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Published: January 15th 2013
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Before we begin this chapter of our lives and blog, we would ask each of you reading along, to please consider being a “subscriber” to our blog. By doing so, you will be showing your support for us in our new adventure and letting us know who is following along. We would really appreciate the motivation. Also, by subscribing, you to get an email when we have done an update so that you don’t have to try to view it if there is nothing new. Our goal is to update everyone at least once a week while we are in Morocco. Inshallah! (God willing!)
That being said, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So, we are already in engaging in new habits - - Ann is learning MS Word (weaning off Word Perfect) and Clay is showering more than in CA. (Note from Clay – It’s overrated!) Anyway, our bro and sis (in-law for one of us) were kind enough to take us to the airport in style. Jim drove and we rode in the back seats! Turns out, Clay’s suitcase was 91 pounds (and contained no clothes!) and Ann’s was 73. Unfortunately for Clay, he got stuck with our
living essentials (you know, the Chef’s knives and all) ….but shouldn’t a woman naturally get more room for clothes (says Ann)? Our goodbyes were difficult, but we know we will see everyone again when we are able. There are so many people that are in our hearts and we will carry you all with us!!! We hope that our peeps (those able to anyway) will come visit us!!!
JAX to ATL and ATL to Philly and taxi to Holiday Inn, all in all that travel took about 5 hours. The weather here in Philly has been misty and about mid-50’s, and to us (don’t we need to learn Celsius?), that is quite nice. We settled in to our hotel and set out on foot down Market Street (in the Old City) for some food. We ended up at Panini’s Frattoria after being seriously courted outside on the sidewalk by the owner, Irina (we did not know who she was at the time). We were actually on our way to another restaurant that was well-rated by Trip Advisor, but she made the menu sound so wonderful and wine was complimentary, so ultimately, we could not resist. Interestingly, there
are many restaurants here which are BYOB (bring in your own bottle of wine). How they got that law passed is a mystery, but it makes the diner who likes wine more likely to dine out. We had home-made lamb sausage and a black, squid-ink ravioli with shrimp. YUMMO! The light sea broth that the ravioli was nested in was to die for! Complimentary red wine, soup, salad and lemon cake topped it off. We could barely walk back, but were glad for the stroll.
The next morning, we headed out for the historic sights. Although a thick fog had settled over the city overnight, we were undeterred and ventured out into the “pea soup!” See photos. Neither one of us had visited the Liberty Bell since it was moved indoors. (That may well date us.) The whole historic area was really crowded with tourist, mostly foreigners (go figure). Philly city center is a really nice, clean and historically quaint area. We walked around day and night and had no issues except that we did see a man pooping on a sidewalk (random).
When it was time to find lunch, we set out looking
for a Philly Cheese steak. We were once again courted on the sidewalk at a non-descript, corner restaurant. This pretty Eastern European female (we later learned was from the Ukraine) made us crave the Italian fare inside and she also offered us 20% off because we would be the first customers of the day. When we sat down, we began chatting with Jack Miller, the clearly person in-charge, who was very energetic and excited about the food. He was very knowledgeable about the hand-made pasta. The restaurant’s name is Pizzicato and there are no words to describe both the quality and taste of the food or the genuine hospitality of the people. Jack has a very good way of relating to people (as well as children) while they walk by outside and also, while they are inside eating. He tries, and succeeds, in making all that he speaks with feel comfortable and at ease, whether they purchase from his wonderful restaurant or not. There were several regulars that came in and they were greeted as family. A couple came in to eat and they had with them a young boy of about 8 years of age or so. The family
was speaking to Jack about pizza and mentioned that their boy helped in making his own pizza at home last night. Jack immediately offered to let the young lad make his own in the restaurant. Of course he took him up on the offer and was absolutely delighted to be creating his own pizza in a “real” restaurant! Please see the photos.
We were going to order a couple of things but then we kept chatting with Jack who recommended this and that and before it was over, we succumbed to his suggestions and actually let him place our order. We started with a marvelously well-crafted Insalata Caprese appetizer and a reserve Chianti. The calamari that followed was extraordinarily tender and was accompanied by three sauces which worked so well together that it was amazing! When the pizza arrived, Ann deemed it her new favorite. Clay, however, decided it was only the second best pizza in the world… the first being Leo’s Grotto in Florence, Italy! (Second is not so bad… and makes it number one in the States.) There were freshly made gnocchi that reminded us of delicious pillows of wonderfulness (we named them for how
soft they are) with Bolognese sauce. The sauce was the best we’ve ever had in the US (you may recall Central America prided itself on Bolognese everywhere, but I beg to differ). We ended up taking a significant amount of food back to the hotel and were sooo happy to have it later!
To top off the day and the most intense culinary day that either of us can remember, we dined at Morimoto. For those of you who are foodies and/or watch Iron Chef, you know Morimoto is from the original Iron Chef (Japan) and is a culinary genius and possibly the world’s best plater of food. We had the tasting menu along with the tasting drinks that accompanying menu. There are also no words to adequately describe this experience; we felt like Iron Chef judges due to the way the servers explained each course. Please see photographs. For some of the courses, we were so excited to try them that we forgot to take the photo until we had had a bite or two. Sorry.
Tomorrow is “staging” with our approximate 95 other volunteers. We can only assume that this event will
be very interesting and will last approximately 7 hours. For tonight, we have paperwork to do and sweet dreams to relish. Tomorrow, reality shall inevitably set in.
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