robyn

Everyone goes to gallery nights everywhere to see and be seen and drink free cheap wine. When's the last time you and your friends ate in the Design District on a Wednesday in July? Robyn P.S. The Design District has been "up and coming" since I first moved to Miami in 1971. The bottom line is no one wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a condo a few blocks from a slum (except during a real estate "boom" when people think they can flip the places - those that are being built today are like the Charter Club was maybe 20 years ago). There are in fact fewer nice shopping places there now than there were 30 years ago. Most of the higher class places moved to DCOTA a long time ago.

The peach place we went to in Peach County (very large place) had 3 crops - peaches - strawberries - and pecans - different seasons. The biggest problem IMO will be the thousands of Mexican farm workers who will be out of work. I don't think Georgia is prepared to take care of them. The peaches from the southeast come here in Florida at times different than those from California - the ones from from the southeast in the early summer - those from Californiia in the late summer. The seasons are just totally different. Robyn

The meat packing district in New York is supposed to be trendy (I'm about 20 years too old for it) - but I suspect if I did that wrong turn at the NYT building again and walked 3 blocks west - that it's still not a great place to be in at 11 pm. The problem with suburban cities (like Miami) is that people drive to get to places. It's not like NYC where the taxi picks you up and drops you off. You don't have to navigate through questionable areas on foot - or park your car where you suspect various parts will be missing when you finish dining (one night many years ago when we parked on a side street off Brickell - our whole car was missing!). Moreover - in suburban spread out areas (like most metro areas in Florida) - a big deal restaurant has to be relatively close to a mass of affluent residents or tourists to attract steady business. Most South Beach tourists won't go to this part of Miami. And the affluent neighborhoods are all reasonably far away. Not many people will drive from the Gables or Pinecrest to 14th Street. It's not even in an area like Brickell where a lot of downtown workers would stop on their way home after work (there were a few restaurants on Brickell - like Cye's Rivergate - which used to attract that kind of business when I worked downtown). When I was in Miami last year - my brother took us to a new Ethiopian restaurant in the design district at about 8 on a Wednesday. Wasn't a bad place (in terms of the food) - but I don't like being in the design district at night. It's just creepy (very few people - and I wish those who were there weren't). As an aside - I think one problem in this area is that business people thought they'd get business from all the new spec condos which were going up in the area. I don't know how the spec condo business is doing there - but my guess in this real estate market is - not very good. FWIW - I think northside Jacksonville (in my part of the state) is worse. Highest murder rate in the whole state if I recall correctly. You're not going to see any high end restaurants opening there anytime soon. It was hard enough to get Publix to open a store in that area. So my reaction is what bird brain put such an expensive restaurant in such a lousy neighborhood? Why not a place like Merrick Park - which I think is really nice - but has had so many problems attracting and keeping decent restaurants? Or it could just be another manifestation of the "chain syndrome". We now have many high end chain restaurants in Jacksonville - and we are getting a lot more (we're even getting Louis Vuitton - imagine that). They are always packed. While many (but not all) local places go begging. Robyn

Ran-Getsu on I-Drive is the best Japanese restaurant I've found in Orlando. A branch of a restaurant on the Ginza in Tokyo. No latin music . Robyn

Northwest 14th Street is a pretty rough part of Miami. It is not an area I would care to walk around in during the day - much less at night. There is a new arts center in the area - but it's the kind of place where if you walk 2 blocks in the wrong direction - you can get in trouble (think of walking 4 blocks west of the NYT building in Manhattan - which I did once by mistake on a trip to NYC). Robyn

It's really sad to hear that. I thought the old restaurant was a total bore - and had hoped that the new place would be more contemporary. If I want a steak - I can make an excellent one at home on my grill. If I want bison - I can drive over to Ted's Montana Grill 15 minutes away (and have a bison anything at a fraction of the Ritz Carlton price). We know the executive chef up there (we live about an hour south) - and have had some really nice lunches in the casual dining room in the last few months or so. They were better than the sound of the stuff you had at Salt. Robyn P.S. The Ritz Carlton caters to a lot of golfers in the spring and fall - many of whom are on personal vacations. And people from the south on "beach vacations" in the summer. So it's not a totally expense-account dominated place. Robyn

Miami often seems much better at doing "rude" than doing "food". Even though I don't live in Miami anymore (I live in NE Florida now) - I want to apologize if you came to our state as a tourist. Note that something similar happened to me a few years ago. I made a reservation at Ola when I had to take a trip to Miami. The restaurant closed a few days before we arrived - and I would not have known that we were heading to a defunct establishment had I not spoken with the concierge at the Four Seasons about our dining plans. We wound up at Mosaico that night - which - also - was short lived. The chef from Mosaico is now up here at the Ritz Carlton at Amelia Island - and - judging from what I've read - his cooking talents seem to be stiffled by the tastes of the guests at the hotel. Too bad. Because I've been to a few food events at the Ritz Carlton there - and the chefs can really "strut their stuff" if they have an appreciative audience. Robyn

Don't forget about the farm workers. We went through Peach County (Georgia) last year during peach season - and saw hundreds of workers (mostly Mexican). I can go without peaches more easily than they can go without work. Robyn

I'm really glad you enjoyed St. Augustine in general - and Opus 39 in particular. Robyn

I suspect you are kind of unfamiliar with the area near the Jacksonville zoo. It is an industrial/commercial area - and the fish shacks there are kind of rough and tumble. Last thing in the world I'd do is walk into one of them and ask to see a license (unless I was a law enforcement officer). Robyn

Umm, weren't we discussing the ENTIRE state of Florida. If you can get that on a buffet, clue me in. You are confusing me now robyn. Slow down. ← No reason to be confused. You posted pictures of sushi from Destin (taken from a thread about Destin). We have a fairly large Asian population here in northeast Florida - and there are pan-Asian buffets all over the place. Most of them serve sushi. It is neither good nor bad (the latter meaning inedible) - just terribly mediocre. Like just about every piece of sushi I've ever had in Florida - whether I'm eating at an all you can eat buffet or a high end restaurant. It is definitely not a type of cuisine I'd recommend for visitors (we have a lot of good stuff - but sushi isn't one of them). The only exception to this general rule that I can recall is a place on I-Drive in Orlando called Ran Getsu. It is a branch of a Tokyo restaurant. A lot of the staff is Japanese - and a lot of the fish is Japanese. Expensive - but an extraordinarily good Japanese restaurant for Florida. Robyn

I don't know what Michelin will like. I know that I personally loved dining in Japan. I ate like a pig by Japanese standards and wound up coming home 2 pounds lighter than when I left! It is a very interesting healthy way of eating (even with sweets - which Japanese people seem to love - but in very small portions). Our trip was probably once in a lifetime - and I envy you your regular trips. It's too bad it's so far from where I live to there (it's a 2 day trip with a 13 time zone difference). Robyn P.S. It was just my husband and me - and we are comfortably retired - so we didn't stint in terms of spending money on anything.

I have a couple of grapefruit trees in my yard. One is a very old one that came with the house, that still produces white fruit but half of the tree has reverted back to the wild stock which looks like a grapefruit sized lemon. When cut it looks like a grapefruit inside but is sour as a lemon without the fragrent lemon smell. I just squeezed 2 liters of juice from these sour fruits that I'll use like sour orange in marinades. My other tree is a small ruby red that has just started to bare fruit. I love all citrus. ← I live in north Florida - and have a couple of grafted trees. If the winters are too cold - the tops are dead - and you have to prune almost back to rootstock. Not the best way to get good fruit. If I lived in south Florida - I'd just pick up some cheap trees from Walmart - Home Depot - etc. Might take a couple of years for them to bear fruit - but it's worth it. With all the weather and bug stuff - I'd rather buy a few 3 gallon plants and take my chances than spend hundreds of dollars on a big tree. Robyn

I live in the Jacksonville area too. Shrimpers generally tend to net close to the surface. Golden crabs are found only in very deep waters. I'd ask where these "Golden Crabs" are coming from. Robyn ← Actually, shrimpers have the overhead pullies and gears that would make it appropriate to pull these traps. And are already stamped to do the work. Come to think of it, after looking at a shrimp boat or two, I would be surprised if they didn't drop a couple of cages here and there. Then check to see if anything took the bait. ← I'd give great odds that there's not a shrimp boat here that has a license to put down traps for golden crab. Every place that sells these things is supposed to have a posted license to sell. I'd be very surprised if any shrimp joint near the zoo has such a license. Robyn

I live in the Jacksonville area too. Shrimpers generally tend to net close to the surface. Golden crabs are found only in very deep waters. I'd ask where these "Golden Crabs" are coming from. Robyn

In my (very limited) experience dining in Japan - there seems to be an emphasis on ingredients - as opposed to complex preparations (presentation is an altogether different issue). And I think for the average non-Japanese person - the differences between good and bad are easy - but the differences between really good/even better/and best may be hard to discern - due to lack of experience. With drinks - alcoholic or not - and little snacks - you are - as in most large cities - paying for the pricey real estate (or the lack of it) where your table is located. You will pay a lot more for a drink at a nice hotel or cafe than you will for a drink under the railroad tracks. Robyn

Maybe your trees are too old? Citrus trees don't have huge life spans. So buy a new tree or two. There are other possible problems. What problem(s) do you think you have? I'm afraid the sale of grapefuit will become more problematic because of its drug interactions (e.g., just about everyone who takes statin drugs is advised not to eat grapefuit). Robyn P.S. My husband can't eat grapefuit - but I like it - so I buy the Sun Fresh red grapefruit - found in the plastic containers in the fresh fruit section of Publix.

← Re updating the website - agreed! FWIW - I found bento.com a much more useful resource than Zagat's . Finding restaurants in places like Tokyo is a whole 'nother story. We had lunch one day at a nice restaurant in Ginza. The cab driver let us out - and we couldn't find the restaurant. Turns out it was down a little alley - with only a tiny sign announcing its presence. If we hadn't been in the company of someone who read Japanese - I'm not sure we would have found it. Along similar lines - when I tried to find La Maison du Chocolate in Tokyo - it took a while to find the right building in Marunouchi - and then it took us a full fifteen minutes to find the store in the building - because the building was huge - a couple of square city blocks. Of course - finding these places (which were both on the ground floors of buildings) was perhaps easier than finding a place that's on the fifth floor of a huge building. It is very difficult to convey the extent of urbanization in Tokyo - huge numbers of (frequently smaller) establishments crowded in relatively small areas. Makes New York look like Kansas . Robyn

I took a look at the Zagat's web site. It shows the guide for Tokyo in English and Japanese and the guide for Osaka in Japanese only. All editions are 2003 - which doesn't make them terribly useful. I looked at Zagat's on line before we went to Japan - and didn't find it terribly useful either. The number of tourists to Japan is actually quite low. Even if the number doubled - I don't think they'd make much of an impact in a huge city like Tokyo - or even a very large city like Osaka. Robyn

Where in Japan are you moving to? We spent 3 weeks in Japan last year (first trip) - and were only able to see a small part of the country. Regarding the language of a Michelin guide - I suppose if they are making a good faith attempt to have a guide for people who live in Japan - it would be written in Kanji (which is basically impossible for a casual tourist to learn - my husband studied Japanese for a year - he was ok with Katakana - but didn't even try to learn Kanji). Robyn

So we can have strawberry shortcake in August! We have found that Driscoll's is a pretty reliable product. Berries (not only strawberries - but other berries - like blueberries) are coming not only from California - but from south America in the winter. Some (which we bought at Costco's) have been really excellent. I eat fruit and cereal at least 5-6 times a week - and I used to get pretty sick of bananas in the winter. Robyn ← Oh, Driscoll's is a very fine company. I have had the pleasure to meet individuals who have worked for Driscoll's in the past. Although they are California based, they purchase extensively in Florida, and more than just strawberries. I guess I should be more specific. Why would a supermarket chain bring strawberries from California into Florida, or New Jersey for that matter, when the Florida berries are in season? Surely robyn, you are not telling me that you would hunt out a Driscoll's label, when Plant City is in season? ← I shop mostly at Publix and Fresh Market - and - this time of the year - all the strawberries are from Plant City. Of course - the season isn't very long. March and April - that's about it. The other 10 months of the year - it's mostly California - some South America. Robyn

So we can have strawberry shortcake in August! We have found that Driscoll's is a pretty reliable product. Berries (not only strawberries - but other berries - like blueberries) are coming not only from California - but from south America in the winter. Some (which we bought at Costco's) have been really excellent. I eat fruit and cereal at least 5-6 times a week - and I used to get pretty sick of bananas in the winter. Robyn

I guess one of the first questions is what language will the guide be written in - Japanese or English - or French . I'd doubt that the first edition would be written in more than one language. There are some very major Michelin guides that are written only in the language of the country. I just got the Michelin guide to Germany - and it is available only in German. But whereas most people who speak English/French/Spanish etc. can make basic use of a Michelin guide written in German - they wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of a Michelin guide written in Japanese. OTOH - a Michelin guide that isn't available in a country's native language would be kind of meaningless IMO. Robyn P.S. I saw you were active in a thread on gardening in Japan - and I have a suggestion. I live in north Florida - and I like to grow spring mix/frisee. But it's hard to grow here - we have a very short growing season for lettuces - and we risk freeze because we have to plant very early. So I bought a couple of rectangular plastic planters - maybe 8 inches wide by 3 feet long. So I could take them inside if there was a chance of a freeze. Filled them with good soil - and just dumped a lot of spring mix seeds in them. I know you're supposed to thin the plants - but I didn't. And I have a bumper crop of spring mix. It will only last for another few weeks because our temperatures are approaching 80 now. But it is an idea for Japanese gardens (which I suspect tend to be small and tend to have poor soils).

I must be thick as a mule. I still don't get the joke <sigh>. Pol Roget is an excellent champagne for the price. And - although it isn't "Champagne" - Roederer's Estate L'Ermitage (which someone here introduced me to on a trip to California) is also excellent for the price (and I'll bet that very few people would be able to tell it isn't "Champagne" in a blind taste test - I know I wouldn't be able to). Robyn

Thanks for the Tallahassee recommendation. I noticed that my husband's favorite place - Buckhead Brewery (it made some excellent beers) - is closed. Georgio's is ok as long as you order simple. I like it because it is dark and I can get a decent martini to deal with the headache I usually have after a quasi-business trip to Tallahassee. But we'll have 2 nights there. I guess I don't read Bruni the way you do. He reminds me of myself when I was 30 - putting down things I didn't understand or appreciate. I'm a lot more mellow now . And thanks for distinguishing between the higher end NY restaurant scene - and what's going on elsewhere in the food chain. The problem from my tourist's point of view is that with New York hotel costs going through the roof - and exceeding those of just about everywhere else in the world - except perhaps London and Paris - I need a "hook" to get me to New York (where I've been many many times). An extraordinary museum exhibit - a fabulous new restaurant - something. When you're dealing with really good - but lesser - restaurants - New York has an awful lot of competition from places I haven't been to as often - or ever. Places where there are new and unfamiliar things to see and do. That's why a trip like the one we took to Dallas/Austin for art and BBQ was a lot of fun. Virgin territory (for us). FWIW - I feel the same way about places like London and Paris - which is why our next stop in Europe is Berlin. Of course - none of this applies to people who live in New York - or tourists who have never been to New York before. Robyn