Two Fat Bellies

Galapagos Day 4 – Isabela and Fernandina Islands

October 14th, 2009 by virginia

We woke up early yet again to sit out on deck and look for whales and other marine wildlife. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any, but we did hear some interesting stories about whaling ships in the Galapagos, such as the one that inspired the book Moby Dick. We also had some nice views of the volcanoes on Isabela.

Volcano at dawn

After breakfast we took a zodiac ride around Punta Vicente Roca. As soon as we ventured out we ran into a huge group of sea turtles swimming around our zodiac.

Sea turtle swimming next to our zodiac

On the rocks of the island we saw some flightless cormorants fluttering their short stubby wings. These birds can’t fly but they can sure swim! We saw a few diving in the water. We also saw sea lions, fur seals, and marine iguanas perched on the rocks.

Flightless cormorant spreading its wings

We ventured into a cave where some sea lions were frolicking about, then headed toward to the open sea in search of the elusive mola mola, or ocean sunfish. Unfortunately that wasn’t successful either, but it was relaxing to zoom around on the zodiacs rather than hiking rocky terrain.

Right after the zodiac ride we donned our snorkeling gear once again and headed back out to the area where we saw all the sea turtles. There were about a dozen in our immediate vicinity and some were quite large. This was when Josh almost ran into one, as he was chasing a diving cormorant trying to take a picture of it. He was concentrating so much on the bird that he didn’t see a turtle coming straight at him and had to flail his arms about to prevent himself from running into it. We all had a good laugh at his expense.

More underwater turtle shots

After a delicious Ecuadorian buffet lunch that featuring a whole roasted suckling pig and two of the best desserts I’ve ever tasted, a sandwich cookie filled with caramel and a sinfully moist tres leches cake, we took an afternoon excursion to Punta Espinosa. We trekked over the solid black ropey lava that covers this part of the island and saw more sea lions, flightless cormorants, and tons of marine iguanas.

Ropey lava and lava cactuses

At one point we saw the massive remnants of whale bones, though those were brought to that particular area, not because a whale had actually died on that spot. Still, they were pretty cool.

Whale bones

Josh thought the ropey lava reminded him of the glaciers in the Alaska. I could see the similar characteristics but they were a much smaller scale on the lava. The cracks in the lava were nothing like the crevasses that you could fall into in the glaciers. As we prepared to take the zodiacs back to the ship, we were treated to yet another beautiful sunset.

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Breakfast:

French toast, scrambled eggs with ham, muffin

Lunch:

Ceviche topped with popcorn and roasted corn kernals

Whole roasted suckling pig

Rice, avocado, pan de yuca, suckling pig, hominy, yuca fritter, fish I think, beet salad in the middle

The best tres leches cake and caramel sandwich cookie, plus a stewed fig in the back

Dinner:

Endive and apple salad with walnuts

Super moist turkey topped with mushrooms, sweet potato puree and some kind of frittata

Some kind of white fish topped with bruschetta

Tiramisu

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos
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Galapagos Day 3 – Floreana

October 14th, 2009 by virginia

We woke up super early in the morning to take the optional excursion to Post Office Bay. There’s a barrel there where whalers used to drop off letters to their loved ones. People returning to their homeland would stop by the barrel and check to see if there were any letters addressed to whatever city they were going to. It was their duty to take the letter, if any, and deliver it personally. It might take years for a letter to arrive home but I’m sure that whoever was on the receiving end of one of these letters would be ecstatic to hear any word from their loved one.

The Post Office Barrel in Post Office Bay

In keeping with the tradition, we all wrote postcards to place in the barrel and hope that they will arrive at their destinations one day. The naturalists also went through the postcards already in the barrel and yelled out the names of cities in the addresses. People who lived in/near whatever city, or planned on visiting it soon, would raise their hands and take the postcard. Several postcards were matched, including one that we volunteered to take to the upper east side. It was really fun and exciting to take part in such an old tradition.

The postcard we deposited in the barrel in hopes that it will reach our parents one day

The postcard we deposited in the barrel in the hope that it will reach our parents one day

After depositing our postcards in the barrel, we headed back to the ship for a quick breakfast, then we donned our wetsuits and gear for some deep water snorkeling near Champion Island. It was here that we encountered our very first sea turtle, which was almost surreal. The turtle just swam about his business while we clustered around and tried to get a few underwater pictures. The other fish were pretty cool too, but there’s nothing like seeing your first sea turtle up close and personal.

Our first encounter with a sea turtle

In the afternoon we had a wet landing on the sandy beach at Punta Cormorant. It was a relatively easy hike next to a large lake that was filled with pink flamingos. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get very close to the flamingos, who were on the other side of the lake from us, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. We watched them feeding in the water (they get their pink color from the small crustaceans they eat) and even saw a few birds taking flight.

Pink flamingos in the distance

We headed to the beach on the opposite shore where we saw the large indentations of sea turtle nests. My hat almost blew off on top of them but I was able to trap it before it would disturb the nests. Phew!

The sandy beach where the sea turtles lay their eggs

We spent a while just watching birds flying over head before heading back to the zodiacs. The sun was starting to set at that point and it cast a beautiful pink glow to the sand and the rocks. It was really such a peaceful moment to be standing on the beach looking out at the sunset and hearing the waves lapping against the shore. It really made me appreciate all the beauty that nature has to offer.

Nature at its best

Breakfast:

Whole wheat toast, bananas, scrambled eggs, bacon, broccoli frittata, pancake, fried yuca filled with cheese

Lunch:

Fish soup with coconut milk

Penne alfredo, spaghetti bolognese, linguini pesto, french bread, potato salad, chicken salad sandwich

Really delicious walnut tart

Dinner:

Chicken consomme

Rice with raisins, string beans, and super dry practically inedible duck

Tilapia(?) with tasty sauce - way better than the dry duck!

Chocolate mousse cake

Strawberry shortcake for Hannah's birthday

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos
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Galapagos Day 2 – Española Island

October 12th, 2009 by virginia

Our first excursion today was a hike at Punta Suarez where we were greeted by an adorable sea lion pup. There was also a huge bull sea lion patrolling the waters and barking nonstop, marking his territory for all to hear.

Adorable sea lion pup

After we hike a short distance along the beach, we saw a massive pile of marine iguanas just laying on the side of the path. There must have been at least a hundred of them just clustered together, some lying on top of others.

Big pile of marine iguanas

Further along the path we saw a family of blue footed boobies, with a father sitting on top of two chicks and a mother standing guard nearby.

A happy family of boobies

We were so close to this family yet they were totally unperturbed and sat there peacefully. I really can’t describe how amazing this is.

There's another baby boobie under there as well that's hidden from view

There's another baby booby under there as well that's hidden from view

Then our next sight was two sea lion pups playing together and snuggling next to each other. It was just too cute for words.

Seriously cute pups

As we moved inland, we came across the nesting grounds of the waved albatrosses. These birds are huge! Their chicks are the size of turkeys and not much more attractive. They’re brown and fuzzy and move clumsily across the ground.

Freaky looking waved albatross chick

We saw many adults though soaring gracefully overhead; the area is known as the albatross airport. We had some incredible views as we hiked along the cliff, watching the waves crash into the rocks and a blowhole spurting water high into the air.

Birds flying off the cliffs

The albatrosses weren’t the only birds nesting. We came across a Nazca booby (the green footed booby) incubating an egg.

Nazca booby sitting on an egg

After we returned to the ship and had lunch, we headed to Gardner Bay, a beautiful stretch of beach where more sea lions were lounging. This was our first opportunity to snorkel so we opted to practice from the beach first before taking a zodiac to a large rock off the shore.

Sea lions laying on the beach and a rainbow in the distance

The more experienced snorkelers went deep water snorkeling at another location, but because this was my very first time snorkeling, I wanted to try in shallow water first to see how I would react to it. Water, as many of you know, is not my friend. However, I loved snorkeling from the beginning and we soon ventured out to the deeper rock. The very first thing we saw? A gigantic stingray sitting on the floor, half covered by a rock. It was HUGE. We also saw tons of colorful fish and it was absolutely thrilling for me. I’ve been bitten by the snorkeling bug.

School of surgeonfish

As if the hiking and the snorkeling wasn’t enough, Josh and I also signed up for kayaking for later in the afternoon. The ship keeps six inflatable kayaks that are built for two people. They’re much wider than normal kayaks, and you sit on top of it rather than in it, so it’s much safer as there is less chance for the kayak to tip over. However, they’re also harder to maneuver. We went in circles for a bit before we finally got the hang of it.

Exploring caves in kayaks

We kayaked around a small island, even venturing into a cave to see some of the rock formations. All in all it was a tiring and activity packed day but we saw some truly incredible things.

Breakfast:

Smoked salmon and tomato on whole wheat toast, watermelon, french toast

Lunch:

Octopus, crusty french bread, some sort of potato thing with guacamole, watermelon, beef with peppers, chicken stew, yuca

Octopus, crusty french bread, a potato thing with guacamole, watermelon, beef with peppers, chicken stew, yuca

Rice pudding with tree tomato compote

Dinner:

Prosciutto with melon and papaya

Chicken in garlic sauce, potato wedges, asparagus

Perfectly rare seared yellowfin tuna

Apple crisp with strawberry ice cream

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos
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Galapagos Day 1 – Baltra and North Seymour

October 12th, 2009 by virginia

After a quick buffet breakfast in our Guayaquil hotel, the Hilton Colon, we headed to the airport with our tour group to board a flight to the Galapagos Islands. There were around 90 of us altogether on this trip. The islands are located about 600 miles west from the coast of Ecuador so the flight time was less than two hours. After we landed at the airport in Baltra, an old U.S. Air Force base, we took buses to the nearby docks where we loaded onto zodiacs that would take us to our ship, the National Geographic Endeavour. Our first inkling that we were in for something special was that the dock was covered in sleeping sea lions. There were sea lions laying on benches and sea lions all over the ground.

Sea lions sleeping on the dock

You really had to watch where you walked so you didn’t step on one. And they paid us absolutely no attention; we were an arm’s length away from them snapping pictures and they simply didn’t care. It was astonishing.

Don't step on the sea lion!

Our tour, which is organized by Lindblad Expeditions, is partnered with the National Geographic Society. There are naturalists on board who accompanied us everywhere, giving us detailed explanations about what we were seeing and the history of each particular island in the Galapagos. It’s really a well-put together tour. Even though the Endeavour is a true expedition ship, it did have some some nice amenities, like a large lounge and library to hang out in. There was also a small gym, as well as a small pool out on the sun deck. It’s not one of those gigantic cruise ships that are basically floating hotels though. It’s definitely a bit more rustic, but also more intimate and homey.

After a brief orientation, we had our first lunch on the ship. Lunch is served buffet style, and there aren’t that many choices. Each day there was usually a soup, some salads, and two or three entrees and sides. Our first lunch, a vegetarian cannelloni and some sort of chicken cooked in a tomato sauce, was actually pretty bad. I was a bit worried about how that would bode for the rest of the trip, but luckily the food improved vastly after that meal.

After lunch we had an abandon ship and safety drill, then later in the afternoon we had our first excursion of the cruise. We took zodiacs from the ship to the southern shore of North Seymour. Ships in the Galapagos don’t actually dock at each island so you have to take a zodiac from the ship to the island and have either a dry landing (where you can step from the zodiac straight onto land) or a wet landing (where you land on a beach and need to step out into knee-deep water). North Seymour was a dry landing and as soon as we stepped out we were greeted by more sea lions.

Getting off the zodiac and stepping around a sea lion

My first impression of the Galapagos is that it’s actually very arid. There are cactuses and the land was pretty barren looking. These are not tropical islands, though in the spring and summer there is more green on the trees. While we were there, however, all the trees were bare and dry.

Frigate bird coming in for a landing over the dry landscape

The highlights of North Seymour are the blue footed boobies and the great frigate birds. It’s mating season for the frigate birds so the males have these huge red pouches under their beaks that they can blow up into big balloons. The sit on the ground and look up at the females, hoping to attract them with their red pouches.

Male frigate bird with his pouch inflated ready to attract the females

Male frigate bird with his pouch inflated in hopes of attracting the females

The blue footed boobies are really beautiful, with bright blue feet (duh) and intense eyes. Josh and I are immature so we got a big kick out of the naturalist saying “look at the boobies” or “watch the boobies dancing”, which happened numerous times.

Blue footed boobie

We saw frigate birds swooping down trying to steal food from the boobies and they would fight back. It was just incredible being in the middle of everything and being able to observe the wildlife up close.

Sea lion bidding us goodbye

After we returned to the ship there was a cocktail party in the lounge where they introduced us to the captain and the staff. There were cocktail hours every night of the cruise where we’d gather in the lounge for some snacks and drinks (alcohol is extra on the ship) and one of the naturalists would recap the day and Paula, our expedition leader, would tell us about the next day’s activities. It’s a nice time to unwind from the day and whet our appetites for dinner.

Each day the dinner menu is posted after breakfast and you sign up for which entree you want. That way they don’t waste food and can prepare exactly what is needed. I’m sure though that if you changed your mind when dinner came, they would accommodate you. But reducing waste is a big part of their conservation efforts.

Dinner is served by the waitstaff, and everyone kind of just sits wherever there is room. Our dinner companions changed every night, though there were some people we ended up eating with more often than others. It was really quite pleasant and a great way to get to know most of the people on the ship.

There were always three entree options for dinner, and Josh and I would pick the meat entree and the fish entree, ignoring the vegetarian option. Appetizers and desserts were the same for everyone. We would each eat half of our entree and then switch plates, so we could taste both dishes. The food was better on some nights than others, but overall it was pretty good. The fish entrees were consistently good and properly prepared. The meat entrees were more inconsistent but aside from one incinerated duck, nothing was inedible. Plus we were so active each day that we were absolutely starving by the time dinner rolled around. Lets just say that despite all of the hiking, snorkeling, and kayaking that we did, our bellies remained fat as ever!

Breakfast (at the Hilton Colon):

Banana bread, pan de yuca, sweet corn tamale, chicken empanada, some sort of fritter stuffed with cheese, and bacon

Banana bread, pan de yuca, sweet corn tamale, chicken empanada, some sort of fritter stuffed with cheese, bacon

Lunch (on the ship):

Broccoli and cheese soup topped with fresh avocado

Garlic bread, pasta salad, coconut rice, chicken in tomato sauce, vegetarian canneloni

Garlic bread, pasta salad, coconut rice, chicken in tomato sauce, vegetarian cannelloni

Dinner:

Mushroom soup

Rice pilaf, spinach frittata, pork tenderloin

Fish option (I don't remember what kind of fish it was!)

Chocolate cheesecake

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos
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Guayaquil Day 1 – Lo Nuestro

October 11th, 2009 by virginia

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As with every trip we take, I searched the internet for a nice place to have dinner in Guayaquil. The restaurant that came up most often was Lo Nuestro, which serves classic Ecuadorian cuisine. We asked the concierge in our hotel about it and he said it was the best restaurant in the city. That sounded like a pretty good endorsement so we asked him to make a reservation for us that night.

The restaurant was a short cab ride away from our hotel, the Hilton Colon (you go everywhere by taxi in Guayaquil; rides are super cheap, ranging from $3-5 to go almost anywhere). It had a very homey décor, with countless framed photographs and articles hanging on the walls. It’s a large restaurant but is sectioned off into many smaller dining areas, which gives it a cozy feel. It’s rustic and cluttered and frilly, almost like dining in your grandmother’s house. Not exactly what I was expecting but quite comforting nonetheless.

Cluttered and cozy dining room

We ordered a bottle of wine to start and decided to split some appetizers and an entree. It’s important to note that portions here are pretty large so they’re good for sharing. The meal started off with some bread that was accompanied by two dips. The bread was white and ordinary but had a nice crispy crust.

Basket of carbs

We used the bread to taste the dips, which turned out to be a cheese dip and a super spicy salsa. We weren’t fans of the cheese dip so we steered clear of it for the rest of the meal. It didn’t taste bad, it just didn’t like cheese or much of anything and had a weird pasty texture to it.

Some sort of weird cheese dip

Josh had thought the salsa was either a roasted pepper or sun dried tomato dip so he had slathered it onto a piece of bread and took a huge bite. Big mistake! It was probably worse because he wasn’t expecting it, but it was shockingly spicy. I tried a little dab and even my tongue was burning. Still, it had a nice tangy flavor and we used it to kick up the flavor of some of the dishes we ordered.

Super spicy salsa

The spicy salsa complemented our order of shrimp empanadas. The empanadas that we had in Ecuador had a thicker, pastier crust made from I think cornmeal. It’s not the thin crispy crust that we’re used here in NYC. It wasn’t bad, just different. I did like the shrimp filling though and thought it worked well with the thicker crust and the spicy salsa.

Shrimp empanadas

We couldn’t be in Ecuador and not have one of the country’s most well known dishes, ceviche. The restaurant had lots of different options to choose from but we went for their namesake version, Ceviche Lo Nuestro. The ceviche was beautifully presented on a platter and served in two giant clam shells. This was my favorite dish of the night, with fresh and tender pieces of octopus, shrimp, fish, and calamari marinated in tangy lime juice and topped with slivers of sweet red onion.

Ceviche Lo Nuestro

Our last appetizer dish was crab claws in garlic sauce. Usually we get shrimp or chicken in garlic sauce, but the crab claws seemed like an interesting change. The claws were meaty and dusted with spices that made them taste a bit smokey. The garlic sauce was mild but tasty, and good for dipping bread into.

Crab claws in garlic sauce

For our main course, we shared a mixed seafood plate that featured corsiva, a local white fish. I actually liked this fish a lot, because it was meaty but still flaky and tender. The fish was topped with an assortment of mussels, clams, crab claws, calamari, and a jumbo head-on shrimp. The broth that bound the dish together was light and garlicky. It was a fantastic plate of food but we were so full at this point that we barely got through half of it.

Mixed seafood platter

Near the end of our meal a group of musicians came into the restaurant and started making rounds. There was a female singer with a beautiful, deep voice accompanied by two guitarists. We had a nice time just listening to them perform while we finished off our bottle of wine and Josh had a cortado (espresso with steamed milk). Unfortunately he wasn’t a fan of the cortado, as it was weak and watery, but the rest of the meal was fabulous.

Lackluster cortado

Overall Josh and I both really liked Lo Nuestro a lot. The food wasn’t fancy but it was tasty and comforting. It’s considered to be one of the more authentic restaurants in Guayaquil in terms of classic Ecuadorian cuisine, and it really felt like we were eating something lovingly homemade. If you plan on going to Guayaquil, I absolutely recommend eating at this restaurant. I don’t know if it’s really “the best restaurant in the city” but it’s pretty darn good, and I know you’ll enjoy it immensely.

Lo Nuestro
Guayaquil, Ecuador

Tags: Crab, Ecuador, Seafood
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Guayaquil Day 1 – Tenedor de Oro

October 10th, 2009 by virginia

Josh and I took a super early morning flight to Guayaquil so that we would get there early enough to see some of the city. Guayaquil is a pretty large city and the most populous in Ecuador. There are lots of different neighborhoods to explore so as soon as we dropped our bags off at our hotel, we took a taxi straight to the Malecon, the riverfront area.

There are lots of food stalls all along the Malecon, and we couldn’t decide where we wanted to eat. There were many different options to choose from but we wanted to stick with typical Ecuadorian cuisine. We ended up going ordering from Tenedor de Oro, which I think is a chain because we saw several of those stalls all the way down the Malecon. We hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch on the plane and we were starving since it was early afternoon at this point, but we had dinner reservations already so we decided to just split an entree and two sides.

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We started off with two cold Pilseners, which are Ecuadorian beers. Not bad, a bit light though in flavor. We prefer darker and hoppier beers. In afternoon heat though, these beers really hit the spot.

There's nothing better than cold beers on a hot day

What's better than cold beers on a hot day?

I was excited to see salchipapas on the menu, as I had just tried them at Pio Pio (post coming later) and absolutely loved them. The french fries were ordinary but they were hot and freshly fried. The hot dogs were cut into the shape of baby octopus, which I thought was cute. That also gave the hot dogs more surface area to crisp up when they were fried, and I really liked this dish.

Salchipapas - hot dogs and french fries

The ketchup, however, was really strange! It was pink and almost translucent, with little specks in it. It was also very sweet and mild in tomato flavor. I definitely prefer Heinz over this ketchup.

Fluorescent pink ketchup

Our other side dish was fried plantains, which we call tostones in NY but they call patacones in Ecuador. These were also freshly fried and not too starchy but they didn’t give us any sort of sauce to go along with them. We asked if they had any salsa picante, or hot sauce, and they seemed a bit confused. We ended up with a little container that I think had mayo and ketchup and some sort of chili sauce mixed together. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but it wasn’t terrible.

Fried green plantains (tostones/patacones)

Our main dish was arroz con pollo. It was tasty enough, kind of like fried rice with peas, carrots and peppers mixed in, but there wasn’t a whole lot of chicken. They gave us a huge platter of it though, more than enough for the two of us, and it came with pieces of maduro (sweet plantains) on top that I enjoyed a lot. The dish kind of needed a bit more salt but I liked that they sprinkled fresh herbs on top.

Arroz con pollo

Overall it was a nice quick “snack” and a good introduction to Ecuadorian food. The total for this feast? $7, including the beer. Unreal! They use U.S. Dollars in Ecuador so no need to exchange money or worry about conversion rates. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Guayaquil for the first time. Sitting outside next to the river on the Malecon was a scenic and relaxing way to get acquainted with the city and the cuisine.

Tenedor de Oro
Guayaquil, Ecuador

Here are a few highlights from our walk along the Malecon:

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Tags: Beer, Ecuador, Fries, Hot Dogs
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Two Fat Bellies Hit the Road – Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

October 10th, 2009 by virginia

So Josh and I have this sort of “bucket list” of places we want to visit before settling down and having children. The list is huge, and we keep adding to it, so there’s probably no way we’ll be able to go to all of the places on the list before that. We’ve been prioritizing certain places, and Peru was at the very top of our list because we both really want to visit Macchu Picchu.

Josh thinks I’m weird because I hate old places but love ancient places. Visiting old palaces and mansions freaks me out but I couldn’t get enough of the ancient temples and ruins in Egypt and Greece during our honeymoon. It’s probably just because old houses are always musty and I feel confined, whereas pyramids and temples are so majestic and grand. Either way, we were all set to plan our Peru trip this year when we happened upon a deal to the Galapagos Islands that we couldn’t pass up. So Peru will have to wait, but we were in for a trip of a lifetime.

Our trip was from September 25 through October 4. We flew first to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we stayed the night, then we flew to Baltra in the Galapagos. After cruising through the islands for seven days, we flew back to Guayaquil and stayed one last night there before heading home.

The Galapagos Islands are just incredible. It’s like being in the land that time forgot. Everything just seems so pristine and pure, and the wildlife is simply amazing. The animals show absolutely no fear of humans, allowing us to walk up close to them and observe them basically face to face. We were able to snorkel with playful sea lions and Josh almost ran into a huge sea turtle underwater. We have countless memories from this trip, plus over 3,000 photos and a video summary of our expedition. Don’t worry, we won’t bore you to death with all of our pictures but we’d be happy to share them with anyone who wants to see!

Tags: Ecuador, Galapagos
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We’re back! Plus a few changes to the blog format

October 9th, 2009 by virginia

We had an amazing time in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and can’t wait to share our stories and pictures with everyone!

During our time away I’ve given a lot of thought to the current format of Two Fat Bellies and we’ve decided to make a few changes to the site. First, you’ve all probably noticed that the design of our site changed a few weeks ago. We’ve gone from a standard WordPress template to something a bit more personal and more representative of us. The graphic in the header was designed by our good friend and talented cartoonist, John. We asked him to draw something fun and cartoony that would go with “Two Fat Bellies” and he was the one who thought of using our beloved cats in the header.

Here are some pictures of our kitties that inspired the header, Stewie and Rupert. Yes, they’re named after Family Guy. If we ever get a dog we’ll probably name him Brian. We adopted Stewie and Rupert as kittens in 2006 and our lives haven’t been the same since. They have such distinct personalities (Rupert is really the troublemaker but Stewie took that role when they were kittens and now it’s too late to switch their names) and make us smile and laugh every day. And they love food too, though we don’t usually feed them people food – just little bits of deli turkey or chicken occasionally, which they go absolutely crazy over.

Stewie and Rupert

Stewie chewing up his toy mousie

Rupert winking at the camera

The second and more important change to the site is administrative in nature but I think it’ll improve our content overall. I’ve been dating posts in “real time”, meaning that the date posted is the date we ate/cooked whatever I’m writing about. I did this because even though we started writing content for our blog on May 17, 2009 (our first wedding anniversary), technical difficulties prevented us from uploading content to the site until a few weeks later. Since I was the only one posting for the first few months, it wasn’t a problem for me to keep track of dates and post everything in chronological order. However, when Josh made his first posts, they were dated as of that current date. I had to make him change the dates to something older because otherwise, his posts would always be at the top until I caught up to date with my own posts, which might never happen.

Using original dates presented another problem because if we wanted to comment about something that happened recently, such as Daniel earning a third Michelin star (impressive, it’s moved to the top of my “must go to” list) or the closing of Chanterelle (sad for the industry, but really wasn’t impressed with the food when we were there two years ago), we would run into the same problem with those posts always staying on top unless we changed the date, but then it wouldn’t make sense and would look like we had predicted the future. So from now on, posts will be dated as of whatever the current date it is.

And finally, I’ll be jumping around with my restaurant reviews and posting about meals that were more interesting to me first rather than in chronological order of when we went to the restaurants. I know you all don’t really care what day we actually ate at those restaurants. And as a bonus for me, I won’t feel so pressured to “catch up” on posts, since I’m still writing about things that happened a few weeks ago but would rather post about other things, such as our trip, immediately.

Hopefully these changes will help make our blog better and more enjoyable for our readers. As always, please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions on other ways we can improve our site – we would love to hear from you!

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Going on Vacation!

September 23rd, 2009 by virginia

Just wanted to let everyone know that we’ll be taking a short break from posting because we’re heading off to the Galapagos Islands on Friday morning. We’re both really excited about our trip and plan on taking lots of pictures of all the great nature stuff we’re supposed to see. And hopefully we’ll also have a few good meals to document while we’re away! We’ll pick up where we left off with posting when we get back. Stay tuned!

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Lucky Sunday

August 29th, 2009 by virginia

After our last peking duck debacle, Josh was still craving the crispy/fatty goodness of properly prepared peking duck so we went through the pile of menus that have been slipped underneath our door and found the one for Lucky Sunday. We placed our standard Chinese food order over the phone and our food arrived a short while later.

The peking duck visibly just looked better than the one from Empire Szechuan Kyoto. It didn’t look like it had been deep fried, and the skin was crispy and glistening. The pancakes they brought us were still warm and pliable, and they also provided a big pile of scallions and cucumbers to wrap with the duck. The duck itself was moist and fatty in a good way. The only thing I didn’t really like was the hoisin sauce, which tasted more bbq-y than what I’m used to.

Peking duck and accessories

We also got two egg rolls that were still warm and crispy, though the filling was kind of bland. I had to use a lot of duck sauce to get any kind of flavor, which was pretty disappointing. I probably wouldn’t order egg rolls from there again.

Bland egg rolls

The cold sesame noodles were also lacking in flavor and seasoning. They didn’t put enough sesame sauce on it so the whole thing was really dry and bland. There was also a weird hint of coffee taste to the sauce, which I found kind of unpleasant. I was not a fan of this dish.

Bland sesame noodles

On the positive side, the sesame chicken was much more enjoyable. The chicken was a bit fattier than normal but that helped keep the pieces more moist and tender. Usually sesame chicken is made with all white meat chicken and it tends to get too dry. The breading ended up being a bit soggy but the sauce was sticky and gooey without being overly sweet, and was perfect for spooning over rice. They also included pieces of broccoli with the chicken, which were a nice crunchy addition.

Sesame chicken with broccoli

Overall the food from Lucky Sunday was kind of a mixed bag but they fared better in the items that mattered more to us – the peking duck and the sesame chicken. While they weren’t the best versions that we’ve ever had, they were pretty good, especially since these dishes don’t usually hold up well when factoring in delivery time. I would probably order in from here again, though next time I would stay away from the appetizers.

Lucky Sunday
858 8^th Ave. between 51^st and 52^nd St.
New York, NY

Tags: Chinese, Delivery, Midtown, Peking Duck
Posted in Restaurants | Comments Off on Lucky Sunday

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