If I had to choose only one dining cruise in my lifetime, I would definitely choose this cruise. A close second would be the one in San Francisco Bay, but the food is not nearly as good as this one in Paris, although the scenery is gorgeous as well.

We took this a couple of years back. D and I wanted to do a spring get-away to France and I’ve visited it often enough to know that as lovely as that country is, if not for Disney, there really is nothing much to do for the kids. Luckily, my sister was spending her break in her house in South Padre and didn’t mind if I left Beans with her. I don’t tell her often enough, but I’ve always appreciated her generosity and support for my travel adventures.

After all the food, we ventured out as it was already twilight.

This is where we disembarked from the boat. Nothing beat being welcomed back in land with the Eiffel Tower all lit up. It took us forever to get  a cab back to the hotel. This was pre-Uber era, although I doubt if Uber would have made a difference. This city is so crowded. We were walking for almost an hour trying to find a cab, which was good because we had a few thousand calories to burn. But for my high heels? Not so much….My advise for foodies on adventure tours? Loose clothes, comfy shoes and whole lot of appetite. Paris is delicious!

At around this time last year, I wrote a piece on underachieving on January. This year is no different. I put so much stuff on hold from last December that I find myself in a catch-up game on January instead of attacking new year’s resolutions head-on like the rest of the population.

When I started this blog, I never had anything else in mind other than chronicling my life in food. It never occurred to me that the reviews that I post will eventually reach the actual restaurant scene in the city, and that I’d get notices to review a new joint or just a new dish that just came on the menu. Because of that, I have grown very self-conscious on my writing. I find myself struggling to put in quality work which basically negates the purpose that writing about my food adventures relaxes me…Why my life can never be as simple as a bowl of fried rice, I will never know…

I’m now writing again, not because I’ve finally “caught up”. I’m writing again because there’s too much good food and good stories that need to be told. This restaurant is our choice for our last dinner in Vail. Obviously, as soon as we landed in Houston, life immediately happened. It started with Beans discovering that he left his phone in Denver (a few thousand calls and emails and Fedex shipping fee later, we got it back). I didn’t realize until now, that I haven’t posted this review after having promised management that I would.

Vintage is a French brasserie right across Four Seasons. So it was really very convenient because it was snowing that night. The concept of snow has always been magical to me, having been raised in tropical country. I soon realized that its magic is very short-lived, very dependent on the number of layers that one wears. Beans just finished the last of his snowboarding lessons and just about had enough snow for the day, so he opted not to come with us.

Vintage is known for their brunches but we were leaving the following day and we would be short of time to enjoy a relaxing brunch, so we decided to come for dinner instead.

The salt-and-vinegar fries is the star of this entree. I never thought I would say this, but it tastes better than the fancy truffle fries. The mussels are no slouch either. I don’t know where Bang Island is but,  man, they grow good mussels.

I noticed that most restaurant in Colorado have Wagyu steaks. While it is not comparable to Kobe beef, it’s a nice, close second. The steak was cooked perfectly, always a plus.

It was snowing pretty hard while we were eating so we decided to skip dessert while we can still walk our way back to the hotel.

This is the last of my Vail posts. I am looking forward to a lot of foodie activities this weekend and of course there’s Super Bowl! I’m collaborating with my good friend, Vinh, for the most awesome crawfish party. Stay tuned!!!