Brunch Aboard The Concorde

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"Never has such a beautiful object been designed and built by man," Air France's chairman, Jean-Cyril Spinetta

Before the private jet there was another symbol of luxury travel called The Concorde.

For nearly three decades, the Concorde delivered rock stars, models and other members of the limousine fraternity across the Atlantic for a round-trip price of $13,500. It was clubby: Madonna flew it. So did Tyler Brûlé, and Heidi Klum. It was not unusual for passengers to visit the cockpit with glasses of champagne.



The cockpit



Flying at an average speed of Mach 2.02 (1,330 mph), it cut the flight time from Europe to New York and Washington by more than half (it’s record time: 2 hours, 52 minutes).

For a certain kind of passenger it marked the high tide of high-tech travel luxury. For the rest, it was the first in a series of technologies that would shrink the world.   For the first time it was possible to breakfast on croissants in the 16th arrondissements and catch lunch on Madison Avenue the same day, thanks in part to the time difference. Not only that, it meant avoiding fatigue and the nemesis of frequent business travellers, jet lag.

There were two components that made the Concorde look timelessly cool .  One was the delta wing, in the shape of a triangle, developed in Germany during WWII. It was much stronger than a conventional swept wing and made room for fuel and other storage. Most importantly, it stayed behind the supersonic shock wave precipitated by the long narrow aircraft nose, which hydraulically lowered itself, or "drooped," so that pilots could have an unobstructed view for landing and takeoff.

The second characteristic was the needle shaped nose to assure maximum air penetration. In order to provide clear visibility to the crew, the nose was mobile and could be lowered for takeoffs and landings.  It had also a retractable visor which maintained the aerodynamic profile of the aircraft in flight and also protected the windshield.

The Concorde’s fuselage flexed more than conventional jets, and as a result the pilots could see the floor bend as they looked back through the length of cabin. The cruising altitude of 60,000 feet exposed passengers to almost twice as much solar radiation as a normal flight, and for this reason the pilots had a radiometer. If they detected unusually high readings they descended below 47,000 feet.

The fuel transfer gravity system was another high tech characteristic of the Concorde.  This allowed for fuel to be transferred from forward tanks to trim tanks in the rear of the fuselage during the changeover from subsonic to supersonic flight.

For years, and like everyone else on Kennedy Airport's Terminal One, I watched the Concorde taxi down the runway around 9:45 a.m. prior to boarding my flight to London,  something I did quite often in those days.  It was a ritual to behold.  I am surprised the terminal didn't sink with the weight of all those people shifting to the windows to see it take off.  Once it flexed it's muscle and accelerated down the runway, the whole airport shook.  It was quite a show.

Then in 1997 my first chance came.  How would I like to accompany a client to Paris for a quick business meeting and a shopping spree? And since money was no object to said client, we would leave on Air France's Concorde!





Christy Brinkley boards last Concorde flight in May 2003

 
Oh my heavens, what to wear! In those days dressing cool was a pair of couture jeans, an expensive white long sleeved shirt, a very expensive blue blazer and an extremely expensive pair of Tod's or Gucci loafers.  Check!  An Hermes handbag was the rigueur...check! I had a great fake in the right color recently purchased  in Hong Kong! Oh, and don't forget the Hermes scarf! check.  Patek Phillipe gold watch, check. Gold Cartier bracelet, double check.  Pearl studs....All set!

Arriving at the airport you checked in at a special post and were directed to a special lounge just for Concorde passengers.  All I did was check everyone's handbags and shoes so I could get ideas before shopping in Paris.  This didn' t look like an airport lounge... I might as well have been at the Hermes boutique on the Rue St Honore!

The Hermes Concorde Lounge

Once aboard, I was surprised at the narrowness of the cabin and the simplicity of the whole thing.  The seats were like the ones on a Porsche, kind of bucket seats, nice leather and very comfortable, but nothing like the plushness of the ones found on first class.  The only disappointment, was the token celebrity in flight, Marvin Hamlisch, the composer.  I was really looking forward to someone of more stature, if you know what I mean. Everyone else looked quite normal.

Inside the cabin

I don't remember too many things for the flight was only a little over three hours.  I remember the taxing down the runway and thinking of all the poor people watching us from the terminal like I had done so many times, and I remember the noise as it took off.  As a matter of fact, I remember how noisy the flight was all the way to Paris.  It was quieter in the back so we moved half way into the flight.  Above all else, I remember when we broke the sound barrier.  A little push back and then zoom!  And, of course, I would remember the scrambled eggs and truffles!

Brunch is being served!

The bathrooms

A year later I took the Concorde back from London, this time courtesy of an upgrade from British Airways.  No big deal, by this time I was a seasoned Concorde traveller!  The food was not as good as in Air France, but the service much better.  Any surprises there?

Lindaraxa breaks the sound barrier!

Unfortunately, after the fatal crash in Paris and September 11, the Concorde was retired in 2003.  For those of us privileged to have flown it, it is a memory none of us will ever forget.

Takeoff...get out the earplugs!

Images courtesy of Google, Life Magazine and Lindaraxa

So, Are You Going?

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Now all we need to think about is a hat! 

Separated By A Revolution, Reunited On Facebook

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My cousin Felipe and me on my mule at the rice plantation, early 50's

In the mid 1950's my father bought some land in the southern part of the province of Camaguey, Cuba and started a  rice plantation.  It was more a way of gaining independence from the family than anything else, for we had plenty to live on from the sugar business that belonged to my paternal grandmother's family. Also, rice presented a good opportunity to diversify from a sugar intensive economy and many planters were already doing so as early as the 1950's.  The land that he bought was near the coast, still virgin and uncultivated, and  in the middle of nowhere. It was, though, the perfect soil for the cultivation of rice.

X marks the spot!

The first two years of this endeavor were spent in the city of Camaguey were I attended a catholic girls' school and led a fairly normal life.   Later on my mother decided her place was with her husband and packed up her family and moved to the plantation to be with him.  Now, I have to use the word plantation here in a very lose way,  for the house left a lot to be desired having been erected primarily for my father and my grandfather when he came to visit.  Nobody ever thought my mother would transfer her family from Havana to live full time in a place so far away from civilization.  Little did they know her. The one luxury we did have was air condition, without which my father would not do without, but the rest was pretty rudimentary

My mother, my brother and me circa 1956

The trip from the city of Camaguey to the main house took 4 1/2 hours by jeep on bumpy and extremely dusty and unpaved roads that had recently been added to get from the nearest town to the plantation.  Luckily, my father later purchased a small Cessna plane and an airstrip was built so we could make the trip by air in an hour or less.

Together with the family and our nanny came a young girl that my mother had hired in Havana to live with us and keep me up to speed with my studies.  This was my third grade, I was 9 and she must have been in her early 20's.   She had a masters degree from the University of Havana.

J. at the rice plantation circa 1956

Those two years that we spent in the rice plantation were the basis of what makes me who I am today.  My parents both loved structure, (he was the product of an American boarding school education and my mother was just born that way), and life ran on a strict schedule day in and day out.  We rose at 7, breakfasted at 8 and by 9 o clock teacher and student were in the school room (the guest house) having our lessons that ran like clockwork, just like at school.  At noon my father came in from the fields and we met in the big house for lunch, followed by a nap or siesta until 2:00 pm. Afternoon lessons lasted until 4 when the horses would be brought around and we all went for a  ride.  The family would then gather to play croquet in the garden until the mosquitoes became insufferable and after dinner, homework and a little reading  lights went out at 10.00.  After that time the whole place went dark and whatever happened afterwards was done with a flashlight.  Weekends were the most fun, for we were near the coast and had a small boat to go fishing, swimming and alligator hunting!

J. with my brother at the plantation

J with my brother at our house in Varadero

I don't know where the food came from, for there wasn't a store for miles, but my mother had a big vegetable garden with everything you could ever need.   We had cows and chickens, so fresh eggs and milk were abundant.  Once a month my father would fly to the city and bring back groceries including bread. I can tell you the food was pretty good and no one ever starved.

We both adapted quickly to the schedule and she became a part of our little family.  I have never asked her what ever possessed her to go on such an adventure, but she took to it like a duck to water. I have never seen her since then.  As a matter of fact, I have never thought about her except in the context of remembering those times. I was, after all, only 9 and it was all so long ago.

Four years later, in 1960,  my family left Cuba never to return again.

Photo of me in my uniform, dedicated to "Miss Jane".  She has kept it all these years.

About a month ago, a lady contacted me on Facebook and asked me if I was the daughter of so and so and had I lived in a rice plantation in Camaguey, Cuba.  I answered back in the affirmative and she wrote back that she was the daughter of a girl who had been my teacher, who was still in Cuba, and would very much like to get in touch with me.  Heavens! A couple of days later, she called and we spoke after 55 years.

 I have to say that the conversation was one of the hardest, emotionally, that I have had in a long time for it never left the context of those years.  All she wanted to tell me was how fondly she remembered those times and how she had never forgotten us.  She had pictures, she had letters, recipes, there was nothing she didn't remember.  If you think that she now must be in her 70's and her student the grandmother of two, you will find this quite endearing and a little hard to believe. Later on, I did some research and found she had been quite successful in the Cuba I left behind, holding senior posts in the departments of Education and Culture, as well as being an accomplished and recognized poet and the winner of several prizes in Literature and Poetry.

The student with her granddaughter

It is obvious that our political ideologies are at opposite ends, and I am only mentioning this because I realize now how big a role human emotions play in the big scheme of things.... that when all is said and done, love does conquer all.  She is the only person I  know in Cuba today and one I would love to sit with and talk to someday.   I want to hear the other side, the side that stayed behind and lived under the present regime and endured.     Perhaps a teacher and her student can lay the foundations for a better dialogue.  God knows no one else has been able to.
.

The photos above, except the last two and the one on top, are ones she had kept all these years and were sent to me after we spoke on the telephone. 

On Valentine's Day I received a link to her blog with a note and this poem.   It is called The Girl From The Rice Plantation.  To my readers who do not speak English I apologize but it would be too hard to translate.

                     ***************************************************

A veces la vida, es un misterio igual que la poesía.

¿Quién me iba a decir, Julietica, que después de cincuenta años, iba a volver a encontrar a aquella criatura rubia de ojos azules, de inquieta inteligencia, a quién llegué a querer de manera muy especial y que además, se acordara de mí?

Tanto deseaba que esto sucediera, tantas veces pensé en ti, que la vida me ha dado la alegría de este reencuentro maravilloso.

Para Julieta, son estos versos:

La niña de la Arrocera

Pequeña niña rubia de los ojos azules

aquella que reía con su risa de sueños

la que cantaba alegre como sinsonte puro

la que giraba en danzas sobre la verde hierba.

Pequeña niña rubia de los ojos azules

niña de pecho tierno con las manos de espumas
dueña de los cielos despertaba caricias

en la llanura inmensa que la abrazaba toda.

Pequeña niña rubia de los ojos azules

que le nacen retoños y crecen como frutos

ahora te estremecen tus cálidos enojos

cuando aquellos caprichos dejaron de ser tuyos

para ser de tus flores que sembraste en racimos

para ganarle al tiempo para escalar la aurora

para probar futuro para mezclar lo bueno.

Pequeña niña rubia de los ojos azules

a escondidas te fuiste de mis antiguas fotos

¡y te encontré en el mundo!

Febrero del 2011

20 Easy Tips For Slimming Down And Eating Well

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Relax, this blog is not about to turn itself into a boring diet blog.  I just want to share some things that have helped me when I've tried to put on the brakes after a month long binge with food.   It also seems to be what is on everybody's mind this week so let's talk about it.

If you are feeling like I am, right this minute on January 2nd, you are probably nauseated at the thought of  sauces, cookies and fancy hors d'oeuvres.  If I keep on eating like this, I will be keeping company with the hippos at the Atlanta Zoo by next spring.  So cutting back is a must, not only for the figure but for your health as well.  That doesn't mean you have to eat bad stuff.  People think that if a recipe is good, it has to be fattening.  Think again...

In my past life I used to travel all over the world and stay at the best hotels and eat wherever I pleased.  Except for my trips to Brazil, I always came back a couple of pounds lighter.  Why Brazil? their food is awfully good but quite salty and this lady tends to accumulate water like mad.  All this got me thinking about the reasons for this surprising weight loss and I came to the conclusion that preservatives and bad meal timing were the main culprits in making me gain weight.  Now I know what you are going to say... it was all the walking you did! People in Europe and Asia walk more than we do, that is a fact; but I lived in New York City at the time and walking is part of everyday life there. So that wasn't really the difference.

In the Far East dessert is non existent.  It's just not part of the equation.  It's mango this or that for dessert, and very few other choices, none of them worth adding extra calories for.   In Europe you eat sweets differently.  Ice cream and cakes and cookies are eaten in the middle of the day.  Try to get an ice cream or a gelato after 6 in Paris, Venice or Rome and you are out of luck.  After 6:00 p.m. you'd be hard pressed to find a fresh tart or cookie for sale or a patisserie or boulangerie open for business . Next time you are abroad, check the menu at any restaurant and tell me if you see cake or pie for dessert in the evening.   Dessert is usually chocolate or cooked fruit of some sort. Chocolate tarts are almost flourless and souffles are not as fattening as a big slice of cake or pie.  Cheese of course, helps the digestion.  In England, scones, sandwiches and cookies are for tea and that happens before 6 o'clock.  Get the picture?

Rice and beans are usually served at lunch in Spain and Latin American, except for Christmas or New Year's Eve.  Fried foods are eaten occasionally and usually for lunch. People don't snack in the middle of the day in any of these countries...they have planned meals, including tea.  They drink wine mostly, and little hard liquor.  Soda's are to be enjoyed occasionally, if at all.  Water is what you drink when you are thirsty.  And portions, yes, PORTIONS are half or more of what they are here in the States.  They eat nothing frozen  just what is in season.  But they eat well, and you hardly ever hear anyone going en regime. 

So throughout the years I have devised a plan for myself that seems to work when I want it to work.

When I want to lose weight, or at least stop that scale, here's what I  (try to) do.

1. Fruit and coffee in the morning and lots of water until noon.
2. No heavy carb meals (risottos beans,  pasta ) after 6 p. m.
3. No hard liquor, red wine on occasion
4. At least 8 glasses of water a day.  Keep a bottle of room temperature water by your side and sip away as you work or watch tv.  I even take it in the car with me.
5. No desserts, bread, potatoes or pasta at least for a week.  Afterwards, occasionally and preferably for lunch.  Bye bye cookies!
6. Have more Asian type meals for dinner
7. Eat Beef only 3 times a week
8. Eat a big salad at least once a day
9. Accentuate the vinegar in salad dressings
10. Drink Cuban coffee or espresso after lunch to raise metabolism in the afternoon
11. Watch those fat grams and try to keep to less than 30/day.  Reduce butter! cook with olive oil
12. Substitute whole grain  for regular pastas and  especially bread
13. Read ingredients and watch out for preservatives
14. Reduce portions.  Eat half of what you normally eat or use a dessert instead of a dinner plate
15. Take a walk at least once a day!
16. Have dinner before 8:00 p.m
17. Plan your meals ahead so you are not tempted later!
18. NO diet drinks! This was the only advice my oncologist gave me after chemo (which believe it or not makes you gain weight!) to lose the 15 lbs. I gained (I didn't) Your body cannot differentiate between real and fake sugar and when you consume diet drinks it wants more because it is not getting the real thing.
19. No snacks.  Eat your 3 meals plus afternoon tea if you must.
20. Think THIN! 

If you check the main courses in the Master Recipe List, I guarantee you can eat 90% of them, as long as you eat in moderation and have a light lunch and breakfast that day.

Now, I am not a doctor or a dietitian, just a lifelong sufferer of weight gain when I let myself go for a few months.  These are the things that have served me well.  I no longer go on diets or even tell myself I am on one.  I just pay attention to what I put in my mouth and somehow, after a week or two the extra pounds begin to come off and my mind readjusts itself to the new regime. 

I'd love to hear what works for you!

Artist: Fernando Botero

Lindaraxa 2011...The View From My Window

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 Lindaraxa's window overlooking Lindaraxa's Garden - Alhambra Palace

When I started Lindaraxa's Garden in April of 2009 I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.  If truth be told, I had just recently made the decision to stop trading in a stock market that had become a casino and no place for the small investor to make a living.  I had years of professional experience managing millions of dollars for institutional and private investors from all over the world and stocks were my love but, frankly, I was getting killed day in and day out by computers and fast money.  Now you have to understand that I have an obsessive compulsive  determined personality and whatever I decide to do I plunge in wholeheartedly.   It's a race to the top and to say I am also extremely competitive well, ...just ask my kids about their experience learning to play backgammon from their Mom!

Wall Street is full of people like me.  People who live that life 24/7 and enjoy it to boot.  It's not just about the money that can be made, it's more about the journey in one of the most exciting careers in the world.  But when the music stops and you exit the merry-go-round like I did professionally 10 years ago, the landing is awfully hard and substitutes hard to find.  Trading was it for a while, but then the crisis hit and the small fish like me packed up their kiosks and exited the party.

Lindaraxa's window from the garden

I can't really say what drove me to blogging, except it was something relatively new, unexplored and a challenge for someone like me.  More importantly, it was something I could get obssesive enthusiastic about and something that would fill my empty days now that stock charts and research reports were to be a thing of the past.  Cooking and entertaining had been a passion and a hobby since I was young and God knows I had enough recipes and entertaining ideas to fill a book or two.  I also needed a new challenge to fill my days now that I had put away my trading gloves so blogging,  food blogging,  became the new substitute for trading.

The maze - Alhambra Palace

Somewhere along the line, I also made an important decision. and that was to follow bloggers that were not all necessarily food bloggers. These guys and gals were more like me.  They were "older" for one, had travelled extensively, had years of experience in their field and had innumerable new things to share, for free, with neophytes like me, hungry for culture and entertainment in a little house by a lake.    These were the people I had surrounded myself with all my life,  people full of worldliness, sophistication and knowledge and here they were in front of my computer, everyday, willing and able to share their experiences .  So Lindaraxa came to a crossroads....as she usually does because she's just not happy staying on course and playing it safe (she's Sagittarius)... and discovered a new way to fill her days and fulfill her life with new ideas, new subjects and new friends.

Alhambra Palace - the gardens

I guess what I'm trying to say is I've become bored with just posting recipes.  I want this blog to evolve and mature and be vibrant and fun both for me and for you, dear readers.  So I will be doing some experimenting and branching out,  sometimes into things that are probably none of my business.  To begin with, there will be more of Lindaraxa's Tidbits, where I share etiquette ideas, history of food and entertaining, new books both cooking and otherwise, places I've been and recommend, etc.  We'll see...  I'm giving myself carte blanche but it won't be so radical as to drive away any of my visitors and subscribers, at least willingly.   For those of you who like recipes, there will be plenty of those, I promise, but I will try to post something different at least two or three times a month.  So if you want to come on this journey, fasten your seat belts...it may be a bumpy ride but we will figure it out, together!

Alhambra gardens

Oh! and Lindaraxa's Garden has now become just plain Lindaraxa, something I've been meaning to do for a long time but didn't dare so as not to upset the apple cart.  Might as well get you all bothered and bewildered in one fine sweep!

Photos: Google Alhambra Palace, Granada Spain

I'm Spending My Birthday With Pierre Herme At Laduree!

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Yep, you heard it right...it's my birthday today and I am spending it with one of my favorite people, Pierre Herme at one of my favorite places...Laduree in Paris!  Well,  not exactly, Pierre was unexpectedly called out of town but told me I could come over and pick out a cake..Hmmm.

..or two

... or some chocolates?

... with perhaps a bottle of Chateau d'Yquem??!

a cube of macarons?

 

...or a box of macarons!!!!

... or just a yummy rum millefeuille!!!

... or this goodie box in violette!!!

... or vert et argent?

But instead, how about...

just Lucy and me...

...and breakfast in bed!!!!!

My sous chef and I have decided that in honor of this event, we will take the day off and see you next Monday!

Photos from the Laduree and Pierre Herme catalogues (except the sous chef!)

Time for a Break

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We will be on a short break starting September 14. I have a surprise in storage when we return. Stay tuned!

About Lindaraxa's Garden

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Lindaraxa's Garden is one of the most photographed parts of the Alhambra Palace located in Granada, Spain. Washington Irving wrote in his Tales of the Alhambra:

"One window of the royal sleeping-room commanded a prospect of the Generalife and its embowered terraces; another looked out into the little secluded garden I have mentioned, which was decidedly Moorish in its character, and also had its history. It was in fact the garden of Lindaraxa, so often mentioned in descriptions of the Alhambra, but who this Lindaraxa was I had never heard explained.

A little research gave me the few particulars known about her. She was a Moorish beauty who flourished in the court of Mohamed the Left-Handed, and was the daughter of his loyal adherent, the governor of Malaga, who sheltered him in his city when driven from the throne. On regaining his crown, Mohamed rewarded the governor for his fidelity. His daughter had her apartment in the Alhambra, and was given by the king in marriage to Nasar, a young prince descended from Aben Hud the Just. Four centuries had elapsed since the fair Lindaraxa passed away, yet how much of the fragile beauty of the scenes she inhabited remained! The garden still bloomed [66] in which she delighted; the fountain still presented the crystal mirror in which her charms may once have been reflected; the alabaster, it is true, had lost its whiteness; the basin beneath, overrun with weeds, had become the lurking-place of the lizard, but there was something in the very decay that enhanced the interest of the scene, speaking as it did of that mutability, the irrevocable lot of man and all his works."

Lindaraxa was also the name of my home in Havana, Cuba from which I departed in 1960 and have never returned. This blog is in memory of a time gone by but a lifestyle not forgotten.

Lindaraxa's Garden, the blog, is my recipe journal where I write about recipes I have collected, cooked and served throughout the years. Often the recipes are from my cookbook collection, sometimes not- they might come from a family member, the Internet, or I might write about a recipe I created myself.  Regardless of  the source, cooking has always been a passion and no matter the circumstances, we will always entertain