Tuscany Castello di Vicarello - Would love to visit

Tuscany Castello di Vicarello !!!! I want to go there!

The Castello di Vicarello is Located in the Maremma region of southern Tuscany. The 900-year-old castle was an abandoned ruin until its transformation into an exclusive luxury retreat in the first decade of this century.

Why do I want to go visit? Simple: The Castello di Vicarello has 30 acres of gardens ready to be discovered, but also has a kitchen garden, I know you can smell already the rosemary; it has two pools! And if you don’t want to walk the gardens, there is an Ayurvedic spa and a yoga studio; you can stay in one of the seven lavish suites where you’ll enjoy the view of the vineyards. All of these you can see for yourself in their web site: http://www.vicarello.it/

Nevertheless, the real reason I want to go visit the Castello, besides the fact that it is a Castle, is because The Castello di Vicarello's kitchen produces authentic Tuscan dishes; there is no better place to learn the secrets of this cuisine than the Castello di Vicarello. The proprietor of this fairy-tale castle, Aurora Baccheschi Berti, prepares meals based on what’s fresh in her garden. She shares in her kitchen the many recipes she has developed over the past decade by lkearning from local peasant women and also from her own family’s traditions.
A book of Aurora Baccheschi Berti's recipes was published by Rizzoli, New York, in the spring of 2011.

Good Food is foodamental for good living.

This is true even more when we celebrate holidays. Food brings family and friends together around a table and gives us an opportunity to share our souls while we nourish our bodies.

Today I am thankful for many blessings but I want to make sure I praise God for the blessings behind our thanksgiving table represented with the food we eat, simple things like having B baking Mavis Linder’s Clover Leaf rolls recipe for thanksgiving dinner and waking up to break the fast with whole wheat pumpkin waffles. Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Our Renewal of wedding vows was on a Replica of ancient Galilean fishing boat

It has been an experience of a lifetime! I love Israel, the people, the culture, food, the beauty of the land.
I just don’t have words to describe the amazing feeling and the incredible joy I have experienced here in Israel, quiet: everyday joy and exuberant: celebration joy!

Walking down to Mensa Christi, Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, in Tabgha, where Brian and I would renew our vows. My maid of honor let the flowers fly in front of us.

I have celebrated the fact that I get to be with Brian and renew our vows in Israel. I always thought I would never do this. We had a great wedding and I was satisfied with all the details of it! But I guess I forgot one little detail. When we got married, there was no music at our wedding. Well, this time around, we danced Jewish, Arabic, American, classical, etc all kinds, and because Carl, our guide-turn-into wedding coordinator, is Jewish, he made sure that everybody danced for the bride, just as it is a customary tradition.

For the Spanish version of this post go to my spanish blog:

Puedes mirar las fotos en mi Facebook: Rebeca Segebre Knowles o en este álbum que cree aquí:

|
More

Review of the restaurants close to Arbat street

As I promised, this is a review of the restaurants close to Arbat street.

Ok, so Brian and I did not eat at McDonalds, TGI Fridays no even Baskin’s Robins while we were in Moscow Are you surprised? even though these restaurants are all found on the Arbat Street. Well, the way we see it is, we can always get to one of those when we are home (not likely really!) so why not venture into something new and exciting!!

We were so tired while in Moscow that we actually never got to have dinner in the actual Arbat street. You see, when you walk from the Arbat Hotel towards the Old Arbat street you will find plenty of restaurants.

Right across the street from the hotel, there is the newly open restaurant called Hindu serving Indian fusion cuisine. We went inside and got to see the décor and environment. Pretty nice furniture, hardwood floors, it looked very upscale. Their chef is one of the most famous Chef in London and he just opened this location in Moscow 1 month ago. The prices are in Euros – around 30 Euros per dish. Bentleys, BMW’s and 7 series Mercedes are the type of cars parked at dinner time. Brian and I did not eat there. I just was not in the mood for the celebrity-chef type of restaurant plus I like Indian food but would not want to pay 30 Euros for one dish.

If you continue walking you’ll find a French restaurant – Great Food! Decent prices. The picture above shows the dish I ordered – Sea Bass Provence Style: Just Delicious! I know some of you would not touch this dish – since it comes with the head! – the meat between the fish cheeks is the most delicious – Ask any fish connoisseur :)

Water in Moscow is more expensive than ordering Russian Champagne – so what do you do? Yeah – get some Champagne and caviar while you are at it! Anyways, I highly recommend this French Restaurant for food, ambiance and great service: very friendly people. Brian had some chicken breast wrapped in bacon in a creamy mushroom sauce it was awesome! It came with potatoes. We also shared a green salad that was also very fresh and tasty.

Continue the walk and you’ll find a Turkish Restaurant: our favorite! I love Middle Eastern food and this was great and tasty food. For lunch, this restaurant has a US$10 special where you get to choose one type of salad, one type of soup, one meat dish and your choice of coffee or tea. For meat dishes they have a choice for chicken, beef or Lamb. Go for the Lamb!! Or any other will just taste great. The Lentil soup is to die for and you also have the option of chicken soup. I love lentil soup anyways! So this is a great Lunch alternative when you are in a budget since Moscow restaurants can be very expensive.

Across the street from the Turkish restaurant there is a Uzbekistani restaurant – the food is similar to the Middle Eastern cuisine but it was not my favorite – I would not go back to it, plus, you have to pay cash since they do not accept any other type of payment!

Then, right next to this restaurant is the famous Moo Moo restaurant. Great food at very reasonable prices. There are lines at any hour of the day to order your food but, somehow you will always find a spot to sit once you order. If you are in a hurry or just have something to do after your meal, I would suggest not to order anything that will require further cooking for it will take a long time to come to your table; just choose from the already prepare food – it is fresh and delicious. We ate there a couple of times, but with kids, is better to let your partner order for both of you while you wait at a table with the kids. This is a place you got to go to eat while in Moscow! Is like coming to the United States and going to Cheesecake Factory, it is just a Russian experience. There are many Moo Moo’s around town so even if you are not close to Arbat street you could get to one of them.

Next to Moo Moo there is an Italian Restaurant called “Italia” we ate there .. good food! I thought it was a little pricy but not so much if you ask for Pizza which is around $7 per personal pizza – it is very, very thin crust, which I love.

Then there is McDonalds! No we did not eat there but we had coffee at the Mac Café which is a cool place for people watching and having a good latte (did not like the cappuccino) and a dessert; I would not go for the looks of the desert but I will just go for ingredients, looks were deceiving when we chose some of the cakes; tiramisu was not great.

If you are staying at the Arbat Hotel and too tired to walk anywhere, try the restaurant at the Arbat Hotel. The menu points out which items are traditional Russian. I wrote some about their food in a previous post Blog from April 25th – “We made it to Moscow” so, scroll down and check it out!

Again, there are also other options once you are in the Arbat Street we did not get to experiment – there were some restaurants getting ready for the summer and they were constructing their outdoor patios with canopies for seating – just getting ready for our second trip to Moscow!

In case you are wondering: no, I did not gain weight while in Moscow, even though I was a big “Moo Moo” eating – you can eat as much as you want but the stress of the adoption process and all the walking somehow will help your metabolism.

Arbat Hotel, Moscow - Traditional Russian food

The trip from Milan to Moscow was actually pleasant but when we got to Passport control we had to wait 2 hours in line; that just tired us a lot.Vlad was there to meet us which it was a blessing!! We were so worried he would just leave after waiting for so long. The ride to the hotel took us around another hour. We are so tired; it feels as if we just traveled the whole day, and I guess we did!I want to thank all of you for your prayers, we have felt the warmth and we really appreciate it! In less than two days we will meet our potential children!!!

I will try to write about our experience with them on Thursday night.As soon as we made it to the hotel today, I took a shower and then went for dinner to the restaurant at the hotel. Ok, so, Brian and I think that normally hotels do not have good food because it is not their line of business so; we never judge a city’s food just by eating at a hotel restaurant.

Today we had no other option; we went to the hotel’s restaurants here in Moscow just now. It actually serves traditional Russian food.I got to say: wow, it was good!

I just have to write the food journal because I borrowed the hotel menu and I have to return it tonight and I just don’t want to forget. I got to learn as much as I can about the culture in a very short time. So you don’t have to continue reading this is just for diary’s purposes.

For appetizer, Brian had: Far east Red caviar with blines, finely chopped hard boiled egg whites and yolk, crèmefresh, finely chopped red onions and parsley. That would be a great idea for an appetizer to do at a party when our kids come home with us.I had the Russian Fish soup which is actually made out of salmon, potatoes, celery, wild mushrooms, carrots. Brian does not like salmon, which means no Russian soup for Brian since the other option is Borsch and beets are the only type of food that he actually won’t even touch. Nevertheless, I thought that was a great soup, I am getting the recipe to prepare it for our children. Oukha is the name of the fish soup.Then, for main entrée Brian had the beef “a la stroganoff” also with wild mushrooms, rice and quail eggs.

I had a typical dish from Georgia called “Luly Kebab” which is a sort of kafta wrapped in eggplants with a pomegranate sauce. My entire family would enjoy this dish it is very clever! It also came with a salad of cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.All was delicious! Even the bread was great (I don’t eat bread as I try to watch my carbohydrates consumption)

We also had cappuccinos. When we are in Brazil, I normally have at least one discussion with someone serving me cappuccinos. The thing is that the people in southern Brazil insist that cappuccinos are served with powder chocolate on it. Well, cappuccinos do not contain chocolate when served in Italy nor in Russia, so there!