Smoked Atlantic salmon crepe with citrus crème fraiche, a hard cooked egg with pickled red onions and fried capers as served for breakfast at Escabeche in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

   
I eat yogurt for breakfast almost every day of my life. It’s something aimed at keeping my weight under control while balancing the flora in my gut. When I’m on the road I try to find a locally made yogurt to eat and have discovered over time that practice often protects me from the so-called Montezuma’s Revenge that sometimes plagues people in a new and foreign environment.
Yogurt is my friend, but sometimes I get really tired of it and crave a change.
During my recent trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake to write about that town and the Shaw Festival, I had the good fortune to stay at the Prince of Wales Hotel. There,  breakfast in the sunny Escabeche Restaurant turned out to be one of the best I’d ever had.
Billed on the menu as a smoked Atlantic salmon crepe with citrus crème fraiche, a hard cooked egg with pickled red onions and fried capers, it proved to be even better than it sounded.
When fried, tangy lemony flavored capers become crunchy and add a wonderful texture as a counterpoint to the velvety crepe,  the sweet-tart  pickled red onion and the smoky deep salmon taste. I'm guessing that a squeeze of lemon into creme fraiche moistens and dresses the salmon before it's folded into the crepe.
Before leaving the Prince of Wales Hotel, I popped into its tiny gift shop to get a book entitled “Vintage Cooks Collection” comprised of recipes from chefs at the Prince of Wales and the group’s four other properties. Book a room or make a dinner reservation at 888-669-5566.
From that book, here’s a recipe for Summer Berry Soup with lavender that should be easy to put together after a visit to one of the area’s farmers markets. No recipe for this amazing crepe was there but, you'll note, yogurt follows me as an ingredient in this yummy berry season cold soup.

Summer Berry Soup
1 pint each strawberries, raspberries, blueberries
1 cup organic yogurt
1/2 cup honey
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon lavender
Pinch of sugar
Process all the berries in food processor with yogurt and honey. Chill for two hours.
Whip cream with lavender and sugar. Serve as garnish on the chilled berry soup.

May is a month to plan your summer getaways, amid the excitement of graduations, weddings and other celebrations. So this month's travel section gives you  several Midwest options to consider for weekend or longer escapes from Northeast Ohio. Click on the highlighted words below to go to each of the stories.

Door County, Wisconsin has been called the Cape Cod of the Midwest and the similarities are clear to anyone who has been to both peninsulas. The closer one juts into Lake Michigan and its watery pleasures are fresh water with many small towns, cheese makers, cherry producers and diversions that run toward food - including the storied fish boil  organized so almost everyone who visits has a chance to partake.

Even closer to home is Ann Arbor, just a little more than two hours drive away. It's already well known among those who attend it's annual art festival but our story showcases its sustainability scene - a concept that is going mainstream in his town and is heavily reflected in its food scene. If you are an Ohio State fan don't let your Michigan prejudices keep you from exploring this gem of a town.

For many Northeast Ohioans it wouldn't be summer without the Shaw Festival and Chautauqua Institution, so we've given you an early heads-up  about performances and lectures sure to sell out this summer. Next month we'll visit both places - both really good driving distance destinations for those of us who live around here -  to give you the skinny on where to stay, eat and explore. We'll also be presenting blogs by two local women who have long visited both areas to give you their takes on what's great in both Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Jamestown, N. Y areas. This story also details a few other very interesting festivals around which you may wish to frame part of your summer.

Brunch at Brennan's is  an understandable  highlight for many visitors to New Orleans. That meal is recounted along with its extraordinary Bananas Foster, a dish that was invented there. The writer, once affiliated with the Ritz Carlton, asks the kinds of questions she was always asked as a server in order to learn about some of the other dishes. What she discovered may surprise you.

Who knew that Freiburg in southwest Germany was one of the country's sunniest locales. But the bachle, tiny little canals built  hundred of years ago to bring water from the mountains to the city, keep visitors' eye downcast as they seek to avoid stepping into them.

The 150-year-old Prince of Wales Hotel is a landmark in the middle of Niagara on the Lake

Just back from Niagara-on-the-Lake where spring is about a week earlier than here - at least in my south Mentor neighborhood where the magnolias burst into beautiful pink bloom just before I left.  They still were in tight buds up north, but my friend Maggie, who lives closer to Lake Erie, says that's  how they are in her Mentor neighborhood. So I guess the bloom season varies a lot this time of year depending on where you are in relation to Lake Erie..
It was suggested to me that I cross the border at the Rainbow Bridge to avoid delays which are common at the other crossings into Canada, notably the Peace Bridge where I usually cross. The drive from my door to the 150 years old Prince of Wales Hotel in Niagara on the Lake took me just under four hours, including a rest room stop on I-90 in New York State.
It was somewhat problematic to get an online map or GPS instructions that would take me to the Rainbow Bridge, which might explain why few people cross there. But it was good advice since the wait totaled about 5 minutes... 8 minutes on the return trip, but it WAS a Friday.The signage is good and it was simple to find.  A $3 toll is assessed to cross into Canada although it isn't charged on the way back. On the return crossing I was almost hoping for more of a wait because there's a great view of the famous Falls from the bridge.
Purpose of the  under-48-hour visit was to preview the Shaw Festival and to check out the Vintage Hotels, which are some of the nicest in Niagara-on-the-Lake. If you follow the travel section, as I hope you do,  you'll read about this trip on June 9.
I thoroughly enjoyed seeing "Guys and Dolls" which is sure to be a blockbuster sell-out this summer. And my backstage tour was extraordinary.
The picture with this blog is of the Prince of Wales Hotel, where I had two of the best experiences of my life. And that's saying something since I've stayed in a lot of hotels all over the world. Those bests? Best breakfast: a smoked salmon and creme fraiche crepe with pickled red onions and frizzled capers. Best massage: an exquisite deep tissue massage at the hotel's Secret Garden Spa.