Turkish Lunch and Local Seafood Markets

Turkey

Kusadasi and the surrounding area were rich in Roman and Greek ruins. The Roman city of Ephissus and the amphitheater at Militus were amazing. After touring the ruins of the great temple of Apollo where an Auricle foretold the future some 3,000 years ago, we stopped for a Turkish lunch in a local restaurant.

There were all kinds of vegetable, rice, and potato dishes cold and hot to try. Fish was the piece d’ resistance. Actually most of the women chose “resistance” when it came out plated whole with head and tail still attached. The cats in the place ate well that day. The desert was baklava and was about the same as you find in the U.S.

Watch the video!

Turkish Food by The Epicurean for Beyond the Kitchen from Beyond the Kitchen on Vimeo.

The Epicurean explores Turkish food and local seafood markets in Kusadasi, Turkey. He discovers some acquired tastes for local seafood and Turkish Cuisines.
He is reporting for www.beyondthekitchen.com Twitter @beyondthekit

Stay tuned,
The Epicurean

The Epicurean Visits the Acropolis in Greece

Greece

We didn’t get to sample much of Athens local cuisine as it poured most of the day we were there. Actually, it didn’t start raining until we were on the Acropolis marveling at the Parthenon. The thunder, lightning, and torrential down pour, I’m sure, was Zeus telling us to get the hell off his sacred hill.

However, on the Greek island of Rhodes there were many small restaurants with menus that we would expect to see back in the states. Gyros, souvlaki and dolmedes were part of the standard fare as was the Greek salad which was probably a tourist thing. However, we did notice that vegetarian cuisine was getting to be more prominent the farther east we went.

The Rhodes produces olive oil and we brought back a bottle for Chef D to compare to several others we purchased in Italy. Maybe he will give us his opinion on  Beyond the Kitchen in the near future.

The Epicurean Video Blogs from Italy- The Cannoli Hunt Begins

The Epicurean for Beyond the Kitchen

My wife and I and several other couples recently spent several weeks in the Eastern Mediterranean visiting Rome, Naples, Athens, Rhodes, Kusadasi, Turkey, Israel, Alexandria and Cairo. Before we left home, Chef Gilbert asked if we would take note of any culinary experiences or observations that might be of interest to Beyond the Kitchen aficionados. As it turned out in nearly everyplace we visited there was something worthy of note. We took pictures and shot some videos, which Ben edited for prime time.

Italy

As our mode of transportation between these distant places was by ship, we arrived in Rome several days before we sailed. We didn’t hit Naples until the end of the trip, but some of the things we found there are linked to what we learned and experienced in Rome, so I put the two together. Naturally, we took in all the tourist attractions we could in Rome, including the Vatican where we had a private tour of the public areas, which avoided having to wait in the ticket line that ran for several blocks around the high walls that make up the country’s border.

Our guide first took us to the Vatican’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman artifacts, before going down the long tapestryed halls to the Sistine Chapel and finally into St Peter’s and the famous square where the Pope appears in his bedroom window on Wednesdays, I think. I was disappointed it was Thursday, because I wanted to yell up to him and ask if he had been given the original recipe for Eggs Benedict when he took the name. Rumor has it one of the Popes named Benedict came up with recipe during the middle ages! Or maybe it was Benedict Arnold.

Anyway, beside the well preserved statues and busts of emperors, senators, and wealthy Romans in the Vatican museum there was an odd looking stone table with 8 hollowed out holes about 6 inches deep and about 10 inches in diameter. Georgiana, our guide, told us this was the forerunner to the chaffing dish and used to keep food warm. The large number of holes indicated that it probably was used for banquets rather than in a home. Maybe it was on the line at Libby’s Cafeteria. Or is that Lubby’s? We also visited Pompeii and saw several homes with 2 holers. It probably took a lot of sterno to heat up the granite they were made of to keep the food hot!