Natural Storehouse, welcome to Life By Chocolate

Natural Storehouse, a wonderful organic store in Catskill, has joined the Life By Chocolate movement. Please go there and get your bunnies and your Life By Chocolate and enjoy.

Natural Storehouse
28 Grandview Plaza
Catskill, NY 12414
Phone: 518-943-1919

AND the Natural Storehouse in Hudson which is a beautiful store that everyone loves has also come on board. Now, if you live in Hudson you can go to the store in Hudson and if you live in Catskill, well, you have the store in Catskill for you Life By Chocolate indulgence.

Please go and support these store and get a Life, Life By Chocolate that is. ;-) (I've always wanted to say that.)

Natural Storehouse
173 Healy Blvd
Hudson, NY 12534
Phone: 518-822-0790

Please get your Easter Bunnies at these two stores. They also are carrying our vegan chocolates as well.

A Hudson Halloween Outing

Sunday was been an eventful day. My niece, Nika arrived yesterday. My Mom and Nika decided that they wanted to go to Hudson and see the scarecrow exhibit. And what an exhibit. More like mannikins exhibit. Very realistic and yet scary. We saw them at LiliandLoo. I liked them and would loved to have gotten them for our nascent sculpture garden.

Their expressions are joyous, exuberant and free while is juxtaposed with the raw and startling, almost unfinished quality of their primitive manufacture. A scary combination. A very disturbing combination.











Erie. Fresh and haunting, in all senses of the word.

This scene is the most sinester since we have our own tales of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

And speaking of juxtaposing, we went from this exhibit to Verdigris. Verdigris is bright cheerful and yet has a patina of homey touches that makes it a great place to go eat. They have a bistro like menu of chillis and salads and quiches. We didn't eat there though Nika did buy some milk chocolate from California. I found the milk chocolate inferior to what I use but all in all, this is a great place to go get a spot of tea and a scone or perhaps a hummus plate. Verdigris is a casual place and it is right down the street from LiliandLoo.

They even have these cute timers for how long to steep your tea. Let me weigh in here. I think green tea should be steeped for 3 minutes, oolong for 4-5 minutes and black tea for 5 minutes. The steeping time may vary with the tea. I like to steep the dragon needles green tea for about 4 minutes, since I consider it a white tea.










As you can see by the photos, very cozy.

Nika and I made some chocolates. I have pictures of that coming as well. Enjoy.

Food Sing? Not what we thought it would be

I haven't eaten there yet but since we do Chinese food at the inn, I hope it's great Chinese food or I will be put out. On this trip, we were in search of espresso and rest and had heard about Food Sing without knowing it was a Chinese Food restaurant. We went all the way up to Food Sing thinking it in the same milieu and league as Swoon, only to find this at the end of our walk. Food Sing review coming. I just can't say when. But I can say that we turned around and went back to Swoon for a drink, cappuccino and aperitifs. A good time was had by all.



We, my good friend Gregg from Northern California and I, also went out to dinner. The review is coming. Here's a little taste of that review.

"Once again, while we were dining, our waiter was changed out from underneath us. It felt strange and unexpected and yet somehow familiar. Can't I eat at this place and not have my waiter go home before I do?"

Hudson has gone to the dogs

Art dogs that is. Kim and I had a wunnerful walk around town. Catskill has gone to the cats and Hudson has gone to the dogs. They even have a dog parade. Sort of like Los Altos, California's Pet Parade. How I miss the homey touches.

Hudson New York, what a concept.

Swoon Cafe in Hudson, New York

Kim and I went for a late lunch at the Swoon Kitchenbar.



Swoon Kitchenbar
340 Warren St, Hudson, NY 12534
(518) 822-8938

We had very high hopes for it. Very high. My mom recommended Swoon and had a great time there. She went with some of her fake LA friends. I know, that's a redundant oxymoron, like good LA suburb, but because they're really from Danville, VA, not LA, they're really fake LA. Mostly. Mom told us the gazpacho was not to be missed. We did miss it. What we wound up having almost made up for it. Almost.



Swoon cafe is a nice place. Large and well lit.

I enjoyed their steak tartare. Not as yummified as Spago Palo Alto, which is now closed, but beautifully made with gherkins and toast (points). Do I hear a trip to the Jersey Shore coming?

The duck confit scrapple combination was good but as you can see, the egg was over poached and I thought the potato overshadowed the duck confit. However, a nice, $15, glass of Jean-Pierre Grossot Chablis, AC, went very well with the dish. Personally, I would have preferred this for breakfast. Personally, I would have preferred it for breakfast in Baltimore, home of scrapple.

Kim had a panino with chicken, avocado and bacon. She liked it. She enjoyed it. Remember, I have taken Kim out to the finest restaurants in the world and the French Laundry and Per Se and have given her the finest wines to drink, Margaux '61, Cheval Blanc '78, Krug '85, even a Clos de Mesnil, not to mention dozens of Yquem vintages. She always says, "They're fine." But still, don't that look good?

I loved their zeppoli (zeppole) with blueberry and crème anglaise. And yes, I started eating and had to stop and take pictures. So, I take full responsibility for messing up the plating. Yum.



Kim had a cappuccino. I had an espresso. Because we were having a late lunch, we were there until 5:00 o'clock and had our waitress changed out from under us. Sort of like an oil change when you're driving down the highway. The waitresses, I felt, lost their focus as they transitioned to dinner. Basically, the dining experience fell apart. Kim commented that she thought it was because of the change over from lunch to dinner and not to hold it against them. Perish the thought. So, in that case, I would not recommend coming in for a late lunch because you'll wind up with shoddy wait service. Before our team of waitresses lost their focus, it was good. Price was less than Lupa more than the Spanish Pavilion in New Jersey. But that's another story.