Laughing Dove

The laughing dove, also known as the palm dove and Senegal dove, is a long-tailed pigeon 

that is brownish on its upper parts, has a bluish-gray band along the wing, has a chequered rufus and gray patch on the sides of its neck, red legs, and outer feathers that are tipped in white.

We found one in Jaffa, Israel, but it is also found in Lebanon, Syria, the UAE,Turkey, India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arbaia, much of Sub-Saharan Africa and it has also been introduced to Western Australia. 

Abulafia - Jaffa, Israel

While in Amman our guide took us by a bakery that has existed since 1879: Abulafia or Abouelafia. 

Our group stands in front of the counter of the bakery.

It was right before dinner so we did not get a lot, and we saved some of what we got until later that evening. 

But in particular, we got a feta-cheese filled bread that was jam-packed with feta. 

It reminded me of the feta cheese bread we got in Greece, including the old brick oven cooking it right behind the counter. I think I enjoyed the Greek bread a little more because it was not so over-whelmed with cheese. But this was great too and made more fun because of the setting. 

Reem Al Bawadi Restaurant - Amman, Jordan

The last night of our trip to the Middle East, right before being taken to the airport for the long journey home, our guide took our smaller group of eight to Reem Al Bawadi Restaurant in Amman. Our larger tour group left that morning. We extended our stay with the morning spent in Jerash and the afternoon in Amman. This restaurant was just a short distance from the Intercontinental Hotel where we'd stayed. 

I believe "reem" refers to the "rihm" gazelle, an endangered antelope indigenous to the area. The sign has an antelope and the lobby has an antelope head and antelope relief. 

Note the small antelope head to the bottom left.

The eating area was quite a large hall with seating areas separated by dividers. We sat four to a table and were given a very large platter for each group of four. The food was good, a mixture of the typical salads and grilled meats, but a huge drop-off from Fakhr El-Din which our guide had taken us to our first night in Amman.  

It had been a long day and we got much more food than we could handle. 

Hummus, baba ganoush, falafel, pickled vegetables, a creamy meat, cheese and vegetable salad, etc. 

A platter of beef, chicken, french fries, etc.

Mouth of the South Southern Grub - Florence, NB

After visiting the Mormon Trail Center at Winter Quarters and the grounds of the Winter Quarters Temple in Florence, a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska, we decided to find a place to eat. We'd not predetermined a lunch spot, but noticed Mouth of the South Southern Grub on the way in. It had decent reviews on Trip Advisor (no. 63 out of 1,177 restaurants) and Yelp. 

As it was southern food there were lots of deep-fried items. The blackened chicken wings were large, meaty, and quite flavorful. Some of the larger chicken wings we've had. 

I loved their onion rings - not too much batter and very moist. When onion rings are like this there are not many things better.

The sweet potato fries were large and sprinkled with feta cheese. Another very good fried item. 

The Southern salad caught my eye because it had roasted poblano pepper, a favorite of mine, along with red bell peppers, green onions, Gouda cheese, another favorite, pecans and blackened chicken and a spicy dressing. It was really quite a superb salad, except the chicken was a little over-done. 

My favorite dish, although it was not executed very well, was fried gizzards, not a common menu item. However it was very heavily breaded and tough and rubbery. Despite that, I still enjoyed them. 

Overall it was a good meal.

Reid's Beans Coffee Shoppe - West Branch, IA

West Branch, Iowa is located just off the I-80 in eastern Iowa, about 12 miles east of Iowa City which is the home of the University of Iowa. Our reason for going to West Branch was to visit the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Hoover grew up in this small town and I'm guessing it may have been bigger when he lived here than it is now. 

For lunch we visited Reid's Beans Coffee Shoppe, virtually next door to a visitor's center for President Hoover and the no. 1 restaurant for West Branch out of 11. It is in a tiny building, is family owned, and focuses on fresh local ingredients and in-season fruits and vegetables in this Iowa farm country. 

Judy had a beet salad with fresh red beets, walnuts, blue cheese, pasta noodles, cucumber tomato and butter lettuce. Nothing particularly unusual or awe-inspiring, but good. 

I had a pulled pork wrap in a fresh home-made tortilla, with barbecue sauce and lettuce and a side salad with pasta noodles. Obviously fresh and basic.

We shared a piece of fresh peach pie. This was a little more unusual and obviously homemade. The peaches were fresh and it had a nice sweet upper crust. 

It was the best option in the nearby area and gave us a little flavor of small-town Iowa. 

Gram & Dun - Kansas City

We usually go to Trip Advisor and sometimes Yelp when deciding where to eat during our travels. Gram & Dun in Kansas City, Missouri was rated no. 6 of 1,141 restaurants in Kansas City when we visited (as of today it is no. 4). We were not particularly hungry but I wanted to try it. It is located in a busy, upscale, newer part of town and caters to a younger crowd. It is really more of a bar and prides itself in "pairing food with libations." The menu looked fun - not particularly unusual, but with interesting variations on old favorites. 

The shrimp and grits were the best grits I've ever had - by a big margin. The grits were heavy and thick and had incredible flavor. They were more like thick mashed potatoes and had gravy to emphasize that similarity. The large shrimp with it were cooked perfectly, juicy and succulent. I would visit again just for the shrimp and grits. 

My cobb salad was one of those unusual twists. It had a foundation of lettuce shaped like a canoe and the rest of the ingredients filled it and then slopped over the sides. It had the standard blue cheese and bacon, but also bamboo shoots and a nice mustard vinaigrette which were a little different. I enjoyed it. 

Judy's salad with seared ahi tuna had a wonderful presentation. It was stacked like a pagoda with varying layers of spinach, wontons and ahi tuna and enhanced with peanuts, sesame and a chili ginger vinaigrette. 

Sebastian's Table - Lincoln, NB

On our way through Lincoln, Nebraska, we stopped primarily to look at the Nebraska capitol building. From the capitol we noticed St. Mary's Catholic Church across the street and had a nice visit there, then drove by the Nebraska Cornhuskers football stadium. When I was a boy I used to watch a lot of Nebraska football games on tv. They were one of the top teams then so their games were on regularly. It was a thrill for me, even now, to see the outside of the stadium and peek in and catch a glimpse of the field. I note that BYU played Nebraska in Lincoln just this past Saturday and won with a Hail Mary with no time left on the clock.  

Nebraska capitol building

St. Mary's Catholic Church

University of Nebraska football stadium. One of the great football venues in the U.S. I saw one reference to at as a "cathedral" for football.  

In scouting out a restaurant in Lincoln, I decided on Sebastian's Table, a "farm-to-table tapas" bar with Spanish, Mediterranean and American influences. It was rated no. 6 out of 554 restaurants in Lincoln on Trip Advisor. It is downtown, not too far from the capitol and not far from the University of Nebraska campus. 

We were not particularly hungry, but I'd been looking forward to eating here and wanted to try at least a few items. The best dish was Moroccan trout, the most unusual trout preparation I've ever had. It consisted of a steelhead trout with preserved lemon, nigella seeds, almond, cinnamon and sour cream. The cinnamon was not overpowering, which was one of my worries when we ordered it, it was moist, had great mouth feel, and the combination of ingredients worked very well. A 5 star tapas. 

Moroccan Trout

One of their signature dishes is hazelnut Brussels sprouts. We like Brussels sprouts anyway, so had to try it. It was inundated with hazelnuts, more than I would have chosen, but Judy loved them. It had piquillo peppers, red, but sweet with no heat and orange gastrique, a reduction of orange juice, vinegar and sugar. The Brussels themselves were seared, a little chewy and full of flavor - and there were lots of them, more that the two of us could eat. Another very good tapas, although not quite the same level as the trout. 

Hazelnut Brussels sprouts

The cantabrian cheesecake with mulberries was one of the more unusual cheesecakes I've had, fairly stiff, an unusual flavor, and with mulberries, a great add-on. It was good, not great.

Cantabrian cheesecake

The mushrooms and pork, with pork belly, was disappointing. The pork belly was very bland, the serving was fairly small and over-priced in my mind. It was not a dish I would recommend or try again. 

Mushrooms and pork

In general, from our sampling, Sebastian's Table showed creativity, use of unusual ingredients and combinations of flavors, all things I appreciate about good a restaurant.