BEST DAY TRIP TO ASIA
Evershine Square
I don´t get out of the country as much as I´d like, so when I need a dose of exotica, I head to Evershine Square, a strip mall where I can get a taste of Asia without taking out a second mortgage. First, I hit Din Ho Supermarket and ponder the puzzling produce, fungi, juices, and treats like red-bean Popsicles and quail eggs. It´s a great place to buy teapots, rice bowls, chopsticks, beautiful brocade and silk dresses, and lots of other unusual treats and gifts — all at bargain prices. Then I stroll the perimeter of the mall, checking out exchange rates at the Philippine bank, contemplating pictures in the windows of the travel agency and the beauty parlor, maybe buying a pastry at Lucky Bamboo Bakery and peeking into Café Linh, where Asian gentlemen smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and play board games. I finish my tour with lunch at China Yuan Cantonese Cuisine or the inexplicable Costa Verde Peruvian Restaurant.
Evershine Square, 8502 N. Armenia Ave., Tampa.
BEST FREE PANORAMIC VIEW OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Clearwater Public Library
One of the things I missed most when I moved here from San Francisco a hundred years ago was the way you could walk up any old hill and get a knock-out view of the city, the Golden Gate Bridge and the bay. Since there are no hills here, you pretty much need a tall building to get up high, and most of those are private. Oh, there´s CK´s Revolving Restaurant, but you´ve got to buy something when you´re there, and The Pier in St. Pete, but the vista doesn´t hold a candle to the spectacular view from the new Clearwater public library perched atop the bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor. Robert A.M. Stern designed this building to maximize the view with a dramatic four-story glass atrium overlooking Coachman Park, the new bridge, the harbor, Clearwater Beach, all the way to Caladesi Island — and you don´t have to spend a dime to enjoy it.
Clearwater Library, 100 N. Osceola Ave., Clearwater, 727-562-4970.
BEST PLACE TO WORSHIP FRIDA KAHLO
Viva La Frida Café y Galeria
I could also call this the best restaurant in Seminole Heights, which — despite its increasing concentration of youngish urban hipsters — has precious few places to get a decent glass of wine and bite to eat. With its vivid modern Mexican colors and style, Viva La Frida is a bright oasis amid a strip still mostly lined with used car dealerships and run-down buildings. You know immediately it´s someplace special when you see its sleek exterior: deep purple, green, red and yellow walls, an artist-made iron and glass gate and two sheltered courtyards, one intimate, the other outfitted for poetry, theater and music performance. Inside, every wall is covered with portraits of the late Mexican artist and other artwork inspired by her — much of it for sale at very affordable prices. The food is a creative twist on the kind of food you actually get in Mexico, rather than the usual Tex-Mex.
Viva La Frida, 5901 N. Florida Ave., Tampa, 813-231-9199.
BEST PLACE TO GET CHURROS AND CIGARS
The Churro Man and Gonzalez Habana Cigar Factory
OK, Churro Man´s the only place I know to get churros on a fairly reliable basis, but why split hairs over something so good? They look like fat french fries, but they´re made of sweet dough, deep fried and dusted with sugar. The Churro Man sells ´em six for a buck out of a white trailer in La Teresita´s parking lot; they´re crispy and sweet and not at all greasy. Just the thing with a cup of Cuban coffee, which you can get right across the parking lot at the bright yellow trailer. Gonzalez Habana is one of the last places to get fine, handmade cigars crafted with a sense of artistry and history by Wallace and Margarita Reyes and sold at less than half the tourist-gouging prices you´ll pay at trendier spots. Plus, Wallace knows his Tampa history and loves to share it. Ask him to tell you about the Miss Guava Contest or how Jose Ybor discovered Tampa.
The Churro Man and Gonzalez Habana Cigar Factory are in La Teresita Supermercado plaza, 3302 W. Columbus Blvd., Tampa.
BEST FRIEND TO GARDENERS
County Extension Services
To me, gardens are the most beautiful places on earth. I love planting seeds and watching them grow, seeing the wildlife my garden attracts and nourishes, and just generally feeling like a part of the earth. But it´s not easy to grow things in Central Florida, with its voracious bugs, alternating droughts and deluges, heatwaves and freezes, and sand that refuses to hold water or nutrients. That´s where your county extension service comes in handy. The Hillsborough and Pinellas county extension services offer soil testing services and free information, and classes in composting to make your own truly organic fertilizer, using rain barrels, mulching to reduce weeds and watering needs, landscaping with native plants, providing a wildlife habitat in your yard, and identifying beneficial and harmful insects and controlling the latter naturally.
Pinellas Extension Service, 12175 125th St. N., Largo, 727-582-2100, http://coop.co.pinellas.fl.us; Hillsborough Extension Service, 5339 C.R. 579, Seffner, 813-744-5519; 24-hour horticulture helpline: 813-744-5519, ext. 350, http://hillsborough.extension.ufl.edu.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.