3 wonderful days in Napa Valley

We flew to Napa Valley last week-end and enjoyed the warm sunshine, great wine and good food. Upon our arrival we drove to Yountville to have lunch at a beautiful hotel/spa named Bardessono. Bardessono is a very modern hotel located in the downtown area of Yountville. The rooms have their own in massage tables in the room and some of the rooms have an outside shower. We enjoyed a simple lunch in their restaurant, Lucy.

We then headed to Meadowwood, a beautiful resort in St. Helena with a spa, croquet courts and a 9 hole golf course. Their fin dining restaurant has an amazing selection of wines and breakfast is a must.

We changed clothes and were picked up for our 6 pm reservation at The French Laundry. This is an experience that is hard to explain, but worth the effort to obtain the reservation and the cost. We shared a 15 course dinner with matched wines. Our host, Dan Duckhorn, made the evening even more memorable. We had just eaten for 5 hours and had only been in Napa for 12 hours.

The next morning we started with a tour and wine tasting at Duckhorn’s winery, Paraduxx, sharing beautiful vintages and lunch in the garden. This winery has some of the best organized wine tasting. Be sure to make a reservations ahead for an opportunity to blend your own wine.

We then moved on the the Duckhorn Winery where we had the grand tour and tasted a full range of the different brands and vintages produced under the Duckhorn brand. If you join the Duckhorn wine club you are offered a 20% discount on future purchases and free shipping.

The next day our driver drove us 2 hours to The Anderson Valley to visit Goldeneye. One of the wineries owned by Duckhorn and producing a beautiful Pinot. This valley is quiet and a long drive but is now producing some of the best wines we tasted, and bought of course.

Dinner was at Bottega, a very busy hip restaurant in Yountville. The deck was packed and the energy was high. The next morning we shared a simple breakfast at Meadowwood and checked out. We headed to Napa to explore a couple of antique stores and share a great lunch in Morimoto’s asian restaurant along the river, phone 707-252-1600, info@morimotonapa.com. This is a wonderful cool change from all the food and wine we had been eating. Worth the stop, but be sure to make reservations.

Yellowtail tartar a must.

April time to plant peas

It is April first in Seattle and time to start planting. We will plant peas, radishes and lettuce this week-end. We are planting 3 types of peas, first a shelling pea called Sienna and an early shelling pea called Strike.

Next we plant a short row of snow peas or often know as sugar peas and pea pods for those stir fry dishes and salads.

We will seed the peas closer than normal so I can pick about a third of the plants when they reach about 6 inches high, this gives me those tender pea shoots for stir frying.  This will be the first planting of peas since they will be ready in 49 to 60 days. We will seed a second planting in about 3 weeks so we have a longer harvest period.

Be sure to soak your pea seeds for at least 12 hours in a glass of water  before planting, this will help them sprout faster. A peas root nodules are very high in nitrogen, this is why you do not want to thin the peas. When we double plant for the harvesting of the pea shoots I only pinch off the tender shoots and leave the roots in the ground.

The nitrogen released from pea roots helps increase the yield of the pea crop but also the next crop you plant in the ground when the peas fade.

 

Amazing trip to China’s Yunnan Provence

On March 13th 6 of us left Singapore for 7 days in Yunnan Province, starting our adventure in the city of Lijiang. We arrived early evening and checked into the Banyan Tree Hotel. The hotel is made up of seperate villas spread out over several acres. We had room 212, a perfect location easy walk to the restaurants and spa.

The next day our guide, Anna, arrived early to wisk us off on our adventure. The cherry blossoms were just beginning to bloom and the many willow trees that line the streets were beautiful lime green.  Our first stop was the Black Dragon Pond, a lovely park with many ponds and when the water is high several waterfalls. The people of the area are great dog lovers so we saw the early morning dogs and their owners. There is a lovely village close by that still holds all the old traditions of the area. The tiled roofs, old wood doors and local people still doing their wash in the small stream of water along the walk ways makes you realize that this is an area that is in transition.

The Naxi people of this region are farmers and their gardens produce beautiful green vegetables that we were served at every meal. We wondered the narrow cobbled streets in the old town, through a maze of canals, old wooden buildings and back street markets filled with Naxi women in traditional dress.  Each of us found a few treasures to being back home. The art of bargaining took all of our energy as we each bought unique gifts for ourselves and family back home.

Back at The Banyan Tree Hotel we ate in the Asian restaurant and were served beautiful dishes with many of the greens and vegetables we had seen in the market.

The next morning we ventured out of town to local villages Longquan, Baisha and Yuhu where we explored old collection of murals and photos taken in the 1920′s by Joseph Rock.  The average woman in these areas live to be 82 years old, they focus on happiness and family. The people in these villages are farmers and work their small plot of land raising the food they need and animals, yak, black pigs, cows and a few chickens. Their small simple homes had no heat, many just receiving electricity in the past couple of years. There was a small fire burning on the floor in the kitchen where the tea pot sat ready for the next cup.

The next morning we left the hotel early to drive to Jade Dragon Mountains for the amazing “Impressions of Lijiang” show. The backdrop is a series of snow topped mountains. You are sitting at 10,600 feet watching a production choreographed by director Zhang Yi Mou and involves more than 500 dancers in their ethnic costums. It was so cold we thought we would never make it until our guide, Anna, rented huge orange coates for us to wear, about $2.00 each.

After the 1 hours show we headed out for a 4 hour drive to an area called Shangri-La. The area is on the Tibetan plateau. On our way we drove along the Yangtze river stopping at a very famous  “Tiger Leaping Gorge” This is one of the deepest gorges in the world, also one of the narrowest. We climbed down the long series of steps to the lowest platform and then back out, over 1000 steps. This time of year the river and falls are very low, this will all change when the rains begin.

After the gorge we drove another 3 hours to Shangri-La and our hotel for the next 2 nights. Checking into The Banyan Tree Ringha, we entered our suite to see this great bathroom and this grand bath tub.The hotel is a series of Tibetan houses that were taken apart and moved to this hill over looking a village then reconstructed and turned into a series of Tibetan suites. You arrive by driving through Hong Po Village on a very small remote road, while being careful to watch for all the baby black pigs along the side of the road.

This area is very high in the mountains., over 9,000 feet, so there was a light snow on the ground and very cold. We were not prepared for the temperature, but found long black coats in the closet that we wrapped ourselves in as we walked to the dining room. We joined each other for an exciting new experienced, the shared local hot pot. The small burner with a surround of broth is placed  in the center of the table and then fresh mushrooms, pieces of meat an assortment of greens and tofu are cooked in a  rich broth fondue.  Bowl of fresh noodles are served alongside as well as rice to accompany the meat and vegetables.

The next day we were up and ready to visit the Songzanlin Monastery. The monastery was built in 1674  and is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist lamasery in Yunnan Province.  We then headed to the old town, which today is very quiet but we had a great time shopping and sharing a simple Tibetan lunch.

Back at the hotel I had an amazing hot stone massage, a welcome experience after so many hours in a car over the last 5 days. We had to go for the hot pot one last time, since the next morning we would leave for Kunming and back to Singapore on a late night flight.

Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province,  was a 1 hour flight.  When we arrived our guide for the day, Ms Sulu met us and helped us load our bags into the van. Our first stop was  a local fast food noodle place. These noodles were simple, not spicy when served, but we watched the locals adding spoonfuls of ground chilies, so I guess  to each as own.

Now we were off to The Stone  Forest, about a  hour and half drive on a new freeway.     This is a huge local tourist draw with over 20,000 Chinese visiting a day. Walking through the Stone Forest you can’t help but be in awe of the amazing natural stone landscape.  However, it looks like Disneyland meets Zion National Park with little electric buses rushing to massive parking lots picking up group tours and rushing back to drop off points. After a couple of hours we headed back to the city for dinner and a transfer to the airport for a 10:30pm departure to Singapore.

We arrived back in Singapore at 2 am and checked into the Ambassador hourly hotel in Terminal 3 for a 4 hour rest, shower and quick nap before we headed to the transit desk for our boarding passes to Seattle.

This was a true experience of China as it changes but still remains a country of farmers and a simple way of life.

A week on the Sea Dream 2 cruising the Med.

We just returned from a week on the beautiful Sea Dream  2 with a group of friends from the Seattle YPO/WPO chapter. We boarded the ship in Vallenta, Malta.

We arrived a day ahead and stayed at the Grand Hotel Excelsior. The hotel is in a good location however,the staff did not appear to be real organized.

If you do stay at this hotel be sure to book a sea view room. The area is called Valletta, the old city. We did find several good restaurants within walking distance. The one we chose for lunch was Fumia, on the street named Old Bakery. Fumia is located down a steep set of steps to a lower level of the Opera house. The menu had an amazing offering of local fish.

We went back to the old city for dinner with friends. We sat outside in the Palace Square and enjoyed dining at “Malta Restaurant”

The next afternoon we set off for a week at sea exploring several ports, riding bikes and of course eating in new villages whenever possible. Our trip took us to Palermo, Italy first then off to Mahon, Menorca. Most of our meals were onboard the ship but we did take advantage of riding bikes in each stop and exploring local sites.

Our first dinner on land was when we arrived in Ibiza. We ate in a nice local restaurant called “El Portalon”. This is a family run concern and the father, Tony, took great care of us serving local prawns, fresh tomatoes, the last of the season. The restaurant is located in Plaza Desamparados. Another group of friends dined at “Can Alfredo” and reported back that they had a good meal with Spanish wines.

 We did have to hurry back to the boat for our next port of call, Valencia. We had a full day here to explore the grand market in a most beautifully restored building. Then off to a lunch of paellas, local clams and other tapas as only Spain has to offer. The local restaurant was

Casa Carmina, www.casacarmina.es ,

a 20 minute drive outside of the center,into the area that the local Bomba rice is grown. That night we went to a upscale restaurant close to the waterfront called “Ca Sento”,  www.casento.net. Worth a visit, each dish was presented beautifully and tasted as good as it looked, a nice change from the food onboard. It is hard to prepare 3 meals a day for 100 people.

If you get the opportunity to take a cruise on a small ship it is hard to say enough good about the Sea Dream 2. The crew, rooms, spa, and food are over the top. We had way to much to eat and drink but it is always fun to have a chance to try something new in a new city.  Great to be home and sleeping in our own bed.

Food lovers visit to Istanbul

After spending a week on the Gullet in Turkish waters we headed to Istanbul for 4 days of eating and exploring.  After a very crazy ride into the city in the worst traffic you could imagine we arrived at the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel on the Bosphorus. The location on the water is beautiful the traffic in this area is terrible.

Dinner the first night was at Sunset Bar and Grill a view of both bridges and the entire city across the Bosphorus. The food was a B but the service and view were an A+. They eat later in Turkey so if you arrive before 8 most places are very quiet.

The next morning we met our guide Anka Benli and headed out to see the Blue Mosque and The Basilica Cistern before we had lunch and of course the Grand Bazaar was waiting for us. Anka can be reached at anka.benli@gmail.com or www.ankabenli.com , Anka has been the guide for many well know American chefs and personalities, including Martha Stewart, and Anothony while he was filming No Reservations.  After a lunch at Hotel Yesii EV in the garden restuarant called Sera we headed to the rug shop. The owner Recep Sefer is well respected and we were shown amazing rugs of every kind. Go to www.orienthandmadecarpets.com, location is Nuruosmaniye Caddesi #68 in the main bazaar. Of course I bought a beautiful carpet for a new bedroom in our Sun Valley house.  After more shopping we headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at a fish reataurant called Eftalya, www.eftalya.net . We shared plates of tomatoes and onions, fish balls, large local prawns grilled to perfection and then the waiter presented a huge fresh local white fish that they grilled and served at the table. the fish has a simple olive oil and lemon squeezed over. We were the only tourists since it seems to be a true local place. Be sure to go after 9pm for a fun active meal.

The next morning we met  Guzin Yalin, Guzine is very involved it everything to do with food, food products and cusine in Turkey.

Visit her site at info@ruhungidasikitaplar.com or info@ruhungidasikitaplar.com. Guzine does food tours, is a great food writer and help produce a beautiful cookbook of Turkish recipes. 

After coffee and a quick conversation sitting on the Bosphorus in an area called Bebek. We had lunch next to the spice market at a Kabob place called “Hamdi”. Guzin explained about the flat bread called Lahmacun with meat or herbs and Simit, a bread covered in sesame seeds and baked.  I learned so much in just one morning I look forward to our next meeting. Thank you to all the people tha made our short visit in Istanbul a perfect beginning to a long friendship with the city and new friends.  

Turkey by boat

After many months of planning we were joined by 10 friends on a beautiful gullet in Turkey for a week of cruising. Our yacht was chartered through— bluefunyachting.com, the name of the boat was Caner IV. The boat was fashioned after the old style sail boat called a Gullet. Caner IV is 128 feet long  with 6 beautiful staterooms and was only 3 years old.   (Our boat and crew)

We picked the boat up in Bodrum, Turkey and headed out for 7 days of swimming, eating, and exploring. The food was so fresh and our chef created 3 full meals a day. We never ate a meal off the boat since you could not have found a better meal or service any place.

After each person would rise to sunshine we looked forward to breakfast at 9am the outside table was covered with platters of fresh fruit, tomatoes, peeled of course, cucumbers, olives and the freshest yogurt and cheese. After breakfast we would find our places on the deck for a cruise to the next bay for swimming and reading.

Our course was charted by our captain and we would move to a different port, bay, each day. We would swim in the 85 degree water and then get ready for a perfect lunch each day at 2pm. We had bought our wine in Bodrum and found that many of the local Turkish wines were not bad. Lunch was usually started with a toast of local rose’ and a few bottles of local beer.

We would often see our chef buying fresh fish from a local fisherman , they would come up along side our boat and offer their latest catch.

We did anchor one morning and go to a small village in Selimiye Bay. We went to the local market where the crew loaded up on tomatoes, peaches and feta cheese while the ladies did a little shopping at a shop called Ayna, www.aynabutik.com,. We all bought wonderful cotton dresses that the owner had created., not expensive and we had so much fun wearing them for dinner that night.                         (white night)

Dinner was started with the traditional mezes, 5 or 7 platters of starters, okra stewed in tomatoes, beans many different ways, kebabs and often flaky pastries filled with meats, cheeses and grains, hummus is so flavorful and smooth with plenty of olive oil ready to be scooped up. The main course would follow,  always a huge green salad loaded with fresh parsley and different types of greens.  The chef had a grill set up on the back of the boat and grilled fish, steak and chicken with lemon as the main course. Perfect dessert and fresh fruit ended another perfect day.

After 7 days we pulled up anchor on the last morning and headed to land. Thc crew pulled into the private dock at the Kempinski Hotel Barbaros Bay just out side of Bodrum.  The hotel was great but after so many amazing meals on the boat, no one was happy about the food at the hotel.    I will publish a few recipes in the recipe section that I know you will all enjoy.

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Back to Italy 7/7/11

Renee and Anita with Massimo and his Culatello

Everytime I have a chance to return to Italy and visit our friends I start thinking of all the possible meals we will share, the great wine, stories of what we have been doing and then of course the cards that will be played.

This time I took my friend Anita Braker since she loves food as much as the rest of the gang and my husband was once again going fishing in Canada. We arrived in Milan on Saturday morning and hit the road running.  We were drivento  the small town of Salsomaggiore,  just north of Parma and about 2 hours from Milan in traffic.

Our friends Sandra and Maurizio have created a wonderful apartment above their garage and we stashed our bags and were greeted with a simple lunch and a quick overview of the week to come. That evening we headed to the village of Busseto for a simple dinner and front row seats for the opera “La Traviata” . The stage was set in front of Verdi’s original home  the warm evening air and great live  music made us feel  like we were dreaming.

Sunday morning after the usual coffee, simple shopping where we all bought shoes on sale, we headed to lunch at Antica Corte Pallavicina, the beautiful hotel and restaurant owned by our friend Massimo. e-mail–relais@acpallavicina.com. www.acpallavicina

Lunch with Friends at Corte Pallavicina

.com/relais. Massimo makes the very prized culatello, and is always willing to take you down in the cellar to see hundreds of them ageing  with the cool breezes from the Poe river  circulating through the rooms.

The next day we visited the local stores to buy that famous balsamic and cheese from parma and of course only that made with the milk from the red cow.

That evening we went to a local wine makers home, Guiesppe Tomasetti family winery. It was interesting to share new young lambrusco along with a merlot  that they are producing. WE brought meats, including culatello and wonderful ripe cheeses.

We had a few days just hanging out, eating pizza, playing cards and shopping before we had our next big dinner in Fontanelle at a wonderful little bed and breakfast called Hosteria Da Ivan. Our host Ivan served us great local fare in his wine cellar. Full of some of the finest bottles of Champagne you could ever sit among. We tried a nce wine Quatr Nas Langhe, 1996 and a barolo called Azelia, along with Ivan’s perfect fried zucchini blossoms.  www.hostariadaivan.it

Thursday afternoon our friends rented a van to drive us to Lucca to see Elton John in concert under the stars. We had dinner before the show at a place called Butterfl, a few miles outside of Lucca. Go to www.restaurantebutterfly.it,

our dining room at Butterfly

the gardens were in perfect bloom and the food was fresh and very interesting, we shared a bottle of white wine called Pagliature, worth trying.  Of course Elton John was a thrill and he played from 9:30 to after midnight.

The last night our hosts had Massimo’s team create a dinner at home that we will all remember and as always there was plenty of Culatello to share.

Until I can return, thank all of our friends in this little part of the world. You have won our hearts and souls.

A week in Singapore

We have friends that live part time in Seattle and part time in Singapore. Last year Yu Sian traveled with me to Laos and mentioned the World Gourmet Conference that takes place the first of May each year. When there is an invitation I hate to miss the opportunity so I took Yu  Sian up on her offer. I arrived for an amazing week of eating and exploring.

We did more in one week than I have space to write but here are the highlights.

We started with a stop at “Imperial Treasure Peking duck restaurant”

Peking duck

The restaurant is in the Metro Mall, in the rear of the Paragon Mall, as are most restaurants. Today we had dim sum for lunch  however, we returned  the last  evening for the best peking duck served 3 ways.  Do not miss this treat, my host Boon Woo believes this is the best Peking Duck in the world.

That first evening we went to dinner at Long Beach King Seafood– this is a very casual place with huge tanks of fresh crabs and fish. We had the special Chili Crabs, they serve a local mud crab with one larger claw. They also had live Alaska King crab, $700.00  sing dollars for one crab course.

We shared the local crabs and they were great.

Early the next morning we had a walk through the gardens and headed to Bacchus in Paragon Square to buy some Champagne for later.  A good asian restaurant for an early lunch was located in the basement of this mall, Din Tai Fung makes perfect dumplings. We also now have the same dumpling restaurant in Bellevue, Washington.

That evening we stayed in and were joined by several of their friends  for a wonderful traditional  dinner around their table. durian was the surprise for desert. If you can get by the smell  and that ugly skin the soft fruit inside is very nice, I believe a learned taste.

Boon Ho, Yu Sian’s husband, took us for lunch on Sunday at the new “Sky on 57″ restaurant at Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. skyon57@marinabaysands.com.

This is a very upscale restaurnat serving local cusine. I ordered the local version of chicken rice, not like what you are served in street food. Next to the restaurant is the new pool that has an infinity edge 57 stories above the city. Worth a visit.

Chicken Rice

One of Yu Sian’s friends took us the following day to have dinner where everyone from the area comes down to the street, sitting at small tables and eats wonderful local food for pennies. The area “Geylang” was busy so we grabbed a table and ordered a pot of frog

frog legs

legs cooked with ginger garlic sauce to start. The sauce was rich with flavor and very tasty. Next arrived a plate of Zhichar, stir fry beef with rice noodles with black beans. Followed by a plate of small clams in a chile sauce, way to much chili.

Next morning we  headed out to the famous Orchard Road to shop. It is  hot and humid there so all of the shopping happens in very high end office type buildings or hotels, each  different mall taking the first 5 or 6 floors of the building. Connecting the building is a maze of underground passage ways. Every major retailer from Gucci to Todd shoes is represented and each mall has a large selection of great restaurants, gourmet grocers and food stalls.

While my hosts were working I made good use of my time to visit the local museums, wander the shopping areas and get back to the house for the next food adventure. One of my favorite stops was the Peranakan museum. This is a small museum but so full of history I had a hard time leaving, a must. The National Museum of Singapore  was a good place to spend time out of the heat of the city. Then I was off to my last stop Asian Civilsation Museum,  across from the Fullerton Hotel, the original post office now converted into a grand hotel on the Singapore river.

The first wine dinner we attended was held in a new restaurant called ‘Gaia” chef Luisa Valazza from a 3 star restaurnat in Alba, Al Sorriso , prepared a 5 course meal paired with Pio’s wines also from Alba. After all, the reason I came to Singapore was to attend the dinners and cooking classes offered by the Gourmet group.

Next morning after our walk we headed to Little India for vegetarian Dosa at a small place called Komala Vilas, they have 3 locations but we went to #76 Serangoon Road across from the Indian market. Our perfect dosa’s were around $3.00. Great way to start the morning.

After a quick change we were off to cooking  class. The class was taught by a Japanese chef and he showed a couple of simple chicken dishes,  not sure I would recreate at home but some interesting technique. I do not believe the classes offered were really that great however, the experience was worth the time.

Since kitchen stores are my life I could not miss the opportunity to visit the most amazing kitchen store ever. TOTT takes kitchen stores to a new level. I have never seen such a grand assortment of professional and personal tools, serving pieces, electrical appliances for the kitchen as what was offered. Including a cooking school, interesting food and ingredients.   enquity@tottstore.com

We had a quiet dinner at home with the best bowl of “Laksa”, I will ever eat. Laska is a bowl filled with noodles, fresh coconut juice squeezed from the meat of the coconut and beautiful shrimp. I perfect way to end any day. If you are in the region be sure to have Laksa, I am sure it will not be as good as what I was served but a must.

The next morning we went to China town and shared the traditional morning fare with hundreds of others in one of the food halls that are found all over the city. Most of the people live in apartments and have little kitchens so eat many of there meals in the huge food halls located in their neighborhoods. I chose to have a plate of noodles with fresh BBQ pork and a bowl of broth on the side, about $3.50. I had to try the hot ginger tea, a lot of ginger but I loved every sip and I am sure all my health issues were taken care of with that one cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a stop at the Chinatown Heritage Center and spent time just walking through the rooms and understanding what the immigrants 100 years ago went through to find a new better life.

Boon Ho took us to a new upscale restaurant called “Otto” located at 28 Maxwell Road in The Red Dot Traffic Building, the old traffic police station and jail. Otto is restaurant that draws a large business crowd.

The time in Singapore went way to fast or I tried to squeeze in way to much.  I can not thank my hosts Yu Sian and Boon Ho for giving me an overview of Singapore that few will have a chance to enjoy but I encourage everyone to go and stay not just use it as a transfer stop,

Eating in New York

Last week we flew to New York for a quick 5 days of eating and exploring. We stayed at the Plaza Hotel, which has been all updated, our junior suite was complete with a Round bed.  We have never slept in a round bed, interesting.

Our first night we had a late dinner at Dovetail, 103 West 77th St.  Interesting American food with a twist. The soft shell crab Carl, my husband had, was perfectly crisp with a simple fresh peas puree under with a hint of lemon zest. The courses were the right size to enjoy without being to full. The wine list had a broad range of vintages and wineries represented. I recommend Dovetail for anyone interested in seasonal dishes prepared to perfection.

We woke up to a warm morning and after a quick coffee headed to our new Sur La Table store on 76th and 3rd ave. The store was busy and fitting into the neighborhood well. From the store we jumped on the subway and headed down to Soho to visit our store on Crosby Street.

Time for lunch and we took advantage of a friends suggestion for interesting Asian twist at MOMOFUKU at 207  2nd and 13th.  Worth the try. Back to the round bed and a quick drink in the Oak Room at the Plaza before we dashed off to see Spider Man. We both agree that it is worth the evening entertainment to experience the flying cast and wonderful spoof on New York.

Always a good late night feast at NOBU on 57th street. We had a wonderful waiter and one dish after the next was unique, of course we had to much food but the scallop dish had to be added.

Next morning we headed to the now famous “Eataly” Mario has a hit on his hands. the space takes up half the block and each corner offered a different opportunity to taste a bit of Italian specialities. there are 4 different places to sit and eat, pasta, sliced meats salads and more. The take out looked great and of course the hundreds of people  walking through gives energy. Not sure how much was being bought but it was worth the visit.  Eataly—200 5th Ave at 23rd.

We did not eat at Eataly but headed down to Tribeca for lunch at a fun cafe called “Bread at 301 Church, near Walker.”  I believe I had some of the best carpaccio I have had in years.   

We walked around explored the ground zero and took the subway back to the hotel for a rest before our dinner at Marea. Owner Michael White has introduced Italian food at a new level, light, local, fresh ingredients especially focused on fish.  Every course was well presented and the wine list was amazing. There is not a bad seat in the restaurant it is just getting a seat that is hard. Call ahead  212-582-5100.

The last night we headed down to —-Imperial #9 —in The Mondrian SoHo Hotel. The   front room which is a glass greenhouse type room is like being invited into Alice In Wonderland’s house. The concept is samll plates to share and each one came to the table making us think that the next one could not be as good as the last. Make a reservation and go not only for the good food but the people watching. Don’t forget to order the grilled fresh Alaskan King Crab legs.

Enjoy the city on your next visit we sure did.

 

Skiing in Val Gardena

Better late than never,  in late February we spent a week skiing in Val Gardena and I just want to describe a couple  of great meals we enjoyed on and off the mountain.

We flew into Venice and spent the night so we could enjoy dinner at “Da Fiore”, it was the season for the thin razor clams found in Italy. The pencil thin clams are stir fried with garlic and just a bit of parsley. You may have to ask Maurizio, the owner to prepare them for you since they often do not appear on the menu.

A second course of ink squid risotto served to the perfect Italian way with just a little crunch followed.  Everyone ordered different main courses from simple white fish to a grand veal chop with small artichokes, the first of the season.

The next day we were off to the village of Selva. We stayed at the Hotel Antares, the food was fine but I would not stay at this hotel again. The skiing was great and the meals on and off the mountain made the trip worth the miles you travel.

First day lunch was at Restorante Oies-Osteria Ladina in the village of Badia. We shared pasta, great fresh asparagus salads and perfect deserts then back on the mountain for a couple more long runs.

skiing on the top

The next night we had a car and driver and went to the village of Corvara for dinner in the most beautiful hotel “La Perla” info@hotel-laperla.it be sure to make reservations well in advance for the main dining room. Everything about this hotel and their restaurants was beautiful. the place to stay and eat if your budget will allow.

You ski from village to village often riding 15 differnt types of lifts we even took a hors drawn carriage on the mountain to lunch  one day.

a good way to return to the airport is use www.airportcitytransfer.com , we had a van that we shared for 324 Euro and it was great for 4 people.