Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings: The Challenge – A comparison of Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

June 24, 2009 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Memorable Meals, yoso-silly

You can't attend a Filipino party in San Diego without them, those miniature deep fried limbs, full of MSG goodness. Pulling yourself away from the aluminum tray of Salt and Pepper chicken wings sometimes takes a Herculean display of will power. I had long contemplated doing a comparison of Salt and Pepper wings, and after all these years, with the help of Howie, who having done comparisons of everything from Carne Asada Burritos from 'Berto's to New York style Pizza to Fro-yo i n San Diego, is master of organizing such events, I finally managed to do a tasting.

For the tasting, I had an enthusiastic crew, who displayed no fear of the MSG bloat; Howie, Candice, Sarah, Jenne, Mr & Mrs Zompus, and Dennis. I had a list of five places, one of which was closed and had to be replaced by a last minute substitute due to sad and unfortunate circumstances.

The rules were simple, each person would try at least one drummette, and one wing. They would than rank each sample from first to fifth. The lowest total amount of points would be number one.

The results are startling, and I'm sure will be quite controversial. At the end, I'll list my picks which seemed to go totally against the trend. So without further ado.

#5 – Royal Mandarin:

Yes, the mecca of Salt and Pepper Chicken wings ended up dead last by a large margin. Some of the comments: "more like American fried chicken…." "rating of meh…." "underwhelming in flavor…." "overcooked…."

This one was a surprise, and I'm sure will raise eyebrows…..

Royal Mandarin Restaurant
1132 E. Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950
(619) 477-4151

#4 – Golden Chopsticks:

Yep, the other popular Salt and Pepper Chicken wing joint finished second to last! "bland….." "soggy……" "not even spicy in the least…." "don't like the light color…."

Another big surprise!

Golden Chopsticks
1430 Plaza Blvd #E/22A-23A
National City, CA 91950
(619) 336-1888

3 – A & D Hawaiian BBQ – National City:

**** A&D Has closed

Another surprise. The darkhorse last minute replacement came in a respectable third, and missed second place by one point! Yikes! "most flavorful by far…." "thinner crust but better taste…."nice spice, lots of garlic, but too salty…." "right amount of spice…."

A&D Hawaiian BBQ
Grove Plaza Center
2220 Plaza Blvd
National City, CA 91950

2 – Panda Palace:

**** Panda Palace has closed

Well what do you know…another surprise. This one was all over the board with three fourth-place votes, and two first place votes. It managed second by one point.

The comments were the most entertaining of all the entries: "tastes like Panda Express smells…." "someone didn't change the oil after frying all that shrimp" "too sweet…" on one hand, "very flavorful…." "like the garlic and spice…" "not greasy…." on the other.

Panda Palace Chinese Restaurant
1105 E Plaza Blvd Ste D
National City, CA 91950
(619) 336-1725

#1 – Mandarin Chinese Restaurant:

The favorite overall by a whopping six points, and voted the best by four! Some of the comments; "lightest and crispy-est…" "good crunch, but meat a little dry…." "definitely the best, the only one I wanted seconds of…." "nice and light batter".

Mandarin Chinese Restaurant
945-A Otay Lakes Rd
Chula Vista, CA 91913
(619) 656-8080

So there you have it folks! Surprised? I sure was……

The gang did a great job going from this:

To this:

It's amazing what you can learn while chomping on wings with one another. For instance, Candice makes a mean Cucumber granita and Mango Sorbet which helped to keep our palates fresh, I never knew Librarians can sing so well, and there were moves attributed to the movie Flashdance that I don't recall….or umm…maybe I don't want to recall????

My thanks to everyone who participated!

Oh yes, how did I see things?

#1 – Royal Mandarin

#2 – Mandarin Restaurant

#3 – A & D

#4 - Golden Chopsticks

#5 – Panda Palace

Let the debates begin!!!!

Two Gaijin (and Kirk) at Okan

June 22, 2009 ed fromyuma Japanese Restaurants, Memorable Meals, What Cathy Eats!, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

Back in April, ed had the chance to visit San Diego, and Kirk, Cathy, and he realized that we had the same evening free to get together for dinner. The main question was, where? If memories serve, Cathy and ed had the same thought: let's get Kirk to guide us through a meal at Okan.

In general, both ed and Cathy are intrepid explorers of restaurants. But we had read about multiple menus, nightly specials, unfamiliar dishes, and a generally Japanese speaking clientele. For ed at least, the option of going it alone seemed problematic; plus Kirk always knows the good stuff (which is why all of us read this blog).

The only downside to getting together for this meal is that it is harder to concentrate on the food when carrying on interesting conversations — often about great food from elsewhere. Therefore, you will hear from all three of us in this post.

The first dish that ed remembers was a bamboo shoot preparation:

That's shredded gobo root and carrot alongside the big crunchy chunks of bamboo shoot. The flavor, if memory serves, was focused and simple and good. The thick cut of the slices emphasizes the goodness of the shoots.

The first brought out were two dishes, one of bamboo, not pickled, just fresh cooked and chilled bamboo shoots. Pleasant and crunchy. The other dish was non-fried/raw (?) gobo. (Fried gobo will be in another dish further down in this post) Cathy liked both and thought they were refreshing and fresh tasting. She is inserting two bad photos to show portion sizes…sort of. She and ed didn't pull out their cameras at first. Kirk was amused when both of them started snapping away.

Next came eggplant stewed in miso (help, am I right?): Again the preparations seem very basic and simple. Although Kirk and Cathy liked the dish well enough, ed tends to prefer eggplant that is more heavily seasoned since it is so much like a flavor sponge.

Then came some stew with tofu and God knows what else: Hmmm. Cathy thinks it was pork and carrots or yam with kuro konnyaku(yam noodles?) and the tofu. Whatever. She thought it tasted like home. A home that made really good, fancy, deep flavored stew.

When the Gobo root salad appeared, it looked amazing: Of all the things we ate at night, and we ate a lot of things, this was for ed the most memorable and outstanding. Nonetheless, like virtually every other dish, this was extremely focused, direct, and simple. The shredded Gobo root was sweet and crunchy and addictive. The lightly dressed greens (mizuna???) underneath were provided a wonderful contrastive tang, added to different type of crunch, and made the plate truly beautiful.

When this huge salad was first served to us, ed thought there was no way that all three of us could ever finish it. However, throughout the meal, all of us would go back again and again for the salad, using it almost as a palate cleanser and refresher, like gari at a sushi bar.

It was a light, delicate, yet wonderfully flavored crunchy. It also was about ten inches tall in its initial presentation. Cathy could have eaten it all herself but then would not have had the ability to try so many of the other items Kirk had ordered.

Next came (I think) fried chicken skin. That says it all, doesn't it? (I have no memories of this, but it's hard to imagine chicken skin not tasting good):

Cathy could have eaten two dishes of chicken skin. By herself. If nobody was around.

Chicken wings arrived next: Again the preparation was simple and straightforward. Maybe too much so for ed's taste which has no doubt been corrupted by dozens of buffalo wings over the years.

Cathy could taste some sort of marinade for these wings. Not spicy but nice flavor. You know there was no sauce to add to anything, and nothing needed to have the flavor upped or changed for this entire meal.

Coming from the desert, ed insisted on some fish dish. What arrived was a sizable chunk of mackerel braised in soy sauce: ed found the fish to be rich and deeply flavored. For him, this was another hit.

Cathy liked it. Cathy liked everything. We forgot to take pictures of the sake! It was in the cutest little self chilling carafe. It was *really* good. The top one on the sake menu. Kirk said something about it not being able to be purchased in the States. Cathy does not remember details…on with the food.

While the restaurant is certainly not a sushi bar, the one raw seafood preparation that we were served was visually striking and unusual: The octopus slices were paperthin, and the contrast between them and the individual suckers was nice.

Cathy's first taste of sashimi included octopus. She had it on her 18th birthday at work. This was even better because of the presentation. The delicateness made her have to eat it slowly and concentrate on the flavor as well as textural contrast. Here is her photo, and you can see the sake glasses in the background.

The bacon wrapped asparagus again was a study in simplicity: ed's memory is that the bacon was not heavily smoked and the asparagus was still crunchy and fresh tasting.

The bacon was not bacon-y flavored at all and somehow brought out a sweetness in the asparagus. Cathy usually only buys the thinner fresh asparagus stalks and will continue to do so. Those fat ones have to be prepared differently. This is a perfect vegetable. This preparation-and presentation- was perfect.

Slices of grilled duck breast, complete with a tasty strip of duck fat (ummm-duck fat), showed up next: Again the focus was on showing off the quality ingredient and not masking or altering its flavor.

Cathy liked this one also. The duck was on top of grilled green onions which did not impart a flavor onto the duck, but if you ate the onion, the bit of duck grease flavored it just enough to make the simple grilled scallion's sweetness come through.

The well marbled slices of cold steak continued the presentation of rich meaty items: Again, the preparation was simple, allowing the beef itself to show off.

The meal ended with unagi prepared inside of tamago: At this point, ed's mouth was suffering from taste fatigue, and his brain was overloaded with food discussions and perhaps sake as well, so he doesn't remember much beyond a basic sweetness and a certain complexity of flavor.

All in all, all of us enjoyed the meal. The food, in retrospect, seems to ed to be much like a Japanese rock garden or a rural Shinto shrine – simple, focused, beautiful, and rustic. The restaurant repeatedly presents simple down-home preparations that show off the quality and flavors of the ingredients used. Kirk says that Okan means Mom's. Well, it certainly isn't ed's mom's cuisine. Nor did Cathy grow up with anything like this. It was wonderful- and Cathy was so glad to go out and socialize with "the guys" .

Links to Kirk's post on Okan are here and here

Luang Prabang: Dinner at Tamarind Part 2

February 22, 2009 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Laos, Luang Prabang, Memorable Meals, Travel

The first half of dinner at Tamarind had already been quite an adventure, and though we didn't know it at the time, there was much more to come.

Next up was this Or Lam like stew. It lacked much of the bitter tones of Or Lam, and was fairly hearty, and studded with sticky rice, which probably contributed to the thickness of the broth.

The highlite of the soup were all the small frogs, which were fairly sweet. You ate the frogs whole, the bones were soft. The Missus loved the flavor of the frogs…..which She called "crab-like."

Next up was the plate that would probably be the most challenging for any Westerner…. yes, bugs!

Also on the plate were two large "Mok" – banana leaf wrapped items, and a eel that had been grilled in the typical Lao style.

The eel was hard…..like eating solid bone.

The large packet contained a flower that we had seen all through the Fresh Market, always surrounded by swarms of fruit flies…it must be really sweet.

It had been stuffed with pork, and was very, very tasty. Even better than Mok Pa, it literally melted in our mouths.

As we opened the next packet, Joy suddenly appeared and told us; "here in Luang Prabang, that is what you'll make for your children if you love them." So we opened up the packet…..

It tasted sweet, but was a bit "liver-y" for me. The Missus on the other hand loved this, calling it, "really rich, and almost like crab brains and eggs." I knew this was something from the organ/offal category. Can you guess what it is? This folks……was pig brains. Even though this was so rich She barely finished it, the Missus still smacks Her lips when I mention this.

Of course I know that you only really want to hear about the bugs……

The various critters really challenged you mentally rather than flavor-wise. The grasshopper were fairly nutty, the crickets a bit more gamey. I really, really enjoyed the tiny bugs that looked like small Cockroaches, as did that forest bug….they had a nice, almost floral flavor. The Missus didn't care for the Bee Larvae. You basically cracked open the hive, and larvae fell out to the plate.

I on the other hand loved the sweet, honey – floral flavor of the larvae. A quick dip into salt actually improved the sweetness.

The one bug that we didn't enjoy was this fella':

After removing the head, legs, wings, and hard shell, the squishy flesh had a mildly bitter, offal-like flavor.

The next plate (yes, yet another!) that arrived looked positively tame next to what we had just consumed. It looked very familiar to me.

It was a plate of herbs, spices, and other items, that would be wrapped in lettuce leaves, and dipped into the tangy tamarind based sauce and consumed. I've had a similar dish in various Thai Restaurants, where it's called Miang Khum. Curious about this, I inquired, and found out it is a popular party appetizer in Luang Prabang. Unfortunately, I forgot to get the Lao name for this dish. Upon my return, I turned to David Thompson's awesome book Thai Food, where I found a listing for "Miang Lao". Thompson claims a Northern Thai origin for the dish, but notes that the version in the book is of Lao origin. I'm sure a few readers will chime in on this.

It was a nice palate cleansing end to the meal…in which we had finished several glasses of LaoLao and two containers of sticky rice each, in addition to all the food.

The Missus told me, "I wish we could squeeze in another meal here……." All the more reason to return.

The meal ended with a typical sticky rice confection, which reminded me of arare. I had already consumed an entire bag of this that I had purchased earlier, so I had no problem polishing these off.

As well strolled the one block back to our room, I reflected on all the amazing meals we've had over the last 2 years. Meals that had changed our opinions on food, from an amazing home made Cuy dinner in Cusco, to Astrid y Gaston in Lima. Roasted Sparrows at Highway 4 in Hanoi and 10 courses of snake in Le Mat. A lunch with a touching toast at Can Cau Market, dinner with the guy with 2 wives in Bac Ha, learning that you should be "Happy Happy Everyday" in Siem Reap…and so many more. All of these meals (and many more) have really added color to our lives. Thank you for honor of letting us share them with you all.

Luang Prabang: Dinner at Tamarind – Part 1

February 18, 2009 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Laos, Luang Prabang, Memorable Meals, Travel

Ok, ok, I'm finally getting around to posting on our dinner at Tamarind. After attending the Tamarind cooking school, I was really excited at the prospect of dinner at Tamarind. There was one special "gourmet" dinner that fascinated me. It was called "The Adventurous Lao Gourmet", a degustation type, multi-course meal. Because the items included in the meal take a bit of what we shall term "shopping", it is imperative to make reservations for the meal. In fact, when I first tried to make reservations, the young lady hesitated, and said to come back after the cooking class. I made it a point to return to the restaurant after the cooking class, and again attempt to make reservations. Again, the young lady hesitated, and called Joy. After chatting briefly in Lao, the young lady hung up and said; "okay, Joy says you'll eat anything….."

Which is how we ended up at back at Tamarind at 4pm. (Tamarind closes at 6pm) The interior of Tamarind is much smaller than it appears from the exterior. The walls are lined with photos, and the overall appearance is clean, if a bit spartan.

Another reason reservations are required for this meal, is that either Joy or Carolyn will present the dishes, describe what you're eating (yes, you'll need that info), and answer questions. And I had many, many, questions.

Everything is served with the Lao staple, sticky rice:

The first plate soon arrived, and it was as beautiful (at least to us), as it was exotic looking:

As I was digging through my photos, I realized that I have photos of almost everything except the item in the middle right, which was a green bean and "mushroom" (cloud ear fungus) salad, which would have been fairly routine, except for the fresh tenderness of the fungus.

On the upper left, was a fern shoot salad:

I grew up eating "Pohole" (i.e. Warabi, Fern Shoots), so this wasn't a real big deal. It was very mild in flavor, but very fresh.

Next to it was something I hadn't had before, a Jeow (Lao dip) made of what they call "Lao Olive".

It had a salty-fruity-mildly spicy flavor, which was very satisfying. The Missus loved this. The Missus even went after the olive on the side….which tasted like….an olive of course. Wonderful dish. The flowers topping the olive dip are Hop blossoms, which are edible.

To the right of the olive dip was the Jeow King, the Lao Ginger dip.

This was a bracingly spicy dip, the ginger brought up the heat from the dish, as did the ginger leaves. Talk about waking you up…..

Next up was sticky rice flavored with coconut, and I believe taro, roasted in leaves.

This was more like a dessert.

There were two powders in the lower center part of the plate:

On the left was ground pumpkin seeds, nice and nutty, and good for rolling your sticky rice in. On the right, was dried and ground "bok choy", quite bitter in flavor. The ever present bitter flavor in Lao food made its appearance again.

On the lower left was sliced pork "rind", with sticky rice powder, and chilies.

I had expected this to taste like Vietnamese "Bi", but man was this good. The strands of rind almost melted in our mouths, and the flavor was excellent, a sweet-porkiness that made you wanting more. Mmmmm, pork with the texture of butter……

In the middle of the plate was a greenish-gooey substance called "Sa Thao". This dish was made with the algae genus, Spirogyra…sometimes called "pond scum". Khai Pene, the river moss that I'd been eating in all the restaurants, is made from algae genus, Cladophora glomerata. A totally different species.

The algae is pounded with eggplant, garlic, green beans, and spices, making for a LuangPrabang - TamarindDinner15 wonderful savory, gooey, dip. The Missus blasted through this like there was no tomorrow. We had also blown through a container of sticky rice each, as well as a few glasses of flavored Lao Lao (rice whiskey).

We sure did some damage.

When the Missus had sopped up the last of the Sa Thao, our next plate arrived:

Joy had seen how the Missus went after the Sa Thao, so he made sure we had another bowl!

On the upper left are water buffalo patties(Buffalo Sausage), much like a very spicy-herbacious Bun Cha:

I sensed a real tingling while eating this, and Joy told me that Sichuan Peppercorns are used in the meat patties. Very nice, in fact, we tracked some down from one of the grill stands on our way out of Luang Prabang.

Pickled Pork Skin and pickled garlic:

Tasted like pickled pork skin……and pickled garlic. Nice refresher, though.

The Water Buffalo Jerky was decent, but nothing we hadn't had before.

The salted-pickled fish tasted great……

If a bit tough….think of it as Lao pickled herring if you must. Two of the basic preservation techniques, salting and pickling used to perfection.

Pickled Fish "Curd".

So well pickled that this almost tasted sweet, with a mild fishy background.

And than it was the most interesting item on the plate:

No it's not the "Pork Sung"(Rousong) on the left. It's the item to the right. When I asked what that was, Joy told me, "fish poo." "Fish poo?" "Yes, fish poo." Apparently, the fish is gutted, than all the intestinal matter is scraped out and used in preserving the fish……and you have "fish poo." Living up to it's name, the outer layer tasted quite funky, dark, and dank. The fish itself was soft, tender, and quite mild.

Each plate had given us insight to Luang Prabang food, from the various dips, to the items that used classic preservation techniques; salting, pickling, and drying, we had learned much about what what was eaten in homes, on the rivers, and perhaps even the forest. And much of it was delicious to boot. We had not been sure how much food we'd be eating, and had even thought, that this was it…..but we weren't even half way through!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Laos: Vientiane – Laos Orchid Hotel and Dinner on the Shores of the Mekong

November 20, 2008 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Laos, Memorable Meals, Travel, Vientiane

Our little haven during our all too short stay in Vientiane was the Lao Orchid Hotel. Located a half block from the Mekong, the Lao Orchid is situated on the quiet side of Chou Anou street. As I mentioned earlier, we walked in and got a suite, which was quite large and comfortable. There was just so much, "space", something we had been without for a few days.

After doing the "Guest house thing" for the last 3 nights, the Missus was really craving some Western amenities (wow, television!!)….I guess we are just "soft Americans" after all! We were really impressed at how clean this place was….totally spotless, and possibly the cleanest floors (to this point) I've ever seen in a hotel. In fact, in keeping with the standard, we saw the housekeeping staff, and even the front desk folks walking barefoot. And we had no qualms about doing the same at all…..

Our view from the balcony wasn't outstanding, though we could make out the Mekong:

What really stood out here was the service …..especially from one young lady named "Ai". Ai spoke good English, and was very eager to be of help, a common trait among many of the Lao people we met. Ai went beyond the call for us, and displayed a great sense of humor. She found much amusement in my interest in Lao Food. A typical scenario would be an inquiry about, say "Naem", Ai would call the staff into an impromptu "huddle" and a short discussion would take place. After which, a concensus would be reached. In this case, "Inter-City makes the best Naem". Hmmm, Inter-City was the restaurant for a hotel next door….I wasn't too keen on hotel food. Funny thing was, Inter-City was recommended later on by several other folks in Vientiane (by "A", and the Young Lady at Lao Airways). This recommendation would prove to be ironic a bit later on. Ai's most outstanding favor, was a touching act of kindness; the Missus hadn't heard from Her parents since we left for our trip. On all of our vacations, the Missus's parents would always stay in close email contact; but this time our emails went unanswered…..the Missus began to worry. We tried making several international calls, but always ran into problems with connectivity. Ai, seeing how worried we were, told us to wait for just one minute……she than pulled out her own personal cellphone, and made the call for us, which got through. It is because of Ai that I quickly learned my second word in Lao (the first being Sa-bai-dee), kopchai (Thank you). And than to add to it, kopchai-lai-lai (thank you very much)…..which I used constantly in Laos.

Deciding to pass on Inter-City, we walked on over to the banks of the Mekong, which are lined with food stalls of all shapes and sizes.

Some of the stalls have elaborate platforms build stretching out over the Mekong, with proper dining tables and chairs. All of them specialize in mainly one thing; what they call "Ping", grilled items, mainly "Ping Pa"(grilled fish) and "Ping Kai"(grilled chicken).

After one quick pass down the Mekong, we settled on the first stall we had seen. It was a pretty modestly equipped stall, you could just say it was a big table. But the woman running the stand had the warmest smile, and though she didn't speak hardly any English, we appreciated one thing:

Everything served here was fresh, there would be no reheated, pregrilled fish served to us. All her fish were live and kickin'. There were only a few fish in the bucket, perhaps five, probably just enough for one evening's worth of service. The Missus had Her eye on one of the larger specimens, and the Woman let Her pick out whichever one She wanted.

We also got 2 huge live prawns that were thrown on the charcoal grill for us.

We ordered a few other items from the young person of slightly indeterminate gender who spoke fairly good English. When it came to the Naem, we were sadly told that they don't make Naem. That was fine with us, the fish looked great, and we'd be happy with whatever we got.

We walked down the hill from the now busy cooking area.

And had the seat on the cushion set upon a platform overlooking the Mekong. We were charmed by the setting…….

The eating area looked quite modest compared to some of the more elaborate stands and dining areas, but for us, it just "felt right". Like we were in Laos, having dinner on the banks of the Mekong.

This is also where I had my first taste of Beerlao, which was named by Time Magazine as Asia's best beer. And thus began my love affair with Beerlao, and apparently I'm not the only one . The beer is crisp and clean, with a mild sweet finish. According to the Beer Lao website , the hops and yeast are imported from Germany, and jasmine rice is used in the process(that explains it!). I must've had this every night except one while in Laos, and was desperately looking for it (to no avail) in Thailand. Even the Missus, who hates beer, loved this. There is nothing quite like sipping some Beerlao (called the Dom Perignon of Asian beers by the Bangkok Post) while watching the Mekong rolling by.

Meanwhile, our food started arriving. First up, was the Stir Fried Morning Glory:

This was the best stir fried vegetable we ate during the whole trip. Perfectly "wokk'd", crisp, with a nice crunch, great fish sauce flavor, and a nice garlic and chili kick. Excellent!

Of course some sticky rice:

And then a very big surprise:

It was the Naem!!! Where did this come from? I've been known to rave, along with Ed from Yuma, about the Naem Khao Thawt from Asia Cafe, but this was in a whole 'nother league! It was very good, a symphony of various crunchy textures, the crisp rice, the peanuts, pork skin, and the scallions. Nice heat from the essense of the chilies, along with the sweet saltiness of the sausage. The item that really got our attention was the addition of coconut milk, which gave this a nice sweet richness, and when wrapped with herbs in cabbage…this was beyond excellent.

The Missus, who was totally blown away by this, quickly ran up the banks to the stall and asked to see how they made this wonderful dish. "Oh no, we no make Naem….it's from Iiin-ter-Citeee!" Was the reply, along with lots of giggles. Now how's that for service? The folks at the stall had not wanted to disappoint us, so they ran on over to Inter-City, and got us some Naem! So in the end, we got our dish…and it was from Inter-City to boot!

Next up were the grilled prawns:

As we have often found, bigger is not necessarily better. These were tough, and had very little flavor. I opened one, and gave the Missus a taste, "eh…." While I was finishing mine up, a young boy walked over and tried to sell us some kind of trinket. The Missus, inspired by the moment (and uninspired by the prawns), offered it to the boy, who instantly, without hesitation, grabbed it, and made a beeline down the shoreline.

The last to arrive was our fish. It was gutted, stuffed with lemongrass and other herbs, crusted with salt and grilled. Served with a tangy-sweet-spicy sauce, it was somewhat of an anti-climax after the Naem. I really enjoyed the skin, mmmm-fish bacon! The meat was on the dense side, and though moist, really lacked any flavor. It was good, but not great. I did finish every inch of skin from that fish, though……

Along with 3 large Beerlaos, the meal cost us approximately $14 US. And that includes the Naem from Inter-City. Fourteen bucks for a meal we consider priceless…..fourteen bucks for such thoughtful and considerate service, and this view, sunset from the shores of the Mekong:

Priceless indeed…….

Perhaps it was the Beerlao at work, but it was at that very moment that I fell under the spell of Laos. And while the stress melted away, and my blood pressure dropped to levels not seen in decades…… I decided, we'd stay another day in Vientiane.

Siem Reap: Tonle Sap Lake, and being “Happy, Happy Everyday”

July 17, 2008 mmm-yoso Cambodia, Memorable Meals, Siem Reap, Travel

We didn’t quite know what to expect as we headed off to Lake Tonle Sap, we had read about it in various guidebooks, and knew it was a UNESCO Biosphere, and that it was Cambodia’s "larder", providing up to 60 percent of Cambodia’s protein. We had also read that "there isn’t much to see", and it was "an over-rated tourist trap". But Narin really wanted us to visit Tonle Sap, and we had learned over the course of the morning that he would not steer us wrong. And we did enjoy the ride down to the Lake.

And it was during this ride, that the Missus snapped what is one of my favorite photos.

It got quite dusty as we approached Tonle Sap. Approaching the boat docks, we saw huts lining the side of the roads.

A bit flimsy you say? We arrived in the midst of the dry season when the lake occupies about 2500 square kilometers. During the rainy season the lake expands to 16,000 square kilometers. When the water rises, all of these huts are disassembled, and the village is moved to higher, dry ground.

As we approached the lake, this hut drew our attention.

A generator was running full blast and car batteries were being charged up. It seemed a bit strange to us, but we’d understand soon enough.

As we approached the boat dock and causeway, the heady stench hit us, a combination of rotting organic matter and gas fumes. A sudden thought went through my mind….."this is where all the fish we’re eating comes from?"

As our boat was steered backwards using a combination of the motor, pushing, and strategic bumping of the other boats, we had a chance to look at the surroundings.

Seeing how people live here was a humbling experience. And tourism is a mixed blessing for these folks; on one hand it brings in much needed income. On the other, the pollution, invasion of space, and noise create problems of there own. Life here is hard, and you can’t help but wonder what effect you’re having……………..

Right now, it’s the rainy season, and all of this is now underwater……quite an interesting thought.

Here’s a large fish trap.

We saw 3 schools on our way to the floating village. One sponsored by Koreans, one by the Japanese, and one by the French. The most interesting thing was the enclosed basketball court.

As we motored out to Chong Khneas floating village, we passed many boats delivering various goods and necessities. These blue jugs which contain drinking water.

And there’s no minimum working age here….

As we approached Chong Khneas we could see floating houses dotting the great brown "plain" of water.

I’d heard and read of people being mobbed by children in buckets asking for money, but we were never bothered. We ended up docking at one of the Fish Farms, and Narin took us around to check out what was being raised.

You don’t want to slip and fall into this pen! Many homes have large "pens" built along the bottom of their home/boat. And it looks like the rest of Tonle Sap….brown water. But throw in some "chum", and you’ll be startled. There are thousands of fishes in these pens. Fish is the lifeblood of Cambodia, in fact Cambodia’s currency, the Riel is named after a fish.

As we strolled around the floating fish farm/convenience store/restaurant, we noticed shrimp being dried everywhere.

Stepping gingerly up a ladder to the roof, we had a nice view of the surroundings.

Droves of Korean tourists were being boated out to places like this.

It’s a floating Korean Restaurant!

Fish pens…..

After a half hour or so, we re-boarded our boat, and Narin gave the young man steering some instructions. We headed off into the heart of Chong Khneas.

The population of Tonle Sap is interesting, 60% Vietnamese, 20% Cambodian, 20% Cham. And seeing such squalid conditions can be a bit disheartening.

But something interesting happened after a few minutes. We started really noticing those little touches that make the place you live "home". Whether it’s your own little flower garden.

Or the herbs and greens you’re growing, under the wood pile.

And then there’s the neighborhood electronics store:

Remember the car batteries being charged? Narin joked that the one thing people in Cambodia cannot do without is television. Even on Tonle Sap Lake…every houseboat, no matter how small, had a television.

We were constantly reminded of the strength and resourcefulness of the people living on Tonle Sap. Check out the pigs.

I guess some people just can’t do without their pork!

And instead of people trying to sell us stuff, they were throwing kisses our way.

In some strange way we were deeply touched. And on a more practical level, I can imagine how many boatloads of tourists pass through here. Now I don’t know about you, but if truckloads of tourists came driving up and down my street, taking photos, putting my daily life under a magnifying glass, I’m not sure I’d be waving and throwing kisses at them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not over-romanticizing life on Tonle Sap Lake; it is a very, very, hard life. But there’s something to be said about people who live in such challenging conditions who can still manage a smile and wave at the end of the day.

We were pretty quiet on the ride back to Siem Reap. Once we got into the city we started discussing options for the next day. Narin had also started to understand, "my peculiarities" by this time. As we were dropped off, he promised to take us to his favorite noodle stand for breakfast. We were told that the stand served some very special Khmer Noodles. Alright…no more Fish Amok!

Well, at least that’s what I thought. After a quick shower, we took a stroll down to the Old Market (Psar Chas) area. We had intentions on checking out one of the typical Khmer eateries surrounding the market. But while walking through "Pub Street" we were charmed by a young lady into stopping for a meal at Khmer Family Restaurant. The menu was pretty much typical tourist Khmer fare, but that was fine. The young lady who served us was named Akin, who as quick with a smile, very warm, and quite funny. She kept having problems remembering where we were from, so we kept quizzing her; "now Akin, where aaarrrre we from?" At which time she’d go down her mental list, "ummm, no, can’t be Australian….."

Most of the dishes at Khmer Family restaurant are about $3, and there are special 3 item "sets" for $8, which would save you a dollar. We didn’t want the "set" items, even though Akin seemed dead set on saving us that buck. We managed to order what we wanted. After taking our order, Akin charmed another couple into the restaurant. This couple was from Sweden, and were very nice, and fun. We usually don’t socialize much with other tourists when on vacation, but this couple we simply fantastic; mellow, well traveled(the husband had been to San Diego!), and they had a great sense of humor. During one of our conversations about our homes, they asked us what we new about Sweden, which was less than zero. If I were a bit faster, and perhaps wittier, I could have come up with, maybe ABBA…or Ikea? But the Missus beat me to the punch with; "oh, MEATBALLS!" Which sent the couple roaring with laughter. Yes, the two rubes from the States, the only thing they new about Sweden were Swedish Meatballs.

The meal was somewhat forgettable, the Missus got, duh…..Fish Amok!

Actually this was probably the best version we had during the entire trip, it had a good quantity of fish in it(probably from Tonle Sap Lake), and the flavors were more balanced.

We also had a Khmer Curry:

The vegetables were severely undercooked.

The most interesting dish of the evening was Somloo Caco (Samla Kako):

Very much like a mild green fish curry, it had a nice mild salty savory flavor. The dish supposedly had Prahok in it, but it didn’t have a particularly strong fishy flavor.

During dinner we got to know a bit more about Akin, she’s 19, and goes to school during the day. When we asked her if she’s from Siem Reap, she told us she came to Siem Reap 10 years ago to work! As it dawned on the Missus and I that 19 minus 10 equals 9, we looked at Akin, and asked her what her parents thought about this. To which she replied, "no, no mother or father, grandmother, or grandfather." Oh my, Akin was an orphan. What do you say? "Akin, we’re so sorry…." And her reply stays with me, and I repeat it almost everyday, "no worries, no worries, I’m Happy-Happy every day!" The sincerity of the way Akin said that short phrase melted every little snarky, sarcastic bone in my body. We got another surprise when we got our bill, she only charged us $8 instead of $9…she really wanted to save us that buck! As for our $2 tip? She chortled, "oh, for me, thank you, thank you." The Missus had Akin write down her name in both English and Cambodian:

It reminds me of that simple, but noble goal, to try to be "Happy-Happy every day".

Read about Wandering Chopsticks experience at Tonle Sap Lake here.

Bac Ha/Can Cau: Can Cau Market

May 6, 2008 mmm-yoso Memorable Meals, Sapa/Bac Ha/Can Cau, Travel, Vietnam

The morning after our hike, we rose early(still jet-lagging), walked around a bit and had our Banh Cuon and Bun Cha breakfast. At 700 am we settled our tour and room tab and met our Guide for our over-night trip to the village of Bac Ha. Many people make the Sunday day trip to Bac Ha, but it's 3 1/2 (100+ kilometers)hours each way, so we thought we'd be able to miss the tourists by going a day early, and staying over night in Bac Ha and hitting the market before the crush of tourists. And we'd be able to visit the Can Cau Saturday Market to boot.

We met our guide, an amiable and very friendly young Man named Thinh, and our Driver, a very quiet(at first) young man named Thang. Meet our chariot:

We had gone the private guide and driver route. Our car was a diesel Toyota Land Cruiser, with a dead suspension, and the fumes sometimes almost got the better of us. But it was fun being able to stop whenever we wanted, and to have Thinh's vast knowledge to ourselves. We got much more out of our trip by going this route.

Once we left Sapa, and passed through Lao Cai, the road got a bit, well, rougher. Luckily, the previous night's rain hadn't been very hard, otherwise the road to Bac Ha would be washed out, and our trip canceled. We saw major road construction during several stretches of our trip, soon enough you'll be able to make the trip over nice smooth asphalt. Funny, but I think the trip will lose some of it's charm, though your spine and other internal organs may appreciate the modernization.

We passed some sparkling green tea growing(we bought some on the way back) on the hillsides:

And rice paddies in the valleys:

After a kidney crunching 90 minutes, we reached the steep and winding road up the Bac Ha Mountain range. A new road is being built, but was only one-fourth complete at the time of our trip. The weather had changed significantly as we drove through the mountains, and some of the views were spectacular.

It was much drier around here. Soon enough, we skirted more road construction and arrived in sleepy, dusty Bac Ha Village. Remember this photo, and compare it to the same shot in a future post.

After a short "break", we made our way to Can Cau Market. We passed the terraced mountains:

Except in Bac Ha it's corn, not rice, that is king. Can Cau Market is approximately 20 kilometers North of Bac Ha, and we had to pass through one "bird flu" inspection/disinfection station on the way to market.

Stepping into the market at Can Cau is like being instantly immersed in a different world. The market itself occupies several "levels" of an hillside. Food stalls occupy one level:

Dry goods, hardware, herbs occupy another:

And livestock can be found in the valley below:

As we walked past the "food court" and up the stairs, dodging "tipsy" older men walking on unsteady legs, we passed the vendors selling them the treasured local ~~moonshine~~ Ruou Ngo(corn wine). You can see the plastic gallon containers in this photo.

There was one vendor who caught the Missus's eye:

This lady was selling Indigo dyed rice. The Missus wanted to try it out, and with the help of Thinh purchased some. The Missus only really wanted a taste, and had Thinh try to explain that to the woman, but she insisted on giving the Missus her money's worth!

Indigo rice is eaten for good luck, and really doesn't have much additional flavor. It was very pretty though.

Speaking of pretty, as you probably notice in the photos, the attire of the Flower H'mong is distinctly colorful and vibrant. Flower H'mong scattered in villages in the area all come to the Saturday market. Another thing we noticed is that compared to other "markets" Can Cau is relatively "quiet".

You can't help but be enchanted by the bright colors of the Flower H'mong:

It's not only the Flower H'mong who stand out. Blue(Green) H'mong women are also easy to identify, by what else, their bright blue embroidered skirts, leggings, and tunics.

Since Can Cau Market is close to the Vietnam-China border, you'll run into Chinese vendors selling items like herbal remedies.

And of course many of the H'mong sell brightly colored textiles.

It seems that you can get any of your necessities at Can Cau.

Of course, not everybody was happy to be here. This little piglet wanted nothing to do with any of the proceedings. I really don't blame the little critter……

We had noticed that all of the tourists had cleared out by this time. It had gotten pretty hot, and most of them had headed back to their buses. But for us; it was lunch time. We had made it very clear to Mr Thinh, that we didn't do the "tourist eating" kind of thing. And he guided us to the eating area, low benches(after sitting on those little stools in Hanoi, I was getting good at this squat-sit kinda thing), on a patch of dirt shaded by tarps….just like we wanted…..

Directly to our right, the lounge lizard crowd was going strong. This was their "Friday Happy Hour", and they were sure hitting the Ruou pretty hard.

Thinh told us to wait, and got up to grab our food. I did tell him one thing; to please skip the Thit Cho. It really, ahem, didn't look very tasty. Thinh told me, he doesn't care for it anyway.

Thinh returned with a bowl full of simple boiled pork(he couldn't find any Thang Co – Horse meat stew).

Along with a bag of sticky rice, and the standard issue chili paste-lime-salt-herb dip, this was a simple, yet fatty dish. I enjoyed the mild chewiness, and thought the fat parts had some pretty decent flavor. The Missus was kinda grossed out over the look of the dish. This is free range pork, with a decent fat content, it is not the "other white meat".

We also got a piping hot bowl of soup; a clear broth with a strong white and black pepper flavor. The hand cut noodles were a nice al dente, though this pork was on the tough side.

When it comes down to it, I'd take this over Northern Pho any day of the week. The one item that came with the soup that the Missus loved were the simple pickled mustard greens. Salty and sour, the Missus said it reminded Her of childhood.

Now this is where it gets interesting. We had noticed that people were starting to pay more than a passing amount of attention to us. After a few minutes; 2 gentleman of the Giay people spoke to Thinh. Thinh came back to us and said; "they told me that they want to have a drink with you, because tourists never eat with them. They are very happy and proud that you would eat the same food". What can you say? Of course, we were obligated to. So we had first one, than another, than another round. I had Thinh get them a refill of their Ruou(at 8,000 VND – 50 cents, it's a bargain). Ruou Ngo is pretty smooth with a mild finishing bite. After a few more rounds, everyone became less inhibited, and the conversation(with Mr Thinh's translation) flowed. We were told that "they don't believe you're American. They say that you cannot be American, you don't look like Americans. Americans rarely come here, and those that do are afraid of the food, and won't drink with them. They take their pictures and leave right away." This was a common theme for us through the trip, "no, no, you cannot be American, Australian maybe?" In the end, we settled for, "ok, tell them, I'm Japanese, and the Missus is Chinese." About this time, the Missus asked if She could try and have a smoke with one of the men's bamboo smoking pipes(Diếu Cày). The crowds started gathering, I guess the show was about to start.

Thinh prepared the tobacco(Thuoc Lao), and the Missus sucked harder than an Oreck Vacuum Cleaner, and you could hear the water in the bottom of the pipe start to gurgle. And then it was; "cough, cough, choke, gasp, gag, blech" and a whole range of gagging and gasping noises(In her spasms, the Missus accidentally blew a smoke ring!). The ~~Mucous's~~ Missus's beet red face told the whole story. "Whoa, that was strong." By now the Missus had become a real novelty(an Asian no less) in this conservative society where women don't smoke, nor drink in public. In celebration of the Missus's (lack off) smoking prowess we had a few more rounds. Because I was starting to enjoy the Ruou a bit too much, I knew it was time to leave. We paid our tab (30,000 VND – just under $2 US), and as we were leaving the proprietor of the pork stall came by with the standard issue used plastic water bottle filled with Ruou. Thinh explained that he wanted to have a drink with us. He made a toast which Thinh translated, "to Vietnamese and Chinese, we are brothers and neighbors, and brothers sometimes fight, but in the end we are still brothers".

We were told an old joke about Can Cau Market. "In the mornings, the people arrive, the husband is walking, and the wife rides the buffalo. In the afternoon, the people leave, the wife is walking, the husband is sleeping, laying across the buffalo." Well, this "husband" really needed an afternoon refresher by now.

This had been one of the more memorable experiences of a trip full of memorable experiences. Can Cau Market seemed a million miles away from Sapa; still unspoiled, the people work hard during the week, and enjoy life on Saturday at the social center that is the Can Cau market. These are good country folk, tough, sincere, and under the hard earned calluses, warm and generous. It was hard for us, and is still difficult for us to fathom. The exotic market, the colorful people of the Hill Tribes, eating, and drinking firewater with the locals. These are the things you read about, that happen to other people, to have lived it ourselves made us feel blessed. Days like these make it all worth while…….

I realize this humongous post may be a bit hard to digest, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Hanoi: 9 Courses of snake at Le Mat (snake village) Part 2 and Bat Trang

April 16, 2008 mmm-yoso Hanoi, Memorable Meals, Travel, Vietnam

After "meeting the snakes", and a couple of shots of snake wine and tea, we were dropped off via motorbike back at the restaurant. The Missus and I decided to go ahead and have our "9 courses of snake". Even though it seemed somewhat touristy, you only live once, right?

We had also invited Hung, our Driver, and Huong(who couldn't make it)…we had noticed that most times Drivers and Guides and their customers would part ways during meal times…the Tourists usually having a hearty meals, and the Guides would just wait, hang out with other guides, or run errands…..we wanted to reverse that notion, and made it a point to eat with our drivers and guides as much as possible, what better way to learn about the place you're visiting!

Soon enough various garnishes, were brought out including the salt-chili-lime dip, some really pungent, but delicious nuoc mam(fish sauce), herbs so fresh and full of life…they almost shone in the sun.

Some rice crackers….

And pickled figs, a nice palate refresher……

More snake wine of course(not as good as what we had just had), rice wine with black bee(strange medicinal-honey flavor), and one bottle that looked like chop suey lizard, snake, and other "stuff"…..pretty nasty stuff. Of course this was the one I was told would "make you strong", usually a good sign of something that would want to make you scrub your tongue with a brillo pad after consuming it……

And of course, you could not proceed without….

A glass of blood, which tasted of rice wine, but left a weird coating on my tongue, and bile which was a bit astringent, but tasted mostly of alcohol. Eat, Drink, & Be Merry has a nice post on "snake shots" in Taiwan.

There was one last piece of business….

When they brought the Cobra Heart out, it was still bouncing around a bit….the Missus decided that She wanted it, and I had no problem with that. She chugged it down with ~~a shot~~ two shots of snake wine.

First course – A Hot and Sour Soup.

There are several different types of sour……this was an example of what I can only call "dead fish sour". It was terrible; I started having doubts……

When the next course arrived, snake meat roasted in betel leaf.

A classic "La Lot" (rolled in betel leaf dish), much like what you'd order in most places with Beef. The snake meat was very mild (tastes like chicken anyone?), which amplified the sweetness of the betel leaf. Very nice.

Stir fried(Xao Lan) snake:

The snake was tough as heck in this dish…uninspired.

Snake egg rolls:

Yes, another classic preparation….these were fried perfectly, and in this case the slight chewiness of the snake meat was a plus. Other than that, not much flavor…..but hey it's fried!

Snake rice.

Another bland, "tastes like chicken" dish.

Deep Fried Snake Skin:

Topped with some dill, and dipped into nuoc mam….chicharron ain't got nothin' on this dish!

Roasted snake meat:

Not bad….texture like chewy, grilled eel…in fact the fish sauce in this dish made it even taste like a mild eel-chicken in flavor.

Minced snake bone:

This was excellent…went through 2 servings of Rice Crackers! Crunchy texture like roasted rice…..nicely flavored!

Chinese-style medicinal snake soup:

Tastes exactly like it's description………..medicinal soup….

Dessert, which I was so full and never tried……

All in all, a really nice experience, even though much of it does "taste like chicken"…..the visit to Quoc Phuong Ecological Farm, and Mr Huong's hospitality made it worthwhile.

And at $10/US a person, I'd say it was, at least to us, a fun experience. After lunch we wanted to make sure and thank Mr Huong; so we walked back to the farm, and made sure to thank him in person. As we were leaving he gave us a signal to wait….grabbed on old vodka bottle, which he rinsed out, and proceeded to fill from his stash of snake wine. Never underestimate the power of "Thank You!"

The last stop on our little day trip was the ceramic village of Bat Trang.

Though Le Mat and Bat Trang are but a few kilometers out of Hanoi, it's amazing how different they are from Hanoi….so peaceful, relaxed, and quiet.

But the relaxed vibe disguises the really hard, tough work that goes on in Bat Trang.

Working the kiln of Bat Trang is heavy, hot, and hard work.

There are a number of shops along the road….

Selling all types of ceramic products

Some ultra mass produced, others looking a bit higher in quality….

As with the other handicraft villages, you kind of wander around, and if you find something that catches your eye, you wander over, and suddenly you're right in the middle of a production line.

We walked down an alley, and right into a workshop.

Right up close and personal…

I'll never look at that mass produced tea pot the same…..so much of what we use without a thought is someone's handwork.

Meanwhile, the Missus had found something that had caught Her attention. This woman, who we'll call "smiling eyes" (when we entered the workshop, you could tell she gave us the biggest smile, even though she had a mask on), was working at her station….she could crank out her pieces at an amazing rate.

Seeing that the Missus was interested, she gave Her a quick lesson…

Then it was the Missus's turn….amazing…from the audience to the production line in minutes! Only in Vietnam!

Everytime the Missus would do something that would potentially mean a few missing digits, Smiling Eyes would come quickly to the rescue while emitting a high pitch "oh-oh-oh"…..

Using the "3 strikes rule", after the Missus ruined 3 pieces, She decided to leave this work to the pros!

Plus we were dog tired….

On the way back to our Hotel, Mr Hung stopped at Cafe Hao, and bought us some coffee. Nothing like Vietnamese coffee culture….a cup can last several minutes, or several hours depending on your mood.

His way of thanking us for lunch. This version was the best I had on our trip. It seems we had come full circle, the day started with a cup, and ended with a cup! Now I'd say that's a productive day!

Peru: Astrid & Gaston – Miraflores(Lima)

November 13, 2007 mmm-yoso Fine Dining, Lima, Memorable Meals, Peru, Travel

Would you believe me if I said that this charming little house on side street right off of Avenida Larco is the home of one of the top 100 restaurants in the world?

According to Pellegrino, Astrid & Gaston is one of the Top 100 restaurants in the world in 2007, right up there with Robuchon at the Four Seasons, Guy Savoy, Peter Lugar, Zuni Cafe, and many others. I usually don't do posts on fine dining establishments, but I'm sure you'll humor me in this case. A&G was the one "must-eat" restaurant on my list for our vacation. In fact, I had the Missus call the restaurant from Cusco, and we had no problems getting reservations on a Friday evening. When I first started making plans for our vacation, I had been a bit hesitant about eating at Astrid & Gaston. We'd be traveling light, and I had second thoughts about proper attire. But that was soon remedied after a quick email to Alejandro who does the excellent Peru Food blog. In response to my question about attire, Alejandro wrote; "you'll get cut a lot of slack as tourists". Which we found to be true when we arrived at the restaurant. We were seated in the "Wine Cellar" section, a very warm, quiet, and comfortable area of the restaurant. We could pick out the tourists right away, the sweaters and jeans were the tourists, the sports coats were the locals. I had packed a nice dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes, and they had traveled unused through our trip until this evening.

Our Server, a very kind and friendly young man brought us our menus….

Written in Spanish! This one was going to be much harder than ordering from a chalk board in a Picanteria! So we ordered some drinks, the Missus had some Chicha, and I ordered a Coca Sour, which was pretty strong:

And tried to go through the menu and figure out what was what.

The wonderful bread basket came out, with the uber-addictive bread sticks studded with Quinoa, when dipped in the wonderful spicy-tart Aji, was fantastic.

Our Server brought the Maitre d' over, who was not only very helpful, but had a great sense of humor as well! There were a few dishes that I was looking for, and he provided some assistance in finding them.

Of course the Missus had to start with some Cebiche, and I managed to find the Dos Cebiche Puritanos, basically the two traditional styles of cebiche, the mixto(mixed seafood cebiche), and the cebiche pescado (white fish).

The cebiche mixto was just plain fantastic. A variety of top notch seafood bathed in a creamy-mild marinade. I was amazed at how tender the calamari was…..literally melt in your mouth.

The quality of the fish in the Cebiche Classico, in this case Corvina (White Sea Bass) was a revelation. It was melt in your mouth tender….it would have not been out of place on nigiri sushi.

If I were to have any complaint at all, it would be that the Leche de Tigre(Tiger's milk – Cebiche marinade) was very, very mild. The strong sour-salty flavors were muted, but oh that fish was so good!

I had been looking for the causitas, which are minature versions of Causa, a classic dish which consist of cold mashed potatoes topped or filled with various ingredients. After looking over the menu, I found it called "La 5 Razas". These beautiful little mashed potato "cakes" were topped with various items. From what I found to be rather mundane(for me) items, such as the mayo-crab mixture which tasted like California roll filling.

To the very interesting….

This interesting causita was topped with preserved fish that tasted like less oily, top notch anchovy. In fact I thought it was anchovy, but was told it was "Atun", or preserved tuna. Salty and rich, this went well with the potato cake.

My favorite by far was the Conchas a la Huacaina (scallop in yellow cheese sauce).

Sweet scallops, in a slightly salty-rich cheese sauce. Really good stuff.

For Her main course the Missus ordered the Cuy in Orange Sauce:

The Missus adored Her Cuy(Guinea Pig), and it was fitting substitute for duck which is usually prepared in this manner. I had a taste of the Cuy, and it really did have a nice pork-dark meat chicken flavor. As for the potatoes and the relleno, I never had a shot, but the Missus said they were excellent. She still mentions this dish in conversations all the time.

I ordered one of Astrid & Gaston's signature dishes, the 3 Week Old Suckling Pig Confit, on the menu it's called "El Cochinillo de tres semanas del invierno 2007":

When it first arrived it was fantastic. The thin crisp laquered skin of the pork leg was amazing, and the meat was melt in your mouth tender and rich. It was a bit mildly flavored, I had expected more of the rich essense of pork. The cocoa reduction added a nice flavor as well. After a few minutes, the pork really got dried out and was not as palatable. The real treasure of this dish was the minced blood sausage, served on a stewed Quince.

After consuming our entrees, we were stuffed, and couldn't even manage to find room for one of Astrid's desserts. The Maitre d' dropped by, and asked if we had room for dessert. The Missus replied, "oh no, we are too full", raising Her glass She told Him, "I'm just going to finish this so I can kill the Cuy." To which he cracked up and said, "yes, yes, you must kill the Cuy…."

So how much did you think this cost? Well, including 10% automatic service charge, the dinner came out to s/250….or about $80 US! Yes, eighty bucks for dinner for two at a world class restaurant. We found the service to be warm, helpful, and friendly. We will be back, there's so much more to explore on the menu, wonderful sounding Tiraditos, Lechon, Foie Gras Tamale anyone? I'm sometimes a bit skeptical when restaurants fuse and modernize traditional dishes, but Gaston Acurio has done a masterful job. He is true to the dishes, uses excellent ingredients, and most of all everything is prepared well.

Astrid y Gaston
Calle Cantuarias 175
Miraflores

Monday to Saturday
Lunch: 12:30 – 15:30
Dinner: 19:30 – 24:00

I've heard that Gaston Acurio may open a branch of his very popular Cebicheria, La Mar in San Diego. If that happens I'm sure to be one of the first in line……

One more thing, just by coincidence, this happens to be our 700th published post. So maybe it's a bit fitting to do something a bit different for a change.

Peru: A Very Special Dinner

October 17, 2007 mmm-yoso Memorable Meals, Peru, Travel

One of the main reasons we arranged for an extra day in Cusco, was to attend a very special dinner. Just before we left for Peru, we had gotten an invitation to have dinner at the home of the parents of an acquaintance of ours. We felt really honored to be invited, and it was obvious to us that this was an invitation that could not, and would not be turned down, under any circumstances. And so, we found ourselves in a taxi winding its way through cobblestone side streets on the outskirts of Cusco. Until we came to a very narrow street. It was obvious that driving on this little strip of cobblestone was not an easy thing. When we arrived, a car was stalled at the entrance of the street, our taxi driver got out and helped to push the car out of the way. (When we left, another car was stalled at the entrance of the street. The driver had to parked and walk down the street to get us.) We drove up the street, around a tight corner, back around and up the street again, but we could not find the address. The young man stopped at the corner, told us to wait for a minute in pseudo sign language, got out of the car. Were we abandoned here on the outskirts of Cusco? Of course not, our driver had gone to find a pay phone and called the phone number on our little scrap of paper with the address. We were going to be met…..unfortunately, the driver put his taxi in reverse, and the car was stuck!! Luckily, he managed to correct the problem. At this point, we thought this poor dedicated cabbie had gone through enough….for s/3 ($1 US). We told him we’d walk, gave him s/10 for his troubles. Just then we were met, and walked over to a doorway……Through that doorway and down a flight of stairs, lay a courtyard, a lovely gazebo, wonderful foliage, with several buildings making up the compound. We were guided to a seating room, and made at home by Victor(our friend’s kind, gentle Step-Dad), and soon enough met Tatiana(his friendly, warm cousin), and eventually Rosa(his Mom….who made dinner, and BTW is 86!). We enjoyed sitting and chatting, Tatiana spoke excellent English which made everything much easier for us. Our conversation drifted from Cusco, to food, to a few quips the Missus had….most of which had me, and the word "gordo" as the subject…..

Soon dinner was served:

Yes, it was Cuy(Guinea Pig), amazingly good Cuy! It seems that many people believe that Cuy is some kind of ubiquitous rite-of-passage, I dare you, "Andrew Zimmern-nized", badge of courage. Before we left for Peru, and Cusco, we did a bit of research, and found that Cuy is traditionally served on special occasions and played a large part in Andean religious practices. We were truly honored to be guests for this wonderful meal.

Even though Cuy has quite a history, and a serious role in Andean culture, history, and cuisine, there is still much good humor in "Cuy conversations" . We notice that many people do what we call "the Cuy". Never seen it? Well, "the Cuy" is done by putting your arms to your sides, and bringing your hands up, sort of similar to the Kung Fu Crane Form. At the same time create an overbite using your central incisors, and make a "pffff" sound. Even our waiter at Astrid y Gaston did "the Cuy"! Notice below……

Like I said, this was an amazingly good dish. The Cuy had been roasted in a traditional wood fired oven. A basting with olive oil, salt, huacatay, and other seasonings, had been key in creating a wonderful dish. The skin was like the best lacquered pork "skin/chicharron". Cuy is all dark meat, moist, and full of flavor. The texture of the meat is almost like duck, but much milder in flavor, with just a very mild gaminess. Does it taste like chicken? Well, perhaps really moist, free range, all dark meat chicken, maybe….. My favorite parts were the legs…crunchy, salty, great for gnawing, bones and all, and the meat along the back of the spine, and near the ribs…tender with a flavor akin to dark meat pork, with a touch of sweetness. Tatiana told us that Cuy is high in protein, low in fat and cholesterol. I was sucking bones clean at the end…….

Along with fire roasted potatoes, some really flavorful aji salsa, and the company, this was an unforgettable meal. Discussions ran the gamut, from Coca, to Japan, to San Diego, and beyond…. Some other things we learned:

– The reason the Cuy we had before tasted fishy, was that they were fed a diet of meal that included fish meal and other ingredients to make them grow large quickly. The traditional food for Cuy is Alfalfa. Now we know what all the alfalfa those women were carrying was for!

– As a whole, the locals don’t eat Alpaca(other than anticuchos), it is tourist food. It is also very expensive.

– It is customary to have a beverage, either beer or wine, after eating Cuy. We were told this was to "kill the Cuy" for good.

After dinner we had a short tour of the grounds, and though it was quite dark, we managed to meet…

The Cuy, which are housed in the same area as the oven to keep them warm. When the door opened, they scattered everywhere…..they are really fast little critters.

They are kinda cute….the Missus said that She "was glad that I saw them after dinner….."

I should’ve taken notes…..the Missus had a free tour of the garden, and all the different herbs were described. Here’s a really bad picture of the Gallina(Hens), Victor told me they were really good egg layers….

By this time it was getting late, and our cab to the hotel arrived. We said our goodbyes. The ride back was fairly quiet, the Missus and I were still taking in, and thinking about, what a very special meal we had. What can I say…….to be guests of a warm and generous family who opened up their home to us, to have shared conversation, laughter, and food, it is a wonderful thing that I can’t describe in words. It was one of the moments that made this trip so memorable.