SaltShaker

 Every ten li a station swirling with dust,
Every five li a post to urge couriers on;
Men die like flies, their corpses line the road,
So that lychees and longans may be delivered to court.
Carriages race over hills, boats sweep through the seas,
With new plucked fruit on fresh boughs, the leaves still dewy,
All to win a smile […]

 I would challenge any American cook, regardless of what they’ve learned from their mom, to operate a restaurant and not have spent any real time in Italy.”
- Mario Batali, Chef
Buenos Aires - A simple Italian dinner. That was the request. I got the e-mail from one of our guests at the Sexy Spanish Club dinner. […]

 This is not a grocery story or a place to stop once a week and pick up a few aspirin, six pounds of hamburger and some frozen food. Public markets are really about impulse purchases. You tasted some incredible Italian sausage so you head to the market, but then you see some tomatoes or taste […]

 Human prosperity never rests but always craves more, till blown up with pride it totters and falls. From the opulent mansions pointed at by all passers-by none warns it away, none cries, ‘Let no more riches enter!’.”
- Aeschylus, Ancient Greek Playwright

Buenos Aires - Recoleta is filled with old homes and mansions. Wandering down one street […]

 When things strike me as funny
I can’t hide it inside
And squeak - as the squeakelers do
I’ve got to let go with a ho-ho-ho…
And a ha-ha-ha…too!”
- From “I Love to Laugh”, song in Mary Poppins
Buenos Aires - I was looking for some information on the bean. I ended up on a bizarre, ultra-conservative website; the electronic […]

 One Chinese Esperanto speaker described Esperanto as a linguistic handshake. When two people shake hands they both reach out halfway. When two people speak Esperanto they have both made the effort to learn a relatively easy, neutral language instead of one person making the huge effort to learn the other person’s difficult national language and […]

 The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being”
- Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President
Buenos Aires - Although we had advance notice, it was still exciting to see Casa SaltShaker show up in print in The New York Times, in tomorrow’s Travel section […]

 I recently went to a new doctor and noticed he was located in something called the Professional Building. I felt better right away.”
- George Carlin, Comedian
Buenos Aires - One of the bigger private school groups for training in hotel, restaurant, and tourism management is Vatel, named, of course, after the famous 17th Century French chef […]