MASSACRE IN COCOP

When the soldiers came, Maria Brito and her husband ran for the mountains. It was Easter Weekend 1981, two decades into the bloody Civil War ignited by the U.S. overthrow of Guatemala's democratic government.

The next morning, the Britos could see cooking fires smoldering in Cocop, their community of 60 Ixil Mayan families. But as they drew closer, they realized the smoke was rising from piles of their neighbors' bodies, their flesh eaten by dogs. Among the 68 people massacred by the Guatemalan Army were Maria's parents, brothers, and sisters, whom she found locked inside their home and burned to death.

“Everyone was campesinos (farmers),” says Maria's husband, Andres. “The Army didn’t ask if we were guerrillas, they just killed everyone, even the little babies.”

Last year, former army general Rios Montt was put on trial for committing genocide during his scorched earth campaign to crush Communist rebels hiding in the mountains. During his presidency in the 1980s, Montt had been hailed "a man of great personal integrity" by Ronald Reagan, receiving millions of dollars worth of military supplies from the Reagan administration.

Montt was convicted of the murders of 1,771 Ixil Mayan people, including Maria's family. A week later, the conviction was overturned because of a legal technicality. He had been sentenced to 80 years in prison; he served only one day.

KOVAL DISTILLERY

Last week I took a tour of KOVAL, Chicago's first distillery since the 1800s, and I learned a thing or two about spirits from the tour guide, Oopey:

-George Washington operated one of the nation's largest distilleries at Mount Vernon. Also, his leveraging of tax on whiskey nearly sparked the nation's first Civil War, the Whiskey Rebellion.

-The women's temperance movement began just outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois.

-During Prohibition, you could still buy alcohol at Walgreens with a prescription—one of the reasons there are so many Walgreens stores today.

-The insides of whiskey barrels are lit on fire because charcoal works as a natural filter.

-Gin is more or less vodka infused with botanicals (which explains why I find it so easy to drink).

Aside from the nifty facts, I liked tasting the differences between the various organic millet, oat, and rye whiskeys that KOVAL produces (though my absolute favorite was their ginger liqueur). The distillery has been named one of the 10 most influential craft whiskey makers, so it's certainly worth a trip to their research and development facility in Ravenswood to sip and swizzle.

THANKFUL

This year I'm especially thankful for family and friends, whose phone calls, hugs, and cups of coffee are salt and light.

RECIPE: BROWN BUTTER SALTED HONEY PIESource: Kinfolk Magazine

Ingredients
For the crust
1/2 cup (115 grams) very cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup (120 milliliters) ice water 
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) white sugar
1 1/4 cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
1 egg beaten with a splash of water for egg wash 

For the filling
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks / 170 grams) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (255 grams) honey (lavender or orange blossom are ideal)
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (15 grams) all-purpose flour 
3/4 teaspoon (4 grams) salt
1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) lemon juice 
5 large eggs
2 teaspoons (10 grams) pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1 cup (235 milliliters) heavy cream 
Flaky sea salt for topping 

Method
For the crust: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Sprinkle the cubed butter into the flour mixture, and using your hands or pastry blender, begin working the butter into the flour. Once the butter is a little bigger than pea-size pebbles, start drizzling in half of the water and incorporating it into the flour mixture with your hands or a spatula. Drizzle in more water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. Gently knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface and shape into a disk. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. When ready, roll the crust to 1/8-inch thickness and transfer to 10-inch pie pan and crimp. Cover with plastic wrap and let the piecrust chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 more hour. Just before filling, brush the entire crust with the egg wash.

For the filling: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will start to simmer and foam. As the foam subsides, stir the butter constantly and watch for it to turn golden and then brown, about 10 minutes. Once it turns brown, quickly remove from heat, add the honey and stir until it dissolves. Let the mixture cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Whisk together the sugar, flour and salt in a medium-size bowl. Stir in the brown butter, vanilla paste and lemon juice, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition. Whisk in the heavy cream.

Pour the filling into the chilled piecrust. Bake the pie on the center rack in the oven for 60 to 75 minutes, rotating the pie halfway through baking. The pie is done when it turns deep golden brown on top. It should be puffed up and set around the edges but should still slightly jiggle in the center. Let rest at room temperature for at least 4 hours. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

ROAST POST: WATER AVENUE COFFEE COMPANY

Favorite Roast: No. 7 House Blend

While researching a blog post for work, I stumbled upon the happy fact that many of my favorite Portland, Oregon microroasters now ship their beans around the country. One of them is Water Avenue Coffee Company, whose neon-lit café and No. 7 House Blend I just discovered on my last visit to Portland (despite the fact that they've been creating handcrafted coffees since 2009). What impressed me most about Water Avenue wasn't just the vintage packaging and smooth flavor of my pour-over coffee, but the friendliness of the baristas—not in a bubbly, green-aproned way, but showing genuine interest in human beings as well as hand-brewed coffees.

In writing-related news, be sure to check out my predictions for "China's Next 10 Years" in terms of business and development for October's Global Traveler.

Photos by Joe Voigts  

HUZZAH!

Just popping in to share a few links from around the web, along with this photo of a satisfied goat that I met at the Sandwich Fair (named for the city of Sandwich, not because the fair celebrates sandwiches) a couple weeks ago...

In the July issue of Global Traveler magazine, I shared the latest on Beijing's air pollution problems and what the city is doing (and not doing) to clean up its act.

The August issue of Global Traveler included my first spa review, in which I tried something dubbed the "Experience Shower." Just figuring out how to turn it on was an experience.

I'm excited to be joining a group of creative Portlanders in creating a coffee table book about Guatemala missions! The book will be modeled on Brother/Sister, a collection of stories about hope and transformation in Southeast Asia created by some very talented friends. Our team will be heading to Guatemala for a week in February to collect interviews and photographs.

If you read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, check out Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's new book A Path Appears. Kristof will be speaking about international development with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on October 15 at the InterContinental Chicago. Details are here.

THE PERSEIDS

Once a year, the earth passes through a debris field left behind by the Swift-Tuttle comet. Enormous pieces of grit slam into our atmosphere at 130,000 miles per hour, light up the night sky, and flare out in seconds. Apparently, when the comet's predicted orbit near the sun was off by 17 days in 1992, there was some concern that it might come dangerously close to the earth or moon on its next passage in 2126. Frightening how cameras and telescopes (or photographing through a telescope, which is how I captured the image above) can mislead as they magnify, transforming speeding bullets into baubles.

I like how Annie Dillard put it in her essay on experiencing a solar eclipse: "The lenses of telescopes and cameras can no more cover the breadth and scale of the visual array than language can cover the breadth and simultaneity of internal experience. Lenses enlarge the sight, omit its context, and make of it a pretty and sensible picture, like something on a Christmas card. I assure you, if you send any shepherds a Christmas card on which is printed a three-by-three photograph of the angel of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, and a multitude of the heavenly host, they will not be sore afraid. More fearsome things can come in envelopes."

CITY OF ANGELS

Photo by Ashleigh Bateman 

The first time I visited Los Angeles, I considered it divine intervention. I was 10 years old, and, like any 10-year-old in 1994, my life revolved around watching Jurassic Park on VHS at least once a day. I dreamed about Isla Nublar. I wrote Jurassic Park fan fiction. And then, one day, I won a trip to Universal Studios for the opening of the Jurassic Park ride (divine intervention, I think, but also the result of taping “Xena: Warrior Princess,” waiting for a code word to flash on screen, and depositing said code word in a ballot box at a local fried chicken joint).

The magic hasn’t worn off. Whenever I go to Los Angeles, I’m still just as enchanted as the weekend when I faced down a T-Rex eight times in a row. Whether it’s the moongazing at Griffith Observatory, the hike to the Hollywood sign, or surfing at Huntington Beach Pier, the city always feels like a new adventure to me.