Santa Ynez Valley Wine Country

Wine Tasting in Buellton, Solvang and Los Olivos

Although we go to wine tastings any chance we get, Mike and I have never visited any wine regions. Since the Santa Ynez Valley is only a two and a half hour ride from my mom's house in Torrance, CA (see the previous post), we decided to take a side trip.

Every aspect of this trip was better than we could have planned, and there was more than the usual amount of serendipity involved. We stayed at the Best Western Pea Soup Andersen's Inn in Buellton. For about $80/night, we got a big room with fab 70s light fixtures and a great location. The hotel even had a putting green behind the pool...Mike was happy. It is right next door to Andersen's restaurant, the place that claims to have invented split pea soup. I haven't done any research regarding that claim, and we didn't try the famous soup because that's not really what I want to eat with a good bottle of wine.

Before they got on the wine tourism bandwagon, this area was best known for being a little enclave of Dutch culture and kitsch, nestled between the lovely mountains of the Santa Ynez Valley. Solvang, adjacent to Buellton, is the center of the Dutch thing with several blocks of shops, beer gardens and bakeries with windmills generously sprinkled throughout. Solvang also has a cute open-air theater where their summer theater festival is held, but we weren't here for another summertime production of The Taming of the Shrew.


Since we weren't interested in the theater festival or the famous pea soup, then what did we have left? This trip was all about the wine. You don't have to drive around to the individual wineries, although you can visit a few of them on site, like Rusack, pictured at the top of the post. All you have to do is wander down the main drag in Solvang or Los Olivos and visit the tasting rooms that many wineries have set up. Most charge between $5 and $10 to taste several wines and take home your glass. The prices are really reasonable, and if you look for promotional maps and brochures like we picked up at our hotel, you can find coupons for 2-for-1 deals at a lot of the tasting rooms. This is a tasting room in Solvang that showcased wines from several very small producers not large enough to have their own tasting room.

In the Santa Ynez Valley, I also recommend:

• I also highly recommend Carina Cellars, Alexander and Wayne and Daniel Gehrs, all in Los Olivos.
  
• Los Olivos Grocery where we picked up cheese and charcuterie for lunch at a nearby park.
• Trattoria Grappolo, a Tuscan restaurant that one of the tasting room attendants tipped us off to. We sat at the counter in front of the brick oven in their open kitchen and got wonderful stuffed calamari and penne with sausage and mushrooms. It's a great little restaurant in Santa Ynez with a nice menu...and supposedly Giada De Laurentiis filmed a segment of her travel show there.
  

The Greatest Hamburger of My Life

No doubt about it, we totally lucked into this one. I shudder to think how we could have missed it. We had heard of the Hitching Post, Buellton's renowned steak house. We were afraid it might be an expensive tourist trap even though it has a good reputation. There was nothing to worry about. The place is reasonably priced, homey and delicious. When we stopped in to make a reservation, the hostess informed us that Monday was burger night in the bar area. We were intrigued, and by dinner time we decided burgers were the way to go.

Our waitress clued us in to the secret of the Hitching Post burger: they grind up all the odds and ends left over when they cut the meat for their steaks. The result is a thick, juicy, beefy patty. You can top it with a thick slice of cheddar if you want, but the real show stopper is the homemade bun. It is an egg bun, not too doughy, but soft, golden brown on the outside and covered with what I think was asiago cheese, creating a baked-on crust. They serve it with mango ketchup on the side, but I just crave good old Heinz with my burgers. The fries are wonderful, but this is the rare instance when you'll hardly care.

The hitching post also has their own line of locally made wines. We had a juicy, medium-bodied bottle of their Merlot with tannin in all the right places. Priced at about $25, it was a good deal for any restaurant. I would not hesitate to go out of my way to arrange a trip in order to be in Buellton on a Monday.

Santa Barbara, aka Taco City

Santa Barbara is just a half hour south of Buellton, so we passed through on our way in and out of the wine country. Several months ago, we read an article in the New York Times highlighting the best taco stops between L.A. and San Francisco. According to the article, Santa Barbara is a hotbed of taco activity, and based on the two lunches we enjoyed, I would agree.

Now, when I say tacos, I mean soft corn tortillas with some kind of meat (preferably marinated pork), topped with fresh salsa and hot sauce, if you want--a real Mexican taco. La Super Rica was supposed to be the place, and we got some amazing tacos on tortillas that were being freshly made before our eyes. But, then we went to Lilly's Taqueria. In a slightly grittier location (which, for Santa Barbara, means hardly gritty at all), this place made a pork taco that rocked my world. The meat was tender and flavorful and the hot sauces were fresh and bright. See for yourself (that's actually a beef taco on the left)...

We are back in Fort Lauderdale now, and I don't think we will be traveling again for at least a little while. I have a bit of a back log of recipes to blog about while I'm detoxing from our California trip...then maybe I can work on my own version of Lilly's tacos.

Technorati Tags: travel, buellton, wine, solvang, Santa Ynez

California...Here We Come!!

Anyone else out there still mourning the very untimely demise of The O.C.??? No? Well, you should be. This was the most awesome thing to happen to TV teen dramas since Beverly Hills 90210. But they had one thing 90210 didn't have--Peter Gallagher's eyebrows. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go add season 1 to your Netflix queue. I miss you, Sandy Cohen...

I know Marissa and her drunken, anorexic hijinks mucked up season 2, but by season 3 Taylor Townsend totally made up for it, and what about the tour de force performance from Kirsten Cohen (don't know her real name) as a secondary season 2 storyline? Don't tell me that's not Emmy-worthy.

Anyway, even though The O.C. is dead and gone, I can still relive it in all its glory whenever I visit my hometown of Torrance, CA. You see, the O.C. doesn't look anything like the TV show because they filmed most of it on studio lots and in Redondo or Torrance, a good 40 miles north Newport Beach, the supposed location. The exterior shots of the rock club where 16 year olds could see live performances by national bands without having to worry about having ID or being crushed in a mosh pit were done on the Redondo Beach Pier. There's Mike trying to grab a little of that Ryan Attwood stardust...
And all those scenes of Marissa contemplating suicide at some deserted life guard station are all on the stretch from Redondo to Torrance Beach. See, it's beautiful...


I grew up in Torrance, a low-key beach city south of Los Angeles that has one of the most perfect climates on earth. They say that about San Diego, but San Diego is cold. I wouldn't lie to you. Torrance is just right. Mike and I flew in to visit my family and attend a wedding this weekend in San Diego. My sister who has been living in Brazil for the past few years is in CA too, along with her fantastic boyfriend, so we've been having a lot of fun in SoCal. They took us to the Torrance farmer's market where stone fruit, figs, squash blossoms and summer tomatoes are abundant...heaven!

They also made Sangria for us, and it was outrageously good. I'm still wrangling the actual recipe out of them (like most great things, it's sort of intuitive), but when I do, I will definitely share it. It transforms inexpensive sauvignon blanc into something amazing involving strawberries, oranges and Bigelow peach tea.

Right now, Mike and I are in Buellton, CA. You might know it from the little movie, Sideways. We are loving the local wines, and I had the greatest burger of my life last night at The Hitching Post. We also stopped for lunch at the taco stand in Santa Barbara where Julia Child used to go. As we watched the cooks making the corn tortillas in their little kitchen, we knew it would be great. We were right. More on California to come in the next post.

What is everyone else doing for their summer vacation?

And for all you O.C. fans...if you were Josh Schwartz, how would you have saved the show????



Technorati Tags: travel, Southern California

10 Things to Love About Tokyo

1) Noodles are taken very seriously-Udon or soba, which noodle reigns supreme? Who cares! The noodles we ate were a revelation. I have never had udon or soba like this, and no wonder. One night we tracked down an udon restaurant (no small feat since it was a shoebox of a place on the third floor and had no English signage) and slurped silky noodles with the perfect firm, elastic texture. We also ate at a lunch place twice where soba was the specialty. Whether served hot with trimmings or cold and simply dipped in broth, these buckwheat noodles were a wonder.

2) Beef is taken very seriously-Whether it is grilled over charcoal or cooked in a bubbling cauldron a la shabu-shabu, the Japanese have a way with beef. Their choicest cuts are a lighter red color than the typical American beef with more fine marbling. The thinly sliced shabu-shabu meat looks a bit like graying deli roast beef when you pull it out of the cooking water, but it was some of the most luscious, flavorful beef we’ve ever had.

3) Fish is taken very seriously- This probably comes as no surprise. The wonderful fact that hit home for us during our 5 days in Tokyo is that sushi is not the only thing for dinner. We had wonderful, pristine sushi (the fatty tuna looks like a seafood version of bacon, but tastes like the finest, most buttery tuna sashimi imaginable), but Japanese food is so much more (see items 1 and 2). We also got up very early to wander around Tsukiji Central Fish Market (the largest fish market in the world) where the sheer volume and variety of sea creatures moving in and out each day is a marvel.

4) The vending machines sell beer- It’s a funny (and sometimes convenient) novelty…what can I say?

5) Traditional Japan is easy to find- One morning, we walked around Shitamachi (the low city), visiting Senso-ji, an impressive Shinto shrine with a 5-story pagoda on the grounds. Afterwards, we walked around the Asakusa neighborhood, a place that somehow escaped the consumerism of Ginza, the glamour of Aoyama and the youth-crazed glitz of Shibuya. Buildings are low and old, shopkeepers sell traditional clothing and trinkets, and the general pace feels a bit slower.

6) Modern Japan is easy to find (just go shopping)- “Easy” may be an understatement. Technology and the signs of a thriving modern city are all around you. Perhaps not more so than when you go shopping. The department stores are the kingdoms of the retail world, with floors upon floors full of anything you desire. The food halls in the big department stores are a Candyland for foodies and not to be missed. Roppongi Hills is a beautifully designed complex with office space, a gorgeous museum, and a very high-end (and slightly sterile) mall. Go see whatever exhibition is on at the Mori Art Museum (we really enjoyed a well-curated show on French architect, Le Corbusier), then enjoy Tokyo City View, a 360 degree observation Tower that lets you take in this massive city.

7) Pierre Herme! Pierre Herme!- Tokyoites love all things French, especially when it comes to food. I meant to see if there was a Pierre Herme shop in Tokyo, but it slipped my mind until we walked right past it while checking out some of the great retail architecture in the ritzy Aoyama shopping district (the Commes de Garcons and Prada stores are stunners). Pierre Herme is perhaps the most famous pastry chef in the world, known for the flawless execution and innovative flavors (rose, jasmine tea, olive oil) of his French macarons. Honestly, I was more tickled about visiting the Herme shop than I was about a lot of things, and it lived up to my hopes. There is a dessert bar upstairs from the retail shop where we ordered this beautiful raspberry and rose-flavored napoleon. I was in heaven. And of course we got macarons to go.

8) Everybody walks- I love cities where walking is the preferred mode of transportation. Of course we used the subway a lot (not as complicated as it looks) and took the occasional cab. But with picture-perfect early summer weather, we logged major miles everyday.

9) Even the locals get lost sometimes- Everything in Tokyo is orderly and logical…make that almost everything. The system of street addresses (I’m not going to attempt to explain it here), is utter madness. If a restaurant does not have a clearly displayed English sign, there is a very real possibility that you will never find it. Think I’m kidding? Just wait. The only consolation is that even locals don’t always know what’s around the bend. My advice is to remain calm, ask for help and go with the flow. Even our guide book’s directions did not always provide adequate support. But getting lost is half the fun, right??

10) They even take fake food seriously- A lot of casual Japanese restaurants display their entrees in a front window. But wait, look closely…that’s not real soba with seaweed and bean curd. That food is fake! It’s a funny phenomenon, and restaurants have to get this fake plastic food somewhere. There is a restaurant supply district on Kappabashi-dori not far from Senso-ji temple where all this plastic food supposedly originates. Vaguely curious, we went strolling and found store after store stocked not with plastic food, but with every possible size of tart pan, cooking utensil and gadget you could imagine. I loved it and fervently wished I had the money and luggage space to shop for real. As Mike pulled me away from Kappabashi-dori so we could catch an act at Ginza’s kabuki theater, we passed this fabulous tea cup building.

Tokyo was a joy from start to finish. A lot of people have asked if it’s expensive—It’s just as easy to find a deal here as in any American city, so don’t let cost deter you from visiting. The great thing about eating in Tokyo is that the everyday “fast” food that workers eat on their lunch breaks is not Big Macs and Subway sandwiches, but simple, delicious Japanese fare like the soba noodles I mentioned.

If there’s anything else you want to know about Tokyo, Thailand, Vietnam or Singapore (I don’t profess to be an expert, but I can speak from my own experience), leave a question in the comments or send me an email.


Technorati Tags: travel, tokyo

Thai Cashew Chicken

When we finally landed in San Francisco after over three weeks in Asia, we only had one thing on our minds—hamburgers. Of course we also had to figure out where to get a hotel and how to get back to Fort Lauderdale with our stand-by tickets, but the immediate concern was a good American meal.

The funny thing is, we weren’t sick of noodles and seafood. We ate beef in Japan more than once, but the point is that we had been eating Asian food for a month, and couldn’t resist the siren call of American comfort food. We wandered the streets of downtown San Francisco passing Asian, Thai, Vietnamese and even Indonesian restaurants that we would ordinarily have been thrilled to see. We wanted to avoid chain restaurants, but in the end we ended up at the Cheese Cake Factory…mmm, sliders.

The next day, we wandered around the Ferry Plaza for hours, and I ended the day, yet again, with a juicy hamburger and sweet potato fries. It was fun to crave this food that I normally feel less than excited about. When we finally did get home, we cooked healthy American recipes, like our staple black bean burritos. The luscious roasted vegetable linguini from my last post was a re-introduction to Italian cuisine. After about 3 weeks without Asian food and craving the exotic once again, we tossed together shrimp, chicken, vegetables and rice vermicelli with a tangy Vietnamese dressing. A few days later, we revisited the dishes we learned at the fantastic cooking school we attended in Thailand and made this recipe.

This is the photo of the cashew chicken as we made it in Thailand. Our home version lived up to the delicious taste memory.

Thai Cashew Chicken (Gai Pad Med Ma-Muang)
Adapted from Bai Pai Cooking School
Mike slices the chicken as thinly as possible so it cooks quickly. Use a very sharp knife and cut at an angle as if you are slicing a flank steak. Dried Thai chiles would be ideal, but the medium-hot chiles de arbol I had on hand worked really well. If you don't have dried chiles, sprinkle in some hot red pepper flakes, since you really should have at least a little heat in this dish. The Thai chili paste is irreplaceable as far as I know. Luckily, you can get it online here and probably in well-stocked markets.

Serves 4

3 tbs. canola oil, divided
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
salt and ground black pepper, to taste
2 1/2 tbs. Thai chili paste (Mae Pranom brand)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tbs. sugar
6 dried red chiles (such as chiles de arbol)
Generous 1/2 cup raw cashews, toasted (or substitute dry roasted, unsalted cashews)
5 scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
Steamed Thai jasmine rice, for serving

Heat 1 tbs. oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken, season with salt and pepper and stir fry until cooked through. Put the chicken in a bowl and set aside. Repeat with 1 tbs. of the oil and the rest of the chicken.

Add the remaining oil to the empty skillet and heat. Add the chili paste, stirring constantly to break it up for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, red bell pepper, onion, oyster sauce and sugar. Stir well and simmer for 3 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, return the chicken to the skillet and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened and the vegetables are tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the chiles, cashews and scallions, stir to combine and serve immediately over rice.



Technorati Tags: recipes, Thai, chicken, Main Course

Vietnam Top 10- Nha Trang

Vietnam Top 10…continued

If you’re wondering what the heck has been happening on this blog, let me recap: my husband and I found ourselves with the opportunity to go traveling in Southeast Asia, so that is what we did throughout the month of June. I’ve been back home for three weeks, and I am still trying to get all the amazing places, experiences and meals down on this blog.

You see, Mike’s aunt and uncle recently moved to Singapore, a city that is the perfect jumping off point to the rest of the region. We visited them, then went to Thailand and Vietnam. On our way back, we stopped in Tokyo. I could have stayed for another month and not gotten tired of the amazing cities, exotic food and the delicious feeling of being completely out of my element.

In my previous post, I started a Vietnam Top 10, but I lied. I knew 10 things wouldn’t be enough. Vietnam is an amazing country that seems to be right in the midst of an upswing. Though the American dollar or the Euro can take you ridiculously far in Vietnam, I have a feeling it will not stay that way forever.

We spent a few days in Ho Chi Minh City and a few more in Nha Trang, a beach town up coast. The rest of the “top 10” is mostly about Nha Trang, and I will try to paint a picture of what it is really like.

8) Nha Trang’s fresh seafood- Nha Trang is one of Vietnam’s important fishing ports, so if they are not in the tourism business, the locals are likely to be fisherman. We had a seafood banquet there every day. Truc Linh was our favorite restaurant, and the owners actually operate two eateries a couple of blocks apart. We ate grilled crab, curries, noodle dishes, papaya salad… Most of the restaurants in town would display their seafood and set up their charcoal grills right on the sidewalk. And just in case, you can’t take any more seafood, you can try the little Turkish restaurant owned by a man who bills himself as “Nha Trang’s only Turkish chef.” He’s not lying.

Truc Linh, 21 Biet Thu

9) Nha Trang’s Hot Spring Center- This was one of the best experiences of our trip. What a place! Nha Trang’s coastline is sheltered by mountainous land (see the picture above) where hot, mineral spring water gushes out for your pleasure. Nha Trang is a huge destination for Vietnamese and vacationers from other parts of Southeast Asia, and they all love the hot springs. Big families come together and there is a Disneyland-like atmosphere. You put your clothes in a locker, have a quick mineral shower and are directed to a rock mud bath lining the hillside. You soak for twenty minutes in the freshly flowing mud (it’s thinned and smells of minerals, not dirt), pouring it all over yourself with a little bucket. Then you bask on the sun-warmed rocks for a while before rinsing off. After that, you get to walk through a mineral water fountain that squirts you at high pressure. Finally, you soak in a fresh pool of your own hot, hot mineral water. Awesome.

We opted for a massage after our soak, and it was the best one I’ve ever had. Using a bar fixed high up on the wall, the tiny Vietnamese masseuse used it for balance while she walked on my back. All this, including the massages, cost just over twenty dollars for both of us.

10) Perfume Grass Inn- Again proving itself to be $25.99 well spent, our Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on a Shoestring led us here. We took the hotel’s priciest room at $25.00 per night and got a huge room with wood paneling and beautiful wooden furniture. The hotel is one block from the beach and right in the center of the action (I’m using this as a relative term) in Nha Trang. The hotel played host to a collection of ragtag regulars who always seemed to be at their posts, kind of like Norm at Cheers. The owners were kind, helpful and gave honest feedback if we asked for it. The room rate included breakfast served in their lovely open eating area where we got perfectly fried eggs every morning.

11) Scuba Diving- My experience was previously limited to Florida and Aruba, but Nha Trang is definitely my favorite dive site so far. There are many islands off the coast of Nha Trang where brilliant coral reefs grow. Though the visibility was only to about 25 feet, most of the good stuff is at that depth. We saw a huge blue starfish, a baby octopus and a little clown fish (like Nemo) who harrassed my husband. There some cave-like rocks to swim through--a strange experience that feels like sensory deprivation for the split second before you see light at the other end. When we surfaced, the crew wasn't around to help with our gear because they were fixated on a small whale that happened to swim into the cove where we were diving. It could have been a sperm whale, and it swam around at the surface for the next hour while we watched from the boat.

For professional dive operators that take care of everything, go to Sailing Club Divers.

12) The Banana Girl- She comes at twilight, in that part of the day between afternoon and evening when the light casts a faded, pink glow over the beach. Sorry for the melodrama, but after seeing her on our first day in Nha Trang, I thought the banana girl might really be an apparition. She came up to me selling her doughnut hole-like banana fritters when I was walking along the shore. Having just eaten a late seafood lunch, I couldn’t do it, even though I wanted to. There are street (or beach) vendors all over Nha Trang selling the same few snacks, so I figured I could try the banana fritters whenever I wanted. Of course, no other vendor sold anything like this! I cursed myself for not tasting them when I had the chance. When she emerged again along the shoreline on our last afternoon, I flung out my arms as if to hug her and waved her over. There was nothing supernatural about them, but they were very tasty fritters.

13) Street vendor food, especially if you can’t identify it

Street vendors in Nha Trang often rely on the smoky scent of the little charcoal cookers set up in their carts or on the sidewalk. As sweet potatoes and corn roast over the coals, the smell of the blistered vegetables draws you in. The street vendors also sell grilled meat with side dishes, but there were plenty of things we could not even identify. There were little meatballs wrapped in what could have been grape leaves and some kind of starchy root vegetable that reminded me of yucca served with an addictive blend of sugar and salt.

In Ho Chi Minh City, what often hits your nose as you turn a random street corner is the smell of sweet egg batter sizzling on a snack-size waffle iron. One day, we had to stop for a woman and her cute daughter selling little green pancakes hot off her portable griddle. They were sweet with the faint taste of macaroons. We hoped to find that lady again on another day, but she was not in her place. The moral is, if you see it and you want it, don’t wait!

14) The smiles- Vietnamese are soft talkers, even when you shove your ear in front of their mouths in order to hear them. While they may be shy about exercising their vocal cords, they are not remotely economical with their smiles. At our hotel in Nha Trang, there was a teenage kid who was probably the owner’s son. I swear, every time we passed by the front desk or saw him around the hotel, he burst into a huge smile as if I was the greatest hotel guest ever. It was a reminder of how nice it is to smile at someone for no reason.

That’s it for Vietnam! If you have any specific questions, leave a comment or send me an email, and I’ll be happy to help. I think I will give you a recipe next time (greatest pasta dish ever--I’m feeling the hyperboles today). After that, I hope you’ll indulge me while I write about all the things I loved about Japan…sushi is just the salsa on the taco.


Technorati Tags: travel, Vietnam, Nha Trang

Vietnam Top 10 - Ho Chi Minh City

1) Pho- It really is better here. Quite a while back, I blogged about my (failed) attempts to make good pho at home. Since then, I’ve eagerly anticipated finding an authentic version of this comforting noodle soup made with long-simmered beef or chicken and served with a gorgeous pile of herbs. On our first day in HCMC, we decided to try Pho Hoa, the shop mentioned in Patricia Shultz’s recent book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I’m sure Pho Hoa does not have a monopoly on great pho in HCMC, but we could not resist checking it out. We unwittingly ended up walking at least 2 or 3 miles in the midday heat to get there. You see, addresses on a lot of streets in HCMC don’t just proceed with sequential numbers. Instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, you’ve got, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d,1e; 2a, 2b, 2c… and on and on for about 2 more miles than you thought it would be.

We didn’t think it could possibly be worth it, but it was. There’s no discernible secret to this pho. It’s simply imbued with the flavor that must come from patience and years of practice. Eat it for lunch, eat it for breakfast, eat it in the middle of the night—good pho is one of the ultimate meals in any cuisine.

2) Sanho Bar- On a tip from our Lonely Planet guide, we sought out this bar, located near the big, central hotels, because the description caught our eye: a watering hole where the actual bar is an aquarium. Intriguing, but probably a gimmick that sounds cooler in theory than practice, right? Totally wrong. This place is so cool. As you can see in the photo, I got to enjoy a lovely salty dog right on top of an ornery little crocodile who watched my every move…sorta unsettling. In the tanks adjacent to the croc were some very spry turtles. It was dinnertime for one turtle, and it was surprising how quick he was when chasing down his favorite goldfish treat. Sanho has normal-sized tanks too with big sea turtles and some creepy eels. I don’t know if PETA would like this place, but they get huge points for originality.

Sanho, 102 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, 827-5593

3) Wine- I guess I have the French colonialists to thank for this one. Unlike in Thailand (read my rant in this post), wine is not a mysterious substance to Vietnamese restauranteurs. Thanks to the heat, reds may be slightly above their ideal serving temperature, but you can get good, reasonably priced French wine just about everywhere. There is even Vietnamese wine to be had, but we didn’t get around to trying it…after the wine drought in Thailand, I couldn’t stop chugging the Cotes du Rhone.

4) Ben Thanh Market- Located midway between Minihotel Alley (where all the very cheap, very decent backpacker accommodations are found) and central HCMC, the market is a perfect place to start your day with a noodle breakfast. If dodgy sanitary conditions creep you out, then just go for the shopping. We had an amazing bowl of yellow noodles and tasty fish paste patties at the stall in the picture, but if you’re worried about tummy trouble, stick to restaurants. We didn’t drink the water, but we did eat street vendor and market food and we both got a bit ill. I still give market food the benefit of the doubt because you never really know what made you sick.

Warnings aside, this is a very cool market where you can buy everything from fresh meat and fish (look for live eels flopping around), to Vietnamese coffee, to clothes and jewelery, to snake wine (yes, there’s a real snake inside—just try to get that past homeland security). The vendors are pretty aggressive and you might have a hard time convincing them that you really have no need of a knock-off Ralph Lauren polo shirt, but I love markets and this one is colorful, to say the least.

The exterior of Ben Thanh Market in HCMC

5) Lemongrass Restaurant- All the food in Vietnam was wonderful. We spent our days there wandering blissfully from one meal to the next. You can dine in a nice restaurant every night because the prices are so low. We ate dinner twice at Lemongrass, and they were two of our favorite meals of the whole trip. One of their signature items was beef, ground and seasoned to aromatic perfection, molded around stalks of lemongrass and grilled. The waiter cut it away from the lemongrass at our table and showed us how to wrap it in lettuce with rice vermicelli and peanuts and dip it into a sweet, clear sauce. We also tried a version with ground shrimp grilled on fat pieces of sugarcane that were impossibly moist and nearly as good as the beef version. Their soups (stuffed cucumber, and fish stew) and their clay pot dishes (Vietnamese catfish in a soy-based broth and pork versions) were so intensely flavorful and led us to adopt the motto, “eat anything in a clay pot.”

Our very, very helpful Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on a Shoestring guide led us to this restaurant. Lemongrass, 4 Duong Nguyen Thiep, 822-0496

6) Huong Lai Restaurant- Yet another great find thanks to Lonely Planet. This airy, serene restaurant on the second floor of a narrow building in central HCMC was one of the bargains of the trip. The staff is made up of previously disadvantaged young people whose excellent on-the-job training is visible in every delicious bite and considerate gesture. The restaurant offers a few set menus for lunch and dinner. For about ten dollars a person we had a lovely five course lunch that included a luscious roasted eggplant appetizer and a stir fry of beef and seasonal fresh chives, fatter and more "chive-y" than any I've ever had. This meal is a perfect example of the pristine, fresh, healthy style of Vietnamese cooking we loved so much.

Huong Lai 38 Ly Tu Trong, 822-6814 (more info and a photo here)

7) Crossing the road- Various travel guides offer similar advice on this subject, and it’s true! Just pick the most opportune moment and proceed with a slow, deliberate, confident stride. Do not hesitate, do not run in fits and starts with arms flailing wildly. The motor bike drivers know what to do, and they will dodge you. Buses and cars are a different story, so don’t attempt to cross in front of anything larger than a motor bike. You will be terrified the first time, but your initial success will give you such an adrenaline rush, you’ll soon anticipate the biggest intersections with excitement.

If you’re truly paralyzed with fear, wait for a friendly local to cross with you. Occasionally, a nice person would grab my arm and shepherd me along, totally unbidden. I honestly think the government ran some kind of campaign to educate citizens on how to help tourists avoid getting flattened in the middle of their city.

There's more (this is a Top 10 list, right?)...but it's coming in the next post. We took a break from darting through traffic in HCMC to spend three days in the beach town of Nha Trang, and I'll tell you all about it.

Technorati Tags: travel, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City

Thailand Do's and Don't's

Do:
1) Learn local customs- Take a cue from Ronny and Mike, and wai people in greeting instead of shaking hands.

2) Cook your own food- We spent one morning at the wonderful Baipai cooking school in Bangkok. It was a relaxing break from the chaos of the city and a nice opportunity to talk with other English-speaking tourists. The lovely instructors took us to their local market, then guided us through four Thai dishes. This was the best food we ate in Thailand! Take a look:

Chicken Satay cooked over hot coals with peanut sauce and sweet and sour relish.


Mango with pandan leaf-scented coconut sticky rice.

3) See the Big Buddha- If you think you'll go to Thailand and see all the temples, you're in for a VERY long trip. There are dozens of noteworthy temples in Bangkok alone, so we spent the better part of a day in the care of a tuk-tuk driver who chauffeured us around to the four most impressive ones. The Wat Benchama Bophit is an incredible structure fashioned out of Carrera marble from Italy, but our favorite was Wat Inthara Wihan, referred to by locals as the "Big Buddha."

As we walked into the courtyard that is home to the massive standing Buddha, a man handed me a little wooden cage with three tiny, energetic birds inside and told me to release them for good luck. Mike wanted to know if I asked how much they cost, and naturally I replied, "Who cares, this is sooo cool!" My lucky birds cost about two dollars, and the rest of our trip was lucky, indeed.

The Buddha is so huge, you can only see his feet in this shot.


The Marble Temple.

4) Hang out at the food court- Singapore had hawker centers, and Thailand has food courts. They are kind of like what we have in American malls, but the food is actually good. First you have to learn the drill: go to a desk near the entrance and buy vouchers in small increments of money. Then exchange them for food at any of the stalls. If you have vouchers left over, you go to a different desk to trade them for cash. The food court at the awesome MBK Center mall in Siam Square was our favorite haunt, and the place we had our first meal in Thailand-- pad thai (click here more my recipe), of course!


5) Make friends who use protection- Whether or not you plan to patronize Bangkok's legendary sex industry, be sure to eat a meal at Cabbages and Condoms. This beautiful (and very romantic) restaurant is owned by a former government official who made it his mission to promote sex education in Thailand. Profits are donated to STD prevention programs. I had the BEST green curry at the restaurant, and I got to snap this shot:

In case it's not clear in the photo, that's a sari made of the Pill and a dress made of unwrapped condoms that Mike is standing beside.

6) Eat anything wrapped in a lotus leaf- Thais love to wrap tasty things in lotus leaves. Some of the most popular treats are custardy, sugary confections. You may not be able to identify it, but if it's wrapped in a leaf, it's bound to be good.


Don’t:
1) Ask for the sommelier- Nobody drinks wine in Thailand! Seriously. It was a trying week for me. I like beer. I even love beer. But with a good meal, I need wine! Okay, it is possible to get wine in some restaurants, but the selection is nil, and there's nothing by the glass. I'm guessing the bars and restaurants in the major hotels serve wine, but we didn't go to Thailand to eat at the Hilton. One place where we could get wine by the glass was the 5th Flr. food court at the MBK center in Siam Square. Once, the bartender tried to pour my cabernet into a frosty, chilled glass... hey, you take what you can get.

2) Channel Leonardo DiCaprio (I mean Alex Garland) on Khao San Road- If you've read Garland's novel, The Beach (and I definitely recommend you do), you might be tempted to stay in one of the backpacker rat traps where the book opens. A lot of guidebooks will tell you that's the place for a cheap room and an occasional American breakfast to remind you of home. Don't do it! Khao San is dirty and jammed with people all the time. Not only that, but the neighborhood is isolated from most of the city. It's a good place to stay if you want to be near the shrines and buddhas, but you'll get nicer (still cheap) rooms, more accessibility and a much less touristy atmosphere elsewhere. We stayed at the Bed & Breakfast Inn right off Siam Square. The Wendy House right next door is also great.

Crazy Khao San Rd. It's a fun place to visit, but you wouldn't want to get a room there.

3) Assume a ping-pong show has anything to do with sports- You'll inevitably grow curious and venture out of your hotel after 9pm. This is a good idea. Thais seem to never sleep. There are night markets, and the city comes alive in contrast to the scorching, languid afternoons. What you do in Bangkok at night is your business, but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't warn 'ya!

4) Order a salad unless you’re up for serious heat- Asian salads are spicy! See this innocent little number we made at cooking school? It's got one little Thai chile in the mix, and it will definitely put a thin layer of dew on your brow--Thais would consider this level of heat very mild. If you're not up for it, ask for the wimpy western version when you order food in a restaurant. The fresh, unique salads are some of the best, healthiest choices on a Thai menu, but take precautions.

Savory Prawn Salad with lemongrass and spicy Thai chiles.

5) Go anywhere without your own “tissues”- Bangkok is a modern city, but their "facilities" can be anything but. Always bring your own tissues and be prepared to squat.

Bangkok is an amazing place where sleek, modern shopping centers stand next to quaint neighborhood shrines. And it's hot. I mean really hot. Once we learned to nap away the afternoon, we were much better off. We had fabulous food, but there is also a lot of bad food in Bangkok. Stay out of tourist traps and try the food courts. They can be hit or miss, but if it's a miss (nothing was really awful, but we did get the occasional plate of greasy noodles), you can throw away a dish that cost you two dollars and go back for something else. Like I said above, our favorite food experience was Baipai cooking school where we got to taste homestyle thai flavor and learn about local ingredients.

Technorati Tags: bangkok

Food-Focused Singapore Top 10

These are not in order. That would be too difficult.

1) Black Pepper Crab- It's found in restaurants all over the city, but the best place to eat it is at the East Coast Seafood Center. This cluster of restaurants faces the calm Straits of Singapore. Malaysia is off in the distance, and when it gets dark the boats and cargo ships on the water are lit up like a floating city. As for the crab, it sounds pretty simple, but it is not. It's the freshest, meatiest crab (the black pepper crab is in the background of the photo above; the one in front is chile crab that's very nearly as good as the other) that has been soaked through with a light, peppery sauce that flavors every bite. Before our crabs got cooked and peppered, a server carried them over to our table to make sure they met with our approval.

2) Chicken Rice- This Singapore specialty (above) is simplicity itself: the rice is cooked in a flavorful chicken broth, and the skinless breast meat is poached to produce moist, tasty chicken. There's spicy chili sauce on the side and a smattering of crisp cucumbers and green onions for color and texture, and that's it. The best place to get this are the hawker centers, collections of food stalls selling their incredibly delicious and cheap specialties.

3) Hawker Centers- Whether you find them in the shopping centers or in busy neighborhoods like Chinatown, these funhouses for foodies will dazzle you with their efficiency, their array of mouth-watering options, and their low prices. Most stalls specialize in just a few dishes with variations, but many just do one thing really well. Above is something Mike picked up even though he didn't have a clue what it was. Tasting proved it to be sweet bean paste in a light, crispy sesame dough. We didn't know it was a dessert until we took the first bite. A lot of signs are not in English, so you just go by the pictures and trust that whatever you pick is likely to be great.

4) Carrot Cake- Yet another hawker center winner. I read about this dish (above) in Gourmet (there is a recipe in the May issue here) just a few weeks before the trip, so I was on the lookout for it. The name is what caught my eye, although this dish is actually neither carrot nor cake. It's stir fried daikon (the Chinese word for daikon is very similar to the word for carrot) mixed with rice flour and steamed to form a cake of sorts which is then stir fried with eggs, garlic and green onion. It's fantastic, and definitely something we will try at home.

5) Chinatown- Over 75% of Singaporeans are of Chinese descent, so you might say that the whole city is Chinatown. Still, this wonderful area in the middle of downtown is pretty special. There's plenty of good shopping from clothes to art and souvenirs to shops selling the strange dried seafood products in the picture above. You'll see dried whole squid all over Southeast Asia, but I'm still not sure just what people do with it. You will also find unique Chinese shop house architecture, a great little museum, and a Hindu temple with a psychedelic aesthetic. And I'm pretty sure this Chinatown is the place to go if you need to pick up some foot of toad or eye of newt.

6) The Singapore Zoological Gardens- This is a world class zoo that is not to be missed. Even if you don't love zoos, there's a good chance you'll like this. It's not just that there are loads of creatures you haven't seen before, it's that most of them are kept in open areas with just a low fence or a small moat separating you from them. This komodo dragon was well removed from spectators, but giraffes, zebras and kangaroos are in wide open areas several yards from the footpaths and orangutans and chimps climb in their playgrounds overhead. I took about 12 pics of that komodo...see how he's eyeing me?

7) Boat Quay- This is the place to have dinner along Singapore's downtown waterfront area. Every cuisine is represented and you can sit outside and enjoy a great view and lively atmosphere. The surrounding streets are packed with great bars including a lovely little Irish pub called Molly Malone's.

8) Little India- After the Chinese, Indians make up the next largest ethnic group. This means there is a ton of great food to be had, from just about any region of India you like. We had fabulous Chicken Tikka and Chicken Saag at Delhi, a Punjabi restaurant. With bustling, colorful streets and vendors selling tons of new-to-you produce, it's a great place to wander.

9) Raffles Hotel- Named for Sir Thomas Raffles who arrived in 1819 and made Singapore a major trade hub of the British Empire, this is one of the city's premier luxury hotels and one of those tourist stops that you'll really enjoy. The hotel's Long Bar is the home of the Singapore Sling, a sweet yet strong pinkish-red cocktail that is rumored to contain gin. I tasted the Sling, but ordered a gin and tonic which was served to gorgeous effect: the gin was measured into a highball glass on the rocks, and the tonic was served separately in a miniature carafe, allowing the drinker to mix the cocktail to her liking...fabulous.

10) Chez Herndon- While in Singapore, Mike and I stayed in an airy, three-story, modern colonial-style private home in the quiet Bishan neighborhood. We had a kitchen, washer and dryer, free internet access, bikes and two knowledgeable guides. Thank you so, so much to Mike's Aunt Kate and Uncle Bill who took incredibly good care of us and who were not only a fountain of help and information, but a lot of fun to hang out with. We are so glad they recently became expats, since they are the main reason we ever entertained the idea of taking this trip!

Anything else you've always wanted to know about Singapore? Leave a comment!

Up Next: Thailand


Technorati Tags: travel, Singapore, food

London & Amsterdam Photos

Mike and I are back from our trip to London and Amsterdam. We had so much fun, and we're already planning our next trip (and our next, and our next...) which is coming up in about a month if things go to plan. I always feel that deflating let-down when I return from traveling, but thankfully it usually passes quickly.

I am glad to be back to my blog, my kitchen and all the other blogs that it seems like I haven't read in ages! Before I come up with another food post, I want to share some of my vacation pics. If you want to know anything about the places we went, leave a comment or drop me an email.

Though food doesn't feature in too many of these photos, rest assured that we ate very well, and very inexpensively, the whole time (with the exception of a dismal quattro stagione pizza at a touristy Italian restaurant in London because we were starving). Forget what you've heard about London and especially Amsterdam not being great food cities. They're both brilliant! All you have to do is stay away from the tourist traps, do a little research and develop your tastiness radar.

I am about to eat this lovely pickled herring, a favorite dutch snack (contrary to popular belief, they don't swallow them whole). It has the texture of sushi, the pucker of a pickle and the flavor of, well, herring.

We had an awesome and deliciously new-to-us meal at this Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam right next to the flower market. You order one of several set menu options where you get rice and little portions of at least 8 different dishes, just like tapas--love that!

This is one of my very favorite places in London: the Millenium Bridge leading to the Tate Modern, one of the most original and stunning museums in the world.

The other side of the Millenium Bridge facing St. Paul's Cathedral across the Thames.

Me in front of Somerset House on the Strand where another favorite museum, the Courtauld Gallery is located. If you like Impressionism, do not miss this relatively small, but priceless collection of treasures by, most notably, Renoir, Degas and Manet.

"Cheese!!!" A Wallace and Gromit fan in front of Neal's Yard Dairy, a fabulous, pioneering cheese shop near Covent Garden.


The entrance to Old Spitalfields Market in the eclectic, delicious and gritty East End.

Leading to Notting Hill's Portobello Road, just a couple streets from our hotel.

I want to go back! Until then, I'll be resuming food blogging soon...


Technorati Tags: travel, London, Amsterdam