Beautiful Country... at The Blog Cafe

Welcome to The Blog Cafe...take a seat! This week I have the great pleasure of hosting!  Let me take you to Bel Paese.  Bel Paese is located in York, Pennsylvania USA--my home town.  It is well worth a trip to York just to eat at this truly authentic Italian restaurant! Bel Paese can be translated as "beautiful country".  The word is also synonymous with an Italian cheese made of cow's milk, which is soft, creamy & rather buttery.

When Dear Husband and I were in Pennsylvania this past spring, we took ourselves one evening to Bel Paese for a belated anniversary dinner. It is a favorite restaurant to visit when we go home across the ocean. They have a huge menu, offering a wide range of salads, appetizers, entrees, pastas and dessert.  We were in a pasta mood and both selected the sarde pasta to try.  A Sicilian dish of what might seem to many an odd combination of flavors, but has the most GORGEOUS taste--pasta served with a chunky sauce of sardines with tomato, raisins, pine nuts and a scattering of fennel fronds! Not long after we returned here to Norway, I went to work in the kitchen trying to capture that dish, and have come pretty close. So whenever we crave the taste of sarde pasta from Bel Paese, I dig out my recipe notebook.

Speaking of notebook...  while we dined at Bel Paese back in May, I sat ready with my camera and a notebook.  I carry a notebook and camera all the time.  We were seated at a cozy booth/banquette with full view of the dining room to enjoy. Between courses and much conversation, I made jottings and notes in my book. Between the salad and pasta courses, I went to make a note in my notebook on the beauty of the beet & goat cheese salad we'd just eaten. I went to put the notebook back into my bag to make room for extra plates coming to our small table. Unfortunately, the notebook slipped into a gap between adjoining booth/banquettes seats!  Short of the booth/banquette section being ripped out and the restaurant having to redecorate, my notebook was gone! My notes, ideas, sketches and other jottings made all the while we were on our trip... gone... After the initial surprise and a certain amount of pouting, next day I went and got a new notebook to start again.  And tried to remember what I had in the lost notebook!

Question... Have you ever lost something important to you?  Something of either personal value, material value, etc.?  And did you get it back?

With Love,

Comments

[M.Kate]

I dont know when I can be there...but after lunch, the pasta still looks good to me :P

[Sarah]

Oh no-I would have been very sad for that to have happened. I once had my handbag stolen and it had my diary with all sorts of important information in it, as well as personal things. I had written in it the day my Nan died and that was all I could think about-not the other things in there which were just things. Not a nice experience!

[Jodi]

Beet and goat cheese salad -- sounds so good. I've been getting beets from my CSA and I've been truly enjoying them.

[Jacqueline]

That pasta looks sooo yummie! Oh yes i have lost my whole tote bag before with all my personal items and my journal. It was a really horrible and very scary experience with a snatch theft. I didn't get anything back and the theft wasn't caught. Have a lovely merry happy week and love to you!

[Elizabeth]

I lost one of the earrings my mother gave me when I got married --35 years ago.
I still get a little twinge when I see the poor orphaned survivor.

Anyway, things aren't at all important.
I bet it was the thoughts in your note book you missed most.

[nikkipolani]

Ouch! But you did the best next thing - pick yourself up and start over. By the way, your gorgeous necklace came in the post and it goes beautifully with the pearl earrings you made that I purchased last time :-) And thanks for the little bonus of bangles. I would never have bought these for myself, but I like them a lot.

[Lacey]

Yes on our way home from Scotland I put our passports and tickets down in a store. I did hoever get them back. Thank goodness

[Puna]

A lovely place. I just love reading about restaurants...

[Puna]

...and I certainly hope you get your notebook back!

[Pat]

What a disappointing thing to happen, Tracy! I've lost a few things here and there in life but nothing I couldn't replace except for some photographs that were ruined by water damage we had once.

We LOVE "pasta con sarde"! I don't always put the raisins and pignoli nuts in it but use more sauteed grated fennel bulb.

XX00 Pat

[ellen b]

Hello Tracy,
That restaurant sounds really good. We've not had too much luck finding a good Italian restaurant. The beet and goat cheese salad sounds lovely. So sorry about your notebook. Yes I've lost things that are dear to me or dear to someone else...that's even worse.

[Freedomwallace.blogspot.com]

Tracy,

My mouth is watering! :) That looks so yummy! :) I'm sorry to hear about your notebook!
I have moved so many times in my life that I learned not to have sentimental value for anything lol. Besides the clothes that I have, I have my pictures and a few letters I have kept since I was little, from family members etc. Those are the most important things to me. I feel like I am always on the go, so its hard to really keep things. I lost a silver dollar my step dad had given me, or I misplaced it, it could be at my parents house,not sure. It really meant a lot, he had told me a story and the silver dollar represented something. It was a great reminder. But I dont have it anymore lol ugh. Thanks for this post, it really made me appreciate the things I DO have. Lots of love- Stef aka Freedom

[P.K.]

To lose a notebook before your very eyes and not be able to retrieve it would be frustrating to say the least. I lost a watch that I loved, it was a gift from my father, never found, I was heart broken. I had an art box with all my supplies stolen, that was an expensive and a frustrating loss. But they are just things I say to myself, still it hurts.

[Courtney]

Oh NO! The loss of your treasured notebook brings terror to my heart! I'm so sorry to hear about it ... ugh!

Just last night I accidentally deleted a bunch of stuff that I had been compiling on my computer. I can eventually salvage most of it ... but it's a pain in the neck and I fear I'll forget something.

The most sentimental thing I ever lost: an entire roll of film that I took while touring Venice during Christmas about 15 years ago. I can vividly remember the reflection of lights upon canal waters (sniff!). I'm pretty sure the film rolled out of my purse when it spilled on the airplane ... so I'll have to content myself with the lovely memories.

[Anne]

Hi Tracy - how upsetting to lose your notebook. I have so many notebooks, it sometimes takes me a while to find the one I need!Some years ago we were burgled and I lost most of my jewellery - ok, it was reolaced through our insurance, but that couldn't replace the sentimental value.
Have a good week, love Anne x

[Gayle]

Yum, that sounds delicious and looks pretty, too! Oh, no, losing your notebook must have felt horrible. The first thing that came to my mind when I thought about something I lost that meant a lot to me was my most beloved stuffed cat that I lost when I was about 3 or 4. Her name was Puff and I brought her everywhere with me. One day we went to visit my uncle at work and sometime during that trip I lost Puff. My mom asked my uncle to look for it, but he never did find Puff. :(

[Isabelle]

How sad about your precious notebook!
That dish looks and sounds lovely - I am sure many of us would be grateful for your recipe! :)

Off to take a stroll at your shop before it closes down... *hugs*

[Betty Jo]

Oh no! I'm so sorry for the loss of your notebook. Just think what fun someone is going to have exploring it when it is found years from now. It's like a time capsule of sorts. What a great attitude you have Tracy. Losing my notes would be akin to losing my brain! My husband and I had friends living in York, PA (hubby was from Corning, NY). Our friends have passed on now as they were older when we first met them in England nearly thirty years ago. Love York in the fall especially. The restaurant looks wonderful and the name is beautiful. ♥

[MrPuffy]

YUM!!! I love Italian restaurants and celebrated my birthday this year at one here in LA. I hope that was a traditional paper notebook and not a computer one :(((((

The thing I lost that stands out the most in my mind is a navy velour jacket that I bought on vacation while in Vancouver when I was a teenager. I loved it and the first time I wore it I left it on a public bus only to never see it again.

[Se'lah]

oh no...i would have ripped that thing apart...no one gets between me and my notebook ;)

the food looks delicious.

have a happy week, my friend.

[Marie]

Oh no Tracy, so sorry you lost your notebook!! How tragic when you lose something important like that! I have been pretty lucky in that I normally find things after I have lost them. My ex husband however made a gift of all my saved books from my childhood to an old friend of his once and that was really sad to me as I could not get them back. It still makes me sad to think about, as some of them had been special gifts and others were awards I had won in school. Nevermind . . . life does go on! Great news. My youngest daughter is expecting, baby due in February! Love you loads! xxoo

[Tracy]

Oooh yummy! I'm so sorry that you lost your notebook Tracy. Let's just hope whoever found it enjoyed reading your notes! I'm always losing little things but rarely anything of great importance. Phew! I hope you're having a lovely week :)

[Melanie]

Sounds delicious!

As for something lost... well I think I have forgotten. Maybe it is a defence measure as the thought of someone trying to read personal writing makes my toes curl. :-)

[nicolette]

Sorry about loosing your notebook. Who knows what is hiding more between those adjoining banquet seats... LOL!

Bel Paese sounds like a wonderful restaurant to have a delicious Italian dinner.

When I was a child my grandparents gave me a necklace with a pendant, a little golden bible, with real papers in it. I treasured it, not so much for the bible part, but for those tiny little paper pages and because it was a gift from the 2 people I loved most. Each night I took it of and kept it in the same place. One day it was gone. I never found it again. I searched over and over again. It’s still a mystery to me.

[kamana]

something lost... my heart? does that count? lol