Times Square is the heaviest populated tourist area in the world. It draws approximately 39 million visitors annually. Most come to gawk at the giant billboards and the neon and LED-lighted ads, but a lot more come to take their photos with one of the naked buskers who roam the area.  Times Square near rush hour on last Friday was a slow-moving sea of people who clogged the sidewalk making...

For people like me, who’re a little shy, solo travel can be unnerving. I’ve been traveling for nearly all my life but hadn’t, until about two years ago, traveled on my own. I was on a three-week mercy mission in London and decided, at the last minute, to treat myself to a short vacation in Paris before I flew home. Thinking about it now, I must have been out of...

Each city has its own unique skyline and New York City is no different. With skyscrapers that soar to dizzying heights and in different colors and shapes, from a distance, they look almost like they were taken from a pop-up book. I remember the first time I heard the word skyscrapers. I might have been about 11 then. I could never, not in my wildest dreams anyway, have imagined buildings...

Traditions, such as how to prepare certain meals are generally passed from mother to daughter, the older women in the family to the younger ones. Though a very talented cook and baker, my mother never taught me how to cook. By the time I was old enough to start learning, she’d passed the responsibility for preparing meals on to our helper, going into the kitchen only at Christmas to bake...

Last weekend, I took the 5-minute ferry ride from Manhattan to Governors Island for Fête Paradiso. It was my first time visiting the island and I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t know much about it. Governors Island is located about a half mile from the southern end or Lower Manhattan. The island is 172 acres, a mile long, and a quarter of a mile wide. New York’s Native Americans...

When I saw a tweet last Saturday about Fête Paradiso, I knew right away I had to experience it. Billed as the world’s first festival of vintage French carnival rides and carousels, it debuted on New York’s Governors Island in July and is coming to an end on September 29th. But I had plans though I had some flexibility on Sunday. I was pretty excited as I left the house...

There are certain meals that every self-respecting Jamaican cook must know how to prepare, with his or her eyes closed, if need be. One such meal is escoveitch. Typically, escoveitch fish is reserved for fish but chicken can be used as well. I prefer fish – red snapper or king, but porgies or any type of fish that is suitable for frying can be used. Escoveitch refers to a way...

Blue skies, with tufts of puffy clouds, and the New York skyline in the distance created the perfect backdrop for the inaugural Jersey Skyline Wine Festival which took place this past weekend at Overpeck Park in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. My friends and I arrived at a little past 2 p.m. After we paid the entry fee, the attendant gave us each a wine glass etched with the New Jersey...

The monkey jar has been used for several centuries in Jamaica and the Caribbean though no one knows the origin of the name. (There’s probably an interesting, perhaps even a funny story that could be inserted here.) The technique used to make earthenware pieces, like the monkey jar was brought to the Caribbean by enslaved Africans. Once here, they adopted European, indigenous Indian and other local techniques that influenced form,...

Soup, especially red pea soup, is comfort food to me. I make it when it rains or snows, when it’s cold or when I need a pick-me-up. Sometimes, I make it just because. I love soup. I love the convenience of it. Even cleanup is simple as there’s only one pot. The only thing to master about making soup, however, is timing. Too little and you end up with a...