C4
EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Seeking the mystery of Sedona’s vortexes
By JOSEPH GEDEON
Associated Press
SEDONA, Ariz. — I suppose
I shouldn’t have taken the parking
attendant’s advice so literally.
“You’ll know it when you feel
it,” he had told me when I asked
where I’d find the vortex.
I had traveled to Sedona for a
weekend to see if I would expe-
rience what many visitors come
here to find: a static in the air, the
“vortex.”
Inside a steep, coral-colored can-
yon decorated with pine trees, this
sleepy Arizona city has long been
a quiet refuge for hikers, romantics
and soul searchers. For many, it’s a
place of mystique and magic.
Walking past its earth-toned gro-
cery stores, banks and restaurants,
you’ll find that Sedona’s tour-
ists and locals go into many of the
same places. So much so that res-
idents seem like former tourists
themselves.
Crystal and incense shops sit
prominently between visitor cen-
ters with pushy timeshare sales-
men. Jeep tours that carry you to
majestic points around the city —
which is set amid glowing red rocks
— bring convenience and moder-
nity to what could otherwise be a
still from an old Western. And the
view is also picturesque from every
hotel, bed and breakfast, and resi-
dential building.
To preserve its beauty, this city
of just over 10,000 people has a
strict building code and zoning
laws: Structures can’t grow too
high, and must be colored in hues
that complement the natural tones
of the red rocks. Even the famed
AP Photo/Joseph Gedeon
The town of Sedona, Ariz., seen from the Airport Mesa Loop Trail. From left to right are Thunder Mountain, Sugar
Loaf and Coffee Pot Rock.
golden arches at McDonald’s are
turquoise here, to enhance the des-
ert’s natural beauty.
But many visitors to Sedona
come looking for something in
addition to this beauty. Native
American legend recounts a spot
where the earth’s energy is sup-
posedly concentrated and crack-
ling. Where you can experience a
range of sensations that encourage
self-healing and spiritual awaken-
ing. The vortex.
The supposed healing power of
vortexes gained popularity during
the late 20th century. In 1987, some
5,000 believers flocked to Sedona
for what became known as the Har-
monic Convergence. The event
began as an interpretation of the
Mayan calendar; tens of thousands
of people around the world gath-
ered around spiritual centers for
meditation to protect the Earth from
spinning away into space.
While praying for a global
awakening, many of those who
came to Sedona developed a feel-
ing of deep, astral connection to the
red rock formations. Word of Sedo-
na’s mysterious vortexes began to
spread.
There are many trails through the
rocks around Sedona that guide you
to these coveted locations. On my
recent visit, we chose to try the Air-
port Mesa Loop. While more stren-
uous than some, it’s a great hike if
you are looking for exercise and
a spectacular view of town. Pack
light in everything but water, as
there is not much shade and some
steep drops.
As the trail ascends, there are
panoramic views of Elephant Rock,
Courthouse Butte, Bell Rock and
Cathedral Rock — Sedona’s most
visited landmarks. The trail circles
around two sides of the mountain,
marked by a difference in both plant
life and geological formations.
Once you near the end, it becomes
hard to believe you are on the same
path.
Because of the trail’s popularity,
two parking lots are accessible to
visitors. While the one lower down
the mountain is closer to the offi-
cial entrance of the trail, its small
size made it too difficult to park in
the afternoon. We drove to the very
top of the Airport Mesa and took in
views of the city before the parking
attendant pointed us to a spot past a
fence near the road, where we hiked
down a mile-long trail that forked
at the entrance of the Airport Mesa
Loop.
Every few steps of the roughly
3.3-mile-long trail encourage you
to give in to the natural setting. A
heightened feeling — tingling fin-
gers and velvet in the air — dis-
tracted me from the multiplying
hikers and marriage proposals.
We walked for hours, and we felt
a lot — aches, pain, wonder.
And it was only after we com-
pleted the loop and came back to
the starting point of the trail when
we discovered the vortex. Standing
atop the mini-mesa elicited a more
intense feeling than the one I had
already felt in town. Red rock vis-
tas transform to soaring pillars, as if
you’re inside a gothic cathedral. It’s
something that the New Age faith-
ful preach about and even skeptics
might buy into.
Once you wake up from your
trance, you’ll notice tourists and
locals basking in the same feeling.
It’s a Sedona moment that can’t be
replicated.
Food bloggers bring Africa’s rich cuisines to the world
By AMELIA NIERENBERG
Associated Press
AP Photo/Amelia Nierenberg
Filmmaker Tuleka Prah films chef Touty Sarr as she prepares a plate of
thiebou dieune, a traditional Senegalese dish of spiced rice, inside a
kitchen in Ngaparou, Senegal.
NGAPAROU, Senegal — In
the quiet hours before lunch, two
women worked side by side in an
airy kitchen. One, a chef, cleaned
fresh red snapper filets with a sharp
knife. The other, a filmmaker,
pointed her camera into a large pot
of simmering vegetables.
“What would you say this is,
low heat or medium?” Tuleka Prah
asked, setting the camera aside.
Her pen poised over a lime green
notebook, the 37-year-old Prah
waited for the next step in the rec-
ipe for thiebou dieune, a traditional
Senegalese dish of spiced rice, ten-
der vegetables and fish. She came
to this West African nation to doc-
ument its four most popular dishes
as part of My African Food Map, a
blog and film archive.
“Low heat,” said 38-year-old
Touty Sarr, who runs the kitchen of
a popular cafe in Dakar. She turned
to her daughter, who was watching
her cook. “This one, if you put it on
high, it would all get dry. That’s one
of the secrets.”
Senegal was Prah’s fifth desti-
nation since her project began in
2012. She hopes to show the care
and skill that goes into African
dishes, such as South Africa’s fried
dough amagwinya and Kenya’s
kachumbari, an onion and tomato
salad.
“The idea, at its most basic, is
to present the food how people
who love it would prepare it,” Prah
said. “It’s like a database or a dig-
ital vault where people can open
the drawer, see recipes, see some
ingredients.”
Born in England to a Ghanaian
father and a South African mother,
she lived in six African countries
during her childhood including
Namibia, Kenya and what is now
South Sudan. After finding no reli-
able recipes online for Ghanaian
dishes — and no photos that made
the beloved food look appetizing —
she started My African Food Map.
She celebrates the cuisines of a
continent often marred by negative
stereotypes.
“Africa is often associated with
poverty, with hunger, with failures
of food in a political and nutritional
sense,” said James C. McCann,
chair of the history department at
Boston University and a special-
ist in African environmental his-
tory and cuisine. “It’s an area of the
world that has not been covered by
the food craze.”
AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN
Morning buns combine richness of croissant with cinnamon bun
America’s Test Kitchen via AP
Morning Buns as they appear in the cookbook “All-Time Best Brunch.”
By AMERICA’S TEST
KITCHEN
Combine the rich layers of a
croissant with the sweet swirls of
a cinnamon bun and you’ll have
one of our favorite brunch pas-
tries: morning buns.
For a simpler route to a
yeasted, croissant-like pastry, we
added a packet of yeast to a quick
puff pastry dough. We created
long, thin pieces of flake-produc-
ing butter by adding chilled but-
ter to the dry ingredients in a zip-
per-lock bag and rolling over it
with a rolling pin. Orange zest
and juice offered sweet, citrusy
brightness.
We started our rolls in a hot
oven for a rapid rise but later
dropped the temperature to
impart gradual, even browning.
If the dough becomes too soft to
work with at any point, refriger-
ate it until it’s firm enough to eas-
ily handle. Unrisen buns can be
refrigerated for at least 16 hours
or up to 24 hours; let buns sit
at room temperature for 1 hour
before baking.
MORNING BUNS
Servings: 12
Start to finish: 1 hour, 30 min-
utes (not including 1 hour, 15
minutes to 1 hour, 45 minutes
freezing and rising time)
Dough:
3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose
flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
21/4 teaspoons instant or rap-
id-rise yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
24 tablespoons (3 sticks)
unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch
slices and chilled
1 cup sour cream, chilled
1/4 cup orange juice, chilled
3 tablespoons ice water
1 large egg yolk
Filling:
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granu-
lated sugar
1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces)
light brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated orange
zest
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the dough: Combine flour,
sugar, yeast, and salt in 1 gallon
zipper-lock bag. Add butter to
bag, seal, and shake to coat. Press
air out of bag and reseal. Roll over
bag several times with rolling pin,
shaking bag after each roll, until
butter is pressed into large flakes.
Transfer mixture to large bowl
and stir in sour cream, orange
juice, ice water, and egg yolk with
wooden spoon until combined.
Transfer dough to lightly floured
counter and knead by hand to
form smooth, round ball, about
30 seconds.
Press and roll dough into 20
by 12 inch rectangle, with short
side parallel to counter edge.
Roll dough away from you into
firm cylinder, keeping roll taut by
tucking it under itself as you go.
With seam side down, flatten
cylinder into 12-by-4 inch rectan-
gle. Transfer to parchment paper-
lined rimmed baking sheet, cover
loosely with greased plastic wrap,
and freeze for 15 minutes.
For the filling: Line 12 cup
muffin tin with paper or foil lin-
ers and spray with vegetable
oil spray. Combine all ingredi-
ents in bowl. Transfer dough to
lightly floured counter and roll
into 20-by-12 inch rectangle, with
long side parallel to counter edge.
Sprinkle with sugar mixture, leav-
ing 1/2 inch border around edges,
and press lightly to adhere.
Roll dough away from you
into firm cylinder, keeping roll
taut by tucking it under itself as
you go. Pinch seam closed, then
reshape cylinder as needed to be
20 inches in length with uniform
thickness.
Using serrated knife, trim 1/2
inch dough from each end and
discard. Cut cylinder into 12
pieces and place cut side up in
muffin cups. Cover loosely with
greased plastic and let rise until
doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Adjust oven rack to middle
position and heat oven to 425
F. Bake until buns begin to rise,
about 5 minutes, then reduce oven
temperature to 325 F. Continue to
bake until buns are deep golden
brown, 40 to 50 minutes, rotat-
ing muffin tin halfway through
baking. Let buns cool in muf-
fin tin for 5 minutes, then trans-
fer to wire rack and discard liners.
Serve warm.