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Beach Day

November 5, 2010 in Food, Travel by traveleatlove | 19 comments

True bliss for both my husband and I always involves the ocean, and more specifically, an West coast ocean, either on the West coast of Ireland or the West coast of the US.

It was no surprise, then, that on a perfectly sunny, 80 degree November day on our Foodbuzz Festival trip to San Francisco, we chose to head away from the city and down along the coast for a day of wine tasting and beach lounging. I’ll have separate posts about our tasting at Bonny Doon Vineyards and the Santa Cruz Brewing Company and the various other delicious things we consumed on our journey West, but today’s post is all about beachy bliss.

Our trip South toward Bonny Doon included a dip in the Pacific Ocean, just my feet, or so I thought Smile It crept up quickly, and before I knew it, my pants were soaked to my knees. But I was on a beach on the Pacific Ocean!

Pescadero

Pescadero

Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean

footprints in the sand

Don’t the photos just speak for themselves? My shoulders dropped a few inches, I can breathe *almost* freely again, and my appetite is back! I credit the fresh sea air and sunshine Smile

After our tasting at Bonny Doon, we decided to head to the former hometown of my friend Chef Robin White to check out some of her old haunts. With the sun blazing in the sky, we wandered around Half Moon Bay checking out its quaint shops and beautiful streets. I fell instantly in love and could see why Robin missed it so much.

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay
Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese purple flowers
Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese

After drooling over all of the cheeses, meats, chocolate, spreads, and of course wine, we decided on a soft goat cheese, toasts, and a small bottle of Prosecco.

image

Ahhhhh. . .

Prosecco picnic goat cheese

Our beach picnic was one of the most perfect moments of my life. The crashing of the waves, the sun, delicious, dry Prosecco, and of course, the company of my wonderful husband. I love vacation!

Kelly over at She Wears a Red Sox Cap is doing something fun, 30 Days of Blogging, and while I may not blog every topic every day, I thought a lot of them were fun, and I also love hearing from readers.

So today, since I will be meeting so many people at Foodbuzz Festival, I thought I would share the thinking behind my blog name.

As you know, I started out as Travel Eat Love. The day I started writing my blog, I didn’t think much about it to be honest! I love to travel and eat, and to encompass all sorts of other fun things, I added the love.

Enter the movie, Eat, Pray, Love. As I was NOT a fan of the book, it became nightmarish every time I told someone my blog name! I changed the name, but not the URL, to Travel, Wine, and Dine, a name that is still kind of in limbo. I love to travel, wine, and dine, but travel has taken a back seat to other things in recent times, and not having a job will probably make that more so.

And so my blog name struggle continues!

If you are a blogger, how did you decide your blog name? If you aren’t a blogger, tell me a fun fact about yourself for this fun Friday! Smile

Tags: beach, California, picnic, prosecco, San Francisco, Travel

Island Creek Oyster Bar

October 29, 2010 in Food, Restaurants by traveleatlove | 12 comments

The third time was the charm. We had reservations to the highly-anticipated Island Creek Oyster Bar last Saturday and Sunday, and due to my illness cancelled both. Even though I wasn’t feeling fabulous on my last day of work, after a week stuck at home, I wanted to go out, and it had to be Island Creek Oyster Bar.

If you have been reading this blog for some time, you have probably seen plate after plate of raw oysters. We love them, especially when they are of the Island Creek or Wellfleet varieties. . . local IS best!

Island Creek Oyster Bar

I arrived at Island Creek Oyster Bar (menu here), which is at 500 Commonwealth Ave, earlier than my husband, lugging multiple bags of wine club wine, and a little frazzled. The second I walked in, I was welcomed, and my bags were magically removed from my tired shoulders and tucked away in the coat check. Thank you.

I sat at the beautiful, beautiful bar for awhile while I waited, sipping Prosecco and just looking around. You have to see it for yourself. Made of some sort of cool black stone, the bar stretches for most of the length of the room and is the perfect place for a few (dozen) oysters and drinks. It was full to capacity but still spacious which made it comfortable for me sitting alone or for groups or couples sitting together. Two thumbs up for not jamming the bar with stools.

Due to some horrendous traffic, my poor, tired husband was pretty late for our reservation, but the very friendly hostesses seated me at our table anyway when I gave up my bar seat for two people who wanted to sit together. I love that they didn’t give me an attitude about having my entire party there. Likewise, our server made me feel completely at home and served me a glass of Aubry Brut Champagne while I waited.

As I sat there, I got a chance to check out the décor, which is made up of muted greys, seats with wooden slats on the back, and walls covered in cages filled with oyster shells. It offers a cross between urban and beachy and nautical without being cheesy or a theme-y.

Island Creek Oyster BarIsland Creek Oyster Bar

The Aubry Brut was the perfect choice for celebrating International Champagne Day. It had a nice gold hue and flavors of citrus and toast. Once my husband arrived, it was also the perfect choice for pairing with oysters.

We had a dozen: 4 Island Creek, 4 Moon Shoal from Barnstable, MA, and 4 Coupe Des Anges from Prince Edward Island. I watched Anne of Green Gables while I was sick; I had to have PEI oysters!

PEI Oysters

Other than one of the PEI oysters tasting really ick, these were delicious. The Island Creeks were my favorite, but I would eat oysters from all of these locations again.

We also indulged in a few hot dishes: A meaty crab cake with mustard sauce and apples, really excellent crab meat, slightly too salty, but otherwise really delicious.

Crab Cake

Steamed Pope Island Littlenecks
tomato, scallions, spicy chili & garlic paste
grilled bread

These clams were perfectly cooked in a flavorful tomato broth that I could have easily eaten as a soup. I proclaimed the grilled bread perfection.

steamed littlenecks

BBQ Glazed Shrimp
Anson mills creamy grits, pepper relish

My favorite dish of the night, the sauce was tangy, the shrimp, again, perfectly cooked, and the grits were soft, smooth, creamy comfort. I will return again and again just for this.

shrimp and grits

With all of these delights from the sea, we were stuffed. Dessert looked so good, house-made cider donuts with caramel and cider, but we couldn’t eat another bite.

With Jeremy Sewall of Lineage at the helm and the focus on great local seafood, I had a feeling I would love Island Creek Oyster Bar, but it exceeded all of my expectations. They make everything in house, have a fun wine and beer list, and despite being in the busy Kenmore Square, maintain a laid back, comfortable feel.

The service was absolutely fantastic, from the second I arrived, all the way until we walked out the door. Everyone was friendly and accommodating without being overly so. I am excited to make this a regular in our restaurant rotation.

Happy Friday everyone! Are you oyster fans? What are you up to this weekend?

Island Creek Oyster Bar on Urbanspoon

Island Creek Oyster Bar, Island Creek Oysters, Hotel Commonwealth

Tags: Boston, champagne, Island Creek Oyster Bar, oysters, restaurant

City Table and M Bar

September 26, 2010 in Uncategorized by traveleatlove | 9 comments

A delicious night out to celebrate one of my oldest and dearest friends’ 30th birthday could not be beat. The excellent service, delightful and flavorful food, and great wine list at Boston’s City Table were the icing on the cake.

I arrived at City Table early enough to snap a few photos of its lovely exterior.

image fall mums

 

City Table Lenox Hotel
City Table is located in the Lenox Hotel and is another example of pretty, old Boston architecture.

 

As it was my friend’s birthday, I picked up some flowers for her on the wayy to City Table. And since she is the sweetest, she brought ME flowers for my half birthday! :)   

image image image

It’s somewhat of a tradition that any time Julie and I get together, we drink bubbly, so we both started with Champagne cocktails. I had a St. Royale       (st germaine, mathilde cassis, champagne) which was light and bubbly but maybe a little too sweet.

For my salad course, I had the Heirloom Tomato and House Made Burrata Cheese with shaved fennel, crushed pistachios which was a lovely last hurrah for summer tomatoes. The house made Burrata was simply to die for. It was so creamy and soft with a slightly chewier outside. I could have eaten this as a light dinner and been completely satisfied.

Before our main courses came out, we ordered a bottle of wine for the four of us to share. My first choice was a La Crema Pinot Noir, but they were out, so instead we had the Emeritus Pinot Noir instead. I loved this explanation from Emeritus’ website:

The Emeritus Team has embarked on a new direction for Pinot Noir. Winemaker Don Blackburn has produced two elegant Pinot Noir wines, whose defining characteristic, he believes, is charm. Don explains that a great Pinot’s appeal is emotional and visceral; seducing with nuance rather than  complexity or intensity. Noble wines begin in the vineyard and the Team utilizes clonal selection, meticulous viticultural practices and dry farming to help the grapes achieve full ripeness without excessive sugars and extracted flavors. Then, to capture the wine’s full essence—that captivating sultry elegance—the winemaker must listen to the grape and respond with a gentle touch.

Everyone loved the wine, so it was a happy accident that the La Crema was unavailable, though I know that would have been delicious as well.

For my meal I chose the Line Caught Chatham Cod grilled corn and lobster chowder sauce, fingerling potatoes which was a lick-the-bowl-clean kind of a meal. The fish was so flaky and light, the corn sweet, and the lobster sauce rich and buttery. It was an ode to all that a New England summer has to offer, and it was just beautiful.

Too full for dessert, we decided to head around the corner to the M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I love love love hotel bars, and this is definitely one of Boston’s swankiest. I had a glass of Jeio Bisol Prosecco, and despite being full could not keep my hands off of the bar snacks, olives and sugary almonds.

 

M Bar Olives M Bar almonds

We had so much fun, and I could have stayed out for hours if it hadn’t been a “school night” . Getting together with good friends is so reenergizing, and in all of the craziness of life, it is so important.

I hope you are having a great weekend. Mine is flying by way too fast!

Do you have any fun traditions with old friends?

Also, a more technical question. I don’t use Google Reader (and don’t plan on it), but I have been doing some blog updates and recently changed my settings. I guess now just a summary shows up, and I have gotten a few emails asking about this. I can change it back but was just wondering what everyone does for their blogs. As I don’t use reader, I actually go to each blog I read so I don’t have a preference. Just curious!

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