Kashgar
Via the Torugart Pass, we arrive fairly late into Kashgar, China. But that has never stopped me from a meal, particularly when just arriving into a new country. So we head out into the city to find an ATM and then a restaurant to give us our first taste of China. Where we end up is an Uighur place named Intizar. Monica sensibly has one of the house specialties, tohu gangpan, which is a mildly spicy chicken and potato dish with rice. I, deciding to be a bit braver, or just not as bright, go for one of the many dishes listed in the English menu simply as 'Happy, Special Meal' with an indecipherable picture. Didn't matter that the picture gave few clues, as even when the dish arrived I still wasn't sure what I had ordered. I think it may have been some sort of shellfish mixed with noodles in a vinegary sauce. Being as Kashgar is just about as far as you can geographically get from an ocean on earth, I was just slightly worried how my stomach would react. Whatever, it was good and by the morning had no signs of any stomach issues.
We spent a few more days in Kashgar and it turned out to be a great place for eating. There is still a large Uighur population, but in the last decade or so huge numbers of Han Chinese have emigrated out West bringing not only their culture, but turning Kashgar into a large, modern city. Some of what we had to eat:
-Fast food: Yea, not something I would normally talk about, but after fast food desert that was Central Asia, it was nice to go up to counter and order food by pointing at a picture and being fairly confident of the hygiene standards (something you spend allot of time pondering knowing you are about to get onto a truck for a long drive across the desert... ie no public rest stops and no trees for cover!). It wasn't McDonald's or KFC, but the Chinese versions called Best Foods and Dico's. Best Foods left something to be desired, their imitation Big Mac, just could not compare to the real thing. But Dico's was really quite good and we would see it all over China.
-Boil/fry your own food place: This was a cool place similar to a Korean barbecue, whereby you go up and pick your own skewers out of the refrigerated cabinets and then bring it back to your table and dip it into one of two boiling liquids. One is a spicy oil, the other is water based broth. The skewers can be anything from the simple (pieces of chicken breast or cubes of vegetables) to the more obscure (chicken feet and tongue). I suppose it was the sit-down version of the night market food we would start to see all throughout Asia.. One of the most interesting aspects though was the way they accounted the bill. You put all your used skewers into a cup and they are counted at the end of the meal. Obviously, more expenses items would have more skewers. So a whole fish may have 5 skewers, while a vegetable skewer may only have one. Either way, seeing the number of skewers we had, I thought we were in for a very expense meal, but still turn out to be less then $3 or so per person.
-Uigher food: As noted in an earlier blog, Kashgar has a similar cuisine to the rest of Central Asia but with some influence from China. So even though I have had my fill of laghman for an eternity, when in Rome...well, we ended up at a very surreal place next to the Id Kah Mosque. Being the only westerners in the place, guess they felt the need to put us in our own private room. Wasn't sure if this was for our benefit or their's, but nonetheless it was cool to feel like we had the king seats. The food was interesting, but nothing really new to report on it. Again ordering off of pictures we made a slight mistake on what we thought would be beans, actually ending up being peanuts (see, I think they put us in the room so they could laugh at us).
-Market food: This was my highlight of the Kashgar food scene. I had a hot pot where all the ingredients are displayed fresh in a bowl. You pick the bowl you want, then they cook it up in front of you, only asking how spicy you want it and if you want an egg added or not. But the real treat came while waiting for this concoction to be cooked. I was offered something I was later to learn was called a Dunhuang hamburger (later we would go to Dunhuang, but I could never find one there). This was simply a bun cooked on the spot, with bits of chopped pork, peppers and a spicy sauce. Really, I guess it is just the Chinese version of a pulled pork sandwich, but God it was good. I went back again that night and ordered 6 more to take back to the hotel for others. At first they kept arguing with me telling me that a sandwich was only 3 Yuan, not 6... Eventually, with the help of some people passing by, was able to get across that I actually wanted to order 6 of them!
Turpan
Nothing to say about food in Turpan as it is too hot to eat... 104 in the shade! Apparently they grow the best grapes in China in this town, but I can't understand how they don't immediately turn into raisins.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Central Asia - Something Missing
6/25
Yes, I know... after making excuses for starting the blog late, the posts have then been few and far between. Ok, they haven't even been few and far between, just non-existent. But in my defense, for the past month or so we have been traveling through Central Asia. Anyone who has been in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or Kyrgystan I am sure will back me up when I say these countries are not exactly the gastronomic capital of the world. As far as I can tell, they have 3 basic dishes:
→ Shashlyk: Essentially a kebab (note, not the kebab you get at 2AM in any English market town after a night on the lash, but a skewer). You can get shashlyk in a variety of meat types such as chicken or beef, but the most common is mutton. In some (read most) restaurants or chaikhanas (teahouse) you get a tiny little skewer that I would usually mistook for a sort of appetizer or sample. But luckly they are generally cheap, so you know by the price to order two or three at a time. In a few touristy places (in Bukhara's central square, Lyabi-Hauz, for example) you get a good size portion, but with a price to match.
→ Plov: This is the national dish of Uzbekistan and common throughout central Asia. Those into deducing word origin have probably already guessed this is a rice based dish similar to Italian pilau. And it is, being rice, boiled meat, maybe a touch of vegetables such as carrots or onions, all swimming in oil. Now there are some people who really like rice. I am not one of them. If I were to order an Indian takeaway, I'll add a spoonful of rice or two, just to add some texture to the curry. But I simply can not see the point in diluting the fine taste of the curry with all that unnecessary starch. So imagine my horror when our guide in Uzbekistan (Mansur), cooked Plov for us on one of our first nights. First there was the entire bottle of oil he added to the pot. Yes, there was 25 of us to feed, but it was still ALLOT of oil. Ok, I am past that, but then he goes to dish up my portion... a regular dinner plate loaded (and I mean loaded) with rice and oil (no vegetables added here) and the smallest sliver of meat you can imagine. And not even an ounce of spice that I could deduce to take away from the blandnest of the rice. This was not a dinner, this was cruel joke and I went to bed hungry. Easily the worst camp meal I have had on the trip. I don't blame Mansur, just his country for not being more imaginative in their choice of national dish.
→ Laghman: This is sort of a noodle soup (aka shorpa) with boiled meat, sometimes a wee bit spicy, but often rather bland. Although I have never been a big fan of things like chicken noodle soup, laghman is really not too bad. The problem is, you just can not live on a diet of shashlyk and laghman for over a month. And at times that seems like what we were doing. Any restaurant you went into would have those 3 options and little else. They may have a big menu (like the Hotel Asia in Khiva), but when you go to order anything other then shashlyk, plov or laghman, the waiter will just shake his head and tell you they are out of it.
There are a few milk based products I was able to try, which were interesting if not quite edible in any quantity. In Uzbekistan, a long-distance taxi driver stopped to buy Kurut, which as I understand it is a dried yogurt rolled into a ping-pong ball shape. I somehow managed to get the first one down me, only for the driver to offer me another. Gee, thanks. Two is more then enough for a life-time. My fellow passengers could have at least tried to finish the first one instead of hiding them in an empty chips packets! While visiting a yurt in Kyrgystan, I was also able to try fresh mare's milk (surprisingly tasty, almost like a sweet cow's milk) and fermented mare's milk (edible, but I couldn't even get through half a tea cup of the stuff).
That is more of less what I have to say about Central Asian cuisine. We did visit a couple of very nice chaikhanas. But as I said, the food left quite something to be desired. One positive aspect though was the 'seating' which is generally on a tapchan. This is a bed-like platform covered with carpet and topped with a low table. You are meant to take off your shoes and sort of lounge around while eating. Didn't think I would like that, but have found it far beats eating at a table with chairs.
By the time we got to Bishkek, we were able to find a bar serving very tasty burgers and a cafe with wifi and pizza. Neither may have been as good as what I could get in DC or London, but after a month of little choice, it was a little bit of heaven. In a few days we will be in China and while I understand the fare to be had in the majority Muslim Silk Road cities of places like Kashgar is similar to Central Asian cuisine, the end is near.
Yes, I know... after making excuses for starting the blog late, the posts have then been few and far between. Ok, they haven't even been few and far between, just non-existent. But in my defense, for the past month or so we have been traveling through Central Asia. Anyone who has been in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or Kyrgystan I am sure will back me up when I say these countries are not exactly the gastronomic capital of the world. As far as I can tell, they have 3 basic dishes:
→ Shashlyk: Essentially a kebab (note, not the kebab you get at 2AM in any English market town after a night on the lash, but a skewer). You can get shashlyk in a variety of meat types such as chicken or beef, but the most common is mutton. In some (read most) restaurants or chaikhanas (teahouse) you get a tiny little skewer that I would usually mistook for a sort of appetizer or sample. But luckly they are generally cheap, so you know by the price to order two or three at a time. In a few touristy places (in Bukhara's central square, Lyabi-Hauz, for example) you get a good size portion, but with a price to match.
→ Plov: This is the national dish of Uzbekistan and common throughout central Asia. Those into deducing word origin have probably already guessed this is a rice based dish similar to Italian pilau. And it is, being rice, boiled meat, maybe a touch of vegetables such as carrots or onions, all swimming in oil. Now there are some people who really like rice. I am not one of them. If I were to order an Indian takeaway, I'll add a spoonful of rice or two, just to add some texture to the curry. But I simply can not see the point in diluting the fine taste of the curry with all that unnecessary starch. So imagine my horror when our guide in Uzbekistan (Mansur), cooked Plov for us on one of our first nights. First there was the entire bottle of oil he added to the pot. Yes, there was 25 of us to feed, but it was still ALLOT of oil. Ok, I am past that, but then he goes to dish up my portion... a regular dinner plate loaded (and I mean loaded) with rice and oil (no vegetables added here) and the smallest sliver of meat you can imagine. And not even an ounce of spice that I could deduce to take away from the blandnest of the rice. This was not a dinner, this was cruel joke and I went to bed hungry. Easily the worst camp meal I have had on the trip. I don't blame Mansur, just his country for not being more imaginative in their choice of national dish.
→ Laghman: This is sort of a noodle soup (aka shorpa) with boiled meat, sometimes a wee bit spicy, but often rather bland. Although I have never been a big fan of things like chicken noodle soup, laghman is really not too bad. The problem is, you just can not live on a diet of shashlyk and laghman for over a month. And at times that seems like what we were doing. Any restaurant you went into would have those 3 options and little else. They may have a big menu (like the Hotel Asia in Khiva), but when you go to order anything other then shashlyk, plov or laghman, the waiter will just shake his head and tell you they are out of it.
There are a few milk based products I was able to try, which were interesting if not quite edible in any quantity. In Uzbekistan, a long-distance taxi driver stopped to buy Kurut, which as I understand it is a dried yogurt rolled into a ping-pong ball shape. I somehow managed to get the first one down me, only for the driver to offer me another. Gee, thanks. Two is more then enough for a life-time. My fellow passengers could have at least tried to finish the first one instead of hiding them in an empty chips packets! While visiting a yurt in Kyrgystan, I was also able to try fresh mare's milk (surprisingly tasty, almost like a sweet cow's milk) and fermented mare's milk (edible, but I couldn't even get through half a tea cup of the stuff).
That is more of less what I have to say about Central Asian cuisine. We did visit a couple of very nice chaikhanas. But as I said, the food left quite something to be desired. One positive aspect though was the 'seating' which is generally on a tapchan. This is a bed-like platform covered with carpet and topped with a low table. You are meant to take off your shoes and sort of lounge around while eating. Didn't think I would like that, but have found it far beats eating at a table with chairs.
By the time we got to Bishkek, we were able to find a bar serving very tasty burgers and a cafe with wifi and pizza. Neither may have been as good as what I could get in DC or London, but after a month of little choice, it was a little bit of heaven. In a few days we will be in China and while I understand the fare to be had in the majority Muslim Silk Road cities of places like Kashgar is similar to Central Asian cuisine, the end is near.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Batumi (aka Butter) Georgia
Crossing the border into Georgia and only one thing is on my mind... khachapuri Acharuli. So even though we had a late lunch and are do to meet up at 7:30 for a Georgian buffet evening, right after checking into the boat hotel, I head out on my own to find a little place called Lunga that is apparently one of the best places to try this Adjaran specialty. The two old ladies in the cafe speak no English and so when I order a khachapuri, what hey bring me doesn't look remotely like how it was described to me. But that is because there are a couple of different types of khachapuri. But with some sign language, we rectify the problem and one of the ladies indicates that it will take 10 minutes to cook. No problem... I have been waiting a heck of a lot longer to try this. In the meantime, I will sit and ponder why on earth Natakhtari beer seems to boast that they have been around since... 2004! Maybe just to distinguish itself from their principal rivals who were around during the communist days?
Anyway the khachapuri comes and I still don't see the lightly fried egg on top, even though one of the ladies made a point to ask me if I wanted the egg. Oh, now I see it is just below the two enormous hunks of butter. Given that it is also filled with melted cheese and is the size of an american football, this is a heart attack on a plate. But damn it was good. Now just an hour and half till the buffet starts....
Anyway the khachapuri comes and I still don't see the lightly fried egg on top, even though one of the ladies made a point to ask me if I wanted the egg. Oh, now I see it is just below the two enormous hunks of butter. Given that it is also filled with melted cheese and is the size of an american football, this is a heart attack on a plate. But damn it was good. Now just an hour and half till the buffet starts....
Oh, for a Deuchers
It is hard to complain about the beer we have had so far, particularly given that we have passed through both Germany and the Czech Republic. And even Efes from Turkey isn't a bad drop. But what I wouldn't give for a proper British ale. As we get into warmer and warmer climes, that view may change, but for now this is the one bit of 'home' that I am missing.
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