Flight to India : Flight news and information

Off the top of my head, here are some of my favorite places to eat in the triangle… Breakfast – Ye Ole Waffle Shop Lunch – Five Guys , Tobacco Road Dinner – Fin’s Restaurant (Rated #2 Seafood Experience in the US by Bon Appetit), Nanas Brunch – Porter’s City Tavern , Poole’s Diner Steak – Jimmy V’s , Sullivan’s Sushi – Mura , Wasabi Mexican – Fiesta Grill Best BBQ – Bullocks BBQ Chinese – The Duck and Dumpling , Five Star , Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant Italian – Café Luna Persian – Café Parvaneh ~randall

Excerpt from:
Where we going?

Japan is terribly hot AND humid during the summer, and to while away the time during the obon weekend, my Brazilian friends and I hied off to the coast of Shirahama in Chiba to pay homage to the sea!  Of course, no beach outing is complete without summer grilling and we had hearty churrascos to fill our bellies. churrasco means MEAT, and more MEAT! But after all that meat, decided that we also wanted something fresh! So off to a seaside restaurant for some traditional Japanese eats! sashimi teishoku seaside freshness! Oh yummm… this is why we go to the beach!

Read more:
Summer Eats

Those of us who live here  far too often write City Market off as just a place for tourists. But if you love to munch and you love your dog (and we  know that all dogs love to munch!), then don’t forget! CityMarket’s the place for you and your pooch.  From Vinnie Van Go-Go  for great pizza to Belford’s for fine upscale dining, to Tapas by Anna and The Cafe at City Market for tasty mid-line fare, you  and your 4-pawed pal, can sit back,  people-and-dog-watch, and dine al fresco.

See original here:
Foodie Dog Lovers Delight

That’s right, it’s officially Pizza Week on Sac Foodies! This week, we’ll tell you about our favorite places to grab a slice in Sacramento and beyond. We’d love to hear your thoughts and recommendations as well, so feel free to leave a comment here on the blog or on our Facebook page anytime! When I moved to Land Park about a year ago, I noticed right away the strip of empty storefronts lining Riverside Boulevard. It wasn’t but a few weeks after we’d moved in to the neighborhood that one of the vacancies became Masullo Pizza – a tiny, nondescript, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it neighborhood pizzeria.

Read the original here:
Pizza Week: Masullo in Land Park

[ Femia ] 1) FiDi : Flo Fab reports that eccentric chef and mad scientist Will Goldfarb is opening a barbecue trailer in Wall Street Park to complement his sandwich shop in Battery Park City: ” Picnick, Smoked , will serve heritage pork shoulder, kobe brisket and Bobo Farms chicken, with sides, fresh baked goods and natural sodas.” They’re open 10 – 6 now but will open for breakfast after Labor Day. Status ; Signs point to open; Wall Street Park, no phone

See the original post:
Monday Opening Report: Picnick Smoked, Forty Eight Open

Eating with chopsticks is a skill we all want to master, but few of us have been able to add it to our resumes.  I have found that the best motivator for learning to eat with chopsticks is hunger.  My parents moved to Japan when I was in college, and I mooched a grand summer vacation by going with them to help them settle into their new home.  We quickly found that Western utensils are not readily available at Japanese restaurants like they are at home.  The chopstick was number 1, and we were forced to learn or we did not eat.  Because of this, I learned a few important things about even setting out on this venture.  If you are a beginner or novice, stick with fried foods.  I accidentally pointed and grunted at the boiled dumplings once in a Japanese restaurant, and then summarily proceeded to launch almost everyone one across the room as I attempted to eat with my chopsticks. Also remember that the sticky the rice, the easier it will be to eat with chopsticks.  Nothing will wear you out faster than trying to pick up individual grains of rice that will not stick together.  So, no eating Uncle Ben’s instant rice with chopsticks! Last, but not least, is the set of chopsticks themselves.  Believe it or not, chopsticks come in a wide variety of materials, styles and sizes.  Wood is definitely the best material to start with, and most common found on the tables of Asian Chopsticks with ridges restaurants in the West.  If you are out shopping for your own set of chopsticks to use at home, look for ones that have ridges in the end, like the ones shown here.  Talk about extra traction that will guarantee your food makes it to your mouth!  You have definitely advanced past the beginner stages if you can successfully feed yourself with the plastic chopsticks often found in Asian food courts abroad.  And, if you can eat with the thin metal chopsticks of Korea, you have become a true artist with the chopsticks. With these important tips, a raging hunger and these simple instructions from e-how.com:  http://www.ehow.com/how_3261_chopsticks.html , you will soon be performing feats like these at your next dinner party.

More:
Chopsticks 101

Our favorite neighborhood restaurant offers a special menu on Sunday nights – Izakaya.  Michael and Daniel serve everything family style, and showcase Japanese family style cooking.  No sushi here on Sundays!  Prices are reasonable, with each dish either $5, $7 or $10.  With a bottle of sake, two people can eat well for around $100.  We had a bottle of hakkaisan seishu, as well as a little glass of Dunn Vineyards 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Savignon the guests sitting next to us at the bar offered – thank you! Last night, lots of great dishes.  thai fu sarada – a thai style pork and cucumber salad.  Beautifully seasoned, with a little bite to it, and very refreshing renkon amazu – lotus root with sweet vinegar – was also great ni-daikon – dashi simmered daikon – two large pieces of daikon sitting in a bowl of flavorful dashi meron sarada – canteloupe honeydew shiso with olive oil – ripe and fragrant fruit with shiso leaves, which tasted almost like mint ohitashi – gai choy with chilled dashi – similar to bok choy, tastes of a cross between broccoli and lettuce takikomi onigiri – riceballs with clams hijiki – they should sell this at the Thursday Street Food Market at the Ferry Building!  Almost a japanese taco, the riceball, studded with clams is molded and served on a piece of seaweed. sansho karaage – marinated and fried chicken – often on the menu, and always delicious aji furai – crisp fried whole aji – two whole aji fish, fried until crisp, and served with lemon.  perfect finger food! gyoza – pork and vegetable potstickers – another frequent menu item, fried until crisp and very flavorful with a great dipping sauce. sakamuchi — sake and butter steamed manila clams – this was awesome!  perfectly cooked clams were great, but the star was the liquid they were served in!  almost like a miso soup, but with the richness of butter and flavor of sake added.  We ate the clams first, and then sipped the broth

More here:
Izakaya on Sunday at Sebo

Union Square : @newyorkology tweets : “E-mail press release says: “TGI Friday’s and Tim Hortons to Occupy 34 Union Square East.” And by golly, Crain’s has the full story ( cached version for subscription wall ), confirming that the fast-casual chain will join Best Buy and Nordstrom Rack in forming the new Union Square. The Riese Organization just purchased 34 Union Square (between 15th and 16th), formerly home to Zen Palate and plans to install a Friday’s and a bonus Tim Horton’s in the space. Its been vacant in the two years since Zen Palate vacated due to “astronomical and non-negotiable increases” in their rent, a rent that has dropped 40% in the last six months.

Excerpt from:
APOCALYPSE: TGI Friday’s Coming to Union Square

No, this blog is not branching out into restaurant reviews, though your humble author is quite the “foodie.”  Rather, with consumers remaining retrenched, perhaps for a long period of time as they continue to focus on debt reduction, a look at where they might be eating out, and which companies may benefit from the dining “trade-down” seems timely. The restaurant industry has generally done a commendable job of aggressively reducing expenses, thus preserving liquidity, even though same-store sales remain weak.  In its latest “ Leveraged Finance Weekly ” newsletter [registration and/or subscription may be required], Fitch Ratings reports: Consumers are likely, however, to continue searching for lower cost alternatives at quick-service restaurants (QSRs) or simply preparing more meals at home if unemployment continues to increase.

Continue reading here:
Restaurant Investment Review: Consumers Still Need to Eat

Back in December national upscale grill chain Houston’s rebranded its two New York locations as Hillstone , adding a seasonal menu and, later, sushi. However, to avoid losing old customers and to maintain that hour-long wait time, the Houston’s signs were not removed and remain up to this day. A few commenters immediately suspected foul play, accusing the chain of rebranding to avoid the new calorie count rule in NYC, which requires chain restaurants (no matter how high end) with more than 12 locations to post all calories on the menu.

Read more:
Busted: City Catches on to Houston’s Calorie Shenanigans

Buried deep inside the menu at El Cajun’s LA Mex restaurant (2639 Highway 182, Raceland, LA, 985-537-4552), tucked between fajitas, alambres, and carne asada:  grillades (the Cajun kind, made of seasoned, grilled pork).  Due to time constraints, I didn’t get to sample the grillades, so I can’t say if the dish ranks as fusion or confusion.  El Cajun’s is (mostly) a textbook Tex-Mex restaurant, though the menu and advertising take pains to call it “LA-Mex”.  Aside from grillades on the menu, the only nod to Louisiana seems to be the decor.  A giant mural, featuring a pirogue-riding toreador brandishing a red cape next to an alligator, adorns the restaurant’s entrance. Other impressions of El Cajun can be found here , complete with a picture of that toreador en pirogue.

See more here:
Fusion or confusion?

I love Japanese food, partially because of the presentation.  I mean, who doesn’t love a bento box? This lovely little bento box is from Oishii, a restaurant in Timberlyne.  I met Tammi and Diane there for lunch the other day.  Decent sushi, nothing special, but certainly nothing at which to frown.  The bento box was a lovely deal and came with an appetizer of miso soup.  The box came with three tuna rolls, three california rolls, yellowfin, tuna, salmon, not sure, and shrimp sushi, a green salad with ginger dressing, and a yummy little dumpling.  Also, an orange slice for something sweet. Not the best sushi I’ve ever had but definitely not the worst, not a bad option for lunch if you’re in the area.

Here is the original post:
Oishii

  Service–Ethiopian Style! Unexpected adventures provide some of the most serendipitous memories of our lives, don’t they? When our daughter took us on vacation to San Francisco , we had one of those moments when we discovered the Massawa Ethiopian Restaurant in the heart of the Haight-Ashbury district. Delicious food–unlike any other food I had ever experienced–was served on a large round plate in the center of our table. The different dishes were clumped beside each other on a flat, spongy piece of injera –Ethiopian bread at least two feet in diameter and completely covering the plate.

More here:
African Ethiopian Restaurant in Orlando

Jump to the full entry & travel map Zdiar, Presov, Slovakia I’ve been here for 2 and half days now and I think I stumbled across this place by luck more than planning. I noted a brochure for a hostels in the moutains and from the pictures alone I knew I had to stay there. I’m about 10km from the Polish border and I crossed countries on a local bus and I couldn’t even tell where the border was, as there was no official check, not even the remnants of an old border control or no mans land

View post:
Slovakias best kept secret – Zdiar, Presov, Slovakia

This past Wednesday, my wife and I teamed up with Chris and Kristina Caruso of Vine Times Chicago  for a BYOB evening at Caro Mio Italian Restaurant in Lincoln Square.  We found ample inexpensive meter parking just across the street, and walked into a quaint and cozy little dining room.  We were then given water, which is served in pint glasses (great for holding alot of water), a carafe of water for the table, and menus.  Stemware was then presented, and it was time to open the wines! For our Italian dinner, we both brought Super Tuscans from the Chianti Classico region of  Tuscany .  Super Tuscans are great wines made in Tuscany which rebel against Italian wine classification laws.  Wines from this region are traditionally made from Sangiovese, along with a blend of other local grapes (mostly white wine grapes).  They have a history dating back about 40 years, when the head of the Antinori family created one of the first.  Piero Antinori wanted to add Bordeaux varietals to the mix, enhancing the body, texture, flavor, and aromatics to Italy’s #1 varietal.  His creation, and my wine choice for the evening, was Tignanello .  I brought the 2001 vintage (retails around $85), a blend of 85% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Cabernet Franc.  I love this wine, as it has a great soil and barnyard aroma, mixed with ripe dark cherry, worn leather, and oak on the palate.  There was also small hints of tobacco and chocolate, which proved the complexity of the wine.  The tannins were supple and smooth, making it great with any food, especially Italian. Chris brought 1997 Fontodi Flaccianello della Pieve (retails around $70), made from single vineyard, 100% Sangiovese.  It has been produced since 1981 by the Manetti family.  This wine is weighty and big, with larger tannins, dark cherry and plum aroma and flavor, along with some cedar and rich earth.  It is a perfect partner for meat dishes and heavy sauces. As far as the food is concerned, the menu has tons of options: fresh salads and soups, homemade pastas, veal, chicken, beef, and fish.  We went with a couple of fresh mozzarella dishes to start, one with green beans, and the other a classic caprese.  The mozzarella seemed local, as it was harder textured than the imported soft, rich version.  The green beans were large and delicious, especially when topped with the balsalmic vinegar.  The tomatoes were thick, but a touch less than ripe.  Both a good choice to accompany the bright acidity of the wines

Read this article:
BYOB at Caro Mio

Hey Bartender! Want To Make History! Want to Shake Up The Joint! Want To Go to Brazil On US! Then! Cuca Fresca Exports, LLC, makers of a multi-award-winning array of organic cachaças and ready to drink cocktails has launched a North America wide mixology contest to find the best Cuca Fresca cocktail. The winner of this competition will be flown to Brazil, land of the carnival and smooth living for a private distillery tour courtesy of Cuca Fresca. Cuca Fresca hasl teamed up with a panel of spirits experts to choose four finalists after all recipes have been submitted.

Excerpt from:
Samba Your Way To Brazil With Cuca Fresca Cachaca!

At last there’s an acceptable, even pretty good, Chinese restaurant in downtown Madison:  Fugu , in the space formerly occupied by the misleadingly named Yummy Buffet.  (OK, to be fair, it was actually a buffet.)  It’s billed as pan-Asian but the management is from Hong Kong, and I’ve done well by sticking to the Chinese portion of the menu.  I particularly liked a dish called “cured meat with string beans,” which consisted mostly of very tender, very flavorful, very salty dry-cooked green beans, lightly sauced and studded with little ovals of something like a cross between Hebrew National salami and beef jerky.  The waiter told me the meat was pork but wasn’t able to give any further description. Here’s how the dish was identified on the menu: 腊味四季豆 I decided to figure out what this actually meant — partly because I liked the dish so much, partly because I was interested to see if I could still use a Chinese dictionary, something I learned to do when I attempted to learn Chinese in high school.  I spent every Sunday morning of senior year going to Potomac Chinese School, where I was placed in a group consisting of non-Chinese adults and Chinese-American kids who had gotten kicked out of their regular class.  Suboptimal pedagogical environment.  And Chinese is really hard.  So I didn’t learn more than the rudiments, and I could never manage to say anything without waving my head in sync with the inflections

Go here to see the original:
La wei si ji dou, or: eat at Fugu

I tend to be a bit of a foodie.  My husband on the other hand, is an anti-foodie.  He is bar none the pickiest eater over the age of 5 that I have ever known.  He loves steak, but abhors fat, has never met a sausage he doesn’t like, but hates most vegetables (broccoli, asparagus and cauliflower are exceptions) and doesn’t “eat fruit” (WTF?).  So dining out, especially at haute cuisine type places is challenging, sometimes painful, but always entertaining.  Last night, we chose a place for dinner that was a finicky foodster’s inferno – Anchovies & Olives . As a thank you for taking us to a Sounders game, we invited some friends out to dinner.  As they like Tavolata and How to Cook a Wolf, I thought Ethan Stowell’s new venture, Anchovies & Olives in Capital Hill would be perfect.  I was mildly concerned about my husband because I knew the restaurant heavily features seafood and my husband doesn’t eat most shellfish or any “fishy” fish (and his list of what’s fishy makes zero sense to me).  Most restaurants have a token chicken or steak dish, however, and Dick’s, the only place I knew he would be truly happy, doesn’t have a wine list.  Also, my husband likes salmon, and I have never been to a Seattle restaurant that does not have salmon somewhere on its menu – until last night

Go here to see the original:
The Plight of the Picky Eater

Jump to the full entry & travel map Mallaig, Scotland, United Kingdom KELI – Wednesday morning we awoke early and drove about an hour to Fort William where we were taking the steam train to the west coast of Scotland to a small coastal town called Mallaig. This particular ride was named the most beautiful train ride in the world by Wanderlust magazine. The train is the same one that they used as the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.

Read the original here:
Harry Potter train to Mallaig and Glascow dinner – Mallaig, Scotland, United Kingdom

While I started a tease of a blog series on our Christmas River Cruise in December, we’ll catch back up to that after this weekend’s visit to Virginia Beach!  My sister and her husband have lived in Virginia Beach for a few years now and we’ve visited once so we were excited to head back out that way this weekend.  Plus my brother and his wife were headed down as well for a big sibling weekend The Husband and I flew to the Norfolk airport.  We loved how quick the flight was from Charlotte – so short they didn’t even do a beverage service on the plane! My sister and her husband picked us up, and after dropping our stuff off at their house, we headed out to one of their favorite seafood restaurants for dinner.  (My brother and sister-in-law (SIL) wouldn’t be arriving until close to midnight.) The Husband’s number one condition of the trip was to get fresh seafood.  Quite easy to do in Norfolk/Virginia Beach! So we headed to the Lynnhaven Fish House Restaurant.

Read more here:
Day 1 of Sib Get Away to VA Beach