Our first stop in our Belgium Formula One weekend was the small town of Waimes, Belgium, to drop off my buddy’s luggage at their hotel. I couldn’t wait to see this place, a 4-star resort in this remote forest area of Belgium? We drive through Malmedy, a town infamous for the 1944 massacre of 84 American soldiers by their German captors. But we drive through Malmedy, and reach Waimes, a small European town of 6,400 people. We arrive at Hotel Cyrano, and I realize, European back country 4-star is a little different than big city 4-star. We park across the street, yes, across the street and bring the luggage over. Stepping inside the hotel, its small, even tiny. We carry the bags upstairs to their room on the 3rd floor via a tiny narrow, twisting stair case. The room was spacious enough, but we were hungry and headed downstairs to eat. Upon walking down and finding the dining area, wow, what a surprise. The main restaurant area was designed in a soft raspbeey theme. Cool!  Very modern, classic European. don’t judge the book by the cover.

I walk through the dining area, and I see a bar. OK, cool, I’m happy now. Then we see the large community tables of the bar side bar area. OK, this is nice. Classic Germany bruhaus style layout, large table where everyone congregates and shares the stories of the day over a cold beer and brats. And fries, don’t forget the Belgian fries. Belgian, not French.

So nice area, large and spacious, I step back to the bathroom, uh, water closet, And notice there’s an outdoor patio area for dining as well. Oh, that’s nice. OK, so there is more room to this little spot than I reckoned. Then I turn and notice, more community tables along a side patio. Cool, this place has a plethora of seating choices. And if you know me, you know how much I love dining and drinking al fresco, so this spot is right up my alley.

So anyway, we sit inside at one of the large tables, get our menus, and start practicing our French for ordering. After all, we are in back country Belgium. Ron and Terri speak German, so we have that covered as backup, but whatever they throw at us, we’re ready.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” We look up in astonishment. We thought we were in a foreign country? These guys all spoke English as clear as anyone from LA. OK, so Ron speaks to her in German, no dice. I try French, and she laughs at me. Oh well, welcome to the new World Order: America is King! The music, the B-52’s. Everyone wears Levis. The t-shirts from Nike, Guns and Roses, or some other Americana marketing slogan campaign.

So on to the food. The menu is…uh…Nuevo Belgian Americana. We order the burger, The Maxi-Burger Chez Gerty. Any burger named after the restaurant, with a hyphen, has to be good. I get a side of Buffalo Wings. Oh come on, I gotta try it to see how funny it’s going to taste. Terri also adds to the order a delicious little side dish of thinly sliced green Apples layered with goat cheese and cold baby shrimp. Reading the description from the menu, it sounds like it ought to be good. It has all the key components of a good dish: Apples, Shrimp, Goat cheese. All favorites of mine, please don’t mess this up.

Oh my! The food was so good, we forgot about heading to the track for an hour. That apple shrimp feta thing was sooooo good. The burger was one of the juiciest, tastiest I’ve had in a while. The bun was some sort of crusty, sour-doughy, crunchy tasty yummy bread. Crunchy enough to hold it all together, light enough to be a flavor supporter of a great beef burger. Add 2 types of cheese, tomato, red onions, pickles and a tasty Chez Gerty sauce, the burger exceeded expectations. Then the B-Wings come out, plump, juicy, dang me! This was not expected at a Belgian brasserie… in Belgium. And those fries! I caused a bit of confusion when I asked for ketchup and mustard. OK, ketchup they understood, typical Americans. But mustard, they were perplexed, but brought out their version, which turned out to be a spicy Dijon mustard. Good enough, the fries were my style: Big, fat and tasty. I even tried the mayonnaise. OK… I tried the mayonnaise, let’s just leave it at that. The food was awesome. Loved the servers, so friendly, loved the layout, fun and open and it was the perfect first meal in a new country after getting off a 24-hour flight. And now, off to the races!

I first came across Momofuku in New York. My wife and I were there for her birthday, and I want to find a top notch foodie restaurant for her. Unfortunately I waited until the last minute and the place was reserved for the next two months. That’s the popularity of such high end restaurants like Momofuku. But then why wouldn’t it be popular, the guy’s got 2 Michelin stars, and the restaurant is awarded “Best of…” in so many categories, including Bon Appetit and Gourmet Traveler.

We started with Crab Deviled Eggs. I love love love ’em! Deviled Eggs, but adding some salmon roe, and topping it off shredded crab meat and crispy Bonito, this sounded awesome! And it was. I know, in a Asian themed Michelin spot and I choose Deviled Eggs. Oh well, I’m not THAT adventurous, I just like good stuff regardless of the theme.

After zooming through our first glasses of wine, the entrees started coming out. She ordered the Rotisserie Chicken & Fried Bones. Tender juicy chicken thigh pieces and crispy fried wings that if you were adventurous enough, or hungry enough, you could bite right through to the bone. If only Buffalo Wild Wings were this tasty.

I got the Smoked Pork Chop. What I found interesting was that instead of a huge pork chop, it comes out sliced and tender as can be. A peach on top, and rye cognac broth underneath, it was BBQ heaven. Soft and tender, a delicate balance of flavors across a wide palette of textures. And huge servings!

To accompany the entrees, there was no way I could pass up on the Crispy Potatoes. Tender little fingerings, fried to perfection, light and airy, then topped with a truffle sour cream, shredded Parmesan cheese, chives. I didn’t even notice the truffle Tofu blended in. I may have been overwhelmed by the size. How are we going to eat all of this!?! We were so stuff at this point, we took almost half back to the room for breakfast the following day.

As we prepare for our fantastical voyage to Belgium and Milan for the Formula One Gran Prix, we also plan to take advantage of the new travelers Global Entry program. Unfortunately by the time we submitted our applications for Global Entry, it was literally a six-month wait for the on-site interviews at LAX. So instead we decided to make an adventure of it and scheduled an appointment at the San Diego International Airport. We figured let’s spend the night in Pechanga Casino in Temecula, gamble up a storm, go to the airport in the morning and complete our interviews.

Arriving at San Diego International, we head upstairs to complete our interviews. The cool guy behind the counter happens to be both a fan of BBQ and recently traveled to Brussels, and recommends Brussels Grill to us. Not sure of where it’s located, we google it, and like that, we have our first stop on the tour. This guy is pretty cool for a travel officer, but I do notice he keeps asking us little questions, as if we are going to slip up and reveal that we’re smuggling Black Mamba. whatever dude! After we’ve completed our application at the airport, which is a pretty cool airport, granted, to me, every airport is cooler than LAX, we head over for some lunch, and decide let’s hit Little Italy. Hey, I’ve got to start practicing my Italian sometime. Years ago, we carbed-up at some Italian restaurant when prepping for the Rock and Roll marathon. We knew it was somewhere on the main street of Little Italy, we remembered that it had a store in front, restaurant in back, (a culinary mullet) and remembered it was a lot of fun. Apparently there’s a lot of Chanti flowing at night. And since Little Italy comprises primarily of one main street, we were pretty comfortable that we’ll be able to find it again. And find it we did! Filippi’s Pizza Grotto Little Italy is a landmark here. The area was settled in the early 1900s by Italian immigrants (you hear that Trump?) and there are several monuments around town to pay homage to these settlers, including several monuments and plaques dedicated WWI and WW II veterans who gave their lives for our freedom. God bless them!

We head on in and yes this is the spot! Walking through the store just makes you that much more hungry for ordering food in the restaurant. Even the cans look good here, and of course the counter displays of Italian nougat began scratching my funny bone. I love that stuff, taste test coming up. We head back and are seated with the lovely Maria. She jokes with us once we tell her we’re from Los Angeles, turns out she was born in LA, moved down to San Diego to marry a Navy man, and she’s been working here the restaurant for the last 25 years. She’s a wonderful woman and just her zest and smile makes the meal and the Chianti that much better. I love good food, but I really love great people. I go for my favorite, Lasagna. Nancy grabs a big plate of spaghetti, and soon we chow down on some old world Italian cuisine. We begin to dream of what it’s going to be like to dine at an Italian restaurant when we get to Milan. I wonder if they’re going to be like this? Do they actually have little restaurants with Chianti bottles hanging off the ceiling? I guess we’re going to find out another four weeks or so. We finish up lunch, and began our journey to Las Vegas via an overnight stay in Palm Springs. But first, I must stop at the counter and grab some nougat bars.

Ever since our stop at the Ferrara store in New York’s Little Italy, I’ve been hooked on Italian nougat bars, called Torrone in native Ital-glish. I love the pistachio bars, the little crunchy nuts, the creamy nougat…heaven! I grab three bars with the idea of conducting a taste test when we settle down somewhere and I can clear my palate. And that opportunity came that night in Palm springs. Staying at our regular Hyatt spot, we open all three and cut off small taster samples. Each bar had it’s own distinct taste, and that’s the good thing. they actually have taste, not just flavored paper. The first is the Ferrara of course. Crunchy, with the extra honey punching through. Second, a bite of the Florentine. Oh my! Extra almonds give it a smokier, darker taste. Next, the Oliviero comes through with a rich nougat flavor. three tastes, three flavors. But this time, I have to give it to La Florentine. The extra almonds gave a it a little more punch of nuts and toasty flavor. The Ferrara came in second, the honey giving it an extra little sweetness, fitting my palate. But the Oliviero has nothing to be ashamed of. Any one of these would be my pick depending on the time of day. And as we broke open a bottle of red wine, the Oliviero actually began to taste a lot better and compliment the wine. Good times.

In the end, we spoke no Italian. And we had very little time to start practicing. I downloaded Babel in hopes that would supplement my high school Italian. Boun Giorno! Parlate Inglese?

Giada opens her first Vegas restaurant, which seems so cliché, but is a much bigger statement than you may realize. In the land of Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay and the heavy hitters like Joël Robuchon and Nobu, she stands as…well you guessed it: The only woman. #metoo

But her menu is anything but. A fusion of classic Italian and easy Californian, her most photographed dish is the huge, juicy but oh so tasty BONE-IN Rib-Eye. And the BONE-IN is emphasized because…well… it’s emphasized! The bone measures around 18 inches, and the rib-eye, tastes as big as the bone. Tender, tasty, and dripping with a perfectly over-medium egg on top, the dish hits the spot for any carnivore who is tempted by the menu description.

But in the fairness of reviewing, one of my favorite aspects of Giada is getting a table or booth along the Western wall just before sunset. This way you have time to settle in, order a fine bottle of wine, order from the menu, and just as the food arrives, there it is… that Vegas sunset. In the summer, the sky lights up in a beautiful palette of subtle desert colors…and then Laurence arrives at your table with that gorgeous Rib-Eye, the Lemon Spaghetti for your date, your guests are settled with the Rigatoni and the Branzino… and all is right with the world. And then he brings that huge pepper grinder, and you realize you are somewhere special.

You feel the royalty of ancient Rome seeping in as your take a bite of your entree, and look up through the 20ft windows at Caesar’s Palace’s Nobu wing, standing majestic. If only ancient Rome ate this well. And then as you’re relaxed through mother nature’s light show, the sensual sounds of the live music begin seeping in as you realize you’ve never heard a cello play Rhianna. Interesting. Cool. Easy.

But now the fun begins. Desert time! If you’re digging the Italian theme, then how could you have anything other than a Chocolate Hazelnut Macaron with Raspberries. Time for champagne to wrap things up. Yeah, probably should have ordered to begin with, but Vegas, baby, Vegas!

 And to wrap things up and savor the memories, step over to the live action photo booth to get an selfie in the original fashion.