5 Napkin Burger Oozes With Taste

Eunice and I were invite to a restaurant called 5 Napkin Burger located in Astoria, a section of Queens here in New York City. There are other 5 Napkin Burger restaurants in Manhattan that we heard are pretty much the same except for a few specials that the chef concocts. Now, aside from burgers, they also feature seafood that includes some goodies on their Sushi Menu. There was a special sushi roll made with soft shell crab and we also had a California Rainbow roll with king crab, mango and cucumber on the inside, tuna, salmon, yellow tail and avocado on the outside.

Then there was this way cool appetizer of deep fried pickles and pastrami sitting atop sauerkraut with a mustard oil. Wow was that good!

Where most places have sliders of chopped meat, this one had lobster instead. The lobster was mixed with their specially made mayo, scallions and cucumbers. Of course we had to have their signature 5 Napkin Burger, of 10-oz. of fresh ground chuck, caramelized onions, gruyere cheese, and rosemary aioli on a bun. I love their buns! Because we got this we were able to taste 5 Napkin Burger's house made pickles.

Merle happened to be there and shared her black and white shake with us. Delicious!

Unbelievably Poor Service (UPS) Does It Again

It's only a week later that UPS (Unbelievably Poor Service) does it again. Yes, another crushed box was delivered and a box inside, no matter how much "stuffing" was crushed as well. This time driver Fernando Ortiz said that UPS just piles the boxes on the trucks without thinking about whether a heavy box is crushing a smaller one. We looked at the boxes and were appalled, once more.

GOING SHOPPING AND UPS

Eunice and I needed to do some shopping. We first went to Staples because the printer that we are using said that the ink had to be changed and we certainly wanted to be able to print out a photo of Rowena's rabbit, Carrot Jam, who we met in Norfolk. It gets difficult traveling without Merle sometimes, because we don't have any money. We were considering taking a job at Trader Joe's.

As we are hanging out in Merle's office, we could faintly see a UPS (Unbelievably Poor Service) guy approaching the door. Merle got up as she heard the doorbell, but by the time she opened the door, the guy left and Merle could see the truck just down the street. The box, however, was crushed. She waited to see if the schmuck would get out of the truck to perhaps acknowledge this. Nothing. Merle called UPS and the rest is on her blog. We were shocked to see not only that the box was crushed but that the two cakes sent to us by Rowena were crushed as well. Thank goodness the books were okay. Rowena sent Eunice and I one of her books that she wrote herself and even signed it.

COULD IT BE?

Eunice and I were pecking on the computer when we found a photo on Facebook. OMG I think that if she wasn't our mother she sure looks like she is. We were really startled enough to make our jaws drop.

LAST DAY IN WINNIPEG

Time goes by so fast when you're having fun! Eunice and I went to Assiniboine Park, home to the Assiniboine Park Zoo and Assiniboine Park Conservatory. We only had time to visit the zoo. It was a pretty big zoo, too and almost got lost. There were lots of different animals.

When we got back to the Fairmont Hotel, we had lunch with this guy Michael Blahuta who is the Food & Beverage Manager. He told us about this great place called Nucci's Gelati where they had the best cold processed gelato. Mmmmmm...

Even though there was more left to the day, we decided to chill out and enjoy meeting a whole bunch of friendly people hanging out in the Gold Lounge and saying our goodbyes to the staff.

ANOTHER DAY IN WINNIPEG

When we got back to our hotel, there was a jar of some special honey waiting for us. Esther and I just love being at the Fairmont Hotel on the Gold floor. While Merle was having breakfast we made friends with Marie Paz Natividad, Rhosan Estoy, David Koetke and Colleen Bothor in the Gold Lounge. Gee are they all so cool! At one point Merle, Eunice and I manned...I mean womaned the desk.

We went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery at 300 Memorial Blvd. It was a pretty big art museum but not as huge as the Met or MOMM in New York. There were certainly enough galleries to view with both the painted art and sculptures...as you can see.

Then we went to an area called The Forks with lots of stores, food places and stuff like that. Merle was getting a spa treatment while we walked around. Manitoba tourism has an office there with some cool exhibits.

In the evening we went to St. Boniface Cathedral's cemetery for Theatre in the Cemetery. Stories down in costume about French, Metis and Mantoban history. The mosquitoes were so bad that we got chicken skin from it!

A DAY IN WINNIPEG

Eunice and I made our way to the Exchange District BIZ at Old Market Square for something called a Death & Debauchery tour. This company seems to have other walking tours, but we thought this would be a bit naughty and more interesting to hear. All about explosions, angry mobs, prostitutes and eating bears! We also loved just simply checking out this area as well.

Afterward we went to the Manitoba Museum at 190 Rupert Avenue and managed to hit all eight interpretive galleries including the Hudson's Bay Company gallery and the full-size replica ship Nonsuch, whose voyage in 1668 led to the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company. At least that's what they told us. We just liked checking it out.

During the evening Eunice and I went to Kildonan Park to see the show RENT, since we never got to see it on Broadway. Thank goodness we have rubber skins 'cause the mosquitoes were really biting. I think we'll let Merle tell you about the taxi ride, though.

TRAVELING TO WINNIPEG

We had a great time in Winnipeg, the capitol of Manitoba, one of the provinces in Canada. At first the pilots allowed us to go into the cockpit and make believe that Eunice and I were steering the plane. Needless to say we eventually had to go back to our seat and put on our seat belt. We were so excited about this trip that we shared one seat the whole way chatting about what we thought we might expect to see.

We checked into the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Winnipeg and got placed up on the 19th floor, the area that they call the Fairmont Gold. I tested out the bed taking a short nap while Eunice watched some Canadian tv. I didn't notice that we had gotten this great goody plate of desserts, compliments of the hotel. Eunice made sure that she saved some for me.

Off on a tour called the Hermetic Code Tour at the Legislative Building. It's like cracking the DiVinci Code! There was hidden meaning in everything we saw, both outside and inside and thank goodness we had Don Finkbeiner from Heartland International Travel and Tours to tell us all.

Afterward we went back to the hotel and had dinner in their restaurant called Velvet Glove. That evening there was a special Philippine menu. We were startled to see that they served a chicken dish to us! We thanked the chef, Kyle, for getting something else for us.

NORFOLK VIRGINIA DAY2

Esther and I got up early and went off to Rowena's Wonderful Jam and Jelly Factory. Rowena is such a cool woman. She loved us the minute she met us. She has tales about her pets as well. They are about as adventurous as we are. We got to taste the carrot jam...wow was that good! Check out www.rowenas.com

After that we went to the Virginia Zoological Park. We had a lot of fun there seeing all of those cute animals. I tried to eat some of them...ha ha. We really liked the African area.

We still had time to go to the Chrysler Museum of Art. It's a really good art museum that's has a whole lot of art, photography, sculpture, glass exhibit and more. The place is not huge enough to get lost in. Perfect size. We even tried our beaks in drawing and took a nasty photo just for the fun of it. Couldn't resist.

There is still so much more to see in Norfolk and we hope to come back. You should check out the website of www.visitnorfolktoday.com