Top ten lists for Birthday Party month.

We are so much busier around here than we have been in a while. Baby Chuck is a baby no more (he's 7!) and Mr. Dumpling has just turned 11! We did two birthday parties, we're getting ready for a dinner party with friends, Mardi-Gras party for their friends, AND we are heading to France for 10 days to stay with some friends (who happen to be spectacular cooks too, yippie!)

Top ten list of stuff I'm making and enjoying:

1. Healthier Ranch dressing- 1 part commercial ranch dressing to 3 parts plain yogurt, add a shake of pepper and a splash of lemon juice. My kids haven't really noticed the change except that they now say plain Ranch tastes 'weird'.

2. Hot dog appetizer- Steam your hot-dogs and roll them in split loaves of small arabic bread. Slice, use toothpicks to hold. Serve with cups of mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise.

3. These five weeknight dinner recipes from Martha Stewart.com and Everyday Food Magazine. Solving the 'what are we going to have' dilemma in advance is critical to the happy functioning of this busy house.

4. Easy ice-cream cake. One store bought pound cake, one quart ice cream, one pint fruit or a cup of nuts (or both). Slice the pound cake thinly, line a cake pan with 1/2 the slices, top with 1/2 ice cream & the fruit, cover with remaining slices and ice cream. Freeze at least 1 hour before serving. Suggestions- chocolate pound cake, coffee ice cream & toasted hazlenuts. Vanilla pound cake, vanilla ice cream apricots, almonds. Vanilla pound cake, butter pecan ice cream, bananas, sprinkling of pecans.... I could go on here forever. Sprinkle your cake with liqueur for extra-richness if your friends aren't Muslims.

5. Obsessing over sandwiches of whole wheat pita topped with smoked salmon, labneh with zaatar, tomato and spinach.

6. Camembert and St. Andre

7. Vodka and lemon cocktails.

8. Pulled pork in the crock pot. Grill a shoulder quickly to crust up the outside, ,throw it in the crockpot with a bunch of herbs and spices. Slow cook 8 hours. Remove meat, discard rendered fat, add shredded meat back into pot with a good cup of BBQ sauce. Cook until headed through.

9. Chick-pea salads. Chick peas, tomato, cukes, feta, lemon based dressing, herbs.

10. Making your own buffalo wings. The secret is butter....

Mango madness.

Mama loves mango... papa loves mango.... that's really supposed to be mambo, but its a theme around here. We've taken to throwing mango into just about everything.

Mango Chicken Salad
1 leftover breast of chicken
12 oz mixed salad greens (mizuna & arugula add a nice peppery flavor)
1 large mango- cut into chunks
cucumber slices
mint
carrot shreds

for the dressing:
3tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
salt
pepper
1 tsp thai chili garlic sauce

Mango milk shake
2 very ripe mangos
1 pint best quality ice cream
1tsp cardamom
Blend- super decadent. For a less caloric version substitute plain yogurt and 2 tsp honey.

- Knead chunks of mango into oatmeal bread dough for a yummy breakfast.
- Freeze mango chunks, blend with iced green tea.
- Mango & pistachio granola

Of Seasonal Fruits and Scratch & Dent Vegetables

Its that time of year again. Spring in New England, everything tastes good. There's so much lovely local fruit and veg around and even Stop & Buy Stuff cant sell it fast enough to keep it off the scratch & dent shelf. I've discussed this before, I'm obsessed with the seconds in the produce department.

Strawberry popsicles:
2lbs of hulled strawberries
1/4 cup light cream
1/4 cup sugar or agave syrup
2 tbs. lime juice
Makes around 40oz (10 4oz pops)
Blend, freeze in molds or paper cups with sticks.

Mango Cream Bars
A little more work here

1lb Very ripe mangoes (currently loving 'champagne' variety)
1/4 cup sugar

1 pint light cream
1/4 cup sugar
tbsp vanilla extract (the natural kind is worth it)

Blend your mangoes and sugar. Fill the pop molds or paper cups 1/2 full of the mixture. Blend the cream, sugar and vanilla and pour on top of the mango when it is frozen.

Dubai foodstuffs I'll be missing

One of the tricky parts of living here is that when you are home, you miss it here and when you are here, you miss it at home.
There are a few Dubai foodstuffs I hate leaving and try to take as much as I can home with me (without arousing the attention of customs at JFK).

1. Hummus from the Eat and Drink Restaurant. They used to have a more obviously terrifying website. You can't bring hummus with you on a plane, looks too much like plastique, I guess. I'll be making my own and craving this one all summer.

2. Garlic sauce. I still don't know, with any precision, WHAT garlic sauce actually is, but without it, roast lamb is boring.

3. Thai curry paste. There are so many different ones available here. Generally delicious and fire-y. The ones they sell at home taste so lame by comparison.

4. Halloumi cheese. Cheese made just for frying. 'Nuff said.

5. Arabic bread. Lately we've been eating a lot of the whole wheat khubz from Modern Bakery. Rustic but soft with a nutty flavor, I think its my favorite kind.
Here's a cool video of how its made.

6. Dates.You can get the regular sunshine brand American dates and all but I will miss the sweet and creamy ones for baking, thicker hulled ones for stuffing, and the snappy chewy ones for eating.

7. Galanga, Curry leaves, Indian Pumpkins, Ash Melons, Molokhia- all the produce wackiness you can get here for no money too!

8.  Yogurt. American yoghurt tastes terrible.

9. Russian Honey Cake. I love this cake. I cant even buy it because I am helpless before it gleaming in the fridge. Ugh. I will literally eat nothing else if we have some in the house.

10. Sri Lankan Food. All kinds. Spicy hot dogs with cactus, curry potato salad, crispy chicken with masala spice.

Candlelit Dinner for five.

We went to France. Ooooh fancy. Well, not really. I had the odd sense the entire time that Avignon is rather like Cranston, RI. This is weird, I know, but the fancy and not-so-fancy parts just seem really similar. They are on the same latitude so maybe its just the weather... Anyway, there's a food story here.

The friends we stayed with have candlelit suppers every night. I love this idea so I've expropriated it for our own table. I had to go out and find a candle holder that I was ok with having on the table, which in Dubai is not so easy. The thinking in home decor retail around here seems to be 'the more tasteless, the better...' click for Arabian design atrocities.

I finally found something tasteful without being gaudy and set my candlelit table. At first, it felt a little weird. I was worried the boys might set themselves on fire but its very nice, it really does seem to contribute to a sense that family meals should be daily thing but that they are also special and important.

My table:

More party food...

If you were a occasional reader of this blog you might get to thinking all we do around here is throw parties. Which is sorta true. Its just that if you are drunk in public you can go to jail. If you are in your car and get pulled over for drunk driving you go home or to jail (a law which I kind of applaud). Hotels here serve alcohol, but you aren't supposed to drink it and intoxication is a serious crime, while being sort of encouraged. Oh, and you can't posses alcohol without a license, which we do have but is unclear on weather or not it covers me too and if it is allowed to transport the alcohol (even from the store where you bought it).
It's all too much for me to figure out and I'm loathe to run afoul of the law here, so I'd prefer to entertain people in my home and not have to think too much about this stuff.
On Thursday, I am having a tiny party. Or possibly a big party, nobody in Dubai RSVP's, like EVAH, so it could go either way.
It also has another little wrinkle. We are supposed to go to the beach from 3 -6p and then return to my house for said party. My beloved is not here to help me with this so I need a mess of food I can make up in the morning and then just pull out of the fridge when I walk in the door... tricky business, that.
Here's what I've come up with so far: deviled eggs, a bunch of tiny tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, cheeses and French bread, vegetable platter with hummus and yogurt dips, and some tortillas with fresh salsa and guacemole.
But I'm feeling like this is very boring fare.
I thought about livening it up with caviar, something you dont see at parties that often and the lesser grades of which are really sort of reasonably priced.
What to do, what to do...

Lessons Learned: How NOT to cook a Turducken

I think the number one problem with the Tur-duck-hen was treating it like cooking any old turkey. I have a tendency to do that, just sort of figure 'how hard could it possibly be?' and not pay too much attention to the project. So here are some lessons learned, I wont post a picture of the thing, too sad.

Examine and wash each bird the minute you get home from the butcher. I left it until Christmas morning, if I hadn't, I would have realized that holding it together was going to be a problem.
Because it is deboned, the meat is going to be sort of flavorless unless you season it very very well, well beforehand. I simply salted it but I think it should have been dry brined or otherwise coated in herbs and salt.
Know your oven. I used the one in my parents house, which does run hot. Years of the Father cooking at 'incinerate' seem to have broken the thermostat.
If it smells like it is burning, it is. I kept attributing this to random leftover grease in the oven.
Find and use a recipe. We were trolling the internet for information on Christmas morning with the kiddos running around our feet playing with their new toys. NOT conducive to precision.
The stuffing has to be kind of dry, omit it all together. Duck is greasy. Your stuffing will soak up all the duck grease.
Tur-duck-hen is expensive. It cost us about $90 to make a big pot of soup.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I did, in spite of the mess.

Thanksgiving is incompatible with healthy eating...

Thanksgiving is coming! Must procure a turkey! Cranberry sauce already cooked and frozen. Just found a guest who will take charge of mashed potatoes. My probably BFF in Dubai is going to some length and expense to make pecan pie! I've got a jar of limoncello and big ideas about cheesecake! Anchovy crostini mix is fermenting in the fridge!

My DH and I are absolutely slathering in anticipation of Thursday. We pretty much agree we will give up on the whole Healthiest Way of Eating plan (combined total of 7+ kilos gone! so far...) for the day and just enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner. But can we?

The funny problem with this way of eating is that it grows on you. I actually ate a piece of prosciutto the other day and thought it was way too salty. I didn't like it at all. We shall have to see what happens with the feast we are planning.

Cranberry Sauce:

1lb cranberries

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1 orange

1 thumb ginger

Combine cranberry, water and sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan. Simmer until berries are beginning to burst. Cut orange, removing all pith. Chop ginger very finely. Add to pan and simmer another 20 minutes or so until everything is well combined. Freezes very well.

Crostini:

1/2 lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic

1 small onion

pepper, salt to taste

1 can anchovy in oil

Coat the bottom of a 9" frying pan with oil. Chop and cook the onions until well browned. Add the beef and brown it. Add garlic, also finely chopped, salt and pepper. When beef is cooked through, add anchovy and the oil from the can. I usually make a little well in the middle and let the anchovy melt, then stir it into the beef.

Spoon on slices of toasted french bread (either buttered, plain or with mozzarella cheese, depending on how decadent you are feeling).

Eating for fat old people....

We have finally decided to get very serious about changing our diets, before we are confined to hover-chairs... Its not that we eat particularly badly, but we do eat a lot of takeout food and we do eat too much food. And as a result, we have experienced the 'middle-age hip spread' year by year, and find ourselves of significantly larger 'carriage' than in days gone by....

We have chosen to base our diets on the World's Healthiest Foods, by George Mateljian. In part because I lost a good deal of weight following it back when Mr. Muffin Puff Cake was born, in part because all of the recipes actually turn out really deliciously, and in part because it seems to be a sustainable program that can be followed for the rest of our lives.

The program can be summarized along the following guidelines:
Drink green tea instead of coffee (haven't quite mastered this one).

Alternate your day's breakfasts with protein (generally eggs) and complex carbohydrates(oatmeal or muesli).

Eat 3 fruits a day.

Eat one serving of nuts per day.

For lunch, eat a salad with a source of lean protein (chicken, fish, eggs, beans).

Eat one serving of hard cheese or plain yogurt each day.

Precede each dinner meal with a plate of fresh chopped vegetables and a light dip (hummus, garlic dip etc.)

For dinner eat 6oz of lean protein (fish, chicken, lamb) with a side vegetable or two.
At least two dinners per week should be vegetarian.

Drink one 4oz glass of red wine or unfiltered grape juice per day.
Do not eat any processed foods.
Do not eat white flour, pasta or potatoes.

The website is great because it contains hundreds of recipes and so you have lots of variations on this theme, if you want to join in, go check it out.

Engagement Chicken and food with which to snare a man.

Have you heard this business about Engagement Chicken? I gather if you make it, your boyfriend will propose to you because its so delicious he will want to be your husband so he can eat it forever... Its a lemon chicken, which is always nice, no doubt. But I do think if you are looking for something that might snare a man, you're going to want to put in a little more effort than roast chicken. Well, I guess it depends on the man.
This isn't the easiest recipe to assemble, unless you are in Rome in the spring, but if you can find everything, it will work on really serious, smart (MIT level genius type) men...

1 dozen zucchini flowers (go out and plant some zucchini right now and you can make this by mid-August)
1/2 cup freshest possible ricotta cheese
1/2 cup stale Italian bread (good bread, not supermarket Italian bread)
some chicken stock to wet the bread
a shake or two of garlic powder
black pepper
salt or an anchovy or two
savory
parsley
thyme
other fresh herbs
eggs and flour for dredging

Mix all your ingredients except the flowers in a bowl. Use around two or three tablespoons of herbs. The flowers have a pretty delicate flavor which you don't want to lose to the herbs... Spoon the filling into the flowers. Dredge the flowers in flour seasoned with a bit of pepper. Fry in about 1/4" of oil until coating is browned. Serve immediately with a crisp white wine (Orvieto). Watch smart man become slightly dazzled by you...

Wedding planning: A happy outlet for my maina, or mania as the case may be!

My Seester is marrying the K-man at my house!!! Woohoo. Its so exciting to be pouring my energies into something other than dealing with death and sickness, really, it's a thrill.
We've got the porta-potty, we've got the tent, a message is in to the Justice of the Peace, an engineer is baking a lemon/ raspberry cake, spit-roasted lamb is on the menu and I'm cultivating an obsession with paper lanterns.
What more fun could I possibly be having???

Five foodstuffs which maybe make my life easier.

Jamie Oliver's Sun dried Tomato pesto. Either make it yourself from this easy recipe or Jamie is selling it in jars now. I make it myself because, uber-chef marketing machine or not, the Naked Chef still looks like he could use a bath. This was originally pointed out to me by one of my faithful readers (you know who you are...) and she gets the guffaws... Especially good on chicken or pasta.

The Thai Choice brand of curry pastes and spices. The quality of these pastes is great and there is no easier way to cook fish than with their green curry and coconut milk. Its generally not available in the Eastern US so you're stuck with the insipid flavors of the Thai Kitchen brand. Hopefully this will change soon.

Eat and Drink Restaurant Hummus. Sadly, they have ditched the animation of a crazed woman inhaling burger fumes on their website. Their hummus is still the best there is. Supercreamy, exactly the right balance of beans and tahini, just a little zip of lemon...mmmm, heading out to get some...

Rotisserie chickens. Its the modern mom's best friend. There's actually a book called 101 Things to do with Rotisserie Chicken. And its only $10 I think my favorite is rotisserie chicken, french bread, caprese salad, and fruit salad for supper.

Progresso Chickarina Soup. I know, so retro. And pretty terrifyingly salty. BUT, its the best stuff in the world for a hangover or if a little one has been sick in the stomach and is ready to start eating again. Also a perfect 10-minute supper with a toasted cheese sandwich and a salad.

So uninspired....

I'm the most uninspired cook in the world right now. I wanted to make a lovely supper for my family, but we were puttering in what we call a 'garden' (sand pit) and trying to decide what to do with all our dead grass. We thought to ask our neighbors if we could see theirs because its a 'desert' garden and is purported to be quite nice (it is...). They are so organized and design-savvy compared to us... So, by the time we got home with a donated sofa, the name of a house painter, and a renewed sense of purpose to make our bizarre, enormous, concrete bunker-by-the-highway a home, I was too cranky and too tired to prepare anything more taxing than mac 'n cheese.
We had broiled beefsteak- salt, pepper, splash of red wine, herbs de Provence & olive oil.
Mac & Cheese- from a box even, I am pathetic.
Platter of chopped raw veg.
So extremely pathetic.

I did make a decent salad.
Boston lettuce
Goat cheese
Raisins
Pear
Cashew
Balsamic Vinaigrette.

I picture of lettuce- click on it to see the names of each. lame picture for a lame supper for a lame post...

Drinking to excess...

Like most ex-pats in Dubai, I probably drink too much. There's something about this place, the heat, the expense of everything, flower prints and the large numbers of bored housewives... that makes it feel a bit like 1955. Now there are no photos of me on Facebook with my dress up around my knickers, and I'm not a danger to myself or others, but its become something of a regular habit.
I've got this delicious bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream sitting on top of my fridge, about 16 bottles of wine (DH went to Italy 3x in December) plus vodka and beer. So maybe I'll start cooking with it, just to use some up...
Most cake recipes that call for Bailey's involve substituting it for the water in a yellow cake mix, which I suppose is inappropriate for a five year old's birthday party (coming up soon...). I could add it to a cheesecake or make truffles out of it, have to think about this....
Wine is easier, can start adding red to anything with tomato in it... Ground beef cooked with garlic and onions and a generous splash of red wine can be used for all kinds of things, especially good mixed with anchovy and spooned on french bread slices..
White wine mixed with stock and savories is good for poaching fish and chicken.
And a shot of vodka can be added to pink sauce to give it a little bite... click for recipe...
Suppose I wont be having too many Muslim friends over to dinner for a while...

Thanksgiving menu planning hell.

With Thanksgiving coming on and all, I want that homemade, genuine American experience...
A fried Butterball turkey, stove top stuffed inside, Idahoan spuds, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, green beans in onion soup with fried onion rings on top, a Mrs. Smith's pie... all that crap...
You get nostalgic for stuff you would never have if you were at home, its weird. Its why Americans can be seen in their cars singing Elton John's 'Philadelphia Freedom' whenever it's on the radio...
So what are we having? I need to speed up the menu planning process or I'm going to find myself at Spinney's on the morning of the day in question grasping desperately at whatever whole chicken I can find...
Working backwards:
For dessert, I think I will make a pumpkin cheesecake, we've got this lovely yogurt cheese here called labneh that makes a fabulous cheesecake.
For a salad maybe pears, walnuts, blue cheese and golden raisins over frisee with a balsamic vinaigrette.
I like your classic green beans almondine, just have to find some green beans that dont taste like they've been watered with greywater (which they probably have...). Or maybe a broccoli and yellow pepper stir fry.
I'm torn between sweet and white potato, this is a tough one. I wish I knew how to make my mothers poopie potatoes, it uses both...
Then, either Turkey or going nuts and making Braciole. I think Mr. Dumpling might keel over if we didnt have turkey...
For appetizers, deviled eggs, stuffed mushrooms and maybe a crostini...
We shall see if I manage to put this together... its about a 50/50 shot right now.

Survey of weird 3rd world health food...

There are all kinds of odd things masquerading "healthy food" here. I am not sure what this is about exactly, they say for some people from very poor countries who come to Dubai it's a dietary minefield. Perhaps because every food is available here, and it is pretty cheap considering it all has to be flown in. Maybe people really are that susceptible to marketing when it is sort of new to them.

The (in point of fact, amazing) wall of chocolate cereal in EVERY supermarket comes to mind. A full section dedicated to only chocolate cereal. And every one of them covered in health claims. 'Now with Whole Grains!" or "Low Cholesterol!" or "Balanced Nutrition!" I have to have a whole discussion with baby Chuck about why chocolate cereal is not food at least once a week. The worst part- chocolate wheat-o's is one of the lowest sugar cereals available here. Boys wont touch puffed wheat or rice crispies unless they are coated with marshmallow...
Click here to play the WheatO's kitchen assault game (caution: it may take over your life...)

Nutella is advertised as health food. Well, its like that in Europe too, but there are these really weird Nutella ads where the mom, in her abaya, makes sure her kids get off to school with heaping piles of nutella on their toast and a bit more nutella with little dipping breadsticks in their lunches. Then after the little ones are off, she sits down smilingly across from her husband who looks like a young Yassir Arafat to their own platter of nutella and toast with tea. Nutella, the new Arab superfood!

The kinder bar. The kinder bar is THE ubiquitous candy bar here and in the EU, and is advertised as a healthy food for kids. I personally hate kinder milk chocolate, burns the back of my throat. All they will admit to it having going for it is milk. Newsflash: this is a candy bar it is not qualified as food.

Pocari Sweat. Which is some kind of Japanese Gatorade, but its called POCARI SWEAT for heaven's sake. They actually advertise that because you might sweat while you are sleeping, you should drink this garbage first thing in the morning!!! The name is just so unbelievably foul, its supposed to taste nice, but I cant bring myself to try it.

Pumpkin fun.

So I go to the co-op and ask for 3 whole pumpkins. "WHOLE pumpkins, madam?!?!" "I really like pumpkin..." We are going to carve them for Halloween, but I can't really explain this. I can say 'I really like pumpkin' أود حقا اليقطين in Arabic, I hope that's what I said. You can see where it has the potential to be a bit of a minefield... They were laughing at me, not in a dirty way, so I think I got it right... I hope...


Some things to do with pumpkins:
The easiest way to cook pumpkin for a puree later is to slice it in half, lay the cut sides down on a well oiled baking sheet and bake it. The flesh will steam itself but retain a lot more sweetness than it will if you boil it.

1. Substitute one cup of cooked, pureed pumpkin for banana in banana bread or muffins.
2. Blend pumpkin puree with chili, garlic, and tomatillo salsa for a delicious enchilada sauce.
3. Cook pumpkin puree with sage and butter and serve over pasta (with or without Parmesan cheese).
4. roast chunks of pumpkin with salt pepper and olive oil (toss in a salad with goat cheese, sweet corn, arugula, pomegranate seeds...)
5. Add 1/2 cup cooked pureed pumpkin and 1 tsp. ginger to your pancake recipe.
6. Use 8oz of pumpkin puree in a NY style cheesecake recipe (add an extra egg...).
7. pumpkin pie of course, drizzle it with chocolate ganache for a twist, surprisingly yummy.
8. pumpkin soup with turmeric, curry and ginger.

Discovering Julia Child

Ages ago, I saw the movie Julie and Julia. There were aspects of this movie that annoyed me, mostly the Julie part. My Tuscan response to all that existential angst is 'go a dig a ditch, you'll feel better' (I suppose preparing all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a bit of metaphorical ditch digging, but I digress...). I was, however, really fascinated by the story of Julia and Paul Child before she was The French Chef.

I only realized in the last two days that this story comes from the much better book My Life in France which my DH has left lying around the house at an opportune period of severe jet lag. The book bubbles over with Julia Child's particular utterly charming joie de vivre. I personally think the filmmakers should have ditched Julie altogether and just gone with the My Life in France Story.

So where is this taking me... I'm not about to begin cooking my way through any of her books, Julia wasn't homeschooling 3 and I doubt my liver could survive such an adventure. BUT I am desperate to get a hold of Mastering the Art... I've always wanted to make Daube de Boeuf and Cassoulet that didn't taste like mud and I really need to acquire some pastry skills. Perhaps a bi-monthly Julia Child dinner party? I wonder if this could be done in Dubai??

Julia Child-like scrambled eggs:
The key is patience, which I do not have, but if you can force yourself to do this slowly, the results are certainly yummy.

Heat a blob of butter in a small saute pan (about 1 teaspoon) over a very LOW burner.
GENTLY scramble your eggs in a bowl. It makes a BIG difference, do not whip them. STIR.
When the butter is bubbling and beginning to turn a little brown, pour in your eggs.
WAIT 2 minutes. Now gently stir the eggs. Watch them come together in small curds.
BEFORE they are fully cooked, pull them off the heat (they will continue to cook). Salt, pepper and serve. Julia added gobs more butter and cream at the end but I just cant bring myself to do it (protecting the liver and all...)
Quite worth the wait, something very different from my normal (and now considered icky) eggs.

Click on this for Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child- hysterical. I wonder what she thought of it?

Guacemole

It happened again so I have to discuss this again.
Avocado is a very delicate fruit. Please don't mix it with raw white onions, it can't meet onions on the field of battle and retain any flavor of its own. Guacamole made in this way is slimy onion sauce. ick.

To make unbelievably GOOD, Avocado flavored guacamole:
Take an avocado or two - scoop it out into a bowl.
Use a fork to mash it up.
Add salt and pepper and, if you are feeling kind of randy, a bit of garlic powder.
Add the juice of about 1/4 of a lemon.
Mix. Serve. That's it, that's all.
Try it. love it, be converted to this idea and stop the onion-y slime!

Turkish Delight

We recently had an opportunity to spend four days in Istanbul. Its a fantastic city, incredibly beautiful, totally walkable, gorgeous weather, pleasant people. Go if you get the chance....
Turkish food, on the other hand is a little more curious.

Perhaps because we were in Istanbul and in the main tourist district at that, we found it all fairly homogeneous and fairly expensive. Lots of grilled meat and vegetables, kebabs everywhere. There is lots of street food which is more interesting and affordable, though.

Kagit Helva- Sugar waffles. At around 2p, the sugar waffles come out. They are sold everywhere by people carrying stacks and stacks of them. They are like giant sugar wafer cookies. Quite tasty, albeit non-nutritive snack.

Gozleme- This is a very thin almost pancake like bread stuffed with meat, cheese, spinach or potato. We had them as an appetizer and were going to go back to the quite expensive place where we tried them first, when my son spotted a guy near the hippodrome making them from a stall for 4lira. They were better than the fancy restaurant ones too!

Apple tea- Every restaurant serves apple tea. Its sugar with a powdered apple flavoring mixed into hot water. The kids absolutely loved it. I have to say I don't really 'get' it. But it definitely was fun for them to have a hot beverage after dinner with us while we sipped our coffees...

Pide- Restaurants call Pide 'Turkish Pizza' but it isn't really like pizza at all. It's usually a cigar-shaped dough folded around meat, cheese, and egg with a big hot green pepper baked in the middle. I ADORED these especially when they were hot out of the oven, my DH, not so much. The meat is definitely a little dodgy, but into every trip a little intestinal trouble must fall....


Simit- We were departing on the opening day of the Simit Festival so we didnt get to catch it. They are a circle-shaped dough. Ever so slightly sweet and washed with egg. Very light, reminds me of challa.

Corn- This is another thing I don't get but THE snack of choice in Istanbul seems to be corn-on-the cob. This is not New England Sweet Corn. Its what we would consider corn that was picked WAY too long ago. Its served either boiled or grilled with just a bit of salt. Mr. Muffin Puff Cake was enchanted by the idea of corn-on-the-cob available on every corner for 1lira, but even he admitted it wasn't very tasty.

Eventually we found two good places. One a total hole-in the wall that we sort of stumbled on near the Kukuck Ayasophia served delicious food no different from any of the more expensive places and all freshly made for about 50tl ($32!) to feed the whole team.
The other is opposite the Four Seasons Hotel which although you would think would bode ill for the pricetag, ended up being VERY reasonable, around $65- 70 to feed a family of 5 in a quite nice atmosphere.

Next post, I'll tell you about my favorite meal...