Home, again

So, here it is four months after my last post, Yikes.

We're back home in Florida to spend time with The. Mrs. family. Her sister is in town from Moscow, so we made the sojourn down to see her. As always there is an ulterior motive to these trips, namely alcohol and food. This means that in the two full days that we've been here we have already visited the local brewery for a couple of pints and hit the liquor store pretty hard, picking up a bottle of Willet Rye, Deaths Door Gin and a bunch of beer we can't get in NC. This is probably the first trip of two to a liquor store while we're here. Tonight we will further our booze fueled adventures with a trip to Ft.Lauderdale's Mai Kai, the last of the original 50's TiKi bars in S.Florida. It really looks promising. Full details tomorrow.

Our other vice being food, and having in our midst's a vegetarian, last night we made our way down to Sublime. Sublime is a full vegan restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale that uses some of it's proceeds to support animal rights groups. Now, as anyone knows, this is not really high on my list of things of importance, but I do like a good meal. SO, if the food is good and it supports a god cause, win-win. I am happy to report, this is indeed a true win. The food was excellent, the service was spot on and the setting was just right.

I was a little concerned when we pulled up, since the restaurant is the size of a strip mall, in which a restaurant like this would normally be housed in a small corner on the dark end of the parking lot. Inside it is a cavernous space that immediately reminded me of an all you can eat Chinese restaurant circa 1991; all earth tones and pastel lighting.

The bar menu was short, but took advantage of the tropical location, and included fresh juices and fruit. Unfortunately, almost every drink name ended in -tini or -jito, but, whatever. The Mrs. had a Tangjito, which I'm sure you can guess, is Tangerine with white rum and vegetation. I had a glass of red wine. There were also a couple glasses of beer and, by all accounts, a very tasty traditional Mojito.

To start, we ordered a plate of Broccimole, which was basically a white bean dip with broccoli and avocado incorporated into it. It sounded better than it actually ended up being but was still quite tasty. We also ordered Frito Misto, which was a plate of, what can only be described as, sweet and sour cauliflower. Fried hunks of cauliflower in sweet and sour sauce. It was absolutely amazing. We also had an amuse bouche of pesto polenta cake brought to the table, very tasty.

For the main coarse, I had a dish called Singapore street noodle, which was cellophane noodles with veggies in the sweet and sour sauce. The Mrs. and her mother each got the mushroom ravioli, Mrs.'s father got a veggie cutlet picatta and Mrs. Moscow got a "Rueben". We all cleaned our plates, and each others plates, as food flew around the booth like like planes in a busy airport. The winner, hands down though, was the Reuben. I'm not sure how anything that doesn't include animal products is that rich or succulent but, damn if it wasn't. When the waitress came back with a dessert menu, I stayed above the fray, content in my ability to enjoy whatever ended up on the table. A slice of key lime "cheese"cake was decided on and when it arrived, we all marveled, again, that it was dairy free. They are either lying or using black magic in that kitchen.

While it was not an inexpensive meal, it was not unreasonable, and completely satisfying. I hope the Mai Kai can hold it's own.

Sublime - (Ft. Lauderdale) website -http://sublimerestaurant.com/

Oh dear, where has the time gone

SO, it has been almost a year since my last confession, er, I mean post. Honestly not much happened last year. Work, work and other stuff.

But, I find myself at the beginning of another adventure and a renewed conviction to my writing, seeing as I have something to bore you with again. The Mrs. and I are in the beginning stages of planning a trip that I have been excited about since the mere mention of it's possibility and babbling on about to anyone who would listen. A trip to Russia.

Now, I have no real love or devotion to the country but when my sister-in-law and her awesome husband found themselves contemplating a move there; I, selfishly, first thought of how great it would be to be able to visit. How often do you get that opportunity? And now, it's go time.

We are planning a winter visit to be in St.Petersburg around Christmas and Moscow for New Years. I'm sure it will be a great adventure just navigating the Visa process. I have already picked up some guides and found some great resources. It may seem early to be planning trip 10 months away but I'm to excited to wait. If you would like to learn more about living in Russia you can follow my sister-in-law here.

In other news I am in the midst of my annual detox that coincides with Lent but has no religious meaning. I just need to give my liver a break. For this reason we call it Lint in our house. The prohibition will be lifted on Easter Sunday with an orgy of alcohol, food and friendship where everyone keeps their pants on.

A Sia Saide

Gin and Tonic Brunch

As I may have mentioned before, The Mrs' drink of choice is Gin, so, naturally, we own quite a few bottles. 12 true gins to be exact and this does not include the Old Toms and Genevers or Dogfish head, which we served, but is pretty bad. Most of our friends don't really give this fine spirit any thought as they are whiskey drinkers. To change this, we decided to invite some friends over for an Easter brunch that ran on Gin.

We set out the Gins (There will be a list at the bottom of this post) with two homemeade tonics, one a traditional bitter tonic and the other a lighter citrusy recipe, along with five storeboughts (Canada Dry, Seagrams, Q, Hansens, and Polar). We also had on hand a large quantity of citrus and some bitters for those who felt like experimenting. We put out small 4oz juice glasses and everyone made half drinks for themselves. This was perfect, everyone got to try a bunch of combinations without getting throughly wasted. It made a great way to try different combinations side by side to see how different tonics brought out different notes in a particular gin and vice versa. Being that our theme was gin and it was Easter I started the day with a Corpse Reviver #2 . To add to the alcohol Mr. and Mrs. Guitar brought mimosas.

The food had no particular theme. We served Fruit skewers that had every color of the rainbow, Cinnamon rolls with and without bacon inside, individual Farm fresh asparagus quiches cooked in ham cups, and Sweet potato and "Soyrizo" Latkes. In addition Mr. Chelsea and family brought Orange-Cranberry Muffins and Mr. and Mrs. Bee brought Salmon Bites. We had also planned for a Cheese plate that never got served and Absurdly Addictive Asparagus which we ended up having for dinner the next night.

All together there were 14 adults and one baby. We didn't manage to knock off a single bottle, but made a healthy dent in almost all of them. I can't wait to see everyone again.

The Gins-

Beefeater

Beefeater 24

Beefeater Summer

Bluecoat

Boodles

Citadel

Cardinal Gin

Dogfish head

G-Vine

Junipero

Old Raj

Plymouth

Whitley Neill

A Sia Saide

Where does the time go

Recently my laptop was stolen so I have that excuse for not posting as well as my work schedule being quite busy. Below is a quick round up of some of the new places we have checked out recently.

First was a trip with some friends of The Mrs. to Vida, a Mexican place in the Epicenter. We stopped in before going to see Spring Awakening at the Belk Theater. Which meant the location was good. Pretty much everything else was not. There were six of us in a relatively empty restaurant, whose claim to fame is over one hundred tequilas and sadly I am not drinking at the moment. The menu was exactly what you would expect from an upscale mexican-american place, also slightly overpriced due to location. With an execution on par with a Fridays, it wasn't great but it also wasn't going to offend anyone. There was a mix up on one order, which was taken off the bill, nice, but the missing item was brought out as we were ready for dessert, less nice. Then toward the end, our server tried chatting us up to make up and save her tip. She should have just kept her mouth shut. All in all, I would not recommend unless you are going for tequila. However, I enjoyed Spring Awakening more the second time.

Next we met the Whiskeys' for dinner at The Diamond, in Plaza-Midwood. The Diamond was an old time meat and three diner that was purchased by the former proprietors of The Penguin, who basically moved the Penguin lock stock and barrel down the block, with a new name and larger menu. It's hard to gauge right now since it is a zoo and getting a table in nearly impossible. The food was fine. I had a sloppy joe and the Mrs. a burger. It's all a little "hipper than thou" for me but, whatever.

Third on our tour of food is another place run by a former Penguin business associate, Pinky's. Opened in a former auto repair shop, on the westside, it's less pretentious than The Diamond. But, we were there early so who knows. They do have some parking issues, so be prepared. We started with an order of waffle fries smothered in melty pimento cheese, heaven. I got a fried bologna sandwich with red potato salad, both very tasty, while The Mrs. opted for burger and some sweet 'tater fries. I am so happy the world has figured out that these need to be battered to get crispy. We couldn't even finish after the basket of waffle fries. So we rolled ourselves to the car and headed home.

Finally last night, again with The Whiskeys', we finally had a reason to go to Villa Francesca. We were going to see The Princess Bride as a stage production performed at The Breakfast Club, an eighties themed night club a block down the street. When doing anything in downtown Charlotte you should always check the arena schedule, we did not, so parking was a bit of a thing. Oh well. It could have been worse. Anyway, Villa Francesca is an Italian-American place run by Yankee fans, I will forgive them. The menu hits all the highlights and adds a couple of twists. We got there before the pre-game crowd but it was full by the time we left. My veal parmigiana was excellent as was the Mrs. pasta. Both of the Whiskeys got eggplant dishes that looked great. Thin sliced eggplant, not that thick stuff you usually get that is either not cooked all the way or the outside is almost burnt. The prices were reasonable. And the staff was friendly and attentive even as it got busier. The play afterward was a lot of fun, just plain silly, I needed silly, we could all use more silly in our lives.

A Sia Saide

Kevin

Travels in the near abroad, part 1

A couple of weekends ago I got roped into a trip to Concord Mills Mall by The Mrs. As we meandered around, and I began to loose interest, my attention turned to the important things in life. This, as is always the case, meant lunch. I decided to completely dismiss all of the chain crap in the general vicinity right off the bat. This lead me to my phone, and the Urbanspoon App. With a couple of tweaks, and a few rolls of the dials, I landed on Emma's Carolina Cuisine and Spirits in downtown Concord. I have only visited downtown Concord a couple of times before and had never really had the chance to explore. So when The Mrs. was finally done shopping I explained my plan. With no resistance we headed toward Emma's. We got into town and parked, then made our way up to the restaurant making notes of what to check out when we were done. Number one on the list was what we thought was a Cuban Bakery, more on that in a second. We found our way to the restaurant and had a seat. The decor has a bit of a local "Fridays" feel with chotchkies and local newspaper clippings on the walls. The servers are all southern women who talk to everyone as if they were a regular and, judging from the conversations, most were. I had a fairly good fried pork sandwich with sweet potato fries. While The Mrs. went for the Ruben also accompanied with sweet potato fries. The fries were great. I inquired about the spirits in the name and was pointed to the bar hiding in another corner of the restaurant. I was sad that, that was all it was, but not near as sad as I was when I saw the bar while paying our tab. It's not very often you see a bar with nothing displayed, in what I will admit was a nice little bar, but Aristocrat products and a bottle of Tia Maria. It was a little disconcerting.

The first stop after Emmas was the Cuban bakery, which turned out to be a full fledged restaurant; Havana Carolina. Damn the luck. It is a cute little place with a few tables and all the feel of anything you would find back home. Most amazingly was the inclusion of a Mamey smoothie on the menu. We ordered one and then saw Cuban bread to go and topped it all off a couple of croquettes for the road. How could we resist?

Last stop in Concord was Lil' Roberts Place, a bar with a beer store in the front window. It was not earth shattering but a nice selection for a little place. I picked up a bottle of Mad Rivers barleywine and a Duck Rabbit wee heavy.

I'm not sure how often we will be making the trip to Concord but it made for a nice day and if we do make it back, there will definitely be a stop at Havana Carolina.

Final thoughts on Amsterdam

Now that I have had time to think about our last trip, and let it sink in that it will probably be a very long time before I see Amsterdam again, I have a few thoughts and experiences to share. Having been twice in one year is obviously a luxury we will long cherish and gives me a great opportunity to make observations I would not normally have the ability to.

I must admit, that even though the weather was less than welcoming, I much preferred our second visit. Perhaps it was the familiarity with the city gained from our first trip, or the Christmas spirit. But, I'm pretty sure it was the lack of other tourists. The Mrs. pointed out the other day that we did hear more american accents more this trip. I'm not sure if we actually encountered more Americans or just heard more, due to the lack of maximum occupancy in every place we went. Mind you, it was still quite busy, but not the total chaos seen during the spring. I, really, can not even imagine being there at the height of tourist season. With one exception, the service at restaurants was better. Though, with the bar set so low from our previous experience and the reputation the city has hard earned for server apathy, we had no where to go but up. The one thing missing, however, was the great throngs of people sitting at the cafe tables that spill out onto the sidewalks, streets and alleyways from every brown and eetcafe that has at least 1 sq. ft in front of it. These seas of tables and chairs come together in a way that sometimes you don't even know which establishment you are patronizing. This constant buzz from late morning late into the evening gives the city a great sense of vibrancy, that was a little lacking in the winter. On the upside the crowds at the museums were much more manageable. This time through the Rijksmuseum was more like a cultural experience and less like lambs being lead to slaughter. The highlight was the ten uninterrupted minutes with Rembrandts "Night Watch". Just us, a guard, and a painting the size of my house. on side note; upon our arrival home we watched "Rembrandt's j'accuse" an interesting look at the conspiracy theory behind the painting.

Genever, the real reason we have gone to Amsterdam twice. This trip, we not only visited our favorite 400 Sq. Ft. on the planet, we also found time to try our luck at "de drie fleschjes", which was formally the tasting room for Bootz, until their takeover by Bols. It is now a Bols tasting room with more charm and less glits, also no entrance fee, than the Bols Experience across town. I had the one drink I had been eager to try, the 6 year korenwijn, which did not disappoint. The thing I love about Jenever is that it is refreshing in the summer and warming in the belly in the winter. It is truly a magical potion. The other tasting room in Amsterdam was a sad and sorted tale. The Admiraal tasting room is the tasting room and Belgian influenced restaurant for the A van Wees Co.. Our first try found them closed due to the 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. A condition for which the Dutch find themselves quite unprepared for. Our second attempt we peered into the window to see an empty space with one bartender cleaning glasses. and a menu hanging on the wall next to the door that was not particularly inviting. Sadly, we did not brave the empty restaurant. So we headed toward our first visit to the previously mentioned, although not by name Wynand Fockink. Truly, my favorite place in all the universe. Which actually brings us to our other visit to Wynand Fockink.

The day before we were heading out of town we needed to pick up some gifts and things so we headed over to the bar to pick up some bottles for others as well as some for ourselves. While making our purchase, the bartender mentioned that the distillery was open for tours next door. "Oh really", we said; And they were doing tastings of the seasonal Christmas tipple, an orange and spice liqueur called Kerst Borrel. The distillery is half kitchen half mad scientist lab with jars of dry ingredients and tinctures lining the walls and barrels with various concoctions aging happily away. The whole distillery was, maybe, eight hundred square feet, including the gift shop area.

Other highlights included a trip to The Hermitage - Amsterdam and The Dutch Resistance Museum. Both nearly empty of people but full of enlightenment. Another day was spent in the city of Gouda for their tree lighting ceremony.

And that was that, mostly we ate fried bar food and pea soup and drank local beer. I will be doing a separate post about beer, just because I feel it needs some quality time devoted to it and I'm sure you're sick of reading by now.

But to wrap up the whole adventure, my suggestion to anyone contemplating a trip themselves, if you want to do the museums and spend a more leisurely trip, and don't mind the cold; go in the winter. If you don't mind huge crowds and love to people watch then spring/summer are fine. As for lodging we opted for an apartment rental, this trip, which was definitely the way to go. Having the ability to reheat leftovers is a big advantage. I can't wait to go back, but like I said, it'll be awhile.

A Sia Saide

New in NoDa

NoDa finally welcomes the long anticipated Jack Beagles. By long anticipated, we are talking two plus years they have been working on this place. I'm not sure it was totally worth the wait. But it is a pretty tasty place to stop by. The Mrs. and I have now been there twice and I feel like I have a pretty good feel for what they are going for. Jack Beagles is basically, a slightly upscale, dive bar, emphasis on the slightly. It is small, seating is 6 tables and the bar holds a dozen or so people, and friendly. The menu is currently appetizers, burgers, cheesesteaks and fried hot dogs. We were told they would be rolling out more items like salads in the coming weeks. I want to start by saying I love their fries. The best description is the one from our waiter the first time we went, "Ruffles on steroids", pretty much says it. The first visit we made was kind of on a whim and neither of us was starving, but they were open and I can always eat. We had some cheese bread to start and I ended up getting a burger. It was the Gunslinger which is a beef patty with hummus and pepper jack cheese. It was cooked as asked for and I liked the textures. The beer selection is solid, mostly craft bottles and some cheap american swill, the half dozen taps are outfitted with an array of quality craft brews. I had some Allagash Cruieux and The Mrs. had a Breckenridge Vanilla Porter. Second visit was a dinner that ended up as a double date with a band mate and his wife who happened to be there when we showed up, I love my neighborhood. We started with some buried treasure fries, which are a do it yourself cheese fry thing. You pick from a list of stuff you want and they throw it all over fries. We ordered ours with gravy, onions, and mozzarella, trying to recreate a sense of poutine. Unfortunately with a new restaurant comes some growing pains and our server informed us he accidentally added chili. He was more than willing to have it remade but we were more than willing to eat it with chili. He gave them to us half off so all was forgiven. Main coarse for me was an Italian sausage deep fried into submission and topped with the usual suspects. The Mrs. had a competently made and cooked to order blue cheese burger. The atmosphere is laid back and they are just figuring out who they are. Which in a place like that is usually determined by who decides to take up residency at the bar. The service was friendly and, more important in NoDa, fast. But that is fast on the NoDa scale, which generally falls somewhere between slow and did you have to grow the grain for the bread before you made it to put my sandwich on. But, Jack Beagles is definitely a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Next time your in the neighborhood give it a shot and don't forget to call me.

Jack Beagles - 3213 N. Davidson St. - NoDa

A Sia Saide