ardilla

Sadly this location went out of business as of earlier this year. It’s a shame when “green”/organic/sustainable business aren’t able to compete. Admittedly, the demographics of this location probably weren’t a good fit for the premium prices that organic ingredients require. Hopefully as organic farming becomes more mainstream, costs will go down and businesses like these will become more competitive.

Miami Spice and had a great meal and a great time. The lounge area is pretty cool in the best South Beach style, and the restaurant & bar have a great atmosphere. Staff & service was excellent, and the food & wines were terrific. I had a very nice bucheron with curried lentils as an appetizer, the lemon herb risotto for an entree, and port with white grapes and a slice of toasted raisin bread for dessert (not as great as the molten chocolate cake my friends had). Will definitely visit again when I’m in the area.

Their menu features things like pesto & walnut pizza, goat cheese & sun-dried tomatoes, gluten free and multi-grain doughs, etc. and mostly organic. They deliver in hybrid cars and the staff are cool people. I’ve been here, worth visiting, and I most definitely want to go back.

Since my boss and I both love Indian, we met at Taj last Saturday for lunch, and I have to say it’s one the best Indian restaurants I’ve been to in South Florida. They had a buffet for lunch. Because I’m vegetarian I tried the vegetable korma, the best saag paneer I’ve had, chickpeas, some sort of onion cakes in curry yogurt sauce, and ckickpeas; everything was fantastic, very flavorful but not heavy. She commented that her curried lamb was great as was the butter chicken. For dessert they had the most wonderful kheer, not overly sweet, but very subtle with the wonderful cardamom flavor enhancing but not overpowering. I’ll be coming back very often!

an emergency landing here on our way to Vegas from Lauderdale. Not fun, the cockpit glass cracked and the pilots put the aircraft down pretty fast, thankfully ABQ was nearby in what otherwise is, well the desert. The whole airport emergency response team was out on the runway waiting for us. We finally switched planes and made it to LAS at about 2 am, which was the equivalent of 5 am Eastern. Not one of my best trips.

I do want to go back to ABQ and northern New Mexico, so hopefully I’ll visit this one again in the near future, under better circumstances than last time hopefully.

Serendipity & Synchronicity have a permanent residence here.

This was an amazingly beautiful hike —a bit of a challenge for someone who has lived at sea level for the last 8 years, but very enjoyable nonetheless, and it’s only 5 minutes from where I’m staying :)

This is a great little place in an inconspicuous shopping plaza, but the food, the food! Everything looked so good on the menu we had a hard time deciding, but we finally went for the roasted eggplant pizza with a spinach salad on top, balsamic dressing, chopped tomatoes & onions (that dish is my new Pavlovian bell I tell you). They have a great variety of vegetarian dishes (though it is not exclusively a vegetarian restaurant) and are very accommodative to vegans. The service is relaxed but attentive & friendly and it is very reasonable. Next time I’m in Juno Beach I’ll make it a point to pay them a visit (drool).

Their (very garlicky) hummus sandwich with super fresh & tasty alfalfa, red peppers & cucumber is absolutely scrumptious; not to mention their smoothies, which are so delicate & delicious… I had spinach, pineapple & banana today at their suggestion —I’d never ventured to order something like this, but I’m glad I did! The banana, orange & almond smoothie I got last week was pretty awesome too.

5 Cheers to the people at The Soma Center.

Orchids have been a fascination of mine since very young. My grandmother had tens of varieties in her garden/greenhouse and I loved to spend time wondering how it was possible for such a beautiful plant to grow without soil, just rocks or chunks of tree bark.

We went to the Morikami this morning and stopped at the Orchid Society on our way out. To be honest, the building looks like an office building so I never bothered to go in plus there’s an $8 entrance fee (which is not included if you’ve just been to the Morikami, which is another $10). But it’s probably one of the best $8 expenditures I’ve done recently.

There is a greenhouse & a tiny “trail” in the back of the building with tens of the most stunningly beautiful species of orchids. It is paradisiacal.