mexico and sent to the Travel Channel more than a year ago.

The show was originally called “Stuffed,” said Tosh, “but the name was taken so we renamed it ‘Craving Adventure,’” which is really a more apt name for Tosh’s love of food, adventure and travel, “the core of my existence.”

Taking the Passion to TV {From The Raving Dish}

Ever since I started out in the entertainment industry a decade or so ago in the wilds of Los Angeles, I knew I was destined to be deeply ensconced in the food/adventure world. However I could translate that—through writing, television, photography or just plain-old solo travel, I've always wanted to have a spoon in the pot of the kitchens of the world.

That passion is pretty well matched by my mad passion for spontaneous travel. I've spent my life jammin' off to remote villages every time I get enough frequent flyer miles or come off a job with enough dough saved to spend a month backpacking across the mountain towns of Europe.

When you co-mingle my food explorations with my spy-like investigative nature, you've got the makings of a television show. At least that's what my crazy partners in my production company, Fatcake Productions, and I thought when we decided to create a TV show about my travel MO a few years ago (starring me, if you can believe it).

Fatcake's New Food/Adventure TV Show Airs on Travel Channel 8/24 at 8PM/CST

Just wanna letcha know that a show I've been working on with my Fatcake team for a long time is finally airing on Travel Channel next week!

It's been a long time in the making, but finally, the Travel Channel just announced that our food/adventure/travel television show - filmed on Little Corn
Island,  Nicaragua- will be airing in prime time on:

Thursday, August 24th, 2006
LESS THAN ONE WEEK AWAY!

Craving Adventure airs:
8 p.m. Central Time
9 p.m. East Coast Time
9 p.m. Pacific Time

***If you miss it, it reairs on
Friday, August 25th @ 11 PM/CST

The official Travel Channel description is~

Craving Adventure:
Misty Tosh visits Little Corn Island, Nicaragua and discovers the best place to
sample rondon soup, minty mojitos, and hand-slung coconut bread. Then she is off to
the Caribbean where she hunts for barracuda and learns to filet it with a machete.

But, in Fatcake terminology:
Misty shows up on some wildly tropical island, gets hammered, slams down some fish
head stew, rips apart a wild barracuda and stuffs her face with homemade coconut bread.

We’ll be airing following the crazy popular Samantha Brown’s TV show—“Passport to
Europe with Samantha Brown" and you can see the actual Travel Channel listing at this
shortcut link:

notesfromtheroad.com/misty.htm
------
For all you foodies who love adventure travel, this show was designed just for you.  I literally plop down in remote villages around the world (all on a budget, of course), find food at its source and somehow wrangle my way into a local's kitchen and get them to teach me how to cook it.  As you guys know, food always leads to adventure and this episode, I am kickin' it in Nicaragua (in the picture above, I just discovered hand-slung coconut pies being whipped up on the beach--look at that oven!)
Make sure to check it out or just simply tivo it--can I just tell you, the most bizarro thing ever is tivo'ing myself.  Wow.

Be a Bikram Babe~

Here's a new article I just wrote for centerstagechicago.com...though you might wanna wait til the temp drops before you give this one a go...The schedule posted is from my fave place to do Bikram, BYC.

So You Wanna...Be a Bikram Babe
By Misty Tosh

There are people who sweat and there are people who don't sweat. I used to think I belonged to the latter: clean as whistle regardless of the heat index. Bikram yoga brought new meaning to the phrase "slick as a goose."

I was a riverbed by the end of the 90-minute class, held in a steamy, 105-degree environment, and after a solid week of hardcore sweat sessions at the airy Bikram Yoga Chicago studio in Wicker Park (the sister studio is in Lakeview), not only was I leaner and meaner, I was ready for more.

Fan Club: Reality Baseball

I know I hardly ever talk about the work I do on this mostly food/adventure/travel site, but this project that I am working on until September is pretty cool. Imagine your a hardcore baseball nut and you always wanted to be the one to decide the starting line up--well, now is your chance.  Come July 11, the fans will get to take over the Schaumburg Flyers minor league baseball team and decide who stays and who goes.  This project is a partnership between MSN and LivePlanet and me and my crew been jamming hardcore the past month getting everything ready for the July 11 launch.  If you wanna vote, make sure to check in on the site daily--betcha didn't know you'd be running a baseball team someday. To place your vote and watch the reality style show every day, check out this site~~ Fan Club: Reality Baseball.

HGTV show "Small Space, Big Style"--Totally Brilliant Program

This week,  I am Creative Directing/Field Producing a popular TV show for HGTV called, "Small Space, Big Style."  I'd never watched the show until prepping for this weeks shoot, but it is really quite brilliant.  They cover tiny homes/apartments all over the US--and they have to be really quirky/cool and under 1,000 square feet.  Some of the design ideas are stone-cold amazing and really makes me look around my place and think, "Well, what the hell happened here?"  Though my place is super-cute, DUDE...some of these everyday folks are insanely talented and utilize their small space to a maximum.  I also wrote an article about the whole ordeal for reelchicago.  If you think you have a really stylish place that would make for good TV, you can fill out an application here.  Beware, though:  You are the host of your own segment...that always makes for interesting TV, though~This link will take you to my short article: HGTV comes to Chicago

Just Back From Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

I've gone from 90 degrees to zero degrees in less than eight hours.  That reallllly sucks.  I was just in Nicaragua on the tiny, remote (very remote) tropical island of Little Corn and now being back in the freezing (why do I live like this?) weather of Chicago; it's been a difficult adjustment. I'm already daydreaming of minty mojitos (drank about a hundred), snorkeling with sharks and eagle rays (minus the panic attack), Mirabell's pancakes (at lovely Casa Iguana), Nicaraguan coffee (I'm back on that wagon), big fat pina coladas (drink 'em quick before they melt), and Twyla's cuban-style lobster and shrimp dish (she's a mojito master, as well).  I will lay out some discoveries of Little Corn over the next few posts, so let me just gather my thoughts....in the meantime, have a pina colada...you'll be thinkin' like an islander in no time~

This Is What a Fatcake Celebration Looks Like~

My office happens to be just down the block from Whole Foods, so you can imagine how frequently I visit that place.  Try 3x per day...if it's not for bottled water (.69 for a huge bottle), it's for Fuji apples, cashews or blueberry juice.  There is just always something needed from Whole Foods on a daily (hourly) basis, so when me and the Fatcake team were celebrating the sell of one of our TV shows, where else were we gonna get provisions?  Whole Foods, of course.  We went global (much like the show) and picked up a batch of Mediterranean olives, some roasted Italian tomatoes (one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth), a block of Australian white cheddar cheese, a bag of salty cashews and some vegetarian pepperoni, as well as a perfectly juicy Fuji apple.  To top it off, of course, was some Spanish champagne (drunk out of Whole Foods soup cups...we're very classy and insist on the very best~) and it was just a delightful little feast.  We leave for a tiny, remote island in Nicaragua next week to shoot the show and where I'm sure the eating will be 10x better...but for the dead of winter in Chicago, this was a mighty fine treat.

Chicago's Best French Toast Round-Up

For the past few weeks, I have been stuffing my face with every single version of French Toast this city has to offer.  The good, the bad and the ugely.  I was doing it for an article that just came out today and for all you FT lovers, here is the link (and the article).  Be prepared for major bellyaches!

French Toast Madness
French toast was once considered a dish of the poor. In an effort to use every scrap of food to feed their families, enterprising medieval cooks would gather up all the stale bread in the kitchen, drench it in eggs and milk and griddle up a gloriously simple dish dubbed "French toast." Nowadays, this once basic meal has taken on a life of its own. All across Chicago, creative chefs whip up wildly elaborate concoctions using the same three ingredients of the past (bread, milk and eggs) and melding it with their own brave twist (candied walnuts, peach butter, bittersweet chocolate and thick mascarpone).

We hit loads of breakfast spots to track down the best French toast that this carb-crazy city has to offer. And while brunch favs like Toast, Victory's Banner and Bongo Room have some delightful versions, we took the route less traveled, doing our best to uncover less buzzed-about options. Not only did we taste our way through dozens of versions (oh, the bellyaches), we can tell you this: French toast ain't for the poor no more.

Bars that Serve the Best Brunch Article

A few weeks ago, I wrote this article for Red Streak (and centerstage.net) and I'd totally forgotten about all of these places until just now...it certainly would have come in handy yesterday when I was craving something good to eat for breakfast, and instead waited until I was ravenous and then shoved down some Bosninan chevappi and a dozen Greek almond cookies.  That was delicious, too, but I was really wanting some eggs and a Bloody Mary.  So simple.
Here is the article~

Great Brunch, Minus the Crowds:

The crowd was thick, the wait was excruciatingly long and the small talk was peppered with updates on gossip rag headlines. No, we're not talking about the crowds packing the American Idol audition lines (that snaked for more than a quarter-mile around Soldier Field), we're talking about the atrocious wait outside those ever-popular breakfast haunts: Toast, Bongo Room, Victory's Banner and Orange.

Seriously, we've almost had enough (expand, already), and in an effort to quell our ravenous bellies at 11 a.m., we've decided to ditch the popular standbys and take the less-obvious route: bars that serve a mighty fine brunch. Though the good ones are few and far between, we've managed to round up a handful that have been around the block a time or two.

Farm2Kitchen @ Nichol's Farm

Today, me and my fatty crew headed down south to Nichol's Farm to shoot another segment for our Farm2Kitchen show. In a word, it was awesome. We rode around the farm (with 30 other folks there to have a farm-fresh meal and check out the inner workings of a farm) in a big 'ole tractor and plucked apples from the trees, ate strawberries from the field, bit into raw vidalia onions, picked little pumpkins to take home and chowed on a full meal that was prepared by the chefs from Chicago's mk restaurant on site. Just plain perfect and farms just make me happy. Bunny rabbits, some field mice, dirty hands, hay bales and pouring rain all make for a great day of shooting.

The Raving Dish Is Now Syndicated

In an attempt to bring a foodie vibe to the filmmaking community of Chicago, Ruth Ratney (editor of Reel Chicago) has syndicated my weekly food exploring column, The Raving Dish, for her weekly online industry newsletter, reelchicago.com. Though it gets trimmed a bit in the transfer, she's done a pretty great job of keeping with my let's-get-lost mentality and this week marks the premiere of the Dish on her site (you can still read the whole Dish at centerstage.com).
Very exciting news and it's being touting as "off-the-beaten-path reviews from one of your own," which is a pretty cool angle (I've been rockin' in the biz for over a decade as a Producer and Line Producer). So, it's looking like it will reach even more folks and that's always good news...especially if you're just on the hunt for some totally different types of places (I cover lots of ethnic joints)...really, ones that maybe you'd never think to venture in on your own (I try to mix it up a bit and include those complete holes-in-the-wall with the word-of-mouth finds...but usually lean toward the ones that I've just happened upon in a random drive-by). Really, to me, if it looks shady, enter immediately~

Las Delicias: Guatemalan Grub In All Its Fried Glory

In this weeks Time Out Chicago magazine, I have a new article on one of my favorite restaurants of all time...a little hole-in-the-wall on Western Ave. called Las Delicias. If you know Chicago, you're aware that most of the best joints in the city look pretty shanty on the outside and when you roll inside, there are a bunch of native cooks sweating in the kitchen and whipping up food from their homeland, with nothing but a bunch of love and tenderness (read: full rage at the blistering hours and did I really come to America for this?)...
No, this one is awesome. The fella who owns it (Hugo Gutierrez) is young (30), proud and Guatemalan, plus has mastered pupusas, these little fried cornmeal patties stuffed with meats, cheeses and various herbs. $2 bucks each and totally delish.
My favorite item on the menu though is the Yuca Fritas. As I put it in the Time Out article, "they're the Guatemalan version of what french fries wish they could be." Fried up golden and crispy and thick with potato flakes. The best way to eat them is to cut 'em open, toss on a bit of the sour cream, vinegary slaw and tangy dressing and proceed to chow.
I'm all hyped up on Guatemala right now, cuz me and my fatcake crew are headed there in October to shoot an episode of "Stuffed," my foodie/adventure show and I cannot wait to trek volcanoes, make homemade tortillas and chocolate, see the most beautiful lake in the world, and work the fields on a fair-trade, organic coffee plantation. But, for now, I'll just kick it with my baby pupusas at Las Delicias.

Farm2Kitchen: Day 3 of Shooting

Today marks day three of filming of my new show and I've gotta say, it has been one enlightening couple of days.  You would be stunned at the support we've gotten from the farmers, the vendors, the Farm Aid folks and the city of Chicago as a whole.  We've been running around like madmen catching all of these awesome Farm Aid events, chefs-on-the-go, farmers markets and organic, locally grown food.  My shooters are all awesome and are doing a great job keeping up with me (I'm very quick on my feet), as I pepper people with questions about fair-trade and sustainable farming.  Everyone is so welcome and delighted to share all they know about these super important issues...even the fella who ran the Bison Buffalo booth...yep, it just takes one bullet to the head to kill one of these beasts (according to him, "it's real painless, you know?")  Whaaaaaa???

This is What an Organic Apple Looks Like

Yesterday, we were filming (Farm2Kitchen) at the Prudential Farmers Market downtown and as I raced around bombarding shoppers and farmers with questions like, "what is sustainable farming, what is fair-exchange, etc..." (some knew,most didn't...some had never heard of either, farmers included!), I mowed on my fave, honey crisp apples.  They're in season right now and there was this super cute, really young farmer who was preaching about organic farming and how it's the wave of the future (right on!).  The photo on the right is a bunch of totally organic apples from his farm and even though they're delicious, they're holy, scabby and rough.  Sadly, consumers don't want to buy those and would rather buy a perfectly unblemished apple (with very little flavor left) from 2,000 miles away (and full of pesticides), instead of a lightly dinged one that was just picked less than 12 hours ago.  I'm hoping my new show gives a little more awareness to some of the travesty.

Farm Aid Week in Chicago

So, this week is officially Farm Aid week.  Not only am I writing up all of the restaurants that have created a special Farm Aid menu (the 20 chosen chefs are super-awesome, all passionate about the regular farmers they use and the incredible meals they've created), but I'm also going to be writing dispatches 'from the field' for chicagofests.com.  It will be a week full of farmers market explorations, seminars, food events, eating out (fifty to one hundred percent of all meal proceeds go to benefit Farm Aid) and filmmaking (of course, I'm documenting it all for my new TV show, Farm2Kitchen).  It should prove to be an exciting week and I can't wait to taste all of the amazing food that is sure to roll out.  The belly is getting bigger just thinking about it~

Farm2Kitchen: fatcakes' new TV series

This week, I start directing a brand new TV series that my company, fatcake, is producing called Farm2Kitchen.  I'm crazy excited about this one, A) because it's very local (i.e. Great Lakes region)  and B) because its something that I'm hyper-passionate about.  We're going to be uncovering how the relationship between chefs and family farmers is changing the way the world eats, one meal at a time.  On top of that, every single episode will get to the root of those often confusing buzz words. like: fair trade, fair exchange, organic, locally grown, etc...it's all about awareness.
We start production this week in three different farmers markets, where local chefs will be choosing produce from their favorite farmers and cooking up an awesome meal before the live audience.  We've gotten some of our favorite local shooters to donate some of their time and energy, as well as great support from my long-time vendors for camera packages and sound gear. 
Getting to the root of these timely issues through a very grassroots TV show is something that me and my fatcake girls are dedicated to and cannot wait to watch unfold.

New Articles in Time Out Chicago Magazine

This weeks Time Out magazine has a few new articles in it that I had so much fun writing.  The feature story is about three different hard-core food lovers that have created their own stamp of foodie nirvana.  Chef Stu whips up a gourmet four course meal for 14 every week, Kim Ferguson started a monthly ethnic cooking club that cooks its way around the world, and Kathy Bass creates a weekly vegan feast in her tiny Humbolt Park kitchen (I'll post more about the food later in the week).  The  best part about all three of these alternative dining options?  Anyone can go and enjoy the fare.  Check out the new issue of Time Out for more details; it's on newsstands now.  The other article I wrote is for the Save This Restaurant column.  It covers the awesome Ecuadorian restaurant, Mi Ciudad, on Irving Park Rd.  Cheap, hearty, fresh-as-can-be and it makes me so happy when I go there.  The charming owner, Manuel Aguilera, is a golden gem~

My Sweet Tooth Always Reigns

In the end, as much as I try to avoid it, the one thing that gets me through the day is the idea of an awesome dessert awaiting me at the end of each meal.  This week alone, I have managed to wolf down a pint of Haagan Dazs Strawberry ice cream, several Good Fella Almond Bars, some pistachio ice cream, a bowl of chocolate mousse, a slice of sour lemon tart, a hunk of tofu chocolate cheesecake, a few handfuls of Laura's Wholesome chocolate chip bite cookies, a cup or so of Indian rice pudding, and untold amounts of blueberries, grapes and plums.  I gave up coffee a while back thinkin' it would help my sugar kick, but as I see it laid all laid out, good lord...just pure insanity....and, I'm sure that I left some out.  Totally terrifying, yeah?

Indian Chaat: New Article in Time Out Chicago

This weeks Time Out Chicago has a few new articles of mine in it.  The first one is about Chaat, a sassy little Indian snack that is very much like and Indian version of tapas.  I wandered around Devon Ave. sampling all of the  delicious little bites and literally made myself sick over the whole damn thing.  Incredible dishes, though and I'd never even heard of them.
The second article is about a cool bar/restaurant in Albany Park called Brisku's Bistro.  It's a bit of a trek, but the food is super cheap and very heavy on the Mediterranean influence.  The fellow who owns it, Leke, is a champ on the finer details of Brad and Angelina, as well as why everyone in Hollywood is a nutcase.  His thoughts on Brangelina?  It was all planned.