Hotel manager and our waitress greeting us with a delicious entree. Definitely our favorite restaurant in Roanoke!!
AmericanPressTravelNews-June 5th,–Roanoke, VA. Virginia’s Blue Ridge at the Roanoke, Hotel-Bob and Barb “Stopping to Smell the Roses.” Barb and I made our way to the restaurant for dinner. We had been here several years back and remembered the excellent meal and time we had at the Hotel and its amenities, including their excellent restaurant. We followed the hill-top overlook star to one of our favorite cities; Roanoke in Virginia’s Blue Ridge. So many great things to see and do here, and the people are so obviously outgoing to locals and visitors alike-we like “friendly” as a genuine attitude, we find it here. VISITVBR.COM
Chesapeake sea food melange of shellfish! Beyond great! At the transportation museum. Headline: Amtrak will begin passenger traffic again through Roanoke after a hiatus of over 45-years…
Our stay at the Black Lantern Inn B&B (540-206-3441) allowed us to easily reach all venues we wished to visit during our stay in Roanoke. Downtown Roanoke was one of our biggest treats. At the market area we had lunch at Nawab enjoying a taste of Indian Cuisine (oh, so for real) and then headed for City Center. How about a pinball museum where you can play as much as you want on a hundred, vintage blasters and banger’s-we loved this and so will you with this “blast from the past.” (stay tuned, more articles and images from Roanoke to come) visitvbr.com
We were greeted warmly and presented with a chocolate slice of double, double chocolate torte!!!Pinball machines, you can still find them in out- of- the- way old time roadside restaurants and coffee shops, but they are now outdated by the new cell phone and Android gaming generation! Here at the Pinball Museum you can play these oldies but goodies to your hearts and finger flippers content!Holy Cow; look at what we found at the Science Museum! We found a politician that whined at us!
Proud owners and operators of their dream restaurant business, the Velasquez’s posed for a picture for us.
AmericanPressTravelNews-June 5th, Frederick, MD.–Bob & Barb “On the Road Again” & “Stopping to Smell the Roses & Cuisine, this time in Frederick, MD. We met Jorge at the door of his restaurant opened in 2015. Mayta’s Peruvian Cuisine is his and his wife Melissa’s dream come true. Jorge came to the USA from Peru 16-years ago to cook and chef his way to success at a few different restaurants, finally he made the break and with his savings he opened his own restaurant. He came in legally and has created a fine and tasty niche restaurant that locals and visitors alike head to for large portions of dishes that are authentic (no sharing charges, said Jorge) real-world Peruvian specialties. The various ingredients found in the Peruvian hills and glades are used, the spices and flavorings are quite unique to stateside foodies and the dinner and lunch crowd as well. Outdoors there is a fine diminutive outdoor patio and Mayta’s delivers too! Give a call to 301-732-4441/www.maytacuisine.com They love to do parties and all manner of catering as well! Located across from Crispy Cream at 5010 Buckeystown Pike.
Passion Fruit juice, the real thing too! I hadn’t tasted this delight since I was in Tanganyika. Barb knows that between the banana chips, authentic dips, and that starter passion fruit juice, that I wasn’t going to be happy until I took this image, before I would be at the “tasting.”Marinated steak Kabobs, authentic Peruvian sweet potato and mountain giant kernel corn. A delightful mustard based seasoned sauce covered the meat and we devoured this balanced and tasty dish in short order.Our charming waitress. We spoke Spanish together, Barb asked me to translate for her lunch.Shrimp in garlic with rice and stewed potato’s–loved it!!
Americanpresstravelnews- September 19th, Crossville, TN.-“Bob & Barb on the Road Again”–Crossville has several very good Mexican Restaurants, now it has Abuelas Cuban Café. No, not all Hispanic food emporiums are the same. There are many variations on rice and beans, pork and beef, spicing and marinating, etc,
What’s different? An island such as Cuba, and the little city within a city; Little Havana in S. Florida, has its own distinctive take from Mexican and Puerto Rican foods. Cubans grow Yucca, of course, as in other Hispanic foods; Plantains and black beans, yet marinated roast pork, seasoned chicken and Cuban Spice Veggies are usually distinctive to Cuban style foods, of course not always. Havana salad (use of fruits such as mango and papaya) has avocado and a very different take on citrus salad dressing. Piccadillo bowl has savory stewed beef with raisins and olives (Mexican piccadillo does not usually have raisins) white or yellow rice, yes, but seasoned differently. All of this is to say, Cuban foods are just different and savory too, in their own right.
We tried the Cuban sandwich, and the roast pork sandwich-they are definitely quite unique in their food genre. In true Cuban style, meats are usually marinated, and this not only softens them, but adds considerable flavor. The Cuban bread is toasted with the ingredients in between the bread, usually pressed solidly on the grill. Various items (pork, ham, salami, pickle and cheese) are melted and hot when brought to the table with a side of sweet plantains (banana’s) delicious!.
Mom Karen Reph (the Abuela- means Grandmother) and her daughters; Kelsey Green, and Karly opened the restaurant July 7th 2017. But first, they did a few “pop up” trials where they went into two other off-day restaurants, and showcased their dishes to the public. They had great responses, and so they “jumped the broom” so to say, on to, and into 595 Main Street in Crossville and opened Abuelas Cuban Café.
WOW! The café con leche (Coffee with hot milk) a very Cuban coffee presentation, is superb. Their flan custard dessert was delicious, and the empanadas (little fried pocket sandwiches like those fresh fried pies) were filled with ground, marinated beef with raisins and olives. The empanadas were terrific, and we know; Barb and I lived near some of the best Cuban restaurants in S. Florida, and frequented all of them from time to time several years ago. When you go, try the Yucca Fries with some tangy mojo mayo for dipping. The Havana Salad, try it for yourself-its got the goods for flavors of the islands.
We really like Cuban coffees, and starting out the day with a strong, sweet Espresso is a real mood, eye opener, and energy wake-up.
Karen Reph, mom and grandmother amongst the 3-co-owners said that: “We brought to Crossville our heritage foods we grew up with, and felt Crossville folks would love them too.”
We explored something new in Crossville, and found ourselves at a Cuban Restaurant, so reminiscent of what we enjoyed in South Florida and the Keys, and we are happy to recommend Abuelas for everyone looking to spice up their lives and palates, for a change of pace. Abuelas is Located at 595 Main Street, store #102 in Crossville.
By the way Barb and I wrote the book “Best Restaurants in the Florida Keys.”(Available at Amazon) Of the hundreds of restaurants, one of our favorites was a Cuban Restaurant.
Japan suffered greatly for being the aggressor in a war they mightily regretted.And a cousin was in the middle of it all!
American Press Travel News-Bob and Barb “On The Road Again-this time in Oak Ridge, TN–Secret City No Longer a Secret
“Shhh, don’t ask and don’t tell was the official mantra of, and for anyone living and working in Oak Ridge, Tennessee over 7-decades ago.
Barb and I jumped at the opportunity to check out a terrific area that offers museums, fishing, great restaurants, and even bird watching, not necessarily in that order.”
Imagine visiting a city that wasn’t even on the map until the late 40’s. People who lived in that city had no address and phone available to the outside world. Their street addresses were in coded names. It was as if they lived on an island, did everything together on a social basis with what turned out to be an extended family of some 75,000 people. These were specialists, and their families in unique scientific fields in physics, chemistry electrical and chemical engineering, boiler making, construction specialists, metallurgists, and heavy construction development where K-25, a mile long was the largest building under cover of roof, at 44-acres was constructed at that time.
In1941, just after Pearl Harbor was bombed, most all of these folks were brought to a place that they couldn’t write home about, or have their friends and family visit.
They were on a mission, an incredible mission to assist in ending the war in the Pacific and what they wrought, the Atom Bomb did just that, after this hellish bomb was unleashed on Japan, it helped save hundreds of thousands of our service men and women, who would have had to storm the beaches of Japan, and those people that would assist them.
Oak Ridge is the city that allowed teams of physicists and brain stormer’s like Einstein and Teller to name just a very few, to help make this deed a reality. Today, about 8-decades later, there is still tight security for much of the business end of the city that is devoted to developing modern technological advances in nuclear medicine, nuclear power and various other technologies, with some of them absolutely top secret even today.
Some facts about early Oak Ridge are in order here: The Oak Ridge Reservation encompassed 59,000 acres in 1940s, Oak Ridge used one-seventh of the electricity produced in the U.S. during full production, the average age in Oak Ridge at the time was 27, Oak Ridge didn’t appear on a map until 1949, it was not incorporated as a city until 1959. Because of the secrecy demands of the Manhattan project, the Oak Ridge High School football team was only allowed to play away games, and the opposing team was not given the team roster of the players, they were only known by numbers. Every person over the age of 12 had to wear an identification badge at all times during the 40’s.
Visiting the American Museum of Science & Energy we passed by a large image of Einstein who had penned a letter to President Roosevelt that helped convince him to initiate the development of the “bomb” before Nazi Germany could do it. This letter helped kick off the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. The entire story is now in plain sight for visitors to this museum and it’s a terrific place to bring the family. Any age range can learn much from the hands-on displays and mind games that challenge with their simple and complex games designed to broaden the mind and enlighten the curious. Oak Ridge continues to earn the U.S. the title of “Super Power.” Live demonstrations, audiovisuals, machines, and devices will definitely keep you and the children entertained and delighted. We also visited John Rice Erwin’s open-air museum called “the most authentic and complete replica of pioneer Appalachian life in the world.” The museum contains over 250,000 pioneer relics including 30 log structures from pioneer times, a chapel, a schoolhouse, cabins and barns replete with actual relics of those times. Outstanding!
. We went fly-fishing with guide Clayton Gist (865) 806-7803 and yes, got braggin’ rights! Gist explained that the Clinch River is probably the premier trout river in Tennessee. We headed for Big Ed’s Pizza at Broadway in Oak Ridge, terrific on our way home.
