Tag Archive | review

City in Review: Cozumel MX

Going to Cozumel, MX as part of your cruise vacation? Most people will go to Carlos and Charlie’s or Senor Frogs and play the liquor games, dance, and eat. There is more to Cozumel than that. If you have never been to Carlos and Charlie’s or Senor Frogs, you should go at least once. The drinks are free flowing and the music is pumping so that you want to dance the whole time. Just be mindful of the time because you do not want to be left on the island when your ship sets sail.

In Mexico, the currency is the Peso which can be converted 10 pesos to 1 dollar. Most stores in the tourist section will post prices in USD. If you go into a store to buy some souvenirs and the prices seem outrageous, ask if the currency is Peso or USD. That happened to me and once I converted the prices to USD, I was relieved to know that I would be able to afford to buy for everyone on my list.

As with any foreign country, find out how to contact someone in case of an emergency. If you are taking a cruise to Cozumel, this information is usually available to you before you leave the ship. You never know what might happen so it is good to take precautionary measures. Since this is a tourist town, most people speak some English. If you are downtown in Cozumel, you will be able to find plenty of people who speak English. If you are going to explore the island, having a small Spanish-English dictionary should be able to help resolve any communication problems that may arise.

If you are going to travel around the island, your options should be taxi or jeep. Scooters should not even be an option. There will be many people riding scooters and making it look like fun. But is the most dangerous mode of transportation if you do not know what you are doing. If you are taking a taxi, ask how much it will be for a tour of the island. You can even arrange for the taxi to drop you off at one of the parks and pick you up later. If you rent a jeep, many of them are manual transmission. The car insurance that you have in US does not cover rentals in foreign countries. You want to make sure you get full coverage for your rental. If you do not and you are in an accident, you will be stuck with unimaginable expenses. It is worth the $10-15.

Cozumel has one main road that goes around the whole island. It probably takes 45-60 minutes to circle the island. From the main road, there are signs that tell you the name of the different beaches and guide you to the ruins. On the ride to the beach, I saw where the water crashed against the rocks at times. If you stop along the road to walk along the beach, you need to be careful. There are not a lot of sandy beaches, but slippery limestone rock. If you do not have on the right type of shoe, it can be very dangerous. It is best only to stop where there is beach access. You can tell where there is beach access because there are little bar restaurants that are situated near the beach. These restaurants offer margaritas, tacos, chips, and salsa. People can eat these while they are relaxing on the beach or sitting sit at the bar. There are usually little gift stores adjacent to the restaurant too. If you have children, you want to know that a lot of the souvenirs are not very family friendly at the beachside restaurants. On my last trip, I saw A LOT of male and female anatomy shaped items.

One of the beaches that I have visited was Punta Morena. People were surfing, swimming, and lying out on the beach. The waves were choppy at times because there was storm earlier that day. These little restaurants do have bathrooms, but there are no lockers for your valuables. Since many of the rental vehicles are soft-top Jeeps, you cannot exactly lock your valuables in your car. It is best that you keep these with you in a waterproof pouch around your neck. I do not eat anything in the beachside restaurants, although I saw other people that did. If you want to eat something in the restaurant, you do so at your own risk. I do not advise it. However, I did order a margarita. I think that tequila kills all bacteria.

I was not impressed with the advertised Mayan ruins. If you are the exploratory type, you might like that sort of thing. But if you go in the rainy season, be prepared to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. I had insect repellant on and counted over 50 mosquito bites.

Overall, Cozumel is nice. There is not much to do besides lay out on the beach and drink margaritas. Recipe for a good time.

Kara’s Cupcakes – Napa CA

Nov22

Kara’s cupcakes has locations through San Francisco and Napa. I went to the one located in Oxbow Market place in Napa. You have to pass the cupcakes to get to the real food. But while you are trying to concentrate on whether you want tacos or chicken or beef, you are really thinking about what cupcake you are going to order for dessert. Maybe that is not what happens to you, but that is what happened to me.

I LOVE sweets.

Kara’s Cupcakes has mini and regular sized cupcakes. All of them look so pretty and delectable. The chocolate with chocolate frosting was filled with caramel and topped with sea salt. The cake was moist, soft, but not too crumbly. The creamy caramel mixed well with the chocolate cake and frosting with a tiny bite of saltiness from the sea salt. Mini Perfection and Decadent Delight!!!! I heard singing when I bit into it. And I think I eyes rolled back into my head a little bit while time stood still. Or at least that is the way it seemed.

Once I finished that one, I wanted to save my coconut cupcake for later. Well, the frosting was calling me. I took a little of the cream cheese frosting on the tip of my finger. I did not expect it to be so creamy. This was LITERALLY the best cream cheese frosting I have ever had at from a bakery. Yes I said literally. I meant it.

As you can imagine, the cupcake did not last long.

It is a good thing I do not live closer to Kara’s Cupcakes because I would be so chubby from eating cupcakes every day.

Miami Airport Hilton

Nov22

I stayed at the Miami Hilton Airport location. As for the room, it met my standards for a Hilton location. Immaculate clean room, comfortable bed, and relaxing good pressure shower head. Internet was $13 a day. Valet parking was $20 a day.

I was in town for business. It was raining and I did not feel like leaving the hotel to eat.
First of all, food at the hotel was very, very expensive. I chose this hotel because the per night rate was lower than the Marriott. But I think I ended up spending more on food here than I would have at another location.

Maybe I am being cheap, but I thought the Room service surcharges were outrageous: $5 delivery fee and 22% service charge.

Dinner
None of the entrees appealed to me so I ordered a few things appetizers. I had wings, yucca fries, and key lime pie. The wings were average. I did not like the buffalo sauce that came with them and I was glad it was on the side. It tasted like half a bottle of Texas Pete mixed with a stick of butter. As a result it left a greasy film in my mouth- not an appetizing feeling. The yucca fries were not good to me. It was mashed yucca in the shape of cheese sticks and fried to a crisp. My problem with this was that the yucca was over fried. The fries were so saturated with grease, that it made my stomach upset.
The bright side to this meal was the key lime pie. It was a 1 part tart, 1 part creamy, and 2 parts sweet. A delectable combination.
As you can see in the picture, I ate all the wings, key lime pie, left the hot sauce, and most of the yucca. I am used to eating fried food, but when there is too much grease, it does not sit well in my stomach.

Breakfast
I had the buffet because I figured that would be the best bargain for the money. The buffet had a lot of tasty choices but no bacon >cue my
sad face and sad music<. What is a breakfast without bacon?!?! I decided on the breakfast potatoes with chorizo, made-on-demand omelet,

some fruit, cheese, and pastries. The fruit was big and pretty, but not very sweet. The omelet was as tasty as I imagined it would be when I
chose the ingredients. The breakfast potatoes with chorizo were okay but needed salt and ketchup.

Everything was okay, not spectacular.The quality of of the customer service was on par with what I would expect from a Hilton. If I had had another option for food, I would have taken it. But since I was at the hotel and it was a distance to downtown, I had to make do with what I had. And although I was disappointed with the food, I did not complain because I ate it (I was too hungry to complain and have to wait for another order).

Old Main Catering

Nov17

One does not expect to find delicious gourmet food from the same group that cooks in the cafeteria of a college. But that is the case at Lander in Greenwood, SC. Old Main Catering provides the food for the university and events around Greenwood. It was so delectable that I decided to take pictures and share with the world. I wish there was a way you could taste the flavor, but you can at least SEE how good it looks.

On the left – Italian Cream Cake decorated with edible flowers – The cake was moist, but not gummy in texture. The cream cheese frosting was not overly sweet but was a perfect complement to the cake. And there were just enough pecans to tie it all together. Very delicious!

On the right – Prosciutto wrapped asparagus, pita chips with hummus, Basil mozzarella tomato salad, and kalamata olives. Saltiness of the prosciutto along with the crunch of the asparagus was on point. Pita and hummus is my new favorite snack. One can never go wrong with basil, mozzarella, and tomatoes. To top it off, the olives had just enough briny flavor.

I really liked Old Main Catering’s tapas offerings and I would suggest them for any catered event.

Crowne Plaza Philadephia Valley Forge

Nov17

I stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel because I had a business meeting in the area. For those who do not know the area, the official name of the area is King of Prussia/ Valley Forge. It is about 30-45 minutes from downtown Philly and the Philadelphia airport. The location of this hotel was perfect for me because it was right across from the King of Prussia mall (one of the biggest malls in the northeast- great for a self proclaimed shopaholic).

The room was average for what I expected of a Crowne Plaza. The bed was comfortable. I had some trouble trying to get the water hot enough for my shower. There was a “trick” to the bath tub knob and I figured it out after 2 nights of taking tepid showers and one call to the front desk.

The full breakfast buffet was worth the price. There was bacon, sausage, eggs made to order, pancakes, breakfast potatoes, waffles, danishes, fruit, and granola. The only drawback to the breakfast was some of the wait staff service. When I entered the restaurant it was difficult to be served. One lady said that I need to wait for someone to seat me. But the lady that was in charge of that was moving so slowly, the two minutes that I waited for her to come show me to a table seemed longer. Since I was on schedule, I decided to find my own table and ignore the first lady. After seating myself, I had to find someone to give me some orange juice and hot water for my tea. One of the mornings, it looked as if they were running out of food by 7:45. Despite all of that, the lady at the omelet station that cooked my eggs was very friendly and she cooked it exactly like I wanted them.

The best part of my visit to this hotel was the AHI TUNA appetizer and cobb salad I order from room service. I was a little hungry and did not want a heavy meal. I thought that a little ahi tuna and a small salad would be light enough for me to eat before going to bed. The coarse black pepper seasoning mix on the tuna was absolutely to die for! The order came with the tuna, a mango relish, and pickled ginger. The tuna was tasty on its own that I did not eat the relish. I almost ordered a second plate since it was so good. Up until that point I have never had any ahi tuna that delectable and now I order it at every occasion trying to find something similar. I was wow-ed by it. Most of all, I was astonished because I was not expecting such high quality from room service food. Super!

After I regained control of my senses, I ate my cobb salad. It was mainly lettuce (Bibb, I think), cheese crumbles, and sugared pecans. If I had known the tuna was going to be so awesome, I would have skipped the salad and ordered double tuna. But since that was not the case, I satisfied my hunger with lettuce. Not quite as exciting.

Crowne Plaza Philadephia Valley Forge

260 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia PA 19406