Monday, November 30, 2009

Restaurant Le Bec Fin - Philadelphia, PA

I had the pleasure of experiencing my first restaurant review with a local food critic and writer in Philadelphia. The restaurant of choice was Le Bec Fin; open since 1970 by Chef and owner Georges Perrier. It has since been handed off to current executive Chef Nicholas Elmi, We decided on the five-course classic degustation menu for a mere $50.

Amuse bouche: Sous-vide fennel with orange gelee
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This was an interesting amuse bouche. The fennel was quite nice, and the orange gelee was flavored with star anise. A bit too much gelatin was added, in my opinion. Can’t say it got my appetite going but it was okay.

Next up was the Hudson Valley Foie Gras ravioli with black truffle and sauce Périgord. Although I still haven’t had foie ravioli as good as I’ve had it at Taillevent, this dish was still a winner. However, I have to question if they use wonton wrappers for the ravioli skin…
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For the fish course, we were served Sautéed Limande, American Paddle Fish Caviar, Orange Scented Petite Nage. This dish was perfect. Really. It brought me back to France at first bite. The limande was perfectly cooked – very nicely crisped on the outside and perfectly moist and tender on the inside. It was well-seasoned and very flavorful. The lentilles were so deliciously clean and “al dente.” Orange-scented petite nage accented the dish extremely well. Fabulous.
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The Pan Roasted Petite Filet Mignon, Pomme Purée, and Sauce Bordelaise was generic and forgettable. I can appreciate meat and potatoes but this dish was a downgrade compared to the previous two dishes served. It was kind of like my meal at Plumed Horse in Saratoga, CA where we were served filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. That to me is home-cooking. Nothing really exciting here. I’m extremely surprised this was on the menu. I expected a nice gibier/quail, pigeon, duck, etc. Really, meat and mashed potatoes, again? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate simplicity when done correctly.

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The food critic was extremely disappointed with this dish describing it as terrible, inedible, and baby food on a plate. Her rare meat was overcooked and mashed potatoes were cold as well. They decided to take her plate to rewarm the potatoes – they took my plate as well so I wouldn’t be eating by myself. They returned both our plates a bit warmer (although the critics potatoes were still cold). I was quite surprised that they gave us the already eaten pieces of filets that were cooked even more since they rewarmed the plates. There was a thicker ring of gray meat that surrounded a pink center.

I remember when I was working in the South of France at a Michelin restaurant, if the dishes were brought out, and a customer had gotten up to go to the bathroom, the dishes were brought back to the kitchen and completely redone. New plate, new food (if needed), everything hot. Sauces redressed and everything (and these plates were dressed rather intricately). I am surprised that a restaurant of this caliber did not redress the plates with new food. The food critic decided that she could not eat her dish anymore. They asked if there was anything they could bring her; she requested a filet that was rare with simple roasted vegetables.

The last savory dish was the Field Green Salad with White Balsamic vinaigre and Walnut Oil. This was really undressed field greens on a plate. That’s it. There was NOTHING. I love salad but this was an afterthought. Also, the leaves of my salad were oxidized and browning on all edges. I was quite surprised considering the first thing you do as a cook starting out in fine-dining is pick herbs and salad leaves. If there is anything oxidized you cut it off. I wasn’t a big fan of the dressing either.

They switched out our salads for frisee – which was simply frisee on a plate. One of the servers felt it necessary to explain to us what frisee was which I found extremely odd.

We were offered an extra dish, a pre-dessert consisting of three dark chocolate spheres.
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They poured a warm chocolate sauce on top which melted the top part of the sphere, but left the bottom intact which was filled with diced pear. Good in my opinion, but a bit too rich for me. One sphere would have sufficed.

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At Le Bec-Fin, they have a dessert cart which is full of premade cakes and tartes. I opted for the dark chocolate cake with layers of milk chocolate. Not a big fan of milk chocolate, but the dark chocolate cake they offered was flourless (for the most part, I don’t particularly enjoy eating a big piece of dense fudge.) It came with a dollop of crème anglaise. This cake was rather light. It didn’t blow me away but it was good, and I appreciated the fact that it was not too sweet. (It’s a sin how much sugar they put in desserts here in America.)

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The food critic opted for a frozen Grand-Marnier soufflé. This was excellent. Really tasty with nice bits of orange zest throughout. It came with a raspberry colis which was very nice and fresh, and again not too sweet. In fact, not sweet at all, and very tangy. Nice balance with the frozen soufflé.

And finally the mignardises. The financier was way too sweet and tasted of almond extract. It also had no almond flour. The Madeleine was alright. The macaron was a bit hard and chewy and had an indistinguishable flavor (except for sugar). The dark chocolate rice krispie treat was nice.

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Overall, this meal was good and bad. The first two dishes were exceptional, but the rest of the meal was very forgettable. An extreme inconsistency for a tasting menu. They need to remove that meat dish off the menu. I mean look at what else they offer:

Milk Fed Veal Loin, Tête du Veau Crépinette, Chestnut Bread, Armagnac Macerated Prune

Pan Roasted Rib-Eye, Pommes Annette, Marrow Croquette, Sauce Bordelaise

Organic White Feathered Chicken, Lemon Barley Speätzle, Glazed Carrot, Coriander Jus

Rack of Colorado Lamb, Smoked Lamb Potato Terrine, Tomato Conserve, Zucchini Mint Puree

Chicory Roasted Loin of Venison, Vanilla Scented Cranberry Bean, Black Trumpet Mushroom, Asian Pear, Acorn Squash, Sauce Poiverade

Suprême de Squab, Rutabaga, Sorrel, Red Beet Reduction, Elderflower Jus


Much more interesting, n’est-ce pas ? I’m not much of a stickler on service because I know how tough their job is (I could never do it!); however, the service was attentive but slightly obstrusive since they kept interrupting our conversation (if not standing close to our table listening to our conversation). I would also like to add that the food critic opted for the wine pairings which were very very good.

Will I come back? Probably but I would pick from the A La Carte Menu, or perhaps the Fall Tasting Menu as the dishes are much more interesting.

Le Bec-Fin
1523 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 567-1000

Friday, November 27, 2009

Vetri Restaurant

For my belated birthday celebration, Raf took me to dine at Vetri Restaurant for the Grand Tasting menu. I've used Marc Vetri's pasta recipe at my last job, and have heard a lot of hype about the place, competing with Mario Batali's restaurant, Babbo for being one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States. I have been anxiously waiting to eat here. Sadly, the lighting was so dim, I couldn't get any decent photos.

First, we were offered a very nice glass of Prosecco.
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I managed to drink most of it (hooray for my tolerance!)
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For the canapes and amuse bouche, we had a beignet with shaved lardon, squash fritter, and foie gras pastrami with fruit mustard. The beignet and squash were oozing with oil. You know when you microwave something already fried like a fried sesame ball, and the oil oozes out of it? It was like that. I ate the lardon, but didn't finish the beignet or squash fritter. The flavor of the foie pastrami was DELICIOUS except for the fact that mine was way too tempered - it was almost lukewarm. The foie flavor was slightly overpowered by the pastrami flavor, but nonetheless, it was good. Raf's piece was the right temperature. We also had a celeriac soup paired with a lukewarm Spanish tortilla.

Next was the Nantucket scallop crudo with grapefruit - which was what you'd expect from a scallop crudo. Don't get me wrong, it was fresh and light, but I feel a little bit bored with all the crudos, tartares, ceviches out there. I'll stick with sashimi when I eat Japanese, and ceviches when I eat Peruvian. Or maybe it was because at my last job, we had some type of raw tuna (or other fish) almost every week on the tasting menus which got old fast.

Next was the signature golden sweet onion crepe with white truffle fondue. The crepe was baked until crisp - something we did at Crillon in Paris. In the middle, it was filled with slowly caramelized onions. Really don't know where the white truffle fondue was since the flavor was nowhere to be found. Raf enjoyed this dish more than I did.

The almond dusted sweetbreads with chestnut crema was very good. Although the sweetbreads were not crispy, they were nicely cooked and tender. I absolutely love sweetbreads!

A big winner of a dish was the spinach gnocchi with shaved parmesan and brown butter. The gnocchi was rusticly plated. These were the best gnocchi I've had. Very nice spinach flavor and extremely delicate. The texture was fabulous - not too chewy or gummy. Ummmmm, and browned butter. One of the best things in life. A very rich dish - I was done after a couple of them.

Next came two pasta dishes. The strozzprette with seafood (mussels and octopus) was perfection. The pasta was perfectly cooked (nothing beats home-made pasta!). The mussels were plump and juicy, and the octopus tender and flavorful. The tagliatelle with turkey bolognese was okay in our opinion - but that was probably due to the fact that we ate that after the strozzprette. It should have been served beforehand since it was a lighter dish. The tagliatelle was a bit too soft also.

Last but not least was the baby goat with soft polenta. The slow braised goat meat was meltingly tender with pieces of perfectly salty crispy skin atop a dollop of polenta. Again, rusticly plated and very hearty. One of those comfort foods I could see myself craving for in the future.

Last, was dessert. The chocolate polenta souffle (more like a chocolate polenta cake) was very rich and dense. Great use of polenta. Thumbs up for preserving the flavor and richness of chocolate rather than loading it with sugar. Texture was nice too.

Persimmon rice pudding was great as well. Thick and creamy arborio rice with sweet dice of persimmon.

By the time the mignardise came, we were beyond stuffed. But of course, we had to taste a little bite of everything. The biscotti was good. I don't remember much about the other cookies provided. They also served opera which was nicely done. And a cannelé Bordelais which was terrible. Really terrible. Like black and burnt, throw it at someone's head and it would feel like a rock terrible. With the variety of mignardise provided, I was surprised that they would even serve that. Well, large variety aside, something that burnt and hard should not be served to a customer in this type of establishment.

But overall, the meal was very good. A couple things I noticed was chopped parsley in every dish, and no vegetables. Well, besides onions, and two pieces of arugula, there were no vegetables. Maybe it's because I am from Cali where fresh farm produce is plentiful and abundantly used and celebrated in restaurants. I don't know - I do love my meat and carbs, but I still need my veggies. Regardless, it was a very rich, flavorful menu. Service was friendly, attentive, and unobstrusive. It is a bit tough for me to compare the cuisine to authentic Italian food since my travels to Italy thus far are limited to 7 days in 2 cities - I would be very curious to have the opinion of my foodie writer/friend Aaron (creator and former author of A Life Worth Eating) who is "Team Italy" as I like to say. Will we be back? For $360, probably not, but I am glad to have finally dined here and enjoyed the experience very much.

Vetri Restaurant
1312 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 732-3478

Intercourse, Pennsylvania

Decided to spend the afternoon in Intercourse, Pennsylvania (yes, it's real) and Lancaster to see the Amish country.

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Look! Amish pho! (Just kidding)
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In other news, I OD'd on espresso today. I bought some coffee from La Colombe that was really good. I probably had an equivalent to 6 shots this morning. I was nauseous the entire day, and even dry-heaved. So yes, never again! Lesson learned.

Because I have awesome friends

I was surprised with this wonderful little video Amir made for me. We listened to Jack Johnson and Sublime the entire time. It was awesome.



Obrigada, Amir ! You are the bestest!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Gobble Gobble Day !

This is not a turkey.
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It's an 8,5 lb organic free-range capon I got from the Reading Terminal Market! I didn't know the word for castrated rooster in French. I was trying to explain it to Raf's grandparents on Skype - they couldn't hear me very well, so I ended up yelling at the computer "Coq castré ! Coq castré !" hahahaha! (Now I know it's chapon).

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We dined and drank wine until 6pm.

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Raf and his dad decided to go watch 2012, while I went to see New Moon. Boy did they miss out ! Team Jacob ! (Did I write that publicly?!)

Anyway, we came back in time to have dessert of pumpkin tarte and vanilla ice-cream. Yum.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving shopping @ Reading Terminal Market

Chaos, but a relatively quick and efficient check-out. Thumbs up for that.
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Delicious pretzels made by the Amish
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My hands full of groceries, so grabbed a cab back home.
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Dutch Eating Place - Philadelphia, PA

Had to see what all the hype was about.

Ginormous blueberry pancakes, a lot of butter, turkey bacon, scrambled eggs, and fresh squeezed OJ.
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This meal was pretty damn good. Wonderful, light, fluffy pancakes. *Drool* And that turkey bacon was tasty as well. A+ for fresh squeezed OJ. I'd definitely come back here.

Dutch Eating Place
Reading Terminal
1136 Arch St
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 922-0425

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Eastcoast <3

Despite the hell I went through with American Airlines, I finally made it to Philadelphia, one red-eye later. I already miss Brasil and it's beautiful beaches and fun in the sun, but Philadelphia is beautiful, especially in this crispy, fall weather.

Rittenhouse Square
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Friday, November 20, 2009

American Airlines SUCKS! Warning: profanity ahead

Brasil was definitely one of the most memorable trips. Unfortunately, American Airlines was part of those memories in an extremely negative way. I went through hell with American Airlines. I don't even know where to start. In fact, I've spent way too much time dealing with American Airlines bullshit, I'm just going to make bullet points on why they suck so bad.

*I would also like to note how patient I am in terms of dealing with rude and/or incompetent people. Two years in a kitchen (French kitchen, too!) will teach you to be patient and hold your tongue! You can imagine how much it will take to really get me angry. American Airlines was successful! Cheers to you, AA fuckers !

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4 Nov 2009
- Arrived at SFO. Had problems printing out my ticket from the automated machine in front. Approached three AA representatives for help. They were too busy having a personal conversation to acknowledge my existence. Turned around irritated and walked up to the front desk. Another AA rep walked by. I said "excuse me, this machine is not printing out my ticket." He says to another rep "machines not working" and runs off. The other AA rep didn't even hear him. I am right in front of another dumb AA rep and say "EXCUSE ME, I have been here for 10 minutes. Can you please help me print out my ticket?" She reluctantly helps me print my ticket. Yah thank you for your kind service.

- Finally board the plane. Settled in. But wait, let's delay the plane an hour due to a technical difficulty. Okay fine. It happens, better on land right? Or maybe quality control can put in a little more effort.
- Arrive in Miami late. Miss connecting flight to Brasil. Fuck. Rude AA rep gives me a voucher for 1 hotel night, $10 for dinner, $5 for breakfast and $10 for lunch. At the hotel and/or airport.
- Next available flight is 9PM THE NEXT DAY.

5 Nov 2009
- Check out time is noon. There is no way in hell that I am spending the next 8 hours at the airport. Pay an extra $70 for a room extension. Not going to eat the crappy food at the hotel. What is $10 going to get you at the airport? French fries? Spend more money on cab and lunch (cheap actually, $12 Cuban food).
- Despite spending more money out of my own pocket, I arrive to the airport 2 hours early. The only positive aspect of this situation so far is that one of the nice and competent managers, Daniel Gonzalez, at Miami airport kindly bumped me to business class as well as on a shorter flight. He made sure my luggage made it as well, and informed me to contact AA online for reimbursement.

6 Nov 2009
- Finally made it to Recife. Missed a day of vacation and a couple scheduled events. Luggage made it okay. Thanks Daniel Gonzalez. I think the AA BS is over.

18 Nov 2009
- Scheduled flight time: 11h35 AM. Boarded on time. More technical difficulties. Surprise surprise. Does AA even have a quality control department? Mechanics? Engineers? Anyone? Asked a flight attendant that I can't keep missing flights each time I fly American. He tells me honestly that we aren't flying out today. Despite this, we were all forced to stay on the plane until 2h30 PM.
- Deboard the plane. Told to get reticketed at the AA check-in counters. CLUSTERFUCK of a line. Wanted to make a phone call ASAP - literally spent an hour with all my luggage running back and forth between information, store selling phone cards, and the telephone booth to try and reach my "extended family" in Brasil.
- Wait in line for an hour at AA customer service. Another customer exchanged his ticket there with no problems. He got on a flight back to Dallas same day. When I reached the counter, the girl there said I have to wait in the CLUSTERFUCK of a line first to receive vouchers, then get reticketed. WHAT THE FUCK?
- Wait in the clusterfuck of a line for 30 minutes. Reach the check-in counter. Receive voucher for hotel but NO TICKET. The girl there tells me that I have to show up tomorrow to get a ticket, and for the moment, they want everyone to be comfortable in a hotel. WHAT THE FUCK? I don't NEED A HOTEL, I NEED A PLANE TICKET BACK HOME.
- Wait in line for another 15 minutes at the AA customer service desk to try and get ticketed. The girl there tells me I missed the last flight to Sao Paolo, which then flies into SFO at the same time my original flight would have made it in. Then tells me to show up tomorrow to get a ticket, or to call AA. WHAT THE FUCK? Why didn't you just assign me the ticket before? Idiot.
- ALL the AA reps tell me they don't have authorization to give me a ticket and/or upgrade despite the fact that I saw them print out tickets for customer before me. What a bunch of assholes. Had I known I was waiting 3 hours for stupid hotel voucher, I would have taken off early and tried to enjoy the rest of the day in Recife.
- Thankfully, I had the address of Amir's place. With a simple thumbs up, got a taxi on his way to his place. The taxi driver didn't know where the street was. So with my broken Portuguese, I showed him that my left arm was the beach in Boa Viagem/praia and right arm was the street/rua. Parallel. HAH.
- I hadn't eaten since 8h30 this morning. It is now around 5h30PM. - Finally reach Amir's place. Knock on door. Surprised faces. WTF?
- Spent an hour on the phone trying to get ticketed and upgraded. I was cordial at this moment since I thought that being a bitch wouldn't persuade them to help me more. I also learned that No AA representative AND/OR SUPERVISOR HAS THE AUTHORIZATION TO DO UPGRADES - not even in the UPGRADE division! WOW, that makes complete sense! In other words, they are lying and don't give a shit about their customers.
- I have a flight to Philadelphia in the morning on the 20th. Because this flight was delayed, I won't have an extra day in California to take care of errands and things like that.

19 Nov 2009
- Arrive at the airport to a clusterfuck of people. How the hell are they going to ticket everyone and also have the plane depart on time?!

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- Waited another two hours to sort out the ticketing shit. Spoke with a manager that accomadated a couple with a hotel voucher, free upgrade, and $800 flight voucher if they flew the next day. Manager then told me that I can't do that. Then we call him out and ask why he did that for the other customers. He gives in and says he will try to accomadate me if I don't make the flight.
- More waiting around. I try to make my flight anyway. They give me a ticket, and I rush to security. At this time, I have 15 minutes to make my flight.
- I can't get through security because dumbass AA forgot to put a scanned code on my ticket. Security tries calling AA but their dumbasses didn't respond. I SPRINTED to the ticketing counter to get that sticker.
- Now I have 8 minutes to make my flight.
- I get through security. The flight is delayed an hour. I'm going to miss my connecting flight to SFO, and be stuck in Miami for another night.
- I see the other manager named Bastus/Pastis (whatever, he's an asshole). I ask him if he guarantees I'm going to make my connection. He guarantees it despite the fact that I would have 40 minutes to get to my connecting flight if the plane left right away. At this point, I rushed my ass to the plane.
- Flight is delayed longer. By the time I get to Miami, I am waiting in a LONG LINE in customs. After customs, I am SPRINTING to check in my luggage to SFO.
- Airport rep tells me that I missed my flight. She checks again and tells me it's been delayed.
- I am SPRINTING as fast as I can to the gate. I tell the AA rep at the counter how American Airlines has fucked me over x 10. He says he would gladly upgrade me but business class is full. HOW COME ONLY THE AA REPRESENTATIVES IN THE MIAMI AIRPORT HAVE AUTHORIZATION TO DO UPGRADES? It's because the rest of the AA reps are liars.
- Get on delayed flight #9034898723409803948. Reach SFO around 11h15 PM.
- AMERICAN AIRLINES LOSES MY LUGGAGE.
- AA rep tells me that the luggage will be on the next flight to SFO and arrive at 10AM. They typically have a 5 HOUR window as to when your suitcase will be delivered.
- I have to catch a flight to Philadelphia the next morning at 11h30AM! The AA rep then says "we can ship the luggage to Philadelphia, then you don't need to pack anything." I then explain to her that weather is really different in Philadelphia than it is in Brasil. I have to pay an extra $20 to check in an extra suitcase, and expense that the AA rep says they WON'T pay for even though it's their fault.
- Leave the airport around 12 AM.
- Stay up until 5am sorting out errands and packing.

20 Nov 2009
- Call AA luggage center at 8AM. THEY HAVE NO IDEA where my suitcase is.
- Call AA luggage center at 9AM. THEY HAVE NO IDEA where my suitcase is.
- Call AA luggage center at 10AM. THEY HAVE NO IDEA where my suitcase is.
- Call AA luggage center at 11AM. They *think* the suitcase is still in Miami. It will be flown to SFO. WHY? The forwarding address is in Philadelphia. I told the rep it makes NO SENSE. She tells me that no one looks at the updated information until the suitcase is sent to the original destination. American Airlines - you are so SMRT. S-M-R-T. Let's fly a suitcase from Miami --> SFO --> Philadelphia instead of direct. Because it's efficient! (Insert sarcasm).
- Call AA luggage center at 12PM. (Yah, I also miss my flight to Philly. I blame it on bad karma and traffic). They tell me my suitcase will be flown in at 12AM in Philadelphia. Perfect, I can pick it up at the airport. Given $50 allowance for toiletries and clothes. Air France's allowance = unlimited. I guess I can buy a toothbrush, some lotion, and some underwear.

21 Nov 2009
- Red-eye to Philadelphia. Arrive around 6AM. Call AA - the rep tells me the luggage center is closed and to find a ticketing rep for AA. It's a terminal away, I'm tired, and I can't find any AA reps to help me. Fuck this.
- Call AA around 9AM. My suitcase is not even at the Philadelphia airport yet. Thank goodness I didn't walk to the other terminal and waste more time.
- Call AA around 1 PM. Suitcase is in Philadelphia airport somewhere. To be delivered between 1h30 PM - 6PM.
- Didn't receive luggage until 10h30 PM. Two days without my luggage.- Don't even want to think about how many hours I wasted with these fools. The only way to receive a response about any of this is to go online and submit an email. I'm sure I will receive a response (insert sarcasm again).

Conclusion:
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Check out this excerpt from the Feldman Blog:

"Rude,crude employees—Need To Be Fired, Or Dropped Out Of Planes

Time to give serious thought to taking some American Airlines employees and dropping them from some of the planes –though that would be hard to do considering the planes are grounded for inspection.

A friend relates a horror story of trying to get American to pick up the phone to resolve a travel issue, only to be met with seemingly endless waits and then rude employees who either hang up on you or treat you like dirt.

The calls allegedly are recorded by the company…American should listen to each and everyone and fire the employees who treated customers badly."

Just google American Airlines sucks. Plenty more information there.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Peter goes to the beach

This morning we brought Peter (pronounced Pee-teh) to the beach. He's kind of a bitch. He bit me when I first came, and he also growls at you like he's going to attack if you pet him for too long. But of course, he's always friendly at breakfast time. Anyway, I'm such a crazy dog lady that I still liked the lil sh*t.

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He has a nice assortment of ties as well.
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He's having so much fun!


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Crazy dog


On our way home, we got some agua de coco and made him a little water bowl.
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After the beach, I enjoyed my "last" breakfast with my new Brasilian family.
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This was supposed to be my last day in Brasil...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Grannies house for dinner

Miraculously, we made it to grannies house for dinner despite the ridiculously enormous lunch we had. Two wonderful and abundant meals in one day. Life is good.

First course - lobster salad
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Grandma actually prepared picanha as well but considering how much we had eaten earlier, she decided to skip it. Although I don't doubt that it was fabulous, I think her decision was a good idea.

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With grams
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I had been warned about the amount of food as well as how great of a cook she is. She prepared many family recipes. I guess the cooking gene runs in the family! Dinner was delicious, and everyone was so friendly. It was great that they could speak several languages so we communicated in mostly English and some Spanish.

Bon app !
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Spettus Restaurant - Recife, Brasil

Today Amir brought me to eat at Spettus, a restaurant specializing in rodízio and considered one of the best in Recife. I've always wanted to eat at a churrascaria since they have plenty in California, but what better way to enjoy it for the first time than in Brasil ?

The restaurant is quite large and can have up to 700 covers a night at full capacity (which it has been, according to one of the servers). The service is superb, and the food plentiful and FRESH.

We had everything from Argentinian beef, chicken wrapped in bacon, grilled chicken hearts, lamb chops, ribs, AMAZING garlic picanha, and the list goes on. The meat is always served warm and properly cooked. The salad bar is endless, as well as the seafood, sushi, fried bananas and marcaxeira, and non-meat stations full of pasta and other goodies.

And might I add, they had the best cheese bread EVER. Oh my god - I could eat just a whole basket of these and be satisfied.

Sadly, we had some camera malfunctions and didn't get any fabulous photos of the food and restaurant. These photos were pulled directly from the website.

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I think I might have food coma.
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Amir and his buddy, Aristide
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It was ridiculous how much food there was. The variety was so enormous, there was no way I could try everything even if I took one bite. I guess that means I have to come back. =) It was so delicious!

Spettus Boa Viagem
Av. Eng. Domingos Ferreira 1500
Boa Viagem, Recife - PE, 51111-020

São José Market Part II

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Fresh river crabs
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Extracting sugar cane juice
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