Michael Nassar

Most animals  – as you’d expect – are bred for their meat, but Mangalitsa pigs are bred for their intensely flavored, supple fat.

Virtually extinct by the latter half of the 20th century, the breed was resuscitated recently in Hungary and can now be procured in extremely limited quantities (apparently they slaughter only about two pigs per week) from a farm in New Jersey – to my knowledge, the only breeder of Mangalitsa in the US.

Klee, a European American brasserie in Chelsea happens to be one of the lucky restaurants with an occasional porcine supply.   And as seen here, Chef Daniel Angerer puts it to stellar use in one heck of a pork belly entree.  A sliver of meat is buttressed by a solid two-plus inches of silky fat and skin.  This is like the kobe of fat:  meaty, creamy, you can chew it like a room temperature stick of butter or just let it melt in your mouth.  It’s counter intuitive, to be sure, but wow, the flavor is outrageous.  Klee serves it with braised red cabbage and a rutabaga puree – two strong flavors that stand up to the richness of the belly.  A bottle of spiky Austrian Zweigelt made a perfect accompaniment to what I’d call a one-off wintry treat.

There’s a crazy – and fascinating – story about the future of travel in the UK’s Daily Mail. I’ll sum it up for you in one word: airships. That’s right, the return of the dirigible. Except these aren’t your grandfather’s Hindenburgs; they’re luxurious, eco-friendly, and futuristic. Check out the video below to see the designer’s conceptual take on his hi-tech, low-impact concept, which seems tailor-made for the modern traveler who’s got the most precious commodity of all: time.

I was recently invited to travel to Norway next month and go trekking in search of the Northern Lights.

Coincidentally, an exhibition of the groundbreaking Norwegian architecture firm, Snøhetta, only just opened at Scandinavia House here in New York.  I’m eager to get down there to check it out before it shutters April 3rd.  Snøhetta is doing some of the most exciting work out there today:  socially conscious and sustainable, they create structures integrating culture, climate and context as these striking photos of the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award winning Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo attest.  (Click each image for greater detail)

Even more exciting for New York, the firm has been commissioned to design the 9/11 Memorial Pavilion dowtown.

According to the World Database of Happiness – a highly subjective research project based out of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University – the world’s happiest country is Denmark, closely followed by Switzerland and Austria.  Denmark borders Sweden and Germany and is home to 5.5 million people as well as the world’s best butter cookies. According to the National Institute of Public Health, the average life expectancy is 75.9 years for males and 80.5 years for women.

The continuous register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life – as the Database is subtitled -  lists Zimbabwe at the bottom, along with Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova and Tanzania rounding out the five most miserable countries on the planet.  Zimbabwe borders South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana. It is home to roughly 12 million people who’ve been subjected to rampant human rights abuses, public health epidemics, and crazy hyperinflation under the dictatorial presidency of Robert Mugabe. According to the U.N. World Health Organization, the life expectancy is 37 years for males and 34 years for women.

Not to get all metaphysical, but what is happiness anyway?

Technically it’s defined as the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of his or her life-as-a-whole favorably.  In other words: how much he/she likes the life he leads.

And more importantly, is all happiness just relative?

An expat friend of mine was able to put it into perfect perspective for me, while also crystallizing the differences between our two countries:  “In Russia,” she said, “we don’t expect to be happy.  So when happiness does from time to time visit it is a cause for celebration.  Because who knows how long it will last or if it will ever come again.  In America, however, everyone expects to be happy and acts as though it were an entitlement.”

I suddenly get why so many of us snarf a Danish with our morning coffee.

Since its construction in 1884, India’s Falaknuma Palace has rarely opened its doors to visitors, save for a few special guests of the Nizam of Hyderabad – the ruling sovereign of the state which remained independent until 1948.  Regular folk, that is, like the King and Queen of England. But all that’s going to change when Taj Falaknuma Palace opens this spring under the auspices of Taj Hotels, one of Asia’s largest hotel groups

Construction of Falaknuma began in 1884, the same year Sir Vicar-Ul-Umra became Prime Minister of the state of Hyderabad. Completed in 1893, this magnificent palace – built in the shape of a scorpion with its two stingers spread out as wings – became the last word in eastern opulence and luxury. Sir Vicar made Falaknuma his home and played gracious host to lavish dinners, hunt breakfasts and visiting European royalty. All the furniture, paintings and other articles were made to order, including a legendary dining table that seated 101 and where – thanks to exquisite acoustics – one could hear a conversation at either end. Sir Vicar wanted to create an ambiance of heaven – the name Falaknuma means ‘heavenly abode’ in Urdu – however, all that opulence led the Prime Minister into financial hell. Since then, Falaknuma Palace has had many masters, from Nizam Mahboob Ali Pasha to Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur. But most importantly, it remained in the hands of one family.

The promise of Taj Falaknuma Palace reflects that significant detail.  The hotel retains the priceless collections of Belgian Osler chandeliers, English furniture, stained glass windows, leather upholstered rosewood chairs, gold and crystal tables, ivory figurines and the Italian white marble fountain at the entrance, for starters.  The library still has boasts the famous carved walnut ceiling (a replica of one found at Windsor Castle) and houses one of the finest collections of the Quran in India.  The ballroom contains a two-ton manually operated organ said to be the only one of its kind in the world.

Set on a hillock overlooking the city, the Falaknuma’s rare blend of Italian and Tudor architecture is considered one of the most remarkable sights of Hyderabad.  Slumdog Millionaire it ain’t.

Proving the old adage that winning the hearts and minds of Muslims worldwide is best accompanied by banana pudding, Magnolia Bakery celebrated the grand opening of an annex in Dubai today.

[All bow to the awesome power of Carrie Bradshaw.]

It’s the much-fetishized bakery’s first foray outside of NYC – let alone the USA.  And though it initially looked set to whip up a cupcake-crazed detente on a scale heretofore unimaginable (picture it:  Christians, Jews, and Muslims coming together over a shared love of red velvet and buttercream) there’s one significant difference in Dubai’s kitchen – nothing is kosher. According to a company spokesman, “due to cultural sensitivities, only the US bakeries are kosher.”

Sorry, Shlomo: no pastel-colored icebox cake for you.

And no world peace for the rest of us.

Dia: Beacon’s presentation of wall drawings by Sol LeWitt from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s was selected by the artist himself.

Wall Drawing #1085, executed in graphite, was conceived in 1968 but not executed as a wall drawing until 2003 at Dia: Beacon, where it remains part of the permanent collection.  So it’s only natural that the museum would make space available for its companion, Wall Drawing #1211, which substitutes black, red, blue, and yellow for graphite.

To complement this monumental presentation, LeWitt chose and sequenced twelve additional works to be executed according to his precise preset instructions.  The result is an extraordinary confluence of clear and cryptic works informed by his singular aesthetic:  “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.  All decisions are made beforehand, so execution becomes a perfunctory affair.”

If you only know LeWitt for his bold graphics and daring colors, the wall drawings are a peek into a rigorous and mathematically stringent mind:  Wall Drawing #97 – Ten thousand straight and ten thousand not straight lines; Wall Drawing #69 – Lines not long, not straight, not touching, drawn at random using four colors, uniformly dispersed with maximum density, covering the entire surface of the wall; and Wall Drawing #123 – Copied lines, where the first drafter draws a not straight vertical line as long as possible; the second drafter draws a line next to the first one and tries to copy it; the third drafter does the same, and so on until both ends of the wall are reached.  For all of the necessary precision essential to most conceptual art, there is a rare droll wit and spirit on display here.  As LeWitt himself once famously remarked:  “One should be intelligent enough to know when not to be too intellectual.”

Sol LeWitt, Drawing Series… September 16, 2006—November 2010. Installation view of Wall Drawing #136: Arcs and Lines, 1972. Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Bill Jacobson

A friend was asking my advice about her upcoming trip to New Orleans last night, which made me realize that Fat Tuesday is practically upon us.  So in advance of Mardi Gras’ parade of excess, I thought I would post this story that came about following a visit I made back in 2007, a little over a year after Katrina made landfall and the city remained desperate for help on all fronts.  I returned again in 2009 for Mardi Gras, which turned out to be the best attended celebrations since 2005.  Yet away from the crowds and the tourists there still remained so much work to be done for the people who actually live there.  The clean-up and rebuilding has progressed at a glacial pace.  But I don’t need to tell that to anyone who’s recently visited the open pit that remains in lower Manhattan, do I?

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“I used to think that Angelina was a slut,” a marketing executive told me over lunch last week in the trendy Warehouse District of New Orleans.  “I mean stealing Brad away from poor Jennifer Aniston,” she added with an almost religious fervor before trailing off, realizing that in her excitement to finally talk about something other than Hurricane Katrina, she has perhaps said a bit too much.  “I love Jennifer Aniston,” she added sheepishly, as though it were an apology for her momentary outburst.

But who can fault her?  New Orleans’ tempered recovery is under relentless media scrutiny these days.  To read the papers – or worse, watch the evening news – you’d think the Crescent City had dissolved into Dodge City.  Which isn’t the case at all.  Yes, crime has spiked in New Orleans, but taken in context it’s the equivalent of the murder rate rising on Staten Island and having that scare tourists away from the Theatre District. As one local resident bluntly summarized the situation:  “If you’re not involved in street drugs, you’re not going to get shot.”

So when the world’s most famous couple decided to put down roots in the French Quarter a few months ago and raise their ever-expanding, international family, you can imagine that New Orleanians were not only ecstatic to have something else to talk about, but also to have their Herculean efforts at rebuilding a civil society out of the greatest natural disaster in US history validated, too.

“You still got to get out and see the mess in the lower ninth and St. Bernard’s,” said Marié, a street singer belting out Sophie Tucker songs along St. Peter’s Street, “but maybe now that they’re here, people will understand that we’re not all living in trailers.  Bring on the paparazzi,” she laughs as her arms flail up into a touchdown pose. “This is a city that dances at funerals, baby; we’re not going to be beaten down.”

As if to further emphasize that point, the local Times-Picayune reported last month that if you look at a 19^th century map of the original city, you’ll also be looking at a map of what was left relatively unscathed by Katrina.  The New Orleans that has seduced travelers with its heritage of music, food, and architecture (not to mention the grab bag of writers, artists and freaks) is still intact.  It’s just a little less crowded now, having been brought to its economic knees.

If ever there was a city simpatico with what has happened to the Big Easy, it’s the Big Apple.  Now more than ever New Orleans needs you – and you need it.  Here’s how you can combine a good time with a good deed.

What to do

One of the finest things about New Orleans is that you don’t have to do anything to get the full experience.  Dripping with history – and beads – at every corner, a simple walk down the street can yield as many unexpected pleasures as Christmas morning.  Browsing antique shops on Royal Street, the galleries of the Warehouse district or the sumptuous architecture of the Garden District can easily eat up an entire weekend.  However, if you want a proper tour there’s no better option than local historian Rob Florence’s Historic New Orleans Tours to give you a condensed yet authoritative overview of the many French Quarter highlights such as Pirate’s Alley, the Quadroon Ballroom, the magnificent Pontalba Buildings, Faulkner House and the building where Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire.

Florence also happens to be an expert on the city’s distinctive aboveground cemeteries and none are as evocative – nor house as many curious characters – as the little St. Louis Cemetery, No. 1 on the edge of the French Quarter.  The oldest in the city, it houses the tomb of notorious Voodoo queen, Marie Laveau, along with that of Homer Plessy, the unlucky plaintiff of Plessy v. Ferguson, which enshrined the concept of separate but equal in American law. The imposing Italian Mutual Benefit Association monument was featured in “Easy Rider”: Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson tripped on LSD here before getting amorous atop it with their ladyfriends.

The Old Ursuline Convent is not only the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley (built in 1745 on the orders of Louis XV of France), but also home to the Exhibition of the Vatican Mosaic Studio through June 1^st, the first exhibition (and only stop) of these treasures outside of the Vatican. The thirty-seven priceless examples are the perfection of an art form.  A room of modern mosaics inspired by the art of van Gogh, Chagall and Monet is outstanding.  There is also a local mosaicist on-site demonstrating the craft.

What to eat

It’s been said that people in the Big Easy don’t just eat to live – they live to eat. “You gotta do it the way we do here,” a waiter tells me on my first night in town:  “We start planning for dinner while we’re eating breakfast.”  The only thing I’d add to that would be to make sure you leave room for dessert.

The clown prince of the Food Network, Emeril Lagasse, may today be atop a global food empire, but it all started here at Emeril’s, the funky Warehouse District restaurant that helped lead the revitalization of the area almost 17 years ago. And while Emeril doesn’t don an apron here much anymore, Chef de Cuisine Christopher Lynch does the ragin’ Cajun proud: crispy Gulf oysters with Manchego fondue get enlivened with smoked pimento, duck schnitzel re-imagines the classic Wiener with roasted shallots and confit and a luscious banana cream pie will haunt your dreams long after you’ve returned home. Emeril’s, 800 Tchoupitoulos Street @ Julia  Tel: (504) 528-9393

Louisiana native Chuck Subra’s seafood-oriented menu at La Cote Brasserie draws on the diverse Cajun and Creole cultures that contributed to what we now call South Louisiana cuisine. A crispy whole redfish smothered in okra tomato stew with a cayenne beurre blanc is the perfect example.  Charbroiled oysters topped with spinach and parmesan is another winner. In a nod to his grandmother, he’s serving up her hearty duck & andouille gumbo and winning raves. La Cote Brasserie 700 Tchoupitoulos Street Tel: (504) 613-2350

You can tell from the lines out the door that Mother’s is a NOLA institution.  Although “that’s nothing,” says owner Jerry Amato, a bear of a man who can often be found directing traffic from a table just inside the door.  “Business is off a good fifty, sixty percent.”  Which means you won’t have to wait as long for home cooking at its finest:  hot fluffy biscuits stuffed with debris (the tasty scraps of beef that fall into the gravy while roasting), jambalaya or their famous baked ham — so famous they go through a whopping 175,000 pounds of it a year. Mother’s 401 Poydras Street Tel: 504-532-9656

What to hear & where to hang

In the city where jazz was born you’d be hard pressed to spend a day here and not hear the euphonious sounds of brass wafting down the street.  After you get your feet wet on famous Bourbon Street head to Frenchmen Street in the Marigny neighborhood.  Here you’ll find well-kept secrets like Snug Harbor (Ellis Marsalis and Charmaine Neville are regulars most Fridays and Mondays, respectively), d.b.a., where the cover’s never more than $10 and the bar has over twenty quirky brews on draught, or The Spotted Cat for fresh takes on classic big-band jazz and all sorts of funky roots music.

If music is not at the top of your list, sip a Pimm’s Cup in the courtyard at Napoleon House for a quintessential N’awlins experience.  Or head to Pat O’Brien’s, birthplace of the iconic – and ironic – Hurricane cocktail.  Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar has the clever A Drink Called Wanda with its very own goldfish and cheap heaps of crawfish on Sunday afternoons.

Where to stay

The 217-room Renaissance Arts Hotel in the hip arts district is a converted turn of the century warehouse.  True to its name, this comfortable hotel has cool contemporary art on every available surface:  Dale Chihuly, Francis Pavy and Mitchell Gaudet to name but a few.   There’s even a sculpture garden inside the atrium and a branch of the esteemed Arthur Roger Gallery located off the lobby – not to mention the many Julia Street galleries right around the corner. Spring rates start at $139 per room. Family packages start at $159 per night and include breakfast and a picnic lunch for four. Renaissance Arts Hotel, 700 Tchoupitoulas Street Tel: (504) 613-2330

Spring rates at the nearby Marriott New Orleans at the Convention Center start as low as just $99 per room. New Orleans Marriott at the Convention Center, 859 Convention Center Boulevard  Tel: (504)613-2888

Notes on the Lower Ninth Ward

Just as every tourist that comes to New York feels compelled to visit Ground Zero, so too, do visitors to New Orleans feel drawn to the devastated areas along the city’s perimeter:  an area, by the way, three times the size of Manhattan.  The scale of it is epic and you cannot really appreciate it – if that’s the right word – until you see it.  Nobody wants to gawk, yet the human need to bear witness is a powerful one.  Just be sensitive and avoid joining one of those tacky tour buses.  Michael Love – a Kiwi transplant involved in building community gardens in the lower Ninth Ward – knows the area well and can escort you through some of the more sensitive areas.  You can request him from American Luxury Limos. Tel: (800) 631-5466 or

If what you see moves you to do more, Habitat for Humanity takes volunteers Tuesday through Saturday (504) 861-2077 or you can sign up on the website.

I confess:  most of the press releases that drift into my in-box don’t ever get opened.  You can tell from the mangled subject lines of most of them that some poor intern has been subjected to the trial-by-fire assignment of making the latest happenings in St. Elsewhere sound sexy.  More often than not I’m tempted to click the “spam” button, but we all have our little crosses to bear in life, don’t we?

Today, however, an email arrived with a simple, elegant subject line that set my imagination running wild and made me want to open it right away:  Create your own Northern Lights.

The folks behind Innovation Norway – the name alone tells you they are interested in a lot more than just PR -  have launched a program that allows you to create your own computer generated version of the Aurora Borealis against a fairytale-blue Norwegian backdrop.  Paint the sky with your mouse, or choose your astrological constellation to use with a palette of colors that reflect your mood.   It’s surprisingly addictive, plus there’s even a mysteriously meditative soundtrack to accompany it.  And once you’re appropriately blissed – or tripped – out, save the choicest bits of your handiwork and share it via Twitter, Facebook or email.

The micro-site also includes destination information and special offers from Norway’s travel partners, for anyone who wants to see the Northern Lights for real.  For a change, I was  actually interested in navigating my way around, looking for inspiration and discovering factoids – like during the Viking Age, the Northern Lights were considered the armor of the Valkyrie warrior virgins; who knew?  Thanks, Innovation Norway, for the creative break in my day.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Berlin this Saturday, I am gnashing my teeth in jealousy.  January 30th is Lange Nacht der Museen – or The Long Night of Museums for those who don’t Sprechen sie Deutsch – a highlight of the cultural calendar in a city that takes its Kultur very, very seriously.

About 60 museums and galleries across the city  – including the incredible Museumsinsel, or Museum Island, in the former East Berlin, Deutsche Guggenheim, and Schloss Charlottenburg, to name but a very few – open their doors late into the night, giving visitors an all-you-can-see buffet-style evening of exhibitions, guided tours and special events.  This year’s theme focuses on Berlin as a capital city of science and each location will offer a site-specific program dedicated to that theme in addition to their regular exhibitions.

Although many museums are within walking distance of the central City Hall meeting point, many more are spread out across the city.  Practical as ever, free shuttle buses are on hand to help you navigate your way between museums and see as much as possible. Best of all, every bus is manned by a blond, blue-eyed steward who’ll answer all your questions.  OK, maybe that last line is a bit of wishful thinking — however the all-incluseive €15 ticket price is not.