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soooo.. you really like cats, don't you.
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| The next day, we woke up refreshed and ready to go. We strolled over to the local bakery and bought some random baked sweets and sat at an outdoor cafe to get some incredibly delicious fresh squeezed orange juice. One of our baked goods was a chocolate eclair and another chocolate thing, but one of the pastries was similar to a Taiwanese butterfly pastry, but much lighter and airier and completely drenched in honey. My mother would have loved it! We also stopped by a fruit market to pick up a variety of fruits like plums, loquats, nectarines, etc. But not without getting yelled at by an irate Greek man for smelling the fruit. It was probably the only time I had to use the sentence, "I'm sorry, I don't understand Greek." Ah well. We paid for the offended fruit and went our merry way.
With a full day of relaxation behind us, we were ready to hit the road in our fancy new wheels, the putt-putt! We rented this gem of a car so we could drive from Chania to Heraklion with various stops planned along the way.
( Adventures in fortresses, the fountain of youth, and palatial grounds ) | comments: Leave a comment   |
| I can't believe it's already been two months since I was in Greece, but the memories are still quite vibrant. Having spent a good two solid days in Athens and a whole day in Delphi, our fourth day in Athens was spent a little more relaxed seeing some last few sites on our agenda before crossing the brilliant sea to Crete. To the National Archaelogical Museum we went!
( Food, beaches, and ocean, oh my! ) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| When the Portland foodie community found out that Peter and Anne Verrill (of the popular Foreside Tavern in Falmouth) had spent $2 million in renovations to restore the Chestnut Street United Methodist Church back to its former glory, let's just say that we were praying for them to do well. Ah...sorry, bad pun, I know.
( Review, short and sweet ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Only two weeks after coming back home from vacation in Italy, it was a gutsy move on my part to go visit The Corner Room, the third restaurant installment of Chef Harding Lee Smith (the chef owner of The Grill Room and The Front Room) that focused on rustic Italian foods. My dinner date (my lovely former co-worker, Cindy) was craving Italian food and it had only been a little over a week since opening night, so I said, "Why not?" and made reservations for 5:45PM.
We arrived on time to bright and airy dining room, with a bar at the front-left side of the room and the main seating area stretching all the way to the back where you could see the pastry chef do his thing.
( The full review and food photos here ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 
Cold Peanut Noodles
Cook 2 servings worth of noodles according to package. Drain and cool (ice cubes may be used to quicken cooling process). Mix approximately 1/3 cup of peanut butter, 1 1/2 tbsps of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of crushed red chili pepper flakes, and 1-2 minced cloves of garlic. Add coconut milk (or water, as I did) until a creamy dressing is produced. Chiffonade/finely chop some parsley, cilantro, and mint and mix into the noodles, leaving some to the side for garnish.
Optional: I blanched 1/3 lb of fresh broccoli florets and half of a roughly chopped red bell pepper until they were both tender, dropped it into an ice bath, and added the drained vegetables to the noodles.
The veggies complement the noodles quite well and the noodles were a cool option for a pretty muggy day. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| It takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to Delphi by bus, so our entire day was mostly spent at Delphi with a very late return to Athens around 9pm. Of course, it wouldn't be much of an adventure without the bus breaking down halfway through the trip and stranding us on a mountain for 45 minutes. But luckily, we had this to look at in the meantime:
There also happened to be a young couple on the bus with us and when we got off the smoking bus, the boyfriend exclaimed, "Why does Greece have to have all these mountains?" To which his girlfriend deadpanned, "It's called landscape." Spunky girl. =P
( More photos ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Ack, I'm only finishing Day 2 and Aaron is already home from his last four weeks of vacation!
After an incredible, leisurely lunch with our Anne Hathaway waitress, we strolled over to the ancient Agora, Athen's commercial and civic center back in the day.
( More photos...35 more, to be exact! ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| We continue our story from Europe - Day 1 where we arrived in Athens, albeit jetlagged (severely for me).
I should mention now that our lodging for the trip went increasingly from the cheapest to the most expensive, since we would finish our journey in Rome, where you'd be lucky to get decent rooms for 100 euros a night. We booked the Easy Access Hotel for the 3 nights in Athens, which was part youth hostel, part 2 star hotel. The room was big enough with decent hardwood flooring, a modernly furnished, firm bed, and a new air conditioning unit. A/C is absolutely a must in the late spring/summer time. The bathroom was incredibly small, with the shower being the most problematic though. Who decides that buying shower curtains that are 3 inches above the slightly raised shower stall is a good idea? But hey, it had good pressure, hot water, and a wonderful night's sleep.
We woke up that morning and had breakfast in the bar/breakfast room where you could make your own toast with butter and strawberry or cherry(!) jam (which was included in the room fare), or order omelets and pancakes for an additional charge. Considering how everyone in the room except for one was college age and up until their late 20s, no one ate anything else besides toast. Aaron pointed out though that this was probably more breakfast than 80% of the Greek population's. Coffee and cigarettes anyone?
We started off with a visit to the meat market that Aaron was eager to show me.
( Read more ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| What happens when you're a single person who loves food and you go to a strawberry farm on opening day by yourself? You pick 6 pounds of strawberries, that's what.
Courtesy of Maxwell's Farm towards Two Lights Beach on Cape Elizabeth, ME. This was a part of a local initiative to raise farm awareness, which they appropriately named "StrawberryFest."
( More photos and recipe to follow ) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Oh boy, I'm finally writing up my trip! I decided that for sanity's sake, it'd be best to split up the trip on a day by day basis, instead of by regions. Livejournal and Facebook will get a select number of photo highlights from each day, but all the finished photos will be uploaded on Picasa Web Albums, so if you want to see more, head over to the album link that's provided at the end of each post! (I love how I'm basically addressing just Nano and Bethers, who are getting direct e-mails to all the links anyway.)
So, luckily our flight on June 6th, Saturday, was at 6 pm, so I at least had the morning to run around and get things gathered, cleaned, and packed. Aaron, his mom, and her fiance, picked me up at South Station and we headed off to Boston Logan Airport. This also happens to be the first time we've seen each other in a month, so we were quite excited and happy to see each other!
( Gorgeous photos up ahead ) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Well, that's just ducky. I never put up any of the photos from the dinner in Philly at Morimoto's for Aaron's and Ben's birthdays. Oops? I suppose it would be appropriate to get these out of the way before I start the barrage of Europe trip posts. I probably won't have much to say since it's already been over two months since it happened. Enjoy!
Very simple interior decorating.
Cheers Ben, you're 21!
( Irresistible photos of food ) | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| My co-worker and I went to El Rayo back in May, but I got a little sidetracked. Funny story: we actually got the scoop about this new restaurant before it hit the Portland gossip blogs because Kinko's accidentally switched their photocopying order with J's. Lo and behold, when J opened up his box expecting marketing materials, he found architectural plans for "Taco Land." Needless to say, we were disappointed that they went ahead and changed the name midway between construction and opening day.
( Mouth-watering taco photos up ahead ) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Yanked from Serious Eats who yanked it from another blogger as I was trying to chip away at my 1000+ Google Reader queue, I figured why not. The only thing I had to purchase was a little more garlic and chicken, so light on the wallet was a nice bonus. Plus it was one of those hot dishes that would keep me warm in this silly 59 degree "summer" weather.
The only modification is that I sliced a jalapeno to braise in the pot to give the marinade an extra natural kick. And with 10 chicken pieces, I added a smidge more soy sauce and balsamic, but filled the remaining liquid quantity with water to keep the sodium content down.
Served with black beans and rice, as well as some broccoli for some additional veggie boost. Broccoli was stir fried with garlic and a sprinkle of salt for a few minutes. Then two teaspoons of red wine vinegar (to match the adobo taste) and 2 tablespoons of water were added to the pan, which was then covered for all the broccoli to steam for 5-7 minutes until the broccoli was a bright green.
It's always fun to nom upon whole pieces of garlic in your meal. The chicken was nicely tender and falling off the bone, and it was marinated to the point where it had a nice tang from the vinegar, but wasn't overly salty. Most definitely a repeat meal since it was very easy with prep and actual cooking time. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Since I've been recovering from my vacation in Europe, I'm thankful that my first weekend back in the States is quiet (so I can continue editing Europe photos) with a few fun-filled events. It's amusing that the Greek Heritage Festival was this weekend; I mean who can say no to homemade Greek food, on the mainland or not?
Plus the entertainment is definitely worth watching.
( Strawbert? ) | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Why do you insist on being some damp and cold when it's already summer? When I left you at the beginning of the month, it looked like this:
Nice and cheery, gorgeous evening with big fluffy clouds. And now it's 58 degrees with dense fog. We are not amused. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 
He was kind enough to come toward me when I beckoned for him and let me test the shutter speed and focusing as he scampered toward me. Pretty neat experience for my first true time playing with the camera.
Taken three weekends ago on my first biking "trip" down to Deering Oaks Park. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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A few months ago, a Somalian family opened up a restaurant right around the corner from my apartment. It really takes just 45 seconds for me to get from my front door to theirs. I've been lucky enough to visit the establishment twice, but the first visit was somewhat of a letdown service-wise that it seemed a bit unfair to judge it based on that one unfortunate circumstance.
Back in April, when a group of us met for lunch, the service was absolutely atrocious and it took a full hour before our food arrived. And there was only one other table that was occupied by a father and his young son. The restaurant had some of their staff call in sick at the last minute, however, so this young teenage girl frantically ran the entire front of the house (and seemed to be pitching in around the kitchen as well). As painful as it was to sit around without getting any water for the first 15 minutes, and then have no silverware for 5 minutes after our dishes had already been served, the food itself was quite delicious.
So, fast-forward to May 17th, when a friend of mine with a large appetite came down from Orono to visit. This seemed like a good time as any to try the restaurant out again with a clean slate. The service was much improved, even though there was still only one person running the front of the house for the two tables and the patron at the bar. The goat soup was a simple goat broth with two large goat bones. The meat was tender and my friend was forced (willingly, of course) to pick up the bones and attack every meaty morsel hanging off the bone. The sport platter, however, was the star of the night (pictured above). The overflowing platter was filled with stewed goat, sauteed chicken, thin beef flank steak, spaghetti with a unique tomato sauce with Somalian spices, and a fresh salad. Similar to the first experience, the goat and the chicken were succulent, and the spaghetti was lightly coated with the sauce that had an entertaining kick from some unidentifiable spices. However, both times the beef was tough to chew through and seemed to have no discernible flavor beyond salt and pepper. Considering the quantity of food and the quality of the majority of food, the sport platter certainly has high value for the price at $15.99. The platter is advertised to include dessert and cup of Somalian coffee or tea, but the waitress informed us that there is no more dessert on the menu since most people are full after the platter and therefore pass on the dessert and beverage. She did provide us with two cups of Somalian coffee and tea, but only after we inquired again for it to be included with the platter as the menu originally advertised. The coffee was heavily spiked with ginger that it was very spicy and finished with a nice slurry at the bottom. My friend commented as he showed me the bottom of the cup, "This is how all good coffee should end." Likewise, the tea was also spiked with a little bit of ginger and milk, giving it a nice strong spice without becoming too overpowering.
Overall, the experience was great, with much improvement the second time due to the lack of glitches in service. I expect the restaurant to get better over time, assuming that it attracts enough customers to sustain itself long-term. Indeed, it would be fantastic to see a huge following that matches the vibrantly colored interior of the restaurant. Still, Barava is an exciting new addition to the ethnic cuisines offered in downtown Portland.
Barava
653 Congress St
Portland, ME 04101
(207) 899-0599 | | comments: Leave a comment |
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soooo.. you really like cats, don't you.
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