Do you Phở?

On my south-east Asian adventure I was lucky enough to come accross some amazing food. Both fusion and local, these dishes and restaurants added flavor to my traveling experience.

All in all, the food I'd sampled in Vietnam was a new experience to me: be it the crispy rice paper rolls, the lotus flower stuffed with fresh shrimp meat, the deep-fried elephant ear fish, the steamed mung bean cake or sweetened ginger tea.

However, the national dish Phở is what captured my attention. I tried this soup at a handful of restaurants, and its heartening broth was equally delicious in all. This Vietnamese specialty, cooked with meat and fresh herbs can be eaten as part of any of the three main meals in Vietnam. In fact one of the most common sights when browsing the streets of Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi is the pop-up eatery set up on the side of the road with locals sipping on Phở at any hour of the day. 

If you think your stomach can handle it, the street food in Vietnam is extremely rich, interesting and everywhere, but for a safer bet you can opt for Highway 4. With several restaurants in Hanoi and one in Ho Chi Minh City this artsy and cheap chain of eateries offers, quick and delicious eats.

A friend who had already been to Saigon, had mentioned a restaurant worth visiting. On our first night, I enquired about it at the hotel and the response I got was "For tonight? They are full tonight, I have already checked for another guest. If you would like to go I have to make a reservation for tomorrow evening." And so our next dinner was at the Temple Club. Set in one of Saigon’s heritage buildings, the restaurant's antique furniture and retro music helps to recreate  a long gone era. With a variety of cuisines ranging from Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer, Indian and French you will not regret eating here.

If you can spare some dollars for a fine dining experience, look for the Green Tangerine, in Hanoi's Old Quarter. Set in a 1928 colonial villa, this restaurant serves up a fusion of French and Vietnamese recipies with exquisite food and a wonderful atmosphere with plenty of seating to enjoy its beautiful garden. 

We sampled the buns stuffed with iced Parmesan cream, layered with onion and galangal and prepared with red wine. One of the main dishes that caught my eye was the stew of caramelised pork and apples served on a lotus-seed layered cake topped with mashed carrots and cilantro. We also tried the stewed rabbit flavored with wasabi and accompanied by three kinds of risotto: Passion Fruit in rice alcohol, Wasabi and mushrooms from the Tam Dao forest. To top that we tried their Jasmine Green Tea cheese cake, which was deliciously enjoyable and refreshing.  

Overall, Vietnam was a unique culinary journey that I thoroughly enjoyed and wouldn't mind going back for more.

Steak anyone?

The recently opened Soho Bar & Grill in Century Village claims to offer a concept original to Dubai but not unknown in other parts of the world. The, as yet unnamed, SoHo Cow welcomes food lovers to a unique, industrial surrounding, a carefully designed tribute to a New York urban steakhouse.  

The beautifully set outdoor area in the shadow of the Dubai Tennis stadium, is paradoxically vibrant, yet laidback. The  butcher shop curtains indoors are without a doubt my favorite decor element.  

 

And the music sets the tone: its funky blend of oldies, soul, pacey jazz and the occassional rock and roll beat, is definitely food for the soul. With a motto like "If we're not supposed to eat animals, how come they're made of meat?", you are expected to be a carnivore here.

Even though, this is primarily a steakhouse, you are spoiled for choice: from New York style flatbread to inventive salads, calzones, pizza, burgers, chicken wings, seafood and ribs, plus homemade desserts. 

Must tries include the Boerewors, a traditional spiced South-African sausage which was a new experience for me; the delicious Buffalo Wings, cooked in their own juices and served with the chef's signature Monkey Gland sauce; and  for the more adventurous, the Steak "On the Stone" is a fantastic DIY food experience.

The menu needs navigating and while the staff - dressed in-theme - are ever helpful, if you really need some expert advice, SoHo's resident chef, Jean Strauss, is often at hand to help. Strauss - whose cooking career started with a loaf of banana bread at the age of nine - brings an experimental flair to the menu.

SoHo Bar & Grill certainly is a refreshing new addition to Dubai's dining scene. 

Ceramics & food

My friend Nissreen took me to lunch on her birthday to Café Céramique. She knew that I would like it as much as she does and having been several times before she was the perfect companion for a newbie like me.  

With two locations in the UAE and several others in the Gulf region, Café Céramique combines food with artistic expression in a fun environment. Personally speaking, I am terrible at drawing, but I discovered that I am a little better at painting. I was a bit apprehensive about how well I would do. Since it was my first time there, I chose to paint a mug thinking it would be less complicated. Nissreen picked a plate since she already had a couple of mugs.

You can grab a bite to eat while creating a very unique and personal piece of pottery. The food is reasonably priced and quite good. However, a visit to Café Céramique is more about the experience than the food. 

While waiting for your order to arrive you select the object and colours you will use. The objects vary from mugs of different shapes and sizes, decorative plates, vases, animal figures and plenty of other pottery to choose from. And you definitely have to dedicate time when going there because it will take longer than you expect. It certainly did in our case because we spent about four hours there.

Even if you are not a person of the arts, I recommend you give it a try. Its easier than it seems and lots of fun. And when your pottery is finished you can't help but feel a slight sense of pride that you did that! You know that nobody else will have exactly the same object and the personal touch you give to it makes it even more special.

The Casablanca Salad. Fresh rocket and zaatar leaves mixed with a piquant pomegranate sauce, accompanied with couscous and grilled Haloumi pieces.

The quesadilla at Café Céramique, with mild-spiced chopped chicken in a grilled tortilla bread, with melted mozzarella and a pinch of cilantro. Served with sour cream and guacamole on the side.

Nissreen's beautiful plate before it was baked.

My mug the way it looked when I was done painting it.

Our handmade artwork.

Going Tribal

Tribes is a feel-good, good-food restaurant with a great atmosphere and ambience. Located in the Fashion Dome of MOE, it offers a unique African experience, with a great menu to choose from and fantastic service. The staff cheerfully welcome you to an escape from Dubai, decorated with drums, leather chairs, woven objects, masks and giant ladles with faces carved on them. 

 
Some of the popular dishes are featured below but their menu is quite vast and diverse, making it difficult to pick your order. The food is displayed in a simple yet impressive manner and even the plates are very distinctive, adding to the presentation of each dish.

If there is a celebration at your table and the drums come out and the staff gather for an African-style singalong. It's an absolute treat! 

A refreshing watermelon and crispy cheese salad

Grilled West Coast calamari

Their famous pesto burger served with delicious sweet potato fries

The Tribes cheese burger served with a green salad

Drumrolls in the air

Special Ostadi

A small but impressive Iranian eatery in the heart of Bur Dubai, Special Ostadi is a hidden gem that has been around since 1978. Run by Muhammad Ali Ansari and his family, Special Ostadi is one of the best restaurants I have tried in Dubai. The owner's lively presence guarantees free laughs in a cosy environment that makes you feel welcome. At times it feel more like the home of an Iranian family, than a restaurant.

The food is simple, yet delicious and the grilled kebabs are a specialty. There is a retro feel with antique phones and light switches decorating the walls. All over the restaurant old photographs of the family, customers and the ruling families of the UAE, are displayed, transporting you through the history of this 34-year-old restaurant and of Dubai.

I personally loved the old and new currency notes from all over the world placed under the glass of each dining table. And at our table I even spotted the discontinued Cypriot pound! A smile on the way out is guaranteed as you are being greeted by the family, something that doesn't happen in most restaurants in this city.

Lentil soup, rich with chunky pieces of chicken and traditional herbs.

A mixed grill of mainly chicken and mutton, marinated with either lemon or yogurt. Grilled to perfection, the meat is soft and succulent. 

Iranian style rice with butter and pomegranate seeds. 

After the end of our meal we opted for black tea with fresh mint, the ideal finish to any meal. 

Asitane: Fine Ottoman Cuisine

Continuing the culinary journey through Istanbul, I wanted to write a separate post for one of the restaurants that is my personal favorite. Preparing for my trip, I had come accross an interview with Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's Nobel Prize Author, describing his favorite places in the city. Asitane, which was mentioned as one of the author's picks caught my attention. 

The restaurant has been around since 1991, serving genuine Ottoman recipes from the Topkapi, Dolmabahçe and Edirne Palaces. The menu displays the original Ottoman name and date of each dish. Even though a few restaurants in Istanbul claim to offer genuine Ottoman cuisine, Asitane was the first to receive an official license from the Imperial Kitchens. 

At Asitane, the lady in charge of guest relations, Hanzade, was extremely accomodating and sweet, as were the rest of the staff. The food was exquisite and as I had mentioned to the staff, I am confident that if we had not tried it, we would have missed out on a important part of Istanbul. Below are the dishes we tried:  

Stuffed Melon with mincemeat prepared with rice, herbs and almonds is a popular recipe dating from 1539. 

The Mahmudiyye (Mahmut’s Dish) also dates from 1539. It consits of boneless chicken cooked with dried apricots, grapes and almonds, with pinch of cinnamon. 

For desert we picked the Sour Cherry Bread, since it was the only thing we hadn't seen anywhere else. Dating from 1844 this bread dipped in Sour Cherry Syrup (Visino as we say in Greek) was served with Vanilla ice cream and topped with crushed pistachios and a sour cherry. Turkish Delight indeed!

Flavors from Istanbul

Istanbul is not only a wonderfully diverse city, but it also offers a truly exciting gastronomic experience. Our travel guide had some recommendations of places to try but we were lucky enough to come accross some great restaurants ourselves. The city is a feast of irresistible flavors. Every corner filled with endless mini sweet bites to choose from, an array of eateries or street food carts that leave you curious and tempted. The fish sandwiches are particular to Istanbul, but since I am not a big fan of mackerel I wasn't tempted to try one. 

The famous fish sandwiches are prepared on thesse distinctive boats floating on the Golden Horn. The waiters take orders onshore, the sandwiches are handed out from the boat and served to customers seated on stools set up with a view of the water.

The endless variety of Turkish delight flavors and types of Baklava sweets. Street after street the city offers you sugary attractions.

The crowded and noisy cheese and meat market. The vendors literally beg you to taste their offerings, in confidence that you will love their product and seem positively offended if you reject them. 

Passing through the famous Istanbul Spice Bazaar, full of smells, colours and noise. Endless varieties of spices, teas, herbs, dried fruits and vegetables, all kinds of sweet temptations and lively crowds. Long before the Ottoman times, this domed market was the terminus of the Spice Road.  

Amazing grilled meat balls at Sultanahmet Köftesi. Even though the menu is limited to six choices, most customers go for the meat balls. They are grilled to perfection with their own recipe of mixed spices that adds a delicious flavor. 
 

Thankfully we were able to try this place at lunch time, as on all the evenings we spent strolling Sultanahmet Square this was the queue for those tasty meat balls.

          Manti, the Turkish style dumpling, stuffed with spiced meat (lamb or beef) toppded with yogurt, garlic and ground sumac at Kafe Ara. Owned by and named after the renowned Turkish photographer Ara Güler, the place is  decorated with huge prints of his work, mainly B&W photos of the city.

The so-called Aegean sliced meatballs, a pastry stuffed with spiced meat, served with rice, potato wedges, green chilli peppers and yogurt at Galata Konak.

Village pasta, resembling cut, thick noodles topped with walnuts and halloumi at Galata Konak.

A rich green salad, artistically served, with tomato, cucumber, purple lettuce, halloumi and corn, topped with pomegranate sauce at Galata Konak.

Sutis Profiterole was as rich in flavour as it looks. A scumptious delight right in the heart of Taksim Square. Apparently there are master chefs for several of the desserts, and the profiterole is one of them.

The cream of chocolate, though simple yet tasteful, is topped with ground pistachios and coconut at Sutis. Despite the contrast in flavour the pistachio has to the coconut, they both add a nice twist to the cream.