New Mexico Grub - Most Like It Hotttt

I like spicy food.

Prior to my relationship with The Gentleman, most of the spicy food I consumed came from Japanese, Thai, and other Asian cuisines. Southwestern spice, however, is very different from the flat spice of wasabi or the pinprick slow burn of Thai chili peppers. Southwestern food is fiery and flavorful, less vinegary than other hot spices. At least to my beginner's palate.

But what I've learned is that I not only like spicy food, I really like spicy food. I'm slowly getting more and more daring, choosing the two chili pepper option after finding I'm used to the one chili pepper option. Not quite yet onto three chilies, but give me time.

We did not go to Tijuana. But the restaurant wanted us to think we did.

 The first place we went to was Frontier, and the first thing I ordered was (of course) huevos rancheros. I have since come to decide that I. Love. Huevos. Rancheros.

I mean, what's not to like?! It's eggs, veggies, tortillas, cheese, and spicy. All awesome things that, when thrown together on a large plate, become EVEN MORE AWESOME.

Huevos rancheros awesomeness.

 On the morning of our failed balloon ride, The Gentleman took me to Flying Star to cheer me up. It worked, because I ordered this:

Breakfast hash with organic red quinoa, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, peppers and onions, and a poached egg.  I have got to try this at home.

During our brief afternoon visit to Santa Fe, we did get to go to The Shed for lunch. It's apparently where famous people hang out. We didn't see anyone famous (this time), but we did have a pretty incredible meal:

Carne Adovada Plate - 
Pieces of lean pork slow-roasted in a marinade of Shed red chile, garlic and oregano. One rolled blue corn enchilada filled with cheddar cheese, onion, covered with red chile & baked. Served with pinto beans & posole

To clarify, posole is a Mexican stew made with pork and hominy. That's those little yellowy bits at about 11 o'clock on the plate. Those little yellowy bits were delightful.

And it was here, at The Shed, that I experienced the most delightful margarita. I am not, per say, a huge fan of margaritas. I don't love sour mix, and most margarita mixes are somehow too sweet for me. But the bartender made me a margarita that featured St. Germain as a primary ingredient. I LOVE St. Germain! And it really did make quite a difference - it was sweet enough to balance the sourness, but not overly sweet. And it tasted fantastic with tequila.

Here is where a Fun Embarrassing Story comes into play. The bartender, who was quite amicable and lovely despite the fact that the restaurant was one like an hour and a half wait (FOR LUNCH, mind you), asked me how I liked my drink after I'd tasted it. I told him that St. Germain is basically one of my most favorite drinks, and he asked if I had ever tried a drink called "Death in the Afternoon?" Champagne, he said, and St. Germain, a candied cherry, and then something else that I didn't quite catch. I hadn't tried "Death in the Afternoon," as it turned out. But I would keep that in mind.

Wellp, because we were on vacation, The Gentleman and his family decided to order another round of margaritas with lunch. Being an adventurous person always seeking to broaden my horizons, I asked the server for a "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail. He sort of looked at me strangely, and I explained: "The bartender mentioned it?" He nodded and went over to the bar, and I saw the bartender look puzzled at first, but then over at me, and gave me a mischievous thumbs' up.

The other, normal, margaritas arrived at the table. "What did you order?" everyone wanted to know. Something with St. Germain and champagne, I said, because I didn't think I could drink any more tequila and still sightsee around Santa Fe all afternoon.

The bartender himself brought me my drink - a champagne flute filled with some sort of clearish green liquid, and a side split of champagne. "People don't usually order these for lunch!" he exclaimed, and I was just about to lament the lack of champagne lunches when The Gentleman politely asked what the green liquid was in my glass.

"That," the bartender said, setting down my flute and pouring champagne into the glass on top of the green liquid, "is the absinthe! Well, and some St. Germain in there too." He set the champagne split, now half-empty, down next to my full champagne glass. "Enjoy!" he exclaimed. "The last time I drank these was with my now-ex-girlfriend. We each had two and took a six hour nap."

So there I was, at a nice lunch in Santa Fe with my boyfriend and his parents, and I had just ordered an absinthe cocktail.

How classy.

The Gentleman seemed to find it hilarious. "Absinthe. You ordered absinthe."

"I DID NOT I ORDERED CHAMPAGNE WITH ST. GERMAIN IN IT!"

"Yes, of course. And it happens to come with absinthe as well."

"I ORDERED A 'DEATH IN THE AFERNOON!'"

"Well, you got one."

I tried to generously share my drink around the table, but no one was clearly as stupid brave as I was or was looking to expand their horizons. So I expanded my own horizon. All the way into an hour-long nap on the car ride home.

This is a "Death in the Afternoon." It's delicious. And by all means, order it. But possibly not at lunch. With your boyfriend's parents.

Beverages - Prague and Berlin

It's snaining out.

Basically, it means we've all gotten a day off of work (at least those of us in the government/education/nonprofit sectors, and everyone who works for Yahoo! because they can't work from home) for the fact that it's cold, windy, and spewing some sort of snow-rain combination from the sky. The National Weather Service keeps promising that the snow will begin in full force over the next couple of hours, and that we're guaranteed 4-8 inches (heh heh), but I have my doubts.

Nonetheless, I am embracing my day off in true "snow day" style - yoga pants and my old University of South Florida sweatshirt, cinnamon gingerbread coffee, and a mimosa. (Duh.) My plans for the day include finishing up this blog, and then going back to "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" (which I CANNOT PUT DOWN) and perhaps some more episodes of Downton Abbey later on, although I can't say that I'm particularly pleased with the current plot line. I'm still catching up on Season 3, and I feel like I've spent the last couple of episodes transitioning from sobs of despair to tears of joy and back again. 

So, it seems like the perfect day to listen to some Stan Getz, drink mimosas, daydream about the fact that in less than 3 weeks I'll be in Cancun, and reminisce about all the delicious things we drank in Prague and Berlin.

Now THAT is an Irish Coffee. Strong, barely sweetened, with lots of real whipped cream on top. And full of caffeine! So that you can stay up late and drink more drinks!

So, let me be clear and say that neither my boyfriend nor I particularly LOVES absinthe. I am not a fan of liquorice to begin with, and a very strong alcoholic beverage that smacks of anise and liquorice is not my cup of hallucinogens. Which brings me to another point: despite popular opinion, no where in the world still sells wormwood-laced absinthe. This is not the Green Fairy of legends - it's just a super strong, gasoline-smelling, thick liqueur that people order for the sheer thrill of ordering absinthe. But it's making a comeback in America. Absinthe was big in Philly when we were there a couple of years ago; I remember it being a key ingredient in a lot of cocktails at various bars. And that we enjoyed as well, because when mixed with the right ingredients, absinthe can really pull a cocktail together.

That all having been said, there's a pomp and circumstance with straight absinthe that almost makes it worth the taste, and for this alone The Gentleman and I tend to order it whenever we see it on a specialty bar menu, just to compare presentations. So, naturally, our first night in Prague when we saw absinthe on the menu, we ordered it. 

At this particular Czech establishment (Staropramen Brewery in Praha 1), it came with its own pitcher of sugar water. Normally, there is some sort of sugar-cube/fire/dripping water process, but this one just came straight up with sugar water on the side. All absinthe is meant to be drank with sugar and water, but this was the first time we'd had to do all of the work ourselves. It was exhausting.

Because we were there a few days after Christmas, all of the Christmas markets were still up and running. Wooden stalls selling sausages, beers, mulled wine, and trinkets line pedestrian areas. And you can buy alcoholic beverages and walk around on a cold winter's eve with warmth in your hands. I AM STILL NOT OVER THIS.

Warm honey mead at a stall at one of the Christmas Markets. It basically tastes like warm, alcoholic honey. It was a bit sweet, but I could totally see adding this to some hot tea for a delightful toddy.

After we sampled the absinthe at Staropramen, I ordered an apple liqueur. It tasted like apple-infused gasoline and warmed me right up. 

One night, without any real plans in mind, we stumbled luckily across the Prague Beer Museum.  Here, you can order flights of beer selected from their impressive (and detailed) menu. Each beer is outlined with its own history, tasting notes, notes on the brewer, and interesting facts about the brewing culture at the time the recipe was originally brewed. We sampled about 14 flights of beer. No, not really. But kind of. Maybe.

Damn, Prague has good beer. And it's not stingy, either. Competing with Germany for Largest Stein:

I mean, it's basically the size of my head. And that beer drank like a meal. I think I finished about half of it and gave the rest to The Gentleman who drank that in addition to his own Giant Stein O' Beer. Because he is badass.

 Because we were in Prague for New Years Eve, we'd booked tickets for a Jazz Cruise. Don't be fooled - it's not nearly as swank as it sounds, but it WAS fun. It was definitely Czech-down-homey, complete with a "welcome drink" (a shot of schnappes) and jazz that definitely sounded more "OOMPAH" than "BA DA DAAA". I think the tickets were like $75 each, and included champagne, welcome drink, and a buffet dinner. The rest of the drinks we had to pay for, and while they weren't the cheapest drinks we'd had in Prague (where a Giant Stein O' Beer will cost you about $4), they were certainly cheaper than anything you'd find stateside or in the rest of Europe. I think a bottle of champagne was about $20, and individual glasses of wine/beer were about $7. 

We shared a table (because you have to share tables on this cruise) with a young British couple who got engaged that night. We celebrated their engagement with champagne and shots (Jeger for the boys, Sambuca for the girls). At midnight, everyone went up onto the roof of the boat for the fireworks that exploded up and down the river. It was a perfectly beautiful way to ring in 2013. 

The first round.

Later that evening....

I mentioned there was a vineyard next to the Prague Castle.I should also mention that the wine served there is....young. Very, very young wine. The kind that makes you suck in your cheeks. And possibly your eyes might water a bit. Just tell yourself it's the breathtaking scenery. 

A typical order in a typical Czech restaurant of: a dark beer and a white wine, please. Someone in this picture is getting gypped. 

I have no idea why, but there is some obsession in Prague with cannabis-flavored everything. Teas, beers, energy drinks...I can't imagine why you'd want to flavor a perfectly good beverage with the taste of my college roommate's breath.  

One night, we went out to "Europe's Only 360-degree Rotating Bar" at the Fusion Hotel. I had expected some sort of giant tower/rotating floor situation, but it turns out that the room stays still and the bar ITSELF moves. It was still pretty awesome, and they played good music and had a nice crowd. They also have side rooms with Playstations and couches. My God, I love Prague.

Drinks at 360 - this was some kind of whiskey strawberry concoction that looks a lot fruitier than it tasted.

We stayed at the Boscolo Hotel in Prague, and I fell in love with the bar in the lobby. 

I WANT THIS. Glass rack at lobby bar, Boscolo Hotel.

To Go-sie mulled wine at a Christmas Market. At 8:30am. IF THEY'RE SELLING, I'M BUYING.

There were also Christmas Markets still set up in Berlin when we arrived on January 2. SELLING MULLED WINE AND BEER AND SAUSAGES. Hooray!

Drinks at the rotating bar at the top of the Berliner Fernsehturm. Mine was some sort of cranberry-bourbon-spritzer thing that was deeeelisshus.

For a hotel bar, Catwalk at the Marriott in Berlin was gorgeous and had an excellent cocktail menu. We wound up there on our last night, because it was cold and raining and we had to get up at 7am to catch our respective flights back to Baltimore and the United Arab Emirates. After a week of traipsing around Eastern Europe, it was lovely to kick back in an up-scale bar twelve floors below our room and just enjoy cocktails and pretty scenery.

A grand "cheers" to end our week-long trip to Prague and Berlin for New Years, 2013. More adventures to come!

And so, I wrap up our holiday trip. Just in time to prep for heading out to New Mexico and Mexico in a couple of weeks when The Gentleman comes home for leave! Hooray vacation! 

United Arab Emirates, Part V - The Food and The Drinks

And now, the post you've all been waiting for...the food.

Trying to specify authentic UAE cuisine is sort of like trying to say that something is "authentic American." It's really a mesh of other cultures, and the presence of so many ex-pats in the country has led to widespread availability of pretty much any food type you so desire. 

One awesome thing about the UAE - everything delivers.

Everything.

Dry cleaning, Starbucks coffee, your mail, pizza, sushi, shawarma...everything. It's pretty awesome. We even spied an ice cream delivery Vespa, although we did not attempt this service as it's five thousand degrees in the UAE and we prefer our ice cream in a more solid form. 


Not sure if you want sushi or pizza? It's cool - Camacho in Abu Dhabi delivers BOTH.

I had the best dinner I have ever had in my entire life at Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire, a French restaurant at the InterContinental in Dubai. I regret that I didn't take a single photo of the meal, but believe me when I say that the experience was so reverent, so very near holy that to take a picture seemed gauche and unforgivable.

By the way, is that restaurant not gorgeous? (See link above.) We sat in one of the booths, and I did manage to get a photo of one of the incredible light fixtures above us:

 Gorgeous, no?

At Pierre Gagnaire's, we each had a pre-dinner glass of champagne, a starter, and we split an entree and had a bottle of wine with dinner. The meal cost more than my rent. I am not exaggerating. Lucky for me, The Gentleman still feels he has to impress me.

I had a foie gras selection to start. I must be honest here: I am not vegan or vegetarian (clearly), and I have a serious affinity for organ meats. I feel only slightly guilty when I think about from whence foie gras comes. Slightly...and then that buttery, meaty goodness melts in my mouth and I become a ravaging carnivore. STUFF ALL OF THE GEESE. BRING ME MORE OF THIS HEAVEN.

The selection included a delicate patty of foie gras, as well as a beautiful arrangement of balls. Seriously - little, marble-sized balls of foie gras. Some dipped in a waxy, bright beet-colored coating of fat that melted open to the bit of deliciousness inside. Some just balls of foie gras drizzled in something ridiculously delicious. And some deep fried. Fried foie gras. It is every bit as frigging delicious as you'd imagine.

AND THEN - 

There was a tiny, adorable little cup made of paper-thin milk chocolate, curled around itself, and inside was a scoop of more foie gras, topped with a raspberry compote. If you haven't had a teeny, tiny foie gras dessert to top off your platter of foie gras...I'm not sure what I can say, but I'm pretty sure it's ruined every restaurant I'll ever go to again.

The Gentleman had servings of scallops as his starter - baked into squid ink ravioli, sauteed lovingly with spices, and as a ceviche. We shared a sick wagyu beef entree, served atop thin potato pancakes. We didn't order dessert, but they brought us a beautiful silver chilled box that opened out like flat round drawers and held various housemade chocolates and truffles on beds of rock sugar.

Like I said - I'm ruined on good restaurants now.

After that dinner, we decided that we'd had our expensive night out. And that was our first night in Dubai.

The second night, we were staying at the JW Marriott and decided to go to the Hofbrauhaus restaurant there. Mostly because The Gentleman had a hankering for pork sausage.

Lemme tell you this: neither The Gentleman nor myself are big pork-eaters. We will demolish some sausage at a cultural event (such as street festivals with bratwurst), and we'll not say no to some delicious proscuitto. But when it comes to craving pork, neither of us really has that lust. Until The Gentleman moved to the UAE, where pork is nowhere to be found.

In fact - it's in its own special enclosed area in the grocery store with big signs that say NON-MUSLIMS ONLY.

So when we learned that the JW Marriott was home to one of the most famous German beer halls of all time, well...we would have been on board with the beer regardless, but the idea of a smorgasboard of sausages was the clincher.

A delicious Hofbrauhaus beer served in the traditional pilsner glass, and a basket of pretzels that came with some kind of ridiculously incredible spicy mustard.

Clockwise from top: bratwurst and knockwurst, beer, weisswurst, potatos, and brussels sprouts (with bacon). And spicy mustards.

Brussels sprouts with bacon. 

Finishing off the pork fiesta with some nice tea.

 The "fast food" of choice in the Middle East is shawarma. I'm sure you've seen something akin to this:

That, my friends, is an impacted tower of chicken meat roasting over an upright grill. It turns, slowly, until you order a shawarma. Then, thin shavings of it are sliced off and wrapped up in flatbread with lettuce, french fries, and mayo.

Behold - a shawarma. It is a work of fast food art.

We didn't actually order this, I just took a picture of it because it was looking at me, and The Gentleman left me alone to wait for our to-go order while he went to get a Red Bull and I got scared, so I took its picture.

 The Gentleman and I are fond of cooking at home as much as possible (also we were poor after the dinner at Pierre Gagnaire's) and so we went grocery shopping upon our return to Abu Dhabi.


Grocery shopping in foreign countries is one of my most favorite things to do whilst traveling. I love picking up random grocery items and then figuring out what to do with them. I also love the ordinary made foreign.

The egg yolks are orange. I'm not sure why, though I'm told it's something in the chicken feed. I like to believe it means it's healthier for me.

For dinner one night, we raided the Non-Muslim pork section of the grocery store and made off with salami, prosciutto, pate, and any other pork products we could find.

 Oh, and the coffee. I've been a huge fan of crack Turkish coffee for awhile now, and I typically boil a pot three to four mornings a week (when I have time before work). But The Gentleman had to go and out-do me and buy one of those fancy schmancy crack coffee boilers. Behold:

You put the grounds on top, the water in the bottom thingy, and then you light the little burner underneath. And then you watch it. Like mad, because when that thing boils, it goes from zero to explosion in about two seconds, so you HAVE to be ready to pull that burner out from under.

It's getting ready....

And (in the background) what these pots look like in restaurants when they brew you a $14 (PER PERSON) cup of coffee. Their's are cleaner on the bottom because they use a different kind of burner.
Oh, and that tuna salad wrap thingy with the avocado in it? Amazing. Jones the Grocer is my favorite.

Breakfast at home - pomegranate, tea, aloe vera juice, smoked salmon, and (orangey) eggs. 

 The Middle East also has a pretty spectacular array of cuisines, including Indian. We went to Asha's in Khaladiya Mall for lunch one day. Um, yum.

The menu called this "baby lamb chops." Redundant AND delicious.

Prawn masala with nan in the background.

I have always wondered what these things are when I go to Indian restaurants...they're a platter of sweet herbs and sugared mints that you chew on post-meal to sweeten your breath. And they're DELICIOUS.

 One afternoon, we had tea at Jumeirah Towers. Immediately following our very civilized and lovely tea experience, we went off in search of booze.

We didn't have to travel far - on the back patio there's a pool bar offering Happy Hour specials that include half-priced glasses of wine and drinks, and this delicious mezze platter:

Babaganoush, sweet hummus with walnuts, some kind of salady spread, some other kind of babaganoush with pomegranates, and traditional hummus. Oh, and pita chippy things.

Alas, I took no more photos of my food. But we also ate at Hakkasan, where I was explicitly told I could not take photos. Hakkasan had excellent drinks and atmosphere and a to-die-for braised beef cheek appetizer, but the main course left a little to be desired. I felt as though I could have ordered the same caliber of entree from a Baltimore delivery joint. Indeed, several people told me afterwards that it's best to stick to their appetizer menu. 

We went to Lebanese Flower and sat outside in the crowded sidewalk courtyard full of shisha smoke and lit by rings of lightbulbs on strings around the perimeter. We had shawarma and hummus with beef, salad, and a whitefish that is popular in the UAE and whose name I can't recollect at the moment. It was incredible and, indeed, "no fuss" as the reviews point out.

Overall, I found the food in the UAE to be pretty spectacular. A wide range of cuisines, influences from all over the world, and fresher than fresh produce. And the best thing is, outside of restaurants, food is fairly cheap. Many foods are subsidized by the government, such as items made with flour, rice, tomato products, and some other food items. Grocery stores also import foods from all over the world, and it's fairly easy to find common ingredients alongside exotic and eclectic choices.

The booze issue....alcohol is legal in hotels, and most major restaurants are located in hotels. Therefore, you can drink at most nice restaurants. There are liquor stores, usually small, windowless corner bodegas, but you must have a liquor license to purchase alcohol. You can obtain a liquor license after you've established non-Muslim residency, or you can tap someone on the shoulder and ask them to buy you some booze. Either way, really. Alcohol is EXPENSIVE. Bottles of wine that run about $12-$15 in the states (even those imported from Europe) will be $28-$30 in the UAE. A glass of wine at a restaurant can be $16-$20 where it would be $10 in the US. Pours are frugal, and cocktails are loaded with sugary juices and syrups. And don't order doubles - you'll just get two drinks...for the price of two drinks. Unless you want two drinks. In which case - order away.

Some restaurants not located in hotels will ask you if you want to see a cocktail menu. Go ahead and look, but don't get excited - it's completely alcohol-free.

In fact:

Even for kids. 


Stay tuned for: henna adventures in Abu Dhabi.