Tag Archives: 2024

Top Food Experiences from Our Milan to Barcelona Trip

January 24, 2025Uncategorized2024, 2025, europe, food, Italy, Milan, spain, The Travel Group, travel, Wine TastingCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Our holiday adventure started with 4 nights in Milan. Staying at the luxurious Excelsior Hotel Gallia, right across the street from the Milano Centrale turned out to be the perfect choice.

We used the train from Malpensa airport and walked across the street to the hotel.

Milano Centrale is a great station with excellent food choices. We had a fabulous seafood dinner at Bistrot Pedal the first night, did a day trip to Como from there and took the train to Rome too. I had wanted to stay near the Duomo but the Excelsior was perfect and easy to get to and from the city centre.

The food highlights of Milan were Mercato Centrale and Peck, a food store operating in Milan for 140 years. It has an amazing kitchen. Pick up a great meal if you want a picnic or night off in your room and bring home some culinary treasures.

We came home with these two small jars, tiny baby artichoke hearts and anchovy fillets.

From Roma Centrale we had a car booked to take us to Civitavecchia where we boarded Windstar Cruises Star Legend, our home for the next 16 nights.

Our dining on board was good, the service was outstanding. Nanda took great care of us.

Our first port was Livorno where we visited Fattoria Il Poggio in the Tuscany countryside for a tour of the vineyard and a seated tasting with lunch. The wines flowed and the food was delicious.

The olive oil and tapenade came home with us.

The Syrah, Merlot blend and the Chardonnay earned 2 of the 4 spots in our suitcases.

In Barcelona we took a tour to Sant Sadurni d’Anoia, Cava country to visit Vilarnua, a very pretty estate. We tasted 3 cavas, 2 earned the last 2 spots.

Vilarnau entrance and 3 wines in our tasting

I made a wine friend at the Vilarnua tasting who had brought some wine with him on the cruise and shared this very special Riesling with us that night. A good wine day.

The best meal of the whole trip was at Kraken in Malaga, Spain. I love tapas, you get to try so many things.

The cod bites should have been all mine. Patatas Bravas were excellent, although they didn’t look pretty. The shrimp tacos were so good we had seconds. The beef mini burger with truffled mayo was a hit with my meat eating friends.

I hope to go back to Malaga sometime.

We ended our trip back in Barcelona and managed to fit in a couple of meals starting with a lunch at La Taperia Barcelona for a traditional tapas. Pick from the display.

We booked dinner at Canete before we left home. It was a busy place with a happy atmosphere full of locals. Check out the uniforms. Great service.

I take no responsibility for the sign overhead but the sentiment worked for me.

Shrimp Tortas – We had to order a second helping

And so ends our winter holiday vacation in Europe.

Discover Colonel Saab: A Must-Visit Indian Dining Experience

November 29, 2024Uncategorized2024, food, The Travel Group, travelCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Your spoiled for choice when it comes to great Indian restaurants in London. We wanted something that was walking distance from our hotel and the theatre for our show that night. Colonel Saab in Trafalgar Square fit the bill nicely. A colourful and cosy room. Very friendly service.

We decided to go with the tasting menu and enjoy the surprises.

Rasam is a South Indian tomato and lentil soup simmered with healing spices and said to have medicinal qualities. Served with mini idli (fried rice cakes) and puffed pastry bites.

Spiced chick peas & potato, a trio of sauces, pomegranate seed boondi, savoury crisp, herbal jam and black lime chaat masala. We’d never had anything like this and would never have ordered it. The chickpeas, potato and sauces were all in a crisp shell. Fantastic.

Like no Paneer Tikka I’ve ever had this one was stuffed with prunes and pomegranate in tomato, garlic mustard salsa.

A mango sorbet was an excellent palate cleanser that was followed with a fish curry and an amazing cheesecake.

We’d go back to Colonel Saab. Yums Up!

Discover Colonel Saab: A Must-Visit Indian Dining Experience

November 29, 2024Uncategorized2024, food, The Travel Group, travelCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

We decided to go with the tasting menu and enjoy the surprises.

Rasam is a South Indian tomato and lentil soup simmered with healing spices and said to have medicinal qualities. Served with mini idli (fried rice cakes) and puffed pastry bites.

Like no Paneer Tikka I’ve ever had this one was stuffed with prunes and pomegranate in tomato, garlic mustard salsa.

A mango sorbet was an excellent palate cleanser that was followed with a fish curry and an amazing cheesecake.

We’d go back to Colonel Saab. Yums Up!

Unforgettable Dinner: Whole Turbot & Burnt Cheesecake at Brat, London

November 27, 2024Uncategorized2024, food, London, The Travel Group, travelCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Brat, an old English word for turbot, is a casual restaurant with good service and fantastic Basque inspired food that earned a Michelin star in it’s first 6 months.

The specialty of the house is whole turbot, slow grilled over charcoal embers and the reason we were there.

The restaurant is upstairs over a pub and at the top of the stairs the first thing that gets your attention is fire and the busy, exciting kitchen.

A whole turbot is a lot of fish and it takes awhile to cook so we surrendered to the temptation is try a few starters. The oysters and bread with anchovies were so good, if we didn’t have that turbot coming we’d have had seconds of both.

When the chef presented the fish we were so excited we didn’t get a picture. We had watched them turning and spraying the fish for the last 45 minutes. The fat from the fish and the vinaigrette make a delicious sauce. We cleaned it to the bones.

A side of potatoes are a must. Even better than at Rovi, roasted over embers and drowning in hay smoked butter.

The burnt cheesecakes were temptingly on display at the kitchen when we arrived and impossible not to try. Another winner.

Brat served us one of the best meals we’ve ever eaten. Until next time, goodbye.

A Taste of Belfast: Farls and Bushmills Distillery

November 20, 2024Uncategorized2024, belfast, giants-causeway, Ireland, northern-ireland, travel, United KingdomCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

I’m having a hard time writing about Belfast. Belfast doesn’t have the kind of culinary vibrancy we saw in Dublin. Cork or Galway. The Troubles are just not that long ago and in fact, the gates are still locked each evening at Shankill and Falls Road. It’s getting better though.

There were 2 foodie highlights though: Bushmills and Farls.

Seahorse Restaurant Bread & Fancy Butter

We had one truly awful dinner at Fibber McGee’s and one very good dinner at Seahorse at the Grand Central Hotel, our home for a couple of nights where we discovered Irish Potato Bread or Farls at breakfast. Nothing like the potato bread we see in Canada, this is simply left over potatoes with flour, salt and butter added. Rolled out and fried, they are a sensation! We had a 15 minutes window before departing for the airport and spent it eating Farls.

The Antrim coast and the Giants Causeway are fantastic. We had truly awful weather but a visit to Bushmills for a couple of whiskey flights and a hot toddy warmed us up perfectly.

Back home in Vancouver the weather is forcing me to work on perfecting my Hot Toddy recipe. Another good use of Bushmills is a shot in oatmeal. Try it, you’ll like it!

A Taste of Ireland: Dingle Peninsula and The Wild Atlantic Way

November 12, 2024Uncategorized2024, dublin, europe, galway, Ireland, The Travel Group, travelCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

A few days on the Wild Atlantic Way including the Dingle Peninsula, County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher and Galway.

Dunmore Head on the Dingle Peninsula is 3,021 miles from Cape Spear Newfoundland the closest points in North America and Europe. I feel the connection in my bones like I feel my connection to cod fish. The bounty of the sea makes it onto the plate, but sadly the fish & chips is usually Hake, decent and usually well prepared but a sad replacement for Cod. However Newfoundland can’t compete when it comes to the chowder. The Irish make the most of the variety of seafood available and then perfect it with their amazing butter and cream.

We had the best mussels ever at John Benny’s Pub Dingle. Local Cromane mussels in white wine garlic cream sauce with more excellent brown bread. Order a side of fries too. Thumbs up for the fish pie.

A night at the Dingle Skellig Hotel and dinner at their Coastguard restaurant was very good. A spectacular setting with great views.

It’s not often you get a restaurant this good in a hotel.

Turbot Grilled spicy Prawns, Celeriac, Asparagus and Cafe de Paris butter.

Monkfish, Celeriac, Broccoli and White Wine Cream.

The salad was perfectly fresh and surprisingly delicious with a mustard seed dressing.

I’m not a fan of monkfish but David enjoyed it. I’ll take turbot any chance I get and I wasn’t disappointed.

We loved our day on the Dingle, the scenery, the people and the food.

On our way to Ennis we stopped at Bunratty Castle highlighted by a stop at Durty Nelly’s for our first and best Irish coffee.

We spent a Sunday night in Ennis at the Temple Gate hotel, home of Preachers Pub and another great chowder. There was traditional music from 8-10 musicians, including a young lass of about 12 and an older woman of about 75. Another great night.

Onward to the Cliffs of Moher with a stop in Ennistymon for a coffee and found The Cheese Press. Flat white coffee is the order of the day in Ireland and at the counter they told us the milk came from a cow that morning.

We also purchased a very stinky wash rind cheese that we carried with us the rest of the trip.

It was trouble, emptying minibars and requesting fridges in hotels but a few weeks later we finished every bit of this delicious stinky treasure.

A couple of nights in Galway and proved why everyone loves it so much. Great atmosphere, great food. We couldn’t resist dinner both nights at The King’s Head. More great chowder and mussels. Live music in the pub if you have to wait for a table in the restaurant.

A day trip to the Aran Islands and we said goodbye to the Wild Atlantic and headed north to Belfast.

Ireland – Dublin

November 1, 2024Uncategorized2024, dublin, europe, food, Ireland, travelCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

It’s not just the butter, which is truly delicious, it’s the bread, chowder, cheese, whiskey and so much more that makes up the excellent culinary scene in Ireland. And the topper is the hospitality, consistently warm and welcoming.

Our first dinner in Dublin was at Sole featuring a great sole meunière but we remember it best for the first of many seafood chowders. Great potatoes, bread and butter. Expensive!

Delahunt was highly recommended. Unfortunately our server made several biggish blunders. The chef was particular about fixing a problem but we let most of the errors slide. Remembered best for the cheese plate with house made fig mustard. If they sold it by the jar my suitcase would have been full.

First vegetarian dinner was at was Glas.

Chestnut Parfait with walnut bread and preserved grapes was a nice little starter for 2.

Chestnut Parfait, Walnut Bread, Preserved Grapes

The Jerusalem Artichoke with goat cheese frittata and mustard sauce was tasty but not pretty.

Jerusalem Artichoke and Goats Cheese Frittata

The Flamed Red Cabbage needed a sharp knife but the potato and truffle accompaniment was a winner.

The polenta fries with kimchi aioli, a side dish, stole the show.

Glas is a comfortable restaurant with a good wine selection. The food is tasty but lacked colour. Possibly just our choices. Those polenta fries though, well done .

On a great day trip up into Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains we had a remarkable pear scone in the cafe at Powerscourt while we looked at the splendid gardens in the rain. Later we had an excellent lunch at Lynham’s in Laragh. David still claims it the best fish and chips of the trip. I had an excellent salad. The warm and welcoming room and hospitality were outstanding.

A visit to the Guiness Storehouse was better than I expected but at the end of the day the rooftop bar was too busy to enjoy. Go early, it’s a good spot to see Dublin.

Dublin was lively and inviting with great food everywhere. Our best meal was on a later one night stay at the Mayson Hotel in the Docklands a hip and vibrant area. Ryleigh’s Rooftop Steakhouse served these 2 pescatarian’s very well. Best truffle fries ever. The included breakfast was pretty fine too.

We didn’t go near the Temple Bar but really enjoyed the Lincoln’s Inn a good spot after a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland.

The Palace Bar across from the very excellent College Green Hotel was another great spot.

Ireland – Cork

October 31, 2024Uncategorized2024, IrelandCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Cork is known as the food capital of Ireland and the bounty of produce, the cheese and the seafood chowder convinced us it deserves the title.

Dinner at Paradiso is the best vegetarian meal in memory. We did the full tasting menu with wine pairing and it was unforgettable. Casual service at its absolute best. The food was as beautiful as it was delicious. The wines matched nicely and came with interesting stories of the varietals and producers.

Hegarty’s Cheddar & Spinach Croquet, Beet Tartare & Ricepaper Cracker, Parsnip Soup

Carrot Escabeche, Buffalo. Labneh & Pickled Fennel

Smoked Leek, Romanesco, Girolles & Spiced Butter

Sweetcorn & Coolea Ravioli, Jalapeño, Lime & Coriander

Broccoli, Squash, Oloroso sauce, Hazelnut Cougere

Coolea, Beet relish, Young Buck Blue, Membrillo

There were little surprises like the popcorn with the ravioli. It was our first taste of Coolea Cheese and a big hunk came home with us.

Paradiso was our best meal all of in Ireland and we had some seriously good meals.

We took a train to Midleton and did the Midleton Distillery Behind the Scenes tour with Bryan. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We learned about the history of whiskey in Ireland and how it’s made. Several tasting stations were set up along the way. A great day trip.

Irish Whiskey is Always Triple Distilled

We walked through the famous English Market. There were so may great things we wanted but couldn’t possibly eat. Locals are very lucky to have this market. We immediately had to go find a great chowder.

Quinlan’s Seafood Bar fit the bill nicely. Chowder was on our minds but it was time for Fish & Chips too. The F&C was good but the chowder was fantastic.

We enjoyed Cork and would happily return.

Med Yacht Club Lunch on Explora 1

January 17, 2024Uncategorized#LuxuryTravels, #OceanStateofMind, 2024, @ExploraJourneys, @TheTravelGroupCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Open for lunch on sea days we loved the Med Yacht Club lunch enough to go twice. On the final sea day we couldn’t resist the desserts.

These tiny portions are perfect if you like a chance to try as many different things as possible.

Crispy perfection is the only way to describe the calamari.

My favourite salad might be a niçoise but this lighter salad without the potatoes was lovely.

Nicely presented and a good vegetarian option.

I never miss a chance to have salt cod and this was a new version for me. Great option with crisply roasted skin and delicious beans.

I’m glad I had this chocolate hazelnut bomb at the end of the cruise or I would have been back again and again.

Floating island pink pralines and pistachios

It’s not chocolate, cheesecake or crème brûlée so I don’t see the point. David said it was good.

Anthology on Explora features Michelin Guest Chef Emma Bengtsson

January 13, 2024Uncategorized2024, Explora Journey's, MichelinCathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup

Explora has one restaurant with a fee, Anthology, where they feature guest chefs from Michelin restaurants, in this case Emma Bengtsson, a Swedish chef from Aquavit restaurant in New York.

With the added cost and so many great options included I resisted. I’m also not a big fan of tasting menus. Thank goodness David insisted. It was a fabulous meal.

The salmon amuse bouche had us finger licking the mustard off the plate.

Savoury lemon bavarois, caviar, potato crumble, pickled onions, salted cream and dill oil

Bavarois is a savoury cheesecake, simply amazing.

Hamachi crudities, tomato vinaigrette, beets and cucumber

Tuna carpaccio, fried capers, juniper crisp and lingonberry vinaigrette

Chef Emma substituted tuna for venison carpaccio for us.

Lobster bisque, fennel, pickled tomatoes and endive

Little lobster morsels under the fennel and endive. The bisque was added at the table.

Turbot with salt-baked onions, sea buckthorn hollandaise, bleak roe and marble potatoes

There were 3 options for the main course. I can’t comment on the beef but the turbot and mushroom were fantastic.

I had the turbot, the best ever. Bleak roe is traditionally from Sweden but this came from Canada and made us proud.

David had the mushroom so I only had a bite but I would love to have that dish. It was extraordinary.

Mushroom Barlotto with confit baby carrots, arugula and king oyster mushrooms

There was a pre dessert chocolate dish that disappeared before any picture.

Arctic Birds Nest with blueberry sorbet, goat cheese parfait and chocolate twigs

The sorbet and goat cheese parfait was presented as an egg coated in white chocolate. Not a bite left on either plate.

We added the wine pairing. Other than the first French Champagne all the wines were from the Marche area of Italy and included some grapes we weren’t familiar with but thought they were beautifully matched to the wines.

A great evening.

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