Cape Cod

Here are some snaps (mostly food pictures) from a roadtrip to Cape Cod, MA.

One of the stops was East Syracuse, NY at the Bull & Bear Roadhouse, where we discovered salt potatoes and locally brewed hard apple cider.

1911 Original Hard Cider and Mango Mojito.

Fiesta Salad and Cubano sandwich with loaded salt potatoes

We were staying in West Yarmouth, which had lots of great spots to grab some grub. Most of the places had some high-end prices for things like lobster rolls and scallops but had a casual feel with picnic benches and paper plates.

On the Waterfront

Local Cape Cod breakfast joint

First lobster roll of the trip at Moby Dick's Seafood Restaurant

Highland Lighthouse, Truro, MA.

Kennedy House as seen from the harbor tour

  One of my favorite knickknacks at the Edward Gorey House.

Lobster roll platter at Sesuit Harbor Cafe. The best one of the trip!

We drove through NYC on the way home. 

Velvet Tango Room

Velvet Tango Room

2095 Columbus Rd

Cleveland, OH 44113

Drinks: June 14, 2013

Party of Six

Clockwise from my drink (the one with the Maraschino cherry, natch!) Aviation, Cereza de Cal, KatyDid, Whiskey Sour, Hemingway Daiquiri, Old Fashioned

Clockwise from the tequila drink redux: Cereza de Cal, The Last Word, Blood and Sand, French 75, Moscow Mule, Ninth Ward(?)

The Velvet Tango Room makes cocktails for people who don't mind waiting for a good drink. It has an old-fashioned way of hand-shaking ingredients not found on the menu of your average sports bar. There's no guessing as to the price of these handcrafted libations-- each cocktail will set you back a stiff $18.  Each drink takes a while to mix so you might be clinking your full martini glass with your friends' half empty tumbler.

Since we were a larger party, we sat in the back room that is only accessible through a door that doubles as a full length mirror. A two-drink minimum is required with the reservation, and if your crowd fancies good mixed-drinks then it is well worth your while. It was an experience.

Ohio Wine Trail

A few friends and I spent a weekend in Ohio wine country this past summer. We went on a tour of the wineries on the Lake Erie Vines and Wines Trail, which is east of Cleveland. I wasn't fastidious about taking pictures of every place we stopped but took enough to give the flavor of the trip.





Grape vines outside of our first stop, Tarsitano Winery and Cafe.





The place was cute inside and out. The cafe wasn't open since we got there kind of early, but we sampled some wine. Like a lot of Ohio wineries, the sweet ones were better than the dry.





Covered bridges dot the trail and are tourist attractions in their own right.





The next stop was the Old Firehouse Winery, which is in the resort town of Geneva-on-the-Lake. There was a wine festival going on in the park next to the winery so we had the benefit of being entertained while we drank. I got their Pink Crush Cooler, which is described as "a refreshing blend of wine, soda and cherry juice served in a souvenir pitcher with ice." It was a sweet delicious concoction that I would order again in a heartbeat. The ultimate girly drink.








Fun resort town tourist traps!





Authentic Hawaiian Shave Ice on the shores of Lake Erie!

Views from the deck of our next stop, The Lakehouse Inn and Winery.

Even on a cloudy day, the view was beautiful. The wine sampler here came with a souvenir glass.

We stopped for ice cream at Mr. C's, which was near our hotel. Then we ended the night at Laurello Vineyards & Winery, where some older patrons were in their cups. It was a decent place to hear live music and had fairly good wine.

The next day, we headed back to Geneva-on-the-Lake and wandered around a little. We stopped at Madsen Donuts where I personally purchased too many doughnuts.

We happened to drive through the quaint town of Ashtabula, which was holding their 3rd Annual Harbor Beach Glass Festival on the weekend we visited. The Harbor's Lift Bridge went up just for us!

I bought of bunch of jewelry at the festival, mostly necklaces made with the many colors of beach glass.

After lunch we hit a few more wineries. Here is the fountain on one of the outside patios of Ferrante Winery and Ristorante.

For a change of pace, we sampled beers at the Cellar Rats Brewery at Chalet Debonne Vineyards. The darker beers were my favorites.

Our last stop was Grand River Cellars Winery & Restaurant where we had dinner and more wine. We ate on the deck where we caught the end of a jazz band's set. I got the dry to semi-dry sampler because I wanted to get a glass of ice wine for dessert. It was really the perfect end of a great girls' weekend.

Sergio's Sarava Desserts

Sergio's Sarava
13225 Shaker Square
Cleveland, OH 44120
216-295-1200
Dinner; November 4, 2008
Party of Two

We each had a three-course dinner that ended with fantastic desserts. My dining companion and I took shots of all three courses, but the appetizers and entrees didn't photograph as good as they tasted. Also, I kind of forgot all the details of the first two courses and their descriptions aren't online. So, here are pictures and descriptions of the yummy desserts.

SERGIO’S COCONUT BUTTER CAKE – whipped cream, crème Anglaise, toasted coconut
A pretty dense cake that was made richer by the bed of cream it sat on and the dollop of cream that topped it.


OURO PRETO TORTE – black-gold chocolate cake. A dense, flourless cake topped with chocolate ganache and sparkles of real gold leaf

But, I remember the details of my first visit to Sarava (no pictures) in great detail.

Dinner; October 25, 2008
Party of Two

Cocktails
Diner 1 - Mojito
Diner 2 - Mojito mocktail

Shared Street Plates
Crisp Spanish Cheese with kalamata olive and caper-spiced tomato sauce
Prince Edward Island Mussels simmered in a lemon-pepper butter broth
Sticky Ribs with a hoisin BBQ glaze

Diner 1
Pan-Seared Sea Scallops in a ginger-cider reduction with lemongrass and coconut milk, rice and crispy fried spinach (substituted for the seasonal vegetables)
Coconut Butter Cake (see picture above)


Diner 2
Mojito mocktail
Brazilian Beef with black beans and rice, farofa, fried spinach, orange slices and carioca tomato relish
Ouro Preto Torte (see picture above)

The hoisin glaze on the Sticky Ribs started smoky and ended sweet. The scallops' sauce was similarly complex but started spicy and ended sweet. No matter what you get there you should order the fried spinach. It has a crisp texture that just about melts the minute it hits your tongue. The mussels were not at all fishy or chewy and the sauce was the type you wanted to pick up and drink after the dipping bread was finished. The Spanish cheese was no ordinary fried cheese with tomato sauce. My dining companion stated that although she doesn't really like fried cheese she loved this street plate. Maybe it was the sauce.

The food was all about taste and texture and was fresh and delicious.

I'd definitely go back and I'm sure to end my meal with the Coconut Butter Cake. It was delicious warm and cold.

And their Mojitos are to die for.

Coffee with a cause

October is Fair Trade month at Phoenix Coffee. They had a great coffee tasting this past Monday and they're holding smaller tastings every Friday throughout the month at their stores. As a special bonus, if you attend four tastings or the tasting the other day and two more tastings, you get a free pound of coffee. And the tastings are also free. Who gives away free stuff for attending free events? That's crazy!

At the tasting at the Roastery we met Sarah, the owner, who was very cool. She was wearing a shirt that said, "I *heart* Fair Trade," and I'm guessing she got the transfer here.

I just had a great cup of coffee

I love coffee. Really, check my profile.

As much as I hate to admit it, coffee affects me. I don't get jittery or sleepless, but it causes my heart to race so I try not to drink too much. It's tough because, well, I love coffee!

And most decaf is disgusting. It tastes and smells like chemicals or plastic. Or Old Spice.

But, I do like Swiss wash decaffeinated coffee like they serve at Tommy's. And the other day at Zagara's I found a coffee that looked too good not to try.

Newman's Special Decaf from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. It's organic, fair-trade and water process decaffeinated. There's so much good on the label that I thought it was going to taste gross. But, it was bright, crisp and yummy.

It was weird to have a great cup of coffee without the bad feeling. I won't give up the real stuff, but I'm glad I found an alternative to my usual Kona.

Bottle of Red, Bottle of White

Here are two wines I've drunk and enjoyed recently:


At India Garden, I enjoyed this red from the Sahyadri Valley in Maharashtra, India. I had my usual, Palak Paneer (which I ordered off-menu and medium spicy). Our waiter/owner of the restaurant said he wasn't a wine drinker and couldn't recommend a wine to go with dinner, but I thought this Cab went well with the spice and heat of the dish.




This white I bought at Trader Joe's as part of my splurge of buying a case of wine after I found out I was being laid-off. It's very light and summery and tastes great by itself. I tried to pair it with a chicken pasta salad I made, but the vinaigrette was way too strong for this Pinot. Maybe something with less acidity would have complimented it better.


I was very excited to order the wine at India Garden because there were just two of us and I knew we'd get to take advantage of Ohio's "Merlot to go" law. I gotta remember to do that more often.

Drinky Drinks

Articles like this are why one of my New Year's resolutions was to drink more alcoholic beverages.