Santa Margherita Food Quest

I came to Europe without any concrete plan (I get stressed out with too much planning, and since every weekend is usually a new location/destination/adventure I don't like to think about any of my trips until the weekend/wedding I have prior to it has been completed and taken care of.) plus I knew that Mrs. Katie is the Queen of Guidebooks and would have an itinerary all mapped out for us that we could follow.

And I was right.

We woke up in beautiful Portovenere...it was a gloomy day...

But we hopped in the car and headed toward a little town called Riva Trigoso or something where Katie and Semmes had "The Best Pizza of their Life" while they were here on their honeymoon a few years ago.

In case you're wondering exactly where we are...we are here:

Unfortunately said pizza place was closed (we got a late start and got there around 3pm and in Europe if you try to eat anywhere between the hours of 2pm and 6pm they look at you like you are CARAZY). So anyway, they were closed...but we did find this delightful pastry shop with AMAZING desserty snacks!

Don't you just LOOOOVE this cute little cake?

We had this Vanilla Crunchy Cake that was TO DIE FOR.

Then we drove a little farther to Santa Margherita, the gorgeous little town just next to Portofino...

Soy pretty!

Awwwwww...

We LOVES being a professional third wheel!

We wandered around the town a bit...waiting for places to start serving dinner.

There were ham shops...

And pasta shops... teasing us with our every move.

Finally we settled on this cute little bar that provided us with Lambruscos (chilled sparkly red wine that AnneOnoue turned me onto) and lots of snacks.

FINALLY they started taking dinner orders and we had this DELICIOUS DELICIOUS pasta.

It looks like boring normal pasta...but the texture and the taste is honestly unlike anything I've ever found anywhere in the stupid USA.

Because we are major obeses and wanted to experience as much as possible, we ate not one but TWO dinners. Literally we finished our pasta dishes and walked up the street to another of Katie's favorite restaurants to have their weird raw seafood dish...

Their pesto minestrone (pesto was invented in the area, and it is AWESOME)...

And some PESTO PASTA that Semmesey loved almost as much as he loves his little baby...

Typical Day in Teeland! / Little Beast

Staying at the lovely Dream Hotel.

They have a pretty sweet roof pool where I spend my days working on pictures poolside.

I love coming to Thailand to chill out and catch up on work because it is SO cheap to stay in really nice hotels (I paid $300 for 5 days) so you don't feel bad about just staying in the hotel all day long. I'd wake up, eat the free breakfast buffet, work out, get a massage, and then work work work in between dips in the pool until my Princess Teebags got off work. 

On this day, I met Tee at her office, we hopped in a cab into rush hour traffic...

And headed to Lebua State Tower for drinks...

...at the gorgeous Sirocco, an epic rooftop bar.

(If you're thinking it looks familiar it may be because it was featured in The Hangover Part 2, or because I came here in 2008 with Anne & Felix.

Fun fact, they tried to build an exact replica of Lebua State Tower down the street several years ago, but ran out of money so the building just sits there abandoned...

The view of everything from up there is pretttttty awesome.

Then we descending into evening Bangkok traffic, which is the WORST, even compared to LA traffic.

It took us like 20 minutes to find a cab.

Which we had fun in at first...

But then ended up getting sleepy in.

Waiting and waiting and waiting.

While all the crazy motorbikes just zip by.

Motorcyclists in Bangkok are INSANE. I don't know how they don't all die all the time.

Yes that is a woman and her child riding together unsecured on the back of a motorbike WITHOUT HELMETS.

We were in this cab FOREVER.

So I just took lots and lots of pictures.

Which ended up being a good thing because I ended up leaving my phone in this cab when we got out, and through the pictures we were able to uncover the license plate from the picture above and the phone number for the cab company from the sleeping picture and tracked down and recovered my phone. EPICCCCC

Also, as you can see from the meter. The cab ride took 1 hour and 10 minutes to travel about 4 miles. And only cost us around 150 baht = $5.

LOVES a thailand.

Then we ended up at Little Beast. Where we of course had a BEAST FEAST.

And look what's on the menu! DKMB!!!

I just LOVEEEEE my Tee!!!!

We started with Crab Dip. SO good. SOOOO fat.

Also, LOVE knowing the owners of the restaurant because they put their little manager dude in charge of calling around to find my lost cellphone while we sat and enjoyed our meal. Literally in no other restaurant would this ever have been possible. Plus I don't speak Thai.

Chef Nan made me an EXTRA LARGE double-meatballed bowl of the DKMB.

They are FILLED with CHEEEESE.

Also new to the menu Iberico Ham and Rigatoni Mac & Cheese. Ridiculous.

And of course we had the Black Truffle Pork Cheek Penne, always a fave.

And another special, Grilled Kurobota Pork Loin...

I heart a Beast Feast! (And we come back tomorrow too!)

LOVES a Thailand!!!!!