Views from South Beach...

Ocean Drive, Miami Beach

Happy Saturday!

Have a Blissful one...this view is over South Beach from The Strand Hotel roof.

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Best Beach Day Ever

See the meandering heron, the newborn touching the sea for the first time, the happy feet, the tidal pools that just sucked us all right into that sparkling blue green water??

This is the most beautiful day I've ever seen in my years of visiting this beach... people were in an even better beach mood than ever... we were all positively frolicsome... stop by and see us, we'll be at the beach right past the stone wall on Ocean Drive... Don't worry, I'll post a list of our favorite hotels soon... ;)

Birthdays and the Narcotic aka Ben and Jerry's

Miss Bliss writes:

Mr. Wonderful did have a great birthday... we especially enjoyed the Ocean Drive drinks: Modelo beer and rum punch. I am looking forward to our next year of his life together and hope it is his happiest yet.

The other night, he kindly walked to our little South Beach bodega and brought back Ben and Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk for me and Ben and Jerry's Banana Split for him. I read the ingredients, but they did not the list the narcotic they obviously put in their product... guess it's just the chocolate.

"Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos." -Don Kardong

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Valentine's dinner

For Valentines, we went to an Indian restaurant at 530 Ocean Drive; it was called Ishq, "love."
We lucked into a table that was not right on the crowded sidewalk, but a bit off from it; we were still able to enjoy the ocean breezes and people watching as always.

G. ordered our drinks; they were special V-day versions: a Malini, a sparkling wine with candied ginger, A Shalimar, an amazing saffron infused vodka martini with almond and cream liqueurs, espresso, accented with espresson, vanilla and rose essence infusion, and a sugar and red spiced rim. It may sound a bit busy, but no, it all worked together for blissful yumminess. The candied ginger in the champagne was exquisite!

These drinks were sooo good. A martini with espresso? Who would have thought of this? Ishq did. We had two.

For appetizers, we enjoyed some coconut Naan bread with an assortment of spreads, including spicy mango chutney and pickled mango. We had the appetizer sampler: samosa, aloo chat, a cucumber and chickpea/yogurt salad; vegetable bhajia tikki, and a potato creation. Delicious!

We shared the goan snapper with tumeric dusting, in a coconut curry sauce, with a steamed basmati rice, and we ordered this plate spicy... YUM. One of the wait staff tried to give us plates to share the order, but we opted for the romantic Valentine's route of sharing our plate.

No room for dessert, but no worries, G. had picked up some Ghirardellia 60% cacao Dark squares with caramel on my birthday, Friday the 13th. Lucky for me!

The service here is the BEST we have had in SoBe, and G. says the fish is the best thing he has had in SoBe. Blissful Valentine's dinner for lovers of bliss.