I don't want to eat barley...and bulgur?

A day after our Istanbul Cooking School class, we were relaxing at an outside table at a casual neighborhood restaurant about to enjoy dinner.  I saw they had a daily special for 15TL that had a soup, side, main, and drink.  This specific menu didn't involve choosing anything except the drink as everything was the daily special.

This was the side dish.

I offered some up to Laura, but she told me she didn't want to eat barley.  That really confused me as I can't remember the last time I ate barley.  I thought...I don't want to eat barley either.  I sure hope this isn't barley.  Barley usually comes too firm for my taste preference.

My educated guess was that this was bulgur given we had been to cooking class the day before and one of the dishes we cooked was kisir, cracked wheat salad, made with finely ground bulgur.  I assumed this was coarser bulgur.  You may be familiar with bulgur from tabbouleh which is made of bulgur, cucumber, and tomatoes.  After going to Peru last year, I got very convinced that quinoa tastes great and is healthier than potatoes, rice, and bread.  My problem with quinoa is that it is difficult to cook / I am too lazy to cook it.

In cooking class, we learned that to cook bulgur, you just throw it in a bowl with bowling water and let it steam on its own for 15-30 minutes.  At that point you fluff the cooked grains and you have some nice fluffy bulgur to use.  

Bulgur, a whole grain, is very comparable to quinoa in its positive nutrition benefits.  It is high in fiber and protein.  It has around half the calories of quinoa for the same cooked volume.  For more detail, see here http://www.livestrong.com/article/554143-nutrition-of-bulgur-vs-quinoa/

Bulgur tastes great.  In my opinion, the fine ground version tastes like couscous and the coarser version tastes similar to rice.

Oguz, the friendly and informative instructor/owner, of Istanbul Cooking School was kind enough to let me share their kisir, cracked wheat salad, recipe with you.  Go buy yourself some bulgur and make this salad.  It's healthy.  Let me know what you think.

I ordered the pomegranate syrup/molasses off Amazon, but I am sure you can find it in an ethnic grocery store.

KISIR – CRACKED WHEAT SALAD (Serves 4 people)

2 cups of fine cracked wheat (bulgur)

½ cups of olive oil

2 onions

4 pieces of spring onions

3 tomatoes, peeled and diced

4 peppers

1 tbsp of tomato paste

2 lemon

1 bunch of parsley

2 teespoon of salt

2 teespoon of red pepper

2 teespoon of cumin

2 teespoon of sumac

3-4 tbsp of pomegranate syrup

Fresh or dried mint, 2 teaspoon

1)  Put the wheat in a bowl and pour hot boiling water (app 0,80 cups of boiling water for 1 cup of wheat). Close the bowl tightly and let it rest untill all the water is absorbed and the wheat expands, ~½ hour.

2) Chop the onions in small pieces and cook them with 1-2 tbsp of oil untill they get glasy. Add the pepper mark and cook till the mark is cooked overall well.

3) Chop all the vegetables in small pieces. Put them all together with the wheat and the spices and mix well.

4)  Add the oil and the lemon juice and the pomegranate syrup according to your taste. Serve with lettuce leaves.

5) Add fresh mint

(There may be some spelling abnormalities in translation as I am copying and pasting...)

Lunch with a view #2 in Chamonix

Given we had proven how tough we were with our previous hike up a mountain for four hours straight, we took a lift up to do a traversing hike in search of Lac Blanc.  Here is a nice view on the way there.

Lac Blanc translates to white lake and you can see why it named that from the mountain lodge restaurant view.

I was expecting chunks of vegetables in the vegetable soup.  It was more a vegetable broth, but still hit the spot given it was chilly.

The next two dishes I don't remember specifics on.  They look too similar.  Most French Alpine cuisine is based on cheese, bread, potatoes, and bacon.  They tasted great at the time, but now that I have been eating healthy in Vienna and Turkey for two weeks, my chest hurts just thinking about the richness of the food in Chamonix!

As we hiked after lunch, Laura ventured off into the other side of an alpine lake to capture the Professor and me in the distance.

I needed a water break and saw a nice green grass field peppered with a couple streams and a waterfall.  That seemed like an ideal resting location to me.  The professor and Laura with their infinite supply of energy decided to detour closer to the waterfalls.  They got this picture.

I decided to set up a "tent" right off the hiking path to rest and tan my always white feet.

Lunch with a view #1 in Chamonix

We had been doing quite a bit of walking, cross training, and bunny hill hiking leading up to Chamonix.  Probably too much preparation as I wasn't that well rested as we started our real hiking.  For most trip logistics, I handle the planning.  I do a bunch of research to make sure we have the right mix of price, speed of transport, quality of lodging, and eats.    

For hiking, I don't like handling the details because I can't really tell the difference until I see pictures or I see the visuals on the actual hike.  All the Chamonix hiking and lift planning was expertly done by Laura and the Professor.  I just let them lead me in the direction to hike and I follow.  

On the first day there was an option to take a lift or hike four hours basically straight up.  We chose the option to hike four hours straight up.  I thought it was a great work out and just the right amount of uphill punishment to feel like an intense leg work out.  My hiking companions will claim that it looked like I was going to collapse during the last 500 meters.  

My favorite hiking snacks are potato chips, chocolate, and nuts.  On this hike, I didn't snack too much because the hiking coordinators promised me at least one dining option towards the end of the hike.  I think they were picturing sandwiches, I was picturing a hot cooked meal.  

After four hours of hiking up, there was a very rewarding payoff.  There was a mountain lodge that offered hot cooked food.  It also offered outdoor seating with mountain views.

I was confused by the flag flying whether we had somehow arrived in Switzerland.  This isn't a Swiss flag, but rather some Alp flag.

The special of the day was a skirt steak topped with some browned shallots with a side of potatoes au gratin.  The steak wasn't a gourmet steak, but the plate was plenty good enough as the alternative would have been simple sandwiches.

This is a local French Alpine dish where potatoes, bacon, cheese, and bread are baked and topped with an egg.  Very similar to an American breakfast skillet.

After the refueling mountain lodge meal we hiked up a little bit more to a second lift.  The second lift took us to one of the main viewing points in Chamonix.

Ice Cream in Turkey

Tim and I flew into Cappadocia, Turkey yesterday.

We had a layover in Istanbul, which we spent in a café with free wireless.

At the café, Mado, we ate a delicious goats-milk chocolate ice cream. The texture was slightly different from ordinary ice cream; it was slightly chewy and significantly stringy.

Mado's ice cream tastes very natural and flavorful.

I'll leave you with an entertaining description of their ice cream (taken from their company website):

The adventure of “real ice cream” is 300- year adventure of ice cream starting with Karsambac made of molasses, honey and fruit extracts added to snow. The name of ice cream combines with a city in this adventure. Kahramanmaras did not only give its name to the ice cream... With its consistency and special aroma, it gives the secret of taste in K. Maras ice -cream. The milk of goats feeding with wild orchid flowers, thymus and keven greening in plateaus close to clouds in Ahir Mountain and sahlep collecting from bulbs of these orchids gently. (Source: Mado.com)

 You may also be interested in my blog at lauradhamilton.com.

Hiking, health, and views in Chamonix

I have done several food trips with cousins, the brother, and the wife over the years.  Prior to Chamonix, I had only done one hiking trip.  That hiking trip was a lodge to lodge trek to Machu Picchu in Peru in 2012 with my brother and Laura.  We did over 30 miles over 5 days and it was more mileage than I had hiked cumulative in my life.  I do want to note per Laura, it is the elevation gain that matters more than the mileage.

I didn't always like hiking.  I didn't start liking hiking until a couple years ago.  I didn't like hiking for specific reasons that I won't mention here because they will make me seem like a wimp.  Laura methodically tried out hikes with different conditions to figure out what I liked and didn't like.  She figured out the magic formula after several hikes and a couple years.

Here is why hiking trips I go on are awesome:
-3 to 6 hours of hiking each day mean several hundred to a couple thousand marginal calories are burned.   This means I can eat like a fat a$$ and still lose weight.

-4 to 7 days of intense hiking mean I will lose 1 to 7 pounds.

-Lots of time to think on my own, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and learn from my hiking companions.

-I don't rough it.  Lodging is 3 star, if not 4 star, quality.  And meals are by most people's definition, gourmet.

After the initial hiking trip to Machu Picchu last year, I did lots of planning this year to pick Chamonix.  I wanted something in Europe and I wanted something luxury.  After looking at all the luxury travel companies, I settled on day hikes from Chamonix, hiking around Mt. Blanc from Chamonix, or the Dolomites.  I figured the simplest high end living arrangements and gourmet food would be day hikes from Chamonix.  The father-in-law, whom I will subsequently refer to as "The Professor" given that is what his blog readers call him,   seemed skeptical at first that I was actually going to plan this and go through with it.  When it became apparent I was serious, he was in.  Obviously, the wife, Laura was in.  My brother was very tentative and did not come due to lack of available vacation from work.  My brother was missed and hopefully he will make future hiking trips.

After spending a couple weeks in Paris, it was off to Normandy, through Paris to Lyon, then to Chamonix in the French Alps.

Over my years coordinating trips, I have figured out that eating trips are loved by all when they go, but it is tough to get multiple people to commit and spend their annual vacation on an eating trip.  There is probably some judging and negativity projected when they others hear they are going on an "eating trip".  It isn't as tough to get someone to join go on a hiking trip because it is a healthy activity and family/friends that like to hike don't have enough opportunity to go in their everyday lives.

The journey to Chamonix was anything but smooth.  It started out with quite a large hurdle.  The traveling started leaving our hotel in Lyon.  When we got to the Lyon train station which was only a 2 minute walk from our hotel, the train station entrance was cordoned off by police.  There was a piece of baggage left and the bomb squad was at work.  We couldn't tell much more of what was going on giving the limited language commonalities we had with the policeman.  One finger wagging back and forth and "tick tick tick" from the policeman was all the language commonality we needed.  At first, Laura and I figured the train station was shut down.  After going back to the hotel and asking, it appeared that only this entrance was shut down and the other one was open.  Seemed safe enough to me as I needed to get to Chamonix.

After a 15 minute walk around to the OTHER, safer, entrance of Lyon Part Dieux, we got to our train with plenty of time for the 2 transfer + ~4 hour ride to Chamonix.  After the efficient and relaxing train ride, we ended up with a 20 minute walk from the Chamonix train station through city center to find our apartment. We knew right away as we strolled through downtown Chamonix that the train ride was worthwhile though as one of our first views was this:

After walking around the city to figure out where our rental apartment was, we arrived at a beautiful apartment.  However, it didn't have internet working!  That was a big problem given the professor was arriving in a couple days and it was rumored that he needed internet or there would be problems.  We called the apartment rental company and they solved the problem quite splendidly.  They moved us from the ground floor, to the first floor.  The first floor had 2 balconies and thus a better view of the mountains and internet from two separate wi-fi networks.  Lucky resolution to quite a big problem.

I knew this would be a great stay when I say the view from the balcony.  I had seen this view(or similar) months before when I saw the rental apartment listing, but I thought it was a representative view from Chamonix instead of the specific view from the apartment complex.  Here is my view from the apartment balcony:

After a week of hiking, the trip to Chamonix ended on the same balcony with some talk on the US and world economies, wine, coffee flavored chocolate, and cherries.  It doesn't get better than that.

My next couple posts will be some food and views from the hikes in Chamonix.