8 days on water, then one day in Ponta Delgada, Azores (Portugal) -> a hunt for pastel de nata

view from pier in Ponta Delgada

After 8 days on the Atlantic without seeing land, the ship docked for the day in Ponta Delgada, Azores.  The  Azores are islands 900 miles west of Lisbon controlled by Portugal.  I don't know what other people would do if they were at sea for 8 days.  Feel free to throw out your thoughts in the comments section.

Here is what I did.
1. I looked for some free wifi to check email
2. I evaluated the geography I was landing in and tried to figure out what foods they would specialize in.

Ever since my visit to Lisbon, every time I stop somewhere with a heavy Portuguese influence, I seek out pastel de nata.  I am a big fan of the Chinese egg custard tart called "dan tat".  A good pastel de nata is at least 2x better than a good dan tat in my book.

Although specific dan tat and pastel de nata executions differ at every bakery I try them at, the trend I have found is pastel de nata has a crispier and sweeter crust.  The pastry crust is more European.  Good pastel de nata also have a creamier custard that has some delicate spicing added in.  In my 7 hours on Ponta Delgada, I tried pastel de nata at three different places.

pastel de nata in Ponta Delgada

I don't think I will have an opportunity for more pastel de nata until August.
Henry - Will I be able to find it in Hong Kong or I need to go to Macau?  See you there?  Anyone else joining?

San Sebastian, Spain - Percebes are the ugliest foods I have tried

percebes from Ganbara Jatetxea

I think if most people saw this item, they would not order it or eat it.  Here are some entertaining guesses from my photostream as to what the item was: geoduck, turtle feet, and mutant chicken claw.  The picture still looks disgusting to me even though I ate them yesterday and they were delicious.  Percebes are known as barnacles in English.  This item is ugly enough that I would not have tried it except I had seen it on some food shows and Rick Steves seems to like them.

I wasn't on a specific mission to try these out on my trip to Spain.  I had filed the picture of these away in my head and figured I would run into them one day.  Yesterday was that day.  When I saw the barnacles on the tapas(I guess the Basque word is pintxo) counter, I pointed at them asking for them as I did not know what they were called.  I just remembered they were some seafood or shellfish I was intending to try.

pintxo selection at  Ganbara Jatetxea

The bartender politely informed me that they were not 2 euro for a tapas portion like all other items on the counter.  He pointed at a menu that said they were 37 euro for a plate.  The little portion you see above is the full plate!

A different bartender was kind enough to show me how to eat them when he saw Laura and me struggling to figure it out.  The claw part is hard shell.  Don't eat that.  The black and tan membrane is thick and leatherlike.  Don't eat that.  You pierce the black and tan membrane.  Within it is a small piece of juicy and meaty flesh that tastes like a cross between clam and lobster.  I thought the sweet seafood flavor of the percebes was delicious.  Laura thought they were bitter and gross.  She had three pieces and gave up.  That left the rest of the plate for me!

Photo tools and my favorite camera - Panasonic Lumix LX7

First off, thanks to Miguel for convincing me to buy the Panasonic Lumix LX7.  I was really reluctant to listen to Miguel given how much I loved my prior camera, but after just a month of use, I can easily say Lumix LX7 is significantly better for my uses and one of the best electronics purchases I have ever made!  It is highly portable and it takes excellent photos.

My backup camera is now my previous favorite camera, the Canon S95.  After dropping a camera on its face one trip and having it unusable for 99% of the trip, I always pack a back up camera in the luggage.

Photos on this site will be with the Lumix LX7, S95, or an iPhone.  Given I would rather spend my time on other things than editing photos, photos on the site will get (1)no editing or (2)a quick edit in iPhone software or Picasa.

If you have doubts about how nice an iPhone can output pictures, check out this Business Insider article.

My camera selection criteria is pretty simple and should probably be your criteria unless you already own a SLR.  Start cringing now SLR lovers and photography experts!

1. How nice are the pictures it can take on auto mode.
95+% of my pictures are taken in auto mode.  I am a combination of lazy and not talented enough to figure out the complexities of the more professional cameras.  Both the LX7 and S95 take crisp pictures with true colors in low light conditions(often needed in restaurants) or normal light conditions.  The LX7 has significantly better picture quality than the S95 in my opinion.  If you still think your sub $200 point and shoot is good enough, compare your photos.

2. How portable is the camera.
I refuse to carry a camera that is so big that it needs a bag.  I need a camera that is preferably so small I can barely notice it as I walk around.  The S95 is small enough to fit in a pocket.  The LX7 can't really fit in a pocket due to thickness, but you can carry it on your front or side with its attached neck strap and it is barely noticeable.

Panasonic Lumix LX7 and Canon S95

More than I/you wanted to know about creme brulee

creme brulee from Le Cirque on Niew Amsterdam

On the Nieuw Amsterdam cruise, I had creme brulee for dessert a couple times.  One time was during a Le Cirque theme dinner.  At this special restaurant night, one of the dining rooms got special decorations, a customized menu, and special plating from New York City's famed Le Cirque.  I heard the story that Le Cirque invented creme brulee.   Le Cirque likes to support this concept with their fancy creme brulee dish that contains their recipe.  Sort of a cute idea.

creme brulee recipe in the dish

After further research though, my conclusion is Le Cirque didn't invent creme brulee, but they may have popularized it.
http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Creme-Brulee-Origins
wikipedia on creme brulee

After arriving in Spain from the cruise, the natural thing for me to do was to search out some crema catalana.  At one of the first restaurants we tried in Barcelona, Sta Maria del Mar restaurant, they had crema catalana and flan.  At the time and in retrospect, that seemed like a superflous way to design a dessert menu, but it was a welcome design for my research purposes.  It made it clear to me at least in one chef's eyes how two of the three custard desserts differed.  The crema catalana was runnier and had a slight brulee crust on top whereas the flan was significantly stiffer and without a crust.

crema catalana from Sta Maria Del Mar Bar - Restaurant in Barcelona

flan from Sta Maria Del Mar Bar - Restaurant in Barcelona

My conclusion: creme brulee, crema catalana, and flan are all close enough to each other that they would almost always be interchangeable to me.  Any egg custard dessert is probably going to be delicious!

Panoramic shot on cruise ship at sunset

This is my favorite picture of the ocean while crossing the Atlantic.  It uses the Lumix LX7's panoramic mode and I just needed to click a button and pan the viewfinder right to left.

My next post will be an overview of the cameras I am using.  I only use the easiest to use camera equipment because I don't have the patience to learn all the details that you hard core photographers are aware of!

At sea for week

We took a Holland America cruise from Florida all the way across the Atlantic to Barcelona.  I was slightly concerned that with a week at sea, I might get too bored.  However, there were way too many activities on the ship and it was pleasantly relaxing.

There were lots of days at sea where I tried to captures some pictures of the ocean, ship, and sunset.  (I don't wake up early enough for sunrise.)  The three shots are my favorites and turned out nicer than I expected due to the magical powers of the Panasonic Lumix LX7.

First post and go forward plan

It only took me a couple months to get my first blog post up.  Posts will come more frequent starting now.  I got this template and URL set up back in April.  However, I went two weeks with a cruise with no free internet and then I went a couple weeks in Spain where I was procrastinating and trying to figure out what to write about and/or show.

One thing I initially settled on is that I would just post a picture and a brief caption.  (if you know me, you know a brief caption would be less than 5 words.)  Nancy convinced me that I shouldn't do that and I should write some longer descriptions and thoughts.  That sounded reasonable so I will try that and see how it goes.

Another thing I initially thought I should do is keep the blog in time order and with two main themes even though I didn't know what the two themes would be.  I changed my mind on this as well because I figured if I stuck to this criteria, I would never get any blog posts out and I would procrastinate initial release for months to figure out what the themes and topics should be.

So here are my current go forward plans and you get to interact with my plans and the blog going forward!  If no one is reading or interacting with the blog, I will probably stop posting :-)
-Whenever I have internet that is fast enough to not annoy me, I will try to post thoughts and pictures.  This should be every day or two going forward now that I have positive momentum.
-Posts will involve, but not be limited to the following topics: food, travel, random thoughts, what I am working on as I eat the world.

Here is how you get to interact with my plans:
-Post comments on this blog or email me directly if there are private or public requests you have.
-Tell me if you want more pictures, a specific topic, a specific question, specific themes, additional visibility to what I have done or will do, etc...

I apologize in advance if my writing style or grammar sucks, my pictures are not as good as they should be, or anything else!