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A year on the Gin: A Christmas miracle!
Restaurant review: The Typing Room
Wednesday 8th July 6:30pm: DJing at Merchants Tavern
I'm happy to announce that I'll be returning to Merchants Tavern on Wednesday 8th July, playing from 6:30pm till close through the wonderful Spiritland sound system. Come down! :)
Saturday June 27th 2pm-6pm: DJing at Merchants Tavern
I'll be DJing at the quite amazing Merchants Tavern on Saturday afternoon of the last weekend in June; so for those of you not going to Glastonbury if you need a wonderful bar, with great food, drinks served up by warm welcoming staff then please pop in, I'll be the one playing the warm and eclectic electronica through the amazing spiritland sound system
Restaurant Review: Aqua Kyoto, Argyll Street, London
I haven't written a restaurant review for a while, which is poor of me, considering I've been eating well in this great city of ours (thanks to Hix, Tramshed, Kiku and Hawksmoor), but I keep forgetting to take pictures and they help me remember the flavours. It was our wedding anniversary (of seventeen years I'll have you know!) and to mark the occasion I'd booked us into lunch at a newish restaurant, one that I'd not heard of before; and after I read some reviews (not all very complimentary) I had my doubts. Well... Aqua Kyoto proved to be far better than I thought it was. Food was well cooked, well prepared and - in places - innovative. We started sharing a plate of wagyu beef gyoza which were delicious (pictured above) with the brown miso paste adding a supportive sweetness to the fatty flesh.
I went for the chef's sushi platter which was of a good standard, with the salmon being delicious and the roe and mackerel being outstanding.
Miko went for a Chicken Teriyaki Bento box, which was an ample selection with decent enough prawn and samphire tempura, a egg coddled miso soup, a tomato salad and a selection of fresh sashimi. The Chicken was excellent: moist and smoky from the grill with a surprisingly tasty twist on the teriyaki standard.
Service was fine and for a Saturday lunchtime we were almost alone in the whole huge restaurant, with only a couple of other tables occupied. The space (on the fifth floor of the old Dickens and Jones building) also has a roof top terrace where a handful of people were enjoying the last throws of this ridiculous indian summer. I expect that, in the evening this place is heaving with the well to do and well turned out people listening to the worst of whatever people in Made In Chelsea listen to when they go out, but for a celebratory and intimate lunch it was a great space. If I was to criticise any part of it, some of the eating utensils did look a little tired with some of the chopsticks and other wooden implements looking frayed; but the culinary expertise did make up for that.
The meal for 2 including one very nice cocktail and water and green (sencha) tea came to just over £80 (which included a 12.5% service charge).
Restaurant Review: Hawksmoor, Seven Dials
The arrival of Hawksmoor on the London restaurant scene has caused quite a stir of late. People eulogising about the care and attention to the meat that is prepared has not fallen on deaf ears, and they continue to grow their empire across our fair capital so, after a heavily meat centric twitter discussion between fellow meat fans @zammo, @nu_rave_is and @thesvelteone, a steak centric lunch was planned and Hawksmoor seemed to be the logical choice. After a few more thousand tweets on the subject, we finally managed to get together, joined also by @oh_henry, @waywardgirl100 and my darling wife @mikosoft who opted to be the control for the group (as she's not a fan of beef).
The Seven Dials restaurant itself is a very welcoming and warm space, with lashings of dark rosy varnished woods, beautiful light fixtures & surprising low ceilings (it being in a basement). The staff are friendly and casually dressed, making it a relaxing place to hang out. We started with the cocktail menu which is well structured and innovative, and the drinks were served to match, presented in perfectly matching glasses for each cocktail. I plumped for an Anti-Fogmatic in the form of a "Shakey Pete's Ginger Brew": Gin, homemade Ginger Syrup & Lemon Juice, topped with London Pride, which was presented in a glass tankard, matching the drink's brash bold flavours, Miko (a teetotaler) had an "Apple & Mint swizzle" which, despite being tucked at the back pages of the drinks menu, came in a cut crystal beaker with a beautifully prepared apple and mint garnish (see photo).
Lunch was a three course affair with me choosing the "crab on toast" to start, toasted brown bread with half the slice being laden with an excellent crab mousse and the other half with shredded crab, accompanied with a delightfully light, creamy mayonnaise. Miko had the half lobster which was a bit of a disappointment, lacking real punch, the lobster flavour being slightly drowned in the hazelnut butter. The steak tatare was amazing, being sharp and zesty and showing the diversity and strength of beef in its raw form. However the star (I'm reliably informed) was the spare ribs ordered by tso which sadly, due to my pork intolerance I can't feedback on.
Hawksmoor allow you to order steak by the weight, so that you can order various cuts of beef for your table to share (as well as the serving staff ensuring that you order enough for your table, but not too much). The six steakers chose some porterhouse and prime rib cuts to divvy up between us, with a variety of sides including two types of chips (the dripping chips are practically roast potatoes) carrots, mushrooms, buttered greens and mac & cheese (Miko went for the Bacon Chop as her main). This sharing option does turn some people rather competitive in ensuring that they get a "fair share" (I include myself in this description) but also does make it a more convivial meal time experience and its a good way to get to taste the various cuts and I (like most of Hawksmoor custom) wasn't disappointed. Though at the same time, not completely wowed, either. Beef is amazing when well prepared & cared for like this, but, to be honest, I've actually had better tasting beef meals because of their seasonings. This isn't a criticism, just an observation. This is beef perfection, but not beef augmentation. However there are some superb sauces on offer, such as the sublime blue cheese hollandaise, the spicy and traditional horseradish and the salty but well balanced anchovy butter which do mean that you can enrich the beefy wonderment as you desire. In the non bovine corner, Miko found her Bacon Chop was a bit O.T.T., very smoky and salty like biting into a whole pack of bacon. The sides were great, with warming and homely mac and cheese being an unsung hero.
My desert I chose something simple, just a some lemon sorbet to accompany a very fine glass of Tawny Port (Quinta de la Rosa LBV), Miko had a selection of macaroons which were most enjoyable. Henry's order of Sticky Toffee Pudding was also very well received as was wayward girls pear and almont bakewell tart getting an honorable mention. Tso wasn't too happy with her cornflake sundae, but to me it tasted exactly as it should have: milky and breakfasty with a light crunch.
The whole meal lasted about 3 and half hours and came to £576 (including service) for 7 people and that included starting cocktails, three bottles of wine (a very drinkable Tempranillo at £24 a pop) and three courses each. No it's not a cheap lunch, but it was an excellent one.
Mach V @ Back To Mine 20101110 and Restaurant Review
Sorry for the lateness of the update - I've been very busy! Here's just one of the things I've been up to: L'Autre Pied, Blandford Street, Marylebone, London.
Miko and I went off to L'Autre Pied for Lunch to celebrate her birthday and our 13th Wedding Anniversary.
We arrived at 1pm and after perusing the menu we plumped for the "tasting menu" which was a 7 course affair, at £55 per head. Miko asked for a vegetarian version.
After a delightfully light "amuse bouche", the first course arrived
Jerusalem Artichoke Velouté, Wild Mushrooms, Hazelnut Oil
What a way to start a meal! The jerusalem soup initially tasted far too salty but once we'd picked up the courage to dig deeper in to the plate, a fantastic layer of pasta and some beautiful beans (not too sure what type) underneath balanced the salty flavour and heaven was had in the mouth. A stunning and remarkable starter.
Second starter
Line Caught Cornish Mackerel, Organic Ginger Carrots, Shaved Fennel Salad, Coriander Cress
An awesome dish. Though I'm no fan of fennel, it perfectly complimented the mackerel and carrot.
Fish
Pan Fried Cod, Roscoff Onions, Ragout of Sweetcorn, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Lightly Smoked Sabayon
A beautifully cooked piece of cod which was supported and complimented with the corn and enriched with the very lightly smoked sabayon. noms.
Main
Roasted Breast of Gressingham Duck, Shallot Fondant, Fondant Potatoes, Roasted Fig, Pistachio Jus This was a weird balance; my pallatte was confused by the duck, the fig and the pistaccio being on the same plate together. It wasn't bad, just confusing. My wife had a pumpkin taggiatelli that was outstanding. I note that on the menu now, the fig has gone and is replaced with a pear which might make all the difference.
Cheese course (unphotographed) we were presented with a selection of 6 or 7 cheeses including a goats cheese, some hard smooth english cheese, a stilton style and a couple of french camenbert style cheeses, we chose three of them but none really amazed us.
First Dessert
Vanilla Panacotta, Raspberry Purée and Pear Ok. A slight mishap here as I'd finished the dessert before photographing it, but the photo does speak for itself. This was delicious. Smooth and slightly sweet with the sharpness of the raspberries cutting through the panacotta and then smoothed and sweetened by the pear. Absolute genius.
Second Dessert
Caramel Parfait, Chocolate Streusel, Black Treacle Ice Cream
This is the second and last desert. Though we both enjoyed it, my wife and I disagreed on this course - she found the parfait too cold and I didn't. We both loved the treacle ice cream, though. However, the panacotta was the star of the desserts.
Petit fours (not photographed) were freshly baked micro cookies served very warm on a warm slate. Utterly beautiful.
The whole meal took just under 3 hours to be served. The service was warming, welcoming, informed, funny, friendly and well timed. The total bill including a glass of wine, an apple juice spritzer and water for the two of us was just under £150 (service included) and was worth every penny.
Highly recommended.
Any, here's this podcast's
Tracklisting
Grey Light - Lawrence
Lee Jones - Theme for Frank
Appleblim & ramadanman - Souz le Sable
The XX - VCR (Four Tet Rmix
Matthew & Toby - Rocketnumbernine (Four Tet Rmix)
My My - Butterfly's and Zebra's
Sideshow - Polar Bear (dub)
Dark Sky - Drowned City
Phaeleh/HXDB/Psychonaught - invisible Touch
Nosaj Thing - Voices (Dorian Concept Rmx)
Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
Gold Panda - I'm with you But I'm Lonely
Glasser - Apply
Au Revoir Simone - The Lucky One (Slow Club rmx)
Gold Panda - You
Mount Kimboe - Ruby (live at berghain)
Tripswitch - Circularity
BTM20101110 by machv
TGSWRT: The round up
Well we're home now and still struggling with the change in time zones, but I did promise you one last blog post to try and sum up the whole trip, but first let me try and sum up San Francisco. I really liked it. It's got Big Town infrastructure and Small Town attitude. It's quirky and odd but also feels like some forgotten area of Manhattan where everything went right. With such little time to take a city in I didn't get to do all the touristy things I would've like to do: we didn't get to see Golden Gate Bridge or see the sea lions on the fisherman's wharf or visit the "painted ladies", though we did ride a trolly (and it went "clang clang") so it wasn't a total loss. I did manage to buy new trainers, jeans and socks and I'm very glad about that. Miko and I spent our last full day mostly walking around the city; partly as a method of exploration and partly on trying to find a trainer store that we'd lost the map to earlier, and in doing that you end up walking to places and finding things that you shouldn't (like the "heart of the city farmers' market' just off Market Street) and it also gives you a general "vibe" of a place that maybe you wouldn't get from an open topped bus, travelling from designated stop to designated stop. We did manage to catch a tiny bit of DF Tram's set at the Minna Street Gallery, but we had to rush back to our hotel complete our online check in so unfortunately our time with Dylan was quite short. Dinner was once again at Max's and, again, was very good indeed.
As our flight wasn't until 6:50pm we had some time to kill the next day so we started off at The Honey Honey Cafe and Creperie on the corner of Taylor and Polk for a mighty fine breakfast. We'd intended to go to the famous Dotties (on Dylan's recommendation) but after reading nightmare stories about long queues we decided to try the above instead as breakfast is not a meal you want to mess around with. I have to say I'm very glad we did - The Crepe House (as it seems to be in the process of rebranding) serves a great selection of breakfast fares: Miko plumped for her final pancakes of the trip with home fries and scrambled eggs and I went adventurous and opted for a crab benedict (a new brekkie option on me) and home fries. The food was lovely; slightly rustic in appearance and homely. I'm not too sure whether I'd chose the crab benedict again, but it wasn't unpleasant, quite the opposite in fact, but it was a bit odd however I'm still glad I ordered it. The home fries were delicious: fluffy, crisp and tinged with sage. Both our stomachs were happy.
Afterwards we decided to take in some culture and wandered down to SFMoma to see the Richard Avedon exhibition. The SFMoma is a great gallery and worth the visit. The standing collection is well presented and the gallery itself is quite a joy to walk round. We managed to cover about 2 floors of the 5 that were available and the Richard Avedon exhibit (which in itself was worth a visit) and that took us about 2 and a half hours. I could've easily come back and spend more time here.
After that we walked back to the hotel and waited for our shared taxi to the airport. And that was it. Holiday over. :)
So what can I say in summary? It's difficult to sum it up when you're still quite close to the event. What I would say is that we both feel relaxed after it and that's a remarkable feat. On the whole, everything went ok - we stuck to our rough schedule and (more or less) saw everything we wanted to see. We've both come back with tonnes of photos and video to sift through. Having two days at the end of the trip in San Fran (in a lovely hotel to boot) was a God send and allowed us to declimatise back into civilisation. If we were to do it again (not that we would) I don't think we'd start in Dallas, as that put a huge amount of miles on our journey, just to get going. I doubt I'd return to Las Vegas, without $3000 and a box of cigars to burn (and I wouldn't hestitate to stay at the fantastic Desert Rose Resort again, either). We would spend a lot more time just in Utah, which has a tremendous lot of incredibly awe inspiring nature to offer the senses. I could quite happily spend 3 weeks in Zion. I could easily spend a large portion of my life in San Francisco, too.
It does look like the holiday was a lot more expensive than we budgeted for - especially with the increase in petrol/gas prices that the USA is undergoing (cheapest fuel we saw was in Oklahoma at $2.16 a gallon, most expensive was $4.04 p.g. on the road to Yosemite) and us miscalculating the mpg of the vehicle. However, as a once in a lifetime journey, I can only recommend it. I'm really glad we've done it. :)
And we have plans for more...
TGSWRT: The End of Days - San Francisco
So I find myself awake once again at 5:30am, tappity tapping into my beloved mac book pro on the penultimate day of our trip. Yesterday we got up, packed everything, gave the RV one final paranoid clean and drove it to the El Monte depot in Dublin, California. It was sad to see "Minnie" go, into the parking lot of large, white box like vehicles but part we must (as the late fees were astronomical). The staff at the Dublin depot were surprisingly teutonic, but after reading the blow-up newspaper article on their show room wall, you can understand why. Back in the late 80s and 90s, sales of RVs were dwindling in the States, but the market was kept buoyant by the rentals and specifically El Monte (whom, in this article, had been singled out for praise by Winnebago, the name synomynous with US Motorhomes) who had concentrated on securing deals with European Travel agents to promote their services on the older side of the pond. And it looks like that decision is still reaping rewards. Our fellow "returnees" were all European: mostly German, one Dutch couple and us. The staff who checked our vehicles back in were also German, I also noted that the paperwork could be supplied in different languages if required by renters.
On the whole, our experience of renting an RV in the States has been a good one and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending El Monte to anyone. Given the opportunity to bore you with caveats, I would point out that needlessly noting any damage at all at the point of pick-up is always worth while (not that this was an issue at the return, but it's still good advice).
Anyway, the driving portion of our trip is over - a total mileage of 3,203 miles covered in just under three weeks - a quite impressive feat from someone who's home country is only 837 miles; that's just under driving from Lands End to John O' Groats (do I need to state that I do get that these landmarks are neither the most northern nor the most southern points on the UK Mainland? No? Good) and back again twice. I'm not to sure why you'd want to do that, but still.
We were rapidly chauffeured into San Francisco by another European El Monte employee, this time from Bulgaria, into our final destination - San Francisco. We're staying at the Hotel Adagio on Geary Street in Downtown SF. The room is pretty spacious, clean and beautifully decorated. The staff have been friendly and helpful and from our 12 floor vantage point we can pretty nice views of the city. A great choice of last port of call for us.
For lunch, we walked a couple of blocks to Max's, which can be described as a posh diner, if you will. I ordered the cheeseburger and Miko had a chicken steak sandwich and both were delicious and ample in size. Service was on the slow side but very friendly and, to be honest, we weren't in any rush. It was nice to see San Francisco's Bomb Squad also having a late lunch in there - after all, if they've got time to eat then the city is not in any immediate danger. Key lime pie was ordered to go and we slowly walked back up the hill to have an afternoon nap on our huge king sized bed. Lunch with tip was $55.
For dinner we opted to try somewhere Chinatown but we were late (by US standards) - 9pm - for dinner and by the time we'd taken the trolly, Chinatown was mostly closed, however, the restaurant we'd chosen - Chef Jia's - was just still open (they were sweeping up, but beckoned us in). Chef Jia's is a no frills restaurant: it's overly lit, has utilitarian serving dishes and cheap plates, offers no decor or delight at all in it's surroundings apart from a wall of reviews and accolades, praising its food. We ordered 5 spice duck (me), sesame chicken (miko), vegetable fried rice and broccoli in garlic sauce, accompanied with chinese tea. The food was tasty, fresh (ample, of course) and simple affair and initially the meat courses came across as slightly over seasoned, but as we chowed down we forgave and forgot this. The service was brisk and informative. The star of the choices was the broccoli, which was crisp and very flavoursome. I polished off the very fatty half duck that was coarsely cut up into bony chunks (and that's probably why I'm awake now) but our tummies were happy with the cuisine. A great find. Dinner was $50 (tip incl).
Today should see us do a bit of shopping (we also popped into Macy's for an extra bag for the flight home - now to fill it!) as I need new trainers, T shirts and socks and I hope we can catch DF Tram DJing at the Minna Street Gallery tonight. Then it's a leisurely day tomorrow before catching the BA flight to Heathrow at 18:50.
Bring on Blighty. :)
TGSWRT: Days 17, 18 & 19 - Forests
Before we headed off to Sequoia we popped into Visalia to cash some travellers cheques. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the problems we've experienced paying for fuel over here with our Visa cards. America now is all about paying in advance for ones fuel and more often than not it's asked for your PIN number and every time it has, it's been declined. If I try to use a Credit Card it asked for my ZIP code and that's not going to work either. Therefore, getting access to cash dollars has been pretty important to us. If you're contemplating a similar trip, bear that in mind. After we had got dollar'd up Miko spotted a small independent Mexican food place near the parking lot called "El Mejor" and as lunch was looming we popped over to grab some grub.
This was my lunch. One wet burrito filled with barbequed beef, some hot sauce and a lovely sharp lemon/lime soda. Miko had a chicken enchilada with strawberry soda, but once again we didn't finish our meals and the remainder went on to make up a large part of our dinner that night. Now we were full of very tasty mexican food we set off for Sequoia.
The road from Visalia to Sequoia is possibly one of the windiest and rapidly climbing roads I've ever driven on and tackling it in a heavy 12ft high, 25ft long RV wasn't the best way to experience it but onwards we went. A combination of mexican food, altitude and rapid turns didn't go too well down with Miko who was soon reaching for the motion sickness pills. Once we reached the top and gathered our breathe we took a short stroll round "The Big Trees walk" which was only about half a mile in length, but as we've learnt: we travel very, very slowly.
As big trees are, by their nature, really big, I've included a couple of people in this picture to give them a sense of scale. All you have to do is find them. ;)
We left Sequoia and drove back down the narrow, windy and steep road on to Midpines KOA (sadly this was the exception in our rule that all KOAs are staffed by helpful and friendly people! We won't be rushing back here) where we'd booked for two nights, giving us ample time to check out our final big natural wonder - Yosemite national park.
After a nights rest the weather turned on us and temperatures dropped about 20 farenheit. We had planned on taking the shuttle bus from the campsite up to the park but as it only ran every couple of hours and took an hour and a half to get there we drove up ourselves. It was another ascent up windy mountainous roads, but nothing compared to yesterdays drive. After eating our lunch we took a short mile and a half long walk around the meadow in the centre of the park (that's a three hour excursion for us), which should have offered us clear views of these towering majestic granite outcrops that this park is famous for, and it would've done, if it wasn't for the cloud cover that erased them from our view.
That's the famous Half Dome of Yosemite on the left. Yes, just behind all those lovely obscuring clouds. ;) It didn't stop us taking pictures as clouds help define scenes when photographing or filming them - an empty blue sky is the dullest sky of all. We also saw woodpeckers and dear in the glade that's at the bottom of the picture (something you'll see a lot more of when we've both edited our real pictures and video).
And after that, we left. Our last national park on "The Great South Western Road Trip". We stayed over night at Midpines and today drove to Stockton Delta KOA, where I'm now writing this blog post. The end of the road - 3, 137 miles from our starting point at McKinney, Dallas, Texas. Tomorrow, we'll return the RV and head into San Francisco for the last two nights of our trip. I'll probably write a blog from there and one when we get back to the UK, in way of summary, but I would like to say thanks to everyone whos commented on the postings to let me know you're reading them and to let me know how much you've enjoyed the updates.
It's one thing to write, it's a better thing to be read. :D
TGSWRT: Days 9, 10 & 11 - Canyons and Valleys (part one)
Ok, it's only been a few days since I last wrote but a lot has happened since then. We left the charming Cottonwood Campground at about 10am and ascended up to the South Rim of Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "tSay") and started our tour of the various overlooks that let you look down into this magnificent canyon. Sadly our timing could've been better as the sunlight was mostly overhead making both our camera and video footage a tad flat, but the experience of looking into some America prehistory was worth every second. This canyon features ruins from the Ancient Pueblo People who lived in this Canyon over 3000 years ago and who manufactured impressive cliff carved dwellings as villages, often housing communities of 100 - 200 people. The valley floor is still occupied and farmed today by the Navaho, who own this land and hold the ruins and many of the rocks as sacred; therefore access to the canyon floor is heavily restricted unless accompanied by a guide.
It took us a good 5 to 6 hours to tour the south rim, so we set off for our next port of call at about 4pm, heading north, into our fifth state, Utah and into to Monument Valley.
We'd booked into Gouldings RV Campground the night before but upon our arrival, our booking hadn't made it through their system and there was no room for us when we turned up. All they could offer us was a dry site (no hookup), by the side of the road for a rather rich $27. However, after driving 170 miles and it being 7.30pm we weren't in a position to argue so begrudingly we paid our fee. The Gouldings complex is a sightin itself. Originally a trading post it now has it's own hotel, lodge, grocery store, gas station, medical centre, museum and campground as well as many other amenities. However, our lack of booking had put a dampeners on the whole Monument Valley experience and the general vibe of the place seemed all about wanting to get cash into Gouldings coffers at any cost so we decided to give the actual Monument Valley park a miss and drive on... but not until we'd got something out of the experience in return. So, at 5.55am (a small and odd note about time - Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time, but the Navaho Nation Indian Reservation within Arizona does) we got up and drove down the road to capture the sunrise on one of Nature's great achievements.
And it was well worth it. :D Have a look at the above images on my flickr page, and these are just the pictures from our little fuji camera.
After the sun had done it's glorious wonderment we set off in search of breakfast in the nearby town of Kayenta but all we could find open at this time was a Burger King, however this was no ordinary BK. This BK was (quite oddly) home to the Navaho code talkers exhibit. Breakfast was weird.
After a bit of shopping and cashing of travellers cheques (and securing our next campsite over the phone, rather than the internet) we set off down Highway 160, through Tuba City (it lacked Tubas) then north on Highway 89, past the beautiful Echo Cliffs and across the gorgeous Marble Canyon, up the impressive and aptly named Vermillion Cliffs up to Jacobs Lake, ready for our next Canyon: The Grand Canyon.
After such an impressive morning of both filming and photography we again decided to get up early and catch the sun rise, so at 4.45 am we got up and drove the 45 miles to the North Rim.
Once again, getting up early paid dividends. I was in two minds about seeing the Grand Canyon - after all we're seeing a number of canyons and, yes this is the biggest and most famous, but it's also the most viewed. However we opted for the less popular north rim just to try and see something more unique and to have a more personal experience. To put this into context, the south rim (which offers far better, wider and more colourful views) gets 5million visitors a year - it has it's own Imax cinema for chrissakes - while the north gets a more leisurely half a million. The drive to the north rim also is (once again) stunning - something we'd appreciate later - after a congratulatory and rewarding breakfast at The Grand Canyon Lodge.
We both ordered the same thing - buttermilk pancakes, two eggs (scrambled) and a side of hash browns and our jaws dropped when this arrived
That's 3 19 cm in diameter buttermilk pancakes in a stack about 5 cm high, so that's 1418 cubic cm of very delicious and fluffy pancake. Most of that jar of syrup disappeared into the stack, too. Please note the garnish of a wedge of strawberry and a slice of orange, making it a "healthy" breakfast and contributing to my 5 a day. ;) Though (those who care for our well being will be reassured to read) it did defeat us and we left half of the pancake mountain on the plate. Breakfast came to a costly but worth it $34 (including tip).
We got back on the road and drove back through the Kaibab Plateau, now lit for us to see the glittering, golden leaves of the autumnal silver birch set against the deep greens of fir trees and then a real rare treat:
a small herd of Bison, grazing and wallowing beside the roadside. After a few tentative snaps we got back on the road, heading north up Highway 89, into Utah. We did stop off at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park but it was a bit dissappointing so I had a nap, then on up passed Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, onto Highway 12 and we're now in Cannonville for two days to check out the plethora of state parks here.
TGSWRT: Day Six - My God, it's full of carbs
Well it's 4am and I'm awake and, as we're not likely to have any wi-fi access for a week (maybe more) I thought, before we hit the wilderness, I'd do one last blog to round up our time in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a very clean, very affluent and quite a liberal, arty mountain town; for those who've spent time in Aspen - it's like that, but with a more Mexican and Native American feel to it. Shops are expensive and rather posh. We spent the late afternoon in the touristy old town wandering around looking at the exceptionally nice but exceptionally overpriced wares on offer. We did find an exceptional art gallery - Pop Gallery - where both of us felt we could've spend a large proportion of a lottery win on many pieces and pay for them to be shipped back. New discoverys like Valery Milovic, Thomas Barbery, Marie Sena and Lynden St. Victor to name but a few were all keeping us entertained.
Both Miko and I have been suffering with a touch of altitude sickness, so we've been drinking lots of water and trying to boost our carbs so this evening we went to The Shed for some Mexican food.
We split a plate of House Guacamole, Salsa Corn Tortilla Chips and a bowl of Calabacitas - a warm salad of zucchini, yellow squash, corn onion and green chile to start and for our "entrees" we both had variations of the Enchilada and Taco Plate: One rolled, blue corn enchilada filled with cheddar cheese, onion and covered with red chile, One soft blue corn taco with cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, & choice of lean ground beef marinated in red chile or baked chicken drizzled with red chile,green chile or a side of salsa, served with pinto beans & mexican rice. I went for beef with red chile in the enchilada and chicken in the other and miko went for turkey sausage and chicken. We felt that the guacamole could benefit from some lime so my lime wedge that came with my margarita (which oddly came with a straw) went into it and , yes it it did taste better. The chicken and green chile combination was very tasty but the rest of the food didn't really deliver on the level that maybe we were expecting - it felt slightly santized, one step away from "real" mexican food. However the Calabacitas was outstanding - a perfect autumnal dish, very tasty and beautifully seasoned. The price of this meal was a very reasonable $55 (including tip) so we can't complain too much, but considering the James Beard award we did feel a bit let down.
The next port of call is The Very Large Array , Lake Lyman, then on to the Petrified Forest and Canyon De Chelly.