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I dream of Puerto Rico around once a week since our trip to Luquillo and San Juan. Island time agreed with me, and the trip felt like truly getting away, which is really rare with me.

When planning, I asked around to friends who had traveled to Puerto Rico, and my friend Megan sent me the most amazing roundup of places to visit. La Estacion was one of the restaurants on the list, and once we read about it, we knew we had to make it part of our itinerary. On our outdoor adventure day, between our sailing trip to Icacos and our boat trip to the bioluminescent bay, we made sure we had time to visit La Estacion, which was conveniently close to both. It turned out to be the perfect plan , giving us just a little time after sailing to drive around and some time after dinner to grab a beer and walk  on the beach.

la estacion

As the name alludes to, La Estacion is on the site of an old gas station, which definitely gives for an interesting atmosphere. The cool space is sought-after. Definitely get a reservation if you can!

la estacion fajardo

They’re big on local ingredients, beautiful outdoor space, strong and yummy cocktails and a good time.

la estacion. fajardo

la estacion, fajardo

It was hot when we arrived for dinner, and while frozen drinks aren’t my normal choice, I enjoyed a piña colada or two while in Puerto Rico! Sipping on this slushy treat while smelling the smoky air and feeling the heat was just amazing. I love being hot.

 

 piña colada

In addition to putting a lot of time and care into food and beverage, La Estacion also has nice little touches throughout, including lots of beautiful flowers and accents, and great service.

flowers Since I was on vacation, I decided to go with the special grilled stuffed whole lobster, sweet potato fries, and coleslaw. How good does that look?!

I ate most of it and wanted to roll out of the restaurant. Buttery lobster with tropical flavors of the salsa made it just out of this world.

lobster

My husband went for the BBQ side of things with ribs and chicken and mac and cheese, also amazing. I am always glad that we love to share; here it allowed us to taste a little bit of both the seafood and BBQ food La Estacions is known for.

ribs

If you are headed to the Fajardo/Luquillo area in Puerto Rico, La Estacion is really a must-visit. From warm welcomes to delicious, satisfying cuisine, they have it all. It’s really quite the experience! We’re hoping to visit again next winter.

Until then, we’ll hope for summer weather in New England and dream of Puerto Rico sunsets. . . .

 

Puerto Rico beaches

Tags: BBQ, Boston blogger, cocktails, Dining out, fajardo, Food, food blogger, lobster, Puerto Rico

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great holiday season and a fun New Year’s Eve and are ready for a fun-filled 2015. In case you missed my Best of 2014 posts, you can find the travel post here and the Best of Boston post here.

Two trips to Ireland were definitely 2014 highlights. On our most recent trip we spent some time in Sligo, where we discovered lots of natural beauty in Ben Bulben in Rosses Point and some culinary beauty in the Sligo town restaurant Eala Bhan.

Eala Bhan means white swan in Irish, and since Sligo is Yeats Country, the restaurant name fits right in.

Sligo town

Decor is whimsical and elegant, and Yeats’ influence is apparent in bits of poetry around the restaurant. Twinkly fairy lights add a magical feel to the space, and overall it’s airy yet cozy, with dim lighting and windows out onto the River Garavogue.

Eala Bhan Sligo

Eala Bhan

Eala Bhan

Yeats

Like many restaurants in Ireland, Eala Bhan utilizes the amazing Irish ingredients available to them, including local seafood and meat.

Eala Bhan suppliers

As we often do, we decided to share a bunch of small plates rather than go with entrees. We started with bowls of piping hot vegetable soup; I pretty much always get soup when we go out in Ireland.

soup Eala Bhan

{Creamy Vegetable Soup}

From there, we feasted on a couple of seafood appetizers which were creative and beautifully displayed. I loved the perfect scallop with the sweet courgette puree.

 seafood trio{Taste of the Sea:  Pan seared diver scallop, kattaifi prawns and house cured salmon with fresh spinach and courgette purée}

This cake made of smoked salmon and prawns encased in creme fraiche was like nothing we had seen before. It was so decadent! It’s something I would love to recreate at home.

smoked salmon{ Smoked Salmon and Prawn Timbale Cake: Light layered pancakes of smoked salmon and prawn encased in créme fraiche and beetroot cream}

Heading back to land, we had the outstanding warm chicken salad which, with punchy blue cheese and sweet almonds, was way better than your average chicken dish!

chicken salad {Crispy Herb Basket of Warm Chicken Salad: Edible herb basket of warm chicken salad tossed with cashel blue cheese, candied almonds in a crispy herb basket, topped with garlic croutons, balsamic reduction}

The wine list at Eala Bhan isn’t extensive, but I found a lovely Barton &Guestier Chardonnay that was a nice pairing with all of my food.

Eala Bhan is known as one of Sligo’s best restaurants for a reason. Everything was so fresh and tasty, and the service was paced perfectly, allowing us to enjoy leisurely conversation and our various courses, If you are in Sligo and looking for a special meal, Eala Bhan is definitely one great option.

How do you choose restaurants when you travel?

Tags: Dining out, Food, food blogger, Ireland, Restaurants, Sligo, Travel, travel blogger, wine, wine blog, wine blogger

Bloggers Eat Well!

TGIF! Are you ready for the weekend? That’s probably a very silly question. What have you got planned? In addition to getting in some sun and end-of-season boat time, I am also hoping to check out the Boston Local Food Festival and to do some baking and cooking and sleeping. And maybe a workout or two in there. Have I mentioned how much I am loving my spinning bike?

To get you in the mood for a weekend of food and fun, I thought I would share some pics from a blogger get together that Elina had on Tuesday night. When Boston food bloggers get together, there is always a lot of fun, and not surprisingly, a lot of really good food. If you’re planning a party any time soon, I suggest checking out some of the blogs mentioned in this post for appetizer inspiration!

Megan and I met up at Whole Foods before the party to grab a bunch of snacks to bring. She had the brilliant idea to make baguette slices topped with Maplebrook Farm ricotta cheese and sour cherry preserves. It was absolutely delicious, pretty to look at, and so easy!

ricotta and sour cherry

 

sour cherry preserves

We also grabbed some Manchego and Soppresata for a quick antipasti platter.

cheese and meat

And we got to help Elina making an absolutely amazing pizza bread, each little dough ball filled with meat and cheese and baked until soft, golden, and puffy. You’ll want to make this one, trust me.

pizza dough

Cara made these zucchini roll ups, grilled and filled with goat cheese, raisins, and pine nuts. I will be making these in the very near future and devouring them all by myself. Talk about a fun and scrumptious way to get veggies in!

zucchini roll ups

And who doesn’t love chocolate covered fruit? Lizzy spoke to the group’s sweet tooth with these juicy, decadent bites.

chocolate covered fruit

Olives make a quick and easy crowd pleaser; these lemony ones from Whole Foods are an addictive favorite. You definitely can’t eat just one.

olives with lemon

Our wonderful hostess also made cheesecake pops with farmer’s cheese. cheesecake pops

And finally, though not a good photo at all, this incredible savory cheesecake with tomato jam was made by Shannon and revisited many times. All I can say is yum.

savory cheesecake

There was lots of other great, unphotographed food like Bridget‘s feta and red pepper dip, a spicy eggplant and pepper dip, vegan pumpkin mac and cheese and more. Yum.

I love catching up with Boston bloggers, and I equally love eating lots of cocktail party foods in a beautiful outdoor setting like Elina’s patio. It was a great night that provided some tasty recipe inspiration!

Have you been to a restaurant, read a blog, or been to an event recently that inspired you to make a new recipe?

Tags: appetizers, bloggers, Boston, events, Food, food blogger

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