Highlights from our trip to London and Paris

Hi Everyone! We're back from our whirlwind week-long trip to London and Paris! No more than a couple days back from our trip abroad, I had to board a plan for work travel which lasted until yesterday (Friday).  Mike caught a cold the day we arrived back in Texas, so he's been nursing that cold all week while I was gone. I'm not sure how he was nursing that cold because when I came home all the fruits and veggies we had bought previously were still in the fridge, a frozen pizza disappeared from the freezer, and a bunch of Panda Express fortune cookies were on the kitchen counter. 

We'll slowly try to post all the pictures of our wonderful trip in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, here are some photo highlights from our trip. 

Paris

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

Stonehenge

Boston Highlights Part II~Union Oyster House, Parish Cafe

Mike wanted his seafood fix again, so we checked out America's oldest restaurant, the "Union Oyster House."

We arrived at 5:30pm and tried to get a table in the restaurant for dinner, but since we were there on Memorial Day weekend, we would have to wait for at least two hours for dinner. We then decided to eat in the bar for quicker service. 
Mike ordered a cold seafood platter ($13.95) that included shrimp, raw oysters, and raw cherrystone clams.  He loves all kinds of seafood, so enjoyed the whole plate of fresh seafood to himself. 

I, on the other hand, like my seafood cooked. I opted for a bowl of clam chowder. 

Union Oyster House
41 Union Street
Boston, MA 02108-2494
(617) 227-2750

We finished off one of our days with lunch at the Parish Cafe, which is known for sandwich creations from many chefs from popular restaurants in Boston. This restaurant was also recommended by my friend.

We were really full from all the eating that we had been doing, so we shared a sandwich. Mike let me order the sandwich and I chose the "The Schlesinger" ($12.50) which was created by Chris Schlesinger from the East Coast Grille in Cambridge, MA. On our flight over to Boston, the guy sitting next to us recommended the "East Coast Grille" for it's eclectic menu. Since we didn't have a chance to make it to the original restaurant, I settled for a sandwich created by the owner.

The Schlesinger was eclectic indeed! It was composed of monterey jack cheese and smoked ham on top of a warm banana nut bread and served with mango chutney and pickled ginger red cabbage. When I first took a bite of this sandwich, my mouth and tongue were a bit confused. There was the salty taste from the ham and cheese, the sweet and sour taste of the chutney, the acidic/pickled taste of the slaw, and then the sweetness of the banana. Tack on this sensory overload to the assortment of textures that accompanied this dish (viscous chutney, gooey cheese, crunchy slaw, crumbly slightly dense bread). The sandwich was quite quirky, but the funny thing was that all these tastes and textures actually combined to make a sandwich that worked. I thought it was pretty good, but did not like it enough to order it again. It was one of those sandwiches that you like after the first few bites, and then after a while you realize you cannot stomach down the whole thing.
Parish Cafe
361 Boylston Ave.
Boston, MA 02116
(614) 247-4777

Boston Highlights Part I~Angora Cafe, Mike's Pastry

Boston was the last major US city that Mike had on his  "places I want to visit" list.  Mike and I both like to travel, but since we did not start traveling together until 2005, the cities and countries we both want to see do not necessary overlap.  Mike's been to Japan, London, Mexico, and Seattle (and those are places that I really want to travel to).  While I've been to China, South Korea, Thailand, and New Orleans (Mike wants to go to these places).  So what's our plans for our next trip?...we are eyeing out Memphis, TN and hopefully in 2011 we'll head out to Spain.  If not Spain, we might do a Greece or London/Paris trip.

Whoops, I digressed. Before we traveled to Boston, I had contacted a friend of mine who attended Boston University for her undergraduate studies. She rattle off a list of places for us to check out.  On the top of her list was Angora Cafe, which is known for their frozen yogurt.  It's a cafe that serves up frozen yogurt to your liking (think Coldstone Creamery for Frozen Yogurt). 

During the Spring of 2002, I went to visit my friend in Boston (she was attending Boston University) and we had checked out this yogurt place.  I remember thinking, "Wow this is the best frozen yogurt ever!" I had mixed together, strawberries, cheesecake, and graham crackers and it had been delicious!
Here's a picture of the board with all the different candies, fruits, cookies, that you can have mixed into your yogurt. 

This time I mixed together oreo cookies and strawberries.  The gray mass doesn't look to appetizing, but it was tasty.  Mike ordered a mix of strawberries and raspberries. I didn't really care for his flavor combination because the base yogurt is not too sweet, and both berries were frozen without any added sugar.

Angora Cafe
1024-A Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
(617)232-1757

Another place that we checked out was Mike's Pastry. While we were touring the USS Constitution, I saw a bunch of people carrying around boxes that said, "Mike's Pastry."  I asked someone where to find this bakery, and so after we visited Bunker Hill and walked a bit more of the Freedom Trail, we trekked on to find Mike's Pastry.

We arrived there at about 4pm on a Sunday and the place was packed! When you're traveling and you see a bunch of people toting around boxes from the same bakery, it might behoove you to check out the place.  Mike and I stood in separate lines (well the lines were not well-defined in this packed bakery) lfor a good 10 minutes until Mike made it to the counter.  We ordered a chocolate dipped florentine, a chocolate creme filled cannoli (my choice), and a pistachio cannoli (mike's choice).  The cannolis were tasty and Mike and I switched cannolis because he liked the chocolate creme better because it reminded him of the taste of kulolo. I didn't care for the chocolate one because it did not have a strong chocolate flavor (hence, Mike thought it tasted like kulolo).

Chocolate dipped florentine.

Pistachio Cannoli

Mike's Pastry

300 Hanover Street
Boston, MA 02113-1835
(617) 742-3050

Boston~Lobster Recap 2

So Lauren tells me that I'm supposed to blog about our experiences in Boston, but she's already written about the lobster count.  I'm posting a second blog to explain myself and our weirdness.  Yes, I did have two lobster rolls.  Not much to talk about there, except that they were great. 

But the four lobsters....now here's where there is a tale to tell.  They say that marriage changes a person.  Well it's true :).  Two things I have picked up from Lauren are 1) an economical nature, and 2) her love of grocery stores (okay, I'm not a fanatic, but I tag along.....we looked around in a grocery store over 30 times when we visited Italy....seriously).  And this is where our story begins.

It all began on our first night in Boston as we were walking back from watching the Red Sox beat the KC Royals.  I was a little hungry and was hoping to pick up a late night snack on our way back.  Lauren vetoed a pizza place and a few other restaurants that I saw, but as we neared our hotel and I was almost out of hope, she happened to see a Shaw's Grocery Store.  Of course we had to go inside to look around so that I could find something to eat.....and as I followed Lauren around and quietly pouted, an amazing thing happened....Lauren turned to me and said "hey Mike, do you want a lobster?"  A smile washed across my face as I quickly did the mental math.....yes, it was a great deal!  Wait, but what about butter....wouldn't that throw it off....no, at $1.50 for a few sticks, it'd still be a steal.  It took a little finagling, but the seafood clerk agreed to steam a lobster even though it was almost 11 pm.  Around 20 minutes later we walking back to the hotel, lobster and supplies in hand, around $9 poorer but with a pronounced spring in my step.  One thing you should understand is that I really like lobster.  I repeated the lobster feast two more times, once for 2-1.25 lb lobsters($16), and once for a monster 2.75 lb lobster ($21) (which I ate in the AA Admirals club a the airport....yeah I got a lot of funny looks....but hey I was eating a lobster and they weren't). 

I know this sounds weird......I mean why would you go to Boston to eat lobsters from a grocery store....wouldn't it be better to get seafood from a famous restaurant?  Wouldn't that be a better experience?  But here are my thoughts, and you can decide for yourself what you think.   

1.  The lobsters in Boston grocery stores are the same as the lobsters in Boston restaurants.....at least I think they are.  If this isn't true, then my whole argument is shot.  Either way though, I couldn't tell....they were fresh and tasty to me. 
2.  Lobsters at a grocery store are way cheaper than lobsters in a restaurant.  We're in a recession for goodness sakes.  They were $5.99/lb for lobsters under 1.25 lbs, and $7.99 for lobsters over 1.25 lbs.  At a restaurant you'd end up paying $15 for a 1.25 lb lobster.  Essentially this means that you can have more lobsters.......and how can that be a bad thing? 
3.  Grocery stores will steam lobsters for you, and will even crack the claws and cut open the tail if you ask nicely and say please.  No joke, you really do have to ask nicely and say please. 
4.  Getting a lobster from a grocery store is faster than ordering one at a restaurant. 
5.  When people who live in Boston eat lobsters, they usually get them from grocery stores.  At least this is what they guy sitting next to us on the flight over told us.
6.  You don't have to tip at a grocery store.
7.  Our hotel was more of an apartment and had forks, plates, and even a stove in it.  I could see this as a major setback so we were lucky to be well equipped. 

Anyway, that's my story.  I hope you enjoyed it. 

Boston~Lobster Recap

Now we can finally move on to all the food posts from  last month's trip to Boston, MA.

For this blog post, we are going to play the, "How many?" game. 

How many lobsters did Michael eat in Boston? FOUR!!!
How many lobster rolls did Michael eat in Boston? two.
How many lobsters did Lauren eat in Boston? zero. 
How many days did we spend in Boston? three

Yeah, do the math.

Back from Hawaii and Boston

We're back from our trips to Kauai, Oahu, and Boston. We'll be posting about all of our trip highlights once we adjust back to "real" life (work, bills, regular sleep schedules). We're pooped! I think we'll be staying put in Texas for at least a few weeks. 

Lihue, Kauai

Fenway Park

Looking out from Harvard Bridge

Work Travel

Currently on another work trip.   Over the years I have honed in my traveling skills and breeze through the drill of airport security and am one of those people who you see in line and think, "Wow, she must travel a lot. She's got this down to a science."  First bucket-Shoes and jacket (shoes in the first bucket so that you can put them on as you wait for your other items to go through the xray). Second bucket- Unzip laptop case, make sure it is not covering the laptop, throw in the clear plastic bag with liquids (use a quart size zip-slide bag for ease instead of a zip-lock bag. it's more user-friendly for travel).  Backpack and luggage to follow.  Oh and I also do not wear a belt or metal jewelry. 

This has been my fourth work trip since the beginning of the year, so I am now becoming an efficient packer. I now can pack my suitcase in less than 5 minutes and can fit more than four days of clothes in carry-on luggage.

Here's the necessary toiletries I pack:

*lotion (to be used on face and hands), *deodorant, *contact solution, *contact case, *travel size hairbrush, *tooth brush, *toothpaste, *floss, *facial soap from lush *eyelash curler. 

I end up using the shampoo, conditioner, and soap the hotel provides to save on space in my luggage. 

My typical travel breakfast.  Soy chai and a pastry (key lime crumb cake).

Airplane food.  BBQ chicken salad with crunchy topping. Stacy's pita chips. Most times I have been lucky when I travel and have been sitting in first class!  That means that we're given snacks and a meal.  Although you soon become spoiled with all the perks of flying first class that when you're placed in coach, you think, "coach? ugh."  (yes, I've become a slight "flying snob").

 

My last breakfast during my last business trip to Canada.  Vivanno orange mango smoothie without the extra protein and a thai tuna wrap.  I don't think they have this flavor of smoothie at Starbucks in the USA, but it was pretty good.  The thai tuna wrap was unusual; it was like a spicy tuna salad with bits of rice in it.  

Food during work travel varies a bit.  Mike sometimes gets jealous because we sometimes eat at nice restaurants.  But it is often balanced out with trying to find restaurants that are open late at night, which means that we end up eating at fast food joints or gas stations.   

Day 4~Restaurant Crispi 19

On our fourth day we sought out a truly great culinary experience. We had spent the previous night looking for places to eat online, and we settled on a seafood restaurant called Crispi 19. We marked it's general location (near the top of the Spanish Steps) on our map (which wasn't very good), and decided we'd wander around and find it the next day.

When we began our trek to find Crispi 19 we immediately realized our mistake. Our map had a big icon of the Spanish Steps that covered a lot of small streets in the area. This made finding the restaurant really difficult. We wandered for a while, and since we were already really hungry, we almost gave up. Just when we were discussing where else we'd like to eat we happened to see a street sign for Crispi street. It was then that Lauren had an epiphany that saved our day. Guess what? The restaurant name was also its address. Problem solved.......we went in an got ourselves a table.
Unbeknownst to us, Crispi 19 was acctually a fine dining establishment. We looked totally out of place in our jeans and t-shirts. The saving grace was that being a fine dining restaurant, Crispi 19 didn't really serve much lunch.....sure they were open, but we were the only ones there. Plus we were tourists, so no one really cared.
We shared a bunch of food, and passed the plates back and forth.....probably a no-no, but being tourists eating when no one else was there, we didn't have to be embarrased. I got a prix fixe meal (tuna tartare, crab and shrimp ravioli, and a dessert), and Lauren got a pasta with fried squid. The tuna tartare was interesting. I'd never had something like this before. It felt overly fancy for my tastes at first, but when I mixed the tuna, the onion, the salt, the egg, and the pesto sauce together (and made everything look really messy) and ate it with the orange, it was really good. It was rich and salty, and the citrus cut it perfectly. Lauren thought it was okay, which is saying a lot because she doesn't really like raw fish.
Lauren's pasta was also very good. I think the sauce was some kind of seafood stock with olive oil, tomatoes and basil. It was a bit salty, but it as also thin, so it fit nicely at first. When you got towards the bottom of the bowl you got more and more sauce, and it got too salty for Lauren. I hapily finished her bowl.
The shrimp and crab ravioli was excellent. It was rich, but the portion was small so it wasn't overpowering. It came in a creamy seafood tomato sauce.
I don't remember much about the fish, other than that it was fish, that it was cooked perfectly. I think it was halibut, but I'm not sure. Lauren really liked it!
I don't remember what the dessert was called, but it was also good. There was a chocolate cake that was moist and had lots of fresh whipped cream on top. There was also a soooth and creamy panna cotta. Its kind of like creme brulee, except without the brulee. The texture is a little different though since panna cotta is thickened with gelatin instead of just eggs. We both enjoied it....especially Lauren.
We spent the rest of the day......you guessed it......eating. We went to a sicilian pastry shop. There were a bunch of awards displayed on their door. Lauren was so impressed that she took a picture.
The pastries looked beautiful. We had an exremely difficutl time picking out what to eat. We finally setteled on an asortment of goodies, and ate them outside. We both decided that italian pastries are a little too sweet for us.

I don't remember exactly where we went, or what we ate there, but we also made it to a gelateria before the end of the afternoon. When something's good, you just have to stick with it. We had a lot of gelato throughout the rest of the trip.

Day 3~Italy Food!

Our third day in Italy was spent hunting for food. We went to the Jewish Ghetto and grazed. Lauren loved all of the bakeries and I had my fair share of pizza. We sampled so many things that by the time lunch came we weren't even hungry.
Lauren went crazy in this bakery and ordered a bunch of things. As a note to all you foodie travelers, bakers don't like it when you order just one of something when it's sold by weight, especially when they're super light things like pretzels. I think the tiny cookies (~3 pieces) and pretzels (~5 pieces) Lauren got were like 20 cents or something like that. We got a bunch of stuff, so it was okay, but one of the workers got scolded by the manager when she tried to ring us up for a .1 euro bill.
We ate our purchases right outside of the bakery. I got two kinds of arancini, fried rice balls. Between the baked good and the fried goodies, it was a fun experience.
We saw a bakery/pizzeria that a lot of locals were coming out of, and we knew we had to try it too. In our experience, this is one of the best ways to find good food. We also went to Campo di Fiori, an open market. There was a ton of fresh produce, and lot of other things. We bought a fruit cup to share, and looked around.
We bought some dried spices to take home but we keep forgetting to use them.


In case you didn't notice from the last post, Lauren and I aren't always the best with maps. We wandered our way toward the subway station, and ended up back near our hotel. Instead of going out to eat dinner, we decided to engage in one of Lauren's favorite activities.....we went to the grocery store. Don't think this was the first time we went during our trip....no, no, no we went way back on day one. This was just the first time we decided to go and buy a meal there. We got breadsticks, cheese, wine, bread and ate it in our room. It was nice to relax in the room for a night. I think this helped prevent us from getting travel fatigue.

Day 2 Part 2~ Italy

We did so much on our second day that Lauren broke it up into two separate posts. After eating all the gelato, we decided it was time to go and see the sights. Our first goal was to go and see the Trevi fountain. We took the subway to the nearest stop. When we got out there was a fountain right outside, and we assumed it was probably Trevi fountain. There were a bunch of tourists taking pictures next to it, so it seemed right. But after thinking about it for a few minutes it just didn't seem right......it wasn't impressive enough. A quick consultation with our map told us that we still had a 5-10 minute walk to get to Trevi fountain. When we finally got there it was far better.
Instead of the dozen or so tourists that were at the other fountain, there were easily over 100 tourists at the real Trevi fountain. We looked around, sat down and had a rest, and then proceeded on to the Pantheon, or so we thought.
We followed a sign pointing toward the Pantheon....unfortunately it was pointing in the wrong direction.....we confirmed this when we passed it for the second (and then the third) time. So we marched on, and on, and on, and after 30 minutes of so we took a break and sat down on some steps where a lot of people were hanging out. And that was how we saw the Spanish steps. I think we took pictures, but none of them came out good. We proceeded on and on, ignored the sign, asked for directions, and finally got to the Pantheon just before it closed. We ended our day at Piazza Navona. It's the place there Tom Hanks pulls the priest out of the fountain in Angels and Demons. It's really beautiful at sunset, and there are lots of restaurants that line the square. There are lots of waiters there trying to usher you into their establishments......this really turned us off because if the food was good why would they need to be so pushy. But because it was so nice there, despite our better culinary judgement we picked a restaurant that seemed good and sat down for a meal. We got free glasses of champaign, which was good, but the pasta we got was just average. It was nothing you couldn't make yourself, and definitely not worth the $50 we paid. Still the wine was good, and we had a great time enjoying the scenery. It was a Jekyl/Hyde experience. Ambiance - 10, Food - 3.
What did we do after diner? You guessed it...Gelato! Here are more pics. THey're acctually from the gelateria we went to earlier in the day, but they fit here too.