It has taken me so long to write about the time we spent in Hong Kong last winter. I’m not entirely sure why. Perhaps because we were there for long enough to feel like it wasn’t a trip, so there’s no clear narrative, but not long enough to make it feel routine. I’m not sure how best to structure our stories and experiences to share with you, but at the end, it’s probably best to just start writing.

We had a wonderful time in Hong Kong, and I’d go back in a heartbeat. Hong Kong is this vibrant, slightly chaotic, proud, country full of contrasts. It is at times loud and bustling and wonderfully modern and at times ancient and mystical and steeped in tradition. Pristine luxury shopping malls smelling of expensive perfume bump up against Buddhist temples filled with incense smoke. Michelin stars are awarded to French tasting menus and hole-in-the-wall dim sum joints. You can spend $30 on a cocktail or $2 for a bowl of noodles, and both will be delicious. The iconic skyscrapers packed together in Central fade suddenly and without warning into green mountains, blanketed with hiking trails.

A friend who visited several months after we’d left told me afterwards “I wasn’t expecting it to be so Chinese.” And he’s right. The international image of Hong Kong is of a massive, modern, high-tech city, full of expats and expensive clothes and big business. And it is that, in parts, but it’s also old, and pungent, and a little run-down, and very traditional. The international glitz is fun, but for us, the real draw was outside of the glamorous neighborhoods: the hole-in-the-wall dumpling restaurants and the sleepy seaside island towns. In five weeks we barely scratched the surface – for a small country there’s a lot to explore.

Hong Kong is a food-lover’s dream travel destination. Everything is good, and you can find pretty much anything, for a price. There’s an amazing hipster coffee scene (if you’re willing to spend $7 on a latte), 61 Michelin-starred restaurants (more than London and Chicago and Madrid), wet markets where you can buy any meat or seafood you can think of, and incredible local Cantonese cuisine. I tried things I never thought I would – abalone and shark fin and literal birds’ nests – and had some of the most memorable meals of my life.

When we got back from Asia I wrote down all the recipes I wanted to eventually share here – noodles and dumplings and soups. The other night I was reading through that list and when I got to “Shanghai Noodles with Pork, Mushrooms, and Cabbage” I had the most visceral food memory. Those noodles – fat as a pencil and utterly slurpable and chewy and coated in an addictive, salty-sweet brown sauce – were unbelievable. I struggled to recreate them at home – that sauce! Those fat noodles! – but after several rounds of trial-and-error I finally have a reasonable approximation.

The first recipe I tried wasn’t saucy enough and the second was far too salty. I ended up ditching the pork because it wasn’t adding anything, and experimenting with my own sauce. Ideally I would use thick fresh egg noodles but I couldn’t find any, so I made do with fresh udon. Now that I know how to make them, these are actually very easy. Once you have the sauce ingredients, you could whip them up on a weeknight with no problem.

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Shanghai Noodles with Mushrooms and Cabbage

Thick, eggy Shanghai Noodles covered in a slurpable, sweet-salty sauce and stir-fried with mushrooms and cabbage. Inspired by an extended trip to Hong Kong.

Adapted loosely from The Daring Gourmet, with sauce inspiration from BBC Good Food. 

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 TBS dark soy sauce (don’t substitute regular soy sauce!)
• 2 TBS peanut butter
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 2 TBS plus 2 tsp sesame oil, divided
• 1 TBS fish sauce
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 TBS canola oil
• 2 portobello mushroom cups, cleaned and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
• 1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps cut into thin slices
• sea salt
• 5 cups shredded napa cabbage
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3/4 lb. thick fresh egg noodles or fresh udon noodles
• 2 fresh scallions, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine dark soy sauce, peanut butter, honey, sugar, rice wine vinegar, hot sauce, 2 teaspoons of the sesame oil and the fish sauce. Whisk until very smooth.
2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the chicken stock and the cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
3. Heat half of the remaining sesame oil and half of the canola oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and sprinkle with sea salt. Cook until golden brown on both sides and tender, about 5-6 minutes, stirring often. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a plate. Add the remaining sesame oil and canola oil to the walk along with the shredded cabbage and the minced garlic. Cook quickly, just until wilted, stirring frequently.
4. Add the sauce and the noodles to the pan with the cabbage. Use tongs to coat the noodles in the sauce, then add the chicken stock with the cornstarch. Continuously toss the noodles in the sauce until the sauce is glossy and thickly coats the noodles. Add the mushrooms back to the pan and toss a few more times, then remove from the heat. Serve immediately, topped with chopped scallions.

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Tokyo was a whirlwind. First of all, its huge. It’s not the kind of city you can see in a few days, or even a week. Add to that the cultural barrier and Tokyo seemed almost impenetrable to me, much more so than the other places we visited in Japan. So during the three days we spent there, I felt like I just barely dipped my toe in to the water.

We did experience some if it. We saw the bright neon lights of Akihabara Electric Town, which was complete sensory overload – the electric, futuristic Tokyo of the movies. At the Tsukiji Fish Market, we watched the vendors portion the enormous tuna into slabs and peered into tanks of squid and scallops. Outside the market, Trevor ate the biggest oyster I’ve ever seen. We ate sushi of the highest quality, the only non-Japanese people sitting at the counter, pointing and arigato our only forms of communication. We spent hours in the train station, eating porky tonkotsu ramen and shopping in anime stores, a whole store for each character. In Ginza, we explored department stores with whole floors dedicated to high-end foods, sampling what we could afford. A friend living in Tokyo took us out for fresh bonito and sake. We went to a park where the rapeseed was blooming, rendering the whole field a gentle, glowing yellow.

And we went to an izakaya for dinner, one of our most memorable nights. If you ever go to Tokyo, find your way to an izakaya. Located under elevated train tracks and down alleyways, these smoke-filled, hole-in-the-wall taverns are an experience. Filled with rowdy Japanese businessmen still in their suits, sometimes they are little more than a collection of plastic crates and an open grill protected by heavy plastic sheeting. But the food they turn out – skewers of grilled yakitori, platters of light and airy tempura, bowls of udon noodles – is sublime.

Recently, hoping to warm up a cold wintry night, we partnered with La Crema to attempt to replicate our izakaya experience at home. On our menu: tsukune with egg yolk, miso-marinated pork skewers, and seasonal vegetable tempura with mushrooms, brussels sprouts, and sweet potato. We broke out the indoor grill pan, cracked a few bottles of La Crema Monterey Pinot Gris and Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, and settled in for a night of cooking, drinking, and noshing.

Tsukune, my favorite yakitori dish, is a lightly seasoned, grilled chicken meatball served with a salty sweet tare sauce and a raw egg yolk. The Miso Pork Skewers are an easy dish – a simple marinade, some pork tenderloin, and a few minutes on the grill are all you need. Tempura is a bit trickier to master, but well worth it for the crispy, golden brown vegetables that are a staple of Japanese-American restaurants. All together, they make a fine meal: a bite of tsukune, a few pieces of tempura sweet potato, a sip of crisp Pinot Gris. It’s a great way to warm up a January night at home while reminiscing about past travels.

All of the recipes can be found on the La Crema blog (Tsukune, Miso Pork Skewers, and Winter Vegetable Tempura). And if you’re looking for dessert, might I suggest these Matcha Cream Puffs? I’ve got more matcha desserts in the works, but these are a good starting point.

More from Japan:
Japan Travelogue Part One: Kyoto; Matcha Cream Puffs
Japan Travelogue Part Two: Ise; Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by La Crema. All opinions are honest and my own.

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I had originally meant this recipe to be for my book review of Simply Ramen, a lovely new(ish) book with a great mixture of traditional and non-traditional ramen recipes by Amy of Easy Peasy Japanesey. But then I opened a bottle of sake to steam the chicken, and poured a few glasses, and Trevor and I sat down to these steaming bowls of ramen, and I couldn’t stop thinking about our time in Ise. So instead of a book review this post is the much overdo second part to our Japan travelogue, dedicated to our time in Ise, and a true review of Amy’s book will come later. (Warning: this is a long post, so if you’re just here for a delicious ramen recipe, skip to the end!)

After our magical introduction to Japan in Kyoto, we wandered a bit off the beaten track, to the Ise peninsula, a coastal area about 2 hours southeast of Kyoto. Ise is the home of the Grand Shrine complex Jingū, one of Shinto’s holiest and most visited sites. Trevor had learned about the shrine and its architecture in college and it was at the top of his list for things to see in Japan. There were plenty of other visitors in Ise, but I would guess that 99% of them were Japanese, pilgrims coming to visit the shrines. English speakers became harder to find and we became more of a curiosity.

When I think about Ise, I think about sake, and blonde wood rooms, and strangely deserted beach resorts, and 500 year old sacred Cypress trees, and our ever-smiling pink-pajamaed Ryokan room attendant. I think about getting caught in a rainstorm in the middle of a frustrating and misguided walk from one shrine to the next, somehow finding ourselves in an Italian restaurant in one of those travel moments where everything feels like it’s going wrong, only to emerge to find the sun shining and realize that we were only 10 minutes from where we wanted to be. I think about sitting in the small basement-level restaurant in our hotel, using Google Translate to attempt an interpretation of the Japanese-only menu, and somehow successfully ordering two bowls of ramen. And I think about sitting alone, naked, in a steaming, outdoor Ryokan bath late at night, with icy cold winter winds whipping around the trees and the sound of the ocean pounding below.

Oishiya Ryokan

Our three days in Ise had two major components – a stay at a traditional Japanese inn called a ryokan and a visit to the grand shrines. A ryokan is more of an experience than just a place to stay – it has a whole set of traditions around it, and is widely considered a “must-do” while in Japan. We chose a mid-range ryokan called Oishiya right next to the Wedded Rocks (or Meoto Iwa). When you arrive, your room attendant greets you and takes you to your room, typically a spare, furniture-free room with a tatami mat floor and paper-screen walls. You are given a yakuta to change into, and then your room attendant returns to serve you tea. Our room attendant (I wish I could remember her name!) was such a lovely, smiling woman. She had a little note card with all of the English phrases she needed to say tied to her waist, and she giggled a lot and just made us feel so cared for, which is a big part of the ryokan experience. And then after that you… just relax. You’re not really supposed to do much other than visit the baths and wait for dinner.

Dinner is served in your room, in a series of tiny, elaborately-plated dishes – ours included raw spiny lobsters that we cooked ourselves in boiling miso, fried fugu (blowfish) that I was too nervous to try, and two bottles of sake, which left us red-faced and giggly, sitting on the floor in our matching yakutas. I really enjoyed the dinner – it was so different and strangely intimate, a cross between a romantic dinner out and dining in, with an added element of discovery as I’d never tried most of the foods we ate that night. After dinner, our attendant pushed the table to the side and pulled out our futons, fluffing the comforters and pillows and practically tucking us in… and then we slept. Soundly.

Ise Grand Shrine

The grand shrines, the reason most people visit this part of Japan, were the center of our full day in Ise. For me, the shrines themselves weren’t the most interesting part of the visit – you actually can’t even see most of the shrine, as only the imperial family and a few select priests are allowed to enter the gates. What I found most fascinating was watching all of the other visitors, who clearly felt a certain reverence being there, and feeling myself to be part of a pilgrimage. It was also a lovely, sunny day, and the shrines are surrounded by forests with ancient trees and a wide and winding river, so I enjoyed the walking as much as anything. Outside the inner shrine, Ise Naiku, there is a small, traditional town called Oharai-machi, which includes a pedestrian street filled with food vendors and shops. It is more a recreation of a traditional shrine town than a contemporary one, but walking down the main drag, sampling fried oysters and local beers and window shopping, was a highlight of the visit for me. We even managed some non-verbal conversation with a group of young Japanese men we were sitting next to who didn’t like their beer and wanted to share it with us. (Key words – “oishii?” “ie oishii” “arigato!”)

Ise Travel Tips

From a practical standpoint, visiting Ise was the most complicated (and frustrating) part of our trip. Getting there required advanced train navigation (JR passes, probably the most popular way to get around Japan for foreigners, only work on Japan Railways lines, which thinned out considerably on the Ise peninsula), we switched between two hotels (perhaps a misguided decision, but we weren’t sure two nights at a Ryokan was worth it for us), and communication became difficult. But looking back, it also provided some of the most memorable and unique experiences. If you’re also headed there, a few tips:

• Bring lots of cash with you. We had a really tough time finding a place to get cash out during our visit to the shrines (if all else fails, try the post office) and we ended up wasting  a very frustrating hour looking for it.
• Plan out your train routes and schedules beforehand (we had a JR pass and took the Shinkansen Hikari from Kyoto to Nagoya, then took the JR Rapid Mie line from Nagoya to Iseshi. You do have to pay a small supplement while riding the JR Rapid Mie line, which the conductor collects in cash when you cross into the non-JR part of the track).
• If you’re not staying close to the shrine itself, take the Kintetsu line to Isuzugawa instead of Iseshi/Ujiyamada. While Iseshi/Ujiyamada are the main access points for the outer shrine, it’s an hour long walk or a fairly expensive (500Yen) bus ride to the inner shrine, and the queues for the bus can be really long. Isuzugawa, however, is only a 20 minute walk from the inner shrine (which is the one that most people really come to see, as well as where the fun, touristy villages of Oharaimachi and Yokocho Okage are).
• Take advantage of tourist incentives if they are being offered! Our ryokan had us take a 5 minute survey in exchange for 20,000 yen in “coupons” that could be used throughout the peninsula. I was incredibly skeptical at first but we ended up being able to use the coupons to pay for all sorts of things – they covered one of our nights at the hotel and I bought myself a pair of pearl earrings. So, that was an unexpected perk.
• Here’s a helpful English guide for spending a long weekend in the area.

Miso Ramen

This is the third ramen recipe I’m posting here, and this one, far and away, is the closest to the real deal. The miso base is made by blending together aromatic vegetables, ground pork, a healthy amount of bacon fat, and two kinds of miso paste (the real stuff, not the minute miso that comes in a bottle). The base is simple to make, and once you have it, you have the key to practically instant ramen bliss. A few spoonfuls of the intensely flavored miso base stirred into good chicken broth makes a cloudy, salty, deeply savory ramen soup. Beyond the noodles (essential), you can top it with pretty much whatever you want. For this version, I’ve topped it with Amy’s ginger-and-sake steamed chicken (delicious on its own, as well), a few sauteed shiitake mushrooms, and a soft-boiled egg. It’s one of the most satisfying things I’ve eaten in the past few months. Luckily, having a tupperware full of the miso base stashed away in the freezer means I can experiment with toppings to my heart’s content for the rest of the fall.

More from Japan:
Japan Travelogue Part One: Kyoto; Matcha Cream Puffs

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Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen

Recipe adapted from Simply Ramen. Serves 2.

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 TBS freshly grated ginger
• 1/4 cup sake
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 8 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 4 TBS miso ramen base, or more to taste
• 2 soft-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half
• 2 servings ramen noodles, fresh or frozen, cooked according to package directions and then rinsed in cold water

1. To make the chicken, season the sliced breast all over with salt and pepper. Add the sake, grated ginger, and chicken to a small non-stick skillet. Cover with a lid and bring sake to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer until chicken is fully cooked and you can no longer see any pink, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat, let chicken cool, and shred into bite-sized pieces.
2. To prepare the mushrooms, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced mushroom caps and cook undisturbed for 3 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook another 2-3 minutes. Mushrooms should be golden brown and crispy. Set aside.
3. Place the chicken broth and miso base in a pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir to fully incorporate the miso into the broth. Simmer for 5 minutes. Divide the cooked and rinsed ramen noodles between two bowls, then pour the hot broth over the noodles. Top each bowl with chicken, mushrooms, and a soft-boiled egg. Serve immediately.

Miso Ramen Base

Recipe adapted slightly from Simply Ramen. Makes enough for 12 servings.

• 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 apple, cored, peeled, and roughly chopped
• 1 celery stalk, cut into large pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/2 cup bacon fat
• 1 TBS sesame oil
• 1 1/2 cups ground pork
• 1 tsp fresh ground ginger
• 1 tsp sriracha
• 2 TBS soy sauce
• 1 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 TBS tahini
• 3/4 cup white miso (such as Shiro miso)
• 3/4 cup red miso (such as Akamiso miso)

1. Add the carrot, onion, apple, celery, and garlic to a food processor and process until evenly and very finely chopped. Add the bacon fat and the sesame oil to a large skillet and melt over medium heat, then add the finely chopped vegetables. Saute until veggies are tender, about 6-8 minutes.
2. Add the ground pork the the skillet with the veggies and use the back of a wooden spoon to break it into small pieces. Saute until pork is fully cooked, about 8-10 minutes. Add the ginger, sriracha, soy sauce and vinegar to the pork and veggies and stir to incorporate fully.
3. Transfer the cooked veggie and pork mixture back to the food processor and process until it is finely ground, almost a paste. You want the miso base to be as paste-like as possible so that it incorporates evenly into the soup. Scrape the paste into a bowl. Add the miso pastes and the tahini and stir until fully incorporated.
4. Refrigerate the miso base for up to a week or freeze for up to a month.

The post Japan Part 2: Ise Travelogue // Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

This March, only three weeks after coming home from Japan, we took a quick trip down to Costa Rica to join my family for their spring break vacation. Hard life, I know. It feels a bit presumptive to call this a travelogue, as the majority of what we did was sit in the pool and watch the wildlife in the trees, but I did want to share some pictures and thoughts (and a recipe for fish tacos with mango salsa) all the same.

We spent a full day traveling from Boston to the Dominical area – two flights, one layover, an hour at the rental car agency, then a three hour drive as the sun slipped over the mountains in a fiery blaze and we descended into a thick, tropical darkness. When we pulled up to the house we were staying in – which was at the end of a steep, unpaved driveway with trees closing in on either edge – we were all a bit frayed. Opening the car door the heat hit us like a smack in the face – even at night the temperatures were in the 90s – as did the incredible noise of the jungle after dark. Buzzing, whirring, hooting – an incredible cacophony of new sounds, amazing to listen to when you’re calm and comfortable, but enough to put you more than a little on edge when you’re in an unfamiliar place with the only light coming from two yellow headlights guiding you forward. That first night we slept a bit restlessly.

But the next morning was an entirely different story. We woke to find ourselves in a beautiful house with an expansive view sweeping down toward the ocean. Between us and the water were only tropical trees, giant red hibiscus flowers, toucans swooping back and forth from tree to tree, and puffy clouds still tinged with pink from the sunrise. I think that the view alone made the trip worthwhile.

We spent the majority of our short trip lounging in the plunge pool, looking out at the view and watching the birds (and occasional monkey!). I read an entire book, one that I bought in the airport in an atypically touristy move. But we also ventured out a few times – to watch the surfers at Dominical Beach at sunset, to hike the trails and beaches of Manuel Antonio National Park, and to a local waterfall and swimming hole with a smoothie bar at the top.

Dominical is a hippie surf town with lots of deeply tanned, dreadlocked gringos living in tents and small cabins along the coast, there to surf, eat vegan food, and embody “pura vida.” The beach is long, a little rocky, and has an intense riptide – dangerous for swimmers but perfect for surfers. Although we were definitely not Dominical’s standard crowd, we went just to hang out and watch the sunset (and stock up on groceries at the little market). On the way home, we stopped for drinks and perfect fish tacos on the patio at Por Que No?, where we sipped our margaritas and watched the last hint of purple sunset lingering over the darkening ocean.

Manuel Antonio, a teeny National Park on the coast, was a highlight of the trip. Despite the fact that it is extremely crowded, we managed to carve out our own space. We saw SO many monkeys – I think I counted 21, if I’m remembering my monkey-sighting competition with my brothers correctly. I actually enjoyed the park most on our walk back in the early afternoon, when many of the crowds seemed to have cleared out but the monkeys were still active (and sloths, if you can ever actually consider them active). In the more densely forested peninsula trail to Punta Cathedral, we were almost alone and saw a dozen Capuchin monkeys and five big, loud, Howlers. At one point the forest got so thick and the animals so close that it made us a little nervous – where in the rest of the park, we were in the majority seeking out the animals, we suddenly felt surrounded. It was cool. The boys absolutely fried themselves playing in the surf for an hour at midday, but according to them it was worth it. On the way out of the park everyone got a chilled coconut (locally, “Pipa Fria”) which was 100% the most refreshing post-hike drink. Beer, ceviche, and Cuban sandwiches at Claro Que Si, a nearby (and very good) restaurant with a gorgeous view from the patio, were next.

Close to where we were staying, just a few minutes away from the town of Uvita, there is a small waterfall and swimming hole that is absolutely worth a visit. The sun and heat are no joke in Costa Rica, and slipping into the shaded, ice cold water at the swimming hole was the most refreshed I felt the whole trip. We watched a group slide one by one down a 20 foot rock slide into the pool at the bottom, but none of us had the guts to try it. After sufficiently chilling ourselves, we walked back up the steep path to the open-air smoothie restaurant at the top, and slurped down ice cold fruit and ice cream smoothies.

The food in Costa Rica was unexpectedly delicious. I think I was expecting mediocre resorty food and what I got was the rich, flavorful Latin food I enjoy so much when I’m in Colombia and Ecuador, but with a more coastal flavor profile. I ate mostly fresh fish, mango, black beans and rice, and margaritas. Our most memorable meal was the one at Por Que No?, where we all ordered blackened fish tacos with rice and beans and mango salsa and they were absolutely perfect. And so that’s what I’ve recreated for you here. My homemade version was also delicious, although frying the fish proved to be a little tricky at first. My tips: make sure your oil is hot, as the fish cooks very quickly and too-cool oil will results in greasy, falling apart fish; only fry one piece of fish at a time; be very gentle when transferring the fish too and from the oil, especially after it is cooked – a metal skimmer may be the best tool to keep it from falling apart. Once you’ve got the hang of it though, the results will be well worth it.

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Fried Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

It takes a little bit of practice to get the fish fry just right without your fish falling to pieces or drenched in oil, but once you’ve got it done, the result will be tender, flaky, golden brown fried fish. Serve wtih avocado, mango salsa, crema, black beans and rice.

Recipe adapted from Serious Eats. 

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4
• Cuisine: Costa Rican

Ingredients

• 1 c. cake flour
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 c. light-flavored beer (or seltzer)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 c. canola or peanut oil
• 1 pound fresh cod, deboned and cut into eight, 2-oz. fingers
• 8 small corn tortillas
• Mango salsa, recipe below
• Mexican crema, for serving
• 1 avocado, peeled and sliced, for serving
• 1 lime, quartered, for serving

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, black pepper, sea salt, and smoked paprika. Transfer half of the mixture to a smaller bowl and set aside. Add the beer (or seltzer) and beaten egg to one of the bowls, and whisk until you have a thick but drippy batter. If necessary, add more beer or flour until it reaches the right consistency.
2. Heat oil in a medium, high-sided saucepan (or deep fryer if you have one) until temperature reaches 350°F. Working one piece at a time, gently dip a piece of fish into the batter, let extra batter drip off, then roll the fish in the dry flour mixture. Remove the fish for ~30 seconds to let the mixture become tacky, then roll in the flour again (the double-dipping method helps the tacos become extra crunchy). Use tongs or a slotted spoon/skimmer to gently transfer the fish to the hot oil. Fry for about 1 minute, then gently flip in the oil to fry the other side (unless the fish is fully submerged, in which case don’t worry about flipping it). When the fish is golden brown all over, use tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the fish to a paper-towel lined plate (be careful! The fish is super delicate here and it’s easy for it to fall apart if you go too fast). Season lightly with sea salt while still warm. Repeat until you have used all the fish.
3. To serve, place one piece of fish in each tortilla. Top with mango salsa, crema, avocado, and serve with a piece of lime. Serve immediately.

The post Costa Rica Travelogue: Puntarenas // Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Our trip to Japan this February was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. I wasn’t expecting it – it was more Trevor’s pick than mine, and despite my best intentions, I really hadn’t planned much other than our accommodations and transportation before we got on the plane from Hong Kong. I think my limited expectations contributed to how much I enjoyed the trip, but even without that, Japan is just a magical place. Despite the language barrier, which is very real, it’s an easy place to travel – safe, friendly, and orderly. If you know and follow the rules and schedules, travel is easy and pleasant. On top of that, Trevor and I were in a very happy place. After a year of hectic travel schedules and stressful jobs, spending 4 weeks together in Hong Kong felt like the exact reminder I needed about how much I love simply spending time with him. Taking that feeling into vacation made the trip that much better.

We flew into Tokyo on a red-eye from Hong Kong. Rather than drag our suitcases through a crowded city, waiting for our hotel room to be available while struggling to keep our eyes open, we chose simply to hop on the Shinkansen from Narita and head straight for Kyoto. It was the right choice – I can’t imagine a better introduction to Japan than beautiful Kyoto. Kyoto is both provincial and timeless, sprawling yet accessible, and filled with so much history and beauty and culture.

We took our time exploring Kyoto, only doing as much as we felt like each day. The morning that we visited Fushimi Inari to see the famous orange torii gates turned into late afternoon when we decided to follow a wooded path through the forest rather than return down the mountain with the crowds. That path led to a moss-covered stone garden, a secret bamboo grove, a farm with grapefruit-laden trees, a blossoming plum tree, and a neighborhood of high-end but very traditional homes, tucked away on a quiet side street. Nishiki market was another treasure – we could have spent the better part of a day trying everything it had to offer. As it was, we tasted our way through tako tamago (baby octopus stuffed with a quail egg), freshly made matcha mochi, okonomiyaki, a variety of battered and fried vegetables, and an incredible glass of unpasteurized sake, called namasake. The brilliant gold facade of Kinkakuji Temple was worth the 45 minute walk to get there, despite the swarms of other people who were walking by with us. And in the late afternoon one day, we snuck into Nijo Castle just minutes before closing time, and by walking just a little bit slower than the group in front of us, we found ourselves walking down the airy wooden halls alone, listening to the chirping of the nightingale floors under our feet and imagining what it would have been like to sit in the center of the painted rooms.

One morning, perhaps my favorite morning of the trip, we spent wandering through Arashiyama. The bamboo forest was the initial draw, but ultimately I found it underwhelming. Yes, the bamboo groves are as lovely as the photos look, but they don’t have the immensity or the depth I was expecting – after a few short minutes, we had walked through all of them. But the rest of the Arashiyama area was so worth the visit. There’s a beautiful, wide, pale-green river, dozens of restaurants in traditional wooden buildings with views of the river, a few bustling streets lined with shops, and a perfectly hipster coffee place that fully satisfied my desire to do the “Japanese coffeeshop thing” that Instagram so dearly loves. The weather was fickle and frosty, with brief and furious snow flurries followed by gentle sunshine all morning. We climbed to the top of one of the hills to see the monkeys, and loved it so much we spent an hour watching them play, looking out over the city, and feeding them bananas. When we were thoroughly chilled, we ducked inside a casual restaurant for steaming bowls of katsu donburi, just as the snow picked up outside. It was the sort of day that leaves a lasting impression, where you know just how lovely the memory will be before the day is even over.

Choosing restaurants in Kyoto was one of the more daunting things we experienced. We were staying in a quiet neighborhood a little outside of the main tourist areas (in a little boutique hotel called Villa Aneyakoji, which I recommend without any reservation whatsoever – it was perfect), and we walked by tons of lovely, intimate-looking restaurants, emanating a warm yellow glow from inside traditional wooden buildings. But all the signs and menus were only in Japanese, and with very limited ability to communicate, or even read the prices, we weren’t comfortable enough to go in, although we desperately wanted to. So we primarily ended up at the places with loud English menus – the sort of restaurant I typically try to avoid when traveling (with the notable exception of the meal we had at Tiger Gyoza Hall, which was excellent and felt like a lucky find). One night, after an acceptable but not extraordinary dinner at a conveyor-belt sushi place (worth going once just for the experience), we were wandering home rather late, hoping that the matcha cream puff place we had wandered by in the mall would still be open. Everything in the mall was decidedly closed, but we kept wandering and found ourselves outside of the Lipton Tea House, with pristine pastries beckoning from the window. After a little gesturing to the proprietress, we walked out with a box containing one enormous cream puff and one thick slice of matcha and chocolate cake, to be enjoyed 20 minutes later in our yakutas from the comfort of our room. (An illustration of Japanese hospitality: we asked for a fork at reception when we walked into our hotel, and 3 minutes later someone knocked on our door carrying a tray with plates, hot towels, and tiny gold forks for our dessert. This is now what I expect when I ask for a fork anywhere in the world).

I devoured that cream puff – it was light and rich and flavorful and perfect – and somehow it became my primary food memory from Kyoto, despite not being particularly Japanese. So I’ve made cream puffs for you here – big ones, with perfectly puffed and eggy shells and a matcha-infused cream. I went light on the matcha, because it’s a strongly savory flavor (and because it costs an arm and a leg here), but if you know you love the flavor of matcha feel free to increase it. And although I didn’t end up using these component recipes, Zen Can Cook deserves a shoutout here, if only for the inspiration his beautiful photos provided.

More from Japan:
Japan Travelogue Part Two: Ise Peninsula; Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen

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Matcha Cream Puffs

Pate a choux recipe adapted from Food Network. Makes about 20 large cream puffs.

For the pastry cream:

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 TBS cornstarch
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 c. whole milk
• pinch of salt
• 1 TBS matcha tea powder
• 3 TBS butter, cut into thin slices
• 1 c. heavy cream

For the puffs:

• 1 c. water
• 1 stick salted butter
• pinch salt
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 c. flour
• 4 whole eggs

1. To make the pastry cream, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a large, heatproof bowl until evenly combined. Add the eggs and egg yolk to the sugar and whisk until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and the salt and heat over medium temperature. Bring just to a simmer (milk should be steaming and starting to bubble around the edges but not boiling) then remove from the heat. Sift the matcha powder into the milk through a fine-mesh sieve, whisking to combine. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so, to temper the eggs. Transfer the custard back to the saucepan and return to medium-low heat, whisking the custard the whole time to prevent lumps and scrambling the eggs. Cook the custard, still whisking, until it has thickened, about 3-4 minutes, then pour into a clean bowl. Stir in the butter piece by piece, waiting until each piece has melted before adding the next. Let custard cool slightly, then cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap against surface of the custard, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
3. To make the cream puffs, preheat the oven to 425°F. Combine the water, butter, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring just to a boil, then remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously to incorporate. Stir until the flour is fully incorporated, then return the pot to the heat and cook for 60-90 seconds, beating hard the whole time, until the water has evaporated from the dough to the point that the dough leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat and transfer the dough to a bowl.
4. Beat the eggs into the dough one at a time, thoroughly mixing between additions. When you have added the last egg, the dough should be smooth and shiny, and drip slowly from the spoon when lifted out of the bowl. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon to scoop rounds of dough onto the parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between them. Use your finger to flatten any points as they will burn. Alternatively, you can spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and pipe rounds onto the baking trays, but I found this more difficult than simply scooping them. Bake the cream puffs for 15 minutes at 425°F, then reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for another 20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly browned all over. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
5. To assemble and serve the cream puffs, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the pastry cream and use a spatula to gently fold into the cream until mixture is even. Repeat twice more with the remaining whipped cream – the resulting whipped pastry cream should be light and airy but still hold it’s shape. Cut the puffs apart horizontally with a serrated knife and place a large spoonful of the cream on top of the bottom half, then replace the top half of the puff on top of the pastry cream. Only fill as many cream puffs as you will be serving immediately.

The post Japan Part 1: Kyoto Travelogue // Matcha Cream Puffs appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

If you look at my travelogue collection, which currently includes Ecuador, Italy, St. Thomas, and bits and pieces from around New England and Canada, it sorely under-represents my actual travel history. Where is Russia? Malaysia? Chile and Colombia? Travelogues are some of my favorite posts to look back on, but I often fall into the trap of putting them on my editorial calendar, meaning to sort through all my pictures and memories to share with you and document for myself, and then dragging the post forward month after month until my memories are a little jumbled and I’m not sure exactly what to say. Case in point – I’ve been meaning to write about the 6 weeks I spent in Russia for two years. Two years!

But I’m determined to change this, starting with my trip to Ireland in August. It was a short trip, just 6 days, but after 8 months of hectic and often stressful work travel, it reminded me that traveling for vacation is an entirely different matter – it’s fun and thrilling and wonderful to be on your own discovering someplace new. The trip was just me and my two younger brothers, Ryan and Robbie, and it was special to have time together just the three of us (even when I was screaming at them to stop fooling around and get dressed as we all bumped into each other in the teeny-tiny B&B room we shared in Galway).

Galway, The Aran Islands, The Burren

I won’t give you a day-by-day hour-by-hour breakdown of our trip – in fact, what I really want to share is just the one, perfect day we spent exploring the Burren. We flew into Dublin on Friday morning and after spending the day wandering, trying not to take a nap and enjoying our first few pints, we took the train from Dublin to Galway. The main event in Galway was a full day tour to the Aran Islands and the Cliffs of Moher – with only a short time in the country (and because none of us felt comfortable driving), we opted to do most of our sight-seeing with tour groups, and it worked out perfectly. We went on this tour with The Galway Tour Company, and I would highly recommend it – there was a good balance between the guided, tour-like parts and being able to explore on your own, and it allowed us to see a ton in the one day we had.

We went to the smallest of the Aran Islands, Inisheer, which has a population of only 250. The ferry across from Doolin to Inisheer was exciting, to say the least. I have spent a lot of time on boats of all shapes and sizes throughout my life, and this went straight to my “Top 3 most nerve-wracking boat experiences.” Just looking at the ocean from the dock made me nervous – when they say Wild Atlantic here, they really mean it. I’m sure we were perfectly safe – it is a ferry, after all – but the pitch of that boat and the size of those waves was both awe inspiring and terrifying. And they told us it was a “pretty good” day for crossing.

Once we were on the island (a relief in and of itself), we rented bikes and pedaled our hearts out – up the winding roads to the ruined castle, down through the stone wall-lined paths to the lighthouse, and back around to the rusted shipwreck. It was an exhilarating morning, one that I will look back on for a long time for its beauty, freedom, and sense of discovery. The weather was gray and just a little wild, and the island was incredibly beautiful, with its maze of low stone walls and verdant green pastures. I would go back in a heartbeat – and for more than 2 hours next time.

After a slightly less harrowing ferry ride back to Doolin, this time taking a detour by the base of the Cliffs of Moher (awe-inspiring, but slightly hard to appreciate whilst also worrying you might get swept off the boat), we stopped in at a very efficient pub for beef stew and brown bread and a warming Guinness. Next up were the Cliffs themselves, one of Ireland’s most famed attractions. Unsurprisingly, they were flooded with people, but somehow it didn’t matter – it was still an incredible thing to see in person. Plus, if you walk just a little bit beyond the official visitor areas, the crowds thin to a more manageable point. We had just a little over an hour to wander the paths snaking over the top of the cliffs, which was enough to take it all in and take some lovely pictures. Again, though, if I ever find myself back there, I’ll slow down a little and walk to the top of the cliffs from Doolin, taking the time to appreciate them properly. As it was, we left at 6pm and had a long, sleepy bus ride back to Galway, watching the rocky landscape of the Burren pass us by through the windows.

The Burren is what I’ll be going back to Ireland for – the wild wind-swept landscapes, tumble-down stone houses, and juxtaposition of green and gray and the steely blue of the Atlantic. To rent a house and a little car, spending my days going for long rambling walks and ending them with hot stew and fresh beer in cozy little pubs sounds like the ideal sort of vacation. I got just a taste this time but now I know that this part of Ireland is exactly how I always imagined Ireland would be.

Scones

Ireland is not exactly known for its food, and although we had several tasty meals, nothing was particularly memorable. Nothing, that is, except the brown bread and the scones and the butter. The scones, in particular, were far better than any others I’ve had. The best one I had was at the most unassuming place – the museum café in the National Museum of Ireland for Decorative Arts and History. The café was a little serve-yourself place, with charming blue tablecloths and no pretentions whatsoever, and the scones were just perfect. I think the fact that I went by myself, on our first afternoon while my brothers were sound asleep, added to the loveliness of the moment, and so I’ve taken it away as my primary food memory from Ireland – and the one I want to share with you.

I’ve made scones a number of times (like these Peach Scones with Bourbon Glaze), but they are always much too close to biscuits for me. I don’t want a scone to flake – I want it to crumble. I realize there are many different interpretations of the perfect scone out there, but for me it’s pretty close to that museum scone – soft, more cakey than biscuity, studded with fruit, and served with lots of butter and jam. Here’s instagram evidence of that particular scone, if you’re curious.

So I did some research on the best way to make Irish scones and in doing so, stumbled upon an Atlantic article called “The Secret of the Irish Scone.” The title certainly seemed promising, but I have to say I was a bit skeptical when I got to the end of the article and discovered that the secret to Irish scones was olive oil. And by skeptical I mean I am 100% positive that no traditional Irish baker ever made a scone with foreign, grassy olive oil in place of all that lovely Irish butter they have everywhere. But the reasoning behind using a liquid fat instead of a solid fat stuck with me, and I decided to give them a try. I added dried sour cherries and the last of the frozen red currants in place of the raisins and frozen raspberries, and really they were lovely. Perhaps not the most Irish, as you can taste a hint of olive oil, but certainly closer to the real thing than the flaky buttery versions I’ve made in the past. So I present these scones to you, not as authentic Irish scones, but as truly delicious scones that are wonderful reminders of a wonderful trip.

Olive Oil Scones with Red Currants and Sour Cherries

Adapted from The Atlantic. Makes about 12 scones.

• 1 3/4 c. AP flour
• 1 c. pastry flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1/2 c. light-flavored olive oil
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. dried sour cherries
• 1/2 c. frozen red currants
• egg wash (1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water)

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Mix the flours, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Sift the flour mixture twice using a sifter or fine-mesh sieve so that the flour is very light. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, olive oil, sugar, and egg until evenly combined. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour the buttermilk mixture into. Add the sour cherries as well. Use a wooden spoon to gently mix the flour and buttermilk mixtures together until just combined. The mixture should be fairly wet.
4. Generously flour a work surface and turn the dough out onto it. Pat the dough into a rectangle about 1-inch high. Sprinkle the frozen currants over half of the dough, then gently fold the other half of the dough on top of it. Press dough lightly to embed the currants into it. Pat the dough into another rectangle that is about 1 and 1/2 inches high. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out round circles from the dough, placing these circles on the prepared baking sheet. Pat any extra scraps of dough into rough circles and add to the baking sheet. Brush the scones with the egg wash, then refrigerate for 15 minutes. Brush once more with the egg wash, and place in the oven. Immediately lower the oven temperature to 425°F. Bake until just golden brown on top, about 15-18 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack. Serve within a few days for best flavor. Freeze any extras wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.

The post Ireland Travelogue // Olive Oil Scones with Red Currants and Sour Cherries appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Two weeks ago, Trevor and I got back from a gorgeous week spent in the US Virgin Islands. Since then, it has done nothing but snow in Boston. Snow on snow on snow. Record-breaking snow. Headed into the 5th snow day of the past two weeks tomorrow, I thought perhaps we all could take a moment and indulge in some pictures of white sandy beaches and aquamarine water. And when we’re done hating New England/February/cold/precipitation, let’s make an over-the-top tropical cocktail and pretend we’re all on an island together.

Where We Stayed

I booked this trip on a whim back in August, when I happened to see a great deal on flights to St. Thomas. It was originally booked as a Thursday night to Monday morning sort of trip, so we decided that the easiest thing to do would be to stay on St. Thomas and wander over to St. John for the day if we wanted. Of course, between numerous airline schedule changes and the blizzard, we actually ended up being away for a full week – not exactly the weekend getaway I planned, but I can’t say I mind the extra downtime too much. We booked a villa at Pavilions and Pools through AirBnB (the listing is here, if you’re interested – we would recommend it and it’s certainly a better deal than most hotels!). It was a great spot – a private plunge pool, a big private deck, a comfortable and bright bedroom and sitting room, an outdoor-ish shower, and a small kitchen. The privacy and extra space were great, as was spending each afternoon lying on the pool floaties with a glass of cold chardonnay and a book. We were able to walk to both Sapphire and Lindquist beaches, and the team at Pavilions provided us with snorkel gear and beach towels. The roads in St. Thomas are windy and hilly with no sidewalk or shoulder, so even the 1/2 mile walk into Red Hook was out of the question, but we could easily flag down the $1 open-air safari taxis at the entrance to the villa complex for a 3 minute ride into town. We chose not to rent a car and are glad – we didn’t want to spend all our time driving and the adventure of driving on those crazy roads (and on the left!) was not high on our list – but if we had wanted to explore more of the island we would have spent a fortune on taxis (taxis charge per person and rates are not really standard). As it was, we were happy with our two beaches, the dining options in Red Hook, and the easy ferry to St. John.

What We Did

This trip was booked with the explicit purpose of not doing much, so I had to continually remind myself that it was OK to do just that. Trevor had a miserable sinus infection for most of the trip, but he let me drag him around a little bit anyways. Sapphire Beach was the easiest option – just a short walk down a dirt road from Pavilions and Pools. It is gorgeous, but a bit crowded with cruise traffic. Lindquist was a semi-treacherous 5 minute walk down the busy road, and charged a $2 per person fee, but was much quieter and longer, and the lack of amenities gave it more of that remote, desert-island feel (this may have been enhanced by the commercial they were shooting of white horses running along the beach). We snorkeled at both beaches and it was really awesome – I don’t think I’ve been snorkeling since I was 8 or 9 and it really is so cool. We must have seen over 30 different types of fish, and the reef at Lindquist was intact with purple fans and brain coral and many other formations. I probably spent 10 minutes floating and watching a huge school of “Dorie fish” (I mostly only know about tropical fish because of Finding Nemo, sorry) nibble at the coral.

On our second day we took the ferry from Red Hook over to St. John, about a 20 minute ride. Cruz Bay seemed like a much cuter town than Red Hook, although we didn’t walk around and explore at all. Instead, we hit the trails of the USVI National Park – starting right behind the visitor center in Cruz Bay, we took the Lind Trail down to Honeymoon Beach and then connected back to the Caneel Hill Trail, which took us up and over two major hills and down to Caneel Bay Resort. I had thought there was a separate beach at Caneel Bay, but the public beach access signs led us probably another mile back to Honeymoon Beach, so we ended up just hiking back to Cruz Bay instead of taking a taxi from Caneel Bay as planned. If I did it again, I would do a loop, starting on Caneel Hill to begin with and then taking Lind Trail back from the beach on the way back. Caneel Hill is not the most popular trail in the park, but it was convenient that we did not have to take a cab to a trailhead and back again, and it was a challenging and well-maintained trail with great views of the islands from the top of Caneel Hill. On our last afternoon we took a safari into Charlotte Amalie, the major town on St. Thomas – since it was Sunday, I knew that some places would be closed, but literally, everything in the whole town was closed! All the shops, restaurants, bars… it didn’t seem like a town that I would love spending time in (just a bit touristy and shopping-oriented), but if you do go, definitely don’t go on Sunday.

What We Ate

The USVI are not really reknowned for their culinary offerings, and overall we found the food on the island a bit boring and overpriced. Of course, we’re spoiled by the wealth of interesting and affordable restaurants all over Cambridge and Boston, so we have high standards. That said, a few places we ate at are worth mentioning here. Off The Grid, a BBQ food truck located at the top of the hill down to Sapphire Beach was a great stop – they had delicious ribs, pulled pork, wings, sausages, and brisket all sizzling away on a big outdoor grill, plus a sweet and tangy “painkiller” BBQ sauce made with rum and pineapple juice, and good veggie sides like grilled sweet potatoes and rice and beans. They served beer and sangria and we enjoyed our meal at their picnic tables, looking out over the islands.

Our one fancy dinner was at Caribbean Fish Market, one of the few restaurants on the islands that is open on Sundays. The ambiance was nice – it’s part of a resort complex but right on the beach, and we ate outside with live piano music. My chicken was actually quite good, somewhat surprising at a fish restaurant – it was stuffed with bacon and spinach and served with a mango chutney and sweet plantains – but Trevor’s tuna was very bland, certainly not worth $38. I’m not sure where I’d come down on the restaurant in the end – although it seemed overpriced, it was on par with every other nice restaurant on the island, and I think the same is probably true for the food quality. In Red Hook itself we only really partook in liquid dining, but we did have quite a fun time at Melt killing time before dinner. The bar has a younger vibe, and we loved that they have games available – a table behind us was playing Connect 4, there was skee ball and some sort-of skinny air hockey, and Trevor and I spent a solid hour playing Texas Hold ‘Em. The sandwiches there looked good – we were tempted to call off our nice dinner and stick with grilled cheese and tater tots, but we didn’t in the end. Next time. It’s worth mentioning that we were there in the late afternoon so it was a quiet crowd – I’m not sure what it would be like later at night, but likely a lot livelier and less conducive to board games.

This Cocktail

Neither Trevor nor I actually had any froofy tropical drinks while we were away – we mostly drank $4 rum and cokes served in plastic cups, and I don’t recall there being any drink umbrellas (something to improve upon during our next vacation, surely). But rum and coke in a plastic cup doesn’t exactly have that “transport me out of the snow and onto the beach” effect, so I’ve come up with something a lot more exciting. I’m calling it Piña Sunrise, as it’s somewhere between a piña colada and a tequila sunrise. It has three layers – a grenadine and pineapple layer, a pineapple and pineapple layer, and a coconut sorbet layer. Each layer is laced with rum and coconut rum, and it’s all frothy and cold and sweet and exactly the sort of thing you should drink on the beach. I special-ordered drink umbrellas to top it off, just to complete the vibe. So drink up! Winter will be over soon.

Piña Sunrise Cocktail

Serves 2.

• 1 scoop coconut sorbet
• 1/4 c. whole milk
• 3 ice cubes
• 3 oz. coconut rum, divided
• 1.5 oz. white rum
• 3/4 c. frozen pineapple cubes
• 3/4 c. pineapple juice
• 1/2 tsp grenadine plus a dash for glasses

1. Add the coconut sorbet, milk, ice cubes, and 1.5 oz (one shot) of the coconut rum to a blender, and blend until smooth. Pour into a container and set aside.
2. Add the remaining 1.5 oz of coconut rum and 1.5 oz of white rum to the blender along with the pineapple cubes and pineapple juice. Blend on high until smooth. Pour half the mixture into a container and set aside. Add the grenadine to the mixture still in the blender and pulse a few times to mix.
3. Place a dash of grenadine in the bottom of two glasses. Divide the pink pineapple-grenadine mixture between the two glasses. Carefully pour the yellow pineapple mixture on top of the pink layer, then carefully pour the coconut sorbet mixture on top of the yellow layer. The layers may mix slightly, but you should see a gradient going from pink at the bottom to white at the top. Serve immediately (with a cocktail umbrella!)

The post USVI Travelogue // Piña Sunrise Cocktail appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Last April, Trevor and I made the drive up to Montreal just to partake in the sugar shack dinner at Au Pied de Cochon, Martin Picard’s infamous and lively, pork-loving restaurant. We’d been waiting for over two years to go – reservations open December 1st at midnight, and over 2,000 people submitted requests in the first five minutes – and it 100% lived up to our (very high) expectations. I wanted to write about it right away, but by the time we were back and I’d processed what I wanted to say, we were well into May, and it just seemed like an inappropriate time to share maple-syrup laden pork and duck dishes. So I waited until now, when heavy winter dishes are once again on the menu (and now this post can serve as a more timely reminder to those of you who might want to snag a reservation!).

As I flip through the pictures from that trip, I’m wishing now that I took better notes for you. I’m left mostly with a memory of warm yellow light filling a crowded cabin-style room, anticipation and excitement building with every course. A loud and convivial atmosphere of friends and strangers enjoying food that is completely over-the-top in more ways than one. A giant block of cheddar cheese being wheeled around the room on a trolley cart, the servers tossing steaming hot blood-and-ink fettucine in the hollowed out center to coat the noodles with  melted cheese. A cognac-doused duck-stuffed-duck being placed in front of Trevor and me, flaming, the whole duck just for the two of us. Sitting at the bar, watching the waitresses pour mug after mug of maple beer. Walking through the still-cold, still-muddy woods at twilight, enjoying the contrast between the still woods and the jolly feast inside. It was a wonderful experience: lively and joyful and a bit otherwordly, like something out of a book or a play. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

I do have a good list of what we were served, course by course. First, the drinks: a hefty mug of maple beer for Trevor, and a series of just-sweet-enough maple daiquiris for me. The appetizer course had three meal-sized components: a huge piece of maple foie-gras served with duck fat toast; a “sushi cake,” made with layers of rice, salmon tartare, and wasabi avocado mash; and pork cracklings served with little pots of maple-soaked scrambled eggs and maple baked beans. Next up was sturgeon in mussel and bacon sauce, followed quickly by an omelet of sorts, baked into a skillet with potato, beef, tomato, and a parmesan bread crust. Then one of my favorites, a make-it-yourself sandwich with duck fat fried dough as the bread, mustard, and inch-thick slices of juicy ham unlike any ham I’d every had before. Perhaps the most impressive course was the afore-mentioned duck, fed on maple syrup then stuffed, drenched, doused with cognac, and flambeed. This was served with baked sweet potatoes topped with maple-meringue, a dish I’ve recreated for you here. The last savory course was the blood and ink fettucine with blood sausage and cheddar cheese, and then we moved on to the desserts. Served all together, the desserts were a banana cream pie with maple meringue, maple taffy on ice, a mocha maple cake, and a maple frozen yogurt with maple sugar and whiskey.

There was an absurd amount of food served, and all of it was incredibly rich and delicious – easily the most lavish meal I’ve ever been a part of. The standouts for me were the maple daiquiris, the ham sandwich, and the maple frozen yogurt, which had an incredible tang to it. We may try to recreate all of these dishes at home at some point, but the easiest, and the most appropriate for this month, were the simple but clever baked sweet potatoes with maple meringue topping. Although I know that realistically, anyone who is cooking Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow has had their menu set for weeks and is not looking for last minute additions to their very long to-do list, these baked sweet potatoes would theoretically be a great addition to a Thanksgiving menu. They are super easy – just bake the potatoes, whip the egg whites, and broil just before serving – and they capture the much-loved flavors of sweet potato casserole without as much added sugar or fat.

Whatever you’re serving tomorrow, I hope that all of you have a lovely, relaxing, and delicious Thanksgiving! Ours will be small and non-traditional this year – we’re having steak tips and stuffing and raspberry pie – but I’m looking forward to the long weekend, spending downtime with my family, and eating whatever turkey leftovers Trevor manages to salvage from his family’s dinner. Plus going to the movies at least twice. Have a great holiday!

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Baked Sweet Potatoes with Maple-Meringue Topping

Inspired by dinner at Au Pied de Cochon. Serves 4.

• 4 small sweet potatoes
• 2 egg whites
• pinch cream of tartar
• 1/2 c. maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Wash the potatoes and poke all over with a fork. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until tender, about 40 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of the potato. Flip the potatoes halfway through, at about 25 minutes.
2. Remove the potatoes from the oven and let cool slightly. Cut a lengthwise slit into the tops of the potatoes, and scoop out a small amount of the potato flesh so that there is a shallow, circular hollow on top of each potato.
3. To prepare the meringue, beat the egg whites and the cream of tartar on high until soft peaks form. Set whites aside. Place the maple syrup in a small saucepan, and heat over medium heat until just simmering and the temperature is 235°F. While beating the egg whites on high, slowly drizzle the hot maple syrup into the whites, until the meringue is shiny and holds stiff peaks. Spoon or pipe the meringue on top of the sweet potatoes. Broil on high until meringue is golden brown, about 3-5 minutes, or use a pastry torch to cook the meringue only. Serve immediately.

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On the road from Baños to the final destination of our trip, Cotopaxi, we made a quick but memorable stop in the market town of Salasaca. Otavalo is the most famous market town in Ecuador, known for it’s enormous Saturday market, but it’s a good two hour drive north of Quito, and since our route kept us South of Quito, we jumped at the opportunity to make a quick stop in Salasaca when our guide suggested it. The small town square has perhaps a dozen or so vendors, but the goods (and the prices) were amazing, and we promptly spent all of our remaining cash on thick alpaca blankets ($20 a piece), colorful woven hammocks ($26 for the biggest size), hats, and alpaca sweaters. The quality of everything we purchased is high, the colors beautiful, and the women selling us the blankets were lovely and appreciative of our purchases. After reading more about the Otavalo market after our trip, I’m glad we passed through Salasaca instead – whereas Otavalo seems to have become a tourist destination with all the accompanying tourist junk for sale, Salasaca provides a more authentic and more intimate market experience. Hacienda Santa Ana

An extra suitcase worth of blankets in tow, we finished our drive from Baños, through the town of Machachi, and up a very long and very bumpy road to Hacienda Santa Ana, a beautifully restored hacienda-turned-inn right on the edge of Cotopaxi National Park. Santa Ana was our highest-end accommodation for the whole trip, and we luxuriated in the thick down comforters, the large couches by the stone fireplace, and the general atmosphere of elegant coziness. It’s a small inn on a huge property that once belonged to the Jesuits, and the decor still reflects its rich religious history. Shortly after we arrived (well, actually, shortly after our horseback riding adventure which happened immediately after we arrived), we were greeted with a canelazo, a warm clementine, cinnamon, and aguardiente cocktail that will almost certainly be making an appearance on this blog the next time it’s cold and gray. This and other little touches – hot water bottles to take to bed with us, gorgeous period furniture, a plentiful supply of hot tea, and walking through the grounds to say hi to the llamas – made our stay at Hacienda Santa Ana very pleasant. My only caution about staying at Santa Ana: it’s a long drive back to town, so be prepared to eat all your meals at the inn. Dinners were satisfying and tasty but not particularly inspiring, sort of overpriced but not exorbitantly so considering the fact that it’s the only option. It wasn’t a problem and wasn’t a highlight for us. All things considered, I’d highly recommend staying at Hacienda Santa Ana. Horseback Riding at Santa Ana

When my mom was planning this trip (thanks mom!), the one activity I was adamant that she include was horseback riding. I rode for a long time as a kid, but these days my opportunities to ride are very infrequent. We booked our ride for the afternoon we arrived at Santa Ana, but delays in the mornings and threatening weather had our guide worried about our choice. But I insisted. So as soon as we got out of the car at Santa Ana, Patricio, one of the chagras working at Santa Ana, handed us our chaps and ponchos, and we mounted up. It was raining lightly as we headed down the road, but I was still on cloud nine, chatting with Patricio using only my practically non-existent Spanish skills, and clopping down the cobblestone road. Trevor and my family were really just being good sports by coming along, but I was glad we were all there. At the end of the road, Patricio let us through a gate into the fields, and we rode through one of the coolest landscapes I’ve ever seen, giant tufts of dry grass clumped around our horses’ feet and the ragged edges of Ruminahui volcano in the background. I loved it. Things got a little hairy on our way back down – Trevor’s horse slipped down a muddy hill and rolled on top of his leg. Amazingly, he was fine, but it thoroughly freaked out my brother who decided that he would be walking the rest of the way home. Quite the adventure. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Cotopaxi Glacier

The main event of our time in Cotopaxi was, unsurprisingly, climbing Cotopaxi, the 19,000 foot tall active volcano that would dominate the landscape were it not usually shrouded in clouds. I’m exaggerating a little – we didn’t summit the mountain –  but we did climb past the base camp and up to the edge of the glacier at 16,400 feet. Even after a week at elevations of 9,000+ feet, being at an altitude that high is really hard, and I’ve never felt my body turn so sluggish with such tiny movements. It’s overwhelming. It was also bitterly cold as we climbed through the clouds that were spitting hail and rain at us, but we moved slowly, drank lots of water, rested frequently, and pushed through. As we neared the glacier, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds once or twice, illuminating the fascinating landscape and the colors of the plains below, and even though my mind was foggy, the experience was amazing. After touching the glacier (or building a snowman on it if you were Trevor), we hurried back down, and after a quick lunch at Tambopaxi refuge, we all collapsed back at the hotel, much more drained than we had expected to be. I’ve always dreamed about serious mountaineering – climbing Kilimanjaro, McKinley, etc. – but this brief encounter with true altitude made me question if I’d really enjoy it. Quechua Farmers

On our last “tour” day we left Hacienda Santa Ana and made the long drive west to Quilotoa lagoon. On our way, we stopped at the house of two local Quechua farmers, to see their traditional lifestyle. The houses are really dugouts, covered with long sloped roofs of dried grass, and the Quechua raise guinea pigs and vegetables for local markets to make their living. Their farm, spread out over the sloping mountainside, gave Trevor and me serious farm envy, especially their huge onion bulbs and dark loamy soil. The family was very welcoming during our short visit, and the experience didn’t feel pretentious or awkward like others geared towards indigenous culture can. It was a brief stop, but very memorable. Quilotoa Lagoon

Quilotoa lagoon is a water-filled caldera about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Machachi. If you see it in a brief moment of sun, the water is a brilliant emerald green, but our encounters with sun in Ecuador were few and far between. The lagoon is stunning, and when you arrive, you can hike down the dirt road to the edge of the lagoon, where you can rent a kayak if you still have the energy. My family is pretty active, so we refused the offer to reserve mules for the trip back up (at $8 per mule, and you have to decide before you hike down), but oh man, climbing back up out of that crater might have been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Walking up the sliding sandy path, I was huffing and crying and counting my steps in sets of 50 just to get myself to keep moving. I don’t know if it was the altitude, or soreness from the previous day’s hike, or the fits of rain, or all three, but I felt pathetic, and the mules literally cantering past me every 20 minutes or so where like salt in the wound. It was a beautiful landscape, but my memories of the day are not overwhelmingly positive. On the other hand, Trevor and my brother and my mom were all totally fine climbing back up, so if you want to attempt it, go for it. Just trust your guide when he says that it’s not as easy as it looks from the top. After a quick lunch at one of the small hostels in town, we were back in the car for the long drive to Quito. If you’re planning a trip to Quilotoa, I’d recommend trying to fit it in on your way somewhere – we basically did an out and back, and it was a lot of time in the car. It looks like it’s about an hour off the main highway from Baños to Machachi/Quito, so if you’re headed along that path anyways, that would be the time to do it.

More from our Ecuador adventures…
Ecuador Travelogue: Quito
Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon & Itamandi Lodge
Ecuador Travelogue: Baños

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Town of Baños

We spent the third leg of our trip to Ecuador in Baños, a small town nestled between mountains that’s a hotspot for adventure tourism and hippie expats. It has a laid-back party-town vibe, and it was definitely the most touristy stop on our trip, but not in an obnoxious way – it’s a town where tourism just feels like a lifestyle. There’s a lot to do in and around Baños: hiking, biking, rock climbing, rafting, ziplining, etc., and we only got a small taste of the town and the adventures it has to offer in our two days there, but I would definitely go back for more. Right after arriving we headed to the town hot springs, which were super-crowded and a little grungy, but with very hot pools and a gorgeous view of the waterfall running right next to it. I found the springs a little stressful because they were so busy, but for an entry fee of $2, it’s worth giving them a try. After a quick soak and a shower we headed to dinner at Casa Hood, where I was surprisingly excited to eat “gringoized” food – I had a plate of fried eggs with potatoes, black beans, salsa and avocado, basically my ideal meal at any time of day or night. They also had real espresso drinks and a smoothie bar – I was tempted to go back in the morning for a green smoothie, but figured the fresh fruit juice at our breakfast buffet was probably enough sugar for one morning. Trevor was still really sick at this point and sleeping in the hotel, so we didn’t linger for too long, but it was a fun little restaurant.

Hotel La Floresta

During our short time in Baños we stayed in Hotel La Floresta, a modest but comfortable hotel on the edge of town (it’s a small town). The rooms were simple but comfortable enough, and I liked our little balcony with its woven hammock. The hotel had an open courtyard design with a beautiful interior garden, and it was really pleasant to sit in one of the alcoves and chat – in fact, we did just that with a bottle of wine and a few surprisingly good local cheeses instead of going out to dinner our second night. Like everywhere we stayed, breakfast was plentiful and delicious, the fresh fruit juices and strong coffee (always served with cocoa!) being a highlight. I’d recommend it for anyone looking for reasonably priced but still comfortable accommodations in town.

Route of Waterfalls / Ruta de Las Cascadas

The highlight of our time in Baños, and perhaps even of the entire trip for me, was the bike trip we took along the Route of Waterfalls. It was a gorgeous morning, the only truly sunny day we had for the whole trip, and the views the whole way were absolutely breathtaking. The biking is a little precarious, since you’re biking along the shoulder of a busy two-lane highway for about 70% of the time, so it’s not for the faint of heart. I’m not a very confident biker, though, and I never felt unsafe – so I think as long as you’re expecting to be on a busy road, you’ll be fine. And when you’re off the road, on an old cobbled path that winds along the edge of the mountain, it’s amazing. It took us about 3 hours to do the whole thing, stopping frequently to take in the views of the numerous waterfalls you pass, and for a longer break to take a cable car across one of the larger gorges.

El Pailon del Diablo

At the end of the Ruta de las Cascadas you reach the big attraction – El Pailon del Diablo, a huge, beautiful waterfall that’s been built up with staircases and wooden bridges so that you can get right up close to the pounding falls. We spent about an hour hanging out at the waterfall, which is reached by an easy walk down a well-maintained path (and left by a not-so-easy walk back up). It was really an awe-inspiring sight, and worth the short trip from Baños even if you aren’t up for the biking portion. A little town has sprung up around the waterfall, and we had a late lunch at a little hotel/restaurant in town called Miramelindo – I had potato and avocado soup with chocho salsa, a fresh blackberry milkshake, and a giant burrito, and it pretty much hit the spot. After lunch, we threw our bikes and ourselves in the back of a canvas covered flatbed truck for a ride back to town, which was far more harrowing in my opinion then being a biker on the road.

El Virgen

We didn’t get to do much hiking while we were in Baños, but I did convince my parents and Trevor to get up early our last morning and hike the 600+ steps up to the statue at El Virgen. Two friendly stray dogs decided to join us on our walk and impressively made it all the way up and back down again without leaving our side. I’m not really a dog person, but these had to be the friendliest and least needy stray dogs ever. It made for a memorable walk. It’s not the prettiest hike, but it’s certainly a good way to get your heart pumping and there is a great view of the town and surrounding mountains at the top. If you want, you can continue your hike from the statue and loop around to some other viewpoints around the town, but we had to get back for breakfast and our next adventure.

Ziplining at the Canopy

On our way out of Baños towards Cotopaxi, we stopped for one last jungle adventure: ziplining at a place called The Canopy, which was about 20 minutes out of town and well up the mountainside, but doesn’t seem to have a web presence I can direct you to. Heights are not my strong point, but I convinced myself that I would at least try it – since there were 6 different segments of the route, crossing back and forth across the river with short hikes in between, I knew I could stop after the first two short segments, if I wanted. I actually felt really safe – the equipment and cables were seriously heavy duty and the guys helping us were really cautious and obviously knew what they were doing. Still, I didn’t love the short segments, so was pretty sure I wasn’t going to love the 500m segments, so I designated myself the official photographer while my family and Trevor finished the course. If you’re into ziplining, this is definitely the place to go – much more pleasant than the terrifying-looking one that we rode by on our bikes!

Papallacta Hotsprings

We actually stopped at Papallacta on our way from Quito to the Amazon, before we made our way to Baños, but the climate there was much more similar to Baños than the Amazon, so I’m including it here. Papallacta is a small village with natural hot springs, and there’s a very clean, very nice resort at the top of the town. We spent a few pleasant hours lounging in the pools, enjoying the tropical landscaping, and admiring the views of the surrounding mountains. It’s a really cool spot, and well worth the $7 admission fee. We also enjoyed people-watching: there was a really fun group of tiny old Ecuadorian ladies plus one little old Ecuadorian man who were just having the time of their life. If you’re driving along the road from Quito to Tena, or even looking for a day-trip from Quito, I’d definitely recommend Papallacta. The drive there is beautiful, too.

More from our Ecuador adventures…
Ecuador Travelogue: Quito
Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon & Itamandi Lodge
Ecuador Travelogue: Cotopaxi

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Itamandi Lodge – Facilities

For our three day jungle experience, we stayed in the newly opened Itamandi Lodge, an eco-lodge on the banks of the Arajuno river. The lodge is only accessible by boat (specifically, by 30-ft long motor canoe), so we were picked up at the Arajuno bridge, fairly close to the town of Tena, loaded into the boat with our luggage, and whisked up the river. Itamandi is one of the more accessible lodges, being only 20-30 minutes from a road; other jungle lodges, including another property by one of the owners of Itamandi, require an eight hour boat ride to access. I have to say, it was unnerving enough being in an unfamiliar environment 20 minutes from a road – I can’t imagine being eight hours from one. The design of the lodge is very nice, well integrated into the jungle, with covered walkways everywhere to protect you from the frequent rainstorms, a large open dining pavilion, a beautiful long pool that uses a small amount of salt-water instead of chlorine for disinfecting, and spacious rooms with views of the river and lots of tropical hardwoods. We actually loved the pool, which was deep enough for diving and long enough for laps, and spent way more time in it than we anticipated – it’s really nice to be able to cool off after trekking through the sticky jungle. As far as eco features go, besides the pool, there was a big array of solar panels for energy, and the toilets and waste water systems were composting. There were probably other features, but I don’t get that into that stuff so I didn’t take note of them. The five of us were the only guests for the three days that we were there, so we had the undivided attention of all the staff, which felt both really luxurious and a little strange. That said, everyone on the staff was wonderful, friendly, and took excellent care of us, making our experience decidedly more positive than it would have been without them.

The property has only been open since November of 2013, so it did feel like there were still some kinks being worked out. The first issue we had was with our screens, which were full of fairly large holes – apparently the giant crickets like to eat the screens. When we mentioned it, everyone was very accommodating, and we fixed the problem with some duct tape, which was a perfectly satisfactory solution for us. The second night, there was a major rainstorm, and although it didn’t bother us much during the night, in the morning we noticed that the rain had actually ripped through the plaster in our room. Again, the staff was very accommodating and we moved to a different, leak-free room. We actually preferred our second room as it was on the second floor, and there was much more of a breeze moving through the room. Two things we thought the rooms could really use – a ceiling fan, for those desperately still and hot nights, and wall hooks, for the numerous wet things you’ll acquire during your stay. Hopefully they can fix some of the structural issues as they continue operating – otherwise, it might be hard to keep the jungle at bay. Even with these small issues, I would recommend the property to anyone looking for a semi-luxurious jungle experience in Ecuador – just think of it as something between “glamping” and a typical hotel, and you’ll be in the right mindset to enjoy it.

Itamandi Lodge – The Food

Since this is a food blog, after all, I wanted to call out some of the meals we had at Itamandi, as they were the best that we had on our trip. Alex, the manager, and Clide, our guide, were both kitchen whizzes, and turned out multiple three course meals a day just for the five of us. Breakfasts were standard fare – eggs, sausages, really tasty fresh tomatoes, fruit, yogurt, and juices – but very well prepared, and pleasant to eat by the pool in the fresh(er) morning air. Lunches and dinners were delicious, three course affairs. Some highlights were the coconut-sugar glazed chicken, yucca fries, tilapia prepared in a banana leaf, patacones (plantain fritters), hot cheese empanadas served immediately upon our arrival, and the exotic poached fruits for dinner – starfruit, tree tomato, pineapple, all served in a cinnamon syrup. Everything was delicious, and way more gourmet than we expected to find in the middle of the jungle.

Jungle Night Walk

Our very first activity upon arriving at Itamandi was a jungle night walk. We arrived in the late afternoon, and after our welcome empanadas and a chance to put our luggage away, we met at dusk in our long-sleeved everything, headlamps and flashlights in hand, and pulled on the ubiquitous Ecuadorian rubber boots to protect our feet and legs from bugs, snakes, mud, etc. We headed out on a trail that never strayed far from the lodge, but quickly became very close, twisty, and hilly. As we walked, our guides used flashlights to point out all the creepy-crawlies of the night: giant crickets, the super poisonous banana spider, a coiled drinking snake, fever ants, and lots of other really big bugs. It was really cool to see these creatures, but the humidity and darkness made me feel a little claustrophobic and slipping through the mud had me nervous that I would accidentally slip and step on something frightening. If I could have seen into the future, I would have asked that we do this on our second or third night, as I found it a bit intense for a first activity, but still, while I wouldn’t say I was enjoying it at the time, looking back on it is very cool.

Parrot Clay Lick

Our first morning, we met before dawn to head out in the motor canoe, hoping to catch sight of parrots and parakeets coming for a morning feast at a nearby clay lick. About 20 minutes upriver we got out of the canoe and hiked up another steep jungle path to the lookout blind. This particular clay lick was very small, only about one meter in diameter, and no birds had arrived yet when we got there. Clide, our guide, explained to us that we should sit and wait, so that’s what we did. This turned out to be an exercise in patience and listening, as we sat for 30 minutes, absorbing the different bird calls and noises we were hearing – it was actually really cool to start being able to parse out different birds, just from hearing their calls. We soon heard the parakeets arriving, although it took them a while to descend from the treetops toward the clay lick. The parakeets were a brilliant green color – but so were the trees, so it was a bit difficult to see them. Still, I got a couple of decent pictures before we headed back for breakfast. I’m certainly not a birding convert, but I’m glad we went.

Jungle Hiking

Between the intensity of the night walk and the long wait for the parakeets, I think we were all feeling a bit apprehensive about the next two days as we sat at breakfast that first morning. After breakfast, we were back in our jungle gear for a daytime hike, and we quickly cheered up as Clide led us along a more open hiking trail, the air moved through the trees, and a little bit of sunshine filtered through to us. This walk was really an awesome experience – Clide, who grew up in a local Quichua community, was super knowledgeable about pretty much everything in the jungle (he was telling us that he sometimes leads advanced treks deep in the jungle with scientists in search of poisonous snakes. Which is both terrifying and awesome). We saw cocoa trees and sucked the sweet-sour fruit off of the beans; we found a colony of lemon ants, which are so sour (I tried one, it’s like a warhead!) that nothing at all will grow near their colonies except for the one variety of tree they live in; we saw trees that “walk” by sending out new above-ground roots as they grow and trees that shed their bark every three months to prevent vines from growing on them; we tried sour cane, a bright pink stalk that grows out of rotting logs and tastes a little like rhubarb; Clide showed us how to braid giant leaves to quickly create waterproof roofing. We learned so much in the two hour walk – I didn’t want it to end.

Community Visits

Part of the Itamandi experience is learning about and interacting with the indigenous Quichua people in the local communities. In general, we found that Ecuador seems to be very concerned with supporting and protecting the broad range of indigenous cultures found in the country, which was really great to see. In the Amazon, the main tribe living there is the Quichua tribe, although the famed Huaorani and Shuar tribes can be found deeper in the jungle. We visited two different Quichua communities while at Itamandi. First, we went to the community nearest to the lodge to see the village’s kapok tree, meet some of the people there, and try their traditional foods. They prepared a range of food for us: three forms of maito, a method of cooking in banana leaves, one with mushrooms, one with river fish, and one with hearts of palm and grubs; roasted white cacao beans; more river fishes; caramelized banana; roasted grubs; and chicha, a fermented yuca drink. I stayed away from the grubs and the fish, but I couldn’t stop eating the roasted white cacao – it had an amazing nutty, smokey, crunchy quality. Trevor went all out and tried everything, although he paid for it later in the week. It was really neat to try the foods, and afterward we bought a couple of necklaces made from beautiful red and black seeds from the women. Although the interaction felt a little bit uncomfortable at times, it was a really unique and educational experience.

Later in the trip we visited a second community, which was a much larger town, accessible by road (not just boat, like the others), with a population of 3,000 people. While here we saw two different demonstrations – one of traditional pottery making and the other of chocolate making. The process for making pottery was really cool – everything they use to dye, glaze, and decorate the pottery is natural, from plant dyes to a certain black rock that is used to burnish the finished pieces. The designs and colors were really beautiful, so we brought home a couple small pieces from the adjacent shop. As for the chocolate, we started with a cacao pod, cracked open, and tried some more of the white fruit surrounding the beans. When cacao pods are harvested, the fruit-coated beans are left to dry in the sun for 5-6 days, until the fruit dries off. At this point, the beans are roasted until the skin cracks, then peeled, before the beans, now a very dark brown, are returned to the pan for a second roasting. The beans are then ground, and sometimes mixed with sugar. We got to participate in the whole process, and at the end we had a bag full of the freshest cocoa powder imaginable, with an amazing, heady, chocolate scent. We brought it back to the lodge with us, where Clide made us a very memorable batch of hot chocolate.

Amazoonico

On the second day, we went a bit further down the river and took a turn onto the Napo river, a much larger tributary of the Amazon. Our first stop on the Napo was Amazoonico, one of several animal rescue centers in Ecuador. The people at Amazoonico take injured or abused animals, frequently ones that have been kept illegally as pets, and attempt to rehabilitate them before releasing them back into their natural habitat. Some of the animals will never be fully rehabilitated, and those animals stay at the facility, living in somewhat natural, but still caged settings. It’s an interesting project, and our two Swiss volunteer guides gave us a really good tour (plus we got to see the troop of wild squirrel monkeys that hang around to steal food up close and personal). On our way out of the Amazon the next day, our guide told us that a local village had just recently captured a big boa up in the highlands, and asked if we wanted to stop and see it. We did, and even though Trevor was really sick that morning he opted to drape it around his neck. It was exactly the kind of situation that we had heard about at Amazoonico, which brought up the question for all of us of whether or not the villagers had the right to keep that boa, as part of their traditional lifestyle, or if it was the type of thing that should be reported to Amazoonico, where it would just live in a different form of captivity. Maybe we didn’t learn our lesson, but it seems like a somewhat complicated moral issue.

More from our Ecuador adventures…
Ecuador Travelogue: Quito
Ecuador Travelogue: Baños
Ecuador Travelogue: Cotopaxi

The post Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon & Itamandi Lodge appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As I’ve mentioned a few times (or as you may have noticed from my Instagram pictures), we just got back from an awesome ten-day vacation in Ecuador. Trevor and I tagged along on my family’s spring break trip, and not doing any of the planning or trip prep myself was a welcome change, and meant that pretty much everything we did was totally new and surprising. We spent time in four different parts of the country: Quito, the Amazon, Baños, and Cotopaxi. I left my computer behind, but I took lots of old-fashioned notes (and pictures!) on everything we did, saw, and ate, so I’m putting together a four-part travelogue, both for my own memory, and in case any of you are considering your own trip to Ecuador. First up, Quito.

Quito Overview

Most flights from North America to Ecuador seem to land in Quito, and many of the most popular travel routes start and end in the country’s capital. If you’re headed to the beach, you can also fly in through Guayquil, further South, but we were staying mainly in the highlands so Quito was our first stop. The Quito airport is brand new, having opened only a year ago, and it’s very clean and modern, but it’s a long haul from downtown – our transfer to the hotel took a little over an hour (on the bright side, it only cost $35 for a van). Although we only spent two days there, Quito seems like a city on the up and up. While it’s definitely still on the gritty side, there are some beautiful areas and everyone we spoke with was very friendly. Tourists seemed to be few and far between, which is quite different from every other major capital city I’ve visited, but a little refreshing. Most guidebooks and travel websites that I read had extensive warnings on safety: we didn’t have any issues, but I did feel a little uncomfortable (and extremely blonde) walking around some parts of Old Town, which was probably both caused and relieved by the extremely visible armed police presence. I think with normal safety precautions, you’re perfectly safe, but it’s definitely a city where you should stay alert and do your best to blend in. At 9,000 feet and with plenty of hills, just walking around the city is a workout – bring good walking shoes and take it slow to avoid passing out in the main square like my baby brother (he’s fine). While we were there (March), the weather was fairly cool and gray – jeans and a sweater were most appropriate during the day, although when the sun did show it’s face it was wonderfully warm.

Hotel Casa Gardenia

Kudos to my mom for finding the Hotel Casa Gardenia. Just up the hill from the historic center of Old Town, I think this little hotel was my favorite part about the city. Located in a historic house, it’s been completely remodeled by a graphic designer, and the result is a beautiful, modern, and unique boutique hotel. There are only seven rooms, spread out across three floors and connected by a central courtyard. Collectively, my family stayed in four of the seven rooms so we can vouch that they are all comfortable and well-designed. Rooms on the second floor seem to be the best as far as noise levels go – on the first floor the rooms are right by the breakfast area so it’s loud in the morning, and on the third floor city noise comes up through the windows – but we all slept well regardless of where we were in the building. There are comfortable common spaces on all three floors with beautiful panoramic views of Quito, and we made good use of them – two nights we had dinner and wine on the couches on the third floor, and during an afternoon rainstorm, Trevor and I snuggled up with a cup of tea on the second floor and watched the clouds move over the city. The hotel is small enough that the common spaces feel like an extension of the rooms, and I loved how welcoming they were. Everyone on the staff was lovely – friendly, accommodating, and helpful. We were especially grateful to be able to use the kitchen’s fridge and microwave to store/reheat our leftovers from dinner. Breakfasts were delicious and satisfying, with gorgeous freshly blended juices, made-to-order eggs, and lots of breads, pastries, and fruits. I would go back in a heartbeat.

National Basilica

We spent the whole morning of our first day exploring the Basilica del Voto Nacional, a neo-Gothic cathedral that has been under construction for over a century (and is still not quite finished). While I usually have a short attention span for churches, I had so much fun climbing around this one. Entry to the interior costs $1, and this part of the church is a little boring if you’ve been to many cathedrals, although the stained glass is extremely vibrant and worth a peek. The real highlight was climbing up in the towers, which are found at the side entrance and can be accessed for $2. We spent a few hours climbing up the different belltowers, walking across the ceiling, taking pictures, and stopping in their little gift shop (where I got a great, super-warm hat for $5). There’s also a small cafe inside one of the towers, if you need a mocha to recharge after all the stairs. We didn’t try it but it had pretty picture windows and looked very cozy. Both parts of the cathedral were uncrowded and really pleasant to visit.

Lunch at Vista Hermosa

During a brief hour of sun on our first day we had lunch on the rooftop deck at Vista Hermosa. The food there is solidly average, and definitely a bit overpriced for the area,  but in my book a visit to the restaurant is still worth it on a sunny day for the gorgeous views (the best way to go might be to just order drinks and nachos). I tried seco de chivo, a local goat stew served with big chunks of potatoes and avocado, which was hearty and satisfying but not particularly inspiring. If I ever get back to Quito I’m going to try and find a more distinctive version.

Wandering Old Town – Plaza de la Independencia, La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

The historic center of Quito was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 1978, for being the best preserved city center in Latin America. We only went inside one building in this part of town – La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus – a church with an interior that is covered entirely in gold leaf. It’s an impressive sight, but by this point we were all a little warn out from our wanderings that day, so we were in and out. We also wandered through Plaza de la Independencia right down the street, which has beautiful gardens and building facades, but was a little crowded for our taste. I think exploring this part of the city with a guide might be the way to go – I’m sure we would have enjoyed it much more if we were learning something on the way.

Takeout from Pizzeria El Hornero

I’ve never ordered takeout while traveling abroad before (unless you count room service, I suppose) – it has always seemed both overwhelming and like a waste of an opportunity to continue exploring my destination. That said, traveling can be exhausting, and having hot food delivered to your hotel’s door can be so nice after a busy day exploring. Plus, it turns out that local takeout can be just as interesting as venturing out to local restaurants. So although I was a little disappointed the first night when my parents ordered pizza from Pizzeria El Hornero, 10 days later when we were back in Quito I actually requested that we do it again. The pizzas are served with a super spicy salsa that makes the experience of eating them entirely different. I loved the tropical chicken pizza with this bright green sauce – it was one of the more memorable dishes of the trip for me. Plus, it was really nice sitting together in the third floor lounge of the hotel, eating casually and discussing our day in our pajamas. I might be a takeout convert.

Museo de la Ciudad

After 10 days exploring the jungle, highlands, and volcanos of Ecuador, we had one more day in Quito before our flight home. Everyone was kind of run down and mildly ill at this point, and not up for too much adventure. That last morning, we ventured out to the Museo de la Ciudad, and it was the perfect choice for a low key activity. The museum, which is housed in an old hospital, has a nice mix of art and history exhibits – we all wandered through separately, enjoying the life-size dioramas, artifacts, and paintings which were well arranged, and many of which were interactive. It was really cool to see exhibits of some of the traditional lifestyles after we had seen those lifestyles in person, and we were all pointing out the many objects, plants, and foods that we recognized from our trip. Walking through the courtyards is also pleasantly cool and quiet, a peaceful place right inside the city. Well worth the $3 entrance fee. On our way out, we stopped to check out the great views of the Virgin statue on nearby El Panecillo, and had lunch at the artsy, modern cafe right on the museum steps. Although like most restaurants there’s a traditional lunch offering (soup, chicken and rice, and a dessert) that’s very affordable, we all jumped at the chance to have sandwiches and coffee – after 10 days of traditional lunches, it was a nice change.

Souvenirs at Mercado Artesanal La Marisca

To fill the last few hours before our flight, Trevor and I decided to go out in search of some local art to bring home. We couldn’t find any parts of town which could be reasonably considered an art district, and the types of art being sold in some of the museums were out of our price range, so we wandered up to the Mercado Artesanal on the edge of New Town. It was the only time we crossed over into New Town, and I wish we’d spent more time there – it felt much more like a living city than Old Town, which made me feel a little claustrophobic and skittish at times. The market itself is arranged into covered rows of stalls, most of which are selling jewelry, woven products, chocolate, and trinkets, but there were a few stalls selling prints and paintings. We ended up taking home a big (like 3 feet long) original painting of Illinizas for $60 – our first real art! And despite the anxiety it caused me, I even managed to bring it home as a carry-on damage free. If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for souvenirs of all sorts, the Mercado Artesanal is worth a try – it doesn’t have the most unique or best priced goods, but it does have a large variety all in one place, and it’s fun to wander through.

More from our Ecuador adventures…

Ecuador Travelogue: The Amazon
Ecuador Travelogue: Baños
Ecuador Travelogue: Cotopaxi

The post Ecuador Travelogue: Quito appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

As I complained about a few weeks ago, Trevor recently took a work trip to Oman. He brought back all kinds of spices and goodies from a market he visited while he was there, and used them to make these tasty grilled goat chops flavored with mint and sumac. I decided I wanted to blog about them, and by that I mean I asked him if he would write about his trip and type up the recipe. He’s the best so he agreed, and wrote the short novel below which makes me look bad as a writer/blogger, but I’m letting it go since it’s all about what’s best for my readers, right? We’re off on our next adventure now – I have posts scheduled for you while I’m gone, but if you want to follow along as we travel through the jungles and up the mountains of Ecuador, come see what we’re up to on Instagram, where I’ll be sharing pictures and stories and hopefully some really tasty food. And now to Trevor…

Not only did I get to travel to the middle east for work, I’m lucky enough to have an exceptional girlfriend that will let me blather about it on the internet just as long as there’s a recipe involved. At the company where I work, the exciting trips to exotic places don’t generally get thrown to the low guy on the totem pole. I constantly hear stories about floatplane rides in Alaska and almost-bar fights in Ukraine, and I’ve kinda been waiting my turn. I was getting ready for disappointment when this trip cropped up, but in the space of a week, everyone else was called off to different corners of North and South America and I totally lucked out.

At any rate, (back story: I’m a structural engineer) we were asked to take a look at a brand new shipyard in the soon-to-be port city of Duqm. As part of a plan to establish Oman as a shipping powerhouse in the Persian (Arabian) gulf, a massive port was built mid-way between the capital, Muscat and the southern port city, Salalah. The port of Duqm is designed to handle an incredible amount of freight, and the nearby shipyard can service (e.g. repair, paint, scrape-the-barnacles-off…) some of the most massive ships in the world, (VLCCs and some some smaller ULCCs for ship nerds). What they don’t have yet in Duqm are a ton of roads.

For the most part of our trip, we stayed at a very well-appointed resort-style hotel on the beach, replete with BBQ nights and Budweiser. It was extremely comfortable, and also the only thing for miles. Every morning we drove through beige desert, past places where the road would abruptly end, and where bits of infrastructure were being jackhammered out of the bedrock. We drove at incredible speeds; (a little alarm would go off at 160kph,) into a sprawling yard where fourteen cranes dwarfed the silhouettes of fishing dhows in the harbour, and every berth in the yard was occupied by a huge ship crawling with workers. The yard recently celebrated the docking of its 200th vessel in a mere 3 years of service, so It isn’t hard to imagine Duqm growing into a successful center of trade and industry.

But we were looking for a little culture. So on our way home, back through Muscat, we begged for a tour of the city and for ideas of what to bring home to show off to our friends and family. We were treated to an evening tour through the beautiful old city and past the Indian-style palace built by Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said. It was explained to us that the Portuguese once invaded Oman in order to position itself along the same crucial trade routes that are used today. Old forts from this time flank the harbour and look down on a city in transition. More and more cruises are stopping in Muttrah, a city in the province of Muscat, as it becomes a destination of interest for National Geographic-style expeditions. We visited one of the oldest marketplaces on the Arabian peninsula, the Muttrah or Al Dhalam Souq (Darkness Souq) which now hosts only a few stalls catering to Omanis, and many which cater to tourists.

With our extremely gracious host guiding us, we sampled delicious gelatinous candy, and sorted through cheap knockoffs for old-school Omani coins. We sampled powerful perfumes and checked out a small grocery which was full of snacks, candy, oil extracts and spices. I managed to grab some sumac, which is a lemony spice from the sumac berry, and some whole turmeric roots, which are super funky looking. (Side note: I tried to buy two little nubbins of turmeric, but ended up with a whole kilo… so we’re set for life.) I also grabbed some rose petals for candying and then escaped for fear of blowing the weight limit on our checked bags. Everything we asked for was shoveled out of giant colorful sacks which created such an incredible set of smells that the other market-goers’ heads would whip around every time the door was opened.

Our last stop was the smallest stall yet; a six-foot square with walls lined floor-to-ceiling with bags and bags of frankincense. Just as we walked up, a small crowd formed of people firing off questions and haggling with a young man in the middle of the whole thing, perched at a raised counter. There was frankincense for chewing and making tea, frankincense for burning, and frankincense mixed with every kind of perfume and oil. We got away with a big bag of huge chunks of the dark, powerful-smelling sap, and a smaller bag of the clearer variety used as as a sort of panacea.

But that’s enough babbling. Our extremely friendly host treated us to a dinner of everything-on-the-menu at a lively outdoor restaurant full of men smoking sheesha and drinking fresh fruit juice, and then sent us on our way. Part of our feast included a small grill, placed on the table full of kebabs, lamb sausage and goat chops, all of which were super delicious, and one of which, I tried to recreate here.

Mint and Sumac Goat Chops with Tahini Sauce

Adapted from Bruce Aidells’ The Great Meat Cookbook. Serves 2.

For the Goat Chops:

• 2 small garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
• ½ cup parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
• 1 tablespoon sumac
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons sweet Hungarian paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4-6 small goat chops (about 1 lb. in total)

For the Tahini Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon water, or more if needed
• salt to taste

1. In a mortar and pestle, grind up the olive oil, garlic, mint, parsley, sumac, and fennel until you have a rough paste, and there are no huge chunks. Add the rest of the the spices and mix it up until it’s a uniform consistency. Trim the chops of any silver skin or ragged edges, then coat them with the rub. Let the chops sit covered in the fridge for two hours or so.
2. For the tahini sauce, mix the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil and water in a small bowl with a whisk, making sure there are no lumps. The sauce should have a syrupy consistency; season with salt.
3. On medium-high heat, grill the chops for about five minutes per side for medium-rare (125-130 degrees, internal temp). Let them rest for a couple of minutes after removing them from the heat and then artfully drizzle them with the tahini sauce.

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