Dinner at the Emerson Spice Teahouse Rooftop Restaurant

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Well this is it. Our final activity. The Emerson Spice Hotel has a tasting menu on the rooftop, one seating per night, 5 set courses, and cocktails for sundown. The way it works is the fisherman go out each morning and bring back various seafoods, and on the way to the hotel they pick up produce from the market. The chef selects from these and designs the menu accordingly. The hotel has 10 breeding pairs of Norwegian goats, and there is also a farm at a nearby Catholic convent. At 99% Muslim Zanzibar is not exactly ripe for missionary work, so the nuns have devoted their time to farming. All the food was organic. Each plate had 3 or 4 individual items. My favorites were the crispy goat and all of the deserts. The kingfish was also yummy.

Sigh, it’s over. This is the end. I type this as we wait for our flight to Nairobi, then on to Amsterdam, and then on to New York. It’s been an incredible few years on these trips. Thanks to Alex, Layla, Sarah, and Gilda for a wild ride. Great friends, great trips.

Lady Boy Time, signing off. Continue reading

Lunch at Pim’s Restaurant

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Pim’s is an old restaurant on the side of Panecillo with a spectacular view of the city and surrounding volcanoes. Included with our tour bus tickets was a coupon for the house cocktail, which none of us could identify. It was blended. There was maybe cinnamon in it? Google was no help. Then the table started to shake, and we realized it was an earthquake. Unbeknownst to us at the time, people were killed/injured in a landslide. You can actually see some dust clouds in these photos, though I don’t think that landslide was near us. The food was good and cheap. Also, Layla finally got her fries, and they were $1.65.

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Dinner at Zazu, Quito

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Eating a fancy meal towards the end of the big trip has sort of become a tradition. I take the opportunity to drop all the food rules and eat whatever I want, which typically means raw salad greens. The LUXURY of it all. The stone crab claw ceviche was amazing; there were huge chunks of crab. Also, really delicious crispy calamari. Exiting around 1130pm we naively thought we could find a bar. Yep, no. Everything in Quito closes super early on Mondays. Or every day? Anyway, there was a cab waiting, so we skedaddled.

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Yong Kang Road, The French Concession, Shanghai

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On our last day in Asia we took it a little, ahem, easy. With Hazel’s advice from the night before, we made it finally to the French Concession, which not so surprisingly is the former home of French influence in Shanghai. Yong Kang Road has recently been taken over (re-taken over?) by westerners. It wants to remind you of Paris or London or perhaps New York, but really it’s China. It’s very cute. The man roasting unidentified food stuffs over on active fire in his push cart would be one signal it’s China, though. Another signal would be the Chinese woman leering out her second floor apartment just waiting until 10pm when all shops must be closed and everyone quiet, lest she dump water on you. Seriously, that last part was not made up.

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Layla turns 30, The Park Hyatt, Shanghai

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Of course what 30th birthday trip with friends would be complete without a 30th birthday party? We had long thought about staying at the Park Hyatt because of its amazing amenities and views (it’s the world’s tallest hotel) but had eventually looked elsewhere for space and location concerns. So obviously we had to still go!

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Dim Sum

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Finally! This was certainly a touristy spot, but I was OK with that for two reasons:

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Last Hours in Bangkok

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Nahm for dinner, drinks on the rooftop, and morning massage. Goodbye, Bangkok.

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New Year’s Night, Phuket

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We said farewell to Sirey Beach and Phuket in general with a dinner at an unnamed random family-owned restaurant walkable from our villa. They definitely brought us things CLOSE to what we ordered (basically, whatever Mamma was cooking), and they seemed to charge us Pharang (foreigner) rates, but it was lovely and much needed. Sure we were chased by wild dogs and had to dodge crabs on the beach, but that’s just part of staying in the jungle. You be you, Phuket. Until next time…

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Xihu State Guest House Restaurant

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Layla and I ended our Hangzhou time with a lunch at this totally in retrospect not for tourists restaurant. It was like in a walled off and guarded area once owned by some general or dignitary or something. The guard at the gate looked real confused, and our driver didn’t have anything to offer. I managed to communicate “lunch,” and we were in. As you can see we got numerous amazing weird dishes, tea and beers, really great views of the grounds, and of course Santa all for like $93 total.

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Hangzhou Day 1

These posts are going up late because China blocked my WordPress access, and my VPN, and Facebook, and now all of a sudden Gawker. This is turning into a Sally Field movie. But no matter! We woke at the butt crack of dawn and ventured out to see what this city was all about…
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Shanghai Night 1 Impressions

I’m always a little weirded out arriving in a new city at night, especially abroad. You can’t visualize the geography from the plane, and dark areas feel closed off.
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Well Shanghai was nothing like that. Continue reading