Pig – Beauperi Investments

Posted on September 23, 2018September 25, 2018 by beauperi · 2 Comments

Beer

Wednesday, 19 September, 2018 Day 5 in Copenhagen

Carlsberg Brewery Tour

It is another really nice day although we were warned that the good weather was about to end. Ryan and I made our way to the usual bus stop and jumped on a red bus which took us to the brewery.

As we enter the grounds we see a lot of construction going on with some large holes in the ground. This was described as a new city being built i.e. lots of apartments.

P1030357 — The old brewery and the entrance for the tour

We are doing a self guided tour inside. I didn’t take many photos because, frankly, I have done many before and did not find this too much different from other old breweries I had seen.

P1030360 — These are all the various labels / bottles over the years

P1030361

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There were rides offer to visitors on beer carts driven by Clydesdales. At the end of the tour we could smell at a distance the stables for the horses.

P1030365 — Each stall had the name and description of the horse inside

Our entry gave us access to a free beer, used to be two.

P1030368 — Our delightful beer dispenser

20180919_125610 — We went to all of this effort to do a selfie with the beer, pity about Ryan’s eyes closed

Beer Tasting

A highlight of the day was to taste several of the brewery’s beers. Our tasting guide was an American from Seattle, about 200 mile from my home town of Portland, Oregon.

P1030375 — First beer was a Weis Bier, White Beer made from wheat – never released

P1030383 — An IPA from Yakima Washing, just across the river from where I lived in Oregon

P1030384 — A Porter, dark beer similar to a stout

Sharing the tasting with us was a Chinese couple from Singapore. When we first arrived the girl asked me if I was from California!!! Given I haven’t lived in California for over 46 years, she had a very perceptive ear. Turns out they had lived in the USA for years. Any way, our guide had talked about a special bottle that he had found which when tried he considered not very good at all. The Chinese guy said why don’t we try it any way.

P1030386 — Our guide was right, it was not very good

My favourite was the second beer which had very interesting clove and fruit tastes. The guide’s favourite was the IPA. All in all good fun, not bad for someone like me that does not drink beer.

Fleisch

Julie had a gala dinner at the conference so the three of us headed out to the Meat Packing District to a famous meat shop and restaurant called Fleisch.

P1030395 — Looking into the butcher shop

P1030397 — Looking into the restaurant part where Tanika and Ryan are seated

P1030391 — Looking out to the restaurants in the former meat packing shops

I will say right now that it looked like we were in the wrong place, maybe a warp in time. Service was generally poor. There was nothing like the various dishes shown on the websites with just 3 selections, essentially, and the quality of what was provided was mostly poor. I wonder what went wrong.

P1030393 — We started with the bacon infused Manhattans

These were served at least 30 minutes after we ordered them. Then there was little or no bacon flavour.

P1030399 — Ryan and I ordered the pork dish

Again the dishes arrived a long, long time after we ordered them. Then the crackling was good but otherwise the pork was tougher than an old boot.

This was a major highlight of the night in that Tanika was forced to order the crab,which she had never had before, because there was no chicken on the menu. She loved it and that the big win. Of course, her course was served after a very long delay just like ours.

P1030406 — Tanika asked us to share a cheese platter with her

P1030403 — Tanika had no cheese, this is what she really wanted

The cheese, especially the bleu was quite good. No more editorial comment other than what went wrong?

Turns out that Julie’s gala function was in another part of the Meat Packing District. So she ended up getting home much earlier than might have been expected otherwise.

Posted on August 26, 2017 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Barcelona Q & A

Q: Patrick, I did not think you were near Barcelona. What gives?

A: Yes, you are right, we did not get to Barcelona this time, although were there a few years ago. The reason that this subject is brought up is because of the horrendous happenings there last week.

Q: So why have you included something about Barcelona in this Post?

A: Because our close friends Neil and Toula were just two blocks away in Barcelona when the vigoro hit the mixmaster.

Q: OK, but this is a food and wine blog so why cover this at all?

Because in spite of the carnage et al in Barcelona, Neil and Toula have encountered some magnificent dishes in Barcelona. I have decided to put these snaps into this as a Guest Post.

beetroot carpaccio with prawns, so delicate and full of flavour.

Green tea noodles with mushrooms, beef, spicy sauce with okonomiyak

Tempura maki, salmon, avocado and fresh cream cheese- delicious

Thanks, Neil. They all looked magnificent.

Posted on August 18, 2017 by beauperi · 1 Comment

The Assumption

Tuesday, 15 August, 2017 – weather: Great until late

Today’s headline is not about a presumption or supposition or any of the other such synonyms from Roget. Instead, it is about the Catholic Holy Day for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Why does this matter? Because in Catholic parts of Europe, The Assumption, today, is a public holiday and, hence, (almost) all of the shops are closed when people take a tour around Regensburg.

Some time in the morning we left the Canal and entered the mighty Danube. It is certainly wider.

After breakfast, smoked salmon as usual, there is a cooking demo by head chef Budi.

Head Chef Budi with “volunteer” Sharon, who did all the work

Serving the potato soup which contains lots of ingredients including chicken, bacon, herbs etc

Serving the Bread and Butter pudding, the other part of the demo

Today the boat is putting on a Bavarian Lunch.

The Hotel and Restaurant Managers in fine Bavarian Hats. Most of the waiters had their own unique hats

There is a 100% queue around the serving area for people tryin to get some of their Bavarian meal. There was quite some discussion about the merits and rudeness of pushing into the lines, I am quite opposed. I sat on the sidelines for over 40 minutes, waiting for it to thin out a bit. When I finally got there I was not that impressed with what was available.

There are two choices of tours in the afternoon:
(1) A walking tour of Regensburg where we are berthed.
(2) A visit to Weltenburg Abbey. I had signed up for this but did not go.

Julie went on the first tour but mostly did it on her own. Some photos.

The Boys enjoying the weather. Apparently a number of them would jump into the river from the bridge

Viewing that last photo, one can see that it is a beautiful day. So I decided to visit the top deck where I had not previously gone.

Impressive Building in the middle of nowhere

Julie returns and it is nearly time for dinner. The sky is getting more and more cloudy and off in the distance we see rain coming down.

No fancy for me. Old fashioned burger and fries

Strawberry ice cream a very popular dessert

As the meal proceeded the weather deteriorated rapidly. Eventually an impressive lightning show started in the clouds and went on for a couple of hours. Only the occasional bolt went to the ground. There was not a lot of thunder heard, but there was some. Then it started raining heavily. Our burst of great summer weather had come to an abrupt end.

Posted on August 9, 2017 by beauperi · 1 Comment

Tours of Amsterdam

Sunday, 6 August, 2017 – weather: grey, again

We wake up to yet another grey day. We were told that it rains 250 days a year in Amsterdam but, gee, this is the middle of Summer.

We decide to have breakfast in the smorgasbord on the second floor. It is OK.

Smoked salmon salad the feature for Julie

We have decided to do formal tours of Amsterdam today. We walk down to Central Station where the one we want to use starts. This tour does one bus trip around the city and two different canal tours. We start out with the Bus tour. It is not as good as Edinburgh but better than Brussels. Once again we did not take any photos from the bus. When we get back we cross to the place where one of the canal tours commences, albeit the instructions on how to find it were quite confusing.

When the boat finally arrives it is chock full but almost everyone gets off. As we board, we get good seats forward and on the water. There are two columns of tables with six seats per table, 3 on each side. It looked like we were not to have any one sitting with us but at the last minute two guys sat down opposite us. Some of my photos follow:

Looking out from the boat to the Victoria Hotel

I think I took this photo because there was something very rare – blue sky

We finish the canal tour and to be frank we considered it a bit boring. We were intending to do the other canal tour tomorrow before going to the Boat but decide that the one was enough.

On the way back we look at this restaurant that has very large serves of ribs, steaks, chicken etc. We will consider that for later. We also walk by and go into:

We reach our Hotel and Julie decides to immediately go out for a short prance. She heads to the red light district. Some of the photos.

Apparently people saw her taking photos and yelled at her. Julie ran away and back to the Hotel. She wants me to make a decision about dinner for tonight so, perhaps foolishly, suggest we go back to the place we saw earlier when we came off of the canal tour.

Salmon for Julie, apparently not very good

A mess of ribs. Fall of the bone but tough as buggery

Baked potato for a change, best part of the meal

As I hinted earlier, not a good choice. Any way, we are on the Boat tomorrow.

Posted on May 29, 2016May 29, 2016 by beauperi

Seaside in Dalmatia

Friday, 20 May, 2016 – Pag Island to Zadar to Trogir

Today after breakfast, we pack up the van to head out to the coast.

One thing I did not mention before was the rock walls that were prevalent in Pag Island and elsewhere around. There were blocks of land everywhere that were mostly empty but walled of by short fences of irregular rock fences. Maybe it was to keep the sheep in but there were thousands of blocks with nothing in them.

We then drive to the coastal town of Yardar. The experience there is similar to what we will encounter in most of the coastal towns – people everywhere, mostly tourists, lots of traffic chaos, slow moving and very little parking. The Dalmation Coast has become just too popular. Any way, our guide is waiting for us but we have to bypass her initally to find a parking place. Fortuneately, Andrew was able to do that. We start out with our walking tour of the town.

Tasting of Fruit Brandy - very sweet — Tasting of Fruit Brandy – very sweet

The fruit in the brandy is maraschino cherry. We were supposed to have had some the night before but the Hotel was out of it. We meet an old Croatian guy who claims to live very near to us in Kew, Victoria, Australia. We proceed on to the end of the old town.

The Fruit and Vegies we experienced on this tour were generally much better than we see elsewhere

We say goodbye to our guide and hop into the van to leave Zardar. Our next stop is in a small village where we will have lunch.

The restaurant is famous for all things Pig.

Some of the group called it the best goulash they had ever had. It was very good but to me it needed more paparika.

After lunch we proceed to a winery, Bibich. It is a small family run winery with nice people. We are given a tour before tastings.

We then drive to our final destination for today, the coastal town of Trogir. The arrival experience is pretty much the same as Zardar, beautiful town, lots of people, lots of traffic. Andrew is able to find a place to park so we unload and take the long walk to the Hotel. Normally the owner would be there to help us but was away elsewhere. Jan and I struggle on the narrow cobblestone streets and eventually we stop and wait for assistance.

Eventually Julie comes along and drags Jan’s big case and guides us to the Hotel which is on another side alley. The Hotel is a 14th century stone building. The room was very small but adequate.

Later we have dinner in a place down the road a ways.

The dinner was not a fixed menu which accounts for the variety of dishes shown. We are sitting outside and it is pouring rain but we are under a canopy and it is kind of neat watching the water pouring off of it, fortuneately not on us. When the meal ends, it has stopped raining and we head back to the Hotel.

Beauperi Investments – Wine Consulting

Tag: Pig

Beer

Barcelona Q & A

The Assumption

Tours of Amsterdam

Seaside in Dalmatia