tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10877376386457329832024-03-09T18:46:10.910-08:00Kitchen PulseCooking in a tiny kitchen in Washington, DCKitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-27388023735465071452018-12-01T23:59:00.000-08:002018-12-03T18:57:41.737-08:00Five Days in Mexico City <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I drink to forget, but now...I can't remember <br />
why I drink." </td></tr>
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I jumped on the travel bandwagon and booked myself a trip to Mexico City (also known as CDMX from Cuidad Mexico). I wanted to visit a Spanish speaking country and I've longed to visit Mexico City. Once I started looking it seemed like every lifestyle website had something to say about Mexico City from <a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/city-guides/package/mexico-city">Bon Appetit</a> to <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/the-latina-cool-girls-guide-to-mexico-city">Vogue</a> to the estimable publication, <a href="https://goop.com/city-guide/the-mexico-city-guide/">GOOP</a>. The city is undergoing a renaissance as it has been named a top city for eating due to its culinary history and concentration of gourmet/Michelin star restaurants. In terms of infrastructure and safety, the downtown area, El Centro Histórico was renovated through a public-private partnership driven by the former mayor and new president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. <a href="https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html">According to the State Department</a>, Americans should "exercise increased caution" when travelling in Mexico City proper, which is the same safety rating as going to Western Europe.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graffiti commentary on the pollution</td></tr>
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Many travel essays describe Mexico City as dynamic, vibrant, frenetic, and culturally inspiring. I can totally feel this aspect of the city. Greater Mexico city has a population of 22 million people and a GDP of $411 billion dollars which is equivalent to the GDP of Peru. The actual city limits of Mexico City has a dense population of 9 million people and is built atop the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. Thus Mexico City considered the oldest capital city in North America. Truly Mexico City is everything I could have wanted in a week long vacation in an urban area--it has delicious food, friendly people, beautiful architecture, hundreds of museums, great shopping, and on and on. However, the trip is not for the faint of heart, as Mexico City is crowded, dirty, polluted, loud, often fraying at the edges and at other times crumbing from overuse and disuse, earthquakes, poverty, and lack of investment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graffiti covered building along a main avenue</td></tr>
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I feel like the city represents the best and worst of Mexico, which is what I want to see when I visit a city. My senses have been rewarded with bursts of intense flavors, colors, and surprises. On day 3 here, I ate 4 tacos al pastor without a regret--slow roasted adobo pork topped with pineapple is a delight.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City Bikes and the Virgen of Guadalupe</td></tr>
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Yet in the midst of delight, I've also been reminded of the<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-violence/number-of-missing-people-in-mexico-rises-to-30000-by-end-2016-idUSKBN1782XN"> atrocities in Mexico </a>perpetuated by drug cartels, but also the government. More than the US, Mexico wears its emotions on it's sleeve. There is music and delicious food lining the streets, yet there is also protest and commentary about historic and systemic dysfunction. In the first two days in Mexico City, I noticed several separate protests about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/world/americas/mexico-43-missing-students-investigation.html">2014 Iguala mass kidnapping of 43 students,</a> one of which was inside the National Anthropology Museum. While walking along a major street, Avenida Bucareli, there were metal blockades lining the sidewalks that must be used to block the streets during major protests; many of these metal barriers had the number "43" sprayed painted as a reminder of atrocities. Mexico City has a style of architecture named Porfiriato which is after the Mexican dictator (president of 25 years) Porfirio Diaz. This president is a symbol of advancement and oppression. Despite the persecution carried out by the Catholic Church, Mayan reenactors perform ritualistic cleansings and dances mere feet from the entrance of the city's main cathedral. Mexico City is vibrant with contradictions and fantasy. Right next to city wide initiatives to reduce pollution through bikes, a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs on a tree to remind riders who really takes care of Mexicans.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mexico City Re-branded--from D.F. to CDMX</td></tr>
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A few travel recommendations after spending 5 days in CDMX:</div>
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<b>1) The city is safe enough, so consider walking as your main mode of transportation: </b> We stayed in an apartment between Roma Norte and Juarez which are nicer neighborhoods with a good ratio of locals to tourists. We walked literally everywhere. The city feels safe, especially during the day. The metro and bus systems are safe and extensive but crowded. People are backed into the buses like sardines, so even though it meant walking up to 8 miles in one day, we stayed on the side walks in order to see more of the city.<br />
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<b>2)</b> <b>Pack for every kind of weather: I</b>n the last week of November, the weather was perfection with highs to the 70s F during the day and cooler evenings down to 50F. Apparently it rains as much in CDMX as it does in London so I packed an umbrella. As soon as we left the city limits to visit Teotihuacan, we were no longer in a protected valley and the weather was cold and windy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>A busy street market behind El Zócalo</b></td></tr>
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<b>3)</b> <b>Be prepared for an urban experience: </b> The city is dirty, the pollution is no joke, and it's a crowded place...but this was part of the stimulation of visiting huge Latin American city. I know it wasn't just me who thought about pollution as I saw many locals wearing masks. The city is not uniformly aesthetically pleasing like many American or European cities. The architecture in the city alternates between the picturesque "Porfiato" style of colonial looking buildings with wrought iron accents to run down mid century architecture, and every building is fair game for graffiti.<br />
<b>4) Party every day:</b> Like NYC this is a city that doesn't sleep. The street food scene is open late with a surprising amount of locals milling about outside taco and torta (sandwich stands). Mexico City embraces both the Cantina and cocktail bar culture and we drank equal amounts of Mexican beer and fancy Mezcal. More than usual, we stayed out late<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Street food stand </td></tr>
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<b>5) Eat the street food:</b> I was reassured by our food tour guide and also my guide books that the street food is safe to eat if you follow some simple rules.<br />
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<li>Make sure the area around the stall is clean. For example in the mornings, I watched vendors sweep the area and clean their utensils. </li>
<li>Look for vendors who have a least a small line or a brisk business. </li>
<li>The best prevention is cleaning your own hands. Use hand sanitize or wet wipes before eating. Every street food vendor offered us a squirt of hand sanitizing gel before we started eating. </li>
<li>Don't drink the tap water, but definitely drink agua fresca (diluted fruit juices) whenever you can. </li>
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6) <b>Prioritize and relax:</b> We tried to strike a balance between leisurely days that were still packed with sightseeing. In such a huge city, it's impossible to see everything everything I bookmarked in my guidebook. So I made a list "must see" places according to my out touristic preferences. My list included: The National Anthropology Museum, Templo Mayor, at least one art museum, a Diego Rivera mural, Teotihuacan and a food tour. Because we walked everywhere, we got to know about 3 square miles of the city really well. I can err on the side of an over-scheduled trip, so it's good to have a travel partner to remind me to relax and enjoy the scenery. With this laid back attitude we also enjoyed sitting in cafes eating freshly baked croissants while watching the locals walk their dogs...and other every day life activities in Mexico City.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tacos al Pastor in action</td></tr>
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<i>Now for a summary of our trip with a lot of pictures. </i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fruit Market by Olga Costa (1951)</td></tr>
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<b>Day 1/Saturday:</b> We woke up early and went to flea market set up around Jardin Pushkin. Paul met an enthusiastic coin collector aka a <i>Numismatic </i>named Armando. His passion for coins was inspired by his desire to give inanimate things meaning. For every coin he picked up, he could tell a story about the year it was minted, where the mint was located and the symbols on the money. When he heard I was Cuban, he immediately brought out a book of bills and showed me Cuban money from 1960-1961 in which the bills are signed by "Che" Guevara who was then the secretary of the treasury. We both agreed about the irony of seeing the name of an ardent anti-capitalist on newly minted money. Armando sent us on our way with a warm welcome to Mexico City and instructions to enjoy his very Mexican but also very international city.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just 2 rows of typical Mexican sweets including<br />
limes stuffed with sweetened coconut</td></tr>
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Mid morning, we picked up a food tour of El Centro Histórico with a local company called S<a href="https://saboresmexicofoodtours.com/">abores de Mexico</a>. Rodrigo, a Chilango (native of Mexico City) showed us around the historic downtown area over 4 hours, introducing us to quintessential dishes and establishments in the downtown. The highlight was el Mercado de San Juan, a huge gourmet market. The market sits near the same plaza where Aztecs used to conduct their trade and markets before the Spanish conquista. The gourmet adjective does not necessarily mean "fancy;" it means fresh products, a huge variety, and vendors with a dedication to quality. At el Mercado de San Juan we tried out "pre-hispanic" foods like grasshoppers, ants, and the many salsas made from these insects. I didn't take a picture of fruit stalls. However, the fruit vendors are timeless as a painting entitled "Fruit Market" from 1951 that hangs in the city's museum of modern art depicts a recognizable scene of a vendor selling fruit in 2018. Also on the tour we visited Dulceria Celeya, the favorite bakery of Frido Kahlo, where I bought her favorite sweet, sweetened shredded coconut stuffed into a candied lime.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwF265X42mJDC29PLrTMy54MA5E01qYz16WhLSg_geESKzQ2MBrqRLX0WyI8ASfpIaRKyBtmpCaKSiyTJt_0Velw5sdeeXgXGjHK_kTihkrkC2DxH6SaVwJQOGWQeghByAvJQXzBLBuoK1/s1600/DSC03264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwF265X42mJDC29PLrTMy54MA5E01qYz16WhLSg_geESKzQ2MBrqRLX0WyI8ASfpIaRKyBtmpCaKSiyTJt_0Velw5sdeeXgXGjHK_kTihkrkC2DxH6SaVwJQOGWQeghByAvJQXzBLBuoK1/s320/DSC03264.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Typical" non-industrial corn farmed outside CDMX</td></tr>
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Probably my favorite stop was at a long standing street cart called El K-Guamo where we ate some of the most delicious ceviche I've had. Despite its location in the center of the country, markets in CDMX have access to fresh fish from both the Pacific and Gulf coasts of Mexico. We topped off our day by spending the evening at a Mezcal bar called Mano Santa which sources its mezcal from a single distillery in Oaxaca...and then we ate more street food.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6_9c1ZX-Sw6UWnrwUsX7K4Pe1uMHuYlYIZJPH_NwRaOiwNPEf2CqNYBCiYD09LvmwySXJXdLn1BS7_2tMMjkzUTcDHBfJOJzODgiMnIVcj-j_61_6yoMki1250ImxvsPiVY2VzrnuhxP/s1600/DSC03261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW6_9c1ZX-Sw6UWnrwUsX7K4Pe1uMHuYlYIZJPH_NwRaOiwNPEf2CqNYBCiYD09LvmwySXJXdLn1BS7_2tMMjkzUTcDHBfJOJzODgiMnIVcj-j_61_6yoMki1250ImxvsPiVY2VzrnuhxP/s320/DSC03261.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No Scorpions were eaten...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWDKINUVlxZYyZKKi1CNmIIHDIxrVYK6ioaJJeQhcXQp-L_rwkEnBZ5Ebb6cIVdDc_DHOoC1698_xeBStFFe-fIZ01wh8DpI-aC3HeXPEsSS69ZltjpR0DCIG-fgrid6PEBAPK8n0NEpx/s1600/DSC03259.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWDKINUVlxZYyZKKi1CNmIIHDIxrVYK6ioaJJeQhcXQp-L_rwkEnBZ5Ebb6cIVdDc_DHOoC1698_xeBStFFe-fIZ01wh8DpI-aC3HeXPEsSS69ZltjpR0DCIG-fgrid6PEBAPK8n0NEpx/s320/DSC03259.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fried Grasshoppers aka Chipolines</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angel of Independence at the end of<br />
Paseo de Reforma</td></tr>
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<b>Day 2/Sunday: </b>We walked close to 8 miles, starting with a leisurely stroll down el Paseo de la Reforma which on Sundays is closed to vehicular traffic. As we strolled down the avenue, locals road their bikes, scooters, and roller skates down the broad avenue to the base of the statue known as the Angel of Independence.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul eating a tlacoyos--similar to a quesadilla but from Oaxaca</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bikers approaching the Angel of Independence</td></tr>
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Continuing on El Paseo de Reforma, we walked to the Bosque de Chapultepec which is the second largest park in Latin America. It contains many museums including the National Anthropology Museum and two major modern art museums, El Museo de Arte Moderno and Museo Tamayo. We walked through the main museum of modern art which has a similar circular architectural design like my favorite DC museum, The Hirshhorn. I loved that this museum exhibited primarily Mexican artists. After seeing all the collections, I felt like I had a grasp on Mexican style from the famous murals to the expressionist and abstract movements that followed afterwards.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtyard of the National Anthropology Museum</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMamo_LiLqzEtRcHclLTL2HkKh0yDrf8fobfep7nk0PProSwAlwozRgNh9C6MwJkbf4t1AFf70pq_Wl_JOk4baRR2LmxIE36L3KhhG_xnWW0_F7erzIYB7b5IR7hKkOX1nkaFP0ctDoCl/s1600/20181125_161220.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="808" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMamo_LiLqzEtRcHclLTL2HkKh0yDrf8fobfep7nk0PProSwAlwozRgNh9C6MwJkbf4t1AFf70pq_Wl_JOk4baRR2LmxIE36L3KhhG_xnWW0_F7erzIYB7b5IR7hKkOX1nkaFP0ctDoCl/s400/20181125_161220.jpg" width="201" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eaten by a stone jaguar</td></tr>
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Next up el Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Anthropology Museum) which is a national jewel due to both its collection of artifacts and the architecture. The museum contains artifacts from the pre-Columbia cultures of every region of Mexico. It's hard to describe the scope....it's like visiting the British Museum which has a HUGE amount of impressive antiquities, but every single artifact is actually from Mexico. All of these different Meso-American cultures flourished in Mexico until the Spaniards arrived. Often we think of just the Aztecs and Mayans in Mexico, but this museum demonstrated the variety of cultures that came before the Mayans; others who existed throughout Mexico; and also the different manifestations within the major empires like the Mayans and Mexicas.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reproduction of the Temple of the <br />
Feathered Serpent from <br />
Teotihuacan (100BC-500 BCE)</td></tr>
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I want to mention that all the cultures engaged in ritual human sacrifice which was executed in a variety of forms from "auto-sacrifice" of having warriors fall onto a ball covered in spikes to playing the "ball game." Originating in 1400 BC, almost every ancient Meso-American culture had their own version of the ball game; some considered it a proxy for warfare and conflict resolution. The game captured western imaginations since it often culminated with human sacrifice of either the losing team or captives who were sacrificed in place of the players. I remember visiting the ball game court at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza">Chichen-Itza</a> as a kid and having my mind blown by this concept of human sacrifice.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTren6YL7yDhqmSGM6B5p9s7z9-cj_QsNBuinI7tHXm-VV81kPDvdjxfdF1bHsKetLirS4XjAt7aGBInFw2F4-BoRAiy-bhNZ-65wTWpnQ3webZISXf32pR_LBQ6Gmqq-QGPo6P63lIGm/s1600/DSC03293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTren6YL7yDhqmSGM6B5p9s7z9-cj_QsNBuinI7tHXm-VV81kPDvdjxfdF1bHsKetLirS4XjAt7aGBInFw2F4-BoRAiy-bhNZ-65wTWpnQ3webZISXf32pR_LBQ6Gmqq-QGPo6P63lIGm/s400/DSC03293.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ball game rings--a rubber ball was bounced<br />
from the players' hips through the rings</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facade of Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada</td></tr>
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<b>Day 3/Monday:</b> On Mondays, all the museums are closed, so we planned a day that was off the usual tourist track. Our tour guide from the Sabores de Mexico food tour recommended we make a point of visiting the library, Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, a building with a storied history. The library started out as a chapel of a wealthy Jesuit congregation called San Felipe Neri.<br />
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In 1857 the chapel was converted to a famous theater, and finally in 1959<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vlady Mural</td></tr>
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it became federal property and turned into a social sciences library. From 1972-1982, a Mexican-Russian artist named Vlady painted a huge mural entitled "The Revolution and the Elements" depicting famous revolutions like the French and English Revolutions to musical and intellectual revolutions. The very modern mural is an unexpected departure from the Baroque facade of the church. The mural is impressive as psychedelic colors cover every square inch of wallspace in the library. Mexico is known for its muralists from Diego Rivera and David Siquieros to more abstract painters like Rafael Tamayo, so it was interesting to see a modern but still very leftist iteration Mexican mural art.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "petrified" world of capitalism and Christianity<br />
depicted behind us</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh ingredients including Mamey:<br />
my new favorite tropical fruit</td></tr>
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In the afternoon we returned to el Mercado San Juan to shop for ingredients to prepare one meal. Despite visiting a city known for its restaurants and street food, we wanted to experience shopping and cooking with such fresh ingredients.<br />
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We stopped at the stall of a vendor we had met on our food tour. Shopping in a market is a personal experience. We told her what we wanted to make and she picked out exactly the right amount of ingredients meant to be perfectly ripe for the next day. She was focused on not wasting any food and adamantly sold us only what we needed for one meal. We decided to make chorizo and egg breakfast tacos--perhaps one dish NOT sold in Mexico City. In addition to fruit and vegetables we bought four eggs from the chicken vendor ( for sale right next to the chicken feet), Oaxacan cheese, and 10 fresh tortillas, literally hot off the press, for 5 pesos.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-iRSKCKV0pwm1Fmik-a-ns6WYZlSKZ2K-dA78NDYtPON9cwyB7GWM2OZ4LvcFJqVro2CG-WW4CU0e6uKi7WYWTTK2Hu4nfhOICb5Af8gRCY0487MOYVQM809kKUSdLkV3nsnesGxEUGd5/s1600/DSC03314.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-iRSKCKV0pwm1Fmik-a-ns6WYZlSKZ2K-dA78NDYtPON9cwyB7GWM2OZ4LvcFJqVro2CG-WW4CU0e6uKi7WYWTTK2Hu4nfhOICb5Af8gRCY0487MOYVQM809kKUSdLkV3nsnesGxEUGd5/s400/DSC03314.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished product</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNM1Hy7C13__ThRqrtBVl2qt2XBpM6en5JrDk41k5GYfFS6IoP_A_GXefiIma1NGZ7twL8dPk_RohwapeQYtDEVz8lalPZMQPpiGjG97BPJdv1GNADLiCldUj5FZTPqMDwqVM5h87eoOQ/s1600/DSC03316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1115" data-original-width="1600" height="443" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNM1Hy7C13__ThRqrtBVl2qt2XBpM6en5JrDk41k5GYfFS6IoP_A_GXefiIma1NGZ7twL8dPk_RohwapeQYtDEVz8lalPZMQPpiGjG97BPJdv1GNADLiCldUj5FZTPqMDwqVM5h87eoOQ/s640/DSC03316.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Catedral Metropolitana presides over the Zocalo plaza right<br />
next to Templo Mayor</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOtMPT2sI2v6ZN1Hltcpvf1QQShKF-qKE7_Xs3bnrNegYwKzotfeVWiUZv5iVP4-jyd4kNrQNfh4aA7zxnO5eJWn1OxMAdCRklM_4WGwsCZ-B82MOi04baHp4h2pQIhffW0V9Tb-FFO5b/s1600/DSC03330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGOtMPT2sI2v6ZN1Hltcpvf1QQShKF-qKE7_Xs3bnrNegYwKzotfeVWiUZv5iVP4-jyd4kNrQNfh4aA7zxnO5eJWn1OxMAdCRklM_4WGwsCZ-B82MOi04baHp4h2pQIhffW0V9Tb-FFO5b/s640/DSC03330.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ruins of Templo Mayor with the <br />
cathedral in the backdrop</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5XzvVBnFG_G0DLvwKGNrruiXOSk3_yIOtxcO_hyphenhyphen_E2hFW5YwHg94DlN5-EjZlCv_eRExpLhTfzED_Hb6aUJULO4fctD0FwQ5zDe2gGTvtKKRhYYgz7c1m7Uh3GATWAmw0PNrSyIXG7K1/s1600/DSC03328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO5XzvVBnFG_G0DLvwKGNrruiXOSk3_yIOtxcO_hyphenhyphen_E2hFW5YwHg94DlN5-EjZlCv_eRExpLhTfzED_Hb6aUJULO4fctD0FwQ5zDe2gGTvtKKRhYYgz7c1m7Uh3GATWAmw0PNrSyIXG7K1/s400/DSC03328.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stairway to the shrine of Tlaloc</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Day 4/Tuesday: </b>After cooking breakfast at our apartment, we headed to another "must see" sight in Mexico City: Templo Mayor (aka The Greater Temple), the ruins of the primary Aztec Temple in the middle of downtown. Just to review some basics, what we now know as Mexico City was actually built on top of the Aztec (sometimes call Mexicas) capital city Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs initially built their city on the shores of Lake Texoco and used canals as drainage and transportation (think Venice). As it usually goes with history, the Spanish defeat of the Aztecs was an extended and complicated battle ending in a siege and the razing of Tenochtitlan upon which the Spanish built their new capital. The Spaniards filled in the canals and used the supplies of Aztec buildings (including temples) to build their new city. The historic downtown including the National Palace and the main cathedral were built over the main Aztec temple and other important structures.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiu3wkAWw9XSV_q4rvu70Ls2QlXr6mexslrchjnwX-jAe4PnO6pkHBJawzwiC-qphVaJ5j2NBvNZhTcpCW03MkfdoHlAi22nyYAaXyDKiqWHqMIkDW-dGSpDj22ZjQshcjw6jbApAzyK0P/s1600/DSC03336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiu3wkAWw9XSV_q4rvu70Ls2QlXr6mexslrchjnwX-jAe4PnO6pkHBJawzwiC-qphVaJ5j2NBvNZhTcpCW03MkfdoHlAi22nyYAaXyDKiqWHqMIkDW-dGSpDj22ZjQshcjw6jbApAzyK0P/s320/DSC03336.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The monolith of Coyolxauhqui that was found in 1978 <br />
prompting the excavation of Templo Mayor<br />
(see tiny human heads in the middle for scale)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Fast forward to 1978, employees of the electric company were digging near the cathedral and uncovered a hug monolith stone turned out to be an 8 ton carving of the moon goddess. This discovery prompted excavation of the temple site which is now a museum designed to exhibit the ruins of the Greater Temple. Templo Mayor is comparatively young compared to other ruins in Mexico--the Aztecs started construction on this temple in 1325 BCE and it was enlarged by successive rulers over the next 200 years until the Spanish showed up. I was moved by the contrast of an Aztec temple against the backdrop of colonial architecture. The Spanish did their best to obliterate not only the Aztecs but most the indigenous people in Mexico. The filled in the canals of Tenochtitlan and now parts of Mexico City are sinking. Despite literally being buried, within Templo Mayor a person can visit an ancient altar and a pavilion devoted to worship of Aztec gods and ritual human sacrifice, all within view of the city's largest cathedral. No matter how conquerors try to bury history, they can't. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddVEhQUEpPXutfLLV9QgnN1e2sMIUsZNRbDWqB8zMhqMSD_IaTlwSxTjFJVbdov9z2OcBij1fX8DuXvt8-u_nYh2LEx4I0dxCpbebOjpx4t6vbf-PKDjPHXy6QI9RV-Nk3qpYvMKNs_Mv/s1600/DSC03322.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddVEhQUEpPXutfLLV9QgnN1e2sMIUsZNRbDWqB8zMhqMSD_IaTlwSxTjFJVbdov9z2OcBij1fX8DuXvt8-u_nYh2LEx4I0dxCpbebOjpx4t6vbf-PKDjPHXy6QI9RV-Nk3qpYvMKNs_Mv/s400/DSC03322.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Employees of the National Institute of Anthropology are protesting<br />
road repairs that are being done adjacent to Templo Mayor and <br />
could damage artifacts and other Aztec buildings in the area</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
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<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyq-06XIImLpgrLWr5dYbCLfL3iK9nWpx4nITq9O6uUC5hFWkjbWKKD0foUFDesfvA4Jv9clrz9UOBqerSFShYHZWVyPjNt-yBBKzdZFxZPmef9TgCeXaPGwSlHS_-omUeMNsj9O4E_qaB/s1600/DSC03344.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyq-06XIImLpgrLWr5dYbCLfL3iK9nWpx4nITq9O6uUC5hFWkjbWKKD0foUFDesfvA4Jv9clrz9UOBqerSFShYHZWVyPjNt-yBBKzdZFxZPmef9TgCeXaPGwSlHS_-omUeMNsj9O4E_qaB/s320/DSC03344.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facade of the Church of San Francisco</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On our walk from downtown back to our apartment in Roma Norte, we strolled along Madero Street, a main pedestrian thoroughfare between the Zocalo plaza and another main park called Alemeda Central. There are a few cathedrals and chapels along this road, so we stopped in what looked like a random but pretty church. When we walked inside, it was an exquisitely gilded chapel called the Church of San Francisco. It is the remaining part of a large monastery that started as the headquarters to Franciscan monks who came to Mexico on the Pope's orders to evangelize in New Spain. The first church and monastery were constructed soon after Templo Mayor was destroyed. Ironically, two previous iterations of the church have sunk into the soft soil underneath Mexico City and had to be torn down. This current church, built between 1710-1716 is also sinking, clearly evidenced by the stairs leading down into the chapel. After having spent 2 hours immersed in Aztec culture looking at Templo Mayor and its accompanying archaeological museum, I was struck by this building that was basically created to evangelize and thus replace the Aztec religion and holy sites that had been razed. I have mixed feelings about my encounters with the ruins of pre-Columbia/pre-Hispanic cultures.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbekee_260s7Qo6WEs0tV65kIzMS6zLWZagMLM_r4tPxF8QzgHDWtL7pD_KFRjQkGi2evA2FHPyYC-7IZ0yW91L35eoUn4HWBKt_bfJ5b-HC51TKpTJ3U-V8eaul6xd0w4x5QxmiFmIUI/s1600/DSC03343.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbbekee_260s7Qo6WEs0tV65kIzMS6zLWZagMLM_r4tPxF8QzgHDWtL7pD_KFRjQkGi2evA2FHPyYC-7IZ0yW91L35eoUn4HWBKt_bfJ5b-HC51TKpTJ3U-V8eaul6xd0w4x5QxmiFmIUI/s640/DSC03343.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Golden altar and epic religious art inside the church</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The Spanish as a colonial power did their best to make New Spain by oppressing the indigenous people of Latin American. Yet in the 1500s the Aztecs were a brutal culture and the Spanish were able to recruit enemy tribes from outside Tenochtitlan to defeat the Aztecs. Hernan Cortes probably would have made a great human sacrifice for the Aztecs, and he knew it. Only one conquerer can remain standing. There's something about Mexico City that actively inhabits the tension of its history from the Spanish conquest, the indigenous peoples who dominated beforehand, and then the modern tumultuous history of Mexico as evidenced by a very recent revolution from 1910-1920, huge murals that are an homage to socialism and current political changes with the election of a president who is not from the two main political parties. You can be immersed in history while also eating delicious street food.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizL5oWcMXWbIigz7dDoq4nPhKwZwlAiBINqv33xBMT7rjFTX5XBNHbBAJX11Jmr__3EcaBX70xXE8JWhr4WrqJUAia7cRgYZr1_pofuaoHvR-OPQE8bah4sipEMup87-g6Ia5pbP-AOXTI/s1600/20181127_213332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizL5oWcMXWbIigz7dDoq4nPhKwZwlAiBINqv33xBMT7rjFTX5XBNHbBAJX11Jmr__3EcaBX70xXE8JWhr4WrqJUAia7cRgYZr1_pofuaoHvR-OPQE8bah4sipEMup87-g6Ia5pbP-AOXTI/s640/20181127_213332.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Lucha Libre mural inside the Arena Mexico</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hC-qdcsWD-Jt9_bo3WhGKqE5h9oTy3Bg22mYbXY0tIIJ2aM4Jgb3oE74qTP_YdCal1jZ2e-DAuDriJ0jJYAl3dbWLRkg5L0BnT3sqpCvfzjLDx5QdM9hWKdrfMrp_of3sm50ZzXH1nXy/s1600/20181127_210253.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_hC-qdcsWD-Jt9_bo3WhGKqE5h9oTy3Bg22mYbXY0tIIJ2aM4Jgb3oE74qTP_YdCal1jZ2e-DAuDriJ0jJYAl3dbWLRkg5L0BnT3sqpCvfzjLDx5QdM9hWKdrfMrp_of3sm50ZzXH1nXy/s320/20181127_210253.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luchando in action</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Enough of the philosophizing. Tuesday night, we rounded out a day of history with some good old fashioned fun at the Lucha Libre. That's right! Lucha Libre is Mexican-style professional wrestling that was more like acrobatics on steroids. The luchadores wear fantastic costumes and interact with the crowd asking the crowd to cheer and boo. There are good guys and bad guys and the fighters have crazy names like: Red Cloud, Blue Diamond, Gold Angel, and several iterations of Son of the Devil and names of demons. The fight runs promptly from 7:30-9:30pm and includes individual rounds, tag team, and trio wrestling in which there are 6 men in masks and spandex somersaulting around the ring. We paid $13 per ticket to sit ringside. The fights are best enjoyed drinking a dark Mexican beer in a glass rimmed with Tamarind and chili salt.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdY3vn4zUIChaFy7OrqQsFuGzlAyLCHXrv_8AIjV_eEIj-rnPNq2AlORRhyphenhyphenUSQDhnRW7iSlaOcaLX5VnD2QsroAYXy-jCiEjGsuwoEMJVbfn2XeZGtokEKiyd8-ENvRyKFB3oBCmBZtQG6/s1600/20181127_203535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdY3vn4zUIChaFy7OrqQsFuGzlAyLCHXrv_8AIjV_eEIj-rnPNq2AlORRhyphenhyphenUSQDhnRW7iSlaOcaLX5VnD2QsroAYXy-jCiEjGsuwoEMJVbfn2XeZGtokEKiyd8-ENvRyKFB3oBCmBZtQG6/s320/20181127_203535.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Indio beer with a tamarind chili rim</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgksvw4NxIZoYqfsh-DKS339-1HWoDl7QkVw-vc6E7JIHIkIAgfpEDE_O5jNbj6h0M8RfYx8vXyg9sgjlyQbk2GFFFRKr5oKNpjZ2HuEPQoW6g7Hf6Wzcgg4Bb6fASCmdXb5HENoHnIydG4/s1600/DSC03359.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgksvw4NxIZoYqfsh-DKS339-1HWoDl7QkVw-vc6E7JIHIkIAgfpEDE_O5jNbj6h0M8RfYx8vXyg9sgjlyQbk2GFFFRKr5oKNpjZ2HuEPQoW6g7Hf6Wzcgg4Bb6fASCmdXb5HENoHnIydG4/s640/DSC03359.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">View of Teotihuacan and the "Avenue of the Dead" from atop the Pyramid of the Moon (likely to a fertility god)<br />
Look closely at how the Pyramid of the Sun mimics the shape of the mountain behind it. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNmW9p5zm5iRPZtZOVidoDRO816_3NO0M_K6C7Y9o9-AWOIo1KUXXcehG-SsOhTHH_03jitFqHHSNeFcjtoU65D0LlAWJRMc1XQ202xyHKUBJJYxu5qZ-dE7jomj8m1fsauYQtTy7CbGC/s1600/DSC03368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUNmW9p5zm5iRPZtZOVidoDRO816_3NO0M_K6C7Y9o9-AWOIo1KUXXcehG-SsOhTHH_03jitFqHHSNeFcjtoU65D0LlAWJRMc1XQ202xyHKUBJJYxu5qZ-dE7jomj8m1fsauYQtTy7CbGC/s640/DSC03368.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pyramid of the Sun aka Pyramid to Tlaloc the god of water</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Day 5/Wednesday:</b> Our last day in Mexico City, we took a day trip to Teotihuacan, a large ancient city and ruin complex 1 hour outside of the city. Teotihuacan was a major economic power between 100 BC-600 BCE. They had a monopoly of the obsidian mines and access to rich natural resources. The National Anthropology Museum has found evidence that this major city in the center of Mexico was trading obsidian with the Mayans in Guatemala. Teotihuacan roughly translates to "City of the Gods" which is the name the Aztecs gave to this city. Teotihuacan is an active archaeological site, so more accurate histories are being discovered about the city. We do know that that city was large and multi-ethnic, with a population of at least 150,000. Near 550 BCE the inhabitants of Teotihuacan experienced major political, environmental and religious crises. Historians speculate a mix of drought, climate change, and political instability led to widespread unrest in not only Teotihuacan but other civilizations throughout central american. In the midst of this crisis in 550 BCE, inhabitants destroyed vast parts of the city including burning down temples along their major Avenue of the Dead. There is also evidence that they tried to destroy one of their main temples to the feathered serpent and build a temple to a new god.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Partial view of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent<br />
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When the Aztecs stumbled upon the city in the 1300s, Teotihuacan was deserted so they named it "City of the Gods" because they assumed only Gods could have built the enormous pyramids. We had an excellent guide who emphasized that the pyramids were built as a conduit to the heavens and Gods. All rituals, including human sacfrice and the labor on the temples was an attempt to get closer to the gods and thank them for their blood sacrifice of creating the human race. The names we use now in Teotihuacan such as "Pyramid of the Sun" and "Pyramid of the Moon" were given by the Aztecs. More likely, the Teotihuacanos worshiped a goddess of fertility and a god of water. The depictions of gods throughout Latin America have many similarities and the Aztecs and Mayans drew much of their culture from the Teotihuacanos.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the Pyramid of the Moon sitting <br />
on top of the Pyramid of the Sun</td></tr>
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The pyramids are enormous and the view of the complex is stunning. It's not such an extensive ruin complex as some of the Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza or Tikal which have many more pyramids and buildings. Teotihuacan is impressive considering that these pyramids were built over many hundreds of years and without the use of a wheel or beasts of burden.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Required photo on top of a pyramid! </td></tr>
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We finished the day, and our trip, with an epic dinner at a fancy restaurant. We had eaten so much street food that we wanted to sample the gourmet food scene before leaving. We chose Nudo Negro, a Mexican and Asian fusion restaurant, which offered a tasting menu. I didn't take my camera, but the experience was lovely because of the food and the staff who seemed invested in the experience of eating. Mexico is proud of its history and demonstrates that pride by through industriousness and creativity that shines through every experience in Mexico city: the food, the cultural offerings like museums, preservation of historical sites, and a genuine friendliness of the citizens of Mexico City. Thank you Mexico City! I hope all my friends visit you soon.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-74042267562440655492018-03-21T14:00:00.002-07:002018-03-21T14:19:31.673-07:00Casa Blanca, Morocco: Mosques and Malls <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hassan II Mosque in Casa Blanca</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The imposing door of Hasan II Mosque: Person for scale</td></tr>
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I've been in DC a few days, but the feeling of Morocco is still fresh (perhaps preserved by the cold weather here in March). It was a short vacation; just 6 full days in Morocco, but enough to shift gears by being immersed in something wholly different from the Washington, DC and the US. The trip in Morocco ended with a very Moroccan encounter. Throughout the trip it was clear that speaking French (one of the official languages of Morocco) could get a person a long way. Our taxi driver to the airport was the first person to state it explicitly. In Morocco there are three price tiers: One for English speakers, a second for French speakers and a third for Arabic speakers. I've traveled enough to know this is a type of norm; it's easier to navigate a country and relate to the people if you speak the language. When we left the hotel, we were told the taxi ride to the airport from the hotel would be 250 Moroccan Dirhams ($25). As we arrived at the airport, I handed the taxi driver 300 Moroccan Dirhams to cover the ride and a tip. He looked at me for a moment and said, "Perhaps for my sister the ride would be 250 Dirhams, but for you, at least 300." Just because you understand the system, doesn't mean you can escape it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me amidst the tiles of Hassan II Mosque</td></tr>
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I enjoyed my trip to Morocco. It's a privilege to wander a city like Tangier that was once home to Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Moors, French, and the melting pot it is today. I would recommend that a friend take the time to spend a few days in Tangier, a few days in Fez, Casa Blanca and Marrakesh. Air travel to Morocco was easy flying into Casa Blanca and the trains run smoothly (and air conditioned) throughout the country. I had to remind myself that the rapid growth of Morocco's tourism industry. In 2010, the country welcomed 10 million tourists a year, that number jumped to 14 million by 2014 and the government hopes to attract 20 million tourists by 2020. Basically a traveler should be savvy about travel and open to a non-western culture. It also helps to realize there are not standard rules of how to treat tourists. For example, the day we arrived in Casa Blanca, we went to pick up a taxi from a line of taxis lined up outside a huge tourist destination, the Hassan II Mosque. The guide book said never to pay more than 5 euros for a ride within the city. The first taxi driver wanted the equivalent of 10 euros for a short taxi ride. When we refused to pay that sum and walked away, literally 10 taxi drivers followed us down the street saying they would drive us for less (even for free!). We walked a few blocks away to find a cab driver in a quiet neighborhood. We asked how much the ride would be, he pointed at the meter and looked at us like we were crazy for asking how much a taxi would cost. Yet the next day, desperate for a taxi in a down pour, not a single taxi had a meter out in their taxi, even when asked.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the mall from inside the aquarium</td></tr>
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Casa Blanca gets a bad name on other travel websites and in the guidebook. Perhaps because it's not picturesque like Tangier or Fez or Marrakesh. It's a large metropolitan city with a metro area of 9 million people. The example is typified by the fact that our first night in Casa Blanca we ate Turkish food and then got a 60 minute Thai style massage by Thai masseuses. It rained heavily our first morning in Casa Blanca so we went to an anthropologist's favorite place to study culture: The Mall. The Morocco Mall is the largest indoor mall in Africa. It contains the usual stores, plus a "luxe" area with huge monuments to Gucci, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton. Probably the most alluring feature is a 1000 liter aquarium in the center of the mall; I paid the $2 to ride the elevator that runs through the center of the aquarium. The food court overlooks the ocean, so anyone who can make it to the mall can enjoy their pizza (or tangine) with a view of the crashing waves.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mosque from a distance</td></tr>
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From the wall we walked the 5 miles of coastline back to our hotel. Casa Blanca has a well developed beach scene. Close to the mall there is lots of deserted beach with a few surf shops. A good 2 mile portion of the walk was along the Corniche, an ocean side boardwalk lined with hotels and resorts. Eventually the Corniche ends, and the side walk deteriorated into broken concrete along side a busy road. But we walked the whole expanse, all the way back to the Hassan II Mosque which has a huge plaza that abuts the seaside. The Hassan II Mosque was built in 1993 by the previous king and named for himself. It is the 2nd largest mosque in the world with a capacity for 80,000 worshipers. In the evenings, locals lounge around the plaza, on the benches and many levels of stairs surround the mosque. The sheer size of the building, the number of fountains, and the millions of tiles used in the detailed tile work is awe-inspiring. I've seen a person sized incense burner swing in a cathedral, and just the outside of the mosque made me marvel at the things humans will do to honor God (and garner the respect of fellow humans).<br />
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The night before leaving Casa Blanca, I engaged the in the Russian nesting doll activity of watching the movie Casa Blanca about Rick and his cafe while drinking cocktails in Rick's Cafe in the old Medina of Casa Blanca.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-27589135256218775222018-03-13T11:54:00.000-07:002018-03-13T11:54:10.925-07:00Tangier, Morocco: Day 3, shopping and eating and eating <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rock the Kasbah. Get it? </td></tr>
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Our hotel experience at Kasbah Rose has been lovely. Each morning at breakfast we are greeted by the owner Loraine (from Holland) and her American friend, Carla. Perhaps American is no longer an accurate descriptor, both Carla and Loraine have lived in Tangier for over 30 years, running different businesses, and both offer excellent advice on where to spend our time in the city in terms of attractions and shopping.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About the rock the Kasbah</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_61HPR0Rs1Wl2FHqFtg8aDMTvhueJ4sEKKRcowFEgwtk4q0EDH08nMFqqUkbmMqlJR7bxNvQzQd6_ggJm08qkKM-52an20zk_1zKGDBhqc21ZhwR4kYthFEaKlWgsVDPIpETAzf2TbAnO/s1600/DSC03209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_61HPR0Rs1Wl2FHqFtg8aDMTvhueJ4sEKKRcowFEgwtk4q0EDH08nMFqqUkbmMqlJR7bxNvQzQd6_ggJm08qkKM-52an20zk_1zKGDBhqc21ZhwR4kYthFEaKlWgsVDPIpETAzf2TbAnO/s320/DSC03209.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The freshest dates I've ever eaten</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3T7PkyCSWZw3YmxXbvAw883RVkLJIoQUOElQqCRzX1LBA1ipYC5NJ4P0o9bBbKLbJvHXyUQPMvuBNejtGLir5wHmxvfljg10Y_8b3wZ3PJfzubs8m2VV0M8Lg2HSz8u6pO-keVSQhH-s/s1600/DSC03189.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq3T7PkyCSWZw3YmxXbvAw883RVkLJIoQUOElQqCRzX1LBA1ipYC5NJ4P0o9bBbKLbJvHXyUQPMvuBNejtGLir5wHmxvfljg10Y_8b3wZ3PJfzubs8m2VV0M8Lg2HSz8u6pO-keVSQhH-s/s320/DSC03189.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A few Phoenican Tombs and some locals enjoying the view</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPC9B0dmriHg0pDWrVmZmztpltQEXv0CjGe5nf0Cc3JuxTITDn1tsgcZvpV1zxlD8-KVRwcYRG3WgvgQ7TTdfTl0R7kthxYbeA5mlIIL5wQtS6aYl1UoQGnRcfDUq-ucbLjPnqcsvOSPP/s1600/DSC03190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidPC9B0dmriHg0pDWrVmZmztpltQEXv0CjGe5nf0Cc3JuxTITDn1tsgcZvpV1zxlD8-KVRwcYRG3WgvgQ7TTdfTl0R7kthxYbeA5mlIIL5wQtS6aYl1UoQGnRcfDUq-ucbLjPnqcsvOSPP/s320/DSC03190.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phoenician tombs overlooking a port<br /> and some seaside property</td></tr>
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Carla recommended we start our day with a walk to The Marshan, a wealthy neighborhood outside of the Medina which overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar and is also the site of the Phoenician tombs. These tombs, deep holes carved into a ledge with a view of the strait are an archaeological site and popular meeting point for locals. The Phoenician tombs are about 20 large holes which presumably once contained bodies of Phoenicians, early inhabitants of Tangiers, before Rome conquered the city in the 1st century BC. Currently the tombs are in no way preserved, but the carved out holes are immovable reminders of ancient history in Tangier.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbYL7At1dMM5Q1ebYrfZSoDgsMjtN6ZR9ROW0oE1j57IQWQ0v2YQZEPw1yKzyWjE-hjys2JgY7rZP2bRqdhL4ATYKrDwzs-KIU_b4WnppbDFnAHMPnfhtiKmQIQevJ3vbcKpsEzX8nd8Q/s1600/DSC03192.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrbYL7At1dMM5Q1ebYrfZSoDgsMjtN6ZR9ROW0oE1j57IQWQ0v2YQZEPw1yKzyWjE-hjys2JgY7rZP2bRqdhL4ATYKrDwzs-KIU_b4WnppbDFnAHMPnfhtiKmQIQevJ3vbcKpsEzX8nd8Q/s320/DSC03192.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A main road within Marshan</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdcKdeGVLSQBcvM5wHTr04rXnO8HkF-Uahi15yRXSID7JLRxUCaUu2eNR7RJb0dKlpqQrE3yMOt3scnFmCAigNXjO447dnVGjvU9AVSGFgcNzoUDbGQGzSpWq4xW9Swu2nDZ8RGofmItth/s1600/DSC03196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdcKdeGVLSQBcvM5wHTr04rXnO8HkF-Uahi15yRXSID7JLRxUCaUu2eNR7RJb0dKlpqQrE3yMOt3scnFmCAigNXjO447dnVGjvU9AVSGFgcNzoUDbGQGzSpWq4xW9Swu2nDZ8RGofmItth/s320/DSC03196.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Large house inside Marshan</td></tr>
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In Marshan, the houses are bigger, the streets wider, and the neighborhood still contains a mix of well preserved homes and those in need of renovation.
Tangier is a city with European influence, and tourism is still a growing industry.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yQcjX9RNzEpsErCqgYzCRhzK7lTrCWz_OaePfCO059axjQlkUb7zU4RQaOWKOECtIxMdZ1CJOtBMvgk7FaCb6J3uDp4YyJfAOvTvTSru0W_zsQ_0dPvPenPCLBH2OiHbx3mvPJWp6ScC/s1600/DSC03205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yQcjX9RNzEpsErCqgYzCRhzK7lTrCWz_OaePfCO059axjQlkUb7zU4RQaOWKOECtIxMdZ1CJOtBMvgk7FaCb6J3uDp4YyJfAOvTvTSru0W_zsQ_0dPvPenPCLBH2OiHbx3mvPJWp6ScC/s320/DSC03205.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">A mosque during prayer times--with shoes </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">waiting for their owners on the ledge right outside</span></div>
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Despite being touted as a popular site within Medina, we found the Kasbah Museum closed and without signage suggesting why it’s closed on a Tuesday. Though part of the pleasure of Tangier is wandering around, in no rush, as the city carries on with its business. Usually as we wander, we eat, sampling dates, pastries, sweets, and plenty of mint tea.<br />
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Any disappointment over the closed Kasbah Museum was assuaged by a fresh and flavorful lunch at an outdoor cafe, Chez Hassan. We watched the owner and cook, filet swordfish and grill squid for our made to order meal. We were serenaded by a West African street band, who seemed as interesting an attraction to us, as to some Moroccan school children out on the streets during their school lunch break. The band itself was a reminder of other African immigrants who pass through (or perhaps stay) in this city, a passageway to Europe.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLNyNUMcmyhGZCFvJyGVQTVVPt91PhrRQ8ltGlxwC5Zyg0jORv76OFgYU2PP5dPu3dxdPgG34rf8yXJc49NP5v5-TpoxQndCYv5C9gH9L4HuOKx1Pk01TGBhkKotuI2gM7Bp6LPWdcPrF/s1600/DSC03208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="1600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTLNyNUMcmyhGZCFvJyGVQTVVPt91PhrRQ8ltGlxwC5Zyg0jORv76OFgYU2PP5dPu3dxdPgG34rf8yXJc49NP5v5-TpoxQndCYv5C9gH9L4HuOKx1Pk01TGBhkKotuI2gM7Bp6LPWdcPrF/s320/DSC03208.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Decidedly un-Arabic music </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRypC2mkz86lOGNG7d_LtDW1tsJN_jfC0VSLiEvkCcCRqrc736g6Hc2gcbyufZ98ZGrMQB7E2dFyyXS3SMMCt3hjxebTaNid5r7ZGK0OXjI48VSwV3m7SUNwwBzDhsWwizkt4YH3DVyUbH/s1600/DSC03198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRypC2mkz86lOGNG7d_LtDW1tsJN_jfC0VSLiEvkCcCRqrc736g6Hc2gcbyufZ98ZGrMQB7E2dFyyXS3SMMCt3hjxebTaNid5r7ZGK0OXjI48VSwV3m7SUNwwBzDhsWwizkt4YH3DVyUbH/s320/DSC03198.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of many interesting passageways in the city</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_XwlOHWCFgzD52-MVxqcRXqFU1NdmlDfmExrU78HM_L4wScJB6qMIghcDXVrQyHkRc0NKNaz3yu20HYmmJeXEl0XqcwoohhLCsijvv11ep-vsrMVIHZkI1P_D0kIccdip8uI1KtIEaZeU/s1600/DSC03212.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_XwlOHWCFgzD52-MVxqcRXqFU1NdmlDfmExrU78HM_L4wScJB6qMIghcDXVrQyHkRc0NKNaz3yu20HYmmJeXEl0XqcwoohhLCsijvv11ep-vsrMVIHZkI1P_D0kIccdip8uI1KtIEaZeU/s320/DSC03212.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside Tinduf Bizzare</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiadti5Z1MtRNqjwZOZhGr_NlgN-t9k8xQYwVk49n-Ii7UOjyjhkjC2Um4vEEqF1ZrisLirkY-j9yF9RsG6JtgDFCsaPxqJHoKz_ViUSC6Rs2YYb3kxc_B8bD8Ih1Ebh-sp3u6VQmqh74Fm/s1600/DSC03211.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiadti5Z1MtRNqjwZOZhGr_NlgN-t9k8xQYwVk49n-Ii7UOjyjhkjC2Um4vEEqF1ZrisLirkY-j9yF9RsG6JtgDFCsaPxqJHoKz_ViUSC6Rs2YYb3kxc_B8bD8Ih1Ebh-sp3u6VQmqh74Fm/s320/DSC03211.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
The afternoon also contained shopping, as we idled away an hour in Tinduf Bizzare, a dark, dusty shop packed to the gills and antiques and tchotchkes. I bought postcards of Tangier from the 1950’s but not before tripping on the reproduction of a musket. Moroccan pottery was stacked high, with a thin path through the chaos for an adventurous shopper. We made a short stop at Las Chicas, a boutique recommended both by the guidebook and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/15/travel/what-to-do-36-hours-in-tangier-morocco.html">NY times piece about 36 hours in Tangier</a>. Las Chicas was a beautiful shop, but I could not convince myself to spent $310 on a velvet blazer or even $100 on a fine kaftan. Tonight we’ll search for a mysterious cafe in the Medina where Rif musicians host a nightly jam session in a tiny room. Tomorrow we catch the train to Casa Blanca where we’ll spend our last 2 nights before returning home to Washington, DC.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The more upscale Las Chicas shopping experience</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi673O4zDVjLXvdaEjz0cXDPMovYtB__Lo_2uNruntw5Wicj7TDsYyyfX0dJkwll4KMRPDMTiHLc5jvXnc9u6_M-MFxqXO9S9AY52nx3LAvo44ao7gor-DOWj3wj3VPO8Bz_R3EHEJrz5/s1600/DSC03179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyi673O4zDVjLXvdaEjz0cXDPMovYtB__Lo_2uNruntw5Wicj7TDsYyyfX0dJkwll4KMRPDMTiHLc5jvXnc9u6_M-MFxqXO9S9AY52nx3LAvo44ao7gor-DOWj3wj3VPO8Bz_R3EHEJrz5/s320/DSC03179.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matisse's bed! </td></tr>
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On Monday night, I made a pilgrimage to the Grande Hotel Villa de France, a 5 star hotel, legendary for its clientele during the French protectorate days of Tangier. Henri Matisse stayed in room 35 at this hotel between 1912 - 1913. As suggested by my guidebook, I asked nicely at the reception desk if I could see the room (merci si vous plait) and documented my visit with a few pictures. Though the room is not "preserved," there is a television and updated bathroom, it was interesting to see the same views of the see and distant mountain villages, that Matisse must have admired during those years.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-47796788478871230512018-03-12T11:09:00.002-07:002018-03-13T09:35:01.336-07:00Tangier, Morocco: Day 1 and 2 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;"> View from the hotel terrace</td></tr>
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As someone with a scientific background, I am inclined to give credit where it's due. Hence, I must acknowledge that Anthony Bourdain and his episode about Tangier from his series on travel called Parts Unknown influenced my most recent choice for a vacation destination. It also helps that travel to Morocco is relatively easy with a direct 7 hour flight from Washington, DC to Casa Blanca. The flight was brutal as I truly felt like a sardine crammed into a metal can without even functioning in flight entertainment to distract me from my discomfort. After the plane ride, we caught a 4 hours train from Casa Blanca to Tangier.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BbphBxnF2xb_zijGCLJYonNPPvVekMfJufLQ25Td5UQ3zijiDlac9FL8g-ExlwzHK-Nmu5QHGTVl_uQae0sjucNJSn-ee8Nq2d70yLyI9ANrPZP_mwW5jf1UUrSS2FJGzPBPXoJk978G/s1600/DSC03138.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6BbphBxnF2xb_zijGCLJYonNPPvVekMfJufLQ25Td5UQ3zijiDlac9FL8g-ExlwzHK-Nmu5QHGTVl_uQae0sjucNJSn-ee8Nq2d70yLyI9ANrPZP_mwW5jf1UUrSS2FJGzPBPXoJk978G/s320/DSC03138.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kasbah Rose, our hotel, with balconies <br />
to the outside</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As is his talent, Bourdain imbued the city with enchantment and seedy mystery. He ate delicious food and socialized with locals and expats. Tangier is a city steeped in history. It is a major port between African and Europe and during the infamous, semi-lawless days of the "international zone" when it was jointly overseen by Spain, France, and England, writers, artists, and discontents flocked to the city. The architecture tells the history of European occupation as colonial era European style architecture mingles with Moroccan style buildings. As pointed out by our tour guide, the Europeans built their houses and apartments with large windows and many street facing balconies. The Moroccans, with their Islamic background and emphasis on privacy, built their houses with few, small windows on the exterior walls and heavy wooden doors open to reveal interior courtyards and balconies.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KgUE5lPi8rvZam9-fq99REo37tApAOVcTxbmONiKNJTzjXcg6MArz-m_gWfLN_R5Fa5b-E2Hdn3eTTdYha6SQx-oCWegMDun7tB8DcC565wtLgd233oMT-Vjx2C3dO6-2YImYxn_p7AG/s1600/DSC03172.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1600" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_KgUE5lPi8rvZam9-fq99REo37tApAOVcTxbmONiKNJTzjXcg6MArz-m_gWfLN_R5Fa5b-E2Hdn3eTTdYha6SQx-oCWegMDun7tB8DcC565wtLgd233oMT-Vjx2C3dO6-2YImYxn_p7AG/s320/DSC03172.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French style buildings in the Medina</td></tr>
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Before arriving in Tangier, my friend (<a href="https://kitchenpulse.blogspot.com/search/label/Turkey">and regular travel partner</a>) Jess, suggested I read Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles, an Englishman who could be considered king of expats in Tangier. He was actually a composer, musical historian and then writer. His novel Sheltering Sky book chronicles a young American couple as they travel through Africa starting in Tangier and ending in the Sahara. The book ends ends with their mutual demise as they overestimate their travel prowess and underestimate the harsh nature of the Sahara and its inhabitants.
Despite the darkness of the book, I was inspired by one famous quote early in the book: "Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.'"<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU0KcuQZ62vjW1qzzCZK8bDDE_MnGQeQ_RKORDH2-vaDNdME6eqHJTYTi4KC0Qs6rm3qBchABEUU3q1rzbSqGT-ayLvSflDDvO-4OtzkEFw0C7O6jZXAi5ElOFxBVNhkz9ycY6PzWS0nTb/s1600/DSC03113.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU0KcuQZ62vjW1qzzCZK8bDDE_MnGQeQ_RKORDH2-vaDNdME6eqHJTYTi4KC0Qs6rm3qBchABEUU3q1rzbSqGT-ayLvSflDDvO-4OtzkEFw0C7O6jZXAi5ElOFxBVNhkz9ycY6PzWS0nTb/s320/DSC03113.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olives in the market</td></tr>
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I'm a tourist not a traveler; I always want to return home. Because I speak Spanish, I usually feel more at home in Spanish speaking countries. Tangier has an international feel that it welcoming in its own way, especially when some people speak Spanish. The city looks its age--that is to say old and run down, more than historical. I cannot say I feel at home in Tangier, however, I'm happy to visit and get a feel for the city.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWl-daoc6erH3ISMB03w3CMPRvJoBtxDyO4ebLWBwc0g1Mlu1gt4XbP1EaOQLWgBomdWZ_E8nfQZY5Nitw0gHoJH_Pku4Iy-AVYK5TDCxgoy5Qh0lKF2Jo_TuRE5xCtKehaTN_HYc0fd_P/s1600/DSC03109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWl-daoc6erH3ISMB03w3CMPRvJoBtxDyO4ebLWBwc0g1Mlu1gt4XbP1EaOQLWgBomdWZ_E8nfQZY5Nitw0gHoJH_Pku4Iy-AVYK5TDCxgoy5Qh0lKF2Jo_TuRE5xCtKehaTN_HYc0fd_P/s320/DSC03109.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mural of Berber woman</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CGJtcv_a2hfsxRhJCai6Zlo6rShb45r4s0HeZ9zLLf775a_tGHpK84Z3QjKO3kfrewdFxBjCizfQs4DymMQNS6J9Q1NtzfzL0PnJiSw3PQSB7syaqglEImUt2Adc-TO9BxUMGQ7r5F1B/s1600/DSC03150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5CGJtcv_a2hfsxRhJCai6Zlo6rShb45r4s0HeZ9zLLf775a_tGHpK84Z3QjKO3kfrewdFxBjCizfQs4DymMQNS6J9Q1NtzfzL0PnJiSw3PQSB7syaqglEImUt2Adc-TO9BxUMGQ7r5F1B/s320/DSC03150.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of the Mediterranean from the Kasbah</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2x4LhJIYvJGHZ5iMeng-XWnlU8fkAxYfvvUWSu-UfJ-Rfv8tWUshLziel31xQlj-wcI3-quj8yyh7UFLzLMwXvEO1TIW9iuWDDA1-ugU7KqZQEijxg_Iva9XPXoFiuHAUS-bze7ohc-5Z/s1600/DSC03129.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2x4LhJIYvJGHZ5iMeng-XWnlU8fkAxYfvvUWSu-UfJ-Rfv8tWUshLziel31xQlj-wcI3-quj8yyh7UFLzLMwXvEO1TIW9iuWDDA1-ugU7KqZQEijxg_Iva9XPXoFiuHAUS-bze7ohc-5Z/s320/DSC03129.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cemetery within St. Andrew's Church garden</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDyjQYjRircI0fejG4hBL6ntR0uGmjEWaUTUOFo-uZtHsIFy67eOQDVKS-chHNc9HnrsHIj5bRCDoT87GmtkY5zuLO83W9URAIfSZTFCP_I3N8SjPhaALxGQm3DyIFqgKAFmV-OgI4iJe4/s1600/DSC03126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDyjQYjRircI0fejG4hBL6ntR0uGmjEWaUTUOFo-uZtHsIFy67eOQDVKS-chHNc9HnrsHIj5bRCDoT87GmtkY5zuLO83W9URAIfSZTFCP_I3N8SjPhaALxGQm3DyIFqgKAFmV-OgI4iJe4/s320/DSC03126.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Berber Market</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Our exploration of Tangier started on Sunday morning at the Berber market outside of St. Andrew's Church, an active Anglican Church. The cemetery of the church is devoted to expats and British Colonial service members who lived and died in Tangier. The graves are remnants of the English empire and its expansion into Africa. Many of the gravestones mention the devotion of these colonial serviceman to "the Moorish people."<br />
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The cemetery is a symbol of European influence on Tangier, a city so close to Europe, yet firmly Islamic and African in its culture and history.
The Berber Market is held Sunday and Thursday. Women from Berber villages located in the Rif Mountains outside of Tangier come to sell fresh produce, milk, and cheese. Strawberries, peppers, potatoes, avocado, artichokes, tomatoes, flowers, herbs and much more are laid out on the sidewalks outside the white walls of the St. Andrew’s church garden.
Scattered showers dictated our schedule.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdIoWmK6Zs1TxGHd2rIHNACGVf2o4ZkF1JIYY-Uprn_eZ1NorGX_X8Bncxv-05WG3GA3XuQuA_WaLn4CvaPDWlPCK8lSPnsdLWEwEV5CTcyjrjoIVerRXxJAd0iA0K5Pn7OATwumbGDUt/s1600/DSC03133.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdIoWmK6Zs1TxGHd2rIHNACGVf2o4ZkF1JIYY-Uprn_eZ1NorGX_X8Bncxv-05WG3GA3XuQuA_WaLn4CvaPDWlPCK8lSPnsdLWEwEV5CTcyjrjoIVerRXxJAd0iA0K5Pn7OATwumbGDUt/s320/DSC03133.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh goat cheese wrapped in palm leaf (from the market)<br />
and mint tea</td></tr>
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The morning was mostly sunny, yet by 11am rain forced us into shelter at a cafe overlooking St. Andrew's Church. Mint tea is a stable of Moroccan gastronomy and hospitality. The tea is made with a mix of dried green tea leaves and fresh mint, usually steeped in an embellished teapot and served in small clear tumblers.
Once the rain cleared, we followed Anthony Bourdain's itinerary and had lunch at Saveur de Poisson, a popular seafood restaurant right outside of the medina. The restaurant serves a fixed menu starting with pepper paste, roasted nuts, and olives, followed by grilled squid, a whole grilled fish, and finished with dessert of honey with nuts and fresh berries.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlklRaIdkd2lQcF-VbQ7nJ2ciXccVWql_Z-nVZSpiNyHUvhjDX4s7ugZlWZnbyvCeLGT7GOBG9f-V2Q6hcPFcKytzkiqlGwoac0HSQMusVYeq9c_zS1W3B30I9yinmcvnn3ufhdXWCYFO/s1600/DSC03123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlklRaIdkd2lQcF-VbQ7nJ2ciXccVWql_Z-nVZSpiNyHUvhjDX4s7ugZlWZnbyvCeLGT7GOBG9f-V2Q6hcPFcKytzkiqlGwoac0HSQMusVYeq9c_zS1W3B30I9yinmcvnn3ufhdXWCYFO/s320/DSC03123.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mint for sale: 20 cents a bushel</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqov7n6skkRFJNmJkN0W4BdN0FjAQ8Wzpk6B3s-AeTOayKPjggONpYZf49gSLXTIEe06Yo5ZZtbxyi_MyD2P4bPKsnO03vGSts5NOVUKu72mKA7H2Ic1TyqKQ3d39WWpRiC55uKAwg9JYZ/s1600/DSC03143.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqov7n6skkRFJNmJkN0W4BdN0FjAQ8Wzpk6B3s-AeTOayKPjggONpYZf49gSLXTIEe06Yo5ZZtbxyi_MyD2P4bPKsnO03vGSts5NOVUKu72mKA7H2Ic1TyqKQ3d39WWpRiC55uKAwg9JYZ/s320/DSC03143.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The appetizers at Saveur de Poisson</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BB5MBBhZJZypgJBfVJmTwYLyt6VikkplFTbG_brhaX6w2bbb2xhA7rhPnBxcNO2CE0Xj2CYUk4wXrTgFQKyN6Z718ct4aq5mQ4QCaX0UKBihK4k3KyDurP84aPyrbXcO3AtbVhYRKGgJ/s1600/DSC03147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2BB5MBBhZJZypgJBfVJmTwYLyt6VikkplFTbG_brhaX6w2bbb2xhA7rhPnBxcNO2CE0Xj2CYUk4wXrTgFQKyN6Z718ct4aq5mQ4QCaX0UKBihK4k3KyDurP84aPyrbXcO3AtbVhYRKGgJ/s320/DSC03147.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whole grilled fish at Saveur de Poisson</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjZkfG1tq46MxaNbl7_awKAXPhj9cGk0UJAvAbTWxGb8DYgAkCgIK9t5ZaLaM_uIZlgWAY6Nihiry2f2mlhq_6zVDEDQ7Jsgq9Qo8exKv30IDhVziuCOafoTPb_IqyUu-bvSUYvVxD8Vo/s1600/DSC03148.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjZkfG1tq46MxaNbl7_awKAXPhj9cGk0UJAvAbTWxGb8DYgAkCgIK9t5ZaLaM_uIZlgWAY6Nihiry2f2mlhq_6zVDEDQ7Jsgq9Qo8exKv30IDhVziuCOafoTPb_IqyUu-bvSUYvVxD8Vo/s320/DSC03148.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheltering from the rain with locals</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We decided to try our luck and walk out towards the new Corniche (the coastline) to the marina, a pet project of the current King of Morocco. However, the rain started again, and we took shelter with some locals and waited for the rain to pass.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NdnIn5gUWW8lu3HnifjmQ87GtIAoFwdCmdr868cBsL6DZNUpouAyJF8sBf1LipMOeqWbODNrv8XpczEKXY8Y0uk3yqjsAU31iexalimjZUjuShj4GF7YD66ZD_CfXrYpiDn6ooLEDDUl/s1600/DSC03152.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6NdnIn5gUWW8lu3HnifjmQ87GtIAoFwdCmdr868cBsL6DZNUpouAyJF8sBf1LipMOeqWbODNrv8XpczEKXY8Y0uk3yqjsAU31iexalimjZUjuShj4GF7YD66ZD_CfXrYpiDn6ooLEDDUl/s320/DSC03152.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local bread bakery</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Ov-YPixVqwQWv0n77OTLYmDZUEotMtLzBzxDfVHk008WUZmooyUgNF4ezO6N2sYJxGJ8cz77SxAqOC_k5jpd96yLwp8fsPfkkw2xvu-7RNWCezIuHnzXDS9bnB7nltZBMM8iOyRKAhtN/s1600/DSC03136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Ov-YPixVqwQWv0n77OTLYmDZUEotMtLzBzxDfVHk008WUZmooyUgNF4ezO6N2sYJxGJ8cz77SxAqOC_k5jpd96yLwp8fsPfkkw2xvu-7RNWCezIuHnzXDS9bnB7nltZBMM8iOyRKAhtN/s320/DSC03136.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">European inspired bakery</td></tr>
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On day 2, we spent the morning as more traditional tourists, and joined a walking tour of the old city aka the Medina. We wound our way through the city taking in views from around the fortress or "the Kasbah" and stopping to meet local vendors and buy goods. I bought two carpets, one made in the Atlas mountain region and one from the Sahara region. I wish I had taken pictures of the enormous room full of Moroccan and Persian style rugs, however, I was focused on picking the perfect rugs for the right price and only money left my pocket (unfortunately not my camera).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicodysPmEYZeR1veXP_ANRu9-BWwLAtU_GXYOraphy7TZNiVDEB0KxV23iUORM73FYhdqdDPo4mV34WtE0PlrXlz7U84s7a1iPESKhUsG35E9siQIMdEsfW6Uq9LVBUe7IAxM0W2t2EMQh/s1600/DSC03162.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicodysPmEYZeR1veXP_ANRu9-BWwLAtU_GXYOraphy7TZNiVDEB0KxV23iUORM73FYhdqdDPo4mV34WtE0PlrXlz7U84s7a1iPESKhUsG35E9siQIMdEsfW6Uq9LVBUe7IAxM0W2t2EMQh/s320/DSC03162.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balcony at the American Legation</td></tr>
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The highlight was the American Legation. Morocco was the first foreign nation to acknowledge the US as independent from the British. The American Legation building was gifted to the US in 1821, and is the site of the first US consulate and as such, the first piece of property held by the US in a foreign country.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUJSdLYOEDLLNW8FK_eJB69eKacTzJX8EeInrq7AuwBDb9KrQeK2j23_5w-pMWv7lqyHf-J6QxVWZyPokQM2oFUBFww47YlEXej74Emk9Y_42USAC6YpsCv3ljHDEyMnjufrdSTimh6D_/s1600/DSC03171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUJSdLYOEDLLNW8FK_eJB69eKacTzJX8EeInrq7AuwBDb9KrQeK2j23_5w-pMWv7lqyHf-J6QxVWZyPokQM2oFUBFww47YlEXej74Emk9Y_42USAC6YpsCv3ljHDEyMnjufrdSTimh6D_/s320/DSC03171.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom foolery within the courtyard</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcEGMNj_mTFtWiknICRhkGFNK2Dc1sTB0V8TqdTLtv9BwDrywXIPC7bBAqPpI1voRZ3f63oT2yO1IQhAbiG-gPJBTD6cfE8t8B8ltAFmxji_TarH8xbsTUOtZt_H7qRvuTjkzeJ0tdzEfi/s1600/DSC03163.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcEGMNj_mTFtWiknICRhkGFNK2Dc1sTB0V8TqdTLtv9BwDrywXIPC7bBAqPpI1voRZ3f63oT2yO1IQhAbiG-gPJBTD6cfE8t8B8ltAFmxji_TarH8xbsTUOtZt_H7qRvuTjkzeJ0tdzEfi/s320/DSC03163.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Admiring a relic: toy soldiers re-enacting a battle between Moroccans and Portuguese </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmY0JAPzPQa5gwl7lr-jKLJJHKcHQy1h94I0Zoum1eEB2o_OqnQ7xkKLeu4iQz4mpwlFgIa8ItnPphM4yUDME2MgsM_Y0wSKrHrtLBWpSQvEZgfNLeEKZVZ1mXHPBTuDiEn1MZpcjugq7/s1600/DSC03158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmY0JAPzPQa5gwl7lr-jKLJJHKcHQy1h94I0Zoum1eEB2o_OqnQ7xkKLeu4iQz4mpwlFgIa8ItnPphM4yUDME2MgsM_Y0wSKrHrtLBWpSQvEZgfNLeEKZVZ1mXHPBTuDiEn1MZpcjugq7/s320/DSC03158.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Western style room within the legation </td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ttwPGnGC6qlddA9Q7N8NJmRnDgLQON_4iqgyOs1Gv1GwVpQyFBHLE0GlkbCvT7sQolimchSRFRJ6zoAoG8y8GYSuz314rlPxntcDanTgr9fbK93XkNUlwLA-FvQTgMUsKHpSxgg7AmZ5/s1600/DSC03166.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ttwPGnGC6qlddA9Q7N8NJmRnDgLQON_4iqgyOs1Gv1GwVpQyFBHLE0GlkbCvT7sQolimchSRFRJ6zoAoG8y8GYSuz314rlPxntcDanTgr9fbK93XkNUlwLA-FvQTgMUsKHpSxgg7AmZ5/s320/DSC03166.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moorish style room within the legation</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-53069619915620108862016-06-05T15:53:00.001-07:002016-06-05T15:53:09.980-07:00What interns eat: Quick quinoa salad aka how I ripped off Whole Foods to save money <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cqnbNqb7PyI/V1ScU9btOQI/AAAAAAAALG0/Ow3_yldDLG09tqKu8zuS9lKEPGy4RMavACKgB/s1600/IMG_20160605_162835.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cqnbNqb7PyI/V1ScU9btOQI/AAAAAAAALG0/Ow3_yldDLG09tqKu8zuS9lKEPGy4RMavACKgB/s320/IMG_20160605_162835.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
Yes, I do enjoy cooking: It is an outlet for stress relief, a way to express creativity, but it is also a necessary task to save money. Washington, DC is an expensive place to live...No matter which nebulous internet story you choose to believe, this city ranks in the top 5 most expensive cities in the US. My friends in Texas might cry a little if they knew how much I pay for my almost 400 square foot box of an apartment. My studio apartment rent + student loans carves out the majority of my resident salary...and then there are all those other necessary costs to keep me happy like a gym membership, online yoga subscription, Netflix, Spotify, etc. To have any money left over to actually enjoy living in Washington, DC, I HAVE to make most of my three meals a day, drink coffee at home and just be mindful of how I spend my money. But don't feel sorry for me. This Wednesday I'm going to a techno show at the 9:30 Club and next week I'll be seeing Taming of the Shrew at the Shakespeare theater. In the end, all my money gets spent, it's just a matter of how I want to spend it. (No, I have not been saving money as an intern. That comes later in life when I'm an attending.) <div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpC016hbFs7POttjF9zisoMcivGoWrZSWQ-AxlITKlangtpD_fGI4RgVD99MTVh6HrloMmshMITvT8SEBwEWfRGTIgE5YOhvkB6ZtSAlgMgoe8-K37lHw_nUCGzz3zTT644yFJ8_Wqekw/s1600/IMG_20160605_172120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpC016hbFs7POttjF9zisoMcivGoWrZSWQ-AxlITKlangtpD_fGI4RgVD99MTVh6HrloMmshMITvT8SEBwEWfRGTIgE5YOhvkB6ZtSAlgMgoe8-K37lHw_nUCGzz3zTT644yFJ8_Wqekw/s320/IMG_20160605_172120.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch for Monday</td></tr>
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Sometimes I get lazy, and I run around the corner to my local, super yuppie, attractive, fit ( half the people are dressed in fashionable work out gear) Whole Foods to get a quick meal from from their ready-made-foods bar. I usually regret this move and just wish I had eaten fried eggs or a stale peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I can never gauge the weight accurately and end up spending $13 on food I could have prepared at home if I had more motivation. I really enjoy ready made grain and pasta salads but now avoid buying at Whole Foods to avoid regret verging on guilt. </div>
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Whole Foods makes a delicious fresh and sweet Quinoa salad with many elements including <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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edamame, red pepper, red onion, mango, almonds, raisins, coconut, lime juice and balsamic vinegar. Finally I copied the ingredients off of the To-Go container and told myself I would just make it and try not to buy it again. Full disclosure, I also make my own muesli cereal, so I have a lot of random ingredients on hand like dried coconut, raisins, dried cranberries and different types of nuts. </div>
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So here you have it, a thrown together version of a great quinoa salad. The beauty of grain and pasta salads is you really can throw in random ingredients to a base of carbs and get a pretty good salad that will yield enough for 3-4 meals. I think the key to success is a common theme ie Mediterranean, Greek, antipasto, roasted vegetables, sweet additions. You can never go wrong with some crunch like almonds, pepitas or celery. I like to keep my dressings simple like citrus juice + vinegar + a touch of oil. </div>
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A couple other tips: </div>
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<li>You actually have to rinse the quinoa or it tastes like soap. I <a href="http://www.thekitchn.com/try-it-other-brilliant-uses-for-your-french-press-183625">use my french press </a>to wash the quinoa. I pour in the cup of quinoa I plan to boil and add water and drain it three times before cooking. </li>
<li>Let the edamame and quinoa cool before mixing all the salad components together</li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final product</td></tr>
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Sweet Quinoa Salad: <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ingredients</div>
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(it is a lot of ingredients, but this salad comes together quickly) </div>
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1 cup of uncooked quinoa--rinsed and cooked according to the instructions on the bag. The final product is about 2 cups of cooked quinoa</div>
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1 8 oz bag frozen edamame</div>
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1 red bell pepper diced </div>
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4-6 green onions, thinly sliced including green part</div>
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(you can also use half a red onion, finely diced...this is what Whole Foods uses)</div>
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1/2 mango diced (you could definitely use the whole mango if you like sweet)</div>
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1/2 cup sliced or coarsely chopped almonds</div>
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1/2 cup or less of dried unsweetened coconut flakes</div>
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juice of one lime</div>
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(1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped is optional but encouraged)</div>
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1/3 cup balsamic vinegar</div>
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2 tbs olive oil</div>
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salt and pepper to taste</div>
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Directions: </div>
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1. Rinse the quinoa, cook according to directions on bag. Once it is done cooking, fluff with a fork and let it cool until the grains separate easily</div>
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2. In a shallow pan, steam the frozen edamame for 5 minutes. Drain and let them cool. </div>
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3. Slice the green onion, chop the peppers, dice the mango, slice or chop the almonds. Add these ingredients and the raisins and coconut to a large mixing bowl. Set aside while the quinoa and edamame cool. (I let mine sit for 30 minutes)</div>
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4. Into a jar, squeeze the lime juice, add the balsamic vinegar and oil. Shake the jar until the dressing is emulsified. </div>
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5. Once the quinoa and the edamame have cooled, add them to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Gently mix to incorporate the ingredients. Then pour over the dressing and mix gently again, trying not to smash the quinoa. Add salt and pepper to taste. </div>
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6. Eat alone as a salad for lunch or serve with a protein or roasted vegetables for dinner. </div>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-35377442501761650402016-05-03T21:20:00.001-07:002016-05-03T21:22:12.699-07:00What Interns eat--Quick Vegan Meal: Tofu pancakes with rice noodles <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xLcFdIzkjSM/Vyl0ng3XlSI/AAAAAAAAKzo/NXEWqe-W904WkXOztSivuQIRuOXcwdEagCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160503_212548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xLcFdIzkjSM/Vyl0ng3XlSI/AAAAAAAAKzo/NXEWqe-W904WkXOztSivuQIRuOXcwdEagCKgB/s320/IMG_20160503_212548.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
My regular readers will already know of my love of Mark Bittman aka the Minimalist aka why did he leave the New York Times? My most heavily used cookbook is Mark Bittman's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836">How to Cook Everything Vegetarian</a></i>. I bought it in 2011, the year I started medical school. In 2010, the <a href="http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Portals/24102/PDFs/PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report.pdf">UN released a report</a> stating what we eat, specifically the amount of animal products, significantly impacts our environment and is accelerating man made climate change. From the report: "Agricultural production
accounts for a staggering 70% of the global
freshwater consumption, 38% of the total
land use, and 14% of the world’s greenhouse
gas emissions." When I started medical school, I had this grand idea that I would start my crusade to help the environment by becoming vegetarian.<br />
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As you can tell from my blog, which documents my cooking and eating around the world, I am not vegetarian. However over the past few years, I have cut out a significant amount of meat from my diet--not in small part due to having vegetarian <a href="http://kitchenpulse.blogspot.com/2014/08/last-2-days-in-istanbul.html">friends like Jess</a> in medical school. Now when I cook for myself, it is primarily vegetarian, and in this mix I also try out interesting vegan recipes. I have not yet given up animal products. I haven't kicked my yogurt habit. It is difficult to control my lust for fancy cheeses, especially queso Manchego or drinking red wine and eating brie and french bread with my mother. I do my tiny part for the environment by abstaining from meat 5-6 days out of the week. It will only make a difference if more of us can at least be as good as<a href="http://www.meatlessmonday.com/meatless-monday-k-12/"> American elementary schools</a> and have a meatless Monday or several meatless days a week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWO5lQGJC19NWhOyGQHKlo9GvnL0RqK8PAMCaEqx15AtG6H_-Ia_SUgfNHgQWLN1_ICdjmt1h6B1mi3cqvzzbx4FnQBtGcOynoWbzN9i24Gcr0tKdlr5qnGo43w8j6fACP_HIfPVpXCCF/s1600/81I4-1MoJ-L._SY355_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizWO5lQGJC19NWhOyGQHKlo9GvnL0RqK8PAMCaEqx15AtG6H_-Ia_SUgfNHgQWLN1_ICdjmt1h6B1mi3cqvzzbx4FnQBtGcOynoWbzN9i24Gcr0tKdlr5qnGo43w8j6fACP_HIfPVpXCCF/s200/81I4-1MoJ-L._SY355_.jpg" width="102" /></a></div>
So that's my soap box--now on with the cooking. I was excited to try this tofu pancake recipe because I am such a fan of the greasy orange Kimchi pancake that is served at most Korean restaurants. The kimchi pancake is spicy, crispy, orange, greasy and served with a tangy dipping sauce. I always want to know--how do they get it so orange and crispy?? (the answer is kimchi, chili garlic sauce, and tons of oil) Why do I like something so orange and crispy? These tofu pancakes are like miniature kimchi pancakes. Tonight I made them without kimchi, but this tofu pancake recipe can be dressed up many ways to keep it interesting.<br />
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This recipe is truly quick and can be made easily from things that I always keep on hand like tofu, chili garlic sauce, kimchi, and rice noodles.<br />
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Asian Tofu Pancakes adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian<br />
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Ingredients<br />
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For the pancakes:<br />
1 box of tofu-firm<br />
1/2 cup of water<br />
3 tbs of chili garlic sauce<br />
4 green onions, washed and thinly sliced including the green part<br />
2-3 small cloves of garlic, finely minced<br />
** (you can also substitute 1/2 cup of chopped kimchi for the green onions and garlic)<br />
soy sauce<br />
1/2 cup of flour<br />
sesame oil-optional to add to the frying oil for taste<br />
vegetable oil for frying<br />
rice noodles--I usually use the MaiFun Rice sticks<br />
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For the sauce:<br />
1/2 cup soy sauce<br />
1/4 cup rice vinegar<br />
2 tsp sugar<br />
1 tsp sesame oil<br />
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced including the green part<br />
optional-ginger, more garlic, lime<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YI4-9tQLgj4/Vyl0nnHHrII/AAAAAAAAKzw/yNYU8LIW-wcdNAYXrMSFMNaTYy8V6Y7_gCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160503_203150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YI4-9tQLgj4/Vyl0nnHHrII/AAAAAAAAKzw/yNYU8LIW-wcdNAYXrMSFMNaTYy8V6Y7_gCKgB/s200/IMG_20160503_203150.jpg" width="200" /></a>1) In a large mixing bowl or a food processor, crumble the tofu. To the crumbled tofu add 2-3 tablespoons of chili garlic sauce (depending on your desire for spice) and the water. Option one, run the mixture in the food processor until smooth. OR if you're like me and do not have a food processor, you can use an immersion blender and grind the tofu until it is nice and smooth.<br />
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2) If you used a food processor, transfer the processed tofu into a mixing bowl. To the pureed tofu mixture, add the sliced green onions, garlic, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and the flour. Stir until incorporated. This makes a thick batter. If you want crispier, thinner pancakes (but harder to flip), you can add water little by little until it becomes the consistency closer to breakfast pancake batter. I like to keep the batter thick because it is easier to manipulate and flip.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">thick batter </td></tr>
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3) In a large frying pan, add enough oil to coat the bottom. Heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil sizzles with a drop of water, you are ready to fry.<br />
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4) Using a tablespoon, drop about 2 tablespoons worth of batter into the oil to make small pancakes. Fry each side of about 4 minutes or until golden brown. Really--just let them sit for 4 minutes. I get very impatient and try to flip my pancakes early. But this tofu dough falls apart easily and the pancakes will break and get everywhere if you don't wait 4 minutes per side. Don't flip them until they are golden along the edges.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">just starting to get golden on the edges </td></tr>
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5) Flip and cook the other side at least 4 minutes. Once done, set aside and let drain on a paper towel<br />
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Dipping sauce and Noodles<br />
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Noodles: While the pancakes are frying--or as you were making the dough, bring a pot of water to boil for the noodles. When you have 10 minutes left of cooking, drop the packet of rice sticks into the pot of water. Turn off the burner and let the noodles sit for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes, try a noodle to make sure it is soft. Then drain into a sieve or colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking.<br />
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Dipping sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and sesame oil. Feel free to add a dash of Sriracha or some diced ginger or more garlic. Season the dipping sauce to your palette. Add the sliced green onions to the sauce. Now you are ready to serve the tofu pancakes.<br />
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If I want more vegetables, I will also quickly steam a bag of frozen broccoli to serve with the noodles and pancakes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Broccoli encouraged </td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-51618760745423622422016-05-01T21:07:00.000-07:002016-05-02T09:08:40.135-07:00Cooking with friends on a weeknight: Special feature--Mexican Food with Dr. Ortiz--Enchiladas Montadas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This time around in DC, I have spent much more time cooking in other people's kitchens. Don't get me wrong, I love my closet sized kitchen, with its dinky burners and oven that reminds me of the easy bake oven I never had. However, in an effort cultivate friendships, I invite myself over to people's homes on a regular basis. That's how my psychiatrist recommended I make friends...just kidding. Sort of.<br />
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This year of blogging has been centered on surviving intern year. Amazingly, May 2016 is here--the first year of residency is almost over. In my co-interns, I've made great friends who love to cook just like me. Patricia is another wonderful GWU psychiatry co-intern and also a fellow Texan. By day, Patricia and I work side by side in a psychiatric unit in Virginia. The good news: I like my job most of the time. I enjoy the experience of becoming an "expert of the mind." At this point of the year, through my patients, I've witnessed a large amount of the human experience. I see every thing: from a psychotic patient who is literally out of touch with reality and believes he is the Messiah to depressed folks who have decided that death is the only option. Yet, if that depressed person has the pleasure of seeing my smiling face, it means the suicide attempt either failed or was thwarted by fear of death, last minute self-preservation or thoughts of loved ones. It's quite an experience--some days more than others, I still feel like an amateur, like an adolescent pretending to be a doctor with my white coat and my developing demeanor of authority. <br />
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I visit the Ortiz kitchen on a regular basis and they are always game to cook and spend a week day evening hanging out. They just moved into a lovely home in Petworth with a great kitchen and a porch made for lounging.<br />
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By day Patricia and I are psychiatry interns, doing our best to learn and help our patients. In the evenings, we just need a glass of wine, delicious food and company to put the day behind us. Last Wednesday we spent our commute home reminiscing about the Mexican food we so dearly miss. Admittedly, being from central and south Texas, I am more informed about Tex-mex food; hence my love of nachos. Being from El Paso, Patricia and her husband, are well versed and well practiced in making authentic Mexican food. They have kindly allowed me to feature some of their recipes on the blog. I see a new KitchenPulse feature in the works: <i>Mexican Food with Dr. Ortiz</i>. <br />
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On Wednesday, I skipped the gym for family dinner at the Ortiz household. When we arrived to the house, Stephen was already boiling the dried chiles, for homemade red chile sauce for enchiladas montadas. Patricia doesn't have her recipes written down, so I photographed and will document the recipe as best as I can. Technically (according to internet searches) this recipe is for flat or stacked enchiladas aka Sonoran or New Mexican enchiladas. I like this concept because it takes out the extra step of rolling and baking the enchiladas as you would need for the more common Tex-Mex enchiladas.<br />
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The first part of the recipe is the basic steps of making any sauce from dried chiles--boil the chiles, grind them in a food processor, strain out the sauce and season. It's a good process to know and can be used with any type of dried chile.<br />
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Enchilidas Montadas aka Enchiladas with red sauce and an egg on top<br />
This recipe requires a food processor or a blender<br />
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Ingredients for chile sauce:<br />
One 8 ounce bag of New Mexico red chiles--though per Patricia, the type of dried chile doesn't matter so much. You can also use a mix of dried chiles<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Mexico dried chiles</td></tr>
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1 can of plain tomato sauce<br />
1 onion cut in quarters<br />
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole<br />
salt, pepper and chicken bullion or Knorr granulated chicken bullion<br />
chicken broth<br />
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Ingredients for the enchiladas:<br />
corn tortillas, 3 per person<br />
grated cheddar cheese<br />
half an onion, diced<br />
2 eggs per set of enchiladas<br />
3 small (roma) tomatoes diced into small cubes<br />
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For the sauce:<br />
1) In a large sauce pan or pot add the bag of chiles and the quarted onion, cover with water. At a soft boil, cook the bag of chiles with the onion until they are soft. This was about 30 minutes. The color starts to lighten from the darker hue of the dried chile<br />
The next few steps are done in batches:<br />
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2) Using a blender or food processor: Into the food processor, Add about half or a third of the chiles and include the onion. Also add about half a cup of chicken broth to the food processor. You want to add just enough liquid to process the chiles into a paste<br />
3) Once the chiles are ground to a paste, empty the food processor into a sieve that is placed over the pot where the sauce will be cooked.<br />
4) Use a metal spoon and start stirring and pressing the chiles into the sieve. The goal is to get the liquid part through the sieve and what drips into the pot is the liquefied part of the mixture which is the sauce. Basically the skins and seeds of the chiles will remain. Patricia pressed each batch for about 5 minutes--it is hard work, her arm got tired<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">chile paste</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pressing out the sauce</td></tr>
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5) Repeat the above steps of processing the chiles with chicken broth and then pressing out the juices through the sieve until you've used up all the chiles.<br />
6) To the pot of sauce, add in the can of tomato sauce, the 3 whole garlic cloves and season with salt, pepper and either 1 cube of chicken bullion or a few shakes of Knorr to taste.Over low-medium heat, simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes. The sauce never gets to a boil<br />
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The result after all this processing and pressing is a thick chile sauce. According the Patricia if it is too thick it can be thinned out afterwards with chicken broth. Think of the consistency this way: the tortillas will be dipped into the sauce and you want the sauce thick enough to stick onto the front and back of the tortillas.<br />
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Assembling the enchiladas:<br />
1) In a small frying pan, over medium heat, warm up about 1/2 cup or enough to make a 1 inch layer of neutral oil, like vegetable oil<br />
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2) Once the oil is hot, fry each corn tortilla--they get fried enough to be light gold and still soft, but NOT browned and crispy. Lay the fried tortillas out on paper-towels<br />
3) Using the oil from the tortillas, fry the eggs in the warm oil. This step was done masterfully by Patricia's husband. The goal is a soft fried egg with runny yolk.<br />
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During assembly and frying the eggs, keep the tortillas and cooked eggs warm in an oven at the lowest setting. Once all the tortillas and eggs are fried, it's time to start assembling.<br />
4) Prepare the assembly line of tortillas, then sauce, then cheddar cheese, then diced onions, then diced tomatoes and the eggs last.<br />
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5) Using 3 tortillas per serving: Dip one of the tortillas into the pot of chile sauce, then use a spoon to cover the non-sauced part of the tortilla<br />
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6) Sprinkle the tortilla generously with cheddar cheese, diced onions to taste, then repeat this step for 3 enchiladas. Over all three enchiladas, sprinkle the diced tomatoes, and finally "mount" the enchiladas with 2 of the poached eggs. The enchiladas can be fanned out on a plate or stacked.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">stacked vs fanned </td></tr>
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7) Serve with refried beans and/or Mexican rice.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-18853469619217303882016-04-17T15:57:00.000-07:002016-04-17T15:57:37.374-07:00Cooking in the Shenandoah Valley: Meatless Enchilada Style Burritos with salsa verde<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I know, I know: it's been 4 months since my last post. January 2016 started with such potential and promise--I thought I would post a few times a month -- my friends and the internet would see just how easy it is to maintain an active, creative life as a first year resident. Yet, some resolutions are meant to fail and all I can do is try and try again keep up a regular appearance as the KitchenDoc. Just because I haven't posted, doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. I've been cooking--a lot. There are lots of new interesting vegan and vegetarian dishes that I've wanted to share. Hopefully coming soon: tofu pancakes, orange glazed tempeh and baked falafel balls with tzatziki sauce.<br />
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This weekend I went to the Shenandoah Valley with old friends, and I was inspired to document one of our meals. I met up with Jess, her husband Matt and Jess's sister Alison, her husband Derek and another dear friend from VCU medical school. We spent our Saturday morning and afternoon trekking through the George Washington National Forest. Our portable hiking lunch was pimento cheese sandwiches prepared by the lovely Mississippi bred Wroten sisters--Alison and Jess.<br />
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The vegetarian dinner preparation was left to the husbands. Despite being given a pass on kitchen duties, I decided to document and help out with dinner. We were given all of the ingredients and general directions to make vegetarian "burrito-enchiladas." Our goal was to use up all the vegetables in the fridge and get dinner on the table while also relaxing and drinking our way through the weekend stash of beer.<br />
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It was a good time cooking with these modern cooking husbands. The main lesson I learned was how to roll a tight burrito--thanks to burrito roller extraordinaire Derek . Matt did a killer job chopping up sweet potatoes and filling burritos with just enough veggie filling for a full but not bursting burrito.<br />
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Here you have it.<br />
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Meatless Enchilada style burritos with salsa verde<br />
(this can be a vegan recipe if you substitute the cheddar cheese for vegan cheese)<br />
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<b>Ingredients</b>: (this amount of ingredients yielded 10 burritos)<br />
10-12 Flour tortillas "burrito sized"<br />
Shredded cheddar cheese about 8-12 oz depending on your love of melted cheese-basically one of those small bags of shredded cheese<br />
One jar salsa verde<br />
One can vegetarian refried black beans<br />
3 medium sweet potatoes, cubed<br />
1 red pepper, diced<br />
1 or 2 jalapenos depending on your spice tolerance, de-seeded and diced<br />
Half a head of cauliflower cut into small florets<br />
10 stalks or about half a bushel of asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces<br />
1 bushel cilantro, washed and chopped<br />
2 limes<br />
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<b>Directions:</b><br />
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F<br />
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<b>Making the filling: </b><br />
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<ol style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2qAQlhf5MB0/VxQMpYJ7iUI/AAAAAAAAKn0/EtLrhGoTOlANyZ_uSInfeKd0ookznSfBwCKgB/s1600/IMG_20160416_202758.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2qAQlhf5MB0/VxQMpYJ7iUI/AAAAAAAAKn0/EtLrhGoTOlANyZ_uSInfeKd0ookznSfBwCKgB/s200/IMG_20160416_202758.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3BlM9KlaYK5k4cE-NTLaP_vCKTq4RGwxEFKFaAgUphup_noZup1Ny4yMOJEtMksqjI1iFs11GM_vl_NSNCV-YMC1cdZgmaS-GkdWgO1cigYB79uCEGqXKDUmoNUzDCDJxC-ibFHW1jdJ/s1600/IMG_20160416_202327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3BlM9KlaYK5k4cE-NTLaP_vCKTq4RGwxEFKFaAgUphup_noZup1Ny4yMOJEtMksqjI1iFs11GM_vl_NSNCV-YMC1cdZgmaS-GkdWgO1cigYB79uCEGqXKDUmoNUzDCDJxC-ibFHW1jdJ/s200/IMG_20160416_202327.jpg" width="200" /></a>
<li> Fill a large pot half way with water and bring to a boil.</li>
<li>Wash or peel the sweet potatoes and then cut into small cubes</li>
<li>Add the cubed sweet potato to the water, boil them until soft enough to easily pierce with a fork--about 10 minutes</li>
<li>While the potato boils, chop the red pepper and jalapenos, add to a medium sized saute pan with olive oil. Saute over medium heat until they are softened but not brown. Turn off the heat once soft.</li>
<li>Coarsely chop the asparagus and cauliflower and add it to a roasting pan--ideally the same one you will use to.bake the burritos. Dry roast these.vegetables for 10 minutes. These vegetables should remain crunchy to give texture to the burrito filling.</li>
<li>In a large bowl mix together the sweet potatoes, red pepper and jalapenos. Mix well until the sweet potatoes are crushed but not smoothly mashed. Then add in the roasted vegetables and mix to combine. Season the filling with a few tablespoons of salsa verde, the juice of a whole lime, and salt and pepper.</li>
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<b>Wrapping the burrito: </b>At this point start to prepare assembly line.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/s_vi/AA2_D_-ZMjU/default.jpg?sqp=CJim0LgF&rs=AOn4CLDj__T5vEKrC8amScTk3yh3FeXbDg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AA2_D_-ZMjU?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><br />
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<li>At one end have the bowl of sweet potato filling, the opened can of refried beans, then the tortillas, an open space for.rolling and finally the roasting pan for baking the burritos. </li>
<li>Smear a heaping tablespoon of refried bean into the middle of the tortilla</li>
<li>Then add a large serving soon amount of filling to the middle--about 4 tablespoons of filling</li>
<li>Now for the rolling: I have a video embedded but I can try to explain as well--Lay the tortilla on a flat surface, then lift up the eddges to meet and smash together the filling, then lie it flat again, bring up the left and right edges, then fold them over, and use your thumb and index finger to softly pin them down, then with your middle fingers, pick up the upper edge of the tortilla and flip it over the pinned down side edges and tuck it under the filling, then keep tucking and rolling until you sort of flip the burrito over the seam. Place the burrito seam side down in a pyrex or roasting pan. Repeat this step until you use up all the filling </li>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smush it all together</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gather the edges and pin them down with index finger and thumb</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tuck the sides and start the roll the top edge over</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keep tucking the top edge under the filling</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After tucking in the top edge, roll the whole burrito over so it lies flat on its seam</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Place in pan, seam down</td></tr>
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<b>The final steps: </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover with salsa verde and cheese</td></tr>
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<li>Cover each burrito with a tablespoon or two of salsa verde, then sprinkle the whole dish with cheese. </li>
<li>Bake the burritos for 10-15 minutes at 400 until the cheese melts. </li>
<li>Serve with cilantro and lime for garnish and topping<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bake until the cheese melts</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garnish cilantro and lime</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-69977075117911904612016-01-03T14:00:00.002-08:002016-01-03T14:00:43.536-08:00What interns eat: Chick Pea and Carrot Tangine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The "what interns eat" theme is meant to bring you recipes that encompass the basic truths of being an intern: we are broke and overworked, but still need to eat (preferably something healthy and fast). Most months I'm broke because I pay too much in rent, and I'm paying almost a fourth of my paycheck to my student loan payments. I know the rent issue is my own fault, but I really love my neighborhood and living alone in my well decorated box of an apartment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cheap and health ingredients ready for tangine </td></tr>
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It's January, and probably like the rest of American population, I participated in both the materialistic and spiritual part of Christmas. I bought nice gifts to demonstrate affection for the people I love and then spent the remainder of my money on throwing a party to bring in the new year (and some nice gifts for myself...). Thus when it came time to go grocery shopping, I looked at my bank account and realized to save money I would need to eat my way through my pantry and the old stuff in my refrigerator. </div>
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(Other New year's resolutions: exercise regularly; read more for leisure; join instagram; try to hedge my growing cynicism of our broken health care system; volunteer once a month; give away 1/4 of my overflowing closet) </div>
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Beans are the quintessential example of cheap and healthy eating. As previous posts indicate, I eat a lot of curry based foods because they are easy to make, difficult to mess up, and I can make a huge amount, freeze half and have dinner for the next time I am broke. </div>
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Currently, my refrigerator is full of food left over from my new year's party which is more snack food than dinner foods. Luckily these left overs do include some fresh foods like berries and grapes; I also have some left over vegetables from a veggie tray. In my mind, the way to bridge these left overs was BEANS. My pantry always has lentils, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans. Now that I have mastered the art of the pressure cooker, I rarely buy canned beans since I can make tender beans in less than an hour. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tanjine: picture from Amazon.com</td></tr>
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Even though I have a food blog, and some days I can get it together to improvise something delicious from random ingredients, I often end up googling different ingredients to see what the internet brings me. This morning I entered "chick peas + carrots + recipe" into google, and near to top of the results was an easy for tangine. Tanjine (or Tangine) refers to a North African stew cooked with a tanjine, but when it comes to recipes on the internet, it mostly means a slow cooked north African stew that I think of like a curry with North African flavors. </div>
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Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to eating from what you already have in your fridge and pantry. You have to be open to substitutions in your cooking. I didn't have onions or currants, so I used celery and chopped dried apricots and the finished product came out just fine. I'll be eating it topped with sour cream since I don't have yogurt. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">celery instead of onion</td></tr>
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Chickpea and carrot tangine, modified from <a href="http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/chickpea-tagine-with-cinnamon-cumin-and-carrots/">Vegetarian Times</a></div>
<div>
<br />
olive or vegetable oil</div>
<div>
1 cup thinly sliced celery</div>
<div>
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped</div>
<div>
5 carrots peeled and thinly sliced</div>
<div>
1/4 cup currants or 6 dried apricots, fig or dates, chopped into cubes</div>
<div>
2 cans of chick peas or 3 cups of cooked chick peas</div>
<div>
1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cayenne</div>
<div>
2 tsp honey</div>
<div>
2 cups water</div>
<div>
salt and pepper to taste</div>
<div>
1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream</div>
<div>
parsley or cilantro for garnish<br />
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1. Prepare the vegetables: Thinly slice and then chop one small onion or 1 cup of celery. Smash and mince 3 cloves of garlic. Peel 5 carrots and slice into thin rounds<br />
2. Chop the dried fruit into small pieces<br />
3. In a saute pan, over 1/4 cup oil over medium heat, add the celery/onion and garlic, and saute until soft about 2-5 minutes.<br />
4. Then add the dried fruit, carrots, 3 cups of chick peas, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, cayenne pepper, and honey.<br />
5. Pour over the ingredient, 2 cups of water. Stir to combine.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmFjTGX5ozaNelJFuXo-LSeRuXm4in3ERDBicRyeL3UPfHhNO-HngzB0VgQa16i_C1qIO9_D3Yz_KKl3oSeV9K37Kt7FavCfCmQuHxbvBaBbzFuaPYGen6sOXphN2dgVD7KK8SliAYbEE/s1600/IMG_20160103_104200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmFjTGX5ozaNelJFuXo-LSeRuXm4in3ERDBicRyeL3UPfHhNO-HngzB0VgQa16i_C1qIO9_D3Yz_KKl3oSeV9K37Kt7FavCfCmQuHxbvBaBbzFuaPYGen6sOXphN2dgVD7KK8SliAYbEE/s320/IMG_20160103_104200.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">half way done</td></tr>
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6. Simmer the mixture, half covered, over medium heat (gently bubbling at the edges of the pan) for 20 minutes or until the carrots are soft and the ingredients have melded. Stir every 5 minutes to check if the tangine is sticking to the bottom of the pan.<br />
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste (about 1 1/2 tsp for me, as I added a bit too much honey)<br />
8. Cook uncovered for 5 more minutes for some liquid to evaporate.<br />
9. Let sit for a few minutes to cool and meld.<br />
10. Serve over rice or plan, garnished with sour cream or yogurt and cilantro or parsley.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz6K89P32vRBu7f5ot0xqA-lnwsEUPjHJb_5djwpP677xYYpKhnXn1usle6O7eypadIrY2OsZdUD8Cx4EWwvaaBbUTo85pSWMeMT2gMU-n7tuiR4hd_ogBowjuw1TdtptRMT6uLNbk9CRk/s1600/IMG_20160103_113131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz6K89P32vRBu7f5ot0xqA-lnwsEUPjHJb_5djwpP677xYYpKhnXn1usle6O7eypadIrY2OsZdUD8Cx4EWwvaaBbUTo85pSWMeMT2gMU-n7tuiR4hd_ogBowjuw1TdtptRMT6uLNbk9CRk/s320/IMG_20160103_113131.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ready for lunch on Monday </td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-15480994100852403252015-12-28T19:29:00.000-08:002015-12-28T19:30:04.547-08:00Christmas day Tradition: Cuban Sandwiches<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad slicing the pork and our white German shepherd <br />
longing for some scraps</td></tr>
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I love cooking at home in Texas, both the fact that the kitchen is large, well stocked and I get to cook with my mother. I've <a href="http://kitchenpulse.blogspot.com/2010/12/noche-buena-dinner.html">posted about Noche Buena in the past</a> (and also a s<a href="http://kitchenpulse.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-day-cuban-sandwiches.html">hort post about Cuban sandwiches</a> in 2010), but this year's Christmas was a little different. Usually we celebrate Noche Buena on Christmas Eve, but making a pork leg, yucca, black beans, plantains, watercress salad, and flan. A true Caribbean feast. However, this year we decided to take it easy and ordered a honey baked ham and made all American sides like macaroni and cheese and Brussels sprouts.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Dad on Christmas Eve, discussing the <br />
intricacies of Spanish brandy</td></tr>
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<br />
<br />
No matter happens on Noche Buena, we make Cuban sandwiches on Christmas day. This year we roasted a pork loin and used our special order ham to make our Cuban sandwiches. There are two camps for Cuban sandwiches: Either you can use mayonnaise OR mustard. Never both. If you order a Cuban sandwich and it has mustard and mayonnaise--It's a FAKE! (Albeit a delicious fake)<br />
<br />
My family is in the yellow mustard camp. Seriously, none of this fancy whole grain or dijon mustard--yellow mustard only. So this post is a review of the Posada family Cuban sandwiches. These sandwiches are a Cuban tradition that have thankfully spread all over the United States to every swank deli, yet probably one of those specialties that is not easily found in Cuban--for now anyway.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4R-7xuq5M1HX50EUfBTpC5glUWb94sqd0ZuXdPRxyR0aRJIgCG-j4sS9U4PUCeO1hUY8MDGba11ubI38h3haCCC1Gi86PVGI9Hh6t8eHtKIRQhagaqPZSXcxX1zhns13xxRG3HGTq2oF/s1600/IMG_20151225_185323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4R-7xuq5M1HX50EUfBTpC5glUWb94sqd0ZuXdPRxyR0aRJIgCG-j4sS9U4PUCeO1hUY8MDGba11ubI38h3haCCC1Gi86PVGI9Hh6t8eHtKIRQhagaqPZSXcxX1zhns13xxRG3HGTq2oF/s320/IMG_20151225_185323.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lay out the ingredients</td></tr>
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Ingredients:<br />
Bolios (small loaves of bread) or Hoagies<br />
Ham<br />
Roasted pork<br />
Swiss cheese<br />
Dill pickles, sliced<br />
Mustard<br />
A panini pan or a sandwich iron or a frying pan with a press<br />
toothpicks<br />
<br />
1. Thinly slice the meats: in this case the honey baked ham and the pork loin<br />
--For the pork loin, I marinated a medium pork loin overnight in a dressing of olive oil, lime juice, garlic and red onions. Then I seared it for five minutes on each side in a cast iron dutch oven, and roasted it in the oven for 45 minutes at 350.<br />
2. Slice the bread open and lay out as many loaves as you want to assemble into sandwiches.<br />
3. On both sides of the bread, spread or squirt a thin layer of yellow mustard.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsAGH8QhOeXYNa76gnM88aWDB57Wi7nJXDixZUjfbfSRch3XZtDJHv9Ph4fa4MguluU0bGgtIc9rphV-MxdlJINxpRTSguSRLXHspIRQShQmF6AjC0tBbmeJonoHE24AxSwn3KTnlgVfj/s1600/IMG_20151225_190109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgsAGH8QhOeXYNa76gnM88aWDB57Wi7nJXDixZUjfbfSRch3XZtDJHv9Ph4fa4MguluU0bGgtIc9rphV-MxdlJINxpRTSguSRLXHspIRQShQmF6AjC0tBbmeJonoHE24AxSwn3KTnlgVfj/s320/IMG_20151225_190109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Progression of the sandwiches</td></tr>
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4. Start to layer the ingredients: I put pickle on one side of the bread (pat the pickles dry first), Swiss cheese on the other, then layer the ham and pork in the middle.<br />
5. Close the sandwich, pierce it with toothpick to keep in the bread together so it stays closed with pressing<br />
<br />
6. Smear a nice thick layer of butter on both sides of the bread.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuD6QAY1ZeOnw33eTl3quU_BvEAK_aP0ogJpd_w19DBvlhzQboFGeRtBSv-FTOh-HdYMCW0pQq499P55ScQftHoZxVU4tteuvpbB6zaAntsVIbYPKCgvMfSBiaFwVJjY4zOWIRTVZimQT/s1600/IMG_20151225_191715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvuD6QAY1ZeOnw33eTl3quU_BvEAK_aP0ogJpd_w19DBvlhzQboFGeRtBSv-FTOh-HdYMCW0pQq499P55ScQftHoZxVU4tteuvpbB6zaAntsVIbYPKCgvMfSBiaFwVJjY4zOWIRTVZimQT/s200/IMG_20151225_191715.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Butter the bread</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_N6p7nyzy5fuXPBgRAmvUAca_hVuOY4ifqRg4dd9vNrPdx8Zwc46z6mxg6udZ07uCepOrrbkS7m9d549as41GZFIMGb6FKDGPc7n5NHTYXnkArIukQ6A1Smo4mKMgoW5HsOpobNLZn-h/s1600/IMG_20151225_191006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_N6p7nyzy5fuXPBgRAmvUAca_hVuOY4ifqRg4dd9vNrPdx8Zwc46z6mxg6udZ07uCepOrrbkS7m9d549as41GZFIMGb6FKDGPc7n5NHTYXnkArIukQ6A1Smo4mKMgoW5HsOpobNLZn-h/s200/IMG_20151225_191006.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Press</td></tr>
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7. Heat the pan over low heat, place the sandwiches on the grill and press for about 3-5 minutes, until you see grill marks on one side and then flip and press until you have grill marks on the other side.<br />
8. Once you have nice grill marks and the cheese is soft, slice the sandwiches in half on a diagonal. Serve with potato chips or even better, fried banana chips, aka mariquitas.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpnoPeTK0yH5H-SBl9qbfaqkhY3R5YEm9DXoLR3zi6geVRh9qkxXPhRkIO_FC16QYdLIrDJ2YtuOMep6iCkHhBpKMhTgu-PF75A3M7JKgWG-QBCF0wTH_n4ZfBlSL_QD8OZEz27A2e7iT/s1600/IMG_20151225_191954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLpnoPeTK0yH5H-SBl9qbfaqkhY3R5YEm9DXoLR3zi6geVRh9qkxXPhRkIO_FC16QYdLIrDJ2YtuOMep6iCkHhBpKMhTgu-PF75A3M7JKgWG-QBCF0wTH_n4ZfBlSL_QD8OZEz27A2e7iT/s320/IMG_20151225_191954.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grill Marks</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIBtkTA9v-5pO5csR_GilRpsIV1CBYw9JqEYAJ_zZUXiM9w_gxUx73F5ATc2fg3YiLBm7KR-vWc-yygrS5nSiGJLiyHYeQUB1mZl4Ccq8UJvWa3CMYR7JRNB3BskZMDwkgQf1-6TKl6N2/s1600/IMG_20151225_192401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIBtkTA9v-5pO5csR_GilRpsIV1CBYw9JqEYAJ_zZUXiM9w_gxUx73F5ATc2fg3YiLBm7KR-vWc-yygrS5nSiGJLiyHYeQUB1mZl4Ccq8UJvWa3CMYR7JRNB3BskZMDwkgQf1-6TKl6N2/s320/IMG_20151225_192401.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Serve</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-44327914762486125132015-12-06T15:39:00.001-08:002015-12-06T15:39:15.790-08:00Squash obsessed: Butternut squash and pea curry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished product: Curry with homemade naan </td></tr>
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Living in Washington, DC has its benefits, including a variety of restaurants, so I can cycle through Indian, Thai, Chinese, Ethiopian, and all the other amazing ethnic cuisines offered in the city. Even though Galveston is near and dear to my heart, it had a few flaws, including the lack of ethnic food beyond Mexican and Vietnamese food. During my years in Galveston, I mastered a few key Indian and Thai dishes. My go-to dish, for cheap and easy eating is curry. I was actually taught how to make curry by an Indian graduate student who was a research assistant in the lab where I worked in college. This guy was living a very stereotypical Indian immigrant experience, written about beautifully by Jhumpa Lahira, in her book the<i> Interpreter of Maladies</i>. He had moved to DC from Delhi to get his PhD in Biology and eventually business degree so he could run a pharmaceutical company back in India. He even had a relationship with a woman in a different caste who his parents didn't approve of. He lived in a two bedroom apartment, near the GWU campus, with 4 other Indian guys who were also in graduate school. My friend, instead of languishing without home-cooked Indian food or eating out all the time, learned to cook and taught he a few tricks such as this basic curry formula, which can also be tweaked to make lentils.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjd5Ckm0REXj4vIK7R1PXxW63BNbTI3HIpupU98fVOPvxBm_z4Cjfcd72vCL_OQNVTdoClW9Ne0wrt-7uUeraogPTbckTvnDwClSo_vom1B1bkbKEeZyJMEK8y3XhDQ022-kZTG7l9kBE/s1600/DSC03074.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjd5Ckm0REXj4vIK7R1PXxW63BNbTI3HIpupU98fVOPvxBm_z4Cjfcd72vCL_OQNVTdoClW9Ne0wrt-7uUeraogPTbckTvnDwClSo_vom1B1bkbKEeZyJMEK8y3XhDQ022-kZTG7l9kBE/s320/DSC03074.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The basic ingredients</td></tr>
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Curry is a mainstay meal because you can always keep the ingredients on hand in your pantry and you can use almost any vegetable as the base. I usually make kidney bean curry, and if you don't have an Indian friend to teach you how to make curry, I love this <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/02/red-kidney-bean-curry/">basic recipe from Smitten Kitchen. </a><br />
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The key to keeping curry interesting is to play around with the ratio of onion to garlic to ginger as well as adjusting the spice level by experimenting with different chili powders and also using different types of fresh chile peppers. Some days I double the ginger and cut down the garlic or I puree the onions instead of merely chopping them.<br />
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The fall season is always marked by an overabundance of squash. Even if I have a butternut squash at home on my table, I'm still drawn to the squash at the farmer's market. So instead of making lentils or kidney bean curry, I incorporated butternut squash into my basic curry recipe. My major critique of using squash in this curry, is that it turned out sweeter than expected, much sweeter than when I have used carrots or sweet potatoes in the past. Because I assumed the squash would be sweet, I doubled the ginger I usually use<br />
<br />
Butternut squash and pea curry<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
2-3 tbs of oil, olive oil or canola<br />
1 onion, finely chopped<br />
garlic 3 cloves, minced<br />
ginger, about 4 inches worth, comes about to 2 tbs of grated ginger<br />
one can of diced tomatoes<br />
1 bag of frozen peas<br />
one butternut squash, keep the skin on, cut into small cubes, about chick pea sized<br />
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Spices:<br />
1 tbs of turmeric<br />
1 tbs cumin<br />
1 tbs coriander<br />
1 tbs chili pepper<br />
1/2 tbs cinnamon<br />
1 tsp ground mustard<br />
1 tsp black pepper<br />
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<br /><br /><br />1. Prep work: Dice the onions, mince or crush the garlic, grate the ginger, and cut the butternut squash into chickpea sized cubes (with the skin on)</div>
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2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saute pan</div>
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3. Add the onions, garlic and ginger, and cook for 2-5 minutes until soft, try not to brown</div>
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4. Once the onions are soft, add the spices and a few twists of freshly ground pepper to the onions and dry fry the spices and onions all together for 2 minutes, or at least until fragrant</div>
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5. Add the canned tomatoes with their liquid to the onions and spices. This will act like deglazing, allowing you scrape up all the spices that may have stuck to the pan</div>
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<br />6. Allow the liquid portion to come to simmer, then add in the butternut squash. Add about 1 cup of water, just enough to have most of the squash submerged. Again, with the pan uncovered over medium heat, allow the liquid and squash to come to a simmer.<br />
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7. With the pan uncovered, simmer the squash curry for 10 minutes, which will expedite cooking time and allow some of the liquid to cook off. </div>
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<br />8. Then turn the burner to low and cover the curry. Let the curry cook covered for about 20 minutes, with some minor bubbling at the edges. Uncover and stir 2-3 times to make sure the curry is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the curry is sticking, turn down the heat and add a touch more water (a few tbs). </div>
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<br />9. After 20 minutes, the squash should be soft and the mixture should have thickened. Taste the curry now and add salt and pepper as needed. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The last two steps </td></tr>
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(If you feel like your curry tastes too much like "spice" ie subtly gritty and bitter, add about a 1/2 cup of water and cook for an extra 10 minutes. This happens to me sometimes because I go overboard on the spices. The solution to cut down on the amount of powdered spice you use.) </div>
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<br />10. Once your curry and spiced and salted to taste, add in bag of peas and mix well to incorporate. Then cook the curry for another 5 minutes so the peas are entirely thawed and cooked through and the mixture can become a bit thicker</div>
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(Since I usually eat my curry with just naan, I like a thick, creamy consistency. If your tendency is to eat Indian food over rice, then you can cook it over a lower heat or for less time.) </div>
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<br />11. Turn off the stove and let the curry sit for 10 minutes before eating to let the flavors meld. Eat with naan or over rice. </div>
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I am not a baker by nature; I do not have the patience or attention for detail and problem solving that is required for making really good bread. However, flat breads like pizza dough, pita, and naan are quite easy to make. Working with dough, the kneading, the rising, and shaping the bread is incredibly satisfying and sometimes therapeutic (depending on the week I've had). I will post the Mark Bittman Pita recipe I use for both naan and pita on another post when I make pita with my Jordanian<br />
neighbor.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-17432373911672084032015-11-07T19:14:00.001-08:002015-11-07T19:20:00.604-08:00Cooking for friends on a weeknight: Roasted butternut squash with roasted onions and fennel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For the first time in my adult life, I have become friends with my neighbor. I have lived in apartments before and never interacted with the people with whom I share my walls. However, this time around, I have befriended one of my neighbors who does neighborly things for me like critiques my Halloween costume before I go to a party and sometimes plays backgammon or the guitar with me. This week, my neighbor gave me a bottle of olive oil from his parent's farm in Jordan and a bag of Zatar, a spice for dipping pita bread. In return, I asked him over for a quick dinner. My plan was to go buy a roasted chicken and make a salad, but I was struck by a sudden urge to use my butternut squash that had been staring at me for a week straight. The original recipe has a decidedly middle eastern flare, as the original dish is roasted squash and onions, topped with roasted pine nuts and a tahini sauce. I paired my roasted squash with a mezze style meal of pita with Zatar, hummus and a garlic-yogurt sauce. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My inspiration comes from a <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 24.15px;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/yotamottolenghi">Yotam Ottolenghi</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 24.15px;"> </span><a href="http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015421-roasted-butternut-squash-and-red-onions"> recipe posted in the New York Times </a>last fall. Yotam Ottolenghi is a London chef, originally from Jerusalem, who in addition to his very popular middle eastern restaurants, has a great series with the Guardian, posting mostly fresh, vegetarian recipes.I highly recommend you check out <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/yotam-ottolenghi-recipes">this series</a>. His recipes are beautiful and inspiring and just in time for Thanksgiving to branch away from the usual American style side dishes. I'm dreaming of his<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/10/aubergine-recipes-turkish-imam-bayildi-hungkar-begendi-roast-with-tarator-yotam-ottolenghi"> Turkish inspired eggplant</a> and<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/31/pumpkin-squash-recipes-stuffed-soup-roast-yotam-ottolenghi"> stuffed squash.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sometimes Ottolenghi's recipes require too many ingredients to be an easy weeknight meal. However, this squash and onion recipe is simple, delicious and can be changed to suit what ingredients you have on hand. It's a nice template of roasted vegetables + fancy sauce for garnish and flavor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This recipe can come together quickly if you have a normal sized oven that fits more than one rack and baking dish. However, I literally have a playhouse kitchen and my oven does not fit more than one dish at a time. I had to roast the squash and onions separately for forty minutes, but if you can do it all at one time, this is a quick and easy dish to pair with a grain or a pan fried protein like chicken or fish filet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you're reading my blog, you're probably my friend and know this blog is an amateur affair. Maybe, dear reader, you've been to my apartment and seen the dearth of kitchen space in my studio apartment. (Here is when I expect you all to be impressed that I cook in spite of these overwhelming obstacles...just kidding) I am playing with my lighting options and where I photograph my food. This post was photographed outside my kitchen on my dining room table using warmer albeit less lighting in comparison the the jarring fluorescent lights of my kitchen. If you have a strong opinion on lighting or my blog, let me know what you think. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Roasted butternut squash, onions, and fennel with a garlic lemon sauce</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Adapted from </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 24.15px;">Yotam Ottolenghi's</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 24.15px;"> </span><a href="http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015421-roasted-butternut-squash-and-red-onions" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> recipe posted in the New York Times </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Total time: 60 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ingredients: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2-3 tbs of yogurt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">the juice of a whole lemon (about 3-4 tbs)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">plenty of salt and pepper</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Preheat the oven to 400F</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Wash the butternut squash, slice it in half, remove the seeds with a spoon. Cut each half into thin moon shaped slices. The peel of butternut softens with roasting (or stewing) and you do not need to peel butternut squash. If you want thicker slices, when you place the slices on the baking sheet, you will place the squash balanced on its peel making it easier to soften the peel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Peel and halve the onions and fennel. Then cut the onions and fennel into thin slices. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Place the squash in a large bowl, add 2 tbs of the olive oil, enough to coat the squash and well and season with salt and pepper. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Spread the squash evenly on a baking sheet. Roast the squash for 20 minutes, then use a spatula to flip half way through. My squash baked for a total of 40 minutes, until it was soft and browning. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. Using the same bowl from the squash, place the onions and fennel in the bowl and coat with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the onions in a roasting pan or on a baking sheet. The onions can roast in the same oven at 400F with the squash. The onions need about 20-30 minutes of roasting. You want them cooked through but not too browned. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">6. While the vegetables are roasting, in small bowl, combine the yogurt and ricotta, whipping with a fork until smooth and frothy. Then add the lemon juice and the crushed garlic. Whip again with a fork until smooth. Then season with salt and pepper. I seasoned my vegetables fairly liberally with salt and pepper so I seasoned my sauce with only pepper to let it have a prominently lemon flavor. Let the sauce sit and meld in the fridge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">7. Once the squash and onions are cooked through, transfer the squash to the serving dish first. Arrange the squash as desired on the bottom and then arrange the onions on top of the squash. Using a spoon, drizzle the yogurt sauce over the vegetables. Theses are fresh Fall vegetables, so I did not drench my vegetables in the sauce. I reserved some of the sauce to use as a dip for our pita bread. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">8. You can serve this dish warm or at room temperature. </span></div>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-55694142067841614272015-09-23T20:05:00.000-07:002015-09-23T20:07:05.324-07:00What interns eat: Peanut Butter and Jelly Overnight Oats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What I eat as an intern varies with each rotation. Overall the theme of cooking as an intern involves making food that comes together quickly and does not need to be refrigerated. I'll address the lack of refrigeration in a future blog posts, and you can refer to my <a href="http://kitchenpulse.blogspot.com/2015/09/what-interns-eat-mexican-corn-bean-and.html">black bean salad</a> for a meal that can stored in your lunch box or backpack without a cold pack. I realize I could also just buy a cold pack or a better lunch box and solve this problem...<br />
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I spent the last 2 months working on the general internal medicine wards. I had a very regulated schedule of 6:30am to 6:30pm during the week, a long call day every 5 days, and working one weekend day until at least 3:30pm. The schedule is tough and sucks away any energy that might be left for studying or regular socializing. However, the hours are bearable because all interns are going through the same experiences,so there's a feeling of camaraderie throughout the hospital. For the past 2 weeks, I've had a change in schedule working in the GW Hospital emergency department. Though I get more days days off per week on this rotation, I have had a hard time adapting to the strange hours and hectic, frenzied pace of the emergency department. Strangely, what irks me the most is the lack of time eat away from my computer. Most shifts, I eat a protein bar or trail mix while typing away at patient notes.<br />
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What I miss about my internal medicine rotation is the regularity of my schedule. Each morning, I could arrive between 6:30-6:45am, sit down at my computer to read about patients while eating my breakfast and drinking my coffee. I have a tendency to get obsessed with a certain food and eat it for too long. For 2 months straight, every morning, I ate these overnight oats out of a mason jar. I miss those seemingly leisurely mornings, and I look forward to those mornings on internal medicine and eventually psychiatry rotations.<br />
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The concept of overnight oats is soaking "quick oats" overnight in liquid so they are soft enough to eat in the morning. There are many versions online of overnight oats, including peanut butter and jelly, almonds, coconuts, and dates, and sweeter, chocolate based recipes, and also many include chia seeds and other spices. Chia seeds will make the oats more gelatinous, and this reminds me too much of baby food. I could add more spices, but sometimes I'm lazy. Maybe for winter when I need more spice in my life, I'll add cinnamon, nutmeg or even pumpkin to my overnight oats.<br />
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Here are a few good links for overnight oats:<br />
<a href="http://www.katheats.com/favorite-foods/overnightoats">http://www.katheats.com/favorite-foods/overnightoats</a><br />
<a href="http://ohsheglows.com/2015/07/22/vegan-overnight-oats/">http://ohsheglows.com/2015/07/22/vegan-overnight-oats/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/how-to-make-overnight-oats">http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/how-to-make-overnight-oats</a><br />
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My recipe is adapted from several online sources. Perhaps for my next two months of overnight oats I'll try a new version. For now, I offer you Peanut Butter and Jelly Overnight Oats. My unique contribution is that I use Trader Joe's Quick Cook steel cut oats. Because these are harder, basically small pebbles, even after being soaked overnight, they yield a firmer product in the morning. This way I avoid potential baby food or liquid concrete consistency.<br />
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When I make this recipe for myself, I use an assembly line approach and make 4 jars for the week.<br />
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Overnight Oats:<br />
Soy milk<br />
Quick cook oats (either rolled oats or steel cut oats)<br />
Plain yogurt<br />
Plain peanut butter, (I keep a jar of the Smucker's natural peanut butter which is also perfect for Asian peanut sauces)<br />
Sugar<br />
Frozen berry medley<br />
Mason jar<br />
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Each step should be replicated for however many jars you want to make for the week<br />
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1) In the mason jar, stir together, 1 tablespoon of peanut and 1 tablespoon of plain yogurt and 1 teaspoon of sugar<br />
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2) On top of this mixture, pour in 1/2 cup of dried oats<br />
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3) On top of the oats, add in 1 handful of frozen berries, about 1/2 cup <br />
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4) On top of the oats that will be eaten the next morning, pour in 1/2 cup of soy milk. You can adjust the liquid to change the consistency of the oats. For firmer oats, stick to 1:1 ratio of oats to soy milk. For a more liquid product add up to 3/4 cup of soy milk.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One for tomorrow and ready for the <br />
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5) Mix together the oats, berries, milk mixture and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.<br />
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6) You can store the rest of the prepared oats in the fridge, and the night before you plan to eat the oats, add in the soy milk, mix, and let it sit overnight. Re-mix the oats in the morning for a good distribution of berries, oats and peanut butter.<br />
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7) Experiment! Add a banana or almonds or cinnamon or more sugar or chocolate chips or cheerios to make your Friday morning that much better. Go crazy. What I love is that every morning, I get a pre-made, healthy, non-processed breakfast, made with love by me for me. To survive residency, I think I will need lots of rituals and acts of self care, and overnight oats falls into this category.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ready to cover and mix in the morning for instant breakfast</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-23656619945249303942015-09-16T23:42:00.001-07:002015-09-16T23:42:20.346-07:00Cooking with friends on a weeknight: Asparagus, mushroom, rice gratin<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I hope "cooking with friends on a weeknight" will become a feature of the blog. Cooking with someone else and blogging about it proves it is possible to be an intern and maintain a social life outside of drinking wine and watching TV on my tablet. That said, for someone who counsels patients on establishing and maintaining healthy habits, I know I do not sleep enough and maintain myself on liquid caffeine, daily yoga, and lots of chocolate for extra energy. Basically I'm asking for a daily sugar crash and helping my family history of type 2 diabetes express itself. For now I think the benefits of spending time with friends outweighs the benefits of 8 hours a sleep a night and ingesting too much processed sugar. Let's see how I feel in another month...<br />
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I am currently on my Emergency Medicine rotation which means I work many night shifts and have some free daytime hours. Though the strange sleeping schedule will eventually catch up to me, I love having the daytime hours off. I happened to have a full day off on Wednesday. The weather is perfect in DC with low humidity, high of low 80s, and daylight that lasts until 7ish. With my day off, I offered to bring ingredients for a "surprise dinner" to my friend E's house. My plan was to walk around Trader Joe's and see what ingredients jumped out at me. I am proficient enough in my own kitchen to buy random ingredients, usually whatever is in season, and at home I'll look up recipes or just make my usual meal of roasted vegetables with tofu or eggs.<br />
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Today I actually had to walk out of the store with ingredients to make a satisfying meal for other people. When I need inspiration, I usually look at the front page of my current favorite blogs. Before walking into TJ's I checked out <a href="http://cookieandkate.com/">Cookie and Kate,</a> <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/">Serious Eats</a>, and <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/">Smitten Kitchen</a>. Smitten Kitchen has gorgeous pictures and delicious recipes, but can be hit or miss with actually providing accessible after work (I'm tired and have no time) dinner recipes. Today, however, Smitten Kitchen did not disappoint. The home page featured a summer squash rice and cheese gratin inspired by Julia Child.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The joys of cooking an a friend's (much larger) kitchen</td></tr>
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Inspiration is the key word. I was unimpressed by the summer squash at Trader Joe's and the Foggy Bottom Farmer's Market (Weds, 3-7pm) that likely was overflowing with summer squash and peaches did not open for another 2 hours. So I made do with Trader Joe's produce. I ended up buying asparagus, mushrooms, rosemary Asiago cheese, and a pork loin as the protein.<br />
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Dinner was a success: As an appetizer, pan fried Shishito peppers tossed with lemon juice and salt, followed by roasted pork tenderloin served with asparagus, mushroom, rice gratin, and brownies for a decadent finish. This meal satisfied several senses, as E and I painted with watercolors as the gratin and meat percolated in the oven.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Browning the tender loin and pan frying the Shishito peppers</td></tr>
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Here I present an original recipe: Asparagus, mushroom, rice gratin aka a quick and fancy casserole<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
1 pound of asparagus<br />
1 package of sliced white mushrooms<br />
1 yellow onion<br />
1/2 wedge of Asiago or Parmesean cheese<br />
1 cup of rice<br />
1.5 cups of water<br />
olive oil<br />
salt<br />
pepper<br />
1/2 lemon, optional<br />
medium sized baking dish<br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F<br />
1) Wash and trim asparagus, chop into 1 inch pieces<br />
2) Dice onion and coarsely chop the sliced mushrooms. Over medium temperature, heat olive oil in a skillet. Saute the mushrooms and onions for at least 5 minutes, so the onions are softened and some water releases from the mushrooms<br />
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3) In a small pot, bring the 1.5 cups of water to a boil, add the 1 cup of rice and boil for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the rice to sit in the water while you finish preparing everything else.<br />
4) Place the asparagus into the baking dish, pour in the mushrooms and onions. Combine well, then pour in the rice and water. This water will allow the vegetables and rice to steam during baking to complete the cooking.<br />
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You can be as generous or stingy on the cheese as you like. Most gratins are saturated with fats like butter, milk/cream, and cheese. In this gratin the major fat is the cheese and a bit of olive oil.<br />
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5) Using at least half of a medium sized wedge of Asiago or Parmesan cheese: crumble half your cheese using your hands, basically making small cubes, and use a grater to finely grate the remaining cheese. Add the cheese in with the vegetables and rice and combine well so you can see cubes of cheese throughout.<br />
6) Season this mixture with 1 tsp of salt, a few grinds of pepper and the juice of half a lemon. Stir to combine, then use a spoon to smooth the top.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before baking</td></tr>
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7) Cover tightly with foil, and bake in the oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes. This gratin baked in the oven at the same time as our pork loin for 25 minutes.<br />
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For a traditional gratin you can add breadcrumbs and cheese to the top of the gratin, and broil at 450 for 5 minutes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished product after serving </td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-3527702298779827882015-09-06T20:06:00.002-07:002015-09-06T20:06:46.384-07:00What interns eat: Mexican corn, bean, and zucchini salad aka corn salsa <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As many of you know, I am a psychiatry intern who started on July 1, 2015. I'm currently on internal medicine wards, so I'm living the life of a traditional intern working at least 80 hours a week and learning so much that sometimes I feel like my brain is expanding out of my skull. It's an interesting and tiring feeling . Who knows why I felt the need to start blogging again the in the context of being tired and overworked. My psychodynamic theory is that I need to identify with something other than medicine so activities like food blogging and yoga keep me human. <div>
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I am one of the lucky interns who works Labor day. Mostly I'm happy that I'm not the unlucky intern working Thanksgiving or Christmas. Who knows what patients I'll encounter tomorrow...Maybe the sweet grandma with community acquired pneumonia? Or perhaps, more likely, the older, usually drunk gentleman, who decides that Labor day weekend is the perfect time to try to quit alcohol and starts withdrawing. In order to provide compassionate and effective care in either one of these scenarios, I pack breakfast and lunch of delicious food prepared in my tiny kitchen. </div>
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I find cooking relaxing. However, I cook for both sustenance and a way to unwind--I have to be efficient in the kitchen. Today, in 2 hours, I prepared an eggplant and tofu stir fry, the vegetable salad I present today, and made breakfast for the week. This way I have most of my meals covered throughout the week and can supplement the missing meals with fried eggs or kimchi quesadillas. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of tiny kitchen cooking and dish-washing</td></tr>
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I've recently made many iterations of the "vegetable salad" which is basically chopped vegetables tossed with a tasty sauce. Last week I made a tomato, artichoke heart, cauliflower, pesto salad. A vegetable salad is versatile and can be eaten over rice, noodles, with an egg, on top green salad, or any other way your imagination might lead you. I make a good amount of the chopped vegetable salad and eat it in a variety of ways for either lunch or dinner. This way, I'm not always eating in the hospital cafeteria or spending too much money at the super trendy and too attractive Whole Foods two blocks from my apartment. </div>
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This week, this vegetable salad is a result of half-hearted grocery shopping as I haven't sincerely grocery shopped in two weeks. I cobbled this salad together with vegetables left over from my last trip to the farmer's marks and this morning, I went to the Dupont farmer's market with a visiting friend. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farmer's market goods and the <br />last of my HEB products</td></tr>
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Mexican corn, bean, zucchini salad with salsa verde aka the Mexican chopped vegetable salad aka corn salsa</div>
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2 ears of sweet corn with the kernels off the cob</div>
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2 summer squashed, halved and thinly sliced</div>
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1 clove of garlic thinly sliced</div>
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a large handle of cherry tomatoes, quartered</div>
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3 carrots, cut into small cubes</div>
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1 can of red kidney beans or black beans</div>
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about 1/2 cup of green salsa (Usually, I prefer the small can of Herdez salsa verde sold in the Latin section, but I had the end of a jar of Trader Joe's Hatch Valley green salsa</div>
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olive oil</div>
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salt to taste</div>
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Chopping all the vegetables is the most time consuming part of this recipe, but once everything is chopped, the salad comes together in 10 minutes</div>
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1. Start by washing and thinly slicing the zucchini aka summer squash and slicing the garlic</div>
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2. In large frying pan, add 2 generous tablespoons of olive oil, once warmed over medium heat, add the sliced garlic to flavor the oil. Do not burn the garlic, we are going for a subtle taste of garlic. Add the sliced zucchini in a flat layer to the oil, and let it sit without stirring for about 5 minutes. The goal is lightly browned zucchini. After these 5 minutes, shake the pan, cook for another 2-3 minutes and then pour the zucchini into a large bowl. </div>
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3. While the zucchini is browning, you can start to prepare the rest of the vegetables: slice the kernels off the corn, cube the carrots, and tomatoes, wash the kidney beans</div>
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4. Combine all the vegetables together in a large bowl. Add the green salsa to the vegetables, and gently mix together. Add salt to taste.</div>
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Enjoy as a salsa with chips, use it as the filling for tacos, eat as a topping for fried eggs, the options are many. Another great addition is adding avocado and scallions right before you serve it.</div>
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This salad can be made with any type of vegetables that mix well with Mexican flavors. In winter time when I want homemade salsa, I use canned corn, canned black beans, radishes, red onions, and carrots and because of modern agriculture tomatoes are available year round. The basic formula is canned beans, 2 types of crispy vegetables, tomatoes, a little bit of onion and salsa. Viola, you have food for a party or food for the week. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mason jar lunch </td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-89379742877540251242015-08-30T20:04:00.000-07:002015-08-30T20:06:48.573-07:00Cooking with friends on a weeknight: Fresh tomato sauce<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished product</td></tr>
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Cooking and eating with friends is always better than cooking and eating alone. Even better than indulging in cheese and chocolate while watching a Netflix marathon...<br />
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I'm making new friends in DC and part of that means inviting myself over to dinner at friend's houses. Or rather having friends who are welcoming and ask me over for dinner. It helps that through my residency program, I've met wonderful, lovely, friendly open people who allow me to come over and hang out in their kitchen. Having friends like this is a refuge--fun, relaxing, delicious refuge.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ca1xXbtH5vc/Vd_P66wRnaI/AAAAAAAAJKo/XoBxzlpRI68/s1600/20150827_191051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ca1xXbtH5vc/Vd_P66wRnaI/AAAAAAAAJKo/XoBxzlpRI68/s320/20150827_191051.jpg" width="320" /></a>Last week, I took up my friend/co-intern on her open invitation to dinner at her house during the week. Since I mostly prepare vegetarian food for myself, I have added a few vegetarian blogs to my browsing repertoire. One that I really enjoy is <a href="http://cookieandkate.com/">Cookie and Kate</a>, as I find most of her recipes accessible in terms of both ingredients and prep time. I liked the look of this <a href="http://cookieandkate.com/2015/spaghetti-with-fresh-tomato-sauce/">fresh tomato sauce</a>, essentially an uncooked tomato sauce, that shines during the hot summer months when it is possible to get fresh, juicy tomatoes at the farmer's market. On Wednesday, I purchased a few golden heirloom tomatoes and fresh garlic to take to my friend's house to make this sauce. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiralizer in action</td></tr>
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My friend and her fiance live a short, uphill bike ride away in Georgetown. Biking in Georgetown has the potential to be enjoyable, gliding by the beautiful brick homes with their lush front gardens. However the hills and the aggressive drivers make for a harrowing weekday-evening bike ride through the narrow streets. The drivers in Georgetown believe that if they drive fast enough the roads will magically widen to accommodate their luxury SUVs. The cars tail me closely as I try to bike as quickly as possible up serious hills, but my legs feel like they might burn off after 15-30 seconds of pedaling on pointe. I'm out of shape and the impatience of drivers on my tail or zipping past me does not improve my oxygen capacity.<br />
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I arrived to my friend's house, a bit weary and sweaty, but ready to go for a short dog walk before preparing a simple late summer meal. My friend suggested instead of pasta we use her <i>Spiralizer, </i>a pretty cool contraption that quickly turns any fruit or vegetable into pasta-like strings. My co-intern's fiance took on the Spiralizer; she prepared the roast chicken legs; I made the pasta sauce, and their dog kept vigil by the counter for scraps and company.<br />
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Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce, adapted from <a href="http://cookieandkate.com/2015/spaghetti-with-fresh-tomato-sauce/">Cookie and Kate</a>, originally from Bon Appetit<br />
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Ingredients:<br />
4 medium sized tomatoes, preferably fresh tomatoes, maybe from the farmer's market<br />
1 large clove of garlic<br />
1 handful of parsley leaves, washed and coarsely chopped with a few runs of a knife in either direction<br />
the juice of one lemon<br />
2 tbs of olive oil, more or less, just add for taste and sauce consistency<br />
1 tsp sugar<br />
salt and pepper to taste<br />
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1. Cut two and a half of the tomatoes into small cubes, retaining the seeds and liquid pulp and place in a large mixing bowl<br />
2. Using a box grater, grate the remaining one and half tomatoes into the bowl. Use the medium sized holes to get a fairly pulverized tomato. Toss the left over skins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chopped and grated tomatoes</td></tr>
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3. Mince the clove of garlic and add it to the chopped and liquefied tomatoes.<br />
4. Squeeze the lemon into the bowl with the tomatoes, garlic and lemon.<br />
5. Add the 1 tsp of salt and about a 1 tsp of salt (3 pinches of salt) and add a few turns of coarsely ground pepper.<br />
6. Mix well and let this sauce sit for at least 10 minutes, more time will only make it better. Ten minutes is about the time it should take the pasta to cook. We left our sauce for longer as we took a break to watch an episode of Parks and Recreation and let the chicken roast in the oven.<br />
7. At the last moment, before adding the sauce to pasta, add the chopped parsley to the tomato sauce and stir to combine parsley and sauce.<br />
8. Once the pasta (or spiralized zucchini) is cooked, add in the sauce to the pan with the cooked (and drained) pasta and toss to coat. If using actual pasta, you may want to add a few tablespoons of the cooking water to the tomato sauce. My sauce was very watery and did not need any extra liquid, I actually strained away a bit of liquid as I scooped the sauce onto the zucchini.<br />
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9. Toss the pasta and sauce until the pasta appear well coated. Serve the pasta onto plates and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-83972510792903349292015-08-26T20:57:00.000-07:002015-08-26T21:45:00.610-07:00DC come-back: Pressure Cooker Sweet Corn Soup <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 2011: A view of my old studio apartment.<br />
I swear the new one looks just like this...</td></tr>
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I hope this post is my transition back to food blogging. Ironically, the desire to blog comes from being back in DC, the place where it all began. There is something energizing about being back in the city. This evening was so lovely-- high 60's, the sun was soft, no breeze. It was an evening that felt like swimming in water of the perfect temperature. I decided to walk up to Shaw near R and First street, just wandering up and down streets, looking at colored town houses and smiling at everyone else who decided the evening deserved to be spent outside either on a patio, their stoop or walking. I walked past so many new restaurants that I wanted to try, so when I arrived home, I just couldn't spend another night eating a kimchi quesadilla (definitely a post on my new go to dinner at a later date)<br />
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I moved to back to DC for residency, and I have these constant flashes of my previous life here. It's like deja vu in which I am actively walking through old memories of events that occurred in this city. I spend 12 hours a day in GW hospital and often from the windows of patient rooms, I can see the brick facades of my freshman and sophomore dormitories, Fullbright and JBKO. It's a bit like living with one foot in the past. Things are certainly different now. For one, I'm way cooler now that I'm a bonafide doctor. I make more money. I'm more confident. Yet today I shopped for fresh ingredients to make this soup at the same Wednesday Farmer's market where I shopped in college. My living situation in DC didn't really improve. I am living in a different building, but my current studio feels just like the studio apartment where most of the posts on this food blog were made. I'm back to cooking in the smallest possible kitchen with crappy fluorescent lighting. I have 3 cabinets, so all of my dishes and implements are stored in an industrial shelf outside of the kitchen. My counter space is non-existent so yet again, I have to lay a cutting board over my sink to actually cook in my kitchen. In summary, four years later, back in DC: I'm a doctor with a closet for a kitchen. On a positive note, I have upgraded my location to Logan Circle, so my tiny kitchen is located in the coolest neighborhood within a reasonable walk to GWU. </div>
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SO enough complaining. Life is great considering I am working 80 hours a week and still find time to walk around and try to blog. I can't help but laugh at how far I've come and how nothing has changed. </div>
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As evidence that many things don't change, I still browse food blogs when I have downtime at work. On a particularly slow day at work yesterday, I was randomly clicking through Serious Eats and found this simple recipe for sweet corn soup made in a pressure cooker. I was given a pressure cooker by a friend in Galveston, and I have been trying to master the art of making different beans and curries. It's an old fashioned, stove top pressure cooker that whistles to relieve pressure. I love my pressure cooker; it really does speed up cooking. </div>
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It's still sweet corn season, and I knew my Wednesday farmer's market would have plenty corn and fresh ingredients to make this soup. So after my hour long wander through Shaw, I came back to my sweet, tiny studio and its kitchen and whipped up this soup to take to lunch for the next few days. </div>
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Here's the quick and easy recipe that I hope will rekindle my blogging fire: </div>
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Pressure Cooker Sweet Corn Soup (<a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/08/how-to-make-pressure-cooker-corn-soup.html">adapted from this recipe</a> on <a href="http://seriouseats.com/">seriouseats.com</a>)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note the old fashioned pressure cooker cover in the top right corner</td></tr>
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Ingredients: </div>
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1/2 white onion, coarsely chopped</div>
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sweet red pepper</div>
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2 cloves garlic</div>
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4 ears of corn</div>
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4 cups of broth, either prepackaged box broth or reconstituted from bullion</div>
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bay leaves</div>
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olive oil</div>
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salt and pepper</div>
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1. Coarsely chop the garlic, onion and red pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the pressure cooker. Over medium heat, saute the vegetables until softened and slightly browned, about 5-10 minutes. </div>
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2. While the vegetables cook, shuck the corn and remove the corn from the cobs. Reserve the cobs and cut them in half to fit into the pressure cooker</div>
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3. Add 4 cups of broth to the pressure cooker. (I didn't have any broth in a box or frozen broth, so I dissolved 2 bullion cubes in 4 cups of water) Then add in the corn kernels and the 4 cobs cut in half. I think the cobs help contribute to a sweet corn taste, especially as the soup is not cooked for very long. </div>
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4. Stir to combine the corn components and other vegetables, add the bay leaves.</div>
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5. Close the lid to the pressure cooker and turn up the stove heat to medium to high, so you hear the cooker top rattling for a good 10 minutes. Keep on the stove until the pressure cooker has whistled 2 times,then turn down the heat and cook for another 15 minutes on lower heat, with the top still rattling. </div>
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I realize the directions above sound like nonsense to someone without this style of pressure cooker.The original recipe on seriouseats.com simply instructs to cook the soup at the high pressure setting for 15 minutes. </div>
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6. After 15 minutes, relieve the pressure by lifting the top and releasing all the steam and then run water over the pressure cooker for one minute. Remove the top and let the soup cool. I let it sit on the stove for 30 minutes while engaged in my other favorite activity, a short yogaglo.com yoga class. </div>
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7. Once the soup is cool, puree the soup with an immersion blender or you can add it to batches into a blender or food processor. </div>
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My immersion blender is now my new favorite tool as neither my blender nor my food processor made the move to DC. Both were old, decrepit and unworthy of precious storage space. I would love to buy a fancy new cuisine art food processor, but every pay check is already allocated for a different luxury good like new boots, a cool fall blazer, concert tickets, and all of those fun city living activities that make my tiny kitchen bearable. </div>
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8. Once the soup is smooth, season to taste with salt, pepper, and an extra tablespoon of olive oil to round out the taste. </div>
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9. Ladle into your preferred serving container and garnish with either more corn, scallions, tomatoes, and eat cold or hot. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mason jar lunch for Thursday</td></tr>
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These days I eat a lot of my breakfasts and lunches out of mason jars. First of all it's easy to transport,even with a bumpy bike ride to work. For some reason eating out of jars makes lunch more enjoyable, like a makeshift bento box. </div>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-40464157431223905262015-05-21T04:08:00.000-07:002015-05-21T04:08:08.994-07:00Hsipaw: a bit of Shan country <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Our Nat-spirit protected taxi, delivered us safely to Hsipaw. We arrived at Tai House resort, a brand new hotel built to accommodate the backpacker boom in Hsipaw, fueled by the city's reputation as a jumping off point for treks into the Shan hills. A more adventurous traveler might venture to Lashio, further north in Shan country, closer to the skirmishes between Myanmar and a small group of separatist rebels. I celebrated my 27th birthday in Hsipaw. Myanmar cuisine offers many sweets, but chocolate cake isn't exactly a popular local dish. With the help of the guidebook, we found a decent brownie, and I celebrate the beginning of my 27 years with roast duck, cake, ice-cream and Mandalay rum.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the fields outside of Hsipaw </td></tr>
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The Shan state and other outer border states that are home to Myanmar's other ethnic groups who had their own princes and governments similar to the maharajas in colonial India. After World War II, Burma gained independence. In 1948, many of these states and rulers signed the initial constitution which was supposed to protect their autonomy and the eventual right to secede in 10 years. With the military coup in 1962, the army quashed all notions of autonomous states and attempted to bring the country under their iron fisted control.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entrance to an educational<br />
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The last Saopha of Hsipaw, Sao Kya Sen, was a progressive ruler, who after surviving the Japanese occupation of northern Burma, attended the University of Colorado and while the the US met and married an Austrian woman who became his princess. Together they tried to modernize agricultural practices and improve education. In 1962, in the first few days of the military coup, the Saopha was kidnapped and eventually executed by the army for refusing to cooperate with the Tatmadaw demands to aid them in destroying the Shan rebel army. The military government has never admitted to his disappearance and death.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rice noodles drying outside<br />
a local factory</td></tr>
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Hsipaw is a major agricultural center, surrounded by farming villages and cash crops such as rice, soy beans, and corn. Sam and I took a 5 hour guided trek with a local guide. He led us through Hsipaw showing us the local rice mill, noode factory and then into the villages. In addition to Shan villages, outskirts of Hsipaw was well populated with monasteries. Our guide (after jokingly asking me if I was a spy) admitted to being part of the 88 Generation. This is the group of university students who on August 8, 1988, protested against the oppressive military rule. The protests were ruthlessly quashed, thousands were killed by the army and the bodies were collected in truck beds and delivered to crematoriums. The 88 generation annointed Aung San Su Skyi their leader. After years of personal sacrifice, harassment by the military government and her long house arrest she remains the official leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nat shrine at the village entrance </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the Nat animal workshop </td></tr>
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All that introduction to say our guide was fairly open about the history of Myanmar though subtle in his criticisms. He said because the education within government provided schools is poor AND they are not free, educational monasteries fill the gap, at least for primary education. Monasteries take on novices and nuns. These are young children, about 5 to 12 whose parents send them to the monastery to live for a few years to receive primary education and learn the tenets of Buddhism. The monasteries are supported by donations from the villagers in the form of money and food. Hsipaw was full of little boys running around in the red monk robes. Many of the monasteries we walked through had 50-70 novices. Despite the dominance of Buddhism, Animism remains active in Shan villages through worship of Nat spirits. Each village has a Nat shrine "before the Buddha" at the entrance of the village. Some are raised platforms, decked with red and white flags with offerings of flowers, water, and fruit. Some of the shrines contain large wooden animals representing major animal spirits meant to protect the whole village. It seems Nat worship complements Buddhism, since inside each house a Buddha shrine also receives daily offerings and prayers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nat shrine along the path, a Nat spirit <br />
resides in the "empty " space </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rainy walk to the teak monastery </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The crumbling pagodas of Little Bagan </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam navigating us through the<br />
back roads Hsipaw </td></tr>
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The rains began in earnest during our stay at Hsipaw. Our 5 hour hike was the last clear day in that it only rained once during the day and again at night. Rain poured all night long and into each morning. We had wanted to take a 10 hour hike to the Paluang villages where tea is grown. However, we were dissuaded by the rain and muddy, slippery tracks. Each day, despite persistent showers, armed with waterproofs and umbrellas, we took short walks around Hsipaw to see the crumbling pagodas of "Little Bagan" and more villages and monasteries. We spent a lot of time reading on our porch or attempting to use the very slow wifi. I often had to remind my impatient American self that not only is open access to the internet fairly new to Myanmar, wireless internet and 3G are very new. Just one year ago, a SIM card cost $200 dollars, now they are $2 at every street corner. (Local lore courtesy of Samuel Pursch)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trash along the creek bed</td></tr>
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It must be said, Myanmar is a bit rough around the edges. There doesn't seem to be official trash collection or disposal outside of Yangon. The banks of picturesque country streams are covered with the detritus of village living. Along the railroad tracks, litter lines the path. Even Yangon doesn't have regularly stationed trashcans. On my first day in Yangon, I couldn't figure out where to throw the bits of plastic that sealed the tops of purified water bottles. The crinkly plastic accumulated in my pockets until Sam suggested I throw it on the ground like the Myanmar do. In place of trash cans, the city employs a legion of street sweepers. Still, the city and the countryside are dirty and littered, and I don't want to see the stew it becomes when the real monsoon rains arrive.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Common sight of a motorcyclist<br />
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Now I'm on the 15 hour bus back to Yangon. We are slowly retracing our path back to Pyin Oo Lwin to Mandalay and then back to Yangon. We are inching along the hairpin turns and switchbacks etched into the hills that flank the Goteik gorge. Motorcycles occasionally pass us, there is a line of equally large coach buses and trucks crawling along behind us. I can feel gears grind to brake on the steeper decline and pull us back up the steep ascent. In the morning we'll reach Yangon, but not until we've taken a few rest stops. The driving here is hard, and even in my impatience to get home, I can appreciate the need cool down the engine and restock on Betel nut and tea.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Village path along the river</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shan Hills around Hsipaw </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shan hills, more pagodas</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-16005236766940485492015-05-20T01:23:00.001-07:002015-05-20T01:23:20.565-07:00Four wheeled travel into the hills (Pyin Oo Lwin and beyond)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sam navigating through <br />Kandawgi Gardens</td></tr>
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There are many ways to travel around Myanmar cheaply. Sam and I have experienced several of these modes of transport including train, coach bus, mini-bus, motorcycle taxi and shared taxi. I suppose private chartered car or a simple plane ride would be optimal, but I'm out of student loan money and don't get my first paycheck until July 31st. I just can't afford that kind of luxury. <br />
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Our eight hour bus-rides to and from Yangon to Ngwe Saung beach introduced me to certain Myanmar bus behaviors including blaring Myanmar pop music and the accompanying videos over the main speakers. This country also has a love affair with the rest stop which lasts 30 minutes to eat an entire meal. I think it's a nod to Buddhist views that if you get to live more than one life, why rush through this one. A 30 minute stop (or two or three) on an 8 hour bus ride won't hurt anyone...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mini-bus rest-stop</td></tr>
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Even during our 4 hour drive from Bagan to Mandalay, the minibus stopped at a fairly deserted restaurant for 30 minutes. Half of the passengers ate a traditional Myanmar meal, while most of the foreigners stared wistfully at their coca-cola cans with neon straws wondering if we would ever leave. These long rest stops also serve the purpose of cooling down the engine and washing bugs and serious dust off the vehicle.<br />
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Minibus travel is less preferable to a regular coach bus, but better than the train. The minibus ride from Bagan to Mandalay was cramped and incredibly bumpy with tepid air conditioning. At first we drove along literal dirt roads and at one point we crossed a river on a shared bridge: a bridge with train tracks that cars use as well. Our driver was more aggressive than most Myanmar as he vigorously beeped his car horn at every motorcycle we passed. Outside of Yangon, Myanmar transport is dominated by motorbikes. Driving etiquette is orchestrated through horn honking. A car or truck will honk their horn a few times to let the motorbike know they are going to be passed. All mechanized vehicles honk at pedestrians to alert them of their presence. Mandalay, quite a large city, had almost no traffic lights or stop signs yet quite a lot of cars and motorbikes. A car would honk twice before turning a corners and just continuously honk as it crossed an intersection. Apparently there is rule for this chaos: the driver is responsible for everything in front of them and with that should avoid collisions.<br />
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Sam and I stopped overnight in Mandalay where it was 108F to catch a bus to cooler parts of the country. We wandered the back streets of the city and walked by the razor wire covered fences of large houses and compounds in the neighborhood next to the royal palace. We observed the dominance of Chinese culture through language and food in a city that is considered a hub for Chinese commerce in Myanmar.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside an old colonial building</td></tr>
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Though Mandalay was the royal capital during the Burmese monarchy, much of the city and palace was destroyed by Allied bombs while fighting the Japanese during World War 2. The last Burmese monarch, King Thibaw was deposed by the British and exiled to India. The last royal white elephant, a symbol of the monarchy was unceremoniously dragged out of the palace. In an effort known as "Burmesifcation," a movement to promote the Burmese history over the history and culture of the other ethnic minorities, the military government built a replica of the royal palace and used forced labor to re-dig the surrounding moat.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tennis court at the British Club, certainly has seen better days</td></tr>
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We caught a shared taxi from Mandalay to Pyin Oo Lwin. We squeezed 4 people plus the driver into a decent sized sedan. This 2 hour taxi ride cost $7 each, and we made only two stops for gas and betel nut for the driver. Pyin Oo Lwin, called Maymyo (May Town) by the British, was founded in 1887 as the summer capital and a respite from summer heat of Yangon. At an elevation of 3600 feet, the town is significantly cooler, the winding roads are shaded with the red flowered Royal Poinciana tree and pine trees. The town's former glory is preserved by the many colonial English houses, usually brick framed in teak wood. Some houses are dilapidated, others refurbished by wealthy military or Chinese families.<br />
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We took a motorcycle ride to the Candicraig, former British Club. British officers from Mandalay who longed for the feel of their English home would regularly ride two hours along twisting mountain roads to drink gin and tonics and play pool at the Candicraig. After the Brits left, it was turned into a government run hotel for foreign visitors to Pyin Oo Lwin. We met the caretaker of the Candicraig who told us the historical 7 room mansion was to be redone and expanded into a boutique hotel with a pool. I agree with the former Colonial officers. Pyin Oo Lwin was a quiet, cool retreat from other parts of Myanmar and I most enjoyed motorcycle rides along the pine shaded winding country roads.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side view of the Candicraig, <br />original doors</td></tr>
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Pyin Oo Lwin is still home to the central military academy of the Myanmar army ( aka the Tatmadaw). The town is also the home of Kandawgi Gardens, a 430 acre botanical garden, founded by the British in 1915. Parts are maintained as a model of English gardens, the bulk is forest reserve to conserve and propagate many native species. Each tree genus has a large plot dedicated to the different species; the best example was the Bamboo orchard.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">English part of Kandawgi Gardens</td></tr>
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From Pyin Oo Lwin, we caught a $14, four hour shared taxi to Hsipaw, former capital of the Shan State. Our cab driver, a quintessential Buddhist driver had one foot on the accelerator and one foot in the afterlife. He zoomed through the Shan country roads. On his rearview mirror hung red and white pieces of fabric, Nat flags, symbolizing protection by traditional animist spirits. Shan state is mountainous, good for growing tea, coffee, and a hair-raising cab ride. We had a 5 mile stretch of hairpin turns, as we descended and then ascended the area around the Goteik viaduct, an American made bridge that crosses a 350 foot gorge. These sometimes one lane, sharp angled roads were crowded with taxis, motorcycles, huge trucks and buses with lots of honking in a dance of passing on the mountain.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perplexed in the "Bambuseum"</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-90093482055226814602015-05-13T08:53:00.000-07:002015-05-20T01:14:02.330-07:00Temples of Bagan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Bagan is perhaps Myanmar's most mystical, stunning and photographed site. In a true ditz move, I left my camera battery charging in Yangon, so all I have to offer are a few android cellphone pictures.<br />
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This ancient city was established when a great Bamar king converted from Hinduism to Buddism. Over several miles of plains, some 4000 temples dot the landscape. The construction took place over a 230 year period ending in 1287. The majority of signed temples indicate building years of 1150 to 1200. The structures are monuments to the power of Buddhism in this area with an emphasis on mediation but also to the older belief that building a temple for the Buddha might help atone for sins committed in this life and prevent a powerful person from being reincarnated as something undesirable like a woman. (Reincarnation as a woman is lower than many other animals)<br />
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Devotion to Buddha and fear of reincarnation made Bagan a majestic panorama of mostly red brick temples with accents of occasional white temples and golden pagodas. One can drive for 20 minutes along the main road and there are temples as far as the eye can see. The touristic part is split into Old and New Bagan. Old Bagan is an area of hotels and businesses nestled within the highest concentration of impressive temples, near the original ancient Bagan City center. In 1990 the Myanmar government ordered a relocation of all people living within the old city limits and through imminent domain (aka the military junta government says do it) relocated them to some former peanut fields a few miles away. We stayed in new Bagan at the lovely Arthawka Hotel. Like most tourists, we saw Bagan riding around on electric bikes. The e-bikes were more like scooters, and made me feel like I was touring this ancient city either on very fast motorized wheel chair or a very slow podracer from Star Wars Episode One: Phantom Menace. So while feeling like a very lucky medicare recipient vs. a star wars character, I whirred along the red dirt paths from temple to temple.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buddha in a small shrine</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our e-bikes</td></tr>
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Each temple, from those the size of a doll's house to grander mansion sized temples have at least one Buddha statue within the sanctuary. Many of the midsized temples have a tiny staircase to un upper level mediation area that also opens onto the roof of the temple. From the roof of any of these temples, we had a splendid view of the whole plain. On our first evening in Bagan, we set out on our e-bikes to watch the sunset. We met a young artist from Bagan who showed us which temples we could climb on and pointed out the major temples on the plains.<br />
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We spent one and a half days in Bagan and could have used one more to properly see all of the major temples. It the hottest time of the year to visit Bagan. As these temples are Buddhist holy sites and many are actively worshipped, we have to remove our shoes to enter even the courtyard of the temple. By 10am the blazing sun heats the stones to a scorching temperature and it is painful to walk on any unshaded part. We woke up at 4:30am and were on our e-bikes by 5am, speeding down the main road from new to old Bagan. We made a disorganized tour of the major temples, with a few instances of driving our tiny machines through thick sand trying to get from one track to another. A few of the temples have decently preserved frescoes of the Buddha's life and teachings. The whole setting of holy places in such a desolate place reminded me of the cave churches in Kappadokya. The battery of Sam's e-bike started to drain quickly around 8am, so we started our journey back to the hotel.<br />
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We went went out again in the evening to catch sunset from a temple rooftop, but a threatened rainstorm chased us and our dinky e-bikes back to New Bagan. Instead we watched the sun set along the Ayeyarwady River and had a delicious meal of mutton curry, coconut rice, lentils, and eggplant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset over the Ayeyarwady River</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standing Buddha inside Ananda Pahto</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hallway of Ananda Pahto</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0Old Bagan, Republic of the Union of Myanmar21.172222 94.86027821.157415 94.840108 21.187029000000003 94.880447999999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-87827578500583521812015-05-13T02:08:00.000-07:002015-05-13T02:08:38.153-07:00Train travel in Myanmar: not suitable for the impatient (Yangon to Bagan)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Next stop on my Myanmar itinerary is Bagan, an ancient city in the dry plains comprised of Buddhist temples built from 1100 to about 1250. Bagan is due north of Yangon, and most travelers take the 10 hour air conditioned bus from Yangon to Bagan. We decided we wanted an "experience. " One of those travel memories that will last forever, growing golden with distance from the actual event. Hence we chose the 16 hour overnight train from Yangon to Bagan. It seemed like an ideal way to experience the form of transport brought to Burma by the British and see the Myanmar countryside. What countryside we saw! For 20 hours we had our fill of countryside.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A common sign around Myanmar </td></tr>
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Train travel is highly romanticized--for reasons unclear to me. Maybe it is the idea of rolling through the countryside on a form of transport that once represented progress and adventure, like Manifest Destiny. In countries with modern railway systems the journeys are more bearable; I have had a few lovely, scenic train rides through bucolic England. However when you travel in a country like Myanmar, abolish all hopes for smooth, quaint ride through rolling green hills. Really, I should have known better, but the romance of the railway got the better of me. I have the experience of two train adventures in Eastern Europe traveling in Soviet era train cars, both of which were delayed affairs with dodgy windows. One of these trips was an overnight train from Serbia to Bulgaria that was supposed to be a sleeper car with beds. Instead it was six awkwardly overstuffed chairs, amd Sam and I spent the night squeezed like sardines with 4 expansive, surly Eastern European men.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outskirts of Yangon </td></tr>
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Our current journey started well, a sleeper car with clean beds, and only three people to our car. Our scheduled 4pm train left the Yangon station promptly at 4:10pm and traveled quite slowly through the slums of Yangon built along the train tracks. The track was already quite bumpy with a few jostles that got us swaying. My companions and I speculated on whether the track would improve or worsen as we left the Yangon city limits. We bumped along for about 2 hours enjoying the view of paddy fields when our train came to a slow stop. I looked out the window to see five men in longyi looking intently at the wheels on our train car. The sun was setting, flashlights were turned on to further inspect the problem, the guy in the next compartment nonchalantly hopped out off the train to smoke a cigarette. Mechanical difficulty; no big deal. Thirty minutes later we started rolling again. As the train increased speed, the turbulence picked up with some bumps that felt like train might leap off the rails. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A tyoical train car</td></tr>
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We were lucky in our Upper-class sleeper car. For $16.50 a ticket we each had our own bed, 4 sleeper compartments per car with maximum 4 people to a compartment. The standard class at $5 a ticket, consisted a train car filled 2 two aisles of two person wooden benches, with the more than 30 people to a car. The passengers where sprawled on the benches or sleeping on the floor.<br />
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Around 8pm we stopped again at the Letpadan station. We must have been stopped for 20 minutes, as I walked in the direction of the dinning car for beer to find our train car was no longer attached to the rest of the train. I stepped off to investigate, yes indeed we were a lone car, the rest of the train had been pulled onto a parallel set of tracks. For reasons never made clear, we had an hour or so delay for the sleeper car to move from the back of the train to behind the engine. <br />
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After a dinner of sweet and sour chicken in the dining car where the chairs jumped with each bump, we retired to our compartment to sleep. The upper berth was an oven, with the fan that mocked me with each oscillation, never managing to send a breeze in my direction. It seemed every bump on the rails was risking a herniated disk. So Sam and slept head to foot squeezed on the bottom bunk.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Landscape in the central zone</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recently ploughed field ready for the monsoon</td></tr>
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At 6am, I glimpsed pink sky of the recently risen sun, and the landscape had changed from dry rice paddy fields to the red dirt and scrubby trees of the central dry zone of Myanmar. I was covered with a thin layer of grime, as through the night, the dust of the countryside settled on our sweaty bodies while we slept.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A seasoned passenger</td></tr>
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With all the delays, and the fact that the train probably never went above 50 miles per hour, our 16 hour train ride turned into 20 hours.It's the last few hours that make me curse train travel. As the sun rose, our comparment slowly baked. Time seemed stubbornly slow as we jostled through unchanging landscape of freshly ploughed red dirt fields, palm trees, and villages of ratan amd bamboo shacks. By hour 18 I had cabin fever. No position was comfortable, neither seated on the sweat dampened bed nor squating at the passage way window to feel some breeze. I felt so dirty, no amount of wet wipes could clean away the sweaty grime. Then with no warning we were at our destination. A porter came to our room saying "Bagan station." We were hustled off the train, our companion of 20 hours, and into the midday heat of Bagan.<br />
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For your train trip through Myanmar, I recommend you bring: 1) snacks, water, and a flask to keep your spirits up 2) toilet paper, wet wipes and hand sanitize for serial cleansing throughout the ride 3) a headlamp and a fan because the lights and fan in our comparment were shoddy 4) reading material so you don't kill your travel companions 6) an immense amount of patience and mantra along the lines of " this is worth the experience."<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-26797596792251114782015-05-09T22:23:00.000-07:002015-05-09T23:12:37.201-07:00Shwedagon Pagoda<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shwedagon at dawn</td></tr>
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My second morning in Yangon, I took advantage of my jet lag to wake up at 4:30am to visit Shwedagon Pagoda at dawn. Myanmar is not called Land of the golden pagodas for nothing. Even at Ngwe Saung, a fairly secluded beach town there were 3 miniature gilded pagodas within a short walk from our beach bungalow. <br />
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Shwedagon is known as the crown of Burma and stands at 325 feet, adorned with 27 metric tons of gold. Whether gleaming in the bright sun during the day or illuminated with industrial lights at night, Shwedagon is a glowing tower that can be seen from all over Yangon. This pagoda is an important buddhist monument as it is said to hold 8 hairs of Gautama Buddha that he gave to 2 Burmese merchants who offered him honey cakes as alms. The term "pagoda" is misleading in terms of Shwedagon; in fact it is religious compound made up of gilded Buddhas and shrines to house the Buddhas.<br />
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At 5am, my taxi dropped me at the East gate (not the renowned Southern gate guarded by a pair of giant Chinthe.) This entrance appeared to be a regular market street. However vendors were already pushing pagoda-specific wares of plastic bags for shoes and wreaths of jasmine and other flowers as offerings for the Buddha. I followed 3 monks toward an impressive staircase and removed my shoes when they did so. We ascended three flights of stairs, finally emerging onto the main terrace where I was greeted by the towering pagoda. I expected the place to be empty before dawn, but it already vibrating with activities of worship. The larger Buddha statues have their own shrines that look like open air temples. Many of theses structures were full of monks and other supplicants chanting and ceremonially cleaning and draping the Buddha in yellow robes. <br />
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The scent of incense gently scented the compound as each Buddha shrine was adorned with candles, incense, food offerings and flowers. Shwedagon pagoda with its hundreds of mini-shrines to buddha, each with its own group of adorers, struck me as what catholics would do for saints if worshipping saints didn't already verge on idolatry. Saints and the many different of buddhas represent the idea that our prayers and desires are best taken to God's ear by an advocate who knows and understands our pleas. I suppose I felt at home because of my Catholic background, and my mother's devotion to certain saints to help her family.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pre-dawn prayers</td></tr>
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At 6am Shwedagon was positively frenetic with worshipers and visitors, like myself, who seemed content to make the counterclockwise lap around Shwedagon over and over. I never tired of gazing up at the gleaming tower, or admiring the other gilded buildings that contained Buddhas in a variety of positions and made from different mediums. I wandered into one shrine, covered in a mosaic of mirrors, with several Buddhas sitting in a forest under trees. The pewter colored buddhas were being rubbed down with Brasso.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buddhas being polished with brasso</td></tr>
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The most impressive site was a ceremonial march of many monks and others around the pagoda ending in one of the larger shrines tuckes away in a corner. Three monks led the procession chanting and holding incense, their chant was echoed by the followers, then punctuated by a sharp horn, a chime, and the bang of a gong. The planetary shrines, 8 in total, represent the days of the week with Wednesday having one for morning and evening. For luck, people pray and make offerings to the shrine of the day of their birth. These seemed to be the most active miniature shrines with different groups, mostly women, taking turns to wash the Buddha with small cups of water and lay wreaths of flowers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After sunrise </td></tr>
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Shwedagon was a welcome glimpse and introduction to Buddhism in this majority Buddhist nation. For better or worse, religion permeates daily life in Myanmar. Monks and nuns roam the streets with the rest of us. I was delighted to see monks on the beach at Ngwe Saung; indicative that the monks live among the people they ask for alms. I know some monks in Myanmar incite violence against the muslim minority group the Rohingya and Buddhism has been used as a tool of nationalism by the military government. The locals know monks are not free from corruption or venal desires. Despite their vow to a simple life, daily asking of alms, and allowed only 6 possessions, many monks happily play on their iPhone 6.<br />
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I liked the manifestation of Buddhism I saw at Shwedagon pagoda; it was solemn but joyful, vocal, and transparent in its practice. The buddhas are plied with offerings because the worshipers are asking for something in return. When the pagoda is re-gilded, people make donations to cover the cost of gold leaf. There is a very clear understanding: you must give in order to receive. Shwedagon was opulent, and it begs the question of the amount of charitable services could be bought with that type of money. Yet, I appreciated that the gold and beauty of Shwedagon was open to all worshipers (Well, $8 for tourists.) and the compound felt like a community center, not a silent cathedral. My next tangle with Buddhism will be at Bagan, an ancient city filled with Buddhist temples, pagodas, and a glimpse into Myanmar's past.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com1Yangon, Republic of the Union of Myanmar16.780833 96.14972216.294674500000003 95.504274999999993 17.2669915 96.795169tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-47383340634839439792015-05-07T23:54:00.001-07:002015-05-07T23:54:26.874-07:00Ngwe Saung Beach Motorcycle Ride Video<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Sam has a GoPro and this vacation seems like the ideal place to break it in. I'd like to point out the tagline for GoPro is "Be a hero." We are not heroes, but it is incredibly satisfying to record such stunning, rural landscape. Here is the first attempt at amateur video; mostly long landscape views roughly chopped together. Don't judge the quality, simply enjoy the scenery. I asked the ferryman permission to record probably the only hand pulled ferry I'll see.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-20748663199305648032015-05-07T22:36:00.000-07:002015-05-07T23:46:23.545-07:00Yes, this is paradise: Ngwe Saung <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the beach!</td></tr>
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In my opinion, no extended warm weather vacation is complete without a stay on the beach. I can't say if this belief is due to my Cuban heritage or my father's insistence that relaxation can only happen in view of lapping waves. Yes, I've lived on an island, in a beach town, for 4 years. Yes, I've enjoyed my own Gulf of Mexico beach and reveling in the laid-back island culture. I still needed to visit a beach while in Myanmar. My own Galveston beach, even without the seaweed invasion, can't compete with any foreign beaches. As the Cuban saying goes, my wine is vinegar, but it is my wine (Mi vino es agrio, pero es mi vino). I'm happy to report that I may have found a small strip of paradise here in Myanmar. What a pity it takes over 24 hour to travel here from the US....<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Yangon: Sam buying our bus tickets to Ngwe Saung</td></tr>
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Sam knows my intense love of the beach, so he arranged for 5 days in Ngwe Saung in the Ayeyarwady region on the southwestern coast of Myanmar. Apparently Ngwe Saung and Chau Tang are popular beach towns for weekend trips from Yangon.<br />
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Both beach towns are dotted with upscale resorts, however we are staying at the southern tip of Ngwe Saung beach, the more remote part of this 13 mile beach. Our beach adventure began with a 9pm bus from Yangon. Buses are the primary mode of long distance travel in Myanmar; one round trip ticket from Yangon to Ngwe Saung cost $25. Our Golden Star bus was of slightly higher quality than an American greyhound bus with excellent air conditioning and room to recline the seats. When we boarded, there was a persistent beeping noise that I assumed was due to the bus door being open and would stop when we started driving. The beeping, in triplet rhythm, continued the entire bus ride, though it was drowned out the first few hours by Myanmar pop music played over the intercom. The bus trip took 7 hours, mostly along narrow country roads with pit stops every 2 hours for the bus driver to smoke a cigarette and for bathroom breaks as the bus had no toilet. The last 30 mile leg, from Panthein to Ngwe Saung, was a 2 hour crawl along twisting roads.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of Shwe Hin Tha Resort Hotel</td></tr>
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Four days into our stay, I am happy with our accommodation, Shwe Hin Tha Resort Hotel. I'll admit I was skeptical when we arrived at 4:30 am to a very basic bamboo hut with a rusty fan. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Said rusty fan</td></tr>
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Resort is an overstatement; it is more a collection of bamboo and concrete beach bungalows, and a decent hotel restaurant and deck. Everywhere at hotel offers a panorama of the gorgeous beach. The power is off during the day time, so all the guests spend their time on the beach or on their porches admiring the beach. A lone 1990s fan runs at night to circulate the ocean breeze and makes it manageable to sleep under the mosquito net.<br />
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Thanks to a recommendation from one of Sam's friends, we have eaten last two nights at the neighboring beach front restaurant, Jasmine. Both nights we were served at perfectly grilled whole fish with a crunchy salt and garlic crust, tender and flaky white meat complemented by a subtle chili oil sauce that we washed down with Myanmar beer.<br />
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I have spent most of my days either reading on the beach, relaxing on our porch, or swimming in the warm turquoise water. This beach doesn't have a sunbathing culture, evidenced by the the most uncomfortable hard blue wooden lounge chairs under our beachfront hotel palapas. Most of the Myanmar swim in their longyi or the women stay mostly clothed long shorts and shirts; the only people in bathing suits are the other westerners at our hotel. It's hard to tell if this is cultural modesty or if the Myanmar want to protect themselves from the sun. Mostly there are people walking along the beach or sitting on their own bungalow porch admiring the view.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ngwe Saung Yacht Club Marina</td></tr>
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I had to have a few hours of comfortable sunbathing on a cushioned lounge chair, so I took a field trip to Ngwe Saung Yacht Club Marina, an actual resort 10 minutes away by motorcycle. In 2012, Myanmar hosted the 2012 ASEA games and Ngwe Saung was the watersport hub. I love the indulgence of swimming in a cool, blue pool while admiring a pristine beach.<br />
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Yesterday, we rented a motorcycle and rode along the shoreline at low-tide. For most of the trip we were the only people on the beach. Motorcycle and the ubiquitous motorcycle taxi is the main form of transport to access the remote parts of the beach that is sparsely populated with fishing villages. On our hour long ride, we occasionally passed other motorcycles, but no other tourists.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Remote Ngwe Saung beach</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ferry Crossing</td></tr>
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We crossed a small eddy using a simple hand pulled ferry hand; we paid the man 300 kyatts (30 cents). I felt immense joy and gratitude, as we experienced such a stunning, isolated scene. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lone beer station for the fishing villages</td></tr>
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0Ngwesaung, Republic of the Union of Myanmar16.8685083 94.38478140000006516.8077193 94.304100400000067 16.929297299999998 94.465462400000064tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1087737638645732983.post-35578306397995503022015-05-06T00:49:00.000-07:002015-05-06T00:49:28.118-07:00Welcome to Myanmar, the land of golden pagodas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical downtown Yangon street</td></tr>
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I think am in the best time of my life. On May 30th, I graduate medical school and go on to start my psychiatry residency at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. Before my real work begins, I have one month of adventure which I have chosen to spend in Myanmar with my dear friend, Samuel Pursch. He moved to Myanmar in February to establish himself as an expert in a country that has only recently cracked the door to increasing development and a transition away from an authoritarian military government. As Sam says, the opening is a process and we will hear much more about Myanmar as other countries begin to trade and invest and influence its economy and culture. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old and new as seen from Mahabandoola Gardens</td></tr>
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For a tourist, the choice to come here is easy. Myanmar feels exotic, still naive to tourism, and far removed from its colonial past to not feel European. In 3 weeks we will see only a fraction of this place yet still visit major cities like Yangon and Mandalay, lay on a beautiful beach, motorbike seeing pagodas in an ancient Buddhist city, hike around a British hill station, and see a lake side city.<br />
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I flew to Yangon via Dubai and Bangkok. It took over 24 hours to get here, but I can happily say, well worth the time and effort. My taxi drive from the airport introduced me to Yangon 's themes of gilded pagodas, worn down stone buildings, brand new glass windowed developments and green public spaces. Yangon feels native as most men and women wear the traditional longyi, fabric wrapped to appear like long skirts. The city life happens on the streets, with tea and noodle vendors serving their customers on the sidewalk at low tables and stools and numerous fruit and vegetable merchants. Also sold are traditional local products such as betel nut (similar to chewing tobacco) and thanaka, a white plant based powder sold on leaves and applied primarily to the face for sun protection and style.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fried quails eggs outside of Botataung Pagoda </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shan noodle dish & goyza fried on rice paper</td></tr>
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My first night in town, went to Sapphire Bar the Alpha Hotel, a regular expat hang out with a view of Schwedagon Pagoda, the largest gilded pagoda in Myanmar. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View of Schwedagon from the rooftop bar</td></tr>
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The term "bar" is a bit of an overstatement, more like your friend's apartment rooftop with some garden furniture and a full bar set up on a folding table. However, the view of Yangon was lovely and accompanied by a light breeze. For dinner, we ate at an open air Shan noodle bar and I experienced a new form of fried goyza.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakfast scene at the Strand Hotel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunny promenade through<br /> Mahabandoola Gardens</td></tr>
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As Myanmar is across the globe from Texas, I am severely jet lagged, so my first morning in Yangon, I woke up to do yoga in Sams apartment which might as well have been an oven. The bedrooms are air conditioned and cool, but most large rooms are baking if there's no breeze. I arrived in Myanmar on Friday May 1st, Labor day everywhere else in the world except the US. Thus on Saturday May 2nd, most public institutions such as museums and many restaurants were closed. We started with a walk to the Strand Hotel for coffee and a stroll through Mahabandoola Gardens. Then Sam and I great plans to get my dollars changed, see The National Museum and some contemporary galleries. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Myanmar on holiday in People's Park</td></tr>
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Literally everything we planned to see was closed, so we meandered into People's Park, which was full of Myanmar enjoying their weekend with promenades and picnics. Two young women seemed surprised to see Sam and I, seated under a tree in the shade enjoying a respite from the 11am sun. They asked to take a picture of us, and I insisted on returning the favor. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Most Myanmar carry umbrellas for </span><br style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">sun protection </span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">during the day</span></td></tr>
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Having left Sam's flat at 8am, we walked through the city during peak sun hours, finally making it back to the flat at 1:30pm. I had to recover for a while, but finally in the evening we went to Botataung Pagoda which was packed for the holiday. The pagoda compound was more like a community center or a town plaza on a Saturday night with people celebrating, making offerings to the Buddhas and snacking with their families.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shrine at the corner <br />Botataung Pagoda </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Within the main shrine, LED lights grace the Buddha's head</td></tr>
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We finished our evening with a drink at an interesting but strangely creepy bar called Vintage Luxury Hotel, an old cruise ship, docked in the river, refurbished to evoke the early 1900s. Think Titanic furnishings overlooking a fairly industrial river scene, but still a view of Botataung pagoda glowing in the distance. We ate dinner at Green Gallery, a delicious Thai place close to Sam's house, run by a young Myanmar woman called Bo, who did her culinary training in Thailand. I will definitely crave the prawn salad, similar to ceviche with shrimp marinated in lime, chilis, chili oil, tomatoes and shallots. It was an incredibly long, hot day full of new visual and mental stimuli.<br />
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Kitchendochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17483801421705381786noreply@blogger.com0Yangon, Republic of the Union of Myanmar16.780833 96.14972216.294674500000003 95.504274999999993 17.2669915 96.795169