PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

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One can’t hope for a long, slow dining experience if you read through the whole menu and order everything all at once, so, with our waitress’s permission, we set about to do just the opposite and read only the appetizers section and shelved the menus until well after our first orders had come and gone.  Ahi Sashimi platter, with 6 slices of perfect Ahi [2 apiece], a pair of potato crusted crab cakes [a bit harder to divvy up by 3] and a Lobster Cannelloni smothered in a parmesan cream sauce. The later was my choice and of the three, sadly the least successful. Don’t get me wrong, it was really delicious, but the lobster [wrapped in a pasta sheet and steamed I believe] was a bit overwhelmed by the parmesan. I am inclined to think that there is no such thing as too much parmesan but indeed the lobster was a bit lost in it….  The crab cakes were playfully encrusted with hand rolled potato sticks –for lack of a better term, and looked like a punk-rocker married a sea urchin… The crab flavor was totally up front and 2 delicate sauces, one a light Dijon cream sauce and the other a roasted red pepper sauce along with the crunch of the potato made this the front runner so far…  note: I had every intention of photographing this entire epic meal, but in truth got a little exited when the other courses arrived and just forgot to reach for my camera instead of the fork. So, alas, there are only pictures this time, of the appetizers.

After much convivial chat and a touch of flirting with the waitress from the one ‘single’ mainlander, we returned to the menu to read the salad section and make some decisions. That wasn’t too hard as the waitress held no punches in her strong recommendation that the Belgian Endive was not to be missed. She was spot on too! On a big round plate arrived enough for all three of us to each have 3 or 4 -the long young endives, a member of the chicory family, was presented with caramelized macadamia nuts sprinkled with Italian gorgonzola cheese and resting in a pool of honey-scallion-mint vinaigrette. Think about that last bit, honey meets scallion meets mint all in a vinaigrette, OMG, that alone made me want to lick the plate! The waitress is right, don’t go to Longhi’s without ordering the Belgian Endive salad! We enjoyed a Longhi’s spin on a Caesar billed as the LONGHI LONGHI LONGHI SALAD, were it not for the Belgian competition that would have earned much more space here, it was very good… but the Belgians took home the GOLD in Salad this time.

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Time to read again and the entree section of the menu –with the separate full page of pasta selections, was the hardest to navigate. We ordered a Surf and Turf, a Filet Mignon with Béarnaise and, are you sitting down? a grilled Veal Porterhouse. It was, by far, the largest piece of veal any of us –waitress included, had ever seen and was, I kid you not, about 2” thick! All of us were a bit overwhelmed by it. It was served with a shitake mushroom sauce made with both sweet and dry Marsala wines. The sauce was truly outstanding and the mushrooms soft and still full of Shitake flavor -not overwhelmed but enhanced by the Marsala. The meat, as tender as anything we’ve tasted, was paired beautifully in the wine and mushroom sauce and equally as delicious as it was tender. The three plates were passed every few minutes and, perhaps to our surprise, ended our dining for the evening. We had added to the mashed potatoes and beans on the plates a side of asparagus and another of Sicilian style cauliflower –with garlic, capers, olive oil and crushed red pepper flakes.  It was indeed enough to require ‘doggy bags’.

The second bottle of wine was becoming a sliver of red in the bottom of the decanter, the plates sat, un-emptied towards the center of the table and waitress saw her cue to tease us about having eyes bigger than our stomachs. More I think out of a sense of obligation than desire we all read through the desert menu and closed the final menu of the evening with a request for one Tuaca, an Italian brandy laced with citrus and vanilla, which neither of my companions had ever tried. As I forewarned them, they confessed to a new favorite end-of-the-meal liquor. The glass was soon emptied and our ‘take-aways’ arrived with the only part of the meal I didn’t intentionally order   -a check. What a pleasure to dine with these two affable fellows and have only a third of the bill to settle! It was indeed a lovely evening and the only unpleasant part of the entire event lay in the 40 minute ride back up to Kula… but I wouldn’t change a minute of any of it!

Food for Thought

We settled in at a table, just about the only folks there at 7:30 on Sat. evening and thought, erroneously as it turns out, that was a bad sign –or a good sign of a bad restaurant…

The menu didn’t look all that exciting but we started off with a nice cabernet from Horse Heaven Hills out of Washington. Turns out to be owned by Columbia Crest. It took a while to open up but when it did we were pleased to find a lot of dark cherry and cassis.

Pupu time and what’s this? A rarely seen appearance on menus around the island, Escargot and it arrive in a proper Escargot dish –piping hot and savory with lots of garlic and herbs and perfectly toasted bread. The owner and chef Laurent Thibault not only did the a great job on the escargot he was savvy enough to cut the bread so that each piece had the right shape to plunder the depths of the dish and harvest all of that succulent infused butter! They were the best Escargot I’ve ever had on Maui and the wine was opening up and the other tables were filling and the music was at the perfect level to enjoy it all… This was turning out to be fun!

The salad section of the menu had the typical cast of characters but our friendly waitress told us of a goat cheese and baby greens salad with candied walnuts and one of Maui best dressings: papaya seed.  What a great salad, there were sliced beets and roasted [mild] garlic cloves and resting atop the generous green mound was a patty of lightly sautéed and herbed goat cheese. This was beautifully presented on a wooden plate for us to share. It really was wonderful and that was the first thing I told Laurent when he stopped by the table and introduced himself. I was intrigued by the garlic, I often make a garlic confit and always keep a container in the ice box to use both the flavored olive oil and the roasted garlic clove in cooking. His garlic however was much milder than mine is and added perfectly to the salad, we compared notes and it sounds like the same technique. Whatever the case, he’s got it down and I hope ads that salad as a regular menu item!

Time for dinner and I opted for the Shitake pasta with chicken, my partner was drawn to the cheeseburger. It arrived perfectly cooked and still pink in the center, why is it that most restaurants can’t accomplish this?? My pasta was also perfectly cooked –al dente, and the shitake, of which there was lots, the garlic and parmesan all at just the right levels to make a great sauce. This wasn’t a cream sauce and while I didn’t ask exactly, I assume he used a judicious amount of the pasta water to ‘loosen’ the whole mix… A dash of salt and crack of fresh pepper from their peppermill and I was off to the races.

The pasta was delicious right to the last bite and just the right size. I would have kept eating it were it larger but finished completely satisfied and not stuffed. Sadly [maybe] that left no room for desert, even my partner wasn’t tempted, but that gives us something [else] to look forward to on our next visit!

I just loved Laurent’s style, he is a chef’s chef knowing when to let the flavors of the dish carry and not trying to “kick it up a notch”. We had a number of chats with him during the evening and learned that they have live music almost every night and even have occasional theme nights. The next one, whose date escapes me, is a tribute to Mark Twain, with food from the great American south and dramatic readings of some of Mr. Clemen’s more popular dramas. Other events have been along different line like a  Beaujolais Nouveau evening with an all French menu. Laurent was telling us in his thick French accent about it last evening and from a mutual friend this morning understood that we missed a real treat. We’re on his mailing list now and if you wish to hear from him about these types of events you can email him or his wife Katie at info@hanahoucafe.com and ask to be put on the list.

Food for Thought….

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Incredible cabin karma this week. After 3 days at 6,500′ in PoliPoli cabin we called the DLNR to see if it was possible to get a cabin in Waianapanapa at sea level. The woman snikkered and said not much chance as there was a Chanting Revival in Hana this weekend, but less than a minute later was surprised when the cabin with the best ocean view showed someone had just canceled and it was available for one night!

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Last night I had a chance to eat there and had a wonderful evening of wine, food and friends… As luck would have it the main dining room was bought-out for a wedding. Perfect start… that meant we had to settle for a table on the balcony of the lounge overlooking the Marriott’s beautiful pools with the moonlit ocean beyond. I plan on asking for that table again when we return! I love this kind of dining. Right after being seated, and after checking that they weren’t in a push to turn our table over we told our waitress that we were not in any rush, please take her time, we intended to be there all night. There may have been a wedding next door, but we were planning a dining honeymoon.

We settled in with menus and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Jam Cellars, lots of lush, bright fruit notes and a hint of chocolate. Not a big finish, but a completely likeable wine. The menu was looking promising too with nearly a dozen starters to get the gastronomic the ball rolling. I love a menu that makes it hard to choose… So far I wanted about 2/3rds of the starters, this was going to be fun! My partner hemmed and hawed a bit before settling in on the oyster shooters, WOW, good choice. Hood Canal, one of the main basins in the Puget Sound, is famous for their oysters and clams and Mr. Ellman knows exactly what to do with them. He served them up in tall shot glasses in an ice filled bowl sided by lemon wedges and sporting a spike of chive. Down in the bottom of the glass was a plump oyster in ponzu with tobiko [flying fish roe] and a wee bit of wasabi. Shooter really is the wrong name, these oysters are meant to be chewed. The brininess of the oyster and the tobiko complimented the citrus in the ponzu and lemon, the wasabi “kicked it up a notch” and yet, when you chewed the oyster, it was the oyster flavor that won the skirmish. Our waitress was right, they tasted just like one wasn’t going to be enough, we had a couple more… My turn! After that soft oyster I was considering the Crunchy Calamari and told the waitress as much, again, she was spot

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on. She said the kitchen had gotten some calamari steaks in, they were cutting them long and thin, breading them up in panko and serving them with a miso soy/Thai chili/ginger sauce. Good call, they were as tender as any calamari I’ve had and that sauce was, well, good enough to bathe in! I guess the lump crab cake and the black tiger prawns are just going to have to wait until the next trip. Mala Wailea really is one of those places you could just do wine and pupus all night long!

While there were a number of great sounding salads, we played it traditional and split a Mark’s Caesar Salad, nothing remarkable about it, just a good Caesar salad. On the menu it just says flax seed croutons, but I would swear they were corn bread and flax seed, either way, they added a nice note…

Now we were in trouble, we’re in the lounge so the menu has a Tavern and a Pizza section. There’s a really fine looking “Entrees” section of the menu I was instantly drawn to with temptations like Whole Wok Fried Fish, Steamed Manila Clams and a Filet Mignon in a shallot port wine sauce… but nooo, there’s this pesky Tavern section trying to seduce me! A house made Ahi Burger, a Kobe Beef Cheeseburger or even Mark’s “Adult Mac and Cheese” –with Mushroom Cream, Mozzarella, Pecorino, and Maytag Bleu Cheese -they were all trying to have their way with me. Funny, as I am writing this, by chance, the theme from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is playing in the background with its haunting harmonica underscoring the anguish I was experiencing last night as I fought the urge and resolutely moved down the page to take my rightful place on the dinner menu among the Entrees. OK, so add into tonight’s “Entrée Invitational” a Balinese Stir Fry with Fresh Island Fish, Crispy Coconut Shrimp and Roasted Australian Lamb Chops, the pressure was building. A foodie friend told me the whole fish was off the charts and I saw one go by, he might be right. I guess it’s time I admit to a long term lamb addiction. I used to raise lamb on the east coast, back in the day and will always be grateful for that time in my life when I had an unlimited supply. How’s this for near perfection, we even had about ¼ acre of mint that had been growing wild for several decades down by the pond. Every time I cut the fields when I hit that area the whole valley smelled of mint! Mark’s chops come with our local Surfing Goat Cheese & Herb Gnocchi, glazed butternut squash and what he understatedly calls Thyme Lamb Jus. The victor had risen to the top and we decided to split an order, which they were kind enough to do in the kitchen for us. We weren’t disappointed, it was fantastic! But Mark, calling it thyme lamb jus is a total disservice. When you take the time to make a proper red wine demi-glace [cooking down the bones in red wine for 3-4 hours with the usual suspects –carrot, celery, onion…] and mix that in with a tomato jam you painstakingly cooked down with a little sugar and vinegar and then finish with a 20 year old Balsamic vinegar, well, it’s not just thyme lamb jus! Of course that was the first thing I tasted on the plate and was the victim of my uncouth finger swipe when nothing else was left on that plate 20 minutes later! The little gnocchi’s subtle flavor, as tasty as they were solo, fell for the same pairing and a piece of the squash with a bite of the lamb would have worked perfectly too, but alas, the latter wasn’t really an option. My fork never touched the lamb itself but once. I swiftly cut the conjoined chops apart and picked them up with the built in handle and barely let go until there wasn’t a thread of anything left on the bone. They were perfectly pink on the inside, savory and delicious and the absolute highlight of the meal!

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The final sips of our wine and the clean plates –and bones, initiated the graceful transition into a cappuccino and browse of the desert menu. Here we go again, I want it all! There were several OMG moments in discovery and several “how can we not” contenders, but ultimately the Flourless Chocolate Torte Soufflé won out. Served up with the house made caramel sauce on vanilla macadamia nut ice cream and whipped cream the torte was just perfect. Chocolate oozed out of it when you cut in and danced on the palette with the ice cream like the white dressed bride and tux donned groom in the main dining room. A perfect marriage, and, like any big wedding reception, there was even a surprise guest at the party in my mouth, an unexpected Coquito! Coquitos are, for lack of a better term, baby coconuts. They are cultivated on Chilean palm trees and taste like coconut with a sweet nutty flavor and a distinctive ‘soft’ crunch. Need I say more? If you like chocolate and ice cream and macadamia nuts and coconut then you can’t help but love this desert. At their suggestion I joined it with a small glass of Justin “Obtuse” a cabernet sauvignon-based dessert wine from Paso Robles. If you’ve not tried this, seek it out. It has sweet raspberry and cherry notes that are balanced with its bittersweet chocolate finish. It’s actually a fortified wine and what that means is longevity, properly kept you can keep an open bottle for about 6 months, not that it would last that long, but that’s the theory anyway. You can guess how well that paired with the desert!

OK, as often happens I start writing and can’t stop… I get to live the whole meal all over again and as it took hours last night in ‘real time’ it seems only natural that it takes a while to re-tell… Needless to say, the balmy Maui weather, Mala Wailea, Mark Ellman, the ambiance, the food, the wines, the friends we saw and my dining partner all conspired to make it a wonderful Saturday evening. “Loved it!” -to be said al la Jon Stewart –in falsetto voice about 2 octaves higher than normal. I heartily recommend you try it sometime. Life is too long to not take lots of mini-vacations like this!

-Food for Thought

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The restaurant: 106 in Portsmouth. The fellow that owns it has 3-4 restaurants in town, apparently has a Midas touch and is very generous back to the community. All that earns him  kudos in my book, but that aside the meal was fantastic! They claim they serve New England classics with a New Orleans flair and they live up to that with great aplomb.

After a sampling of the a finger of 4  local brews, including what I assume is a seasonal Pumpkinhead, I settled in with an Shipyard  IPA from Portland Maine, the girls opted for the house’s best scotch and a ginger martini… It was time to start digesting their unintimidating menu. Each of the obvious sections [apps, salads, entrées, etc.] offering us only 3-4 choices. That is much my preference over the dozen or more you find on so many menus these days. Pick a few and execute them perfectly. I am slow with menus, I like to take my time and really imagine the combinations they tell you about in each dish. How would that Shrimp Etouffee really taste with grilled prosciutto? Would the Andouille sausage overwhelm a delicate mussel? Well, in their ‘starters’ section, which actually had 6 or so listings, it didn’t take me long to spot the big green bull’s eye on the radar: Maine Lump Crab & Fried Green Tomato Napoleon: Layers of crab, corn & avocado tossed in a chipotle vinaigrette  OMG was this tasty ! It was the chipotle that spun it all into a Nola-ville. They were spot on with their ‘New Orleans flair”.

The entre was  Chorizo Wrapped Codfish: Pan seared local cod wrapped in thinly sliced chorizo & served with lobster-tarragon risotto & lemon-Thyme asparagus. Hard to appreciate in the picture from Tracey’s phone, but the chorizo was crispy and sparked just enough heat into the dish to set off the Cajun quality of the whole plate. When I was looking at the menu the lobster risotto sounded so good I was starting to tell the waitress that that’s all I really wanted. Tracey chose the same dish and common sense returned just in time for me to follow suit.

And the perfect nightcap was a Smuttynose IPA at The Press Room where brother-in-law Woody plays in a small jazz combo on Tuesday nights. They allow drop-by musicians after 8 and there were some great horns, clarinets and a  singer that jammed. Sure wish Maui had a little “Press Room” and a “106” and “pick your own apples” farm and a “floating restaurant” serving lobster rolls and at least one — peach tree!

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The view from 427 -click to enlarge

Conductor's Score -click me

We didn’t intend it but we ended up saving the best for last. Tosca was fantastic, the opera hall was magnificent and the staging, sets and seats were the best yet! We had bought the tickets while still in Hawaii so had long forgotten they were the fabled third row center seats yet again. This time center meant that the conductor was exactly 8′ in front of my seat! So close in fact that I could resist walking up front between acts and taking a picture of his score. It felt like quite an honor to be able to see it, setting on its lit podium, baton at the ready just to its right. Click the image and scroll to the side [if needed] to see it all, I thought it was way cool -to use a particularly non-opera-like phrase… What the picture didn’t really capture well enough were his margin notes and like, also way cool!

Neo-Rococo baby! you got to click it to dig it

Anyway, the theater, built in 1888, has had music directors such as Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and hosted untold numbers of “meistersingers” . The interior was quite elaborate and in every direction features some carving or relief of angels on high. Neo-Rococo to be precise, over-the-top.

And then there’s Puccini! He was being roundly toasted across Italy in 1895 for his success with the opera Manon Lescaut while at the same time ignoring some friendly gooses from his peer Giuseppe Verdi urging him to move forward with Tosca. Why, because he was up to his ears finishing La Boheme. He finally wrapped that up by the

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end of the year and started in earnest on Tosca in 1896. It took him 4 years to finish the score and get it to the stage where, in its first performance in January of 1900 – in Rome, it was hailed as an instant success. To this day it remains the most performed of all of Puccini operas and is right up there with Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Aida… La Boheme will always be my favorite opera but Tosca is indeed absolutely wonderful. Right from the start of the first act there are glorious melodies that Puccini carries through all three acts [click the speaker icon below to here one], better still, if you don’t own it buy it or, at the very least, buy the highlights of it. You’ll be surprised how much of it you recognize, even if you’re an opera newbie… Many of Puccini’s scenes in Tosca are not sung at all but rather expressed musically -with no vocalization. These melodies are of course familiar as strains of them are from the duets that populate the entire opera.

While the pictures of the stage are not worth it, they save me at least 1,000 words on set design, the shots there are from the final bows by Conductor Martin Otava, Tosca [Jordanka Derilova] and Cavaradossi [Tomas Cerny]   Click here to see some pictures of the interior and the set…

What a wonderful part of the trip these operas have been and this really was the best of them all!

and after that, it was our last day

We also took in a special museum for Cailey Brooks and Bill Laufman, the Barbie and Toy Museum. Cailey you would have LOVED this place, it had 1,000 Barbie and Ken dolls, I tried to take some pictures of the ones I knew you would have liked the most, especially the Princesses!  Bill, you would have loved this place too, I spotted a number of things you’ve got and perhaps another thousand you don’t. Those are all in a Barbie gallery here

Finally, today’s bonus attraction is a small collection of stained glass windows from the Prague Castle and from Bruges..

We’re off shortly to meet a friend of mine from Scottsdale for, what sounds like it might be an off-the-menu feast prepared by a Pakistani friend of his, Mafooz,  that has a restaurant here. We’ll see… either way it is always nice to see Mike…

Also fun, we ordered a Multipuciano last night, we watched as the waiter conferred with 3 others when trying to find the bottle and they brought us a 2001 Brunello di Montalcino –perhaps a $100 bottle, I asked the price and he said 690 Crowns –about $25 then he asked if that was OK or that was too much, we told him it was OK and ordered two   —   Left him a huge tip to settle off the karmic tab

Touristy pictures here

The HI'adisco Nova' Theater, in the foreground this pond was glass bottomed and was part of the ceiling in the underground part of the mall below.

Modern is a mystery to me. Modern  art anyway. I actually love most modern architecture, but modern dance, does nothing for me. Modern music, well, that depends, I never cared for the discordant compositions of Bartok and his ilk. Modern jazz, sure, I get that. A puke of colors on a canvas, doesn’t make it art.  So it is with modern staging design.

Last night we saw an Italian opera, penned by Pucinni about 100 years ago and set in China –in about the same time frame. Turnadot. The music was fantastic, building as it does to so beautifully to the third act when the previously restrained melody is set free to soar and carry us with it to the tops of the rafters and beyond… Nessum Dorma, arguably one of the most beautiful arias of all time… The aria was indeed magnificent, as ever, but was presented, like most of the opera, on a modern set with symbolic representations of life and time.. From the outset, our protagonist wore an outfit more suited to an actor calling out for lady Stella than the heart of a Chinese princess in 19^th century China. The stage direction calling for slaves carting around giant playing dice and the moon, played by a trashcan lid of a gong hoisted on large satin ropes were mechanical and clumsy. The props used to denote a separate scene sometimes boiled down to lifting a piece of the set and displaying its orange underbelly, only to be let back down after the interlude.

If ever you’ve seen the production of Turnadot so well filmed in the actual forbidden city, Peking on PBS, you’ll understand that telling the same story with but 30-40 extras will not come across with anywhere near the same grandeur, of course. But to reduce it to a high school musical with amateur effects [like the rising moon’s inability to not wobble back and forth 4-5’ with every rising] makes Maestro Andre Leonard’s conducting seem wasted. Mr. Leonard is the top rated conductor in the whole country, the singers last night, while unknown to me, we masters at their craft and carried long and steady the near impossible notes required by Mr. Pucinni’s score. The hall itself, practically brand new at 5 years, was warm and balanced acoustically, it was only the modern staging and to a lesser degree set design that left me cold. I adored everything else about it, what’s not to adore, it is Pucinni!

…and dinner in a nice Italian restaurant before the show… how beaucolic!

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No matter, it lent to the adventure and they did indeed turn out to be legitimate tickets   — just about 100 meters from the North Pole. It was still magic and the acoustics were superb! The opera hall itself was very nice, not as lavish or stylized as others we’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy, but certainly grand in its own way.  That said, the front of the opera house, the lobbies, the grand salon, the main stairs and lounges were all on  par with the nicest houses anywhere. Marble, ornately carved, flowing up to ornate ceiling treatments and wall portraits of the great musical patriarchs of Vienna adorned most of the lounges and mail hall… There were no shortage of frescoes either and gold or crystal chandeliers hung everywhere. The chandelier in the hall itself was easily 30′ or more across, each piece looked to be the size of a baseball!

There are a handful of pictures here, but my favorite of them all is below. I thought the folks in the box across the theater looked right out of a painting and indeed was able to capture the effect perfectly!

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Tonight we returned to the church for the first time since and heard a performance of Mozart’s Requiem… The acoustics were as I remembered quite amazing and the restored part of the church is ever more resplendent than I remembered. The marbles are “whiter than white” and the frescoes were alive with brilliant colors.  The central dome is still in process and may be for years to come, but I am sure it will yield fantastic results. These pictures are not so great, it was dark and, well… I came for the music. One observation that came quickly and surprised us both was, in hindsight, obvious… It is a cold night in Vienna, hovering somewhere around  -1C. Everyone approaching the church was well dressed and furs and fine coats were no less prevalent than leather coats and high boots… What we didn’t consider until actually taking our seats was that it wasn’t going to get any warmer than this! They don’t have central heating in these places, you sit down with all your wollies on and get comfortable…

That was fun, last year 3rd row center for Bon Jovi, this year second row center for Mozart, sadly he didn’t wink at Jane like BJ did….

Tomorrow night, Aida at the venerable StaatsOpera House!

king through these giant edifices. They reach halfway to heaven and the waste nothing during the trip. The columns are used like alters them selves, see some of the first few pictures..  Pictures here

Lunch at a Greek  place was great, but way to much food!

Then St. Peter’s in Vienna, amazingly ornate and again built on the site of older and long gone churches going back to pre-Vienna days when this was but a Roman camp called Vindobona. They have held daily high mass here for over 1600 years! Check out the bones of a martyr they snagged from the Roman catacombs in 1733 in the glass reliquary!  This is not painted wood either like some of the other churches here, this is all carved marble and granite.

Dozens of fresh handmade pastas in the Naschmarkt

Then we remember the Naschmarkt that was right in the neighborhood   Still a fun stroll, but wished we remembered it before going Greek…………

amuse bouche of marinaded mushrooms, vegetable spread, a mozzarella ball and tomato

After settling on a nice Super Tuscan they wheeled out a wide decanter and replaced the glasses on the table.. and into the menu. I couldn’t resist trying their version of the St. Jacob’s scallops in a saffron sauce. -side note, no one seemed to know why they were called St. Jacob scallops, I looked it up, it is a reference to  St. Jame’s, of Christianity fame, and has nothing to do with where they are from or the type of scallop it is… Jane opted for a Foie Gras in a ginger sauce and small salad. Both were great, though I confess the scallops were more interesting the day before, these were nonetheless delicious as was Jane’s foie gras.

Foie gras and St. Jacobs scallops

As an entree we were both drawn to the lamb, a New-Zeland rack of lamb with red wine-apple sauté and balsamic green beans. The apples sauté in some ways was the star. They were apple wedges that, I assume, were marinated in red wine, cinnamon and black pepper. I mistook them for potatoes when they arrived [remember we dawdled for hours] and that may be why they were such a pleasant surprise when I had my

New-zealand rack of lamb with red wine-apple sauté and balsamic green beans

first bite.   The lamb was perfectly cooked and very tasty, but alas, I have made a mission of great lamb and may not be easily wowed.. but the pairing with the apples has given me an idea I look forward to trying at home

The medications were wearing off and it was sadly getting to be time to leave, but…I overheard a woman at a table behind me order a chocolate souffle and, well… you know..

Over the preceding hours we had a number of nice conversations with the manager, an affable you man of about 40. We had chatted, as often as anything else, about wines and we had come to like him and trust his judgment so we asked him to select wine for the desert. He went on to explain the history of wine appreciation in Hungary has gone through a number of full swings. Most notably a  century ago Hungarians favored sweet wines all the time. Then slowly they moved into dry wines 98% of the time and hardly drink late harvest or desert wines at all. He selected a late harvest wine from the Tokaj area in the north of Hungary but what was more interesting on the front label was the identification of 6 Puttonyus.

6 Puttonyus

The Puttonyos, he went on to explain, were actually the 25 kg basket that the old grape pickers wore on their backs and filled with the Nobel Rot [Botrytis -a fungus on the grapes that, if picked at just the right time and weather conditions, makes a really fine desert wine] Well, the #6 tells us there are actually 6 -25 kg baskets of such grapes in a barrel of this wine. A very high sugar concentration.. and therefore a very sweet wine…

OK, well the chocolate souffle was superb and it was the sour cherries that made it so. This was just like Roy’s souffle, soft and gooey in the middle and served with the Hungarian wanna-be Roselani vanilla ice cream, but the sour cherries paired so well with the chocolate as to elevate it to a new level… And, you guessed it, the Tokaji Aszu was superlative! Very fruit forward and light, hints of pear, apple and maybe a bit of vanilla…

Later in the hotel room, the next round of meds were just starting to kick in, the rain had given way to a quite evening and we were getting ready to leave in the morning.. All I could think of was the dozen or more must-do / must-see things in Budapest that we didn’t get to take in and that we would definitely be coming back because I know of at least two must-eat-at restaurants now as well!

Don't be fooled by the simple exterior...

I may be in the death grip of a cold, but my taste buds are still working just fine and I got a chance to drive them around the block this evening at Aranyszarvas Étterem. I wish I could tell you what the name means, let it suffice to say it roughly translates into fine/modern/gastronomy.

Walking through the front entrance was a double take moment, the outside looked like beer and sandwiches awaited, the inside looked like a fine dining establishment. Unsure if we really wanted to go down that road we started cautiously and ordered some local beer instead of wine..  Looking at the dining room should have taught us better than that…

click me...........

We started off with some appetizers.

Fresh goat cheese fried and marinated, roasted vegetables and salad -on the side, not in the picture

Saint Jacob scallop with cauliflower pure -clicking to enlarge is required

Jane loved hers and kept finding layers of flavor not in the previous bite. Mine was off the chart interesting -and delicious. The cauliflower pure had thin shavings of cauliflower on top, the foam was on top of a drop of very green olive oil and scented with truffles, the dark syrup was a very light balsamic. The scallops were rare in the middle bringing out all their flavor. Not sure you could do anything to improver that, texture, complexity, savory and sweet.. More or less perfect!

Trout fillet with vegetable bulgur and fennel -enlarge me!

Onward, the entrees arrived a respectable 10 minutes after we had finished licking the bowls… Jane ordered a Trout fillet with vegetable bulgur and fennel. It too was, to hear her tell it, more or less perfect. The salt offsetting the sweetness of the fennel shavings, the savory of the bulgar richly made with tiny pieces of fresh vegetables and the trout itself, perfectly cooked, moist and completely at home with the rest of the dish.  She slipped a bite onto a no-man’s plate [we can't eat off each others plate while I am sick] the foam was citrus scented!

My entree was a sage infused, boned rabbit legs. Unreal! The rabbit was completely moist ad tender and the sage, just the right, subtle amount. In some ways the real stars of this dish were actually the supporting cast members. Large pearl onions, halved fingerling potatoes and a generously thick slice of what must have been one large ass mushroom! If you’re like me it is hard to beat roasted onion, mushroom and garlic and when paired with the rabbit, well, it is unbeatable.

Sage scented rabbit leg with mushroom and sautéed potato -click me!

With the first two courses being as good as they were, we didn’t have a choice, well, we did, but we asked the waiter to make it for us and he recommended the apple pie. It was, as you can see, sort of a deconstructed apple pie, no crust, though there were some small little crunchies on top.The star, again, might have been the cinnamon cream on the side. It tasted like an apple pie unto itself and the little cubed pieces of the pie itself just melted into your mouth with a swipe of it on the bottom of your fork. As good as any apple pie ever! The picture is another must click to appreciate the way it was made…

Apple pie with cinnamon cream

The adventure continues here!

The Hungarian cockade used in 1848 and worn by tens of thousands yesterday

Wow, our first day here and they threw a national holiday! They do it every year, even when we don’t come, as a celebration of the Revolution of 1848. There were Hungarians, swollen with national fervor, everywhere. In fact, our wanderings took us to the back side of Parliament and there was a line to tour Parliament [it being free on this day] that was, by my estimate, 3-5 people wide and about 800 – 850 yards long!

So, there are indeed some pictures up here. And more from the 16th here..

Sorry for the lack of postings. Alas, we’re heading back out today, but it will be noon before we leave to hotel. It really is just the luck of the draw, and from the first hint -or before, I’ve thrown everything in my well equipped quiver at it, but I am sad to report I am down with a rather nasty cold. It started the last day in Bruges and we played it easy in Brussels, but it has been steadily worsening and I spent the last half of yesterday in bed sweating , sneezing, coughing and grunting at the timing. Today we’re going to walk a block to a funicular and hitch a ride up to Buda Castle and do a short walk about. I’ll come back early and rest after that……..   Grrrrrrr  Please send letters of encouragement to Jane to leave my sniveling ass in the hotel and go out on her own, someone has to take pictures we can all live vicariously through

More to follow…

The Danube in Budapest --click to enlarge

We ended up with a 2006 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Salcheto. Fantastico! The meal, well, we kept it really simple, we both just felt like a little comfort food and ended up with a Spaghetti Cabonara and a Ravioli de Carne. That was almost inconsequential, once we ordered the Montepulciano we were family and they kept bringing us little things. A plate of mixed olives and sun-ripened tomatoes, some cheese, a 1/2 order of  Taramisu -when we said we could do any more -unless they had some Perugian chocolate…

A romantic stroll of about 15 minutes along a few canals, bridges alight with blue and amber lights, bell towers lit above and the the occasional bike pedaling past brought us back to B&B Coupure for our last night in Bruges  -this trip anyway….

You can read the final Bruges post here

Someone swipping a bite of my fine chicken under the watchful eye of Mr. McChouffe -click to enlarge

For now tag along at our Bruges page…