What Fills My Plate

The  Old Wild West  world got a little smaller last weekend. The glitter of a freshly barbecued burger with all the trimmings took a big hit.   I fear that Old Wild West is losing its legendary reputation of serving up great cowboy sized meals that are fresh off the grill. Lately, the deeper you dive into their menu, the more you will want to stay away.  It's no longer a unique experience.     This is sad to me as getting a good burger here in Pasta Land is difficult, and being American I kind of need a good burger once in awhile.   There are few burger places in and around the Padova, Italy area, and the one we frequent, called Old Wild West, is located in the town of Monselice.   This week, when arriving,   we first noticed that they had finally taken down the tattered American flag that had sadly hung outside in the rain all winter long.   Workmen were freshening up the wooden patio area with fresh paint, and so it look...

Plated Artistically  We escape Pasta Land of the Veneto to visit Croatia at least 5 times a year.     The scenery is beautiful and the coastline is colorful.   You can tell you are near Croatian man-food by the smell from the pigs roasting on a spit at almost every restaurant into and out of each town.   If you are not in the mood for pork there is always fresh fish, or something with local truffles.   However, in the   past two years we made a major discovery and have always planned to visit a restaurant called Barba Danilo at least twice on every weekend visit.   Our first time resulted after reading   several reviews of restaurants in the area around Rovinj.   Now after becoming a quasi regular customer I want to write my own recommendation and urge you to make an effort to visit them if you are on the coast of Croatia.   (Rovinj is just over 3 hours from Venezia) The sauces w the tuna Wow! The restaurant is h...

Clone of "Dave" Meeting Bob Maybe you missed it.   Maybe you are too young or living in a foreign land.     There was a time, a really good time, when if you had 60 cents you could meet this big plastic Big Boy at the front door of Bob’s Big Boy Restaurant. Ah, those were the days!   Their burgers were so good that some teens made this the prom night restaurant.  Imagine a bunch of teens in tuxedos and fancy dresses having a burger.  It DID happen. Real Prices   Not to Pass Up! When I was a teenager in high school, you could get a great double decker burger for 60 cents, fries for a dime (10 cent), and even a cup of coffee only cost 10 cents.   This burger was made on a grill, not from a factory box, warmed up in a microwave contraption.   (You know who I am talking about right?) Those aren't real burgers at Mickey D's! Thank you, Brits! Caramel Inside Was Better Let me divert for a second and explain how thing...

We were in London over Christmas, and enjoyed seeing how London celebrates Christmas, in comparison to how the rest of Europe celebrates with lighting and markets.  There didn't seem to be the large Christmas market like we had seen in Manchester, and on Christmas day everything was closed down, and there was no public transportation.  Trains were not running for two days in a row, which caused a huge mess for people trying to get to the airports without spending a fortune.  It wasn't a  total loss, however, in the 4 days, we did take in a performance of The Phantom of the Opera, and  we got in a lot of walking, were we saw Parliament, Big Ben (enclosed by construction), and we found that Westminster Abbey was closed.      What We Found Cast in Bronze Walking along the Thames river we found a wonderful monument to the people who fought in the Battle of Britain.   The casting in bronze was amazing in itself to see, yet really t...

Greetings, and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to you! Another short blog posting! We visited Vienna a weekend ago, took in the Christmas market, and walked to find some interesting sites.  I wanted to show you something that many people miss, as they either do not follow classical music or know that in the Vienna cemetery the people of Vienna have placed the burial sites of all of their famous composers,  Beethoven to Brahms to the Strauss family and more , they are all there together in once place.  What I did notice and want to mention is that when you are in Vienna you will find that the tourist industry and the city really push Mozart's  name.  You can buy t shirts, mugs, pens, napkins, chocolates, etc., all with Mozart's  name on them.  Mozart's house is a big item to see.  Beethoven lived in several different places in Vienna, but you won't see much about this.  What I did see was a big difference in people's actions towards the two...

Sad news for Starbucks fans!  Another year will pass before the lines grow outside of the new Starbucks in Milano.   The latest information is that it will open in 2018.   If my calculations are correct, this will be a total of two years of renovating a building and furnishing it with the usual Starbucks furniture.   Devotees must be getting very uptight about the delay.   Collectors of those countrified coffee cups have dusted their shelf in anticipation.   Do you know that those cups grow in value and are traded on Ebay?   This whole trading thing began with baseball cards decades ago.   A minor exageration. When we were in Spain we noticed that they used toilets which are the same in America.   Nothing like making things look “corporate style”.   How can it take so long to refurbish an old building?  I think it was previously the post office in Milano.   Whoever owns the franchise to that Starbucks must be beating h...

Buon Giorno! It has been awhile since the last posting.   I have been very busy painting watercolors almost every day, as I am planning an exhibition   in a few months. This will be a short read for you.   There are two things on my mind.   I want to mention a dish served in Venezia, which is common to the people who live in the Veneto.   When I was a kid, my mother served this dish about once a month, and I hated it so much that I put a mountain of ketchup on it to survive the meal.   She didn’t really know how to cook it like the people here do.   That dish is liver and onions, commonly know here as fegato alla Veneziana. featured with soft polenta When we have guests from abroad, I always encourage them to try it.   I tell them if they don’t like it they can have what I have ordered, that way they won’t miss a chance to taste a regional dish.   This weekend I ordered it in a restaurant in the hills called Colli Euganei, sout...