Krik's Picks

There are many reasons why my wife and I keep coming back to Paris. One of them is the immense variety of things to see and do there. Every time we return, we have a list of favorite places to see and things to do. But we also have a companion list of new things to visit and do. Ossip Zadkine, a sculptor's self-portrait.  The itinerary for our October trip included a pair of small museums that we'd read about -  Musee Zadkine  and the  Musee d'Art et d'Historie du Judaisme . (Both, by the way, are recommended by a French blogger who I follow. Her name is Clotilde   Dusoulier. She calls her blog Chocolate & Zucchini .) Our plan was to go to Zadkine first. It's located close to the Luxembourg Gardens and only a few blocks from the hotel where we stayed. This fit our plan of old and new nicely, since the Gardens are on our must-visit list. So on a bright Monday morning, after getting checked into  our hotel, we strolled across the Gardens to find t...

We all make compromises with loved ones, right? I don't know if visiting a cemetery would have been high on my list of things to do in Paris. But my wife really wanted to. So on an overcast and blustery day in mid-October, we trekked across town to the gates of the Pere Lachaise Cemetery.   My first suggestion - learn from our mistake. Don't walk. Take a taxi or public transportation. It was a long walk, 2.5 miles, from our hotel near the Pantheon . It wasn't a bad walk, but the neighborhoods were not particularly scenic. It was nice to see some of the neighborhoods outside of the tourist center of Paris. And, for that matter, it didn't take too much longer than public transportation. It took us around 45 minutes to walk it. The shortest public transit route took 31 minutes (according to Google Maps) and required a transfer. But if you do decide to walk, remember - when you get there, all you're going to be doing is walking around some more.  My wife had a list of g...

For Fathers Day, in June, my daughter's present to me was to have lunch together. (Sweet.) I got to pick the location. I wanted to be careful not to pick too expensive, in case she insisted on picking up the check. I didn't purposely pick a theme, but my choices all were along 50th Street in South Minneapolis. Two of the choices were reliable favorites:   St. Genevieve at 50th & Bryant and Terzo at 50th & Penn. The third choice was a new restaurant at 50th & France - Coalition . Tovah picked Coalition. It exceeded expectations. The South Minneapolis/Edina location is the second Coalition location. The original is located in Excelsior. We seldom go out that direction. I don't think I've ever eaten there. And now I don't have any reason to, since the new location is so good. The decor at Coalition is sleek and modern with chrome, brick, and high ceilings. My daughter arrived early and got us a high-top table next to the window facing onto 50th Street....

I don't really like New York very much. I serve on the board of Mazon , an anti-hunger advocacy organization. Mazon has a yearly board meeting in New York. That's really the only reason why I go there. If it weren't for Mazon, I probably never would go to New York. And yet ... It seems like my wife and I always have a good time when we go to the yearly meeting in New York. We walk around a lot. We see a lot of interesting things. We enjoy some good food and hear exciting jazz. Sometimes we visit acquaintances who live there. My wife usually does some shopping. Our most recent trip in May turned out that way. Here's what we did. My board meeting was scheduled for Monday. We flew in on Friday. Our flight was supposed to arrive early afternoon. But, first we had a delay taking off from Minneapolis. That put us an hour behind schedule. Then when we landed, at 2 p.m., we encountered horrendous traffic delays getting to our hotel. That took an hour and a half. (Our dr...

When my wife and I spent a few days in Boulder in March, my favorite restaurant was Cafe Aion. We had great French food at Brasserie Ten Ten and great Italian at Via Perla . But the lunch we had at Aion was so delicious and memorable that I'd have to say it was my favorite. As I wrote in my original blog post about Aion (click here for the full post), I liked the vegetable tagine so much that I sent an email to the restaurant requesting instructions on how to replicate it. I got this quick reply: "Roast vegetables with a little olive oil and salt - high heat in the oven. (we use carrots, butternut squash & cauliflower) "Make the mix: sauté equal parts of chopped ginger & garlic in olive oil. when they are starting to turn golden add in ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon, chili, bay leaf & saffron, stir briefly to release aromatics Then add in canned tomatoes and let simmer until it has thickened a bit. Then add in cooked chickpeas, the roast veggies and ...

Our local restaurant reviewer has a blog that he calls Burger Friday. Each week, he writes a post about a different burger served in Twin Cities restaurants. I do keep his comments in mind when considering different restaurants around town. But truthfully, I seldom order a burger. This past Friday, however, his post was about fish sandwiches. (Click here to read it.) I do have a favorite fish sandwich, which I've noted in a previous Kriks Picks post. (Click here to read it.) But when I was downtown at lunch time today, I thought about his blog post and decided to try the fish sandwich at Sea Change . I've written several posts about Sea Change. It's one of my favorite special occasion restaurants. (Click  here  for my most recent.) Fish sandwich at Sea Change When I reread my previous post about Sea Change, I realized that this wasn't the first time I've had the fish sandwich. I did like it both times. The fish is thick and moist and flaky. It's served w...

In early February, my wife and I took our daughter and her family to Florida. We attended a family wedding in Boca Raton and then drove to the Orlando area to take them to Disney World (grandchildren are 7 and 5 years old). It was a long and somewhat grueling ride. There were six of us with luggage jammed into a Chevy Tahoe . I'm not used to driving a vehicle that large. Of course, we never could have fit into any smaller vehicle. But it still was crowded and a long drive from Boca. My daughter went to college in Florida. She had made plans to meet a college friend for lunch. So before driving to our Disney resort, we side-tracked to Winter Park . They met at a casual cafe on Park Avenue, right across the street from Central Park. We didn't want to intrude on their reunion. And besides, we wanted to walk around a little to stretch out the kinks after our long ride. Oh, and we wanted a nice quiet place to relax and have a glass of wine before going to Disney World. My hal...