Category Archives: SIDE DISHES

MERMAIDS, THE WRECK BAR, RUM PUNCH & SHRIMP SALAD

Bet you think mermaids are fantasy beings. Hello! The captivating sea creatures are a real deal that you can catch frolicking, flittering and flirting outside the porthole windows of The Wreck Bar in Fort Lauderdale. (Sometimes they even shed their shell bikini tops and fishy fins just to prove how real they are.) The ship-shaped […]

OURAY COLORADO, HOT SPRINGS & BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Whoever first said, “The best things come in small packages,” had to be thinking of Ouray. This teeny tiny Colorado town covers only about 0.84 square miles, yet it overflows with appeal. Located in southwest Colorado, near the Four Corners where Colorado meets up with Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, Ouray sits in a box […]

BEST RESTAURANT IN NAPLES, FL, & FLATBREAD RECIPE

Wish The Local restaurant was local—to me that is. The restaurant is local to lucky residents of Naples, FL, which I think is essentially unfair. It may be jealousy talking, but folks in Naples get all the breaks. They enjoy great weather, sand and sea and a cornucopia of other pleasures. I don’t see why […]

FABULOUS FRENCH HOTEL BARGE CRUISE AND RECIPES

Shhh!…keep this between us as it’s not too cool for a travel writer to claim a favorite cruise. But when it comes to barging, I’ve taken two trips that I adored above all the others and just can’t stop praising them. Both were on the same Horizon II, one of the luxurious hotel barges in […]

LAKE CHARLES, SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA AND SHRIMP CHOWDER

Laissez les bon temps rouler (let the good times roll) is more than a Cajun French catchphrase; the motto captures the spirit of Lake Charles in Southwest Louisiana especially at Mardi Gras, when the city costumes in fluff and finery and parades and parties like no other. (And by like no other, we mean no […]

ASIA AT AMERISTAR CASINO AND HONEY WALNUT SHRIMP

One can gamble on any restaurant that is run by Don Yamauchi being terrific and Asia, at Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Missouri, is a sure winner. Chicago born Yamauchi grew up with a love of fusion food fed by his second-generation Japanese-American father and Filipina mother. After attending culinary school, he worked in a variety of […]

RESTAURANTE SOBRINO DE BOTÍN & GARLIC SOUP

What do Ernest Hemingway, Francisco de Goya, Nancy Reagan, the King of Spain, Jack Nicholson, a Belgian diplomat, a Japanese engineer and a dentist from Ohio have in common? Will give you a hint: Madrid. And another: the oldest restaurant in the world. Along with countless writers, artists, heads of state, celebrities and tourists, the […]

YELLOWSTONE, ROOSEVELT LODGE, ROOSEVELT BEANS

The park is packed. Yellowstone National Park hosts about four million visitors a year with numbers swelling in July and August. Most people book lodging about a year in advance and make their dinner reservations well before arriving. Although not impossible, last minute reservations are rare, however most park restaurants have a first come, first […]

LIZ’S WHERE Y’AT DINER & GREAT GRITS

Who serves the best grits in the United States? This is a rhetorical question because I know the answer. It’s Liz Munson at Liz’s Where Y’at Diner in Mandeville, Louisiana.                 On the other hand, everything served at Liz’s is special—not just the grits. I love the biscuits […]

BARBECUE AT Q39 AND APPLE COLESLAW RECIPE

It takes a lot of nerve to open a new barbecue restaurant in Kansas City. Boasting over 100 extremely popular and enthusiastically patronized BBQ joints, shacks, stands and restaurants, KC seems saturated to the max. Then along comes championship barbecuer Rob Magee who opens Q39 and quickly sends most competition to the pits. The hip […]