Restaurant Review: 4 Nudos, San José, Spain

We ate lunch at 4 Nudos at the Port in San José, Spain. You may see a trend here of luncheon restaurants in Spain, it is because we eat too early and nothing is ever open at 7:30 (17:30) in the evening for dinner (they open at 9-9:30 which is far too late for us to eat). We have eaten at 4 Nudos many times and it’s always busy because it is a local favourite and it’s a destination restaurant.

4 Nudos is known for its seafood; they don’t serve meat, period. The port side restaurant is tastefully decorated with a seaside theme but the main focus is the view of the port through the open wall, the inside just flows outside seamlessly. We have dined on their delightful Paella (takes about 20 minutes to make) and other seafood delicacies but for our most recent lunch, we ate Tuna Tartare and the Tuna Tataki.

They began our meal with a lovely amuse bouche of phyllo-wrapped torpedo shrimp with a creamy fresh cheese sauce (sorry, forgot to snap a pic) and some wonderful warm bread.

I ordered the Tuna Tartare (~20 €) which was beautifully presented and delicious. It was lightly dressed in a creamy mayo and tossed with avocado, celery and red onions, wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber. This one is a keeper!

A delicious combination of fresh tuna, perfectly ripe avocado, crunchy celery and crisp red onions; thinly sliced white onions cascade from the tower like a waterfall.

JT ordered the Tuna Tataki. To say this was a generous portion would be an understatement. It was at least 250 g or more! There were perfectly roasted vegetables served alongside with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. The lemon wedge brightened everything up. The tuna had the best sear I have ever seen, still leaving a good part of the insides rare. It was a perfectly executed dish.

The portion size of this dish was huge. I think we may share this next time. The photo is a bit misleading as the lemon wedge is huge too!

We also ordered a little dessert of Almond Flan (~6 €). It was my least favourite of the meal and didn’t have much almond flavour but perhaps it was my misunderstanding, it might have been only almond topped! But the presentation was lovely and I love how the plate reminds me of the Azur colour of the Mediterranean Sea that this lovely restaurant sits near.

I would definitely recommend 4 Nudos in San José, the servers speak just enough English that they understand what we are ordering (although, I do try to pronounce the Spanish menu items). But beware, they have an English menu but it is not up to date and they warn you that things on it may be different or unavailable. It’s best to pull out your phone and Google translate with the picture feature.

Overall rating of 4 Nudos, San José (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4.5/5, food 4.5/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 5/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full-price and my opinion is just that, my opinion.

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Restaurant Review: Mesón El Pescador, San José

Mesón El Pescador, San José

I am uncertain if it’s just us, but travel seems to get easier as we get older. I seem to recall that the transatlantic flights used to bag us completely, but now it hardly bothers us at all. And I used to be able to sleep on the plane, now I just binge-watch a series that I’ve downloaded. We generally land in the UK in the morning and stay one night; JT and I drop our luggage off at a hotel and take the train into town. Last year, we even saw Come from Away in the evening and we were still OK around midnight!

First things first, we ordered our adult beverages.

For our 2020 trip, we flew into Gatwick, spent the night and then the early the following morning we flew into Almeria and picked up our car. We like to feel at home as soon as possible so we unpacked our luggage and drove into town for lunch. February and March are definitely low season in San José and many of the retailers and restaurants are closed. We don’t mind because we don’t like crowds or the heat of the summer when everything is open. Unfortunately, Mesón Il Pescador was one of the few restaurants open when we went hunting for lunch. We just dived in without reading reviews which is totally out of character for me, but it turned out well and I’m glad we went. Sadly, it doesn’t get good reviews but it was relatively busy with the locals when we stumbled in, so we took a chance that it was good and it didn’t disappoint.

We sat outside along the beach and were lucky to get a table. There were mostly locals dining that day; I could tell because they were all sporting winter jackets while the tourists are wearing T-Shirts and Shorts!

Steamed Mussels € 10. ($14.50 Canadian)

JT ordered a ham and cheese sandwich that wasn’t available and then the chicken cutlet of which they also ran out. The steamed mussels (10 €) were his third choice. The dish would have been nice with some crusty bread alongside, we asked but it never showed up. The mussels were relatively large, fresh and tasty. I ordered the grilled octopus (20 €) (incidentally, it was my only choice) which was grilled to perfection, tender and nicely flavoured by the grill. The octopus was drizzled with a good, spicey olive oil which made for a nice sauce to dip the fries into. Although it was delicious, I found the 20 € pricey.

We enjoyed the meal and if I crave grilled octopus again, we will definitely go back. But read the reviews and be your own judge. We may have been lucky that day.

Pulpo a la Plancha 20 € ($29 Canadian)

Overall rating of Mesón Il Pescador (in my opinion): Decor n/a, service 2.5/5, food 4/5, Value 2/5, Noise: n/a (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full-price and my opinion is just that, my opinion.

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Mushroom, Chestnut and Bean Wellington

During the month we spent in Arizona, we had the pleasure of celebrating American Thanksgiving with our dear friends down there. Our dear friends who live there offered to make the turkey (thank goodness, as I did not have any of my special kitchen tools!) so I offered to make a few different sides. We had dear friends visiting from Toronto and they are vegetarian and I wanted to make something special for them for Thanksgiving, so I made this Mushroom, Chestnut and Bean Wellington. I purchased the puff pastry to make it easier but I made everything else. I was surprised to find roasted Italian chestnuts (in the Kosher section, no less!) but sadly the mushrooms were just plain cremini and white mushrooms, not much variety. It’s always a bit of a challenge to cook in a strange kitchen and shop in a different part of the world, but I think this one turned out wonderful and with a variety of mushrooms, it would be amazing! Please excuse the photos, this is the one and only blog post I managed to eak out during our stay in Arizona, I was THAT busy!

Scroll down to the end of this post to see the house we rented. It took us some time to find one that was decorated in light airy colours, most of the rentals are dark and dowdy, filled with ‘granny’s furniture’ and I just couldn’t bear to live in that for a month! Although I might have chosen a slightly lighter tone for the walls, this house made me happy.

Fresh out of the oven.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 1 Wellington about 30 cm x 15 cm (12 inches x 6 inches)

To print recipe, please click here.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 2 cups variety of mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 cup carrots, finely cubed
• 1/2 cup celery, finely cubed
• 1/2 cup zucchini, finely cubed
• 1/2 cup roasted chestnuts, roughly chopped
• 1/2-1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely minced
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 cup navy beans, soaked
• 4 cups vegetable stock, divided
• 1/2 cup port
• salt
• pepper
• 1 puff pastry sheet
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 egg yolk, lightly whisked with a little water.

Directions:

1. Cook the navy beans in 3 cups veggie stock or water, cool.
2. In a heavy bottom pan, caramelize the onions in the melted butter and olive oil on medium heat (about 20 minutes). Add mushrooms and cook until the mushroom liquid has evaporated. Turn the heat up and caramelize the mushrooms add the port to deglaze the pan.
3. Add the garlic, carrots, celery, zucchini and roasted chestnuts and sauté until carrots are slightly softened.
4. Add the rosemary, panko, cooked navy beans, and veggie stock. Season to taste. Remove from heat and cool completely.
5. On a cold surface, roll out the puff pastry sheet to about 30 cm x 40 cm (12 inches x 16 inches). Brush the Dijon mustard on the pastry and mound the cooled mushroom filling in the centre of the pastry. Turn up each side until they meet in the middle and pinch closed. Pinch the ends closed and trim off excess pastry.
6. Turn the log onto a parchment lined baking sheet seamed sized down, and brush with the egg yolk. Decorate with leaves from the leftover end pastry and brush with egg wash. Bake in a hot 400° F oven for 35-40 minutes or until golden.
7. Serve sliced hot out of the oven, or reheat to serve.

A tasty treat wrapped in delicious buttery pastry.

Click on any photo for the slideshow.

House Front

Foyer

Panorama of the interior

Diningroom and Office

Office

Livingroom

Kitchen

Master bedroom

Master Bath

Guest Room

Guest Bath

Side Porch

Backyard

Golf cart

Main Clubhouse

Interior of the Main Clubhouse

Interior of the Main Clubhouse

The Bar

The Bistro

Wine Vault

Lap pool

La Casa Pool

The Spa

The Workout Room

4 Tennis Courts

The Algarve, 2nd clubhouse

The Algarve Pool

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Skillet Chocolate Chunk Cookie

I will reveal our latest adventure now! Drumroll please: We spent the month of November in Arizona. We have dear friends who live there during the winter and when we were visiting during February, we tossed around the idea to buy a second house there. But before we make the plunge, we wanted to be certain we liked it so we rented an awesome house in the same community that our friends live.

Now who were we kidding? It was -5° C (23° F) (but it felt like -10° C (14° F)) in Toronto while we were enjoying 28° C (82° F) with sunshine. Every. Single. Day. What’s not to like? The community is tagged as resort-style living with a gorgeous golf course and 4 swimming pools, a spa, workout facilities and a couple of restaurants. Yep, I could get used to it!

The community is located in Queen’s Creek. Queen’s Creek is situated in the San Tan Valley, south-east of Phoenix, Arizona. As another friend said, “it’s not quite the end of the world, but you can see the end of the world from there!”

It is also a mere 4.5-hour drive to the Grand Canyon and that is where we did our EPIC hike! We hiked 7.5 hours to Indian Grove and back. Going down was relatively easy, we bought good hiking boots and sticks, but going up was significantly more challenging because of the altitude and lack of oxygen. We stopped and rested a lot. Listening to your body is essential as is allowing your muscles to recover as you’re ascending. It took us 3 hours to hike down and 3.5 hours to hike back up (which isn’t bad for a couple of old folks!), the rest of the time we spent at Indian Grove eating a delicious lunch I packed. The worst part was the day and day two later, my calves ached like a demon. But it was worth it! I’ve put together s little slide show of our hike at the end of this post, if you are interested. And by the way, my stupid FitBit died sometime during our hike so I don’t even know how many steps we did, but if the last time we hiked only 1.5 hours down and back was any indication, we did 22,000 steps! This is my third FitBit Zip and when I called them that it was eating the batteries like crazy (one every 2-3 weeks) they said it was a known issue and they are working on fixing it but would do NOTHING ELSE. So I am done with FitBit, they let me down in one of the most epic hikes of my life and had nothing but “oh, sorry” to say about it. I am going to get a Garmin which I hear are much more reliable.

This cookie has nothing to do with the hike or our trip, it’s a cookie I made for Canadian Thanksgiving at my sweet cousin Lucy’s place. My dear blogging friend Liz (of That Skinny Chick Can Bake, blog) was the inspiration, I saw the recipe on her site a while back. These cookies were all the rave in the 90’s on restaurant menus but I haven’t seen one in ages. Liz’s recipe will change that for sure.

Skillet Chocolate Chunk Cookie

Makes 1 12″ Cookie

Please click here for the original recipe.

Click here to print this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 195 g butter
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 150 g brown sugar
• 15 mL vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 350 g AP Flour
• 3 g baking powder
• 5 g salt
• 100 g chocolate chips (I used Belgian milk and semi-sweet chocolate)

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375° F (I used the convection setting). Prepare a 30 cm cast iron skillet with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Melt the butter and sugars in a heatproof bowl in the microwave, stir until sugars have melted. Cool slightly and then stir in the vanilla. Combine the egg and whites and whisk. Whisk into the butter-sugar mixture.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, add it to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until well combined.
4. Fold in 3/4 the chocolate, reserving about 1/4 to dot the top of the cookie for garnish.
5. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. Cool to room temperature. Serve slicing fractions of the circle.

Notes:

• I like to buy Belgian chocolate disks (not molding chocolate) and melt them, spread them on a cookie sheet and chill until set. Then I break up the sheets by hand, making different sized pieces with a variety of thicknesses.

It’s a cross between cookie and blondie that is quite difficult to resist.

Click on the first photo to see the slideshow.

JT sitting on the patio stoop of our room.

View from our back door.

On our way to dinner, we bumped into these guys.

This one was quite friendly.

Canyon View.

Morning view across the Canyon.

These are the donkeys they use to traverse the hiking path. They are amazingly sure-footed.

Canyon Squirrel

Cabin at Indian Grove, the base camp that you can hike to and back in one day. To go further, you have to stay overnight.

This dear and her calf joined us for lunch in Indian Grove.

The Dear at Indian Grove.

Morning views.

The Bright Angel Canyon path.

Looking up from the Canyon.

Looking up from the Canyon.

Looking up from the Canyon.

On our way up.

This is me right after the hike. I may have been a wee bit tired.

Morning view of the Canyon.

We bumped into this guy on our way out. He is an elk.

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Banana Bran Muffins with Belgian Milk Chocolate Chunks

In early September, our dear friends came for a visit and JT and I planned a full schedule of fun activities! We went hiking at a conservation area, saw King Lear in High Park (which turned out to be reimagined from a female perspective, Queen Lear), we traveled to Montreal for a few days with a stop in Kingston to visit the newly refurbished Kingston Penitentiary. The time went quickly and a much-needed fix with special friends. Our days were packed, so I made these Banana Bran Muffins for a breakfast on the morning we went hiking, as we were also having lunch at an adorable little cafe near the conservation area. Scroll down to see a few pics of Kingston Pen.

Banana Bran Muffins with Belgian Milk Chocolate Chunks

Original recipe from Company’s Coming, Muffins and More by Jean Paré.

Makes about 10-12 medium-sized muffins

Please click here to print this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 128 g (1 cup) flour
• 60 g (1 cup) all bran cereal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips or chunks (I used Belgian milk chocolate chunks)
• 60 g (1/4 cup) coconut oil
• 75 g (1/2 cup) coconut sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 65 mL (1/4 cup) sour milk (milk with 1/4 tsp lemon juice)
• 250 mL (3 medium or 1 cup) bananas, mashed

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400° F (200° C). Prepare muffin pans by spraying with non-stick spray.
2. Combine flour, bran, baking powder and soda and salt in a bowl and mix.
3. Cream coconut oil and sugar with 1 egg until well blended and add the other egg and beat well. Combine the soured milk and mashed bananas and mix well.
4. Pour into the dry mixture and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups to about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
7. Cool slightly and serve.

These muffins have excellent texture from the moistness of the bananas and the bran cereal.

An old postcard of the Penetentiary

Riots of 1932, 1954 and 1971

Our tour guide

Happy Prisoner

High Security Visitors Cubicles

These wings are called Ranges

Another Range

Interesting graffiti that wasn’t pornographic. Money for Salmon. Wasn’t there a song about that?

Centre dome where they typically changed out as each Range has a turn (eating, working etc).

Marital Conjugation Ward

Corrections Officer Tour Guide

Trades School

Matress Factory

Finally, where they belong!

This is what the original cell looked like

Last Century Prison Standard

Actual cell.

21st Century Prison Standard

This is part of the mental health and senior’s wing

This is part of the mental health and senior’s wing

Notes:

• These muffins are not nearly as sweet using coconut sugar as using regular white sugar.

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Almond Tuiles of Sevilla (Tejas Dulces de Sevilla)

Happy Halloween Everyone! Hope you all have a ghoulish night!!!

While in Europe this past September, we spent four extremely hot days in Sevilla. It’s no wonder they call Spain the “Frying pan of Europe”! It wasn’t as hot as it had been (near 50° C or 122° F) but it was hot enough for us! The sun was relentless and most locals only walk in the shade (you can tell who lives there because they hug the shadows directly beside the old buildings!). The city has covered some of its sunnier streets with canopy sails to shade the citizens and tourists, it’s that bad!

Many of the historic town streets have installed these canopy sails to protect citizens and tourist from the unyielding sun, in both Sevilla and Madrid, though I did not see them in Granada.

During one of our last walks though the beautiful historic part of town, we stumbled into the area where the locals actually live. There were no tourist shops, a few restaurants, just butchers, bakers, children’s clothing stores, kitchen stores (yes, I did buy something), grocery stores and specialty shops. One such shop was a beautifully designed little cookie shop where they sold only one type of cookie in three flavours: La Tejas Dulces de Sevilla, in almond, pistachio and coconut. A young lady was handing out samples in front of the beautiful store and we couldn’t resist. In one taste, we were immediately hooked on the simple almond flavour and lovely crunchy texture and we had to buy some. Upon returning to Toronto, I hid the small package so that I could work on a recipe and perfect it for the blog. I told JT it was for the greater good, he wasn’t impressed.

The cookies are light, airy, crunchy and full of flavour; imagine a genoise batter spread paper-thin, topped with almonds and baked until golden. They are so GOOD! The recipe is relatively simple but follow the instructions to get the signature airy, crunchy texture. I think this could easily convert to a gluten free variety, stay tuned!

I must warn you, though, because these are not like the French Tuiles, these have a bit more body than a traditional French tuiles. They are really more cracker-like than a tuile or a cookie.

Scroll down to the end of this post to see pictures from this part of our trip.

Delicately sweet, these crispy, flavourful cookies hit the spot for an afternoon craving!

These are the originals we brought back from Sevilla, sadly only three left and a mess of crumbs but I’ve finessed the recipe so I can make more!

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 25 cm x 30 cm (10″ x 12″) sheet, cut to make cookies or various sizes

Ingredients:

• 30 g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 75 g (3/4 cup) almonds, thinly sliced and toasted
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 80 g (~1/3 cup) sugar
• 1/2 tsp almond flavour
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
• 50 g cake and pastry flour
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Toast the almonds until golden. Set aside to cool.
2. Melt* the butter and set aside to cool.
3. Beat the egg with the sugar until it reaches the ribbon stage, about 5 minutes. Beat in the flavourings and cooled butter.
4. Sift the flour with the salt and fold into the egg mixture, cover and allow to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 265° F (130° C).
6. Pour the entire batter onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and spread out until it is quite thin (about 3-4 mm (about 1/8-3/16 inch) works out to about 30 cm x 30 cm (12″ x 12″). Evenly sprinkle the toasted almonds onto the batter and gently push into the batter**.
7. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until evenly golden, turn the pan once about halfway.
8. While still warm, move parchment onto a cutting board and cut into uneven shapes with a pizza cutter. Transfer parchment to a cooling rack and allow to cool. Cookies will firm up as they cool.
9. Once cooled, store in an airtight container for about a week, but they won’t last that long!

Spread batter out thinly (about 30 x 30 cm or 12 x 12 inches)

I made another batch but spread the batter out much thinner. They probably could have baked a little longer to get a little richer colour, but the flavour and texture is spot on.

Notes:

• *for additional flavour, brown the butter in a frying pan until hazelnut in colour.
  ** to insure that all of the almonds are ‘stuck’ to the batter, I did a little toss of the pan quickly and that way I was able to move ‘unstuck’ almonds to a better place.
• Add a teaspoon of lemon zest because lemon and almond go so wonderfully together!
• Drizzle melted chocolate over the cookies once they are cool, refrigerate until set then store in an airtight container for about a week, but be warned, these won’t even last as long as the originals!

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Quick Pomegranate Cherry Syrup

Recently, JT and I spent three wonderful weeks touring through London, Almeria, San José, Granada, Sevilla, Madrid and finally Paris. It was awesome. I will recount some wonderful meals and memories in future posts but I wanted to share a quick and easy recipe to make pomegranate syrup because my dear friend Sissi (With A Glass) recently posted a beautiful salad which included pomegranate seeds and the dressing was created with pomegranate molasses, a slightly sweet and sour syrup.

Sissi’s post went live around the time we had just spent the day in Granada, a large, historical city in the south of Spain. We did a wonderful walking tour of the city with Panchotours with Registered Tour Guide, Veronica and at one point she mentioned that the word Granada in Spanish means pomegranate! What a coincidence! The name is appropriate because the streets are lined with gorgeous pomegranate trees. Yes, you could just reach up and grab a fresh pomegranate, how cool is that? Sadly, they were not quite ripe enough, otherwise, you know I would have!

Our lovely tour guide, Veronica.

Several weeks prior to our departure, we purchased something and for some unknown reason were given a 473 mL bottle of Pom Pomegranate Cherry Juice for free. We don’t normally drink juice as it is far better to eat your fruit than drink it so it sat in the refrigerator until now! Making the syrup is so easy, I won’t even list it as a recipe. Simply pour the entire content of the bottle into a non-reactive pan and boil it on medium-high for about 30 -40 minutes or until it reduces to about 100 mL. I didn’t want an overly thick syrup (the viscosity is about the same as maple syrup) so you could boil it down even more — but be very careful, after a very short time, it can burn very easily! Allow to cool and pour into a sterilized bottle. Store in a cool, dark location.

It’s a thick, sweet and slightly sour syrup. that is delicious on chunks of Parmesan.

The view of the Alhambra.

Panoramic View of Granada.

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Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Eve is the more celebrated day in European families, even those residing in North America. Back when I was a child, my family would make the trip out to Northern Toronto on December 23 or 24 to buy our Christmas tree. It was tradition not to set up the tree until the day of Christmas Eve (although JT and I have been known to get our tree in late November!). Even though it was late by North American standards and the trees were pretty well picked over, we always managed to find a good one (not an easy task in a family of tree connoisseurs). One year the best tree (read fattest) was so short, we had to put it on a table. Mom said it was so more presents could fit under the tree. The only thing Dad did with the tree is put the lights on it. The lights would only be turned on to make sure they were evenly distributed and then they wouldn’t be turned on until later that night. Mom, my younger brother and I would always dress the tree. My favourite part was adding the tinsel after all the gorgeous hand blown glass balls (and various kid craft ornaments) were hung; my brother would throw the tinsel on by handful and I would carefully add them one tinsel strand at a time. The tree wouldn’t be complete without adding szalonczukor, a traditional Hungarian fondant candy that my Aunt and Uncle would send every year from Budapest. We also had candy canes but that was later as we became more Canadianized.

Christmas Eve was our big celebration and we would always have a huge dinner (Mom would make fish and turkey with all the fixings) and then after dinner (which seemed to take F O R E V E R) we’d be sent off to our rooms to see if we could see Santa in the skies because we’d follow him through NORAD! During that time Santa would arrive quite quietly and fill the floor beneath the tree with gifts. So many gifts. Then, Mom and Dad would turn off all the lights and illuminate the tree, Dad would put on on some Christmas music (a special mix he made on the Sony reel to reel) and they would signal my brother and I (and usually some stray my Mom invited for dinner) to come out of our room into the living room. That was our Christmas. I can still feel that nervous energy and the excitement of the anticipation as we walked down the hall into the living room, our eyes bugged open to take in the view of our beautifully lit Christmas tree and piles and piles of presents! We would always start out opening presents systematically but by the end it was always chaos. At some point Mom would serve dessert, a traditional Yule log (piskota), both walnut and poppy seed Baigli! She also made a Lindzer Szelet which was my Dad’s favourite (a tender pastry square with a layer of apricot jam and sometimes chocolate ganache). Cognacs would be poured (for the adults) and my brother and I would lose ourselves in the bounty of all our new toys and have an impromptu fashion show off all our new clothes (well, maybe that was just me). Family friends always popped in after dinner after the mess was cleaned up, more desserts were served and more cognac was poured. It truly was magical.

On Christmas Day, my brother and I would open our stockings and we would continue to play with our new things while Mom made a beautiful breakfast with kuglof and home made jam. Christmas Day was usually quiet at our house, we hung around in our jammies, played, watched a Christmas movie or two and just chilled. We were always invited to my parents’ best friends for Christmas Day dinner.

JT’s and my Christmas took on a similar landscape with the exception that on Christmas Eve we always go to my brother’s for dinner because they have kids. Lately, they been having a ham for dinner so we’re not eating turkey two days in a row (honestly, I don’t mind two turkey dinners). I usually bake a Yule log and a plate of Christmas cookies to share. This year I’ve baked a white chocolate and strawberry tart that I’m recipe testing. My brother’s family celebrate a more traditional North American Christmas (with her family) with the major festivities on the morning of the 25th and dinner with her family in the afternoon, which works out perfectly since JTs family does the same so we’ve never had a conflict. Today we’ll have JTs family over for our turkey dinner, complete with stuffing, roast potatoes, gravy and green beans with garlic and almonds. Dessert will be pie that my SIL brings as well as a cheesecake thing that I’m recipe testing. So tell me, how does your family celebrate Christmas and is it the 24th or the 25th?

It’s been a whirlwind  year and I must admit that December snuck up on me and I feel like I’m behind. But the next few days will be all about family, relaxing and just enjoying the festivities. JT and I wish you all the best, a very merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

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Restaurant Review: Café du Parc, Washington DC

When we travel we never like to book lunches because we never really know where we are going to be when hunger strikes; so we leave it to the last minute and find a Starbucks sit with an espresso and peruse Yelp for some recommendations in relation to our location! I love that Starbucks has free WIFI! Yelp is an excellent review site where I find most of the reviewers are more foodie than not and their restaurant reviews are excellent! Sometimes we use open table, but it’s only good for establishments who subscribe so it often doesn’t work out.

We landed on Café du Parc in Washington’s elite Intercontinental Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. The restaurant describes itself as a traditional French bistro where the food ‘fuses witha modern atmosphere to provide a truly authentic bistro experience” (from Café du Parc’s website) — well, I’m not sure about food fusing with atmosphere, but the experience was pleasant enough. Have I ever mentioned this thing that I find SO INCREDIBLY annoying? It’s when the wait-staff remove plates before everyone is finished at the table. JT eats faster than I do and I am often left eating on my own with the table cleared. Not this time but I had to tell them to leave the plates alone until I am done! What school of etiquette did these people go to? They’ll loose points on service for that one.

The décor is blues, creams and yellows and the dining room was light and airy; it made me happy to be there! They also had a very lovely patio but the heat was overwhelming so we chose to eat inside; bad choice since all the windows and doors were wide open and the A/C didn’t seem to be on, but we soon acclimated and all was well.

With the exception of the faux pas of the attempt to remove JTs dishes before I was finished, the service was efficient, friendly and quick — we were in and out in less than an hour, but we had places to go and people to see, so we were fine with that.

Cafe du Parc’s Salade Niçoise

I ordered the Salad Nisçoise which was rare tuna served on a bed of mesclun salad, with pitted black olives (I prefer the pits in, the pitted always makes me think they are canned), green beans, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, cucumber speers, julienned celery, delightful pickled white anchovies (a very nice change) with a very light balsamic vinaigrette which was not over dressed. The salad was fresh, flavourful and quite filling, but for the $21 for lunch, I would have expected a bit more tuna on the plate.

JT ordered the Croque Monsieur which was a very generous sandwich of French ham & Gruyère cheese sandwich, served with a mixed green salad and hand cut fries ($18) considering how expensive the ingredients in this dish are, I felt the $18 price tag was a reasonable amount.

And that concludes our visit to DC, thanks again to Jed and Liz for their generous hospitality and advise.

Croque Monsieur

Overall rating of Café du Parc, DC (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 2.5/5, food 4/5, Value 3/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Cafe du Parc

1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20004

(202) 942 7000

Monday – Friday

Breakfast : 6:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (a la carte ends at 9:45; 9:45-10:30 buffet only)

Lunch : 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Cocktails and Light Fare : 2:30pm – 5:00 p.m.

Dinner : 5:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday

Breakfast : 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (a la carte ends at 10:30; 10:30-11:00 buffet only)

Lunch : 12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Cocktails and Light Fare : 3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Dinner : 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Terrace (weather permitting)

Breakfast is served at our courtyard only.

Service starts at 11:30 Mon – Fri and 12:00 noon Sat-Sun until 10:00 p.m.; weather permitting.

 

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Restaurant Review: Bistro Bis, Washington DC

Tomorrow is JT’s birthday, please join me in wishing him a Happy Birthday!

Our second night in DC we chose Bistro Bis, a contemporary French bistro, located in one of DC’s other Kimpton hotels called the Hotel George. The tour bus mentioned that this hotel is famous amongst celebrities visiting DC (the likes of Justin Bieber: gag). It’s high ceilings and lack of soft surfaces makes this establishment a little noisier than I like, but we were able to get a lovely table that was tucked away in a corner allowing me to talk without yelling at the top of my lungs. Our Russian waitress was lovely and attentive and even though her section was rather full, we never felt ignored.

The first dish we ordered was the Escargot Forestière, burgundy snails on toasted brioche with garlic confit, beech mushrooms, artichokes and bordelaise ($13) did not get off to a good start; the escargot were incredibly sandy and it turned us off immediately. There is nothing grosser than improperly cleansed escargot — they slither around in the garden eating anything and everything in their path, they MUST be thoroughly cleansed. We sent it back to the kitchen and they immediately rectified the situation by offering to replace the order with any thing we wanted, so we order the Oysters Gratin Florentine. The dish was an oyster ragout with smoked ham, spinach, fennel, tarragon glaçage and grilled baguette ($12.50) and it was lovely. The portion size was enough to share, I couldn’t imagine eating this rich dish on my own.

A deliciously rich sauce

My main course was the Steak Tartare, of course! Steak Tartare Atilla is a traditionally flavoured tartare with finely chopped raw sirloin with capers, onions, cornichons, spicy aïoli and garlic potato chips ($13) — for the price it was a very generous portion and they sold it as an appetizer size. The little salad was delicious with the tartare and I could have used a bit more of it.

Night lighting is not great for restaurant photos.

JT ordered the Côte de Porc Roti which was pan roasted berkshire pork chop with barley risotto, spring vegetables and morello cherry gastrique ($27) and even though it was expensive, it was an extremely generous size of meat. It was perfectly cooked and very tender, and the cherry gastrique was an innovated and delicious pairing. I believe JT would order this dish again.

A very generous portion of meat.

We generally don’t order dessert, but we felt like lingering as the meal finished a little faster than we had hoped so we ordered cappuccino’s and I must say, they were the hottest cap’s I’ve ever had. As part of the apology for the sandy escargot, the chef sent out a lovely tasting plate of dessert, very tiny portions, but enough to finish the meal.

After we had finished our meal the manager came over to apologize and we chatted with him for a while. They really redeemed themselves by the service so I would recommend this place, but sadly not the escargot.

Overall rating of Bistro Bis, DC (in my opinion): Decor 3/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Bistro Bis, Washington, DC

15 E Street NW
Washington DC 20001

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Restaurant Review: Proof, Washington DC

Our first dinner in DC was at Proof, one of the recommendations Jed and Liz (of the infamous Sports-glutton blog) made and it truly DID NOT DISAPPOINT! Proof is a moderately price American restaurant with an eclectic menu (their words). It’s contemporary design with rustic elements (brick walls, wooden tables and antique dressers) make for a very warm and inviting eating establishment — the bathrooms are wild! We chose to eat inside because of the high temperatures outside, but their patios looked amazing! I also wanted to mention that the dinner had a lovely pace to it, not too fast and not too slow, all in all it was almost two hours for the three courses which was perfect.

Both our server and somelier were friendly and attentive enough without being over-bearing — we never once had to fill our own wine glass. We decided to share the starters and chose the Bresaola, which was from Uruguay, cured, juniper scented beef tenderloin ($8US), I thought it was quite tasty although the juniper was very subtle and for $8US I felt we got a good serving size for the price. We also shared the Duck Liver Mousse (aka Fois Gras) with Pickled Red Onions & Baby Greens ($11US) and it was over the top, the duck liver mousse was so creamy, yet felt rather light in the mouth. Our server even brought us a nice selection of house made crackers and breads because as you can see, there are only three crostini’s with the dish. We were off to a great start.

Our starters that we shared.

My main course (appetizer portion) was the Ahi Tuna Tartare with Crispy Nori Tempura with hass avocado, wasabi soy emulsion ($15) and I must tell you it is by far the BEST tuna Tartare I’ve ever had and I’ve had quite a few. The flavours just hit me perfectly with just the right amount of wasabi (no tears). The crispy Nori was a beautiful contrast in texture to the creamy avocado and the soft tuna. If you can believe it, my mouth is watering as I type this. I could have had two portions it was THAT good.

The BEST tuna tartar I’ve EVER had

JT chose the gnocchi which came in two sizes, a small appetizer portion and a large main portion — this is the smaller size and as you can see, it was plenty (the bowl was about 24cm or 9.4 inches in diametre. The dish was Sautéed Potato Gnocchi with Hen of the Woods Mushrooms spring peas, baby chard in a sweet farm butter with basil and Parmesan sauce ($15/$27). JT was kind enough to allow me to taste this beautiful dish (sorry, it was already dark when I took the photo) and it was fantastic, but don’t let the sauce fool you, even though it’s not a cream-based sauce there is A LOT of butter in this dish! Both of our courses were lip smackingly good and I immediately wished we had this restaurant in Toronto as it became a fast favourite!

JT chose the gnocchi

Thank you kindly for the reco’s Jed and Liz, you really hit this one bang on. It’ll be on my list whenever we return to DC.

If you find yourself in DC, do yourself a favour and try this place, it won’t disappoint.

Overall rating of Proof DC (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4/5, food 4.5/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Proof DC

775 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20001

proof@proofdc.com

202.737.7663

 

Lunch

Tuesday – Friday 11:30 – 2:00

 

Dinner

Monday – Thursday 5:30 – 10:00

Friday – Saturday 5:30 – 11:00

Sunday 5:00 – 9:30

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Washington DC — Go Big or Go Home!

We usually travel to New York City around our anniversary to celebrate (read shop) and to have incredible food, but this year we decided to cross off another bucket list destination and go to Washington DC instead. I’ve always wanted to see the wonderful monuments, the Smithsonian Museums, Capital Hill and The White House and we did all that and more! We were lucky with the weather because it wasn’t raining but it was unbelievably hot and humid — we were told it was more like summer weather. But we donned our sunscreen, hats, comfy shoes (yes, you read that right) and left our hotel at 9am to return hot, tired (and did I say hot?) around 5pm just in time for wine and cheese in the lobby.

We stayed at the Kimpton Madera in Dupont Circle, a very good location which is close to Georgetown and the subway. We’ve stayed in several Kimpton hotels over the years and have always had exceptional experiences and this property was no different. My friend Karen from Back Road Journal made a great suggestion to join the Kimpton’s Loyalty Program and we did, and it has worked out very well for us, thank you Karen. Because we are InTouch members we received a voucher to raid the mini-bar (or one free cocktail in the bar — guess which one we did?), free WIFI in our room and a lovely room upgrade to one of their superior King rooms! Aron at the front desk and Fernando at the front door were incredibly helpful and friendly. Aron found out that we were celebrating our anniversary so he comped us breakfast every day, how nice is that? I consider breakfast an easy meal to really control calories while traveling, so the free continental breakfast with whole grain toast and fruit was perfect for us.

We ate at wonderful restaurants (reviews to come) and had some fantastic times with new friends — JT and I were very fortunate to meet up with fellow blogger Jed Gray and his beautiful wife Liz of the infamous Sports-Glutton blog. I started following Jed a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back. When I emailed Jed that we were thinking of coming down to DC, he and Liz very generously spent an incredible amount of time writing up recommendations for areas to stay in and provided some excellent restaurant recommendations and they were spot on. We met for dinner on our last night and as you can imagine we got on as if we were long-time friends. The lively non-stop conversation was richly dotted with good bouts of laughter. Thank you so much Jed and Liz it was such a pleasure to meet you both and JT and I sincerely hope that we will be able to repay your hospitality in Toronto very soon.

DC, what can I say? Go big or go home would sum it up. The city itself is only about 176 square kilometres or 68 square miles, so it’s not enormous, but because DC has so much to see and do, you really should plan on 4-5 days, sadly we were only there just under three days so it was a bit rushed but that just means we will need to go back sometime soon. We arrived on Thursday around 11:30 and took a stroll through Georgetown which was a 20 minute walk from our hotel. It was very hot and humid. We decided to have lunch at a Peruvian restaurant which worked out very well and then we walked around some more. Our hotel serves up wine and cheese from 5-6pm every day and we like to go because it gives us an opportunity to chat with the other guests. There weren’t other guests having the wine and cheese but we were able to chat with Aron at the front desk and he made some lovely recommendations about DC.

There is a lot to see and do in DC, so it’s best to have a game plan; figure out what is most important to you and then plan your stay according to that. We wanted to see a few of the Smithsonians (which by the way are totally FREE!): The Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, the National Gallery. And we wanted to spend some time walking around the monuments near the Tidal Basin. We did the Hop on Hop off bus tour, but we made the mistake of hopping on and off, so we ended up wasting A LOT of time waiting to hop back on. The bus we got on later in the afternoon was so incredibly slow it was painful. We should have cut our losses but we persevered, and therefore missed seeing a few of the things we wanted to see — so there will be a next time. Due to an earthquake in 2011, the Washington Monument was damaged and therefore closed for repairs and will not open until 2015…so that’s a great excuse to return.

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We met Jed and Liz at 5:30 on Saturday night in Georgetown, a short cab ride from our hotel and their apartment. Jed suggested we meet at the Four Seasons bar called Bourbon Steak (well you just know the night is off to a great start!). In true gluttonous form Jed selected this classy establishment because of the variety of unusual cocktails served; we all know JT and I do cocktails, and Jed’s Thirsty Thursdays lead me to believe that they do too! The next course was dinner, we had a short walk (yes, I was wearing inappropriate shoes which made walking on the cobblestone in combination with the extreme heat very difficult!) to a very nice Mexican Restaurant called Bandolero. We started with more drinks and some very tasty treats. I loved this place because it was tapas style so we each got to enjoy every flavour and not have to commit to one dish. Conversation with either Jed or Liz was easy and JT and I flipped back and forth with the two. Our first course was La Muestra, which was guacamole, masa crisps, chicarrones, and three salsas, very flavourful salsas and the guacamole was delicious! Then, each of us selected one item to share; it was very tasty and four items seemed to hit the spot with all of us. In chatting with Liz I wondered if there were any cool jazz bars in DC and she lit up knowing just the one so our next stop was Blues Alley but we were only able to get tickets for the 10pm show, so without hesitation we went to a J-Paul’s saloon for, you guessed it, more drinks and conversation until it was time for the show. We heard the exceptional John Pizzarelli (who concidentally sometimes plays with Diana Krall – a fellow Canadian!)
Sadly we cut the night short as we were flying home the next day — we usually stay up much later, really we do! We really enjoyed our time with Jed and Liz (you guys really made our little DC vacation!)

I encourage you to visit Washington DC, it’s really much more than I expected and I was expecting a lot!

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Hotel Review: JW Marriott Rosseau, Ontario

This is luggage for three days and two nights.
I take my favourite pillow when ever we drive.

Easter weekend JT and I treated ourselves to a little R&R getaway up in cottage country. We received raving reviews for the JW Mariott in Rosseau from my friend/neighbour/boss, my best friend and my SIL so when we decided we wanted to go away, we thought “why not?”! So we booked a Thursday to a Saturday on the Easter weekend. This is the only time I will say this, but if you want a romantic get away, then don’t go on a long weekend, the place is packed with families and lots and lots of kids. Thursday and Friday were more couples but as soon as Saturday hit, mayhem!

The drive up through the Canadian Shield.

The Rosseau Marriott is an easy 2 hour drive from our home, but we stopped for lunch in Barrie and a little shopping at an outlet mall so it took a bit longer than expected. We decided to take an extra day and go up on Thursday to beat the rush hour traffic. Winter has been dragging its ugly feet in these parts and as we drove north we could still see remnants of snow in places.

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive, but we stopped for lunch in Barrie.

It’s a four star, all season resort.

Our room had a little kitchenette, which was great for breakfast and cocktails.

We were told not to bother upgrading the room because the basic room was just as lovely.

The gas fireplace was a lovely touch, particularly since it was still winter at Easter!

The bathroom was spacious with a separate shower.

The bathtub could have been nicer.

The view from our room. We didn’t pay extra for the lake view, which was still covered in snow.

A real annoying thing is when a hotel (particularly one out in the middle of no where) charges $18 per day for in room WIFI — it drives me crazy. Fortunately, they offered free WIFI in the common areas, so we were able to keep in touch when we were in the gorgeous lobby. But then upon returning to our room we noticed that we hadn’t dropped the free WIFI, so if you don’t want to pay for WIFI in your room, ask for a room directly above the lobby, we were on the third floor and we had full WIFI power, FOR FREE!

The hotel was tastefully decorated in the “Muskoka” style.

Evan the chandelier looked like a giant pine cone.

There were a lot of common areas where you could just chill without having to order anything.

The hotel offers some winter sports for free, such as snow shoeing.

I almost regretting bringing my winter jacket, it was so warm in the sun.

JT enjoying the view.

Me.

Even though they had a lot of snow, it was very pretty.

The sun was so warm as it penetrated the trees.

Some of the snow melted.

Directly in front of the main doors, there is a fire pit that has a fire going all the time, all seasons. There is also a wishing pond that they collect the money once a week and donate it to a local childrens charity.

We kept the fire going for a while.

Sitting and not moving made it a little chilly, so it was lovely to have a warm fire at our feet.

A very nice walk after our snow shoeing.

The Mariott has a few restaurants and we ate at two of them; Teca was the high end dining, open for dinner only and Cottages the more casual eatery open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We had a breakfast and a lunch at Cottages and the food was not overly impressive, although we met the loveliest server, Chris. The Mariott has a trading program that the allows employees to migrate to a location of choice for a short time, so Chris traveled from Barbados to Muskoka for the winter months (why, you might ask) and then in the summer he’ll head back to his regular job in Barbados! Chris truly made our experience so lovely.

For one dinner we shared the small portion charcuterie ($24). It was enough for dinner, breakfast the following day and an hors d’œuvres. Really good value and very tasty.

As for amenities, this Mariott has several pools but only one was open for the winter; they also have a great gym which we made good use of.

Other than a slight hick-up (someone forgot their swimsuit — me) we had an amazing time. I would surely recommend this Mariott no matter what time of year, but particularly in winter for it’s gorgeous scenery and cosy fireplace rooms. I will caution you that the small store has a few swimsuits but they are not great nor are they cheap. We ended up heading into Bracebridge the closest large town and I picked up a bathing suit bottom (for $5) and used my workout top as my swimsuit top. Not perfect, but not bad either. I just didn’t want to spend money on something I already had several off.

Overall rating of The JW Marriott, Lake Rosseau (in my opinion): Decor 4.5/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 3/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet) the noise was rated on Saturday night.

Disclaimer: We purchased our stay and meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

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A little sojourn to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Thank you Barb, your anniversary post inspired JT and I to make our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) this past Christmas for a quick holiday. We stayed at Harbour House a relatively new boutique hotel just off the beaten path in NOTL.  We stayed at this place shortly after it first opened 8-10 years ago and it was lovely, this time was no different. JT booked us into a gorgeous room with a fireplace and we were upgraded to a suite — now that’s sweet!

The living room with fireplace

Very spacious

A festive touch in our room

The bedroom

A large jacuzzi tub, separate shower, double sink, what more could you want? Heated floors.

We arrived on Boxing day (December 26) with no weather issues at all, which was a little surprising since they had predicted a bad storm to come through and dump 30cm (12 inches) of snow in the area. We waited and waited and eventually it did snow, but not nearly as much as predicted. NOTL is a picturesque village with nice restaurants, quaint shops and lovely homes, some of which have been converted to B&Bs. It is also very close to Ontario’s Wine Country.

We ate lunch at the Oban Inn, which is always a treat with lovely views of their manicured gardens. We shared the Dungeness Crab Cakes with Micro Greens, Horseradish Espresso Remoulade, Grilled Pineapple Salsa ($16). For my main I enjoyed Icewine Salmon Gravlax, Carrot Slaw, Citrus Creme Fraiche ($12) it was delicious. JT had the quiche with field greens. I would recommend this restaurant highly. Service was also excellent.

Dinner our first night was at Zee’s a restaurant in The Shaw Club a sister hotel. We shared the Cheese and Charcuterie platter with 5 items for $25. On it was TIGER BLUE rich, aromatic with an intense blue flavour, in the style of stilton, ROARING 40’S BLUE cow’s milk, full flavoured blue with a honeyed, slightly nutty quality, rindless, smooth and creamy and a cheddar which they had to substitute. The Charuterie portion was made up of HOT SOPRESATTA from the Calabria Region, red wine, chili spices and salt, texture of prosciutto, robust and spicy and CHORIZO blend of pork, pork fat, smoked dried paprika, distinct smoke flavour, cured and smoked and neither of these impressed us either, not spicy or smokey tasting. JT had the Nova Scotia Lobster Poutine which included house cut fries, a generous serving of butter poached lobster, white cheddar cheese curds, red wine veal jus and a home made hollandaise sauce. JT’s meal was excellent, although it would not have been something I would order. I had the Warm Mushroom & Smoked Bacon Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese, Sautéed Mushrooms & Smoked Bacon, Parsnip Chips & Apple Cider Vinaigrette ($10) and sadly it was neither warm nor did it have many mushrooms, so even at the low price of $10 it was disappointing.

Our hotel included a wonderful breakfast both days, made of a hot egg dish, pastries, cheeses, meats, scones, preserves, yogurt and fruit. There was also cereal, but who eats cereal on their vacation? Let’s just say we didn’t leave hungry! Our first full day we decided to brave the weather and head down to Niagara Falls, NY to do a little shopping at Walden Galleria which turned out to be nothing special. Lunch was at Bravo Italian Cucina which I suspect is a chain. We both had the soup and salad combo; I had the Italian Wedding soup but was lacking in flavour and JT had the Lobster Bisque which had good lobster flavour but was too creamy for my taste. Our waiter was very talkative and we enjoyed the interaction. Would I go back? Doubt it, nothing special. We returned to NOTL by way of the Rainbow bridge and although we both now have Nexus, I prefer to go the human route when we buy things outside of the allowances. With both cases you must declare what you bring in, but at least the human factor gives us the possibility of not having to pay the taxes and duty on the items (free trade my foot). And this time the lady clearing us in chastised me for not buying enough! Go figure.

That night we ate at the Cannery another sister hotel/restaurant. This is a slightly larger hotel catering to more family style stays. Most of the restaurants in NOTL are casual, so for the most part people don’t really dress up but JT and I always do! I started with Sea Scallops which were Seared Sea Scallops, Petite Village Salad, Seedlings, Smoked Paprika Oil  ($18) it was delicious (I didn’t take photos because it was too dark), JT had the caesar salad. My main course was an appetizer portion of Spicy Udon Noodles which were Tapioca Noodles, Spicy Yuzu Sesame Sauce, Pork Dumplings, Shiitake Mushrooms Prawns, Matchstick Vegetables ($15) again, delicious and a perfect portion for me! JT had the appetizer portion of the Tagliatelle Pasta which was Semolina Broad Noodles, Pulled Braised Lamb, Wild Mushrooms, Truffle Paste, Asiago Shards ($15); we both enjoyed our meals. Having said that, the overall impression is kind of Cracker Barrel style decor, bright lighting and not much cozy ambiance.

Our final lunch was at an old favourite at On the Twenty in Jordan, Ontario a short drive from NOTL and an exceptional restaurant which is connected to Cave Spring Cellars an award winning winery. We ate a lovely table overlooking their perennial gardens which were romantically blanketed with snow. I started with Heirloom Beet Salad of smoked goat cheese, Dave Irish’s breakfast radish, pickled red onion, pistachio brittle, honey mandarin vinaigrette ($12) and JT had the butternut squash soup ($10) and both were exceptional. I then had the Vintner’s Platter in-house smoked salmon, pâté en croute, house-made mustard, pickles, charcuterie, artisanal cheese ($19) which could have easily been shared and JT had the Grilled Venison Burger with Juniper berry-infused tomato relish, feta cheese aioli, baby arugula, fresh-cut fries, house-made ketchup ($17) which was OUTSTANDING. We each had an espresso for dessert. Service is always exceptional and the ambiance is lovely. If you ever come up to this area, you must dine at On the Twenty.

View from our room.

It’s these friendly touches that make this hotel

A delicious cookie for each of us.

It’s all in the details

Each evening between 4-5:30 wine and cheese were served in the lobby. We gathered to meet the other lovely guests, most of whom were Americans, as far away as Philly.

Our first lunch was at Oban Inn, these are most delicious crab cakes.

This was my second course at the Oban, a wonderful Gravlox Salmon, home cured. Most delicious combination of flavours and textures.

Our last lunch at Inn on the 20, a beet and goats cheese salad with pistachio brittle. Very tasty.

We made our way back home to find our driveway and walkways had been cleared of the massive dump of snow we got while we were away. We really do have the loveliest neighbours.

The snow in our backyard

The front yard, still snowing

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Part IIIb: Paris

Good day friends, I hope this post finds you all in a good place and bearing the chilly fall temperatures (or the warmer spring temperatures for my friends down under). As promised this is the final installment for my vacation photos and it’s Paris! We traveled to Paris from Lyon via the TGV which is their high speed train. Four years ago we went from Avignon to Paris on the TGV and enjoyed it so much, we thought we’d do it again! Normally this trip would have taken an entire day, but on the TGV it’s only three hours — that’s how fast it goes! Here is a little movie to show the speed.

The trip itself was quiet and uneventful and we arrived at the main train station in Paris on time. Because JT was still hobbling so we took a cab to our apartment which seemed to be on the complete opposite side of town, and was expensive. They have a direct train to the airport but it was a 30 minute walk to the apartment and considering our situation, we decided against it.

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The apartment was on the fourth floor, fifth if you count the ground floor as one (Europeans count it as zero). 88 steps up. 22kg (50lbs) of luggage EACH! Fortunately, our lovely host Jean-François bolted both of our bags up the 88 steps to our beautiful flat. I’ll be the first person to admit it, seven pairs of shoes seemed like a good idea at the time I selected my outfits for the trip, but from here on in, I will change my packing MO, for sure! I will limit myself to three pairs of shoes (knowing full well that I will likely buy a pair or two while away!) Now I just need a long trip to test myself!

Our flat was in the Montmartre district, not very touristy, but that’s a good thing. I like having a simple breakfast because it’s an easy way to control the calories particularly on vacation so we bought some provisions for breakfasts and cocktails and we were good to go!

We didn’t have great weather, these things happen, so we stayed close to home for dinners but we explored like crazy during the daytime — rain or no rain, it’s Paris! In fact, the weather made us choose activities we might not have normally chosen. For example, the Pompidou Centre which is apparently the largest collection of modern art. Not sure about you, but I just don’t get the large rock on a 1970’s fridge as art. Really? But they also have some more interesting pieces that I can relate to. The Pompidou centre has a lovely lookout at the top and if you don’t wish to subject yourself to art: pile of bricks on the floor, you can pay only for the lookout. They also have a restaurant up there too which is supposed to be pretty good bit it was expensive and it was overcast; had it been a sunny day, we would have splurged! Musée de l’Orangerie is another gallery that we visited, it’s not expensive and it’s quite manageable in a couple of hours. It has Monet’s Water Lilies, the really huge paintings — they have two or three large rooms dedicated to 4 works each…they are HUGE!

We also did some old favorites, like the top of the Arc de Triomphe, which gives you a gorgeous view of the Champs Elleyse, the top of Montmartre with the beautiful Sacré-Cœur Bascilica and the lively artists selling their art in the square. We were also up close to the Obelisque in the Place de la Concorde. We tried to get into the crypts at Notre Dame Cathedral but the line up was bad, so we passed; it wasn’t our first trip to Paris and I’m sure it won’t be our last, so it’s on the list for next time.

Food was as good as ever; we had some lovely meals at little ma and pa restaurants in our direct hood! I had a lot of steak tartare…and Caprese salads. One meal in particular was at a place called Le Bistrot Pappillon where I had a tuna tartare, but I loved the crispy rosette of Phylo pastry they garnished the dish with. I snapped a pic to make sure I don’t forget…you’ll be seeing that technique sometime soon!

And last but not least, on our final day in Paris, we had the opportunity to meet up for lunch with fellow blogger Charles, of Five Euro Foods. Charles is gracious, kind, generous and charming…exactly what you would expect from reading his blog. Charles generously treated us to a Korean BBQ luncheon at one of his favourite spots. Neither JT nor I had experienced this wonderful and tasty food before so it seemed apropos to experience it first with Charles. We had a delicious beef BBQ with a variety of toppings and sauces, Shiso leaves or lettuce leaves and steamed rice; he also ordered an interesting soup with tofu. We were very well fed! Thank you Charles for a memorable lunch, it was so lovely to meet you.

Eva and Charles enjoying a Macaron in Paris

Charles recently became a Dad to a lovely young man named William. If you pop over to his blog you can see a photo of William sporting a very chic jumper (if I do say so myself)! You will also see my friend Barb’s (Profiteroles and Ponytails) very first guest post successfully making non-other than the famed Macarons. Barb had asked me to pick up some Macarons for Charles and I to munch on while JT took our photos; what can I say, it’s a tough job, but someone had to do it! We found a perfect little specialty shop in Montmartre called Christophe Roussel (recommended by a blog called Madaboutmacarons that claimed it was the best in Paris and boy, they were TASTY — wish I had bought more of them! Particularly the salted caramel … YUM). Fortunately, our last day in Paris was perfect with warm temperatures and sunny – just right for the photo opp!

So that concludes our European Adventure for 2012. Thank you so much for joining us on our little journey and now we’ll get back into regular programming. Blog on!

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Part IIIa: Lyon, Geneva and C.E.R.N. Laboratories

We’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and JT and I traditionally head up to my brother’s cottage in the Muskoka’s. We’ve had all sorts of weather during this weekend over the years, from swimming in Lake Rosseau to a little snow. But what ever the weather, there is always lots of food, reconnecting with family and lots of wine. We wish you all a very happy Canadian Thanksgiving and safe travels. Remember, it’s never smart to drink and drive (Hungary has a Zero tolerance rate and France is 0.5!) Just choose a DD and give them lots of dessert instead! Happy holidays friends.

For this post, I’ve had to change my plan and divide Lyon and Paris into two posts so that I don’t bore you too much. I also figured out how to add a slide show (boy, that was painful!) but it’s done. So if you have a moment, please visit with us in Lyon.

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A little history of why we chose Lyon; it is said to the Gastronomic Capital of France. I’ve read that there are over 30 Michelin star restaurants in the city. The people clearly love food and since we do too we thought it would be a perfect match. And it was…for the most part. We had read that we must experience the traditional Bouchon in Lyon and I’ve read many blogs advising that, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately Bouchon’s are generally small places and serve only a fixed menu of three to four courses, and unless you reserve well in advance you simply cannot get in (they only cook for the number of seats in the restaurant, and there is only one seating!). I simply cannot eat three to four courses and feel good, so we decided to just go to a bistro specializing in the cuisine of Lyon and order one course. We did this on night one, the day before our trip to Geneva to meet our friend Ted and his partner Ji. I ordered the andouillette of Lyon (warning…this may be offensive to the ultra sensitive) it is a ‘sausage’ of various ofal particularly some kind of tripe. Now I can eat practically anything, but this dish had an odor (Charles described his experience that he thought someone left the W/C door open, but now I’m getting ahead of myself) I thought it smelled of barn yard, very earthy and very strong. I didn’t take a photo as the lighting was really bad (and I’d rather not be reminded of the experience). It was served in a cream sauce (very rich) and a gratin of potatoes (quite yummy). I could barely eat it, but I persevered and had about a quarter (JT finished the rest). I did not have a good night that night and didn’t recover until lunch the following day! JT had smaller, more traditional sausages that reminded me of bratwurst, without a heavy sauce. Neither were high on my favourite list. But we were entertained for the most part by a street entertainer who was quite funny mimicking people and making rude balloon objects! We figured he could take 100E per set, and given an evening, he probably does 3-4 sets in different neighbourhoods.

Also, you can bet a tomato will taste like a tomato in France. They still care.

Note: if you click on the first photo in the gallery below, it will enlarge and you can click through them like a gallery!
Sorry, but it doesn’t work on your iPhone.

The view from our room toward the Rhone River

Opposite view from our room toward La République. The room was nothing special!

This was the beginning of La République, a wide pedestrian area through the city. These fountains were close to our hotel.

A lovely carousal near our hotel on La République

A marketing plan released too early! Surprise!

Our first meal in Lyon, a lite Niçoise Salad, a little too light on the tuna!

Walking around Lyon. This is Place des Cordeliers

The Rhone River

JT and his cane…prevented further injury. Today he has almost fully recovered!

The public pools are in the distance, with the towers

It’s really a lovely city

Our real Lyonnaise dinner. I ordered the Andouillette; I would caution against it.

Bag of wine anyone?

This is where we picked up the bus tour

Touring around Lyon

This is my lunch.

This is JTs lunch. We all know which one is healthier!

Bartholdi Fountain. There is smoke coming out of the horse’s nostrils and water from their mouths!

This is trompe L’œill is of all the famous people of Lyon. A company called CitéCréation’s are responsible for the lovely murals all over Lyon.

Another pretty shot

It ended up being a nice sunny day.

More historic buildings along the river

Beautiful skyline 1

Beautiful skyline 2

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

It was warm enough to sit on top in the double-decker bus

On Place des Terreau (city square), this is Lyon’s City Hall

We may have had an adult libation or two. For the sake of Jed and Greg, of course!

Another great Caprese salad. On La République.

Someone may have chosen a slightly over dressed chicken Caesar. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Palais de la Bourse or Palais du Commerce viewed from our table at the restaurant. On La République

The exterior of the Paul Bocuse Market

Some of the shops

We were there a little after 4pm and most of the vendors had shut down, but there were some beautiful examples anyway

Presentation. You can buy ready made Caprese Salads in beautiful containers. It’s a little hard to see.

La boulangerie

Glazed Fruit look like jewels.

Les Armures, the oldest hotel/restuarant in Geneva. I may have even sat in the very seat George Clooney sat!

Our good friend Teddy and his partner Ji. We had a lovely day in Geneva

Lake Geneva with the Jet d’Eau

C.E.R.N Laboratories The Particle building. They apparently invented the internet!

C.E.R.N. Laboratories, the particle exhibit.

Our cooking class with Chef Jean-Marc Villard

Chef and I in the garden

The fig tree absolutely exploding with figs ready to eat!

If it were warm enough, we would have dine outside!

The lovely brick BBQ

This is his professional kitchen, he has a private kitchen upstairs!

The dining area

Chef Villard and JT examining the soup

JT chopping green olives for the sauce

Chef Villard searing the Monkfish wrapped in bacon. YUM!

Monkfish with a green olive sauce, fingerling potatoes seared in olive oil and the seared scallops (for the soup)

Enjoying a little hors d’œuvres and a glass of wine.

This is only the photo I took of the Clafoutis, it was pear, chocolate with a glorious caramel sauce. I can hardly wait to make this again!

Pumpkin soup scented with vanilla with EVOO sautéed trumpet mushrooms and seared scallops with hazelnut oil drizzle. OMG, this was amazing!

Our main course: Monkfish wrapped in bacon with a green olive veal stock sauce, fingerling potatoes sautéed in EVOO and snap peas with arugula (rocket) pesto. It was DELICIOUS!

Mme. Villard patiently waiting for my photo to be done!

Winemakers notes: “The color is a brilliant light straw. Aromas of intense acacia, yellow peaches and exotic fruits. On the palate the wine is very elegant and harmonious. Its freshness allows the fruit to fully develop. A seductive wine to be enjoyed with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres”.

Geneva trip 1:

We made arrangements to meet up with our good friend Ted whom we haven’t seen for at least 10 years. He and his partner Ji traveled by train from outside Zurich to make this possible. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Geneva’s oldest restaurant/hotel in the historic district. I may have even sat in the same chair as George Clooney; check out their guest book. Geneva is a beautiful city whose population is manly made up of people from somewhere else; there are many company head offices in Geneva as well. We had hoped to meet up with other blogger in Geneva too, but sadly she had to travel for work on the date we could make it. We shall have to return one day.

Geneva trips 2:

We had booked a tour at C.E.R.N laboratories so that we could see what all the fuss was about. This was a very bad weather day; traveling on the highways, it rained so heavily that at times we were unable to see the hood of the car! The tour itself was lead by a physicist and was interesting but we both felt that since we were in Lyon for such a short time, this little side trip could have been avoided without much loss. Plus it was a gorgeous day in Lyon which we missed entirely! And we had to rush back for our cooking class! Not-withstanding the tolls which over the two days were in excess of 100E! Oh well. Live and learn.

Upon our return to Lyon we tried to return the car with the tank empty but they would have charged us 175E to fill it themselves so we opted to find a station and fill it ourselves for 52E. It took over an hour (mainly waiting for people to fill their cars) and return…only minutes to spare for our cooking class. Chef Villard was ready for us waiting in the lobby of our hotel! I barely had time to change and freshen up!

Cooking Class with Chef Jean-Marc Villard

Winemakers notes: “The color is a brilliant light straw. Aromas of intense acacia, yellow peaches and exotic fruits. On the palate the wine is very elegant and harmonious. Its freshness allows the fruit to fully develop. A seductive wine to be enjoyed with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres”.

Our cooking class was amazing and I would definitely recommend it. Chef Villard is fluent in English and is a kind instructor. His kitchen in tidy and calm, but then again there were only two of us. I shall list the menu, but as you can well imagine, I shall be blogging about it in future blog posts! Chef Villard kindly created a little hors d’œuvres of sausages wrapped in home-made brioche (he served the meal with a lovely local wine made with a Viognier grape), we then had a wonderful creamed pumpkin soup fragranced with vanilla bean, drizzled with hazelnut oil (OMG, you MUST smell this!) and served with three seared scallops. Chef Villard mentioned that it depends where you are in France with the fat is that they use…not everyone cooks with butter! Our main course was a Monkfish wrapped in bacon with a delightful veal sauce with green olives (the sweetness of the veal stock and the saltiness of the olives really went well with the fish, and the bacon wrapping was not too salty at all), with olive oil sautéed fingerling potatoes and some lovely snap peas with an arugula (rocket) pesto. For dessert we made a pear and chocolate clafoutis with a glorious caramel sauce. Yes, this will be a dinner for several friends over the next month or so. Of course, I will try to make it marginally healthier (although for a French Chef, he didn’t use as much cream as I thought he might!). This was a very enjoyable dinner. If you are in Lyon, you must try to get into one of his classes, you will not be disappointed. We ate with Chef and Mme Villard and chatted as if we were long-time friends. It was a very enjoyable evening.

We’re off to Paris next on the TGV! See you soon.

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Part II: Barcelona

We travelled from Vienna to Barcelona with one of the intercontinental airlines, Berlin Air; it was efficient and relatively inexpensive (less than $100 pp Canadian). The terminal in Vienna is being overhauled and I don’t know about you, but JT and I have the uncanny ability to chose a flight that departs from the absolute farthest terminal in and out of the building. This was no exception; fortunately we were able to dump our weighty luggage early and manage the walk (and hobble) to the extreme farthest part of the temporary portable building (yes, this terminal was even farther from the actual terminal — it was outside the terminal!). Our drive from Budapest took two hours longer than it should have and we were both anxious not to miss the flight, we made it but we’re being boarded within 15 minutes of arrival! Thank goodness my dear Aunt made sandwiches which we gobbled down while speed-waiting! For some reason security did not care about food, just our documents which were pulled out and scrutinized. Oh, and my shoes! (nudge, nudge wink, wink my shoe buds Kristy and Charlie)

We rented an apartment with AirBnB that was in the Barri Gotic area (thanks for the tip for AirBnB, Charles – I’ll have a little surprise about Charles later!). The apartment was great, much as described on line and the bed was comfy, the kitchen had a coffee maker and a good fridge and the bathroom was modern and we had free wifi! The location was great too, within a short walk to La Rambla with the pedestrian boulevards with restaurants and shops.

The living room overlooked a quiet pedestrian street-no noisy mopeds!

This is the pass through to the small ‘office’. We were streaming music from Martini in the Morning a lovely Jazz station in Southern California.

The bed was a king which is unheard of in Europe! Nice and roomy.

The dining area in the kitchen. That’s an interior window that opened to a fairly large shaft. People hung their laundry out there!

Modern appliances and a N’espresso Machine. Mind you we did have a bit of a challenge finding the cartridges for the machine. To save calories we ate a simple breakfast in our apartment most mornings (plain yogurt, a little bread and coffee)

Our first full day was kind of a bust, full fledged rain so we opted for a bus tour of the city — a great way to get to know what you want to see. We ended up getting the two day pass so that we could go back and see things more in detail, but we ended up just seeing new things. So much to see, so little time.

The architecture is very interesting — this is the Olah hotel with strange eyeballs/Security cameras on the exterior.

Designed by Gaudi a famous Spanish architect and a leader of Catalan Modernism.

Personally, I find Gaudi architecture somewhat disturbing and upsetting

The organic shapes almost seem to make the building come alive…like it’s an alien.

JT had read about this place and indeed it was an excellent lunch

Views from the bus tour

This undulating roof was a market just around the corner from our apartment. Sadly it was open only until 4pm every day and we kept missing it.

Just around the corner from our apartment

They were setting up a stage for later that evening when the Catalan’s would protest for separation. Québequois are not the only one’s who wish to separate!

The Cathedral of Barcelona interior a wonderful example of high gothic architecture

A restaurant that once was the cellars to another cathedral.

It was a really cute place, but the food was just so-so.

Statue of Christopher Columbus. Yes, he was indeed Italian, but his boat was Spanish!

We had a lovely lunch on the shores of the Mediterranean!

A selection of tapas…I did happen to ‘borrow’ the menu for future ideas!

Part of our hood

Along La Ramba, the pedestrian avenue

The weather became brighter and warmer as the evening progressed

The protestors who want to separate. All peaceful.

Walking back…so many motorbikes and scooters!

And that concludes our trip to Barcelona. I had additional photos showing a vista from a fort high above the city, but sadly the light didn’t really provide enough contrast and the photos were dull and boring. We’ll just have to return to Barcelona to get better photos!

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Part I: Vienna and Budapest

Hello friends, hope you’ve all been very well over the last few weeks I’ve been away. We had sporadic internet service over our holidays and I did try to stop by and leave a comment or two, but alas on going back I did notice some did not ‘stick’ and I do apologize. I’ll try to make it up over the following weeks.

Our holidays did get off to a rocky start, with our seats unable to recline on the ancient aircraft Austrian Air employ but that just meant everything else can be so much better, or not, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
In order not to bore you with a million-word post, I’ll condense our trip into three sections: Part I will be Vienna and Budapest; Part II Barcelona; Part III will be Lyon and Paris.

I’ll let you know from the get-go that our weather pretty much sucked! If it wasn’t dark gloomy skies and chilly temperatures then it was dark gloomy skies with chilly temperatures teaming with rain. But that didn’t slow us down as much as … oops! There I go getting ahead of myself again. We did have a few nice days, and you’ll see which one’s in the photos. Those of you on my Facebook have had glimpses of our holiday already…so now I hope you enjoy the narrative!

As you know, we landed in Vienna pretty much unscathed, even though beauty sleep avoided us; we had anticipation and adrenaline pretty much on our side, so we were ready for the experience. JT booked us into the Radisson Blu which is in the inner circle in Vienna; the cab from the airport was rather pricey, so if you don’t over-packed (like I did) you may want to take the commuter train which is much less expensive. Quite surprisingly our room was ready at the bright and early arrival time of 10:30am and we were quite pleased because we like to unpack and freshen up after such a long flight (8 hours from Toronto). We set out on a mission to find a lunch place and look around the city. We’ve been many times before (it’s a perfect spot to pick up a rental car and drive the 2-3 hours to Budapest, and it has many intercontinental connector flights to facilitate our adventures) so we were just walking around to air our heads and check out the new/renovated shops.

One of my favourite stops is the Julius Meinl specialty grocer right in the Graben. It’s a feast for the eyes and stomach. The chocolate section is unparalleled!

This is just one of the aisles for the chocolate section. It spans about 1/4 of the entire store.

I just couldn’t resist a chocolate bunny box, image by Andy Warhol. This one is for my friend Genie all the way down under in New Zealand, a fellow bunny lover.

As you can see, Austria is not cheap. In fact, breakfast in our hotel was a lofty 28 Euros (about 35 Canadian dollars) per person. We decided to order one and share, and it’s a good thing we did, even one was more food than we both could eat.

We chose Danieli for lunch and Huth for dinner (which I’ve talked about in my first post about Vienna).

Here is a lovely picture of Danieli and my delicious salad.

A very nice Italian Restaurant in the Graben

I just can’t get enough of this delicious salad. They just call this cheese Bufala Mozzarella

Budapest was a trip to visit family. My dear uncle passed away over a year ago and I haven’t been back since so it was a rather emotionally stressful time for me. I am pleased to say that all went well, and although there were a few moments of water works, it went rather smoothly. My family lives on Rosa Domb (Rose Hill) in Buda, which is the quieter side of Budapest. They used to live in the heart of it all in Pest, but about 30 years ago decided to move in preparation for their retirement. They have a lovely four-story town-house. We packed 22kg (about 50lbs) into each of our cases, and the guest room is…you guessed it, on the fourth floor! Now these were likely the most luxurious steps of all the steps we encountered on our trip, there were worse. And I was very lucky that my cousin and JT carried my over-packed case all the way up (I’m re-thinking this packing business in the future!).
We ate like kings for the four days in Budapest!

This was our welcome lunch. The Hungarians eat their main meal at noon on weekends. It’s stuffed pork tenderloin with prunes, cooked beets, carrots, mashed potatoes and white asparagus.

A typical “dinner” served anywhere between 6-9pm. Cold cuts, cheeses, tomatoes, Hungarian peppers, radishes and fresh bread

My cousin treated the entire family to a evening cruise on the Danube. It was a lovely evening and the lights sparkled like diamonds. It was such a beautiful sight, I would recommend this cruise to everyone, although the dinner cruise is not recommended (we just cruised with a cocktail!).

The Szabadsági Bridge (Freedom Bridge) with an interesting light my camera caught

The very beautiful shoreline with the Independence Monument in the background

The beautiful Parliament Buildings

Our last full day in Budapest, we visited the Castle District (Vár) and Margit Island (Margit Sziget).

Matthias Coronation Church newly restored and sparkling clean

The Fisherman’s Bastion. The story goes that during one of the many Turkish invasions (over several hundred years), the city was divided into different sections to be protected by each trade. This section was protected by the fisherman.

Dancing Fountain on Margit Island

Yes, we did get a lovely day or two in Budapest.

It was nice enough to eat outside. JT took this picture from the back which is a reverse ravine. That’s my cousin Rudi on the far left, my Aunt Ági, my cousin’s wife, Éva and me!

We left early the next morning to drive back to Vienna to catch a flight to Barcelona but not without issues. JT tried to carry too much luggage down and slipped and twisted his ankle (OK it may have been the precarious little rug at the foot of the stairs). We realized in Barcelona that it was indeed a sprain, but after some quick first aid and the purchase of a cane we were back on our way!
The other issue was that we had left 4.5 hours for a 2-3 hour drive and we ended up just barely catching our flight due to some really bad back up just outside of Vienna on the A4 (M1 in Hungary). It was a very anxious trip but we made it.

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Making memories at the Lake House in Wisconsin

Happy Birthday Canada, we turn a whopping 145 today. I guess I shouldn’t complain about my age, then ;-)!

It’s a long weekend and you may wonder what some Canadians do on the birth of their wonderful country, we head state-side! We dropped into John, Bill and Kristy’s lovely state for about an hour and then we headed over to Delavan, Wisconsin to Paul and T’s new Lake House. We haven’t been so we are really excited!
This morning we took a nice long walk along their road; well it wasn’t intended on being long, we just happened to walk past their place and we noticed 15 minutes later! Believe it or not, we hadn’t even had a cocktail yet!

This is Maggie, Paul’s daughter Niki’s dog. I thought she looked like a similar breed to John’s dog, Max!

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Restaurant Review: Mad Dog and Beans, NYC

Our final day in the Big Apple. After our delightful walk along the Hudson River, we ended up deep in the Financial District of New York City. JT wanted to take me to lunch in the oldest part of the city. We decided on Mad Dog and Beans, a Mexican Cantina. It got mediocre reviews on Yelp, but we really wanted to eat outside and we figured we’d order something simple so they wouldn’t screw it up.

The restaurant logo

We both ordered the Black Eyed Tuna Salad which was pan seared black eye tuna with sesame seeds, romaine lettuce, diced avocado, radish, orange wedges and a jalapeno ginger dressing ($10). We were both quite pleasantly surprised. See, my theory is to lower your expectations and you will never be disappointed! It doesn’t always work. But the tuna was perfectly cooked, fresh the avocado was creamy and the orange was a wonderful foil for the flavour combinations. The only downfall would have been the dressing, which was tasteless (can’t even guess what it was!).

Seared Tuna with Avocado and Orange

The street patio

Looking at the opposite direction

My handsome honey

I really liked the area and will plan to come back on our next trip. But there was another restaurant Smorgas Chef that I would likely try next.

Overall rating of The Mad Dog and Beans (in my opinion): Decor ?/5 (we sat outside and didn’t even go in), service 4:5, food 3/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

And that concludes our 26th Anniversary trip to New York City. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I’ll leave you with this last photo (an ad for a storage company, but I photoshop’d the ad out). This last photo is for Kristy (Eat, Play, Love), Sissi (With a Glass), Liz (That Skinny Chick can Bake) and Charlie (Hotly Spiced), my ‘shoe sisters’.

This is a real billboard we saw while on the High Line

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Restaurant Review: Morandi, NYC

Our final evening in NYC we booked The Jazz Standard at Battery Park City, it’s been an old favourite of ours for the last few years. We saw Fred Hersch and Rene Marie. Ordinarily we like to see lively shows, with or without vocals, but unfortunately on this night the songs were melancholy and not to our taste. The vocalist Rene Marie sang beautifully, but the songs were just too sad. And to add to it, the club had the A/C turned on at such a frigid temperaturs so I was F R E E Z I N G. We talked to three different people about it without success. We almost left.
We ordered some Crispy Chili Crusted Calamari with Charred Red Pepper Mayo ($12.95) because I don’t like to drink on an empty stomach and they had no healthy snacks. Sadly, they were rubbery and over cooked; the charred red pepper mayo made them palatable (sorry Katherine, Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide). The connected restaurant Blue Smoke is supposed to have delicious BBQ, but we’ve never tried it.
Our dinner reservations were at 9:30; normally I’m not a huge fan of eating this late but what the heck, we’re on VAYCAY!
We chose Morandi, a very popular Italian trattoria to have our final dinner in this amazing city and it’s packed! On their website they say that there is a celebrity guest every night. They actually checked our reservation…at 9:30! We are seated at a great table by the patio. It’s not quite warm enough to sit outside (although there are people sitting out there). The place has a warm homey décor; good lighting and just lively enough that I could talk at a normal level.

We didn’t notice any celebrities

We ordered three appi’s because neither of us were starving. We shared the Polipetti e sedano which was grilled octopus with celery & black olives ($16); it was tender, perfectly done and delicious (JTs first octopus).

JTs first octapus. Delicate, perfectly done and a nice combo with the celery

This is the bread

And then JT ordered the Calamari alla griglia which was grilled squid with peppers, capers & olives ($14) it was a healthy portion, nicely done and quite tasty. Not overly seasoned, very tasty indeed.

Just take the damn picture so I can eat.

I ordered the Burrata e pachini which was burrata cheese with roasted cherry tomatoes “on the vine” ($17). Now before this year, I had not heard of burrata cheese, but then I saw it on Barbara Bamber Just a Smidgin site and was intrigued. When I saw it on this menu I had to try it.
Reader alert, OMG!!! This is really, undoubtedly even better than bufalo Mozzarella! Yes, I said it: E V E N ; ; B E T T E R. There, I said it. Perfectly creamy and delicately flavoured. I’d go back to NYC just to have THIS again. I’m hooked (I’m singing Jason Mraz’s I’m yours in my head, and by ‘yours’ I mean burrata’s).

I had the Burrata Cheese Dish. If you think Bufalo Mozarrella is TDF, you MUST have THIS.

Overall rating of Morandi (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4:5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 3/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

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Foodie Fun: things to do in NYC

It’s obvious I’m getting a lot of mileage out of our New York trip on the blog, but it was such a fun time, I just have to share a couple more fun things to do, and they are food related.

The Chelsea Market: Located in Chelsea at 75 9th Avenue (Between 15th and 16th Streets) it’s s bustling food hub. In fact, the Food Network US is located in this building. Although I can’t say that I’ve seen any one of my food network fav’s hanging around this market but I think I did spy Snooki on 6th Avenue earlier this day! (allow me to redeem myself, ordinarily I wouldn’t know what Snooki looks like or who she was, but literally the day before we left, I was standing at a checkout of a grocery store and there she was starring up at me on the cover of one of those entertainment rags. So really, it was by accident that I even knew what the woman looks like!).

OK, on to the market: there’s Buon Italia, an incredible shop that sells foods of Italy; I used to get my dried chestnuts there as I knew of nowhere else to get them.

Buon Italia an amazing shop selling Italian foods

And the pastas, all imported from Italy. I just love the simplicity of the packaging. I can close my eyes and imagine I am in Italy in this store.

This one is for John (Bartolini Kitchens)

Then there is Amy’s Breads, an enormous bakery that you can see them working all day!

Amy’s Bread is an enormous bakery

And I’ve already talked about the wonderful kitchen story, Bowery Kitchen Supply; you can literally spend an hour in this store. The Filling Station when I have bought some wonderful olive oils (but sadly, this time I was concerned about my luggage weight). Then we had a little wine tasting at The Chelsea Wine Vault. And of course you must check out all of the wonderful eateries that may be found in this market. It’s a great trip, but be warned, go to the bathroom before you get there, the line-up was about 100 people long (thank goodness I didn’t need to go!).

Eataly (yes, that is correct!); Eataly is a restaurant (or several) grocery store, bakery, coffee shop, wine shop, butcher and fish monger all in one convenient location at 200 5th Avenue, a short walk from our hotel.

Beautifully merchandised Italian products.

Sorry, a little blurry iPhone Photo

JT thought he saw Leonard Nimoy here

I would certainly recommend a trip to this destination.

I thought you might enjoy a little architecture too.

The Famous Flatiron or Fuller Building

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Restaurant Review: The Standard, NYC (and a brush with fame!)

Last Sunday was a day of exploring and we headed up to the High Line so that we could see how much more they’ve expanded the gorgeous elevated gardens. We started at West 30th and walked south with a mission in mind…we wanted to have lunch at The Standard Grill at 13th Street, right under the High Line.

The Standard was recommended to me by one of our fav food stylists who was just in NYC in January, so I knew it would be great.

We were seated at a cozy table at the back, directly in front of the kitchen. We had arrived around 1pm and it wasn’t packed, but lively enough. There were a few couples seated along the same side we were, but with an empty table between us. JT noticed the gentleman directly beside me; hmmm he thought, seems familiar, but it wasn’t until the gentleman spoke that he realized I was sitting right beside Jessy Ferguson (Mitchel from Modern Family)! How COOL IS THAT? We didn’t let on that we recognized him to respect his privacy, but boy would I have love a picture with him! Sigh, the cost of being polite 😦 Jessy and his date were having lunch about the same pace as we were, so I could really say that I had lunch with Jessy Ferguson!

Aren’t they adorable, salt and pepper shakers. They are connected by a magnet.

So I forgot to take pictures yet again. OK, now this is getting silly, but I did order the Steak Tartar à Go-Go…again…I think I have outdone my beef quota for a while. It was traditionally seasoned and a small portion (appetizer) ($16). I enjoyed it with a lovely glass of Prosecco served in an old fashioned champagne goblet. I normally prefer the newer tall flutes so the bubbles don’t dissipate as quickly, but it was somehow appropriate in this traditionally decorated French restaurant. JT ordered Standard Cobb Salad made with local lettuce with grilled chicken, avocado, tomato and blue cheese. There was tonnes of blue cheese and it was so tasty! He generously gave me a huge blob which I spread with glee on a crisp toast that came with my tartar. There I said it, I ate bread! It was delicious and such a treat.

I also wanted to mention the unique floors at The Standard Grill…they are entirely tiled in pennies. I asked the hostess how many and I think she said over 5 hundred thousand, but I could be wrong. You can see a very good photo here.

Overall rating of The Standard (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4:5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

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Restaurant Review: Raoul’s NYC

Ahhh, the city that never sleeps…we ate our way through the Big Apple and thoroughly enjoyed it. JT  booked us into all new restaurant experiences (not that we don’t like tried and true, but we’ve been there and done that, so we wanted something new!).

Saturday night we went to Raoul’s just a short cab ride from our hotel (could have been a short walk had I not worn my 2 block shoes)!

This is the postcard they gave us

It’s a very quaint restaurant with seating in the front and in the back behind the kitchen, in fact, we had to walk through the kitchen to get to our table. We sat facing the back in a lovely little circular booth, so romantic. The front of the restaurant was much more lively than the back, which I suspect was reserved for the more romantic guests! The back was also not nearly as crowded as only every second or third table was filled. I know a lot of people prefer a lively place, but I actually like to have a conversation with my date and not have to yell at the top of my lungs!

It was very dark so I was unable to take any photos of the food, but let me tell you about it, it was very good. I know I’m on a raw kick, but I can’t help it, I do enjoy it very much. I started with Bigeye Tuna Tartare with Grilled Squid Salad, Mango and Avocado ($16) it was delicious. The tuna was delicately seasoned and the grilled squid was perfectly cooked, not chewy or rubbery at all. And you all know how I love the sweet and salty contrasts so the Mango and avocado went so perfectly with this dish. I’d go back for it! JT had Farm Beet Salad with Watercress, Shaved Fennel, Chevrettine and Aleppo Dressing ($13) he said it was tasty but the beets were too few to make any kind of impression.

For my main course, well I just couldn’t help myself and had to have the Steak Tartare with Quail Egg and Cornichon Salad ($16 appetizer portion). It was very tasty, not the best I’ve ever had but very good. The tartare was roughly chopped in larger pieces, which I normally don’t love, but I must say it was a fantastic cut of beef so it lent itself to the chop well. The Cornichon (pickle) salad was a nice contrast of textures to the steak, and it worked well softening the richness of the meat with the acidity. JT had Grilled Colorado Rack of Lamb with Roasted Asparagus and Ramps ($49), the lamb was done well but could have used a few more asparagus.

Our waiter was attentive but not in your face, which is always very nice. He has worked in this particular restaurant for several years, and that is a good sign that it’s a good place to work.

Overall rating of Raoul’s (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4:5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

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Nature Walks in New York City?

New York City is amazing for shopping, shows, people watching and nature walks. Oh, did that surprise you? Earlier during our séjourn Charlie at Hotly Spiced commented and asked what JT does whilst I am shopping — he explores — mainly to find cool spots to show me when we get together. I love that he gets excited about showing me his discoveries. This post will tell you about two new discoveries and one we did last year too. They absolutely knocked my socks off (well, they sure would have had I been wearing socks, but it was just too hot!).

I’ll tell you about the High Line first (or better yet, I’ll let the experts tell you about it) Excerpt from thehighline.com:
“The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now the non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy. In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations, and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line works to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park’s annual operating budget, and to advocate for the preservation and transformation of the High Line at the Rail Yards, the third and final section of the historic structure, which runs between West 30th and West 34th Streets.”

Now if you are going to NYC, I strongly suggest a visit to this surprising nature walk. Norma (From Garden to Wok) mentioned it to me when she saw were were going to New York this spring, but fortunately we had already been the year before, so I was able to tell her how excited we were to be able to see it expanded even more!. Splendidly landscaped with a huge variety native plants and trees, this gorgeous raised walkway provides a quiet retreat for a hectic day in a hectic city; New Yorkers alike love to take a break for a picnic, a little reading or even sun bathing (believe it or not). On the Sunday we were in NYC, we did not notice a large number of tourists, just a few; I would guess that the majority of visitors are native New Yorkers.

Every part of the High Line is set up for the enjoyment of the visitor, taking in views, nature and art specifically designed for the High Line. One of my favourite parts is the stage overlooking 10th Avenue. It is equally as cool from the High Line as it is viewing up from the street (we did that last year).

The Theatre of 10th Avenue. Darn, I was really counting on that parking spot.

Everyone loves grass.

I always try to colour coordinate with the art I visit

Cute little gargoyles that for some reason remind me of …

The other surprising escape is a wonderful path along the Hudson River down on the Lower West Side’s famed Financial District. Beginning at Chambers Street, this path goes all the way to Battery Park at the base of Manhattan. The 2.4 km (1.5 miles) walk will entertain you with sculptures, moments to pause and reflect on various memorials and spectacular views of New Jersey across the Hudson River. The New York CIty Police Memorial is a beautiful fountain and engraved wall with Police Officer names who have died in the line of duty; the Irish Hunger Memorial which is is dedicated to raising awareness of the Great Irish Famine during which about a million Irish died (we even spotted wild strawberries on this memorial). There is a bicycle boulevard that spans directly to the New World Trade Centre, it is really awe inspiring.

It’s really heart breaking that there are so many names

The Irish Memorial

Wild strawberries in the middle of NYC for my avid gardening friend Norma

Gorgeous Atrium along the path

Finally a photo of JT.

Boy, someone sure loves taking pics of his wife.

We’ll leave the commentary of these to your imagination

We walked all the way to Battery Park at the base of Manhattan, it was so incredibly hot and sunny (not complaining) we had to stop and pick up some water from a street vendor. I would like to point out that the water in NYC is quite reasonable even in the touristy areas like Battery Park. In Toronto, our vendors seem to enjoy taking advantage of the lowly wonderer and charge sometimes as much as $4 for a bottle of water they bought in bulk at Costco for 10 cents! We continue towards wall street to a very special area…an unexpected surprise…the old part of NYC. We pass by a 400 year old house, Fraunces Tavern est 1762 http://www.frauncestavern.com/. Very cool but they don’t have outdoor space and we want to sit on a patio for lunch so we continue to Stone Street. Basically just one restaurant after another; I highly recommend a visit, even if you don’t eat there. Original cobble stones line the streets, the buildings are old and quaint and they close the street down so that the restaurants can put their patio tables into the street. It’s very festive. We were there early as we had a 3pm plane to catch at Newark, but JT didn’t want me to miss this experience, and boy am I glad he saved some time to share it with me. This is a side of New York that is very unexpected.

This is the plaque for the oldest house in Manhattan

This is the closed off street with cobblestones and tables. It was a VERY sunny day.

We selected a cute little restaurant for lunch, but I’ll save that for another Restaurant Review Post.

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Start spreading the news!

Start spreading the news. I am leaving today. I want to be a part of it. New York, New York …

Photo for Charles, to show that we can see the Empire State Building! It’s behind a condo which makes it look a little weird.
What a day! The weather was INCREDIBLE! Hot, sunny albeit a little humid (oh come on, it wasn’t that bad!)

Even though it was an anniversary trip, I like to have a day to myself when I can run amuck in a familiar city (like New York, Paris and Chicago) okay, who am I kidding? I want a day to shop, unburdened by ‘how much time do you need in there’ so JT and I have a quick breakfast and we kiss good bye and split for the day! Woohoo!
Get ready, I’m about to give you my secret low-down. Shhhhhhhh.
I have my game plan in Manhattan, it’s tried and true and has reaped many great finds over the years. I’ve had to modify a bit as we are residing in a different part of town this trip. Truth be known, I love this neck of the woods!
Stop #1 is Century 21 downtown in the financial district. I get there on the Yellow line using the R train. They have a great shoe department and two floors of designer clothing of various budget levels, but you have to get there early otherwise it’s a total zoo to try things on and pay! I was there about ten minutes after it opened and it was already packed! But the fitting rooms were not bad, no waiting in line! Whew!
I scooted back up north on the same train.
Stop #2 Union Square: DSW, Nordstrom Rack, Strawberry! There used to be a Filene’s Basement but sadly they are all gone now. Moment of silence.
Then I walked the remaining route. 11-3pm. Note to Kristy: I wore flats!
Stop #3: Loehmans. Similar to TJ Zmax and Marshall’s, but one level up.
Stop #4: Chelsea Market, mainly for the Bowery Kitchen Supply Store I bought a chocolate chipper fork and a tube for plating stacked courses! I sat down for 10 minutes had a quick bite of sashimi at The Lobster Place and a little limone Gelato from Buon Italiay a real treat for me!!

A Ruthys Cakes in Chelsea Market

Beautiful Barbie Cake

Cool lanterns at the Chelsea Market
Stop #5: TJ Maxx and Marshall’s around 17th and 6th. It’s around 3pm by the time I hit those two places and they were packed (did no one leave Manhattan for Memorial Day?). I spec out a few things but won’t wait the hour+ to buy them! Time to call it quits and I plan to head back the next morning.
The next day I went up to JCP, Daffy’s and Macy’s at 6th and 34th. I reach Macy’s after 4 and its a total zoo. Conspicuous consumption at its best. The variety and selection are absolutely overwhelming; like going to Ikea or Costco without a list! I am a dear in headlights! Why did I come here? The ladies shoe department is on the fourth and fifth floors! Two? I might think I’m in heaven. Well, not really. It’s a MESS! So many people you’d think they were giving them away for free. Shoes EVERYWHERE strewn on the floor. It’s so sad. I can’t even be bothered to search for my size. The selection is overwhelming. I think Macy’s best be done from 10-10:30 right when it opens. I leave empty handed :(.
Overall a good shopping trip. Next time I will plan to do it only from opening to noon over two days. I just don’t do crowds well anymore!

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Restaurant Review: Riverpark, NYC

That’s my Angelina pose!
The day turned out to have perfect weather, so JTs first pick for dinner the Riverpark was wonderful. Situated in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood, Riverpark is a Tom Colicchio restaurant (Top Chef Judge);
this restaurant is in an unlikely location of the main floor of an office building overlooking the Hudson river. We arrived on time and they seat us at a lovely window-side table (talk about lucking out!). Here is a gorgeous photo, mine was burnt out.

It’s designed beautifully with attention to detail but not overwhelming so that the view can be the star.

The ceiling over the large bar has lights like stars in the sky!
The restaurant gets most, if not all of its produce from its own ‘farm‘ amidst the sky scrapers in Alexandria Centre. Cool eh?
We start with half a dozen East Coast Oysters from Maine ($15); the waiter said the were briny, but they are not briny enough for my taste (I like to taste the ocean, my fav’s are Prince Edward Island oysters). I had the Salmon Tartare ($15) which was roughly chopped salmon seasoned very simply with capers, lemon and parsley, so delicious! JT had Baby Lettuces ($11) with marinated vegetables and herbs and a champagne vinaigrette.
Keeping with the smaller portions I had another appetizer of the Grilled Calamari Salad ($17) with farm baby greens, grapefruit and a Niçoisse olive vinaigrette – it was perfect! JT had the Smoked Ricotta Gnocchi with peas, long peppercorn, morels and pecorrino
which were tender with a hint of smoke in a very delicious broth-based sauce. A pleasant surprise to the traditional cream laden sauces (he too had the smaller plate ($17).
Our waiter was attentive but not in your face, he was knowledgeable about the food and wine, and when he didn’t know, he wasn’t afraid to ask. For the quality and ambiance, I did not find this place expensive.
Overall rating of Riverpark (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 3.5:5, food 4.5/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

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Restaurant Review: Crema NYC

The weather has been incredible and day one in the Big Apple was no different. When we landed it was a teeny tiny bit overcast and cool, but that’s great walking weather (and like Kelly’s family last week, we walked and walked and walked), so we were thrilled! Our amazing hotel, Eventi is located in Chelsea so JT selected a restaurant only about 12 blocks away. We always choose Mexican for our first lunch and NYC has a handful of exceptional restaurants and Crema will probably be our new flavourite! It has more contemporary décor with a touch of Mexican! It’s nice and cool inside even though the door is is wide open, it’s hot and humid outside and there is an open kitchen. We’re very glad because during our walk the sun came out blazing and I was really sweating (like the Eastern European that I am!).
We are seated and served immediately without reservations. The server described our food with detail and passion when he served us.
I had the Ceviche de ($14) which was
African Octopus marinated in orange citrus vinaigrette, avocado, cilantro and garnished with four flour tostadas with avocado mousse in a Mille Feuille presentation. It had black sea salt speckled on it (gotta get me some). Incredible! Beautifully presented and so incredibly tasty!

JT had Flautas en Trilogia de Salsas ($12) it was crispy corn tortillas with shredded chicken, corn, caramelized onions and served with a trio of salsas: tomatillo-avocado, chili aioli paste, and a velvety pinto bean. Very tasty, and beautifully presented.

We may even break our cardinal rule and come here again on this trip!

Overall rating of Crema (in my opinion): Decor 3/5, service 3.5:5, food 4.5/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet). We paid for our meal in full.

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New York City! Woohoo!

We flew off to NYC this fine morning. Toronto is hot and humid, Manhattan is slightly cooler but with higher humidity. As long as it’s not cold, I’ll be ok, I think I packed enough ;)! Okay, don’t ask!
I’d like to apologize if I’m not commenting on your lovely blogs, I will surely catch up on my return. Please forgive me 🙂
We flew United and had to pay $28 per checked bag! Really? Since when? We don’t pay with Canadian airlines. I’m already rethinking my wardrobe for Europe, although we are flying Air Canada! I’m sure they will catch on by the fall. For Manhattan I brought 6 pairs of shoes, 7 if you count the foldy/rolly ones!
We arrived at the airport with plenty of time, and thank goodness as we were ‘flagged’ by Nexus. We had to go to a special room and drop off our credentials and wait. JT has a common name and we were tagged! Lucky us. 😦 This has happened before and we discovered that there are a lot of criminals who have the same name as JT. Our kind US agent marked our info on their system so we are never tagged again, at least that is what he told us. We’ll see if the let us back in!
Our plane was a small Boeing turbo prop, at gate 91 out of 99; of course it was! I wore appropriate traveling shoes so the walk was a breeze (7 minutes, the sign said!)

The first part of the flight was rough and we were tossed around like a plastic bag in the wind. Then it calmed fortunately. I’m reading 50 Shades of Grey on the iPad, for all the reasons. It’s an easy read; I’m on page 70, when do we get to the good parts? (and by that, the ladies will know what I mean!)
We pay $57 + 17 for tolls for a cab into Manhattan from Newark. Expensive, yes but it gets us to our hotel in about 40 minutes!
Our hotel is the Eventi, a Kimpton. Thank you Karen, Back Road Journal, for mentioning about joining loyalty programs. We were upgraded to a higher floor AND the concierge sent up fruit and bottle if wine for our anniversary!

Free WIFI too! So great. View from our room, if you look far left you’ll see the Empire State Building (not in the photo):

I’ll blog about lunch tomorrow.

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Restaurant Review: The Flying Saucer Restaurant, Niagara Falls

I know what you’re thinking, “WTF?” It’s weird, it’s bizarre but the food’s good (for breakfast) and the service is also good. And it makes for an interesting post for my blog. The Flying Saucer Restaurant has been around since 1972 and has been pleasing crowds from all over, ever since. It’s not fine dining, by any stretch of the imagination but we ARE, after all, in Niagara Falls. Their slogan is FLYING SAUCER RESTAURANT is known throughout the galaxy for OUT OF THE WORLD food at DOWN TO EARTH PRICES – served at the speed of light! It was served very quickly, that’s for sure.

Ruthie is much more photogenic than either JT or I, so we acquiesced each time she asked us, "take my picture, take my picture!"

We’d been here before, last year, we knew the portions were enormous, so we decided to share the E.T. Special. It was plenty of food, believe me. With a couple of cups of coffee, we were all set until lunch! If you’re ever in the Niagara Area and feel like a plain old fashioned greasy spoon breakfast, then The Flying Saucer restaurant is the place for you! But get there before 10am, because that’s when all the weirdos come out for breakfast and the crazy line-ups begin.

It's a lot of food. I couldn't finish the homefries!

Ruthie was feeling a little under the weather from the night before (too much partying!) so she was taking it easy and had only coffee that morning.

Overall rating of The Flying Saucer Restaurant: Decor 4/5 (yes, it even looks flying saucery inside!), service 5/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 3/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meal for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

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A Little Sojourn to Niagara Falls, Ontario

Did you miss me? We were away and we did not have free wifi. I figured at $200 a night, they could have thrown it in…it was a matter of principal.

Of course, it has to snow on our driving day.

Snow, snow, GO AWAY.

We like to get away from time to time, even if it’s just a couple of hours away. This weekend is our relatively new Family Day holiday in Ontario; it was an election promise by our current Premier Dalton McGuinty (one that he actually kept!) creating a statutory holiday to help bridge the gap from Christmas to Easter, and to beef up tourism in Ontario. We took a little trip to Niagara Falls Ontario.

Niagara is a wonderful combination of culture, food, natural wonder and of course, shopping, and it’s only an hour and a half from our home! We’ve stayed in several different places over the years but this time we’re staying at the Gateway Fallsview Marriott which is reasonably close to Casino Niagara where on Sunday night we will see Band from TV. Here is an adorable little clip of Teri Hatcher singing Kerry Underwood’s Before he Cheats. (Kerry is married to Canadian Mike Fisher, who comes from Peterborough, my nephew (Brian) and niece (Laura) went to school with his siblings…cool eh? 6 degrees of separation!)

Now you are well aware that I bumped into Flat Ruthie the other day at the Toronto Courthouse (not sure what she was doing down there, and perhaps I don’t want to know). Anyway, she finagled her way into coming with us this weekend…I think we’re in trouble…

Oh my, Ruthie, we're ONLY gone 2 nights!

We dropped our luggage at the hotel and then took the Whirlpool Bridge across which is ONLY for Nexus users — we breezed through (the Rainbow Bridge had at least an hour long lineup! Yay Nexus). We went to Walden Galleria to shop where I only got a few things…we declared everything and didn’t have to pay anything! We’re lucky that way. That’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to jinx it! In Canada anything less than 24 hours away and you’re really not supposed to buy anything and bring it back, or you should pay 13% taxes and then about 10-15% duties; but it’s really up to the crossing agent – they determine if you pay. After 48 hours I believe you are allowed $300 plus a litre of booze each. But it’s not worth staying in Niagara Falls New York, believe me, it’s such a dump.

We ate lunch at Gordon Biersch; it was a very nice, pub like establishment, but what really drew us to it was that they make everything from scratch right there. And they brew their own beer. A lot of the menu had beer ingredients, which is always quite cool. I ordered the Ahi tuna salad which was quite tasty (Ahi Tuna, blackened and seared rare, with Märzen Balsamic, Vinaigrette and Cajun remoulade) but as usual they really over dressed the greens…enough already! JT had half roast turkey and swiss sandwich and a beer and cheddar soup – the soup was so rich he couldn’t/wouldn’t finish it. For Buffalo, it exceeded my expectations (I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to dine at burger king).

JT had the beer, I had a glass of wine. I usually find beer too filling.

This is the view from our room:

This is a panoramic view from our room using Photosynth - a photo stitch ap on the iPhone

I told her I wouldn't be able to get a good shot, but she insisted.

We stayed at the Fallsview Gateway Marriott which is apparently a different hotel than the Fallsview Marriott. We thought we were in the other one. It wasn’t bad, it was just unexpected. We had a very nice view of the falls. There were no bedbugs. Thank goodness. It’s also a little ironic that we had free wifi in Morrocco, yet, in Niagara Falls Ontario, it’s about $12.75 plus taxes a day. I didn’t get it. Hence my absence this weekend.

King-size bed. There, I said it.

The bathroom had a glass wall facing the bed…I’ll leave that to your imagination.

The fancy tub (can you imagine the bacteria-fest in the pipes? YUCK!)

I’ll review the restaurants and the entertainment in the coming days.

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Back to reality and a synopsis

I cannot believe our vacation is over; it feels like it was yesterday that we started planning it.
Marrakech is an old city made beautiful by the kindhearted people who live there. Much of it (old and new) looks like it’s crumbling, and in significant decay, but it is not as dirty as one would expect. There is virtually no garbage on the streets! People seem to hose down their sidewalks every morning. I never saw cat or dog poo anywhere (they have poo bags for the horses and mules). We didn’t see roaches or rats during our entire stay (other than the occasional fly and wasp), and we walked through the oldest parts of town, back alleys and short cuts. I can honestly say I never smelled garbage or urine — you can’t say that about New York, Paris or even Toronto. Don’t get me wrong, the city is not clean (no major centre is) but it certainly did not have the dirtiness and litter I was expecting!
The weather was neither as warm or as cold as we were expecting. The first few days we were greeted by rain and chilling winds from the mountains, then the rains ended and the sky opened up to a gorgeous blue, without clouds to showcase the warm bright sun. Now those were the temperatures we expected. But the evenings grew chilly and we had our lovely wood burning fireplace on in our room a few times (no central heat).
The traffic is chaos but somehow everyone knows what to do, organized chaos. The Moroccans sure make good use if their horns, our 10 minute ride from the Casablanca Train Station, the cabby honked a minimum of 30 times, I stopped counting! Motorbikes don’t seem to have to obey the traffic lights; they can even ride on the sidewalks which shouldn’t surprise me as pedestrians walk all over the roads everywhere! Pedestrian cross walks mean nothing. You hold your breath and pray and as you walk with a purposeful stride across a busy city street you should be OK (kinda like walking across the Broadway Manhattan!). Strangely enough there were no issues. I wasn’t even nudged by a speeding vehicle once, but JT tells me he was nudged a couple of times! The trick is to keep moving at the same rate and not make quick changes, the drivers can then estimate where you will be when he reaches you!
The people of Morocco have the kindest hearts of any other people we’ve ever met. Strangers stopped us on the street to offer us directions, they helped us with our bags on and off the trains, with no expectations in return. They seem to genuinely want us to be happy. Sure, there are the desperate ones but few and far between. The markets are cut-throat and I have come to accept that the one’s in these souks are just desperate to make a living – aren’t we all? Some of us with more desperation than others.
The people of Morocco have an incredible pride in their country and their city and it shows when they talk about it. Even the cabbies in their old beat up Mercedes Benzes talk about their city as if they have been appointed the Royal Tour Guide, pointing out the highlights along our trek. In Toronto, you’d best know how to get to your destination because it’s unlikely the cabby will, let alone know what the highlights along the way are! In fact, in Toronto, you’re lucky if they speak English. In Morocco, they generally speak Arabic and French, sometimes English. They always try to communicate with you.
This vacation has really taught me the true kindness of strangers in a far away land. I’ve always appreciated what we have, but it’s all only stuff. The Moroccans seem to have this true kindness and peace within, that doesn’t rely on stuff. It’s really quite lovely.
This type of holiday is not for everyone with the noise and chaos of the streets, but it is a good eye opener for us Westerners.
Thank you for taking this journey with me, I hope that one day you will be able to travel to Morocco to enjoy their kindness and generosity first hand. Shokrohm (thank you in Arabic) ey Merci (in French).

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Casablanca

Today is our final full day in Morocco. I always find this juncture in our vacations a little bitter sweet; did we see EVERYTHING? DO EVERYTHING? EAT EVERYTHING? But then again, I find some relief that soon I will be sleeping in my own bed, cooking my own food, and for the first while to be able to enjoy the mundaneness of auto-pilot of my life. And then we start thinking of the next adventure.
Casablanca is a three hour train ride; this time we bought our first class tickets the day before (apparently you can do this up to 6 days before). First class is about $10 more. We plan to have lunch at the train station, but leaving our Ryad takes a bit longer than expected. Hayat wants to come to say goodbye, but she is the manager at the other Ryad across the medina. We wait for her. Meanwhile the wonderful staff we have come to know quite well come by to give us hugs and wish us well. The Chef gives us a beautiful silver cardboard box filled with Moroccan hand made sweets! Hayat arrives, goodbyes are said, hugs and kisses. I will make the effort to remain in contact with her, with email and Facebook, one has no excuses anymore.
The car they hired to take us to Marrakech Train Station is lovely, although no seat belts! It has all if the original instruments in the dash! And the luggage can fit INSIDE! The driver proudly talks about some of the landmarks as we speed by. The train station is new, built in the modern Moroccan style – I don’t have an iPhone pic, but here is a link
We get there early enough that we can have a little lunch at an Italian style cafe (or McDonalds!). We ate delicious Ham and cheese panini sandwiches.
The first class car is simply compartments of 6 seats. The seats are upholstered in rich fabric, there is a curtain on the window to shield the hot sun and there us A/C. A little A/C. We are the second to arrive. The seats are numbered – someone has to leave my seat. There is a young man across from me, he speaks English, French, Arabic and a little Spanish. He is going to Casa to see some cousins, then back to University to study tourism. We are constantly mistaken for British tourist (no British accent at all). My only guess us that they don’t get many Americans, process of elimination. The young man is ELATED that we are from Canada; his favorite artist Justin Bieber is Canadian! He spares us the question if we know him. Nice kid, he helps us understand the announcements which are as garbled as the subways in Manhattan!
We arrive in Casablanca and another young man helps us with our luggage off the train just out of kindness (who’s great idea was it to bring two weeks of clothes?) it’s getting heavier every time we move it; and I haven’t been able to help much because of my stupid shoulder.
We find a cab and he drives us rather efficiently to our hotel. He honks his horn a minimum of 30 times! For some bizarre reason he lets us off across the street from the hotel. It’s a major street, like Broadway in Manhattan – 4 lanes each direction. There are traffic lights and what seem to be pedestrian cross walks marked by lines on the road, but did I mention, no one cares? We wait for a local to cross and we hold our breath (say a little prayer) and run like mad across the busy intersection dragging two weeks worth of luggage behind us. The hotel front desk staff remembers us; how was Marrakech they ask. Our room is efficient, same floor only two rooms down. The Royal Mansour Meridien is supposed to be a five star hotel. The bathrooms desperately need a makeover. Two nights. We were going to go outside for dinner but JT did a little recon while I was dolling up and found nothing really good. At least we know the food and service are great at the Meridien. We have drinks in a lovely bar where they give us beautiful little hors d’œuvres, olives and nuts, then we have a lite supper in the lobby restaurant.

This is the bar. Sadly they allow smoking everywhere!

Little hors d’œuvres.
Our waiter is intrigued that we are from Canada and not Great Britain, he says “Canada is my dream“. I am so touched and I’m reminded to be grateful to have been born there. He asks a lot of questions, but then he surprises us both, he knows the name of our Prime Minister! (hmmmm, I may have to do little quiz about Canada with a prize, of course!)
As a special gift, he brings us tea, made exactly the same way he makes it at home. Syrupy sweet, but the Moroccans love sweet!
Our first full day in Casa, we want to see the Mosque Hassan II. It is relatively new (1986-1993). Immensely opulent. Hand carved, hand made. It is quite a contrast to the crumbling city.

Its capacity is 105,000 of which 25,000 are indoors and additional 80,000 on the Mosque’s grounds.
It’s only one of two Mosques that non Muslims are allowed to visit. It’s designed by French architect Michel Pinseau. The Mosque is built on reclaimed land much of it over the Ocean.
King Hassan II declared “I want to build this mosque on the water, because God’s throne is on the water. Therefore, the faithful who go there to pray, to praise the Creator on firm soil, can contemplate God’s sky and ocean.”

The inside we were allowed photo without flash, although the German Tour group we were following ignored it. The lighted spots on the floor (there is a guy cleaning on the right) are windows to the spaces below.

The roof is supposed to open, although I’ve only read it in their pamphlet.
Our driver waited for us here too! Next stop, Casablanca Twin Tower Centre
It’s a relatively new shopping centre in the central business area. We bum around until we stumble into, another grocery store! Woohoo! I buy non-instant couscous, eucalyptus honey and cashews! We ponder some snacks as our flight leaves at 7:30 the next morning (5am wake up call:(!)
Next stop is Rick’s Café, yes, the one from the movie! We’ve read that it’s pretty good. We have a tasty lunch. Not terribly expensive and the food is surprisingly good.

We both have the goats cheese and fig salad.

I had the eggplant parmigiana and JT has beef stroganoff! The eggplant wasn’t fried! It was layers of baked eggplant and tomato, a little basil pesto, olive oils and a little baked cheese on top! Delicious!

We return to the hotel to begin strategically repacking and getting psyched up for our 5am wake up call. Dinner was a glass of wine in the bar (some olives and nuts!)

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Last day in Marrakech

Marrakech’s Medina is a step back in time; traditionally dressed people, souks (markets), confusing little alleys in the souks, noise, sounds, sites and smells. The rush of the motor bikes speeding past you, the stink of the diesel and the cigaret smoking. And there are the cats! All over the place! They walk in everywhere. It’s really mayhem, mad, crazy.
Once outside the Medina you could be in Paris, or even Budapest (not quite North America as there aren’t the sky scrapers of the west). The roads are wider, there are motor cycle lanes (although I don’t know why, no one stays within the lines). We ventured out to the suburbs to a ‘mall’. I suspect only westerners or the wealthy shop here, Benneton, a few French shops and some I don’t recognize. Our cab said he would come back for us, what time? Mall, shopping, come on now, ladies? 2.5 hours including lunch? Ok, 2pm! I was done in half an hour! There are stores, yes, but the quality just was a miss. We stop at Virgin Cafe for lunch. The temperatures are finally in the realm of what we’ve been expecting (little too late, I am fighting a head cold!) and we eat outside.

After lunch we notice another level to this mall; OMG, there is a grocery store (my weakness in a foreign country). We have just enough time to buy the olive oil I wanted (26,95 dirhams, which is about $3 for 500mL!) I am so excited. Sadly it is 2pm and we don’t want to be late for our driver. Our driver shows up and as expected it is the brother. We only paid the first guy 1/2 the agreed cost on the way here, so I am hoping the brother is expecting the other half and does not argue. I am already trying to figure out my French argument! My head hurts from trying to communicate (sadly most of the cabbies only speak French or Arabic and it’s very difficult to communicate a place name that is Arabic/French when I can barely speak French! We’ve tried to write it down – but have discovered most cannot read anything other than Arabic!). Our driver accepts the agreed fee. We go on our merry way.
We bump into our guide from Maison MK cooking class, he recognizes us, and is so HAPPY to meet again, shakes our hands, asks how we enjoyed the class. We ask him if he can make reservations for dinner tonight at Maison MK; he calls on his cell (they call the cell phone GSM) right away. Sadly they are full. We shake hands, he bids us farewell and off we go.
We now need to go to the train station to see if we can buy a first class ticket to Casablanca for tomorrow (1st class is about $10 more!). We bump into our first cabby from this morning and he recognizes us, he comes over and shakes our hand and he gives me his calling card. We take our on/off tour bus (for which we paid two days) to the train station – we should have taken the cab! We are now on Moroccan time (Caribbean time but slower!) getting the train ticket is easier than expected; the station is beautiful, it’s very new and apparently designed in contemporary Moroccan style – it is lovely!
We return to our Ryad, and we’re greeted by Hayat (our guide and translator for our first cooking class) she is SO HAPPY to see us! I asked her if would recommend a place to buy a tajine for me to take home, she asks what size and the next thing I know she’s come up to our room and she’s bought one for us as a gift!!! Have you ever heard of such a thing?
We are now off to Casablanca where we go not get free WIFI, so until next time…
My roast beef sandwich and JTs club did not disappoint.

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Strategic site seeing and shopping in Marrakech

Today is our last day in Marrakech. At this time as in most holidays I have a slight feeling if panic – OMG, did we do everything, see everything, experience everything we possibly could have? We didn’t do this, or that, or even that! This holiday is no different. I have regret that we didn’t really step out of our very square box and go to the dessert, but having said that, I am very fatalistic, things happen for a reason, and I am in no position to turn my nose up at fate, and do the opposite! Our time in Marrakech has been enjoyable, and I shall have fond memories of her sites and sounds and the kindness of a few gentle souls.
OK, enough of the mush, back to reality. Yesterday we did a couple of bus tours to get a better lay of the land, I shall add my crappy iPhone shots below, the Canon will come in good time (patience, grasshopper!)
We began our day by walking to the spot where we can find the bus. We are greeted on the street by one of our Ryad servers; he is wearing his ‘celebration best’ and looks quite fetching. He is a man about my age, perhaps a few years younger, with a kind, soft, gentle face. He is SO HAPPY to see us! Have we seen where true Moroccan’s shop? Only the souks, we say. Bah, that’s for tourists, come, come, I’ll show you. We don’t feel threatened or taken. At one point I say to him “you are a great guide” and he responds, taking my hand “no, I am a friend” very touching, and sincerely delivered. He takes us to his favorite Épicier (spice vendor). It’s in the middle of the Jewish area with the synagogue across from it. The guy is young and kind, not pushy. I buy stuff, of course, and he gives us ‘gifts’ a little extra of this, a gift of that. I really enjoyed myself. He was not forceful. I ask us he has Moroccan olive oil, he does, but sadly it is not labelled (probably family made) and I am unsure whether customs would allow it. It has a rich olive taste, unlike any olive oil I’ve tried. It takes a bit to explain why I cannot take it, but he understands and is not insulted. I told him I would cry if customs took it away, which is likely true. We continued on a little tour with our new friend, and then he leaves us with a pleasant goodbye. We bump into him later in the day, meeting on the streets of the medina like old friends. THIS IS MY MOROCCO!
We continue to the bus tour and enjoy the scenes.
Modern Marrakech outside the Medina

McDonalds is here too!

The camels with the Date Palm gardens (did you know dates grew on Palm trees?)

The tallest minaret at the Koutoubia Mosque

Lunch in a contemporary French restaurant of Niçoisse Salad and Vino (come to momma!)

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Into each life a little rain must fall

Of course I am speaking figuratively. The weather in Marrakech is stunning. Bright, sunny, warmish and not a cloud in the skies. Simply beautiful!

After our fantastic cooking class in Maison MK we take a taxi out to the airport to pick up a car we had made arrangements for in Canada. The taxis do not have meters so I ask “Combien?” he says “cent” which means 100 dirhams, about $12, ok, we’re off. We get to the airport and he wants his money before we get to the door. Ok, here it comes… ‘je sais 120’ I’m not gonna argue over 20 dirhams, but it’s the principal; it leaves a bad taste. Not everyone is like this, I am still hoping, the optimist!
Everything is great at Thrifty! It’s a new car, a little 4×4, diesel (yay, diesel is cheaper!). We also rent a GPS, after all we’re going into the dessert! We are taken to the car by the manager who speaks only Arabic (good choice)! The car has no fuel, maybe enough to get us to the gas station; ok, where is it? He points in a general direction. It’s a busy day, the day before the massive celebration of The Sacrifice traffic is mayhem. We pull up to a pump; they serve, we have no choice. We tell the guy DIESEL. Again, c’est diesel? Excusé mois, nous devrions DESIEL. He waves us away. We pay cash for this transaction. As we drive, I am trying, hopelessly to enter the Riad’s address, no such address. It’s a Garmen, I have a slightly newer one at home, I know what I am doing. No such address, no such hotel when I enter the name; oh this can’t be good. We think we can navigate to our Riad, but the roads are chaos (who’s idea was this???). We stop to try to figure out our the map on the iPhone and the GPS. The car coughs a bit. We sit for 15 minutes figuring things out, we ask someone; OK, back on track. We start the car, cough, cough, cough. We wait and try again. Crap. We are not in a touristy area, but the people of Marrakech are generally friendly and honest (except the cabby) we are not scared. We decide to leave the car where it is and return to the hotel by taxi (we would have called but we forgot the specifically bought cell phone back in the Riad room; grrrrrrrr). We call Visa (platinum) right away to register our complaint (since we rented the car with them) – I highly recommend the platinum Visa card, it is WORTH every penny yearly!
The wonderful lady in our Riad calls the car company and they say they will send someone out right away. It is 5:30, while we wait we have the opportunity to meet our hostess and she is quite sympathetic to our misfortune; the technician finally arrives at 8:30. Grrrrrr. We explain where we’ve left the car. He disappears. Now those of you who have been married a long time can probably feel the chill of the silence that ensues! After some talking and a bit cooling down we head out for dinner; we inhale a bottle of wine and some very good food.
The following morning the Thrifty fellow shows up. It was determined that the wrong fuel was put in the car by the attendant. Me: “Did you get a receipt?” JT: “no, we payed cash” and we even tipped the x$!?//(insert really profane word here) GRRRRRRR!
We’re good! Lalala!
Since it is a big holiday here we really can’t do much today so the Thrifty guy just gets our story and leaves. Tomorrow the he wants us to go with him to the gas station; that will be fun!
We have decided to wimp out: no rental car, no trip to the dessert. We are staying 4 more nights in Marrakech and then one night on the way home in Casablanca as planned. We will do bus excursions and day trips. On a positive note, our Riad had let our particular room out so we have had to upgrade a bit to a much nicer room. Our gracious hostess has allowed a 25% discount because it costs a lot more; a happy wife is a happy life! Sadly our new room doesn’t have access to Wifi so we must go into the common areas!
Photos below. This is our new front door. And the only exterior window is a tiny little hike to the street from the bathroom, all other windows are into the central courtyard (this one is far quieter than the first).

Our new home even has a lovely wood burning fireplace – which comes in very handy as there is no central heating!

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Eid al-Adha

A view from the rooftop garden for lunch

Today is Official name عيد الأضحى‎ or ‘Īd al-’Aḍḥá Also called Festival of Sacrifice, Sacrifice Feast. It is like Christmas to Christians. Today over 5 million sheep will be sacrificed and consumed for this celebration. People are happy and excited! With all things good, come the bad. Our gracious hostess chatted with us yesterday about this holiday; it seems that there is so much pressure for each family to buy a lamb (€150-300) that crime increases exponentially; people sell their necessities to be able to by a lamb and share it (like their refrigerators); the poor extend themselves beyond logic. It’s become about pride, and not the original intent of do what you can and give what you can give; but also to accept the charity of your neighbors graciously! Too bad, I almost wish I hadn’t had that conversation.
We took our last cooking course yesterday, and there were some significant differences. Our course yesterday is run within a five star Riad Maison MK (our’s is a four). Jamie Oliver filmed his Moroccan segment on the rooftop! I found this clip but only the end bit shows him cooking on the roof. there are 4 parts, I didn’t watch them all.
Our class began with a guide and the chef to the spice, vegetable and meat souks. Very cool! We bought everything for our lunch, although I suspect most of it, except the meat was for show! Both the guide and chef were amazing. We returned to the kitchen to begin. The kitchen is immaculate, stainless steel counters, polished floors. We are given an apron each and a towel. We are asked to wash our hands. We begin with the meat dish, preparing the onions first and then trimming the lamb. The chef uses an orange cutting board for meat and green for vegetables. We were given professional knives. This kitchen could be called a professional kitchen, whereas our first cooking course was more casual home cooking. We are preparing a full meal today with a trio of Moroccan Salads, a lamb tajine and Moroccan bread. Apparently there are strict rules as to what goes with what, for example Lamb tajine is always served with almonds and prunes, chicken is apricots and walnuts! We chose lamb because I NEVER cook it at home (and believe me, it doesn’t have the stinky gamieness that Ontario lamb has). The three salads are: carrot, courgier (zucchini) and aubergine (eggplant). All the salads are cooked and thoroughly flavoured with Moroccan spices. Each one is more delicious than the last. The lamb is traditionally cooked over 2-3 hours on low heat in a tajine, but because of time constraints, we cook it in a pressure cooker for 1 hour. The chef gives us the ‘readers digest’ instructions (condensed and quick), but I grill him on the traditional methods, sealing the meat first in hot oil, then adding the onions, spices, garlic etc – you know the drill! He seems impressed that I know these things. Again, thank goodness he speaks English, my French seems sub par!
The bread is next, it is made only by women. JT is not even given the choice. We take a beautiful and well used large red clay flat bowl, something like we would put under a flower pot only it’s about 50 cm in diametre. In this goes the flour, semolina, fresh yeast softened in warm water, some salt, and a bit more water. We dive in with both hands and knead until a lovely soft dough forms. This is set aside for 15 minutes to rest and rise. In the meantime we continue with the salad preparations. When the dough has rested and is doubled in bulk, we divide it into three and very carefully form it into a thin disks about 1 cm thick and 15-20 cm in diameter. Again it rests. After all the resting, we are accompanied by our lovely waiter and we actually take our dough down the street to the the baking house with the old clay ovens (the video link shows the EXACT oven we and Jamie Oliver went to!). These ovens can bake 50 loaves at once (they also roast nuts). We return to the kitchen where the chef awaits for us with a treat of spicey sorbet on a little spoon (it does have a bit of heat) and a shot glass of ananas (pineapple) juice. Refreshing and delicious! He then goes through the ceremony of tea making. He refers to the Moroccan tea as Moroccan wine more than once; it is complicated and will take one hour. It is beautiful and touching, he insists that it is better with sugar and more sugar; we decline, but he wants me to try his tea…”you see, it’s better, no?” So cute!
It’s finally a gorgeous day, about 18C and sunny, so we decide to take in lunch on the roof garden, it is simply wonderful. The food we have prepared with our expert chef is so delicious, we’re in heaven! The contrast of the serenity of this lunch to the chaos of the medina is mind-boggling. On our way out the chef meets us and as a gift he gives us his personal selection of spices (including his 35 spice mix) and all the recipes we made neatly typed out bound by a lively ribbon. I cannot tell you what an incredible experience this was. I shall surely hold this in my heart for ever!
We are so glad to have had such an incredible day; sadly it gets worse…much worse.
This is the interior of Maison MK.

This is what’s left of the three salads, so so good!

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A few interesting facts about Morocco

Morocco is a Kingdom and their beloved king is called Mohammed VI; he is the only king to encourage his wife to be active on the communities and offer help to the poor. He has several palaces in Marrakech and Casablanca. The government is headed by a Prime Minister.
Morocco has 32 million people, around the size of Canada. The area that Morocco occupies is just slightly smaller than the state of California. Their population is comprised mostly of Muslim faith, 1% Christian and a smattering with the Jewish Faith.
The majority of Muslims do not consume alcohol. But just in case they have even a marginal desire, the government taxes domestic booze by 100% and imports with an additional 80%. There are 14 wine regions in Morocco, and the wine they produce is not bad! Even with the taxes, the wines are not badly priced in Restaurants (I have yet to find a liquor store).
Morocco is the second largest producers of roses in the world (I imagine Mexico is the largest). Morocco grows apples, bananas, lemons, limes, walnuts, almonds, olives, figs, dates as well as cherries (not our red cherries, but orange cherries, I’m told). Their tropical climate affords them palm trees and cactus plants growing wild along the country sides.
They also grow Argan trees which are most famous for Argan Oil; it is used as a household cleanser, a beautifier, and an additive to food to aid the management of cholesterol (of course, they sell a variety of grades for each purpose).
Morocco also grows olives and makes their own olive oil.
Moroccan’s like their tea which is usually a variety of green tea; it is an entire service on how to prepare a proper tea. They like to drink their tea with A LOT of sugar (such as 5-6 lumps, and then some!).

That’s me at dinner last night.

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The Atlas Mountains

We hired a driver to take us to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. He was here promptly at 10 in the morning. A lovely gentleman who spoke almost perfect English. The one thing that keeps coming through with each encounter we have is how truly beautiful the Moroccan people are; so friendly and giving. I know in a past post I had some uncomplimentary things to say about the people in the Souks, but for the most part, the people whom we’ve actually met and had some type of relationship with are really and truly wonderful.
Our driver, Amin (I think) was chatty and had some interesting facts about Morocco on our 45 minute trip into the mountains. He fixed us up with a walking guide, Hassan once we were there. Hassan is a Berber and grew up in the village Amin brought us to. He speaks 5 languages, one of which is English, thank goodness! He is well connected in his village, knows everyone, which was nice. He spoke of the Berber traditions with pride and eloquence. I must say that the common trait of Moroccan people is that they are soft and by that I mean to pay them only the highest compliment; they have the kindest eyes and they have extreme gratitude for everything (for example, Hassan thanked us for letting him be our guide). The Berbers were not pushy, or arrogant, but humble and understanding.
A view of the mountains as we began our hike.


Hassan is the guy in the red pants on the left (we have better photos from our good camera, but you’ll have to wait until I can download them to the Mac at home!)

Hassan had made arrangements for us to have tea in a traditional Berber home. It was lovely. They have walnut trees all over these parts and we were served freshly picked walnuts. The never blatantly ask for anything in return for the tea, but it would be appreciated.

The coming days are for celebrating and the extra money will help buy the kids new clothes and toys. It is a very festive time.
View of the mountains from our lunch place.

For lunch I had the Kefta which are Moroccan meatballs; so flavorful and delicious, they are served in an incredible tomato and onion confit!
Driving into the Medina: crazy traffic!

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A guide through the Berber souks and an exceptional cooking class!

We had a great sleep! And no ill effects from the jet lag…yet!
The first thing we needed to do is change our Travelers cheques to cash. Both trip advisor and a recently published book on Morocco said ‘everyone’ does this ‘everywhere’. You must see where I am going with this? Read NO ONE, NO WHERE. No bank, no exchange bureau, no where! They LIED! One more spot, the last one, a credit bureau; no the girl clerk does NOT do this, but that hotel on the corner does! So we go there, and low and behold, they DO! And it was not a rip-off, they were quite pleasant and reasonable. We met our Berber Souk tour guide there; a nice gentleman about my age born to a Berber Mom and an Arab Dad. He generously guided us through the souk highlighting areas we might have interest in, of course stopping at the ‘non-touristy’ honest shops (likely where he gets commission). Non-the-less a good experience. The shops expect bartering, which I love! And we did end up buying some Morrican saffron, cinnamon, cumin and a Moroccan spice mix.
This is our lunch place.

He took us through the mazes of the souks for about two and a half hours. So nice. I did end up also buying a leather purse and a very cool fossil for my nephew (a disgusting bug, he will love it!).
The afternoon we booked a cooking course with our Riad; we were to be guided through the market to buy the food we will cook. Sadly the weather turned viscous and the winds were atrocious, so we turned back, but the cooking lesson prevailed! Our gracious translator Said Hayat and our wonderful Chef took us through the next two hours of traditional Moroccan cooking. Forget about that instant couscous, we made real couscous that took an hour, with our hands! So cool (actually, it was pretty hot!). We made Shrimp Briouat, (we will biy their actual cookbook and will remake the entire dinner in Toronto on our return for Barb and Kevin!) Chicken Tangine and Stewed Lamb (minus the lamb for Kevin!). We made grapefruit brûlée and apple tart tatin. And then we had it ALL for dinner! Our hosts were amazing! We had such a great time. It’s a must do in Marrakech! Here are some photos of our first culinary adventure!

A traditional flavour base in Moroccan cooking is called smen it’s a very pungent, cheesy smelling butter. Think fish sauce in Thai cooking – its a flavour base!
Tomorrow we have hired a guide to takes us to the Atlas mountains! Bon nuits mes amis! (it’s all coming back to me now!)

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