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Travel With A Food Emphasis--
Great Hotels, Cruise Ships, Resorts,
And Fine Dining Tourism
Around The Globe.
We'll be adding longer reviews of particular
culinary travel destinations as we proceed, but for now, enjoy these
brief pages from your reporter's notebook and some travel business news
shorts, too. Enjoy, and travel tastily!
PCA night out -
Point the horse and carriage to
Stockyard City, where you can fill
your feedbag with charbroiled steaks
and sautéed mushrooms in an original
ranch restaurant. Not only has this
historic haunt been serving local
hands for more than 90 years, but it
also has seen many celebrities take
a dinner seat, including former
President George Bush Sr. The plates
are decorated with homemade croutons
atop a salad laden with specialty
buttermilk ranch dressing thick
enough to serve with a paint
stirrer. Aged beef is a mainstay,
while the rooms are dressed with
artifacts dating back to the days of
the old mother road, Route 66, along
with a surrey-load of other
countrified decorations. It will
remind you of dusty days on the
plains and days of ranching that
worked up a hunger, which this place
knows how to please.
Thank you - Michael Haddad
for this great recommendation and
evening!
Off To Paradise
Our recent trip to Maui was both an exploration and re-visitation of
places we have known and loved. The island is a constant eyeful of
beauty and the landscape is forever changing with the time of day. Even
afternoon rains did not dampen our enjoyment of each town we visited.
Our usual stopping point is in Wailea, but this time we went to Makena,
an area just beyond. We enjoyed the Maui Prince Hotel. And our return to
the Waterfront Restaurant lived up to our dreams of how it was on our
last visit. The Ceasar salad made tableside and the fresh fish cooked
anyway you like it, still lives up to our taste memory and wonderful
dining experience.
 Our
next destination was Hana, with stops for roadside BBQ in Paia and
Keanae.
Twenty years ago when I visited, there was a road with rough terrain and
little vegetation. This time it was lush and the waterfalls were flowing
and visible from the road. Also visible were the Lilikoi, or yellow
Hawaiian passion fruits which we could scoop up by the handful on the
way to our hotel. The road is repaved now and proves to be an excellent
adventure, especially for the driver. Once there, all the world comes to
a stop and you are enveloped in a sense of peace. The Hotel Hana does
everything to make your stay a pleasant one and we took every advantage
of what was offered. The spa is one of the most beautiful that we have
seen anywhere. The small cottages serve as rustic reminders of how
simple beauty can be so supreme.
The final location took us the Northwest part of the island to an area
called Kapalua. The Ritz-Carlton, is a world class hotel and this one
lives up to that reputation. Fine food, fabulous location and the Food
and Wine Festival made this a most memorable stop. Great food, meeting
chefs and going to cooking demos and wine tastings just added to the
already full calendar of snorkeling, golf and tennis.
There are many things to do and many areas to visit on Maui. The
accommodations range from cottages and condos to villas and hotel
suites. This place is geared for fun and all you have to do is show up
for the party!
If you'd like to offer a culinary travel tip, submit
information about any special programs your hotel, resort, or cruise
line is doing, or to contact our food/wine/travel correspondent for
consideration on these pages, just e-mail our editor-in-chief by
clicking below:
Mail@professionalchef.com
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