Favorite Meal at Ivar’s
Ivar’s is a Seattle icon, with several different restaurants at different locations. The original Ivar’s Acres of Clams is still in downtown Seattle, on the waterfront. Another great favorite is in Mukilteo, right next to the Mukilteo Ferry, where they have both a beautiful restaurant and an outdoor quick-stop, so while waiting for the next ferry over to Whidbey Island, you can snack on fish and chips – or clams and chips, scallops and chips, salmon and chips, halibut and chips . . . you catch the drift. All hot and freshly made, there is no more wonderful fast food – to me – in the world.
During a break in my busy day, I had a crab-on-crab meal, Dungeness crab, it has it’s own sweet, intense flavor:
What you are looking at is a Dungeness Crab Cocktail on the left, and a Dungeness Crab Ceasar Salad on the right. Oh, yummmmm!
World’s Most Expensive Cities for Expats
By Mark Johanson
Where is the world’s most-expensive city for expatriates? It’s not notoriously pricey Tokyo. It’s not wallet-shrinking Sydney, Moscow or Oslo. And it’s definitely not surprisingly cheap New York City. Rather, it’s an African seaport you’ve probably never heard of: Luanda, Angola.
This finding from U.S. consulting firm Mercer underscores its annual survey’s purpose: to assess the cost of living around the world so that multinational companies and governments can determine appropriate compensation allowances for their expatriate employees. After all, more than half of oil-rich Luanda’s 5 million residents live below the poverty line.
“Despite being one of Africa’s major oil producers, Angola is a relatively poor country, yet expensive for expatriates since imported goods can be costly,” Barb Marder, senior partner and Mercer’s global mobility practice leader, said. “In addition, finding secure living accommodations that meet the standards of expatriates can be challenging and quite costly.”
Mercer noted in the survey that the difference in cost of various everyday items could be dramatic from country to country. The average cup of coffee, for example, costs about $1.54 in Managua, Nicaragua, while it costs $8.29 in Moscow. A fast-food hamburger meal in Kolkata, India, costs $3.62, compared to $13.49 in Caracas, Venezuela. A ticket to the cinema, meanwhile, can run between $5.91 in Johannesburg and up to $20.10 in London.
Cost of accommodation was another major factor Mercer looked at, and a one-month unfurnished luxury rental in Hong Kong topped the world at about $7,092 — more than 20 times as much as in Karachi, Pakistan. Yet, it was Moscow that crept in just below Luanda as the second-most expensive city for expats, followed by Tokyo, Chad’s capital city of N’djamena, and Singapore.
“Recent world events, including economic and political upheavals, which resulted in currency fluctuations, cost inflation for goods and services, and volatility in accommodation prices have impacted these cities making them expensive,” Marder explained.
Mercer assessed a total of 214 cities across five continents for its 2013 survey, analyzing data from March 2012 to March 2013. Cities were then ranked by the price of housing, transport, food, entertainment and clothing, and ordered on the joint cost of 200 items compared to the benchmark, New York City.
“Given the increasing numbers of business travelers, global ‘commuters’ and longer-term expatriates, companies are keeping a close eye on the cost of living for international assignees in different cities around the world,” Marder said, explaining the purpose of the study. “Organizations need to evaluate the impact of currency fluctuations, inflation, and political instability when sending employees on overseas assignments while ensuring they can facilitate the moves they need to drive the business results by offering fair and competitive compensation packages.”
Nathalie Constantin-Métral, principal at Mercer with responsibility for compiling the survey ranking, said that, overall, cost of living went up across parts of Europe, while it went down in much of Asia. Japan dropped significantly from last year due to a weakening of the yen against the U.S. dollar.
In the Americas, meanwhile, South American cities were the most expensive for expatriates, while Canadian cities moved down in rankings due to a slight decrease of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar. New York remained the most-expensive urban center in the U.S.
“Overall, U.S. cities either remained stable in the ranking or have slightly decreased due to the movement of the U.S. dollar against the majority of currencies worldwide,” Constantin-Métral said. “Yet several cities, including New York, moved up in the ranking due to a rise in the rental accommodation market.”
Once-A-Year Burger at Red Robin’s
AdventureMan and I are not vegetarian; we eat a lot of fish and we try not to eat a lot of beef, pork or lamb. Lamb isn’t so much of a problem here in Pensacola – you don’t even see it on the menu that often. But pork – and beef – are everywhere.
Once a year I have a burger. Really. AdventureMan will order a burger more often, and I might take one bite here and there, but once a year, usually around the 4th of July, I will have my onec-a-year burger.
(Do you have any idea how many calories one burger has in a resturant? It’s all the extras, the bacons, the sauces, the fried onions, it can be two days worth of calories in ONE burger. It can seriously clog your veins in as little as two hours after you eat one. )
Because I only have one, it has to be a really really good one. I got hooked on Red Robin burgers back in university; then, Red Robin was really a college beer joint that served really good burgers. I ordered the A-1 Peppercorn Burger, but when it came, it came on some kind of a roll 😦 not the real hamburger bun.
It was everything I had hoped for – and more. The meat was cooked perfectly, not overdone; juicy and not greasy. The bacon (yes, yes, I did. It’s just once a year) was crisp. The sauce was peppery, just the way I like it. And yes, I ate the onion rings, too.
Now I’m good for another year 🙂
Kuwait has Highest BMI in the World
The countries which contain the heaviest and lightest citizens can be revealed today.
This extraordinary graphic shows the average body mass index values for adults around the globe – with some surprising results.
With its wealthy society and love of fast food outlets, many would place the U.S. at the top of the list.
But it is pipped to first place in the body mass index chart by Kuwait. The Arab state has an average body mass index of 27.5 for men and 31.4 for women.
This beats America in second place which averages 26.5 for men and 29 for women.
From UPI:
Mexico is world fattest nation, United States No. 2
UNITED NATIONS, July 10 (UPI) — Officials at the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization say Mexico with a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate is the most overweight of the industrialized nations.
Previously, the United States with an adult obesity rate of 31.8 percent was the world’s fattest nation. Last year, the percentage of U.S. adults overweight went down slightly.
A report by the FAO said Mexico’s widely available inexpensive junk food and penetration of U.S. fast-food chains combined with a more sedentary lifestyle all contributed to Mexico’s bulging waistline.
About 70 percent of Mexican adults are overweight, while childhood obesity tripled in a decade and about a third of teenagers are overweight as well, the Global Post said.
Weight-related diabetes claims 1-of-6 one of Mexican adults — or 70,000 people a year — suffering from the disease each year, the report said.
The Hot Spot BBQ in Pensacola
“Have we seen that place before?” AdventureMan asked as we headed down 9th Avenue en route to the beach.
“I think it’s new!” I responded.
The next day was his day to choose where we would go for lunch, and without hesitation, he said “that new place over on 9th.”
When we got there, we discovered that while the Hot Spot may be news to us, it was well discovered by others – we got the last table. It’s a family owned place, they make their own sauces, smoke their own meats – just the kind of place we like to find and support.
I had the chicken sandwich, AdventureMan had the pulled pork. We split a piece of that homemade lemon pie. The service was great, so attentive that I could not discretely take any photographs of the food. Prices are reasonable.
Get to the Hot Spot early if you want a table! They are at 901 East LaRua; you can go south on 9th off of Cervantes to get there easily.
Fait Maison – Home Made – Label to be Required in French Restaurants
I love this article – protecting the essential nature of French cooking by requiring a home-made label on food actually prepared in the restaurant, so people will know that if it doesn’t say home-made, it isn’t. We were shocked, one year, to discover that the ravioli we loved at a little Italian restaurant in Germany came from big huge bags of frozen ravioli . . . . and although it was not a conscious decision, we never ate there again.
In another Italian restaurant in Germany, in Landstuhl, I still remember the surprise of Pumpkin Ravioli, so savory, so delicious, such a delightful eye-opener! And of course, home made.
This is from BBC News:
France ‘home-made’ label to combat reheated dishes
French MPs have approved a bill forcing restaurants to label as “home-made” dishes which were prepared from raw ingredients in their kitchen. The “fait maison” label on menus is aimed at curbing the practice of buying in pre-cooked meals from outside, microwaving them and passing them off as freshly made.
Restaurants marking dishes as “fait maison” fraudulently will be fined. The Senate (upper house) still has to back the bill for it to become law. MPs from both the ruling Socialist Party and opposition centre-right UMP called for the measure to be obligatory, overruling Business and Tourism Minister Sylvia Pinel, who did not want it to go that far. “We’re making things more transparent and restoring our trade’s respectability,” said Didier Chenet, head of restaurant federation Synhorcat. “Clients will know what to expect. The problem right now is that you push the door of a restaurant and you don’t know if there’s actually a chef in the kitchen,” he told Reuters news agency.
Countdown
“We’ve started the count-down calendar,” said my beautiful and very pregnant daughter-in-law, “We have so many things we want to get done before the baby comes.”
We were gathered at one of our favorite casual lunch places, a place where we could eat well and our 3 year old could be both free to roam a little, and safe to roam, while the grown-ups talked.
“We’ve started, too,” I smiled at her, “I need to finish up her baby quilt, and two quilts for the homeless project I have due in September. And of course, we will be out of the loop the last two weeks before she is born, so I need to keep motivated now.” I know she will call on me once the new baby is here; I am the back-up, the “can you fix dinner / wash the dishes / hold the baby while I shower / clean up the baby spit / run to the grocery store/ feed the cats” person. I love it. It’s why we moved here, to be here when they need us, when they need the help. Being close to family, being there to help when they need the help – this is one of the great lessons we learned from our friends in Amman, in Kuwait, in Doha, in Tunis.
We also have an Alaska adventure in store, planned before any of us knew the new baby was en route. It’s not Africa, but we aren’t up for another of those 17 hour rides from Atlanta to Johannesburg this year. Alaska will be fun, a sentimental journey back to my origins for me, and a whole new environment for AdventureMan.
“We’ll also have the school break to cover,” beautiful D-I-L added, “but I know there is going to be a cousin’s camp; I just don’t know when it is going to be.”
Cousins camp – oh what fun. All the little like-aged cousins get together for a week of hell-bent-for-leather activities, from water parks to fire departments to scavenger hunts, they keep those little rascals so busy that they just fall into bed at night. It’s all good.
“I know it’s all going to fall into place,” she sighed, smiling at our son, “but we need that calendar to keep us on track.”
Yeh. Us too!
It’s Why We’re Here: Lunch at Taco Rock
There is a graciousness in Pensacola that reminds me of life in the Middle East, although the local Pensacolians would be astounded to be compared with the Middle East. If you look closely, though, you can see the similarities.
There is politeness and civility toward others, even strangers. When workmen are in your home, you offer them ice water, or iced tea, and you ask about their families before they start work. It seems to us that when we call for help, we get the same service people coming to our house; I don’t think it is an accident.
People chat a little before they get down to business. I think many a Pensacolian would feel comfortable in the souks, sitting and drinking a little tea before they start to discuss the appropriate price level for the bauble they are considering. They ask about a person’s health, and they ask about your family. They take meals to those who are suffering or recovering.
People spend time with family. Families go to church together, families have meals together, families share child rearing. Multi-generations live near one another. People who went to school together more than fifty years ago form their own kind of family, sharing deeply, attending the funerals of one another’s kin. Funerals are well attended. Very Arab, if only they knew.
There are pockets in the United States where you find groups of Arab nationals; Pensacola has these groups, even a discreet mosque or two. There are stores selling international supplies, including zaat’r and sumak and harissa, chana dal, bulger, wuhammara . . . and restaurants billing themselves as ‘Mediterannean’ whose food would be recognizable to those in the Levant and the Gulf.
There is almost always a breeze off the Gulf to fight the heat and humidity and mosquitoes, and, by the grace of God, there is air conditioning and ice water coming out of the refrigerators. Life is sweet.
Life is all the sweeter because we can get together with our son and his family on the spur of the moment, and end up at a great family place like Taco Rock, where our little grandson can get down when he gets restless, and where there is plenty of time for us to chat, discuss Django Unchained, discuss new developments in entertainment technology, discuss upcoming vacations and arrangements – there is that great luxury of time together, and tasty food at reasonable prices. LOL, this is the Pensacola equivalent of a Michelin Red R, good local cuisine at reasonable prices. Hmmmm, Mexican is probably not qualified as good local food at reasonable prices, but close enough . . .
He is such a delight, our little grandson, who calls the coming baby “that little girl,” as in “when that little girl comes, I’m going to teach her how to float on her back!”
This week, there is another parade! Pensacola must be the parade capital of the world; so many parades! We’ll pick up our grandson, stand on the corner and wave our arms until they throw us some beads. Great fun and good exercise. 🙂
This post is really a great excuse to post some new photos of our grandson 🙂
Island Kitchen in Pensacola
“I think this is what MaMa might fix for us if we lived in Jamaica,” I said to AdventureMan as our meals were delivered at the Island Kitchen. We’ve passed Island Kitchen a hundred times, and many of those times AdventureMan has said one of these days he’d like to give it a try. This was the day.
There were other Islanders eating there – one eating oxtail and another eating goat curry. It looks like a lively place on the weekends, when expats come to eat food from home and listen to Island music.
I ordered the Jamaican Tea; it was delicious. I thought it was ginger, but the server said no, it was an herbal tea.
We ordered at the counter – so many options, and a set of choices unlike any other restaurant in Pensacola. Our orders were the special-of-the-day, AdventureMan ordered the Chicken With Brown Sauce and I ordered the Chicken Curry.
It was down-home chow. It was food like Grandmama would serve, if Grandmama were Caribbean. There are other options – Oxtail. Goat Curry. Beef Pasties. Everything looked well prepared, wholesome, and copious.
Still hoping for an Ethiopian restaurant in Pensacola . . . 🙂
Native Cafe at Pensacola Beach
Just when we think we know all the restaurants in town, Urban Spoon comes up with a Pensacola restaurant we didn’t even know existed. It’s getting a big buzz, too, listed as one of the most talked about restaurants in Pensacola. Hoping it is too early for the Spring Break crowd, we head for the Native Cafe after early church. OOps!Too late! And it’s not the spring breakers, at least I don’t think so, these look like locals.
We wait for maybe thirty minutes on one of the sweetest Sundays of the year, not too hot, not too cold, a tiny bit breezy – perfect beach day, and we don’t mind at all sitting outside, waiting for a table or booth.
Once we’re in, we can see why people like it. It’s not so original as Andy’s Flour Power in Panama City Beach, but they have original art on the walls, a funky decor, and a LOT of customers.
We see a lot of huge breakfasts being delivered. The Crab Cake Benedict seems to be a big hit, all the platters look huge. People are digging right in and look happy. Service is quick and efficient.
AdventureMan has been dying for some Biscuits and Gravy. His favorite place for biscuits and gravy, Adonna’s, in downtown Pensacola on Palafox, no longer serves biscuits and gravy. He says these are pretty good!
The little Alaska girl who lives inside me wanted crab cakes, but not all the bread and sauce that comes with the Crab Cake Benedict, so I asked, and was able to order the appetizer Crab Cakes, which was perfect. It came with Remoulade Sauce – yummm.
LOL, you can see, as usual, I forgot to take a photo before I started eating. There were three complete crab cakes; just be glad I remembered when I did!
The food was good, but we probably won’t go back until October or so, when the tourist season dies down. The Native Cafe has been FOUND! Too many people, too long a waiting line. We have the luxury of being able to go when no one else is around except those of us who live here. (You can live here thirty or forty years and you are still not a local; local is people who grew up and went to school in Pensacola 🙂 )
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