Fooding Around with Debra

Jaffa/Yafo at Dusk

2010-07-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

After a long day at my desk, Dick and I took a walk to Jaffa/Yafo. It is just 10 minutes from Neve Tzedek, where we are staying and is one of the world's oldest cities. It is very hot here, even at day's end. We made our way up the hill and to look down over the port of Jaffa. This is the mosque that sounds the call to prayer.

It was Saturday, Shabbat, the day of rest and the famous flea market, shops, art galleries and most restaurants were shuttered. At first it was disappointing but then I felt it gave us the opportunity to really see the buildings and discover things we might otherwise have missed has we been dazzled by all the tchotchkes (STUFF).

We walked up to the top of the hill to look out over the port. There were signs and statues for Napoleon all over. That guy was everywhere - too bad there were no Frequet Flyer programs when he was tramping all over the world in his land grab.

The restaurant Dr. Shakshuka was recommended to us but alas, it was closed. We settled on one of the few restaurants open Puaa, a funky restaurant off on a side street. It was hot enough for us to opt for an inside table, just beyond the door;half in half out. Patrons were mostly families and the vibe was very homey. We opted for a vegetarian meal that was outstanding and had such a wonderful mixture of herbs and spices: brown rice and lentil salad with walnuts, raisins, parsley, coriander and fennel, then a tomato and cucumber salad with red onions with croutons made from bread seasoned with that wonderful zaatar mixture again and finally pumpkin dumplings in a coconut and coriander sauce with the most fragrant basmati rice. It was one of the best meals we have had here.

By the time we were finished it was dark and we walked back along the high street and people were lined up for stuffed sandwiches, shwarma -- giant cones of seasoned steamed meat that is shaved off the spiral with long knives and stuffed into pita and focaccia-type bread sprinkled with zaatar and the deep rosy and sour spice sumac on plates with hummus.

We found Dr. Shakshuka on our way back to the apartment. Definitely going back! This time when those shops are open!

SHALOM from Tel Aviv, Israel

2010-07-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

It has been an age since I last posted on my blog. I have been AWOL! We have since been in China and Japan in January of 2010. But now I am in Tel Aviv, Israel for 2 weeks and then one week traveling to Haifa and Jerusalem. It is my first time in the Middle East. I am working the manuscript for my new cookbook on home style Japanese cuisine in our lovely apartment in the Neve Tzedek section of Tel Aviv, one of the oldest in the city. It is a very funky area with lots of wonderful bistros, cafes, an art and dance scene and the outdoor shopping area, The Hacarmel Market. During the day I write and at night my husband Dick and I go in search of a good meal. We are a 10 minute walk from the beach, where we spent our first night in Tel Aviv watching the final of the World Cup match on a large screen with hundreds of other fans. We
dipped pita bread into Hummus Shakshuka - Chick Pea Dip with Egg in Tomato Sauce. It was the creamiest spread of hummus I ever had.

Iplayed hooky for an hour today and went to the Carmel Market. I was able to buy baby okra and tomatoes for a stew I made in our little kitchen. I got a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and picked up the spices zaatar (sesame seeds and thyme) and the sour red spice sumac for gifts. They are sprinkled on top of the thick creamy yogurt cheese, labne. A drizzle of olive oil is spread over the spices and fresh pita bread is used for scooping up this savory dip. Besides food, there are hats, T-shirts in Hebrew and lots of religious collectibles.

Tonight we had a picnic dinner on the beach with the sun setting over the Mediterranean.
We walked on the path toward Jaffa. People were swimming in the ocean, there were bike riders and runners and Arab families enjoying grilling meats on the grassy areas of this wonderful park. The windows of one of Jaffa's several churches began to reflect the pink glow in the dusky sky and the loud speaker on a mosque was calling the faithful to prayer.

An Evening at Kwang Jang Market in Seoul

2010-02-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

Well I am going to try something new for this post. Come with me for a slide tour and commentary as my husband Dick and I go in search of a hot meal on a cold night as we cruise around the hopping Kwang Jang Market. Click on the photo to start the slide show and prepare to get hungry!

A Stay at a Traditional Korean Inn

2010-01-16T04:08:00.000-08:00

Professor Hee Sun Jeong of the Korean Food Institute at Sookmyung University and I met when she came to Boston with a team to cook a meal of Imperial cuisine for 100 people! I visited the Institute when in Seoul and was greeted with a warming and refreshing cup of hot yooja tea. A piece of preserved yooja (citron) in sugar syrup is set in a celadon tea cup and topped with slivers of date, pinenuts and chestnut. This citrus is my very favorite flavor. Yuzu in Japanese, is still hard to find fresh in the United States.

For a reunion, Hee Sun (to my left) and her talented assistants and I went to lunch at fusion style restaurant that served delicious contemporary Korean food.

This sweet and piquant fruit salad was a highlight for me with apple, pear, celery, shrimp dressed in an ethereal creamy pinenut and mustard dressing.

Hee Sun invited my husband Dick and me to go with her family and their friends to Andong Province to stay in a traditional 17th century Korean home, about 4 hours south of Seoul. But don’t be fooled by the word south -- it was still terribly cold! We pulled in late in the evening at Jirye Artist Colony, a compound of buildings, in a picturesque setting atop hill over looking a lake. We traversed our way up a very winding road for a half hour. The next day I was glad it was pitch black when we had arrived as the side of the road has a very STEEP drop.

Kim Won-Gil, the owner and his family greeted us with cakes and wine which we enjoyed in the building that housed the kitchen and common dining area. Mr. Kim is not only an inn keep for his ancestral home he is also a professor and poet. He showed us one of his poems with a line about Jirye as "a place to listen to the earth revolve." As we left the warmth of the kitchen to go to our respective rooms in other buildings, we stepped into shoes and out into the cold night with a sky lit up by stars that seemed close enough to touch. It was time to go to bed
and experience ondul -- the radiant floor heating system, still in use today. However, this floor was heated the old fashion way, with fire that heated logs and kindle that smoldered throughout the night.
The brilliant system allows for the hot logs to be pushed through a channel under the floor. It got ever hotter as the night wore on. There was but a thin mattress between us and the very warm floor which is made of cement (HARD) and covered with multiple layers of paper brushed with natural plant oils, giving it a a shiny yellowish cast. The room was not heated -- the floor was. Our bodies were warm but my nose was sure cold! The clothes, I refused to take off initially, got stripped off piece by piece, all the way to dawn -- the socks were the last to go! It was a great experience but if I ever do it again, it will be in the summer!

The breakfast gong rang and we all emerged from our rooms. Somehow during the night the kids had left their building and crawled into the room with their respective parents.Breakfast in the warm kitchen dining area was rice porridge served with platters of banchan, the side dishes that accompany all meals in Korea. Spinach, beans, seasoned fish are eaten with the thick soup.

After breakfast we walked around the grounds. Right outside the kitchen was the family's collection of home made sauces and pastes in large clay urns. Soy sauce, soy bean paste, red pepper paste are but a scoopful away from the cook.

And finally, I got to see kimchi buried in the ground! I had been told that the texture of kimchi that comes out of these pots is different from its refrigerator cousin; so crunchy. Now I can attest to that.

There are drying herbs, vestiges of past outdoor kitchens, and a manual foot powered grinding stone in the courtyard as well. A precursor to the food processor?

We then climbed the hill to Mr. Kim's library and study. You could see how inspirational it is to sit and write poetry here.

We walked in the woods above the grounds and came upon a family grave. This is Mr. Kim's son and his new bride, the next generation to care for this precious home.

Our evening stay and breakfast was a mere $50.00 for two of us. Such a deal and such a peaceful experience. I think I did hear the earth revolve.

Asian Sojourn

2010-01-05T21:32:00.000-08:00

On December 13, 2009 my husband Dick and I started on our trip to North Asia. We were in Seoul, South Korea for 10 days then onto China - Beijing for 6, Shanghai for 6 and now we are in Tokyo until January 29^th. Both of us have been working along the way and here in Tokyo I will be doing research for my new cookbook with the tentative title of: My Japanese Kitchen- Favorite Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking with Friends. Although Korea and China were fascinating, we found out what it's like not to be able to communicate! At least Dick could read in China. Now, we are in our second home in Japan and it is a relief to know what is going on! I was so busy in Seoul there was not time to blog and there is NO blogging from China (or Facebook or Twitter) so this post will give you some highlights from Korea and China.

On our first day in Seoul we wandered around surprised at how cold it was. There were lots of street vendors and stalls selling snacks. Hot, glazed sweet potatoes was our first treat and of course the universal roasted chestnuts.

That night we had dinner with my internet friend WooKyung (Woogie) Park. We connected over a blog on Korean food and have written to each other for almost a year. What fun to finally meet in person! Woogie took us for a delicious tofu and mushroom hot pot and then on for a dessert of warm bean paste pudding a hot cinnamon tea with jujubes (Korean dates) and pine nuts.

Seoul Sisters

During our 10 day stay in Korea I was hosted for 2 days by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. A lovely young woman, Simi Kim was my interpreter. On the first day I was taken to Bongnyeongsa Temple (English available) in Suwon City about 1 ½ hours outside of Seoul for a Vegetarian lunch and cooking demonstration. I baked several fruitcakes in Boston to take with me to Korea as gifts and brought one with me here, of course made with eggs and alcohol -- lots of alcohol! At the time I didn't realize it was vegan cuisine. So I slipped that back in my bag and gave them special honey from Vermont. I think that was OK but not sure! The temple is run by women and is a seminary for women studying to take their vows as Buddhist monks and is well-known for its simple and elegant food. Sun Jae, one of the monks, a famous vegan cook and cookbook author, oversaw the preparation of the elaborate array of flavorful dishes. There was a meal also being served to those who had come to the temple for prayers that day.

We were greeted by a friendly nun who hooked my arm and toured us around the newly renovated premises. Their quilted outfits of smoky gray were as elegant as anything in a designer showroom. Knitted caps in hues from creamy white to gray kept their bald pates warm. And let me tell you it was freezing.

The grounds are hundreds of years old but a brand new temple has just been erected. The scale is monumental and the paintings on the wooden posts, walls and ceiling exploded with color. I asked if they poles were painted and then lifted to form the roof. The answer was no, Artisans painted the poles in place – move over Michelangelo.

Temple cuisine eschews the use of strong aromatics, like onion, scallion and garlic and red pepper is used sparingly. Although mild, all the tastes were present: sweet, salty, bitter, spicy and sour. Each dish was memorable and there were all the elements of a Korean meal including banchan and kimchi.
The lunch was an array home grown vegetables ( fresh and dried), mushrooms, squares of fried tofu, small mung bean pancakes laced with sweet bell peppers, doenjang soup with homemade soy bean paste, namul made with bean sprouts and tea leaves. Jap chae, the classic glass noodle dish was made with the earthy and smoky flavored burdock root, stir fried in sesame oil. What a flavor boost. The elegant presentation was worthy of any starred restaurant.

In the courtyard beyond the dining hall stood large pottery urns with home made soy sauce, soy bean paste, red pepper paste (gochujang), vinegars and preserved vegetables.

These urns are sold in markets all over Seoul and are made from a special porous clay that allows the contents to “breathe.” These urns can be seen on apartment terraces, and outside of restaurants.

Sun Jae conducted a cooking demonstration for myself and the students at the seminary. A gentleman who was been working with her for years assisted. She made a Napa cabbage pancake using whole leaves and that delicious jap chae with burdock root.

I met another American that day who had started out as an English teacher in Korea 8 years ago.

I was told she heard Sun Jae speak and the rest is history. She has been studying for 4 years at the temple and will be taking her vows shortly.

It was a most memorable afternoon.

Love you a Latke

2009-12-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

"Love you a latke" borders the blue and white plate given to me by my dear friend Margo one Hanukkah many years ago. This year I filled it with potato pancakes, a traditional food eaten during the eight days of the "Festival of Lights, made with a group of women from the Spouses and Partners group at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They are here with spouses who are studying at MIT.

Each year I come to the group and talk about my experiences as a young mother living in Japan, in the late 1970s with my son Brad and husband Dick , who was writing his doctoral dissertation on Japanese politics at the time.

YIKES, was I really that young and thin? Just 25! Brad is 32 - you do the math!

In any case, I know how they feel--excited by all that is new, overwhelmed by all that's new, lonely for family and far from home, with babies and children. Do you believe we sent cassette tapes across the Pacific? We recorded Brad's first words and giggles. His grandparents read stories and sang songs . I told them how lucky they were with email, Skype and cheap calling cards. Guess what? We still have those tapes, but damned if we can find a tape recorder to play them on!

So besides sympathy, I share a piece of American culture or a Jewish holiday tradition (depending on the time of year) as that is my background. They scraped potatoes on graters, fried latkes and played the game of dreidel (spinning top).

The smell of potato pancakes frying in oil filled the room and my mind with memories of my childhood and images of my mom frying pancakes in our kitchen in Long Island. We all know how evocative aromas can be. We dipped the crispy circles in sour cream and apple sauce. Everyone loved the taste -- what's not to like?!

I was unprepared for what happened next. When I took my first bite, tears sprang to my eyes and I became overwhelmed, choked up, as I am now. Maybe it's because I haven't made potato pancakes in years, or pulled out the menorah given to us as a wedding present by my husband's grandmother, or I am missing my kids, now adults living in Brooklyn and Berlin, Germany.

Happy Holidays

Check out the recipe for these potato pancakes and others in Sheryl Julian's Latke layout in the Boston Globe

Thanks to Elsa Tian, my buddy in all matters pertaining to food, for taking many of the photos.
Cheers,
Deb

How to Make Korean Scallion Pancakes

2009-11-18T05:52:00.000-08:00