All posts tagged: APPETITE

The Luxury of a Really Good Piece of Pie

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

One of the joys of summer – in theory at least – is pie. Fruit pie, specifically. There’s an abundance of fruit in the summer months just begging to be baked into a good, old-fashioned double-crust pie. Blueberries, cherries, peaches, and strawberries – just to name a few. Everywhere you go there are road-side stands offering “fresh baked pies” – you can’t drive more than half a mile in the Hamptons without passing such a place. So why is it so incredibly difficult to find a good piece of pie?

What’s the Most Luxurious Way to Celebrate Spring?

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

Isn’t spring your favorite season? Watchin’ the flowers bloomin’ up from the ground, watchin’ the snow melt down, boy, you may dig winter, boy, but spring is my joy. One of our favorite performances by the late great Al Jarreau was the artist singing “Joy Spring.” Whatever your favorite season, that song will make you feel alive to the possibilities of springtime. There are some reasonably kooky and sweet annual festivals around the world to mark the arrival of the season. For example, in Zenica, Bosnia, the Festival of Scrambled Eggs celebrates the egg as a symbol of new life. In Zurich, Sechseläuten is the opportunity to set fire to an enormous snowman (called the Böögg) to banish the winter. South Holland hosts a 12-hour-long parade that travels from Noordwijk to Haarlem; at the Flower Parade of the Bollenstreek every float is constructed of bulb flowers like hyacinths, tulips and daffodils. And in India and Nepal, at the Hindu spring festival of Holi – also known as the “festival of colors” – people of all …

Best Luxurious Restaurants for a First Date in the US

Published by Pamela Thomas-Graham

You’ve met someone interesting. You’ve worked up the courage to invite them out for a proper, grown-up dinner date. Now you face the hardest part of the entire process: selecting the right restaurant. No pressure, but a bad choice here could make the odds of a continued conversation with the object of your affection a lot longer (we actually believe that if it’s meant to be, one bad date is not going to wreck you, but why roll the dice on that? You could laugh about it later, or just get it right the first time.)