Psarou Beach, Mykonos: Clips from our visit to the beach in Mykonos

Psarou Beach – Mykonos (Part 1)

Psarou Beach – Mykonos (Part 2)

Psarou Beach – Mykonos (Part 3)

Selene Cooking Class, Santorini: Clips from our cooking class in Santorini

Cheese Ice Cream – Selene Restaurant Cooking Class – Santorini, Greece

Pureed Fava with Mastic Sap – Selene Restaurant Cooking Class – Santorini, Greece

Roasted Pureed Eggplant – Selene Restaurant Cooking Class – Santorini, Greece

Roasted Lamb Shank – Selene Restaurant Cooking Class – Santorini, Greece

Melitinia – Selene Restaurant Cooking Class – Santorini, Greece

Maia Luxury Resort, Mahe, Seychelles: Clips showing our villa in Seychelles

Maia Villa Video Tour – Outdoors – Mahe, Seychelles

Maia Villa Video Tour – Indoors – Mahe, Seychelles

• EMU Australia Women’s Sheeve Flip Flops: I was looking for a pair of comfortable, yet hardy sandals to wear in Greece and bought these babies a few days before our trip (thank God for overnight shipping).  They were exactly what I was looking for–very soft, suede-like material, no need for breaking in, and provided excellent support walking all day long in the blistering heat on gravel, cobblestone, and pavement.

• Fantasy Travel: We were really happy with our travel agency, which helped us book hotels, ferries, and transfers in Greece, and even went above and beyond to help us research flights to the Seychelles.  Dina, who was our travel agent, was always very responsive and very sweet.  Highly recommended.

• Kindle App for the iPad: During our trip, I read 8 books, 6 of which I had downloaded to my iPad with the Kindle app.  Some were pretty terrible books, but some, like the following, were really terrific: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (really interesting book about the history of the luxury industry, recommended by our friend Howard), You’re Either In, Our You’re In the Way (inspiring story written by Bay Area twin brothers about their experience making their first movie . . . and how they got Ed Harris to star in it), and If You Follow Me (another Bay Area author’s book, fiction, about a couple’s year teaching English in Japan).

Thanks for following our blog on this trip!  Hopefully, we’ll keep it up during the year, but if not, there’s always next year’s trip to Japan!  And (sigh) our trip to San Diego Comic-Con this year.

9:30 a.m.            Wake up, go to the gym

11:00 a.m.          Breakfast in our villa

12:00 p.m.          Play on the beach (perfectly clear, 80 degree water, fish swimming around our ankles

2:00 p.m.            Lunch (one day, we felt like fries and strawberry shakes, and that’s exactly what we got)

3:00 p.m.            Massages or mani/pedi (the latter just for me)

4:30 p.m.            Read on the beach, surf the web, or watch episodes of Dexter on Demian’s laptop

7:00 p.m.            Dinner (one night, we opted to have one of the chefs barbecue in our villa—mounds of terrific grilled seafood and chicken with scrumptious sauces, followed by a light lemon tart dessert . . . so awesome).

Basically, we just slept, ate, and relaxed for the entire three days in Mahe—I think I spent most of each day in a swimsuit or a robe.  So luxurious!  Peggita was so good to us, on our last night even drawing us a romantic bubble bath, scattered with tropical flowers.  We were definitely sad to leave this morning, but glad to have gotten the opportunity to stay at Maia.  It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.  The pictures below will probably give you a better idea of the beauty of the island better than me blathering on ever could.  See you all soon!

As it turns out, Santorini is a completely different experience from Mykonos, so I’m glad we decided to explore both islands on our trip. Whereas Mykonos is more of a resort island for the jet-set (Maui was a good comparison), Santorini is more historical, is full of tourists, and boasts sunsets that literally elicit applause from the crowd they draw every night. With that introduction, let’s dive in.

Day 1

Here are the highlights from our first day arriving in Santorini:

• Ferry to Santorini = FAIL. To get to Santorini from Mykonos, we had to survive a ferry ride of utter chaos. After waiting in one of two long lines to get onto the ferry (we were told it didn’t matter which line), once aboard, we were instructed that we needed to somehow fight our way, against the flow of bodies, to the other end of the ferry to store our luggage. Said “storage” area was an unenclosed pile of luggage thrown unsteadily together at the back of the ferry. Throughout the three hour ride, I kept thinking that one sharp turn would send our luggage (near the top of the heap) flying into the Aegean. Once docked in Santorini, we waited amongst the sweating masses to retrieve our luggage, which, by the time we reached it, had been tossed to different ends of the ship. Sigh.
  (Demian’s Note) So some of these things will be so bad that I’m going to have to add in my super hate for what was going on here. There were absolutely no signs saying what we should do, everyone on the outside of the ship had NO idea what was going on, and when you’re inside the ship and asking where to store the luggage they send you to the back of the ship, where once you’re there they ask you why you didn’t store your luggage in the front. Utter ludicrousity I tells you! This same thing happened to at LEAST 5 other groups of people on the ship, and it looked like one lady refused to leave the back of the ship because she wanted to watch her luggage the whole time. WORST EXPERIENCE EVAR.

• Ikastikies Suites = Luxury Flintstones Accommodations. I decided to book a room in a traditional cave hotel in Firostefani, which turned out to be a great choice. Because Santorini has such steep cliffs, many of its buildings are carved right into the mountain, including the Ikastikies Suites, where we stayed. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to find that although our suite evoked some Flintstones nostalgia with its white, curved walls, it was spacious and quite modern, with two bedrooms, a modern bathroom, a kitchen and living room, and (yes!) wireless internet. The two proprietors, Giorgos and Justin, were sweet and accommodating, warmly welcoming us with cocktails and snacks and imploring us to make ourselves at home.
  (Demian’s Note) This place was indeed epic. Check out the photos below in the gallery, but there should be no hard edges at all in the room as everyone was literally carved out of caves inside the mountain. The view was absolutely amazing too!

• Dinner and Sunset FTW. We decided to grab dinner at Vanilia, only a few steps away from the hotel, at the edge of a cliff with a perfect view of the setting sun. Because we were seated in the garden area, Demian and I kept running out, one at a time, to catch a glimpse of the sunset, which was incredible. Even from the garden restaurant, I could see the sun start to turn everything pale gold, then rich pink, as it set. Even after the sun was gone, the sky was full of color—deep blues, greens, yellows, crimson. Dinner wasn’t half bad either We started with garlicky, juicy steamed mussels, and then moved on to the island’s classic Santorinian salad of cucumber, tomatoes, caper berries, caper leaves, and cheese. We also shared a really tasty tuna spaghetti—perfectly al dente noodles tossed in a flavorful, almost briny tomato sauce. For dessert, I had the yogurt ice-cream (hard to taste the yogurt in it), topped with what I think were preserved figs, which had a nutty texture and flavor. Demian had a bitter chocolate soufflé cake, which he enjoyed very much.

As we walked back to the hotel, we took in the evening view of Oia, sparkling against the dark sky.

Then, at Demian’s request, we watched Ninja Assassin, which has got to be one of the most violent movies I have ever seen. An incongruent, but relaxing, way to end the evening.

Day 2

Ah, advencha! Our first full day in Santorini started leisurely enough, with a huge breakfast served to us in our suite (two different kinds of cereal, Greek yogurt with strawberries, a bowl of fruit, a plate of meats and cheeses, a basket of breakfast breads, and made-to-order omelets. Festively plump, we then made our way, along the island cliff, down to the town of Fira. With its closely packed souvenir shops and bustling eateries, Fira feels much different from Mykonos Town, with its high-end designer shops, garden restaurants, and uniform sugar-cube architecture. After browsing a little, we decided to return to the hotel to lie in the sun and figure out our plan for the rest of the day.

Our plan for the rest of the day ended up being to rent a Smart Car from “Jimmy,” a friend of our hotel proprietor, so that we could get around to our various activities planned for the following day (a cooking class in Pyrgos and massages in Oia). Never in my life did I think I would ever set foot in, much less be driven around in, a Smart Car. Ultimately, it made the most sense because it’s (obviously) tiny and fuel-efficient—a good “car” to get-around the island in. After bargaining Jimmy down to half the price he originally quoted us (*roll eyes*), we decided to take our death-trap . . . I mean, Smart Car . . . for a dry-run to Pyrgos.

(Demian’s Note) So treasure the pictures of me in this car, it might be the only proof you have of me in a Mercedes (they own Smart Car . . . I guess Mercedes Mini attempt =P) ANYWAYS, we initially planned on just taxiing everywhere because Jaci knows how stressed I get just dealing with all the idiots on the road in San Francisco, but the cost of renting a car was just a bit more than a one-way taxi trip to one of the places we wanted to visit. So being fiscally responsible, we ended up renting a Smart Car and of course I wouldn’t let Jaci drive because I feared for my life already driving that dinky little car. Feel free to ignore the below as it is one giant car rant.

- Problem #1: No power steering – So the only cars I’ve driven without power-steering are go-karts and this actually provides a perfect comparison to overall feel of the car. Imagine driving a go-kart from Go-Kart-Racer, adding a few 100 lbs and an extra person. This car has no power, no maneuverability, and pretty much no visibility. DO NOT RENT THIS CAR IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE. Yes it’s easy to fit this car into small places, but rent a smaller regular car like a Yaris or Kia or something and you’ll do much better.

- Problem #2: Lines mean nothing in Greece – Whether it’s parking lines or lines in the road, nobody cares! Cars in parking lots are literally overlapping the lines horizontally and vertically and in every direction. This is where one of SMART car’s advantages doesn’t help at all… because you don’t have to bother fitting in a parking spot, you just park your car wherever! The lack of line following also results in people driving in the middle of the road . . . this I guess should be expected though.

- Problem #3: Too many tourists renting and driving – So the retardedly high cost of taxis means EVERYONE is renting some sort of vehicle to get around. If you think people are bad drivers normally, tourists + locals = Worst combination of drivers ever. Half of the people are tourists who are driving 30 miles under the speed limits in ATVs and Vespas while the other half are locales who are pissed off and driving 50 miles over speed limits because they’re so upset and want to go fast.

- Problem #4: No street signs – I guess this is kind of expected for a small Greek island, but streets and highways don’t really have signs. Directions to places usually consist of (get on main road… go down . . . make a left pass the Mexican restaurant). Unfortunately, people don’t really tell you how to get on the main road or what Mexican restaurant they’re talking about. Luckily, Santorini is a tiny island . . . so on our first drive to Pyrgos we ended up going to the wrong end of the island… but it only took us maybe 10 minutes more to eventually get back to where we wanted to go. UGH.

After the harrowing trip that was our first Smart Car experience, we decided we needed to refuel, so we stopped at a cute café called Mylos for a very traditional Greek snack: strawberry shakes and fries.

Now exhausted from both trauma and food-coma, we headed straight for our suite to rest up before meeting our friends for dinner . . . only to be waylaid by an impromptu party being held by a New York couple staying in the Executive Suite a level above ours. Our hosts were a beautiful trauma center resident from Russia (Grey’s Anatomy anyone?) and her IT consultant boyfriend who looked like James Marsden, along with our party-all-the-time hotel proprietor Justin, who was acting as bartender for the afternoon. Also joining us was a couple from Norway, who kept saying how happy they were not to be in Oslo, where it’s raining and 15 degree Celsius. Of course, we couldn’t turn down the generous invitation to join them and were promptly handed cocktails and regaled with unbelievable (and un-repeatable) tales from the E.R.

We managed to pry ourselves away from our hosts’ hospitality with just enough time to freshen up and dash out the door again to meet our honeymooning pals Jamie and Greg for dinner at Saltsa. We did our very best not to make a spectacle of ourselves taking pictures of the food that evening, so instead of another food slideshow, I’ll just list the yummy dishes we shared:

• A Santorinian salad (Jamie and Greg hadn’t had one yet during their stay on Santorini)
• Fried Santorinian white eggplant in a sesame and spices crust (totally amazing; hot and crisp on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth sweetness on the inside . . . and I don’t even like eggplant!)
• “Spetsofai” traditional smoked village sausage with peppers in tomato sauce (a dish recommended to us by our new Norwegian friends and which Demian loved)
• Seafood risotto with mussels (great mussels, so-so risotto)
• Sea bass fillet with steamed vegetables and crawfish sauce (a fine, but unmemorable dish)
• Mixed kebab on a pita bread with yogurt and tomato sauce (incredibly moist, flavorful meat patties . . . probably the best dish of the evening)

We then decided to gild the lily by ordering dessert. I went for what turned out to be a way-too-sweet “Lokoumi” ice cream with caramelized rose petals, Demian had a pretty standard panna cotta with strawberries, and Jamie and Greg shared a decent chocolate soufflé cake. All-in-all, though, it was a very enjoyable evening catching up with friends halfway around the world.

Day 3

Our last full day in Santorini, I felt a little bit like Kobe beef—stuffed with delicious, luxurious foods and the massaged until tender! Not a bad time!

Cooking Class at Selene

We started the morning with a cooking class at Selene, a well-reputed slow-food restaurant that recently moved from Fira to Pyrgos. The cooking 5-hour cooking class (of which we were the only attendees) began with a lesson on Santorini’s agricultural history, including a tour of a very funky series of museum exhibits depicting everything from traditional hunting (mostly of birds) to gathering and winemaking. Most of these exhibits showed a wife hard at work, with her husband sitting on a donkey or a cushion.

For the next part of our class, we had an opportunity to taste traditional produce and products unique to Santorini, including fava beans (yellow pea-like beans very different from the Italian variety), caper berries and leaves, white eggplant, Santorini tomatoes (a small, irregularly-shaped fruit with highly-concentrated flavor, resulting from the fact that it requires no water to cultivate), round zucchini (also grown without irrigation), hairy cucumber, and beetroot. We also tried some traditional Santorini-style bread (twice-baked to dry it out, so that it can last for up to 6 months); it is so hard that you have to soak it in water to soften it before you can eat it. Softened and crumbly, it kind of tasted like Grape Nuts! We also participated in an extensive tasting of cheeses unique to Greece (which apparently cannot be exported because they aren’t pasteurized—too bad). The cheese fell into two classes: male (harder cheeses requiring aging) and female (lighter, creamier cheeses created from the leftover whey from male cheeses). Even for a cheese novice like me, all of the cheeses were pretty darned delicious. My favorite was the male version of a traditional Santorinian cheese. The cheese we found most interesting (and wished we could take back to share with our friends) was one that had been aged in red wine barrels and, as a result, had an overwhelming taste of hard alcohol.

After the tasting concluded, we moved into the kitchen to watch the head chef and sous chef of Selene prepare the courses we would later eat for a late lunch, including: (1) cold tomato soup (very similar in taste to gazpacho) with cheese ice cream, (2) fava with mastic sap (the bitter, licorice-like sap from a coniferous tree), (3) lamb shoulder with eggplant puree, and (4) melitinia, a dessert traditionally made at Easter consisting of a sweet cheese filling inside a phyllo tart. We totally geeked out and took tons of pictures (and with our Flip camera, lots of video which I may upload to YouTube, if I can figure it out). The chef spoke in Greek, while our guide translated—it was like being in a Food Network kitchen . . . so cool!

Finally, we were able to enjoy a lunch of the items we saw prepared and learned so much about. I absolutely loved the cold tomato soup with cheese ice cream (although I wished there was a little less of the ice cream), but my favorite was the fall-off-the-bone lamb shoulder… so flavorful and hardly gamey at all! So good! The only dish we didn’t get to try was the melitinia (no explanation for its absence); instead, we had a refreshing cold strawberry soup with lime-basil sorbet.

Overall, I thought the class was fascinating and would definitely recommend it to other foodies.

Exploring Oia

After the cooking class, we made our way back up the coast of Santorini to Oia, situated on the highest cliff of the island and reputed to have the best view of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. The town itself is a more relaxed, cleaner version of Fira, and we spent some time poking around and buying up souvenirs before getting massages (why not? It’s vacation!) at Caldera Massage and making our way to Nectar and Ambrosia (another place recommended by my colleague) for dinner. We again managed to restrain from taking pictures of another beautiful, tasty meal, which this time consisted of a Waldorf salad, sautéed mushrooms, and chicken souvlaki (with two terrific sauces—red peppercorn sauce and a dill sauce), followed by an incredibly moist and honey-sweetened semolina coconut cake . . . I’m drooling just thinking about it! Since we again managed to pick a table without a view of the sunset, I excused myself from the table a couple of times to run to the edge of Oia to see the sun. A huge crowd had gathered to take pictures, but, amazingly enough, folks were pretty polite and made room for newcomers. One would think that after awhile, the sunsets on Santorini would start to run together and become unremarkable, but each one is different. Because it was a bit overcast that evening, the sun streaked the sky with iridescent-colored clouds. Totally breathtaking, and a great way to end our time in Santorini.

Day 4

Since we didn’t have to leave for the (really tiny) Santorini airport until 2 p.m., Demian and I decided to go back to Mylos to get brunch. When we’d be there earlier in the week, they had an entire menu devoted exclusively to waffles, so I knew that this was the place for me. (In walking around Fira, we noticed a ton of shops advertising waffles and crepes . . . I wonder if the island gets a lot of Belgian and French tourists . . . .) I ordered what turned out to be a gigantic waffle with honey and cinnamon (I can’t believe I finished the whole thing . . . I’m so gross!) and a fresh peach juice (which was really good!), while Demian ordered a “cheese toast”—i.e., grilled cheese, which came with these delicious chips (I think they must have been cheese flavored or something).

A few hours later, we were on a plane back to Athens for an overnight stay before heading to the Seychelles! As I write this, we’re about fifteen minutes away from heading to the airport, so au revoir until then!

- Beautiful sunsets
- Harrowing adventures in a Smart Car
- An educational and delicious cooking class

Welcome to Athens

Since I’m not as funny as Demian, I’m going to play to my lawyerly strengths in my blog posts – that’s right, bullet points.

Athens Highlights

• Went on an Athens Walking Tour led by Aristotle: Much to Demian’s chagrin, we spent most of our first full day in Athens on walking tour of the city, which included highlights like the changing of the guard at Parliament, the National Gardens, the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian’s Arch, the Plaka, and the Acropolis (where we saw the Theater of Dionysus, the temple of Asclepius, and, of course, the tourist-swarmed and larger-than-life Parthenon).

• Tried the infamous Nescafe frappe, as well as various renditions of a Greek salad.

• Got lost among the whitewashed, blue-doored, bougainvillea-covered houses in Athens while looking for Monastiraki, one of the shopping districts.

• Bought custom-made sandals (and convinced Demian NOT to buy a murse) from Melissinos, the poet sandal-maker of Athens who apparently went to Parsons School of Design and has be-sandaled the likes of John Lennon, Barbara Streisand, and Jackie O.

• Ate at the Michelin-starred Varoulko, which had fantastic food and less-than-fantastic service.  For you curious foodies out there, we had a four-course (plus dessert) meal, including: (1) a refreshing, toothsome carpaccio of baby sea-bream fillets, lightly drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice; (2) perfectly fried whitefish (the lightest, crispiest breading), accompanied by an eggplant aioli (best tartar sauce ever!) and a slightly incongruous strawberry reduction; (3) grilled octopus tentacle (giant, smoky, al dente), with an eye-opening, confetti-shaped pasta interspersed with flakes of slightly salty Greek cheese and chewy-sweet (what I think was) dried apricot; (4) an unmemorable and slightly overcooked white-fleshed fish with generic sauteed greens and a shredded potato cake; and (5) a solid, but not particularly imaginative, pear-themed dessert–caramelized diced pear, pear sorbet, and vanilla ice cream between two thin strips of sweet, crisp phyllo.

Although the weather was bipolar at times (alternatively windy and sprinkling, then sunny and hot), we were lucky to have been able to enjoy Athens without any strikes, protests, or otherwise scary incidents.  We were also pretty satisfied with our hotel, The Athens Gate, which was a short distance from the Acropolis and Syntagma Square (where the government buildings, and incidentally, a lot of the recent protests have been held).  While small, our room was modern, clean, and comfortable, with a great shower and a beautiful view of the Temple of Zeus.  (It was a bit of challenge getting to our room at first, though, because the elevators in the hotel are designed to hold, at most, four people . . . with our suitcases, even just two people was a squeeze.)  The rooftop restaurant where we had dinner one night and breakfast the next morning was a great place to admire the Acropolis, especially when lit up at night.  We both thought it was a nice touch to have been greeted at reception with glasses of water and lakoumi (which I believe is the same thing as Turkish delight).

Before getting to the pictures, I’ll leave you all with some random observations about Athens that you may not find out from the guide books:

• When eating out, you will get a series of receipts for every item that is brought to the table. We were royally befuddled by this at first, and it was near impossible to get a cogent explanation from anyone (in fact, our server at Varoulko treated us like idiots when we asked about the series of receipts to make sure that we weren’t being undercharged).  Matt Barrett, who maintains a very helpful and comprehensive travel guide online, explains it pretty well: “At the end of the meal you will get a bill which is supposed to be a printout from a cash register though if you are in a far off village where the tax people rarely come it may just be a scrawled piece of paper.  By law there has to be a receipt for everything on the table and so it should not surprise you if at the end of the night you have a handful of these little receipts.  It won’t take much work to find the updated one.  The reason this is done is not so they can keep track of what you are eating.  They know. It is so the government can keep track of what the restaurant is selling. If a tax person comes into a restaurant and the tables don’t have receipts they can be charged thousands of euros for each infraction.”

• (Crude, but) You can’t flush toilet paper down the toilets.  Instead, you need to dispose of your paper products in the trash cans, which are emptied frequently.  Talk about testing a marriage.

• There are a TON of stray dogs in Athens. Most have collars and appear to have been abandoned by their owners, which is pretty sad.  A couple of these strays followed us from Parliament, all the way to the Acropolis.  Adorable, but again, sad.

• Graffiti is EVERYWHERE, which is unfortunate in such a historic and otherwise beautiful city.

• There are NO Starbucks(es?) anywhere! Not necessarily a bad thing, just a surprise.  There are, however, McDonald’s(es).

• The Greeks we have met so far are not particularly moved by an effort to speak their language (of which, thanks to some Greek-language software Demian got before the trip, we now know a few rudimentary phrases); so we’ve given up.  Good thing pretty much everyone speaks English!

And now, for the pictures!

Hotel and Hotel Views

The Athens Gate - Sign

The Athens Gate - Our Room

View from Our Room

View of Parthenon from Athens Gate Restaurant

View of Temple of Zeus from Our Room

Sunrise - View of Temple of Zeus from Our Room

Me in Front of Temple of Zeus (Room View)

Walking Tour of Athens

Syntagma Metro Station - Clock

Demian Posing with Guard at Parliament

Changing of the Guard at Parliament

National Gardens - Arch

National Gardens - Flowers

National Gardens - Blooming Trees

Stray Dogs that Followed Us

Museum Built by Founder of Modern Olympics

Hadrian's Gate

Together at the Temple of Zeus

Columns at Temple of Zeus

Theater of Dionysus

Temple of Asclepius

Theater at the Acropolis - Yanni Played Here!

The Parthenon (!)

Parthenon - Close-Up

Temple at Top of Acropolis (Unknown Column Ladies)

Food!

Greek Salad v.1

Frappe!

Greek Salad v.2

Smoked Salmon Sandwich

Together at Varoulko

View of Acropolis at Night from Valroulko

Varoulko - Attack of the Giant Octopus!

. . . methinks we need to take fewer pictures.

More from Mykonos soon!

1.  Keep better track of my finances.

2.  Don’t be such a fatty.

Since we bought the house in 2007 and I started wedding planning, our budget and finances have been in shambles.  I didn’t keep up with how much we spent, paid some bills late, and just generally had no idea what the hell was going on with our money.  As a result, I think we’ve spent a lot more (and saved a lot less) than we intended over the last two years.  Well, no more!  With the wedding over a year behind us, I have zero excuse to not get my act together.

As for my second resolution, maybe I’m being a little harsh on myself, but I think I’m going to have to be – it’s just way too easy to tell myself I’m too busy or too tired to work out and eat right.  Thanks to a colleague at work, I’ve now committed myself to working out at least 3 times a week.  We started back in December, and now that I’ve gotten used to making exercising part of my weekly routine, I’ve gotten up to 5 times a week.  It’s really only 20 minutes each session (thank you, Jillian Michaels!), but it’s perfect for my busy schedule and otherwise lazy self.  I’ve started to notice a difference in my body in the last week or so, and that’s been really satisfying.

There are probably definitely other things I could change about my lifestyle, but I think two resolutions are all I can handle this year.

Wish me luck!

Herringbone Linen Tank Dress and Stretch Knit Denim Tank Dress from Bebe

The interior is rustic elegant, with exposed wooden beam ceilings and an open kitchen trimmed with beautiful (and its appears, unused) copper pots and pans.  You can dine indoors or al fresco, with the two areas separated by large, wood-framed windows and a door that permits the waitstaff to pass between the two without clogging the dining room – pretty clever, and something that I appreciate.

Service is good, but not perfect.  Our water glasses were replenished frequently, appetizer and entrees came quickly, and the staff was friendly.  However, there was a long wait – and a few attempts – to get the dessert menu because our waiter had disappeared after our entrees arrived.

The food is decent, but not memorable.  There’s not a single thing – including the practically unsweetened lemonade – that I would come back for, except perhaps to have a glass of wine before a movie to enjoy the pretty restaurant.

Fresh, warmed foccacia is served with an olive oil, basil, garlic, and what we believed to be fresh mint aioli.  The bread is good, but the aioli a little weird – the mint adds a very grassy taste that seems almost out of place.  We started with an appetizer that I had been looking forward to, Calamaretti e Fagiol, Fresh Monterey Bay calamari with “bianchi di Spagna” beans and mache lettuce, plated to the side.  The little calamari themselves were lightly poached, then slightly grilled, so a little crisp on the outside and barely cooked on the inside.  I thought the seasoning was good – good balance of garlic and salt – but the plate was just too oily.  Having the mache to toss in the oil helped, but the plate could have used a little acidity.

I had ordered the Risotto Nero, a squid ink risotto with Nova scallops, tiny cuttlefish hidden in the risotto, slices of cooked tomato flesh, and Marche DOP extra virgin olive oil.  I am a sucker for squid ink, which, as I learned from Demian, is not the ideal choice for a date.  Overall, I was happy with the flavor of the risotto, although it was a tad salty.  It contrasted nicely with the sweet acidity of the tomatoes – a tasty combination of hearty and refreshing.  Unfortunately, the scallops were overcooked and dry – a disappointment.  Demian ordered what would have been my next choice, Foiade di Funghi, organic buckwheat parpadelle pasta with mixed wild mushrooms, garlic, parsley and slivers of Grana Padano cheese.  Demian’s dish was also a disappointment – the pasta was grainy and flavorless, and the dish in general lacked any mushroom intensity.

Dessert was also so-so.  My shortbread, basil cream, and peach dessert was just strange combination.  A slightly sweet, very basily cream sat between two very hard shortbread “cookies” that tasted more like unsweetened scones.  A sour, jammy sauce of cooked peaches was also out of place on the plate.  Demian’s panna cotta was better, smooth layers of lemon, then bluberry panna cotta topped a strawberry and raspberry compote at the bottom of a martini glass.  Again, decent, but not cravable.

The restaurant has potential, but there were too many misses for me to explore its potential again anytime soon.

Rating: Two stars.

Plus, the shopping in Hong Kong is rad.  It’s definitely more expensive than it was 12 years ago (Giordano – why hast thou forsaken me???), but you can still get pretty terrific deals if you (or your husband’s aunt or cousin hehe) knows where to go

That said, here are my bullet-pointed highlights of our trip – less for you, the reader, and more for me, so that I remember where to go when we (inevitably!!!) return.

Airline: Cathay Pacific: No reclining chairs (?!?!), but excellent on-demand entertainment center

Hotel: Langham Place (Long Ho Zhao Deem, Wongkok): Comfy rooms, FREE internet access in business center!, English TV, and close proximity to delightful street food vendor, Langham Place Mall, and subway (*thumbs up*)

Day 1

• Lei Garden: Great dim sum in a posh setting; best BBQ pork I’ve ever had
• Ladies’ Market (Mongkok): Outdoor market – not the best, but still pretty good for souvenirs
• Times Square (Causeway Bay): Mushroom village (!) and designer stores
• Beverly Island and Trendy Zone (Causeway Bay): Cheapo ladies’ clothes – yeehaw!

Day 2

• Nobu Hong Kong: Great location by the habor, generous portions, and foie gras roll; satisfying, but not earth-shattering
• Midlevels Travelator (so steep!) and Cicada Bar (where everyone knows Victor’s name)
• Harbor Boat Trip: Windy but entertaining light show!
• Hutong: Seriously out of this world Chinese dining experience; ironwork birdcages everywhere, beautiful red hot chili crab dish – we have to go back…HAVE TO
• Night Market: Where was this???  It was awesome!  Hooo pang!

Day 3

• Return to HK from Shanghai (best siu lom bao ever) and Ningbo (family time!)
• Peking Garden: Another great traditional Chinese restaurant (nice carpets!), noodle making, delightful dessert that I can’t remember…darn…
• Or did we go to the Night Market this night?  Dang…it’s starting to fade…

Day 4

• The epic final day
• G.O.D.: “Ikea of Hong Kong” is such an understatement; old-school Hong Kong made COOL
• Xi Yan: Terrific lunch place; healthy and flavorful Chinese fod
• Some amazing bar/lounge near Sushi Kuu – LOTS of Rod Stewart on the speakers (AWESOME)
• Sushi Kuu: The dish that made me love food again (cold poached egg, uni, and ikura); sushi chef is Auntie Vivi’s tenant!; Victor eating that AWFUL PLUM; so much food…SO MUCH ALCOHOL…AAAHHHH!
• Zuma: I can’t believe we ate the whole damn thing (towering inferno of dessert)
• Savva: Best freaking view of Hong Kong

For pictures, check out my two-part Facebook album!

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