After a very early wake up (3:45am to be exact) we arrived in New Orleans to be greeted with hair curling humidity (Monica from the TV show Friends' and the episode in Hawaii, anyone?). I knew my kinks were going to be out of control so praised the gods for packing in a monster size hairspray in the suitcase!
We checked into our hotel in Downtown and were delighted to find a full kitchen in the hotel (apartment really) room. I have never seen a microwave that big - you could have fitted a 20kg Xmas ham in there!
As the sun was now shining bright, it was time to head down to the French quarter to soak up the atmosphere of the number 1 jazz and gourmet town of NOLA. The wannabe fatsdominos were already out and about playing their saxophones to their hearts content - pretty good must say, even if I'm not a jazz lover per se, but the music seemed to fit the town perfectly.
Mr A had been dreaming of some po boy sandwiches so for lunch we decided to go "light" and share one. The sandwich was a fresh French style bread, filled with remoulade, coleslaw, pickles and Southern coated and fried shrimps. OMG they were good - Best. Sandwich. Ever. I would travel back just for these. The sandwich was served with a portion of Cajun fries (is it any wonder I have moved from jeans to leggings on this holiday???).
We continued touring the streets of NOLA and stumbled upon a little gem - a Tabasco only shop! We tried a few lesser known concoctions such as raspberry Tabasco - pretty good, would work well with some grilled goat cheese I think.
I had been given a little tip by a native New Orleans resident about this little restaurant called Peche. As it was nearing dinner time (well in Finland the crazy people do eat at 5pm) we decided to head there for some oysters and 5pm happy hour drinks. Boy were we not disappointed - I had a Hemingway cocktail which was a gin based drink with some cucumber and maraschino cherries, very drinkable! Mr A sampled some of the NOLA craft beers and we had half a dozen oysters; smoked tuna dip and crackers; and some hushpuppies. Hushpuppies are a bit like pakoras, chickpea fritters. The tuna dip was outstanding - so good I wanted to lick the bowl (Enzo, please try to remember manners!).
After a full days travelling and eating we were happy to hit the hay nice and early to catch some much needed shut eye..
Sunday, 28 December 2014
Fairytale of New York - 25th Dec 2014
Posting this update a little late, all the eating and travelling got in the way of updating the blog (as did rubbish WiFi)!
Back to Christmas Day, we started the day in style with a stroll in Greenwich Village window shopping - even came across a shop selling puppies that was open! No doubt some spoiled brat would be getting one in their Christmas stocking...
I wanted one!!!
We had a table booked at Garage for a Christmas brunch - surf and turf eggs Benedict and an amuse bouche of of tuna tartar taco. That taco was melt in the mouth as was the "surf" part of the benedict - succulent lobster covered in mouth-watering good hollandaise sauce, served on top of toasted English muffin (the bread kind, not an actual sweet muffin). The yummies were washed down with a couple of mimosas - the US version of bucks fizz. We also had a supercharged bloody mary, life was good :)
After brunch we headed to the Highline in Meatpacking district and strolled through the path and picking up some artsy pieces to take back home - the more kitsch the better!
All that walking made us hungry for some hotdogs (again, I know but they are so delish, so much better than the Esso mega dogs I used to love back in Finland) so the obvious option would be Nathan's in Hells Kitchen. Such a simple delight served with ketchup,mustard and of course with the best of all - gherkin relish!
After refuelling, we continued the tour of Manhattan by checking out the Rockefeller Xmas tree before heading back to the hotel. We may have ended up picking some California rolls and edamame beans on the way back to the hotel as pre dinner snacks (served with some prosecco of course!).
Dinner was booked for 5 Napkins (not quite the Xmas meal, but oh so delish!). We started off with some deep-fried pastrami and pickles, followed by burgers - guacamole and ranch one for me and buffalo chicken for A. My burger was the winning one, devoured in all of 5minutes...as were the crispy fries! After that something sweet, a massive slice of New York cheesecake. A perfect way to round of the meal.
As it was our final night in the Big Apple we went for a stroll in Central Park to walk off the meal - the Trump Ice Rink was heaving with excitable little munchkins taking their first skating lessons.
A great way to end our Xmas fairytale in New York.
Back to Christmas Day, we started the day in style with a stroll in Greenwich Village window shopping - even came across a shop selling puppies that was open! No doubt some spoiled brat would be getting one in their Christmas stocking...
I wanted one!!!
We had a table booked at Garage for a Christmas brunch - surf and turf eggs Benedict and an amuse bouche of of tuna tartar taco. That taco was melt in the mouth as was the "surf" part of the benedict - succulent lobster covered in mouth-watering good hollandaise sauce, served on top of toasted English muffin (the bread kind, not an actual sweet muffin). The yummies were washed down with a couple of mimosas - the US version of bucks fizz. We also had a supercharged bloody mary, life was good :)
After brunch we headed to the Highline in Meatpacking district and strolled through the path and picking up some artsy pieces to take back home - the more kitsch the better!
All that walking made us hungry for some hotdogs (again, I know but they are so delish, so much better than the Esso mega dogs I used to love back in Finland) so the obvious option would be Nathan's in Hells Kitchen. Such a simple delight served with ketchup,mustard and of course with the best of all - gherkin relish!
After refuelling, we continued the tour of Manhattan by checking out the Rockefeller Xmas tree before heading back to the hotel. We may have ended up picking some California rolls and edamame beans on the way back to the hotel as pre dinner snacks (served with some prosecco of course!).
Dinner was booked for 5 Napkins (not quite the Xmas meal, but oh so delish!). We started off with some deep-fried pastrami and pickles, followed by burgers - guacamole and ranch one for me and buffalo chicken for A. My burger was the winning one, devoured in all of 5minutes...as were the crispy fries! After that something sweet, a massive slice of New York cheesecake. A perfect way to round of the meal.
As it was our final night in the Big Apple we went for a stroll in Central Park to walk off the meal - the Trump Ice Rink was heaving with excitable little munchkins taking their first skating lessons.
A great way to end our Xmas fairytale in New York.
Thursday, 25 December 2014
It's raining cats and hotdogs
...it rained and rained all day on Christmas Eve so our lovely plans for an outing in Brooklyn were scrapped and instead we decided to eat and drink through our Xmas Eve in nice and dry conditions.
First we headed to Benefit brow bar for some pampering (for me, as A has never been that keen on cosmetics). After a much needed pampering, it was time for some home comforts so we headed to the Financial District to Fika to enjoy their Christmas Jul Platter - herrings, smoked salmon, mustard sauce, Christmas ham, Jansson's temptation, beetroot salad, red cabbage, and weirdly also some chipolatas and ribs (?? not very Christmassy, but divine though!). Afterwards we ran for cover from the non-stop rain to the nearby Dead Rabbit for an afternoon pint. Stephenweisse for me and Brooklyn Rye Pale Ale for A.
An incredibly comfortable place, warm, dry and sawdust on the floor - could have happily stayed there the whole day but we had a new hotel to check in to and wanted to make it there for the wine hour at 5.
The Roger Hotel was only a short hop in the taxi to Madison Avenue. We were greeted by a very festively decorated lobby and once in the room we had a lovely note and a bottle of bubbly from the hotel - I could get very used to this sort of luxury :).
After the wine hour, we headed off to NoMad near the Flatiron building. I remembered Mario Batali's Eataly was nearby so we decided to drop in for a quick pre-dinner drink. The Birreria was located on the roof top (luckily the roof was covered!) - great selection of beers and snacks. Prosecco for me and an IPA called Gina for A (A strange name for a beer and even stranger it was flavoured with thyme). Next we checked out the Christmas Market at Union Square, followed by a stroll through the streets of Manhattan before finally settling in at Hells Kitchen at Rudy's Grill - a true dive bar NYC style. Cheap pitchers of beer but better yet, the hotdogs were free so we took full advantage of them and scoffed three each..oops! We settled in in one of the red booths and from here we saw Christmas Day in. A merry night with a bunch of random drunkards - great fun! In the early of Christmas Day we staggered out of the bar and straight into a New York yellow cab back to the comfort if our hotel. Happy Christmas!
First we headed to Benefit brow bar for some pampering (for me, as A has never been that keen on cosmetics). After a much needed pampering, it was time for some home comforts so we headed to the Financial District to Fika to enjoy their Christmas Jul Platter - herrings, smoked salmon, mustard sauce, Christmas ham, Jansson's temptation, beetroot salad, red cabbage, and weirdly also some chipolatas and ribs (?? not very Christmassy, but divine though!). Afterwards we ran for cover from the non-stop rain to the nearby Dead Rabbit for an afternoon pint. Stephenweisse for me and Brooklyn Rye Pale Ale for A.
An incredibly comfortable place, warm, dry and sawdust on the floor - could have happily stayed there the whole day but we had a new hotel to check in to and wanted to make it there for the wine hour at 5.
The Roger Hotel was only a short hop in the taxi to Madison Avenue. We were greeted by a very festively decorated lobby and once in the room we had a lovely note and a bottle of bubbly from the hotel - I could get very used to this sort of luxury :).
After the wine hour, we headed off to NoMad near the Flatiron building. I remembered Mario Batali's Eataly was nearby so we decided to drop in for a quick pre-dinner drink. The Birreria was located on the roof top (luckily the roof was covered!) - great selection of beers and snacks. Prosecco for me and an IPA called Gina for A (A strange name for a beer and even stranger it was flavoured with thyme). Next we checked out the Christmas Market at Union Square, followed by a stroll through the streets of Manhattan before finally settling in at Hells Kitchen at Rudy's Grill - a true dive bar NYC style. Cheap pitchers of beer but better yet, the hotdogs were free so we took full advantage of them and scoffed three each..oops! We settled in in one of the red booths and from here we saw Christmas Day in. A merry night with a bunch of random drunkards - great fun! In the early of Christmas Day we staggered out of the bar and straight into a New York yellow cab back to the comfort if our hotel. Happy Christmas!
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
Dial 1 for cocktails
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (well that is if Xmas is very wet and windy instead of snowy and white...).
Back to last night - so we made our way to St Marks Place in Lower East Side and found the Crift Dogs hot dog parlour that was also doubling up as a hidden entrance to a secret cocktail bar. Mr A stepped into the phone booth and dialled 1 - seconds later the wall opened up and we entered the darkly lit "Please Don't Tell" bar. The walls were adorned by taxidermy animals (my fave was the RayBan wearing rabbit head). We took our seats at the bar and ordered a round of cocktails - Mr A had "Tying the sheets' and I opted for the 'Mescalz mule' - both utterly divine and very potent and the Mule had a nice kick of smokey chilli! In fact they were so good we ordered another round, this time choosing a tiki style cocktail 'Pumpkin Pie Tie' and a margarita style 'Pilal al Pastor', with a side order of potato tots that came with gooey melted cheese dip and and jalapenos - scoffed the lot in less than 5 minutes, so good!
Little bit tipsy, we excited the bar via the secret door and back into Crifs hot dog parlour. We couldn't leave without sampling their wares - we ordered the New Jersey hot dog, smothered in chilli, onions and mustard - perfect little snack.
But that's not all - being the pigs we are, we spotted Mr Dumpling across the street and made a beeline for some steaming hot fried pork dumplings - gone in 2 secs!
We then staggered back to the hotel, making one more pit stop to 'abarwhichnamecannotforthelifeofmeremember' where we had one more beer each before heading back to our hotel. All in all an excellent evening.
Now it's Christmas Eve, and we have checked into the Roger Hotel. Mr A is currently sampling the red wine and I'm trying the white one at the very merry wine hour, more updates tomorrow. Merry Christmas all! Hyvää Joulua!
Back to last night - so we made our way to St Marks Place in Lower East Side and found the Crift Dogs hot dog parlour that was also doubling up as a hidden entrance to a secret cocktail bar. Mr A stepped into the phone booth and dialled 1 - seconds later the wall opened up and we entered the darkly lit "Please Don't Tell" bar. The walls were adorned by taxidermy animals (my fave was the RayBan wearing rabbit head). We took our seats at the bar and ordered a round of cocktails - Mr A had "Tying the sheets' and I opted for the 'Mescalz mule' - both utterly divine and very potent and the Mule had a nice kick of smokey chilli! In fact they were so good we ordered another round, this time choosing a tiki style cocktail 'Pumpkin Pie Tie' and a margarita style 'Pilal al Pastor', with a side order of potato tots that came with gooey melted cheese dip and and jalapenos - scoffed the lot in less than 5 minutes, so good!
Little bit tipsy, we excited the bar via the secret door and back into Crifs hot dog parlour. We couldn't leave without sampling their wares - we ordered the New Jersey hot dog, smothered in chilli, onions and mustard - perfect little snack.
But that's not all - being the pigs we are, we spotted Mr Dumpling across the street and made a beeline for some steaming hot fried pork dumplings - gone in 2 secs!
We then staggered back to the hotel, making one more pit stop to 'abarwhichnamecannotforthelifeofmeremember' where we had one more beer each before heading back to our hotel. All in all an excellent evening.
Now it's Christmas Eve, and we have checked into the Roger Hotel. Mr A is currently sampling the red wine and I'm trying the white one at the very merry wine hour, more updates tomorrow. Merry Christmas all! Hyvää Joulua!
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
Breakfast...then Tiffany's!!!
Good morning peeps! So today was our first morning in NYC...beautiful as ever, the high rises disappearing into the thick mist lingering over the NYC skyline. We were back in business, in our favourite city in the world (right on par with good old London town). Before I delve in any deeper into today's shenanigans, here is a quick flashback to to set the scene to our last night's dinner....Back in 2011, myself, Mr A and my friend Veronica found a fantastic Mexican taco place in Nolita called Tacombi, serving mini tacos from the back of an old beaten up VW Beetle. As the place had no licence, we sipped watermelon juice to quench our thirsts. But boy has time improved things - they now have a license, so this time it was tacos with watermelon juice WITH a welcome splash of tequila! Barbacoa, pollo asado, crispy fish, corn & poblano tacos and quesadilla to share. We sampled the 3 lethal sauces on the table - hot, hotter and hot as hell! We were warned about the hot as hell one by the waiter but of course we ignored it - it was hotter than the Chernobyl sauce we had with the chicken wings in Turku (Heidi you know what I'm talking about!).
So now to our first full day in NYC...after our light continental brekkie, we headed off to Tiffany's as A had promised to buy a little Xmas pressie for moi. Can you believe the one thing I actually wanted was sold out!! I must be a trendsetter somewhere in the world...possibly amongst the filthy rich oligarchies?? After leaving empty handed it was time for some "sumppi" so we headed to Fika for some hot chocolate and korvapuusti. Whilst there we spotted their Xmas lunch menu, consisting of the beloved Xmas ham (Sonja & Suvi, you can trust a pig to find one another wherever I am :) so Xmas Eve lunch sorted, excellent! :) Finally after some shopping and sightseeing, it was time to warm up wuth some bloody Mary's (it was cold, so these were medicinal). And the famous NYC happy hour scene to follow - we ended up in an old piano shop sipping some Blue Moon & Brooklyn Lager, with a side order of a Polish sausage pretzel roll with mustard sauce & crispy onions delish! Off to get ready for a night out in 'Please don't tell'... tell you all about it tomorrow ;)
So now to our first full day in NYC...after our light continental brekkie, we headed off to Tiffany's as A had promised to buy a little Xmas pressie for moi. Can you believe the one thing I actually wanted was sold out!! I must be a trendsetter somewhere in the world...possibly amongst the filthy rich oligarchies?? After leaving empty handed it was time for some "sumppi" so we headed to Fika for some hot chocolate and korvapuusti. Whilst there we spotted their Xmas lunch menu, consisting of the beloved Xmas ham (Sonja & Suvi, you can trust a pig to find one another wherever I am :) so Xmas Eve lunch sorted, excellent! :) Finally after some shopping and sightseeing, it was time to warm up wuth some bloody Mary's (it was cold, so these were medicinal). And the famous NYC happy hour scene to follow - we ended up in an old piano shop sipping some Blue Moon & Brooklyn Lager, with a side order of a Polish sausage pretzel roll with mustard sauce & crispy onions delish! Off to get ready for a night out in 'Please don't tell'... tell you all about it tomorrow ;)
Monday, 22 December 2014
From Chinatown to Chinatown
Our last day in Boston circled around beer as the theme of the day. Once again an early start for someone who really does not like getting up early, in fact not waking up at all! Period. I only agreed to the 7am wakeup as the plan was to get to Samuel Adams brewery for the 10am tour.
I still had last night's dinner fresh in my mind - so good were the fresh oysters mignonette; the butter poached lobster brioche rolls; pickled beets and goat cheese salad; smoked sea salt butter and sourdough bread. We had two kinds of oysters - salty and rather big ones from Plymouth and smaller ones from Ikapapu (or something sounding similar?). Oh and we also sampled some local craft beers - A had Harpoon Ipa and I had some wheat beer, similar to Blue Moon (should really try remembering to write things down...or drinking less!).
Before we headed off, we had a surprisingly healthy breakfast - fresh fruit salad, OJ, coffee and rye toasts. Excellent way to start the day. We found the brewery super easy and were excited to sample all the great beers we had already been drinking back in the UK as well as a few new ones. All the beers were good and got better the more we tasted - a great little free tour & sampling, highly recommend! The highlights were Black & Gold and Rebel IPA (well, that was A's favourite, definitely not mine as it tasted way too hoppy).
Lastly we bought some limited edition beer to take with us to NYC - a sour Belgian style wheat beer, highly praised by the hipster tour guide. Will let you know how it turns out.
All that sampling made us famished so we headed to Anna's Taqueria to eat some yummy burtitos - carnitas for A and chipotle chicken & guacamole pour moi.
The burritos gave us the last bit of energy to continue our Boston sightseeing before it was time to jump on the YoBus from Boston Chinatown to NYC Chinatown...perhaps some dumplings might be on the cards for dinner tonight?
I still had last night's dinner fresh in my mind - so good were the fresh oysters mignonette; the butter poached lobster brioche rolls; pickled beets and goat cheese salad; smoked sea salt butter and sourdough bread. We had two kinds of oysters - salty and rather big ones from Plymouth and smaller ones from Ikapapu (or something sounding similar?). Oh and we also sampled some local craft beers - A had Harpoon Ipa and I had some wheat beer, similar to Blue Moon (should really try remembering to write things down...or drinking less!).
Before we headed off, we had a surprisingly healthy breakfast - fresh fruit salad, OJ, coffee and rye toasts. Excellent way to start the day. We found the brewery super easy and were excited to sample all the great beers we had already been drinking back in the UK as well as a few new ones. All the beers were good and got better the more we tasted - a great little free tour & sampling, highly recommend! The highlights were Black & Gold and Rebel IPA (well, that was A's favourite, definitely not mine as it tasted way too hoppy).
Lastly we bought some limited edition beer to take with us to NYC - a sour Belgian style wheat beer, highly praised by the hipster tour guide. Will let you know how it turns out.
All that sampling made us famished so we headed to Anna's Taqueria to eat some yummy burtitos - carnitas for A and chipotle chicken & guacamole pour moi.
The burritos gave us the last bit of energy to continue our Boston sightseeing before it was time to jump on the YoBus from Boston Chinatown to NYC Chinatown...perhaps some dumplings might be on the cards for dinner tonight?
Sunday, 21 December 2014
Lobster rolls and clam chowder in Boston
...so here goes first post at Yummies and Adventures a la Enzo. Today saw an adventure in Boston, the old colonial New England city. Mr A had been going on about Boston for ages and was keen to hit all the sights in one day...I imagined this being a leisurely stroll through the streets of Boston with plenty of pitstops. Well, that's what I thought. Little did I know it would involve 5am wake up and 10mile hike, first to Harvard, then Charlestown, 294 steps up a steep memorial on Bunker Hill (my calves are still trembling!!) and then a nice 3 mile Freedom Trail hike to round it off! We left the wonderful Marlowe hotel in sub zero temperatures, but the early start was made just about bearable due to the free cinnamon roast coffee served at the lobby...
After the mad morning hi(ke)jack, we made it back just in time for breakfast. Coffee, OJ and Sunnyside egg on toast, plus a few sneaky butter & jam toasts for Enzo brought us back to life. This coupled with an hour's kip totally sorted out the jet lagged travellers. A suggested hitting the Cheers bar for a pint of Sam Adams' finest beers and I was instantly in agreement (for once).I ordered a White Christmas special beer which was simply delicious (and very apt considering it had just started snowing rather heavily) - taste sensation with a hint of nutmeg and orange peel, Christmas in a pint!
Afterwards we stumbled to HubPub for some Blue Moon and lobster rolls and clam chowder - simply divine, my new favourite comfort food combo! Back at the Marlowe Hotel, we made it in time for the wine hour to sample a few glasses of white wine, served with a side order of truffle arrancini balls, perfect appetizer for the evening (and almost as good as the ones my friend Sonja makes). Now off to some more yummies at Bambara, will report back tomorrow. Enzo x
After the mad morning hi(ke)jack, we made it back just in time for breakfast. Coffee, OJ and Sunnyside egg on toast, plus a few sneaky butter & jam toasts for Enzo brought us back to life. This coupled with an hour's kip totally sorted out the jet lagged travellers. A suggested hitting the Cheers bar for a pint of Sam Adams' finest beers and I was instantly in agreement (for once).I ordered a White Christmas special beer which was simply delicious (and very apt considering it had just started snowing rather heavily) - taste sensation with a hint of nutmeg and orange peel, Christmas in a pint!
Afterwards we stumbled to HubPub for some Blue Moon and lobster rolls and clam chowder - simply divine, my new favourite comfort food combo! Back at the Marlowe Hotel, we made it in time for the wine hour to sample a few glasses of white wine, served with a side order of truffle arrancini balls, perfect appetizer for the evening (and almost as good as the ones my friend Sonja makes). Now off to some more yummies at Bambara, will report back tomorrow. Enzo x
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