In the search for Mexican

Tags

city, nightime, postaday2015

   
 
I speedily took these pictures Thursday night when I was in the city with my mother and her best friend. We were searching for a quiet Mexican restaurant, something not as easy as one would think to find, most Mexican restaurants in the area were packed and blasting music, two things that made those restaurants off limits for us, loud music is a mood killer not just for my mother but for me as well. I am a stick in the mud for certain things, loud music in a restaurant is a concrete deal breaker for me.

  
We eventually found a quiet Mexican place, it primarily served as a takeout place, but it had tables and chairs and a menu so we gave it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised, I had a fajitta quesadilla, it was excellent, the tortillas were perfectly grilled and it was chock full of onions, peppers, shredded cheese and chorizos, I shared it with my mother and her friend, they had tacos, and we devoured everything we had ordered.

We may not have eaten where we had initially planned, but we kept our minds open to other posssibilities and we found something really great.

Tags

city, nightime, postaday2015

   
 
I speedily took these pictures Thursday night when I was in the city with my mother and her best friend. We were searching for a quiet Mexican restaurant, something not as easy as one would think to find, most Mexican restaurants in the area were packed and blasting music, two things that made those restaurants off limits for us, loud music is a mood killer not just for my mother but for me as well. I am a stick in the mud for certain things, loud music in a restaurant is a concrete deal breaker for me.

  
We eventually found a quiet Mexican place, it primarily served as a takeout place, but it had tables and chairs and a menu so we gave it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised, I had a fajitta quesadilla, it was excellent, the tortillas were perfectly grilled and it was chock full of onions, peppers, shredded cheese and chorizos, I shared it with my mother and her friend, they had tacos, and we devoured everything we had ordered.

We may not have eaten where we had initially planned, but we kept our minds open to other posssibilities and we found something really great.

In New York celebrating a quarter of a century

Tags

city, New York, postaday2015, rain

   
   
   
    
 
We are back in New York, right in the heart of the city,  at 44th and 8th Avenue, I took the perfunctory pictures from our room.  I love how New York City looks from up above, I especially get a kick at gazing down  onto rooftop gardens. My husband and I walked a bit  before sitting down for Sushi at this little place right off 8th Avenue and 50th Street. New York, no matter the weather, always has its sparkle,  but when you add rain, the streets light up in all of the hues that light up the billboards.

The celebratory quarter of a century mark is of our marriage, twenty five years ago, my husband and I said I do and we are in the city to mark the anniversary. A night in a nice hotel, reservations  at the Modern, the Museum of Modern Art’s restaurant, I have heard and read so many  good things about this restaurant, I can’t wait until  tonight, just imagining  how creative the  kitchen must be, it’s affiliated to the MOMA after all, I am so excited!!!

Then for tomorrow, we are meeting my mother at La Grenouille, a French culinary institution  from the era of the 1970’s, the good old days of the New York restaurant scene.. Ask any professional waiter and they will tell you that back in the 1970’s, that was when you made a living, especially at the famous French restaurants, it was the decade before credit cards so it was an all cash business, power lunches were the norm and the night life was  wild. It was a much different city back then, I’m glad that La Grenouille  is still around, it helps feed the nostalgia that sometimes  hits you when you look around the city and  parts of it don’t look like what you remember  growing up.

I am so very excited for these two days, yummy food and more yummy food. Hooray!

A glorious day at the Boston Commons

Tags

Boston, city, parks, postaday2014

We are back in Boston and I took the opportunity to walk down towards the Boston Commons, cut through to get to Newbury Street because I needed to go visit one of my favorite shops Lush to get some products. Lush is one of my favorite shops because all of their lotions, moisturizers, soaps and shampoos are made with organic, fair trade ingredients and the company gives back tot eh communities that they visit to get their ingredients from such as small villages in Central America and Africa. I can get behind companies that believe in giving back as much as they believe in being successful.

As I was walking through the Boston Commons; I had to stop and take pictures because it was absolutely magnificent today, a light breeze and the temperatures were in the low 80’s and the fountains were on everywhere to give some needed coolness to the pets, people and the air.

I adore the city of Boston.

Daily prompt: the wonders of nature

Tags

city, nature, postaday2013, rural, urban

Describe your first memorable experience exploring and spending time in nature. Were you in awe? Or were you not impressed? Would you rather spend time in the forest or the city?

When I was little with my sister, who was littler still, on those autumn mornings in early October; my parents used to throw us into the Ford Pinto hatchback and head up to the Adirondack mountains early Saturday mornings to get us out of New York City and into the countryside. My sister and I loved hiking up the trails, they were easy trails to walk, we were all of six and nine years old, and I would tell her pretend stories that the small caves that we would pass by, were home to the Grizzlies and we had to be very quiet as we walked past those caves. Occasionally I would peek in and try to see further in, but my parents would call for me or so I thought, so I never ventured far into the caves. The trails were very well marked to make sure that hikers wouldn’t get lost and even with my very active imagination, I didn’t want to get lost.

I have to say that the majesty of the Adirondack mountains in the fall was not lost on me or my little sister. These adventures were a high point of our weekends and the best part was the trip to the local diner where they served the best B.L.T’s that my sister and i had ever eaten. We always went home with a bag full of leaves to bring back home for my sister to bring to school for her class. I think that I also had use of those leaves for my science classes in discussion of the different trees that made up the forests of the mountain range.

These are very special memories, spending the entire day outside of the city with the four of us having a really nice time being together.

A little walking tour of Bordeaux the city

Tags

Bordeaux, city, food, pedestrian streets, postaday2012, public transport, rue sainte catherine, transportation, walking

As I said yesterday, I took the bus from Begles where Tantine and Tonton live into the city. It is very close, I think that the bus ride took all of 15 minutes, I got off at the Place Gambetta, Gambetta was a man who I think figured very prominently in recent 20th century French history. I used to know but I learned about Mister Gambetta over twenty years ago so it is very foggy, I will go out on a limb and say that it might have been around the 1930’s? Anyway I took at least twenty pictures or so of everything that I saw that I felt deserved to be photographed and as soon as I get back I will upload the pictures to show just how beautiful the city is and how much it has changed in seven years. The Place Gambetta is circular so many streets intersect it like spokes on a wheel and I walked along one of the more elegant spokes Cours de l’Intendence, I would call it the Madison avenue of Bordeaux, all the top-notch boutiques are on both sides of the avenue; Lancel, Longchamps and others. I thought immediately when I turned onto the Cours that it looked so much more elegant now that all the traffic had been eliminated by the installation of the tramway system. I remember the street being incredibly busy with all kinds of traffic constantly, cars, trucks and buses. Now the street is open with the rare car and the tram that slowly goes up and down the street. Now when you walk along the Cours de l’Intendence, you can see all the beautiful boutiques and really see them without being distracted by all the noise and bustle of vehicular traffic. In my opinion the tram is a huge improvement on the beauty of Bordeaux and the efficiency of the transit system is something to be admired.

After the Cours de l’Intendence I turned right onto the Rue Sainte-Catherine, the famous pedestrian street of Bordeaux. At one point I took a picture to show the sea of people down the street because it reminded me a little of what Fifth Avenue looks like when you are at the higher point of the street and you look into the distance and all you see is an army of “ants” bustling up the avenue and down. The Rue Sainte-Catherine has always been my destination when I would go into Bordeaux clothes shopping because it is on this street that you have shops for every budget and every look. There is the department store Galeries Lafayette or if you like the boutique experience than you have more than enough to choose from; clothes, shoes, accessories, cosmetics and books, music and then if you are thirsty or hungry, there are plenty of cafe’s, brasseries and ice cream shops to choose from. I was tempted three times to have a little snack, I saw a high end purveyor of canneles and macarons at three different places and each time I went in, the shop lady was busy doing something else so I left, I am trying not to eat my way through France with dessert. I am focusing on the healthy delights, sugar not good, vegetables and fruit good. The canneles are the specialty of the Bordeaux region, I have made them at home and they are so, so, so good. It is a rich almost custard cake flavored with rum and the outside is richly caramelized, there is a ton of sugar in the batter in order to produce the intense golden caramel outside of the little cake, they aren’t big, two bites and it is gone but they are tremendously delicious. The macaron is another delight, France has been on a macaron kick for a few years now kind of like the cupcake craze in the United States, every patisserie offers them, they come in all different flavors. The macaron is essentially egg whites and sugar flavored with different ingredients formed into a small cookie, I was tempted by caramel beurre sale, and a creme between the two cookies. They are small and light and really good, but all sugar nevertheless.

After conquering my sugar demon, I walked over to the Quai’s at the river’s edge, the river is the Garonne and the transformation of the Quai or the docks is frankly amazing. The old warehouses haven’t been changed on the outside but the interiors have, they now house restaurants, boutiques of every kind, gyms offering sports, yoga, Pilates, Marshall arts and free weights. It is all along the length of the city, you have the pedestrian walkways, the bicycle routes, the roller blader skating way, there is a skateboard area, a basket ball area and tennis courts. The entire length is also incredibly landscaped, there were couples everywhere sitting on the grass surrounded by flowering plants, it was gorgeous. As you look across the cars and the tramway running along the boulevard you see the old facade newly cleaned and the city of Bordeaux is quite majestic in her beauty, the sense of history is incredible, coupled with its embrace of the future. I was very impressed.

I took pictures everywhere and I made sure to take a few of the Mexican sail boat docked on the Quai, it was a huge sail boat like the ones in the Pirates of the Caribbean but clean and in excellent condition and no Johnny Depp, alas. Later on at home on the news, they interviewed the Captain and his crew all from Mexico as they continue their world-wide voyage. A magnificent boat or ship, I forget the correct terminology.

I spent two hours walking and I can’t wait until next week when I can take the baby girl to see the city for herself, I know that she is going to love it. I am going to have to assemble a few packages to ship her purchases back home is my feeling knowing the baby girl as I do, lol.