mmm-yoso – Page 319

Niu Rou Mian near the corner of Balboa and Genesee? Meet China Quick Wok

November 6, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

**** China Quick Wok has closed

It’s funny how you sometimes find out about places. I was chatting to a coworker about Niu Rou Mian. In passing she told me, “there’s a place near where you live that has Niu Rou Mian, have you tried it yet?” Which left me somewhat puzzled. She later emailed me a copy of the menu from one of the Chinese message boards…and holy smoke, I knew exactly where this place was……geeez.

Later that evening, I had the Missus take a gander at the menu…….and She thought we should check the place out since the prices were so good. She really didn’t recognize the address, but once I pulled into the parking lot She told me “you gotta be kidding….”

Recognize the area….well maybe not since it was quite dark on this evening. It’s the strip mall that houses Nazca Grill, Thai Time, El Pollo Loco, among other businesses. I always knew there was a Chinese fast-food shop in the mall, but never really paid attention to it.

And let me put the emphasis on Chinese Fast-Food as you can tell by the look.

There are seven tables in the joint, bare walls, this is no “concept – theme restaurant”, one menu has all the standard Chinese fast-food stuff on it, the other is in Chinese. Everything from Shaobing to Niu Rou Juan (beef roll), it’s all the of what we call the “Chinese student’s favorites”. Nothing over $6.99 on the menu. The Missus placed our order and I managed to ask the nice woman working how long they’ve been here. She told me that they moved down from Rancho Bernardo in March. Rancho Bernardo? Then it hit me, the folks here have, or had some connection with Quik Wok in RB, hence the name. Funny thing is, I’ve been to Nazca Grill at least four times since March…..slap to the forehead!!!

The Missus isn’t really eating much red or even white meat nowadays and asked the woman for a vegetable noodle soup…..the noodles here are Dao Xiao Mian – knife shaved noodles. Dough is rolled out, folded then sliced with a sharp knife. Originally a Shanxi specialty, we saw more than few little shops selling these during our trip to China.

The Missus enjoyed Her soup especially the noodles which weren’t cut too thick like many places do. Part of the enjoyment of eating Dao Xiao Mian is the somewhat whimsical aspect of the noodles which are cut into irregular lengths and thicknesses. Most places however, cut it much too thick and even cut them way ahead of time (Dumpling Inn comes to mind) creating a gummy noodle.

Of course I ordered the Niu Rou Mian – the beef noodle soup $6.25.

This was actually much better than I recalled having at Quik Wok, darker with more flavor. It fell short in the richness department and is still not quite there with regards to flavor and spice. The meat was well prepared, soft, but not falling to pieces.

Like Quik Wok’s version, this bowl had a ton of noodles in it.

The texture was and nice soft, but still having a bit of pull to them. For six and change in San Diego, this wasn’t bad.

I revisited one other time, the Missus told me the Chao Dao Xiao Mian, the fried noodles had looked pretty good, so I thought I’d try them. I was also going to try the Guotie (pot stickers), but some else was eating it when I arrived and it looked terrible, so I decided to pass.

The lack of wok-hay gave this dish a grey pallor and it was missing the slightly sweet-smokey perfume of the wok. The noodles seem to do much better in soup as they had seized up a bit. I’m thinking cooking over too low a heat source might contribute to that as well. The flavor seemed quite bland, though based on my thirst after eating the dish, I’m fairly certain it’s been seasoned. The shrimp were cooked nicely, but the lack of flavor in the dish couldn’t keep me interested. In terms of portion size and priced at $6.25, it was perfect for a starving student carb load.

After a bit of a slow period, it seems that things are kind of picking up again. Which is nice to see. I know that I was quite surprised to see Dao Xiao Mian at this end of Balboa, so I’m hoping things continue…..

China Quick Wok
4310 Genesee Ave #108
San Diego, CA 92117

Cappadocia: The Valleys

November 4, 2011 mmm-yoso Cappadocia, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

*** Not much food in this one, so you may want to just drop by tomorrow…..

After two rather damp days, the sun rose on a dry morning in Cappadocia. The Missus had wanted one day to explore some of the valleys in the area. I really wasn't looking forward to this day as the Missus is known for taking me on some major "death marches". Once she gets on a roll….look out. During breakfast, Mustapha planned out a hike for us…it sounded easy enough, a walk to Pigeon Valley which we saw from the scenic area the day before. There was some supposed Roman trail in the valley, which looked paved from up above. The valley leads from the outskirts of the town we where we were staying, Goreme to Uchisar. We made our way down the hill passing a few of our furry neighbors along the way.

The town was farly quiet at this time of the day…….

All the better to enjoy the fairy chimneys rising out of the ground.

I had to chuckle when we passed this hotel……

Yabba-Dabba-Doo!!!

At the end of the road, there really wasn't any real sign, just this on a light pole.

Unfortunately, there were two trails…..so we took the one to the left, which started by going through this tunnel.

And came out the other side.

We walked for a kilometer or two and couldn't find the road…… so we turned back and went down the trail to the right. We found the old roman road and headed into scenic Pigeon Valley.

It is called Pigeon Valley for all the pigeon houses built in the valley. Folks here used to harvest the guano to use as fertilizer.

We walked to the end of one side of the valley and found a rock wall. We walked out to the other trail and found the same. We could here the folks talking at the look-out above us, it almost felt like they were taunting us. But we just couldn't find a trail upwards to Uchisar. Un total, we walked back and forth thru the valley at least three times or more.

At this point, the Missus had built up a head of steam as we headed all the way to the hotel, where Mustapha could only laugh and tell the Missus that he'd drop us off at the beginning of Honey Valley. He was also driving these two really tough looking German women, one of whom snickered at me when I said we couldn't find the way out of Pigeon Valley, "Vvvhat! I come every year…and I have been there many times….never get lost!" No argument from me…she looked like she could body-slam me and make me submit with a figure-four leg lock. We were dropped of at the Goreme end of Honey Valley and our instructions were to hike to the Uchisar end, climb up the hillside ("be careful, it can be slippery") and catch a Dolmar (the local bus). These mini-buses are called Dolmars because of how they used to stuff people into them….just like stuffing a Dolma. Anyway we started off at the Goreme side which was just a dirt trail that led to other trails into the valley. They also call Honey Valley "Love Valley", but I haven't a clue why……..do you?

Eventually, the trails split into several trails headed in every direction, which split into trails that seemed all headed in opposite directions. We passed folks going into the opposite direction and soon enough we saw no one. We decided to head toward the direction of where we thought Uchigar was scrambling through streams and stream beds, sometimes finding trails that would suddenly end.

We walked through pasture and caves looking for footprints and occasionally finding some. Near the end of the valley we could see the road and constrruction above us. We found a pretty steep trails and scrambled up and found ourselves at the Onyx factory we had stopped at yesterday. The view of the valley was very pretty……..

From up here you could see all the trails zig-zagging in different directions below us.

As we headed out to the main road I could see Uchisar across the way. Unfortunately, the Missus was still fixated on not finding our way out of Pigeon Valley and headed off in the opposite direction. So it was goodbye bus ride back to Goreme…..

We made to scenic look-out and tried to figure out where the trail was up the mountainside.

I still couldn't figure it out and at this point I'd had enough of this hiking stuff for today. We still had the 5 kilometer walk back to Goreme…..at which point ourmy rescuer appeared, in the form of an old Renault sedan which smelled, quite wonderfully to me at the time, of cigarette smoke. The white car was driving down the road when it stopped then suddenly reversed twenty yards or so to where I was walking. The first thought in the Missus' mind was that this was some road-side mass murderer and we were his next victims, but this was Cappadocia, so of course it was a very mild mannered young man named Ahmed who pointed down the road and said; "Goreme?" What a nice guy….of course the Missus told me that I looked like I was going to drop dead by the roadside at any minute and that was what alarmed the young man into stopping. Whatever, I thought it a wonderful gesture…you gotta the folks in Turkey! When we arrived at the outskirts of town the young man stopped and starting pointing and asking me something in Turkish……after a second I realized that he was asking me where we wanted to be dropped off! People here were very nice indeed. I just motioned to the side of the road and we got out.

By this time, I was starting to get a bit hungry…..not super starving, but just in need of something to eat. We were right across the street from Nazar Borek where we had dinner the night before, so we thought, hey, why not?

This time we just simply shared a doner kebab…….

Which was really cheap at 2 TRY and ok. But it was house made Ayran that I really enjoyed. It was light, though not as frothy as other versions I've had, this simple drink of yogurt, salt, and water sure hit the spot. It was nice little break and we got to chat with the owner who we found out was a classmate of Mustapha, the owner of our hotel.

We also saw the same mutt as the night before patrolling his territory and searching for scraps.

All of this put me into a good mood…….which is when the Missus told me that She "wanted to see more valleys", sigh……. So we walked back to the Arch Palace, I took a shower, dried off, and we headed back in the direction of Goreme Open Air Museum and Zemi Valley.

And to Zemi Valley. This was the valley the Missus wanted to check out during the deluge with the trail under a foot of water, I guess She was just determined to see the place. Actually, there wasn't much interesting other than one of the small churches in the valley.

The caretaker/ticket-taker/guide/etc of this place was a hoot. The church itself is only a single tiny room, but is quite pretty. The gentleman insisted on taking photos of us. He grabbed my camera and said, "no worry, me here 26 years, me professional already…." and proceeded to pose us at various locations around the church. Most of these churches don't allow photos, so he was sure to let us know that "you take many pictures here….no problem" as he let us in.

As I mentioned before, the Ottomans believed in aniconism, thus most of the eyes on the frescos have been whited out.

The valley was nice, but I was pretty weary at this point……

We took a different trail on the way out and saw this beautiful sight.

Did you know that Cappadocia means "Land of Beautiful Horses"?

I thought this as a wonderful sight, a nice ending to our hiking the valleys…..but no….the Missus pointed across the street. There was still one more valley to see.

We walked down a dusty dirt trail, past Goreme Camping, a sort of RV-camp site, where you could pitch a tent, but restrooms and I heard there's even kitchen facilities and a pool are provided. We took a right past the Royal Balloon landing area and took in the view of Rose Valley.

Though all the ATVs zooming around the valley really distracted one from the beauty of the place.

By this point I was "vallied out" and gladly the Missus decided that it was time for a nap…..which was the best idea She had all day!

Thanks for reading……

COMC: Oodles of Noodles……..

November 1, 2011 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Japanese Restaurants, Los Angeles County, Vietnamese Restaurants

It's time again for me to C(lear) O(ut the) M(emory) C(ard)….and while doing that I just noticed something. I believe I'm actually eating more noodles than rice nowadays. Boy times have changed. Anyway, here it is, in all shapes, sizes, and nationalities…..

Guess where??

It's Pho King!

This Pho meatfest brought to you by Pho Saigon Star.

Man, I remember when this was like $12.95…..it's now $16.95, as a lunch special! We didn't even get decent service on this visit…sad, quite sad.

From our weekly lunch visit to Izakaya Sakura.

5: Now think of this one as an eye test….which is better…

Number one:

or number two…..

If you picked number one…..well, it was quite obvious, right? Granted, number one is from Lucky Noodle King in San Gabriel while number two is from the newly opened Liang's, but they might as well be galaxies apart. To add injury to insult, bowl number two is $2 more expensive, or maybe more since between my two visits two weeks apart, it seems that prices have already gone up..and they just opened. A post is upcoming.

By the way number one was just ok…….

And a couple more for good measure…otherwise these would have just been deleted.

I know, Chao Nian Gao are stir fried "rice cakes"…… but that's almost noodley, right?

I hope you had a great Tuesday!

Mushroom Risotto

October 31, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

"Man, that looks kinda ugly….."

"It does look a little bit like natto, huh. But it tastes so good!"

"I'm not sure I can do a post on this one….."

Such was the conversation the first time I made my Mushroom Risotto a couple of weeks ago. I guess it's somehow appropriate to do a post on my kinda fugly risotto. The Missus had been asking me to make this for quite a while. And while risotto isn't really hard to make, it's a pain in the butt to babysit. You don't have constantly stir it, but you do have to give it a mix about every minute or so. Of course, as soon I brought home the arborio rice, the Missus went to work with the content and conditions…. "No butter, absolutely no butter…..no chicken stock. It has to taste very mushroom-my….." and so forth. So what I did was first make a somewhat concentrated mushroom stock. 1 ounce of dried porcini mushrooms in three cups of lukewarm water. Luckily, I had been making quite a bit of mushroom dishes and had about a pound of maitake, oyster, shiitake, and other trimmings stems and such in the freezer. To this I added about a pound and a half of chopped crimini and white mushrooms. First thing I did was take a leek (sorry, couldn't help that one), actually two leeks, half an onion, and five cloves of garlic which I chopped rather roughly. I softened the onions and leeks in a good amount of extra virgin olive oil, then added all the mushroom parts and lightly stirred over medium heat until the mushrooms started giving off it's juices. I then added 1 cup of white wine and let the thing bubble away for a few minutes. I strained the porcini liquid saving the porcini for the risotto. I added the porcini liquid (make sure not to add any grit) to the mushroom mixture along with seven cups of water. Two tablespoons of concentrated tomato paste, a dash of Worcestershire, two bay leaves,two medium carrots chopped, fresh cracked pepper, dry oregano, and some dried thyme (believe me, I was trying to figure out how to use leek and thyme in the same sentence), and all I had to do was bring it to a boil, lower the temp to a simmer and leave it to reduce for about three hours or until it reduces by about a third. After it had reduced enough, I gave it a taste, it should taste good enough to eat on its own, adjusted the salt and let it sit overnight. Of course, with nothing much else to do, I decided to peel five bulbs of garlic and make garlic confit.Instead of olive oil, I used canola oil this time around.

The next day I strained my stock, which ended up being just a little over six cups. While I warmed this on the stove I chopped the porcini, minced the other half of the onion, and shredded about one-third cup of aged parmesan cheese. The really neat thing about risotto is that you're basically using the starch from the rice to thicken the rice to the consistency you desire. I prefer mine with not too runny and with the rice being nicely al dente. Things start out with adding some extra virgin olive oil combined with some of the oil from the garlic confit and adding the onions and five cloves of confit garlic which you can mash with a spoon. When the onions soften I added the rice (didn't measure – about 1 1/2 – 2 cups) and mixed to coat well then in went half a cup of white wine letting it bubble away for a minute or so giving it a couple of good stirs. Then in went 1 cup of water to get things started. I then set my kitchen timer on twenty minutes. I'll give everything a good stir about every 30-45 seconds or so. Stirring creates friction which causes the outer layer of the rice (the endosperm) to dissolve away in the liquid. This also causes the rice to absorb some of the liquid, but using an unlidded pan also means evaporation takes place. I'll add a ladle of the warmed mushroom stock as necessary. You'll be doing this over medium heat, so be careful to stir well…scorched risotto is not good eats! At about the 18 minute mark I'll start tasting, both for texture and flavor. when it looks like we're headed down the home stretch I'll add in the cheese, porcini, and adjust the salt and pepper. You'll end up using about six cups of liquid And there you have it. The first time I made this, I was juggling the risotto, doing a pan saute of some halibut, and making a tomato ragout….talk about a three ring circus! Meanwhile, the Missus, forgetting how much time was involved was getting ravenous. By the time everything was composed….well, She went through the dish faster than Sammy and Frankie would a pata bone. So with just a bit of it left and no photo opportunity, we had that little discussion above.

Later that night, as I heated up the remaining risotto, the Missus had an idea. Guess what? "Why don't you put a poached egg on top of the risotto?" Duh….. And it was pretty darn good…..so of course the Missus wanted me to make it again this weekend.

Topped with fresh cracked pepper, sea salt, some grated aged parmesan, and of course, white truffle oil…..

Here's the requisite running egg shot…..

Man this was good………

Even if it did look a bit like poop…….. or natto…..

Bargain City: Lee’s Deli

October 30, 2011 mmm-yoso Vietnamese Restaurants

*** Lee's Deli has closed

I was doing some shopping at Minh Huong Market recently, when I noticed that a new shop had opened up in that always packed to the gills strip mall across the street.

Curious, I crossed the street and walked into the tiny little take out place.

And I do mean little. There are three tiny tables in the place, that look like they could barely hold a cup of espresso.

The woman running the place was very friendly and chatty, telling me what were the best sellers on the menu in between the stream of take-out customers, almost all older men. When she handed me the menu I almost fell down…….

Three-fifty? For bun? For Beef Sate noodle soup? She told me that I could have regular or broken rice (which is ironically usually more expensive)for the same price. I just had to find out what a $3.50 Char-broiled pork with Com Tam would look like….. ready?

Here it is.

It was actually not bad. In terms of portion size, this looked like what I grew up eating…..some protein, lots of starch. The pork wasn't too bad either, good flavor, it was actually better than what I had recently had at the San Diego location of Com Tam Thuan Kieu. The rice was decent, not too dry, the nuoc mam cham wasn't watered down……a nice deal for $3.50. It's not going to win any James Beard awards, and I'll for the inevitable ridiculous comparison of "it's not as good as xxxx" which will be three times the price and supposedly specializes in Com Tam. You know what I mean, right? Talk about lack of perspective…..

Anyway, I think this was worth $3.50, what do you think?

Lee's Deli
4748 University Ave #B
San Diego, CA 92105

Open Daily 8am – 10pm

Sort of Çılbır and the Missus’s latest egg-normous obsession

October 27, 2011 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

Ever since I made the mushroom ragout with poached eggs, the Missus, already an egg lover has been requesting poached eggs at every opportunity. I've been trying to oblige though I sometimes wrack my brains trying to come up with stuff on the fly. Here's one of those on the fly recipes. Çılbır is a Turkish dish that features poached eggs on a bed of yogurt. I know it doesn't sound very appetizing to many and frankly I don't think my pictures do the dish any favors….I often have less than 10 seconds after plating the dish to get my photos taken.

A bit too much white on white, not quite the poster child for the National Egg Society or whatever it's called. This is a sorta recipe because I took what I believed was a base recipe and adjusted it to what I had on hand.

First off, you can't have that little oozy delicious poached egg lying in a bed of cold, hard yogurt, can you? We've been trying different brands of yogurt, and though nothing comes close to what we had in Greece and Turkey, I think Voskos plain is decent. Make sure you get something full fat with no starches or gelatin or other hardening agent in it I warmed the yogurt to almost room temperature using sort of a double boiler method. One eight ounce container of yogurt is enough for two (or more eggs). I added three mashed cloves of garlic confit (don't ask, that's another story), though perhaps I should have used raw garlic for a more pungent dish. Sage or some other dried herb is often used, but I don't usually have that on hand so I thought dried dill would be nice. I added about a half teaspoon of that to the yogurt sauce and simply made my bed of yogurt.

I also made an smoked paprika oil, it's usually kirmizi biber a ground chili in Turkey or Aleppo peppers. Also, butter is usually used, but the Missus has some personal problem with using butter in savory dishes…in pastries and baked goods its fine…..but no butter in anything I make. So I used a combination of extra virgin olive oil and some of the oil from the garlic confit.

Topped the whole mess with more dill and a touch of truffle oil and made even a bigger mess…..

Pretty delicious if you like runny eggs and yogurt.

Here's a gallery of the Missus's latest egg-nourmous obsessions…..first up are poached eggs on rosemary-olive oil bread from Con Pane. It's topped with porcini mushrooms, aged parmesan, and a bit of truflle oil.

This one is poached eggs on crispy polenta with a tomato ragout…..

I really should have made my own polenta, but this was a weeknight, so I went with the tube stuff. I used extra virgin olive oil and oil from my garlic confit, salt, pepper, you name it……it still was mediocre. The Missus loved the ragout though. Roma tomatoes helped by some double concentrated tomato paste, basil, sugar, garlic confit, and onions. Had barely five seconds to take this photo……it was history.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week! Any big cravings recently?

Sunday Sandwiches: Mercury Grill

October 23, 2011 mmm-yoso Burgers, Hot Dogs, Sandwiches

*** Mercury Grill has closed

Here's another in my series on little sandwich shops. Mercury Grill is located in the same strip mall on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard that houses Aria Cafe and Pho Fusion among others. After passing the place several times, the bright red, white, and blue sign finally got me to check the place out.

The interior is full of checkered table cloths and the menu features everything from salads to chili to pizza.

One thing I noticed right away were the prices which seemed pretty reasonable.

One my first visit I went with the Horsy Roast Beef ($4.55) and added in a drink and some fries for $1.75 more.

This was a pretty decent sandwich, not over dressed. The basic horseradish mayo added a nice bit of "bite" to the whole deal. The roast beef was decent quality and the bread was fine. The fries were you standard issue SYSCO/US Foods stuff….

And this was a perfectly adequate lunch. I felt I got my money's worth and left satisfied.

The next week, I happened to be close by during lunch and deciding to move "up the food chain" as it were, I went for the Mercury Burger ($4.25 + $1.75 for fries and a drink).

Again, this wasn't anything fancy, a simple grilled patty topped with a very mild cheddar, tomato, shredded lettuce, and thousand island dressing. I've had much worse over the last couple of months……

The burger wasn't particularly large and this suffered a bit from TMB (Too much bread) syndrome, with the roll being a bit on the dry and crumbly side. On this visit, I noticed two of the guys who work at one of the car dealerships nearby had the Bacon Dog. So on my next visit that's what I decided to get.

The Bacon Dog (sans ketchup) costs $3.49 which seemed very reasonable. With fries and a drink it was about $5.50.

The first thing I noticed was that the cheese wasn't, or would never be melted. I enjoy the texture of melted cheese. This also told me that the temperature of this was going to be lukewarm at best. Second, I wondered where the bacon was…….this was when I noticed that the dog had been split to cook quicker on the griddle. As for the bacon? Well, as I took a closer look, I found pieces of crumpled bacon and not much of it. In fact, there was so little that it really didn't add anything to the hot dog. Also, a good part of the griddled onions were burnt which added an unpleasant bitterness to the hot dog. I removed as much of it as I could.

Well, I guess as Meafloaf says "two out of three ain't bad." Mercury Grill serves up reasonably priced basic sandwiches for the working crowd. The food is simple and unpretentious….though I'm not sure I'm going to order what they call a "pizza" here after I saw one. The breakfasts seemed priced right at $2.75 – $3.90. The hours are rather limited being open from 7am to 3pm Monday to Friday.

Mercury Grill
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours: 7am-3pm Monday – Friday

Cappadocia – Goreme: Selime Cathedral and dinner at Nazar Borek

October 22, 2011 mmm-yoso Cappadocia, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

The final stop on the "Green Tour" was Selime Cathedral and Monastary which is dug into the hillside outside the town of Selime.

The location up a slippery (there's no stairs) hillside protected and probably helped preserve the ascetic lifestyle of the monks.

Most of what I've read says that the monastery was carved out of the hillside…more like a mountainside by monks in the 13th century. Though I've also been told that Christian Monks escaping from Roman rule first settled here in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

With all the diverse rock formations, I'm thinking Cappadocia must be a Geologists dream. The "Fairy Chimneys" give the terrain an otherworldly look. In fact, this was one of the area's scouted as the home of the Sand People in Star Wars. One look around you and you can easily see why.

As I mentioned, there are no stairs, you basically scramble up slippery paths up the side of the mountain…this is Turkey, there's no OSHA, handicapped access, or any of that. Many of the paths seemed to have been made by running water leaving tiny round mable like stones which sometimes make the going interesting. I also wondered how folks made it up here at night!

This kept several of the people on the tour grounded. I'm not a big fan of heights, but I wasn't going to miss this….even the ambulance I saw in the parking lot (I'm told it's always there "just in case") and the lack of railings or the prospect of the sheer drop wasn't keeping me form this one. To my surprise, I saw an elderly gentleman who used a walker at the top! Of course, going up is much easier than going down….

I was vastly rewarded for making my way up. The chambers, many of them blackened by smoke and soot had a strange and haunting quality to them.

The cathedral itself has a strangely haunting appearance.

You can easily make out the columns and some of the ornate artwork. You lose perspective and don't quite remember that you're in a cave until you turn around….

Looking closely you see the remnants of the frescoes and artwork……

All of the frescos and paintings that still remain have either the eyes whited out or the faces removed. The Ottomans, in accordance with the laws of Islam of the day practiced aniconism, which prohibits the depiction of the human form. So when the Ottomans took over……

All of the passages between the rooms had me regressing to childhood as I was having a great time exploring……

Of course, eventually we did have to make it down back to terra firma where I learned the answer to an age old question:

Why did the cow cross the road?

Well, to avoid the paparazzi, of course. Kinda corny I know, but this kinda tells you how far out in the country we were…..

Overall, the Green Tour was a very nice way to spend a day……you went from the depths of an underground city, to a walk along a gorge, to climbing up to a centuries old monastery carved into a mountain. And the ever changing topography was fascinating as well…..

We arrived back at our hotel pretty worn out and not in the mood for anything long and drawn out for dinner. In fact, just wanted something small and light. Mustapha suggested Nazar Borek Cafe and gave us instructions on how to walk there. Goreme is pretty small so it's kinda hard to get lost around the square, up in the hills perhaps, but not around the square. In fact, we saw at least eight of the people who were on the tour with us while we had dinner. The restaurant was packed when we arrived and the owner, a classmate of Mustapha's was very apologetic. But things had cleared up over the day, so dining al fresco suited us fine. The Missus decided to start with a glass of the loca wine, which she enjoyed.

As the name states, this place specializes in the stuffed pastries called Borek, of which there seemed to innumerable variations in Turkey.

The Missus actually went with a Gozleme……

She went with the Patatesli Gozleme which is filled with potato, onion, and mint which cost 5 Turkish Lira, less than $2.50 US at the time of our visit.

Remember the really lousy Gozleme was had in Istanbul? This was hundreds of times better and really quite filling.

I got the real winner of the meal when I decided on getting on of the Cigara Boregi.

I got the most expensive version, the lamb at 10 TRY (a bit less than five bucks US). As the name implies, this is a cigar shaped filled pastry and when it arrived it looked just like, say, lumpia…..

It doesn;t look like much, but the light, filo like pastry was very crisp and the lamb was well spiced, but still nice and gamey. It was quite rich and three of these filled me up.

We really enjoyed our evening here. We struck up a conversation with a young man who "works" (a very broad definition – his brother was actually working real hard. He just sat down and chatted) here during te evenings. During the day he is one of the ice cream vendors at Goreme Outdoor Museum. We asked him to do his call for ice cream and he shouted out; "Iiiii….SCREAM….Iiiii….Scream!" When we explained why we found that so humorous, he cracked up. We also found out a bit about life in the area and about him. He was a former soldier in the Turkish military who had seen quite a bit of action around the Syrian border and in other areas. He seemed to be glad to be home and we were happy to have him as company during our dinner.

We also watched the self appointed sidewalk "security guard" as he made his rounds……

He checked out everything in his area…if he didn't like you he'd start yapping. Quite a character!

We drowsily made our way back to the Arch Palace Hotel. The Missus was going to a take a loooong hot shower in the best shower she had on the trip, so I made my way to the terrace and had an Efes Beer even though my previous experience with it was terrible. And heck if it wasn't half decent. I dunno, maybe because this was the bottle version, or maybe because this was Cappadocia, land of fairy chimneys, underground cities, and monasteries carved into the hillsides.

Or maybe it was the view….cause that wasn't so bad either!

Thanks for reading!

Cappadocia: Derinkuyu Underground City and the Ihlara Valley

October 20, 2011 mmm-yoso Cappadocia, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

When we arrived back at the hotel after our morning balloon ride, we were both surprised at how early it still was. While grabbing breakfast……the spread was typical of most all the places we stayed at in Turkey.

Except that this one had ezme, the spicy dip…..which I'm pretty sure probably surprised more than a few visitors.

All in all, breakfasts at the hotels in Turkey can be a pretty filling experience……

The subject of "what now" came up. We were here in Cappadocia and there was no way we'd be wasting the rest of the day. We'd planned on doing some hiking but things were still pretty wet due to the yesterdays deluge and it seemed like there would be a bit more rain on the way today. Of course, just like before, this was a job for Mustapha, the owner of the Arch Palace Hotel. We're not big on tours, but Mustapha suggested one of several tours that would take us to areas that aren't too easy to reach on foot. We'd still be doing some hiking, but we'd also be driven around and not have to worry about much. So we ended up at one of the tourist offices waiting to start the "Green Tour"……

The first stop was a scenic look-out spot over Goreme and Pigeon Valley.

Remember Pigeon Valley, it'll play a key role in a future post!

Anyway one of the reasons we don't do too well on tours is that other folks just drive us crazy. We've developed caricatures of generic characters typical of tours we'd take, for instance, in many cases there would be the demanding woman who would want things done her way. Her husband would typically be very quiet, probably henpecked into submission. Should she not get her way, she would initiate "plan B", that would be when the whining starts. On this tour there were the "testosterone boys", always bragging about this or that, trying to top each other. Showing off by running up and down hills, making as much noise as they could…..showing how "edgy" they were. So of course, while we were checking out the view, they decided to torment the "photo opportunity camel".

Being stuck in a van with three grown men acting like sixth graders thinking they were really cool was a bit trying at times. As were the two Japanese young ladies who kept flirting with the tour guide…..

Still, the stops were well worth the irritation. The second stop was at Derinkuyu Underground City. Comprised of eleven floors (some say more since much hasn't been excavated) going down 279 feet this is one of, if not the largest of the forty or so underground cities in the area. It is said that the city held at least 20,000 and by other estimates up to 50,000 people. The air shafts themselves go down over 180 feet.

The story goes, that in 1963 someone was trying to extend their cave house when they went through a cave wall and discovered the passageway to the underground city. There have been relics found here that date back to the Byzantine era.

Many of the passages get smaller as you go down. That's the Missus on the right. She's five foot and weighs barely 100 pounds! The reason for these tapering passageways are simple….many of the folks moved down here for protection and safety. A large army couldn't rush down the passageway, they had to go single file and could be trapped and picked off. There are also large stone boulders that could be moved across the passage and locked into place.

The air shafts also provided water and there are a multitude of rooms which served as cellars, storage facilities, chapels, schools, and such.It's quite impressive if you're not claustrophobic….once you enter various rooms you can get quite confused so you'll need to be on the look-out for the arrows showing you the way up or down.

This was quite interesting……

The next stop was the Ihlara Valley, which is actually a 16 kilometer long gorge. We just did a short hike after walking down the 360 steps to trails which meander alongside the Melediz River which helped to form this gorge over the course of time.

At the bottom of the steps is Ağaçaltı Kilise (Church Under the Tree). The most stunning feature of this tiny cave church is the ceiling which features a fresco of The Ascension.

Notice that all the eyes have been "whited out".

It was a nice short hike in spite of the intermittent raindrops…..

It seems that every valley has its own distinct features which separates it from the others…..

The carrot at the end of the walk was lunch. Now having been on a few of these tours, I was prepared for some fairly terrible food. But the restaurant we stopped at in the valley called Belisirma was not bad. The food was actually Turkish, not some pseudo-westernized, dumbed down facsimile, and I got kinda worried when the Missus ordered the fish…..

The fish seemed very fresh and the Missus enjoyed it.

And I thought my lamb stew was decent, though I'm not a big fan of bulgur.

At least the flavors weren't dumbed down.

The soup on the other hand was insipid, but one out of three ain't bad. And of course this was Turkey so there just had to be a whopping amount of bread with every meal!

I was careful not to eat very much, we still had one more stop. And it turned out to be my favorite!

Stay tuned……

Koon Thai Kitchen

October 17, 2011 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Man, am I behind or what…… I recall posting about the "coming soon" sign way back in May. Since that time Kirbie's even done a post on Koon Thai. I might not have even given the place a thought if not for PedMa's comments about the place. Eventually I visited, but just kinda waited on doing a post…… I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just laziness. The restaurant itself is located in the former spot of Curry House in the same mall as Sage Cake, Nijiya, Spicy House, and Okan.

I think they did a good job on the color scheme, though it is perhaps a bit too dark. I really like the mural of what else? The Koon Tree, also known as the Golden Shower Tree, the National Flower of Thailand.

I find the tables also to be a bit too small for family style eating….though I guess this encourages me to eat less.

When it's all said and done, there have three dishes at Koon that we enjoy. Unfortunately, my #1 favorite is found on the specials menu, and I've been told that it's not a permanent fixture; the Khao Kha Moo (spelled Khao Karr Moo on the menu – $7.99):

A staple of street vendors and food courts in Thailand, this Chinese influenced dish or stewed pork leg in soy sauce brings me back to Thailand….jumping off a water taxi and being carried away by the intoxicating smell of pork……

I've had this four times at Koon, and on three of them the dish has been spot on…moist, melt in your mouth tender, sweet porkiness, savory soy sauce……just delici-yoso. On my most recent visit, it was a bit dry and the flavor wasn't quite as deep. In case you need a second opinion, I took my friends Peter and Angela (and JohnL) to Koon. Since they tried this dish they've been back four times! I think Pete's worried that they may not have it on the menu any longer so he's getting his shots in while he can.

On one of my visits I asked the very nice Server, by the name of Mam where the cooks came from. Of course she replied "Thailand". After I asked whereabouts in Thailand, Issan, Lanna, Bangkok…she told me Issan, so I immediately ordered the Nam Kao Tod ($9.95), a bonafide favorite of mine. The first time I ordered this dish I requested "Thai Spicy" (that would be a 10) and the really nice young man by the name of Kef (not sure about spelling) seemed a bit worried for me…he came back twice to ask me if I was sure I wanted it that spicy. Eventually, he relented and the dish arrived…..it was about a six or seven on the Thai scale. Kef thoughtfully came back to see if I'd gone into cardiac arrest a couple of times during my meal.

Now just about everytime I see this Lao/Thai dish on the menu (and even at places like Asia Cafe where I don't) I end up ordering it. I've had it at LOS, Sang Dao, and Vientiane Restaurant in Garden Grove. Heck, I've even had in Vientiane as in the capital of Laos. This version was a bit different from what I'm used to. It's very wet, like a Larb, the prevailing flavors are the sour if lime and galangal. It is quite different, but not bad…I still love the crunch of the deep fried rice, though the strong flavors don't allow for much else to come through.

The Missus's favorite dish here is the Pla Sahm Rod ($12).

While not as good as the version at Sab E Lee in Santee, the fish is usually fried to crunchy perfection. The sauce is a bit too heavy in the tamarind department, making it a bit too far on the puckery-sour scale for our tastes. But for $12, this is a good value.

As for the rest of what I've tried:

The duck noodle soup ($6.95), was a bit weak in the anise-cassia flavor department, but had some decent heat.

The noodles were done wonderfully, but the duck was bland and mealy, and the portion size was quite small.

The duck in this dish should have warned me off the Spicy Duck Salad ($9.95), which wasn't very spicy (ordered at an eight), nor did it have much duck flavor.

The Stewed Pork Feet ($6.99) another item from the specials menu had a nice slight sweet soy sauce flavor, but the pigs feet weren't cook to the nice, tender, gelatinous texture I enjoy.

The Moo Ping (grilled pork) wasn't anything to write home about either, though the dipping sauce was nice, if a tad too sweet.

I'd have preferred the pork have more flavor and the sauce less so. The sticky rice that accompanied the dish (which is strange since this is an appetizer, how would four people, or even two share the sticky rice) was overcooked.

The Kra Pao Moo Krob (on the menu as Ka Pao Moo Krob – $9) had all of those familiar Thai flavors; the basil, sweetness, a savory fish sauce…..

The heat was nice, but on the mild side. The pork is more chewy, like a crunchy jerky, not an unpleasant texture for me. This was a decent dish, though my eating buddies, especially John didn't think too much of it.

The worse dish I had at Koon, was one that I usually use to determine the stir-fry skills of a cook. It is the deceivingly simple Pad See Ew.

This was, by far, the worst dish I had at Koon Thai. Not only was it terribly bland, but the noodles were unevenly cooked. It actually looked much more grey than the photo indicates.

Overall, other than experiencing some really bad and rude service during one visit (sorry if we interrupted your social hour young lady), service has been friendly and accommodating. This seems to be one of those places that does a couple of dishes pretty well, which is not a bad thing at all.

Koon Thai Kitchen
3860 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111