Eating Garlic Beef at Mai’s Vietnamese Restaurant - Mai's Immigrant Story

Mai's Vietnamese Garlic Beef Bo Luc Lac

"...Inevitably, South Vietnam’s dismal economy, rank with corruption and inflation, forced party apparatchiks to embrace the tools of capitalism, designer bags and all. But by this time Mai’s family was successful in a new land..." (Virginia Billeaud Anderson eats Garlic Beef at Mai's Vietnamese Restaurant in Houston, owned by Mai Nguyen, and describes the dish and the owner's immigrant story. Fun inspiring history.)

Visiting Azienda Agricola Casamonti in the Chianti Classico - Wine and Cinta Senese Pigs

Casamonti's table prepared for wine tasting with an old well in the garden

"...Anna Rita officiated over the wine tasting and as she poured, she dished out bread and olive oil and Pecorino cheese, in sync with celebrated foodie Waverly Root’s assertion that wine's raison d' être is to accompany food..." (Virginia Billeaud Anderson recounts her visit to Azienda Agricola Casamonti in the Chianti Classico where she toured vineyards and saw the Cinta Senese pig.)

Discovering S.P.Q.R. and Miraculous Oil at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere

Trastevere - Image by civitavecchia.portmobility.it

...we arrived at the piazza in front of the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. There we found S.P.Q.R. and miraculous oil... (Virginia Billeaud Anderson - BoudinandBourbon.com writes about Romulus founding Rome, the Sabines, Trastevere’s vine covered mediaeval architecture, and finding S.P.Q.R. and miraculous oil at the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.)