"hiking" news and stories

• Need to whip up an impressive dinner to please your sweetie? The Globe's got you covered
• Once and for all: what's the deal with tomatoes? Are they safe to eat, or not?
• This teahouse is a little taste of Tajikistan in - where else? - Boulder, Colorado
• A Dorchester gathering celebrates West Africa with signature dishes and plenty of tradition
• Need a quick dessert? Try a Fast Blueberry Freeze - kind of like a blueberry slushy (and would work great with a splash of vodka or some triple sec)
• The Green Dragon, the Japanese Plum Ginger, and The Forbidden Passion: the names say it all
• These people aren't satisfied with just any old salad green - they go straight to the source

Let's face it: if you're not in the house, you're probably not using silverware. But eating with your hands is not only messy, but sometimes it's just not all that convenient. Fried chicken and burgers are fine when eaten out of hand, but what about potato salad or pie?

This nomad traveling silverware set attaches to a lanyard that you can wear around your neck when out hiking or keep in the glove compartment of your car (for emergencies). It includes a miniature stainless steel fork, knife, spoon and bottle opener, all of which tuck neatly away in a plastic case when not in use.

You could use plastic silverware, but this is not only more practical, but it's more eco-friendly, since there is nothing to throw away. A few uses, and this $20 gadget will pay for itself - not to mention that it would made a great gift for anyone who is outdoor-oriented and not taking all their meals at a dining room table.

Source

In my everlasting quest to find sports food products that 1) work; 2) taste good;  and -- most importantly -- 3)don't embarass me either while purchasing them or consuming them, I've come to Clif's new Shot Bloks.

The idea here is to avoid messy gels and sticky sports drinks (see my early point about having my foods embarass me), and the Shot Bloks definitely pull that off. A bit like gummi bears, a bit like jello, a bit like jelly beans ... but good for you, definitely good for you: they've got electrolytes, a blend of complex and simple carbohydrates, and -- do you want more? -- they're organic.

Shot Bloks come in five different flavors; of these five, two flavors (Black Cherry and Orange) come with a kick of caffeine.

Truth be told, I like candy and coffee more than I like exercise. But Shot Bloks make me think that maybe, just maybe, everything will work out in the end  ...

Now, as a native Floridian, the idea of getting to a restaurant by trekking up a snowy mountain does not immediately appeal to me. The Denver Post, however, recently ran a review of three Colorado restaurants that ask diners to do just that. Some of the restaurants, like Copper Mountain Stables, also offer sleigh rides to their high-elevation dining rooms. In Copper Mountain Stables' case, the dining room is a replica of a miner's tent that seats 38. Similarly, the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse features a large yurt (pictured here) that seats 40. Prior to arrival, diners gather together and hike up to the structure, which sits at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. The Pine Creek Cookhouse, amazingly enough, is an actual cabin, which seats 100. You can choose to ski, sleigh, or snowshow the 1.5 mile trail to your dinner. As you might expect, menus for all of these places feature hearty, game-heavy fare.