Category Archives for On the Ground.
First thing’s first: Cocoa Tea is not the official married name of Ice-T’s wife Coco. It’s a hot drink from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and a complete 180 from that tired sugar-filled cup of Nestle’s hot cocoa with the tiny, completely artificial marshmallows that you love so much. You can think of cocoa…
Since the Great CVS UnVanilla-ing of 2014, my Bluebird card has sat mostly dormant. Without the ability to generate my manufactured credit card spend through Vanilla Reloads at CVS, the card didn’t hold much value for me anymore. That all may be about to change… I just got an email from American Express that makes…
Room service is one of life’s great pleasures. There’s something about it, though, that turns us into greedy monsters — especially if we’re on an expense account or somebody else is picking up the bill. Instead of a bowl of oatmeal or other sensible breakfast, I almost always order bagels with cream cheese and smoked…
Like a quick Caribbean rainstorm in August, my St. Lucia trip coverage has now come to an end. I know — I’m sad to see it go, too. If you missed anything, check out all of my stories from the trip below. Major thanks to the St. Lucia Tourist Board for sponsoring the trip and…
Where do you think of when you think about chocolate? Belgium? Switzerland? Hershey, PA? These are all major capitals of chocolate production, but what about the place where the raw materials for chocolate are grown? We’re talking about tropical locations where cacao trees grow big oblong pods that eventually make their way into your mouth…
Food unites us, no matter where you live. If you love to travel, you know the joy of discovering a local delicacy that you never even knew existed — like egg waffles in Hong Kong! Jenni Killam knows that joy. Caribbean-born and extensively traveled, Killam recently opened Spices Cooking Studio in the island’s tony Cap…
When the St. Lucia Tourism Board invites you to come to the Caribbean and eat chocolate, the only answer is yes. For the past five days, I’ve been saying yes, yes, yes and now that I’m home with a reliable internet connection, it’s time to take you on a photo journey with me. August is…
For Part One of this Room Service Review, click here. To quickly recap: I just stayed at the all-inclusive Sandals Regency La Toc in St. Lucia where I started off my visit with a very standard Caesar salad and followed it up the next morning with my favorite room service breakfast: smoked salmon on a…
Room service at an all-inclusive resort is one of those magical concepts that seem like they can’t possibly be true. Theoretically, you can order food non-stop 24 hours a day. Sounds amazing, right? In theory, it is. In reality, the old maxim is true: you get what you pay for. You know that scene in…
Let’s face it: hotel executive chefs don’t get the same attention that chefs of individual restaurants receive and, yet, they have so much more responsibility. Instead of just one menu at one kitchen, they’re in charge of multiple dining outlets, buffets, on-site catering, room service, and everything else that relates to a hotel’s F&B program.…
I honestly can’t believe it’s almost August. Why is this summer flying by so quickly? In any case, it was another great week at Fly&Dine and we hit all kinds of hot button issues. On Monday, we announced the opening of a DC favorite over at DCA: Ben’s Chili Bowl Opens First Airport Location at…
The Los Angeles entire restaurant world is currently in a tizzy about the opening of Petit Trois, the small French restaurant/bar opening today next to its big brother Trois Mec. The collaboration of LA uber-chefs Ludo Lefebvre and Jon Shook & Vinny Dotolo (Animal/Son of a Gun) took the culinary world by storm with Trois…
Is it me or do the days seem to be flying by this summer? It feels like just yesterday I was talking about Tipping at Hotels, and now an entire week has passed us by. Hope it was a good one for you. This is what happened over the past week on Fly&Dine: Would…
As the impending Internet of Things takes root all over the world, digital security becomes more and more of an issue. Hotels are quick to offer new luxurious amenities to give guests more value for their money, but do these improvements leave hotels and their patrons more vulnerable to the whims of computer hackers? The…
