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After a week of endless varieties of fish and beef, we need some serious veggies. A local told us about the only vegetarian restaurant in all nine islands, it is called Rotas. We looked it up, booked a cab, and were soon enjoying some of the finest stuffed mushrooms we […]

Like many chefs, Joao Rieff got his start in a kitchen as a dishwasher.  After earning a degree in economics in Lisbon, he followed the trail through many mainland kitchens and worked for a time in the Hotel Meridien in Paris. Through all of the years of cooking in New […]

I sometimes actually say prayers when I’m taking off in a plane. The other night we took off in a 67-seat ATC turboprop plane for a short flight from Santa Maria to Sao Miguel. It was that old story ‘rain slicked runway’ and I kept imagining the headline about how […]

We asked many people we met  about the health insurance system here in the Azores. This topic has come up more than a few times, as the locals here quizzed us about what is going on the US with health insurance.  “Is it true that people are allowed to die […]

Rows of tea at the Gorreana Tea company. We learned about how tea is made and that in a climate like the Azores, a lot of rain is great for growing the leaves of Orange Pekoe, Pekoe and green teas. Some of the British tea manufacturers who were doing business […]

A Cozido, boiled dinner, about to be unearthed in Furnas, Azores. Just like in New England, they have the same saying here in the Azores…”if you don’t like the weather wait a half hour, it will be different.”  We joined three strapping young guides today and got a chance to […]

I love it when a place surprises you, and you don’t have any pre-conceived ideas about what it will be like. It’s like going to a movie and never hearing any reviews or knowing even what the film will be about. That’s been our most excellent feeling about these nine […]

Our flight from Boston left on time and all seemed ok until we made our descent down to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.  The plane came down and then just as we were about to land swooped back up, because of fog that made […]

The Avalon rides again…happily, I am driving off to Boston/Logan airport in a newly inspected state certified luxury automobile. And for the next year, I shall not speak of buying a new car, I shall be content to drive this one now that it has passed this milestone/hurdle. I am […]

On Twitter, a post alarmed me enough to chase down the source, it was from my traveling bud Johnny Jet. He was Tweeting from ITB Berlin, the world’s largest travel show. Some day, in my post-cafe career, I’ll go to this fantastic huge show and meet thousands of other travel […]

Japan is bracing itself for bad times after scores of the usually rare, giant Oarfish have washed ashore and been caught in coastal fisherman’s nets. Tonight I read this on a news website called Motherboard. “The sightings started after the ‘quake in Chile and the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan. […]