Dinner at Rami's with Coco!

Rami Restaurant in Sultanhamet, Istanbul, caters to tourists but is worth the visit. Serving Ottoman cuisine in a barroque Western style setting, the experience is very pleasant - but the check ... high!

The dramatic view of the Blue Mosque at night as seen from the third floor is simply fantastic!

We went with Coco who is curently working and living in Istanbul. I ordered a main course and dessert, and could not resist the basket with warm bread!

My choice was a stewed lamb, Ottoman style. It is served in an oval pewter dish.
The portions are rather small, but the lamb was delicious.

I ordered a coupe of home made compote, with peaches, cherries, and quince in a light syrup.

We had a great time, but were sorry to see that this magnificent three storey mansion that houses the restaurant was almost empty!

We paid $60 per person for three main courses, three desserts, one appetizer, and one bottle of Turkish wine.

Bon appetit!

Smoked Oyster BLT: Recipe

I'm not sure who first decided to smoke an oyster or why, but it sure was a good idea. The texture of a smoked oyster is nothing like a raw oyster. It's firm yet still creamy, sweet and addictive to eat as candy.

The little ones that come in the can are often used as appetizers. Despite being labeled "colossal" they are anything but. They taste a bit like the oil they are packed in. While the canned ones are ok, they are impossible to go back to after eating fresh ones from the Pacific Northwest.


These oysters are actual size!

Recently I agreed to judge a contest and received a shipment of deluxe seafood to help me "prepare." I got two fresh steamed crabs, shrimp, smoked salmon and the most plump, sweet smoked oysters I had ever tried. While I had no problem coming up with ideas for using all of the other seafood, I was a bit stumped by the oysters.

These oysters were way too large to languish on a cracker or a piece of toast. Instead I stuffed them into a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. The applewood smoked bacon really went well with the oysters. It provided nice crunchy chewy contrast but also sweet and salty notes. I know iceberg lettuce is terribly retro, but it really is the right choice for this sandwich. It provides crunch and juiciness without competing with all the other flavors. If you travel to Oregon, there are plenty of wonderful places to find fresh seafood, raw, cooked or smoked. My luscious oysters came from Bell Buoy of Seaside.

Smoked Oyster BLT
Serves 1

1 roll or ciabatta bread
homemade mayonnaise
2 slices bacon, cooked
1 tomato, sliced
iceberg lettuce
5-6 fresh smoked oysters, not canned

Slice the bread and hollow out any excess to make plenty of room for the fillings. Spread the bread with mayonnaise, layer on the slices of tomato, oysters, bacon and lettuce.

Enjoy!

La Fête du Fromage - Brebize

One of the best things about eating my way through the cheeses of France (other than stating the obvious) is that I'm learning about French geography as well.

Not too far from here is the Tarn - a gorgeous region that is home to Albi, a red brick covered bustling market town, and the farm Les Paulinetoises, who have been producing fromage de brebis for over 20 years in the small village of Paulinet.

This unpasteurized, bloomy-rind fromage is very odoriferous.  It is packed with heady barnyard aromas that I appreciate, but might put some people off.  Its bark is worse that its bite though...Brebize is quite mild tasting and seriously delicious.

The flavors are a mix of mushrooms, sweet hay and salty earth and the texture is oozing, smooth and chewy.  I thought it was just perfect smeared on some pain complet and enjoyed with a glass of local rosé.

San Francisco Rum Balls: Recipe

Whenever my sister-in-law comes to visit, she tries to sneak in rum balls. There's a deli near Union Square that sells them and it must be sending out a homing signal. A rum ball beacon. It doesn't matter what we're doing or where we are, it's only a matter of time before she says "who wants to go get rum balls!" It's not really a question so much as a rallying cry.

So this holiday season I decided to make them. Not having eaten very many of them makes it hard to know if I have duplicated the version my sister-in-law likes so much. Lee says they are actually better than the deli version. All the recipes I could find are fairly similar. You can use rum or bourbon, cocoa or chocolate, walnuts or pecans and vanilla wafers, chocolate wafers or graham crackers. The crucial element in the beloved rum balls seems to be that they are covered in chocolate sprinkles (or jimmies as they are sometimes known). Making them stick presented a problem but not an insurmountable one.

If you are DONE baking cookies, but still want a nice hostess gift, I think rum balls fit the bill. They are bite sized, boozy, a little nutty, chocolate-y treats. I like a combination of pecans and walnuts so the flavor is the right nutty combination of bitter and buttery. Using a food processor really makes them easy, I can't imagine all the chopping and crumbling without one. Another key to the recipe is to let the rum balls "age". I think a day or two is fine but some recipes advise a week.

Rum Balls
makes 15

2 cups graham crackers, finely crushed
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup rum + 3 tablespoons, separated
chocolate sprinkles

Place the graham crackers into a food processor (about 9 whole crackers). Add the nuts and pulse until finely crumbled. Sift into the food processor the powdered sugar. Add the honey and the 1/4 cup rum. Pulse until well combined. The mixture should be sticky and crumbly.

Pour the remaining rum in a small cup. Place the chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl. Grab a handful of the mixture and squeeze into a compact ball shape. Dip the rum ball into the rum and press into the chocolate sprinkles. When completely coated, place on a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator. Let them sit in the fridge for a couple of days, then bring to room temperature to serve.

Enjoy!

Flowers in my bedroom

I want to share with you the collection of paintings I have in my bedroom. The theme is flowers and the main colors green and pastels. The bed board is hand painted green iron. It's light and cheerful. You see a door to the right because I live in a building built in 1865. At that time, Hausmann was the master urbanist of Paris. The layout of his buildings saw rooms communicating with one another, plus a hallway that connected them from outside. We do not use this double door to go to the other room, so it's always closed. The bedspread is by Yves Delorme.

The pictures on the left were bought to a Chinese painter who painted exquisite watercolors and who was introduced to me by a common friend who was a pianist. I hosted an exhibition of her paintings in my home, a daring step in Chine in 1987 - and bought several of her paintings.

The top one is a beautiful lively bouquet of garden roses.

The two below feature flowers in nature.

They were framed by artist Marie Verbois whose refined paintings can be seen in her blog Next month, Marie is holding an exhibition of her oil paintings in Tunis.

The middle top one feature a branch of jacaranda and I bought it in Kenya when we lived there. It was painted by an English artist, well known in Kenya at that time.
Jacaranda trees rhymed the seasons in Nairobi, and locals used to say that when the soil was covered by jacaranda flowers, the rainy season was close.

The one below is a photograph taken by friend and artist Steve Drews . Interested parties, read carefully: this guy has loads of talent! I have several of his stunning pictures of Paris and France throughout my home. What a delight!

To the right, the top one is another picture by Steve Drews, framed by Marie Verbois (notice the difference with the previous one - oh how I regret not having given her both!).

The last adding to this collection is an acrylic painting of a bouquet of peonies by Fifi Flowers Decor which I fell in love with when I visited her blog. You can buy on line and Fifi sends her artwork by mail - this one traveled all the way to Paris!

Enjoy!

Bello Sorrento, Amalfi, Positano

There is good food everywhere. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it. In some places it is easier than others, to find something delicious. Sorrento is a pretty tourist town just a stone's throw from Naples. Orange trees pop up through the sidewalk and the views of the bay are breathtaking, especially at sunset when everything turns shades of pink and blue and grey. The town inspired many artists and poets and their ghosts are felt everywhere in the gardens, the public spaces and the names of the streets. I'm staying at the romantic Hotel Tramontano perched on the edge of the bay. The history of the hotel makes me feel as if I am stepping into a more refined era.

So far in addition to a limoncello producer who has a lovely grove of citrus you can enjoy like a park, I also visited a tiny pastry shop singled out by the prestigious "Gambero Rosso" in Italy. The owner is passionate about quality and creativity and teaches other pastry shops to develop high standards as well. I bought one of just about everything he was selling. The total bill was under $15. No idea how I will eat it all!

There is not much to do in Positano or Amalfi, and you know what? That's ok. Positano is pretty and colorful with bright orange and green umbrellas set in the sand against a background of blue and the food, while somewhat expensive is absolutely delicious. Today I had a large macaroni pasta called paccheri with some tomato sauce and monkfish. I also had meltingly tender pizza and a tasty carpaccio of some kind of fish I didn't recognize. In Amalfi I found a shop selling brilliant lemon granita with plenty of pucker. Next it's back to Naples to eat the most traditional baba, sfogliatelle and pizza.

La Fête du Fromage - Comté and Ossau-Iraty

They may look similar, but these two cheeses, Comté and Ossau-Iraty, produced on opposite sides of France, are quite different.



Comté, on the right, is one of France's most popular cheeses. After production in cooperatives, called fruitières, in the villages of the Franche-Comté region of eastern France, each cheese must pass strict quality tests before being allowed into the marketplace. It takes the daily production of 30 cows to make one 80 pound (35 kilo) wheel of Comté.

It's flavor is sweet and caramelized with a slightly nutty and salty tang, and it melts in your mouth. In the kitchen, this is an extremely versatile cheese. It is delicious cut into cubes and added to salads, eaten with fruit, melted in a sandwich or used to make fondue.
Really wonderful!
A glass of fruity Beaujolais or white Sancerre pair nicely with Comté.


Ossau-Iraty, on the left, is an unpasteurized ewe's milk cheese that is produced in two areas of the Pyrénées in southwestern France: Ossau Valley in the Béarn and the hills of Iraty in the Basque country. Historians maintain that this cheese has been produced for more than a thousand years.

It has a soft, supple texture with a mild, nutty flavor that we both loved. I wasn't expecting much from Ossau-Iraty, but it is scrumptious!
Savor a cold glass of Jurançon or a red Madiran with this cheese.