The Bistro- Off topic and fun posts!

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is a bit of an accident.  It's from a 2015 Queen Mary 2 transatlantic leading to a return transatlantic on Allure of the Seas.  Taking a it of diversion from my morning walk I was exploring QM2's magnificent bow that adds so much to her sea keeping majesty as the sun just started brightening the sky on October 13.  It was the second sea day of the crossing.

 

 

Roy

[Keith1010]

This is the size Chicken they used to serve at the Passover Seder on Crystal back in 2007.  No this wasn't for the entire table. It was for each person.  These days they are better with portion control.  LOL.

 

 

 

Keith

[KenzSailing]

Some more Jont:

 

I’m going to expand (and expound) on some of the dishes I don’t think the menu quite captures, especially those with a pronounced Asian influence.

 

First, the duck:

 

I know duck is a staple at high-end restaurants, especially those leaning French.  But it’s a finicky meat to get right, and I appreciate a good serving of it.  This one was great.  Interestingly, it was served in three courses, Peking duck style.  First came a perfect slice of breast, in a sauce enriched in duck blood.  As we were finishing that, we were served duck sausage with Asian pear and mustard, served in a bowl with chop sticks (in case anyone was not getting the nod.)  Finally, as we wrapped that up, a handle-less cup of duck broth was presented.   A course imaginatively conceived, flawlessly executed, using highest quality ingredients.  This is what we think fine dining is all about.

 

And there was more to come.

 

In our next installment: Dessert (or, “is that guy grating Parmesan?”)

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2017 MS  Amsterdam Grand Asia voyage.  October 14, 2017 was a sea day between 2 Japanese ports, Kushiro and Yokohama:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

My next 2 sunrises are from my 2015 QueenMary 3 crossing to Southampton leading to a return transatlantic on Allure of the Seas.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is the last one from my Queen Mary 2 crossing enroute to a return transatlantic on the Allure of the Seas.

 

 

Roy

[Keith1010]

Before the days of the iMac in the computer rooms the former computers.  They look so ancient to me.

 

 

 

Speaking of ancient, I remember my first portable computer from work.  It was very large and you carried it in what looked like a suit case.  However, this was a life safer for me as I could work at home on the weekends and save ninety minutes R/T of driving back and forth into Washington DC.  

 

Oh and when we went from pager without any ANI (you called the paging company to find out who called you) to a pager with ANI to a Blackberry ( I took that on my first Crystal Cruise and when we return to San Francisco on Harmony) i checked my e-mail to a flip cell phone.

 

Those we the days....

 

Keith

[rafinmd]

I don't have any cruise sunrises for October 17.  This is from my morning walk one year ago today:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2011 Blount/Crystal through the Erie Canal New York to Montreal and back to New York on the Crystal Symphony.  On October 16 the Symphony was in the Saguenay Fjord:

 

 

Roy

[BWIVince]

On 10/16/2021 at 9:47 AM, Keith1010 said:

Before the days of the iMac in the computer rooms the former computers.  They look so ancient to me.

 

 

 

Speaking of ancient, I remember my first portable computer from work.  It was very large and you carried it in what looked like a suit case.  However, this was a life safer for me as I could work at home on the weekends and save ninety minutes R/T of driving back and forth into Washington DC.  

 

Oh and when we went from pager without any ANI (you called the paging company to find out who called you) to a pager with ANI to a Blackberry ( I took that on my first Crystal Cruise and when we return to San Francisco on Harmony) i checked my e-mail to a flip cell phone.

 

Those we the days....

 

Keith

 

That still looks more legit than Harmony's CU@Sea -- a bunch of PC's set up around the Compass Room's conference table, like some kind of impromptu gaming exercise.  😊 

 

Vince

 

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from a 2019 group of cruises that included a river cruise Amsterdam to Switzerland.  On October 19 I was on Queen Mary 2 on the way to the other side of the pond

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is another from my 2019 QM2 crossing enroute to a string of Crystal River and Ocean voyages.  The weather certainly did not start out good but that is exactly what QM2 is designed to handle with ease.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise comes from my 2011 combination of Blount ships New York to Montreal through the Erie Canal with a return to New York on the Crystal Symphony.   On October 21 the Symphony visited Bar Harbor.

 

 

Roy

[KenzSailing]

Dinner at Jont, Washington DC, Oct 8, 2021

 

Dessert: “All good things must come to….wait, there’s ANOTHER course?”

 

So, after blissing out over the fantastic duck course previously covered, we were asked to move to the anteroom for desserts and digestifs.  We were seated at a small bar while other groups in our seating were at low tables that make up the bulk of the room.  When we went to Jont the first time in June, dessert was relatively straight-forward with a sweet course followed by what they call “The Box.”  We would soon discover that they had expanded both the complexity and range of dessert, and we had the best seats in the house to watch the show.

 

We were poured a glass of bubbly.  Next appeared a one-bite Banana Tart with caramel and peanut.  This was both recognizable and fairly conventional.  Think of the ultimate Reese’s peanut butter cup, then add banana.

After that things got interesting fast.  First, one of the two cooks/pastry chefs started pouring batter into what looked like a sheet pan of mini-madeleine molds, which then disappeared from view.

 

(Now I must digress and mention that, sitting on the bar just around the corner from us was this bright red metal contraption.  It had a hand crank on it and looked vaguely like a grape or sausage press, except it was rectangular and was composed of a lattice-like structure, with openings throughout. Also, it had legs that raised it maybe four inches off the surface of the bar.)

 

OK, back to the action.  The other chef comes out from the back of the bar and proceeds to insert a big block of something slightly off-white in color into the gizmo and starts to turn the hand crank on it.  He’s clearly grinding something, as  shavings start to fall to a tray set underneath the gizmo.  We soon found out this wasn’t Parmesan, and the gizmo was a Japanese (as in imported from Japan) Hatsuyuki ice shaver.  This was the first ingredient in the Amazake Kakigori course, two words I had never seen before much less conjoined.

The Amazake part of Amazake Kakigori is a sweet fermented Japanese rice drink.  Jont had frozen it into a block and shaved it (that made it Kakigori.)  It’s traditionally flavored with a sweet syrup, in this case a citrus extract.  It was surprising, delightful, delicious and refreshing.  We found out we would need that refreshment to prepare us for the home stretch to come.  

 

The Home Stretch:

 

Next up: we were presented with cute little individual chocolate souffles.  Upon setting them down, the chef dusted them with powdered matcha, then inserted a scoop of matcha ice cream into the center.  OK, that was fairly conventional and very delicious (who doesn’t like a chocolate soufflé: no one, that’s who.)

While we were polishing that off (didn’t take long) the chefs set out a Japanese tea set in front of us, and start to explain the tea ceremony (maybe this one wasn’t completely trad, don’t hold me to that.)  Chef pours hot water into the cups and adds more matcha (maybe it was the other way around, it was getting late.)  Then he uses a little whisk made of bamboo(?) to mix the ingredients.  He explains that matcha is never served sweetened but rather, traditionally, the drinker first lets a sugar cube dissolve on the tongue.  Or in our case: a chocolate soufflé.  Another course combining surprise, delight, and deliciousness.  Oh, also, chef told us the tea is traditionally consumed in three sips while contemplating mind, body, soul(?)  Not really sure, anyway, I was thinking more along the lines of Groucho, Harpo, Chico.  Hey, they were funny.

 

The Finish Line: The Box

 

OK, this one was fairly conventional.  It was a panoply of one bite sweet goodies usually called mignardises.   (Side note: if you start a meal with one bite goodies, the French call them amuse bouche.  End it the same way, but sweet, and you’re eating mignardise.  Reminds me of the saying “the French have a word for it, the English have a ceremony.”)

 

Anyway, we were presented with a multi-drawer box of little chocolate bon-bon goodies.  Some were ice cream filled, some more room temperature stable.  Chef kindly pointed out those which needed to be consumed in the moment, and those which could come home with us.  Very helpful.  Completely sated, we took some home in a cute little mignardise doggie bag.  The chefs prepared a lot of those bags, seems most of us threw in the towel late.

 

Also, remember the madeleine batter?  Yeah, they popped them out of the little oven under the bar and presented them along with the mignardises. Fresh, warm, delicious little bites of heaven.  And no, none of those made it home with us.  

 

The End

 

[May B]

Wow. Just wow. I’m just happy to have experienced it by your perfectly nuanced description. 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, KenzSailing said:

Next up: we were presented with cute little individual chocolate souffles.  Upon setting them down, the chef dusted them with powdered matcha, then inserted a scoop of matcha ice cream into the center.  OK, that was fairly conventional and very delicious (who doesn’t like a chocolate soufflé: no one, that’s who.)

While we were polishing that off (didn’t take long) the chefs set out a Japanese tea set in front of us, and start to explain the tea ceremony (maybe this one wasn’t completely trad, don’t hold me to that.)  Chef pours hot water into the cups and adds more matcha (maybe it was the other way around, it was getting late.)  Then he uses a little whisk made of bamboo(?) to mix the ingredients.  He explains that matcha is never served sweetened but rather, traditionally, the drinker first lets a sugar cube dissolve on the tongue.  Or in our case: a chocolate soufflé.  Another course combining surprise, delight, and deliciousness.  Oh, also, chef told us the tea is traditionally consumed in three sips while contemplating mind, body, soul(?)  Not really sure, anyway, I was thinking more along the lines of Groucho, Harpo, Chico.  Hey, they were funny.

 

 

What an amazing meal, and even more amazing narration!  Even if it's not completely traditional the tea ceremony does sound like the most traditional aspect of the dessert service.  

 

I was 5 or 6 when I went to my first tea ceremony, which was part of a festival at the Japanese Embassy downtown that my mother and grandmother took me to.  They had an exhibit on the art of the tea bowls, and you could paint/glaze one and have it fired right there.  I treasured that thing as a kid, though admittedly I think it saw more use as a rice bowl than a tea bowl.  Anyway, I remember being all kinds of confused that day -- why does the tea look like dust?  Why is the cup shaped like a bowl?  Why do you whisk tea?  Is that thing really a whisk??  If I still remember asking so many questions today, I can only imagine how many more I was actually asking at the time, and how much it must have been trying my mother and grandmother's patience.

 

Anyway, fast forward four decades, I'm reading with just as much fascination, and the new thing I learned today is the word mignardise!

 

Vince

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is another from the 2019 QM2/Crystal River/Ocean combination.  October 22 was a slightly brighter day on Queen Mary 2:

 

 

Roy

[Keith1010]

28 minutes ago, barryboatman said:

I have nothing to add today. I dropped my calculator in the toilet.

I would say why do you need a calculator?   But maybe better you dropped it in the toilet than a smart device.

 

I hope you didn’t flush the toilet.   🤮

 

Keith. 

[rafinmd]

Today's photo is a sunset.  On October 23, 2010 I was on the Crystal Serenity in Alexandria, Egypt.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is another from my 2019 QM2 transatlantic followed by Crystal river and ocean cruises back to the US.  October 24 was the last sea day before Southampton:

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2017 Grand Asia cruise.  On October 25 MS Amsterdam was docked in Beijing Tianjin.  I expect the atmosphere is more smog than fog although there's probably some of each.

 

 

Roy

 

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2015 Allure of the Seas Transatlantic.  October 26 was the first day of the transatlantic itself, a sea day from Barcelona to Malaga.

 

 

Roy

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from my 2017 Grand Asia Cruise on MS Amsterdam.  October 27 was a sea day between Beijing and Shanghai:

 

 

Roy

[Keith1010]

OK for you Maryland and other local WDC folks.

 

Does Hamburger Hamlet still exist?  I remember that from College as sit-down place we'd go to once in awhile.

 

How about Chesapeake Seafood House?  I think that was the name.  Back then I think for $2.99 we could get fish and all the coleslaw, hushpuppies and french fries we wanted?   

 

And not sure but think this was in Chevy Chase or Bethesda but also in a few other places Boeymonger or Boeymongers or something like that.  We'd go there for late night food such as sandwiches and dessert.

 

Then one more and I think this was heading to Baltimore.  I think it was called Peter Pan or something like that and there was a sister one near Busch Gardens in Florida.  A very large and I think ornate restaurant with more choices on the entrees but I believe all you can eat french fries, cole slaw and hush puppies.  

 

This is why I don't have french fries now. I ate a lifetime during my younger years.  LOL.

 

Keith

[Leo_On_Geo]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

OK for you Maryland and other local WDC folks.

 

Does Hamburger Hamlet still exist?  I remember that from College as sit-down place we'd go to once in awhile.

 

How about Chesapeake Seafood House?  I think that was the name.  Back then I think for $2.99 we could get fish and all the coleslaw, hushpuppies and french fries we wanted?   

 

And not sure but think this was in Chevy Chase or Bethesda but also in a few other places Boeymonger or Boeymongers or something like that.  We'd go there for late night food such as sandwiches and dessert.

 

Then one more and I think this was heading to Baltimore.  I think it was called Peter Pan or something like that and there was a sister one near Busch Gardens in Florida.  A very large and I think ornate restaurant with more choices on the entrees but I believe all you can eat french fries, cole slaw and hush puppies.  

 

This is why I don't have french fries now. I ate a lifetime during my younger years.  LOL.

 

Keith

Hi,

I recently moved from Bethesda (late 2019- so I don't know what has happened since then).  Hamburger Hamlet was still around on Old Georgetown Rd and Democracy. There were two Boeymongers, one in Chevy Chase on Wisconsin Ave in Friendship Heights, and the one on East West highway in Bethesda.  I know the one in Bethesda was still open.

The Peter Pan Inn was in Urbana Maryland was around and reinvented as off-track betting and food when I visited in 2005, but I think that has since closed.  Its sister property was "The Kapock Inn" in Tampa area which my family always visited on our  vacations.  That property closed years ago, but the building and grounds were still around in late 2010's.  I remember the elaborate bird cages over one of the many dining rooms and how an occassional feather fell onto the table as we dined!!!

 

Lisa