Artisanal Restaurant Review

I woke up Sunday morning in a panic realizing that I only had hours left in New York City and we hadn't settled on a restaurant for brunch yet. In the haze of my hangover I decided that I needed one last great meal before I left the Big Apple. I first tried for reservations at Balthazar so that I could have a few last moments in Soho but silly me, how could I expect Balthazar to have space open on a brisk Sunday morning. The very unkindly lady said she could seat the 4 of us at 3pm for brunch (I had to leave for JFK at 4pm). I then tried to the Central Park Boathouse but amazingly for a New York City restaurant, they didn't take reservations. Last resort, Google. I cross-referenced a few "top brunch spot" lists and came across Artisanal Restaurant in Midtown. I was hesitant to settle on Artisnal since it is afterall in Midtown, the area where mostly tourists and theatre goers dine because they have nowhere else to go. On top of that they easily gave me a reservation for 4 at 1:30pm, no questions asked. But the chef sounded promising and who could say no to a restaurant centered around cheese.

We arrived a bit early and had ample space to wait at the bar. Near enough to 1:30pm we were seated into a tight space where I felt like I was dining with the family seated next to us. This was definitely the Park Avenue Sunday brunch crowd so again I was nervous this restaurant would be more about the "cheddar" than the cheddar. One look at the menu though and I was hooked. First of all it was no question that I would have the artisanal cheese fondue as my main so it took some arm-twisting to settle on a starter. It came down to a choice between the gougeres and the beignets. With my savory cheesy main, the waiter suggested the beignets ($12.50) that didn't dissapoint. They were perfectly bite-sized pillows dusted in cinnamon and sugar. They came out piping hot freshly fried as they always should be.

My fondue ($24.00 for 2) made from a blend of artisanal cheeses followed shortly. I wished I'd asked what the blend was exactly because it was a great balance of sharp flavors and luscious melted goodness. One knock against the fondue was they were out of the kielbasa so we were left to dip crudites, bread, and apples slices ($8 for dippers). We also ordered egg with the fondue which used a preparation I'd never heard of or seen before but supposedly it was traditional. Once we hit the bottom of the fondue pot, the waiter came and cracked a raw egg into the still warm enamled cast-iron bottom. He let the egg sit and once cooked, scraped up all the cheesy bits with egg. It was unusual but oh so good. My companions also had the eggs benedict ($14.50) which looked scrumptuous but I can't comment since I didn't try any and the egg frites ($16.50). If I get a chance to go back I will definitely be having the eggs frites. It was two eggs cooked over easy placed on a bed of crispy garlicy french fries. So pungent and delicious! The french fries were especially good dipped into the cheese fondue.

I wish I'd had room for more cheese after the fondue but we moved on to sweets instead. How could we not follow the cheese fondue with chocolate fondue ($24.50 for 2)? As unfashionable as fondue might be, I can't but enjoy dipping bits of fruit, cake, biscuits, and marshmallows into melted chocolate. The chocolate fondue did have a strong liquer that I didn't care for and would ask them to leave out next time. We also ordered profiteroles ($11.50) which always good but typically not impressive. These profiteroles did leave an impression though with the use of a very good quality pistachio ice cream instead of the traditional vanilla. In the end we someone managed to log over 3 hours just for brunch.

The Damage

Food $130.75

Liquor $44.50 (what is brunch without mimosas and bellinis?)

Tax $14.68

Service $30

Total $219.93 for 4 people

Overall rating

(3.5 out of 5 tube stops)

Ambience: Walking in I was reminded of Bouchon which reminds me of any typical Parisian style bistro. Straw charis, round cafe tables, and wood and zinc bar. As mentioned the tables were a bit tight but the restaurant benefited from high-ceilings making the space feel open in general. The restaurant can get noisy at times since likely seats ~100 diners. This is not a restaruant for a quiet romantic dinner.

Drinks: 3 of us had the strawberry-rhubard sunrise and 1 had a mimosa. You can probably guess that the sunrise was a mix of a strawberry-rhubard puree with Champagne. It was a good quality Champange though that subtly dry and refreshing.

Price Range: £££ (out of ££££)

A bit pricey for brunch but we were well hungover and splurging.

Reservations: As mentioned I had no issues getting a table for brunch at 1:30pm for 4 people. There is ample seating so I can't imagine not getting in at a reasonable time unless pre-theatre dinner time on a Friday or Saturday night.

Taking a Small Bite Out of the Big Apple

I just returned from an extended weekend in New York City with my really great girlfriends Brit and Karen. I always have a great time with these girls and they are such inspirations to me. Very cool chicks indeed and always great hostesses. NYC is also a city that I LOVE LOVE LOVE so I've never not had a fantastic time there.

This trip though we had the special addition of my friend Grant who also happened to be in NYC at the same for business. Having Grant along meant that I could indulge in some "less-girly" activities, namely attending the New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins hockey game at Madison Square Garden. I was really looking forward to this since 1) I haven't seen a hockey game in ages and 2) I've always wanted to attend an event at MSG. Although I had no allegiance to either team I had to root for the Rangers since Grant was rooting for the Bruins (clad in Boston Bruins jersey all the way from London). The Rangers played an appaling 46 mintues of hockey where they were actually starting to get booed by their own fans. With a bit over 6 minutes left in the game, the Rangers finally scored their first goal of the game to put them 1-2 against the Bruins. I was holding my head down in shame expecting Grant to gloat when in the last 53 seconds of regulation time the Rangers' Markus Naslund scored a second goal forcing the game into overtime. After 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime the game was still tied 2-2 leading to 4 shootout rounds which finally ended with the Rangers' captain Chris Drury scoring the game winning goal. Admittedly if you look overall at how well the game was played, the Bruins should have taken home the win but no, my team for the day WON!

Aside from the highlight of the hockey game, the weekend mainly consisted of tons of eating, boozing, shopping, and hanging out. To give you an idea of the magnitude of our gluttony, Saturday morning we had pastrami sandwiches and cupcakes delivered to the flat right before heading out to brunch. And nothing tastes better at 4am than our traditional slice of pizza at Rosario's in the Lower East Side. Another notable restaurants included August Restaurant (a brunch must of ours), Les Halles (associated with Anthony Bourdain before he became a roaming TV chef), and Artisanal (which surprised and impressed me so much it will get it's own post).

Unfortunately my trip concluded with a 4-hour delay on my already taxing redeye back to London but I'm chosing to remember the good times and will do whatever is in my power to never fly American again.

It's Ccccccold!

My friends in California will call me and say that it's a chilly 70F (21C) this time of year and that it was so cold they had to put on a sweater. Well after a few weeks of lovely autumn weather (crisp and dry, but not cold) in October, winter has descended upon London. During my commute home last night I was treated to a torrential downpour that was followed by sleet and finally by snow. The headlines today read "Snow fell in London last night for the first time in October since 1934." I feel sorry for the poor trick-or-treaters this Friday,especially the naughty nurses and French maids.

This morning I headed out to my car to find this:

And the dashboard read an outside temperate of:

That's 32.9F! I'm going back under the covers.

Go Back to Bed

I'm all for a nice long lie in on a Saturday/Sunday morning but when I've got plans on the weekend to meet up with friends, go shopping, run errands, etc. I like to get up early and be out of the flat by 9am or 10am. But then comes the most dreaded time of day for me, half eleven (a.ka. 11:30 am). Before half eleven London is clean, fresh, and quiet. The street cleaners are finishing their morning work and the city is just waking up. I pick up my skinny cappuccino without fear of a queue and I breeze in and out of stores with all the changing rooms completely empty. London is all mine. Then comes half eleven when the party-goers start to shake off their hang overs and the tourists are turned out of their hotel rooms. They crowd the streets and squares and just stand around blocking busy thoroughfares not knowing which way to go. By 1pm my quiet little town is a cluster f*** of chaos. So all I ask is that you go back to bed.

Living the Dream

When I moved to Europe, I had a few things on my to-do list that were just too difficult to achieve before when I was just a tourist visiting each city for a day or two here and there. I have a somewhat complete list below of the things I set out to do below but the one thing that I was really looking forward to happened on Saturday. After over a year of living in Europe I was finally able to attend a hands-on cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Knowing that I would need to be in the Paris office last week, I searched Le Cordon Bleu's website for weeks to try and find a class that would fit the timing. I was finally able to enroll in the Autumn Cakes and Pastry course that would be on the Saturday following my business trip. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the course but I was excited to know that I would be learning from an esteemed French chef. In addition to the course I would also be able to walk the halls that Julia Child, Dione Lucas, and other great chefs/cooks once graced. For all the male cooks out there, Le Cordon Bleu is also where Giada de Laurentiis studied although I couldn't find anything in the curriculum about low-cut tops and big smiles.

The course started promplty at 9am after some coffee and croissants. We were given a few pages with a list of ingredients for the two cakes we would make but no instructions. A few students were looking for the cooking instructions but it was explained to us that at Le Cordon Bleu they teach you to use your 5 senses and that you would learn better by doing and taking your own notes. Everything was pre-measured so after a quick demonstration by the chef, we jumped right in. I worked with Sue from Australia on a few of the steps since certain items were easier to make in double vs. single batches. Like Sue, many of the students were visiting from far away places like Brazil, China, and Chicago and had given up a day of sightseeing or being with friends to take the course. The cakes that we made were much more intricate and delicate than everything I had made before so I was glad I was in an environment where I could mess up and learn from it. Sue and I turned out to be quite natural though and the course just flew by. When the class ended at 3pm, I could scarcely believe we had been there are all day and made two cakes along with some sables (shortbread). I would love to take another course at Le Cordon Bleu as I have so much more to learn and it was such a joy to be in a professional kitchen. There is something very clinical and orderly about a professional kitchen that just gives me the reassurance that things should work out well and you have full control over your destiny.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera (if you can believe it) but hopefully Sue will be able to send me her's when she returns to Australia so that you can see my masterpieces.

Completed	To Do	Unexpected Bonus
Dine at a 3-star Michelin restaurant	Get reservations at El Bulli (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!!)	Walk in Jesus' footsteps in Jerusalem
Drive "balls out" (excuse my language) on the autobahn	Drive on the Nurburgring	Go on safari in South Africa (and live to tell about it)
Wander around a farmers market in Paris	Run with bulls in Pamplona	Drink South African wine while overlooking the lucious Stellenbosch area
Visit an Eastern European city	Get hit with a tomato at La Tomatina	Many times eat in Paris until I was sick because it was just that good
Take the Eurostar from London to Paris	Visit the newly reopened BMW Museum in Munich	Experience Barack Obama giving a triumphant speech in Berlin
Experience an opera at Teatro alla Scala	Attend an Audi driver's day	Meet and actually speak to Christiane Amanpour
Experience an opera at the Royal Opera House	Lay on the beach in Greece	Experience World Cup fever in Paris
Try the local cuisine every place I visit	Go truffle hunting	Attend a race at Ascot
Watch the sun set over the Seine	Drive a supercar on a Formula 1 race track	Eat the freshest seafood and tomatoes while sunning myself in Provence
Ski/snowboard anywhere in Europe and live to tell about it	Meet a strikingly handsome and caring heir to some megafortune (now that I'm 30 my chances are dwindling)	Meeting some great people who have helped me adjust and make London feel a bit more like home
Go to Oktoberfest and live to tell about	Drive the adoption of Altera's low-cost products throughout Europe (had to throw that in here for the Alterans)
See the remains of the Berlin Wall
Visit the Audi factory and Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt
Drink Guinness straight from the source
Get lost at the Notting Hill Carnival
Go to a concert in a London park
Sit in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens all day long
Take a class at Le Cordon Bleu

Mission: Figs

You can call me anal retentive, obsessive compulsive, or a control freak but I am an organized traveler. My friends laugh at the spreadsheets I compile that include hotel reservations, flight and other transportation details, restaurant bookings, organized tours, contact details, and etc. all organized by date, location, time and whatever else I can fit into a pivot table. Knowing that this is truly who I am, I have no idea how my flatmate Erin convinced me to go on a "by the seat of your pants" trip to Montenegro.

Erin is a citizen of the world who is used to roughing it without housekeeping, room service, or even indoor plumbing. It also helps that she's a flight attendant so she can hop on a plane to anywhere at anytime. To continue the birthday month celebrations (her's and mine) we opened up a map and looked for a spot that offered warm weather, would be fairly easy to get to, allow us to sit by the beach/pool all day, and would be a new place to experience on a low budget. We determined Herceg Novi, Montenegro would be it. I was really excited about this choice since I haven't been able to get to Eastern Europe since I moved so this would be a completely new experience. Montenegro is located in the south of the Adriatic Sea and is part of the former Yugoslavia. It is borded by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania.

Many parts of Eastern Europe have not advanced very far since they were pilaged by war after war so getting to Montenegro proved more difficult that I expected. I flew from London to Vienna, Vienna to Dubrovnik, and then took an hour bus ride from Dubrovnik to Herceg Novi. All the while I didn't know exactly when and how often the bus ran, where I would sleep, or where eventually I would meet Erin. Somehow everything worked out and when my bus turned into the Herceg Novi bus station, Erin was sitting there waiting for me. I should admit that I was a total wimp compared to Erin who flew from London to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Belgrade, a ten-hour overnight train ride from Belgrade to Podgorica with loud obnoxious boys, and a three-hour bus ride from Padgorica to Herceg Novi. Along the way she slept in a park and rented a room in a stranger's house.

Montenegro was definitely worth the trek though. It's toursim industry is just built up enough to provide some local activities but hasn't been completely spoilt by travelers from the United States, England, Germany or other western countries expecting to see fish and chips and sausage on the local menus. The locals were actually quite surprised to see a couple American girls running around since mainly the country is visited by tourists from Russia. The yet to happen influx of western tourists has also managed to keep prices quite low with cocktails ranging around 2-3 Euros. We were actually able to take an eight-hour boat trip that included lunch and two siteseeing stops for only 20 Euros. In Italy or France it would have easily cost 80-100 Euros.

We only had a few days but we made the most of our time before being caught in a torrential monsoon at the end. On this trip Erin discovered the taste of fresh figs in the local market for the first time. So when we stopped in the town of Dobrota on our boat tour and happened to spot some fig trees, we knew what we had to do. It was Mission: Figs (excuse the pun). I would spot out the figs in the trees and Erin would climb them like a monkey to secure our prize. It was pretty hilarious except for the fact that we were likely stealing figs from the consecrated grounds of a monastery. We didn't feel so bad later when two Russian women from our boat trip saw our feast and revealed the mandarins they had picked from some trees behind us.

Three Decades Older but None the Wiser

Last week I turned 30. Yes folks, I admitted to turning 30. It wasn't quite as painful or tragic as I expected. On the actual day it sort of just came and went. Leading up to it though was quite an experience. Awhile ago I decided that I wanted to celebrate my "dirty 30" surrounded by my closest friends. Not a wild and crazy party, but just a get together somewhere fun, interesting, and relaxing. I wanted to rent a house with a swimming pool and hot tub in a warm climate. I also wanted somewhere that could accommodate a large group of people with an open kitchen for cooking and hanging out. Finding a house that met this description wasn't so difficult, it was the city that I struggled with. I started out looking for houses in the Hamptons but didn't have much luck finding decent houses under $10,000 for Labor Day Weekend. The Hamptons/New York City would also be challenging to travel to for just a long weekend. It would also likely mean that I would neither have the time nor the energy to see my friends and family in the San Francisco Bay Area afterwards. Then my thoughts drifted closer to London with the options of a house in Greece, Tuscany, or the South of France. Obviously all of these choices would be even more difficult for my friends in the San Francisco Bay Area to join me especially since a few had already visited me in January.

After some more thought and discussion, Sedona, AZ dawned on me. I'd always heard great things about this area with it's red rock landscape and tranquil relaxing setting. Between work stress, family woes, boyfriend/husband/lack-there-of struggles we all needed a place where we could relax, do nothing, and not feel guilty about it. Sedona provided the perfect setting to get away from everything and hide out for a few quiet days. It is only a two-hour drive from Phoenix airport and flying to Phoenix is relatively inexpensive from any destination in the US. At first people said I should go wherever I wanted to regardless of how hard it would be for others to come. But in the end I decided that I've traveled to so many places already, I really just wanted to be with my friends and my sister.

I got on the internet immediately to start scouting for houses and I found this reasonably priced gem on the west side of the city. It offered a huge pool, large hot tub, sleeping room for 12, jaccuzzi, 2.5 acres of land to make all the noise we wanted, but most importantly, this view:

From Sedona_30th_Bday_2008_Day1

After securing the house I looked up a few things to do in Sedona and two things came up consistently, the Pink Jeep Tour Company and spa treatments. So I booked us in for a wild ride on the Broken Arrow Trail followed by a relaxing afternoon of facials, massages, and pedicures the next day. After the rough and tumble bumpy ride with 50 degree decents, we needed the massages. I didn't want to have too many scheduled activities since this was meant to be entirely relaxation time so I left the rest of the time open. We ended up spending lots of time by the pool and in the hot tub (I have the tan lines to prove it). The first night we sat out in the hot tub after dinner and just looked at the stars. It was amazing to see the Milky Way and shooting stars all around us. Also, I quickly found out that when you're in a house with 9 girls/women (nearly all of whom can cook) you spend a lot of time eating. Some people were up at 5:30am making breakfast! My great friends Maggs and Bernice were also able to supply enough wine and spirits to make sure we were never thirsty either.

I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday celebration. I was surrounded by people I care about and who also care about me. We had tons of laughs and created cherished memories. Just for that, I'd turn 30 all over again.

I know there are a lot of pictures, but with at least 5 cameras snapping away at once, what else would you expect?

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Side note:

I created this blog to keep my family and friends up-to-date on my activities abroad and never expected anyone outside of my circle to be interested in it. I just recently found out though that Kathy of "Have Suitcase - Will Travel" recommended my blog during Blog Day 2008. That's really cool! Kathy is a transplant from England to California (my opposite twin) so check out her blog if you get a chance.