Chef’s Recipe | Hemingway Daiquiri – Holland America Line

With the collective experience, passion and creativity of five world-class celebrity chefs, we are charting an exciting course for dining across our fleet. With global traditions and diverse culinary interests; menu selections from classic favorites to vegetarian options, our dishes are inspired by the regions you’ll visit.

Ingredients

  • 1 .5oz. (45ml) Mount Gay White Rum
  • 0.25oz. (8mI) Maraschino Liqueur
  • 0.5oz. (15ml) Grapefruit Juice
  • 0.75oz. (22ml) Simple Syrup
  • 0.75oz. (22mI) Fresh Lime Juice
  • Lime Wheel Garnish

Preparation

Assemble the first five ingredients in a cocktail mixing glass and shake well with ice. Strain into small cocktail glass.

Chefs Recipe | Baked Alaska – Cunard Cruise Lines

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Afternoon tea with an Alaska twist. Both sweet and savory options incorporating Alaska’s best recipes and dishes will be offered and paired with Alaska iced tea, champagne and, of course, tea along with the famous baked Alaska!

May this gem of a dessert bring you back to wonderful memories of your Cunard cruise to Alaska or bring you to book your Alaska cruise today!

Ingredients

For sponge cake:

  • 150 grams Cake Flour
  • 6 small eggs
  • 150 grams Superfine/Castor sugar
  • 300 ML Chocolate Ice Cream
  • 300 ML Vanilla Ice Cream
  • 300 ML Strawberry Ice Cream
  • 1 jar Maraschino cherries

For Meringue:

  • 130 grams Superfine/Castor sugar
  • 3 Egg whites only
  • 30 grams Glucose Liquid

Preparation

Sponge Cake:

  1. Set oven at 180C/350F
  2. Brush a rectangular pan with melted butter. Line with parchment paper and brush again with butter. Reserve.
  3. Using a mixer with whip attachment, whisk the eggs one at a time (incorporating each completely before adding the next one) and sugar until big and pale.
  4. Fold in the sifted flour and mix carefully. Mix until well blended.
  5. Spread the sponge mix in the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for approx. 8 minutes or until golden and inserting a toothpick in the center and comes out clean. Cool for at least 15 minutes, then, remove cake from the pan and allow to cool on the rack.
  6. Once cool, place metal 1 ½-2” rings over the sponge cake and cut out circles.
  7. Top with a small scoop of each ice cream or a large scoop of one for each cake, – up to you – smooth into a mound and top with a cherry.
  8. Freeze until solid.

Meringue:

  1. Preheat the oven to broil and place an oven rack 8” from the top.
  2. With the whip attachment on medium speed, whisk a small quantity of sugar, a tablespoon at a time, with the egg whites until they become soft peaks.
  3. Meanwhile, boil the sugar and liquid glucose with a little water to prevent burning. Take it to 118C/245F
  4. Pour the syrup slowly over the whisking whites and then continue whisking until cold and thick.
  5. Place meringue in pastry bag with large tip and pipe quickly over the frozen sponge cake and ice cream, covering everything.
  6. Place on a baking tray and bake under broil until golden about 2-6 min. Serve immediately.

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Three Mexican Festivals You Won’t Want to Miss

Three Mexican Festivals You Won

Festivals in Mexico offer a unique way to connect to the culture. These colorful celebrations are a whirlwind of activity, and it’s easy for visitors to participate. Ask your travel agent for advice on a guided trip to experience the festivities through the eyes of a local guide, or just stroll the streets and soak it all in.

Day of the Dead

From October 31 to November 2 every year, colorful altars appear in homes and public spaces throughout Mexico, particularly in the south of the country. While this three-day festival is a chance for families to honor lost loved ones, it’s more celebratory than somber. Colorful parades and processions wind through villages, and many families get together in the cemetery to eat, tell stories, and play their loved ones’ favorite songs all night long.

Respectful visitors are welcome to admire the public altars covered in food offerings and bright orange marigolds, or to walk quietly through the cemetery, which is both boisterous and hauntingly beautiful, as families light hundreds of candles to mark their loved ones’ graves. 

Festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe

In 1531, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in Mexico with a message for a man named Juan Diego: He was to tell the bishop to build a church on the barren Tepeyac Hill. When the bishop asked for proof of the encounter, Juan Diego returned the hill to find it covered in roses. He gathered them in his cloak, and when he dropped the roses at the bishop’s feet, an image of Mary appeared on his chest where the roses had been.

This miracle of the Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated throughout Mexico every December 12, with a week or more of celebrations leading up to the main event. Community groups and families gather in processions, walking through town to gather at the church. These processions take on the feel of parades, complete with marching bands, dancing, and elaborate costumes.

It’s a religious celebration centered around the church, but there is plenty of revelry, too, with street food and dancing in the town square and elaborate fireworks displays to end the night.

Mexican Independence Day

On September 16, 1810, Mexico began its war for independence from Spain.

Today, it’s a national holiday where communities showcase their national pride. The celebration starts at 11 p.m. on the night of September 15, when the president of Mexico shouts “Viva Mexico!” at the National Palace in Mexico City. Homes and public spaces are decked out with the red-white-and green Mexican flag, and parades and fireworks rule the day on the 16th – including the national military parade in Mexico City.

It’s also a time to highlight local traditions, with school and community groups coming together to dance, sing, and reenact battles in traditional dress.

Content courtesy of Ensemble · August 2018

Discover Mexico City’s Thriving Cocktail Scene

While Mexico is best known for its tequila and mezcal, recent years have brought a deluge of beautifully crafted cocktails to its capital. Bars like Licorería Limantour have made waves internationally and are leading the up-and-coming scene. Now, there’s a chance to bar hop some award-winning cocktail bars and see a new side to CDMX.

Mexico City is a sprawling and intense metropolis. Grand Art Nouveau houses with crumbling facades line multi-lane highways crowded with vehicles. Street vendors steep the city in the smell of slow roasting al pastor while world-class restaurants abound boasting minimalist aesthetics and gastronomic prowess. The cocktail scene, once confined to passable martinis found in the fancier hotels, grew from these culinary roots, and now the city’s most fashionable neighborhoods are dotted with contemporary bars and a new generation of bartenders redefining cocktail culture as something distinctly Mexican.

Casa Franca

La Roma, made famous by the Oscar-winning movie, is also one of Mexico City’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Its main boulevard, Avenida Álvaro Obregón, is lined with bars, restaurants, and cafes, shaded by the towering Jacaranda trees. Off a side street, you’ll find Franca, a casual bistro with excellent pizza, but head next door through the double doors and up a narrow staircase for its sister cocktail bar, Casa Franca. Made of a collection of small sumptuously decorated rooms, with heavy drapes, brocade wallpaper, gilded mirrors and golden lighting, it feels like a 1920’s salon. Watch the jazz band, which takes centerstage in the main space, or take up one of the bar stools in the adjacent room and marvel as the bartenders create one pleasingly strong cocktail after another.  

La Licorería Limantour

Just over the road from Casa Franca is Licorería Limantour. If there was one bar in the city considered the mother of Mexico’s modern craft cocktail movement – even in Latin America – this is the one. Opened in 2011, it now ranks amongst the best bars in the world. They use a staggering array of fresh ingredients, herbs, syrups, and spices, with an emphasis on the homegrown, incorporating Latin American traditions and flavors into the menu. The drinks may be upmarket served in beautiful receptacles, but the two-story Art Deco space – like so many bars here – is low key with windows opening onto the buzzing street outside. Their most popular cocktail is the Margarita Al Pastor – a twist on the classic through the lens of a traditional dish, which is entirely better than it sounds.

Maison Artemisia

Also in La Roma, Maison Artemisia is an ostensibly chic French restaurant in a beautiful 19th-century restored house; but after eating your short rib ravioli, you’ll want to head straight upstairs for the tiny cocktail bar. It specializes in absinthe (it’s run by a group of French expats, naturally), but the menu is far wider for those who might not be fans of the Green Fairy. Cocktails come in crystalware, and they never allow in more people than is comfortable for an enjoyable experience.

Baltra

In nearby Condessa, a dreamy upscale neighborhood dripping in greenery and known for its young professional – and dog-loving – residents, you’ll find Baltra. Hailing from the same people behind Licorería Limantour, Baltra is its more casual cousin. The atmosphere is closer to cocktail hour in a friend’s front room – you even have to buzz to get in. There are no servers or hosts, which encourages you to walk up to the bar and chat with your friendly bartender. The menu changes regularly but is inspired – as is the decor – by Charles Darwin’s travels through the Galapagos Islands. The shelves are decorated with natural kooky animal specimens in bell jars (a seahorse?), maps, and other curiosities.

Hanky Panky

Finally, head north to the edgier neighborhood of La Juarez for Hanky Panky. Half the pleasure of this reservation-only hotspot is figuring out how to get in. The speakeasy craze might have swept through New York and London and out the other side, but here in Mexico City, it’s still going strong. Hanky Panky is hidden within a taqueria, and your journey will at some point involve a refrigerator door. Once you’ve passed the test, however, you’ll find yourself in a sophisticated cocktail bar with deep red leather bar stools, intended to keep you comfy as you work your way through the menu. Each cocktail was created by some of the world’s leading bar talents, but you would be remiss not to order the Hanky Panky, the namesake cocktail, originally devised in London’s Savoy Hotel in 1903.

Content courtesy of Ensemble · July 2019

What to Expect from a Family-Friendly All-Inclusive Resort

Think of your kids smiling day after day, basking in the sun, and enjoying fun activities only tropical destinations can offer – this is what a dream-come-true family vacation looks like.

Across the Caribbean and Mexico, all-inclusive resorts have mastered their offerings when it comes to family travel. Here’s why you should be planning your ultimate family vacation at an all-inclusive resort.

Something for Everyone

Family-friendly all-inclusive resorts go out of their way to cater to each member of the family, from babies to teens, parents and grandparents. From pools to spas, golf, beaches, and many water activities, there is something for everyone at an all-inclusive resort.

Family fun activities offered at many all-inclusive resorts include snorkeling, scuba diving, and endless days of laying by private pools and on sugar-sand beaches. There are also plenty of opportunities to get kids and parents playing together with activities like mommy-and-me spa days, mini-golf, beach volleyball, or bocce. Many resorts also offer options to try something new like cooking classes, dance lessons, archery, or laser tag.

When it comes to dining, family resorts offer the best of both worlds – many have a selection of restaurants and buffets with food made just for kids (think plain pasta and meatballs), while still giving parents more tasty selections. Most often you’ll find resort cafes with lattes and cookies for a mid-day kick.

With so many options for all ages, all-inclusive resorts are perfect for multi-generational vacations; it’s a great time to invite grandparents to join in the fun.

Wild Water Park Play

There are no shortages of water parks at all-inclusive resorts. For bigger kids, look for resorts with large water parks, daring slides, or even surf riding simulation pools. For example, Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas has one of the largest water-themed attractions in the world featuring water slides, 11 swimming pools, a lazy river, and a kids’ water-play fort. If you’re traveling with little ones, most resorts have family pools – some even have toddler pools, too.

There are also ample opportunities to get off the resort and spend a day at an exciting water park. In St. Lucia, head to Splash Waterpark, the island’s largest water park with two waterslides and a lazy river. In the Dominican Republic, try Splash Water World with children’s pools and attractions just for them.

Kids’ Clubs

When you head to Mexico or the Caribbean, resorts catering to families offer one thing every family will love: kids’ clubs. These clubs, which cater to little ones all the way to teens, have schedules of activities to keep kids of all ages happy and having fun. They are also great for encouraging social interaction and can lead to new friendships on vacation and beyond.

For smaller kids, activities can include board games, arts and crafts, or scavenger hunts. Bigger kids will love trampoline experiences, video game rooms, and organized sports. Some even have nightly movies or campouts on the beach. While kids are having fun, parents get to take a well-deserved, guilt-free break.

Take a Family Break

There have been recent studies showing how giving children experiences, versus giving gifts, can help children feel more socially connected and closer to their parents, building a formidable foundation. At home, parents and kids can get into routines with parents spending a lot of time planning and organizing busy schedules. At all-inclusive resorts, there is no need to worry since there are many activities and shows to keep kids engaged and having fun all day – and into the night. Many resorts even have nannies available, so break the routine at home and let the resort do all the work to meet you and your family’s needs. Give your family a well-deserved break with a dream vacation for both the young and the young at heart.

Thinking about taking your family on a trip? Let me help you find the resort that best caters to your family.

 

Content Courtesy of Ensemble · March 2020

Good Eats: Isla Mujeres

Fabulous Family Meals in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

A short ferry ride from the hustle and bustle of Cancun, you’ll find lovely Isla Mujeres. At just over four miles long and only 2,100 feet wide, this friendly little island is a perfect family destination where you’ll drive a golf cart instead of a rental car, and the kids can play on the beach while you feast on fresh-caught fish.

Whether you visit Isla Mujeres on a day trip from Cancun or settle in for an extended holiday, these top family dining picks will give you a real taste of the island at any meal.

Breakfast and Brunch

The best way to start your day in the town center is to head just off the main street to Elements of the Island, a small café offering Swiss breakfast specials like birchermüesli, roasted potatoes, and apple strudel. The fresh, house-made jams in flavors like banana pineapple make your meal really pop, and kids will love the dolphin-shaped cookies.

If you’re craving eggs, you’ll find great ones at M&J Cazuela. The cazuela is their signature creation – a cheesy soufflé-like omelet served with tortillas. Traditional omelets are also offered or opt for crepes with savory or sweet fillings – including the kid-pleasing banana and Nutella.

If you’ve got a golf cart or don’t mind a short taxi ride, head to Polo’s Mango Café in the Colonia Meteorologico neighborhood for a kid-friendly menu (try the coconut French toast) that adults will love for its Mexican flavors and top-notch coffee.

Lunch

If you only have one lunch on Isla Mujeres, go for the Tikin Xic fish at Playa Lancheros. You’ll enjoy this whole fish grilled in the Yucatan style while your kids play in the Caribbean Sea less than 20 feet away. Plus, the guacamole is a great bet for picky eaters.

For a quick lunch break near Isla’s best beach, Playa Norte, pop over to Loncheria Alexia y Geovanny next to the main food market. This no-frills family operation serves delicious Mexican dishes at reasonable prices. Kids will love the agua de sandia – a drink of fresh blended watermelon with water and sugar.

Dinner

Avenida Hidalgo, Isla Mujeres’s main pedestrian street, is lined with great restaurants. A top pick is Lola Valentina, where adults will find some of the best margaritas in town (think watermelon and jalapeño or hibiscus and rosemary), and kids get their own menu of chicken or fish fingers, mini-burgers, or quesadillas with fries.

For family-pleasing pizza and pasta, head to Mamma Rosa, also on Hidalgo. The cloud-like gnocchi melt in your mouth and the pizza options range from basic pepperoni to the more adventurous combo of squid, shrimp, octopus, and mussels. Sit at an outdoor table to get a great view of the action on this lively strip.

If you’re visiting the island with a larger family or group, book the semi-private pagoda at Olivia. This central restaurant run by an Israeli couple features tasty Mediterranean dishes, including huge wraps that easily satisfy two smaller appetites. The tapas selections are great for sharing, and you can’t beat the candlelit garden setting.

Photo Credit: Christina Newberry

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