New Orleans

My best friend and I took a long weekend to visit New Orleans, a city both of us had on our list but never had the chance to visit. The food and music met the incredibly high reputation, and pleasantly surprised by the shopping and charming beauty of the city.

We flew from opposite coasts on Friday, arriving at MSY late afternoon. The line for the $36 cab was horrendously long (better off for two people than the $24 shuttle, also with a line), and grabbed a black car for $60 to the Westin New Orleans, right on the water on Canal Street and adjacent to the old French Quarter.

DAY 1

French Market - meet the bartender Doug

Shrimp and crabmeat stuffed avocado

Garlic and herb grilled oysters

Maque croux w andouille sausage

Sweet potato fries

Beer - Andygator and Purple Haze mix

Cafe du Monde

Three beignets 

Hot chocolate and cafe at lait

Copper monkey - meet the bartender  Laurna

Bourbon w ginger beer and lemon

St Lawrence 

Hush puppies w pickled okra and jalapeños

Buffalo wing of NCIS Nola guy

Mac and cheese

Redemption - bourbon cocktail 

DAY 2

Atchaflaya

Duck hash w blackberries

Boudin (rice and pork sausage patties)

Eggs atchaflata w crab meat

Grits

Bloody Mary bar w green tomato juice

Milk punch - brandy, cream half and half, simple syrup, egg nog, nutmeg/cinnamon

Shopping on Magazine Street

Loft43 with owner Kevin

Buffalo Exchange

Basin Seafood and Spirits

Crab and Crawfish beignets 

Garlic herbed butter oysters

Parish Canebrake American wheat from LO

Julia St Art Walk happens on first Saturday's of the month. Check out their site online

Cochon

Grilled broccoli salad

Cucumber pickled w herbs

Louisiana cochon

Shrimp and eggplant dressing

Roasted pumpkin arugula salad

Cote du Rhone

Bourbon vanilla brown sugar satsuma cocktail 

Eggnog cocktail

On to music on Frenchmen Street!

Dba

Three Muses

Eff white drink

Mac and cheese 

DAY 3

Coops Place

Coops combo - gumbo, jambalaya, creole shrimp, fried chicken, beans

Take the $2 ferry across the Mississippi to Algiers Point - worth it for the view of New Orleans

Dry dock cafe - right off the ferry stop, time to get a beer and get the next ferry back

Abita Christmas Ale

St Lawrence

Baked sweet potato Fall spice daiquiri

Shrimp and grits

Brussel sprouts

Spinach dip 

Vienna & Salzburg

July 2015

My mom and I visited Vienna and Salzburg following four days in Milan. Vienna is a sort of mecca for classical music lovers and it did not disappoint!

Here are some highlights:

• Salzburg - Famous as Mozart and the "Sound of Music" Trapp family's hometown, Salzburg is an idyllic city with a lazy river running through it and surrounded by lush green mountains.
• Performances - Vivaldi Four Seasons by string quartet in St. Stephen's Cathedral
• House of Musik - best interactive museum I've experienced.

Milan

July 2015

I took a week long trip to Milan and Vienna with my mom to coincide with the World Expo 2015 in Milan.

Here are some highlights:

• World Expo - In Milano from May 1 to Oct 31, 2015, think of Expo like a massive six-month trade show of countries, or Epcot on crack. See bottom of the post for more, including a short video!
• Food - Milanese cuisine is more rice than pasta and richer than what I think of typical Italian food, but their love and care of food is still Italian and there are many opportunities for great meals.
• Duomo - the central Milanese cathedral is magnificent inside and out and worth a visit.
• Last Supper - one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings is on a rectory wall in Santa Maria delle Grazie Church.
• Shop - I happen to not be a fashion type, but Milano is certainly one of the fashion meccas of the world. Emmanuelle Galleria houses the original Prada shop and some might enjoy the fashion district. I on the other hand, enjoyed the “saldi” season at your lower/mid level boutiques and made a killing at Promod. Italians make lovely shoes as well.

Notes on Milan

• Milanese speak some English in tourist areas, but it's worth getting some basic phrases down
• We stayed in an AirBNB studio near the Lima stop off of the Metro 1/Red line and a 5 minute walk from Centrale Stazione where you can get a bus/train direct from Malpensa international airport. It was so lovely to have a fridge and mini-kitchen for breakfast and snacking, and to live in a more residential area. Highly recommend over hotels.
• Summertime is ridiculously hot, and well into the evening. Avoid being outside mid afternoon if you can.

Eat and Drink

We had a lovely mix of casual and fine dining in Milan. Turns out the olive oil, tomatoes, pasta that I think of when I imagine Italian food is more prevalent in mid to southern Italy, and Milanese are closer to say Austrian or German food with more breads, rice and mix of meat and seafood.

• Ristorante Cracco - we had a decadent, luxurious and creative two and a half hour lunch at Chef Carlo Cracco's two-star Michelin restaurant just blocks from the Duomo. We splurged on the tasting menu with a few classes of wine
• Osteria del Treno

Milan Sites

We joined a guided walking tour through a company called Veditalia. It was 63€ per person for the "best of Milan + Last Supper" and English guide with eight other people for three hours. It was worth it because my mom wanted to see the Last Supper and reservations were full through five weeks out. But our guide Christian was a local Milanese, incredibly knowledgeable and we learned a lot about Milanese history and the sites.

We visited:

Duomo Cathedral and its Square - the central cathedral in Milan took five centuries to construct and is a continuing work in progress. It's 2

Da Vinci’s Last Supper and Santa Maria delle Grazie Church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site - given the sensitivity of the famous and ancient Leonardo da Vinci mural, there are strict 15 minute reservations. Totally worth it though, really powerful.

Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery, the “living room” of Milan with the flagship Prada shop

Sforza Castle - outside and its inner yards

Mercanti Square, the medieval city heart

La Scala Theatre (outside) and its Square

World Expo

For those who don’t know, one of my life goals after working at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai is to see every Expo going forward - they happen every five years and cities bid on them like the Olympics (next one is Dubai 2020).

The theme for Expo Milano is “Feeding the World”, focusing on what people and countries are doing to sustainably produce and provide food around the world. More broadly, Expo is about showcasing countries with each nation sponsoring a pavilion that represents their culture, technology and philosophy around food. So what better way to experience this Expo than food/drink crawling!

Highlights at Expo:

• Japan Pavilion - Japan did a phenomenal job weaving together Japanese food customs, industry and innovation in an interactive and digital experience. As a testament to that, it was the only pavilion with a constant line. Overall I would guess it takes about 20-30 min to get in plus an hour to get through the multi-stage show.
• Allavita! - Cirque du Soleil has a special show for Expo. It is fanciful and dynamic and incredible like every other Cirque show I've seen, plus set in an open air theater with a longer interactive show around the theme of food. 38€ for the closest to stage of three sections (open seating in all).
• Russia Pavilion
• Italy Wine Pavilion
• Eataly - I know there are other Eatalys in the city, but if you are in Expo and want to eat Italian food, Eataly is a great place to sample food from every corner of the country. Try the gnocchi and tiramisu at Locanda Mammi in the Abruzzo e Molise region, amazing!

Country Pavilions - besides the ones mentioned above, I find the larger countries to be somewhat underwhelming for the amount of money they are probably spending. I loved the "smaller" places like Bahrain that not only had the most beautiful architecture and told a wonderful narrative about gardens and their primary agricultural exports and Morocco showed their various regional environments and specialties. Qatar was impressive, and I actually love going to places like Senegal to try a baobab drink or Slovenia to learn about salt.

Coolest architecture (take pictures of the outside but not worth going in) - UK, Vietnam, USA (sorry it's true...)

Eat/drink - in addition to Eataly, Italy Wine and Salumeria Pavilions, Japan and Russia, the Czech had pilsners from an outside poolside bar, Belgians had fries, beer and great cafe, Morocco had nice outdoor garden restaurant, US has a Food Truck 2.0 area (I didn't go), Chile for daily 4pm wine tasting seminar.

Hyderabad

My company has offices in India - the tech-centric Hyderabad (also called Cyberabad) and in the coastal college town of Bhimavaram. I had the pleasure to visit our team, experience the local culture and taste amazing South Indian cuisine.

Note: video password is my first name, lower case

Hyderabad is a fascinating mix of the modern Cyberabad offices, developing city under massive construction, and deeply historical South Indian and Muslim influenced culture and architecture.