To follow my food and travel adventures, please visit my new blog Foodetccooks.com where there will be more action from now on. For instance you can already read about my latest adventure eating in Manila, or get the recipe for above slow-cooked Bolognese sauce.
Hope you enjoy!
Just got back from a very nice vacation in Florida and the Caribbean.
Had an excellent dinner at Steak 954 at the W hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Wagyu sliders for starter and then filet mignon with truffled mac n cheese and truffle fries accompanied with a great Merlot from Ghost Pines. Delicious food, great service and a very nice view over the Atlantic Ocean.
After two days in Lauderdale we boarded this fellow, the Celebrity Equinox for an 11-night cruise in the Caribbean and South America.
Our cabin or state room onboard. The least fancy one, was still pretty nice.
The food onboard is definitely the best I’ve experienced on a cruise this far. For instance above salmon tartare.
Our first stop was Grand Cayman, here we visited the village of Hell. Limestone rocks turned black due to acid rain.
My second visit to the incredibly pretty Seven Mile Beach on Grand Cayman.
Cartagena, Colombia.
Panama City, Panama.
Costa Rican jungle.
Belize and Rendezvous Caye, so incredibly pretty.
Tulum, Mexico.
Mexican lunch; tortillas, corn crisps, pico de gallo, pork and potatoes, rice and beans. Very nice.
Tulum beach.
Back in Ft Lauderdale and checked in at the Hilton Beach Resort with a great view from the 21st floor.
Room at the Hilton.
Burger at Shula’s on the beach.
View at night from our room.
On our way back to Europe we stopped over in Atlanta for a couple of hours and during that time paid a visit to what has been called the world’s best airport restaurant. Above you can see pork belly sliders. Definitely the best airport food I’ve ever had. Also tried pulled duck which was very good. Unexpensive too, and very friendly and good service.
Visited Lithuania’s capital Vilnius a couple of weeks ago.
Stayed at the awesome, quite new, Kempinski Cathedral Square, one of the best hotels I’ve stayed at.
Vilnius was a nicer city than I anticipated. On the picture is Cathedral Square in central Vilnius.
Of course I had to eat, tried the national dish Cepilinai, ‘Zeppelins’ – a hearty dish made with potato-dough filled with minced pork and served with sour cream and dill. Excellent local wheat beer to drink. The restaurant is called Zemaiciai and is located in Vilnius’ old town. Also had a decent chicken Kiev at Neringa restaurant.
Really enjoyed Vilnius. Also enjoyed the great prices and the fantastic hotel.
Arrived yesterday night in Zurich, Switzerland, after a quick 2-hour flight with quite good Swiss airlines – featuring above filthy but deliciously cheesy ‘bruschetta margherita’. After a walk through night-time Zurich passing porn cinemas and a few dark alleys we made it to Mgallery Hotel Continental where we are now safely checked in. Nice Swiss chalet-style rooms and a great bed so far.
Tomorrow we are heading to Liechtenstein to tick off my fifth new country for the year and to watch a few alps. Exciting!
On another monster-trip across half the world at the moment. Currently in the lounge at Paris CDG drinking champagne. Next stop Santiago de Chile!
Our second day started with a ridiculously good breakfast at our hotel, Thon Opera. The breakfast itself is probably worth the stay. So much to choose from, and such good quality and taste. Very nice.
We started off with buying an Oslo pass which gave us unlimited use of public transport (including ferrys) as well as admission to most of the city’s museums. The price was 270 nok per person for 24 hours. With the pass we got admission to Akers Castle.
We then continued to the nearby Akers Brygga where we caught the ferry to Bygdøy, an island about 10 minutes ferry from central Oslo.
On Bygdøy we experienced one of the worst rains I’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately there wasn’t much cover on the island, and before reaching our destination – the Fram polar expedition museum we were literally soaking wet. Fortunately we dried up and went on to the Kon-Tiki museum (Kon-tiki on the pic above) as well as the Maritime museum. The latter wasn’t that exciting except for a movie showing off Norways coastal communities (which actually made a visit to the museum worthwhile).
After the museums we headed back to the city for dinner. We had made reservations at a place called Arakataka after someone recommended it on Twitter. Arakataka serve a bunch of different medium-sized dishes, so you can pretty much choose your own tasting-menu. And if you order five dishes or more, you get each dish for 109 nok (some of the dishes are priced 160 nok + if you order less than five). Anyway, we went for five each and had one of the better meals I’ve experienced. Above is malt bread with whipped butter. Very delicious.
Crab risotto. Probably the best risotto I’ve ever had. Incredibly tasty.
Kefir with blueberry sorbet, crumble and birch jelly. So good. Very ‘new Nordic’.
Day three we went to the legendary ski jump-center, Holmenkollen. At the top of the tower the view was quite fantastic over Oslo and its surroudings.
The last activity of our Norway-trip was to eat a sausage platter at Annis Pølsemakeri in the new food hall Mathallen. Very nice and at a very reasonable price (50 nok).
After our lounge-visit we took the 45-minute flight to the Norwegian capital Oslo. After a ride with the incredibly convenient but slightly expensive (170 NOK per person) flytoget airport train we arrived at our equally convenient hotel. Thon Hotel Opera where we are staying is situated about 100 meters from the Oslo sentral (central station) and extremely close to where we got off the airport train.
After checking in we took a stroll in the surroundings and visited the beautiful opera house (top) and Karl Johans gate, the main shopping street.
In Sweden we hear a lot about Norwegian pizzas with their crazy toppings (and crazy prices). We paid 200 NOK (about $30) for the above beauty that came with blackpepper beef, béarnaise, chips, leek and red onion. Crazy, expensive – check. Great after a couple of glasses of wine? Oh yeah!
Greeting from the lounge at Stockholm Arlanda airport. Waiting for my flight to Oslo while consuming tap wine, hideous pasta salad, and a quite tasty cauliflower soup.
Our final day in the British capital was mostly focused on the long-awaited and highly anticipated lunch at Dinner by Heston.
Dinner by Heston opened in 2011 and within a year received its first michelin star. A couple of weeks back it was also selected as number 7 on the San Pellegrino world’s 50 best restaurants list. Needless to say, expectations were high.
The lunch started with a few slices of bread served with a very tasty and yellow butter. I was a little worried at this point since it wasn’t anything crazy or spectacular about it. It was just bread.
Dinner by Heston focus on British food from the 13th century and forward, hence the year in the parentheses. Above: Grilled Hay Smoked Mackerel (c.1730) Lemon salad, fennel & pea shoots
Dressed Snails (c.1884) Parsley, beetroot, salty fingers & red wine juice.
Cured Salmon (c.1660) Monks beard, peas, caper & mussel broth.
Roast Quail (c.1590) Cabbage, onion & smoked chestnut.
Orange Buttered Loaf (c.1630) Mandarin & thyme sorbet.
Millionaire Tart (c.1730) Crystallised chocolate & vanilla ice cream.
Our final dish was a small freebie – elder tea infused ganashe served with a caraway biscuit.
Despite my initial worries about the simplicity of the (although tasty) bread. My fears were unfounded. The food was really good. The roast quail is among the best dished I’ve ever had. I also loved the desserts. On top of that staff were friendly and the price was good. Our total bill was about 90 pounds which included a quite generous tip.
After our lunch it was pretty much off to the airport. We took a final walk through London, picked up our bags at the hotel and took the tube to Heathrow. At Heathrow we got to try out the British Airways Galleries South lounge where we sipped champagne and feasted on the buffet, which of course wasn’t that exciting compared to the lunch.
All in all a fantastic weekend.
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