Mix together a beautiful European-like city with attractive residents (call themporteños), gourmet cuisine, awesome shopping, a frenzied nightlife and top-drawer activities, and you get Buenos Aires, a cosmopolitan metropolis with both slick neighborhoods and equally downtrodden areas – but that’s part of the appeal. It’s an elegant, seductive place with a ragged edge, laced with old-world languor and yet full of contemporary attitude. BA is somehow strangely familiar, but unlike any other city in the world.

Planetario de Buenos Aires, BA-Palermo

The Giant Robot of Buenos Aires

In between cutting-edge designer boutiques, ritzy neighborhoods and grand parks are unkempt streets full of spewing buses and bustling fervor. Seek out classic BA: the old-world cafés, colonial architecture, fun outdoor markets and diverse communities. Rub shoulders with the formerly rich and famous in Recoleta’s cemetery, making sure to sidestep the ubiquitous dog piles on the sidewalks. Fill your belly at aparrilla (steak restaurant), then spend the night partying away in Palermo Viejo’s trendiest dance club.

found on lonelyplanet.com

A healthy working situation…?

In the 2000 Wolfgan g Peterson film “The Perfect Storm,” actor George Clooney portrays B illy Tyne, captain of the ill-fated Andrea Gail fishing boat. The story comes from a real-life incident — three storms meet in the Atlantic Ocean where th e Andrea Gail and her crew are hauling in swordfish. All six crew members perish. The movie gave audiences an inside look at the extreme weather and lethal work that members of the commercial fishing industry endure. It also paved the way for a television show that, several years later, would put viewers on those boats.

“Deadliest Catch” debuted on The Discovery Channel in the spring of 2005. While “The Perfect Storm” followed sword fishermen in the Atlantic, “Deadliest Catch” takes viewers inside the lives of commercial crab fishermen on six different vessels off the Alaskan coast’s Bering Sea. Airing in 150 countries, “Deadliest Catch” consistently draws up to 3 million viewers in the United States each week. The show was created by executive producer Thom Beers, of Los Angeles-based Original Productions. Beers dreamed up the idea after spending time aboard the fishing boat Fierce Allegiance while filming another Discovery show called “Extreme Alaska.”
The show is titled “Deadliest Catch” because of the inherent peril of the Alaskan crab fishing industry. In the 1980s, the job was at its deadly peak, with an average of 37 fishermen perishing each year. New safety regulations and changes in how fishing permits are granted has led to a decline in the death toll. Still, between 2003 and 2008 an average of 11 fishermen per year died at sea [source: Associated Press].

Drowning accounts for 87 percent of those deaths — generally man-overboard or sinking-boat scenarios. Deck injuries account for the other 13 percent [source: CDC]. On deck, you run the risk of being crushed by a swinging 800-pound (362-kg) crab cage called a pot. You could also get entangled in a winch, smashed by a hydraulic lift or sucked into a bait-cutting machine.

Sound brutal? That’s because it is. In this article, we’ll take you inside “The Deadliest Catch” and the grueling business of capturing crab. But first, let’s learn how to translate all that crab fishermen vernacula.

found on discoverychannel.com

True oysters are members of the family Ostreidae. This family includes the edible oysters, which mainly belong to the genera Ostrea, Crassostrea, Ostreola and Saccostrea. Examples include the Belon oyster, Eastern oyster, Olympia oyster, Pacific oyster, Sydney rock oyster and the Wellfleet oyster.

Removing a pearl from an oyster.
Almost all shell-bearing molluscs can secrete pearls, yet most are not very valuable.
Pearl oysters are not closely related to true oysters, being members of a distinct family, the feathered oysters (Pteriidae). Both cultured pearls and natural pearls can be obtained from pearl oysters, though other molluscs, such as the freshwater mussels, also yield pearls of commercial value.
The largest pearl-bearing oyster is the marine Pinctada maxima, which is roughly the size of a dinner plate.

Not all individual oysters produce pearls naturally. In fact, in a harvest of three tons of oysters, only three to four oysters produce perfect pearls. Western Australia is currently the worlds largest cultivator of Pinctada maxima oysters.
In nature, pearl oysters produce natural pearls by covering a minute invading parasite with nacre, not by ingesting a grain of sand. Over the years, the irritating object is covered with enough layers of nacre to form what is known as a pearl. There are many different types, colours and shapes of pearl; these qualities depend on the natural pigment of the nacre, and the shape of the original irritant.

Pearl farmers can culture a pearl by placing a nucleus, usually a piece of polished mussel shell, inside the oyster. In three to six years, the oyster can produce a perfect pearl. These pearls are not as valuable as natural pearls, but look exactly the same. In fact, since the beginning of the 20th century, when several researchers discovered how to produce artificial pearls, the cultured pearl market has far outgrown the natural pearl market. Natural pearls have become increasingly scarce, and a necklace with only natural pearls can easily cost several hundred thousand US dollars.

Fishing from the wild
Oysters are harvested by simply gathering them from their beds. In very shallow waters they can be gathered by hand or with small rakes. In somewhat deeper water, long-handled rakes or oyster tongs are used to reach the beds. Patent tongs can be lowered on a line to reach beds that are too deep to reach directly. In all cases the task is the same: the oysterman scrapes oysters into a pile, and then scoops them up with the rake or tongs.
In some areas a scallop dredge is used. This is a toothed bar attached to a chain bag. The dredge is towed through an oyster bed by a boat, picking up the oysters in its path. While dredges collect oysters more quickly, they heavily damage the beds, and their use is highly restricted. Until 1965 Maryland limited dredging to sailboats, and even since that date motor boats can be used only on certain days of the week. These regulations prompted the development of specialized sailboats (the bugeye and later the skipjack) for dredging.

Oysters can also be collected by divers.
In any case, when the oysters are collected, they are sorted to eliminate dead animals, bycatch (unwanted catch), and debris. Then they are taken to market where they are either canned or sold live.

found on life.com
found on wikipedia.org

Forget Paris and New York. These days, Spain is the must-visit destination for any serious food tourist and San Sebastián, or Donostia as the Basque locals call it, is arguably its culinary epicentre. This gracious seaside city of about 200,000 people has been a fashionable holiday destination for Europeans since the 19th century. Today, its immediate neighbourhood has more Michelin stars per head than anywhere else on the planet. It also has a rich history of gastronomic societies and a bar culture that encourages invention and respects tradition.

If you only have a day or two, there’s plenty to do right in the centre of town, but plan to be here towards the end of the week when everywhere is open. If you can stay longer, you’ll also have time to try some of the world’s hottest dining spots in the hills beyond the city, and classic seafood restaurants in nearby coastal villages.
Just Go There!!

found on sansebastianspain.info

The Place:
Puro Beach

The Scene:
Perched atop a sandy promontory with 180-degree views of the sea near Puerto Banus, this beachside spin-off of the acclaimed Puro Beach in Mallorca offers an all-day sanctuary for the spiritually evolved and fun-inclined. Guests begin arriving at dawn, as gentle meditation tunes pulsate through the sound system for those on hand for 11am yoga, Taichi and spa treatments followed by a casual breakfast.

As the sun hits midday all the yoga posers get to show-off their bodily results as house DJs spin progressive house and guests soak-up the sun on terrace sun beds while noshing on summer salads, fresh smoothies and ceviche plates. The terrace pool is rectangular in space surrounded in stone tiles with black sun lounger and Balearic sunshades as well as nearby row of cabanas. The beach offers additional lounge seating but with slower waiter service, albeit with chiseled abs and short swim trunks.

Dinner is a more serious food affair with inside dining room or poolside terrace option offering sashimi platters, NY steaks and seafood platters. Additionally, there is a sleek all-white bar with lounge that hosts shoulder season DJ events and post-season parties. By late night the Marbella beauties rise from their dinners and kick off an evening of champagne toasting and all-night dancing under the stars till 3am.

found on purobeach.com

Live Oysters from Coffin Bay, Smoky Bay, Franklin Harbour etc – South Australian and full of flavour.

Open these oysters in your kitchen – still filled with the sea water from the harbour – it doesn’t get any better!

found on lobsteronline.co.au