Saturday, December 28, 2013

Dueling Tex-Mex - Restaurant Reviews

This wasn't an intentional plan, but when we went to Memphis over Thanksgiving, my sister took me out for Mexican food for my birthday, and when she visited us in Dallas a month later, we returned the favor and took her out for Mexican food here.  It just so happens each was our respective favorite Mexican joint in our respective hometowns, so this morphed into a dueling restaurant review.  Like me, my sister grew up in Texas, so she knows a thing or two about good Tex-Mex.  Can the best of what Memphis has to offer compare to the real deal in the Lone Star State?  Find out after the jump!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Belize in Review

I've now posted reviews of everything significant we did in Belize, so I thought I'd end with a "recap" post.  I'll quickly go through what we saw, what we wish we had seen, and some quick tips if my series has convinced you to add a vacation in Belize to your life's to-do list.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Sightseeing at 35,000 Feet - Miami to Belize City

A few months ago, you have may noticed a post by the same name, where I tried to convey the unique views of landscapes from a moving airplane.  Even a familiar place can look very different when you're looking at it from a bird's-eye view.  I've decided to make this a semi-regular series to showcase the various landscapes I see while flying, especially since it's a lot easier to take photos on planes with the electronics restrictions now a thing of the past.  I'll start off with some beautiful shots of the Caribbean on our trip to Belize in October.  In case you're wondering why we flew from Miami, the nonstop flight from Dallas to Belize City was canceled a few months before we went, and we were re-routed through Miami.  I would normally complain, but a bank error in our favor got us upgraded to business class on the way back without us having to pay for it, so I'm willing to call things even.

The Gastronomy of Hopkins, Belize - Restaurant Reviews

If you've been reading my reports about our trip to Belize in October, you'll recall that we stayed in the village of Hopkins, on the central coast of Belize about 2 1/2 hours south of Belize City by road.  It's a small garifuna village of about 1,500 people, but there's a surprising variety of small restaurants and cafes in the village.  Unfortunately, many of these were closed since it was the off-season, but we did have the opportunity to try two local joints - one serving garifuna cuisine, the other serving more traditional Belizean cuisine - while we were there, along with the restaurant at our hotel, the Jaguar Reef Lodge.  Hungry yet?  See the details after the jump.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Get Your BBQ Fix in Memphis - Restaurant Reviews

If you're wondering why this blog post is late, "Icemageddon", the weather system that was forecast to produce the Apocalypse across the DFW area, is to blame.  While it wasn't quite the Apocalypse, it did knock out my cable, and my internet with it, for nearly 2 days, which made it sort of difficult to put up a blog post.  But don't take my word for it; take a look at these photos to see what we've had to deal with.  I'm just glad we didn't lose our power.


Anyway, with that out of the way, my mom wanted to visit my sister and my two nephews over Thanksgiving, and being the road trip freak that I am, jumped at the opportunity to offer to drive her up there.  And a road trip to Memphis means one thing - time for some good BBQ.  For the uninitiated, as opposed to the Texas variety, BBQ in Memphis means pulled pork and ribs, with a sweet yet tangy vinegar based sauce.  We hit up my two favorite joints in Memphis - the Germantown Commissary and Jim Neely's Interstate Bar-B-Q.  Read my review of both after the jump.