Where in the World?

Erica and I went to one of our favorite Newport restaurants last night (early Valentine’s since she will be out of town). Tucker’s Bistro on Broadway is an intimate, classy restaurant where you immediately feel at home.

The first thing you notice is the wonderful service. Usually Tucker is there himself ready to wait on you. His goal is to make your dining experience relaxed and immediately enjoyable. The wine selection is excellent though we didn’t partake this time.

I really love the variety of choices for appetizers and entrees at Tucker’s. Each one stands on its own and you will remember the flavors for days after. I tried the Thai Shrimp Nachos which were so rich in spices and other flavors that I finished them way too quickly. My entree was the Shrimp and Pecan Crusted Atlantic Salmon. Wow! It was served exactly to my liking (I don’t like rare fish). The salmon was placed on top of a perfectly cooked sweet potato croquette and some sautéed spaghetti squash.

Erica started with the pear salad. Hey, I just remembered I never got to taste this dish. Hmmmm. Very suspicious. For an entree, Erica devoured (lady like of course) the Braised Pork Shank. I did get to try one bite of it. The meat was so tender it just fell apart. It wasn’t at all dry and had a rich flavor without being overpowering.

Dessert was homemade ginger ice cream with real pieces of ginger. I really liked this dish because it was not too sweet. Creamy, gingery. Just right!

The best part of the night was sharing all this excellent food with someone you are close to.

Michael

Erica and started off the day with a 10 mile bicycle ride around Ocean Drive in Newport, RI. It was a perfect morning for a ride; sunny, deep blue skies, early enough so there wasn’t much traffic and a cool, salty breeze off the ocean. As we approached Brenton Point Park, we could see that many people were already launching kites to take advantage of the strong winds. We particularly enjoyed two enormous (automobile size) rainbow colored kites.

After returning home, we made a beeline to Sweet Berry Farms to pick strawberries. We picked two large containers of the ripest ones we could find. Erica took some of the largest and best to make a wonderful fresh strawberry pie. Strawberries are my favorite fruit. Being able to pick them fresh off the plant and then consume them was a huge treat for me.

Lunch consisted of three slices of a freshly made, thin crust pepperoni pizza. For dessert we savored two homemade ice creams; coffee and ginger. Both flavors were exquisite. The coffee ice cream had a rich full bodied coffee taste while the ginger ice cream had large chunks of candied ginger.

The only drawback was that the sugar made both of us sleepy so we took an afternoon nap to recuperate.

The point of this story is to get out and do anything fun. Don’t sit around. Go explore. Do something different. Discover new things.

Have a great day!

Michael

After a long day of trouble shooting problems at work, several of us took a long walk to a great Polish restaurant in Warsaw called Folk Gospoda. They served a variety of traditional Polish dishes containing lots of new flavors and textures.

The starters were two types of pirogies; one Russian and the other filled with sauerkraut and mushrooms. One of the other guys also tried some red borscht or beet soup. I’m not a big fan of beets but the soup was quite tasty. Frankly, I was surprised.

My main dish was called Peasant Sausage which was a smoky grilled kielbasa with an onion/mustard paste on the side. I believe it was the best sausage I’ve ever had which is a bold statement for me. Horseradish sauce supplemented the other flavors and added some spice to the meal.

For the latter half of our meal, a live band playing traditional folk music from the region ignited our sense of being immersed in the true Polish culture.

Good friends, great food, new flavors, good music and a long walk back to the hotel all combined to give us a very pleasant evening. These are some of my favorite things to do while traveling.

Michael

I flew into Philadelphia today. I’ve never really spent any time here. I’ve only flown into the airport for some meetings in New Jersey. So, it was nice to fly in and meet Erica while she is exhibiting at a show in the convention center.

Since we couldn’t spend Valentine’s Day together, we decided to celebrate the day after. After the show ended at 6:00 p.m., we walked down Market Street to a restaurant called Tangerine. We really liked this place. It had a Moroccan edge to it. The decorations inside were lovely. There was a long wall; maybe 50 feet long and 8 feet tall full of indentations holding lit candles. The feeling was like walking into a grotto. Quite spectacular.

For appetizers, we ordered the crunchy calamari (red pepper aioli, kalamata olives, argula salad), shortrib spanikopita (shredded beef, spinach, feta, almond sugar) and the chopped Mediterranean salad (crispy rock shrimp, feta, artichoke confit). We split the Mediterranean spiced whole bronzino (a type of bass) for the main course. It was topped with a cucumber-tomato salad and cilantro basmati rice. Desert was a banana creme brule which was heavenly and a dish of coconut and tangerine sorbet.

There were lots of new flavors to experience. I really enjoy trying new dishes when I travel. It adds to the adventure. One of the things I like about Erica is that she loves to experience new things, travel and try out new restaurants

Overall, tonight was one of those perfect evenings.

Michael

It’s been a long two days of meetings. Tonight, we all went to a place near La Boquiria, which is the largest open market in Spain and I believe in all of Europe. Lots and lots of fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, chocolate, meat, fish, cheese and etc. Very busy place. We had a tour here first and then walked to the back where the cooking class was located.

We started by making fresh Sangria from scratch. Very tasty and easy to make!

We had a starter dish made from salt cured codfish. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name. Basically, it is made from green and red bell peppers, onions with balsamic vinegar, re-hydrated salt cured cod fish, olive oil, black olives and parsley. The ingredients are layered with the fish and olive oil on top and served at room temperature.

Our main course was a paella made from chicken, pork, mussels, three types of shrimp, bell peppers, onions, olive oil and rice. It took about 1 1/2 hours to make but it was spectacular.

Our dessert consisted of peeled whole pears cooked in a red wine sauce sweetened with sugar, cinnamon and other spices. This was cooked over a low flame until the wine mixture made its way inside the pear. Very sweet with a wonderful flavor.

We had a lot of fun. It was probably one of the better corporate “events” I’ve ever gone to.

Michael

Tonight we ate at a fabulous restaurant called Taller De Tapas. The amount of food was outrageous even considering the number of people we had on this outing. I’m so stuffed right now, I can barely remain conscious. Sad but true.

I have to say though that every item (except one for me) was outstanding. We shared 18 tapas dishes with generous portions of water, wine, liquor, beer and coffee. I’m listing the menu of all the dishes we ate for dramatic purposes only.

Course 1:

Toasted coca bread from Vic with Tomato and extra virgin olive oil
Tomato and Nuri’s goat’s cheese salad
Oven roasted red pepper, sweet onion and aubergine with anchovies
Cured acorn ham from Jabugo

Course 2:

Cured acorn ham croquettes
Malagan style baby squid
Fried potatoes with a spicy paprika sauce and garlic mayonnaise
Cod fritters

Course 3:

Sautéed seasonal wild mushrooms
Grilled green asparagus with extra virgin oil and Maldon salt
Pan fried chickpeas with spinach and Galician pancetta
Steamed mussels

Course 4:

Sizzling king prawns cooked in a clay pot with garlic and chili
Grilled Catalan farmhouse sausage with white beans from Santa Pau
Grilled squid
Chorizos braised in Asturian cider

Desert:

Crema catalana (Crème brûlée)
Fresh fruit soup (fresh fruit cup)

Dinner started at 9:00 p.m. which is really typical for Spain and lasted until midnight. I believe it will take several days to recover from this one.

Have a great day!

Michael

Erica and I traveled to New Orleans this morning to spend a little time there before our flight back to Rhode Island. Since I grew up in Louisiana and had visited New Orleans many times, I was anxious to see how things were 2 ½ years after Hurricane Katrina.

My initial impression or vibe as we drove down S. Carrollton Ave. towards Magazine Street was one of less vitality and energy. I had spent many weeks over the years in the uptown section of New Orleans around Audubon Park. There just seemed to be less happening than I remember. There were many buildings still boarded up while others seemed to have recently opened up for business. I was happy to see The Camellia Grill open again.

We finally reached Magazine Street and saw new businesses and some vitality returning. After finding a parking spot we walked up and down the street browsing in the many antique and retail shops. The people were quite friendly. We ate lunch at Byblos, a Mediterranean restaurant.

What struck me after our several hour tour of this area of New Orleans was a similarity between this disaster and the devastation and subsequent return of life after the Mount St. Helens eruption in Washington. In 1996, I visited the devastated area caused by the volcanic explosion. Scientists and I believe everyone who visits here, are surprised by how life is returning to an area that initially seemed completely and utterly destroyed. Biology textbooks are being re-written based on the knowledge we have gained from St. Helens over the last 20 years.

I saw something similar on Magazine Street. I found pockets of vitality and life returning. I found extremely nice people. New and old retail shops have opened. Hope is returning. The rich culture is re-emerging. All of this is happening due to the tremendous persistence and hard work of caring people. Where the government utterly failed, people were the key and the reason New Orleans is coming back.

As I drove to the airport, it was a refreshing feeling to see vitality returning. I’m always amazed at the resilience of people. It gives me hope for the future.

Michael

Day 3

Sleeping in on Sunday was important to recover from all of our activity over the last two days. We made a leisurely stroll to E.J.’s Luncheonette at 447 Amsterdam Ave. This was a great diner with ample portions of food for a decent price. What a wonderful way to start the day.

After that hardy breakfast, we walked over to Zabar’s. Not only does their deli have everything under the sun, the top floor has aisle after aisle of kitchenware. I’ve never seen anything like it. We wandered up and down the rows of food and kitchen gadgets for quite some time. The Zabar’s website claim they have over 40,000 shoppers per week. Incredible!

We took the subway down to Union Square again and did some shopping for shoes and Levis pants. That activity took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but no worries as we found exactly what we were looking for. Next stop was Po Restaurant in Greenwich Village.

Very yummy. This Italian restaurant is a popular place. Fortunately for us, we arrived at a lull in activity. That meant we got the food delivered to our table very quickly. Everything was quite tasty. We had the White Bean Brushetta to start. I had the Po Panini which is a grilled chorizo sausage with goat cheese and onion marmalade plus a salad. Erica had the tilapia special. Very good. After our late lunch we walked around the streets and did some Xmas shopping and enjoyed the variety of wares being offered.

We wanted to end the day with an espresso and pastry from somewhere in Little Italy. After many streets of walking and endless searching we found a place called Ferrara Cafe. Oh my god! The cappuccino was perfect. I had a small cannoli and Erica had a pastry called a lobster tail. It was huge! What a great way to end a fabulous trip.

My travel advice for the day: Get out of your house and go see something you haven’t seen. It doesn’t have to be New York; just somewhere you haven’t been. Explore without planning too much. You’ll thank yourself.

Have a great day!

Michael

Erica and I spent the last 3 days in Manhattan creating adventure and exploring the never ending nooks and crannies of this endlessly diverse metropolitan city. I’m very new to the intricacies of New York City so it was wonderful to freely explore the streets and numerous shops. I found many similarities with London, where I lived for 18 months several years ago.

We stayed in the Upper West Side around 91st Street and Amsterdam. Erica had a great deal on an apartment from a friend that was 65% less expensive than staying in a hotel.

Day 1

I love photography so we took a subway down to B&H Photo. The store itself is huge with two floors covering every aspect of photography, video, astronomy and a host of accessories. Since it was Black Friday, B&H was packed with people. It looked like a feeding frenzy on a wildlife video. I’ll have to make a visit regularly as the store contains so much.

After the B&H tour, we walked around Lower Broadway so that Erica could find some wholesale merchandise for her store. We spend a little bit of time here and then walked over to the East Village for lunch. We ate at Quintessence Raw Food. It may sound strange to some, but the flavors were fabulous.

Next we meandered around Union Square and poked around a huge craft show. That was fun. There were lots of vendors with a plethora of wares for sale. A quick subway ride took us north to Rockefeller Center where we walked around for a bit and looked at NBC studios and the ice rink. The Christmas tree had been placed near the skaters but it was not decorated yet.

A short walk to Time’s Square took us to our destination for dinner, Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The waiters and waitresses take turns singing show tunes and other songs for the patrons. We had a great dinner and some wonderful entertainment at the same time.

Finally we went to an Off Broadway show called My First Time. Using stories from the website My First Time, four actors sitting on stools portrayed a humorous look at other’s first times (yes, we are talking about sex.). Very funny and well done.

Day 2

We started our day early with a cappuccino, croissant, oatmeal and some fruit. It was very cold outside and we needed some good food to help fend off the chills.

Our main objective for today was to explore as much as possible the massive American Museum of Natural History. We got there right when they opened and started our adventure with a tour of the butterfly conservatory. It was very interesting, informative and quite fun. They had many species of butterflies. I believe our favorite was called Queen of the Philippines. It was huge with a red body, read head surrounded by black and red wings. Wow!

We wandered up to the H2O exhibit and learned all about fresh water and the challenges we face now and in the future to supply clean water to humanity. Our next stop was the enormous mineralogical exhibit. It contained some stunning examples of crystals, minerals and the largest meteorite in captivity (34 tons).

Lunch was off campus at an excellent restaurant serving southern Indian cuisine the back to the museum for a planetarium show called Cosmic Collisions. The movie showed stunning images and video depicting collisions ranging from meteors on earth to galaxies colliding. After walking around the astronomy section, we ended our day with an IMAX movie called Dinosaurs Alive!. We were up close and personal with the 50 foot screen. It felt like we were there.

At this point we had our fill of the Museum of Natural History and decided to walk around Lincoln Center. We ate at Ollies for dinner and then ended our night with the movie, No Country for Old Men. Very intense film with some of the best acting I’ve seen in years. If you don’t like violence, don’t go see this one, but the acting was superb.

Day 3 tomorrow…………………..

Michael

I’m in Tarrytown, New York this weekend helping Erica with the Fall Craft Show held at Lyndhurst House. The arts and crafts booths were spread out over the beautiful grounds that slope down to the Hudson River near the Tappan Zee Bridge.The Lyndhurst house is located within a 67 acre park and was built in 1838. It was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1961. The style of the house is unusual but is based on Gothic.

At the end of the day I walked around the grounds for a little while enjoying the tremendous size of the trees. Many were simply huge and walking under them was like entering a tunnel.

The rolling lawns created wide open spaces that made the house and landscape feel even bigger. The views in the distance of the Hudson River and Tappan Zee Bridge were lovely and added to the grandeur of the estate.

For dinner we took a short drive to Irvington and ate at The Red Hat Bistro. I started off with a Red Hat Margarita which was perfectly balanced. I had the crab cake for a starter which was light, tasty and had very little filler. The sauce was spicy. I ate a pan seared cod for the entree. Dessert was an incredible toffee amaretto bread pudding with a scoop of ice cream. This was one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time. If you are in the Westchester county of New York, I highly recommend this bistro for a fantastic meal.

Michael