A few fun days in New Orleans

A few weeks ago we decided to spend a long week-end in New Orleans and enjoyed every minute.

We checked into a lovely hotel, The Windsor Court 300 Gravier Street. the hotel is a block from the French Quarter and perfect hideaway from all the crowds. The hotel has a nice swimming pool to spend the late afternoon when the sun dips behind the surrounding buildings.

The first day I sent walking the streets, watching the people, going to the many art galleries and getting a lay of the land Including a nice lunch at the bar of The Adelaide Cafe, across the street from our hotel. Carl went fishing for Red fish with a guide he had met. His fishing was a good adventure, he caught over 20 fish, catch and release, and I found all the places I wanted to take him back to the next day.

We had a dinner at “M Bistro”, not the best dinner but great Jazz in the hotel bar next to the dining room.  The next day we walked the river front, explored the back streets of The French Quarter and spent the afternoon getting massages in the hotel spa.

Dinner was at a small neighborhood restaurant called Serendipty, I had read an article in a wine magazine and it lived up to its review. Serendipty is a few miles  outside of town so make sure to arrange a cab. I had an amazing herb salad with shrimp and it was just the start of a great simple dinner.  (504-407-0818).

The next day we had an early breakfast in the hotel, did a little shopping at the many shope and then made our way to lunch at Nola–534 ST Louis Street. Nola is one of the many restaurants owned by Emeril and lives up to it reputation of great southern food. We shared a couple of starters and a main course. the staff was happy to split the main course for us since the servings are very large and we needed to save room for dessert.  Plus we had dinner reservations later and had to have time to digest.

Dinner was at R’evolution–this restaurant is very upscale and the attention to detail is much more like what you would experience in New York or San Francisco than what you expect for New Orleans. R’evolution has one of the top wine lists we saw. Presented on an ipad with wines as high as $10,000 for a big bottle of special french wine. We started the meal by ordering their BBQ oysters served on a pink salt block. We could have eaten a dozen of these beautiful warm oysters but had more choices coming, including a great bottle of wine. If you are interested ina perfect meal this is a place not to miss.

The next day we needed some exercise so went to rent bikes at Free Wheelin, http://www.neworleansbiketour.com, it is $25.00 for 4 hours. We did a grand tour and used up every minute of our 4 hours. The bikes are new and easy to ride, especially since the city is so flat you can ride forever. They have good bike lanes and the owner helped us plan our trip. We stopped for lunch at a great oyster bar called “Peche Seafood Grill” 800 Magazine Street– 504-522-1744–, worth trying.

The next day we had to go back to Commanders Palace for lunch before leaving for our late afternoon flight, it had been years since we had been and it is still creating great food.

 

 

Wonderful pork loin recipe

I don’t cook a pork loin often because I find that the meat has not real flavor except the sauce that is put on at the end. When I came across a recipe a couple of years ago I liked it inspired me to try and then add to the flavors so the end result was one I liked the best.
I bought a small loin and created a brine that gave good flavor without to much salt. I have also done this same preparation using a bone-in pork loin roast but you will need to double the brine and leave in brine longer.

Brine as follows:
2 quarts of water
1/2 cup of salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 bay leaves
1 tsp each whole fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, ground black pepper, 2 star anise pods, 3 allspice berries, 2 juniper berries
Toast all the spices for about one minute add the water, salt, sugar and bay leaves, boil and stir to dissolve salt and sugar. Cool brine and pour int a bowl large enough to cover pork loin. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Bring pork to room temperature before roasting.
Pre heat oven to 350.
Set pork on rimmed baking sheet and roast in the upper part of the oven until the instant-read thermometer reads 145. Transfer to a carving board and let rest 10 to 15 minutes.

Smoothie that you will love

I am not much on Smoothies. I guess I love OJ and bananas but not much on veggie drinks. I love my Vitamix but don’t use it often to make veggie smoothies until I tried this one at a food fair.
This is a green Mint smoothie that is like magic when you use your Vitamix, but works fine with a regular blender.
I cup of water
1 1/2 cups of green grapes
4 cups loosely packed fresh spinach leaves
2 1/2 cups fresh pineapple chunks or frozen thawed.
1 cup ice cubes if you are using fresh pineapple or 1/2 cup if using frozen/thawed pineapple

If you are using a Vitamix select Smoothie program if using a blender add fruit in batches.
This is so good and good for you.

Sri Lanka a new frontier

First things first you will need to go on line and buy a Visa–www.eta-sri-lanka-visa.com, the site is easy to navigate and our driver gave us his name and e-mail address to use as a contact. They never asked for the actual visa but we had it just in case.
A trip to Sri Lanka is a journey through history. After years of war between the Sinhalese and the Tamils the country is poised for a rediscovery.
We flew from Seattle on Emirates via Dubai and spent one night at the airport Le Meridien hotel. This is a great choice since there were several good restaurants on the grounds. The next day we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka and were picked up by our driver, Udaya, (email-michelleuthaya@yahoo.com) and started the first of many wild drives to our hotel, The Cinnamon Grand, on Galle Road. We were across the street from the famous Galle Face Hotel so after taking time to walk the beach we enjoyed just sitting in their garden on the water and having a drink, the cool air is soft and the mood relaxed.
That first night we shared one of the best dinners on the trip at “Ministry of Crab”, the famous mud crabs were served to us two ways, black pepper crab and chili crab. When you visit Sri Lanka go out of your way to experience this Fabulous dish, http://www.ministryofcrab.com.

The next morning Udaya arrived with a big smile and we headed to the hill country, known as the Cultural Triangle, Sri Lanka’s most important ancient sites. One of the things that you notice first is the traffic and the way the people drive, seems there are no rules and the horns never quite honking. Our drive was to be about 4 hours so Udaya suggested we stop after about 1 1/2 hours and have a massage at an Ayurvedic spa. This was a must do, we were in a city called Habarana, the spa is owned by Desmond Kelly. Mr. Kelly has a very clean spa–found at Number 97 Anuradhapura Road, randykelly@gmail.com or have your driver reserve ahead at 077-599-039. We felt great and our skin was smooth. We did not look great since our hair was now a mess of oils but worth it.
We stopped along the road for a simple local lunch and then headed to our hotel —Heritance Kandalama in Dambulla. This would be our home for 2 nights while we explored the hill country. shanaka@aitkenspence.lk
This area is were you will see several of the eight UNESCO Heritage sites of Sri Lanka. Our first adventure, The Rock Temple will take you about 20 minutes to climb the many stairs to the caves the first one has a 46 foot long statue of a dying Buddha, the next two caves have paintings depicting scenes from the Buddha’s life, all of these paintings were done in 1120. You will need to wear something to cover your knees and shoulders to enter the caves, also comfortable shoes the ground is uneven on your hike and it is hot. (hint we bought socks along the road since they make you take off your shoes to enter the grounds and the rocks hurt your feet and it is dirty.)

The same area has Polonnaruwa, once a fortified city, you will be amazed by the 6,000 acre man-made lake that provides the water for the farms. We then did a drive around Sigiriya, a large flat rock called the Lion’s rock. This iconic structure was built around AD 475. We did not climb the rocks 1,200 steps, much of it twisting metal staircase, but you can walk the gardens or ride a bike around if you prefer. We then went on an elephant safari for a couple of hours. We saw about 30 elephants and enjoyed our guide explaining the many different birds and other small animals we came across, if you have kids they would really enjoy the time spent in the jungle looking for the small groups of elephant families.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped along the road to sample the local snack, Hoppers. These simple rice flour treats are cooked over small fires in a pan looking like a mini wok. You can have them with a craked egg in the middle or plain with coconut chili along side. These special treats are not available until after 4pm. The next morning they were making them for breakfast at our hotel. Udaya was great about showing us the true local way of eating and he was always ready to stop any place so we could explore or take a crazy picture.
We were up early and checked out of the hotel headed up into the tea plantations and toured a tea factory. Since they grow 80% of the worlds black tea it is for sure that every piece of available land in the area is planted with tea plants. ( ladies that pick tea taking a breakThe road twists and turns with cars, buses, tuk tuks, the drive is long and slow, so the stops were welcome. We stopped at a spice market and toured the grounds buying a few herbal tonics. Next we stopped in Kandy to see the area, had a local style lunch, about $4.00 a person, and a bottle of ginger beer and met Udaya’s family. Off on another 3 1/2 hour drive thru the tea plantations arriving in Nuwara Eliya. This is the garden area where the most beautiful vegetables are grown and grazing land for the dairy cattle. We stayed at a new small hotel, Unique Cottages–112 Queen Elizabeth DR. The rooms were large and very clean, since they had only been open a few months the gardens had not matured. The staff could not have been nicer and since they did not have a restaurant for dinner they drove us to other places in the evening to dine.

The other hotel recommended was The Grand Hotel, http://www.tangerinehotel.com, its name tells you what it is. An old restored resort hotel with several restaurants and beautiful old wood floors and rooms. We had an excellent dinner in the free standing Indian restaurant, Indian Grand. The next night we dined at the Grand Hotel scanning their buffet you could have every type of cuisine available, it was expensive for the area but well presented.
We spent our time in this area exploring the local market, buying pepper and cinnamon sticks, walking through the beautiful parks in the city and driving up into the surrounding hills to see the farms. Udaya took us to his friends place, a bed and breakfast called Carnation, where the owner prepared us a great lunch of local fare, about $3.00 each. You can also stay in the little place for around $50.00 a night. The rooms are clean and all have their own bathroom.
The next morning we drove just outside of Nuwara and boarded a local train riding through the mountains for about 3+ hours to the city of Ella. The train trip cost $1.50 each and was an experience to treasure. Udaya drove ahead with our bags and met us at the other end. We met interesting people some traveling for the experience while visiting the country, some locals going to visit friends. There was a man selling small lentil cakes out of a basket with many roasted chilies tucked into each small bag as he sold to the people on the train, delicious for about 20 cents each.
When Udaya picked us up we had another 3 hours drive to “Chaaya Wild Yala” game reserve in the village of Kirinda, Tassamaharama. While we were driving we stopped to see the Buduruwagala monument in the city of Budulla. These huge stone carved buddhas were carved into this mountain over 3000 year ago. We stood and marveled at their size and the idea that men carved them so many years ago. The Chaaya game reserve is off the main road and you wonder if you will ever arrive after driving on the rutted dirt road for several miles. When you do arrive it is like a piece of heaven. Our beautiful cabin was tucked into the winding paths with monkeys swinging from the trees and birds of many colors singing to you as they walk you to your room. When it gets dark you will have to have a guide to walk with you since the wild hogs and stray elephants seem to enjoy walking through when night falls. The pool is so large and welcoming after all the time in the car we were looking forward to sitting under a tree and swimming.
We took a safari the next day with a local guide that was a friend of Udaya’s, saved us $250 off the price the hotel was charging. The 3 hour safari was worth the time and during our adventure we saw so many different animals and wide array of birds. We even got a glimpse of a leopard, this reserve holds one of the largest leopard populations in the world. It is a very rough road but our safari guide had an eagle eye and missed no chance to point out the smallest bird or largest lizard crossing the road.

After 2 days of resting, swimming, having an adventure with the wild life we got up and headed to the seaside village of Galle. Along the way we stopped in Madilla Beach, Tangalle, Udaya had called ahead and made arrangements for us to feast on fresh lobsters for lunch. We drove along the beach until we came upon the hotel/restaurant “Blue Horizon”, bluehorizonhotel@live.com. We had lobsters and large shrimp watching the surf roll in while the sleepy dogs sat under the umbrellas on the beach.

Along the way to Galle we slowed to watch the famous pole fishermen perched on a single pole off the shore of the beach, rod in hand. They will want money to have their picture taken and often send small children to collect a few pennies for the perfect picture.

We check into the Jetwing Lighthouse in, Galle, one of the many hotels designed by the famous Sri Lankan Geoffrey Bawa. The spa is beautiful and their staff gives great services. There are two large pools and the hotel sits nextto a nice beach. This is a great place to sit back and relax, http://www.jetwinghotel.com. (another beautiful high end hotel is the Amanresort in Amangalla, if you don’t stay here at least go for a drink)

Galle has a vibrant commercial district, but pass through the fort walls housing buildings dating back to the Dutch era and you to will be transformed. It is an amazing collection of structures and culture, large red hibiscus and palm trees welcome the visitors. When you step up on the encircling walls the views of the ocean and town remind you why this is another Unesco World Heritage site. This is a working community and we found several great shops to buy gifts for our families back home. One of the great finds was a beautiful jewelry store called “Aysha”, 39 Church Street. The owner Mr. Mulaffer, e-mail newchoicegem.yahoo.com, is ready to make you anything that you want in a matter of hours. His gem stones are fun to just sort through. We did buy several fun necklaces and my friend Ingrid had a lovely pair of earrings made.

We had two great days in Galle but then had to head back to Colombo for our return trip to Seattle.
On our drive back to Colombo, fighting the heavy traffic going every which way we had a detour in Kalawila Village, Beruwela so we could tour the gardens and house of Geoffrey Bawa. Bevis Bawa Gardens are open to the public. There is also one of his design hotels in the area of Bentona. Located by the beach he designed the hotel and gardens with interesting sculptures, no TV but great charm.

It was a long crazy drive back to Colombo, 2 1/2 hours, then had to travel an hour through the city to reach our last hotel in Sri Lanka. We had an early flight out the next morning so we stayed at the much written about, Wallawwa Hotel. This beautifully restored hotel only has 17 rooms so be sure to book early. When you reach the gates looking into the amazing garden with giant rubber trees and bamboo 20 feet tall you will begin to relax. The rooms are large, the shower welcomes you after your long drive or a dip in the pool and if you have time stop in the spa for a massage. Dinner on the deck was very nice and we did not have to venture out since our driver had left us. We had a beautiful breakfast with the last of the fresh fruit and egg hopper before we caught our flight back to the rain in Seattle. http://www.thewallawwa.com

Notes: Our guide Udaya speaks perfect english and will respond quickly if you write him an e-mail michelleuthaya@yahoo.com
Udaya’s wife Michelle, is from Australia and helps booking his tours. The car Udaya uses for 2 people is in good shape but small. He can make arrangements for a larger car if you wish but you need to let him know in advance. We paid $70.00 a day using the smaller car and gave him a $150.00 tip for the 10 days, he was worth every dime. If you use a larger car or van it will be closer to $125.00 a day. We did include Udaya in our lunches and two nights game him an extra $25 a night for a room. Other nights the hotel did provide sleeping accommodations for drivers.
Uydaya has a lot of energy for his country and excitement to share all experiences and make sure his guests have a great time. We often had to remind him not to ask us if he was doing a good job because he was the best guide we could have asked for.
http://www.srilankadriver.com is his web site.
Note:
Sri Lanka is very casual, humid and hot. All the hotels offered free WIFI which made staying in touch easy.
Enjoy

Skiing in Zermatt

We just returned from skiing with friends in Zermatt. We flew to Zurich and took the train to Zermatt. A few hints to make your trip easier.
You will need to change trains in Visp and will only have about 10 minutes to drag all you bags from one platform to the next and load your bags. Then since the seats on this leg of your trip are not reserved one of you will need to find seats while the others load the bags. We purchased our tickets on line before we left home so we knew we would have reserved seats from Zurich to Visp.
Upon arriving in Zurich we were pickup by our hotel shuttle and were happy to see the wonderful lobby at our hotel Alpenhof, 41-27-96655-55. The hotel is located half a block from the lifts so the start of each day was made easier. The Alpenhof is a small boutique hotel with a nice spa, large indoor pool and efficient staff. We reserved a suite and enjoyed the comfort of two bathrooms and plenty of space to store all our ski gear.
The lobby bar had a piano and a large smoking room where my husband enjoyed his nightly cigar. The first night our group of 9 had dinner in the hotel dining room, they had a very nice menu offering a 5 course meal with several choices. The next morning we all met for a breakfast with beautiful fresh squeezed orange juice and selection of fruit and breads.
Time to ski, we hired 2 local guides to give us the grand tour of the many different runs. The mountain is well groomed with assorted lifts from 6 seated heated chair lifts to huge trams taking over 125 people to the highest peaks. The guides not only knew the mountain but all the best restaurants on the hill, including the far side into Italy.

You realize that in Europe the big meal is at lunch time. I will just give a list of all the amazing places we were lucky enough to have lunch:
Our first lunch was Vrony, reservations a must–41-27-967-25-52, we were served huge platters of homemade meats and local cheeses, followed by perfect pasta topped with black truffles. Lunch with wine and desert was about $80.00 a day so be prepared.
The next day we had lunch at “Findlerhof,” you must have the the veal chop and quiche with salad big enough to share. Info@findlerhof.ch. we enjoyed our lunch so much we came back a second time. Great wine list, but remember you have to ski down after a hour and half lunch.
On Wednesday we made our way though the trees to a hidden farm house with a tiny kitchen serving a lunch to remember, ZUM SEE, is written up as one of the best restaurants in Zermatt and we believe that is true. Be sure to make reservations, 0279672045. The octopus salad was a perfect starter followed by pasta or mussels in broth.
As the week went on we wondered what was left since each day seemed to top the day before. Our guides took us to a new restaurant called “Stafelalp”, owned by a young couple that we’re serving some creative dishes. We shared an herb fondue with fresh cubes of bread. One of the group was served a white wine soup that was brought to the table in a glass jar with sealed lid. Info@stafelalp
Our guides from Zermatt ski and snowboard school were great and made our week on their mountain one to remember. You can contact Peter Zurniwein direct—peter.zurniwen@valaiscom.ch and you will have the best skiing Zermatt has to offer and eat at some of the best restaurants on any mountain in Europe.
I did not write much about our dinner because after such grand lunches we usually ate lighter in the evening. Couple of high lights we great burgers at a small place called Bubble. Burgers were $30.00 each but worth every penny. Hand cut French fries like you try to make at home, soft sesame buns and all the toppings.
If you want a great steak or lamb chops go to Chez Max Julen famous for grilled meats served with choice of side sauces, love the peppercorn sauce. Chezmaxjulen@hotmail.com
Our last dinner after returning our skies packing our bags we treated ourselves to dinner at CERVO at the mountain boutique hotel, http://www.cervo.ch, if you don’t go for dinner at least try and stop at the bar on your way home off the mountain, it is at the bottom of the run before you step into the elevator for the ride down to the down below.
Zermatt is a beautiful village with no car, great skiing terrain and top notch restaurants. Expensive but worth the price.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup

10 servings

8 tlb butter
2 tlb olive oil
2 carrots   peel and chop
2 leeks – white part only chopped
1/3 cup onion chopped
2 cups sweet potatoes – cooked
4 cups pumpkin (canned)
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 cloves garlic diced
2 tsp cardamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground white pepper
6 cups chicken stock (more if soup is too thick)

 Cut sweet potatoes in 2” pieces and boil until tender.

Cool, peel and dice.

Saute carrots, leeks, onion, and garlic until soft  (4 mins), add sweet potatoes, pumpkin, stock.  Simmer 5 mins.

Add peanut butter, stir to blend.

Add cardamom, salt, pepper , simmer 25 minutes.

Puree, serve warm

Garnish –diced peanuts, diced candied ginger, chopped parsley

Mexico, In the Mountains

San Miguel de Allende has earned the reputation as an artist colony and friendly place for visitors from around the world. We had the great pleasure of staying at Carl’s cousins beautiful hacienda, but went exploring the city and surrounding. We made our first stop at Piedras, www.piedrassanmiguel.com, wonderful jewlry designed by Bill Harris and his team. You need to call before you go since the studio is in their beautiful home. 415-154-9193. Then we headed down the hill to have lunch at La Posadita, Cuna Allenda #13, up two flights of stairs to the roof top and great Mexican food and ofcourse a good beer.

The next day we made a trip to Casa Katalina, on Jesus #16, this small craft store had so many wonderful pieces made by Dan that we did some great Christmas shopping. Each piece had a story of how it came together. From there we headed to Virgins Saints and Angles on Recreo 68. This place is hard to find but worth the trip. the doors are not marked so you think you are lost until you step inside. the owners have created wonderful, necklaces, ear righs and belt buckles. go to alejandra@vsadesigns.com or www.vsadesigns.com.  We headed back to the house and had a simple lunch in the garden, pool time, since the days are always around 85 and the evenings are cool. Remember you are at 6,000 feet so it drops down to around 50 at night.

The next day we went to the old textile factory, now a huge building housing artists studios and restaurants. Factory La Aurora is worth the visit we had a simple lunch at Food Factory La Auroar, nothing great but fine since we had a big dinner planned. There are so many shops to visit in the city center and the clean streets, welcome shop owners and beautiful building make you want to spend hours just exploring.

That evening we had a very good dinner at a place aalled Calenda, Nemesio Diez #10, karen@calendarestaurante.com 415 15 47 129,  across from the new Rosewood hotel. The owner, Keren Wix, was there making sure everyone was being taken care of. They had a small group playing jazz and the huge pepper corn tree was lit up as you enter the courtyard. The feature on the menu was pork and it was melt in your mouth perfect, slow roasted for 36 hours.  After several shared courses we finished with a unique desert, it read brownie crumbs with sweet chilies.  We had a great time and you will also.

The last day we went back to pick up a few special treasures and finished the evening sharing dinner with new friends at a place called Los Milagros, hard to park so take a cab to Relox #17.

the next morning we had to catch an early flight so we had Julian Cartas pick us up and  take us to Leon for our return trip. Julian has a very nice car and speaks english well e-mail him at     j_cartas @yahoo.com,  cell phone number 044 415 101 6024.

This is a beautiful city, the sun always shines and everyone was happy to see us in their stores and restaurants.

We finished