Honeywood…Lexington, KY

Cooking is like painting or writing a song. Just as there are only so many colors or notes, there are just so many flavors—it’s how you combine them that sets you apart—Wolfgang Puck

We have been enjoying watching this season’s episodes of Top Chef Kentucky.

In honor of this week’s episode that featured Kentucky chef, Ouita Michel, as a guest judge, we decided to drive to Lexington, KY and eat in one of her many establishments. Mrs. Big Surf and I have eaten at Holly Hill Inn in Midway, KY and Wallace Station in Versailles, KY and Smithtown Seafood in Lexington.

Ouita Michel is a native Kentuckian and like all good chefs, she uses ingredients that are local and makes food that tastes wonderful. We really enjoyed our food at Honeywood.

We ate here for lunch with a friend. All of our dishes were happy-making (to use a phrase our friend likes) and the staff was very friendly and the restaurant is nicely decorated. I can’t say enough good things about this lunch experience.

I am not a food critic, so I can’t break down the meal and analyze it like a professional critic. But as my enzymes were breaking down this meal, they were making me happy. This is really good food.

For starters, we shared the FOUR O’CLOCK, a plate of wonderful Midway Bakery buttermilk biscuits with shaved Browning’s ham and apple butter, cheese salad, salt and pepper almonds, carrots, pickled vegetables, and cheese wafers. This would be plenty of appetizer for a group of four and will get you started on the right track…good food makes for good conversation.

We had a hard time deciding what to order for our main dish, as all the dishes on the menu sounded inviting. I chose the most interesting item, Chef Josh’s famous BEETLOAF, a vegetarian loaf made with beets, parsnip puree, topped with tomato gravy and served on bed of mashed potatoes along with fresh Kentucky greens. I enjoyed eating this dish so much.

My wife had the WHITESBURG SOUP BEANS, with a rich ham broth, onions, and served with a Weisenburger Mill hoecake. This traditional eastern Kentucky comfort dish was elevated so much and may be the best soup beans we have eaten. Incidentally, the photo above shows a reflection from the table lamp on the surface of the soup beans, so don’t try to figure out what it is.

Our friend ordered the SHADY LANE SALAD. It is composed of local lettuces, shaved Browning’s ham, candied Kentucky pecans, mustard vinaigrette, topped with a local deviled egg and served with Weisenburger Mill hoecakes. Our dining companion, who has the most discerning palate of the three, was very happy with his choice also.

Chef Ouita Michel elevates Kentucky cooking to a level that is world-class. I will return to Honeywood and try to eat my way through the rest of the menu.

A Merry Christmas Week in Paris

Paris is always a good idea—Audrey Hepburn

When the opportunity arose for us to go to Paris to meet our son and his family during the Christmas week, it wasn’t too hard of a decision for us. The only thing that was of any concern was how our toddler grandchildren would do on the plane and handle the time change.

Needless to say it did put a crimp in my picture-taking, as I am always lagging behind and my family gets tired of waiting on me. The unapproving stares from my wife relates just as well in French as in English. So there is NO attempting long exposures and I didn’t even pack a tripod. Toddlers and their parents and their grandmother don’t understand the painstaking effort it takes to get just the right exposure in dim lighting.

Oh well, that is why they make high-speed settings on cameras.

I hope you enjoy these photos of the week in Paris. You can see black and white photos in the previous blog.

I loved the lights on Rue Cler in the 7th arrondissement.

The famous Cafe de Flore on Boulevard Saint-Germain.

Boulevard Saint-Germain

Cool Christmas tree in front of Notre Dame.

Ralph Lauren on Boulevard Saint Germain.

I just want to say, some activities take precedent over photo taking, but I’m not bitter.

May the joy of Christmas be with you all year.

Paris en Noir et Blanc

We’ll always have Paris—Rick Blaine from Casablanca

There is very little to read in this blog. It will be like my favorite books…lots of pictures.

The sky was cloudy and overcast the entire week we were in Paris and Brunoy. I thought that made for better black and white photos with a white sky. I hope you like these.

It took three years of discussion to approve the Eiffel Tower. I wonder who thought this wasn’t a good idea.

Public Service Announcement for French Tourists

Well, it’s a rainy night in Paris and I’m sitting by the Seine

It’s a pleasure to be soaking in the European rain.

Now my belly’s full of fancy food and wine

Oh, but in the morning there’ll be hell to pay

Somewhere along the line.—Billy Joel from “Somewhere Along the Line”

The above lyrics are from one of my favorite Billy Joel songs.

On our recent trip to Paris, I ate wonderful food. So what could be the problem that would elicit a public service announcement from Big Surf Daddy?

Now we didn’t have any rainy nights in Paris and with three toddlers, we didn’t sit by the Seine. We didn’t eat much fancy food, but we did have some good wine. It’s the next line that matters…

If you aren’t accustomed to eating rich cheeses and breads in your diet, you may need to introduce them into your stay in France gently. I ate as much bread and cheese as I could the first few days. Well “Somewhere Along the Line” came pretty quickly.

I had to make a stop at the local pharmacie in Brunoy, where we were staying for the week. You see, cheese has a binding property in your digestive tract…you get the gist of this problem.

The local pharmacie had the answer. I was eating cheese and bread the next day.

Enjoy the cheese and bread in France, just don’t cram it in like I did. France has been making great breads and cheeses for centuries, so they will be there tomorrow.

Eating in Paris…Deuxième Partie (part two)

How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?—Julia Child

I know Julia Child was NOT talking about France when she said this.

We recently spent a few days in Paris over the Christmas holiday with our immediate family. We met up with my son, his wife and two year- old daughter. My daughter-in-law is going to be a mother again in about three months. So “bun in the oven” continues in the bread theme here.

We also traveled with my daughter and her husband and her two children, ages two and one.

So based on what you know for now, if you tuned in to an episode of fine French dining experiences on these pages, you may be disappointed. Parisienne dining “adventures” may be more apropos for our days in Paris. Afterall if you want to have a fine dining triumph in Paris, sharing it with three toddlers is probably not the way to go. However we did eat some really good food. Of course, it goes without saying that our breads, wines, and cheeses were good everywhere.

The photo above is a nice cafe decorated for the Christmas season. We did not eat here. Are you kidding? Look at those lights on the tables, how long do you think those would last? But alas, you can dream in Paris can’t you?

So let me give some advice to those who want to go to Paris with small children. It’s good to research cafes and restaurants before you go, but be ready to chunk those plans and make decisions on the run, depending on the mood of one of the children. So most of our restaurant choices depended on who could accommodate a double stroller and a single stroller and where would be the least likely place to start an international incident.

Our first meal was a late lunch in the Latin Quarter, Cafe St. Victor. We were ready to eat and did not want to walk anymore and they met all of the above criteria for our group. The bonus for us… the service was really good and the waitress was so good and patient, especially with teaching me how to eat escargot with meat hooks for hands.

Cafe St. Victor, near Notre Dame in the Latin Quarter.

We shared a good assorted cheese plate for starters.

I loved the escargot even though the utensils were quite cumbersome for me. My dissection skills were long forgotten from college biology. In the end our waitress brought me a toothpick and said this may be better. Just dig them out. She was such a good soul.

Mrs. Big Surf, had one of her favorite dishes, French Onion soup. I wonder if they just call it onion soup over there. Anywho, she loved it.

Our next stop was a real treat for me. We found Odette on Rue Galande in the 5th arrondissement in the Latin Quarter. We bought some of their famous choux a la cremes. This was a very good decision for all involved.

So we had to wash down these lovely cream puffs with some hot chocolate and we found it at Shakespeare and Company Cafe.

The hot chocolate was really good but it wasn’t the best we had. This cafe is across from Notre Dame, with a good view of the famous cathedral.

This was the best hot chocolate and some say the best in Paris. Angelina is a famous tea room and cafe with a history as rich as its hot chocolate. Ask for the African hot chocolate and as an additional treat get some of their memorable Mont Blancs.

These are the Mont Blancs. 6 Euros each.

Angelina is across from the Louvre so there are lots of people in the area. There will be a long line outside, but if you want to get your hot chocolate and Mont Blancs to go, you can circumvent the line and go on in to the bakery. We made the mistake of standing in line for about 45 minutes before we figured it out. You’re welcome.

For the best meal, I went against my general rule of dining in famous cities, don’t eat near popular tourist stops. I try to go at least two blocks away, however there are always exceptions to the rules, again especially when the children are ready to get out of the strollers.

Our most memorable meal in Paris for the week was Le General cafe. The Arc de Triomphe could be seen from the outside tables. We dined for lunch here before going to the aforementioned Arc. We were so thrilled with this meal. We ate outside. The heaters were going and I even took my coat off, it was really pleasant to eat outside in December.

You can see the Arc de Triomphe from La General.

Mrs. Big Surf and I, and my daughter, ate this wonderful dish of scallops on a bed of risotto made with squid ink. This was my first experience eating squid ink and I must say, this was the best dish I had all week.

Since this was an early afternoon meal, my son and daughter-in-law has this good-looking and tasty dish.

My son-in-law had the chicken fricassee with linguine.

Later we stopped into one of the many creperies in Paris. I was not in the mood for a crepe so I had some good coffee. Most of our group had a sweet crepe here and loved them, my wife ordered off the menu for a chicken crepe and she did not like it, but in the defense of the creperie it was not the chicken crepe on the menu. They had a spicy chicken crepe that she wasn’t in the mood for. All-in-all a success … since the children liked it.

After spending some time at the Eiffel Tower on our last night in Paris, we decided to walk over to Rue Cler for our last meal in Paris. We found a small cafe called L’Eclair.

We loved this cafe. They were very accepting of our children even though it was fairly crowded. We all had good food and a very enjoyable time here.

My wife and most of our group had the classic French sandwich called a Crouque Monsieur, kind of a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Some of our group had a variation served with a fried egg on top called a Croque Madame.

I had a flank steak with a sauce made from olives and capers. So tasty.

At L’Eclaire, we dined under the glow of this neon sign saying, NO BAD DAYS.

This seemed to sum up our time in Paris, there were no bad days.

Brunoy, France…A Charming Stay Outside Paris

Je suis sous le charme…I am under the charm.

I fell under the charm of Brunoy (pronounced Broon-wah), a community southeast of Paris, France. It has a long history of residences and the town developed during the Gallo-Roman era.

We reunited with part of our family for Christmas and spent a week in this lovely, mainly residential burb, about a forty minute train ride outside of Paris. We rented a lovely house about a ten minute walk from the train station. We were six adults and three children ages two, two, and one. Yeah, I know what you are thinking…

Immediately we fell in love with the house and the surrounding neighborhood.

Our walks into the town center and the train station were very pleasant (or as pleasant as could be with three toddlers). We ate a few meals in Brunoy restaurants and we took “take away” meals back to our house. Mainly it was our haven from the busyness and a respite from our days spent in Paris.

My wife and I had been to Paris last year and you can read about that trip in previous blogs here. However, here in Brunoy, I had the pleasure of experiencing a French community with genuine hospitality and friendliness. The shop owners and workers were so nice and I felt they went out of their way to help us when we needed it.

So if you have the opportunity to stay in Brunoy and visit Paris, I highly recommend it. The prices in Brunoy are cheaper than Paris, the food is good, the people are friendly, and it is an easy train ride into the city center. We caught the RER D and rode it to Gare de Lyon and made easy connections from there. The only issue we encountered was two strollers and many stairs. But we had six adults and on one occasion a very helpful Brunoyen to help out the ladies when the men left them after a very rare miscommunication.

The following are photos of this charming town.

A street in Brunoy with Christmas lights.

This is the front of our rental house from Airbnb. It was an excellent place to stay.

Saint-Medard cathedral. Parts of this building has remains from the 12th century.

Sidewalk on Avenue du President Kennedy.

A skating rink in place for Christmas in front of the city building in the town center.

This was our favorite restaurant in Brunoy.

Eating in Brunoy, France

In a cookie cutter world, be a macaron…

If you are staying in Brunoy, France for any amount of time, don’t worry…you will find good quality food.

We stayed in this small community, outside of Paris for a week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The only time we were limited was on New Year’s Eve. Since it was on a Monday, a lot of the restaurants were closed as is customary in the Paris area. However, all of the bakeries and cheese shops were open.

This writing is just about the eating in Brunoy.

Now we had three small children, ages two, two, and one. As you can imagine, sometimes eating was a challenge and most of our meals were carry out, or as they say in Europe, “take away”.

So here we go…

My first purchase was a baguette baked with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Good start to the day as we made our way to the train station to go into Paris.

Our best meal in Brunoy was at La Rotisserie, a classic French restaurant.

Our first course at La Rotisserie was a truffle-stuffed ravioli with a white sauce and drizzled with a balsamic reduction. This could have been the meal. It was so good and rich. However, there was more food to eat, as seen below.

At La Rotisserie, I had a duck confit with green beans. This was a really good dish but not my favorite of the night.

My wife had the best tasting dish at La Rotisserie, duck breast with raspberry sauce. This may have been the best thing I tasted all week.

Our mornings usually started with someone doing the eight-minute walk into the town center and getting fresh breads, pastries, and cheeses. All of these boulangeries (bakeries) and patisseries (pastry shops) make their breads and pastries fresh.

Almond croissants, chocolate au pains, round loaf of bread, baguette, and a ham and cheese baked bread, all bought from the local shops.

We had good Mediterranean food from Chez Dada.

We took home Thai food from Chez Lin. While waiting for our food, they brought us some assorted pickled vegetables of radishes, carrots, and cucumbers. A nice touch. I loved the shrimp in a red curry sauce.

This was one of my favorite stops in Brunoy. Nice and friendly with tasty breads and pastries.

We visited here often also. We found some nice chocolate treats.

I loved stopping in this cheese shop. The people were so friendly. When I couldn’t find the restaurant where I was meeting my family, one of the employers walked me to the restaurant.

When I had a chance for a little Big Surf Daddy time, I ducked in for a cafe au lait and a chocolate au pain at the Tabac across from the train station. This appeared to be local gathering spot for the men of the town. I also got some cigars here to smoke one night.

We had excellent sushi from Okayama.

The following are just some of the displays in Brunoy.

I don’t even know where this salmon slider came from but it was so good.

A very good wine shop.

We ordered take out from Restaurant Tajmahal. We had butter chicken, rice, curry vegetables, stuffed bread, and lentils. All were delicious.

On New Year’s Eve, the only restaurant we could find that was open was Lotus Bleu. It was a good find because it was so tasty.

For New Year’s Eve, I stopped for some wine, bread, and cheese.

The macarons above are from Delices et Gourmandises in Brunoy.

As I said earlier, if you find yourself in Brunoy, France as we did, there is a really good selection of good food choices. We had French, Mediterranean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Indian. One night we also ordered pizza and guess what?…it was good, too.

This doesn’t even include what we ate in Paris. That will be a later blog. Right now I am trying to get my digestive tract to accept southern food from the USA. Au revoir.

Tomatoes and Flames…Mt. Sterling, KY

You better cut the pizza into four pieces because I am not hungry enough to eat six—Yogi Berra

I love pizza.

I know many of the few who read this blog will say the same thing.

Lately the lovely missus and I have been trying to make good pizzas at home. So inevitably we go out to find good pizzas. Not that we are totally incompetent in the kitchen, we just haven’t gotten the final result we want just yet. The only way I can get the pizza dough to cook at 800 degrees is to stick it in a pile of burning leaves and that just leaves it a little too smokey.

So we decided to go to the old country to find good pizza.

Now for us the “old country” turns out to be Mt. Sterling, KY. This picturesque small city was established in 1792 and if you know your Kentucky history, you will remember that this was the same year Kentucky became a state. Mt. Sterling is one of the oldest towns in Kentucky.

A friend of mine told me about the pizza he and his wife had eaten at Tomatoes and Flames in Mt. Sterling. Since I valued his opinion very much, we decided the hour drive would be worth it for good pizza.

Tomatoes and Flames is in a small intimate setting in an old building with bright yellow paint. Most of downtown Mt. Sterling buildings are old, or historic if you prefer that term. Just like the “old country”.

We had the Pizza Margherita. We loved our pizza. The Margherita pizza is simple in its ingredients and complex in its flavor. It is so good when done right. Let me tell you, this was done right. It looked like the same thing we ate in Rome and it’s taste was the closest to the pizza in Italy we have had anywhere in the US.

The dough was wonderfully thin and crusty and the sauce was so good. So simple, yet so remarkably delicious.

The Pizza Margherita is a classic Neopolitan pizza and prepared to perfection at Tomatoes and Flames.

The bonus was being able to eat Crank and Boom ice cream that was sold in the restaurant…the icing on the pizza.

Pizza Margherita has a history that dates back to 1889 when King Umberto I and his Queen Margherita of Savoy visited Naples shortly after the unification and formation of Italy. Legend has it they were tired of hoity-toity French cuisine and asked the most famous pizza maker for some common street food. He provided a pizza made from tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil leaves, which just happened to be the colors of the newly formed Italian flag (red, white and green).

The alternative theory is it was named after the Italian word for “daisy” which is margherita. Evidently the shape of the pizza with the toppings resembled a daisy. I’m going with the first theory. That is what was told to us in Rome when we had our first Margherita pizza.

I am so thankful that we can get old world pizza within an hour drive at Tomatoes and Flames.

Mt. Sterling’s downtown is very picturesque and I enjoyed strolling through the streets.

The brick oven at Tomatoes and Flames.

You order at the counter.

Cool door with windows.

We never pass up Crank and Boom ice cream.

I had a wonderful chocolate latte here at Spoonful of Sugar.

Istanbul…in Bloom

If one had but a single glance to give the world, one should gaze on Istanbul.—Alphonse de Lamartine

I don’t know if Istanbul is the most beautiful city I have ever seen, but on this day in Goztepe Park (above photo) with the tulips in bloom, it was surely one of the most memorable days I have spent abroad.

April in Istanbul is truly beautiful. Flowers are in bloom all over the city. I saw daisies, hyacinths, the most impressive wisteria blooms I have ever seen, and of course tulips.

We were in Istanbul in early April of this year. We spent a lot of time in parks since we were babysitting our granddaughter while her parents were in language classes. Leslie Knope’s head would be spinning with the landscaping budget that Istanbul procures for their parks. I have never seen such beautiful parks in a city, so colorful with all of the flowers in bloom.

Their were two places where tulips were the most impressive. The Sultanahmet Square outside of the Hagia Sophia which has the largest bed of tulips in the world and the previously mentioned Goztepe Park.

If you love spring blooms, especially tulips and wisteria, visit Istanbul in early April.

Blossoms outside the Blue Mosque.

Tulips and minaret outside Hagia Sophia.

Tulips in bloom outside the Blue Mosque.

Wisteria and redbud blooms in one of the parks in Kadidoy.

Landscaping in a Kadikoy park.

Flowers for sale from a street vendor.

The largest tulip bed in the world at Sultanahmet Square, outside the Hagia Sophia.

Tulips and daisies around a fountain near the spice market.

The following photos are of flowers in Goztepe Park in the Kadikoy section of Istanbul.

Mrs. Big Surf strolling and wishing for a bigger tulip budget.

Hoscacal, Istanbul.

Louisville,KY…A Good Eatin’ Weekend

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty, has wasted thirty years of his life.—Muhammad Ali

This quote, from one of my favorite Louisvillians, sums up my approach to food over the past few years. All my life, I was eating good food…I just didn’t know it.

My wife was developing into a superb cook, my mom fixed delicious food all my life and my mother-in-law fed me like a king. My two grandmothers were really good cooks but in different ways. I didn’t appreciate what all they did in the kitchen until lately when I started enjoying cooking.

I didn’t appreciate restaurant food until the last twenty years or so. It was more about eating out at for a reasonable price than dining for enjoyment.

As I started my journey in the kitchen, I started paying attention more to restaurant food. Now I tell my friends “food and cooking have become my new sport” since my knees don’t allow me to participate in a lot of sports anymore.

Well if sports have become my new metaphor for cooking, then Louisville, KY is the playing field. Louisville has become a food destination in the culinary scene. It has been this way for many years but is now starting to get recognized for the many fine restaurants in this wonderful city on the Ohio River.

My wife and I spent a rainy weekend in Louisville recently. I was limited in my time, as I was in classes for two days, and it was too wet for outdoor activities, but we still got to eat. We took every opportunity to visit some really good restaurants, some of them are not particularly well-known, but very good nonetheless.

This blog is all about the food…

First up was Whiskey Dry on a Thursday night. This is Chef Ed Lee’s newest Louisville restaurant. He has 610 Magnolia and Milkwood. Incidentally my wife and I agree that our favorite dish we have eaten in Louisville over the years has been Chef Lee’s pork shoulder with black barbecue sauce over coconut rice, with edamame and curry oil. This is a staple at Milkwood.

Whiskey Dry is the only locally owned restaurant on 4th Street Live in downtown Louisville. It specializes in burgers paired with bourbon, very Kentucky.

I had the Big Ed burger, a take-off of the Big Mac. Instead of a middle bun, there is a fried green tomato. I can’t impart the degree of deliciousness I experienced with this burger and fries.

Our very tasty appetizer at Whiskey Dry was Pimento Cheese Curds with Chile Romesco sauce.

This adult chocolate milkshake may have had a little bourbon in it. This was dessert.

Cool bar at Whiskey Dry.

Friday afternoon lunch at NamNam Cafe for wonderful Vietnamese cuisine.

Very cool table top at NamNam Cafe.

My new culinary romance is pho. The NamNam Cafe pho is real real good.

We had a Friday dinner at Louvino on Bardstown Road. This is a small plate eatery in the heart of Louisville’s restaurant and hipster section. You can literally walk up and down Bardstown Road and find a great place to eat. We met my cousin and her husband for a lively and enjoyable meal. Lots of good dishes were enjoyed here.

The bacon-wrapped dates are a must for a starter at Louvino.

The Port wine brisket with zucchini cornbread was so tender and delicious at Louvino.

Lee’s Korean Restaurant was our choice for a Saturday lunch. Lee’s is on the first floor of what looks like an office building, so don’t give up looking if you drive by it the first time. If you have a hankering for Korean, this is the place.

Deep fried won ton was a great choice for our starter.

Mrs. Big Surf and I shared the beef bibimbap with the Korean vegetables. Our waitress/hostess was so nice and pleasant as she demonstrated the way to eat this Korean traditional dish. She was happy to show us a little of her home country. I was glad she did.

The Come Back Inn was recommended to us for our Saturday night meal. Word of mouth is a wonderful thing for we had a wonderful meal. This is a small neighborhood Italian eatery in a humble building in the Smoketown/Germantown/Highlands area. I really don’t know my neighborhoods in Louisville.

We started with a chef’s special appetizer for the night of Smoked Salmon Crostini. This was pretty special. Capers are one of God’s little blessings that let me know He knew what He was doing.

The waiter told us the specialty at Come Back Inn is the Bolognese. I was going to get something else, but he said this would bring me back. He was right. I will come back (now I get it). My wife had the chef special of the evening of lobster ravioli in a saffron cream sauce. This dish was very tasty but the lobster may have been lost in the sauce. The sauce was so good, we didn’t mind too much not to get all of the lobster taste.

Our last meal was breakfast on Sunday morning before heading home. After some research, I found Gralehaus. This is actually a bed and breakfast with rooms upstairs. I loved this place. It is very small and was hard to find. It is on Baxter Avenue right behind the Holy Grale that is on Bardstown Road. Our GPS took us to the Holy Grale.

The coffee alone was worth braving the rain and not having room service, also we got to drink out of these nifty mugs.

This was the best dish I ate all weekend, Biscuit & Duck Gravy, made with a black pepper biscuit in duck sausage gravy with a maple sauce drizzle and duck cracklin’. I will be thinking about this for a long time. I may take up duck hunting just to try to duplicate this.

My wife had Lamb & Grits, a sausage of Middle Eastern origin with lamb and pork. The grits were very good, topped with an egg and cilantro and mint. This was very enjoyable also.

IMG_2792 2 2

I mentioned earlier my favorite dish I have ever eaten in Louisville. This is Milkwood’s Pork Shoulder with black barbeque sauce from Chef Ed Lee.

They say the most exciting two minutes in sports is the Kentucky Derby (also in Louisville). But set one of these dishes from a Louisville restaurant in front of me and I will give this phrase a run for the money.