Travel – Page 93

Oahu: Odds and Ends……

July 31, 2012 mmm-yoso Honolulu, Oahu, Travel, yoso-silly

It's kind of funny……in 2010, I hadn't been "home" in nearly a decade, then during the course of less than 2 years or so, I travel back 3 times! This one really wasn't planned way in advance. A few months back, we got word that Mr.D and his family would be visiting with the In-laws. After taking us around Beijing , it only seemed right that we return the favor. Sadly, the Missus couldn't make it, so I flew to Oahu solo and spent a couple of days helping the in-laws out. I really enjoyed my time with Mr.D and family and will get more into that in future posts. For some reason, I'm kinda bushed…even more tired than I felt after returning from our recent Istanbul-Tunisia-Rhodes-Istanbul trip. So give me another day to regroup. In the mean time I thought I'd do a short post on some "stuffs"…..

Let me just start off with a requisite photo…….

Here's some of the grinds I had during this trip……

Plate lunches and bentos of course…….

And of course, some of the other standards as well……

You know I'd have to have one of these, right?

I did manage to make the best of the time I had to myself and ended up having a pretty darn good meal.

I did find more then a few things that I really didn't want to eat…….like a "loco moco burger". I could probably do the gravy, bread, and protein thing. But for some reason, the thought of having a "mound" of rice between two buns just felt….well, wrong for some reason.

As for 7/11 having the best Spam Musubi…… all I can say is "really"?

It's a sad day when okazuya's and mom-and-pop stores can't make a better Spam Musubi than 7-11…really?

Then of course, there was that sign to my right. Oxtail soup with fat-free broth? I think this one ends up on my "why bother" list. Though….it might be good…..

While on my way to baggage claim in the airport, the July issue of Honolulu Magazine caught my eye. Mainly because of this article.

I'm pretty sure you really had to live it to understand the phenomenon of this show. During it's run, it was such a huge hit on the local Japanese language station, KIKU, that it basically wiped the floor with shows on all the other stations….we're talking stuff like Mission Impossible! Just thinking of the show has me humming the theme song……

Yikes, I'm regressing……I better get some rest!

Kairouan(Tunisia) – Morning in the Medina and Brik for breakfast

July 21, 2012 mmm-yoso North African Food, Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

We slept quite well in Kairouan, the previous day was pretty hectic and the La Kasbah Hotel was quite nice. As usual, we got up very early, about 5am or so. We enjoy taking early morning walks when we travel. You get to see a city waking up and also the crowds are less severe. Kairouan's medina is known as being probably the least commercial and touristy of all the larger cities in Tunisia, so I wanted to see what it was like. We asked the doorman where the medina was and he pointed to right around the corner.

The medina looks quite fortified, surrounded by walls over 30 feet high. These walls were erected during the early part of the 18th century, though recorded history of the medina goes back to before the 8th century.

If some of the medina looks somewhat familiar, it might be because it was used to depict Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's kinda funny, we were hitting a bunch of movie sites during this trip. One of the stories I heard was that the character "Sallah's" house was an actual house in the medina, but when they did a shot panning across the top of the city, they had residents remove over 300 television antennas for a day so they could shoot.

There is a feeling that the medina here is rather unspoiled….the streets are rather wide, the back avenues consist of residences, I'll show you much more in a later post.

The Missus and I really enjoyed walking through here, it gave us a feel of what daily life might be like in Kairouan. As we made our way through the streets we started to see folks opening their shops and making their way to work in the morning.

It didn't take very long for us to make our way to the other end of the medina.

As we headed back through the medina we came across this little shop doing quite a bit of business.

In the shop, a gentleman sat, legs crossed, above a large cast iron pan, that looked like a wok. He received a ball of dough from a young man with striking green eyes and hair the color of the Grand Erg Oriental. When I asked Ben about this later, I was told that it's not unusual for Berber to have even blue eyes and blond hair!

I saw the gentleman get the dough started in the hot oil, which never smoked, I confirmed later on that it was grapeseed oil, which has a high smoke point. He then added an egg. I told the Missus, "man, I wonder if that's how brik is supposed to really be made?" I then asked the woman waiting for her fried dough and a couple of those with eggs by pointing to the dough floating around…..she confirmed it was indeed brik.

Folks were buying this stuff in quantities of four to six. The prices were also pretty cheap, something like 0.4 Dinar (25 cents) for a hefty sized piece of fried dough and 0.6 (35 cents) for one with an egg. Soon the woman had her order filled. The guy behind the pan spoke to another man asking for his order…..he pointed to us, basically informing the "chef" that we were next in line. Folks here in Kairouan were more reserved, but very gracious. So, of course we had to have some brik.

After handing the cook some dough, the young man waved us to the counter in back to have a seat. he also showed us the sink in case we wanted to wash our hands. In a couple of minutes, our brik arrived, steam rising…..

The dough was crisp, light, but still with some substance, and not greasy at all. We soon discovered a very nice thing about the dough, it was studded with caraway seeds, which just brought it up another notch.

The egg was wonderfully runny, it seemed to have been poached. You eat this with your hands, when the young man saw us digging in, he kindly brought us a few more napkins!

This is why we travel….I mean the sights are great and all that, but having brik in the back streets of the medina in Kairouan, well that's like the cherry on the top of the most wonderful ice cream sundae……

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.

Tunisia: The Sousse Catacombs, Planet Food, El Djem, and we arrive in Kairouan

July 15, 2012 mmm-yoso Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

Like most of the long trips we take, the Missus submitted a list of places She wanted to visit. It's my job to make that happen. Which what I tried to do. There seemed to be quite a few barriers based on the amount of time we had. First, most of the airports in Tunisia only do international flights…..and the airport at Tozuer only had flights on certain days. Second, we could do public transportation, but it seemed fairly long and somewhat disjointed. Third, we'd be pretty much unable to get to Ksar Ghilaine without at least hiring a driver. At this point I put some feelers out…..doing a "tour group" was out of the question for us, but I started looking into private tours. Some of them were surprisingly expensive….but I finally got an interesting response from Experience It Tours. In fact, Alan Burricks, the company's representative in Tunisia was very responsive usually returning my emails within a day. The company offered a bunch of different tours, but when I submitted my own request/inquiry, they found a way to work in out! We pretty much did a 9-10+ tour in six days. The hotels were all rated 4-5 star, all entrance fees were paid(expet for the 1 dinar "camera fee"), and breakfast and dinner included. So private driver/guide and all that came out to just about 3K……which was worth it in the end. Heck, Alan even called to see how things were going and actually stopped by to see us at the end of our tour in Djerba….really nice guy!

We got down to the lobby of our hotel in Tunis and a few minutes later our driver, "Ben" met us. We loved that he was always early or on time. introductions done, Ben took us for some "cafe express" (espresso) and we headed out. We learned a lot about the people, politics, and culture of Tunisia during our drives. Over the course of our tour, Ben slowly figured out what we were really interested in, and we ended up with a nicely tailored tour.

We headed out from Tunis and stopped in the beach resort city of Hammamet, which is basically a resort town. We stopped briefly at the medina and had a look around…….things looked a bit slow and depressed.

The medina was basically a tourist stop and we aren't really interested in souvenirs and that stuff so we moved on……..

Our next stop was the third largest city and home to some mega-resorts, over 40,000 beds, and killer traffic……Sousse.

Right past the traffic jam on the outskirts of the city, Ben stopped here:

Catacombs? Now this was something I hadn't read about. Apparently, in 1888 the French army discovered a network of underground Christian burial galleries. Considered a threat to the Roman Empire, Christians were persecuted, and it is believed that they were not allowed to bury their dead in cemetaries, thus they took to creating the catacombs.

The actual entrance itself is rather unassuming….just a little doorway.

Opening to some stairs leading underground…….

And the underground passageway.

I read that there are over 5 kilometers of catacombs in Sousse with over 15,000 gravesites. Only this short area is open to tourists.

Do you notice something about our photos? There's no one in sight……..this is not by design; there wasn't anyone visiting while we were here, which added to our experience and creeped the Missus out. After seeing a grave like this one:

The Missus wanted out………

Even though the streets above were quite busy; the silence was indeed eerie, and with no one else around, those shadows sure did start to play with your imagination.

After this we headed into Sousse and made a stop at the very touristy medina…….

After which we stopped for lunch….Ben picked a restaurant called….Planet Food????? With US movies playing on the televisions above and photosof Ahh-nold, Angelina, Clint, Bruce, and a whole bunch of movie stars you'd know by just their first names, this was obviously a Planet Hollywood knock-off. So really, Plant Food??? Interesting thing was, the place was full of what seemed like local, or Tunisian tourists…not a European in site. Ben told us that all the tourists just stay in the all-inclusive resorts and places like this now mostly cater to Tunisians…..we were also told it's a favorite date-night place. Kinda cute, I guess….

The menu was a mixed bag of stuff like pizza, which Tunisians claim is not Italian, but Berber in origin, so it belongs here…….kebabs, meat, and seafood.

We started with some salade mechouia, which turned out to be not bad.

This was actually seasoned and had some flavor.

Of course there was harissa provided….along with some very sweet ketchup and mayo.

The Missus ordered the clams and mussels which was cooked nicely, but the sauce had cream in it, which made it a bit too rich for the Missus.

It really messed up the really sweet and delicate flavor of the mussels and clams. As you can tell, the portion size was pretty hefty.

I went with the Veal Merguez and was once again stunned at the "three starch" standard……rice(overcook – bleh), frites (soggy and limp), and more potatoes. Oh, make that four starch, I forgot to mention the bread!

The merguez had a nice combination of seasonings and was very lean. However, I missed the gamey flavor of lamb.

This was a interesting combination or European and Tunisian flavors with a very Western theme. It seemed a bit strange at first, but after a while it attained a kind of kitschiness with us……

After Sousse, we headed South about 45 miles to the town of El-Djem with a population of about 18,000. Arriving in the little town of El Djem is pretty amazing. Why you ask? Well, towering above the little town is the thrid largest Roman Colosseum known.

It's an impressive sight.

It is estimated that the Colosseum could hold as many as 35,000 people, or almost twice the population of modern El Djem. It was built by Gordian who was declared Emperor of Rome during a rebellion against Maximus I and lastede a total of 31 days. The structure was built between 230 and 238 AD. At the time, the city and area was known as Thysdrus and was extremely wealthy because of olive oil. It is said that Gordian committed suicide within the Colosseum when it became obvious that the rebellion had been thwarted.

Much of the coliseum remains intact, though stones were removed in the 17th century to build the Great Mosque at Kairouan. It's the North side that looks the most impressive, the Ottomans shelled the South side in a rebellion.

You are also able to enter and walk through the underground passages…..

Here you pass chambers which held animals and gladiators.

Who were led down these passageways to daylight above to either meet their maker or perhaps live to see another day. It's probably appropriate that some of the scenes from the movie Gladiator were filmed here.

As you can tell, there were no other people here but us. It was very cool in some ways, but also depressing as well. We were told that Europeans spent all their time at the "all-inclusives" and Americans were too afraid to come…….

After our visit, Ben drove us a short way to the El Djem Archaeological Museum.

Before entering, Ben asked us if we had been to the Bardo Museum. When we told him we had, he asked us to compare the frescoes here to those in the Bardo.

Like the Bardo, we put on shoe covers, and just as before, I felt very uncomfortable walking on frescoes.

As for the frescoes, we both thought the collection here were in much better condition than those at the Bardo.

There's also a street of Roman Villas being excavated as part of the museum.

There's also a first century Roman Villa that was moved here for display called the House of Africa.

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If visiting El Djem, making a stop here is worth the time.

From El Djem, we headed the 45-50 miles to the city of Kairouan. The Great Mosque here is considered the fourth most holy site in Islam. Thus, seven visits here is equal to one visit ot Mecca…or something like that.

As we entered the city and passed the Great Mosque, we saw a large number of men….all men, with long beards and dressed in conservative Muslim attire. There seemed to be a rally going on. Ben turned to us and said, "Salafis and Al Qaeda……" Really??? Apparently, 3 thousand conservative Muslims had been bussed in from all corners of Tunisia for a show of power to hold this rally.

It was fairly interesting, perhaps a bit unsettling….but of course we stayed at the fortress like El Kasbah. Not too many accommodations in Kairouan and La Kasbah is the only five star in the city.

We were told that La Kasbah had actually been a French Fort, that had been converted into a pretty nice looking hotel.

Our room here was the Missus' favorite on this tour……

Of course since breakfast and dinner were included, it was sure to be the buffet. La Kasbah's offerings and execution left a bit to be desired……even as buffet food, under-flavored, over-cooked, and just dumped out on the line.

Thus we kept our dinner small and to a minimum.

There was one thing I just had to try, however. I just couldn't figure out why Tunisians loved pasta…overcooked pasta. There was a line for the spaghetti so I thought I should give it a try…..egads, this was bad. It wasn't overcooked, but that sauce was just plain….well…..think of the dude with the toque whose photo is on a can….

The Missus on the other hand, found something She loved:

It's called Makroud, a pastry of fairly course semolina flour, filled with a date mixture, deep fried, then glazed with honey. It's pretty hefty for it's tiny size…..the Missus just loved this stuff and we'd go hunting for more later on……

It had been a pretty long day.Which meant that we just pretty much crashed out fairly quickly that night….with dreams of frescoes in my head.

I know this is a long one….if you hung around till the end, I thank you for reading!

Beijing: Eating with Mr.D Part 2 – Mocuomen

July 13, 2012 mmm-yoso Beijing, China, Chinese Restaurants, Memorable Meals, Travel

A couple of months back, my good friends and I had one of our all too rare get togethers, this time at Little Sheep. During the conversation, "Xian Jiao" and I mentioned that even though hot pot is very enjoyable here in the states; it pales in comparison to what you'd get in China. Xian Jiao should know, she spent over half a year in Beijing…….

Which leads me to Mocuomen…….well actually it was Mr.D who led us to Mocuomen. I'd mentioned Mr.D in a previous post. That was the first meal of the night…….only Mr.D would make hot pot a dessert!

The front of Mocuomen really doesn't look like much….at least to me, just another shop on a street.

Like many other places, the restaurant was located upstairs and looked very modern, sleek, and very clean.

I told the Missus to have Mr.D go easy on us, because, heck, we'd just finished off a pretty hefty Xinjiang style dinner…full of lamb, bread, rice, etc……

So while Mr.D did order hot pot…….

So while the sauces seemed to be routine….instead of the usual "yuan yang guo", split hot pot that most folks here are used to, this was a milky, lightly herbal, "bone-soup" style broth that was quite luxurious, coating your mouth and tongue……

It did quite nice as the "broth" managed to coat whatever you dipped into it as it did you palate. It also allowed all the flavor of whatever you let take a short bath in the huo guo come through.

We had shiitake, tripe, intestine, bean curd sheets, and a bunch of other items……..

This was really quite good, but the clincher was when this arrived.

I agree, doesn't look like much, minced shrimp, bound with some starch…… But then, Mr.D called one of the servers over. With two spoons she proceeded to created little shrimp dumplings for us……the shrimp flavor was distinct and quite good, but the texture is what made this stand out.

These basically just exploded in your mouth……then melted away….into a shrimp flavor ether. The Missus and I are still talking about this…..

The last item to arrive topped everything else. It really didn't look like much…….in fact, they call this "ugly fish" and it is indeed fairly…well, fugly.

It's more well known as Wushan Kao Yu…..the fish is first marinated, then I believe deep fried…finally it is probably roasted. There was an amazing amount of flavor going around, Sichuan Peppercorns (indeed Wushan is a county famous for its three gorges in Chongqing), chilies, a bit of sweet, and bit of guaiwei("strange flavor"), that savory-spicy-sweet-sour-mildly nutty, amazingly delici-yoso flavor. The fish was veyr moist with a nice bit of oil to carry all the flavor along. The version here had won some kind of award…..and I could see why.

This was an epic ending to a fun night of eating…..Mr.D kept the Missus in stitches all night long. And even though I don't understand Mandarin, laughter is contagious. And unlike the cousin of a friend of mine who used to crack jokes in Illocano to his family, then punk out on the folks who laughed along who didn't understand the language to feel superior ("tell me what are you laughing for…tell me what I said, ha?")….Mr.D understood.

I wish I could tell you where Mocuomen was, but I wouldn't know. You can however ask Xian Jiao. You see, I recommended this place to her before she left for Beijing. I guess she really enjoyed it, since we're still talking about it to this day.

Tunis: Morning at the Medina, the Bardo Museum, Chez Slah, and a small dinner

July 6, 2012 mmm-yoso North African Food, Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

After taking our morning walk we headed back to the hotel to have some breakfast. Not much to say, it was nourishment and the woman working there seemed much more interested in getting the television in the corner working so she could watch something on it, than making sure everything got out to the buffet station. On this morning the coffee was ok….the next day it was like mud.

We usually sat outside on the balcony……..the best place to actually get some decent wi-fi reception.

While eating and going through emails, we made some preliminary plans for the day. We try not to plan too much. For us, it's better to enjoy what we're seeing in rushing through things. We really weren't feeling in the mood for what craziness the Medina would hold once business was going full tilt. It was however, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We decided to check it out early before the crowds are pushing you along and the vendors are grabbing you back……

We walked back down Avenue Habib Bourgiba for what seemed like the tenth time in just under 24 hours……

I snapped this photo of the Municipal Theatre of Tunis. The facade is distinctive of the Art Nouveau movement and the building was completed in 1902. It's still a functioning theatre as a later photo would show.

Most of the shops in the Medina weren't yet open when we arrived….just as we had planned. The romantic notion of a maze of warrens and paths do add an air of intrigue…..

The Missus and I do look at things differently. She was drawn to the brightly colored doors. Each one seemed unique, though we would find that you could learn a lot about who actually owns or lives behind these later on. It seemed that the Missus couldn't help but stop at every colorful door, and there were many of them, without snapping a photo.

I, on the other hand was fascinated by what was above ground. All these buildings were multi-story, blocking out the sunlight in areas.

You got glimpses of some stunning and impressive architecture just by looking up. The combination and contrast of colors are a photographers dream…. I just wish I were a better one!

There are passages that are covered….they can seem kind of spooky at times, but most of them held coffee or shisha (hookah) shops with older men sitting around. It was here that we saw two men in a little shop prepping couscous……

He stood over two large bowls….slowly adding water until he got the right texture……

Then it was off to be steamed.

In the middle of the Medina is Zaytouna Mosque, the oldest in Tunis. It's a fairly large building and the Minaret can be seen from quite a distance.

We managed to walk completely through the Medina and out to Place de la Kasbah at what is the western entrance on the Medina. Apparently there are some government buildings here as we again saw armed soldiers and placed cordoned off with barbed wire. Still, we saw happy children being dropped off for school….teasing and laughter all around.

Here's a photo of the monument in the square.

Things were starting to pick up in the Medina so we started back the way we came. We ran into a very talkative gentleman while we were looking at Zaytouna Mosque and somehow got talked into checking out the view from on top of one of the buildings……..

Here's the minaret of the Zaytouna Mosque.

And another view from above……

So we did the requisite sit through of the carpet dude, then even went to the guys "cousin's" fragrance shop and actually bought some pure citron oil…it would come in handy in warding off mosquitoes later on. Then when we got back to the mosque we offered the guy 10 dinars(about $6.25)…I mean, we know he was getting a cut of the 30 dinars we were paying for the scented oil and all….and he had the nerve to ask for 40($25 US)?!??!! We tried to bargain, but he was adamant on getting 25 dinars($15.50)……in the end, we told him to go get his money from his "cousin". The shops were now open and much of the cobblestone was covered in stuff. It was time to beat as hasty retreat.

On the way back up Habib Bourgiba we decided to stop at the very busy…even for this time of the morning Le Grand Cafe du Theatre, right next to the Municipal Theatre for some "cafe express" (espresso). It was a good cup and the service here was quite nice. Since it was still early, the Missus and I decided to check out the Bardo National Museum. We understood that the place was still being renovated and the revolution probably leaves much up in the air, but we'd probably not be back this way again anytime soon, so why not. We asked our Server about getting to "le Bardo…metro leger". We didn't understand much French except for his pointing and the part about "Place Barcelona".

I could handle "place Barcelona" and unlike Rue de Yugouslavie, it hadn't changed its name! It was also easy to ask about. Place Barcelona is one of the major transfer points for Tunis's métro léger (tram) system. It was easy to ask for the ticket counter and find the gate for the right tram.

We had noticed something a bit earlier….young women, those that looked like high school or college aged, and dressed in more western attire seemed more likely to speak English. And even if they didn't they tended to be nicer, without some "racket" going on. We asked one young lady and when we came to the Le Bardo stop, she made sure to let us know. We actually made it across the busy street looking for the museum…..we walked its perimeter, pass the tents of folks who seemed to be demonstrating or protesting something, only to find out we had gone the wrong way! We back-tracked and made it to the dusty parking lot of the museum.

We found the ticket window and found that tickets during the renovation were only 4 dinar (about $2.50 US) and the usual 1 dinar "camera permit" was waived. It was basically half price. We really didn't expect much as we put on the shoe covers(we didn't know that you'd be walking on mosaics), but our visit surely exceeded the price of admission. There were only mosaics on display, but many of them were beautiful, like this one of Neptune and the Four Seasons from Dougga.

It's hard to put into photos, but you can see how large some of these mosaics were to the right.

One funny thing was that we asked the security person to take a photo of the both of us….he really got into it and ended up moving us form mosaic to mosaic, directing and posing us, taking photos. The Missus and I couldn't help but crack up! It was odd, yet very funny….of course we tipped well, in retrospect, I'm sure this is another source of income for him during these lean times.

One of the most striking objects was the baptismal font from Sbeitla, a site we'd be visiting in a couple of days.

In the end, it was well worth the price…though we'd be even more impressed with the mosaics at another museum a day later.

We decided to catch a taxi back to Ville Nouvelle, the area we were staying. Would you believe we'd done all of this and it was only 11am? We got back to Habib Bourgiba and decided to grab some lunch. After the last couple of meals, I wanted to go "high end"(relative in terms), and the Missus agreed. So off we were trying to find Chez Slah…the address I had was 14 bis rue Pierre de Coubertin. Now finding Rue de Courbertin was fairly easy……but finding Chez Slah took a bit of work. We finally settled on a small industrial looking side street…….

Next to what looked like an auto repair stood a pretty entrance to a courtyard…….

We saw a young man basically scrubbing down the patio area…..man, folks in Tunisia were really clean…..the restrooms of almost everywhere were so clean. Anyway, apparently it was before opening time. The gentleman who opened the door pointed at his watch….we'd have to return at noon. Well, the mall is fairly close by, we took a walk and rehydrated…..and returned at noon.

The dining area is fine, nothing really special……when the wait staff found out that we spoke no French…well, they took our drink orders, but we had to wait for the waiter who spoke English! It was both humorous, but also humbling in a way. We eventually got our orders placed….and the plate of harissa, olives, etc, arrived along with the bread.

The Missus actually loved the piece of "thon" tuna, provided. She also jumped at the chance of finally being able to try some Tunisian wine and order a half bottle of the rose(meh) and the blanc, which was fairly decent, the crispness stood up to the Tunisian influenced dishes.

The Salade Mechoua was pretty good, the best we'd had so far. The Missus; "man, what is it that I'm liking so much?" Me; "they actually have salt in this…."

While it would not hold up as the trip went along, it was the best we'd had to this point……simply because it was seasoned well.

The brik we didn't enjoy too much, the egg was overdone and it was on the greasy side.

But man, the grilled calamari was very good. The amount of salt was right on, there was a distinct flavor, smokey and nutty, that I would later find was because it was grilled over olive wood.

There was a good amount of tenderness and even that slight hint of what I call ocean sweetness, ever so rare in the calamari we have here in the states. Even though I'd have better later on, this was my favorite dish to this point.

I decided to order the mussels; the Missus isn't a big fan of mussels as most of what She's had are dry and tasteless. These were simply done, sauteed in white wine, they were also tiny, but were packed with flavor and almost melted in your mouth.

We didn't enjoy the side dishes very much. I had been excited to try the Tunisian version of shakshuka…expecting eggs poached in a harissa. tomato, and red pepper sauce. This was basically a mechouia base with tomato….eggs were added in and mixed looking like scrambled eggs…sort of like if your were supposed to temper eggs, but screwed up and they ended up scrambled. This was also surprisingly bland, considering the other dishes.

The frites….well, what can I say? How about soggy and greasy? I'd about given up on having decent potatoes here in Tunisia….after just one day!

Unfortunately, we had also ordered grilled "fresh" fish. Going though the offerings, I wa assured that the best bet was the "dourade"……which our Server, who actually knew more Japanese than English told me was "madai"……Sea Bream, which is really good stuff, I've had some awesome madai nigiri. Strangely, because I told our Server we'd be sharing the fish, they ended up chopping it in half! Giving the Missus the back half and me the head! Oh, and it was grilled to death……add to that the slightly sour and fishy taste of something that didn't seem to be real fresh.

The Missus couldn't bring herself to eat more than two bites……..

Still, the meal ended on a high note. We'd requested the seasonal fruit as our dessert. First to arrive was this rather large mixing bowl of what looked like whipped cream…..well it was whipped cream….very old school whipped cream. Ever had those dreams about having some strawberries as a garnish to awesome whipped cream? Well this was it…….

These are what I call "third world strawberries", small, but super tart-sweet and picked when perfectly ripe. I put a dollop of whipped cream on my plate, this was apparently a misstep as our waiter made that clucking noise and proceeded to grab the bowl and put three more huge serving spoonfuls of whipped cream on my plate! Man it was good, not too sweet, slightly sour and tangy….the real deal.

Our meal ended on a high note. Total cost 84.800 TND, about $53.75. To me a bargain, to the Missus maybe not. By the time we left, the place was full of French expats who seem to be their usual clientele. I'm pretty sure the regular person on the street can't really afford to eat here…….

We picked up some "eau mineral" on the eay back to the room. The Missus took a nap while I snuck down to the patio and I actually worked on a post or two. Evening rolled around and we took a walk….we passed a Zara store and found that the prices were the same as the US(She's got it memorized)! And yet, the place was packed! We weren't very hungry and stopped at one of those really cheap Pizza-Panini-Crepe-Pasta plces on the avenue to grab something small.

The Missus went with the crepe de fromage-ouef(cheese and egg crepe), which was pretty nasty but only 2 TND – $1.25:

I went with the Merguez Sandwich, which was not bad…..2.4 TND – $1.50.

The merguz were fine, the bread decent, don't know what to do with the olives since they still had pits….biting into one would have been a surpise had you not checked. The frites were standard for Tunisia. The harissa on the sandiwch worked quite well. Could have done without the guys smoking like it was going out of style, but hey, we're in their country, you gotta roll with it, you know?

Still. the Missus had already gotten Her fill of Tunis. I'd have ot think about something for the trip back!

Tunis: Restaurant Le Caire, what is Zgougou and does it belong in ice cream, and morning in Tunis.

June 30, 2012 mmm-yoso Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt, North African Food, Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food, yoso-silly

It was quite a scene, Avenue Habib Bourgiba……the Missus was taking a rest, as I wandered back out to pick up some "eau de mineral….no gas", that would be bottled water. On the map, there are streets perpendicular to Habib Bourgiba, but many of them are almost alleyways. Right around the corner from the Hotel Carlton was one of them Rue de Caire. On these sidestreets there are tons of restaurants and one of them is Restaurant le Caire. Not in the mood for more busy places, this tiny restaurant close to the hotel, not too busy, away from the crowd on the street, was where we decided to grab something to eat.

The restaurant had a couple of tables filled, it seems by locals or Tunisian tourists…..not much French being spoken, they were ordering in Arabic. Looking at the menu, this appeared to be Sfaxian as well. The guy running the place was really friendly and as soon we sat he brought out a tray with "today's catch".

We placed our order based on what we saw…..funny thing was, later during our meal, the plate was brought out to the table next to us and it looked like exactly the same seafood, in exactly the same position on the plate was brought out. I'm guessing these were the "stunt" fish….used for ordering purposes.

Soon enough the bread and Harissa was brought out.

This was a bit better than lunch, with a mild garlic taste, but still rather monotone in taste.

The Missus had also ordered a salad, I thought it was mechouia, but She had ordered Salade Tunisienne….which kind of freaked Her out when it arrived with what looked like canned tuna topping it.

The Missus hate canned tuna. In fact, there's only one brand I eat, She must dramatically leave the room! So I knew this was going to be interesting….well, there's not only one brand of tuna I eat, I do enjoy many of the Spanish, Italian, and French labels of canned tuna, but sheesh, they cost an arm and a leg. I knew this was mediterranean tuna, so I told the Missus, "I think it's worth a try." Not the best, but the Missus thought it not bad. She did enjoy the ripe tomatoes, diced cucumbers, olives, with just some olive oil and lemon.

I also wanted to finally try some brik, basically a very thin pastry called warka, thinner than even filo, filled with a raw egg and a variation of other items, tuna, onions, harissa, capers, etc…..

Some places will even ask you how you want your egg done………

It's deep fried to a golden crispness, when done well it's wonderfully crisp and light, and the magic happens when you cut it open.

The Missus didn't care much for the tuna in this and though I enjoyed it at the time, it would pale in comparison to versions we would have later on.

My grilled fish tasted fresh, was grilled nicely, the skin nice and crisp, flesh moist, but again was lacking in salt.

It was better than what we had for lunch though. The frites were the typical soggy and dry version we had earlier. I was also served a plate of very bland and over-cooked rice. Now I'm from Hawaii where we joke that every meal should come with "three carbs"….well considering the big basket of bread, the fries, and the big plate of rice……..what can I say?

The Missus again ordered crevettes grille – grilled shrimp.

These shrimp were nice and sweet, just a tad overcooked, but not bad. The only complaint…..yeah, you got it, lacking in seasoning! Of course it came with frites as well as a huge plate of overcooked, bleh pasta. We were to find out later that folks really cooked their pasta to death because it was thought to help "digestion"!

As we left the restaurant, darkness had fallen on Tunis. The demographic on the street had changed….the young men were still drinking coffee, now joined by older men, but the women who were seen out and about shopping or eating ice cream were gone.

The Missus decided that She wanted to try some ice cream, which along with various pastries seemed to be very popular. Right next to the hotel was a little shop wher the Missus got a two scoops and we sat in the now empty table across from the shop. The top scoop was a delicious pistachio flavor. The bottom scoop tasted very odd, not necessarily sweet, but strangely familiar. Turns out the Missus had selected zgouguo as Her other flavor. Zgougou is a Tunisian dessert based on nuts from the aleppo pine.

Tunisia is a Muslim country. All the women and young women we had seen with respect to what folks wear here in San Diego dress rather modestly, from those who are covered from head to tow completely in black, with even eyes covered, to those in jeans and blouses. So we were rather shocked to see two women get out of a cab in very mini-mini skirts and walk to a blackened out and partitioned doorway next to the hotel. I could only draw one conclusion…….which the Missus didn't believe. Hmm…….

The next morning we got up bright and early. Breakfast wasn't ready yet so the Missus and I decided to take a look around. As we entered the lobby of the hotel I could hear a woman yelling at someone….now this was at 5 in the morning! The guy in the lobby saw us, sheepishly smiled and told us in English, "no worry, some friends make joke with each other!" As we stepped out of the hotel we saw one of the women from the night before, now dressed with a nice shiner around her eye in addition to her mini-skirt. Must have been one heck of a joke. I looked at the Missus and told Her, "really now….you don't believe me?" And was dismissed with a wave.

This is Rue de Caire in the morning. I walked up and took a photo of the restaurant. We'd find a multi-floor shopping mall near the end of the street with a Monoprix Supermarket in it later in the day. Great place to pick up water and other items.

The streets were empty and it made for a nice walk.

Here's another photo of the Cathedral of St Vincent de Paul.

This is Bab el Bahr also known as Porte de France.

Bab el Bahr means "sea gate" and before the French arrived this gate opened from the Medina to a path to a lagoon. The French built the European part of the city outside of it and destroyed the walls of the medina. They called this the Porte de France a dividing point between the Old and European sides of the city.

It was nice to able to walk around crossing the street without having your head on a swivel.

Tunis: The Central Market and Restaurant Abid

June 28, 2012 mmm-yoso Markets & Grocers, North African Food, Seafood, Travel, Tunisia, Tunisian Food

How did we end up in Tunis? Well, it's kind of a long story….in the beginning, during the planning stages things just happened as they always do. The Missus starts planning for our next trip just about as soon as we return from our last vacation. But this time we had a short interlude as we travelled back to Hawaii. This put our plans, at that time it was Rome/Morroco into kind of a holding pattern. By the time things started up again it was late February. I felt our time in Istanbul was basically unfinished business and the price of a round trip from San Diego was rather reasonable…so I booked it. Then one day the Missus asked me about Tunisia….she had never heard of the country, you believe that? I guess it's one of the benefits of an education in a Communist country. Thinking it over, I thought it was a great idea, there was so much history in Tunisia, after all historic Carthage was there…."home of Hannibal" I told the Missus. To which She replied, "you mean the cannibal?" Sigh…..there was much talk and planning after that, but the result was us flying from Istanbul to Carthage-Tunis airport. I'd read a good bit about the taxi cons at the airport….which turned out to be pretty true. We were met just outside the arrival hall by a nice young man who asked us if we needed a taxi. I asked him if he was the driver, he said yes and led us to a taxi, immediately grabbing the Missus' bag. We got to the taxi stand, one guy opened the trunk, he opened the door, and a third guy came out…the real driver. You can pretty much figure out what was going on here, right? Everybody had their hand out, one for leading us to the taxi, the dude for opening the trunk, and the driver wanted to charge us 40 dinars, about $25 bucks for the drive into Tunis, which would cost about 5-10 dinars. Anyway, we got him down to 10 dinars and got our ride to the center of Tunis, right smack in the middle of Avenue Habib Bourgiba, the main drag. We quickly noticed that there wasn't much English going on and the folks at the front desk of the hotel really wanted nothing to do with us. The room was cheap, the location great, the supposedly in room wi-fi was only really good from the balcony of the hotel restaurant, which only served breakfast……we snuck in whenever we wanted to check our email and stuff.

After a quick shower we headed out to crowded Habib Bourgibat o find some lunch. One thing we quickly noticed was how friendly people were…….from the touts that wanted us to have coffee at one of the many shops to groups of young men on the street, trying to guess where we were from…"konnichiwa", "ni hao"….whenever we'd answer with hello, they'd look at us funny. i'm sure many of these had some racket going on, but it was all in fun. It was warm, but there was a slight breeze, a warm breeze. Using what we'd soon find out was a pretty outdated map, I searched for the restaurant…..we were pretty bushed. All in vain….nice folks tried to help us, but I really knew only three words in French, the second language in Tunisia…well, I actually knew a bunch of stuff when it came to food, but other than that it was mostly, "bonjour", "merci" and "pardon"……I milked it for all I could. After walking all almost all the way down Habib Bourgiba past the Clock Tower….it seemed like the restaurant and the address I was looking for didn't exist?

It seemed like we were throwing our lives to the wind crossing the street….which was somewhat intimidating until we got used to things. It seems like there are no driving laws in Tunisia…..only suggestions. If you thought crossing the street in Vietnam was tough….try it with a zillion yellow cabs flying around you.

We ended up turning around and walking all the way back down in the opposite direction. We were surprised to find a large cathedral right on Habib Bourgiba….the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul….very photogenic. Here's a photo from the next morning.

In maps the street sure seemed long….but it was not too long of a walk. The masses of people made things seem congested and it was getting much hotter. The Missus thought the Central Market was close by and She stopped and asked a bunch of guys standing around….there were many groups of men standing about and drinking coffee at like 1 in the afternoon! None of them spoke English, but they really tried hard and we finally got pointed in the right direction when I said, "Rue de Charles de Gaulle". And after passing mobs of folks and merchants with open boxes of stuff on the street, we made it into the market……

I was rather surprised at the huge amount of seafood being sold……..

There was a booth where three guys were hacking away at a huge tuna….wasn't bluefin, though. I was later told that all the premium fishes go straight to Japan.

It was much less crowded inside the market than the streets outside. It gave us some time to figure out where we wanted to eat next.

After deciding our next attempt at finding something a place for lunch. We walked back into the now fairly hot street and the crowds. We found Habib Bourgiba again and headed back in the direction we came….we'd traveled enough and knew how disorienting things can be your first day in a large city in a foreign country..but when I almost ran smack into barbed wire and the guy holding a machine gun in front of the Interior Ministry, the Missus had starting getting a bit frazzled. Remember, Tunisia had just gone through a revolution a bit over a year ago…..folks I'd spoken to thought us a bit crazy to be coming here….unjustifiably so. So anyway, we crossed the street and crossed back, found the sign for Rue de Turque and started looking for the street parallel to Habib Bourgiba called Rue de Yougoslavie and wasn't able to find it. We kept walking unitl it just seemed too far. Spoke to a couple of folks who had no idea where Rue de Yougoslavie was. As we headed back to Habib Bourgiba I saw it. Apparently, Rue de Yougoslavie no longer exists…..the street sign on the side of the building with the name was blacked out with paint and it was now called something else! The street was actually just a block away from the main street! It was then a short walk to our destination, Restaurant Abid, which had been described to me as a place where the locals ate Sfaxian influenced dishes…seafood. Sfaxian cuisine was also supposed to be quite spicy as well.

It looked kind of as advertised, very clean, all local customers, and very inexpensive. The guy running the place…..who I think is Abid, a large jovial man, who reminded me of John Rhys Davies character in Indiana Jones spoke good English and greeted us with a booming "WELCOME, WELCOME! Thanks Gods you come here….."

We were starved and were excited to try some Tunisian dishes for the first time. We were given a small plate of the standard condiment, harissa, basically a chili paste/sauce. The version from Sfax is supposed to be really spicy and we were warned when it reached the table.

I'm guessing you're not supposed to be able to tolerate the stuff plain and the dude almost had a dyspeptic fit when the Missus and I each took a small taste……it was slightly spicy, heat, but nothing else…..other than being a bit spicy it was pretty plain. The bread we had cut it even more….

The fish soup was very fishy and the Missus couldn't handle it.

I was really excited to try mechouia, the classic "salad" of roasted peppers.

I expected smokiness, maybe some garlic and herbs….fruitiness from the olive oil, but this was pretty bland and seriously lacking in salt.

At least I really enjoyed my merguez. The sausage had been deep fried, which really crisped up the natural casing. The sausage was slightly gamey with some mild spice.

I never had frites that I enjoyed in Tunisia until the day we left. These were limp, soggy, and kinda dry…..but that's the way they were just about everywhere.

The Missus ordered the crevettes grille – grilled shrimp.

One thing you quickly notice. The shrimp aren't all the same size, which for us is a good sign….it means it's not obviously farmed raised. Unfortunately, the shrimp were cooked to death and like most everything else lacking in seasoning….it was just strangely bland.

Not quite the first meal we had planned, but hey, the place was super clean, and the meal cost us about the equivalent of $13 US!

We had regrouped during our meal and settled down. Our bearing were much better as we headed back to our room. The Missus wanted to have something sweet for dessert……since Habib Bourgiba is considered the Champs-Élysées of Tunisia, why not stop at the cafe of the same name. We managed to place our order in the crowded cafe and actually found an open table, no mean feat at that time.

It was here that I got my first taste of the coffee in Tunisia, which wasn't overly strong, but just smooth enough for my taste. This would be the first of many cups of "cafe express" (espresso) for me.

We really took notice of the crowds drinking coffee in these cafes, overwhelmingly male, aged from 18 to maybe late twenties. We'd see these guys drinking coffee all day. I really came to appreciate the Cafe Culture, but on the other hand, shouldn't all these young men be working? It really doesn't bode well for Tunis to have all of these seemingly well educated, well dressed young men who should be on their way to starting careers to be wasting their post college days in cafes all day long. Hopefully things will improve in the future…….

Istanbul: Asmali Cavit

June 23, 2012 mmm-yoso Istanbul, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

One of the things I most regretted about our previous visit to Istanbul was that we were unable to visit a Meyhane, what we would basically call a "tavern". Where small plates are served with the Turkish national spirit, the anise flavored drink called raki.

I wanted to rectify that omission and did a bit of research before we left. We also missed out on visiting the Beyoğlu area, which is considered by many to be the heart of modern Istanbul. Beyoğlu would probably be more familiar to folks like Ed from Yuma and the Greeks as "Pera". As I mentioned before, getting around Istanbul using public transportation is a snap. We simply took the tram to the last stop Kabataş, then the funicular up to Taksim Square.

Now just about every large city in Peru has Plaza de Armas, New York has Times Square, San Francisco, Union Square……Istanbul has Taksim Square, which seemed to be wall to wall people when we walked up the stairs to sunlight. There was also some large rally going on as well.

So we headed off down historical İstiklal Caddesi, once known as "Grande Rue de Péra". There are supposedly tons of historic buildings, many of which represented many different styles, from Neo-Classical to Art Deco. But the pedestrian street was just packed to the gills with people….and I mean just totally packed that we felt like little fish in a giant school being pushed along.

So while we did manage to take in some interesting sites, we just kinda pushed along until nearly reaching the end of the avenue and a cross street named Asmalimescit.

The side streets seemed like little peaceful oasis from the crowded avenue, though the masses had started to dwindle near the end. On this street was a meyhane mentioned by the New York Times and other sources named Asmali Cavit.

The place was empty except for one rather raucous raki fueled party when we arrived. We appeared a bit early, but the very nice gentleman running the place led us to the counter where all the mezes were to start us out. It seems that in spite of the menu, most folks here know what they want upon arrival…..something we saw several times as folks arrived when we were leaving.

A lot of stuff was not available and we'd had quite a large lunch. We stuck with some mezes and the guy behind the counter recommended the shrimp…….

Of course I recognized the "standards"….the saksuka was not my favorite, fairly bland. The ezme was smokey and spicy, with a nice touch of tangy and pungent flavors. The pickled items were nice and refreshing. The patlican saltasi, the eggplant puree, was smokey and delicious. The shrimp wasn't anything to write home about….I think the guy serving us were worried that our palates might not survive anything particularly challenging.

All the dishes were decent renditions, but we weren't wowed by them. I'm not a big fan of anise flavored spirits, but I took to raki….of course the more I drank, the more I enjoyed! Turkish raki is closer to ouzo than Greek raki (tsipouro/tsikoudia). Overall, a decent meal, with prices much lower than the old town.

After finishing our dinner, we headed back to Istikal Caddesi. By now the crowds had dwindled.

We decided to catch the vintage tram back up to Taksim Square and head back down that way. But when the tram stopped, it went out of operation. The conductor came out and announced something….one of the folks waiting saw us and very proudly announced in English, "there is big meeting….BEEEEG MEETING, track blocked, tram cannot go!" You know, folks here are really great. I'm guessing that the rally we saw earlier had gone into full demonstration mode and the tracks were blocked. Anyway, it's not something we wanted to get mixed up in. Instead we caught the Tünel (Tunnel), next to the London Underground, the second oldest underground rail line in the world.

It a very short trip just 600 yards or so.

Instead of catching the tram back to Sultanahmet we decided to walk back, which was the right choice as we got the chance to take in the sunset on the Galata Bridge which is where I took the first photo of the "Where the heck are we" post.

It gave us a chance to take in a nice evening.

While the "balik" (fish sandwich) boats were doing great business, the Spice Market was closing up shop for the day.

We stopped the Missus's favorite place in Sultanahmet Park to take in the Blue Mosque……

While we chatting about the next morning and our flight to Tunis.

Thanks for reading!

Istanbul: Ciya Sofrasi and revisits to The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia

June 17, 2012 mmm-yoso Istanbul, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Food

"You're going to Istanbul again? Why?" Was the response many of my friends and acquaintances when I told them we were headed back to Istanbul. Even though we'd always spoke about returning to Laos or Peru, we'd never gotten around to pulling the trigger. And here we were headed back to Istanbul, and yes, even Greece, though this time it was the island of Rhodes, a place I'd been wanting to visit.

So why Istanbul? We really loved visiting last year, the history, the people, the vibrancy, but perhaps not as much the food…….strange. We compared many of the dishes we ate during our trip with what we enjoy at Sultan and though there would be singular dishes that surpassed those at our favorite Turkish restaurant, both of us were quite impressed at how the food at Sultan stood up. Soon after our trip I took stock of how much effort I really put into researching restaurants in Istanbul. It turns out that even though I had a list, the trip was overwhelmingly about sites and history….we'd often be too tired or lazy to go and search out places and ended up spending all of our time in Sultanahmet, Sirkeci, and Eminonu. Easy enough to do, I suppose since there's so much to see and do. But plane fares seemed reasonable and the Missus wanted to fly out of San Diego instead of making the rather long trip, bus from the house, train to Union Station, then bus to LAX, then the reverse or some facsimile on the way back….which was even worse. So there we were, back in Istanbul.

We arrived around midnight so by the time we made it to our hotel, we were booked into the Hotel Djem again, it was time to crash.

The hotel has gotten even better over the last year, good wi-fi, even conditioner…….during the first leg of our trip we stayed in the new "annex" location, a very large room. The front desk staff had changed over, but they were a nice bunch.

The first place the Missus wanted to see after breakfast was the Blue Mosque yet again.

Known as the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, it is an imposing, yet beautiful, fully functional mosque. Our hotel sat right behind it.

I had wondered where the wash area outside the mosque was. It is important that certain parts of the body be washed before formal prayers, but had never noticed it before. It is discreetly located right next to the stairs.

Our next stop……well I did mention wanting to revists Hagia Sofia. Which is what we did. The lines weren't as long as on our previous visit and we had the drill down….get your ticket and head straight for the interior getting there before the tours and ohter tourists. Heading upstairs you can really understand how grand the place is.

I was fascinated by this marble door on our previous visit…….I didn't know what the significance of it was. Well, it's called, what else, the "Marble Door" and participants of synods used the door to enter and exit meetings.

The amazing thing about Hagia Sofia is, that no matter how many hundreds of people are in the place at once…….it never seems totally filled.

As we left Hagia Sofia, I was on a mission……..we needed to get out of the area and to some of the more well known eateries. "Lokantas" are eateries where working stiffs traditionally got their fill of good home style cooking. Many of the items are in steam tables and you pick what you want. Before you go where I think you're going….this ain't Panda Express, as lokantasi have become a key player in bringing the cuisine of Turkey to the forefront. Here's a great article from The Guardian. One place that I saw constantly mentioned over the last year on food forums and blogs like Istanbul Eats is Ciya Sofrasi, having been called a "culinary shrine" and even "the best restaurant in Turkey", among others. Ciya is located on the Asian side of the Bosphorus….so this time we were actually using the ferry, not taking a tour. The fare is cheap….2 TRY, about $1.10 gets you across the Bosphorus.

Beyond just the metro and tram to and from the airport, we'd find out just how good the transit system was in Istanbul on this trip. Taking the ferry is a snap. you just find the station for whichever area you're going to, put your 2 Lira in the entrance gate and wait in line…….also, folks in Turkey, in spite of a rather serious looking demeanor, are generally very helpful and nice.

Here's what the Asian side looks like from the ferry.

About 40 minutes or so later……you're getting off in Kadikoy.

It looks like a middle class residential-business area. The part of Kadikoy where Ciya Sofrasi is located contains a ton of restaurants, vegetable, and seafood stands.

We arrived at Ciya a bit before they opened.

So we decided to walk around to kill time. We found a shop that sold coffee and inquired about a place that actually made a good cup of proper Turkish coffee. We were directed a couple of door down.

Turkish coffee takes a while to make. And it was kind of funny trying to tell the shop owner exactly what we wanted since he spoke no English.

A quick word about drinking Turkish coffee. If you ever get a cup, let it sit for a minute or more, the coffee is very fine and unfiltered, you get a mouthful of finely ground coffee if you don't let the coffee settle to the bottom of the cup.

Walking back to the coffee seller the Missus bought a packet of sahlep……She's been wanting to get some.

We arrived back at Ciya and the place was just opening. The owner and chef of Ciya Sofrasi, Musa Dağdeviren is quite a celebrity both in and outside of Turkey, having been a presenter at the Culinary Institute of America and featured in articles such as this one in New Yorker Magazine. Musa is renowned for gathering recipes from all corners of Anatolia, some which have almost disappeared and placing them back on the table.

I had read that there are over a thousand different dishes offered at Ciya over the course of the year, though Ciya is most famous for the vegetarian dishes of the region of Gaziantep.

Upon entering the Missus was drawn to the table of cold dishes…..which the person behind the counter explained to us is simple terms was…."salad bar". Though I've never seen a salad bar quite like this. Here you could get a variety of whatever you wanted and it was priced on weight.

There's a section of other various soups, stews, and cooked dishes. Here you could choose what you want.

You could also order various kebab and meat items from the menu….but really, with all of this to pick from?

Here's the items the Missus selected from the cold table.

The dolmas…stuffed items were quite good, but it was the various salads that were really outstanding. The pickled thin branches and leaves up top I believe are pickled caper leaves….which were wonderfully flavored.

The Missus also picked a simple red lentil soup, something we've had many times….just for comparison purposes.

The Missus just loved this. I'm not a big fan of lentil soup, but I had a taste……this was lighter than other versions, not as buttery, with the wonderful palate cleansing flavor of mint coming through. I actually enjoyed it.

The stuffed artichoke, not as much……

It was a bit dry for me…..also on the bland side.

We'd had a not so great experience with kuru patlican (dried eggplant) before. However, in this dish, combined with great savory flavors, it was outstanding. The texture was slight crunch and the flavor of the eggplant came through.

The one meat dish, a simple lamb stew paled in comparison….under seasoned, the meat very tough.

The dried eggplant dish would have been my favorite, if not for dessert….yes, that's right, dessert. I really don't have a sweet tooth, which is often a saving grace considering what I eat….but this, something I believe is called "teleme", just seemed made for me.

What the person behind the dessert station told the Missus was that this was dried figs and milk. It had a the wonderful flavor of figs (I do love fig newtons) along with what seemed like condensed milk. Sweet, but not a sugar sweet if you know what I mean. This was by far my favorite dish of the meal. Which was capped off with some tea……not Turkish tea though. When it arrived at the table it had a very familiar scent…..this was oregano tea! It really smelt like dry oregano…..we weren't sure at first, but it was pretty darn good!

Our meal came out to about 40 TRY, approximately $22 US. We were later told that Ciya was considered to be quite expensive with regards to Lokantasi…..but to us, it seemed like a bargain.

After lunch we headed back to the ferry station….but then the Missus stopped at the Dolmus station. No it's not stuffed grape leaves or peppers. Dolmus (literally "stuffed") are what they call the minibuses that run specific routes around Istanbul. On the flight to Istanbul, the really nice woman seated next to us struck up a conversation. She was born and raised in Istanbul and lived both in the US and Istanbul part time. She recommended that we visit an area called Bağdat to see what modern, everyday, albeit upper middle class Istanbul was like. So there we were, in a dolmus, having paid a simple 3 TRY each on our way to Bağdat Caddesi. Driver didn't speak any English, but others on the dolmus did and explained where we needed to stop.

The streets in the area were wide by Istanbul standards….I really didn't take any photos because it really looked like just about any large western city. Eventually we got tired and waved down a dolmus. This guy didn't speak English either, but understood "ferry" and dropped us off. We made it back to our hotel just in time for a nice nap……..dreaming about what we'd have for dinner!

Thanks for reading!

Airport Food – The Great Dane (Madison), Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food (London-Heathrow), and Cousin’s BBQ (Dallas-Forth Worth)

June 16, 2012 mmm-yoso Airport/Airline/Cruise/Rail Food, BBQ, Dallas, London, Madison, Wisconsin, Texas, Travel

Getting something to eat during long layovers is a necessary evil. Waiting for flights or connecting flights you're often left with a choice of fast-food joints, pre-packaged foods at high mark-ups. Over the last couple of years airports have started featuring more popular local chains and greater variety. And while I'm still convinced that something is lost in the transition (most notably a nasty Superdawg at Midway Airport) it still makes things interesting. Also, for more interesting posts check out Dennis's posts on airport meals.

Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company – Dane County Regional Airport:

**** The Great Dane Pub in the airport has closed

In spite of all my trips to Madison, I'd only flown into the local regional airport once. Mainly because I'd be able to justify a rental car if driving from Chicago, which turns out to be a fairly relaxing drive for me. But I quickly banished the thought of driving from Chicago in February…..moi….the guy from Hawaii who lives in San Diego, dealing with the possibility of snow, sleet, ice, or worse? So there I was at the airport at 1230 for a 430pm flight because that's when the airport shuttle ran. I even skipped lunch so I go thru security and looked for something to eat…..and lo' and behold……there was a branch of the Great Dane right in front of me.

I took this as a sign of sorts…….because of scheduling and transportation issues, I hadn't been able to complete my usual rendezvous with deep fried cheese curds on this trip. During my first visit to Madison, I'd had my first dose of those at the Fitchburg location of the Great Dane.

So even though prices were anywhere from $3 – $5 higher then the non-airport locations, how could I ignore the divine placement of the Great Dane, right?

I must say that these were rather disappointing. The curds were quite hard instead of having a nice gooey texture. These were also on the salty side, not anything like versions I'd had previously.

If you've read my previous post on the Great Dane, you realize that this ain't food for the calorie or fat conscious. With that in mind I went all in and ordered the Brat and Bacon Burger….something I also ate before.

Man, this was greasy, even more greasy than expected and I'd had this before! The grease saturated the roll cuasing it to be a mushy mess. The burger was tough and overcooked, though the brat was decent. Not particularly good eats overall.

The Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company
Dane County Regional Airport

Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food:

Finding out that we'd be flying through Heathrow an acquaintance of mine told me that Gordon Ramsay had a restaurant in terminal 5. He told me that the place has changed the game with regards to airport food. I was indeed a bit curious….we'd seen the brash and bombastic Ramsay on his Kitchen Nightmare show and really wondered……"he talks a good talk, but does he walk the walk?" Since we had four hour layovers in both directions, we thought we'd try something small on our way to Istanbul, if it showed promise, we'd have more on our way back. This seemed prudent, because the prices ain't cheap folks! Personally, I'm not a big fan of Heathrow for a couple of reasons….the signage sucks, this is coming from a guy who has travelled to five continents. They make you sit around in terminal five, which lacks sufficient seating until anywhere from 1 hour to 30 minutes before your flight. Then you have to find your gates. They make you go through additional checks even though you're connecting and charge a rather exorbitant amount for wi-fi. I will say that I find the British accent and slangquite entertaining though. When the security guy wanted a red head who had just gone through the detector to stop you shouted, "hey, you there, GINGER-Girl, please move about to the side please!" Ginger-girl?

The actually entrance to the restaurant can be hard to find initially, but once down that alleyway, everything opens up to a large, wide-open seating area.

We started with something very basic, the Steamed English asparagus, pan fried duck egg , grain mustard dressing (£8.75 – about $16 US at the time).

This was pretty atrocious for a couple of reasons. First that "pan fried" duck egg was cold, had no taste, and the whites were rubbery. It had the look of "buffet eggs", eggs that were cooked in an egg ring, then placed in a hotel pan over sterno to serve during a lunch or dinner buffet. How do I know? I've made these many times during a previous career. The asparagus was tough and fibrous, the lower, very tough portion should have been peeled. The stalks were also severely under-seasoned and the mustard sauce was also fairly bland. I wonder what Mr Ramsay would have said had he come upon this dish at one of his "nightmare" restaurants? Can't fry an egg to order and trim asparagus?

The Crispy Duck Salad with Watercress, chilli, and ginger (£12.50 – over $20 US at the time) was a bit better.

The duck was flavored nicely, sweet, mild five spice flavor, made in the fashion of Chinese style crispy beef. The watercress was nice, though we found some yellowed leaves at the bottom. Couldn't really make out the ginger flavor, but the dressing was nice and we could have used a tad more of it. Still, I'm not sold that this was a twenty dollar salad, even with the airport mark-up.

In the end, we were glad we started small here and decided to skip it altogether on the return trip.

Gordon Ramsay Plane Food
London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5

Cousin's BBQ – Dallas Forth Worth Airport:

In case you're thinking that I hate all airport food, that's really not the case. During another one of my trips I had a four and a half hour layover at DFW airport. Now I kinda like terminal B, wi-fi is free, there's enough interesting shops to keep me occupied, and I enjoyed most of my meal at Cousin's BBQ.

Cousin's is a DFW chain of six restaurants, so I figured if I had a meal in this airport, it should be here. Since this was Texas, I decided on the brisket.

First off, I found the sides to be mediocre; the mashed potatoes bland and the gravy like glue. The coleslaw needed a favor infusion and the Texas toast was like cold, stale, buttered bread. Not a big fan of the runny sauce either.

But I really enjoyed the brisket, which I found to have a nice, though light smoke flavor.

I loved the crisp end piece which had a nice balanced flavor, The meat was tender and moist though not falling to pieces.

I felt totally satisfied after this meal. It was probably the best thing I've eaten in an airport in a long time. If I'm ever here again, I'll probably pass on the sides and do a brisket sandwich or something.

In the end, I'm not expecting great food in an airport, decent food that I feel is worthy of the price will do it for me.

Cousin's BBQ
Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Terminal B, Gate 28