Together with Fika (review coming soon), Oslo Coffee represented our foray into Scandinavian coffee culture while in NYC. Oslo Coffee (328 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn) is super tiny, consisting of only a few tables, two benches outside and not even a public bathroom (we asked). The menu consists primarily of coffee or tea, and most people get it to go, though it seems like the other locations are a bit bigger and have more seating. However, despite the tiny size, the store is cute and welcoming. There are also some pastries on offer if you are feeling peckish. The coffee is specially roasted by the owners in New York City, but in the Norwegian Style, home of arguably the world’s most exacting coffee culture. There are 3 house coffee blends named after Norse gods: Odin (Espresso), Freya (Dark Roast) and Thor (house blend). We ordered an iced coffee made with Odin, and it was surprisingly smooth and mellow, and perfect for one of the first iced-coffee appropriate days of the year. They don’t take credit cards though, so remember your cash.
Bedford Ave. location of Oslo Coffee Company by Protographer23
Long has Paraguayan food eluded us. But the beautiful thing about New York City is how you can get any kind of food there. I Love Paraguay is one of the few Paraguayan spots in the whole country and we were excited to see the rave reviews. Located on bustling Greenpoint Avenue in Queens, I Love Paraguay seemed welcoming and popular, with a soccer game playing on a TV in the corner.
Speakeasy. Tiny. Crowded. Delicious. That’s Greenbush Bar in a nutshell. One of our go-to places in Madison, we have been there countless times since Matt started graduate school in 2006. Serving Italian-American fare (though the website says “
To say we had some difficulty in finding Las Americas would be something of an understatement. 
So we first saw this pig on our first visit to Miami in January, and well…. we didn’t know if she’d still be around in February. Made into lechon, we assumed. We didn’t know if she was a pet or dinner! Turns out she is a pet, and her name is “Chucha,” and you can see her and her menagerie any day. It seems like she has a pretty content life. Case in point – we ordered two watermelon jugos one day, and Chucha got the entire watermelon rind, so we like to think we are contributing a little bit to her happiness. There is also a baby pig nearby, but you have to ask permission to see her. We’ll be back whenever we are in Miami – for the ambiance, the drinks, and to visit our favorite animals!
A new country! Miami finally provided us an opportunity to sample Nicaraguan cuisine. We’re sad it took us so long to get here: though there are no Nica places in Chicago, there are a TON in Miami. So, where to eat? The simplest answer is that you can eat at one of the many “fritangas,” a type of Nicaraguan restaurant where home-style food is served, often in a cafeteria setting and under heat lamps. But Cesar Perez and his sister Martha, the owners and operators of Chayito’s Fritanga, offer one better by offering una nueva experiencia en fritanga (“a new experience in fritangas”). The difference? Cesar and Martha make their food to order, as opposed to serving it on a steam table. That means everything is fresh!
While Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop is in many ways a typical Cuban sandwich joint in Miami, it attracts a loyal and devoted following. A little off the beaten path, Enriqueta’s is a simple lunch counter with one side facing into the restaurant and another side with a window open to the street. Sometimes I wonder how a place like that can ever keep up with orders, but somehow they do, albeit a little slowly. Being from Chicago, I can’t quite ever wrap my head around the concept of an open air lunch counter, or frankly any outside window walk-up, so of course we had to order our food there. When in Rome…
Ba Le is such an old favorite we can’t believe that we haven’t written about it before. Honestly though, the more often we go to a place, the more often we assume we have already written about the place (as is the case with our favorite restaurant in Madison, Greenbush Tavern). Oops! In any case, Ba Le is certainly someplace you should not overlook. Their specialty is the Vietnamese 
One of our favorite cuisines is Thai, and though we love our go-tos, sometimes we get a little suck in a rut and keep ordering the same thing. However, Sticky Rice is the perfect antidote. Most Thai restaurants in Chicago specialize in Southern Thai food, and the cuisine of Bangkok. However, Chicago is lucky enough to have Sticky Rice, a Northern Thai restaurant that has dishes that are uniquely local. Sticky Rice is cute, clean and open, and was pretty crowded (though the photo from this angle doesn’t show it) when we arrived on a Saturday night. The menu is prodigious, covering, curries, soups and noodle dishes; but on this night we made a beeline for the Thai Northern specialties. 
It is particularly appropriate that I am writing this review of a little French bakery while listening to Julia Child’s “My Life in Paris” (so she’s not a pastry chef, but still…) We happened upon La Fournette after a trip to the Chicago History Museum, and we were pleased by the quaint ambiance and the large variety of baked goods. We were a little taken aback that we were greeted with a chipper “Bonjour” upon entering, but in the best possible way.
At Papa Llega y Pon, the pork is lightly but effectively seasoned, the hot sauce adds a tinge of spice (barely discernible to M), and the onions blend in with the rest of the pork, adding a little extra texture and variety to the flavors. Adding more texture is the obligatory chicharrón (fried pork rinds) mixed in with the pork meat. You can order yours without chicharrón, but you’ll get some strange looks from your servers. Overall, this is simple comfort food, so those expecting bold flavors or exquisite preparation will be disappointed. This is well-made, well-seasoned, and classically prepared food for those who have come to expect the best of the same. It definitely satisfied our lechón cravings, and there is no wonder it is so popular in Miami.
