tfries

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to report that I made this recipe for my wife yesterday for Mothers Day.  It turned out fantastic and is really easy to make. I used 3 lobster tails that we got at Costco.  They were Cold Water tails, $25/lb.

I was in NYC this week visiting my daughter who lives there. This was my first trip there. Here are a few of the pictures from my trip.

A very large street mural taken from the Highline walkway.

A Tiffany glass piece in the Metropolitan Museum.

Lady Liberty's tablet.

The new World Trade Center, almost chameleon like in how it reflects the clouds.

My English Shepherd helping me out in our vineyard this morning.

This is the Container Mall in Christchurch NZ. Shops and restaurants built up from shipping containers.

Sunset cruise Maui, 4/26/16

Vulture having a snack this morning in our field.

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

We were on the Solstice a couple weeks ago for the Transpacific cruise and spent time every night at the Molecular Bar. At the start of the cruise the bartenders were Loida and Darko. Due to an unfortunate circumstance, Loida had to go home mid cruise. There were two pages of drinks, one was from the previous menus and the other was listed as Loida's Favorites. From the second page, we liked the Velvet Revolver the best.

As the cruise progressed, there were about 10-12 of us who were there every night.

Darko said that the switch over to World Class will be sometime in May. We have made a few of the World Class cocktails at home using the recipes that have been posted and have been underwhelmed. Going to miss the Molecular Bar :(

Sydney Harbour at close to sunset. 4/6/16

Taken from the Sydney OPT the night before boarding the Solstice for our cruise from Sydney to Honolulu.

I had to go to Christchurch New Zealand last September for work and had a free weekend while I was there. I took a day and drove to Akaroa. While the weather was pretty crummy, I did take a few snaps of the local birds.

Hope it is not a success as we enjoy the free sushi at the oceanview each evening!

Us too. It has become sort of a cruise ritual for us to bring a plate of the Oceanview sushi and a glass of wine back to our stateroom while getting ready for dinner. NY Deli just would not be the same.

This is so nice to hear! That is the way that we strive to treat each other. I hope that this positiveness continues as we leave Sunday for Sydney to board the Solstice on 9 April for the trip to Hawaii.

Our Iris's are blooming. These blooms do not last long.

Tom

One of the cocktails (Bulleit Infusion) is small amount of liquid in the glass on purpose. It uses a device called the Porthole that infuses the drink with different flavors (often fruit, herbs, spices etc.). The drink is generally poured one ounce at a time as the flavor changes over time. You end up with about six small pours. The first one ounce pour is very boozy and each subsequent pour the flavor becomes more infused - by the last one ounce pour it is a completely different tasting drink. Really fun device; I had it for the first time a few years ago at at bar called The Aviary in Chicago. While $18 sounds expensive for a cocktail, the Porthole device is very expensive itself and it is very labor intensive to make the drinks - beverages at The Aviary typically are in the low $20's that use the Porthole. It would be nice if they were using a whiskey a little higher end than Bulleit at this price point, but among whiskeys that can often be purchased for less than $30/fifth (750ml) Bulleit is among the best IMHO.

While I wish you were correct on this, looking at the recipe for the cocktail posted I think the drink you will get will be:

2 oz of the infused Rye

1/2 oz Sauvignon Blanc

1/2 oz Simple Syrup

1/2 oz Carpano Antica

Dash bitters

for a 3.5 oz cocktail

I feel that they will spread out the infusion of the Porthole to several drinks. BTW, I'm thinking that I need to pick up a Porthole, thanks for posting the information on this :)

We picked up a Canon sx50 yesterday. I am used to shooting in Manual mode from my Olympus OM4 that I used for 20 plus years. Funds have prevented me from going to DSLR and I've limped along for several years with a Canon SD870 P&S. Using CHDK in RAW mode, I was able to weasel out some nice pictures from that camera. Got the SX50 refurbished from Canon at a nice price. These are my first shots with the SX50. I can see that I need to work on exposure and camera stability, but not a bad start. I believe these were all taken Tv mode.

I am hoping to get pretty comfortable with the camera before our Australia to Hawaii cruise next April.

Some of our family members :)

These are a couple shots from Dominica at the site of the Caribbean Cooking Class.

Cheers,

Tom

Here is one that I have started working on. This is using Juicebox.

http://www.tomandteri.com/images/Equinox%202014/Equinox_Gallery_test/

Cheers,

Tom

We really enjoyed the drinks at the Molecular Bar on the Equinox last year, so much so that we searched out the recipes of our favorites so that we could make them at home. The Kentucky Derby and South of Rio were my favorites.

South of Rio

The Kentucky Derby was one of my favorites on the Equinox earlier this year. I found the recipe on Junior Merino's web site and have made many of them this summer. The recipe calls for Elderflower Ginger syrup, which we made our own. It also calls for some aromatic bitters which we don't have, but substituted something close. Here is a link to the recipe Kentucky Derby

Hi Tom

 

That's good news - that sounds at least like there are a few reasonable options.

 

Solstice sails in Australia/South Pacific in our summer/your winter. This is a cruise around Australia so I'm not sure how it goes from a replenishment perspective given that it will have already spent 4-5 months sailing from Australian ports by the time we board i.e. will they (or can they be bothered) sourcing craft beers.

 

Whilst in Australian waters it sails as an 'American' ship as opposed to Carnival Spirit which is permanently located in Australia and has been refitted for the Australian market - including serving Australian beers - unfortunately of the commercial variety only.

 

Craft brewing is booming here in Australia and there are some great craft beers. Fingers crossed that they can at least source some good and interesting craft beers for our cruise.

 

I'm brewing this weekend and will also get two brews from the fermenters into kegs - an American Pale Ale and a Bohemian Pilsener. Happy Days

 

Thanks for your info

 

Rob

Rob,

We have booked the Solstice for 2016 cruise out of Sydney. We are really looking forward to spending a bit of time before the cruise in NSW. We are thinking of doing a wine tour to the Hunter Valley. Are there any good Brew Pubs in the area?

Cheers,

Tom

If you want great beer, bag cruising go to Oregon. They have rain and fantastic beers.

Tom

Beer, or more to the point good craft beer is my hobby (passion). I brew my own and love imbibing in craft beer as opposed to the normal commercial brewery offerings.

Team Alpha, we are also brewers and live in an area where there are many craft breweries (Oregon). On our March sailing on the Equinox, which is probably similar to the Solstice in this regard, Michael's Club did not have the extended craft beer selection. We did find that there was a smaller selection of better beers in the Passport bar, where we found London Pride, Ommegang, Orval, Anchor Steam, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. While not as good as the expanded craft beer list on other S class ships, it was much better than any other cruise I have ever been on.

Cheers

Tom

Registration finally worked for me this morning without any error messages :)

If I had to just pick one from the list, it would have to be Orval. Otherwise, I would go with Dogfish Head 90, Stone IPA, Delirium Tremens, Arrogant Bastard and Duval. I am sad the these will not be available on the Equinox when we are on it in March.