full of mistakes

The search for Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonu

On the day we were visiting Grand Bazaar, we again looked at our food book and picked Kara Mehmet Kebap Salonu, one of the restaurants recommended there as they supposedly had the best Kunefe. This choice made our trip more rewarding that we were expecting it to be.

The restaurant had an address that made the vendors stop and think for a second when we asked for directions. A couple of them sent us towards an approximate direction and told us to ask there again. As we approached the area, we missed the little sign that was going to take us to this restaurant's section a couple times. Finally, through a narrow hallway, we actually went outside from the normally indoors Grand Bazaar. In what seemed like a forgotten corner was our restaurant. It did not look like much.

It was in a courtyard that had a few copper vendors, gift shops and a public bathroom. We could hear the banging on the copper from the shop above the restaurant. The weather was so beautiful on this winter day that we could enjoy being outside. We sat down to order. They did not have the kunefe. It was a major dissappointment for me but our waiter's eagerness to serve us their tasty food got me excited.

These little restaurants always get me when they start serving little plates of appetizers on the house which usually taste great. Their tomato based spicy salad and lavash was zesty. My beyti was simple but well done. Their coffee was the best.

Turkish Coffee at Grand Bazaar

When I was a young Turkish girl living in Turkey, I did not drink Turkish coffee. As I came to the age of enjoying coffee, I was trying the cappuccinos, espressos or even the simple filter coffee varieties that was "in."

I had always observed my grandfather's Turkish coffee routine. It would be served to him after he had done some sort of work in the morning or afternoon as he was smoking his cigarette, always with a cool glass of water. It happened everyday. 

While we lived in Turkey for a year and a half, I first get excited to try the mastic coffee that Selamlique had nicely packaged and prepared. Then, I started getting a taste of well prepared Turkish coffee and the pleasure of ordering a coffee that simply defined you. You could not choose much other than the sugar amount. No sugar, little sugar, medium or sweet. My choice was little sugar. I enjoyed my moderation, being a former sweet tooth. I enjoyed having an afternoon coffee when Lula was at school, Adele was napping and I could do some me time, usually computer time - my work. I almost had it every day.

Here is the quick story of how we found the coffee illustrated here.

Gastronomical Journal

This time while we were in Turkey, we tried to visit some of our favorite restaurants from last year and some new ones from the book Istanbul Eats. One of the first new ones was Fureyya Balik Lokantasi. A tiny litte hole by the Galata Tower, it was a very nice simple fish restaurant with a few dishes like pastas added to the traditional list. My dish was delicious. 

Grilled Sea Bream! As I was still jetlagged while eating there, I dated my journal September 10th, instead of February. 

Hot Coffee

I am taking a little break from drinking coffee. Just to see how my body feels - it has been too long since it did not have any coffee in it for a longer than half a day. Still, this photo looks great to me. Hot Vietnamese coffee!

An experience

John and I had our first dinner out (just the two of us) in Chicago since we arrived two months ago. However, I had been waiting for this dinner for years.

Alinea was opened in 2005 and shortly afterwards I read about it and wanted to eat there every time we visited Chicago. Many family plans and two little girls kept it from happening.

The dinner was worth the wait and all expectations.

Alinea chef and owner Grant Achatz is a wizard of molecular gastronomy. What happens at his restaurant is not your traditional dinner experience. You eat food, but it is served in most unexpected ways and portions through many courses. They are little pieces of art, delicately arranged. You can see in the online kitchen photos, everybody has little tweezers like tools to work on little leaves, chopped bits.

My favorite course of the night was the mushroom concoction served on a pine and juniper aroma air filled pillow. The pillow was releasing the air as you were eating your dish, stimulating all your senses…

Another entertaining course was the table décor. It was a big cube of ice with what seemed like two red rods in it. By the fifth course, when we were given two glass straws, we realized that they were two drilled holes filled beet juice, infused with hibiscus and licorice. We drank from our table décor!

We also had the wine pairing for the dinner just to make sure we would make no mistakes. Our sommelier was very knowledgeable. He sometimes entertained us by sprinkling more than a few words from the native country of the wines he was serving that we were not sure what he was telling us!

Of course, with lots of wine paired through many courses, I got tipsy, and unnecessarily grilled a server after overhearing his introduction of the dish “Scallop acting like agedashi tofu.” I, obviously, cannot remember exactly what he was saying but it was degrading to tofu. Everybody has the right to have opinions but I thought that he had to be fair to each ingredient of the dish. In the end, it was tasty but it was one dish that I questioned that night. It was introduced as the scallop acting like tofu as if it had no resemblance to tofu but it had soymilk in it: soymilk that makes tofu!

Well, I could not take a photo of it, as it was served just as the dashi broth that would go in the dish was starting to boil right in front of us in a funny apparatus. I was busy taking photos of that.

The dinner ended with a highlight. The chocolate dessert was served by Grant Achatz, himself (all guests get to enjoy that). Not much chatter but a focused display of chef-in-action.

More tools from the kitchen

These funny spoons really do exist. One came with an olive platter and the other came with a spice rack. They have weird proportions and look great together!

French Macarons

Ever since I had a bite of Laduree macarons a few years ago, I have been fascinated by them. The color, shape, flavors are just so scenic and tasty... I recently tried to make some to see how hard it is to achieve perfection. My friend Jen helped me as I am a novice baker and she is really good. I looked online for a recipe and decided on this one as it looked fairly simple and by a professional. The notes from the first trial are as follow:

1. It does not take very long to make these, so I can try many more batches.
2. The chocolate batter turned out very rich, which does not bother me at all but for common like, I can use less of the tasty Scharffen Berger chocolate.
3. Very little amount of dough is enough for the little macarons. I ended up with giant ones, which is not a problem in terms of consumption, but just to be traditional, I need to be careful.
4. The macaron itself was not moist enough. I might need a different almond or look into troubleshooting solutions online.

Here is a photo from the first trial (the last one...):

For the next batch, we are thinking of trying a rose macaron~

Hillary also joined us during the baking session with 3 month old Mia. I forgot how light 3 month old babies were and enjoyed holding sweet, little Mia very much!

 

Mmm. Chocolate.

Today I was at the Say Cheese store getting one of my favorite sandwiches, coppa on ciabbatta with provolone, a little olive oil and vinegar, and pepperoncini. Everything there tastes so fresh and good. Then, as I was leaving, I was looking around the sweets to have a little something after my favorite lunch, and picked up a dark chocolate that I have never seen before and had really nice packaging. My sandwich maker saw what I got and could not stop raving about it.. This guy was making everything by himself, picking the cacao beans, preparing the mix, etc... And he said that it tasted so good! Well, I was excited and I am not dissapointed. This chocolate by Rogue Chocolatier is so good! I got the Hispaniola.

 

I hope I will be able to taste more of Colin Gasko chocolate soon!

Thanksgiving fun

 

We had great fun with family, good food and lots of wine! The place cards were prepared by our 7 year old niece, Grace and the dried peppers came all the way from Brooklyn, NY...

 

More Breakfast notes

We try to eat healthy breakfasts in the morning; oatmeal, fruit with yogurt, etc… (Other than Saturday mornings) However, some days we wake up and there is something in the air, it feels like a special breakfast day. Then the morning chef gets to work. It is not me; I don’t have patience to cook in the morning. Here is one of the tastiest, golden waffles, almost a perfect circle!