Archive for "Food and Drink"
Caribe Buffet
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I ate at the Caribe Buffet on our first night at the resort. The buffet is nice because you can wear pretty much anything you like. Actually, that’s true for women anywhere you go. However, guys are required to wear pants at the restaurants except for the buffet. They don’t care if you wear shorts at the buffet. As long as you’re not in your swimsuit and have shoes on, they pretty much don’t care.
They always have various fresh fruits.
There are several food stations.
This is the create-your-own-pasta section. It’s was Brian’s favorite station.
This is the crepe station.
They always have all sorts of fish dishes. That first night I was surprised to see these two whole fish, complete with the head and everything.
This is one of the dessert stations.
There are always so many choices.
There’s so much food. If you go hungry, it’s your fault.
This is the view from the restaurant. It’s pretty nice, but there’s actually an even better one. I will show you guys next time.
My strategy at the buffet was to try a little bit of everything first and then once I figured out what I liked that’s all I got for the most part. Brian really liked the pasta and the pizza. I leaned more towards rice, beans, shrimp, and pork.
The buffet has some slightly different options at breakfast and lunch than at dinner. During breakfast there is a mimosa station and a smoothie station. The mimosa station is self-explanatory. They have bottles of wine and orange juice. You make your own mimosa. The smoothie station is really cool. They have a wide selection of fruits and you just tell them which ones you want in your smoothie. It’s really cool.
They also have an omelet station where you can create your own omelet. What I like best about their omelet station is that they don’t assume that you want cheese so they don’t put cheese in your omelet unless specifically requested so I never have to say “no cheese” every time. LOL.
The breakfast buffet is actually much better than getting room service. Even though room service was included for us and, despite the convenience, the wide array of food options makes it worth going to the buffet for breakfast. The room service menu is quite limited. Plus, I don’t think you can get smoothies via room service (but I don’t know for sure since I didn’t try).
The Caribe is a really good option for casual dining. If you don’t really care about trying the restaurants, just plan on eating at Caribe buffet every time and you don’t even have to pack any pants.
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Club Premium Perks at Barcelo
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Since Brian and I figured we would probably pay for internet anyway, we went ahead and paid extra for the club premium perks. Club premium guests get the best rooms at the resort. I think we got the best room at the resort without upgrading to a suite because it’s ocean front and it’s on the most quiet, peaceful side of the property. And, we have easy access to outdoor showers.
The one thing that I didn’t care too much for is having to wear wristbands. I guess that’s the thing here in DR. We didn’t have to wear wristbands when we stayed at Couples. Here, I’ve yet to see anyone without some sort of wristband. Even the folks we met who were staying at other resorts had wristbands on. I guess that’s how they identify you and what perks you get. You wear it everyday, every where you go.
Anyway, if you’re going to have to wear a wristband, you might as well wear a cool, wooden one that says “CLUB premium” on it instead of a cheesy plastic one. LOL.
You also get robes and house shoes. I kept trying to wear mine outside the room because I’d forget to switch my shoes out.
Room service isn’t included in the regular all-inclusive package. You can get room service, but it costs. For club premium guests, it’s free. Brian and I took advantage of this perk on our first couple of days. They give you so much food that they’re practically bringing the breakfast buffet to you.
This is just regular breakfast and they gave us a ton of food. The food could barely fit on our patio table. Seriously.
The next day we asked for the Desayuno Romantico (Romantic Breakfast) with champagne so we could make some mimosas. It was an enormous breakfast. It required two tables. No wonder you have to schedule it a day in advance.
Some of the perks on the list were stretching it (they’re not really that much of a perk), but room service was a real perk. We really enjoyed being able to have breakfast on our private patio.
Other perks we found valuable were access to the hydrotherapy section of spa, access to the club premium lounge, priority dinner reservations, the free bottle of Rob Barcelo imperial rum, etc. One perk that we didn’t really take advantage of and weren’t really interested in is the access to the VIP section of the disco. Their disco club doesn’t open until 11 pm and we’re usually in bed by then.
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Tanya’s Soup Kitchen
Posted on June 7, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It had been a while since we’ve been to Tanya’s Soup Kitchen and I’d almost forgotten how much I love their food. I was reminded when we ate there for lunch on Thursday. It was Brian’s pick.
Brian got the Junie, which is what he always gets there. It’s like a Cuban sandwich, his favorite sandwich to get anywhere. He also always gets the tomato bisque. I don’t normally like tomato bisque because it’s too tomato-ey for me most of the time; however, Tanya’s is really good. I love the flavor and consistency of it.
I got the City Chicken with the cheesy potato soup. I like the City Chicken because it’s a lot like the Garbo at Caffe Moderne except without artichokes. I actually can’t decide which I like better between the City Chicken and the Garbo. They are both very good.
Here’s a picture of my lunch. It was so delicious. This picture does not do it justice. If you are ever in the Wichita area or if you live in Wichita, you must go to Tanya’s!
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Eating Out
Posted on June 7, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We really have to get our eating out under control when we return home. Here are some pictures from dining out over the last few days leading up to our vacation.
These are from Old Mill Tasty Shop. We had to get a turtle!
The next day Cari roped us into Bang Wednesday at Bonefish.
We had to get dessert of course. It’s not everyday that they offer strawberry shortcake. I just can’t resist dessert.
We have to buckle down once we’re back in Wichita, though. I look terrible in my clothes and my thighs are so much bigger than they have been in the last couple of years. I know it’s all the eating out and all the desserts I’ve eaten catching up to me. It’s time to get serious!
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Filipino Food Feast
Posted on June 2, 2014 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We hosted a dinner party at our house on Saturday so that I could introduce my new friend Kristine to Brian and mom and dad. I met her at Wichita Business Journal’s BizWomen Mentoring Monday event several weeks ago. She emigrated from the Philippines also so we instantly connected. We met up for lunch once day and decided that we should get together on a weekend so that our families could meet. She is married and has two beautiful daughters.
My friend Jan was able to join us also so that was a real treat. I hadn’t seen Jan in months. It was nice to be able to catch up.
Of course, I got pictures of all the food but forgot to take pictures of people. Oh, well. Maybe next time. I’ve already decided that I want to have another one of these parties and I want to bring all of the Filipino people I know together so they can all meet. I think that would be fantastic. We could have Zumba party in the driveway and really drive our neighbors crazy.
Speaking of, the house next to us just sold. I think it went on the market on Thursday and it’s already sold so it wasn’t even for sale for a week. I hope the new neighbors are nice or, at the very least, tolerant. Brian and I can be kind of odd.
But I digress, here’s the food pictures with brief descriptions.
Kristine made Filipino spaghetti. You can always tell Filipino spaghetti from regular spaghetti because we add red hotdogs. The sauce we use is also very sweet compared to regular spaghetti sauce.
She also made chicken tinola. I hadn’t had chicken tinola in years. It was very good.
We had some chicken tenders mostly for Kristine’s six year old or anyone else who might have wanted some American food. I think we meant to get chicken nuggets at the store for the kids, but somehow ended up with chicken tenders because that’s what we had in the fridge but we kept referring to it as chicken nuggets all night. LOL.
Mom made kinilaw with salmon. I couldn’t tell you what it’s like because I don’t eat that stuff. It’s probably very good, but it’s just one of those dishes that I grew up avoiding. I’m convinced that I don’t like it through, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t really know because I’ve never tried it.
Mom made lumpia. We didn’t end up with any of it left here at home. When we took some food to grandma she was really disappointed that we didn’t have any leftover lumpia for her. It’s her favorite Filipino food.
Brian made apricot pork roast in the crockpot. I felt really bad because I didn’t know (or if I knew, I forgot) that Paul couldn’t have pork or beef. Beef wasn’t really an issue because we don’t eat much beef in our household but we eat a lot of pork.
We had Reby, Aaron, Jay, and Becca over for dinner a few weeks ago and we served our creamy chicken dish that we eat with rice. After the party Brian and I agreed that had we known about the pork situation we could have served the pork to Reby, Aaron, Jay, and Becca, and then made the chicken dish on Saturday night. I guess we’ll know to plan better for next time.
I made fruit salad with coconut. It’s one of my most favorite desserts. I’d eat a gallon of it in one sitting if I could. Of course, I wouldn’t because that would be very bad. Even though the dessert is made with fruit, it’s not the healthiest choice. It’s got heavy cream, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk so it’s got a lot of sugar.
Kristine made buko pandan, which I’d never had before. It consists of coconut and gelatin cubes. She said you would normally use green gelatin but the store ran out of green so she used red. I wouldn’t have known the difference.
This dish is great by itself but I had the brilliant idea to mix it with my fruit salad and it was amazing. The red gelatin turned the fruit salad pink and added an interesting texture. I think it made it ten times better. I’m thinking next time I make the fruit salad I’m going to add gelatin cubes.
That’s pretty much it for the pictures. I hope someone reminds me to take pictures of the guests next time. Pictures of food are great but they get old after a while.
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