Jumped on a short 2 day workshop for a major customer here.  The flight time for the trip is equal to the time in town.

Weather is amazingly warm and wonderful.  Sydney is very walkable (at least, the downtown area).

Managed to creep up to Chinatown in a roundabout way, found this restaurant called Mamak.  This definitely warranted a lunch stop.  It didn’t disappoint, wonderful food, if a bit expensive.  Come to think of it, everything is expensive here.  A regular can of soda cost AUD$3.20 ?!  Anyways, tried the curry lamb, sambal shrimp, fried rice and a regular roti canai.  All good stuff.  Like the name implies, the place focuses only on a limited range of Malaysian food – specifically, selections of the more popular mamak-style food.  Great business decision, serve only a few things but cook them well.  Was told that this was the best Malaysian restaurant in town, what luck!!

Took the red-eye flight across the country to make it here in the late morning for another convention.  Surprised myself by sleeping through most of the flight.

Weather is fantastic! Warm, humid and rainy.  A lot like Seattle, except much warmer … a couple days later … Weather here is wacky.  Cool day, then a sudden heavy downpour which almost immediately goes away.  Granted I’m not watching the weather news at all.

Fabulous meal at Le Coq Au Vin – kicked off the meal with seared ahi appetizer, a half portion of the cassoulet and polished off the grand marnier souffle for dessert.  This place is so good, I came back the next night.  This time, started off with the chicken sausage gumbo followed by the lobster topped grouper (this was amazing).  Their creme brulee was just average by comparison.

Capped off the last dinner of the week at Capital Grille – a high-end steak chain.  What do you expect? Excellent service, great food.  The lobster & crab cake appie was quite impressive and delicious.  They have dedicated wine lockers for regular patrons – one of them was listed as Warren Sapp (retired NFL player, I assume).

Hopped to go on a last minute trip to Denver, CO.  It was snowing when the plane landed, wet, slushy sleet.  And 2 days later, it still is snowing.  Most of it melted but it is enough to make things wet and cold.  All this traveling is really cutting into the time I need to devote to getting the new house fixed up properly and move in.

Can’t really say I’ve seen much of Denver, cooped up in the hotel room and it’s miserable outside.

Dinner at Panzano was decent – it is the restaurant inside the Hotel Monaco.  I had the duck leg main course – served over polenta.  Not sure if that was the best choice.  Would have preferred risotto instead.  Forgot how fatty duck was, especially those legs but the meat was delicious, if a little salty.  Dessert was capped off with the tiramisu, excellent stuff, almost as good as the homemade original tiramisu I had a while back in Bulgaria.

Rioja – nicely located in what looks like the most happening parts of downtown Denver.  Classified as mediterranean cuisine, it stands out as a organic, fresh, green, eco-friendly joint.  Not that it matters to me, I just want good food.  And good it was.  The calamari appetizer has a nice lime flavor.  The flatbread with carmelized onions and other stuff (it had me at the onions) is extremely tasty.  I stuck with another serving of duck (the breast) and it turned out to be significantly better than what I had at Panzano.  Dessert was topped off with a hazelnut something something, looked fantastic, tasted great but I was too stuffed from prior plates.  My short term memory isn’t what it used to be.  Great presentation on all the food.  Pretty busy place for a Thursday night.  Reservations are made online.

Got to hate convention food – overpriced, tasteless crap and you really have no choice.  What’s worse is the lack of cleanliness.  Saw the cook and attendant at one Mexican food corner touch the food without gloves and without cleaning their hands after moving about.  Sigh.

Another project brought me here.  My hotel reward points are now slowing spreading out evenly between both Radisson and Marriott chains… bleh.

Winter is always an interesting time to travel, never know what to expect.

Riga is one of the better eastern european cities I’ve been to.  Ate mostly in the hotel simply because it was too cold to walk out in the evenings.

However, I did manage to make it to restaurant in the Berg hotel.  Simply amazing, great food.

Didn’t have time to take a tour of the city, maybe next time.

Am exhibiting at a show at Amsterdam – a week of long hours which starts m on a Fri through the weekend into the following Wed.  Organizers didn’t seem to think this through very well.  The show was from 9 to 6pm daily – quite painful if there’s little chance of a break.

In any case, we (my colleagues and I) rented bicycles as it was a lot quicker to navigate around town compared to taxis or the tram system – with 1000’s of people for this event, it’s a long long wait for anything.

Exhibition food services were the usual overpriced fare, but actually tasty. For the tiny size of the booth, there seemed to be a constant flow of traffic, kept things very busy.

Managed to catch up with old friends one night over dinner, wine, lots of talking.

The hotel I stayed in, had just the basics, was very worn down, tight room with an even smaller bathroom (I think this hotel room is the smallest I’ve ever stayed in).  No fitness center, was about to throw myself into the canal.

From the helpful viamichelin site, there were a few outstanding restaurants that we managed to find.  A couple that stuck in my mind:

Tempo Doeloe – an Indonesian restaurant that’s constantly packed.  One tiny shop lot sized establishment.  Great food, tasty, delicious and for some dishes, extremely spicy, just the way I like it.  The rijstaffel menu gave a decent selection of entrees, although the serving sizes were in tiny bowls.

De Compagnon – This place deserves a honorable mention and is about as highly recommended as I can make it.  The food here is superb, a small hole in the wall place off the main “touristy” streets.  Located in the heart of Amsterdam, overlooking the canal.  We took the 5 course pairing dinner and every plate was excellently presented while tasting even better.  A mix of meats and seafood.  The icing on the cake was dessert.  It was called Pot au feu … ice cream in a little pot that was baked with pastry on top, just wonderful.  I will definitely be back here again the next chance I get.

Am in Lafayette, Louisiana this week for work. Since I’m here, I’d sample the local cuisine!

Blue Dog Cafe – for dinner, I had a cup of seafood gumbo and the fried tilapia filet. Wasn’t too bad, fish could have been tastier (on second thought, I shouldn’t have had the tilapia). Gumbo was alright, expected better, maybe one with sausage next time. Service is excellent and the decor is quite nice. The bread came with honey garlic butter (it tastes better than it sounds).

Prejeans – Top scores for decor, I could get used to this look. Air conditioning works everywhere around here, it’s so hot, that’s a good thing. Ate the crab cakes for lunch. It’s one of the best I’ve tasted, simply wow, has a bit of crawfish in it, which makes a world of difference. The crab cake came with this odd round fried thing that had some okra sauce on it, looked like eggplant inside. It wasn’t the best thing to chew on. On the other hand, dirty rice is quite tasty. Had the southern fried catfish for another lunch visit, along with a cup of their gumbo. It’s pretty good (the gumbo). Perhaps I was tired of all the fried foods, the catfish was crispy and tasty but I never finished it.

Cafe Vermillionville – Haven’t eaten out this well in a long time. This upscale restaurant is in a big old house. Looks fantastic, great atmosphere. I thought I was stepping into a B&B. Being a weeknight, service was excellent, there were hardly anyone in the restaurant – a couple, small family and a larger table of friends. Could hear all the conversations. Tried the appetizer sampler. Deep-fried cajun alligator tail … not bad, a tastier squid. The crab cake was a little too mushy, slimy … it oozed every time I cut into it. Prejeans has a much better crab cake (I like it chewy and packed with goodness). The small bite of sausage was pretty good and some stuffed crawfish fried ball thing was decent too. The entree was a 6oz filet mignon. Remember, most restaurants (non-steak specialists) will overcook their meat … so I asked for mine to be medium rare. It came out just slightly under medium, no blood. Suits me fine, soft and tender, topped with some kind of crawfish sauce as well.

One thing I’ve noticed is that, all these restaurants serve excellent bread! It’s a universal trait – fresh, hot and crumbly crust with soft innards.

Hub City Diner – had breakfast here before leaving. Nice place, great 50’s diner look-feel-style. Food as expected, it’s breakfast, what do you expect? This place gets busy tho, tried to come here for lunch and it was packed.

A few words about the places I’ve eaten here so far…

Peach Farm
Typical Chinese restaurant, has a good reputation for seafood. Ordered the peking duck (came in 2 dishes), lobster, veggies and tofu. Compared to Seattle fare, it’s about the same, I still like Newstar better (in Seattle) and other places in Vancouver.

Legal Seafoods
A well-known chain. Food was ok, had a crappy appetizer (shrimp rolls) and the lobster entree was interesting enough, hard to go wrong with lobster. I’d say it’s about par with Anthony’s Home Port (in Seattle) which means it’s nowhere close to the quality of Palisade. Lobster entree came with a cup of soup, I picked the fish chowder. It tasted like fish congee, I liked it. Dessert was Bananas Foster. The one at Blue Onion Bistro is the best I’ve had.

The best of all is this dessert in the Westin-Waltham – Molten Lava Chocolate Cake. Rich chocolate cake with thick chocolate sauce, coupled with vanilla ice cream. Really rich, sweet and yummy. The hotel is nothing to shout about, showing signs of age (wear and tear) but it is a Westin (get the expected amenities and service). The photos on the website has extremely good lighting One thing – the fitness room is next to the heated pool, the high humidity (and constant smell of chlorine) has taken its toll on the equipment (rust, lack of lubrication) and surroundings (floor, ceiling, walls).