By Munch Master
Yes, I know I promsed to blog about all of our adventures. And, well I haven't and for that I apologize. Truth be told all the other Jetblue AYCJ (All You Can Jet) folks I have met haven't had much time ethier. It has been a whirlwind of traveling. If you're not on a plane you are reseaching or making arrangements for the next destination. And while at times I am the self admitted procrastinator. I am not the only one experiencing this pattern.
But, I am going to have a few days of down time in the outerbanks of NC. I hope to do some catching up.
I can tell you we have met some really nice people on our trips. And I cannot say enough that up to this point the Jetblue staff has been amazing. From ticketing to inflight crew they have helped make this a wonderful experience.
And all the AYCJ members well, we are all as excited as the next to share stories over a cup of coffee during flights. Everyone has been nothing but kind and friendly. From some cool cats from san fran to the first AYCJer and fellow floridan I met. But, by far the most compelling story/person I have met is www.30daysonjetblue.com. He is traveling to raise awareness and money for a orphanage and school in Zambia, Africa. During his trips he is visiting orphanages all over. So check him out and FYI my friends from MS they have applied to the Gates foundation for a grant (I am just saying HINT HINT ;) ).
The journey isn't over we still have 7 days left. I am going to be a bit sad to see it come to an end. One other thing a trip like this changes you in a good way for the most part. You realize how privliged a life we as Americans lead and take for granted. How big and small this world can be all at the same time.
So to Jetblue thank you for making it all possible. And all those I have met and to those I will meet before it's over thank you and safe travels.
MM
By Munch Master
Teresa and I awoke at 5:30 am to a gloomy rainy day in NYC. But that didn't get us down. Why you ask well we are on our first real Jetblue all you can jet adventure. We are headed out of this nastyness to sunny and warm Cancun Mexico. First stop, the largest most impressive Mayan ruins. The great city of Chichen Itza. We overnight there in a cute hotel with natural pools. Then on saturday it's off Playa Del Carmen. To spend a relaxing 2 days at a beautiful all inclucive resort on the beach along the Mayan Rivera. I am sooooo excited and hope to have some great food stories and adventures. Have a great day. I know I will, touch down in cancun T- 5 hrs
Later
MM
By Munch Master
I am keeping this short and making good on my claim I. Like I said I would revel the sauce flavor today. It is going to be a spicy jerk strawberry. Now don't let the name fool you spicy sweet and love from the islands MON. So wish me luck I'll let everyone know the outcome somtime after 3pm.
Later
MM
By Munch Master
When I woke up yesterday morning. I walked outside and realized something, there was a bit of a chill in the air. It made me start thinking that fall was just around the corner. One of my favorite times of the year.The time of year I get ready to grab gear for days on the mountains, Halloween and Thanksgiving. But wait lets not rush into fall and winter so fast! What was I thinking there is at least one more really good weekend of summer left. Ahh labor day bar-b-ques, beer oh and let's not forget chicken wings. Yes, that famous little "Anchor" Bar food we love so well. And one of my claims to fame. If you are bored and have looked though the past articles on this blog you will see that last labor day I spent in Buffalo, NY. Because this is the weekend of the National Buffalo wing festival. Thousands of wings and all different kinds of sauces from all different restaurants. They also have a lot of competitions that involve wings in some way shape or form. 1 in-particular I was interested in the "traditional sauce competition". Which my entry was accepted and I went on to win.
Well this year I decided to try my hand at it again but this time I entered the "creative sauce competition" these are the "other" sauces at your favorite wing place. You know like the bar-b-que or the honey Teriyaki. And my entry was accepted. I can't tell you right now what it is because of the competition. I will announce the flavor just before the competition on Sunday here on my blog. So before I start my "Great American Airtrip". I have to make my way to Buffalo, NY. So I hope everyone will wish me luck and I will keep you in the know on the outcome.
Later
MM
By Munch Master
I informed everyone yesterday I am about to embark on a Journey of large proportion. And in the spirit of Woodstock's 40th anniversary and it's anomaly of a happening. As well as all the folks who made road trips to the event, I have decided to dub the journey "The Great American Air Trip". While I realize this is not the magnitude of Woodstock, nor do I expect it to alter my views of politics (although Columbia might). It in it's own way is an anomaly of sorts. I mean really an all you can Jet pass for a set price for a month. It's the type of thing normal folks can't experience often. I also fully intend have some eye opening,taste bud pleasuring that in a way will be my own little "Foodstock" of sorts. With the knowledge that it will not in fact all be great and in some cases might be down right horrible. I will take the good and the bad and tell everyone about it.
That said I would like to enlist your help. To date I have booked flights to the following locations:
Bogota, Columbia
Seattle, Washington
Cancun, Mexico
San Jose, Costa Rica
Orlando, Florida
Richmond, Virgina (Driving to the outer banks)
these are in the works
San Fransisco, CA (Driving the PCH to Long Beach)
Long Beach, CA
Portland, ME
Boston, Mass
Jacksonville, FL
I need at least 2 things.
First, if you can think of anywhere Jetblue flies that is not on my list and should be let me know. With the exclusion of Vegas I'll be spending a week there for the Sharepoint Conference.
Second, If you are familiar with any of these places, and you know of good places to please the taste buds by all means inform me. Now, I don't mean chain restaurant's or touristy joints (unless they are touristy because of the food). I mean good Local places. I don't care if it is 5 star or a hole in the wall if it is good I want to know!!! So post them and maybe some details in the comments section.
I can wait!! Oh and you'll be able to keep track real time via my twitter if you want. It is on the left side of www.mobilemuncher.com :)
By Munch Master
Just wanted to do a quick post to inform everyone of the upcomming fun. last week www.jetblue.com put out a great deal. For the dates of Sept. 8th thru Oct 8th for $599.00 it's an all you can jet pass. Meaning, I will be going lots of places eating lots of wonderful food. And best of all blogging about it for all of you to read. So get ready, it is going to be a blast. And thank you Jetblue for the great deal!!!
By Munch Master
Good summer day to all. As I sure you have all seen my post on Maine. After that weekend it got me and the merry band of munch rovers on a quest. For what you ask? Well, the best lobster roll. I want compare them to the ones in maine and CT but maybe thats another post. We will stick to NYC for now. So far we have indulged in 2 establishments. Pearl oyster bar and Red Hook Lobster Pound at the brooklyn flea under the brooklyn bridge. And for once I am going to do my best not to put my own spin on it and just give you the facts. So you can make your own judgement.
1st up Pearl - nice little resturant in the village they premake their salad I was told daily. Also their menu is more extensive that just lobster rolls. Their rolls are to say massive is an understatment. You can hardly hold them to eat they are so large. And even when you do hold them they fall apart. lightly toasted roll. The salad compsted of a VERY generous amount of mayo, salt, pepper. the cost per roll is "market price" which when we ate there was 29.00 a roll.
Up next - RHLP
First they are at the brooklyn flea on sunday. They have not started selling them in red hook yet. So you can only get them once a week and get there before 3:00 pm because they do run out. They bring their losbster stright from maine daily. So it's fresh really fresh. Oh and they bring the rolls they use from maine with the lobster. Starting with the buns. Generously buttered and freshly grilled to a deep golden brown on the griddle in front of you. Their salad is also premade on sat night I am told. It is composed of fresh lobster, sliced green onion, salt, pepper, touch of lemon and a dash of paprika once it is placed on the bun. They do not have any mayo in their salad. The serving size is not nearly the size of Pearl (half at best) but the price of 12.50 a roll its a bit more reasonable as well. All they have is lobster rolls.
So there you have it the first 2 placed on the summer of lobster tour. I did my best keeping my opnion out of it. :) stayed tuned for more lobster.
Munch Master
P.S. for all who care I enterend the national wing festival again this year.
By Munch Master
This is the first post in a series on Portland, Maine. Teresa and I spent the weekend in Portland. It was a dreary cold weekend. One you might see on a Maine postcard where the fog rolls in around a lighthouse (more on that later). We drove from NYC to Maine on Friday it was about a 5 hour trip, and one I highly recommend. Which is typically in the neighborhood of the amount of time where I don't really like driving anymore. We arrived approx midnight, so on Friday we didn't get to see anything but the Portland international Jetport. HA a "Jetport" guess they just had to be different it's just an airport people. The next morning we awake at around 7 to check out Chelsea's hockey game. They lost, oh well it wasn't a tournament so no worries. After the game we proceed to the Portland waterfront. Not really sure what we are in store for but it's Maine. What's the worst that can happen we get kidnapped by a giant lobster? Better bring a fork and butter just in case.
We arrive and start to wander around the wharfs. I am stunned to find, despite being the largest city in Maine it still feels like a sleepy fishing village. Every wharf lined with small fishing and lobstering boats. And right next to them are stacked the Lobster traps.
As we stroll we stumble on "Harbor Fish Market" a cool little seafood shop. It is a bit more 
pricey than the others we explored but their selection was also larger than the rest. Just look for the red door you can't miss it.
We saved the seafood shopping for Sunday. And I will save that for a later post :)
As we explore the water front better know as "Commercial St" we happen upon some pubs and a few great little gourmet and food stores. A couple of wine stores and even a shop that makes cool bags from recycled boat sails. Just tons of places to choose from to eat.
I didn't know until we got there, Maine was known for lighthouses. Makes sense I guess, rocky coastlines. If you have never seen a Maine light house in person. It's like standing in a postcard, and one of those things you don't realize you need to do it until you've done it. We checked out the Cape Elizabeth Head Light. Awe Inspiring to say the least. It's a shame it was soo cold. I would have loved to have spent more time there.
I admit, I didn't think I would like Maine as much as I did. It is an easy place to fall in love with. As the license plate says "Vacationland". I could see spending a lot more time there. In fact we are planning a trip in warmer weather. And I can't wait to tell you all about the wonderful food we ate. Not sure which was more shocking the good food or the scenery. Guess you'll have to judge for yourself. Not to worry, I am going to review each and every one of the places we munched at in the next couple of posts. I just felt the sights of Maine were more than deserving of their own post. Please enjoy the images and be on the look out for the Munching from Maine posts ;)
Later,
Munch Master
By Munch Master
So after a long day of great weather and beer, albeit warm beer. My friend John DeGiglio suggested we try one of his favorite places. It is called The Strip House . Now let me get this out of the way right now. I didn't know it was a chain when we agreed to go. As most of you know I am not a fan of chain restaurants. So maybe this review fared better because of my ignorance...lol...
The 6 of us hop in 2 cabs and go from Chelsea piers to 12th street at this point we have picked up a 6th person. A good friend, fellow foodie and proprietor of www.theuncommonkitchen.com Susie Tully (for the rest of the attendees see the previous post.) We arrive at the location a non descript white door with a red awing covering the sidewalk with the letters SH on it. But what is not said on the outside the interior decor makes up for. You enter, only to be overwhelmed with what can only be called a decor of "French Brothel Red". Not to say this is a bad thing it was very tastefully done, in fact I rather took a liking to it. There are hundreds maybe thousands of seductive black and white photos from the 1900's littering the walls as well as a few era nic nacks, the combination of which seem to almost transport you back to the speak-easy days. One could easily spend hours just looking at all the pictures, but we don't have time because I am hungry it's time to eat!!! After checking my coat we proceed to be seated at our table. Once seated Mr.D picks out a lovely red wine for the table to enjoy. The name of which escapes me at the moment. Mr.D please feel free to comment and reveal to everyone the mystery name of the bottle. :)
They also serve us onion soup shooters. Yes, I said onion soup shooters. It was a very flavorful thick onion soup (think really thick french onion soup) served in a shot glass. This soup although served in a shot glass should not be shot, instead sipped and savored. Besides who would shoot a defenseless soup anyway.
For the first course most of us order a mixed baby greens salad. Not much different than what you might receive elsewhere except for the cool little fried cheese bowl the salad comes perched in. It was great just salty enough to cut the greens and not have a need to add salt to the salad. Besides, who doesn't love fried cheese!!! It is like well... cheese porn....lol.. Carla had the lobster bisque with 1 ravioli which is all you need considering how rich, flavorful and filling this almost quart of soup was.
Ahhh, now for my favorite part THE MEAT otherwise know as the main course. Teresa and Carla decide to split a seafood special which consisted of a large plateau of seafood and contained a range of items from 3 types of raw oysters, steamed Maine lobster and King Crab legs, to a spicy scallop ceviche. All of it very fresh and was enough to feed 4 folks, although it was suppose to be for 2. JD, Simon and I order what the Strip House is famous for steak. Simon and I order the 22oz rib eye medium rare. And in case your wondering yes, I ate it all in one sitting. It comes bone in lightly seasoned and was very flavorful. Or so I thought until I tried John's NY Strip. It made our rib eye seem almost boring. Tender, juicy and damn tasty. If you find yourself peering at their menu and are having a hard time deciding might I suggest the Strip. It's what I would order.
As for sides, it is like all high end steak houses family style ala carte. We order a few to share the potatoes romanoff, crisp goose fat potatoes, and black truffle creamed spinach. I can't provide an opinion on the potatoes romanoff, I was unable to eat them because they contained "pork love" better known as bacon. As for the goose fat potatoes, they were like a ball of mashed potatoes seasoned and deep fried in goose fat until crisp on the outside. YUMMY. But as much as I love the goose fat the creamed black truffle spinach was the shining star of the 3. It was creamed spinach seasoned with S&P, cheese and a touch of black truffle which totally changes the flavor from just OK to "WHOA". Not your run of the mill Popeye verity... It was a lovely main course.
Now as we all sit in a slightly lackadaisical state the waiter asks if we would like dessert. John promptly orders the creme brulee. For anyone who doesn't know, this is one of my 2 favorite desserts. So please forgive the berating this one is about to take because, I am hard on a restaurant when it comes to brulee. I know what it takes to make one. It is not to awfully hard to make a brulee that is descent. Add some time, caring and and a good pastry chef and its easy to make a great one. But, I will jump off my soap box for the moment and get back to the brulee. So I had high hopes when John ordered the dessert. The rest of the meal was awesome. There was no reason to think the dessert would be any different. I hate it when I am wrong. This creme brulee was well uninspired. The top didn't really crack when the spoon was placed into it. It seamed a bit watery just below the crust and the filling was not as thick and creamy as it should have been. But the biggest travesty of all, and as anyone who loves creme brulee knows. There was no vanilla bean to be found. Not in the custard or at the bottom where it usually is. No none, zip, zilch, nada.
Ok ok, I know it was a bit harsh what can I say, I love my brulee. But in the Strip House's defense that is not their signature dessert. Their signature dessert is a 24 layer chocolate cake. Next time, this is the route I will take.
Would I go back, sure I would it was great. Great steak, sides and an ambiance makes "Ruth's Chris" look like "Steak and Shake". Just don't order the creme brulee.
Munch Master
By Munch Master
We are at chelsea brewing company partaking in the 3rd. Annual nyc
cask festival. Nothing better than warm ale on a cool day... no really,
it brings out the flavor.
So the 5 muskateers are here; Teresa,Simon,John,Carla and of course,
yours truly. But enough about the drunks at the table including
me....lol and on to the reviews.
1st- Gwatkin 'norman cider' an uneventful hard cider easy on the
palette from Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, England
2nd- Pittsfield Brew Works 'chipotle brown' it's a nice brown with a
smokey beef flavor and a spicy finish. Great beer, but I am afraid I
would have heart burn after a few. Unique none the less.
3rd- Voodooo 'Big Black Voodoo Daddy'. All I have to say is STRONG
and DARK. 12.5% WOW. A bit bitter and very stout.
4th- Butternuts 'MOO THUNDER' boring bland and really no thunder and I
think they left the moo in the barn. Very disappointing, the name had
potential.
But there were great beers had by others at the table, for instance...
Carla had 'NUGGET NECTAR' yes you read it correctly and to spite the
name it was very tasty even though it's hard to order with a straight
face.
Teresa had a great american amber ale. John stumbled on a tart but
very tasty cuvee june and Simon didn't have a bad one to speak of.
But alass, as all good drunks must do it was food time, so off to the
'Strip House' with us. That's strip house as in 'NY strip' I don't know
what you were thinking. ;)
Up next strip house.
Munch Master
