Dinner at Egypt’s Pyramids for Less Than $10,000

by Jonathon Morgan on

If you’re rich, obsessed with food, and interested in ancient cultures, this is the chance of a lifetime. The same folks that brought you the $25,000 dinner are flying in the world’s top chefs to cook a meal in front of the ancient Pyramids of Giza.

This is part of a series of dinners titled “Epicurean Masters of the World.”

The pyramid feast will be less than $10,000 per person — a price that pales in comparison to last month’s 25-grand-a-head meal — but will seat 500 instead of only 40. 30 3-star Michelin chefs will each cook for 17 diners using a half-a-mile kitchen set up in front of the pyramids.

All profits from the meal will go to charity, as did those from the $25,000 dinner. This time — potentially in an effort to get UNESCO (the U.N.’s cultural body) to let them closer to architectural wonders — the organizers are considering donating profits to a charity that deals with conserving the Seven Wonders of the World.

The event is set for December 12, 2008, so mark your calendars accordingly.

Review: Charleston’s Magnolias Restaurant

by Adrienne Wilson on


Around this time last month I found myself in Charleston, South Carolina. It was my very first time in the city and in the state on a short visit to my father’s new place a little ways outside of the area. While my dad was packed with recommendations of places to go and things to do in the city, I – still on my mission to strike out as many places as possible in the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die guide book written by Patricia Shultz requested that we take a trip over to Magnolias.

From my understanding Magnolia’s is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in all the Low Country offering eclectic Southern comfort cuisine. I’ll give them the eclectic part, but with a little extra time I’m sure I could discover much more mouthwatering dishes in the area. Reservations are strongly recommended and we made ours a day in advance for lunch since we didn’t get the memo for dinner the night before. I’m not sure if everyone is reading Ms. Schultz book along with me or if this is a real fine and great meeting and greeting place for the folks in the East Bay area, but it gets PACKED. When we walked in we were welcomed with an extra large smile from the hostess who seated us at a cozy table in the center. The interior is down home elegant, which basically means being a tad dressy and wearing your big Sunday hat if you’re a lady is absolutely okay or a pair of jeans and a nice shirt can impress just as well. (Note: Nice jeans)After driving and walking around various parts of the Charleston area my appetite had reached its peak so we gladly started with a couple of appetizers. The Down South Egg Rolls caught my attention and my father ordered the Pan Fried Chicken Livers for his own. I won’t critique the livers which I tried, but have never been a fan of liver in general so let’s move to these egg rolls. Stuffed with collard greens, chicken and tasso they are served with red pepper puree, spicy mustard sauce and peach chutney. Yum! Really they were! I was a little skeptical at first, but they did a good job pulling all the ingredients together for this one. They were not too spicy and only a little sweet, so you get the best of both worlds. I devoured the two tasty morsels in two bites.

Onto the main course, I went with the Blackened Mahi and my dad had the Fried Catfish. The mahi was accompanied by a spicy tasso ham risotto cake, sautéed spinach, sweet corn relish and a creole remoulade. For some reason I was all over the tasso ham risotto biz, but the mahi left me a little unsatisfied. It wasn’t firm and came off a bit water-logged. I finished it all up from hunger, but I think I’d pass on the mahi for something else next round. I only had a small sampling of the fried catfish so I will again pass on providing any further thoughts.

Go before you die? I think you’d be fine on waiting to hit this one or missing it completely. Nice place, good service, decent southern food at mid range prices ($15-$35 lunch). Magnolias is located at: 185 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC 29401 Ph. 843.577.7771 extension 1.

Celebrity Restaurants Everywhere!

by Neil Woodburn on

New restaurants have a horrible success rate. Something like 80% fail in the first year. There is, however, one surefire way to ensure that a new restaurant is jumping from the very first night: make sure a celebrity owns it.

For whatever reason, people flock to celebrity-owned restaurants. Leonardo DiCaprio could serve frogs in a blender and star-struck patrons would still appear from the woodwork and happily drink it down.

Fortunately, most celebrities have the money to invest when opening a restaurant and as a result, you can usually expect it to be a nice experience.

Celebrity restaurants can be found in cities across the globe but it is in California and New York where they tend to breed like rabbits. San Francisco, for example, is home to Francis Ford Coppola’s culinary empire, while Los Angeles is where one can dine with the investments of Ashton Kutcher et al. And then there is New York City. A visit to New York is a visit to the restaurants of Justin Timberlake, Robert De Niro, Moby, and many, many others.

For a cool little slide show of what to expect, pop on over to ForbesTraveler.com and check it out. And, if you decide to ever visit one of these fine establishments, be sure to mention that Gadling sent you; you’ll be treated like royalty.

Round The World in 100 Days: Puerto Rico, USA

by Dia Draper on

Happy Thursday beautiful people! It’s Dia with your bi-weekly update on the slowest moving ’round the world trip ever! We are well under way chasing the sun around the globe, sailing east and hope you’ll enjoy the ride vicariously.

It seemed strange to be sailing from Nassau, Bahamas (basically a foreign territory) to Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) as we head around the world at 20 mph. That said, I have no sea sickness to report though many, many of the almost 900 people on board with SAS, are feeling queasy as we all get our sea legs. The run from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico was uneventful in terms of weather, but we’re all getting used to living on a floating city with 900 strangers. The students are learning their way around the ship and starting their classes, the staff (myself included) are learning that there is no place on the ship that the students don’t take over like a swarm of locusts. Fortunately, we have one of the best groups ever in terms of academic standing, and even after only a week, I have to admit that my affection for them is high.

We sailed into Puerto Rico on another beautiful morning. The sunrise was magnificent and we got great pictures of the PILOT boat coming out to guide the ship into harbor. We could see the government center, famous fort, and the coast guard station. Last, but not least, the closer we got to port, the more you could see the beautiful pastel-colored Spanish colonial architecture.

Once we had all cleared immigration, a process that takes a little over an hour and includes all 900 passengers collecting our passports and having them stamped one by one before anyone can disembark the ship, San Juan was under siege. Puerto Rico is the world’s largest producer of rum, that sugarcane based nectar of the gods. And by goodness, we were going to find it (along with the locally brewed beer: Medalla).

I held back a little and let the ship empty before I packed up my cameras and loaded up my daypack. I wanted to give everyone a running start into San Juan, so that we wouldn’t be tripping all over each other while in port. Some people took off for the beach at Vieques, others for the Museo de nuestra raiz Africana (Museum of our African Roots), others for a 4 hour walking tour of the city, but I took off for the Zocalo in homage to my time in Mexico. I knew this would be my best bet at finding the rhythm of the city and my best chance to observe people doing whatever it was they do on a random morning.

After my photographic journey into the life of San Juan residents, I caught up with some fellow staffers and we begged a taxi driver to take us to his favorite local eatery. We ended up at El Jibarito on Sol Street in old San Juan. The place was empty, but had a great vibe and the waitress teased us in Spanish before admitting that she spoke flawless English.

The three of us hung out in the back room drinking Medalla’s (Puerto Rican beer) in the filtered sunshine, and enjoying the quiet. Little did we know that 700 other people from our ship had the same idea and when we went pay the check and leave, the restaurant was packed with all of our shipmates! I chowed down on red beans and yellow rice with grilled pork chops and plantains dipped in garlic butter (yum!) all for about $11US.

We rode around for a bit watching people surf, watching school children on tours of the city government buildings and testing the relative “icy coldness” of the Medallas at several local haunts. I had to get back to the ship to get ready for the evening’s activities. I was a trip leader and took 47 of our students out to Universidad Interamericana for a night of cross-cultural fun. We ended up taking 2 buses to the university so about 100 of us in total. When we arrived the Puerto Rican students were outside, all dressed in maroon polo shirts with their school mascot (the tiger) and clapping and singing “ole’, ole’, ole’, ole’, ole'” with huge smiles on their faces.

We spent the evening eating local food, hanging out and mostly salsa dancing (them-very well, us-very poorly). We danced for 3 hours before we finally packed up our stuff and went home. I changed clothes and again met up with some staff to hit Bar Rumba.


I hit the streets of San Juan early. very early. So early that nothing was open except for the jewelry stores and the restaurants serving breakfast. I joined a friend who was looking for a tattoo parlor to complete the design she wanted to have done. We spent the morning wandering around Old San Juan and the streets reminded me of San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) in some places with their narrow access and brightly painted buildings. We came to learn that the 7 block grid that comprises Old San Juan is a World Heritage Site, with buildings that date back to the 16th century and amazing cobble-stoned streets.

It was a nice breezy morning and we just strolled which I love. I found that as the day progressed my rusty Spanish was improving bit by bit, and I will admit that my ego was pumped by how many people were impressed with my skills (which just goes to show that they know nothing!). We slipped into Cafe Mallorca, where we heard that they have an amazing breakfast, and picked up some homemade macaroons to sample while we checked things out.

While waiting for the tattoo parlors to open we found a music store (Jah Rastafari) and I was excited that I could pick up some Puertorequeno tunes, alas…they sold only Bob Marley and Marley-esque tunes, but we did meet an expat, SAS alumni. Rashonda did the spring voyage last year and loved Puerto Rico so much that after returning home and graduating, she packed up and moved down here last August! How cool is that? She was great and gave us a recommendation for lunch, but had no help for me regarding my music crisis. We found two tattoo parlors for Shayla and she got quotes from both of them.

We decided to mull her options over lunch at Cafe Puerto Rico. I know, cheesy name, but the food was oh, so, good. San Juan it turns out is gaining a reputation as the culinary capital of the Caribbean, and I can honestly say that I did not have a bad meal my entire stay.

After mulling the menu, and chatting up the cutie-pie bartender/owner and his brother while he made us some noon-time cocktails…I decided on arroz con camarones, plantanas (yellow rice with saute’d shrimp, plantains) and…red beans all for about $15 US including 2 mojitos. They also made their own salsa picante (hot sauce) from scratch and it worth the sweat beading up on my forehead, they couldn’t give me the recipe though b/c they said their father made it, and they had no idea what was in it!

After lunch we stumbled across this little store (Hecho a Mano) where we spent a small fortune in jewelry and music, a lot of the students had found it too after word got out about the great prices and the place was packed but I picked up two CDs that I am totally infatuated with now and have on constant rotation.

Shayla got her tattoo, it took about 20 minutes (17 of which I slept through) and I waited for her in the parlor lobby. The artwork came out beautifully. She hugged her tattoo artist as if she was glad to still be alive. We also stocked up on drinks and snacks, etc for the ship (we leave tomorrow!

The last stop of the day: booking our indie (independent) trip to El Yunque rainforest (about $45 US including roundtrip transport). Alot of people went yesterday with groups but we decided it would be more fun with less people so we cabbed (best cab ever) it over to the Ritz Carlton’s tour desk and hooked up a tour for the next morning. I’m still coming to grips with traveling in a group, but I realized I’d rather travel this way than not at all, so I’m keeping my attitude and perspective in check. All of which are easier to do because I genuinely enjoy everyone that I’ve met so far.

I highly recommend the trip out to El Yunque (Caribbean National Forest), which is the only rainforest in the US Forest System. The 23 miles of trails, copious bird, plant and animal life and humidity make for a once in a lifetime experience. Flights to Puerto Rico are fairly cheap, the beaches have been largely (miraculously) untouched and the weather is pretty good year round. If I had to sum up the three best reasons to visit PR, they would be: the warm and gracious people (our fellow US citizens!), the amazing food, and the natural beauty of the environment perfect for outdoor and water sports.

Next Stop: Salvador, Brazil
Previously: Nassau, Bahamas

$1,000 Pizza in New York City

by Justin Glow on

Alright, we’ve got a $110 hamburger in Indonesia, and a $1,000 brownie in Atlantic City — now you can add a $1,000 pizza to the menu of overpriced foods around the world.

New York City’s Nino’s Bellissima Restaurant is debuting this $125-a-slice pizza, topped with caviar, lobster, diamond earrings, and the blood of Michael Jackson.

I think all restaurants should be creating ultra-expensive menu items that nobody will ever buy. It’s a great publicity tool. How about the $10,000 chicken wing, or the $30,000 glass of water? If someone is dumb enough to buy it, great! If not, you still get millions of dollars worth of free, worldwide advertising. Either way you win!