Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Birthday To Me

December 23rd is my birthday, and most of the country is focused on Christmas but my friends and family always take a little break in the holiday preparation to see to it that I have a very Happy Birthday. Days before my birthday I started receiving birthday greetings and they kept coming until the BIG day. Flowers arrived a couple of days before and the morning of my birthday my husband gave me a beautiful gift with my coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice with a splash of pom juice. My phone rang off the hook all day. My husband and I are the only members of our family in California but with the invention of Skype we are able to experience special occasions or any occasion with family and friends around the globe. I was very please to spend some time with my son, sister, nephew and family on Skype on my birthday.

The plan for the day was to chill out until time to go out for dinner. My birthday dinner destination was going to be a surprise, all I knew was that it was someplace that I have never been. My husband went to the gym and I hung around the house until he returned with a light lunch and a Red Devil Cake from Baked, I love that cake and that little bakery.

I read a book, napped, talked on the phone, Skyped and did nothing at all until time to get ready for dinner. About six o’clock I pulled myself together and we started out to dinner. In the car we started driving up Harrison St. turning on 21st St. crossing So. Van Ness making a left turn on Valencia, I couldn’t figure out where we were going. When he turned on 24th St. towards Noe Valley all I could think of was restaurant Incanto but I knew that couldn’t be it because we’ve dinned there before. I was totally confused when he made a left turn on Castro St., I saw a couple of restaurants and through the process of elimination I finally figured it out. We parked a couple of blocks away on Castro St. after driving around the block several times and walked to restaurant Contigo.

Contigo is a Spanish and Catalan restaurant where the menu features rustic dishes inspired by the flavors of Barcelona. The food is cooked from scratch using local organic ingredients. It’s a small restaurant with table seating in the dining room, the covered heated patio, the kitchen counter or Cava bar. We were escorted to the patio where there were several large parties with cute little children so we opted to sit in the very comfortable seats at the cava bar. The cava bar seats four so we sat beside a lovely couple, we became fast friends and they gave us tips on ordering our food. The restaurant was really busy, the staff were all decked out in San Francisco holiday outfits with a touch of the holidays and the whimsy. The waiter at the bar was moving really fast, he was decked out is a very decorative holiday vest. I made friends with the wait staff really quickly telling everyone it was my birthday, those of you that know me know why. Our waiter was from Barcelona and he was pleased to learn that we had been to Barcelona more than once.

We ordered several small plates starting with the cana de cabra goat cheese a la planxa with arugula, persimmons and toasted hazelnut vinagreta. Followed by the Bacalao – house cured salt cod with potato, garlic and toasts. Then, Hog Island clams “cal pep” style with Jamon (Spanish ham) garlic and manzanilla sherry. Last, Albondigas – pork and jamon meatballs in tomato sherry sauce. This meal was enjoyed with a nice crisp Rioja Alta, Hermanos pecina, reserve, 2001!

The cana de cabra was outstanding, the goat cheese was toasted and creamy on the inside, the persimmons sweet complimenting the peppery taste of the arugula. I was a being a little daring when I ordered the Bacalao. The last time I had Bacalao (someplace else) it was way too salty, this was just right with the smoky taste of the house cured cod and the creaminess of the garlic and potato, really good. The clams and jamon was so delicious, the sauce had all of the savory flavors of the ham, fennel, butter, sherry and clams. I sopped up that sauce with a nice piece of rustic bread. The meatballs were excellent, they were light with a little brightness from the cilantro and that sauce was simply awesome. The food was outstanding, we did not have a miss all of our dishes were hits. We didn’t have dessert because I had my Red Devil Cake at home and a couple of neighbor friends were coming by our place for a little wine and cheese. I will definitely go back to Contigo, my hubby did a great job with the suspense of the evening and in his restaurant selection; I think I will keep him!
December 23, 2010 will go down in history as being one of the best birthdays ever !! Thank You Friends and Family for making my day so very special - - I felt the love!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

PARIS


Tuesday, September 15, 2010, 12:29 pm we boarded the Euro star to Paris and after two short hours we arrived Gare Du Nord. We made our way to a long taxi cue and waited patiently until our turn to catch a taxi to the Hotel Elysees Ceramic our home for seven days in Paris. We checked into our hotel and took the lift to our hotel room. The room was neat and clean with a really nice bathroom but really small. Because I am rather clumsy I thought we had better change to a larger room so I would bludgeon myself to death in the middle of the night. The hotel was very accommodating and informed us that they did not have a room we could change to that day but we could change rooms the next day.

This leg of our trip was going to be spent with my brother in law Jim, who would be arriving from Vienna later in the evening and visiting friends from San Francisco that spent three months each fall in Paris. After a quick email to our friends to make plans for a visit we went out to explore Paris, the city that we never tire of!

My husband and I fell into our routine, especially in Paris where we walk for awhile, find a nice outdoor café to have a glass of wine and watch the Paris street scene before scouting a nice place for dinner. When we are looking for a restaurant and we don’t know exactly where to go we use all of our senses especially eyes and nose. Our restaurant preference are small places with small menus; I find it hard to believe that a restaurant with a big menu of 50 dishes or less can prepare all of them well. We settled on Zinc Caius Bistro after a long search for the perfect place. Zinc Caius is a compact restaurant with nine small bar height tables. The menu including maybe three or four entrée’s were displayed on a chalkboard affixed to the wall. I pretty good with reading menu’s in any language, however, the owner spoke some English and I can speak a little restaurant French so we were able to order a meal and have a minor conversation. It was pretty cool in London and even colder in France so I wanted a stick to your ribs meal, I ordered the Bœuf (entrecôte) de Bavière, Race Simmental, purée de PDT; meat and potatoes. I can’t even remember what my husband ordered but both of us enjoyed our meal. After dinner we went for a long walk and stopped in a side walk café near our hotel with a view of the arch de triumph for a cognac and to gaze at the City of Lights.

The next day we hooked up with my brother-in-law, Jim who was staying at a nearby hotel. We walked to the Metro, purchased a multi-day pass and headed for the left bank around Saint Michele. You know the drill; we walked, talked, Jim took serious pictures and I snapped anything in sight, stopped for a little lunch and just took in this beautiful City.

One of the things I love about traveling to Europe is that you get a full work out build naturally into your day by walking everywhere and using the mass transit below ground. There are not a lot of escalators in the Paris Metro, we were always walking up and down stairs so if you think that all we do in Europe is eat and drink we do burn off a lot of calories. It’s a much healthier lifestyle than the one we have back home where we rarely use public transportation and we use the car to get around.

Jim was a little exhausted from his trip, it took him 12 hours on the train from Vienna to Paris so after our day strolling the streets of Paris on the left bank he wanted to get a light bite and settle in for the evening. Jim had his sandwich and we went back to our room to rest before going out for the evening; dinner in Paris begins at 7:30pm. Around 8:00 we left our hotel well rested and ready to search for the perfect place for dinner. We must have walked an hour, twisting and turning down little streets and alleyways before stumbling upon MBC restaurant. You must be wondering why we haven’t asked the hotel for restaurant suggestions; we have found after many years of travel that we can do just as good a job finding something we like ourselves.

Side bar: one night we asked the hotel for dinner recommendation and we were sent to Chez Gabrielle, www.chezgabrielle.fr the restaurant had 10 tables, very small and very cute. I had the chef’s menu starting with the froi gra with the balsamic reduction (OMG) followed by the croquet st. Jacque - - wow and the last coarse was a cream brulee (not in a ramekin) with a brandied peach (OMG) and with the bill came truffles dusted in coco this was a fantastic meal!

Ok back to the restaurant we sniffed out ourselves, MBC a small little restaurant with maybe 20 tables decorated with a real urban vibe, graffiti on the wall reminiscent of the graffiti Jean-Michel Basquiat. We looked at the menu with three entrée and said this is the place for us tonight. I won’t go into the details of this fabulous meal but the dessert is worth noting. We had a fresh and candied cherry dessert with black summer truffles. The combination of the sweetness of the candied cherry with the juiciness of the fresh cherry and the contrast of the earthiness of the truffle made for a delicious unusual delightful creative dessert. If you are adventurous with food you must try MBC the next time you are in Paris.

I don’t want you to think that all we did in Paris was eat so I will take a little break from food for now to talk about a fun visit we had to a part of Paris unfamiliar to us, Bastille and Eastern Paris in the 11th district. This area of Paris is known historically as the place where the French Revolution kicked off in 1789. Bastille is not so much revolutionary as creative these days; now the area around the iconic place de la Bastille is filled with shops, music venues and lively bars. Paris’s biggest park, the Bois de Vincennes is also in the area. The column surmounted by the gilded "Spirit of Liberty" on place de la Bastille was erected to commemorate not the surrender of the prison. The Bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989 was marked by the inauguration of a new opera house on place de la Bastille, the Opéra Bastille, filling almost the entire block between rues de Lyon, Charenton and Moreau. Just south of the square is the Port de l’Arsenal marina where the Canal St. Martin meets the Seine is where we started our tour of the Bastille, strolling the canal me taking amateur photo’s while my brother in law took more professional photos. The battery died on my camera so I took photo’s with my phone camera the remainder of the trip. (Note to self, next time pack your battery charger) We stumbled upon a photo exhibit of toilets; it was so fascinating, funny and in some cases political. After strolling the canal we stopped for a little lunch on a street filled with little boutiques, I could not wait to hit those shops - - I did and I scored a pair of earrings and a shoulder bag. I loved this area of Paris self described as “Bo Bo” Bohemian – my kind of place.

We visited our friends from San Francisco in their Paris flat in a really nice area near the metro, cafes and shops. We squeezed into the lift in their building to take us to the top floor, this was the smallest lift I have ever seen - - it was shaped like a sort of half circle with edges. Before our friends left San Francisco they made reservations for the four of us at Restaurant Spring http://springparis.blogspot.com/, I read about this restaurant a couple of years ago and was dying to go. Our friends had dinned there before and gave the restaurant high praise. Unfortunately, only three of us went to dinner because one of our friends had a little aliment, not serious but aggravating, so she couldn’t join us.

Spring is a small little restaurant that seats about 20, serving one menu that changes every day. The chef Daniel Rose, probably about 31 years old now, is not Parisian he is from Chicago, my home town. This small restaurant has an open kitchen so from every seat you can view the kitchen; a truly fascinating experience. The menu; we started with these little tasty fried balls of potato and cheese - yummy! Next course razor clams, followed by a trout dish served with a cucumber and caviar. The trout was cooked on the plate with a torch; it was very rare and wonderful. The next course was porcini mushrooms with a farm egg in quail and veal au jus, this was to die for! Then there was the duck breast with pomegranates followed by the duck leg stuffed in an apricot and the three small dessert courses starting with blackberries, a yogurt cream and last a chocolate and caramel crumble. I’m talking an awesome meal! It seems like a lot of food and it was but the portion sizes were small. The food, ambience, and the staff were outstanding! The chef visited every table to ensure that everyone was pleased with the meal. This place is like Saison in San Francisco. I will definitely go back again, reservations must be made much in advance and this place is not for the budget minded.

In addition to eating our way through Paris and exploring neighborhoods we took a day trip to Girveny http://giverny.org/ the home and gardens of Claude Monet. I really don’t know what to say about the gardens except that it was so tranquil and simply beautiful; one could certainly see how the gardens inspired Monet’s paintings. Also, you could see some of the scenes portrayed in his paintings. All I could think about while I was in Giverny was how much my friend Joanne would have loved it! I hope you enjoy these pictures taken with my phone on my camera. Although they are not that great I think you can see the beauty and wonder of Monet’s Gardens.

Our last Sunday in Paris was spent wondering the streets, strolling in the park and a visit to the Bibloteque market. I love markets; we thought about buying a rotisserie chicken, bread, cheese, fruit and a few vegetables and having a picnic lunch but decided against it, next time for sure.
My last day in Paris was spent at the Pompidou followed by an afternoon of lunch, people gazing and shopping in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Paris Saint Germain Des Pres. I separated from the boys for a couple of hours to go off shopping on my own. I spent those two glorious hours popping in and out of the boutiques sometime with a little something and other times empty handed.

We had the perfect vacation and I hope you enjoyed my musing about some of the highlights about our trip. Next time we will stay longer and perhaps rent a flat. I fell in love with Paris and I am still in love today - - au revoir!

Friday, September 24, 2010

LONDON

This September we rented a flat in London with our and travel partners for 7 days. The flat was on the top floor of a typical London row house on a beautiful street in Chelsea according to the photos on the website. Tuesday, September 7, we departed SFO at 9:00 pm or so and our friends departed ORD to meet up at London Heathrow. We arrived in London September 8, where we were met by our friends; there flight arrived earlier from Chicago. They were accompanied by our driver to take us to our flat. It was a dark and rainy day in London and we were a little road weary but ready to start our adventure to see what London and its environs had in store for us.

After a nice long ride in rush hour we arrived at our flat where we were met by the apartment manager with keys. Before we were escorted to the lift we were advised that not all four of us and our bags could fit in the lift at one time. The apartment manager also said that she would help us with our bags, so she took to the steps and one of us and the bags took the lift to the 3rd floor; that was the end of the line for the lift but not for us because our flat was on the 4th floor. So we huffed and puffed and drug our luggage up a flight of winding stair case to our flat.

At first glance our flat did not resemble the photos on the website it was small, bright, and clean equipped with everything we needed. We settled into our rooms and decided to freshen up, go out for s stroll, have a nice dinner and make an early night of it. We had a funny little wrinkle to our plans Milt couldn’t find the key to his luggage; we all had a good laugh and came up with a few wacky ideas about how to get the luggage open before deciding to catch the building manager to recommend a solution. Milt left the flat and returned with a man and a hack saw - - problem solved! It was the consensus of the group, or his wife, that he should not be trusted with keys for the remainder of the trip. We had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant on Kings Road before turning in for the evening.

Because this was not our first or second trip to London we didn’t need to dedicate time to hitting all of the sights we really just wanted to explore and take in a few old favorites like the Tate Modern. One day we went to the Themes River Festival, London's largest free outdoor arts festival focused around the River Thames. On that same day we went to the Tower of London, the Tate Modern followed by dinner under the London Bridge at Zizzi. At the Tate I was most impressed with an exhibit depicting the Timeline of the History of the Modern Art Movement.

Another day was devoted to what I like to call ‘the other side of London’ exploring Brixton and East London. Brixton is a multiethnic community, with around 24 percent of Brixton's population being of African and Caribbean descent. Brixton claims to be the unofficial capital of the British African-Caribbean community. Brixton is a vibrant and colorful neighborhood. We strolled the market just to take in some of the local color, there was nothing to buy at the market you go there for the experience. The last time I was in Brixton I went to a little whole in the wall joint and had the best Jamaican meat paddy I had ever had in my life; I look for the place and it was no more - - but I will always have that memory.

After Brixton we headed for East London , my interest in East London was based on an article I read inn the New York Times, Sunday, September 5, 2010 “An Oasis Off London’s Beaten Path” http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/travel/05nextstop.html. It was off the “beaten path” alright so much so that we never found it! We asked for directions and everyone gave us different directions and we followed all of them, we tried to get there by Tube, bus and on foot. The article raved about the little shops etc in the rear and even mentioned a little bakery owned by the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse here in the bay area. We did get close, we at least found the canal referenced in the article but not on the stretch the article spoke about. Although we never made it the journey was very interesting, the reason why I love travel. We traveled through an area that was predominately Muslim; I had heard that Islam is the second largest religion in the UK and that the Muslim population is estimated at over 2 million. We finally threw in the towel and found a pub to wet our whiskers and take a load off, the Fat Cat. We didn’t have any expectations but we were pleasantly surprised, it was a really nice pub with pretty good grub.

Before I go on telling you about our day trip to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath etc. it’s time for me to highlight a couple of outstanding dining establishments. London as you know, or the UK for that matter, for many years has not been known for its food. Years ago, when I first started visiting the UK if you wanted something good to eat you would go for Dutch Indonesian or Thai food. However, over the past 20 years or so the UK has gone through a food revolution with Prince Charles and his sustainable organic gardening and the new young chefs have changed all of that. We did not have a bad meal in London but I just want to highlight a few places St. John Bar and Restaurant, Indigo and Bidendum.

St. John Bar and Restaurant Smithfield http://www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk/ the restaurant is around the corner from the old Smithfield Market. The focus of the menu is "nose to tail", the food mostly organic and is locally sourced. The bread is made of the premises and the wine is mostly French. One afternoon we lunched at St. John, I on Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad, one of the specialties, and the spouse on another specialty Braised Rabbit. Our friends had Hake & Skate (fish) and we all share the runner beans (green beans), a lovely bottle of Rhone and dessert. The Bone Marrow was rich but delicate and delicious spread on the house made bread, the parsley salad was a nice and bright compliment. Some say rabbit taste like chicken, this preparation taste to me more a bit like ham hocks maybe because it was cooked with bacon and mustard – it was so tasty. We finished with a slice of cheese cake for the table; the cheese cake was light as a feather with a taste of Annis – OMG! The food at St. John’s is very straight forward, complex in its flavor but not fussy. This place is not for everyone but if you are adventurous and have a wide palate I highly recommend it!

Indigo http://www.campbellgrayhotels.com/one-aldwych-london.html?lang=EN#/one-aldwych-london/Restaurants-and-Bars/indigo. The restaurant is located in One Aldwych Hotel and the Chef is Gordon Ramsey. The focus of the food is “European”, light fare locally sourced. Again, we took the Tube for our flat to Indigo, we took the Tube everywhere. We found the restaurant with relative ease; we settled down at our table and had a cocktail before dinner. My pretty and refreshing drink was called the Bow Cow made with fresh ginger (you know how much I like ginger in a drink) lemon grass, Vodka and Melon Medori (whatever that is). The Charles and I shared the Seared Diver Scallops with peas, fava beans and pea shoots to start; my entrée was a wild mushroom risotto with glazed duck leg, the duck was off the bone, the mushrooms were nicely sautéed and this dish had big flavor. This risotto was the best I have ever had, the duck leg and the mushroom added the rich wild taste to the delicate grain. The risotto was cooked to perfection, it wasn’t too thick or too loose. I have not been able to stop thinking about that risotto! My husband had braised short ribs of beef with turnip emulsion and root vegetables, I tasted it and it was great. I will definitely go back to Indigo the next time I am in London and I suggest you give it a try the next time you are in the UK, I don’t believe it will disappoint!

Bibendum – Oyster Bar http://www.bibendum.co.uk/the-building.html is located in the Michelin House, the first permanent British headquarters in 1909. Even if you don’t eat at the restaurant seeing the building and the shops inside is worth the visit; the building is a tribute to the Michelin Man. Many years ago we dined in Bibendum Restaurant but this time we had lunch at the Oyster Bar. We weren’t looking for this restaurant we stumbled upon it returning from our “dry run” to our pick up point for our day trip to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. It’s in Chelsea and was not far from our flat. What do you eat at an Oyster Bar - - why Oysters of course and that is what I had and a glass of Champaign. I can’t remember what oysters I chose but I know I got the smallest ones they have; I don’t care for large oysters. I like the mellow taste of oysters along with a simple Miette. I was so happy that we stumbled upon this place again, the first time was deliberate and the second a happy coincidence - - another joy of traveling and exploring, you never know what you might find!

Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath day trip started with a 15 minute walk from our flat to the Regents Hotel, our pick up point for the tour. Our pick up was scheduled for 8:15 am, we arrived early without a hitch because we made a dry run the day before and timed the walk. At about 8:30 it occurred to us that the coach as they call it, had not come to pick us up so someone suggested we call the tour company. I called the tour company and was told that the coach that was suppose to pick us up had mechanical difficulty, it was not the coach that was going to make the journey just the coach that make the rounds to the pick up destination. It was suggested that we hop a taxi to the tour company to meet up with the coach. 8:30 am in London is the same as in any major metropolitan area, it’s rush hour and taxi’s are hard to come by. After what seemed like a 30 minute wait for the taxi we made it to the tour company passing by our flat and a lot of familiar areas, actually we could have walked from our flat to the tour office just as easily. The morning of our day trip was truly a Comedy of Errors, how fitting after all we are in Shakespeare country!

We get to the tour office and were told that the coach had left and it was at another destination and that we should take a taxi to that destination and the coach would be waiting. Needless to say I am getting a little steamed by now because all of this could have bee avoided if they had only gave us a call. Instead of getting angry I tried to maintain a British stiff upper lip. So off we go escorted on foot by someone from the tour company to a taxi stand where there was a line of people in the cue a good 50 people deep. While in line we were trying to figure out what to do a man approached us and asked us if we need a ride. We decided to throw caution to the wind and take the man up on his offer, after all there were four of us and only one of him - - even though we are not fighters we knew we could take him. The illegal taxi driver got us to the coach and we joined the tour and began our journey to Salisbury; All’s Well That Ends Well!

First stop Salisbury to see the Salisbury Cathedral and the Magna Carta www.salisburycathedral.org.uk , and lunch. I have seen a lot of European Cathedrals in my life time so they don’t hold much allure for me and seeing the Magna Carta wasn’t much either. However, there was a giant statue of a young man lying on the grass that captured my attention. We lunched on fish and chips then off to Stonehenge. While on the coach driving through Salisbury we saw a lovely little square that I would have loved to visit. If I were running the tour it would have been 10 minutes in the cathedral or so, and 1 hour and 50 minutes on your own to lunch and or visit the square.

When we got off the coach in Stonehenge it felt like the temperature had dropped significantly, it was downright cold, I'm talking the Chicago Hawk! Stonehenge was what we expected mystic and very interesting. We were equipped with audio telling the story of the evolution of Stonehenge although no one really knows given its prehistoric nature. The monument evolved between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC. It is believe that Stonehenge was a place of worship because it is aligned with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset but no one really knows its purpose; it is an awesome wonder. In the gift shop I purchased a hat to warm up my heat and to keep any heat I had left in my body from escaping through my head.

Bath, the town and the Roman Baths were beautiful. Bath is a beautiful Georgian city with delightful crescents, terraces and architecture it remains you of a little hamlet nestled in the hills, it is a very quaint town. The Roman Baths were beautiful, here again we had audio to learn about the history. Bath felt more like Italy than like the UK that was the intention of the Romans I suppose. Our Day Trip was a wonderful Heritage Tour not to be missed!

Our days in London was filled with so many activities like strolling Portabello Market and scoring a beautiful necklace and cashmere scarf, playing around in Covert Gardens, Leiscster Square and Piccadilly and just sitting at one coffee spot or another talking with friends watching the world go by.

We sleep in our last morning in London after a long and delightful day in the English Countryside. We spent the day around Knightsbridge and lunched at The Fifth Floor Restaurant on top of Harvey Nichols. The Fifth Floor Restaurant has a spacious oval room dining room with the perfect ambience for our last meal in London. We have dined at the restaurant before and hoped that it was still good and it did not disappoint. The menus are inspired by seasonality, we chose the two course prix fix menu. I started with scallops and boned chicken wing (not anywhere near a whole wing) in a perfectly seasoned au jus followed by a glazed chicken breast with sweet peas and gnocchi; I’m talking good!

After our late lunch we decided to pick up a few items from the market at Harvey Nichols for late night dinner. We took the tube back to our flat to freshen up the off we went to a performance of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater at Sadler’s Wells. We had fantastic seats and saw three works we had never seen before; Suite Otis, Ghost, In/side and we saw the company’s signature work Revelation and I can truthfully say I have never seen a better performance of this piece of work. The audience was jubilant, excited, and appreciative and the dancers put on a show! We sat behind a large group of young girls, probably aspiring dancers, they REALLY appreciated the male dancers - - those young men had magnificent bodies, even an old girl could appreciate. This was a wonderful evening and a fitting finality to a perfect London vacation!

The next morning our friends took the tube to Heathrow to return to Chicago and we took the tube to the train station to take the train to Paris for the next leg of our trip.

Stay tuned.......