Sunday, October 26, 2014

Wales tripping continues



Time for poor traveling food bloggers seems to be a precious commodity.. maybe just some pictures of what we’ve seen instead of words, well with fewer words anyway..

Wales is a beautiful country… you drive along and see sights like this





And in a country that goes back, well, forever, there are smaller remnants of things of an earlier era



Besides the unnamed monuments to the past, there are grander things like castle Caernarfon courtesy of Edward I, built in the late 13th Century




Twelve Hundreds?  Ptooie.  Modern stuff!! how about the lovely St. David’s Cathedral ( or in Welsh) Eglwys Gadeiroil Tyddwi), where since the 6th century there has been a church on the site, and for the past 1500 years prayer and worship has been offered on a daily basis which continues to this day.





But as usual when you’re traveling, it’s the little things that stick with you.  Dr. Henry Miller took us to a little out of the way Church, St. Gwrst’s, built in the late 1470’s in the town of Llanrwst.



The church itself contains the finest “rood” known to survive the “reformation” of Henry III.



 It is a gorgeous piece of wood carving


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But it turns out that Richard Wynn added a small chapel in 1633 (off to the right in the upper picture)



Which survives to this day pretty much as it did in the 1600’s.  Still here, still a holy place.  Henry arranged to have a parishioner give us a “tour”.  It is such a pleasure to have somebody who is a member of their parish.  They are so proud to tell the history to somebody who at least understands and appreciate.

And on the little stroll to the church in a small town, the Feeder got to see more stuff he really loves



No silver sided Sysco truck, but real butchers, real local food


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These carcasses were slaughtered three days ago, and they said they would hang for several more days before being offered for sale in the little butcher shop to which these were being delivered.  Great stuff.  And on we went, hoping to end the day

DFD

Ps a meal report will be forthcoming….. foodies hang on.

Pss:  Although the Feeder's 73rd birthday was celebrated yesterday in Wales, a slightly more prominent Welshman will have a 100th commemoration tomorrow... one Mr. Dylan Thomas..


Thursday, October 23, 2014

The Unfriendly Skies



Hello, finally an internet connection that works.  In a nutshell, we’re having a wonderful trip, although the weather is about what you would expect for Wales in the fall, coupled with the shirttails of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Gonzalo, we’ve been kind of in and out of showers most every day. And, since this is supposed to be a food missive rather than a travel missive (which it sort of has been lately) I thought I’d do a quick food update, before I forget the details.

For the purpose of this issue, the worst of times refers to the meal we had on the airline on the way over.  The start of the trip was kind of halting.  Actually all the logistics of getting to the airport were fine, and we were even able to benefit from MFO’s little sheet of paper that got her TSA Pre-approved.  Shoes, belt, pants stayed on, only laptop and cell phone out of cases.  Not bad.  With the usual Dulles walk about, after a brisk walk of seemingly miles, we arrived at our gate, and met the rest of the travelers for our trip.  More new friends along with re meeting old ones, or I guess is should say previous fellow travelers.

It was not a full flight for Manchester, and mercifully both of us were on adjoining aisles with nobody next to us, and in fact, MFO was the only occupant of her row.  The center seat in my row was empty.  As part of our planning for the trip we had “upgraded” to that nebulous class of seats called: “economy plus” or something that gives you a little more room for your knees and tray tables, which in fact it does and is well worth the fairly nominal price.

So I settled back ready to enjoy the flight as much as possible.  Soon after takeoff, I got out my Bose headphones, ready to connect to the entertainment system, eager for that first drink before dinner.  The first indication of not the best of times was when I touched “music” on the touch screen and got a screen full of “Selection Not Available” avatars in the classical music menu.  Tried, jazz, pop, R&B, all same stuff.  About this time the attendant came trudging down the aisle with her cart, and when she got to our row, I asked her about it and got a reply of “Oh, we don’t have ANY music channels anymore”.  Huh?  Yes, so many people have their own devices that we discontinued it.  Well, lady, I don’t!  Out of luck there.   At any rate I would like a Scotch on the rocks, please.  Admittedly, it has been a while since  we’ve done international flights, but I swear then the drinks were complimentary.  Nope, $5 and we accept (only) major credit cards.  This was anticipated as the thoughtful folks at Cole Travel included two drink chits in our envelope.  So armed with the slip I was presented with a plastic of ….Dewars.  Um, do you have anything else?  No sir that’s all the scotch we have.  Fine, no music, a pedestrian scotch, and no warmed nuts.  Fine.  Cold nuts in a bag would have been nice, so we broke out some of the ones MFO purchased at the airport for probably twenty dollars a pound.

I was going to surrender my second voucher to dull the frustration, but before I could do that, the rumbling cart re-appeared and I was quizzed: “chicken or pasta”.  I took the former and MFO the latter.  Well, I don’t enjoy complaining although I do it well, but what followed was the absolute worst excuse for a meal any airline has had the audacity to set before me.  Exactly as presented (or rather chucked on the tray):



Which looked like this after unwrapping everything
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MFO’s Pasta like material appeared as



Despite a gallant attempt, I honestly could not eat the chicken.  You know that texture that results from cooking with steam (in like a Combi oven?)  kind of spongy, bread like stuff?  Even so, it was so tough I couldn't cut it with the plastic tools they gave us.  I had to unceremoniously hold it by hand, and bite it and even then it gave up reluctantly Two bites and back to the plastic tub.  awful.

I passed the time by watching a couple of movies, “Chef” which was kind of a foodie movie, and then a rather odd one called the Grand Budapest or something like that.

Anyway, we finally landed, and we knew we were in a different country




So off we went to tour, our first stop being Chester

And lunch in a recommended Pub, the Brewery Tap, which i had researched.  Nice Job.. feeder...





There's nothing like it at home..  Wise travelers that we are we knew to get the menu at the bar



I ordered a version of "bangers and Mash" and ti was pretty good.


More to come, as wireless becomes available... oh yes, within our packed bags were the necessaries to be

DFD


Monday, October 20, 2014

The Road...

or maybe the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis is paved with good intentions.


I had hoped to post a few more about our steam boat adventure(s) before we left for current trip, but then the Oyster Festival got in the way.

...with the result your obedient Bottom Feeder failed in that attempt.  Eventually i will get back to that, and apologies to any that tuned in to the Feeder for that purpose.

We are leaving in a couple of hours for our trip to Wales.  I will TRY to get some posts out from there, but always at the whim of local networks, technical bugs, and so forth.  

I will also maybe put out some info via Facebook, for those of you who can't get enough of me by this outlet.

I think maybe when we return, we'll stash the suitcases for a while..

into the travel Bubble..and for the time being NOT

DFD

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Twin Cities



These are busy days for the Feeder.  He is juggling reportage of the American Queen adventure (herein), preparations for our next journey to Wales beginning NEXT Monday, managing the Cook off at this weekend’s Oyster Festival, and planning the food stuff for the upcoming Hospital Gala.  All of which is self inflicted of course, but it seems to be all converging in the remaining few days.

Anyway, we can enter denial if I tell you a couple of things about our Steamboat adventure.  It began in Minneapolis after our re-ticketed itinerary took us there with a stop in Milwaukee.  We had a nice tour of the twin cities before checking into our hotel.    Turns out Minneapolis is home to a famous cartoonist (and his fictional progeny)



Whose likenesses are scattered around St. Paul, (some in better shape than others).    Although I don’t think there is a statue yet, we did see the Fitzgerald Theater, home to all the folk in Lake Woebegon.  And if you extend the boundaries of twin cities, you can include a certain Bobby Zimmerman, whose apartment in St. Paul we drove by.  Quite the eclectic bunch.  They have their share of magnificent buildings like the Cathedral of St. Paul,


And…. Another one



Like all these “river towns” there are a number of grand old Victorian homes, as well as other styles, Italianate, revival, etc. built by people who made their fortunes in various ways in the mid to late 19th century.



As you might be able to discern, it was sprinkling rain, with fresh winds, and COLD.  Minneapolis has a series of walkways that people use in the winter (roughly September through May) to get around the city. 

Knowing that dining opportunities would be limited to the American Queen once we embarked I got us a reservation at “The 112 eatery” which seemed to rise to the top of most of the foodie sites.  They feature the services of Isaac Becker, winner of a (best chef Midwest) James Beard.  When I called, they said that they were booked for the evening but just got have a cancellation at 6:30 and would we like that.  Hmmm… yes of course..  From the reviews we expected a white tablecloth experience and donned our only “good outfit” to be DFD.

Being a little far to walk (easy for us now) we took a cab.  It turns out that it was much less formal than we expected, no tablecloths but more of a I guess “bistro” atmosphere.  They had a very nice bar
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And in fact most tables were occupied, and we were given a four top, maybe lending credence to the “cancellation” theory.  Soon we were approached by a young lady in a crisp white shirt.  I thought by this time I have heard all the “Hi I’m….” lines but she added a new one: “Hi, I’m  and.. I’ll be with you tonight”  Wow!  Visions of wild late night hi jinks quickly flashed through my head, and I wondered what MFO might think of that, but then reality snapped in and I realized the invitation didn’t extend beyond the front door of the restaurant. Anyway, there’s a new one for you.

She handed us menus and inquired about drinks.  I didn’t have the heart to do the drink test so asked about what gins they might have.  To my surprise and delight, Plymouth was one of the choices.  I believe this is the first restaurant outside of Chez Pascal in Providence that offered it.  I got an “up” martini with a twist.  MFO got (what turned out to be an undistinguished) Viognier.  We turned to the menu, and found it quite interesting. Although split between appetizers and entrees, there wasn’t much difference.  For instance you could get an appetizer of blue prawns w/ rooster mayo for $14, or you could get frog legs for $9 from the entrée side.  A culinary homework assignment is to go figure out what a “lamb scottadito w/ goats milk yogurt” appetizer is ($16.5), or you might choose a $32 entrée of nori encrusted sirloin w/ ponzu.  Quite the culinary gymnastics.  In fact it took another Plymouth Martini to settle on the food.

In the end, MFO took an appetizer, the sweet and sour crab salad, and I doubled up with the duck terrine and rabbit paté, followed with the sea scallops with oyster mushrooms.  The wine list was equally appealing which offered a (rather pricey) glass of Domaine Serene.  Although “what’s her name” was supposed to be “with us” our food arrived by a runner who had to ask!  Apparently WHN was being with somebody else.

The terrine and paté were quite fine



And it was served properly with cornichons and mustard and a crusty baguette.  Both main courses were also quite tasty. By this time the place was hopping and loud.  We eschewed dessert and taxied home to the hotel.

As usual you deal with expectations with restaurants, and although perhaps erroneously, I had expected more, I guess in the (stupid word) “ambiance” department.  Still I’m glad we went as indeed it was our last experience with “restaurant” food.

Next day we were to board the American Queen..  Our bags had to be ready in our room by 0730 even though boarding was after three.  More to come there..


DFD

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Rollin' on the .....


Hello again… As Tom Sawyer remarked on his raft travelling the Mississippi:  “you know Huck, the internet on this river REALLY sucks”!  Well, not much has changed in nearly century and a half.. The internet on our watercraft was equally as sucky.  Hence those of you who have been wondering “Where’s the Feeder?” can chalk it up to the technology near the Big Muddy.  I was able to kind of keep some up by resorting to social media (Facebook - do you Like me??), and using the “Checking In” option occasionally.  You just can’t fat finger an nice description of a foie gras plate on the Droid..

On the other hand, the time released by not keeping up the blog enabled maybe a more enhanced experience.  So enough of whining, we’ll start with a quick overview of our adventure.

The American Queen is the largest operating Steamboat in the world, yes, world.



She is 418 feet long, 89 feet wide, with 6 decks resulting in a 110 foot tall vessel containing 222 staterooms with accommodations for about 440 passengers and a crew of somewhere around 160.  Even with all this mass. the behemoth only has a draft of 8.5 feet.  The physical dimensions are kind of dictated by the operating environment, as there are almost 30 locks on the Upper Mississippi (somewhere around 100 feet wide), and the Corps of Engineers maintains the channel at a depth of 9 feet.  Power is mainly supplied by the paddle wheel,




Which can be augmented by a couple of so-called “Z drives” in the stern and thrusters in the bow.



I did get a tour of the bridge, and sorry, there is no “Mark Twain” big steering wheel, but just a lever (left foreground over the box of knobs). 



Electronics have replaced much of the legendary stuff of riverboat lore (no tube to the engine room), but still they control it beautifully.  We did scrape bottom occasionally (acknowledged as a way to keep it clean), and maybe gently nudged a lock wall, but generally you never knew you were under way.  A good bit of travel was done at night (!!) and sometimes a lock light would illuminate your room for a few moments, but that was about it.

Our journey of over 700 miles (by river miles) started in Minneapolis on the 4th of October and ended yesterday (the 11th).  We stopped overnight along the way at Red Wing, LaCrosse, Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington, and finally Hannibal before ending our journey in Alton, Ill.  We generally spent at least a half of a day in each river town, and the company had a very nice system of “hop-on hop-off” buses that stopped at various places of interest (and shopping!) in whatever town we were in.  In LaCrosse, we had a chance to visit with MFO’s sister (who lives there).  That was some of the most pleasant weather we experienced.



Over the next few days I’ll pass along some of the more interesting highlights.

As for dining (what?, you’re going to talk about food?) there were a couple of options available.  Three meals a day were available in the Front Porch Café (fourth deck forward), which was fairly informal and ALWAYs had a buffet (which under the circumstances is understandable, regardless of a Feeder’s feeling regarding buffets), or a more formal setting was the main J. W. White Dining Room which also offered a (more extensive) buffet at the first two meals of the day.  For each meal they also had an a la carte menu if you cared to have somebody besides yourself bring you your food.  Dinner was by the menu only and was served in two seatings; one at 5:15 and another at 7:45.  I don’t exactly know how to solve it, but thought the “early” was too early, and the “late” was too late.  There were also multiple bars, which were open at more generous hours..

There are things to talk about in the food and its service but we’ll hold that for another time.  Besides food and tours, every afternoon (we were mostly underway by one) there was a series of concerts or lectures.  In short, there was always something to do.  Or, as we often did, you can just sit and watch the river bank go by.  With maybe something in your hand from one of those bars.

I should mention that when you boarded you were given a little card which checked you on and off board, and was also swiped for one of those “something in your hand”.  Again, understandable but kind of annoying.  Sort of a “pay as you drink” plan.

Anyway, all it all it was a good trip and a new experience for us whose only experience with river travel was those 8 person barge trips in France, which was a completely different universe of course.  We were with a group from old reliable Cole Travel of about thirty some odd, which gave us an opportunity to enjoy old friends as well as meet new ones.  Among which, was a foodie whose company and conversation I very much enjoyed.  He one upped me with the French Laundry, but I had him on the Inn at Little Washington.  All in good fun of course..

Of course we were not the only craft on the river, as we were joined by up and down traffic




And those who were working for a living
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Although reflective of the season we did see some sportsmen.



So in a nutshell that’s an overview.  Tomorrow maybe we’ll crack some nuts and see what’s inside. Oh yes, although there was some variation (by the people from Texas for instance) everybody at least thought that for their culture they were



DFD

Thursday, October 2, 2014

traveling shoes

or maybe water wings..

we were leaving tomorrow morning to get on the American Queen river paddle boat in Minneapolis and then cruise (paddle? float?) down to St. Louis.

i say "were" because we just got a call from the travel agency saying all flights through Chicago were cancelled tomorrow for whatever reason.  So, with the usual cleverness of travel agents we are now booked on a flight from Nashville, and to get there, all forty odd of us are getting on a bus TONIGHT at 8 pm to drive up to DC to be ready for an o'dark departure tomorrow morning for the Music City (then to the twin cities).  Maximum flexibility..

So will let you know what transpires.  Traveling is so much fun.  At least we got a top notch travel agency working for the group (Cole Travel).

In closing, I had occasion today to go into a Hallmark Store, and the first thing that greeted me (besides the ladies) was a big, decorated, blinking....Christmas Tree!!!  My goodness.

My sort of good natured comment got a retort of "It'll be here before you know it!".   Yeah, right.  just after Halloween and Thanksgiving.  She then took pains to tell me about the big "Ornament Debut" that was coming up..  Mark that down..

 So have to go finish packing... so we can be whatever passes for 

DFD