Good Eats: Best Meals in 2017

At the end of every year, I try to do a roundup post of my favorite meals from that year. Well, this post is a few days late.

If you’re a regular reader here, you’ll know that food is pretty much my life. I work as a professional pastry chef, enjoy cooking meals at home regularly and simply love eating out, especially when we travel. It’s not uncommon for me to plan entire trips based around where we are going to eat, drink or even have a coffee.

Yes, I’m a little bit OCD when it comes to our trip planning. Still, we seem to have a good time and eat well no matter where we are in the world.

Despite 2017 being a year that both hubby and I worked like crazy people most of the time, we also found enough time to take several trips and enjoy some special meals together.

Dinner in Dubai on the Beach

Back in October 2016, I booked a really good flight deal from London to Dubai via Emirates for travel in March 2017. I figured after several gray months in London, we would be pining for some sunshine. At the end of March, we celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary by eating along the beach in Dubai at FISH, located in the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi on Jumeirah Beach. The meal featured several mezes and a classic grilled fish, but the scene, the service (provided by two Turkish waiters) and the reminder of our Istanbul memories made this meal very special. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect anniversary dinner!

Soaking up some sunshine at the Le Meridien Mina Seyahi on Jumeirah Beach.

A Girlie Girl Luncheon

Over the summer, an Aussie girlfriend came to visit us for her birthday, so I took her out for a fancy girls’ luncheon set in the elegant Petersham Nursery in Richmond. I’ve been dying to go here, but the vast greenhouse filled with garlands of colorful, blooming flowers, tatty bamboo shades and mismatched garden furniture means the nursery is definitely a girlie affair.

We kicked off our lunch with some fruity bellinis followed by fried zucchini blossoms (too large of a portion), mozzarella di Bufala with heritage tomatoes and nasturtium flowers, and char-grilled quail with peaches and fennel. All the dishes almost looked too pretty to eat! My favorite was the deconstructed Eton Mess with berries, meringue and rose petals.

After lunch, we had a wander through the summer flowers in the greenhouse and said hello to the nearby cows in the pasture.

Michelin-Star Lunch at Lyle’s

In September, another Aussie girlfriend and her husband came to visit. Since she is a fellow foodie, I surprised her with a multi-course lunch at Lyle’s, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the Shoreditch neighborhood of London.

We ordered six dishes to share: raw scallops with fairy ring mushrooms; girolles with an egg and salted gooseberries; sole fillets with fennel and brown crab; duck leg with pickled cherries; and lamb’s heart and liver with green strawberries. Every dish was meticulously plated with tiny garnishes of fresh herbs or sliced vegetables. We shared three desserts as well with the caramel ice cream and coffee meringue as the clear winner.

What’s wonderful about the exceptional service at Lyle’s is that the chef was willing to alter dishes for my friend since she has some dietary restrictions. Definitely a menu worth splurging for in London!

Turkish Dreams

As you may recall, in September, I had a wonderful foodie weekend in Bodrum, Turkey, and took part in the 3^rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival. One of the trip’s highlights was enjoying a traditional köy kahvaltısı (village breakfast) with my new group of Turkish friends. You can read more about my experience at Etrim Doğa Restaurant & KöyKahvaltısı here.

A French Dinner Along the Thames

Later in September, we enjoyed a fancy French dinner at Le Pont de la Tour along the Thames in London. This elegant, 19th-century former tea warehouse alongside Tower Bridge was offering a special 3-course menu (plus a glass for champagne) for only £30 in cooperation with the Evening Standard, which usually offers restaurant deals a few times a year. What a bargain!

Although we had to wait awhile for an outdoor table, later we enjoyed stunning views of the City and Tower Bridge while eating our dinner. I can’t recall all the dishes we had now, but suffice to say, this restaurant is perfect for a special occasion.

A chocolate tart and a lemon curd/thyme shortbread dessert.

From our dining table, we saw the Tower Bridge open up to let a large ship pass through.
This was the first time I've ever seen the bridge open! 

Turkish-Cypriot Dinner

In December, we returned to Oklava with our German friends, who also enjoy food as much as we do. I like Oklava because Chef Selin Kiazim serves Turkish-Cypriot dishes that reflects her heritage. She also was a finalist in the 2017 series of Great British Menu, which I enjoyed watching, and she is one of the few female top chefs in London.

We shared several dishes including: spiced bread with date butter (sublime!), olives, grilled Cypriot hellim cheese, chili roast cauliflower with pistachios and red onion, lahmacun – flatbread with tomatoes and mincemeat and a vegetarian pide with cheese, kale, garlic and burnt cabbage. For dessert, we shared a generous portion of kunefe, my favorite Turkish dessert.

Festive Tasting Menus
We ended December with two tasting menus – one in York, UK, and the latter in Oslo, Norway.

In York, we dined at Park Restaurant, a Michelin Guide-recommended restaurant located in the Victorian-era Maramadukes Town House Hotel. While the service started a bit rough since the waiter seemed confused on how to make a basic martini, the delicious, well-plated food made up for the mistakes. By the end of the meal, we were on friendly terms with our server as he was doing his best to please us and served us a free round of drinks at the end. The Park offers a 6-course menu for £60 that also includes several amuse-bouche, so I think we ended up having 10 courses. I think the scallops and the duck breast entrée were my two favorite dishes of the night.

The Nordic countries are known for their Michelin Guide-starred restaurants, in particular, Noma in Copenhagen, which was ranked as the world’s top restaurant for several years. In Oslo, which has four Michelin-starred restaurants, we chose a less expensive option and dined at Arakataka, a modern bistro. Arakataka serves seasonal Nordic cuisine and offers a set menu of four courses for 495 krone (about £45).

Our main dishes were: salmon with dill oil and buttermilk, cod with sunchokes and duck breast with cabbage and lingonberries. For dessert, we were served sea buckthorn (a sour berry) sorbet with groats and a milky foam. This was one dessert that neither one of us liked. It was tart, gritty and just a bit strange. I’ll give Arakataka kudos for trying to use a lot of Nordic ingredients, but sea buckthorns should not belong in a dessert.

Overall, I can say that 2017 was a delicious year, and I can only hope that we have just as good of time in 2018 on our travels.

Happy eating in 2018!

Joy

Read More

Good Eats: Foodie Adventures in Bodrum, Turkey

Of course, when one visits Turkey, you can plan to eat well.

I thought I would share some of the special dishes and places I visited during my trip to Bodrum, a beautiful resort area located on the southwest peninsula along the Aegean Sea.

Avlu Bistro & Bar

On the first night in Bodrum after the 3rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival had kicked off with traditional Aegean dances, we ate dinner at a lovely restored, 160-year-old stone house called Avlu Bistro & Bar. The restaurant has two levels inside and plenty of outdoor tables so you can enjoy the pleasant summer weather.

Here, we started off with several mezzes including smoked salmon bruschetta, veal carpaccio, Turkish olives, cheese, etc. Every dish was delicious, but to me, the real highlight was the main course – the çökertme kebabı. This traditional Bodrum dish features tender steak (bonfile) served atop fried shoestring potatoes in a yogurt and tomato sauce. OMG! As a meat lover, I was in heaven!

Somehow during my previous trips to Bodrum, I had missed out on having çökertme kebabı. Never again! If you love steak, then you must try this amazing dish when you visit the Bodrum area.

For dessert, we had a warm chocolate soufflé cake and a panna cotta with berries. After dinner, we walked along Bodrum’s famous Barlar Sokak and headed back to our hotel to relax.

Hotel Marma Beach

In the mornings, I enjoyed a full Turkish breakfast buffet at Hotel Marma Beach, a small, boutique hotel located on Ortakent Beach. I had a second-floor bedroom here with a small terrace where I enjoyed sitting out in the late afternoons with a glass of Turkish wine. A traditional Turkish breakfast often features several kinds of cheeses, breads, olives, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, boiled eggs and teas. Simple and delicious!

Köy Kahvaltısı 

Of course, I can’t forget the amazing köy kahvaltısı (village breakfast) that I enjoyed with my new Turkish friends in the countyside at Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı. To read more about that experience, please read this post: Enjoying a Turkish Village Breakfast Near Bodrum.

Kavurmacı Celal Usta

For lunch, we ate at a small family restaurant in Mumcular called Kavurmacı Celal Usta. Often, small restaurants in Turkey will specialize in cooking and serving just one or two dishes. In this case, we were interested in eating saç kavurma. Kavurma usually refers to beef or lamb simply seasoned and cooked in its own juices and fat.

Another traditional way to prepare kavurma is to cook it on a metal pan called a saç. The saç is placed over an open fire and the diced lamb or beef is stirred around and cooked with a large metal spatula until the meat releases its juices and fat. Our dish was served with lettuce, freshly diced tomatoes and bread. Of course, the drink of choice here is ayran – a salty, but refreshing Turkish yogurt drink. Ayran also goes well a really spicy meal. Trust me.

Göltürkbükü Mahallesi

Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, I often didn’t know where I was going on this trip since I had very limited wifi and my brain was constantly working away at my lost Turkish language skills. After leaving Mumcular, I know we drove south toward the Göltürkbükü Mahallesi. I have since learned that we stopped for afternoon tea at Hasan Restoran, a family-owned restaurant/motel located on the beach. We dined on chilled, locally-harvested grapes and figs while enjoying the seaviews in the afternoon sunshine. But the highlight here was eating Saraylı Tatlısı – another Bodrum specialty which is thin sheets of yufka (phyllo dough) baked in a sugary syrup and topped with chopped pistachios.

If you like Turkish baklava, then you will love Saraylı Tatlısı as well.

Whenever you travel to Turkey, I promise that you will eat well – be it a large city like Bodrum or Istanbul or the tiniest of Turkish villages.

Again, special thanks to Karaova-Der, Slow Food Bodrum and the Bodrum municipality for making this wonderful Turkish trip happen!

Read More

Highlights from Bodrum’s 3rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival

I can’t believe that it’s already been more than a month since I was in Bodrum, Turkey, for the 3^rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival.

This fantastic foodie event, held in September in the Mumcular Park, highlighted not only the local crops of the surrounding rich agricultural lands, but also the local Turkish traditions and customs. The three-day festival provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about these traditional ways and for me to spend some time basking in Turkish hospitality and supporting a wonderful cause. The event was organized by Karaova-Der, a local association under the leadership of Ali Öztürk, along with Slow Food Bodrum and the Bodrum municipality.

This week, I learned from fellow blogger Annie of Back to Bodrum that the event was considered a success, with a 30 percent increase in participants and visitors. That’s wonderful news!

Since I come from a farm-based background and professionally work as a pastry chef, I am a firm believer in using local and seasonal products like the ones promoted at the festival. I was honored to be a guest chef at the event, helping judge the food contest and doing a cooking demo of my recipe for a Fig Tart with a Turkish Twist. Let me know if you give my recipe a go!

And now some highlights from the 3^rd Annual Karaova Grape Harvest Festival:

The festival kicked off on the first night with announcements by local officials and traditional Turkish dances held in the main Bodrum square or meydan. I loved the local dresses which are typical of the Aegean region in Turkey!

On Saturday, I met up with a friendly group of Turkish bloggers and writers to spend a day at the festival. Although my Turkish has become a bit rusty these last few years, I still am able to communicate in my bir az Türkçe, and my yeni arkadaşlar were quite welcoming. 

At the festival, I met several local farmers and women who make a living by selling their produce and spices or by making dolls, jams, compotes, sauces, scarves, placemats and tablecloths, wooden serving spoons and more. I had a wonderful time wandering around the festival, admiring and sampling various goodies by the numerous stallholders.

I bought this beautiful blue scarf from this local lady who said the scarf matched by blue eyes. What a sweetie!

I couldn’t resist taking a photo with this local farmer!
He was so jovial! I bought some spices and dried herbs from him.

One of the bloggers, Suleyman Dilsiz of Istanbul did a presentation about cooking fish. He has published two cookbooks: “Kılçıksız Balık” (about fish) and “Kahvaltıya Dair Her Şey” (about breakfast). 

In the evening, I helped judge the food contest which included traditional Turkish recipes made by local cooks in three categories: Zeytinyağlılar (olive oil dishes), Tatlılar (desserts) and Börekler (savory pastries made from thin phyllo dough). The idea of the food contest was to help promote traditional recipes and to hopefully publish them all in a small booklet. I had no idea that judging a food contest would be somewhat difficult and filling at the end. Adding up all the proper points for each category took time. But I was very honored to participate along with Asli Mutlu of Cooking Classes Bodrum, Oya Emerk of Oya’s Cuisine in Istanbul, and two local residents.

After we had counted the results, the winners posed for photos with Asli Mutlu, Oya Emerk and myself. What a wonderful event!

You can read more about the food contest and its winners written by Turkish blogger Arzu of Vanilins.com.

Baking in Bodrum at the Karaova Festival

On Sunday, I returned to festival because it was showtime! Even though I’ve given dozens and dozens of cooking classes over the years, I was still a bit nervous because I was talking in front of a mainly Turkish-speaking crowd. No need to fear! One of the volunteers from Slow Food Bodrum helped translate as I spoke in English. I felt more relaxed as I talked about one of my favorite tart recipes and looked out and saw several familiar and smiling faces in the crowd.

Asli  of Cooking Classes Bodrum introduced me at the event.

I personally met Ali Öztürk of Karaova-Der and humbly received a lovely award from him.

At the end of my presentation, I gave out samples of my delicious fig and grape tart and spoke with some of the audience members. Again, it was an honor to be at the Karaova Festival and talk about baking.

I’m so thankful to have met all these wonderful Turkish bloggers and for providing me with some of these photos.

I’m already hoping that I can make another trip to Turkey in 2018! And don’t miss next year’s Karaova Festival in Bodrum!

This event would not have been possible without the support of these friends and sponsors, so special thanks goes to:

·       *Asli Mutlu of Cooking Classes Bodrum 

·       *Oya Emerk of Oya’s Cuisine 

·       *Slow Food Bodrum 

*Karaova-Der

·      * Akustik Turizm for providing transportation.

·       *Hotel Marma Beach for providing lodging.

To learn more about Turkish food, please visit some of these Turkish bloggers’ websites:

·       * Sibel Yalcin 

·       * Arzu Goncü Hangül of Vanilins.com 

·       * Birgül Erdogan 

·       * Hacer Sener 

·       * Leyla Kılıç 

·       * Emel Akan 

·       * Nur Hayat 

·       * Serkan Karagoz 

Read More

A Turkish Famly Tradition: Etrim Hali Carpets

Before enjoying my Turkish Köy Kahvaltısı near Bodrum, I was introduced to a Turkish mother who sat on a cushion weaving a large carpet with homespun wool.

Her nimble fingers moved quickly across the old wooden loom. She made double knots using different colored yarn, but she had no pattern. Every design she made was done by memory.

Engin Başol, owner of Etrim Hali Carpets located in the small village of Etrim, about 24km from Bodrum, introduced us to his mother, Ümmüham Başol, who was currently weaving the carpet for us. His family roots in the area date back 500 years.

Engin Başol, along with his father, Mehmet, run the Turkish carpet business which is a cooperative made up several local villages enabling women who can weave to sell their rugs. The younger Başol, who spoke English, explained that they are trying to preserve the local traditions such as carpet weaving.

“I feel like it’s a dying art as the younger women want to move to the city and then they marry Bodrum men. They leave the village life behind them,” Engin Başol said.

As he leads us through the main building, I am amazed by how many Turkish carpets and kilims fill each and every single room. They are stacked on top of each other or rolled up in corners, on the floor or on a bench. The bright colors and different patterns are astounding. Although I already own two Turkish kilims, I wished I had more time to buy another one or maybe even two.

Ümmüham spends two months making a wool double knotted Turkish carpet (the fluffier kind of rugs that can be mistaken for Oriental rugs) that measures approximately 1.5 meters in dimension while a flat-weave kilim takes three weeks. She also hand-dyes the wool yarn using only natural ingredients such as flowers, roots and spices. She shows us the yarns hanging outside on hooks to dry while cows and chickens laze about in the yard nearby.

To me, buying a Turkish carpet or kilim is a personal experience. When we lived in Turkey, I took several friends to buy Turkish carpets from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. When I finally purchased my own, I spent about two hours looking at dozens of different styles. And even though I love my kilims, I don’t know the story behind them.

Getting a Turkish carpet or kilim from Etrim village and the Başol family is a memory that would last forever.

If you’re visiting the Bodrum area, feel free to call Engin Başol so you can enjoy a traditional Turkish breakfast and see the carpets for yourself. It’s also a good opportunity to visit and learn about a Turkish village in person.

Location:

Etrim Hali Carpets is located next to Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı

Etrim Mahallesi köyüaz
Pınarlıbelen, Muğla, Turkey 48400

Website: http://www.etrimhali.com.tr/

Best to call ahead to make group reservations.  +90 532 602 6769

(I was the guest of Etrim Doğa Restaurant & Köy Kahvaltısı, but all the opinions expressed here are my own.)

Read More