Tuesdays with TT: René Cafe (Panama)

Back towards the beginning of the year, CT and I learned that CT’s Sister’s Sister-in-Law would be getting married in Panama at the end of July. Why Panama? The Bride’s parents live down there now full-time. We learned that Panama has a huge ex-pat population mostly because it is so cheap and the U.S. Dollar is the functional currency down there. Since CT’s whole family is quite close with her brother-in-law’s family, we were all invited to the wedding. Since neither of us had been to Panama before, we decided to spend an extra couple days down there to explore [...]

Maria’s Mont Blanc

Last week, my parents invited the whole family out to dinner to celebrate CT moving in with me. I was surprised when they said we were going to a place in Hell’s Kitchen as they usually try to stick to somewhere closer to Murray Hill. They said that my Dad’s cousin recommended Maria’s Mont Blanc which specializes in Swiss food. I was quite intrigued since I had gone to Switzerland a couple summers ago on a family vacation and had a great time with plenty of delicious food throughout the trip. They offer a nice $29 prix fixe menu with [...]

Eleven Madison Park

I’m not that big on Valentine’s Day in general, especially the zoo that the restaurant industry becomes around that day.  This year, it fell on a Sunday, and it disturbed me that a certain Batali restaurant had a special menu for that day which cost xx, but also offered the same ‘special’ menu on Friday and Saturday before Valentine’s Day… for half that price.  I just think that’s rude!  It was blatant and out there… not cool.  (Admittedly, at least one other Batali restaurant had no special menu at all for Valentine’s Day, which boosted my opinion of that one [...]