Week 3 - Turkish

Happy new year! I've already cooked week 3 for the 2023 challenge, so I really need to catch up and post these single-digit challenge weeks from the 2022 challenge ASAP!

Week 3 was Turkish, and I decided to give one of my favorite Turkish dishes, mercimek koftesi, another try. I did it the last time Turkish came up in the challenge back in 2014, but it had been a long time since I last made it, definitely before B came along. This time, I found some new (to me) recipes at 196 Flavors and Vidar Bergum, combined elements of those with the one I came up with last time, and hoped for the best after about six hours of chilling them in the fridge.

The recipe I posted back in 2014 is still fairly close to what I ended up doing after consulting with the other two recipes, except that the pastes and seasonings were added to the onions first, then the lentils, bulgur, and onions were mixed in a mixing bowl and not on the stove, and then the scallions and parsley were added at the very end once the flavors had been adjusted. So, the ingredients were similar, the order of operations was a little different, but the general idea of mixing them together was the same. I did notice that I used far more of each paste than the recipes did in order to get the color and flavor to our liking and what we remembered from our favorite restaurant versions (and it was not because the biber salcasi got old and lost flavor; it was new), but we were happy with how it turned out.

The mercimek koftesi may not have been the most attractive dish (I couldn't get them shaped as well as the professionals), but it was definitely tasty. I still love this vegetarian kofta as much as the first time I tried it, and now that I have fresh pepper paste and bulgur (well, almost a year opened now...), I think I should make it more often!

Week 18 - Bento Boxes

Week 18 of the 52 week cooking challenge was devoted to bento boxes. I didn't feel like making a traditional Japanese bento box, so I decided to give it a Mediterranean twist. This was definitely going to be a challenge, since bento boxes meant lots of different components all being prepared or cooked at the same time in our small kitchen. The key, in my opinion, was to have at least one component that was made in advance, like a cold salad. What I came up with for our bento box was shawarma-spiced grilled chicken strips over Israeli couscous with sides of spinach and feta, garlic sauteed mushrooms, chickpea sumac salad, and dolmas. 

First up, the shawarma-spiced grilled chicken strips.

We picked up this chicken shawarma spice mix when we visited the Middle Eastern Bakery and Grocery in Chicago last year, and I keep forgetting to use it. A Mediterranean grilled chicken seemed like the perfect time to finally try it out.

The ingredients for this component were:

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($2)
- about a tbsp of chicken shawarma spice mix ($0.50)

Making this was pretty simple. I trimmed the chicken and cut it to a relatively uniform thickness, and then rubbed it with the spice mix. I let it sit with the rub for at least 15 minutes while doing other things and then threw them on the grill pan, cooked them until they seemed done, and then cut them into strips. They were a little overdone because I'm still pretty new at using our grill pan and it's hard for me to tell whether or not the chicken is just right. The middle sections were pretty good though, so I probably just overdid it by a matter of minutes.

Overall, this was fine, but we were expecting much more spices from the flavoring. You could definitely smell the shawarma spices, but the taste wasn't nearly as strong, which was a little disappointing. Maybe next time I'll try combining them with some yogurt or something to marinate, and then baking them, to see if the spices come through better.

Next, our side of spinach and feta.

This was inspired by a couple of things - one of the tapas at Kashkaval (except the Kashkaval version is chilled and I was planning to serve it warm) and the filling of spanakopita, one of my favorite Greek treats. I was hoping that it would be like eating spanakopita without the pastry outside.

The ingredients for this side dish component were:

- 16 oz bag of frozen chopped spinach ($1.49)
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced ($0.05)
- about 1 tbsp of dried chopped onion ($0.05)
- olive oil for sauteing ($0.20)
- salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste ($0.08)
- 1/4 cup of water ($0)
- about 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese ($1)

Making this dish was really easy. In a skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, saute for about a minute, and then add the chopped spinach. (I didn't really thaw it much, just enough so that it wasn't a solid block.) Add the chopped onion, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, and stir it all around. Add the 1/4 cup of water, stir again, and then cover. Continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes on medium heat, until everything is cooked and most (but not all) of the water has evaporated. Move the spinach mixture into a greased baking pan, add the feta cheese, and stir around. Bake at 350 degrees  for at least 10 minutes. (I baked it until everything else was done, so it was much longer than 10 minutes, but I tasted it at 10 minutes and it was fine. Longer doesn't hurt it though.)

This was great, and it really did taste just like the filling of spanakopita. We really loved this and it is so simple to make. We usually have all the other ingredients on hand, so as long as we have frozen spinach, this would be a really simple everyday side dish. We'll definitely make this again.

Next, garlic sauteed mushrooms.

Another simple side dish. This one wasn't really inspired by much, just an easy saute with flavors that I thought would go well together. I would have used fresh herbs but I used up all the parsley on the salad that I'll talk about next, and didn't feel like buying more just for this.

The ingredients for this were:

- 10 oz of white button mushrooms, chopped ($1.79)
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced ($0.05)
- olive oil for sauteing ($0.20)
- 1 tsp of dried parsley ($0.05)

I made the mushrooms in the same skillet as the spinach, since the bento box project was using up enough dishes as it was and I didn't want to fill up the sink even more when there was no need to. The flavor profiles for both were based on the same thing - garlic and olive oil - so if there ended up being a little spinach in the mushrooms, I didn't really care.

This was really simple. Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and mushrooms, stir around for a bit, add some salt, cover and cook over medium heat for about 10 min or so, until most of the water released from the mushrooms has cooked off. Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley. Done. Super easy.

The mushrooms were good, but we expected them to be, since sauteed mushrooms are kind of hard to screw up. We make sauteed mushrooms somewhat regularly as an easy and healthy side dish, and this was good.

The last side dish, the "make ahead component," was this chickpea, onion, and sumac salad.

I had made this salad once before and absolutely loved it. It's based on this recipe for a chickpea salad with red onion, sumac, and lemon from the Kitchn. I knew from the first time I saw the recipe that I was going to love it and had to make it since I love chickpea salads and I love onions and I just generally love Turkish food. As soon as we got around to going to the Turkish grocery store and picking up a bottle of pomegranate molasses, it was time to make the salad. I could only hope that this second attempt at the salad would be as good as the first, since I hadn't written up a post or made any notes on the tweaks I made the first time. Oops.

The ingredients for the salad (slightly adapted from the original recipe) were:

- 3 cans of chickpeas, rinsed and drained ($2.39)

- 1 red onion, thinly sliced ($0.80)

- 1 tbsp of sumac ($0.15)

- 1 tsp of chili powder ($0.20)

- 1 tsp of salt ($0.05)

- 1/2 bunch of parsley, finely chopped ($0.50)

- a few tbsp of lemon juice ($0.30)

- a few tbsp of olive oil ($0.50)

- a few tbsp of pomegranate molasses ($0.50)

- salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)

The salad is pretty easy to make. Thinly slice the onion, add sumac + chili powder + salt, and then mix it all together with your hands. Add the drained chickpeas and the parsley, and stir it all together until mixed well. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, and pomegranate molasses. (I didn't really measure, but just used about that amount, to taste.) Add a little salt and pepper (to taste, although it may not need much if any). Mix it well and taste. (I think I may have spritzed in a little more lemon juice at that point.) Chill for at least 12 hours. (Just remember when tasting that the flavor is going to get better overnight.)

Once again, we really liked this salad. Sumac is such a great spice, and I love adding it to onions especially, as they just work so well together. It was nice having a light and refreshing salad in the mix with the other bento box components. We would definitely make this again on its own. [As a side note, I can't believe it's taken me so long to put up this mostly written post that I have already made this again...]

Finally, the last components to finish it off, Israeli couscous and dolmas.

We had 3 sides in the spinach, mushrooms, and chickpea salad, and a main/protein in the form of chicken, but the bento box needed a couple more finishing items. First, a bed of whole wheat Israeli couscous to go with the chicken. We've been eating a lot of this tub of Israeli couscous and we love it. It's quick and easy - just saute the dry couscous in olive oil for a minute, add water, bring to boil, and simmer for about 10 minutes or so. 

Last, the dolmas (reviewed here). Since we didn't actually own any bento boxes, I tried to think of a way to "divide" the different components, and thought the dolmas would be good. They sort of worked for that purpose, although they didn't taste as good as the last set we got. The inside filling was a tad bit dry, unlike last time where they were better.

Overall, we really liked the bento box experiment and it was extremely filling. For $15.89, we had 2 giant Mediterranean dinners, plus a little bit of spinach leftover and enough chickpea salad for another meal. While not super cheap for a mostly vegetarian meal, it was far less than it would have been in any restaurant for that much food (probably made too much for dinner, honestly). While we did enjoy the project, I think in the future I would stick to just a couple of sides at most, as this is just too much work for a normal weeknight in a kitchen with as little counter and stove space as ours. Our favorite parts were probably the spinach and chickpea salad. Bento box project was a success!

Turkish Beet and Feta Salad

For our last salad on Turkish night, I went with an adaptation of this recipe for Turkish beetroot and feta salad from Cook.Eat.Blog. It sounded like the perfect accompaniment to the other two salads and, with some adjustments to the ingredients from the original recipe, I could make it entirely out of things we already had at home or had purchased for other recipes that week. Perfect!

For our beet and feta salad, we used:

- 8 oz package of pre-cooked beets, cut into small chunks ($2)
- 1/4 large yellow onion, very thinly sliced ($0.15)
- 1-2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp dried dill weed ($0.10)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.10)
- 1 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar ($0.15)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil ($0.80)
- 1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles ($1)

The approximate price of this one was a little under $5. We finished this entire salad that night though, so it's not as great of a "deal" as the chickpea salad, which only cost a little more. But we love beets and it was worth it.

Since the beets were pre-cooked, this salad was really easy to put together. The thing that took the longest was preparing the parsley for all 3 recipes. I really have to figure out a faster way to wash and prepare herbs.

Anyway, you mix the beets, onion slices, parsley, dill, salt, pepper and garlic powder together in a bowl. Once it's mixed, add the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, cumin and olive oil. After all that is stirred together, you just add the cheese and it's ready to go.

This was incredibly simple to make and it was our favorite salad that night. Something about that combination of flavors just popped, especially when compared with the other salads. The only thing we don't always have on hand is the parsley but when we have extra, this would be an easy and tasty way to use it up. We would definitely make this again.

Mercimek Köftesi

One of the Turkish dishes that I absolutely love is mercimek köftesi (which I was first introduced to when ordering from Antalia, a local Turkish restaurant). These cold red lentil patties were one of my go-to dishes when I used to work late at the office. But as the price kept going up over the years, I decided this was something I had to learn how to make myself. (It's now up to $7.50 there for 4 lentil patties, which is $1.50 more than 2 years ago. A 25% increase in such a short time just feels like a lot to us.)

Order of mercimek kofte from Antalia... Our "gold standard"

Last year around the time of the Super Bowl, I decided to tackle mercimek kofte for the first time. I searched online for lots of recipes, picked and chose different parts of them (it's been so long that I can't even remember which ones I looked at), and came up with my own combination that I thought would best approximate the ones at Antalia (even though I have tried many, they are still my favorite ones). That meant a visit to a Turkish grocery store to pick up some fine bulgur and biber salcasi, which was fun considering my love for grocery stores.

I made the mercimek kofte that night. They were okay but a lot drier than what I was expecting. They also weren't as red in color and didn't taste as good as the restaurant version. Not as flavorful as Antalia and not as satisfying, but a valiant first attempt.

First mercimek kofte attempt... At least it looked pretty

A few weeks later, I tried again. I adjusted all of the measurements to try to increase the flavor and the moisture of the patties. I re-read a lot of the recipes, and found a few that suggested adding a lot of the ingredients while the lentils were cooking, so I tried that. This time they were too wet. (This sounds like a Goldilocks tale.) They just would not stay together. That was even more disappointing. I'd rather have a slightly drier patty that stuck together than one that liquified. But the color was more accurate.

Second mercimek kofte attempt... These are not patties

So when Turkish week rolled around, my task was obvious. I had to tackle this again, even though I had left it alone for over a year after disappointing myself with my attempts. This time, I wanted to get it right. I tinkered with the recipe a little more, mostly using the same ingredients as last time, but less water, and changing the cooking method a little bit (which ended up changing even more since the lentils cooked faster than I expected). 

I still wasn't pleased with the result at the end of our Turkish dinner. But after eating the leftovers from Turkish night, I think I've finally found a version of mercimek kofte I'm satisfied with. I'm going to keep tweaking the recipe, but at least this one will work for those inevitable moments when I am craving mercimek kofte. I should mention, even though it's probably obvious, that I'm not Turkish, I don't know what an "authentic" mercimek kofte contains as I don't have some family recipe passed on through the generations, and I'm just doing my best to approximate what I've had at 3-4 different restaurants, which I assume is what it's supposed to taste like. I truly do love this dish though, so if there is something that needs improvement, please tell me!

Anyway, back to the 52 week challenge. The ingredients for my mercimek kofte were:

- 1 cup red lentils ($1)

- 2.5 cups water ($0)

- 1/2 cup (scant) fine bulgur ($0.50)

- 1 tbsp olive oil for sauteing and a little more for stirring later ($0.30)

- 1/2 large yellow onion, finely chopped ($0.40)

(can probably use 1 regular sized onion, but our onions are enormous this time)

- 2 tsp cumin ($0.10)

- 1 tsp salt ($0.05)

- chili flakes to taste ($0.05)

- 1 tbsp tomato paste ($0.45)

- 1 tbsp biber salcasi ($0.40)

- 1/2 bunch green onions, finely chopped ($0.60)

- 1/2 bunch parsley, roughly chopped ($0.80)

This made 12 or so lentil patties of about the same size as the restaurant ones. The cost of the lentil patties came out to about $5 (some of the costs are approximate since we bought the stuff last year), and the romaine lettuce adds on about $1 to that total. So for less than the cost of one order of mercimek kofte in a restaurant, we could make 3 times the amount of lentil patties. Not bad.

The way that I made the mercimek kofte this time was:

1. Rinse lentils. Add to saucepan with the water. Boil until lentils are tender and water is reduced.

2. While lentils are cooking, cook the onions in a separate pan until they soften and brown a little. Ideally, these would be ready at the same time the lentils are, but the lentils cooked much faster than I thought they would this time.

3. Once lentils are tender and water has reduced, add bulgur, cooked onion, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt, tomato paste, biber salcasi. Stir it all together until well-combined. It seemed very dry to me, which was probably because I had the lentils on low while I waited until everything else was done (and I was still doing prep on the parsley since I thought I had more time). I added a tsp or so of olive oil to the lentils to make them easier to stir. They were still pretty dry though, which had me fretting a bit.

4. Add green onions and parsley and mix it all together some more.

5. Form the patties. Although the patties were a bit dry and crumbly, they stayed together for the most part. They're not fried so they're going to break up a little, and all the ones we get in restaurants are soft and do that too. The easiest way (in my opinion) to make the patties is to take a handful of the lentil mixture and flatten it in your hands, turn it sideways, flatten it again, do it a few more times if it needs it, and then roll it between your hands until it is an oblong shape.

6. Refrigerate for a few hours, or even better, overnight. Serve over romaine lettuce. This, I think, is the key. (The refrigeration, not the lettuce, although the lettuce is an important complement.)

As I said in the beginning, I wasn't pleased with these patties when we ate them for our Turkish dinner. We were running late (as usual, I was slow) so I didn't have any time to refrigerate these at all. I think in the past, I let them cool a little bit, but probably not more than an hour. This time they were room temperature. They tasted okay. They were certainly edible and had flavor, but they just did not measure up to the ones from the restaurants. That disappointed me. Why couldn't I get this recipe right? Was it going to be the bane of my existence? Was it going to be the one dish that would torment me for years, never getting close to the one I was trying to emulate?

Since we had 3 salads that night, we had about a third of these left over at the end of the night. I stuck them in the fridge, and was not very excited about eating them for lunch the next day. I like eating leftovers, but I was just so disappointed at failing yet again that I just felt like it would be my failure staring back at me from the dish. Needless to say, I had such low expectations at lunch. Then I took my first bite of the leftovers and everything changed.

At that point, the mercimek kofte had been refrigerated for about 12 hours. It made such a difference. There were flavors throughout the lentil patties that I only had a hint of the day before, which were so much more present when eating them the next day. I was so surprised. I know giving certain dishes time for the flavors to meld is important, but I just hadn't imagined that it could make such a dramatic difference.

Is it as good as the restaurants? Probably not. Can I make some more improvements? Sure. But, for now, this will definitely work. Finally.

Nohut Salatası

When looking for Turkish recipes for the challenge other than mercimek kofte, one of the first ones I found was this recipe for a Turkish chickpea salad. It looked delicious and I followed it almost exactly (other than some adjustments of seasoning to taste).

We had most of the ingredients at home already and just needed to buy some fresh green onions and parsley. We needed:

- 2 cans of chickpeas ($1.50)
- 3 tbsp olive oil ($0.60)
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar ($0.50)
- salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp salt) ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice ($0.10)
- 5 green onions, chopped small ($0.70)
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped ($0.75)
- 1/3 cup (or more) feta cheese, crumbled ($1)

The total was a little over $5. Not too bad for a big bowl of salad with leftovers.

Making this salad was really easy but for best results, you need to start at least a couple of hours before. I noticed this the first time I read the recipe, but for whatever reason, when I re-read it the day before making it, I didn't see it (maybe I only looked at the top of the recipe where it said the prep time was 20 minutes). It was like the Fainting Imam dish all over again. At least this time I read all the recipes again over lunch on cooking day which gave me time to start the marinating early enough.

First, rinse and drain the chickpeas.

Put chickpeas in a shallow dish and add the olive oil, apple cider vinegar and salt. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). I would have done overnight if I read the directions correctly the day before, but at least I was able to get 3-4 hours of marinating in. I do think marinating helps augment the flavor of the chickpeas.

After marinating, put chickpeas in a bowl, and add lemon juice, green onions, parsley and feta cheese. I also included any of the excess oil and vinegar from the chickpea marinating that was left in the dish.

Mix everything together and adjust seasonings to taste.

This was a really good salad. The chickpeas benefited from the marinating, and mixing feta, scallions and parsley together is always a good combination. Very healthy, easy to make, refreshing and light, perfect for summer. Would definitely make this again.

Week 22 - Turkish

We've never been to Turkey, but we're fairly familiar with Turkish food (or at least what's presented as Turkish food from maybe 8 or 10 different restaurants). There's so many things that we love - the mercimek kofte that made our top 10 lists one year, chicken adana, (meat) kofte, lots of salads. I knew that for Week 22 and its Turkish theme that I wanted to attempt mercimek kofte again (for the third time, as I still wasn't satisfied), but I wasn't sure what else to make. The trio of vegetarian salads that we ended up eating came together somewhat randomly, but were a great mix of flavors for dinner.

Each of these dishes feels like it deserves a post of its own, so that's what I'll do. For our Turkish night, we ate:

- Chickpea salad (nohut salatasi)

- Red lentil patties (mercimek köftesi)

- Beet and feta salad

Our favorite was probably the beet salad. We would definitely make that again, and we have lots more beets!

Fainting Imam

I really need to read recipe directions more carefully.

Let's start from the beginning. Last weekend we were at Costco and saw these baby eggplants (aka "petite aubergines" which sounds so much prettier) for sale. We had never seen these at Costco before and couldn't resist. Although we had no specific plans for the eggplants when we bought them, I remembered in the back of my mind that I had some stuffed eggplant recipe somewhere in my massive file of 1000+ (PDF) printed recipes and figured we'd make it work.

I have no idea what's up with the girl on the bag...

That stuffed eggplant recipe was this Fainting Imam (Turkish baked stuffed eggplant) recipe from Serious Eats. It sounds delicious but it's a bit time-consuming for your average weeknight. The recipe even says total time is 2 hours, 15 minutes. I remembered thinking that I would need to start this one early on the day we were going to make it. But yesterday I re-read the recipe before making it and somehow thought the entire thing would take me a little over an hour. I had skimmed the recipe for all the numbers that afternoon to figure out how long the eggplant would need to bake. I saw 15 and 15, and then 30 minutes to cool to room temperature. I was confused about why they would say 2 hours, but didn't think much of it. Until I was partway through preparing the recipe (late, since I started after 8 pm), and saw the sentence, "Return to oven and bake an additional hour." Oops. I tried not to panic.

I'm usually better than this at reading comprehension.

Anyway, we ate dinner close to 11 pm, but it turned out okay. I ended up modifying the recipe a little bit, including the way the baking time was split up, to try to eat before midnight. So, here's the adapted recipe for Turkish stuffed eggplant - also known as İmam bayıldı - the way I ended up making it.

To make the eggplant and the filling, we needed:

Eggplant and filling ingredients

- 4 baby eggplants ($4.99)

- 1/4 cup + 2 tsbp olive oil ($1.10)

- 1/2 cup water ($0)

- 1 large onion ($0.60)

- 4 garlic cloves ($0.10)

- 1 inch knob of ginger ($0.10)

- 1 large handful of parsley leaves ($0.75)

- 28 oz can of diced tomatoes ($0.99)

- 3 tsp ground cumin ($0.10)

- 2 tsp ground coriander ($0.08)

- salt to taste ($0.05)

To top the eggplant once it was done, we used:

Toppings bar

- 1/2 cup plain yogurt ($0.37)

- 1 tbsp honey ($0.15)

- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar ($0.10)

- 1 tbsp toasted pine nuts ($0.10)

- 1/2 cup finely chopped mint leaves ($0.56)

The recipe total was about $10.14. Not a cheap dinner for 2, especially considering it's vegetarian, but we do have some leftovers. 

The recipe is fairly straight-forward. Other than the baking times, I pretty much followed it as written here.

Cooking steps

The short version of the process [with my comments] is:

• Peel off some eggplant skin in stripes, cut in half lengthwise keeping the stem, scrape out eggplant insides (and reserve).
• Put eggplant in baking dish and add the water and 1/4 cup olive oil. Salt eggplant, cover tightly with foil, bake at 350 degrees. [The recipe here didn't give a time, but it was supposed to be as long as the prep/filling takes, 15 minutes they estimated in comments. This was where I baked it for at least 30 instead, first unintentionally and then intentionally trying to shorten the next baking step.]
• Run onions, garlic, ginger and parsley through food processor until finely chopped. Add to pan with 2 tbsp olive oil.  Heat and stir.
• Run tomatoes through food processor and add to mixture.
• Run eggplant through food processor and add to mixture.
• Stir mixture until it reduces by half. [It never really reduced by half, but it reduced a little bit after a very long time.]
• Add cumin, coriander, salt and cook for a few more minutes.
• Remove eggplant from oven, fill halves with filling, re-cover with foil and bake longer. [This is where the recipe said an hour but I did 30 minutes.]
• Bake without foil. [Recipe said 15 here but I did 20 minutes.]
• Cool to room temperature. [Didn't have time for that.]
• Drizzle with yogurt and pomegranate molasses. [Didn't have pomegranate molasses and was not going to go out to Queens to get it. Substituted the honey/cider vinegar mixture.] Sprinkle with toasted nuts and mint. Eat!

We really enjoyed this recipe, even if we would have preferred to eat before 11 pm. It came out well. The filling was good, and better in the eggplant halves than it was on its own. (I had leftovers after filling up the eggplant halves so we ate them as an "appetizer" topped with some shredded mozzarella. The cheese was A's suggestion to balance out the flavors, and it was a good one.) The recipe tasted healthy and fresh. The toppings really worked. I don't know how it would have tasted different with pomegranate molasses, but the honey/cider vinegar combo was good.

The finished product!

I think we would make this again. But I'm certainly not going to make the timing mistake that I made this time. I think the food processor pulsed the ingredients a little too long and I'd like them a little more whole, but that's not a major gripe. A would add more salt, but again, that's an easy fix. This was good. Writing this up, I just realized that Turkish week in the 52 week challenge comes up in a few weeks. Would have been good to make this then instead, but the eggplant would never have lasted until then. I guess I'll just have to try to master another Turkish recipe!

Papa Kebab

One thing we've really tried to do over the past year or so is explore more restaurants outside of our neighborhood home base. In a city with so much diversity and so many restaurants, there is an overwhelming number of options for meals and no possible way to try them all. One day in the fall we decided to go over to the High Line to celebrate the colors of fall and before that grabbed a late lunch at Papa Kebab, a casual Mediterranean place in Chelsea.

Papa Kebab's menu had salads, sandwiches and platters with all different types of meats. M decided on the adana chicken wrap ($6), which came with one piece of adana chicken kebab, lettuce, tomato and one spread (M picked babaganoush) in your choice of bread (M went with whole wheat). There was also a sauce on the side that appeared to be like cacik (a thinner version of the Greek tzatziki), if we remember correctly from back then.

The sandwich was okay. What was odd was that the adana kebab didn't have a ton of flavor. Chicken adana is one of M's favorite dishes at Turkish restaurants because it contains ground chicken which is combined with peppers and spices before being grilled. There is usually a lot of flavor, but this one was very mild. The lettuce and tomato were fresh, but the babaganoush didn't do much for the sandwich either. If anything, it dulled the flavor of the adana kebab even more. It was creamy but had very little flavor. The whole wheat wrap however was nice and chewy. M probably wouldn't get this wrap again. 

A got the joojeh chicken kebab platter ($10). The platter came with one kebab (the joojeh chicken was chicken breast marinated in yogurt, saffron and Persian spices, and then grilled), a choice of side dish (A got bulgur pilaf - the other options were fries or basmati rice), a roasted tomato and roasted pepper, sumac onions, and two sauces (a hot sauce and the cacik-like sauce).

This was definitely the better of the two dishes. The chicken itself was flavored well but a touch on the dry side. Often A uses the sauces as an accent, but for this he had to use them to add a little bit of moisture to the chicken itself. (M also used the hot sauce to improve her sandwich.) The tomato, pepper, and onions are fairly standard accoutrements for Persian food, and overall they were okay. The best of the 3 was probably the sumac onions, which M really liked. The bulgur pilaf was spiced well with many of the same Persian spices on the chicken, and the onions were cooked to the point of being nice and soft to eat with the bulgur. We liked the bulgur side.

We also got a side of pita bread. It was okay. M found it to be a lot drier and thinner than other pita breads we've had, and didn't particularly like it as she prefers the softer pita bread. A didn't think it was anything special either. As far as bread goes, we'll gladly take the soft yet crispy bread from Akdeniz or those giant chewy rolls from Turco any day over this pita bread.

Our lunch at Papa Kebab was fine but the portions were a bit on the small side, especially compared to other places we've been before. It's a good Mediterranean option if you're near Chelsea Market or the High Line, but we wouldn't call it a destination Mediterranean restaurant worth traveling for. We might stop by again if we were in the area and in the mood for some kebabs.

Turco

A new restaurant popped up on 9th avenue recently called Turco. It opened up in the old Golden Chicken and Ribs spot that closed about a month or so ago. Turco is a Turkish/Mediterranean grill specializing in falafel, shawarma, and kebabs. I opted for the falafel plate, but I think the guy preparing it didn't care/understand.

Plates, according to their menu, come with rice, salad, and whatever topping you choose. I first had a sandwich made, and when I asked, the cashier guy questioned and the response was something like, "sandwich, plate, yeah." So they made me another. This time it came in a plastic container, but it had no rice. Oh well, I'll deal.

Falafel Plate
The plate came with 4 falafel balls, pita, lettuce, onions, red cabbage, tomatoes, pickles, and hummus. The hummus was better than most of the hummus that I had eaten before, and the falafel was tasty, but it could have stood to have fried a little longer. It wasn't as crispy as I normally prefer, but again, the flavor was excellent. My guess is that they rushed the order out since I was waiting so long and they felt bad that they messed up the first time. Overall the flavors were good. I would definitely go back, and I'm intrigued by the shawarmas.

A's Top 10 Food Memories of 2011

2011 was a hard year to peg for "top food memories" for me. Sadly we didn't do anything overly remarkable outside of our trip to Europe, and I think that's reflected a bit in my choices. Aside from the 6 items from that trip that are listed, I had at least 5 others that were maybes that just missed the cut. I may add pictures of the dishes later, but right now I haven't prepared that. So in random order, here are my top 10 food memories from 2011!

Tzitzikas Salad from Tzitzikas kai Mermigas
This salad was part of our first full meal in Greece, and it was such a fresh and delicious salad. So much of our trip stands out with regards to food we ate, but this was the start of our adventure, and it also was really healthy and really tasty.

Mushroom Pie from Ariston
A rich, buttery, flaky crust on both sides surrounding garlic and butter sauteed mushrooms. If the thought of that doesn't make your mouth water, you probably shouldn't read this blog anymore. No, I'm serious, just leave now. Ariston is a well known bakery in Athens, and of all of the pies we tried, this was my favorite. The crust was similar with most of the pies that they offered, but the mushroom filling was just amazing. A little buttery, a little garlicky, and unbelievably moist.

Mercimek Kofte from Antalia
It's not a stretch to say that M and I order in a lot. M orders more than I do due to her work schedule, but we both do order from time to time. One thing that we both fell in love with was the Mercimek Kofte from Antalia. It's a kofte made out of red lentils, and it is unbelievable. The first time M ordered it, she used all of her will power to not finish eating it all and actually save me some. Since that time, she has never saved a single bite for me, but we've ordered it together so that I've been able to eat it more.

Fish from Kounelas
We've had a lot of fresh fish, but this was something different. It was a simple preparation of being grilled over a wood-fire grill seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon. It was such a fresh and tasty preparation, and the fish was excellent. It was our last meal in Mykonos, and it was the perfect end to that leg of our trip.

Stuffed Vegetables from Lefteris
Lefteris is a restaurant in the small village of Apiranthos on the island of Naxos. You need to rent a car to get there, and it's a long and winding mountain drive to get there. But it's totally worth it. The food is extremely fresh since it's all grown in the garden just downstairs from the actual restaurant. The stuffed vegetables were literally picked that morning, and you could taste the freshness. While I doubt we'd ever make that drive again, we're so glad we did it this time to have that great meal.

Chicken and Tomatoes in Balsamic sauce from Homemade
This may not have been the greatest dish ever cooked, but it was special to me. I made this at home, and it was a tasty dish in my opinion. This was the first dish that we made out of the cookbooks we received from our wedding, and we were very excited about it.

Loucoumades from Regina Rose Amat
Loucoumades are Greek pastries that are made of fried dough and soaked in honey and cinnamon. They're round balls, but they're not like little donut holes like you'd fine here in the US. They're light and chewy with a good bite to them. I've had loucoumades before here in the states, but this little store in Halki specialized in them. They tasted incredible. They had the perfect texture, the honey was layered perfectly, and they were a great snack on our drive to Apiranthos. What made this even better was that we ate these while relaxing in the shade of a quaint little street in the middle of a small town. The atmosphere was fantastic, and it just felt so relaxing.

Pappardelle Bolognese from Babbo
M and I fell in love with pasta bolognese after our trip to Amsterdam in 2010. We had one of our many "versary" dinners at Babbo, and this was one of the dishes that we got as part of the pasta tasting menu. It was a rich meat sauce with veal, pancetta, and proscuitto. The tomato sauce was balanced and really absorbed a lot of the flavor from the meat.

Crab Toast from abc kitchen
This dish was part of our wedding anniversary dinner so it already had a special place in our hearts. The crab toast is something that is highly recommended at abc kitchen so we had to try it. It's loaded with sweet, succulent crab, and it has just the right amount of citrus from the dollop of lemon aioli on top. What made this meal even more amazing was that, in the middle of it, Chef Jean-George Vongerichten came in for a meal with his family, and his table was right next to ours.

Naxian Potato Salad from Meze Meze
Naxos is known for growing some of the best potatoes in the world. At our first meal at Meze Meze, we ordered way too much food as usual. However, one of the highlights of this meal was the Naxian Potato Salad. Loaded with onions, tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, a local cheese called xinomizithra, and obviously boiled potatoes. The salad was loaded with flavor and freshness, and it had just the right amount of creaminess and saltiness from the cheese. It was a great dish, and it stood out even though we ordered 3 or 4 potato dishes and had to roll ourselves home.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2011

Another year in the books, another year of good eats. It's always hard to narrow down all the good food we had over the past year to 10 memories but I think in the end I'm usually happy with my choices (see last year's favorite food memories here). After making some difficult cuts, I came up with the following 10. Looking over the list for some overall trends, some things were not a surprise (not many desserts or sweet items on the list) but some things were a surprise (not much from food fairs or food trucks). So, here's my 10 (in no particular order):

1. Crab toast from ABC Kitchen


We went to ABC Kitchen for our anniversary dinner this year (wedding anniversary, not the other 4 we celebrate). We got the crab toast with lemon aioli and it was fantastic. The toast was crunchy, but not too hard to bite. The crab was light and flaky, and full of flavor. The lemon aioli tied it all together with a nice light creaminess. We would definitely get this again. I know we didn't blog about it, but ABC Kitchen is a fantastic restaurant committed to local and organic ingredients and we highly recommend a visit (or more than one).

2. Santorini salad from Anemomilos


In May, we went on our (delayed) honeymoon to Greece and had a fantastic time. On our last day in Santorini, we were seeking a long leisurely lunch before heading to the airport, so we went to Anemomilos, a hotel just down the block from where we were staying, and ate at their outdoor restaurant. It was fantastic, a little cheaper than the touristy places in the heart of Oia and it had really delicious food.

We went for a "greatest hits of Santorini" sampling at lunch, getting the Santorini salad, fava spread, dolmades and tomatokeftedes (fried tomato balls). The salad was incredible. Santorini is known for their cherry tomatoes, and this salad consisted of tons of cherry tomatoes along with cucumbers, green peppers, red onions, capers, and a local Santorini cheese. The salad was light, refreshing, fresh and fantastic. It's been over 6 months since our trip but I still can't stop talking about how good it was.

3. Mushroom pie from Ariston


We previously blogged about our love for the pies at Ariston, a small but popular bakery in the heart of Athens. While the signature cheese pies were great and all of the vegetable pies we tried were also tasty, the mushroom pie stands out for its buttery crust and rich mushroom inside. I think any visit we make to Athens will include a trip to this excellent bakery.

4. Aushak from Ariana Afghan Kebab Restaurant


This year wasn't the first time we have had the aushak from Ariana, but this particular time is such a vivid memory. Aushak is an Afghan dish of boiled dumplings filled with leeks and spices, topped with yogurt and a spicy meat sauce. It's always tasty when we get it but this time was special. It was a Friday night and I had just been released from the hospital about an hour earlier, having been there since Tuesday morning when I was admitted with an extremely high fever and severe allergic reaction to antibiotics. I had survived for a week on mostly mediocre hospital food and had very little appetite (rare for me, even when I'm sick). I decided I wanted something small when A ordered dinner and got the appetizer size of the aushak. It was amazing. I loved the intensity and diversity of the flavor and the spices, and I felt like a real person eating real food again. I also felt like my sense of taste was more sensitive after so many days of no flavor food that I noticed every nuance in the complex flavors, and I felt more aware of what I was eating than I had for a long time. I will always remember this meal for being the first moment when I knew that I was on the road to recovery.

5. Bulgogi slider by Danji from Taste of Korea truck


We still haven't been to Danji (always crowded). But in the spring, the Taste of Korea truck spent a few weeks on the road giving out food from Korean restaurants in the city. I went on the first day when they were serving Danji's slider (despite just having a piece of my eyelid cut out and barely being able to see; the sacrifices I will make for good food). Danji's bulgogi beef slider (also on their regular menu) consists of the bulgogi, spicy pickled cucumber, and scallion salsa on a buttery slider bun. It was so good. I really hope we can try to get to the restaurant this year.

The slider from Danji is also representative of one of my favorite general food memories of the year - free stuff! I love all the opportunities for free food in the city, especially since sometimes it introduces you to things you've never had before, but might love (like the Danji slider). Over the past year, I've gotten for free (and clearly have not blogged about them all): sliders, cupcakes, hot dogs, ice cream, whoopie pies, dumplings, iced tea, Asian rice bowls, Turkish tacos, Korean tacos, pizza, a panini, energy drinks and a French sampler platter. One huge trend this year has been discounts and deals (with the proliferation of Groupon, LivingSocial, Scoutmob, Gilt City, Google Offers, etc), and what discount is better than free?

6. The Haribo section at Edeka


I wasn't looking forward to the end of our honeymoon, but I was definitely looking forward to the Munich airport, which we planned to explore during our layover. We had an excellent meal at Airbrau, the beer garden in the airport, and we also took part in one of my favorite activities in other countries - visiting the grocery store. Since we were in Germany, I was hoping there would be lots of Haribo candy, since, as I mentioned last year with the Smurfs, I love Haribo. I was not disappointed in our visit to Edeka, and in fact, there was more Haribo candy than I could have ever imagined. (I had not yet seen the video of the factory store in Bonn.) I was able to get a tub of smurfs, sour mangoes, juice-filled gold bears, all variations of gold bears, jelly beans and so much more. I completely lit up when I saw the giant Fruchtgummi sign and row after row of my Haribo favorites.

7. Stuffed vegetables from Cafe Lefteris


Our favorite place on our Greek trip was the island of Naxos. A little quieter and less touristy than the other places we visited, we really felt like we got more of a sense of the island, its culture and its people. (I put this list in no particular order, but Naxos comes up a lot in this second half.) One day we drove all over the island and visited the town of Apiranthos, thought by many to be one of the most beautiful towns on the island. We had also heard about a great place to eat called Cafe Lefteris. Once we finally found it, we stopped in for an early dinner filled with delicious fresh vegetables. Naxos is one of the most fertile islands in the Cyclades, and you could tell how fresh the vegetables were. One thing we love about Greek food is taking something that is really simple and just making it so well. This was the case with these stuffed vegetables, the special of the day. Fresh vegetables stuffed with rice, simple but incredible.

8. Loucoumades from Regina Rose Amat


On our way to Apiranthos, we stopped at two other small towns, Halki and Filoti. In Halki, we ventured into the town square and got a snack from Regina Rose Amat - loucoumades. Loucoumades are Greek donut balls with honey, cinnamon and sugar. These were sweet, delicious and the perfect snack.

9. Mercimek kofte from Antalia


Earlier this year, a new Turkish place opened near my office called Antalia. The second time I ordered from them, I decided to get mercimek kofte (red lentil patties). I thought they would be fried patties, but instead they were a cold appetizer of mashed lentils. The lentils are mixed with scallions, parsley and pepper salsa, and served with lettuce, tomato and cucumber. The combination was so good that I have gotten it every time I've ordered from Antalia since then. It's an addiction.

10. Naxian potato salad from Meze Meze


Another thing Naxos is known for is its potatoes. I'm not really sure what makes a potato a "good" potato, but there was just something about the potatoes we ate in Naxos at Meze Meze, a restaurant near the harbor in Naxos Town/Chora, that was just better. At our first dinner at Meze Meze, there were potatoes everywhere. We got fresh Naxian fried potatoes with kefalotiri local cheese, the octopus special which also came with fries and a Naxian potato salad. The Naxian potato salad consisted of boiled potato, tomato, pepper, onion, caper, olives, oregano, and xinomizithra local cheese. It was incredibly tasty and, as I said, something about the potatoes in Naxos was just better than other ordinary potatoes.

It's probably obvious that the majority of my choices came from our honeymoon, but the food we had was incredible and made such an impression on me. I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring!

Pera Turkish Tacos

Since today is Thursday, it meant another chance for free lunch thanks to Mastercard's PricelessNY campaign. I got tacos from the Kimchi Taco Truck the first week, but then missed last week's promotion because I had a work meeting. This week, there were 2 trucks stationed near Bryant Park and I decided to try for a free lunch.


One of the trucks by Bryant Park was the Pera Turkish Taco truck, which I had only ever seen in Central Park but had not tried before. We all know how much I love tacos, so even though their line extended down the block (at least 40-50 people ahead of me), I decided to wait. I was excited to see what a "Turkish taco" would be like.

Coupon from MasterCard in hand, waiting in (the very long) line and can barely see the truck
It was a long wait (at least 30 minutes) before I got to the ordering window, and after ordering, there was another ~10 minute wait to get food. This was nothing like my first Priceless lunch where I just sauntered up to the window (in the rain, which was probably a factor), ordered and got my food quickly. The line moved at a snail's pace and they didn't seem to handle the large crowd that well. My waiting and patience was not helped by the group behind me which kept hovering all around me, making me claustrophobic. The menu for the truck was slimmed down, so I'm not sure why they were moving so slowly. There weren't that many options to cook.


For one coupon (what you get for showing your tweet), you could get one taco, or one side/dessert, or 2 drinks. Once I got close enough to the window, I saw them handing out skinny foil packages and couldn't believe that could really be a full lunch for anyone. I was disappointed and disgruntled. I waited over half an hour for one free taco, and still had to figure out what to do for the rest of lunch?!

The taco - how could this be enough for an entire lunch?
Taco insides. It's not really that wide; I opened it up to show the insides
I ordered the lavender and honey roasted chicken taco. It was about the length of a snack wrap from McDonalds, although that is probably more filling since this was very thin. It was also more like a wrap than a taco. The tortilla on the outside was nothing special, and probably the most lackluster part. The chicken was cooked well, there was a nice garlic herb sauce and plenty of onions, which made for a really tasty snack. But, by itself, that's all it would be. Definitely not enough for a lunch (for me).

They gave out receipts for the orders, which listed the usual price of the taco. $4.50. I've previously ranted about tacos that cost $4 or $5. Sure, this was bigger than the Disney ones were, but it's still pricey for one taco that's not nearly enough for lunch. I wish the price point were a little lower. Then maybe I'd go back (if the line were short), because the flavors of the chicken and onions really were good.