Archive for the ‘Food Experiences’ Category
Saturday, March 29th, 2008 |
From my experience traveling to New York City is never complete without dining in one of the more unique restaurants within Manhattan, the 21 Club, 21 West 52nd Street, New York, New York 10019.
Once a glamorous speakeasy, today ‘21′ is one of the most celebrated restaurants in New York City. In addition to its two restaurants, the Bar Room and ‘Upstairs’, this four-story townhouse features ten private party rooms ideal for celebrations, meetings and banquets, including the legendary Prohibition-era Wine Cellar.
My wife and I dined Upstairs at 21 and had one of the finest dining experiences you can have. Our waiter, Christopher, was by far the best waiter, and I hesitate to call him that, I have ever seen. Although calling him simple a waiter is like calling the Mona Lisa a paint by numbers painting. He exceeded every expectation we had.
He seemed to read our minds because he was right there whenever we needed his services and provided the right wine with hardly a description from us of what we wanted. He escorted my wife down the steep stairs when she went to the restroom. He took our picture before dinner and took another after dinner, only after clearing the table and putting down a clean table cloth.
The food was excellent, I had the salmon and thought it was cooked to perfection. The upstairs area is small but not cramped. You get special service, as provided by Christopher, while in the upstairs area. The cost of each meal was $40 which include appetizer, main course and dessert.
There are many places to have a delicious meal in New York City but few give the level of service provided by the 21 Club. Thank you, Christopher. We hope to stop by on our next trip to New York this summer!
If you make your reservation online you get free champagne, which we did.
Oh, and we saw Spamalot after dinner and were entertained. Clay Aiken did a good job as Sir Robin.
Posted in Food Experiences, Happy Experiences, Travel Experiences | No Comments »
Sunday, March 9th, 2008 |
From my experience sushi should be judged by quality, not quantity.
There are times when you crave a quantity of SUSHI and you feel the need to go to one of those “All You Can Eat” buffets in town that has SUSHI . D-O-N-’-T!!!! According to the Health Department, these places will not have the best fish or the best storing conditions for what you will be served.
I will just say, quality will win every time. My favorite QUALITY SUSHI Restaurants here in Richmond, VA are Haru Sushi in the Village Shopping Center and Akida on Robinson in the Fan. If you are in the area, you will be pleased with the freshness, creativity, and most of all SAFETY of the food!
Posted in Food Experiences | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 |
From my experience, if you are just learning how to cook, it’s definitely best to follow the recipe and use the actual ingredients it calls for.
One of my first attempts at cooking involved a book that boasted easy recipes and a recipe for Shrimp Scampi. Seemed easy enough - use pre-shelled shrimp from the grocery store and add a few more ingredients. Well, the recipe called for garlic…actual cloves of garlic or minced garlic.
Being the poor, just out of college girl I was, I decided to use garlic powder since I had it in the house. Needless to say, it didn’t work and the dish tasted like dead rats. My poor roommate decided to be nice and eat her portion, despite the fact that I couldn’t hack my own cooking and had to throw it out. I vowed never to make that recipe again and 5 years later, I’m still scampi free…
Adrienne
Posted in Food Experiences, Funny Experiences | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2008 |
From my experience, my friends and I can eat hot dogs more quickly than most people would assume.
It was the summer of 2003, and Eggy, Hot Nickels and I were coping with living under our parents’ roofs again. We had just finished our freshman years of college and had developed quite a taste for the sweet freedom of late nights and no supervision. The old high school jobs, girlfriends, and haunts seemed trifling in comparison to the debauchery and excess to which we had grown accustomed, and so when I saw the ad for the Chadds Ford Tavern’s annual hot dog eating contest, I was more than a little excited. It so clearly belonged to the world we now knew, the world of dorm cafeteria milk chugging challenges, drunken sledding, and Red Bull fueled all-night cram sessions.
Now, Hot Nickels is a man with large appetites for the greasier and unholier things in life, so I knew he would be easily convinced. I called him and explained the rules, 5pm, $10 to enter, 20 minutes to gorge, winner takes 1/2 the entrance money. His reaction was pitch perfect. “I mean, I’d pay $10 for all the hot dogs I could eat anyway, so I might as well try to make a buck.” Eggy, on the other hand, is the kind of guy who will place a dollar bet on who can land a loogie closest to a fire hydrant, so, while he knew that Hot Nickels would be the odds-on favorite among our crew, he couldn’t resist trying his hand.
As the event neared, it became the sole topic of conversation in our late night bull sessions. We talked strategy (I insisted that slow and steady would win the race, while Hot Nickels championed the “all out eating assault” method, but he could never explain what that actually meant), training regimens (I was certain that drinking mass quantities of water in the days leading up to it would expand my stomach, though I never actually followed through on it), and who our likely competition would be (”we better be ready fellas, because I’m sure the best eaters come from all over state to compete”). The day arrived, and Hot Nickels picked us both up in his wood-paneled Cutlass Cruiser and drove us into the Tavern’s parking lot. We were surprised that the lot had plenty of empty spots for what was, in our minds, a very big deal.
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Posted in Food Experiences, Funny Experiences | 3 Comments »
Sunday, October 7th, 2007 |
From my first time experience at wine tasting I have some good advice. Don’t drink everything you are given. True, the tasting amounts are small, but tasting dozens and dozens of wines can add up. Especially if you are wine tasting for a few hours.
I went to a Fredericksburg wine tasting festival this weekend (10/7/07) and there were 10 or so wineries represented. Each winery had about 10 - 20 wines each so there was a lot to taste. It pays to pace yourself and understand you are going to be sipping a lot of wines and you want to taste from each winery. Here is some good advice, once you find out what you don’t like, as in Chardonnay, then don’t keep tasting it at other booths. After the fourth Chardonnay I realized I don’t like them, no matter what winery is producing them. Luckily it only took 3 tastings to firmly convince myself I don’t like Merlot either. Halfway through I quit tastings red wines altogether. I don’t like them without food and it was giving me a bad impression so that I was afraid I was going to convince myself I don’t like red wine at all.
So I stayed to tasting just the blended wines and the white wines and was very happy with my choices.
Since this was my first time and I know nothing about wines I used it as an experience to discover what I do like. I marked down all the wines that I liked, regardless of price (the average price was about $15 per bottle). At the end of the day I have discovered 4 wines I really liked and about 3 more that could grow on me. I found I don’t like dry wines as much and I really like blended wines, which I wasn’t familiar with before I went.
Wines I bought and the wineries:
I also thought it was good that I went to a festival so I could try many winery offerings. There was one winery there that I didn’t like any of the wines from, including their white wines. What a disappointment that would have been to visit that winery and not like anything I tasted. So first a first try at wine tasting a wine festival is a great way to go.
Additionally at a wine tasting festival, you can cover more ground so to speak and tasted more wine in a short amount of time. Walking to the next tent takes one minute, while driving between wineries can talk 30 minutes or more.
I did buy quite a few wines while there, including some red which my wife liked especially. See the picture and let me know if you see any you recognize. This festival was in Fredericksburg, Va and the wines were all Virginia wines.
Posted in Food Experiences, Hobby Experiences | 5 Comments »
Monday, September 3rd, 2007 |
From my experience, it is a good thing to save money and get free food and I just sent away for a coupon from for a free chicken sandwich and a coke from Chick-Fil-A. You can too, just go to this site http://www.freechickenandcoke.com. This offer ends on September 29, 2007 or after 1,000,000 coupons have been distributed, so you better hurry.
Oh, don’t expect to go get it right away. The coupon takes 6 - 8 weeks for delivery, just enough time to build up an appetite. 
Posted in Financial Experiences, Food Experiences | 5 Comments »
Sunday, August 19th, 2007 |
From my experience ginger pills with ginger root are an excellent home remedy for an upset stomach and sea sickness. I saw an episode of MythBusters that did a test to see which remedy (other home remedies and over the counter medicine) worked the best for sea sickness and ginger capsules won hands-down. It was the only cure that worked without side-effects. So I decided to try it on my first week long cruise and it worked wonderfully. Since then I have taken 2 ginger pills (1,100 mg) whenever I begin to get an upset stomach or feel nauseous and without fail the ginger pills have taken care of all the symptoms.
I have convinced my family of the effectiveness of ginger pills and they take them at the first tummy pain. Give them a try, I highly endorse them. I can’t recommend a brand other than Nature’s Way, because that is all I have ever taken. You can find Nature’s Way Ginger Root if you want to try ginger pills for yourself. They can be hard to find at local shops.
Read more here to see why ginger root works. Of course wikipedia has an entry on Ginger.
Posted in Food Experiences, Health Experiences, Medical Experiences | 2 Comments »
From my experience traveling to New York City is never complete without dining in one of the more unique restaurants within Manhattan, the 21 Club, 21 West 52nd Street, New York, New York 10019.
