It ‘s hard to even blog about this one. I’m not sure why we decided to go to East Boston. We felt like some good old red sauce Italian and D’Parma’s is supposed to be good, gets solid reviews and we could make a reservation on Open Table. I emphasize “supposed to be”. Our friends are up for anything so into Boston and through the tunnel we went to East Boston. Continue reading “Red Sauce and Rocky Road”
Yesterday afternoon we saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about Jiro Ono the owner of Sukiyabashi a sushi only restaurant universally regarded as the best sushi restaurant in the world. The restaurant, inconspicuously located in a Tokyo subway station, has only 10 seats and a dinner there costs a minimum of $350 per person. People come from around the globe and call months in advance for reservations. Jiro who is 85 years old has no signs of slowing down. It was a fascinating movie and we will never look at sushi in the same way. Continue reading “A Movie and Abigail’s”
Well, I’ve been busy getting my new website up and running so haven’t been able to write about where we’ve been other than Bruce Springsteen. We’ve made two return visits to restaurants we like, Chinese Mirch and Kika Tapas which I’ll talk about separately. Continue reading “Back at the Bar – Chinese Mirch (again)”
Me and 18,000 other Springsteen fanatics had our heads blown off last night in the temple of Bruce Springsteen. It was a flat-out religious experience. 2 hours and 45 minutes of pure joy.
I’ve seen Springsteen in concert too many times to count. My first show was back in 1978 when Roy and I waited for hours outside the Music Hall for tickets. His shows go from great to transcendent. Last night was the later. He kicked things off with “We Take Care of our Own” from Wrecking Ball. He paid homage to the Apollo Theatre and his heroes with an a capella rendition of Smoky Robinson and the Miracles “The Way You Do The Things You Do” and “634-5789” by the Marvelettes. I’m not going to give you the details of the set list but let me say that the Boss did not disappoint, not even remotely. If you’ve been to a Springsteen concert you know what I mean. No one puts it out like him, no one. He knee slid, body surfed and ran continuously from side to side. He brought the music down and built it up.
Continue reading “Bruce Springsteen-Boston Garden-March 26, 2012”
Saturday night in Chinatown. That sounded like a good idea; we haven’t had Chinese in a while. But by the time we got in the car and started driving we decided that Chinatown would be a hassle with the parking nonexistent on Saturday night so we went to Cambridge to a restaurant we’d been to once before and loved – Qingdao Garden. Continue reading “Qingdao Garden”
Well, we loved Mexico. It’s not like we’ve never been there before. But we hadn’t been to Mexico City and Zihau. We were blown away by Mexico City’s beauty, the art everywhere you look, the history, the sophistication of it, the friendliness of the people and the great restaurants! As I’ve said before we have a history with the country. We got married there and have a soft spot for it. Continue reading “Final Thoughts on Mexico”
What’ s the worst sound you want to hear when you’re on vacation in a beach town? Rain on the roof! I woke up on our last day in Zihau to pounding rain along with thunder and lightning. The lights flickered, went out for a few minutes and came back on. Rain is basically unheard of in Zihua at this time of year but like everywhere else on the planet the weather is weird. I went out onto the patio; it was heavily overcast and showering with no sign of a sunrise. Continue reading “La Barra de Potosi”
There’s nothing like a Mercado (market). It’s the heartbeat of a city. In Zihau the market takes up blocks. Inside the market, stall after stall, packed tight selling anything you can imagine, from flowers to kitchen utensils and everything in between. People shop and stop to eat at their favorite food stall. Everyone has their favorite vendors. Everything is fresh. There are no chickens in plastic styrofoam cartons. No shrink wrapped cheese. You can smell the tomatoes and squeeze the melons. Outside on the streets surrounding the Mercado there are more vendors selling everything from cheeses to chickens. Continue reading “Downtown Zihau”
Ixtapa/Zihautenjo share an airport. That’s where the similarity ends. Ixtapa is a resort designed by the Mexican government, think Cancun. Big hotels, manicured boulevards, shopping malls, restaurants, secure condominums. Zihautenejo or Zihau as it’s called is a which grew from 8,000 to 80,000 when people came to work at the Ixtapa hotels and restaurants. It was just a sleepy fishing village and the fisherman still bring their catch in every day. It’s got personality and the most beautiful beach Playa Ropa. This is where we spent the last few days of our vacation.
We went to the North End last night for dinner at Mare. They’ve changed things and have added an oyster bar.
The restaurant is small. When we entered we were seated at a table for two practically breathing on the couple next to us. On the other side of us was an extremely loud table of six. Not good. Being that we are “2 at the bar” we noticed two seats had opened up at the bar; not just two seats but the best, two corner seats. Lucky us! Continue reading “Mare”
