The Gold Coast (Our new home) - Connecticut - May 2010 - September 2011

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So it all happened very quickly. The one moment we were New Mexicans and the next thing you know we had both taken jobs across the country in Stamford, CT. There's many reasons for our move, but one of the many reasons were the possibility to be able to travel more easily and see more things over weekend trips or take a long weekend and fly to Europe. So hopefully we'll be able to post some more "international" blogs from now on forward.

Well Connecticut was kind of brand new to both of us. We have never been there before, we never went there before driving out and we really had no clue what we were getting ourselves into (so we packed our belongings in a U-Haul truck and drove cross country and within the first 5 days of being here we found an apartment, unloaded our U-Haul and bought a new car). We were amazed at how drivable the state was. All the towns are very close together (unlike New Mexico where towns are 40-50-60 miles apart here the towns flow into each other so that most times you don't really have a clue what town you are in). Within the first week of being here we drove across the state (only 2 hours) and experienced the CONNECTICUT'S SEAFOOD INSTITUTIONS up in the North-eastern part of the state. LENNY AND JOE'S FISHTALE in Clinton, CT was our first stop. Anything seafood as long as it is fried. It was the middle of summer, we were longing for seafood and it seemed like a good idea. It is Bring Your Own Booze (BYOB) so people love just coming to hang out here. The whole BYOB is a new concept to us. I love seafood and this was a heap of deep fried scallops, shrimp, calamari and cod. Anything "fried" kind of takes away from the food in my opinion, but it does add that something different to it so I got the fried platter and it was pretty good. Everyone needs that deep grease plate every once in a while to keep the grease monster satisfied. The Connecticut coastline is kind of known for their lobster rolls and that is what Nikkie got. I love it (a hot dog bun packed with lobster meat and drenched in melted butter). They also have another location where they serve "un-fried" food. When Nikkie's parents visited we went to NOANK, CT for ABBOT'S LOBSTER IN THE ROUGH. It was a much better location (right on the water) and we had some really good seafood with BYOB again (steamers, lobster rolls and a couple chowders). This time we made sure to BYOB and we had a grand old time. A great place to spend a weekend afternoon in the summer. The big draw is the lobster platter, but we have not gotten that brave yet. And talking about seafood. We did the MILFORD OYSTER FESTIVAL in Milford, CT and just fell in love with oysters all over again. They have a big stall set-up with all these fresh raw oysters imported from all over the country (some Canadian) so I guess I should also add internationally. You just pick your oysters and pay $1.50 per oyster and eat away. Our love is oysters rockefeller (an oyster with herbs, spinach, cheese and then baked/ grilled) so between the raw oysters and the oysters rockefeller we packed away about $40 worth of oysters. We were very, very happy New Mexicans... oops I meant Connecticut'ans. As much as we enjoyed the Milford Oyster Festival we absolutely did not care for the NORWALK OYSTER FESTIVAL in Norwalk, CT. It was in essence a big carnival with rides and we found one little stall that sold oysters. A complete disappointment. We love carnivals, but don't advertise it as an Oyster festival when you are having a carnival. One thing we did find about the East Coast is that a lot of festivals is really just a carnival. Nothing wrong with carnivals, but I am just saying.

Staying in the northeastern part of the state - as you may have gathered by now we love to drive so one lazy weekend we made our way up to EAST HADDAM, CT and ended up at GILLETTE CASTLE by Chester, CT. What an amazing structure - absolutely fascinating. Can't really describe it so you'll just have to go see for yourself. "Spikey", "rocky" and "highly unusual" would be good words to describe the place. From what I know the "real" author of Sherlock Holmes is the guy responsible for building this colossal place. Mr. Gillette was obviously very well connected and knew many, many celebrities so the house is pretty well documented but the best part is just all the quirks of the whole place (when he stepped out of his bedroom he had this mirror reflection contraption set-up so that he could always see who was at the front door to decide whether he wanted to open the door or not). All the nooks and crannies were really interesting to experience. Also this guy was some kind of inventor (a very Benjamin Franklin kind of guy) and in a little museum they show all the things he played around with - he loved trains. It was just a really, really great time for both of us to see this old, unusual house with it's amazing views.

Several times on our way to Boston we passed the small villages/ towns/ cities of STONINGTON, CT and MYSTIC, CT on the border between Connecticut and Rhode Island. Mystic is famous for the movie "Mystic Pizza" (I've never really seen it myself). Stonington was really a big surprise to both of us. Quiet, and mostly untouched by the big city people, we walked around the little art galleries and souvenir stores and stopped by NOAH's for some SWEET ROLLS (ok), CLAM CHOWDER (good), Bloody Mary's (really good), lobster omelette (terrible since it was a pretty bad omelette with 2 chunks of lobster) and coconut pancakes (the highlight of our meal and highly recommended)). Afterwards we made our way over to MYSTIC SEAPORT (an "ocean museum"). We saw the CHARLES W. MORGAN WHALE BOAT which was in the process of being restored. To look at the cramped quarters and imagine that these people lived in these spaces are almost unimagineable. We also got on board the JOSEPH CONRAD SAILING SHIP (a beautiful old sailing ship). There were just old ships/ boats everywhere for you to get on board and walk around on. The most unique future of the museum (and the one that makes it highly recommendable for kids) is that it has a "living 1800's" VILLAGE on the museum grounds. You will find anything you could hope for - general store, post office, tattoo parlour, ship building, rope making, etc. We stopped in at one of these "stores" where the person in charge was making a nail by hammering, heating it in a hot fire, hammering, heating, hammering, heating (the process continued endlessly) a piece of metal/ steal. It took him 20 - 25 minutes to make this single nail. And yes that is how they did it back in the day and it was things like this that made this a pretty special place. Here comes the festival thing again - we heard there was a LOBSTER FESTIVAL @ MYSTIC SEAPORT so that is the real reason we went. The festival was once again a big, big disappointment. No sign of any festival. Really just the local Lion's club pitching a tent and selling lobster dinners on the spot. Again I don't know why they call these things festivals when there really is nothing going on. Just call it a fundraising event (which is fine). So they do a lot of events/ festivals at the museum so it would be a good idea to pay a visit to the museum when they have one of these events since the festival/ event is free, but you have to pay to get into the museum (the event is inside the museum). After visiting some friends and spending the rest of the day on their boat and experiencing a beautiful Connecticut sunset we took the risk and visited MYSTIC PIZZA (Margharita pizza with a thick crust - pretty decent). If you don't know the story Mystic Pizza was made famous by a movie that was made about the pizza parlour (Julia Roberts's breakthrough). The place was packed and everything there says movie (the movie is on big screen tv's throughout the restaurant) and you can buy as many souvenirs as your heart desires.

About 40 miles up from Stamford along I-95 you run into NEW HAVEN, CT - home to Yale University. We go there quite often since there are some good restaurants and it has a pretty good university town vibe to it. NEW HAVEN DINING is another one of those things we went to do and I must say that New Haven has an abundance of great restaurants. That being said we did eat the best pizza we have ever had. You will find this at FRANK PEPE'S PIZZA on Wooster street in the Little Italy section of New Haven. The original "shop" is old, rustice (think exposed red brick and 1920's style soda) and just fun to experience. People stand in line outside, for hours sometime, trying to get in. Don't ask me what it is, but we love the pizza. And then to cap it all off you have LIBBY'S ITALIAN PASTRY SHOP right next door. Not the best canoli's (they are right up there though - for the best head to Remo's in Stamford) but the variety will blow you away. All kinds of baked goodies look you in the eye and it is hard to walk out of there without taking a couple pounds of baked goodies with you. Italian ice is also on the menu. Be prepared to wait a while if you go there later at night during the weekend because it seems that the entire city of New Haven come here on weekend nights. Bar Restaurant is a local brewery with the must try mashed potatoes pizza. Yeah you read this right. It is actually pretty good. Just make sure you get it with some bacon. BENTARA RESTAURANT is an excellent Malaysian restaurant that we really enjoyed. Walking around YALE UNIVERSITY is also a must for everyone when you are in the area. It is a beautiful campus (better than Harvard in Cambridge, MA - but then again that is just our opinion so you'll just have to go to both and form your own opinion (they're only about a 2 hour drive apart)). The buildings are very old and very gothic-y which is a big part of the draw. We have not done the whole "Europe" thing yet so seeing all these gothick-y buildings is pretty neat. There are ivy growing up all the buildings and it just feels very "smart" when you are in the area. Yeah I know that sounds dumb, but it is also kind of true. HARKNESS TOWER is a tower on campus that is a must see. MEMORIAL QUADRANGLE is kind of the "Harvard Yard" of Yale. Surrounded by dorms on all 4 sides and students walking around at all hours of the day. We paid a quick visit to the YALE CENTRE FOR BRITISH ART. It is free and worth a visit. For us I guess it was just another museum since our knowledge of British art is pretty much non-existent, but hey we are trying. Right next door is the YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY (free again) with "THE NIGHT CAFE" by VAN GOGH as a highlight. 45 minutes north of New Haven you will find Hartford...

For some reason it just seems like we always end up at a festival so we found ourselves headed up to Hartford, CT for the GREATER HARTFORD JAZZ FESTIVAL. It was a really great setting. People bring their lawn chairs, their picnic baskets, the kids run around, great jazz tunes in the air and the CONNECTICUT STATE CAPITOL in the background with the moon rising over the golden dome (it did for us anyway). They also have little stalls selling food, jewelry, clothing, etc. We also paid a visit to the SOLDIERS AND SAILORS MEMORIAL ARCH close by. People talk and hang out and just have a mighty ol' time with the music in the background.

Staying close to the middle of the state... The books sometimes get a bit much because we (I mostly) chase after things in the book. Sometimes it becomes a little too much - we run from one place to another to see things and sometimes we rush past things and don't really take the time to appreciate things since we are standing at one thing and already thinking about the next thing. But there are the times we find the things that totally blow us away - things we would never have known about and things that we would never have experienced if it wasn't for the book. Well CHRISTMAS EVE FOR LUMINARIES AT WOODBURY, CT was not that moment where we were blown away but... it was a really fun experience that is truly unique. On Christmas Eve the entire town is decked out in luminaries. Volunteers spend the entire day to line the town streets with luminaries. Thousands and thousands of little candles in bags filled with sand. All this for one night. The time and the effort that goes into this is truly amazing. It was a good (FREEZING) Connecticut night, but it was also an amazing experience. We stopped and walked around a little bit and had our own little "Christmas Eve stocking gift opening" under a little gazebo in town.

A little closer to home for us was CONNECTICUT'S GOLD COAST. I believe this is mostly considered Fairfield county in Connecticut. There are hedge funds galore in this little stretch of land (my new job is auditing hedge funds) and people make a lot of money. We were off to visit the BRUCE MUSEUM in Greenwich, CT. It had some really interesting things and overall it was a pretty good visit. The exhibitions was a little limited, but it is also a smaller museum with some more unusual exhibitions and constantly rotating exhibits. The exhibitions are rotated and change all the time so when we were there we saw some shawls and paper theatres. Now the paper theatres were from way-way back. The permanent exhibitions included "Earth's Minerals", "Life between the tides" and "Woodlands Ecosystems". We drove around Greenwich and ended up close to the beach watching a beautiful winter Connecticut sunset with the outline of New York City's skyscrapers in the background. Greenwich is awesome for car and people watching. Connecticut's beaches are a little quirky from what we can tell. The towns all seem to "own" their beaches in the sense that they are almost never free to visit. You have to either 1) pay for parking (there are no parking within walking distance) 2) pay to enter the beach. Just a warning. The beaches are not the greatest since pretty much all of Connecticut beaches are located along the Long Island Sound so there are no waves and the water is not always of the greatest quality. We also did dinner at MATCH RESTAURANT in Norwalk, CT. The food was excellent - make sure you try the Carpetbeggar oysters). Definitely one of the top 3 restaurants in Connecticut as far as we are concerned and also very trendy.

Stamford, CT and the surrounding area is very, very wealthy (but then again this is a huge understatement). People here have more money than they can ever spend. So this leads to some interesting things sometimes. The next little event we would never have known about, but luckily we read the paper every once in a while so that is how we actually found out about this. The Paul Tudor Jones Christmas light show. He is a wealthy individual and so every year he likes to have this elaborate light show in his front-yard accompanied by music and the works. This definitely is not your average light show. It is pretty spectacular what this guy does with this every year. We were pretty impressed by what we saw. This has turned into a pretty big event every year so much that he has to hire about 20 cops to regulate the traffic and make sure there is not too much of a traffic jam in the neighborhood. You stay in your car the whole time and the music is on a pre-defined radio station. The show is usually the first couple weeks in December and it's fairly easy to find in Greenwich, CT. Just ask around and you'll find it.

In Stamford they have the "Alive @ Five" show every year for the summer. Every Thursday afternoon starting at 5 they close a block in downtown Stamford and get all these random bands to come and play. They try and get fun acts (which include older bands) and some newer bands so for the most part they end up with some pretty good entertainment (the Beach Boys were the big one in 2010). The streets are closed down, the restaurants throw open their doors, beer is flowing freely and the restaurants in the area come and sell their food. Overall just a very good time with the Stamford locals (Stamford is a very young city with a lot of young working people). The AVON THEATRE is one of our favorite movie spots. They focus on independent films so every once in a while we discover a gem or two here. Very old school theatre with old seats, old decorations and old concession stand.

Besides travelling our biggest passion/ joy in life is food. We live for food. We live a peasant life so that we can spend our money on food. We only eat at a place twice if it was really, really good and we really, really enjoyed it. In each of our cities we've lived in we have kind of found our "comfort food" place. In New Mexico it was Il Vicino (split a pizza, salad and 2 glasses of wine for $30). In Stamford the place is Remo's. Good thin crusted pizza with really good salads and a killer canoli (one of the best I've had). Run by real no non-sense Italians.

I also did rub off on Nikkie with my spreadsheets so she now has her own spreadsheets that she created from a bunch of tv shows (Diner's, Drive-in's and Dive's, Anthony Bordain and Best Thing I Ever Ate). So here with go with our restaurants in CT. Unfortunately this is a comprehensive list of our restaurants in the entire state since this is a fairly comprehensive blog of the state and everything we have done so far.

Stamford, CT (rated from 5 to 1)
REMO'S RESTAURANT (4) (see above). BARCELONA RESTAURANT(4) (really good Spanish tapas with good wine and an awesome atmosphere). QUATTRO PAZZI (4) (newer restaurant with some really good Italian food). ATLANTIC PIZZA (4) (one of my personal favorites - Greek type pizza with a sweeter crust). MARY ANNE'S RESTAURANT (4) (probably the best Mexican we've had thus far in the area). EOS (3) (Greek - Grilled lamb chop (very, very good) skirt steak (not great), tzatziki)). CRAB SHELL RESTAURANT(3) (right on the water and one of the better seafood pastas I've ever had). Seaside Tavern (3) (Mariachi sliders - one of the better bar food places in town with an almost unbelievable list of slider options - also the open faced bison burger was pretty good). MARKET RESTAURANT (3) (upscalish with really good food - the first restaurant we ate at in Stamford). TIGIN IRISH PUB (3) (your typical Irish pub with good pub food and good Guiness beer). LOLA'S (3) (decent Mexican food but it is more like a tapas version of Mexican). CAPRICCIO RESTAURANT (3) (right next to Tigin and really all the fuss is about the fact that it is outdoors and an awesome summer hang out spot with average food) -Farfalle Salmone & Spaghetti Mediterraneo/ Rigatone Vodka). LUCKY'S (3) (Marquee salad, cowboy burger) has some very good salads (and is very, very similar to Johnny Rocket's). SBC RESTAURANT (3) (a micro-brew with more upscale food). BLACK BEAR (3) (the local chain bar with good burgers). TAWA (3) (a little more upscale Indian food). COROMANDEL (3) (local Indian food chain with a really good lunch buffet). RIVIERA MAYA (3) (a more upscale version of modernized Mexican food). THE FEZ (3) (Moroccon restaurant where we ate feta rolls, Roasted beet salad, grilled lamb pita, chicken lollypops (good), cous-cous, briwats (very unusaul dessert with meat)). Michael's Pizza (3) (margarita pizza). COLONY PIZZA (3) (definitely different and a Stamford legend - the pizza's are very thin and very oily). CHAVIN RESTAURANT (3) (Peruvian restuarant). CHINESE MIRCH (3) (Chinese food with Indian influences - pretty interesting food). FUJI RESTAURANT(3) (sushi). SUSHI X (3) (sushi with a pretty good variety on their all-you-can-eat menu). BRASITAS (3) (another Stamford legend with Latin infused cuisine, but we were a little disappointed when we were there since the food was very so-so). PARKWAY DINER (3) (diners obviously is a East coast thing and we love the breakfast options at diners - pancakes and milkshakes (ha ha ha). CITY LIMITS DINER (3) (hard to give these higher than a 3 since it's just a diner). BULLS HEAD DINER(3) (another diner but we do love them). THE SUNDANCE CAFE & WINE BAR(2) (3 cheese plate (highlight of the meal), San Diego salad, chicken wrap - this place was not a good dinner choice and looks more like a good lunch option and it definitely does not qualify as a wine bar). COVE PIZZA (2) (Margarita pizza).

Darien, CT
POST CORNER PIZZA(4) (we really enjoyed the pizza here). LITTLE THAI KITCHEN (3) (the curry dishes were awesome). SWIZZLES (the newest addition for frozen yogurt in town). GOFER ICE CREAM(3) (local ice cream chain). ESPRESSO NEAT (our new coffee stop at least once a week - really, really good coffee).

NORWALK, CT
VALENCIA'S LUNCHERIA (5) (another one of the restaurants on Nikkie's list and this one did not disappoint - awesome Venezuellan food. Try the Nutella and banana arepa). BONANI INDIAN KITCHEN(3) - (hole in the wall Indian place). POST ROAD DINER(3) (one more diner just for good measure).

GREENWICH, CT
THATAWAY (3) (good restaurant with upscale type bar food Whichaway Burger/ Fish tacos). Vilage Bagels (3) (sandwich shop). KATZENBERG CAFE (3) (sandwhich shop). BOXCAR CANTINA (3) (apparent authentic New Mexican cuisine since the owner is from northern New Mexico).

WESTPORT, CT
BLACK DUCK CAFE (4) (another one that was on Nikkie's list - the brie burger was phenomenal)

RIDGEFIELD, CT
BERNARD'S (3) (voted best restaurant in CT for a while now, but once again a pretty big letdown for us). Very stuffy with so-so food.

DANBURY, CT
SPASI (3) (decent Italian)

NEW HAVEN, CT
TONY & LUCILLE'S (2) (not very good and right across the street from Frank Pepe's).

Well that is it for Connecticut for now. We got through a couple book things in our first year here. Crossing off 7 things that included Connecticut's Seafood Institutions, New Haven Dining, East Haddam, Connecticut's Gold Coast, Yale University, Mystic Seaport and Stonington. 91 down and 3,231 to go.

From a Gold Coast food lovers haven

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Photos

Mystic Seaport
Old car burried in a barn

Stamford, CT
The home of Jerry Springer - first thing we saw at our arrival in our new home town.

Stamford, CT
Our little apartment the way it looked for 3 months

Lenny & Joe
Our first Connecticut seafood experience

Ha ha
Just exploring the options on our new little camera

Frank Pepe's
You got to try this

Libby's Pastry Shop
Not the best cannoli's, but a huge variety of sinful eatings

CT State capitol in Hartford
Got lucky with the moon and turned into a pretty decent picture.

Milford Oyster Festival
A highlight of our CT experience thus far

Milford Oyster Festival
She was a happy girl

Abbot
Father-in-law having his hands full. Where to start.

Barcelona
Good paella with a good bottle of red (not pictured)

Gilette Castle
A very unusual residence from the creator of Sherlock Homes

Gillette Castle
Having a good time at Gillete Castle

Gilette Castle
Not photo-shopped. Just a feature on our camera. I promise. Pretty cool though.

Gilette Castle
Nikkie's photo-taking ability on full display

Gilette Castle
Sometimes you gotta get down-and-dirty for the good pics (it was actually a picture of me)

Woodbury, CT
Us among the luminaries of Woodbury.

Norwalk, CT
Bell in front of a fire station after a heavy snowtorm

Stamford, CT
Yeah this is a little different winter than in New Mexico

Greenwich, CT
Sunset from a different angle