Doğumgünü Buluşması.. (21.12.2010)

Doğum günümde canım arkadaşım LaFea ile buluşmak için sözleştik. Mekanımız Asya kıtasında İstanbul'un kaymak tabakası diye tabir edeceğimiz insanların uğrak yeri olan Bağdat Caddesi oldu. Sürekli aynı yerlere gitmekten, sürekli aynı şeyleri yazmaktan hem biz sıkıldık hemde siz okurken bunaldınız :) İşte bu sefer canım dostum bir değişiklik yaparak beni Bağdat Caddesi'nin gizli kalmış nezih mekanlarından biri olan Kırıntı Restaurant a götürdü. Mekan tek kelimeyle harika. Sessizlik ve huzur arayanlar için tasarlanmış, gözlerden uzak, kısacası hem keseye hemde göze hitap eden hoş bir yer.

Gerek garsonlar olsun, gerek sunulan hizmet üst kalitede. Eğitimli ve düzgün kişiler çalıştırılıyor. Yemeklerin sunum tarzı beş yıldızlı oteller statüsünde. Porsiyonlar epey büyük ve gayet doyurucu. İç ve dış dekorda iç açıcı renkler kullanılmış. Yani gelen müşteriyi rahat ettirmek için herşey düşünülmüş. Eee bizde böyle bir ortama gidince karnımızı bir güzel doyurduk :D Ben etli+mantarlı dürüm ve gazoz içerken LaFea'm daha önce deneyip memnun kaldığı Club Sandiviç yemeyi tercih etti.

Güzel harika bir yemeğin ardından caddede bir süre daha turladık. Anladık ki o diyarlar bize göre değil. Taksiye atlayıp sevdiğimiz bir mekan olan Optimum Alışveriş Merkezi'ndeki Robert's Cafe'ye geçtik. Mekanda çok güzel kahve yapıyorlar. Starbucks kahvelerinden hiç farkı yok yani. Biz de LaFea'm ile kesemize hitap eden bu sıcak cafeyi tercih ediyoruz her seferinde. Hem manzarasıda buz pistine bakıyor. Eğer bir gün cesaret edebilirsem mutlaka buzda kaymayı deneyeceğim :) Ben Mocca lı kahve içtim yanında tiramisu ile beraber, LaFea'm da mozaik pasta ve bir bardak çay içti. Hepsi de çok lezizdi. :)

Velhasıl sözün özü diyeceğim odur ki arkadaşlar; içtiğiniz bir bardak su olsa da, dostunuz yanınızda ise eğer dünyanın en lezzetli içeceği olur o size. Çok güzel harika bir gün geçirdik canım dostumla. Bana birbirinden harika hediyeler almış canım benim. Asıl hediyesi doğum günümde hala gelmemişti. Yine de eli boş gelmemiş canım benim. Harika hediyeler ve bu mükemmel gün için tekrar teşekkürler canım benim. Diğer hediyem gelince onun içinde bir güncelleme yapacağım. Nice uzun seneler dostlarımla geçireceğim mutlu, huzurlu seneler diledim bu sene :)

Mor Kurdelalı Tacım

Mavi Kelebek Bilekliğim 

Mor Gümüş Bileziklerim 

Sağlıcakla Kalın Dostlar....

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MATTHEW KROCZALESKI 03/03

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Monday Escapes

This Monday I'm taking you to a place where...

You can zipline through tropical rainforests with abandon.

Monkeys chase you for food on boats and beaches.

The beaches stretch on for miles and are a surfer's dream.

You can spot clusters of macaws perched on trees.

And can sunbathe on a beach that doubles as a National Park, surrounded by hiking trails, and wildlife.

Images via Travelmoon

It's Costa Rica.

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El Willy Food Review

When we are traveling, we generally eat a lot of top ramen. For less than 50 cents a meal, or $1.50 a day, this is how we can afford to travel. Seriously. By saving on food, we gain an extra day  here or there to do the things we want to do. SO… top ramen is my friend.

However, once every blue moon we like to go out for a "real shebang" and eat at a nice restaurant, if one is available. January's pick of the month was El Willy, in Shanghai. El Willy is a tapas joint and we saw it on the ONE English channel in China that we get, CCTV. We decided to see if it was any good.

By the way, if any of these are spelled wrong, its because this computer doesn't know any Spanish or Italian, and I am not good at spelling. I apologize in advance.

What we ordered:
Pickled anchovies
Octopus with Iberian Ham and garlic aioli (photo at bottom)
Crispy suckling pig, cooked 12 hours
Seared Fois Gras
Pork Loin with arugula and parmesan
Layered Fois Gras pate with croustini

Our Ratings, out of 10:  (*=Mr Lovely, & = me)

Food Quality and Taste: *9, &8 (great food, some dishes were small)
Ambiance: *9, &9 (very open space, warm and friendly)
Service: *7, &8 (waiter was very nice, coffee and wine were a little slow to arrive)
Price: *7, &6 (it was a little too expensive for the size of the plate)
Location: *6, &6m (could walk easily to restaurant, however, it had no view whatsoever)

Total: 75  Average = 7.5/10

I would recommend this place to anyone if they are ever in Shanghai and want a nice Spanish meal. My favorite dish sways between the crispy pork and the first fois gras dish. However, if you are looking for a water view, this is not the place for you. If you want huge portions, this is also not where you should go. Stick with the traditional Chinese, family style portions. Mr Lovely had to get a hamburger after eating here.

Please let me know, as I am emailing due to blogger issues: Is there a picture below? Are there any links? I have no idea if anything is working and will be in China with problems for another few weeks.

The photo below should be of the Iberian ham wrapped Octopus. Yum! Hopefully the photo, if it is there, is not super huge.


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Big Trouble in Little China

If you ever wondered, and I know you did, why I am not blogging so much lately, I will tell you why.

Did you know that in China they DO NOT LIKE BLOGGER. In fact, they block it. You cannot get on any blogspot sites (sorry guys, but I am still checking you out in Reader); you cannot get onto blogger.com to post your blogs. So, I am going to try to post by email; hopefully the formatting isn't totally messed up because I have had that experience before when emailing. We shall see. The saddest part is that I can't even access my blog to make sure it posted okay and I can't access anyone else's to comment!!!! This sucks.

I guess you can help me. Is my format messed up? Do you know how to get around the blogger ban in China? I am sorry I am not commenting on anyone's posts!!

Besides that, being in China is interesting. First of all, barely anything is in English; barely anyone speaks English. We always pretty much do all our travel on our own; we don't use tours. Here it is a little bit difficult. You should have seen us when we first arrived at the Guangzhou train station and ALL THE INFORMATION was in Chinese. With kanji (Chinese characters), NOT Latin letters. To top it off, it is almost Chinese New Years, so we arrived and there were 17 mile lines at all the ticket booths. We sat and scratched our heads for a while, let me tell you.  We are using a lot of pointing, sign language and nodding etc.

We finally figured it out, paid too much for our train ticket, and were on our way. Next we wanted to do a tour of an area where there were a lot of little towns and ancient architecture. We got our tour, complete with an overpriced driver who didn't speak ANY English! Its been an interesting adventure! Ordering food is a lot of grunting and pointing at pictures, if there are any. Luckily I know how to say Chow Mien (fried noodles) so that is my fall back plan. Hopefully I don't hurt myself, because asking for the hospital would be downright impossible.

To top it off, it is winter. I mean, snowing and freezing cold winter. Many of the places where we, gung ho as we were, thought we would "go hiking", are frozen solid. You can't get in or out and the locals don't have any water or electricity. But it is beautiful all the same. We are in Shanghai now, more on that later, and heading for Beijing in a few days, more on that later as well.

I hope it is warmer where you are than it is here! Please let me know if anyone has any tech savvy Chinese blogger evasion tips!!!

I am attempting to post a photo below. Please let me know if there isn't one!!! It is Shanghai at night.



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MATTHEW KROCZALESKI 02/03

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