G Spot Search Gets News

It appears that a certain ethnic group, not to be named, believes that the G Spot may be located in Pittsburgh due to their notoriety of being called, the City of Steal. It's now mounting up in the search along with the latest piece of news...there is yet another "spot", since those women who have already found it, needed to give what they found a new name. It will now be known, for obvious reasons, as the O Spot and willing to give up the idea that an actual G Spot does exist!

Still more to...come.

Pittsburgh Ending

The last place visited was the Mattress Factory. At least in was a former mattress factory. Now it's a whole bunch of artistry works. Afterward I was all set to do my radio show and at a time constraint. Dealing with both looking to do an hour at Kristen's office and seeing that there was enough time to get to the airport. At this point the only writers left were myself and Kevin and his wife, Sue. We are in the bus and Kevin decides that even after his deadline was handled and everything else completed that he just needed to interview Kristen knowing quite well about both my time problem and moreso that I was going to interview Kristen. He wasted my time and made it a point to not only interview her while I was there but ask her the same type of questions that I was going to. Talk about both the lack of respect and childishness! He just had to get back at me for not getting out of his way. What a Fricken ego!!! Well, due to a mishap as could be expected from doing a radio show online, I wound up with only 15 minutes to do my show. I vowed to never let this happen to me again!

I thank Kristin Mitchell for organizing such a great trip in Pittsburgh!

Final Day in Pittsburgh

We had breakfast at Square Cafe. I had a blueberry and strawberry smoothie followed by a crepe with squash covered with carmelized pears and nutella. Then went to the Andy Warhol Museum. No photos allowed but took one from the door. Hey, guess who's cupcakes are here?

Dinner at Fathead's

Now we ventured over to the South Side neighborhood, along East Carson Street...hone to hip, unique stores, cool architecture and Fathead's Saloon. Popular eatery has over 200 beers with 42 on tap. I was interested in their fruit lambics from Belgium. Raspberry, Apple and Peach. You'd never know that you were drinking beer unto you drank enough to feel an affect. DEEEEELicious! I had chicken wings and baby back ribs to accompany the beers.

Duquesne Incline

After visiting the Oakland neighborhood, we drove through Station Square, "once the site of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad yards, today this 52-acre riverfront complex thrives with over 1.2 miles of the city's most unique dining, entertainment and shopping.

Now it's time to ride the Duquesne Incline to the top of Mount Washington and check out a fantastic view of the city. I took a seat in the back waiting for the cable car to start as I wanted to video the action. Guess who was asking me to move? That's right. It was Kevin who couldn't handle that I wanted the spot. I mean, after all, he just had to video then and where I was vs. waiting for that same spot when we returned. I took a stance this time, but would have to deal with his ego later.

Carnegie Museums of Art & Natural History

Totally full, we are off to yet another neighborhood. Oakland is home to the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. I couldn't do both and chose the Natural History part. I was curious to see how the dinosaur exhibit compared to the one in New York. Pretty good. Came across a paleontologist working on some dinosaur bones. Esther insisted on posing with one of the dinosaurs as well.

Primanti Bros

If you've haven't seen Primanti Bros on a food channel, this sandwich shoppe is noted for their stuffed sandwich. Years ago steel workers needed a sandwich with no sides to deal with, so they came up with one that you basically choose a meat and what goes in between two thick slices of Italian bread is the cheese, cole slaw, a slice of tomato and a handful of french fries!

Strip District Tour Contined

Strip District food tasting continues with Pennsylvania Macaroni Company as we hear all about cheese from "Dear Heart" and taste a few cheeses. I have separate blog about another place, but let's get to the sweets. Enrico Bakery for biscotti. It seems that they have a bar in the back where they make their own wine down in the cellar. Colangelo's specializes in Italian pastries. We had one called Mele. Mine had almond paste in it. Kind of a triangular pastry with sugar atop and a few choices of the middle. Just next door is the Pittsburgh Popcorn company.

Strip District Tour

Is it time to eat again? We meet with tour guide Syvlia McCoy of Burgh Food Tour in front of one old church and given water. Was it holy water? The Strip district has nothing to do with prostitution or even taking off your clothes. It's several city blocks at the edge of downtown offering food markets, coffee shops, dance clubs and restaurants. It looks like our first stop is to Wholey's where they specialize in fresh seafood, meat and poultry. We tasted fried smelt. It was good! I also had a taste of baby octopus at the sushi station. Next was Mancini's bread bakery for a tasting of their pepperoni roll. I shared it with Esther.

Henry Clay Frick's Clayton House

We walked off breakfast in Shadyside and then went off to Clayton, home of Henry Clay Frick on the grounds of the Frick Art and Historical Center. Well, it looked like we were just about off limits to everything! No photos, food, drink or chewing gum! Yes, we were told no chewing gum as if we were kids. I was chewing gum and made no effort to dump it. We are inside and then they complain about the size of my bag. They are afraid that it may hit something! Not dumping the bag either. We spent too much time having Kevin argue with the manager...or whoever he was...about the no photography policy. He just couldn't handle that the guy would not cowtow to him. He's one of those media people that think he's so important as well as thinking that he's more important than any of the other people on the press trip. This will come up later! Oops, did I accidentally snap a photo in the Carriage House?

Pamela's In Pittsburgh

Pamela's seems to be the place to go for pancakes...or rather, as they call them, flapjacks. What's different. The pancakes are crepe-like and have specialties with lot of stuff stuffing. Mine were stuffed with strawberries, brown sugar and whipped cream. What a way to start the day...big sugar shock! We went to the Pamela's location in Shadyside. I am posed with the owners.

Tamari's in Lawrenceville

Tamari's is an infusion of Asian and Latin American cuisine. I began with a pretty good sake that was not filtered. We all had a small appetizer of skewered and grilled items served with three dipping sauces - ponzu butter, ginger and chimichurri. Sushi was important! Maki rolls. One was a lobster roll in two portions. The lobster tail was filled with some of the tail's meat and prepared with tempura while the maki rolls had some other good stuff with it. There was also a TNT roll with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, masago, avocado and tempura fried. Not pictured is the Naruto roll of salmon, tuna, yellowtail, tobiko, wrapped with cucumber, served with ponzu. For an entree I had Charred Serrano Hoi Sin crusted Lamb Lollipops with sweet potato mash and cilantro-mint chimichurri. Chef Roger Li is the creator.

Dessert was a green tea layered cake for me. As it turned out, all of the desserts are made by that cupcake bakery!

My battery went dead on my camera so Dave Thompson took these photos

Pittsburgh's Lawrencville

Sherri Moreira-Byers of Sole City Tours (www.solecitytours.com) took us on a walking tour of Lawrenceville, a "funky district which includes antique shops, artist galleries, boutiques and home accessories" and FOOD. The first place we visited was Dozen Bake Shop noted for their cupcakes. However, it appears that owners James Gray and Andrew Twifg won an award for having the best buns! We visited some stores before hitting Espresso Mano and Grey Box Theatre and owner Gina. Small theatre in this up an coming district. Found the statue of the Doughboy (the flag covers his naked body...not really) and had cocktails at a local bar (shared my juice with Esther) before dinner at Tamari's.

Pittsburgh preview

Went to Pittsburgh but not for the Steelers. Checking out the some of the 89 neighborhoods. Checked in with Esther (my rubber chicken) at the Courtyard by Marriott in Shadyside then met the rest of the writers. Kristin Mitchell of www.visitpittsburgh.com arranged this trip as we ate our way through each of the neighborhoods beginning with lunch at Point Brugge, a neighborhood gathering spot with European cafe mode. We shared an appetizer of an artichoke and spinach concoction. I ordered a lentil soup with lamb sausage followed by a stir fry shrimp dish both of which were a special vs on their regular menu. Esther seemed to enjoy it as well. I later found her trying to eat the head off of a Pittsburgh Steeler.