Indulge in Romance at Badrutt’s Palace

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Skip out on the usual box of candy and fistful of roses plopped on the kitchen table and do something interesting for a change. This year, kick around a seven-night ski trip to Badrutt’s Palace in St. Moritz for Valentine’s Day. Doesn’t Switzerland sound better than another dinner at your local favorite restaurant?

A four-course dinner, by candlelight, at Le Restaurant, completes the experience. Executive Chef Frédéric Breuil’s Valentine’s Day menu includes warm goose liver with braised cabbage, winter vegetables and sherry sauce, truffled salsify soup with ravioli, grilled chicken breast with prawns and basmati rice and leeks. The experience ends with heart-shaped chocolates filled with raspberries and raspberry sauce.

Dinner is priced at approximately $160 per person (not including liquor), and the seven nights on the slopes will set you back $5,600. If you need to come up with a quick idea, and money’s no problem, here it is. You have two weeks … pull the trigger.

Photo of the Day (1.31.09)

by Brenda Yun on

There are so many reasons why I love Hawaii: for the weather, the surfing, and the people. But this photo captures yet another facet of Hawaii that mostly locals can appreciate — the native culture and food. Long before Captain Cook “discovered” Hawaii, the islands’ natives were living off the land and cultivating taro from farms just like this one. Taro is one of the main starches in the Polynesian diet, and yesterday I tried to explain to my students how Hawaiians like to pound the taro to make poi, which is best described as a bitter purple pudding.

This lovely photo by konakoka, a fellow kama’aina (a “child of the land” or resident) from the Big Island, is a great reminder of the rich resources that makes Hawaii such a green and sustainable place. I adore the shiny lime glow of the taro leaves, which are framed so nicely by the other plants in the foreground.

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Photo of the Day (1.30.09)

by Aaron Hotfelder on

This panoramic shot (click to enlarge) was submitted by flickr user JRodmanJr, who writes that it was taken at dusk in the Alexander Valley wine region of Northern California. I love the long-shadow, end-of-day feeling that the photo provides, as well the suspicion that the photographer probably had a tall glass of wine to close out the afternoon. Is there a better way?

Got some pics you want considered for Gadling’s Photo of the Day? Upload your best shots here.

Town in Tuscany bans ethnic food

by Jeffrey White on

The small town of Lucca, in Tuscany not all that far from Florence, has one of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful piazzas in Italy, and a preserved medieval center that some stands apart in a country with no shortage of preserved medieval centers.

There are a smattering of ethnic eateries tucked down some narrow streets behind the square, but not many. And don’t look for any new ones to sprout up.

Lucca last week passed a law banning new ethnic restaurants from opening up in its Old Town. No more kebab stands or Indian curries or Chinese fast food.

“By ethnic cuisine we mean a different cuisine,” city spokesman Massimo Di Grazia said Thursday, according to the Associated Press. “That means no new kebabs, Thai or Lebanese restaurants.”


Is this gastronomic discrimination? Some local officials and restaurant owners think so. They say it’s indicative of a wider trend in Italy that portends a gradual closing off of the country to outside cultures.

But those behind the ban say its purpose it to protect local products, food and cuisine.

A number of other nearby Tuscan towns have passed similar ordinances.

Ethnic restaurants that opened before the ban are allowed to stay in business.

7 hospitalized after eating blowfish testicles

by Annie Scott on

Last night in Tsuruoka, Japan, seven diners ate the wrong part of the blowfish: its balls.

You probably know that fugu (blowfish), like many seafoods, is poisonous if not prepared correctly. According to Japan for the Uninvited, one blowfish has enough tetradotoxin (1200 times deadlier than cyanide) to kill 30 people.

In Japan, chefs must obtain a special license to serve fugu, and the offending restaurant’s chef did not have one. Police official Yoshihito Iwase:

“It’s scary. If you go to a decent-looking restaurant that serves fugu, you would assume a cook has a proper fugu license.”

It is scary. All seven are still in the hospital, and three are in very serious conditions from eating the illicit testicles.

If you happen to be reading this right after the blowfish lunch you just had, be on the lookout for tingling toes and your lips turning blue. I’m serious.

[via Guardian]