Why Don’t We Eat More Cambodian Food?

Posted on February 8, 2015 by jaynezak

“Now that you are eating the rice, you can enjoy the taste of the food.” Cambodian waiter in Siem Reap to me.

I don’t like rice but I am grateful to rice for keeping people from starving. It is the most widely consumed food in the world especially in Asia. In Asian countries it is weird if you don’t eat rice. So this trip I managed to not eat rice in Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Viet Nam but in Cambodia everyone eats rice. If they see that your plate has no rice, they put rice on it. In many restaurants, rice is free or included. They did not understand the no rice thing. Having had so much starvation for so many years, it is odd for them to see people jogging to lose weight or not eat rice. I needed to eat some rice in Cambodia to understand the food. I felt a little of that first world privilege that I had a choice not to eat it.

Khmer food takes influences from a variety of countries. Cambodia was a French colony for many years and also has many Chinese immigrants, so both French and Chinese foods are widely found. Thailand is nearby and influences the flavors as well. as well. Common ingredients are rice and sticky rice, fish sauce, palm sugar, lime, garlic, chilies, coconut milk, lemon grass,, kaffir lime and shallots.

I have never eaten Cambodian food before so I can’t judge anything other than that I thought it was fresh and delicious. The flavors are strong, clean and not too spicy for me. (Cambodian curry)

Hunger is a legacy that lives on in Cambodian food and everything is edible. This is not my first fried bug country but there are a lot of them here. Platters of fried tarantulas and spiders are common in the market.

They told me the red ants that were biting my leg on the hammock were delicious when cooked with beef and they were right.

My new favorite Cambodian dish is Amok, a popular Khmer dish. Amok is a national dish, made from fish, coconut milk and curry paste and cooked in banana leaves. I had it with fish and chicken.(fish amok and morning glory)

I love trying new restaurants and my new favorite restaurant is in Siem Reap Cambodia. It is Batchum Khmer Kitchen restaurant (http://batchumkhmerkitchen.com) I ate there twice. The food is fresh and organic (as most food is in agricultural communities).

It is located in a quiet part of the Angor Archaological Park overlooking tropical gardens and rice paddies. (watching the quick tropical rainstorm while eating)

The second day I went for a coffee and did not plan on staying for lunch but it is so beautiful and relaxing there and the food is so delicious and the staff is so friendly that we ended up staying.

In the Khmer language the word for rice and food are the same. In Cambodia, they go together.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Sushi At Tsukiji (Tokyo)

Posted on December 14, 2014 by jaynezak

Sushi at Tsukiji (Tokyo)

“Heaven has no taste. And not one single sushi restaurant,” I said. A look of pain crossed the angel’s suddenly very serious face.” Terry Pratchett

I’ve eaten great food before. But all raw fish aficionados should make a pilgrimage to Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo in their lifetime. The best and freshest fish are known to come from the Tsukiji Fish Market. (squid and red snapper)

The sushi bars that surround the market are the epicenter of sushi culture.

The lines for the best ones start at 5am when they start serving. They usually close around 12. The restaurants outside the market can stay open for twenty four hours. The sushi restaurants are small, crowded and sometimes the chefs take something right out of the tank in front of you and prepare it. I think it was still moving.

o-toro (fattiest of the fatty tuna) was the best tuna I’ve ever had. The whole piece melts in your mouth. You don’t even need to chew. It tasted fresh and rich in flavor with gorgeous color and marbling.

I’ve never had uni that was this amazing. I’ve never even liked uni before. Sea urchin at a lesser degree of freshness tends to be overly mushy, taste a bit rank and looks like it’s covered in a sort of mucus. This was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Eating sushi in Tsukiji was a near spiritual experience for me and I’m sure it would be for anyone that loves sushi. (o-toro and anago)

I don’t know where it could be fresher and better. (fresh clam soup)

It is always hard to start eating sushi again after leaving Japan. Thanks for a memorable lunch Hiro.

yo I sorano tabi o,

JAZ

Seattle Is A Food Town

Posted on September 24, 2014 by jaynezak

Seattle Is A Food Town

“Humor keeps us alive. Humor and food. Don’t forget food. You can go a week without laughing.” Joss Whedon

I’m a terrible food blogger. I do way too much when I travel and I’m always starving when I sit down to eat. I never remember to take photos when the food comes until after I’ve eaten several bites. I try to put the food together but it never works. Or it’s dark and I forget to put my flash on. There is something weird to me about taking pictures of food before you eat it. But it is the number one thing people post. Apparently other people love to look at pictures of the food you are about to eat.

Seattle is a food town. Signature dishes are salmon, smoked salmon, coffee and Starbucks, (separate categories), Rainer cherries, Teriyaki anything, Top Pot donuts, fresh local ingredients, Salumi salami, Dungeness crabs, named after the town of Dungeness in Washington) apples – half the apples in the United States are grown here, mussels from Whidbey Island and my least favorite thing – Geoduck clams. I had a lot of eating to do but no Geoduck.

I’m not a huge fan of cured and preserved meats or long lunch lines.

Yet I found myself waiting an hour at Salumi in Pioneer Square.

It is owned by Armando Batali, father of a famous chef.

I had the Salumi salami sandwich and to my son who made me wait on the long line, I say “thank you.” It all worked – the bread, the provolone, the salami and whatever they drizzled on it. The family had the mole sandwich, muffo sandwich and salami and mozzarella on Guiseppi bread. It is worth the wait.

I love fish and all the fish in Seattle is so fresh. The salmon, mussels and poke I had at the wedding at Islandwood on Bainbridge Island (and it looks like its name) was amazing. Sorry, I was busy taking pictures of family and friends. All the seafood at Anchovy and Olive is beautifully prepared and delicious.

Pike’s market is one of the main tourist attractions in Seattle. It opened on Aug. 17, 1907, with just eight farmers who sold their food to more than 10,000 people who came out on a crazy first day. It hasn’t slowed down since and now more than 10 million visitors come to it annually.

The market is located on Pike Street.

How do you not like aisles of fruit, vegetables. souvenirs, desserts, ethnic food, art, crafts , flowers and men throwing around massive fish and giant crabs?

I ate my way through on the first day –clam “chowda”, giant Dungeness crab cocktail, chocolate covered cherries, giant peaches , piroshkies and apples apples apples. I would have taken photos but I couldn’t balance the umbrella, the purse, the camera and the food as I walked through hordes of people.. Remember that Anthony Bourdain has a film crew.

The original Starbucks was opened in Pikes Market in 1971. There are Starbucks on almost every street in Seattle but there is always a long line down the block at the first one. I guess it just feels different. I did not wait on that line in the rain for my Seattle Pikes Place Starbucks mug. I walked to the one a block away with a normal line and got a regular Seattle one. I draw the line at waiting forty minutes for a souvenir – even though I have a major Starbucks around the world collection and wish now that I done it.

Piroshky Piroshky bakery located in Pike’s Market is a must to get piroshkies in Seattle, Even if you don’t know what they are you will not be sorry. Try the cinnamon and smoked salmon ones.

I found a new favorite dessert – dried Chukar cherries covered with dark chocolate cocoa and I am eating them as a write. They are located in Pike’s Market and will let you sample many of them. I see you can buy them on Amazon.

The gum wall in Pike’s Market is one of the main tourist attractions. The wall is by the box office for the Market Theater, and the tradition began around 1993 when patrons of Seattle Theatresports stuck gum to the wall and placed coins in the gum blobs. It became a tourist attraction in 1999. You can bring your own gum to add to the collection but just know that is on the list for Five Germiest Tourist Attractions In The World.

Food writing is very competitive. As a non cook I have no right to judge other people’s food but I do come to the table with major experience as an eater. I’ve had three meals a day for my entire life. I’m also a restaurant slut. I am always trying new restaurants and rarely stay with them unless they are amazing. My favorite places to visit are those with good people and good food and Seattle has both.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Colombia-The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

Posted on May 16, 2014 by jaynezak

Colombia –The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

“Nothing comes as an accomplishment instantly. Success does not come overnight. Patience is the key! Grow up and be the tree; but remember it takes dry and wet seasons to become a fruit bearer, achiever and impact maker!” Israelmore Ayivor

It seems like there are more fruits in Colombia than days of the year. I have never heard of most of these fruits. All of them are delicious. Here are a just a few.

Guanabana (my new favorite fruit) It is a large green fruit covered with soft thorns. The inside is a white fleshy substance with black/brown seeds. The flavor has been described as a combination of strawberry, sour pineapple and banana. The Guanabana tree is a natural cancer cell killer 10,000 times stronger than chemo. (the white juice is guanabana)

Lulo (I love this juice) It looks like a small orange tomato. It has a citrus taste. It is usually served as a juice because the fruit has too strong a flavor to eat.

Tree Tomato (Tomate De Arbol) It looks like a tomato but tastes like tomato and kiwi or passionfruit. The skin is bitter so it is usually made into juice or served with cinnamon.

Uchuva It is a tangy creamy berry. It is sweet when ripe but can also be very sour. I brought back some uchuva jam.

Carambola – Star Fruit It tastes like a grape with citrus and apple.

Guama This is the strangest. fruit I have every eaten. It is a pod, like carob or tamarind filled with a sweet cotton like flesh. The seeds are a lot like slippery watermelon seeds but bigger. When you squeeze them between your fingers they shoot out. The Colombian saying “como pepa de guama” (like a guama seed), is used when someone or something leaves very quickly

Maracuya -Colombia has a few different varieties of passionfruit. This is the most common variety. It You cut it in half and scoop out the sweet insides which are full of small seeds.

Granadilla is yellow with a stem.This is a round, orange passionfruit with crunchy blue seeds. It’s much sweeter and milder so it is better to eat it alone and not as juice.

Nispero This fruit is oval or pear-shaped. The nispero is ripest and sweetest when orange, though some prefer it crisper and tart in the light brown stage. It’s got an apple – chocolate – strawberry flavor

Pitayas (Dragon Fruit) You may know those bright pink dragon fruits so popular in Asia. These are a little different. They have the same spiky exterior except they are yellow instead of pink. Inside is also similar: white with tiny black seeds, but the taste is not as sweet

Also there are sweet creamy avocados the size of your head and bananas in all sizes and levels of sweetness.

If you aren’t eating something deep-fried in Colombia, you are having something delicious with strange fruit. Yet when all the fruit is strange, the strange becomes the familiar.

Gracias Alex Rodriguez for the impromptu fruit lesson.

Viaje Con Cuidado,

JAZ

Wineries Of Salta, Argentina

Posted on August 5, 2013 by jaynezak

Wineries of Salta, Argentina

“In wine, there is truth.” Pliny the Elder

A decision that you will have to make everyday in Salta is – Malbec or Torrontes? There is no wrong decision.

Salta does have some of the best Torrontes in Argentina. Though it is widely planted in Argentina, it seems to do best in Salta Province.

Many of Salta’s vineyards are planted at dizzyingly high altitudes in the mountains and foothills. The mountains serve as both climate protection and irrigation. Grapes grown here reach perfect ripeness and acidity without becoming too extracted or alcoholic.

A bodega is a winery.

The Bodegas of Salta are at lower latitudes and higher altitudes than anywhere else on Earth. Interestingly, these two factors balance each other out; the cold temperatures associated with high altitude are tempered by the high temperatures found at equatorial latitudes. The combination creates an unexpectedly excellent climate for quality wine making.

Some of the vineyards are at altitudes of 10,000 feet. The latitudes are as low as 24 degrees south. Their proximity to the equator is similar to such places as Egypt and Mozambique.

Malbec, Merlot, Tannat and Cabernet Sauvignon are the most prominent red wine varieties in Salta, while Chardonnay and Torrontes are their most respected white wines.

Tannat is a little-known grape, originally from Southwest France.

If you are a person who gets carsick, you should probably make sure you take proper measures before attempting this ride to the high altitude vineyards. Even then, it will not be good. But later in the day when you feel better, it will have been worth it.

Fresh air and shopping can be helpful with car sickness.

So can a good meal of carbs at Vinos de Payogasta off Ruta 40. (humitas – like a tamale but much creamier inside, lentil soup, homemade ice cream with dulce de leche)

A tour of this small family run winery is interesting. (Salta Wine Route -Vinas de Payogasta). The wine was good. I brought some back from here. (four planes and a lot of driving on unpaved roads and every bottle arrived intact!!!) The manager was so passionate in how he talked about winemaking. It was wine from the heart.

If you are driving to Colome from Salta City you will have to drive through the Molinos River-always. It is much easier to go in the dry season when we did it. If you are driving in the rainy season, it is best to start out against the current and then go with it. That doesn’t always work. You can still get stuck and your car may turnover and never be the same.

Colome, Salta is one of the world’s highest vineyards. Donald Hess, an eccentric billionaire planted vines high up on the mountain , at 10,206 feet. He had them certified by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the highest vineyards in the world.

The James Turrell Museum opened in 2009 at the Colome Vineyards. James Turrell is a contemporary artist who works with light in space. He does incredible installations and has retrospective shows running In NY and LA.

I know I have seen more narcissistic things than some billionaire opening a small modern art museum for an artist he collects in the middle of a winery, at 10,000 feet above sea level,.that doesn’t get much foot traffic, and shows eight installations. At the moment, I can’t think of what that could be. The museum is closed Mondays and you should probably call during the rainy season.

Colome Bodega is the oldest vineyard in Argentina. It is celebrating its 180th birthday. The Hess family bought it in 2001.

The road from Molinos to Cafayate is not so paved.

Cafayate is very quiet during siesta time (12-5)

The wines of Cafayate are strong and flavorful with intense color.

It was here that Jesuit missionaries first planted grape seeds from Peru in the 1550’s, having failed with an earlier attempt near Buenos Aires.

The Jesuits began the first vineyards in Cafayate, to make wine for church.

In Cafayate you can have wine flavored ice cream at Heladeria Miranda. (malbec or torrontes?)

Finca De Las Nubes in Cafayate means farm in the clouds. The wines are farmed organically-no chemicals, clean air, pure water and altitude. (and also our best lunch – fresh sheep goat and cow cheeses with avocado and baked apple and of course meat)

Wine barrels make excellent tables. (Finca De Las Nubes)

Jose Luis Mournier has made wine here for almost twenty years. He came from Mendoza and wanted to build a winery to leave to his children. The winery is so high up in the mountains that on some days it is literally in the clouds.

Argentina is the fifth leading wine-producing country in the world. It is the largest wine-producing country in the southern hemisphere. Salta is tiny compared to other Argentine wine regions and only produces 1% of Argentina’s wine.

Though Salta had these natural advantages, it has only been in the last ten years that the bodegas of Salta have really learned how to improve the quality of their wines. At this rate, they could become one of the important wine regions in the world.

Buen Dia and Fly Safe,

JAZ

Food Rules I Have Learned While Traveling

Posted on April 15, 2013 by jaynezak

Food Rules I Have Learned While Traveling.

“Travelers never think that they are the foreigners.’ ~Mason Cooley

You can eat sushi with your hands.

Sashimi is always eaten as a first course before sushi. You can’t eat sashimi with your hands.

Don’t eat anything with your hands in Chile.

You can eat with your hands in Burma (Myanmar). People eat food with their hands in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. People eat with their hands in other countries in Africa and Asia also.

Always keep your hands above the table in Mexico.

Eat only with your right hand in Egypt. (This is true for many Middle Eastern countries) Salting your food is a huge insult.

In Germany, eat your meat with a fork. Use a knife only if it is necessary. If you eat meat with a fork, it lets the cook know the meat is tender.

Pad Thai is always eaten with a fork and a spoon. Thai people eat most of their food with a spoon in their dominant hand and a fork in the other. Chopsticks are only served for soup.

Mezze (small plates) come before a meal.

Pasta is not a main course.

In Uganda, eat fried grasshoppers with your hands like chips. In Mexico eat them on a taco with guacamole and cheese. In Thailand eat them on a stick. In Burma, peel off the head and wings and gulp.

In Burma, they say that anything that walks on the ground can be eaten.

Margherita Pizza is really the only thing Italians consider pizza and should be eaten with a knife a fork. The pies are usually served unsliced. It is not a hard and fast role like never cut your spaghetti with a knife and fork.

In Mexico, never eat tacos with a knife and fork.

In France, don’t eat the bread before the meal.

Never turn down vodka in Russia or tea in Turkey.

In France, eat frogs legs like you would eat fried chicken –with your hands in a casual setting, with a knife and fork in a formal restaurant.

In Kenya drinking cows blood mixed with milk is a special treat.

Chinese people do not eat fortune cookies for dessert but oranges for good luck. It is illegal to eat an orange in a bathtub in California.

In China you are expected to leave a small amount of food uneaten on your plate. If you finish everything, you are sending the insulting message that not enough food was served to you.

It is rude to burp at a table in Japan. It is not rude to burp at a table in China.

In Singapore gum chewing is illegal.

In Mexico Men make toasts, women do not.

In Russia, Do not drink until a toast has been made.

In Armenia, if you empty a bottle into someone’s glass, it obliges them to buy the next bottle.

In restaurants in Portugal don’t ask for salt and pepper if it is not already on the table. Asking for any kind of seasoning or condiment is to cast aspersions on the cook. Cooks are highly respected people in Portugal.

Eating from individual plates strikes most people in Ethiopia as hilarious, bizarre, and wasteful. Food is always shared from a single plate without the use of cutlery.

In Japan it is acceptable to loudly slurp noodles and similar foods. In fact, it is considered flattering to do so, because it indicates that you are enjoying the food.

Do not eat fugu from an unlicensed chef. The Japanese pufferfish, or fugu, is a delicacy in Japan. It’s also potentially one of the most poisonous foods in the world, with no known antidote. Japanese chefs train for years to remove the deadly portion of the fish before serving it, though generally the goal is not to fully remove it, but to leave just enough of a trace to generate a tingling sensation in the mouth, so the customer knows how close he came to the edge. This was one of my best meals in Japan and I have lived to write this.

At this moment, someone is making a food etiquette mistake.

Fly safe,

JAZ

Foods I Have Learned In Oaxaca, Mexico

Posted on April 1, 2013 by jaynezak

Foods I Have Learned in Oaxaca, Mexico

“Good painting is like good cooking: it can be tasted, but not explained.”  Maurice de Vlaminck

Mexico introduced chocolate, corn, and chilies to the world.

Corn smut (Ustilago maydis) is a plant fungus that causes smut disease on maize. The fungus forms on all above-ground parts of the corn , and is known in Mexico as huitlacoche; it is eaten, usually as a filling, in quesadillas and other tortilla-based foods, and soups. Test results published in the journal Food Chemistry reveal that an infection that U.S. farmers and crop scientists have spent millions trying to eradicate, is packed with unique proteins, minerals and other nutritional goodies. It can be sold for more than the corn it ruins. It is supposed to taste good –I couldn’t do it. It is hard to get past the fact that it is sold in the street and it looks like a fungus brain disease before cooking.

Traditional Oaxaca chocolate is prepared in a number of ways. It is often ground with sugar, cinnamon, and almonds, and formed into bars which can be used to prepare hot chocolate and other dishes. You may hear this form of Oaxaca chocolate referred to as “Mexican chocolate”, and is often in beautifully packaged octagonal boxes with thick wedges of chocolate. It is always good to visit a city famous for chocolate

Eating at a taqueria in Oaxaca involves not only pork, chicken or beef but what part of the pig you will have in your tacos. Will it be lard-simmered skin or tongue, liver or heart, ear, kidney, stomach or surtida, a mixed bag?. I was definitely the tourist ordering chicken at a place that would run out of pig snout by lunchtime.(the pork, the tacos)

The city of Oaxaca is considered by many as “Mexico’s Culinary Capital” and is nicknamed “The Land of the Seven Moles”. The national dish is “Mole Poblano”. Mole Poblano, the original chocolate version of this complex, gorgeous sauce, was created by a nun in 17th-century Puebla. It was in Oaxaca, however, that mole evolved into high art: There are seven varieties, which come in a surprising spectrum of colors with a vast range of ingredients.

Mole Negro is a sauce made from many ingredients. Every family has their own recipe and replications are difficult unless you spend time learning with the original maker. Most recipes are passed down the maternal line of the family and each recipe is proclaimed as the most deliciosa.

Made mostly of barbequed grasshoppers, “Chapulinas” is a coveted Oaxacan delicacy. It is good on tacos with guacamole and cheese . We had it every day. Sometimes twice They taste like those peanuts with chili and lime –just a little more leggy. If you do not eat bugs in Mexico, you are the weird one.

Maguey worms ( you know them as the worms in the Mescal bottle) are wrapped in a mixiote (a fleshy maguey leaf) and then barbequed or just roasted directly on a hot pan until they become slightly golden and crispy. It is possible to bite into a taco and find one. Mexico is on the US Travel List of Countries that Eat Insects in case you do or don’t want to have them.

When McDonald’s planned to open an outpost in the Zócalo area of Oaxaca, renowned artist Francisco Toledo and his friends set up a stand in front of the proposed location and gave away tamales, atole and other deeply regional foods—and McDonald’s skulked away to the suburbs.

Atole is a traditional masa-based drink of Mexican and Central American origin. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado or atole. It is typically accompanied with tamales, and very popular during the Christmas holiday season (Las Posadas) The drink typically includes masa (corn hominy flour), water, piloncilo (unrefined cane sugar), cinnamon, vanilla and optional chocolate or fruit. The mixture is blended and heated before serving. Although atole is one of the traditional drinks of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, it is very common during breakfast and dinnertime at any time of year. Atole is usually sold as street food.

If you like to cook, do not miss the cooking class of Oscar Carrizosa at Casa Crespo. If you like to eat, do not miss the meal prepared by your friends at the cooking class. Not only was the food delicious but the beautiful eighteenth century house with its collection of local artwork is a wonderful place to hang out and watch them cook. (Oscar, place setting with cucumber and lime juice, guacamole and mango, mole) http://www.casacrespo.com/

One of Oaxaca’s best-known products is mezcal, an alcoholic beverage similar to tequila but distilled from varieties of cactus –agave. . The plant must be six to eight years old before it can be harvested. Bottles of mescal always used to include a worm, a practice that originated in the 1940s when Jacobo Lozano Páez accidentally discovered that a worm enhances the flavor of mezcal. They don’t use it so much anymore.

For a great Mezcal tasting and food pairing go to In Situ and have Ulises teach you about Mezcal. He has written a beautiful book about mezcal and will be glad to sign it for you. This is not the commercial rotgut with the worm pickled inside which tastes like formaldehyde. Some of his beautifully bottled Mezcal is as sophisticated as the finest single malts. Ingredients from the earth enter into almost every stage of the process. The piñas are roasted over wood charcoal in a stone-lined pit covered in plant matter and earth, then ground, fermented in wooden vats and distilled into a husky, fiery liquid. So Mezcal ends up tasting like Mexico.

Viajen con cuidado,

JAZ

Top Ten Meals In Turkey

Posted on December 11, 2012 by jaynezak

Top Ten Meals In Turkey

“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being” . Franz Kafka

“Turkish food is not about experimentation but about technique”. It is about enjoying the essential ingredient. You can have fresh fish cooked in a bit of olive oil and served with lemon, a salad with a little bit of olive oil, Fresh cheese and a bit of honey or lamb cooked with spices in its own juice. Turkey is known best for meze. Meze are small dishes that start the meal. The meze are based on the seasons and the locale. There is usually some white cheese ( beyaz peynir -similar to feta but not as strong) served with fruit or vegetables or just some honey; yogurt dishes –like dips (cacik or heydari) or with vegetables (esme), meat dishes like kofte (meatballs), salads and vegetable dishes. Near the sea there will be small fish dishes – sardines, fried calamari, stuffed mussels, octopus and shrimp. Desserts are dough based or puddings with fruit or dried fruits and honey and nuts. It was hard to make this restaurant list because all the food was amazing, very fresh and flavorful.

KOSEBASI, ISTANBUL Kosebasi located in the Nisantasi area of Istanbul, is a high-end chain restaurant throughout Turkey and the Middle East. It has a star-studded clientele and is said to have some of the best kabob in Turkey and I would have to agree. It was one of our first and best meals. The Turkish bread was fresh, hot, chewy and light. The lamb and chicken kabobs had been marinated in delicious spices and were very tender. The meze ( starters) were delicious., We had pastrami hummus, bulghur salad, broiled eggplant with yoghurt, white cheese and barbecued eggplant. I love eggplant and the fact that I could have so many different kinds of eggplant in a meal was amazing –Two weeks later I took it for granted. The dessert was a semolina cake made with olive oil and pistachio ice cream. I didn’t know until I visited Turkey that semolina desserts are one of my favorite desserts. http://kosebasi.com/en

NAR LOKANTA, ISTANBUL. Nar Lokanta is on the top floor of the stylish gallery like store Armaggan. It is located in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul right near the Grand Bazaar and Starbucks. There is a beautiful vertical garden hanging down to the floor below outside. The menu changes daily as food is always seasonal. It was at this restaurant that I had my first Turkish Pide and I was hooked. Pide restaurants have wood fire ovens ( kind of like pizza ovens) The dough is rolled and stretched into the boat shapes that form the pide. The outside is rolled in to create a center for the filling We had many different kinds, – vegetable, cheese and lamb and cheese and olive. Nar Lokanta uses their own olive oil which has a very low acidity and an almost sweet flavor. It was never just pide for us in Turkey. Salads and cold vegetable dishes are served as an open buffet – stuffed pumpkin flower, eggplant dishes, mung bean salad, artichokes with broad beans and seasonal wild herbs dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and sour pomegranate juice are a few of the many choices. There is also a large dessert buffet which includes pumpkin pudding, rice pudding, fig pudding, and baklava. There are many flavors of Turkish Delight. ( homemade Turkish candy called Lokum). Turkish Delight was originally eaten after a meal for digestion. This was not only a delicious meal but also very visually appealing. narlokantasi.com/en/about.htm

ZIGGY, CAPPADOCIA. Ziggy is an arty, contemporary Turkish restaurant in the ancient city of Urgup. The food is seasonal and they use the best quality ingredients so the menu changes daily. I can tell you this for a fact because it was so good we ate there two days in a row . I had the best chicken skewers of my life. They are small pieces of garlic chicken cooked in a secret sauce and served on mini skewers. Some of the mezze, were vegetables mashed into yogurt ,seasonal salads, vegetables cooked in olive oil and served cold called zeytinyagh (fava beans, eggplant artichoke and zucchini) and pastirma. Nearby Kayseri is known for its pastirma. Pastirma is the ancestor of pastrami and very popular in this part of Turkey. We also had an amazing dessert called borek ( which is made with layers of phylo dough) Boreks can also be filled with meat, cheese , potato and spinach. This one was tiny boreks with cinnamon and sugar served with thin slices of green apple. ( like mini churros ) On a trip of my favorite desserts, this was my favorite.http://ziggycafe.com/about.htm

ORIENT, CAPPADOCIA. Orient restaurant is located at the beginning of Goreme, a beautiful village in Cappadocia. We had a salad of fresh organic herbs and vegetables. Sealed clay pots were brought out and broken open. Inside was steaming tender lamb cooked in these clay pots with onion garlic and spices . This was a version of the typical peasant dishes cooked in those underground cities in Cappadocia. It was served over rice pilaf and incredibly delicious. For dessert, we had baklava. Not the sticky overly sweet version we have here, but light and wonderful.

http://orientrestaurant.net/

BIZEM EV, SELCUK-IZMIR Bizem Ev is a traditional Turkish restaurant with an organic garden. It is not too far from Ephesus and has a pretty outside area in the garden. Bizem Ev means “Our House.” I drank my first Ayram here. Ayram is a yogurt drink that people drink all over Turkey. It is made with ice salt and yogurt and is very refreshing and delicious. (like buttermilk which I happen to like.) This is a family run business and the mother cooks everything every day. It is a huge buffet of fresh vegetable dishes from their garden as well as many Turkish specialties. Anytime the mother is cooking you know it is going to be great. You can also buy her cookbook and she will sign it for you.

UZUN EV, ASSOS – BEHRAMKALE. Uzun Ev is located in the small fishing harbor of Assos Behramkale , -a village near the ruins of Assos. The village is on the side of a cliff and you have to go down a very narrow steep road and walk part of the way to get to the restaurant on the sea. It was a beautiful day for a nice walk. The interior of the restaurant was very pretty but we sat right on the water. We had a delicious lunch of fish stew with cooked greens sitting at a table on the Aegean Sea.

http://uzunev.com/

RADIKA CANNAKALE . Radika is a seafood restaurant on the top floor of the Akos Hotel in Cannakale. I had my first seafood in Turkey there. It was delicious bonito cooked perfectly. It was also my first salad. I have traveled to a lot of third world countries recently and was in the habit of only eating cooked food. ( except pomegranate juice on the street) The salad was so fresh and had just a bit of olive oil and lemon on it. For dessert we had hot halvah with fresh fruit for dipping.. I was not allowed to have candy as a kid and we always had halvah in the house (the store-bought Middle Eastern version – sugar butter and sesame paste.) I found it disgusting. Turkish halvah is made with semolina, butter and sugar I was just planning to taste this dessert. It was amazing and very different from the chewy, crumbly cardboard stuff of my childhood. . It was another one of my most favorite desserts

http://www.hotelakol.com/en/restaurant.html

MEZE, ISTANBUL Meze is a contemporary Turkish restaurant located across the street from the Pera Palace Hotel. It is cozy and cool inside. We were there during the Bayram and so I ate lamb in honor of the holiday. It was really tasty (from a not meat-eater) – I don’t really like lamb except in Turkey. ( They say it is because they slaughter the lamb young and their diet is wildflowers.) Meze serves the traditional Turkish starters with a more sophisticated twist. Their mashed fava beans, stuffed grape leaves, and eggplant salad is slightly different and really good. Their dessert with banana, cream , honey and pistachios shouldn’t be missed.

http://www.mezze.com.tr/

MANICI KASRI HOTEL, YESILYURT. I haven’t talked about all the fantastic hotel breakfast buffets because I’m not a huge breakfast eater. The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, means “before coffee”. It was customary to drink tea for breakfast – not for me. This area ( at the base of Mt Ida where Zeus was born) has seen many civilizations such as Trojan, Leleg, Midilli, Persian, Roman, Selcuk and Ottoman and you can feel the influence on everything. The village is known for its less ascetic olive oil and honey. Most of the trees are olive trees. I think being in a village made everything fresher. Perhaps it was the extra oxygen in the air up there that made me hungrier. I had my usual breakfast but it just tasted better here. There was fresh Turkish yogurt in a bowl with honey, from the village. I had delicious pomegranate juice. I had some cucumber and tomatoes with a bit of their olive oil. and the sweetest Turkish melon. My favorite things are fresh hot Turkish bagels. They are rings of dough covered in sesame seeds. They are known by different names in different areas but mostly they are called simit. They are often sold by street vendors in trolleys. or carried on their heads. After, I took a walk through the village right after the sunrise. (local olive oil, hotel, sunrise)

http://www.manicikasri.com/english/manici-eng.html

SAGLAM, BERGAMA and ZERDALI, AVANOS . Saglam is near the ruins of Pergamon and the Asciepion ( ancient Greek Medical complex) Zerdali is in Cappadocia. We covered a lot of ground on this trip and had two lunches at restaurants attached to gas stations and one in the airport in Ankara. They were all good. I remember hearing the real estate was high and it was easier to have a large restaurant attached to a gas station. One family owned the gas station, the other did not. The pide was excellent. At Saglam we also had kabob which was good (I was full from all the meze and the pide before the kabob. I didn’t have dinner that night. At Zerdali I had really delicious lentil soup with the pide. I had a lot of lentil soup in Turkey. It is usually made with red lentils . It was always delicious but the one at Zerdali was particularly good.

I could continue listing restaurants . But when you go to Turkey and try any of these places, you will have a great meal. I will miss this food.

For more info on Turkey – Things I Learned In Istanbul https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/things-i-have-learned-in-istanbul/

Iyi Uguslar,

JAZ

Japanese Food

Posted on August 25, 2012 by jaynezak

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”

Luciano Pavarotti

Japanese Food

You get free tofu refills with the tofu dinner. The containers on the tofu bar hold steamed tofu. After the steamed tofu course, you may add as much tofu to your tofu as you wish.

“Western food. Every damn plate is round”.

The truth about Kobe beef is that all wa gyu (Japanese beef) comes from Hyogo prefecture usually from Tajima. Tajima sells the beef all over the Japan. If they buy it in Kobe, it is Kobe beef.

Food is served so beautifully in Japan it is not uncommon to see even the Japanese taking pictures of the food.

They have Yoshinoya in Japan. It was the first thing I saw leaving the airport.

Okinawans are considered to be the longest living people in a country of long life. They attribute it to the Okinawan diet which includes many different kinds of seaweed , a bit of pork, spam and taco rice ( from WWll)

Okinawan sayings include the phrase that Okinawan cuisine “begins with pig and ends with pig” and “every part of a pig can be eaten except its hooves and its oink.”[

Things to eat in Okinawa are–mango pudding, purple potatoes, Chinese food (Okinawan food is more influenced from Chinese food than Japanese food), teriyaki squid on a stick, barbecued grasshopper legs, pork, pigs feet, pig skin , pig ears, ,goya juice, sooki soba( pork spareribs with soba noodles in soup), Okinawan doughnuts ( deep fried balls of dough) and Mozuku seaweed (seaweed for a long life).

Hiroshima is famous for oysters and anago (salt water eel). Unagi ( fresh water ell) is more common in the US. It is not to be confused with inago, whole locusts boiled in soy sauce and sugar.

In Japan they say Autumn is the time for art and eating.

Food is always seasonal. It is chestnut season now and they are served in some way at every meal. Red beans and chestnut sweets taste just like red beans and chestnut. (chestnut sweets)

Japanese women are always on diets .

Blowfish ovaries and pig ears are surprisingly delicious until you find out what you are eating.

Fugu (blowfish) is a delicacy and speciality of the Kyushu islands. Because it is poisonous, you must have a special license to cook it. Every year a few dozen people are hospitalized. The few fugu deaths each year are fishermen who try to prepare it themselves. The ovaries and intestines must be removed and cooked without puncturing them. (I didn’t know until after) We had an eight course fugu dinner (including ovaries and intestines they made a point of telling us that ). I am still here so the chef must have been licensed. It was the most amazing meal, I had on two trips of amazing meals.

Surprisingly, Japanese eat a lot of eggs as in raw, appetizers and egg sushi.

Yakitori chicken (grilled on a skewer) is usually not the breast. It can be thighs, skin, liver etc – because all the parts of the chicken are used.

People in Osaka spend more money on food than anything else.

Okonomiyaki is kind of a cross between a pizza and a pancake. It is batter mixed with cabbage and fried with different toppings. Okonomi means “to one’s liking”. Unlike pizza and pancakes, the usually filling is octopus, squid, pork, yams or kimchi. Or you can have whatever you want on it. It is most common in Hiroshima and Osaka.

The food in Japan is so tasty that you can find a delicious meal in a train station.

It is considered bad manners in Japan to walk down the street eating or drinking. Hence Starbucks is always very crowded.

Japanese now drink more coffee than tea and they all drink “shorts” at starbucks, which have been discontinued in the states.

Jidori chicken is a delicacy of Kyushu. It is a muscular chicken because it is allowed to run free, which makes it rather chewy. ( free range – as we say)

In expensive supermarkets, they bag your groceries, in inexpensive supermarkets you do it yourself. Also the boxes we have at registers for signing and scanning are considered “”so old fashioned” in Japan.

Sake means sake but also liquor.

Anything can be made out of tofu.

Yellowtail is always frozen.

Japanese seaweed is sweeter than other seaweed. ( There are many different kinds of seaweed. –apparently even in nice restaurants in the U.S., we get the cheap stuff).

There are hundreds of different soy sauces and sakes.

The first night of Kaiseki dnner (eight courses) at the ryokan (Japanese hotel and hot springs) is amazing. The second night is delicious. The third night is good. The fourth night, you are thinking pizza. ( These are the first three of the eight courses . They go from raw to cooked. The green pickle looking thing is fresh wasabi that you grate onto your food)

The food department in a Japanese department store is almost always in the basement and can be an attraction by itself due to the wide variety of Japanese delicacies, sweets, desserts and other food on display. The food department at Harrods in London is a boutique compared to some of the Japanese stores.

Pockys come in many flavors . Haagen Daz does seasonal ice creams in Japan. Kit Kats come in seasonal flavors but the most popular is Green Tea.

Im not a fan of Japanese breakfasts . I like the food but just not for breakfast. To me , it looks alot like the same food we had for dinner but im not a detail person. I wouldn’t notice that the fish in the morning is grilled or the pickled vegetables are different, or that there are different vegetables and proteins in the miso soup. On top of that I need coffee in the morning not green tea. (Dont be confused by the eggs-they are raw)

If you are a fan of Japanese breakfasts, Tsukiji fishmarket for fresh sushi in Tokyo is the way to go – the earlier the better, They open at five am. I prefer coffee and toast and getting there at 10. Sushi before 10 am is rough for me.

Here is what i found out on my first trip to Japan. I like abalone steak, flounder, red snapper, squid and octopus sushi. I love tofu dinners (eight courses of differently cooked fresh tofu). I like tofu buffet dinners. (every kind of tofu imaginable). I don’t like foo, or the diet jelly stuff, or mackerel (dry raw or whole). I don’t like raw eggs in the morning with rice. I hate roe sushi (which is not what you think-unless you are thinking survivor food challenge) I like green tea soba, green tea mochi and Japanese green tea ice cream ( not what we have here with no taste) I like Japanese desserts –especially black sesame ice cream.

I hate to admit this but i did not use chopsticks until my first trip to Japan. I dont have great motor coordination and it seemed like a a lot of work to get the food to your mouth. I was probably the only American in the towns where the ryokans were. The chance of getting a fork was going to be slim. I practiced eating everything with chopsticks at home for two months . My friends, the waiters in the Japanese restaurants in LA and especially my Vietnamese manicurist urged me on. When you set your mind to it, and ask for help when you need it, you can do anything.

Also see

Things I Have Learned In Tokyo and Japan

https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/things-i-have-learned-in-japan/

https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/things-i-have-learned-in-tokyo/

Things I Have Learned In Okinawa and Hiroshima

https://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/things-i-have-learned-in-okinawa-and-hiroshima/

yo I sorano tabi o,

JAZ

Travel Well, Fly Safe

Travel

Category Archives: food

Why Don’t We Eat More Cambodian Food?

Sushi At Tsukiji (Tokyo)

Seattle Is A Food Town

Colombia-The Land Of Make Believe Fruits

Wineries Of Salta, Argentina

Food Rules I Have Learned While Traveling

Foods I Have Learned In Oaxaca, Mexico

Top Ten Meals In Turkey

Japanese Food