Traveling with the Jones — Sharing Travel Discoveries

World Class Food at Borkonyha Wine Kitchen in Budapest, Hungary

by Janis on June 3, 2013

When we traveled to Budapest, Hungary in early May, we had a serendipitous surprise.

One of our goals for the trip was to increase our familiarization with Hungarian wines. Paulina of Spoon Food Tours sent us a list of the best wine bars in Budapest from her Hungarian friend Diana. We visited four of the eight wine bars on Diana’s list, including the Borkonyha Wine Kitchen.

When we stopped by Borkonyha on a rainy afternoon in Budapest, we were expecting a wine bar that also served food. Instead, we found that the Borkonyha Wine Kitchen is an upscale restaurant requiring reservations. Immediately making a reservation for 6 pm that night, we were surprised that it came with a 2 hour time limit. Kind of strange, we thought, for a wine bar or a European restaurant, but we showed up at 6 pm.

What we discovered was the best meal we’ve had in years.

Borkonyha Wine Kitchen has a small but elegant dining room that was practically empty at 6 pm. Soon, however, it was completely crowded, including several noisy large parties. Our window table in the back corner was quiet.

While we went for the wine, we quickly discovered that the food takes the starring role. Once we selected our courses, we asked our waiter to recommend glasses of wines to paired with each course. While the waiter’s recommended pairings were excellent, some of the Hungarian wine labels required a closer look.

This is a closer look at a wine labeled as “cappuccino oil”. It was a slightly sweet white wine that paired perfectly with the tuna appetizer.

The menu included unusual food combinations such as this marinated tuna in spicy crust with corn cream and capers butter. The corn cream was a spectacular combination with the slightly spicy crust of the seared tuna.

Mr. Jones ordered the fish soup with coriander, mangetout and noodle as his starter. He enjoyed every bite, including the mangetout (immature peas.)

For the main course, this one duck with Jerusalem artichokes was a daily special. It was paired with a Pinot Noir.

This hazelnut crusted cod with spring salad and yellow carrots featured perfected cooked fish on a bed of yellow carrot ribbons lying in a rich buttery sauce. The dish was paired with a light, fruity red wine.

This dessert we shared was simply described as “bitter chocolate with citrus”. It was an explosion of chocolate flavors paired with fresh orange segments. Our waiter recommended a Tokay wine for pairing; it also paired well with a Hungarian pinot noir.

Terrific wines. Knowledgeable and gracious service. World class food.

We found serendipity in Budapest.

Have you dined at the Borkonyha Wine Kitchen? What was your impression?

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To learn more about culinary delights in Budapest:

Food Wine Budapest (The Terroir Guides)

Other food and wine posts that you might enjoy:

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History, Food and Fun in San Juan with Spoon Food Tours

by Janis on May 27, 2013

The best thing when visiting a destination is to know a local who will give you insider tips on “not-to-be-missed” things to see, do and eat.

When we visited San Juan, Puerto Rico in April, we did not know a local.

Luckily, we found Spoon Food Tours, and booked the San Juan Drive Around Food Tour for a 3-hour long historical food tasting journey for a Tuesday at 12 noon.

After meeting at the appointed location in Old San Juan, we learned that Spoon Food Tours is a newish culinary tour company in Puerto Rico, owned by Paulina Salach and her husband Gustavo Antonetti. They are charming, fun foodies who are also co-creators of the of the semi-annual Puerto Rico Restaurant Week gastronomic celebration. Normally the tours are small groups in a van but on our Tuesday tour we happened to be the only guests. Paulina guided and Gustavo drove. Together, they showed us the historical highlights of San Juan while teaching us about the local food.

Paulina and Gustavo took us on a progressive lunch tour in three different areas of San Juan. The first stop was La Cueva Del Mar, (Cave of the Sea) on Loiza Street. It’s a funky seafood restaurant serving the local crowd, and was packed at lunch.

Along with our fish tacos, empanadas, and local beers, Paulina explained the local sauces. The big squeeze bottle is a sauce made of ketchup or chili sauce and mayonnaise.

Next we drove out of the city to Pií±ones, an area located along Route 187, which runs along Puerto Rico’s north coast and connects San Juan and Loíza. It was a scenic drive to a more rustic side of the Puerto Rico, where locals go to enjoy fried delicacies and cheap beer right along the beach.

Paulina and Gustavo took us to the Soleil Beach Club, a more upscale beachfront restaurant offering traditional Puerto Rican cuisine in the middle of Pií±ones, where we learned all about mofongo, the fried plantain-based dish.

Mofongo De Pollo En Salsa Criolla (Chicken mofongo with creole sauce). Mofongo is very filling. We washed it down with fresh coconut water, sipped directly from the coconut.

Next, we drove back to Old San Juan, and hopped out for a walk with Paulina pointing out the historical sites and fun facts, such as the blue cobblestones paving most of the narrow streets. The cobbles are adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag brought from Spain as a ballast on Spanish ships.

There are many cats in Old San Juan. If you look closely, many will have a tiny notch in their ear like this one. (It’s hard to see in this photo, but if you take a Spí¼n Food Tour, you will have to ask about the cats.)

Our last stop was at the Hotel El Convento, a luxury hotel that was formerly Carmelite convent founded more than 350 years ago. Inside the hotel – -overlooking the open-air courtyard — is the El Picoteo tapas restaurant, where we enjoyed Chocolate Mousse Cake and the Tres Leches sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk. The next time we visit San Juan we are making a beeline to El Picoteo for tapas and wine.

It was the perfect place to savor a cup of Puerto Rican coffee while learning what makes it so special.

We highly recommend Spí¼n Food Tours for those visiting San Juan, whether for a day or a week. It’s not just a food tour, it’s like being shown around the city with a local friend who happens to be a foodie and a fantastic host.

What’s your favorite food experience in San Juan? Please share in comments below.

Other posts on San Juan and food tours that you may want to check out”;..

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Photo Friday: Travelling

by Janis on May 24, 2013

Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome,
dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.
May your rivers flow without end,
meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells,
past temples and castles and poets’ towers
into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl,
through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock.
blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone,
and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm
where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs,
where storms come and go
as lightning clangs upon the high crags,
where something strange and more beautiful
and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you –
beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.
– Edward Abbey from the preface to Desert Solitaire

As the Memorial Day Holiday weekend in the U.S. kicks off the summer travel season, may your travels be lovely, life-enhancing adventures.

Our thoughts and gratitude are focused this weekend on those who gave their lives defending our country and our freedom. I’ll especially reflect on my visit earlier this year to The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, as I have since learned that four men from the community next to my small Missouri town are listed on the Tablets of the Missing at this Memorial halfway around the world.

See all of this photos for this week’s Photo Friday Challenge: “˜Travelling’ here.

You also may be interested in these Friday Photo posts”;

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A Quick Start Guide to Traveling With The Jones

by Janis on May 22, 2013

While some of you have been reading this blog since 2007, many of you are fairly new readers who may be looking for some specific travel information.

To help you better find what you are looking for among the more than 400 posts, we’ve developed this Quick Start Guide to Traveling With the Jones.

We share travel discoveries –both our own as well as those of others — to inspire travelers of all ages and all levels of travel experience.

We travel for work — enough to qualify as road warriors — and we make the most of frequent flier miles and hotel points to see the world when we can fit in a quick break. We also spend a significant portion of our disposable income on travel, and make the most of credit cards that reward us with points and miles. We minimize security lines and hassles by being approved for Global Entry and TSA Pre-Check.

Although we currently live in Kansas City, Missouri –thousands of miles from an ocean — we love exploring the world from a cruise ship. These are some of our most popular posts on cruise tips:

For more cruise tips, check out Planning a Cruise? 12 Helpful Tips.

Jeff, frequently referred to as Mr. Jones in blog posts, was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and is one of the state’s biggest fans. We visit Alaska several times a year. Our most-read posts on Alaska include:

To find more posts on Alaska from Glacier Bay to Homer, check out Planning to Visit Alaska? 23 Insights to Help You Have a Better Trip

Destination Discoveries highlight places that we’ve found unique — both close to home and around the world.

Find discoveries posts detailed by destination in A World of Destination Discoveries.

Like many of our readers, we enjoy exploring local food and wine when we travel.

Here’s a sampling of our popular food posts:

We became wine fans when we lived in San Francisco and got married in Sonoma County. Places that have the climate for growing good wine grapes are destinations we enjoy visiting. Here are some of our most popular wine posts:

Learn more about some of our favorite wine destinations in Enjoying Wine Round the World.

If you enjoy geography-related trivia, check out these Fun Facts posts:

We like to hear about other travelers’ discoveries and experiences as much as we like making our own, so we started “Travel Chat” interviews with other travelers and with travel insiders. Some examples include:

Here’s a recap of 25 Travel Chats, covering a wide range of travel destinations and travel styles, from exploring National Parks to going local in Hawaii, to insights from expats who lived abroad.

We accept Guest Posts from travelers with discoveries to share. These are some of the most popular ones:

If you want to write a guest post for this blog, please read the details for submitting guest posts in Are You A Traveler? An Invitation To Share Your Discoveries on This Blog.

Six years and going strong.

We started this blog in May, 2007 when we quit our jobs and traveled in Europe for five months, mostly by cruise ship. While many folks have the kind of summer adventure in their 20s, we did it in our mid-forties. We think travel changes one’s life for the better, and that most anyone, regardless of age or income can find a way to explore the world. Learn more about our passion for travel in A Girl, A Guy and Their Travel Love Story.

Is there a travel tip or destination that you’d like to learn more about? If so, please share your question in comments below.

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