Today's travel intel

Today's the birthday of Tai Shan, the panda cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. See a video of Tai Shan playing. [Courtesy of our partner site, WashingtonPost.com] Learn how to hug a panda in China for only about $125. Catch our slide show of baby animals in zoos nationwide. Find out "What's New In Washington D.C. This Summer".

My partner Adam and I used miles to book an upcoming trip to California, and then we decided to bring our dog, Howard, on his first flight, so we paid Continental $95 for each leg of the journey. Then we decided not to bring Howard (he's more of a private-jet kind of pug), so I called Continental. I figured I wouldn't get any money back, but you never know, and I wanted the airline to know we weren't bringing the pug in case some other passenger wanted to bring his/her dog (they have limits). To make a long story short (or at least to end it): Continental refunded the money! Maybe we're all just starved for affection when it comes to dealing with the airlines, but I thought Continental deserved a pat on the back (even if I'm not sure why Howard's ticket is so easily refundable when almost no one else's is...) More from Erik Torkells: Loo-la-la! Japanese-style toilets are being added to some Japanese planes. Maybe We Should Charge Extra to Read This Page

...were announced today in a global poll of about 100 million people. Here's the list: the Taj Mahal, in India the Colosseum, in Italy the Great Wall of China Machu Picchu, in Peru the Chichen Itza pyramid, in Mexico the Statue of Christ Redeemer, in Brazil Petra, in Jordan The "eighth" wonder of the world is the Pyramids at Giza, in Egypt. It's the only surviving wonder of the seven wonders compiled by Greek mathematician Philon of Byzantium in 200 B.C. [Source: International Herald-Tribune] The voting process was criticized because multiple voting was allowed. The poll organizer, I Media Corporation, received money whenever people voted by text message, a more common practice in other countries. The poll was also attacked as unscientific by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Earlier: Find out which wonders of the world were picked by Budget Travel's readers. Scroll down through the comments of our earlier blog post.

"My Montreal Is Better Than Yours" is an exhaustive foodie's guide written by A.J. Kinik and Michelle Marek, who write the wonderful blog, "...an endless banquet". Today, they've dropped by BudgetTravel.com to offer a recipe for ice-cream sandwiches (below). One day last week we popped into our favorite chocolate shop, Les Chocolats de Chloe, to see if we could subject Chloe herself to our "...an endless banquet" Summer 2007 Questionnaire. She was kind enough to take time from her schedule to answer our questions and these were her replies: Chloe Gervais-Fredette Chocolatiere Les Chocolats de Chloe 1. Place of birth: Montreal. 2. Favorite place to unwind: Reservoir. 3. Favorite place in Montreal to people-watch: From my window at Les Chocolats de Chloe. 4. Favorite little-known gem of a restaurant: Does Reservoir count? [eds.--Well, okay.] 5. Favorite summer cocktail: 2007 is the year of white wine for me. 6. Favorite ice cream flavor: Vanilla Swiss Almond, but, just between the three of us, if you want something really good, try a slice of spice bread, Vanilla Swiss Almond, caramel au beurre sal et vanille fraiche, and a shot of dark rum or bourbon. 7. Favorite farmstand find: Raspberries. 8. Mountains or ocean? Ocean. 9. Planes, trains, or automobiles? Trains. 10. Peaches, pears, or plums? Plums. Not long after we left Les Chocolats de Chloe, Michelle's wheels really started turning. I could tell by that look in her eye. There was something about Chloe's answer to number 6 that had her intrigued, something that made her want to turn this fireside sundae into a summertime sandwich. After mulling it over that night, the next day she got to tinkering, and within a few hours she'd hit upon a combination she liked: a parfait laced with bourbon and Chloe's very own salted butter caramel for the interior, and a couple of thin, crisp Belgian speculoos, perhaps the world's best gingerbread cookies, with hints of ginger and cinnamon and just a little orange. Why a parfait and not an ice cream? Well, not only did it not require churning, but Michelle knew that it would result in a creamy interior that would be much easier to portion. She knew it would taste great, too. And she was right. Ice-cream Sandwich / Sandwich Chloe 1. Orange Speculoos (adapted from Yann Duytsche's Diversions Sucrees) 1 1/4 cups sugar one tablespoon less than 1/2 lb butter zest of 1 orange 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger 3 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 egg 1 tbsp milk Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the zest, spices, flour, salt and baking powder, than the egg and milk. Stir until the dough comes together. Wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. Roll out on a floured surface to 2 millimeters thick, cut into desired shapes and chill. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until golden. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container. 2. Caramel-Bourbon Parfait (adapted from Patrice Demers: Chef Patissier aux Restaurants les Chevres et Le Chou) 2 eggs, separated 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 cup mascarpone 1 cup whipping cream 1 healthy shot bourbon Chloe's caramel au beurre sale et vanille fraiche, or any other quality caramel sauce of your liking Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and set aside. Beat the egg yolks with 2 Tbsp. of sugar until it is thick and pale. Add the mascarpone and mix until smooth. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, add the remaining sugar and beat to hard peaks. Fold into the yolk mixture. Whip the cream to medium peaks and add the bourbon. Whip to medium-hard and fold into the egg mixture. Pour into the loaf pan, adding the caramel in layers, if using. Freeze for at least 6 hours. 3. Assembly Unmold the frozen parfait onto a cutting board. Cut into pieces the same size as the cookies. You can use the same cutter. Place parfait between two cookies and freeze, or eat immediately. They turned out so well, in fact, that Michelle decided she had to deliver one to Chloe herself just as soon as possible. Well, "as soon as possible" was the next day. At first Michelle had herself convinced that she was capable of zooming down to Chloe's at such a pace that not only would the ice cream sandwich manage to survive the journey without melting, but it might just be colder upon arrival than it had been when it emerged from the freezer. Luckily I managed to get her to reconsider. She put our Playmate cooler in the freezer, let it chill for a good 30 minutes or so, then, with all the care and precision of an EMT specialist handling a donated organ, Michelle sandwiched the Sandwich Chloe between a couple of ice packs, gently placed the bundle in the frozen cooler, and raced out to her bike to make her Meals on Wheels delivery. Needless to say, Chloe was a little surprised by the spectacle of Michelle's arrival--the bike, the cooler, the ice packs, the buried treasure--but she loved her namesake sandwich. --Anthony & Michelle [In an earlier post, Anthony & Michelle shared their helpfully annotated maps of Montreal.]