Book Review: The Vintage Caper by Peter Mayle

The Vintage Caper

Author: Peter Mayle

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Date of Publication: July 13, 2010

Pages: 240 (Trade Paper Edition)

     This wonderful little novel is a very low intensity crime escapade.  The basic plot involves the professional theft of three million dollars worth of rare wine from the cellar of a bombastic egomaniac in Hollywood and the insurance investigation which ensues.  Sam Levitt is a rogue corporate lawyer, wine connoisseur and sometimes private investigator who ultimately solves the crime.  He is aided by Sophie Costes,  a petite and perky French insurance representative whose local knowledge and connections complement Sam's investigation.

     The novel is really much more a platform for Peter Mayle, accomplished travel writer and Francophile to display his encyclopedic knowledge of Marseilles, Paris and French food and wines.  His lush descriptions of the architecture, scenery and (especially) the food and wine of southern France makes this book delicious.  Don't read this book if you are on a diet or are avoiding wines, because the temptation to indulge is very well cultivated by the author. An example of Mr. Mayle's enticing prose:

     "Sam went out into the fresh morning air and inspected his breakfast.  Neatly arranged on the crisp white cloth that covered the table on his terrace was everything a reasonable man could want at the start of the day: an aromatic pot of cafe filtre, a large jug of hot milk, two chubby golden croissants, and copy of the Herald Tribune.   He put on his sunglasses, checked that the view was still as fine as it had been yesterday, and sat down with a pleasant sense of well-being.  His cell phone rang."

     The Vintage Caper is a perfect vacation read.  It is entertaining, humorous and educational.  The author is at his best describing the experience of visiting southern France and all of the sensual delights which accompany that.  I enjoyed this book very much and think that anyone with an interest in travel, French foods and wine as well as fine writing would as well.

Dining in Key West - An Amateur Food Critic's Guide

Dining in Key West

(An Amateur Food Critic's Guide)

January 2011 and January 2013

       First, a disclaimer: I am not a food critic, but I do like to eat.  My wife and I like to try new restaurants when we are on vacation and prefer to try places the locals recommend rather than chain restaurants which are the same whatever city you are in.  We have been to Key West for two separate weeks in January 2011 and 2013 to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  The first trip we used a guide book for help and the second time we returned to some favorites and tried new places recommended by the concierge at our hotel (The Sourhternmost House), some fellow travelers and several tour trolley drivers.  There are hundreds of restaurants in Key West and this is in no way a comprehensive list or even a "best of" list.  It's just where we ate and what we thought of it!   We would hope that this might help fellow travelers to Key West enjoy their vacation.

    First a few tips.  Key West is an expensive place to vacation.  It can be very expensive to eat meals in restaurants.  We have found that early January is before the peak season.  Even though the weather is quite good, the prices haven't skyrocketed yet.  Secondly, we tried to eat our big meal in the middle of the day.  Some restaurants will serve their lunch menu until as late as 4 o'clock and the food is still great and the prices are lower.  We also found that many restaurants have Happy Hours with reduced food and beverage prices which we tried to take advantage of.  Finally, we often got an appetizer and split an entree which helped keep cost down some.

OK, here we go:

Banana Cafe  
     This restaurant is most known for it's wonderful breakfast menu.  It is located on the southern end of Duval Street (about a three minute walk from our hotel).  We have eaten here twice and enjoyed it quite a bit.  It is a bit pricey for breakfast, but, it's Key West!  The crepes are wonderful (I had the pineapple ones which were superb) and the oatmeal and fruit was also very good.  The coffee had a chicory flavor.  The waitress told us it was Neighbor's brand coffee.  The dinner menu looked good, but we never got back there for dinner.  My only criticism is that I watch my cholesterol and they do not use any egg substitutes so we didn't try any of the traditional breakfast dishes (omelettes, etc...). 

Banana Cafe

Louie's Backyard
     Louie's Back yard is located right on the ocean.  The "Back Deck" is a great place for a drink before dinner and to  watch the sunset. This restaurant was recommended by our concierge for our anniversary celebration dinner and it did not disappoint.  The views were spectacular and the food was even better.  The waiter was very knowledgeable about the menu and very helpful with the wine list. This was the most expensive place we have eaten in Key West, but for a special occasion it was well worth it.  The cost is really not more than you would expect from a fine restaurant in any big city such as Washington, D.C. or New York.  It was a very short walk down South Street from Duval.

Louie's Backyard

Your Blogger and the Mrs. on Louie's Back Deck Before Dinner

The Sunset from Louie's 

Blue Heaven Restaurant
     This restaurant is located in a building which has been a brothel, a cock-fighting ring and a boxing arena.  Hemingway used to box and also referee boxing matches here.  It has an interesting ambiance with roosters and chickens wandering around the outdoor tables.  The lunch menu is fairly broad and is served until late in the afternoon.  The food was fresh and well prepared.  The best part of the meal here is their key lime pie which is baked on the premises.  The meringue is something else.

Blue Heaven on Thomas Street

Grilled Mahi Mahi lunch plate at Blue Heaven

Oh my!  Key Lime Pie!!!

                             














Mangia Mangia Pasta Cafe
      This restaurant wasn't open for lunch so we went for an early dinner.  The menu is full of fresh pasta dishes and the seafood dishes are amazing.  The wait staff was very nice and the whole experience was delightful.

Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville
     This is the original Margaritaville and is on everyone's list of "go to" spots in Key West.  The menu is fairly routine bar food, although the conch fritters were better than average and I got a Mahi Mahi sandwich which was very good.  Go here so that you can say you did, but not necessarily for the food.

The grilled fish sandwich at Margaritaville

Margaritaville

The Conch Fritter Stand at Mallory Square
     We asked around about who had the best conch fritters on the island and the most frequent answer was this little stand on Mallory Square.  The price is right: 6 conch fritters for $6.50.  The coconut shrimp are very good as well.  We enjoyed eating these while watching the sunset from the Mallory Square pier.

Thai Island Restaurant
     We love Thai food and Thai Island may be our favorite Thai restaurant ever.  The food is very authentic and not too spicy.  The second floor outdoor deck overlooks the Garrison Bight Marina.  It is a little bit off of the beaten path on Palm Avenue.  We stopped there both trips on the way to the airport to have one more "Thai Island fix" before we left Key West.  The highlight this time was that we tried their key lime pie which is served with coconut sauce!

Thai Island Restaurant is on the second floor.
This bar was featured in the James Bond movie
"License to Kill" in 1989.

Us again.  We get around, you know?

Oh my, more Key Lime Pie!  (With coconut sauce!)

The Conch Republic Seafood Company
   This restaurant is located on the historic Key West Bight and has fantastic views of the charter fishing boats and yachts.  The fish tacos (which were recommended by the waite) were outstanding and everything was moderately priced.

The view from our table at The Conch Republic Seafood Company

The Southernmost Beach Cafe
     This cafe and bar is located on the southernmost end of Duval Street across the street from The Southernmost House.  They have great happy hour prices on daught beer and hors d'oeuvres.  Their menu ranges from burgers to specialty seafood dishes.  The Ahi tuna was particularly good here.  This is a great, causual and not too expensive place to relax at the end of the day.

Ahi tuna with pickled ginger and wasabi sauce

Not a bad view, eh?

Southernmost Beach Cafe at night

The Hogfish Bar and Grill (Stock Island)
     This is a fantastic place on Stock Island.  It is a bit difficult to find, but it's worth the trouble to find it.  You are seated directly next to fishing docks and the Atlantic Ocean.  The fish could not be fresher.  We did not go here on our last visit because we did not rent a car this time and felt like it would be an expensive cab ride from Duval Street where we were staying.  During our first trip to Key West we stayed at The Inn at Key West which is closer to the airport and  it was a short drive to The Hogfish Bar and Grill.  As a bonus there was live music the night we went (I don't know if that is only on certain nights).

View from our table at Hogfish Bar and Grill

Jack's Seafood Shack 
     This restaurant is located on the first floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Duval Street.  The hotel is notable for being the tallest building in Key West and a place where Hemingway would put up his friends and family when they came to visit.  The restaurant was nearly empty at lunch and there was only one waitress who was not particularly happy with her place of employment.  Despite that, her service was good, the lunch menu was diverse and the food was really good.  They have their own "secret recipe" steak fries which were tasty.

Old La Concha Hotel.  Jack's is on the
first floor.

Lobby of La Concha Hotel

Finnegan's Wake Irish Pub and Eatery
     We found this wonderful place by accident.  It is on Grinnell Street, across from the public parking deck (about four or five blocks from Mallory Square).  On our first trip we rented a car which we parked in the deck.  On this trip we figured out that this is very near Stop 7 on the Old Town Trolley Tour.  As an aside, of the two trolley tour bus companies, this is probably the best because they let you get on and off at 8 different stops for the whole day.  Back to Finnegan's:  They have a fantastic Happy Hour with unbelievably low prices on beer and food.  They serve authentic Irish fare and have Guinness on tap.  What more do you need?

Finnegan's Wake from the Old Town Trolley

       Well, I'll add to this list after our next trip to Key West (which hopefully won't be two more years in coming).  I hope this amateur guide to dining out in Key West has been helpful.  Enjoy!

Book Review: Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck

Hemingway's Girl

Author: Erika Robuck

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Publication Date: September 4, 2012

Pages: 280 (e-book edition)

     This novel is set in Key West in the mid-1930s.  The main character is 20 year old Mariella Bennett, the eldest child of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman.  Mariella's father dies unexpectedly and Mariella finds work as a housemaid in Hemingway's home on Whitehead Street.   Mariella must balance working for the Hemingway household with taking care of her morbidly depressed and dysfunctional mother and a sickly younger sister.  Mariella also finds time for romance with an Army veteran who is working on the overseas highway while fending off advances from her employer.

    The author's writing is strong, her plot and setting in particular are well rendered.  The author pays a lot of attention to detail regarding her setting.  She has done her research regarding Key West during this time.  I read this book while vacationing in Key West and found it fun to walk through the neighborhoods she describes.  There are parts of this book which I think are really excellent.  In particular, her description of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 which claimed hundreds of lives and caused untold damage to the Keys is riveting.  The author also manages to work in some discussion of suicide and the mental state which might presage that drastic choice.  I didn't like the parts that seem to devolve into a Harlequin romance story.  The sections describing Mariella's mixed feelings for Hemingway and growing desire for her younger boyfriend were somewhat syrupy.  The characters in this book aren't particularly well developed, especially the secondary ones.  I also don't feel that I gained much new insight into the life and personality of Ernest Hemingway, even though his character is central to the entire novel.

    Hemingway's Girl is a very entertaining read and the positives far outweigh my perceived negatives.  I would recommend this book, especially if you have a fondness for Key West or are planning a trip there.

A Key West sunset from Mallory Square

  

Book Review: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

Lost in Shangri-La

Author: Mitchell Zuckoff

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: April 26, 2011 (Hardcover Edition)

Pages: 384 (Trade Paperback Edition)

     Lost in Shangri-La is an excellent example of "creative non-fiction", a genre generally recognized as invented by Truman Capote with In Cold Blood.   Mitchell Zuckoff is a former reporter for "The Boston Globe" (Pulitzer finalist for investigative reporting) and a professor of journalism at Boston University.  He brings all of his investigative prowess to this work.  This is an engrossing story of a little known rescue mission which occurred towards the end of World War II on the island of New Guinea.  

     The city of Hollandia on the northern coast of New Guinea was a supply depot and support base for American troops moving up the island chain towards Japan.  A previously unknown remote central valley was discovered by Navy pilots and found to be inhabited by primitive tribes.  Twenty four soldiers embarked on a pleasure ride from Hollandia aboard a plane nicknamed "The Little Gremlin" to see this valley which had been dubbed "Shangri-La" from the 1933 novel The Lost Horizon.   There were three survivors when the plane crashed in the dense jungle covered mountainside.  The survivors included a WAC corporal, Margaret Hastings.  The story of a female soldier lost in a jungle with primitive and cannibalistic savages made for big headlines back in the States.

     The author uses contemporary documents, interviews with survivors, rescue team members and even jungle tribesmen to create a vivid and unforgettable narrative.  He deftly includes background on the natives, the geography of the region and some military politics.  All of these details are needed to understand the complete story.  The fiinal rescue mission is suspenseful and thrilling.  Photographs are included to make the story even more real.

     I found this a very compelling story of human perseverance and courage which the author tells in a very entertaining and instructive way.  I recommend Lost in Shangri-La highly.

The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

January, 2013

     We had the joy of visiting the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory during our recent anniversary trip.  This has been voted the #1 Attraction in Key West by The People's Choice Awards and TripAdvisor.  It is definitely worthy of this recognition.

    

      It is located on the southern end of Duval Street near The Southernmost House.  The Butterfly and Nature Conservatory is a welcome refuge from the noise, crowds and overall rowdiness of the rest of
Duval Street.  The Conservatory is the home to hundreds of butterflies of all sizes and colors.  At any given time there are 50 to 60 different varieties of butterflies to see.  There are also turtles, a wide variety of tropical plants and at least 20 different species of exotic birds.

    There is soft and soothing music playing as you stroll unhurried through the Conservatory.  The temperature is kept at about 85 degrees and it is fairly humid as well.  All of this creates an oasis of tranquility and peace in the midst of the wide open craziness of Key West.

    The $12 admission fee (adults) allows you to re-enter the Conservatory multiple times during the same day.  We went early one morning (it opens at 9 AM) and then went back later in the afternoon.  There is different activity levels amongst the different butterflies at different times of the day, so it was definitely worth the second trip.

     City View Trolley Tours has a stop directly in front of The Conservatory and is a great way to get to this attraction.  We would definitely recommend The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory to anyone visiting Key West!

Your Blogger and a Friendly Butterfly!

Book Review: Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe

Back to Blood

Author: Tom Wolfe

Publisher:Little, Brown and Company

Date of Publication: October 23, 2012

Pages: 502 (Hardcover), 534 (NOOK edition) 

     I actually finished reading this book several weeks ago, but it took me awhile to get my head around it.  Superficially, this is an entertaining story about art forgery.  Tom Wolfe's books, however, are never, ever superficial.  Back to Blood contains enough satire, social commentary, politics, criticism and curmudgeonly pontifications for ten novels.  In previous tomes this author has skewered modern heroes (The Right Stuff), the self-indulgence of the 1980s (The Bonfire of the Vanities), the "get ahead at all cost" mentality of the 1990s (A Man in Full) and the pompous self-importance of modern academia (I Am Charlotte Simmons). So, what's the message here?

     The characters are a motley crew.  The more or less main character is Nestor Camacho, a first generation Cuban-American who has worked extremely hard to become a Miami police officer.  His girlfriend is a nurse who works for a celebrity psychiatrist specializing in pornography addiction.  There is a dashing Russian art dealer who donated $70 million worth of art to the city, prompting the grateful populace to fund a museum to house the collection.  It is, of course named for the Russian.  There is a plethora of minor characters: a Haitian college professor of mixed race who extends his finances to buy a home in a white neighborhood and passes himself as "French", money mad art collectors who rabidly overpay for quasi-art at a Miami based international art festival, Nestor's family and a vast collection of Russian mobsters, Cuban politicians, African-American public servants (including the police chief) and degenerate sex-crazed and drunken Anglos.

    The plot lines are legion and weave the stories of these diverse characters brilliantly.  It is a wild story, well told, but again, in Tom Wolfe's novels the story is secondary to the message.  After letting this book stew in my sub-consciousness since well before Christmas, I think I know what the author is saying.  He is delivering the big message that the entire Republican Party missed in the last national election.  Wolfe is bludgeoning us with the fact that not only is this country not defined by white Anglo-Saxon Protestants anymore, but it is really not defined by any particular ethnic group or demographic.  At one point he coins the term "Welding Pot" which he feels should replace "Melting Pot" as the great metaphor for America.  He uses Miami as the penultimate international city to note that cultures and ethnic groups in modern America no longer blend, but are actually physically forced into interaction.  Like opposite poles of a magnet, these groups don't readily attract.  The results are not always convivial, or even congenial.  In Tom Wolfe's view of the new world order these interactions are laced with ethnic pride, rivalry, nationalism and violence.

     Tom Wolfe's books are always entertaining, always surprising and always challenging.  Back to Blood is no exception.

Book Review: The Odds by Stewart O'Nan

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The Odds

Author: Stewart O'Nan

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Publication Date: September 25, 2012

Pages: 192 (Trade Paper Edition)

       Author Stewart O'Nan continues to publish short, compulsively readable novels about everyday people.  The Odds continues the tradition of The Last Night at the Lobster and Emily Alone, setting ordinary people in recognizable but difficult situations.   The Odds is reminiscent of the best of Anne Tyler in this regard.

    This is the story of Art and Marion Fowler, a couple whose relationship is as empty as their bank accounts.  Simultaneously on the verge of bankruptcy and divorce, the couple travel to Niagara Falls for Valentine's Day.  They have an improbable plan for solving their financial woes.

     Told in the third person, the author succeeds in authentically depicting every emotional reaction in this tempestuous excursion.  O'Nan also is spectacular in his choice of setting and his use of detail.  Art and Marion's trip to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum on the very day when their plan will succeed or fail is priceless.  The juxtaposition of the absurd with the very real is humorous and melancholy at the same time:

     "Little was original, let alone authentic.  In smudged plexiglas boxes sat priceless artifacts of the ancient world, shiny with varnish.  Most of the exhibits were simply reproductions of old wire service photos.  Several times, waiting for him to read the notes on the wall, she had to cover a yawn."

     Stewart O'Nan's novels strike a chord with me.  It could be because his characters are so real, believable and easy to commiserate with.  It could be because the situations are recognizable.  His eye for detail makes the otherwise rather mundane stories come to life.  I think, though, that the reason that I like his books so much is because they are so well written.  His economy of words, precision of pacing and flawed but likable characters are a joy.  The Odds did not disappoint in any of these areas.