Wrapping up Richmond.

A month later, and I’m finally posting about the second day of our Richmond trip. Sheesh. I’m a lousy blogger.

Day two found us waking to beautiful sunshine, and an only slightly chilly breeze as we left the hotel.



The view of Linden Row Inn, from the steps of the Richmond Public Library. That’s right, on vacation I went to the library. We ended up spending an hour there, while Dutchboy ohhed and ahhed over the microfilm of the New York Times from April 1912. We had to read all about the sinking of the Titanic. Along with a story about a teenage heiress who ran off with an old hotel clerk. She took her jewels and her beloved poodle. It seems some things never change!

ANYWAY. Back to Richmond. Leaving the library behind, we spent a lot of time roaming around the city, just soaking in the atmosphere. We specifically went into Carytown to wander the streets and the shops, including a stop for a snack at John Jacques bakery (lovely croissants and a mocha torte), chocolates at For The Love of Chocolate (the smell is heavenly and the sell Leonidas chocolate! And they have Dutch candy, too!!) and a final stop for a bottle of Port at River City Cellars. Like everything else in Richmond, the architecture in this area is old and beautiful. Even the slightly rundown areas have charm.

In the early afternoon, we stopped at St. John’s Episcopal Church, famous because it was here that Patrick Henry gave the “Give me liberty, or give me death" speech.



Dutchboy had never heard of Patrick Henry. And here he doesn’t look like he likes either option, liberty or death. Perhaps Cake or Death instead?!? Definitely cake.







Remember in the earlier post, I said we would visit Edgar Allan Poe and his beloved mother again?? Here we are. Edgar Allan Poe’s mother, Elizabeth Arnold Poe, is buried in the churchyard at St. John’s. The Raven Society erected a lovely marker in her memory.






In the second photo, you’ll notice the pennies left on her grave. I have no idea of the significance. Anyone have any clues?? I left a few, just in case. I didn’t want Ms. Elizabeth to come home with me!!

After leaving St. John’s, we drove around and ended up driving past a beautiful old building that had a National Park Service banner out front. Turned out to be the site of one of the largest Confederate Civil War hospitals, Chimborazo.





Inside is a small museum filled with medical implements and a video that describes Chimborazo and the role it played during the war. The scale was epic, and it was the most modern facility it could have been for the time and conditions. Now, nothing remains but the large empty field, overlooking the James River. In other words, there’s not a lot to see, but it’s a lovely walk! It gives you a chance to overlook the river, and survey your kindgom from a different point of view.




Behind me? That’s the view from the “hospital on the hill”. Nice, huh??

If you think that is nice, wait till you see the James River walk! A mile and half long trail that follows the James River. We did part of this walk last time, but decided to fight the cold and do it all this time. Glad we did! It’s beautiful!








“The doors of Heaven and Hell are adjacent and identical” – Nikos Kazantzakis


I guess that answers that question!!!









Our walk ended as we hurried back to the car before darkness fell and we had to use our cellphone as a flashlight. Besides, my croissant and chocolate had long since vanished and I was starving!!! Tonight, Cous Cous was open!!



I was having Middle Eastern food! A day later than I planned, but who cares about that!?!? Spicy, yummy food is always worth the wait!

Dutchboy, being boring, opted for falafel AGAIN. Remember—he had it the previous evening at The Belvidere on Broad?? (Of course you don’t remember. It’s been a month! That’s why I’m kindly reminding you!)



He was very happy with his choice. C’mon, look at it. Who wouldn’t be happy with that plate of crispy, fried loveliness?? And of course, he shared in mine, too.

I started my dinner with a lovely glass of red sangria--slightly bitter and tart but amazing with the food I chose to order. I opted to order meze, the middle-eastern version of Spanish tapas, or small plates. I started with Manchego fritters served with a mango coulis. Crispy, warm melted salty goodness, tempered with cool fruity, slightly sweet coulis. Fantastic! Delicious! (It was so dark, and I only had my point and shoot camera, so you’ll have to devour the description because the photo didn’t turn out. ) But nothing compared to what was to follow.



Chicken B’stilla. B’stilla my heart. It was mind-numbingly good. Moroccan pot pie with chicken mixed with almonds, onions, apricots, and mixed vegetables and seasoned with lovely warm spices like cumin, coriander, cinnamon and who knows what other loveliness. I was so stuffed, I couldn’t imagine eating another bite, though they did have Nutella bread pudding. This is definitely a place I would come back to in the future!!

Bellies full, tired but content, we headed back to the hotel, via a circuitous route through the city at night.

The last day, we drove out to Hollywood Cemetery, a huge very old cemetery filled with confederate soldiers graves, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and family and the tombs of two presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler. I have to admit, I have a thing for cemeteries. There’s such a connection to the past, a morbid curiosity. There’s a melancholy loveliness that fills you when you wander through a cemetery. I tend to romanticize the gravesites, giving the people buried there glorious or tragic lives. In this old glorious cemetery filled with monuments that are exquisitely carved, intricate angels, chiseled crosses, cast iron dogs (I don’t know why but there was an abundance of dog monuments in this place) and not to mention the lovely, crumbling, ivy-covered mausoleums and family crypts buried in the hillside facing the James River, it is easy to get lost in place and time. And I enjoyed it so much, I didn’t take one single solitary photograph. Which strikes me as odd, because I distinctly remember having the camera in my hands the entire time we were walking around the Presidents tombs. Oh, well, just another reason to return to my beloved Richmond again in the future!

Before leaving, we made one final food stop. This time, relying on Guy Fieri’s recommendation from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives—Dot’s Back Inn. We drove into a heavily residential area and I honestly thought our GPS was leading us astray. After all, it is a TomTom and therefore Dutch, and everyone knows a Dutch person cannot get to a place in a straight line but must take the long way round. But fail us, it did not. Dot’s Back Inn is a tiny diner on a residential side street. Very homey, and very very American. I had black beans with corn cakes. I was not disappointed! It was a perfect lunch treat. Creamy, smoky black beans with tender, corn cakes. Whatever Dutchboy opted to order has since been forgotten. I believe it was a veggie sub because, as I said earlier he’s boring. His idea of being adventurous is getting ketchup alongside the mayo with his French fries. Yes, he’s a real rebel with absolutely no taste buds. But that’s all right. I didn’t marry for his taste in food. I married him because he obviously has exquisite taste in women.

Stuffed to the gills with delicious food and even better memories, we headed for home and the pup we left behind. *cue gratuitous dog photo*




Richmond was a place that Dutchboy and I spoke of so often after our first visit, that we knew we had to return. It's an old town, a moderately sized city that manages to feel very very small, with a vaguely European vibe. Now, after a second look around, seeing more of the city than before, it has solidified its place in our hearts. See ya next year, Richmond dear.

Some call it Richmond, I would love to call it home.

My first trip to Richmond was a year ago—a spur of the moment Valentine’s weekend trip. This year, when the topic came up about going away, Dutchboy and I both leapt at the chance to go back to Richmond. I’ve been home a week now, and my heart is still there. I love this city so very much. It’s a European feel with Southern hospitality; filled with gorgeous architecture and a fantastic museum….there’s so much to it. Basically there is a vibe there that tells me I’ve come home. That’s rare.

Anyway, we drove up on a Sunday, arriving in time to spend a few delicious hours wandering at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.











Again, this was our first stop last year, but we didn’t get to see everything due to limited time. This year, we started in the places we missed last year—the American Art Collection. It is a truly beautiful collection—there’s a lovely O’Keefe, and an Edward Hopper. But those pieces weren’t the ones that struck me as most beautiful. What they did have that surprised and thrilled me to bits was a Thomas Hart Benton!! I adore him!! With his curvy, surreal figures and exaggerated realties.


Brideship (Colonial Brides) by Thomas Hart Benton

Don’t you just adore it???

There’s also the Worsham-Rockefeller bedroom on display at VMFA. This room was removed as a whole from a New York townhouse before its demolition in 1937. The room design was commissioned by Richmond-native Arabella Worsham for her West Fifty-Fourth Street, New York, home. Later, John D. Rockefeller purchased the home. It’s an exquisite room—and according the placard, a perfect example of the Anglo-American Aesthetic movement. I would just call it gorgeous.







Rather than bore you with more details of the museum, I will simply post the photos of some of my favorites from the remainder of the museum. And no, we STILL didn’t get through the whole thing in an afternoon. There was much, much more I would have liked to revisit. Like the Modern Art Collection and most of the European Gallery.


A Spring Offering-- Francis Davis Millet


Lotus and Laurel by Henry Prellwitz


Peines de Coeur (Heartbreak) by Charles Sprague Pearce


Woman in the Studio by Alfred Stevens. (Belgian)


The Younger Brother by William-Adolphe Bouguerau


A room in the European Gallery.


Seated Ganesha from a Temple in India (let me step in here and say it pains me to see such gorgeous work chiseled from its rightful place of worship. It HURTS. Countries should retain their artifacts. In fact, there was an exhibition of Egyptian antiquities on loan from the British Museum that we did NOT pay to attend. Because I do not agree with the British Museum's refusal to return certain objects and antiquities. But that’s another story. We’re all thieves of history, I suppose. Maybe I should just let it go. /rant)


Lamps by Louis Comfort Tiffany

VFMA has an exquisite collection of Art Deco and Art Nouveau pieces. I could happily spend hours there, surrounded by the work of Horta, Guimard, Lalique and others.


Art Nouveau dresser designed by Hector Guimard.

Somehow, I seem to spend most of my time in this area ogling the bust of Nature by Alphonse Mucha. It’s almost impossible to get a decent photo of it—it’s gleaming metal and marble, behind glass. She is breathtaking. Or she is to me, anyway.





Now that I have inundated you with photos of art, and most likely bored you to tears, I’ll tell you about the evening. Because you’re all anxious to know about the food, right?? After being ushered out of the museum and them locking the doors behind us, we took the short drive to the hotel. We were staying at Linden Row Inn, in the heart of downtown Richmond. We stayed there last year, and loved it. And according to the hotel website, there are ties to the beloved Edgar Allan Poe:

“In 1811, Elizabeth Poe, an actress performing in a traveling company at the Richmond Theater, became ill and died, leaving two young children orphaned. Mr. and Mrs. John Allan raised her son Edgar Poe and gave him Allan for his middle name. Returning from a five-year trip to England, the Allans (including Edgar) lived with Mr. Allan’s business partner, Charles Ellis. It was in the gardens that Edgar Allan Poe played with the Ellis children. Local legend has it that the enchanted garden is the one that Poe mentions in his famous poem “To Helen.” Historians have also noted that young Poe first courted his life-long love, Elmira Royster, in the garden where the Linden Row Inn now stands.”

Anyway, we’ll hear more of Mr. Poe on another day’s post. Back to the evening at hand, after checking in we decided to walk to a restaurant for dinner. I’ve been dying to try Cous Cous, a middle-eastern restaurant that was about a mile from the hotel. So off we set—for a VERY COLD mile trek. We arrived starving and chilled to the bone and were greeted by…locked doors. They were closed. Talk about disappointed!! So, we decided to wander around downtown and find a place to dine. I had a list of roughly twenty restaurants in the area that I wanted to sample. We lucked upon one of them, not far from our hotel. A small, hole in the wall spot called Belvidere at Broad. There weren’t many people there, but it was cozy and they had a long list of beer and wine. And a lovely reputation for good food, as it turns out is well deserved. I started with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and (completely vegetarian) French onion soup. I followed that with a roasted beet salad, with blue cheese, pine nuts and micro greens topped with ahi tuna (served rare, thank you very much!). It was outstanding food, artfully presented, with great service. You’ll have to take my word for it—it was so dimly lit that pictures were totally impossible.

We didn’t opt for dessert because my snooping little Dutch boy had ferreted out his valentine’s present—a bag filled with licorice and various types of his favorite chocolates. There was plenty of it to share between two loving and consenting married people. Besides—The Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl!!!) were on the Grammys and we had to rush back to the hotel so I could see that. You didn’t think this was going to end as a gushy romantic post, did you?? Filled with Valentine goopy sentiments and sexy details!?!?!? What kind of girl do you think I am?!?!?!? Well, you’re probably right, but I’m not posting about it. :-P

Foie Gras and Quail and Cod Fish, Oh MY! (Or the post where I compare dessert with a teen angst vampire flick)

Another day, another “culinary adventure”! That’s right kiddies, today we’re returning to the fantasy world of five course lunches prepared by culinary students at Wilkes Community College. We arrived a little early today but were seated immediately. And this time there was bread on the table!



Crusty, chewy fresh bread. And the cutest butter that I’ve ever been presented! I’m definitely doing this at home next time I have guests.



There was little time to enjoy that beautiful bread and butter as the fancier stuff began arriving.


Amuse Bouche --Stuffed Olive & Smoked Pork

As with all Amuses they were flavorful bites to wake up the palate. The smoked pork was perfectly cooked with good smoky depth of flavor. It was served with a sauce that wasn’t described on the menu, but I would describe it as a mustard-based barbeque sauce. It was tart, but not a vinegary tartness, more of a mustardy burn. as there was a bit of heat to it, too.

The olive was huge and stuffed with…I have NO idea. Menu fail on this one. It gave no clues. And whatever it was stuffed with was overwhelmed by the olive’s briny goodness. I love olives—so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But I think they missed an opportunity here to wow me. Or at least give me a clue as to what they had painstakingly stuffed into the poor little dear.


First Course-- Foie Gras Torchon with Toasted Brioche served with a Sour Cherry Red Wine Compote.

Foie Gras was PERFECT. Buttery, meltingly soft and rich like an Arab oil baron. I could find NO fault with this. None. The foie gras was smooth and even,with no pockets of fat that indicate an improperly cooked liver. The compote was a tart counterbalance to the richness of the foie gras. Technically, I don’t know if this qualifies as a true compote. I would have called it more of a fruit red wine reduction, as it was smooth and lacked stewed fruit but hey I’m not THAT picky when it’s that good!! The brioche was crisp, and lightly sweet, just as it should have been. Everything on that plate WORKED.


Second Course—Poached Cod with Mango Salsa and Sauteed Plantains

Circle the bases, they knocked this one outta the park. The cod was moist, flaky and well-cooked. I’m always so pleased to get perfectly cooked fish. It’s not easy to get it exactly right, and they did. Cod can be very bland, any poached fish can be, but the mango salsa woke it up. It was bright and full of flavor. It was served with a creamy coconut sauce that accentuated the creaminess of the fish and the coconut base notes complimented the mangoes. If there’s any complaint to be issued with this dish it was the plantains. They were slightly under seasoned – the only component of the day that had that problem. Plantains, like potatoes, take salt better during cooking. If you wait until later, they NEVER get seasoned well enough. But honestly, it was hardly noticeable and entire dish didn’t suffer greatly, since they were well-prepared and not at all greasy.


Third Course—Baby Arugula Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion and Fig Balsamic Vinaigrette

It’s arugula. It’s tomatoes. It’s a palate cleanser. It didn’t do much. The fig balsamic dressing was nice, but once again this week, I felt the salad was completely under dressed. It doesn’t have to swim in dressing but there should be enough so that you’re not munching through dry arugula which can be quite abrasive.


Fourth Course—Roasted Stuffed Quail with Mushroom Queso Fresco Cheese Tamales and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.

Beautiful presentation. The quail was well-seasoned and the chorizo stuffing gave it a nice, peppery bite that cut through the richness of the quail. The red pepper sauce offered a sweet balance to all the savory. My companion said that poor little bird reminded her of the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. It really did. You see it,too, don't you??



But I say, but I say, boy, bird was not my favorite part of that plate. It was the tamales! Creamy, corny goodness in a husk with earthy, slightly chewy mushrooms. In other words, it was like George Clooney in a corn husk. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. To quote Ina Garten, "Who wouldn't want that?"


Fifth Course—Biscotti with Crème Anglaise, Poached Pears and Milk Chocolate Mousse.

There was a lot happening on this plate. And a little something wrong with all of it. The poached pear was robust, but still allowed the flavor of the pear to shine through. That was good. But the texture was off. Let me say, I don’t like mushy movies, sparkly mushy vampires, or mushy cooked to death fruit. But the pear was unyielding to my knife. It could have stood a few more minutes in the poaching liquid.

The mousse. Oh, my. I can’t say that I know exactly what happened with this mousse. But it had…issues. Like a “sparkly vampire stalker boyfriend who controls your every move and you stay with him anyway even though there’s a much hotter werewolf dude who would let you do what you wanted because he freakin’ worships the ground you walk on” kind of issues. It may look good from the outside, but when you get into the middle of it, it was a mess. Mousse is supposed to be light and airy. This was grainy. Like REALLY grainy. Whether it was over-beaten cream, or crystallized cocoa butter from overheating chocolate, I can’t say for sure. Maybe even a gelatin issue?? The flavor was good—it had a strong cocoa taste. (Hmmm. Maybe they used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate and that caused a problem?) But I couldn’t overcome the texture issue, you can see the grain in the picture. Whatever it was that was on my plate, it wasn’t mousse.

Now. Let’s talk about biscotti. There are two things in this world that I love more than biscotti. My husband and my dog. That’s it. Anise seed biscotti, triple ginger biscotti, red velvet biscotti, pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti….I love them all. But there’s something you don’t do with biscotti. And that is slap it on a plate with a dribble of crème anglaise and call it done. No matter how much creamy vanilla goodness that crème anglaise contains. Biscotti are crunchy. It is "hard enough to break Chuck Norris's molars" hard. That’s why you serve it with coffee. Or tea. Or better yet, Vin Santo. I understand WHY it wasn’t served with Vin Santo. We’re not at George Clooney's Italian villa on Lake Como. And the college culinary department doesn’t have a liquor license. But coffee would have been nice. Or a nice little pot of something to dip the biscotti. It was a good biscotti. It had lots of stuff in it. The texture was spot on. But it was a little red-headed stepchild all alone in a mall without it’s mommy-- it was missing a very important companion element.

Overall, this meal was more solid than last week’s offering with only the dessert course falling flat. Seasoning was more even, the courses were more balanced. Dessert was only misstep and the flavor wasn’t bad, the execution was off. The foie gras really stands out. But for me it was the poached cod that took the prize for the day.

Both weeks offerings had a common thread. The menu card was lacking. I enjoy having the menu to tell me what I'm having, to be able to devour the meal in my mind before I take a bite. Sauces are SO important on a plate, but they are so rarely described. Key components are left out of descriptions. It may seem like a minor detail but if you're ordering in a restaurant, that description is your ONLY key. In that respect, even something as mundane as menu presentation becomes super important in your overall restaurant experience.

Another thing I want to add, both weeks I was able to purchase bread from the students. Last week a french baguette which was still hot from the oven and drove me to break my diet in the extreme! And today a lovely, lovely sourdough bread that is nothing short or exquisite. True sourdough, with layers of flavor. Kudos. And I paid a whopping $3 for it that boule of sourdough. What a bargain. If you get the opportunity to try one of the lunches or buy a loaf of their bread, whatever the type, do it. They may be students, but for the most part, you'd never know it.