Aux Trois Chevaliers (Strasbourg - Restaurant Review)

Aux Trois Chevaliers is one of my favorite restaurants in Strasbourg. The quality of the food is only matched by the dedication of the team to guarantee customer satisfaction (such a rare oddity in France that it is well worth mentioning).

You will love the stripped down decor adorned with huge mirrors that give a contemporary work-in-progress feel to this old Winstub.

PizzBurgers Strasbourg Review

There seem to be no rest for the true Burger lovers in Strasbourg these days and this is a very good thing in my unbiased opinion... Well almost unbiased...

Last november, Speed Burger opened a location in Strasbourg and I reviewed them here. There is now a new alternative to burger home deliveries in our great alsatian city thanks to PizzBurgers. I tried them out twice and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their burgers. I found them to be more than reasonably good and the selection on their website is quite large. Most importantly, both times I ordered, delivery was fast and the burgers were still burning hot when they arrived!

An American Hot Dog In Strasbourg

After my lunch at Franky's Diner, I stumbled open a sign in the streets pointing to true American Hot Dogs in Strasbourg at Bagel Avenue. This Bagel joint is my favorite in Strasbourg so I had to assume that their hot dog was as good as their bagels! The answer is simple: YES: their hot dogs are excellent and although not 100% exactly like the originals in New York, they come to a close 95% with a choice of relish, Sauerkraut, American mustard etc... The works!

And while I'm at it, I should also mention their excellent Frappuccinos:

Franky's Diner: An American Diner In Strasbourg

I couldn't believe the news today nor could I close my eyes and make it go away: a full-fledged Diner finally opened its doors in Strasbourg. I had to give it a try and so, it won't come as much of a surprise that a good 22 minutes after Franky's Diner opened I could consider myself one of their first customers.

As I'm used to being disappointed by the usual amateurism associated with attempts to recreate true and great American food, I wasn't expecting much.

First of all, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised with the setting of this Diner in the sense that it pretty much looks like the real thing. Granted there are no napkin dispensers on the table and we can't choose the music but the seats, color theme & atmosphere makes you feel like you're 5000 miles away from the capital of Europe... Well, as long as you're also not paying much attention to the music: Franky: The Stray Cats formed in 1980 and their music mostly consisted of a blend of rockabilly music with punk elements. It is not the kind of music that is usually played in a Diner. I wish I would have listened to some more appropriate music such as: Chantilly Lace or Purple People Eater for instance.

What about the experience ?

CrowdCall Is The Next Best Thing

As Bono once said: "There's been a lot of talk about this next post, maybe maybe too much talk...". Well he almost said that once actually and it could very well apply to CrowdCall except for the "too much talk" part.

It seems everybody's talking about CrowdCall and now that I've tried I understand why.

The First All-You-Can-World Mobile Plan

Today is a great day in the history of telecommunications. Yo! Telecom just announced their amazing "All-You-Can-World" Mobile plan. For €100 per month, you get unlimited voice, text, mms & data in your home country and ANY OTHER COUNTRY in the world. That is: no roaming charges ever. Plus you get to choose in which country you want your phone number to be located (which effectively anyway doesn't matter much anymore).

France Effectively NOT Blocking Foreign VoIP Providers

UPDATE: THIS BLOG POST IS A TOTAL MISTAKE. FRANCE IS NOT BLOCKING FOREIGN VOIP PROVIDERS. ACTUALLY, IT IS BROADVOICE THAT IS BLOCKING FOREIGN IP ADDRESSES. MY APOLOGIES. FEEL FREE TO CRITICIZE. I AM NOT REMOVING THIS POST IN THE SPIRIT OF ABSURDITY.

The Share-A-Burger Initiative: Changing The World One Burger At A Time

This blog post is dedicated to those who thought the world had already come up with the craziest ideas anyone could think of. I hope that they will realize that nature keeps reinventing itself and will never cease to surprise us.

So here comes the craziest idea ever: The Share-A-Burger Initiative.

What is it?

Well, it's fairly simple: Two years ago, I embarked on the bold endeavor of preparing the finest Sunday burger ever. After numerous attempts at Burger Xanadu, I, in all modesty, believe that I now hold the recipe for the perfect Sunday Burger.

Subsequent to that realization, my purpose in life is to spread Burger wisdom throughout the world. And how better to do so than by sharing a Burger?

So here's the deal:

France Is The New Land Of The Free

I hope my American friends won't mind the title I chose for this blog post. I just wanted to write a post about "Free".So, What is "Free" (no pun intended)?

Well, Free is a French company headed by French entrepreneur Xavier Niel (aka @Xavier75) that revolutionized Internet access prices in France.

Le Camion Qui Fume - Food Truck - Paris

Making a close to perfect burger requires two major skills: humility and method. Kristin Frederick (pictured above), the chef behind "Le Camion Qui Fume" (The Smoking Truck), is gifted with both.

Humility is essential when it comes to burgers because no matter how talented a chef you are, you have to recognize that the best burger can only be a classic burger. It is thus essential to feature it in your menu no matter how fancy, smart or inventive you think you are.

La Cantoche de Paname - Paris

As many scientific breakthroughs are the results of random acts, it only seems logical to conclude that the same rule must apply to the Art of Burger. In their almighty Cheddarness, it seems that the Burger Gods deemed me worthy of witnessing such an occurrence. Or maybe they wanted to balance the forces of Cheddarness for the better as my lunch at Blend Hamburger on the same day had been a bit disappointing.

Blend Hamburger - Paris

Blend Hamburger opened less than a month ago. If you believe the hype (and there are enough famous songs advising you not too), this burger joint is rumored to be The place to have a great hamburger in Paris. It hence won't come as a surprise that the wait to be seated is rather long.

Morgans Hotel Group Global Card Review

Here's a breakdown of the perks that Morgans Hotel Group Global Card holders are supposed to enjoy:

 Dedicated concierge to assist you with all of your needs before and during your stay
· Complimentary night at all of our new hotel openings around the world
· $100 in US Hotels or £100 in UK hotels for a standard room if available after 10PM
· Upgrades to the best available hotel accommodations upon arrival which include specialty suites
· Invitations to exclusive Global Card events, openings and special events throughout the year

· Access to all of our pools and beaches
· 20% discount at our Agua Spas
· Complimentary In Room Internet
· Complimentary Local Phone/Fax
· Late Check out
· Early Check-in
· Priority Check-in
· Direct escort to room
· Express check out
· Pre arrival email for Special Requests
· Customized Room
· Arrival/Welcome Gift
· Morning Newspaper
· Complimentary Gym Access
· Online Profile Management
· Access to Redemption Partners
· Access to Exclusive Offers
· Reservation Guarantee
· Direct Access to CEO

Pierre Gagnaire's Sketch Restaurant In London

Sketch is Famous French chef Pierre Gagnaire's signature restaurant in London. It actually consists for three different restaurants: Gallery, The Lecture Room and Parlour. Parlour is the more relaxed option while The Lecture Room features a tasting menu. I had the chance to eat at Gallery which is their "middle ground" option last weekend. Although the food didn't live up to my high expectations, I absolutely loved the experience. Above this text is a picture of my starters: the "Pollock". Below is a picture of my main course which was scallops with truffles. Both were good but not that original in my opinion.

Hakkasan Hanway Place London

Last summer, I reviewed the Hakkasan restaurant located at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. I absolutely loved their food so it only seemed logical during my recent my week-end in London to have dinner at one of their London locations which, in my case, happened to be the Hanway Place one.

Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised with the fact that the restaurant was almost identical to its sister location in Miami for the setting there is absolutely stunning. I had their Dim-Sum platter which were tender and perfect:

Three Burgers In London

As I was using a prepaid Three UK sim card during my trip to London, I thought I should review Three hamburger joints there!

How To Officially Unlock Your iPhone

If you're amongst the lucky ones that are able to have their carrier officially unlock their iPhones, here's a quick tip as to how to properly do it. As a matter of fact, some carriers will send you unclear instructions once your unlocking request has been approved.

There are two ways to use an unlocked iPhone: you can either re-activate it every time you insert a new sim card in it or unlock it for good so you won't have to go through the process of activation ever again.

Here's the breakdown:

Prepaid iPhone Plans In The UK

As I'm still crusading against French mobile carriers outrageous data roaming plans, here comes the latest addition to my list of prepaid iPhone plans to use abroad. Three UK has amazing prepaid plans amongst which the "All In One 15" is a great option. For £15 you get 300 voice minutes to the UK, 3000 texts within the UK and unlimited data valid for 30 days.

Data configuration and APN are automatic which means you won't need to download any custom profile file and/OR manually set the APN. It will just work right out of the box. So if you're traveling to the UK, you know what to do (make sure your iPhone is unlocked beforehand). I have nothing more to add! For more details regarding their other prepaid plans click here.

Speed Burger Strasbourg Review

Now that Speed Burger has a joint in Strasbourg, I had to try it out. I can't believe they opened shop two weeks ago and I didn't know! So, here comes my relatively late review.

First of all, you need to know that Speed Burger has many locations in France and specializes in home deliveries, an unexplained rarity in France and particularly in Strasbourg. Doesn't it feel great to know you can pick up the phone and just order a burger that will be delivered to your home in less than thirty minutes?

So, how was the service and food?

BagelAvenue Review (Strasbourg, France)

I tried this new Bagel joint in Strasbourg last night and must say that I was impressed with the quality of their bagels, the friendly service and their wide selection of products.

Bagel Avenue promises a great Bagel experience and delivers it! In addition to classic Bagels, they offer great hot Bagels as well as wraps. Their smartest move, in my opinion, is to serve Coffee in paper cups à la Starbucks Coffee in a city where such Hollywood-created mimetic craving is hard if not impossible to satisfy. I can't wait to try out some of their Frappuccinos to see for myself how they compare to my all time favorite Grande Caramel Frappucino with whipped cream at Starbucks Coffee!

Let me end this review by saying that they also feature great American desserts and sweets such as cheese cake, Donuts, Brownies, Whoopies, Cookies etc. On the soft drink side of things, they also have root beer and Dr. Pepper. And last but not least: HOME DELIVERY IS AN OPTION!

Their menu (in French) is here!

Hack Of The Day: The Best & Cheapest Dictation Setup

So, you're still using microcassettes for dictation and you feel voice recognition isn't reliable enough to switch your entire dictation strategy to Dragon dictation? Problem is your microcassette player or recorder is dying and replacing or upgrading your whole dictation setup at work looks more expensive than buying Mac Pros for everyone. Digital dictation devices are, indeed, extremely expensive and impractical at best with the need to connect them via USB to a base station to send files.

Mini Connected Review

My previous post was all about BMW ConnectedDrive and BMW Apps. This one is about Mini Connected which is very similar to what is available on the BMW side of things.

One big difference with Mini Connected is that it does not come with a sim card so all "connected" functions use your iPhone data connection. In fact, what Mini calls "Mini Connected" is almost the same thing than what BMW calls "BMW Apps" (and not BMW Connected as you might have thought).

Mini Connected enables you to display your Facebook & Twitter feeds, use Google Send to Car and listen to webradios. The interface and functions are almost identical to what I described in my previous post about BMW Connected.

The same annoying bluetooth audio streaming deactivation happens when you plug your iPhone in the snapin but you can fix it in the same way that I previously described:

BMW ConnectedDrive & BMW Apps Review

I have been using BMW Connected Drive for two weeks and thought I would post here a full review of its functionalities as detailed information is hard to find even when you have a car equipped with it.

First of all, let me stress that BMW's current offering is quite confusing as the lines are kinda blurry between BMW Connected Drive and what they call BMW Apps. BMW Connected Drive is itself divided into different sections that are or aren't subject to a subscription fee.


So what can you do with this BMW ConnectedDrive?

The Most Detailed iCloud Review Ever

As I have been using iCloud for two weeks, this post aims at addressing the most commonly asked questions with regard to this latest addition to Apple technology. Granted, most of Apple products don't require a detailed manual as they usually "just work". In iCloud case, I believe that, although it works beautifully, it requires a lot more explaining that what can be found at www.apple.com/icloud

First of all, the user has to keep in mind that "iCloud" refers to many different things:

Why The iPhone 4S Is Great

It seems many people were disappointed by yesterday's Apple event just because the new iPhone wasn't named the iPhone 5! I, however, believe that the iPhone 4S tech specs are in line with what was expected for the rumored iPhone 5 (dual core A5 processor, 8MP camera, 1080p video recording, SIRI assistant, faster graphics etc.). Surprisingly, the overall feedback on the Internet seems to be solely based on the fact that this new iPhone was not named with the number 5.

Of course, Apple could have named it iPhone 5 but that wouldn't have been in line with their practices. As the iPhone 4S sports the same form factor than the 4, they decided to keep the number 4 in its name (as for the iPhone 3 & 3GS). The press and most customers would have applauded if that same phone were named iPhone 5 instead of iPhone 4S as its specs are, for the most part, what were expected for an iPhone 5.

Bitcasa & The Promise Of Infinite Cloud Storage

Bitcasa looks like the Holy Grail of Cloud Computing. I think they totally dig what today's computing lacks in terms of ease of use & backup automation.

One thing that I hate is to install a new computer. It's something I usually try to avoid for as long as possible and probably the reason why I don't upgrade my hardware as often as I'd like to. Going through a whole day of data migration, settings troubleshooting etc. is just something that nobody, no matter how computer savvy they are, is looking forward to.

The promise of Bitcasa is to change today's paradigm by getting rid entirely of the local storage concept: EVERYTHING IS IN THE CLOUDS. You, therefore, needn't worry about downloading all your data from your online storage service (such as SugarSync or Dropbox), a task which can take days if not weeks when installing a new computer. You just access it in real time through the Internet.

Just Another Weekly Hamburger Picture

Let The New Hamburger Season Begin

 

Enough with the Club Sandwich madness, let the Sunday Burger Sunday Season begin !

Lylou's Cook Hamburger Delivery In Strasbourg (France) Review

There finally is one option to have hamburgers delivered at home in Strasbourg thanks to Lylou's Cook. Yes their website is amateurish at best but they are the only option if you live in Strasbourg and feel too lazy to go out to buy a hamburger. Of course, I had to to taste their burgers so here is my review.

AT&T Has Affordable International Data Roaming Plans. Why Not Us?

Yes! You are not dreaming! AT&T does offer reasonable and sensible data roaming plans whereas most other carriers in the world keep ripping their customers off. Of course the US$ 199.99 plan for 800Mb of data is expensive but compared to what most carriers charge in France, it simply is the best deal ever. Those same 800 Mb of data roaming would cost with a French carrier 800 times EUR13 which amounts to EUR10400 which translates into US$15000! Can you believe that? I call for all mobile carriers to come to their senses and stop preventing their customers from using mobile internet abroad by charging them a reasonable price.

If AT&T can do it, how come other carriers don't?