South Beach Food Tour - Miami Beach

South Beach is one of the premier pre-/post-cruise destinations in the world. Known for its beautiful beaches and energetic nightlife, South Beach is surprisingly diverse when it comes to culinary offerings. On a recent media assignment for Carnival Cruise Line, we spent some time exploring South Beach and had the opportunity to sample some of South Beach's cuisine thanks to Miami Culinary Tours (www.miamiculinarytours.com).

Miami Culinary Tours offers a South Beach Food Tour twice each day (noon and 5pm). We booked a tour for 5pm on a Sunday. We arrived at Bolivar where we met Ashley, our tour guide for the day. Ashley informed us that a group of seven had just cancelled their tour, so what was supposed to be a group of nine is now a private tour for just Rickee and me.

While we were getting to know Ashley a bit, a waiter brought us our drinks: Refajo Colombiano, a combination of Aguila, a Colombian beer and Colombiana, a Colombian soda pop.

Colombiana is similar in taste to creme soda and, when mixed with beer, creates a mildly sweet, smooth drink that has the flavor of beer without the bitterness.

Refajo Colombiano

An empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried in many countries of Latin America and in Spain.

I am not much of a beer drinker, so I really liked the smoothness created when the Columbiana was added. In fact, I would definitely order this drink again. Before long, a plate arrived with an empanada and ceviche. The empanada was made up of a corn-based pastry, similar in texture to a corn tortilla, but formed into a pocket, stuffed with minced beef and onion and deep fried. A ramekin of very hot habanero salsa was served for dipping. Ashley cautioned us about the heat of the salsa, and she was not exaggerating. It was very spicy and I loved it!

The ceviche was a delicate white fish "cooked" by marinating it in a citrus mixture of lime and other flavors tossed with mango, red onion and cilantro. It was very fresh and very good.

After we finished our tasting at Bolivar, Ashley began the walking part of the tour. As we walked to Ocean Drive, Ashley began telling us about the history and culture of South Beach and pointing out the historical buildings and describing their architectural style. Our next stop was Larios on the Beach, an upscale Cuban restaurant owned by Gloria Estefan.

The interior of the restaurant has undergone a recent renovation and is beautiful.

At Larios on the Beach, we were served a bowl of Picadillo with a side of fried Malanga chips and Mojo sauce. Picadillo a traditional Spanish dish that is common in Latin American countries. At first glance, the Picadillo looks very similar to American chili, but a taste reveals a much milder, less spicy flavor profile. The picadillo is made with ground beef and Cuban sofrito (a mixture of onions, garlic and bell peppers). The melanga chips are a crispy, healthier alternative to corn or potato chips. By themselves, they don't have a lot of flavor, but that's where the mojo sauce comes into play. The mojo is a mixture of olive oil, garlic and vinegar and is very garlicky. Dip the melanga into the mojo, then scoop up some Picadillo and you have a delicious mouthful of Cuban flavors.

Picadillo served with Melanga and Mojo

After our visit to Larios on the Beach, we began walking up Ocean Drive a few blocks to our next culinary stop, The Tides hotel.

Here we were treated to a Haitian-style empanada filled with chicken and spices. The Haitian empanada was much spicier than the Colombian-style we tried at Bolivar. This empanada was served with a mild chimichurri. Instead of a corn-based shell, this had a light, flour-based shell, almost the consistency of a puff-pastry. We found it to be very delicious.

From The Tides, the walk up Ocean Drive continues with periodic stops for Ashley to enlighten us on South Beach history and architecture. It was all very interesting.

Rickee and Ashley waking up Ocean Drive

Next, we alter course to Washington Street where we find Blocks Pizza, a local pizza joint dubbed "Home of the Mother Dough". The place is famous because the yeast used in their dough has been kept alive for 300 years!

At Blocks Pizza we were treated to the Sun Dried Hippie pocket sandwich. The veggie sandwich had sun dried tomatos, feta cheese, basil, spinach, pesto and kalamata olives. Everything at Block's is made fresh daily.

The Sun Dried Hippie at Blocks Pizza

By the time we finished our sandwich, we were getting pretty full and ready for dessert. Fortunately, Milani Gelateria was our next stop on the tour, and just a few blocks away in the Española Way district located in a beautiful pedestrian-only area of South Beach.

Here we are treated to a sample of the delicious, made-fresh-daily, gelato. We get to choose from 12 flavors, all of which looked wonderful, but we had to go with our favorite, Creme Caramel.

The choice of gelato at Milani

Gelato has less fat than ice cream, but because of the way it is made, it is smoother and "creamier" than ice cream. It was delicious! This was our final stop on the tour which, in total, lasted about two hours. We were very impressed with Ashley and the overall experience. In our opinion, Miami Culinary Tours' South Beach Food Tour is one of the "must-do" activities when you visit South Beach. It is a good blend of eating and walking with an added bonus of history and culture.

Miami Culinary Tours also offers a Little Havana Food Tour (the next one we would like to try), Wynwood Food and Art Tour, and a Miami City Food Tour. For details, pricing and more information, visit their website at www.miamiculinarytours.com.

Barcelona Gastronomic Segway Tour

Barcelona is one of the great tourist destinations in Europe. It is the second largest cruise port in the world[end], second only to Miami. Unlike Miami, Barcelona is not just an embarkation/debarkation port, it is a port call for many cruise lines. Barcelona has also gained a reputation throughout the culinary world as a food-lover's dream destination. So, when we visited Barcelona on our Crystal Serenity cruise, we decided to combine some exploration of the city sights with some of the great food from the region. After learning that our friends at Barcelona Segway Tour have added a Gastronomic Segway Tour to their list of options, we knew that was the perfect way to spend the day in Barcelona.

Our cruise offered a free shuttle bus to the World Trade Center, so we decided to walk from there to BCN Segway offices. If your cruise offers the same, it is very easy to find your way to the statue of Christopher Columbus (Plaça de les Drassanes)*. From there, you can use Google Maps to locate BCN Segway offices, about a 15 minute walk from the statue see walking map here. Along the way, you will find many shopping opportunities along the famed Las Ramblas.

Plaça de les Drassanes

* If your cruise does not offer a shuttle, you can get to the Christopher Columbus statue by taking the T3 Portbus that will pick up from the cruise terminals and provide the transfer for around 2€ per person.

Barcelona Segway Tour offices

Once we arrived at their offices, we were quickly introduced to João, our guide for the day. We were fitted with helmets, asked to sign a waiver (typical for this type of tour) and soon we were mounting our Segways to begin our tour. We informed João that we were comfortable on the Segway and that we had some experience riding them. As a result, we were able to skip the normal training period required for new Segway riders. You should know that these machines are very simple to operate as they are self-balancing. Just about anyone, young or old, can learn to ride one in 15 minutes or less. And, your guide will take time to make sure you are comfortable on the machine before the tour begins. But basically, if you can stand up, you can ride a Segway!

João, our guide for the Segway tour

The 3-hour Gastronomic Segway Tour that takes us to some of the Gothic District’s, Barceloneta’s and Port Olimpic’s gastronomic hotspots. Barcelona is known worldwide as a culinary destination, so this tour shows off the city and some of the local cuisine. The tour begins with riding the Segways through some narrow streets of the Gothic District out to one of the main thoroughfare's. We stop of gaze at the massive post office before riding to our first culinary destination.

Segways make navigating narrow streets very easy

Our first stop is PORK, a small cafe/restaurant, located on Consulat del Mar. This restaurant is all about the pig, in all its forms, from head to tail. The families behind this venture are involved in every aspect of the product, from raising and caring for the pigs, processing the meat, then curing, smoking, grinding, salting, encasing, barbecuing, or roasting. Talk about farm-to-table! This was sort of the "appetizer" portion of the gastronomic tour. We found a nice shaded table outside and soon were served a basket of toasted bread, a plate of salami, pate and Chorizo (a spicy pork sausage), and a bowl containing fresh garlic cloves and a tomato. And interesting combination, for sure.

João explained that the traditional way to eat this was to cut the garlic and tomato in half, rub the raw garlic on the toast, then rub the tomato on the toast, drizzle on some olive oil, top with your favorite cured meat, and then eat. It sounds a bit strange, but it was delicious! In fact, this will be one of our new experiences we will take home with us to try. Now if I can just find sausages at home as good as they served us at Pork. Was it good? Let's just say that Pork will be high on our "re-visit" list the next time we are in Barcelona!

Llonganissa (salami), pork pate and spicy Chorizo

Everything we tried a PORK was delicious, but this is only the 'appetizer' portion of the tour, there's much more sightseeing and eating to be done! We leave PORK and ride our Segways across the main thoroughfare to the Barcelona waterfront and marina. We make a stop at the "Barcelona Head" so that João can explain the sculpture by the famous American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. The addition of the sculpture was part of the rejuvenation project for the waterfront area (previously known as Moll de la Fusta).

The Head of Barcelona (can you see it?)

We ride down the waterfront and eventually end up at Barcelona's massive, and crowded, beach. I don't think we have ever seen so many people on one beach before. As we rode along the waterfront, we would stop from time to time as João would describe the history of the area, or a particularly interesting sculpture.

The beach in Barcelona is packed with sun-lovers, iconic W Hotel in the background

One of the most recognizable is Frank Gehry's giant goldfish that sits at the foot of the Ritz Carlton hotel. The animal is 56 metres long and 35 metres high and seems to be longing to jump into the blue waters of the Mediterranean.

From a distance, the sculpture clearly represents a fish; however, as you approach the sculpture, you can see it begins to represent a conquistador's helmet. Our next stop was at another local cafe in Barceloneta called L'Ostia.

This stop represents the "main course" on our gastronomic tour. The 'main course' segment of our culinary journey started with a small serving of strawberry gazpacho along with a bowl of blistered Padrón peppers (pementos de Padrón). We were warned that, while most of the peppers are mild, about 1 out of 10 is very hot. It is considered good luck if you find a hot one. The peppers are sauteed in a little olive oil and sea salt and they are absolutely delicious! The gazpacho provided a little relief as I got 'lucky' on the second pepper I tried. Both were delicious.

Padrón peppers

Our final dish was a huge bowl of fresh steamed mussels. Neither Rickee nor I are big fans of mussels, and in fact, Rickee has never even tried one before today. Nevertheless, the bowl soon was turned into a pile of empty shells.The Mussels appeared to be steamed with a little lemon juice, but nothing else to interfere with their natural flavor. I am pretty confident that if you love Mussels, you will be a huge fan.

A huge bowl of steamed Mussels to share

Needless to say, we were already stuffed, and there was still one course left to go! After we left L'Ostia, we rode our Segways through the local zoo where we stopped to see the famous Parc de la Ciutadella fountain (cascade in Spanish) that, unfortunately, had been drained for cleaning.

Cascade fountain

We rode back into the Gothic District's narrow streets to our final stop: a small cafe called "Bliss". This would become the dessert portion of our meal. Since the dessert portion can include an alcoholic beverage of choice, we are required to return the Segways to the BCN Segway office, then walk the one block to Bliss.

Bliss Cafe, Gothic District, Barcelona

We had a choice of a variety of handmade cakes and brownies. And, since we are at the end of our tour with no more riding required, Rickee and I decided to celebrate the end of a great tour with a glass of bubbly Cava (Spanish sparkling wine), to go with her chocolate brownie my green tea cake. It was a fitting end to a delicious and interesting day in Barcelona. For those who follow our blog, you know that we have done a lot of Segway tours all over the world. I have say, the Gastronomic Segway Tour of Barcelona is one of the best we have done to date.

For more information on Barcelona Segway Tour, visit their website at BarcelonaSegwayTour.com.