Back to the Bargain Bites

I've gotten past the "dumpling" category in SF Gate's 100 Bargain Bites, learning in the process that there is a "Heart of the City" Farmer's Market at the UN Plaza above the Civic Center BART station on Sundays 7 am to 5 pm.  Maybe we can brave the winos in the tenderloin and visit this and Little Saigon at the same time.  I don't suppose the nearby main branch of the San Francisco Public Library would be open on Sunday morning...

Now we are on to the "Ramen" category in the Bargain Bites and halfway through the list.  Hapa Ramen is at the Ferry Building's Farmers Market every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 am to 2 pm.  Unfortunately the other Ramen places are outside San Francisco which doesn't help us!

On to Thai to the Amphawa Thai Noodle House out on Geary just beyond Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond.  It looks pretty good in the Bargain Bite article.  How many Thai restaurants do we have listed?

Oh, oh, now we seem to be hitting a lot of holes in the wall that are in other cities in the Bay Area.  There is, however, a King of Falafel who says it has the best falafel and then shows a picture of gyro meat on a spit!  There's also the Pica Pica Maize Kitchen, a Venezuelan restaurant specializing in arepas located in the Castro, but I'm not sure I want to pay $10.75 for an arepa.

Now we are in the sausage categories and I'm always a sucker for those.  They mention a Hungarian restaurant, Paprika, in the Mission District on 24th Street, offering German sausages, Czech beers and Hungarian dishes.  And then there is Pig and Pie, also on 24th Street in the Mission, which has its menu on a blackboard, always a charming touch, and Fernando could have tongue.  And also on 24th is a 3rd sausage place: Rosamunde Sausage Grill with 26 craft beers on tap.

Hm.  Did they have a Mexican food category?  Did I miss it?

PS: The Mexican restaurants were in Boyes Hot Springs, Larkspur, Oakland, and Redwood City so I didn't look them up.  I guess SF is too expensive for Mexicans to set up shop.

SF Gate's Top 100 Restaurants and Top Bargain Bites

Now this list from the San Francisco Chronicle should keep us busy.  Fortunately we can narrow it down just to San Francisco and they provide a map so we can look for nearby restaurants.  On the other hand, do we really want to go to the "top" restaurants?  They will be overpriced and we will be dissatisfied when we go home.  Plus there seem to be a dearth of them right around the apartment, except for Park Tavern and who wants to pay $12 for parsnip and kohlrabi soup, $9 for brussels sprouts chips and $14 for braised lamb "tounge".

They do list Piperade which is modern Basque cuisine by Gerald Hirigoyen, who has written some cookbooks that I've perused.  It isn't cheap with a la carte Basque Classics at $29, $38 for it as a 3 course dinner.  But it might be better than a run of the mill shepherder's Basque restaurant.  Hirigoyen also has a "tapas" restaurant on Montgomery called Bocadillos that's even open for breakfast!!  He must be catering to the financial market.  Of course his website says it is open Monday through Friday from 7 am to 10 am.  But that must be a typo...  He serves those boca sandwiches we got in Barcelona, but at a higher price, of course.   Poor Fernando, I think his Basque Hotel type restaurants have bitten the dust.  He'll have to wait for Noriega in Bakersfield.  Maybe we can revisit it with Vibe.

This morning I thought I would go peruse the San Francisco Chronicle to get myself up-to-date on things happening in San Francisco.  Unfortunately it is one of those publications that require a digital subscription to keep reading beyond the first paragraph!  Perhaps the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is still free because its subscribers are print people who don't do everything online.  The Chronicle article I wanted to read was about the SF MUNI pulling the cable cars and streetcars out of service for the 49ers playoff game on Sunday.  A lot of tourists are going to be disappointed!

And then the second article was on Onigilly, a fast food restaurant on Kearny Street which serves onigiri - Japanese-style seaweed-wrapped rice balls with savory cooked fillings, "Japanese Gourmet Rice Balls".  It appears you can get around the subscription requirement for the article if you come in through the backdoor via the Onigilly Twitter feed.  Onigilly also has a food truck at the Embarcadero for a "Samurai Snack".  That's some "cutting edge" food I could go for, although maybe not stand in line for; the three of us are too old for that.  The idea is similar to Sushi Fuku here in Pittsburgh except the rice is in triangles instead of rolls.


Now I'm looking at SF Gate's (the Chronicle) Bargain Bites.  There are 100 of those as well: the top 5 in 20 (!) categories, beginning with Bar Food (you have to be drunk to eat it).  Oh my gosh!!  Giordano Bros was inspired by Primanti's famous Pittsburgh sandwich!!  although the photo they show in this article is wings, not a sandwich...   Here's more on Giordano Bros with the appropriate photo.  It was started by a Pittsburgh couple and has a location in North Beach, not that we need to eat there. 

And HOORAY!  Bargain Bites even lists Tommy's Joynt, Daddy's absolute favorite (cheap and a large selection of beers).  I don't often get a pastrami sandwich, although Fernando still remembers a  little Jewish delicatessen out in the Russian district in the Richmond where we had a great lean pastrami sandwich a day or so before Willy was born.  He'll want me to ferret out that place or one like it.

One of the top 5 pizza places is Tony's Coal-Fired Pizza which is evidently the same as Tony's Pizza Napoletana except the first is a "slice house" and the second a full service restaurant.  And what is all this fascination with "coal-fired" pizza?

Bargain Bites lists 3 Vietnamese restaurants in Little Saigon (Ellis near Larkin in the Tenderloin) and the Lers Ros Thai restaurant is in that area as well.  Maybe a walk around (during daylight hours) would be interesting, if we can ignore the other tenderloin residents (Juan did not like them).  They also list Banh Mi sandwich shops.

One of the Chinese restaurants on the Bargain Bites list is the "House of Pancakes", Chinese savory pancakes that is.  It sounds interesting but it is way out in the Sunset District.  Then there is a Xi'an restaurant: Xi'an Gourmet in the Richmond, which won out over House of Xi'an Dumpling, a "typical dumpling/noodle house" on Kearny in Chinatown.  They do takeout but what fun is that when you have to do dishes afterwards?

Oh Golly.  In addition to "Chinese" the Bargain Bites has a "dumpling" category.   The Kingdom of Dumpling is also on Taraval Street out in the Sunset and its website starts out in Chinese and you have to choose English to read it!  Now that should be an indication of authenticity, right?

OK.  Got to finish packing up for the painters.

Eating Out in SF continued

The last 9 of the 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants.

Yank Sing's Goldfish Dumplings

I'm not sure about these cutting edge restaurants like Outerlands (a "surfer-chic" place located in the Outer Sunset) where they burn and char the ingredients, although I do like most of the vegetables they work with.  Lonely Planet says Outlands is worth making a detour for but for us it would probably only make sense if we were in the Outer Sunset already.

Now the Zuni Cafe has been around a while.  Do you think their chicken for two would serve three??  But it's out on Market beyond Van Ness.  Maybe it's not as far to Van Ness (and Tommy's Joynt) as it seemed when we were kids.

Izakaya Sozai:  I always wanted to go to an Izakaya but I don't know if I'm brave enough to go without Juan and Mandy along.

State Bird Provisions is another one of those wait and see restaurants that take courage.  Do I really want octopus with my lamb?

Yank Sing offers Deem Sum a la cart, literally.  They have loads of dumplings, one of the best things about Cantonese food.

OK.  I think these are the most interesting to me.  Now I have to go find another list from another publication.

 The Guardian has a list of the Top 10 Restaurants in San Francisco and 7 of eater.com's 38 are included: Bar Tartine, Aziza, Ichi Sushi, Mission Chinese Food, Namu Gaji, Nopalito, and State Bird Provisions.  The other 3 are Frances, Rich Table, and SPQR.

Oh shoot!  I see that Eater.com has a January 2014 version of the top 38 out.  One could go crazy looking at these reviews!

Eating Out in SF

Namu Gaji New Korean American

Oh, this will be exciting!  Lots of food from lots of places so I'm trying to get familiar with some of them.  One of the best things about visiting San Francisco as a child was eating out at foreign restaurants.  None are there any more, except maybe Schroeder's (which doesn't have potato salad anymore) and the Tadich Grill, which I don't remember being taken to as a child although I know Mother and Daddy went there.

I'm reviewing "The 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants, October 2013" from eater.com to see if there are any that we'd be interested in: not too pricey and not pretentious.  I'm not familiar with eater.com or with their lucky number 38 but here are some that look promising:

Lers Ros Thai doesn't seem too pricey and the dishes are nicely presented.  The servings aren't huge but we don't want to gain weight.

Bar Tartine from the Tartine Bakery people looks "interesting" with " ahead-of-the-curve Eastern European menus". Are we brave enough to try things like Pistachio dip with laver and crackers, Beef tartare with bottarga on koji toast, Smoked potatoes with black garlic, Kale with rye, seeds and yoghurt, Sprouted lentil croquettes with cauliflower and kefir, Carob mousse with goat cheese and black walnuts, chased down with a Candied beet mimosa or Sparkling riesling with charred lemon and fennel...  Or maybe we can just go to their sandwich shop for lunch.  They are big on kefir and located in the Mission District, two pluses in Fernando's book.

Then there's the pizza place: Tony's Pizza Napoletana which is only across Columbus a few blocks from the apartment.  Tony was the World Champion Pizza Maker at the World Pizza Cup in Naples in 2007 so his pizza should be good.

Namu Gaji (New Korean American) looks interesting from its photos but the menu descriptions aren't that appealing.  Maybe they will improve by March...

Nopa and Nopalito are popular but I don't know that I'm convinced, especially by the Nopalito take on Mexican food.  Anyway, they are over beyond Van Ness near Golden Gate Park and wouldn't be worth a taxi ride...Perhaps we could rent some bicycles!

The R&G Lounge is a Chinese restaurant that was featured on Anthony Bourdain.  It is on Kearny Street in Chinatown so it is relatively close by.  The menu looks like classic Cantonese and we have to eat Chinese at least once, right?  And they have a takeout menu too!

Perbacco is a Northern Italian restaurant with a lunch menu that has pretty much the same choices and prices as the dinner menu.  Their appetizers seemed priced a bit high but we could go there for pasta like Raviora (spinach pasta filled with roasted butternut squash) or roasted wild mushroom risotto.  Or maybe we could follow one of their recipe videos and cook at the apartment!  It's located on California Street in the Financial District, just down the block from the Tadich Grill.

Super Duper Burgers sound good to me, just like the falafels were in Paris.  Super Duper makes them acceptable by using Niman Ranch beef but they are reasonably priced at $6.75.  Not like some of the other frufru artisan burgers listed in GrubStreet's "The 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco".  I need fresh tomatoes and raw onions on my hamburgers but I usually have to supply my own sweet pickle relish...

Greens Restaurant: Camila and I went there a long time ago.  Sort of a San Franciscan Moosewood vegetarian restaurant.  I'm surprised it is on this list of mainly new restaurants.

Flour + Water sounds pretty interesting, especially its pasta tasting menu because it specializes in home-made pasta.  Although it sounds funny when they say at the bottom of the menu that "bread is available upon request".  Isn't that flour and water??  It's one of many of these restaurants that are located in the Mission District.

Mission Chinese Food (Lung Shan) has a branch in New York City.  I like the idea that there are NO RESERVATIONS but I'm not sure that I would like the food although Fernando might go for Grandma's spicy lamb dumplings and the tea-smoked eel, but the pastrami and beef brisket??  Here's a review by a four-year-old.

Commonwealth: San Franciscans must love their 6 course tasting menus for $55-$75.  It sounds interesting but I'm sure I would be full after 3 or 4 courses.  This one is also in the Mission District, which leads me to believe that all of the restaurants must have moved out of downtown!

La Ciccia sounds like authentic Sardinian, including botarga and the Sardinian honey (hopefully the bitter kind).  But it is the furthest away, in Noe Valley which would take about 48 minutes to get to from the apartment, first taking the cable car and then the J Light Rail to Church Street and 30th.

La Torta Gorda sounds like a good place for Mexican food and Fernando will be happy since it features dishes from Puebla.  Naturally it is in the Mission District but Fernando wanted to go exploring there anyway.

OK, I've made it through 29 of the 38 restaurants and the last 9 will have to wait till tomorrow.

San Francisco

Green Street Apartment

So we've decided to go to San Francisco for Fernando's Spring Break from March 8th to March 15th.  Fernando has to be back for class by Tuesday and we are using dividend miles so we can't be choosey about getting nonstops (we have a connection in Chicago going and in Phoenix coming back).  I was checking the nonstops on American and United and their fares were over $500.  Penny will be joining us and easily persuaded us to go the AirBnB route.  Hopefully she will get our Little Italy apartment before someone else snatches it up!

Since we'll be there a week, we'll need the San Francisco MUNI 7-day Visitor Passport ($29), which covers the cable car.  This will allow us to get up very early in the mornings just to hop on the outside for a thrill ride.  At the San Francisco International Airport  Information Booth (Baggage Claims) one can buy the passports as well as a map of the MUNI system.  Shall we take the BART from the airport?  It is $8.65 apiece to the Montgomery Street or Embarcadero Stations, and then we'd have to take a cab.  BART says the senior fare is $3.20 but I think you need a special card and need to be a local resident.  A taxi from the airport is $39 - $49 depending on the destination, although the TaxiFareFinder calculated it to be $54.45 to North Beach.

Shall we go to the San Francisco Botanical Garden?  Their magnolia's will be in bloom.  And how about some free walking tours of San Francisco by the San Francisco City Guides?  Maybe the "Controversial Murals of Rincon Center" on Tuesday, March 11th at 11 am?

Unfortunately we won't arrive on Saturday in time for the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Building, but there are smaller versions on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am–2pm, but the number of vendors is much less.  What will we do for food in the meantime???

An Insomniac is attacked by Montezuma

Some nights I just can't sleep.  At all.  That was the case with Thursday night.  I even went out on the sofa bed in the living room to escape Fernando's snoring and that didn't work.  That evening I hadn't had any expresso and even had two beers!  So in the morning I was dragging myself around and then had an attack of La Turista.  I don't know if was the sandwich Fernando and I shared at the Marrakesh airport, or the fat tuna belly I had for dinner, or the tap water I drank here in Madrid (it should be safe, right?).  In any case this all put a crimp in our plans to explore Madrid and most of the morning I spent hunting for bottled water and napping.

We finally got off around noon, with a little help from Immodium, and took the Metro into Madrid.  First stop was the Museum of America, slightly north of the city center.  Fortunately I had bought a large map of Madrid because the normal tourist map doesn't cover that area and there are no signs for the Museum.  I think they need a Sophie Masloff for mayor, someone who would put in directional signs for the walking tourist.  All their directional signs are for cars and you have to search for the street signs which are placed on the sides of buildings, as in Mexico.  I think Fernando was slightly disappointed in the Museum but it was only 3 euros so not a big loss.  Afterwards Fernando wanted to see the Ciudad Universitaria nearby, thinking he could pick up a cheap ethnic lunch like in the U.S.  But again, there were only large buildings and not much in the way of small stores.

Since we bought the all day Metro card for convenience, we hopped on the metro (although it took us some time to find the station -- again no directional signs pointing the way to a metro station) back to the center of town and began exploring the tourist shops around the Plaza Mayor.  The place was hopping with tourists -- mainly Spanish tourists I swear, but we did enjoy a beer and some bread, cheese and salami at one of the tables in the square.  You say that's not great for La Turista?  Unfortunately there wasn't much of a healthy selection at the Museo del Jamon where we ate!

The rest of the afternoon we spent trying to follow a Frommer's walking tour of the older sections of Madrid which turned out to be quite uninteresting, following major thoroughfares with lots of cars.  It's hard to wander through Madrid streets and not get hopelessly disoriented.  Maybe I do like smaller towns like Burgos and Logrono.  I try to like Madrid but it isn't easy.

One thing I'll say about Madrid:  the air is quite clear so that the sky is very blue and the yellow and orange colors of the buildings are quite vivid.  The mornings and evenings are chilly but the sun gets quite hot at midday.  I should stare at the blue sky for some time before we leave because for sure there won't be much of that in Pittsburgh.  On the other hand, there will be rain and greenery.

Airport Hotels

Thursday, September 12:  We weren't expecting much from the Aparthotel Convenciones Barajas because it's just a hotel near the airport.  We just wanted a quick place to sleep and get off early on Saturday for our flight home.  It isn't bad at all.  It has a kitchen with a two burner stove, a microwave and a refrigerator.  Then it has a living room with a pull out sofa (in case someone else like Penny wanted to stay with us), a bedroom with two beds and a bathroom with a bathtub and bidet.  We are on the fourth floor and there IS an elevator.  There is a TV in the living and the bedroom for those who are concerned and there is wifi.

We ate dinner at a neighborhood restaurant, nothing special but it did have draft beer --everybody at the outside tables was drinking beer, not wine.  I ordered a salad of piquillo peppers and ventresca.  Fernando ordered bocadillos of morcilla, chorizo, torta espagnola and ham iberico.  Ventresca is the belly of the tuna and came in long strips -- it was canned just like regular tuna but quite good, not fatty like one would think.  Camila, do you remember Mr. Ventresca who gave private lessons in flute?  Or was that Vantresca?

After dinner we walked over to the metro station, El Capricho, to check out the one day tourist rates.  The area is quite nice, really a residential area, with bike lanes and running lanes, sidewalks and small one-way streets.  Not at all what I expected.  Everyone was out walking, running or biking.  It seems like a very healthy neighbordhood.

Saturday, September 14:  Just a few more notes about the neighborhood:  there aren't any little stores!  You can't run out and pick up a bottle of water or a coke or some tea bags.  Yesterday morning I was feeling poorly so walked around seeing if we could find some provisions.  I knew there was a mall nearby but with the freeways, it's hard to get from one side to the other.  We followed the walking path through a tunnel and were approached by a woman who apparently knew we were lost and asked if we were looking for Plenilunio.  I vaguely remembered that the mall had a similar unrememorable name and so she more or less took us there.  There was a supermarket in the basement so we could pick up our water and coke but it seems that a mile is a long way to go for a bottle of water.  On the other hand, Spaniards are much more used to walking than are Americans but you would think that with all the apartment buildings that have been here for 50 years, some Colombian or other immigrant would open up a little shop for odds and ends.  Maybe the city has zoning ordinances like the U.S.

Shopping the Souks

Yesterday (Wednesday) we had to complete any shopping that we were going to do so we headed out for the souks again.  It's actually quite fun since one gets lost every time and you can always find the same thing at another store so don't despair!  We met Aydin at 9 am because we wanted to get an early start.  But when we got down to Jemaa El fna, most of the stores were still closed:  shutters drawn down.  That made it quite pleasant and easy to walk but of course crippled our shopping plans.  So we wandered up and down, in and out, ending up on alleys (they are all narrow, about 12-15 feet across) where there were no tourists, an indication we were getting away from the Jemaa El fna.  Lots of good photo shots but the Moroccans either don't want to be photographed or want to be paid for it, so only Fernando had the guts to go ahead and shoot.

Aydin was looking for Babouches (leather slippers) and we were successful in that, even Fernando bought a bright red pair.  Then I got a wooden orange squeezer, appropriately out of orange wood (we'll see how it survives the trip home), and a wooden camel out of juniper root for my Christmas pesebre.  I also picked up a miniature tagine of blue and white pottery from Fez for Fernando's Aleppo pepper and a real rustic earthenware tagine for one serving for next to nothing which I hope survives the trip home.  But most of the morning was spent wandering (no, merci; no, merci) and learning how not to ask the price of an item unless you really intend to buy it.  No pricing of things simply out of curiosity or the store owner will follow you past several stores,  gradually lowering the price until it is a quarter of what he initially requested.  And still you know that he is making a profit.

Aydin had to be back at the EUSIPCO conference for a poster session in the afternoon so we sent him off in a taxi and we proceeded to the Artisan Complex where the prices are fixed and the goods are guaranteed to be good by the government (if that is possible).   We had been there the first day but only bought a map (which has turned out to be the best one so far), although we had seen several things that tempted us.  We discovered that there were more shops than we had seen on the previous trip, and no, we didn't buy a carpet but Fernando did get a new leather belt (has he been eating too much?).  So we ended up with painted mirrors, wooden bowls out of juniper, a copper lizard for my powder-room collection and a pair of bright orange babouches with sequins for me.  In my old age I seem to be buying a lot of bright orange.  I might have to change the color of our walls to match!

Eventually we had bought all we could carry and were ready to catch a taxi back to the hotel but a driver of a horse and carriage offered to take us back for the same price.  So we got our touristy fix.  There must be hundreds of these carriages and though they are much slower than taxis, who is in a hurry with this heat?  Now all we need is a camel ride.

Our afternoons are always spent on a shower and a nap and fortunately the hotel is very quiet (except this morning they are mowing the lawn).  We met Aydin at his hotel at 6 pm and we let him exercise his little Suzuki car with a trip south to the Carrefour.  It's only about 10 minutes away because the traffic is light but there really wasn't much to see.  What a disappointment.  I still remember the row of French cheeses in Toulon and probably hope to encounter them in other Carrefours.  The Carrefours in Colombia are a treat because of all the tropical fruits.  Here in Morocco, the produce is much the same as in the US and looked rather tired.  They did have a lot of Jerusalem artichokes, sold in the potato section.  This Carrefour is in the basement of the Almazar shopping mall which has its food court on the top floor.  Hardly anybody was there and apparently it is true that Moroccans eat at home.  Most of the Moroccans in the restaurants near the hotel were only drinking coffee or soft drinks.

Disappointed with the Almazar mall and not finding anything in the surrounding area, we headed back to our Hotel Row and ate at a Cafe specializing in fish.  Aydin had the fried fish platter, Fernando had swordfish and I had a Sicilian pizza (I could only eat about half of it -- it did have anchovies, so I did my fish part too).  A Moroccan nearby was drinking a bright green soda so we asked the waiter, who only spoke French and Arabic, what it was.  It turns out that you can have a little pitcher of mint syrup (no, it is not creme de menthe) to put in your soda water.  So, of course, we asked for some too.  Now I know what we can do with the Old Fedcal creme de menthe at Mother's!

Naturally after dinner we had to stop at another outdoor cafe (they all have outdoor seating areas) for coffee.  Naturally I didn't have any coffee because the night before, after an iced cafe mocha, I couldn't get to sleep until 2 in the morning.  Fernando ordered an ice cream dish with 3 types of ice cream and espresso poured on top.  One of the ice creams was hazelnut and quite good -- I had to help him with it of course.

Now it is Thursday morning, we have had our last buffet breakfast -- our last croissants and cafe au lait -- and we are waiting until 10:30 am when Aydin will come and take us to the airport for the 1:40 pm flight to Madrid.  The Aparthotel in Madrid has wifi as well so hopefully I will be able to post there as well.  We've had a good time here in Marrakech.  Hasta Manana!

A Day without Shopping

Yesterday Fernando and Aydin had their presentation in the morning so I stayed in the hotel, napping, planning the afternoon, reading, etc. waiting until 1 pm when I would go over and meet them at the Palais des Congres.  It was a long morning so at 11:30 I finally decided to take my book and go down and sit by the swimming pool.  I got all arranged in a nice chaise lounge and then checked my watch:  Wait!  it said it was 12:30!!  I had been looking at the time on the laptop which sets itself but has the Marrakesh time an hour behind what it really is.  Needless to say I had to pull myself out of my comfortable chaise lounge and go get ready for the walk over to meet them.  Now I have set the time manually on the laptop.

I was able to eat lunch with Aydin and Fernando at the conference (the woman said "no problem") so we got a free lunch, with the normal dishes: tagines and couscous.  The fish was quite good although it seemed more like tuna or swordfish rather than the salmon they said it was.  The various cooked Moroccan salads were OK but they had some lamb or goat jerky on top of the lentil salad and I ate it without realizing what it was.  I didn't know whether to spit it out (my first inclination) or chew it down.  Since I was a guest, I did the latter.  And I'm still here a day later without any ill effects so I guess it was OK.

Then, since Aydin rented a little car in Casablanca, he wanted to make use of it and we drove over to the Menara which is nearby.  It is a big olive grove fed by a pool which is fed by water brought down from the Atlas Mountains.  Unfortunately it was not much more than that, except for the camel rides out in front, and it was 2:30 pm and awfully sunny and hot.  We jumped back in the car and headed over to the new city to visit the Majorelle Gardens, created by a French painter in the first half of the 20th century, and then rehabilitated by Yves Saint Laurent.  The buildings were painted Frida Kahlo cobalt blue and there were loads of tourists there.  There are many tourists in town, most of them Europeans.  Majorelle had planted a lot of cacti and agaves from the Americas, as well as euphorbias from South Africa and bamboo from east Asia.  In Marrakech you have to water everything or it dies.  I think they get less rain than Fillmore because they had a rubber tree there whose leaves looked like they had never been washed off.  At least the Majorelle Gardens were shadier than the Menara, although they were enclosed in walls and there wasn't much of a breeze.  One needs a lot of breeze with the heat they have here.

After the gardens we wanted to get to the Saadian Tombs on the other side of the Medina but there is a slight problem with driving in Marrakesh.  There are NO street signs.  None at all.  Or at least none in English or French.  So you have no idea what street you are on.  We finally made our way around the Medina (you can tell it's the Medina because it is enclosed by walls) but when we finally arrived at 4:50 pm, we couldn't find a place to park and the tombs closed at 5 pm.  So we decided to skip it and just go look for a place for dinner in Gueliz, the new city.  Aydin's car, a Suzuki, is very tiny so we soon found a parking space.  Unfortunately we didn't realize they had pay stations like in the US where you get a receipt to put on the dashboard and so before we knew it, two guys were putting a boot on Aydin's car!  He ran back and paid a 50 dirham ($6) fine/bribe to them and then got a paid parking receipt (2 dirham an hour).

Now about dinner.  You know that Fernando is trying to be a vegetarian.  But he is also trying to taste all the meats on the six continents that he has now visited.  So he had chameau (camel) tagine for dinner.  It was chewier than beef but much the same.  Aydin had lamb (agneau)  tagine and I had a 7 vegetable couscous (although I only counted 4: eggplant, turnip, carrot and zucchini).  The tagines are really quite good, especially the ones with prunes and almonds, although we haven't tried one with chicken.  I even got myself a little rustic tagine at the market today, but that's another story!

Arrived in Marrakesh

After hours and hours at JFK, Madrid's Barajas airport and up in the air, we arrived in Marrakesh yesterday around 2 pm, although the exact time was hard to figure out because we didn't know what time zone we were in.  It turned out that Marrakesh is one hour behind Madrid so we are only 5 hours ahead of the east coast, not 6, even though my computer has the idea that it is two hours behind that.  The airport is very small:  there was only one other jet there, until the 12:35 pm flight behind us from Madrid arrived within minutes of ours (the 12 pm flight).  And you'll be happy to know that the little regional company that flew us for Iberia, Air Nostrum, charged for everything, including water!

Luckily there was a shuttle bus from EUSIPCO waiting for arrivals, so it took us to the hotel and we didn't have to hassle with a taxi.  Le Meridien N'Fis, our hotel, is a garden hotel, with only 3-4 story buildings surrounded by gardens filled with citrus trees, olive trees, apricot and peach trees, banana trees, yuccas, and lots of Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet), which, like the Land of Buddha, they mislabel as Datura...  Our room is nothing particularly special and the balcony is too narrow to stand on but the bathroom has nice tiles in it plus a bidet.  Supposedly we have wifi but it must be over a dialup connection since it is very hard to get the images on a page to load.  I'm not even going to try to upload photos and I hope I can publish this post to the blog!

Last night we ate at a restaurant nearby since we were way too tired to go exploring.  I had a selection of Moroccan salads which were cooked eggplant/tomato concoctions, cooked carrots, beets and potatoes, and the typical Moroccan salad of chopped cucumbers and tomatoes.  Fernando had a beef tagine covered with whole roasted almonds.  He was going to order a lamb tagine but there was a Moroccan family beside us in which one of the fathers had ordered the beef tagine and it looked so good that Fernando decided to order it too.  The family was two brothers from the Canary Islands and their wives and children.  They were Moroccans but were touring the country so they spoke Spanish as well as French and Moroccan.   We had beer but had to be seated inside to drink it.

Last night we didn't make it down to that crazy square near the souks whose name I can never remember, Jemaa El Fna.  We were too pooped and went to bed at 7:30.  Of course I woke up at 12:30 am thinking it must be morning...  I guess I need my sleep in increments of 5 hours.  Fortunately I had little trouble falling back to sleep until 7 -- there is no Muezzin around here to wake us for prayers!

We had the breakfast buffet at the hotel and it was wonderful!  Wonderful coffee with hot milk, fresh fruits, fresh orange juice, croissants, breads, cheeses, lunch meats, cereals, poached dried fruits, eggs to order, Moroccan crepes.  Of course it won't be as exciting tomorrow since I know what to expect.  Afterwards we met up with Aydin Akan from Turkey and walked into the Medina or old town.  We stopped at a government-run artisan shop so we'd have some idea of what we'd find in the souks and the prices and then headed towards the Jemaa El Fna but ran into this government worker who was going to take us there but somehow we ended up in a carpet store in the souks instead...  We looked at a few carpets and were able to wiggle out of the store before the tea came but couldn't avoid the owner dropping us off at an herbal store where we finally bought 3 bags of spices just to escape!  After that we managed quite well on our own, except I asked the price of a dozen shish kebab skewers, the guy said 250 dirham, then came down to 200, then 250, then 80 and so made a sale.  Then we found them elsewhere for 30 dirham, so Aydin bought a dozen of those.  Tourists never can win!

We had lunch at the Chez Chegrouni that is in every guidebook and it was OK but I think I am already tired of meat (and Fernando is the one that is supposed to be a vegetarian, not me).  Juan will be happy to know that I am drinking plenty of bottled water, and I have sworn off beer because it is really too expensive and of course they have no craft beer movement here in Morocco.  We will wait until Spain for that.

This evening there is a welcome reception for EUSIPCO here at our hotel.  That will be our dinner, assuming they let the wives in too, like they did in Turkey and Lausanne and not like they didn't in Glasgow!  Wish us luck!

Clear with a Chance of Rain

That's the Wunderground forecast for Madrid on Friday, September 13th -- maybe the rain is forecast because Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, although in Spain rain should be lucky.  There was no extended forecast for Marrakesh on the Weather Underground - just the current temperature so I couldn't put a Marrakesh weather sticker on my blog.  I had to go to Weather.com for a 10 day forecast, which predicted highs of 88 degrees and lows in the lower 60s, without a chance of rain.

I'm waiting for my Top 10 guide to Marrakesh so I can start planning for that city.  I'm not sure how far out from the Medina the hotel really is and whether the route into the old city is walkable.  Many of the locations are not marked on the Google map and there are few bus stops - they must depend on user input for much of the data.  Yet supposedly Marrakesh is the top tourist draw in Morocco.

I looked at a question posted in the Frommers Forum on Morocco and the respondents answered that the best place to stay was in a Riad, not a hotel.  Whoops.  Too late to change now!  We'll scope them out for the next trip.  The Guardian has a 2006 (!) list of the 20 best places to stay in Marrakesh, which says that 10 years before there were 25 riads and now there are 500.  (I've heard that figure before.  It's nice and round.)  But maybe after the craziness of the Medina and the souks, we'll want to come back to an international luxury hotel outside the old city.

Conde Nast Travel has a guide to Marrakesh, with a list of riads and also where to eat.  The links to the longer reviews are broken but can be found at "Where's medina? Restaurants in Marrakech".  Should we try Chez Chegrouni, facing the main market square, Jemaa el-Fna?  On Trip Advisor you can page through 72 photos of the restaurant and its food -- to see if you'd like it...  Oh, but look at this one: Patisserie Amandine.  It's number one on Trip Advisor and I wouldn't mind a few French pastries for breakfast or supper!  They have Moroccan pastries as well, including the Pastilla with chicken.  Trip Advisor has a lot more restaurants but the top rated ones are a bit expensive.



Maybe we could go to the Henna Cafe, learn Arabic and get a henna job.  These photos of Henna cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor.

Or maybe the Souk Kafe.
Or maybe Eveil des Sens which is in Gueliz, just north of the hotel, where supposedly they have a three course meal for 70 Dh .  I can see ourselves going there to eat rather than to the Medina.  It's not easy to add these restaurants to the google map, since they often aren't listed.

Madrid in 14 Hours

Do you think we could last from 9 am to 10 pm without a rest back at the hotel?
Maybe a nap in a park would suffice?

Casa Mingo

Frommers has four walks in central Madrid online.  The second one, La Latina and Lavapies, might be the most interesting -- fewer monumental buildings.  Or maybe we should just head for the pedestrian zones that are marked on the map, which I assume are meant for walking.

Frommers also lists some tapas bars that I've added to the map.  I saw a Dave's Been Here video on Casa Mingo which looks interesting but I don't know if we are ready to attempt cidra again, after our experience in Barcelona.  Well, we don't have to order a pitcher, a small glass will do, or some beer.  I always like roast chicken and they say that at the hour of dinner from Monday through Friday, they serve cocido upstairs.  I'm assuming that would be from 2-5 pm.  I could have the chicken and Fernando could have the chickpeas.

On the other hand, we really should stop by the Ham Museum, El Museo del Jamon, although I'm not sure I really like that much pig.  I wonder if they have salads, or a nice bocadito de atun.

As I was wandering through the google maps, I ran across Apartamentos Turisticos Matute 11, which are located in the center of town near the Museo del Jamon and the Mercado Anton Martin and look like a good place to stay if one wanted to spend a week in Madrid.  They are bookable as Matute 11 Suites through Booking.com.  It would be worth staying there just for the front door and it seems to be on a tiny street that couldn't support much traffic.  Obviously I'm preparing for more than one day in Madrid!  And we could do day trips to Toledo and Segovia.

Madrid

I'm looking for places to eat around the aparthotel Barajas outside Madrid.  The pickings are pretty slim and nothing comes up in a "search nearby".  We might have to stop by a supermarket and pick up something or eat at Bacadilleria Pans & Company.  I wonder if we'll need a car to get there...

We might have to take the Metro into town for dinner.  Or into a closer neighborhood with restaurants, like the area around the bull ring (Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas), which has bull fights on Sunday so we'll miss them.  There are some restaurants in that area that serve bull meat but some of the reviews accuse them of only wanting to make money.  There is a Basque restaurant, Ordago, which might be good.  And there is an Andalucian restaurant called Rincon de Jaen with several branches that looks like it would be good for tapas.  Yes, I think Fernando might like that one with Gamba Andaluza, Chopitos Andaluza, Calamares Andaluza, Chipirones Plancha con Ajito, Pijotas Andaluza.  Even if it only has a 3.8 rating on google maps.  I wonder if I should look up some of those words or if we can point to what looks good.  Chopitos are cuttlefish, chipirones are squid (also spelled txipirones), pijotas (or pijotitas) are young hake.  And then there are Carabineros (shrimp), Pimientos de Padrón (where did I run across those in the US recently?  San Diego?), Berberechos (cockles), Trigueros (asparagus), Mojama (salt-cured tuna), Chuletitas de Lechal (baby lamb chops).  Oh my!  And we're only spending two nights in Madrid?  But I notice that they don't have any txitxardinak - baby eels in garlic (anguilas).  When we were in Pamplona in 2007, all their eels were artificial (like are fake crabmeat) -- they'd eaten up all the baby eels.

On Friday we plan to visit the Museo de America, which is located near a university -- Fernando should like that.   We'll have to figure out the best way to use the Metro.  It's supposed to take 25 minutes to get from El Capricho (where the hotel is) to Ventas (where the bullfight ring and restaurants are).  That seems like a long way to go for dinner.  And to go from El Capricho to Moncloa (Museo de America) takes 40 minutes.  Oh, my.  I guess we are nowhere near downtown!  It's sort of like getting from Silver Spring to Downtown DC.  Fortunately all the travel is in zone 1 so we shouldn't be charged extra for staying out by the airport.  On the other hand, it would take 20 minutes to walk from the aparthotel to Pans & Company in the shopping mall across two major highways.  But I need to check out the shopping malls too...

Marrakesh in four days; Madrid in one...

Talk about whirlwind tours!
Fernando has a EUSIPCO Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco the second week of September.  Since it is at the beginning of the fall term, we have to limit the visit to one week, as usual.  Last year I didn't attend the conference with him when it was in Romania because I didn't have much vacation time left.  This year I have no such excuse.  We are spending a day in Madrid since our flight from Marrakesh connects there and the layover is 18 hours -- not one I'd like to spend in an airport.  So we are spending two nights in an apartment hotel close to the Barajas airport and then taking the metro into the city.

In Marrakesh, we are staying at the "highly recommended" hotel on the EUSIPCO website called LE MERIDIEN N'FIS.  I can't find it anywhere else so I hope it really exists...  It looks like a swimming pool resort but it is only a 10 minute walk to the Palais de Congres where the conference is being held so I think we will survive.  It has wifi and   I have a Cadogan guide from the library called Marrakesh, Fez & Rabat, and a cookbook called A Month in Marrakesh (so we'll know what foods to look for) and I just ordered the Eyewitness guide: Top 10 Marrakech (it better arrive by Thursday like they said).  That's all we'll have time for, if that, but the Top 10  should include a map.  I just hope we can walk to places from the hotel.  I tried locating places on Google Maps but unfortunately they don't offer a street view so I can't see what the neighborhood around the hotel looks like.

I watched the Jamie Oliver Food Escapes TV episode on Marrakesh on Amazon Prime and made Fernando watch it too because I found it very interesting -- naturally Jamie talks a lot about food. 

What can we see in a day in Madrid??  I have a list of mercados de Madrid -- we have to visit at least one.  And we picked up a map and another Eyewitness Top 10 guide to Madrid at Barnes and Noble this evening.  And I used to scoff at those New York Times 36 Hours In... columns!

Are we packed and ready for the shore?

Ah, the excitement!  I've been preparing ever since we got home from California...
I've created a Google Map of the Outer Banks with everything we need marked on it, including an Ace Hardware Store.  But what if the WiFi doesn't work in the house??

We've got a list of things to buy and a list of things to bring, which will be much more than we will need in a month.  We even have a google group to plan this thing.  Too bad we're only going for a week!

I took the Honda CRV to the car wash and then redid the inside since they did a lousy job this time.  Using Juan's car cleaning paraphernalia from years ago, I polished the interior, power-washed the front floor mats and vacuumed the back.  It almost looks like new!  I wonder if everything will fit...(which is why we aren't taking the Prius).

Here the back is loaded with just chairs, boogie board and the cooler.  Let's see if we can fit 4 suitcases in there and a box of supplies.

Penny wanted me to add my packing list, so I've put it below.  I probably won't take everything:

THINGS TO TAKE
Cooler, portable chairs, boogie board
Ground Cumin, Chipotle pepper, Aleppo Pepper, BBQ rub, Lawry's salt and fish sauce
Vanilla, Baking powder and yeast
Pepper grinder
Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar, Soy Sauce?
Tea bags
Dish cloths and dobie,  Dish towels, pot holders, apron
food storage bags and garbage bags, aluminum foil, plastic wrap?
Take out food containers for leftovers?
Rice cooker for Mandy and Jasmine rice?
Pasta pot and large saute pan
knives and plastic cutting board
lemon juicer (wooden)
Plastic measuring cup and spoons. Slotted spatula?
pillow and hairdryer
petanque, mahjong, dominos
cameras and chargers
Seashore guide and Outer Banks guidebook
Hats, sandals, beachwalkers,  beach towels
Sunscreen and insect repellent, benadryl gel
pocket knife, bottle opener, wine opener
back pack
Hot wheels race track and cars and accordion
Bags for the 3 kids

And as long as we are at it, here is a list of things to buy:
GROCERY SHOPPING LIST FOR OUTER BANKS

FRUIT:
Watermelon or canteloupe
grapes
pineapples
Georgia peaches?
bananas
strawberries
Lemons and limes

VEGETABLES:
Garlic and onions
Lettuce (salad greens),  tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers
mushrooms
avocados, hot peppers, cilantro?
carrots
eggplant?  Zucchini? broccoli?
Potatoes?

CONDIMENTS AND STAPLES:
Ketchup
Mustard
Mayonnaise
Sweet relish
Flour, Sugar, Salt

MEAT:
Hot Dogs, Ground beef (are we having hot dogs and hamburgers?)
Italian Sausages
Veggie Burgers/Veggie Dogs
Lunch Meats to fatten up Sebastian
Roasted Chicken for lunches?
bacon and sausage to fatten up Sebastian
Shrimp, Salmon

BREAD AND STARCHES:
Breakfast cereals
Hamburger and hotdog buns (are we having hamburgers and hot dogs?)
sandwich bread or baguettes
Bagels, Croissants or Muffins
tortillas
spaghetti and spaghetti sauce

DAIRY:
Cheese
Milk
Eggs
Parmesan cheese
Yogurt
butter or margarine

BEVERAGES:
Coffee
Pepsi, diet pepsi, tonic water, soda water?
beer and wine
rum, gin, vodka
orange Juice, juices for kids

MISCELLANEOUS:
maraschino cherries (for the kids' drinks)
Graham crackers, marshmallows, hershey bars
peanut butter, jelly/jam
Tortilla chips

NONFOOD ITEMS
Charcoal briquettes,  Lighter fluid, Lighter
Napkins, Tissues, paper towels
Dishwashing liquid
Dishwasher detergent?
Laundry Detergent

Where is everything?

Don't know about the rest of you, but I am loosing the thread.  Where is Cathy's map?  Will's document?  Google's group?

Cathy's map....if it isn't on this, it isn't worth visiting!

Chaparro Google Group

Will's Document -check what you're supposed to do when.

Realtor's info about the house

Corolla NC

I'm practing saying Karalla.  And NAW-fuk.  Just like with Pittsburghese, there is a guide to talking in the South.  Here's one for Virginia and here's How to Talk like a Tar Heel.  That's so we'll know what people are talking about when we go to the Outer Banks for the first time this August.  Lots of people from Pittsburgh religiously spend a week at the "shore" every summer (although it's usually Rehoboth or Ocean City, Maryland).  We've only gone to the shore twice in the 34 years we've lived here and both times were to Chincoteague when the kids were little, the first time camping and the second time in a musty rental cabin.  We are really going upscale this time, thanks to our kids and our 40th wedding anniversary!

 Figuring we'll be miles from nowhere (which isn't true since there's a Harris Teeter supermarket and a Food Lion down the road) Will and I thought it would be good to stop at a Costco on the way down: there's one in Richmond and another in Norfolk.  Unfortunately the nearest H-Mart is in Fairfax, Virginia, but maybe we can make a little 5 mile detour with Juan and Mandy when we skirt DC.  I was looking forward to a BiBimBap party and maybe Papi could cook up a Colombian meal with beans, platano, yuca, arepas, rice and other starches...  If the kids are lucky, Papi will make them changua and huevos pericos for breakfast every day...

Bancroft Hotel

As a treat for Fernando, we are staying at the Bancroft Hotel on Bancroft Avenue, about a block west of International House.  I thought he would enjoy staying almost in the same location as he did when he was a student.  The Hotel is a former women's club, which then turned sorority and then in 1989, after the earthquake, was closed and retrofitted.  In 1990 it opened as a hotel - or at least that was the history that one of the staff gave us.

Our room is small and there is no elevator so we have to hike up the stairs to our room on the third floor.  I'm finding that by the end of the day, my right knee is quite stiff so I'm rethinking stairs after this trip.  Yesterday we spent all day in San Francisco, following the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf on foot, riding it back to Sutter, walking down to Grant, then along Grant till Stockton came out of the tunnel, down Stockton to Broadway, then back to Columbus, to Montgomery and eventually up Montgomery to Market.  It was at that point, when my right knee started complaining, that I realized that the BART stations don't believe in escalators!!  The majority of exits are by stairs with a couple of elevators.  Wait 10 years when all the baby boomers have decrepit knees and the elevator lines are as long as the cable car lines.  In DC they have lots of escalators, especially those going up.  But I digress...

Our hotel room opens unto a little shared balcony with four full length glass doors, the only disadvantage being that you can't sleep with the windows open since there are only the doors.  But it is cool enough here that the room doesn't get overheated.  I'm just glad that one can open the windows and not have to rely on air conditioners for a breath of fresh air.

The shampoo/conditioner/body lotion/soaps are by EO and are wonderfully fragrant.  I'm taking them home.  I don't think I'll be able to afford the real thing unless they show up in Marshalls.  The hotel markets itself as sustainable and ecologically friendly and they have a container for trash and one for recyclables.  Their morning continental breakfast has real dishes and silverware so one doesn't have to eat with plastic forks and paper plates, although they have those too (I think they are made of corn or potatoes).

Papi has picked up a Berkeley sweatshirt (all the Asian students wear them) and has revisited all the old haunts of his student days, like Kips, where we went with the Latin students for pizza and beer, although now the majority of the room is taken up by a bar and we were about the only ones there -- of course it was only 5 pm and it is the summer.  We ate french fries along with the beer and so were too tired and full to stop by Top Dog for a hot dog.  That's where Fernando took my on our first 'date'.  We were supposed to go out later after a short 'rest' but I was still asleep at 11 pm and Fernando decided to call it a day...

This morning we hope to go up to the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden before we leave for Susan's.  I'll add photos later.

Chez Panisse

Yes.  We actually went to that Berkeley food landmark last night for dinner.  On Tuesday Camila said we should at least try to go to the Cafe upstairs so she got online to make reservations at OpenTable and found she could make reservations for the downstairs dining room (the real Chez Panisse) for Wednesday at 8:30 pm or Thursday at 9:15 pm.  The 8:30 time sounded more reasonable for us and the menu was more appealing:

California white sea bass crudo with black pepper and cucumber granita
Roasted eggplant ravioli with pine nuts, tomato, and mint
Salmon Creek Ranch duck grilled over fig wood with new potatoes, green beans,  and morel mushroom sauce
Royal Blenheim apricot soufflé with noyau crème anglaise

Although now that I look at the Thursday night menu, it sounds awfully good as well:

Fried squash blossoms with sheeps milk ricotta and pickled gypsy peppers
Zuppa di vongole with shell beans and basil
Grilled Llano Seco Ranch pork loin with amaranth greens, sage,  and eggplant roasted in the coals
Toasted almond crespelle with Masumoto Family Farm peaches and raspberry ice cream

Do you think we could go twice??

It was very hard waiting for 8:30 pm to roll around yesterday.  We got up at 3 am (12 am Pacific Coast Time) to catch our 6:15 am flight to Oakland so it was really 11:30 pm when we sat down to eat.  We tried not to eat too much during the day but at 11:00 am Fernando was getting hungry and actually tried to get me to eat at Chipotle's next to REI off of Gilman street (near the married student housing in Albany).  Instead I got him to feed me a cheese enchilada and a chile relleno at a Mexican hole in the wall across the street.   Not bad but I really don't care for that brownish gravy they tend to put on chiles rellenos in some establishments...

But when 8:30 rolled around we were really hungry -- and also almost falling asleep -- so we were a pack of yawns.  The Maitre D was French and said that later he would take us over to look at the kitchen since we weren't sitting by the kitchen (something Camila had requested).  The inside of the restaurant is subdued with Craftsman decor and since they were burning fig wood in the kitchen, had a slight smokey aroma.  We decided not to order the wine pairings (we wanted to make it back to the hotel) and got right down to business but the wait staff always had time for some chit chat.  The Maitre d' asked if were were from out of town and we told him from Pittsburgh so it turned out that the other Maitre d was also from Pittsburgh.  We chatted with him later and it turned out that he wasn't from Pittsburgh but his wife was and they had lots of relatives back in Greensburg, Latrobe and Ligonier.  And by the way one of the chefs was also from Pittsburgh...  That's why Pittsburgh has so few good restaurants.  All the chefs are here...

The waiter dropped off a small appetizer of pickled okra and padron peppers -- grown by a farmer up in Sonoma.  They were pretty tiny peppers and didn't have any bite.  In Spain they are typically eaten larger and fried as tapas.  I grew them the year after we went on the Camino and they did very well.  Some are spicy and others aren't.

The first course of raw California Sea Bass (caught off the Santa Cruz coast) was nice.  They had salted the fish slightly and the cucumber gelee reminded me of Gaga's cucumber jello salad and went well with it.  They had chervil on top, confirmed by the sommelier who said it grew wild here.  I told her it reseeded itself quite well in Pittsburgh too.  Earlier we had talked about how easy California had it using "local" produce. How could you brag about that in California?  They should try cooking local in Pittsburgh!  And try catching some local sea bass in the Allegheny River!  She asked if there were any native plant foods in the farmers markets.  I told her I'd only seen ramps in the East End Food CoOp.  No serviceberries at all.  We don't even have a forager with wild mushrooms, although maybe I should go check out the farmers market in the strip.  It's more upscale.  She was surprised that we only had farmers markets from May through November.

The second course of roasted eggplant ravioli was good, although Fernando wasn't thrilled with it ('Lydia makes better ravioli...') -- maybe because it was al dente, except he really liked the sauce which was simple but tasty.  Maybe roasted eggplant needs a little oil to carry the smokey flavor (like the sesame paste in baba ghanouj).  We used up a lot of the bread sopping up the sauces -- it looked like we licked the plates.  One of the breads was a levain and had the sourdough taste which I really liked but Fernando claimed it was burned and preferred the short crusty baguette.  In any case, he made short work of a foot-long loaf.

Fernando's favorite course was the duck, which he loves (along with lamb).  It was extremely tender and tasty - the best duck I've had.  Roasting it over a wood fire made it even tastier although I'm not convinced that fig wood imparts a flavor different from other woods.  I wonder what eucalyptus wood would do.  I gave Fernando my potatoes because the moment I took my first bite of duck (with the skin) I realized I'd eaten too many pieces of bread and wouldn't last till dessert.  I couldn't even mop up the juices with the bread this time!

Fortunately the apricot soufflé was good and tart with a sprinkling of sugar caramelized on top.  They gave us a little pitcher of the noyau crème anglaise but it really didn't need it.  On the other hand, how were we going to let that apricot kernel sauce go to waste??  So of course we ate that too.  Fernando asked if I could make an apricot soufflé at home.  I told him we didn't have any "local" apricots...  Although that isn't true - the farmers market will have a few teeny ones for a couple of weeks in early summer.

Yes, watching other people enjoy their wine with dinner made me a little sad but if we'd gone that route we probably would still be at Chez Panisse this morning...

Now we can say we've done it.  And we have the menus to prove it.

Macau 2012 - Round 2!

Last time we went to Macau, it was a rather slapdash trip during which we hit some of the casinos, walked around the downtown and all too soon, were back on the speedboat to Hong Kong. This time, I think both Mandy and I would like to plan this visit out a bit more. After watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations trip to Macau, I think we'll be spending a lot more time in the old town than the casino areas (although no trip to Macau can be complete without at least a little gambling).

I'm making a google map for our trip so we'll have a gameplan for hitting the highlights, but I really wish there were an option to turn off the Chinese script when looking at the map. They have the English/Portuguese translations but with all those characters, it's impossible to see what's what! The site I kept running across when I searched for "Macau walking tour" was from Frommers, and it is not bad. But the biggest problem for me was that there was no map to go along with the tour! And finding the corresponding streets and buildings on Google Maps was nearly impossible.

Thankfully I was browsing other travel forums and found the site of the Macau Government Tourist Office (duh!) which has SEVEN walks with CORRESPONDING MAPS! It's amazing that despite the fact that in many places I've been, some of the best information is from the tourism office, yet I still forget to look at their site when looking towards my next trip. Argh, well lesson learned...maybe.

St. Pauls Ruins/Camoes Garden

Last time we saw St. Paul's Ruins and the Macau Museum and while I'd like to revisit that area, I'd also like to try something new. Here's the map of the St. Paul's and Camoes Garden walk. This walk starts at the famous Largo de Senada (Senate Square) with its classic wavy tile pattern and works through St. Paul's and over to Camoes Garden. There are some "antique" stores along the route but in general this is a pretty tourist-heavy area.

Guia Hill & Sao Lazaro

This route seems to be a bit less of the shopping side and more of the wonderful architecture to be found in Macau. It starts at the highest point in Macau, Guia Hill and should have some nice views. But one of the things I like best is that there is a cable car!

I'll have to keep looking, but I think these walks will at least give us a start. My next goal is to find some reliable eating recommendations.  Unfortunately, Yelp does not extend to Macau (yet!), but there is a Chinese website, Rice bowl, or something like that that Mandy has been using. Anthony Bourdain's website is ok, but they list only like 5 restaurants, and some are a bit high-priced (like the Michelin starred dim sum).

A New Rambler

Peter Daniel Cichello

There's a new rambler on this blog !

Born Easter Sunday, he arrived with a lot of fanfare.  Peter Daniel Cichello was born at 4:25 am and weighed in at 7 lbs 14.9 oz. and 50.5 cm. (c 20").  His birth and first minutes were tricky, but now he and mom are doing very well.  And they all may get to go home today.

Here he is with his proud parents, Paul and Camila

 

The red light monitor is to show how very special he is!

Stay tuned for his first blog!

Las Vegas!

So this year we actually managed to get a small refund on our taxes!! After two years of paying through the nose each april, we got a CPA this year and man is it worth it. So although we have been ramping our savings this year for that potential house, we've also decided to enjoy ourselves a bit with a brief trip to....LAS VEGAS!

Now mandy's never been much of a gambler (she prefers to watch me lose my money) so we're trying to see what other types of things there are to do in Vegas. We have a car so walking distance is not a prerequisite (especially since we'll be staying at Mandelay Bay where pretty much everything is driving distance).

So far some of the things we've come up with....

- Pinball Hall of Fame
- Dig This. A worksite where you get to drive heavy excavation equipment! Too bad it's crazy expensive ($249 for a few hours). Maybe I should just get a part time construction/demolition job!
- The Atomic Testing Museum also looks interesting!
- Phantom, at the Venetian is an Andrew Lloyd Weber aided revisiting of The Phantom of the Opera and has been doing well for five years (although how I never heard of it before I don't know). But shoudn't this be at Paris - Las Vegas?
- ...and of course, The Neon Boneyard looks like lots of fun too! It was on Storage Wars recently and seems like an interesting part of Las Vegas history.

And of course, we plan on eating very well while we are there too.
On our list so far...
- The Wicked Spoon (yes I know...buffets are evil. but look at those desserts!!)
- the Spring Mountain Road area has quite a variety of more ethnic restaurants including the Monta Noodle House, Kinh Do, and Asian BBQ and Noodle (the last of which Mandy is very excited about because it seems "very hong kong" to use her words)
- KoMex Fusion Express - Bulgogi burritos! After being disappointed by the Kogi truck in LA, maybe it's time for another try at the Korean/Mexican fusion thing.

San Francisco??

Jen's parents are going to spend a month in California and Will and I were giving them some suggestions for San Francisco, at which point I thought I better save some of these recommendations for ourselves, in case we go there for our anniversary:

When we went to San Francisco as kids with my parents, we always had to eat one night at Grotto #9 at Fisherman's Wharf where we filled up on sourdough bread and butter but I don't know if it is the same as 50 years ago! We also always went to Schroeder's German Restaurant, but it was always very formal and reserved and their website makes it seem a bit rambunctious now with Polka bands. Apparently they still have the murals on the walls, which are not to be missed. They had the most wonderful brown breads and potato salad, which apparently they still have: All dinners are served with choice of German potato salad or cole slaw as appetizer, German bread and butter.

I also remember the wonderful dark rye bread at the Cinderella Bakery that Mother, Daddy, Penny and I visited in the 1990s. I found the Shanghai influence there unusual and I don't see any Shanghai noodles on their menu now -- their cafe menu looks nice and Russian, with pelmeni and piroshki and borscht. And any talk about San Francisco bakeries leads me back to the Fantasia Bakery that baked the desserts at Schroeder's and that was run by the father of one of my UC Santa Cruz housemates. I ran across this little blog posting about him in Culinary Muse.

The Tadich Grill is also interesting and it's been there a long time, although I don't remember going there as a kid, just hearing Mother and Daddy talk about it. I went once as an adult and enjoyed the little private curtained rooms. Fish and french fries are always good.

I've always wanted to go to the Cliff House to eat. You can see where it is on this map of 38 Essential San Francisco Restaurants. And their Wednesday night prix fixe menu at the Bistro is only $25/person (can that be right?) with cioppino and creme brulee!

The San Francisco Chronicle has a list of top 100 restaurants in the Bay area, but they are upscale and trendy, I'm afraid. They do list the prime rib place that Will was referring to: The House of Prime Rib. I've never been. Daddy took us to Tommy's Joynt instead -- but only for lunch for corned beef or pastrami sandwiches. I think he also went for the beer -- unfortunately I was too young to enjoy that aspect.

We'll have to go to a Chinese and a Japanese restaurant, and it's better if we find a little undiscovered hole in the wall and not a hoity toity place that has been gushed over in the media and that serves trendy cocktails.

Pittsburgh

I thought I better pull together some places to go in Pittsburgh before Penny and Leena come in May. Then I could use it for other visitors as well! I jotted down some ideas in my iPhone notes and I will just add them here and fill them in later.

Food
We Chaparros always start with that
1. Udipi Cafe (Indian Vegetarian). They have their menus online so maybe we can puzzle out what we want before we go there. And Will, Jen and the kids could go here too.
2. Strip District - Wholey's, PA Macaroni Company, Lotus Foods.
3. Chefs' Picks for Pittsburgh Restaurants. A March 2012 article on favorite restaurants.
4. Primanti's? Which one? A clean one or a dirty one?
5. Someplace with Will and Jen and the kids. Hofbrau House? Church brew works?

Uppity Food
Should this be our opportunity to try a "cutting edge" Pittsburgh restaurant?
1. Salt of the Earth. The duck looks interesting, the Haluski looks crazy and how can you ever have undercooked Lamb Shank? We could combine this with a tour of the Allegheny Cemetery and a walk through Lawrenceville. Maybe drive past Children's Hospital...
2. Root 174. I don't know if I'm up for the Bone marrow crème brulee or the smoked salmon sausage but maybe the menu will change. Root 174 seems to have a lot of pork tongue and what is so special about a hanger steak?
3. Legume Bistro. Wouldn't I feel guilty eating wild baby antelope?

Attractions/Neighborhoods
1. South Side (walk along East Carson Street or the river trail?) and Mt. Washington and the Inclines
2. Hill District? August Wilson: Pittsburgh places in his life and plays
3. Oakland: Nationality Rooms, Carnegie Museums and Phipps Conservatory, Lunch at Ali Baba's
4. Northside: Ride The North Shore Connector from Downtown to the Northside, visit the Mattress Factory
5. Downtown: Free Walking Tour of the Cultural District Downtown - noon to 1 pm by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Or go on the Post-Gazette self-guided walking tour from 2006.
6. Outside Pittsburgh: Homer Laughlin Fiestaware factory...

Events
1. Venture Outdoors Festival at Point State Park
2. Sheep & Fiber Festival, May 19-20, Waynesburg
3. Pittsburgh Folk Festival, May 18, 19, 20, Monroeville.

Sevilla

So I'm checking out the possibility of going to Sevilla for our 40th wedding anniversary. Naturally we'd like to stay in an apartment in the city center -- like we did in Paris. Here are some possibilities:

La Casa del Pozo Santo tourist apartments, which are located in historic buildings in the city center.

Venere Vacation Rentals in Seville lists quite a few apartments

Apartamentos La Casa del Pozo Santo - at booking.com (we booked through them for Glasgow).

ApartaHotel Resitur.