Summer - Year 2

Summer Year 2 was the "pack as much in as possible" summer. I spent the first two weeks exploring Italy, then it was off to Baltimore, DC, New York, and Florida before heading back to Cairo (again, in time for my friend's birthday party ON the Nile).

It was the best summer ever in terms of catching up with friends and family; a big shout-out to everyone who put me up (and put up with me) and roommate from Cairo, who was on her first adventure to America. It was a two wedding summer - one in a beautiful nature center, the other at the burial place of Edgar Allen Poe (there's an old church on the site). It was also the best summer for entertainment value (Jason and the Aquanauts water ballet in Balitmore, Hamlet in the park in Ellicott City, The Birdcage on Broadway, Dracula performed at the Bargello Palace/art museum in Florence, Trixie and Monkey in Baltimore...) and FOOD - I easily put on 15 pounds gorging myself on Italian and American delicacies!

Milan, Italy

 

 

Vernazza (the Cinque Terre), Italy

 

Pisa, Italy

 

Florence, Italy

 

 

Baltimore, MD

 

Washington, DC

 

New York, NY

 

 

Ocala (?), FL

Summer - Year 1

My first Summer living in Egypt seemed endless; probably because it was the first summer as a teacher that I wasn't working to make ends meet. In fact, it was the first summer I hadn't worked since I turned 16 - even the summer before moving to Egypt I worked as a barista AND as an event manager, so having a whole summer off was a dream I had never dared dream before!

I went home to Baltimore with a jaunt to NYC, flew off to Florida and took a road-trip to Miami with my brother, returned to Cairo for a few days, then explored Eastern Europe (by plane, train, and hydrofoil) before returning to Cairo just in time for my friend's 30th birthday.

Baltimore, MD, USA

New York City, NY, USA

 

Miami, FL, USA

 

Vienna, Austria

 

Salzburg, Austria

 

 

Bratislava, Slovakia

 

 

Trencin, Slovakia

 

 

Budapest, Hungary

My Top 5

Okay, so I'm posting this from Luxor during Eid el Adha; but this post has nothing to do with Luxor, or the Eid; other than the fact that I've finally had a break long enough and relaxing enough to read an entire book.

I’ve just completed Grant Achatz’s Life, On the Line. Among other things (life and death, a desire for adventurous food, a need to schedule a trip to Napa), the book got me thinking about great meals I’ve had in my travels. Early in the book, Achatz describes his disappointing experience with highly-rated restaurants in Europe. Every food-lover who has ever traveled out of the way for a great meal, only to find over-cooked, mass-produced food or snooty, unappreciative service has felt this pain: disappointment in the first bite.

The first unique and amazing meal I ever appreciated was in the early 2000’s. For my birthday, my mom bought my best friend and I each a ticket to a beer-tasting dinner at Brewer’s Art in Baltimore. At the time I spent a great number of happy hours in their basement bar drinking their Resurrection Ale and eating my weight in garlic fries (that they came with mayonnaise instead of ketchup was, to the 21 year old me, so cosmopolitan). This time, however, we’d be eating a chef’s tasting menu in the dining room with a range of foodies, critics, and beer enthusiasts.

Pairing food with beer, particularly heavy ales with notes of chocolate and coffee, is no mean feat. E and I sat with the chef’s wife and mother-in-law. The chef was new to the restaurant and this was his introduction to the diners, so he brought his A-game. For a gal who worked at a family-style seafood restaurant at the beach, and counted special events at the local Spanish restaurant (which had not changed, in menu or decor, since the late 60’s) as one of her few fine dining experiences; the beer-tasting dinner was a revelation. A salmon SKIN cracker? Food presented in martini glasses? and SQUAB? What the hell was squab? I didn’t know, but also did not want to appear gauche by turning it down when someone said it was 'pigeon'. The rich flavors of the squab perfectly complimented the beer and I was hooked – in an instant I was a foodie.

Since then, I have traveled and eaten in some fine establishments that disappointed. But, like Achatz, I have also had food revelations - in a few unlikely places. Over the past three years, I have documented my travels, my life in Cairo, and my journey discovering food on this blog. So here’s a list – a top five restaurants from the last four years of travel. There are plenty of great meals not mentioned from during these three years and before – an extravagant meal at One-Fifty Blue in Chicago on my first business trip and the feeling of great reward for being included in the outing; the night at Perilla when I sat alone at the bar savoring the duck and pomegranate seeds after having just accepted my job in Cairo; the meal at WD-50 with a few courses that blew my mind and the most excellent service I’ve yet found equal to (a good bartender who can make a single girl at the bar feel like a VIP without flirting or being intrusive is worth his weight in gold); Immervoll in Vienna with their super-fresh ingredients and outdoor tables; my thirtieth birthday dinner at Charleston in Baltimore, with Mom and George, that started with a soup as the amuse...these were great meals, too.

But most of the top 5 beat those meals because of that little something special that I’ve not found anywhere else. It's never just about the food - it's about the memory, the trip, the service, the friends sharing the meal. So here we go; my top 5 restaurants from my travels over the last three years. These aren’t in any particular order because I wouldn’t begin to know how to rank such different, amazing experiences. The links are to my blog posts about those meals; but I've re-posted the pics here.

1. Alain Parodi’s Eat-at-Milton’s; Athens, Greece. I am known as a bit of a soup-nut. Here, it was the split-pea velote with creme fraiche topped with chorizo and spring onions that won me over and brought me back for a second taste. I may have tried to lick the bowl.

2. La Lanterna Due; Sorrento, Italy. I’m putting this after Parodi’s because of the Cream of Asparagus soup that blew my mind, and again, brought me back for a second time. Soup = comfort = happy me. I don't have a picture - it was just a greenish bowl of soup; but on a chilly April night in an alleyway off the main drag (after a glass of wine and a gorgeous sunset by the harbor spent chatting to some old men in pidgin-English/Italian) it was AMAZING.

3. Restaurants on the Plaza in Vernazza, Italy. Ok, I actually can’t remember the name of either of the two restaurants in the plaza in Vernazza (according to the plate in one of the pics,the restaurant with the great mussels was Gambero Rosso), but they were both amazing and deserve equal billing. One for its clams and “Octopus In Hell;” and Gambero Rosso, as I mentioned, for its stuffed mussels (which now reminds me of the excellent deep fried mussels in Turkey...but then we're up to 7 restaurants on what is supposed to be a list of 5...) and trofie pasta in pesto. Both had great service, beautiful views at sunset, and fantastic food.

4. To Frourio; Limassol, Cyprus. This small, family owned and operated restaurant was the highlight of my first two visits to Cyprus. One Easter they had no meat (the meat market was closed and they would only buy fresh meat and produce) so the owner offered vegetarian moussaka instead of the usual pork - it was the most amazing vegetarian moussaka I've ever had. On my third trip to Cyprus, the restaurant was very sadly gone. However, the memory of their bubbling pork (and vegetarian) moussaka, fresh crusty bread, and bottomless carafes of house-wine still makes my tummy gurgle in anticipation.

5. Casa Mono; New York, NY. When staying in NYC last summer, an old friend recommended that my travel-buddy and I visit some foodie-haven near Union Square for lunch. Wandering about, famished after a morning of sight-seeing, we couldn’t find the restaurant, but there was an inviting bistro-type place on the corner just opening up. Despite my Top Chef obsession (Elan from season 2 had worked there), I didn’t recognize the name of the place; I also didn’t understand why the waitress was asking if we had a reservation – sure the place was small (it would fill up) but surely it was just another New York restaurant [it wasn’t] and it would just be a casual lunch [not at all]. Again, a meal so good, my friend and I popped in again the next day on our way to the train station. Same table, same waitress (who remembered what wine we ordered, our entire food order, and helped us through the menu to choose more adventurous flavors - though we stuck with the pumpkin goat-cheese balls both times), same awesomeness.

A definitive list? Not by a long shot. Just the meals that I remembered most fondly as I read Life, On the Line.

Summer Food

I feel like all I have done this summer is eat. From fresh grilled branzino in Vernazza, Italy to sweet corn and crab soup last night at Acadiana in Washington, DC - this has been a summer of culinary delights!

So far, the summer travel itinerary has included: Vernazza, Milan, Pisa, and Florence Italy; Baltimore, MD; Washington, DC; and New York, NY...not to mention a brief stop in Cairo.

The highlight of my recent trip to New York was seeing La Cage Aux Folles on Broadway. I've never seen a show on Broadway where all the stars showed up to play their roles (in this case Kelsey Grammar and Douglas Hodge). Douglas Hodge, who played Albert, won the Tony and it was easy to see why - the show was so much fun (and the audience was so involved) that I didn't want to leave the theatre.

Beside the dash-of-drag on my trip, the food was amazing. I went again to Perilla and had some incredible skate wing that was perfectly cooked. I went to Craftbar and had some great pork. But the culinary gem on this trip was an accidental find - a tapas restaurant called Casa Mono on Irving Place near Union Square.

I present you my lunch:

First, Quail with figs..

I've come to love quail since moving to Egypt where it is on the menu of my favorite restaurant Abu El Sid. This quail was meaty, perfectly cooked, and the figs were amazing along side.

Next, the croquettes of pumpkin and goat cheese.

I don't usually like pumpkin, but the herbed goat cheese in the middle and delicate fried casing of the creamy creamy pumpkin was so good I ordered it two days in a row.

That's right - the food was so good, I went back again the next day to try more tapas! (Lobster salad, skirt steak over a cous-cous salsa, goat, fideos with clams and chorizo, and the Spanish take on creme brulee).

There was so much *good* food that my visitor and I couldn't eat a big meal again for days!

Fortunately, NYC and DC have provided lots of walking opportunities to work off all of the deep fried, grilled, poached, braised, broiled, and boiled goodness!

Next stop: Florida!

Stranded in NYC

I am stranded in New York, with it's 11 inches of snow, but there are so much worse places to be stranded. I am, luckily, not stranded in an airport, a pirate ship, or on a desert island. I am stranded in beautiful, snowy, picturesque Manhattan.

I had planned to be here one night anyway, to catch up with my best friend from college and some others; but never expected the adventure and snowy hijinks!

The food, however, I had high-standards for.

J picked the restaurant - Public, just a short walk from my hotel (blessedly short, which the walk after dinner was NOT).

The restaurant has that whole "New York" thing going on. Trendy decor, b-list celebrities, adorable waiters and waitresses, and good food.

Last night I began with Kobe Beef TONGUE.

Yes! Tongue, my first foray in to offal. It was delicious. It was accompanied by crispy chickpeas, middle eastern spices and babaganough (actually, it was hummus, but I'll forgive them mixing them up).

J had the Tazmanian Trout Tartar with Daikkon and a raw quail egg on top. SO DIVINE!

For the Mains I had the lamb on goat-cheese polenta (pictured below), and J had the venison. His dish won for taste, though mine, with it's citrus-y saucing, was prettier. I'd never had venison before and his was AMAZING! J also ordered some brussel sprouts for us that were much tastier than the ones I had at the ball 2 weeks ago (which were my first taste of brussel sprouts ever!)


Our bottle of Mt. Difficulty nearly gone, we plowed through dessert (for me) and a spanish cheese tray (for he). SO GOOD!

Then out in to the snow to go to meet friends at Odessa but..wait..oh no! We had lingered too long over our dinners and were a full hour late, and by then the snow had chased them home! J made the best of the situation by ordering HOT CHOCOLATE and CHEESE PEROGIES for me since I had been walking about in the snow in nothing but layers of sweaters (my coats are all in Baltimore - for what do I need with Winter coats in Egypt?) and my wool pashmina, which left me looking not unlike a little old Eastern European woman in a babushka lost in the snow.

Best of all, I got to spend an entire evening with my very very good friend and today I get to do it all over again!

New York Foodie Tour

To wrap up my trip to the states, I decided on a three-day foodie tour of Manhattan. (Really, it was a three day trip to visit some of my oldest friends, but let's focus on the food right now).

First stop on the tour was unexpected. Because we could not check in to our hotel when we arrived in Manhattan, my best friend and I decided to take the subway uptown and go to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) which was hosting an exhibit I wanted to see. After wandering around for about an hour, our stomachs began growling and we headed for the cafe.

The cafe boasted a special: the "Italian Picnic." This was a complete lunch of 5 meats & cheese, flatbread, and two sides (we chose asparagus and calamari). It was tasty and delicious; and relatively cheap for NYC.

Later that evening, before meeting up with some spectacular friends at a rooftop venue, we headed to Tom Colicchio's restaurant that was near our hotel called CraftBar. In a departure from the ordinary, I ordered skate wing, which came with fingerling potatoes and a creamy dipping sauce. The skate wing had an amazing texture, if slightly salty flavor (which I loved). Our server was fun and friendly and the atmosphere was casual, comfortable, and included a great use of space. Overall, I found this to be one of my favorite dining experiences of the trip - as much for the company and atmosphere as the food.

Twice on the trip I visited my favorite NYC lunch spot Republic - a Vietnamese noodle restaurant on Union Square. Republic was the site of my first ever meal out in New York as a grown-up (way back in 2000) and it stands up as a consistently delicious and affordable place to grab lunch and people watch. As always, I ordered the beef skewers on rice noodles with daikon radish slaw (both times) with was spicy and the perfect high-protein / low carb lunch to keep one fueled for an afternoon of walking and shopping around lower Manhattan. In a departure from the norm, however, my friend ordered the Black Sesame Ice Cream; it was a great flavor to end the meal with, but I could not have eaten the whole bowl and was glad we shared.

My final "big foodie" outing was to Chef Wiley Dufresne's WD-50 restaurant. I'm a big fan of Chef-Celebrity Dufresne from his appearances on Top Chef over the years, so I had high expectations: I was not disappointed.

The flavors for each plate, from the amuse to the post-dessert treat were surprising and amazing. The amuse included Octopus, Lily Bulb, Tahina and Mulberries...now, if you know me you know that since I moved to Egypt I put Tahina on just about everything - so this dish was a home run from the start. But the beautiful presentation, combined with the unexpected element of lily bulb made this the perfect amuse and a great little palate preparer.

My next plate was corned duck with horseradish cream and purple mustard on a little cracker...BEST THING I ATE ALL NIGHT. I love the bite of horseradish and I savored this dish that made me smile with each bite.

Moving on to my entree, the lamb shoulder was not the star of the plate - instead the headliner was a "pine-nut baked beans" concoction that was out of this world! Ham! Pine Nuts! Super Flavors! Play on a classic! This dish was spectacular and, again, savored greatly.

Finally I ordered the 3 dessert tasting menu (why not?) and was not disappointed. Rather than go through each dessert in excruciating detail (which you will be forced to hear if you see me in person any time in the next YEAR) I will lay these two caveats:
1) Vanilla Ice Cream + Balsamic Vinegar = awesome
2) I dislike pistachios greatly,WITH A PASSION, and the flavor of melon leaves me cold. However, the pistachio cake with melon ice cream was so good that there wasn't even a trace of Chartreuse foam left on the plate when I was done with it.

Besides all the eating, I did have an amazing time hanging out with some very dear old friends in some very unusual "only in New York" type of situations ...

but for now I hope I've left your taste buds a tingling for something new and different.

A Little Background

Oh goodness, where to begin? I have been teaching in Baltimore City for the last two years at a really fantastic school called Doris M. Johnson High School at Lake Clifton. I followed my students from 9th to 10th grade there and, while I love them all very much, found that it was time to leave them.

Baltimore was beginning to feel very small. Between my teaching duties, my involvement over the last 8 years with fluid movement, and my part-time job as an event manager at the Creative Alliance I have met many wonderful people from the Baltimore community: teachers, writers, performers, artists, shop keepers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, food critics; and made many wonderful friends - but I have spent all but 6 years of my life here in "smalltimore" and there is so much more world to see!

I applied in November to teach internationally. I didn't even have a specific place in mind (though South America and Italy were particularly high on my list in the beginning), I just knew that it was so important to get out and experience the greater world. Before applying I had visited 12% of the world (according to my "World Traveler" map on facebook); Italy, Britain, Ireland and Canada being among my favorite spots. As the interview dates approached I began to get interview requests from places I had not even thought of: Thailand, China, and Egypt included, and I realized that the world was an ever bigger and more exciting place than I had ever dreamed.

In February I trekked up to New York City for a week of interviews. By the end of the first day (and 12 interviews) I would have 2 concrete job offers: one in Mexico and one in Egypt. I also had potential job opportunities in Ecuador and Singapore. In the end, the decision was nerve wracking and quick. I had been to Mexico and was not ready to live a 24 hour plane flight away. I have always wanted to see the pyramids and was obsessed with Egyptian history, art, and mythology as a child - even working it in to some of my English classes when I could. The school representatives were exceptionally kind and had a table of gummy worms, peanuts, and other snacks sitting on a reception table in the hallway for potential employees waiting their turn, which was like a sign from Isis that this was the job for me! (I am a complete sucker for gummy worms!)

After accepting the job offer early on the second day of interviews and signing a mountain of paperwork, I took a cab from 42nd Street to Union Square and walked right into the Barnes and Nobel travel section - which had only one book on Cairo: "The Practical Guide to Cairo", which has become my bible and is already highlighted to the hilt. I also treated myself to a very special dinner that night at Perilla in the East Village, which was opened by Harold Dieterle, the winner of the first season of Top Chef (I am a HUGE top chef fan, I also treated myself to lunch that day at Craftwich, Tom Colliccio's sandwich shop). My dinner was perfect - possibly sweetened by my success!

And so here I am 4 months later getting very excited for the adventure of a lifetime! While my departure is not for another 9 weeks, my journey has already very much begun!