Martha Stewart, really?

I'm a Tv series addict, specially those gooey romantic comedies and so, in most of them and also all the gooey romantic comedy movies that I watch, I've always heard someone mentioning Martha Stewart! So, of course, I know who she is, what she looks like and what she does, but until a couple of months ago, I had never seen her on tv. Until then I really thought she was great, like female Jamie Oliver with decorating skills, everyone always talks about her like she's a goddess, and of course I'd never doubt my favorite characters, then again, who would???

Martha before watching her show

So, as I was saying, a couple of months ago I received an email from iTunes store with an ad for a Martha's "How to make pumpkin pie" video, and I decided to watch! Really??? Really?? That's what Martha Stewart is?? She looks like a robot, she doesn't feel anything, she has no charisma at all...now my question is, how did she get where she is now? I have absolutely no idea! Like, everyone on food tv has their one thing that makes people like them, Jamie Oliver is charismatic, Ramsay is crazy nervous, and people love to see others getting yelled at, Nigella is passionate about all food, and doesn't mind eating as much as she wants to, Andrew Zimmern eats everything you don't want to, so that's pretty interesting, Anthony Bourdain travels and bring history unto food's life, but Martha, she does everyday food with no passion, no jokes, no anger, no traveling, no history, nothing really!

Martha after

Well, I'm sorry crazy americans that love her, but that's not for me, but I'm open to whatever you wanna say you see in her, is it the kitchen? Cause it's actually a nice kitchen, but not enough to watch her! Or the website, cause the site is great, really, I love it, I wish I had never seen her on tv, I'd probably still like her...damn you iTunes ad!!!

See you soon!

Mettlach - the german city of Outlets

Since I moved to Switzerland I've been wanting to buy a set of Villeroy & Boch china for my future new home. I'd usually just go to a big "galerie" like Galeries Lafayette or Printemps, but I decided to go to Villeroy's website to see if they had a big store somewhere in Europe, and for my surprise they have a really big OUTLET STORE. The store is in Mettlach, a small town in Germany, right next to the borders of Luxembourg and France, which for me is just perfect as my husband's aunt lives about 45 minutes from Mettlach.

We went this weekend to his aunt's home for easter and on our way back we've passed through Mettlach to see what they had. The Villeroy's outlet is amazing, they have most of their china and cutlery at 20% off or more. It's really worth it, and in the city you'll find other outlets like Silit and Rösle, two great brands for kitchen ware. 

But outlets are not the only thing you can find, Mettlach is a medieval city with the Saar river by it's side, you could visit the city by walking and also don't miss the Villeroy & Boch's discovery center, where you can learn about the history of ceramic and tableware and also take a walk through the gardens of Mettlach's old abbey. The abbey was acquired by Jean-François Boch in 1809 to become their first ceramic factory and today is the main headquarters of Villeroy & Boch.

Villeroy & Boch headquarter in Mettlach's old abbey

The region is also very lovely, with small towns, boat excursions through the Saar and the Mosel river, wineries all over the place, with great Riesling tastings. Not to far away is Trier, the oldest city in Germany where you should visit the Porta Nigra, a gate from about A.D. 180. 

The Saar river

Other cities to visit: Saarburg and Bitburg(and their brewery Bitburger - attention, their presentation is only in German) 

Have a nice trip, I know I had!!!Oh, I'd advise you to go on spring, it's beautiful!!!

Villeroy & Boch outlet hours: 

Monday-Friday 9:30 am - 7:00 pm

Saturday 9:30 am - 6:00 pm

Sundays 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

website: http://www.villeroy-boch.com/en/us/home.html

New York's biggest secret!!!(for anyone who likes to cook)

I know, I know, it's been too long since my last post...but as I'm moving to Switzerland and am actually homeless, it's not quite easy to write, but I'll try to be more generous with you from now on, and I am gonna start with this great tip!!!

New York is a really big city with lots of amazing things to see, eat, drink and do, so one post isn't gonna cut it, but as this blog is not only about traveling, but about food too, I decided to write this post about a marvelous hidden bookstore I discovered last year.

This is really not a tourist spot as it's exactly 2 streets down from where the upper east side turns into east harlem, but it's worth the trip and it's a nice way to get to know another part of New York city, and it's actually quite interesting to see a place with no tourists(or almost none) and observe the daily life of the "latino" neighborhood of New York.

Kitchen, Arts and Letters is the name of this heavenly place and if you are as addicted to cookbooks as I am, consider at least half a day to spend it there! Don't underestimate it by their size, because they are quite small, but they have a lot to offer, you just have to look through it! There's a lot of old cookbooks, most of them are not even printed anymore, they have a section for business books, like "How to open your restaurant", those kind of things, and much more. The owners(at least I think they were) are really nice, so don't mind asking questions or even asking them to find a book for you, even if they don't have they will try to find it!

That's it for today, I hope you enjoyed it!

How to get there:
Address: 1435 Lexington Ave, New York 10128 (between 93rd and 94th)
Subway station: 96th street - line 4 or 6
Hours: Monday 1-6 pm
Tuesday to Friday 10 am - 6:30 pm
Saturday 11 am - 6 pm
website: http://www.kitchenartsandletters.com/

Spending the night inside an igloo

About a year ago I went on an italian road trip planned with my husband and my brother in law. Since we were living Versailles by car and our first stop was Genova, on northwest Italy, I thought about making a stop on my beautiful Switzerland, but couldn't have any ideas about a place we could enjoy on one day and a half. Looking for ideas I found this website called Iglu-dörf, it's a "hotel"(more like a camp) inside an igloo made of snow(not ice), and it's made from scratch every December and destroyed(melts) every beginning of April. They have several locations in Switzerland, plus a couple of ones around Europe, always on the top of a mountain.

The one I chose was in Engelberg, a ski resort next to Lucerne. We left Versailles at 6 AM and got to Engelberg at noon, we left the car on a parking lot, went to have lunch at a Rösti restaurant(very good one btw, i don't remember the name, but it was next to the sports center) and then bought our tickets for the lift.
To get to the Igloo meeting point, we had to go up the mountains on a lift until about half the way to the top of the mountain(there are several stops) and meet our guide inside a hotel(real hotel, not one made of snow).

My husband and I at the hotel before going to the igloo

Waiting for everyone to show up, we had a glass of Swiss red wine and got warm. We thought maybe we could stock some heat before our adventure, which by the way, didn't work...
When all the guests were there we left the hotel and after a 10 minute walk, we got to the igloo.
If it's a cloudy day, have in mind that it will be very difficult to find the igloo. The snow mixes with the clouds and you don't know where the snow stops and the sky starts, so my advise, don't walk around without a guide!

Outside of the igloo

The igloo looks like, well ... an igloo ... though instead of ice blocks it's a whole lot of compressed snow. Imagine the sand castles you use to make with your siblings when you were little, now paint it white and make it adult size! That's about it, but a little more difficult to destroy it (I hope so!)!
But that's only the outside. Inside everything is carved into beautiful pieces of art! Every year they choose a  theme, and when we went, it was China. All the walls from the bar were carved to form a dragon, there were ancient chinese portals between each room, chinese warriors, etc...

Carved Dragon bar

Following our warm welcome we went for a tour of all the types of rooms.
They had 5 kinds of rooms we could choose from when we made the reservation.
The standard one holds up to six people and it has almost no decoration, only the sleeping bags on top of a mattress covered with animal fur.
The romantic holds two, that's the only difference from the standard one.
The romantic plus holds two and has a private bathroom.
The romantic family holds a family of 6(and i'm not sure if you have your own bathroom).
The hot igloo is a warm room(tent) connected to the igloo(I really don't see the point of having this room! If you want to sleep in an igloo, it's implicit that it'll be cold!)

Rafael(husband) and Otavio(brother-in-law) inside the sleeping bags in our standard room.

After having our hot drinks and touring the whole igloo we had dinner!!! Cheese fondue...yayyyy!!!! The dining room had wood tables and wood stools covered in fur which made it a little less freezing!

After our great dinner we had a shot of Kirsch, a cherry brandy, that is commonly drank after heavy meals to help digestion! You almost don't feel the alcohol because of the temperature. All the alcohol goes directly into your body to help heating it!

Myself in the dining room!

After dinner we had the option to go on a night walk with snowshoes(in the form of a racket) and of course, we went! We first learned how to walk on this strange shoes, shoes that I never thought would work, but they actually do and make walking around in snow much easier than with regular shoes. We had a lot of fun, learned how to through ourselves into the snow and more important, how to get out of snow!

After a long one and half hour we were back inside the (now) warm igloo. The outside temperature was about -4°C, maybe less and windy, and inside it always stays between -1°C and 1°C.

I could barely feel my legs and wasn't able to breath without forcing my lungs, but really, it was worth it. An outstanding once in a lifetime experience! Thank god, after the walk, we were scheduled to enjoy one hour of hot tub! That saved me, the only not so good part is to change yourself into a swimsuit. In fact, there is a small warm room made of wood for people to change clothes, but it's a common room, and this might be considered normal for Europeans, but being naked in front of strangers of the opposite sex it's not something that I enjoy much, and neither do most brazilians. So, at the end I changed in our room made from snow and not wood!

View from the igloo on the next morning!

The bathroom is...hmmmm...different. There's no running water, the toilet is an actual toilet with a reaaaally  deep whole into the ground, and you don't have water to wash your hands, so you have to use hand sanitizer!

The night was difficult, I had a little bit of difficulty to breath normally, but it was all worth it. I don't recommend it to anyone that already has breathing issues or doesn't enjoy cold weather! It's really an adventure and a really different experience, one really difficult to forget. I'll do it again sometime, probably because I forgot how cold it was, but also I always think that if the temperature was thaaaaat bad, I wouldn't be able to forget. Maybe I'm right, maybe not ... hope I am!!!


IGLU-DORF 
LOCATIONS:
Engelberg, Switzerland
Gstaad, Switzerland
Davos, Switzerland
Zermatt, Switzerland
St. Moritz, Switzerland
Zugspitze, Germany
Andorra

PRICES(night, hot tea, dinner and breakfast included, lift and alcoholic beverages not included)
standard room - 149-189 euros
romantic - 249-299 euros
romantic plus - 299-349 euros
hot igloo - 399-449 euros

Raclette

If you are reading this in Brazil, this post probably is not for you, at least not right now(summer time) but this is perfect for those of us in the North Hemisphere where the winter got to us late but it decided to come strong..."better late than never" right?

So this morning in Versailles was -10°C(14°F) and I couldn't think of anything better to eat tonight then Raclette, especially because I was in Switzerland until yesterday!

Matterhorn in the Valais, Switzerland

The Raclette is a Swiss dish, from the region of the Valais, made from cheese and potatoes. This is the base and then you can add bread, cured meat, pickled onions and cucumbers, etc..

Raclette is also the name of the cheese used to make the dish, it's a round cow's milk cheese that weights approximately 6 kg.

When it first was created, people used to cut the cheese into half a circle and melt the center by putting it next to an open fire, and then with a wood spatula they would scrape the melted cheese into a plate and eat it with boiled potatoes. That's why the name raclette which comes from the french term "racler" which means "to scrape".

Today the dish is served in restaurants, usually in the french and swiss alps with an electric plate with sliced raclette cheese or a big electrical resistance that fits half or a third of the whole cheese and you scrape it yourself by the table(which is much cooler).

When we went to have fondue at Caveau des Vignerons in Montreux, the waiter told us that you should always have cheesy dishes like raclette and fondue with white wine(not too cold)or a hot drink, he explained that you shouldn't drink anything too cold like water or soft drinks, because it makes the cheese hard in your stomach and it will cause indigestion.  I'm always looking for this kind of excuses, so I can drink more wine, it's like "No, it's not good for your health NOT to drink wine", so you have to, right?

The wines that are good to pair with it are white wines, not too acid, in France is common to drink it with a Savoie wine, in Switzerland with a Fendant from the Valais, but you could also pair it with a Riesling that is easier to find!

Christmas decorations at La Calèche 

I guess that's it, oh and the best place I ever ate Raclette was in Chamonix, a ski resort in the french Alps, next to the Mont Blanc. The restaurant is called La Calèche, and the ambiance is adorable, you feel like you're actually in a chalet on top of the Mont Blanc(well, you're not really that far from it!!!).

Bon Appétit!!!

Bonjour

This tip is to anyone that comes to France as a tourist or even to live here! The most important thing you need to know how to say it in french is "Bonjour" which literally means Good Day, but you could translate it as Good Morning. You need to know that if you don't say Bonjour in the beginning of a phrase or conversation, it's just like you never said anything at all. They won't hear you.

When I first arrived in France, I had a problem with my french bank account, so I went to the bank desperate to fix it. I got there and started blabbing about the problem to the recepcionist and when I was almost finished, she looked at me, raised her hand making a "stop" sign and said to me "Bonjour" and nod her head like "Now you can start". And I really had to explain everything all over again! It's like they have a recorder in their heads and "Bonjour" is the start button!


You should know that this is only one of the many particularities of the French, but each one is worth their own post!

First post and Why cinnamon in my purse?

Today I woke up without any knowledge of what would happen throughout my day that would lead me to start writing my first blog. I actually have tried to start many blogs before with the ideas all in my head, but couldn’t quite put it in paper, or better, in screen.

I’m 23 years old and considering my age, I believe I have already travelled a lot and met a lot of places, people and of course ate a loooot of good (and bad) food! The number of places I’ve been to are not even a half of the ones I want to visit, but thinking that I don’t wanna live only till I’m 46 I guess I can still see a lot until I pass or be unable to travel (I don’t know which is worst!).

I’ll write here about the things I saw and know and also everything that interests me and hopefully will interest you too! I love to travel with my own planning, trying to find different places to go and also traditional ones.

My husband worked(until today) at a 2 star Michelin Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Versailles, and next month he will be starting at another 2 star Michelin in Switzerland. As it’s “his job” we try to go as often as we can(cause you know, the prices don’t actually help) to starred restaurants, and until now we have gathered  a few great experiences, some good ones and even some bad. We know a lot of people in this business, which helps a lot with good tips of places to go and especially of places not to go to!

You’ll see that even though we are inside the starred restaurants world, I looooove hamburgers and small cozy restaurants, so you can read about a little bit of everything!

Well, I guess you can have a pretty good idea of what I want to write about…. all the good things in life…eat, drink and travel!!!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the name of the blog. So, last year I went to Modena in Italy and visited a Balsamic vinegar "winery" or "farm", anyway, the owner of the place told me that nowadays, everyone that makes balsamic vinegar can't leave their homes without a small flask of their balsamic to season restaurant food. When I heard that story I immediately remembered that I love churros(you'll see that there's a logic to that) but in France they don't put cinnamon on top of churros, and for me churros without cinnamon is like Fondue without wine, so I've started putting a small container with cinnamon in my purse, and that's why the name of the blog!

Hope you like it and of course I would love to receive comments, travel tips and stories from you guys!!!