Homemade Sparkling Water with a Splash of Blood Orange Juice
It’s no secret that I love love love sparkling water. I’ve been a huge fan of San Pellegrino, and I even had the amazing privilege this past year to attend the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chefs Competition in Napa Valley, where we learned a lot about mineral water, how it is made, and how it pairs with food!
More recently I found out about Sodastream, a company that sells a make-your-own-soda device from tap water. I was intrigued with this idea. Sodastream says that their sodas only cost 25 cents a liter (as opposed to > $1/Liter for most bottled seltzer water). The plain sparkling water is probably even cheaper. Furthermore, you help the environment by reducing the number of plastic/glass bottles that you would otherwise be consuming.
Sodastream was kind enough to send me one of their soda-making devices to review. Better yet, they are offering another one for me to give away to one of my readers!
Sodastream offers a variety of different soda makers. Internally, they function all the same way. They vary mostly in their external design, the types gas canisters they take, and whether they use glass or plastic bottles.
I ended up opting for the Penguin (shown below). I mostly chose this model because it was one of the two models that uses glass carafes instead of BPA-free plastic bottles. I figured, if I was such a fan of San Pellegrino, I should at least try to approximate it as closely as possible, right?
The Penguin only takes the smaller CO2 cylinder, unlike some other models, which have the option of taking the larger 100 L aluminum cylinder.
He’s super cute! He almost fits in with my other stuffed animals. 🙂
The glass bottles come with a nice top with a rubber stopper that keeps the gas in. The unit is mostly made of plastic, with the exception of the bottom half (the part that holds the glass carafe) being made of metal. You press on his eyes to open his belly, which holds the gas cylinder. You push down on his beak to fill the water with gas (more on that below!)
It’s pretty easy to set up. I think I was up and running within 15 minutes. Basically, the unit runs on the pressurized gas, so there’s no need for electricity. You just attach the gas canister, and then you’re ready to go!
Fill the glass bottle with water, put the bottle in the metal holder, and then press down on the silver “back,” making sure the white spigot on top goes into the glass bottle.
Lock the unit and press down on his beak. It takes a few presses before the penguin starts whistling. It can whistle up to four times, although I found that two whistles worth was plenty of carbonation for me.
And viola, carbonated water!
It’s refreshing and quite good. The bottle is labeled as a one-liter bottle, though you can only fill it up to the line (for safety reasons). Up to the line, it’s closer to about 3/4 L of water that you’re actually carbonating.
Ease of Use
I found this unit extremely easy to use. As I said earlier, set up really takes only about 15 minutes (and that’s including the time it takes to unwrap the box and read the instructions). Because the unit does not require electricity, I have easily moved it around depending on where I have space (realities of a tiny kitchen and all). I like to keep the two glass bottles full of cold water in the fridge and “gas” them whenever I feel like having some sparkling water. I have found that, even with the unique rubber-stopper tops, the sparkling water in the glass bottles still loses fizz relatively quickly, and tit usually does not taste nearly as good the next day. Therefore, since it takes less than a minute to make, I have found that I prefer to just making it fresh on the spot. I can go through one bottle pretty quickly in one sitting!
It’s nice to be able to control the carbonation level. As I said earlier, I’ve found that two “whistles” is good for me, although I would consider trying three or four whistles if I wanted to dilute the water with, say, orange juice or something.
Design
I thought this unit was well designed and very easy to use. Though the Penguin is super cute, it is a bit tall for a tiny urban kitchen such as mine, and I actually had a hard time figuring out where to put it. It’s just a bit too tall to fit under any of my cupboards (see penguin’s head at the bottom picture), which means I had to leave it out on the dining table. If you have a small kitchen, I would recommend getting one of the other models (which I think is shorter – not positive though!).
Flavors of Drinks
Sodastream sells a bunch of syrups to add to their water. I served a bunch of these drinks to some dinner guests the other night. We tried flavors such as cola, orange soda, Pete’s choice (Dr. Pepper equivalent), and grapefruit soda (or pop – a shout out to my Ohio roots). We also tried Soda stream’s “Mywater Essence,” which is essentially like adding a calorie-free fruit splash to the water. I received mixed reviews on the sodas. One thought the orange soda tasted like the real thing, while another thought that the Pete’s choice tasted awful. Most people were relatively pleased with the way that the sodas tasted, although many just preferred to drink plain sparkling water. I personally thought the grapefruit soda was only OK, although the cola was decently convincing. I liked the fruit essences, and I would choose that over the sodas.
One nice thing is that none of their syrups are made with high fructose corn syrup, although a lot of them are made with sucralose (Splenda). In fact, out of the 12 syrups I received in the sampler, only two (Pete’s Choice and lemon-lime) were made of sugar. The rest were diet.
You void the warranty if you try carbonating anything other than water, though people have tried all sorts of things, such as, my favorite idea – making prosecco from cheap white wine. In the end, I’m not much of a soda drinker anyway, so I would stick to plain sparkling water, optionally dressed with my own fruit juices.
CO2 Refills
After doing some internet research, I learned that Sodastream has a proprietary CO2 cylinder head. This means that it’s harder to get the canisters refilled elsewhere. In fact, the canisters are technically on loan to you only. You license the use of the canister and essentially buying the gas. Once the canister is empty, you can exchange it for a full one either through mail order or at a local participating store, such as Williams-Sonoma. I have yet to replace a canister, but it apparently costs $30 each, which is a lot more than the market price for CO2. In the end, this still comes out to be cheaper than buying your own bottled water, but just keep in mind that if you do get this unit, you are, in a way, stuck with getting your refills at a higher price through Sodastream. Some people have tried replacing the proprietary head with an industry standard head, while others just go to non-approved third party CO2 fillers. As I mentioned earlier, I have not tried any of this myself, so I can’t really comment much more on this topic.
Environment
Of course, a lot of people get their own soda machines not so much for the cost, but for other reasons, such as for the environment or for the luxury of having access to sparkling water at any time. You can save on a lot of plastic bottles, no question. I have made sparkling water with the Penguin and then transferred the water into a Nalgene bottle for transport, and that works beautifully.
Taste
This water tastes pretty good, though in the end taste of the water will be governed by the quality of the water you put in. I did a 3-way taste test comparing Brita-filtered water, water straight out of the refrigerator (filtered), and San Pellegrino. Bryan thought that the San Pellegrino had the most flavor (most likely due to the mineral content), and that the Brita filtered water tasted the most flat (which makes sense – the Brita probably filters out a lot of the minerals). We both agreed that the differences were somewhat subtle, and if you’re going to be adding a flavored syrup anyway, it really won’t make that much of a difference.
Giveaway
Finally, to the end! The folks at Sodastream were kind enough to offer a SodaStream Soda and Seltzer Maker Starter Kit
It includes the winner’s choice of black/silver, white or red/silver Fountain Jet, CO2 to make over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner’s choice.
The winning prize can only be shipped in the continental US.
How to win . . .
I am always looking to improve this blog, so I would love feedback about it. To enter the Giveaway, please leave a comment below telling me what aspects of this blog you like the best, and/or suggestions for improvement/change. Some examples of aspects on which you can comment: restaurant reviews, recipes, photography, length of posts, frequency of posts, number of pictures, cuisines covered, types of dishes, layout of the blog, giveaways, trip series (e.g., The Big Apple, A New York Birthday, Napa Valley, A California Christmas), and the new series “Tiny Urban Tidbits.”
If you absolutely have no comments but still want to enter, please give me your favorite sparkling water recipe. I loved reading your egg recipes last time, so keep those ideas coming! For an extra entry, you can tweet about this giveaway.
Giveaway! Win a Sodastream Soda Maker Kit @tinyurbankitchn! http://bit.ly/cAXh5V
Good luck! Drawing will occur on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at midnight!
If you want to support Tiny Urban Kitchen, you can get one at Amazon (Here are links to the Penguin Starter Kit
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Disclaimer: Time to time I receive free products from vendors to review. I do not receive any payment for these posts/reviews. The views expressed in the posts are completely my own. For this post, I received a Sodastream Penguin Starter Kit and a Jet Start Kit for a giveaway.
All Rights Reserved
When I lived in Germany we always drank “schorle” . . . fresh fruit juice with Gerolsteiner water, a German brand of mineral water that has tons of carbonation. My favorites were the classic old apfelschorle (apple) but the ones we made with grapefruit and tangerine juices were really yummy too!
OMG!! I’ve always wanted this! Oh god, if I win this, I’d be in Cloud 9!
I adore your blog, and I’m not just saying that to kiss ass. Your photography is excellent, and I adore restaurant reviews, whether it is within reach of not. Of course it’d be great if you did LA restaurants, but I gain a lot of inspiration from the restaurants you showcase, too.
I do wish, however, that you also did more low-key restaurants sometimes, whether it is the street food cart or just the occasional family restaurant. Also, if you could provide links to the restaurant’s website, that would be great!
I tweeted! 🙂
I really love your restaurant reviews and the fabulous pictures. If I were to make one suggestion/request, it would be a wish that you’d consistently provide info about prices. Restaurants sometimes post their menus online, but they don’t always include prices. You include this info sometimes and it’s extremely helpful when traveling on a budget (because sometimes I can maybe pick just one splurge restaurant). I’m sure it’s hard to remember actual numbers, but maybe if you included a picture of the menu? But again, thanks for the great posts!
i like ur restaurant reviews, and lots of piks are always good. im not sure if i have any real critiques since ive only discovered ur blog a few months ago. i duno, maybe a bit more about u? lol
awesome giveaway btw!
oh and i tweeted it http://twitter.com/MiraUncut/status/12868022878
Ok, I am completely coveting this gadget. But to be honest, I love your blog. It’s always got interesting pictures, sometimes of food I’ve never even heard of (soup dumplings, anyone?) and you always have something new to say. Love the pictures of food in restaurants I would probably never be brave enough to take a photo in, never mind 10 or 12.
i love your blog and don’t really have any criticisms, per se… but if forced to be nitpicky, i would say that with respect to your resto reviews, i would love a very basic summary at the top (like, “beautiful ambiance, hit-or-miss dishes”)… your photography is just SO beautiful that i frequently find myself 2/3 or even 3/4 the way through a review before i start paying attention to your comments, which sometimes (though always diplomatically) disparage certain aspects of the dish. i’m like, wait, but it looks so delicious… it wasn’t that good? so a tiny summary going in would better prepare me for what to expect. anyway, ignore me if you like your reviews the way they are… i’ll definitely still read them 🙂
oh, and i totally re-tweeted.
I like the clean design of your website and of course your photos. Your restaurant reviews are informative for when I’m visiting Boston and I like your easy recipes. Would love to see a post on food photography since you take such wonderful photos!
I love this blog! With respect to restaurant reviews, occasionally I find them to be quite long. I would find a summary or a rating scale for the restaurants you visit to be very beneficial to your readers. Also, what kind of camera do you use when sneaking pictures of your food? I’ve always assumed that you just don’t sneak, because my sneaky restaurant photos come from a camera phone in usually dim lighting. Never has pretty as yours! Also, perhaps you could organize your “Restaurants” page a little bit more. Maybe have a photo of a favorite restaurant in Cambridge as a link to a separate page of Cambridge restaurants? And so on. It would take adding more pages to your website, but I think it would be beneficial! I think it’s a little bit long and a little bit jumbled the way it is now.
ALSO. I just looked at your little kitchen graphic on your masthead. It would be so cool if you made that your whole page. “Tiny Urban Kitchen” could be in the microwave or the freezer at the top, the fridge could contain blogroll/links type information and your content would be in the oven. That little graphic just looks like the perfect blog format.
I think I’m done now. 😉
(Tweeted, too! I am so obsessed with sparkling water, and I really need to stop it because I know it’s such a waste to buy a new bottle every time I want some – which is all the time.
http://twitter.com/heather_adele/status/12881672850)
We received a SodaStream for Christmas and love it — we used to spend about $13/wk at Trader Joe’s on sparkling water and not we just refill the SS once a month for about $17. We have yet to try the mail order route; we had been taking it to Kitchen Arts on Newbury, but they are “remodeling”/closing(?) right now, so we haven’t refilled in awhile.
Tip: It’s terrific with fresh lemon juice (preferably from a fresh lemon, but you can get the concentrate stuff cheaply).
I really like your recipe section and with swimsuit season coming up, would love to see a section within your section for lowfat recipes. This would be a great addition to your blog and I know I would be using it alot! 🙂
Gardenstatemom@aol.com
I tweeted this giveaway 🙂
http://twitter.com/Tammylyne/status/12882141092
Gardenstatemom@aol.com
I love the pictures, they’re absolutely fabulous!
I tweeted about it! http://twitter.com/brittty/status/12883487876
What an awesome review. Sodastream has intrigued me for awhile and it would definitely be awesome to win one! I don’t drink soda, but I’m totally with you on the sparking water.
I’m with the crowd. Would love to see you share more photo tips. I’ve continued to read TUK for months now because not only is the writing very good, but the photos are incredible. Tell us how its done!
Tweet is here: http://twitter.com/lindsaymeyer/status/12884039829
Hi, I just recently found your blog and love it. I really like the trip posts and love your posts on Taiwanese cuisines. Keep on posting!
I love your product reviews..you really take the time to explain and the pictutures are great! I also love your givaways. I hope I win this one!!!
I tweeted about it! http://twitter.com/sadev
I think your blog is really well designed. You have all the basic elements like a search box, post history, and tags. I like the simple design as well because it draws your focus to the posts and not to flashy banner ads or a busy background. The posts themselves are good too. Easy to read and informative. I guess I don’t have any suggestions for improvement!
i am into the recipes layout and the variety of foods that you share. thanks!
I just found your blog a week or so ago, but love everything so far! If I had to pick one thing I enjoy the most, it would probably be the recipes though. I have been wanting one of these SO badly – I could drink POM & sparkling water all day, every day, and this would really make my habit a lot cheaper.
My favorite part of your blog is getting restaurant recommendations in the Cambridge/Boston area. As an MIT student, my transportation options are limited, so it’s awesome being able to find somewhere tasty to eat within walking/biking/T-ing distance!
I like the trip series – to see what places you’ve been to and whether or not the places would end up on our list when we went to those cities. Sometimes its hard to select because there are so many restaurants (like NYC) so its helpful.
Oh my god, you have no idea how badly I want a Sodastream! My fiance’s sister and brother-in-law have one to make “bubbly water,” and I absolutely adored it (particularly because it looks like a penguin). I love the sparkling water as-is, but would love to experiment with things like grapefruit juice or a little gin & lime. 🙂
I do not have any suggestions for changes to make on your blog. I love the simple, pretty layout (and the logo!), and your photos are absolutely stunning.
I really adore your restaurant series because of the fact I’m trying to work up a list of restaurants to try while I’m in Boston/NY this fall. HOWEVER, generally speaking they wouldn’t apply to me, so I’m not certain if I’d generally adore them as much as I do right now.
I do love the random foods you post about (Meyer Lemons, Sunchokes etc) as they always get me hooked on something new (I’m growing Jerusalem Artichokes in my backyard!) and they give me something to play with on a day to day basis.
So, constructive criticism from someone who lives out in the sticks? Lean more on things you do in your Tiny Urban Kitchen, as I think it’ll apply to more readers everywhere…
Phew, there’s a mouthful… Now, on to post on Twitter 🙂
Your photography is gorgeous, and I love how sleek and clean your layout is; it makes your posts really easy to read!
My suggestion would be to add some sort of introduction or description of the “misc.” section. It is obvious what the miscellaneous food event posts are, but I wasn’t sure initially what “Products” and “Fruits” meant…I couldn’t tell if you were reviewing them or what. Otherwise, I love your blog!
I would like to see the entire post on the front page instead of clicking the read more icon to see the entire post from you. I think your photography is awesome and makes for great details of the food
I recently recommended this blog on reddit.com when asked about favorite food blogs, because, most importantly, you really know what you’re talking about and speak from experience. I also enjoy the restaurant reviews, especially because I also live in the Boston area and love to find new hidden treasures. I found the blog through your postings on foodgawker, which in another favorite foodie site of mine. Both of you do a good job with layout and pictures!
I have always really loved the recipes and food “tutorials” where you introduce an ingredient or menu item and show us how to make it or use it. I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from those, and they’re really fun.
It’s also beautiful to see the restaurant reviews, and I admit to living vicariously though them. However, my (hopefully constructive) criticism would have to be that a some of your readers, myself included, are probably working off of a tiny urban budget in addition to the tiny urban kitchen. The reviews of incredibly expensive restaurants and exciting “insiders only” opportunities can be a bit frustrating to see, knowing we can’t experience that any time soon. That being said, you do a lovely job of bringing your readers in through the photos and descriptions, and I deeply enjoy your site.
I love your photography. Your photographs are so beautiful and fun to look at. I love your blog!
The only thing I would improve is there is too much white space in my humble opinion. I don’t like blogs with dark backgrounds but maybe if there was a little bit more color. Thanks for this giveaway!
I really enjoy the layout of your blog and the pretty photos! Your blog is also really pleasing to the eye and easy to read.
Perhaps more posts laden with photos?
Thanks 😀
This is a very good review of Soda Stream! I like your blog as is. Love your photos and commentary in each post. I think you do a very good job with bringing the experience to your readers.
I think more pictures in your posts would be great!
I’ll jump on the bandwagon and ask for more information about your photos! Also, I know it’s probably there for plagiarism, but I hate the watermarks. I understand why you must do it, but if you’re asking for my opinion, I think it detracts a little?
Jen, I’m always excited about your giveaways! The things I like best about your blog are the very clear photos and commentary to go with the photos, it is like you lead us on a journey to whatever restaurant you dine at, or whatever recipe you try. Necessary, however, to make your photos and commentary such a successful combination for me, at least, is your succinct, nearly “scientific” way of making your point.
I like your resturant reviews! I also love the giveaways.
I enjoy the photos, esp at the amazing restaurants that you dine at! These giveaways are a lot of fun for your followers, like me. 🙂 Hope to see more!
I tweeted! http://twitter.com/morganzuck
Not the biggest fan of justified text. Let it run ragged right!
Consider yourself sufficiently tweeted.
http://twitter.com/mattsussman/status/12924115046
I tweeted you, but it’s not showing up on the reactions stream because I have my twitter locked 🙂 Good luck to all on the drawing 🙂
One of my favorite sparkling water “recipes” is about 8 oz. of sparkling water, 4 oz. of pineapple or orange juice, and 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla syrup – the juice makes the soda water a little less fizzy, and the vanilla tones down the acidity of the juice.
What a fun giveaway! I love the clean look of your blog – easy to read and really lets the food photos show off!
I too, am bothered by the watermark. But I love the reviews!
Your pics and reviews of restaurants are great. It would be useful to really distinguish the product reviews vs. the restaurants. I love the latter much more than the prior, but I guess you have to pay the bills.
Keep up the good work.
I love your product reviews, I hope I win!
I don’t find the watermarks distracting at all. I think they are subtle enough to not distract from the content.
I love your restaurant reviews and the fact that you post pretty often.
Love the restaurant reviews – so would love to see more of those. Great giveaway and thorough review!!
I think my favorite part of the web site is the beautiful pictures. I do not think the watermarks take away from the pictures at all. I also love reading the reviews from various restaurants around Boston. I like reading your recipes, even though I am pretty bad in the kitchen so would be too scared to try most of them! I would love to see new posts every day, but I can understand that you can only eat so much and if you had to post every day it might become more like a job with deadlines. As it is, my husband and I both love your blog and check it all the time. There is not a single aspect of it that annoys me. I think it is very tastefully done.
The penguin is very cute. I have been considering getting one of these soda machines, but my husband laughed at me when I suggested it. Of course I linked him this article as soon as I read it this morning. 😉
I love the restaurant review. After living in Boston for >10yrs I’ve gotten into a rut with the same restaurants and love the idea of finding things new.
Being a Boston native, I absolutely love your reviews of restaurants as a jumping ground for my friends and I when dining out. Keep on eating!
omg, i totally want one of these 🙂 i love your photography and recipes. while i can’t afford to dine at some of the same restaurants, it is kinda fun to live vicariously through your experiences!
I love the restaurant reviews, both in and around Boston/Cambridge and also from restaurants you’ve eaten in during your travels. Your reviews of restaurants like French Laundry and Per Se are wonderful. Yes, these restaurants are expensive, but if one of your readers is considering a trip to one of them for a special event, he/she would like to know exactly what (s)he’ll get and if it is worth it. I would also enjoy seeing reviews of lower priced restaurants (Upper Crust was great!) and different types of food vendors – do you go to farmers’ markets, ethnic stores, bakeries, ice cream shops, etc. Your recipes are wonderful, but menu suggestions for individual dishes would be great as well!
I would love to win this for my daughter! She wants one so badly! I love your resturant reviews!
I love many, many things about Tiny Urban Kitchen! The trip series are inspiring, as are all your photos. Please continue to post recipes and backgrounds of foods/ingredients/cuisines as you research them. You tell a great story, and they’re so fun to read.
I’ve been reading good things about the Sodastream and am definitely curious, but I’m not sure I would spend the money to have my own. Thank you for sharing the Jet Start Kit with your readers!
i love that you explain a bit about the ingredients that are unusual (I love learning about food in general) and the pictures are fabulous!
I would love this sparkling water machine because I am in college but I have already acquired some pricey tastebuds 🙂 and its getting expensive!
I love that you are into testing out new products now in addition to recipes and restaurant reviews! Your experiences in reviewing this product is quite informative, especially in light of having a “tinyurbankitchen” and not much counterspace. Peter and I love Orangina. You should make some homemade Orangina from this Penguin. 🙂 The procecco idea is cool too, though I’ve always wanted to try sparkling riesling. dry not too sweet. I imagine it to be fabulous for the summer.
Hello!
I am constantly impressed by the amount of time and effort you put into you blog. I follow many blogs through my RSS feeder and I must say that your blog is one of the most detailed and informative than most. As for the pictures, they are great shots, especially for the type of lighting in restaurants. props to you for having the guts to pull out your nice big camera for every extravagant dish in an ritzy environment! I get too embarrassed or timid about taking pictures as such when I am in that situation. Being a consistent blog reader of yours, I enjoy reading up on every descriptive and sensory detail on food, especially from a source with such a polished sense of taste! hehe..I have always been very critical about good food, esp sichuan (best place is in flushing- little pepper). I notice you do tend to follow more on the higher-end dining places, which is great in a way by knowing if it was really worth trying. I reside in the NY/NJ area, so I am very well acquainted with the places you visited in NY. I suggest you try the hand-pulled noodles on east broadway, or in the flushing mall!
I esp enjoy reading your scientific input on the food items, since I studied nutrition sciences and food science in college. It even inspired me to start writing a little more descriptively in my blog 🙂
As for the sodastream device, I’ve always been interested in purchasing one just never had the funds..next in line with the vitamix blender..I would suggest a homemade ginger ale recipe using the sodastream. Using 1/2 cup of freshly grated ginger, 4 cups of water and lastly 1 cup of cane sugar (simmer all together)..I also picked up this chai spiced ginger sugar at an asian food market. You can substitute it in with the cane sugar..adding some spice to the drink! lastly, top it with some limes for garnishing!
-ckuola
Just stumbled across your blog thanks to the fiddlehead post. I love the clean layout and I wouldn’t change much. One thing I would change is to get rid of the blogger toolbar at the very top. It’s a small thing, I know, but still a pet peeve of mine. I had mine hidden, but I broke it some how and haven’t had the time to hide it again. Did you design your blog layout yourself or did you hire someone?
I also tweeted about the contest: https://twitter.com/live2cookathome
I recently found your blog and really dig it, thank you. One thing I would like is the address of a restaurant you are reviewing. I know its in the urbanspoon link, but especially when viewing on mobile phones its nice is the info is right there without having to click through. Also, I know some blogs (universal hub used to) have a way to deliver blogs optimized for mobile devices. The pics are a highlight of the blog, definitely keep the same number/post.
thanks again!
Wow! I just discovered your blog. Fantastic content and really great pictures.
I’m new to your blog so I will need time to go through your posts.
I guess I will say that I love sweet and tart mixture so possibly a splash of cranberry with some lime would be a nice combination for a carbonated beverage.
When I search out blogs for restaurant reviews I tend to navigate to the ones that have pictures of the foods offered. Your reviews (especially the New York ) are perfect in lengh but the pictures are even better. The only thing I would like to see is more New York City eateries reviewed. Living only minutes from the city this would make your blog perfect to me! Other then that keep up the great work!
daveyk66@aol.com
I tweeted your giveaway here
http://twitter.com/DaveEvo91/status/13105744136
daveyk66@aol.com
love reading the trip series since they always inspire me to go travel and eat along the way!
Done! Thanks for the tip. I designed the blog layout myself, and I’m totally not a professional graphics person, so it was a long, tedious road!
I really liked this tip idea about “cleaning up” the restaurant review page. I think I will start working on that and eventually roll it out.
I use a Panasonic Lumix GF1 which is pretty small but takes awesome dark light pics.
Thanks for your feedback about my blog. Ever since I have made a conscious effort to include prices in my restaurant reviews. Thanks!