Skip to main content

Logge Vasari, Arezzo, Italy

Lunch, then a quick tour of the surrounding area in Arezzo, Italy.










Comments

Post a Comment

Please keep comments clean and relevant to the article or discussion. The Dineocrat, in his infinite wisdom, will delete profanity-laced and irrelevant comments, as well as those with poor grammar.

Popular posts from this blog

Lunch at Bale Dutung in Pampanga

Bale Dutung (Wood House) is a restaurant within artist Claude Tayag's house-cum-studio. It specializes in the regional cuisine of Pampanga or Capampangan food. It's located in Angeles City, long known for being home to Clark Air Base. Nowadays, it's known as one of the Philippines's gastronomic centers, a reputation that has elicited many a trip through the bustling province. I've had lunch there several times and it's quite an experience each time. It satisfies gastronomically and intellectually. While Claude (pronounced "cloud") stays mostly behind the scenes in the open kitchen, Mary Ann Quioc, Claude's wife, puts on a show. She tells a story behind each of the dishes. It may be a dish's history or an anecdote, and it provokes the intellect or whets the appetite, or both. Mary Ann graciously started us out with an ideal blend of dalandan juice and muscovado sugar ice cubes. Because of the nature of muscovado sugar—or inuyat as Capampanga...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spiral - Fine Buffet Food at Sofitel Manila

Buffets were my nightmares. Seriously. My first experiences of them were back in the late 80's, in the form of American all-you-can-eat chains and the Vegas strip. Thoughts of these fluorescent-bathed establishments deliver to my mind plates of dark-edged lettuce, grease-laden meatballs and all-you-can-eat spaghetti with dubious meat sauce. Little did I know back then that these were merely temporary outposts for the 250-pound men and women on the express road to 500 pounds. But even Vegas has upped the ante of dining, upgrading its hotels to dizzyingly ostentatious luxury and, consequently its amenities to match, including its buffets and more formal sit-down restaurants. When I went back to Manila for good, one of the first places my family took me to was the strikingly modern Sofitel Manila , which houses the Spiral buffet restaurant (and a small casino). After several more visits, my nightmares, I could honestly say, are gone. Even after having eaten at the new-Vegas buffets, ...
1 comment
Read more

Savoring Savoy Meal at Les Bouquinistes, Paris

"Nicole Kidman is next door, vous l'avez vue ?" asked our waitress after we sat down at Les Bouquinistes. My dining companions and I looked outside, into the inscrutable and slightly drizzly evening. The sudden appearance of a swarm of paparazzi, circling the building like giant fireflies, gave credence to her claim. "Really?" I wanted to ask. "Did she bring her career with her? Because she seems to have left it somewhere equally hard to spot." Besides, we had already found our star that night and it was food. Les Bouquinistes , Ze Kitchen Galerie 's neighbor, is breathtaking at night. The Seine is right in front, lit up and glorious, Notre Dame is in the distance overseeing the night's activities on the Left Bank. It was Fashion Week in Paris, which made the appearance of a celebrity logical, though her appearance in the restaurant next door was a mystery worthy of Poirot. Les Bouquinistes is Guy Savoy's more "affordable" o...
Post a Comment
Read more