Seven hours after departing Bucharest I was at my seaside home on the Bay of Naples. Don Lupara called me inviting me to dinner at the “compound” the following day. Perhaps it was my imagination but the scent of Ginevra still lingered in the house that was to be the home of Ginevra and ourContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 49: Good-Bye Naples, Good-Bye Scampia and Good-Bye Don Lupara….for the time being”
Tag Archives: Robert K. Stephen
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 48: Rot in Hell Cyclops! May You Be with the Angels Ginevra
OK so I had our Bombay Blues Whisky travelling road show at the J.W. Marriot Bucharest Grand Hotel’s “Voice of America” grand suite. The Romanians tanked up on Bombay Blues Whisky. In fact, twenty bottles of it for 53 people. They scoffed down pounds of Bombay Fried Okra probably not noticing the inferior Albanian okraContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 48: Rot in Hell Cyclops! May You Be with the Angels Ginevra”
RKS 2025 Wine: Stoney Ridge Estate Winery 2022 Small Lot Gamay Noir
Perhaps there is some comfort looking at this bottle of 2022 Small Lot Gamay Noir from Ontario’s Stoney Ridge. Those grapes saw some summer sun and warmth “cold comfort” to Torontonians facing minus twenty temperatures tonight. I prepared a salad tonight and given the deep freeze I had very little enjoyment of it preferring theContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Stoney Ridge Estate Winery 2022 Small Lot Gamay Noir”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelous (The Final Version): Chapter 47: Surrounded by Gypsies at Three A.M. and My Eye Spies an Old Flame and a Dacian Beauty
I had two days before my little show in Bucharest introducing Romanian restaurants and liquor distributors to India’s finest whisky (in my humble opinion) “Bombay Blues”. After an early dinner at the Westin’s “Vlad the Impaler’s” bistro style restaurant I decided to take an evening stroll to Herastrau Park a huge park encircling a lagoon.Continue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvelous (The Final Version): Chapter 47: Surrounded by Gypsies at Three A.M. and My Eye Spies an Old Flame and a Dacian Beauty”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned But Marvellous (The Final Version) :Chapter 46: Touchdown in Romania Clouded with Poop Gas: An Angry Gun Barrell Never Sleeps
I left India via New Delhi on TAROM Airlines on the Delhi Belly flight to Bucharest aptly named as so many passengers have the trots from Indian food the airplane cabin reeks of poopy runs! Part of the “plan” had me darkening my skin with a couple of weeks in the Bombay sun to bleachContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned But Marvellous (The Final Version) :Chapter 46: Touchdown in Romania Clouded with Poop Gas: An Angry Gun Barrell Never Sleeps”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 45: Back in Bombay
In September I returned to Bombay from my Samian hideout keeping myself occupied with the various businesses I had on the go that had been managed by trusted advisors over the past few years. I had sold the gold mining business my father had built up a few years ago and diversified. My newest businessContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 45: Back in Bombay”
RKS 2025 Wine: Beyond Good and Reliable to Excellent Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon?
Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon rarely disappoints and pardon me beats the pants off California Cabernet Sauvignons at comparable price points. Can it elevate itself from consistently good to consistently excellent? Perhaps Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon might pave the way from consistently good to consistently excellent? Aroma: Laser beams ofContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Beyond Good and Reliable to Excellent Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon?”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 44: Cooling My Heels in the Greek Eastern Aegean
I spent three days in Vravrona, a short distance from the Athens airport, enjoying the ocean and eating plenty of grilled octopus, fresh fish, stuffed vegetables and Greek Salads. I researched my island destination of Samos a relatively small island in the Eastern Aegean at points as close as six kilometres from the Turkish coast.Continue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 44: Cooling My Heels in the Greek Eastern Aegean”
RKS 2025 Wine: Foreign Affair Winery in Niagara Goes Italian
There are several wineries in the Niagara, Ontario wine producing area that have gone Italian the Appassimento and Ripasso way. In Italy the crushed grapes made to use Amarone are “reused” in the Ripasso method. The pomace (the pulpy mass of seeds and skins leftover after the Amarone has fermented) is left in contact withContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Foreign Affair Winery in Niagara Goes Italian”
The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 43: Getting Cyclops’ Dogs off My Scent
I met Don Lupara on my veranda overlooking the Bay of Naples. We knew the coward Cyclops had fled to Romania and the general area where he was last spotted. Although the Cyclops “family” had largely been decimated and its remnants absorbed by other families Cyclops still retained a few allies in Naples who knewContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 43: Getting Cyclops’ Dogs off My Scent”
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