* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 12 - BRAZIL

Brazil is Rio, Rio is carnival, and that is what you get when you eat at a Brazilian steakhouse where food is served in the continuous "rodízio" style. Agura Churrascaria is where the grilled meat of all kinds parade from table to table as part of a colorful and joyful food carnival. The large skewers keep returning to your table in the hands of traditionally donned men as long as the green side of your card is up saying "Yes please!"

Once we were seated, a plate of beautifully tanned (I mean fried) banana and a basket of Brazilian cheese bread arrived at our table even before our drink orders were taken. The freshly made cheese bread was in the shape, size and texture of éclair shells but the slightly salty taste did not need anything else on it - not even butter.

The banana on the other hand seemed strange to be served up front and tasting a slice did not have any titilating effects on my taste buds. However, once the different kinds of meat were served back to back, it became the perfect palate cleanser in between.

Our choice of drink was a Brazilian soda made from guaraná berries. The golden colored Guaraná Antarctica has been made with the exact same formulation since 1921 and has a quite controversial TV-ad history contradicting its mild taste.

Before the influx of meat, we were given an opportunity to visit the rich "salad bar" where the word salad takes on a whole new meaning where greenery is more the decoration and carbohydrates and proteins are the contents.

Returning from the salad bar, my plate looked like this:

One hot dish that resides within the perimeter of the salad bar is fejioada - a black bean stew with pieces of sausages bursting with flavor.

We thought it was a good thing that we had some food in us already as we turned the green side of our cards up to signal the invitation for meat carriers to our table. OH BOY! The perfectly marinated, meltingly tender, appetizingly juicy, succulant cuts of meats came on skewer...

after skewer...

after skewer...

after skewer...

We turned the red side up long before we were able to sample the long list of Filé com bacon, Alcatra, Maminha, Costela de Carnerio, Lombo de Porco, Filé, Picanha, Linguiça, Coraçáo, Lombo de Porco com Queijo, and Frango.

Without wasting a second, our server presented us with the dessert menu that resulted in a dilemma in which we were finally forced to order two desserts instead of sharing one as we usually do. Rick got the very dense and thick Flan which he claimed was on par with the delicious Peruvian flans he tasted from street vendors while visiting Lima.

I, on the other hand, picked the artfully decorated Passion Fruit Mousse - very light and fluffy.

If they had "sesta" (Brazilian for siesta) on the menu, we certainly would have ordered that next. One piece of advice I would give to the prospective Brazilian barbecue diners is "do not do it at lunch time ... on a work day!"

Bom apetite!

* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 11 - CHILE

We were dressed-up that day for an event we would be attending later in the day and walking towards Rincon Chileno Restaurant, I felt we would stand out in this small very low-key looking eatery. I could not have been more wrong. The gentleman that greeted us at the door and the gentleman that served us throughout our meal were both dressed in pressed pants & shirts and neckties that matched the crisp linen tablecloths and napkins.

I think when it comes to soccer-loving countries, how they watch a soccer match on TV tells a lot about their people. The petit-framed Chilean patrons at the restaurant kept their conversations to a whisper and made barely audible disappointment sounds when the team they were not favoring scored a goal. Chileans made a deeply respectable impression on me.

First came a couple of freshly baked pan amasados with butter and salsa verde on the side. Pan amasado is a Chilean "kneaded" bread that is a marriage of biscuits and regular bread that has a soft inside and a hard crust. I am glad they only brought one for each of us, otherwise it would have been so easy to fill-up on them.

As usual we picked drinks that were foreign to us. My bright orange maracuya tasted somewhere between peaches and mangos and was made of passion fruit. Rick's chicha morada was a purple corn punch in a beautiful shade of dark red.

Our appetizers were Chilean versions of Ceviche Mixto and  Empanada de Carne which we quickly devoured dipping the remaining pieces of pan amasado into the aji sauce from the ceviche.

Keeping pace with the South American relaxed timing, our main dishes took a while to arrive, giving us enough time to have the appetizers settle in our taste buds. Although very authentic, the Lomo a Lo Pobre did not seem very elaborate for it was pretty much steak and eggs served with fries. 

But Lomo Saltado won our hearts with the softness of the meat and the perfect blend of sauces and spices.

Most Chilean desserts contain caramel in some form and the server's recommendation Brazo de Reina was a rolled up cake filled with creamy caramel. 

Both the ambiance of the restaurant and the welcoming tastes of the food had us linger a little longer than we normally would at any other restaurant. When we got up to leave, the gentleman that greeted us when we arrived, again stood up and smiled at us making us want to come back to his veritable establishment in the near future.

¡Buen provecho!

* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 10 - BELGIUM

I am very tempted to only say "mmmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm" to describe my feelings about our Belgian meal at the Brussels Bistro in Laguna Beach and let the pictures speak for themselves ... ... but that would not be true to the spirit of our culinary adventure.

It was not only lovely to revisit one of our favorite restaurants but also a good opportunity for us to test our developing French language skills we have been working on for our impending trip to Europe.

Brussels Bistro has a decent collection of Belgian beers so we ordered a beer flight and asked the waiter to surprise us with whatever was on tap. The flight went from the aromatic and beguiling Single Duvel, to nutty flavored Affligem Blonde, to sweet & bitter Chimay Blanche, to dark fruity Maredsous from one end to the other complementing the flavors of the food to come.

We could not get enough of the sweet taste of caramelized onions combined with the meat and cheese from assiette de charcuterie et dés de fromages.

Then we turned our attention to the second appetizer of petite casserole de moules marinière. The mussels melted in our mouths and the couple at the next table asked us what we were having after inhaling the buttery smell emanating from our table. They ordered the large pot of mussels to share.

It was very rewarding to be able to understand the French names and ingredients of the food on the menu and be able to pronounce them while we ordered. Rick's magret de canard réduction de Porto et poivre vert, gratin dauphinois looked like a mid-century painting with the bundle of green beans and colorful garnishes on the tender slices of duck. Looking at this picture I realized that he manages to order dishes that come with very big knives!

I ordered the softer textured tartare de boeuf et son cornet de frites which has been my favorite dish from my very first visit to this bistro. I know my mum is cringing at the idea of me eating raw beef, but she has no idea how amazingly delicious it is paired with the double fried Belgian style potatoes.

I would like to also note the agility and promptness of the bistro personnel. From the timing of dishes served to phantom cleaning of tables, everything is orchestrated so well that the only thing you notice is flashes of smiling faces that make things appear and disappear without disturbing your conversation with your company.

As usual we topped off the meal with traditional Brussels Coffee and shared a mousse au chocolat Belge.

Elevated with the elegant tastes of Belgian food, we walked across the street to revisit another favorite location where we looked for the new paintings of Vladimir Kush at the gallery where his work is permanently displayed and sold.

Smakelijk eten!
Bon appétit!

* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 9 - MEXICO

And it happened. We had to finally play the Mexico wildcard on 4th of July because both the Jamaican and the Portuguese restaurants we targeted were closed for the holiday, and that is how we ended up at Pueblita Authentic Mexican Restaurant in Upland.

Pueblita is not just another Mexican restaurant. They serve traditional dishes from the state of Pueblo and the interior is tastefully decorated with subtle touches that exude the warmth and pride of its peoples.

It was comforting to browse a menu on which the food names were familiar while we sipped our sweet horchatas and dipped the fresh made corn chips into the hot sauce served in a miniature molcajete.

The single main dish of Mole Poblano de Pollo we shared was deeply delicious - probably the one of the best moles we ever had.

The smaller a-la-carta menu selections of Crispy Taco, Sope, Enchilada Roja, and Tamale made it easier to share a few more dishes and leave room for dessert. 

Although my heart was set on the apple cinnamon chimichanga with ice cream for dessert, finding out "chimichanga" means "thingamajig" and not a true Mexican dish, helped easily sway me in favor of cinnamon churros.

We left Pueblito grateful to the Mexicans for saving the day and our culinary adventure.

¡Muchos Gracias y Buen Apetito!

* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 8 - ETHIOPIA

This week's food adventure started out with a huge detour! We left home mentally prepared to experience some Romanian cuisine, however the door to the restaurant told us they are only open for dinner on Sundays and it was only 11:00AM. It is times like these I once again appreciate the forward-planning and preparedness of Rick. Within minutes we set a new course to our new destination of Merhaba Restaurant just a few miles away.

There was no one in sight when we entered the restaurant except for the welcoming smell of incense. We stood by the door, not sure what to do, until a beautiful young woman appeared through the kitchen doors, with the warmth of someone welcoming visitors to her own home. 

She sat us down, handed us the menus and disappeared to the kitchen to give us some time and space to browse the food items with strange names. Our first lesson to Ethiopian food was on the front cover of the menu. We learned that Ethiopian food is served in big round plates called Ma'adi, made to be shared and enjoyed with good company. Another tradition about Ethiopian meals is kulaso: to feed your companion with your own hands as a show of respect and appreciation.

When she came back to take our drink orders, we asked for the traditional coffee Dunn which took her by surprise, signaling to us that maybe that was against the etiquette. We asked her what the traditional way is, she said "food first, then coffee" with her lovely accent.

So we ordered food first! Unable to decide what to eat, we ordered the Traditional Combo combining pretty much half the menu items: Kelwa Keyih, Zengy Keyih, Dorho Tsebhi, Shiro, Tsebhi Ayne Ater, and Hamli (spelling taken directly from the menu).

Apparently, she was also the cook. While we listened to the pleasant cooking sounds from the kitchen, we educated ourselves about this eastern African country that is a hub of many different languages, and religions, where some of the oldest evidence for anatomically modern humans has been found.   It also is the most populous landlocked country in the world with over 90 million inhabitants.

Other patrons had started coming in by the time the Ma'adi arrived accompanied by the appetizing spicy scent and a basket of rolled up injara. The bottom of the large plate was lined with a large injara as the background to the colorful chicken, beef, lamb and vegetable piles. 

Injara is somewhere between a lavash and a thick pancake and serves as your utensils!

Everything tasted amazing perfectly blending the meats, tomatoes, green peppers, and spices for every dish to yield different tastes. Our shared plate was almost cleared when she re-appeared from the kitchen with a sizzling smoking pot of coffee beans to show us how freshly our coffee would be roasted and ground before it became our after-meal beverage.

The next time she came back to our table was with the entire coffee regalia of a high tray topped with two small porcelain coffee cups, a gourd looking clay coffee pot called jebena with a side of incense. This was perfect for Ethiopia is where coffee has its origins and where it is celebrated the most.

We poured the coffee into our cups noting the stringy filter stuffed in the spout of the coffee pot. Finding out the stringy filter was actually horse hair did not deter us from tasting the very dark coffee.

Sugar in our coffee was our dessert and the coffee itself was the perfect punctuation to end our meal. 

I was secretly happy that our adventure took an unexpected detour to take us to an unintended country today. What can I say - I love surprises!

መልካም ምግብ (melkam megeb)

* Eating 52 Countries In 52 Weeks - Week 7 - JAPAN

Eating  a Kaiseki meal is like slipping on a soft silk kimono: a long intimate process that moves you through impeccably designed steps that awakens your senses.

We walked into the very small dining space of Kappo Hana to find our reserved table set for the special menu we were about to experience. We pulled our chopsticks out of the paper covers being careful to abide by the chopstick etiquette.

Among the whispering tones of the other guests, the quiet calm of the room was the beginning of our meditation on tonight's food. Our choice of the shochu tasting to pair with the Kaiseki may have sounded strange to our kind Japanese waitress at first but she caught on very fast and throughout the meal our table was decorated with a selection of beautifully cut miniature glasses.

Appetizers started with a combination of lobster and white fig in a creamy yogurt sauce served with a "welcome drink" of fragrant apples. This unexpected combination of tastes and textures was a foreshadowing to the most delicious dishes that would pour onto our table from the chef's imagination.

Next set of appetizers ranging from Sea Urchin to Sesame Tofu to Lotus Roots to Squid Wasabi to Chicken Matsukaze were delicately positioned on a small tray inside small dishes.

The sashimi dish was arranged like a small garden with a pond in the middle. Even the littlest detail was thought out to not only feed your appetite but all of your senses.

Broiled dish was a large warm piece of Potato Stuffed Salmon resting in a sea of white sauce and carefully arranged vegetables and caviar. Even the selection of the plates the food was served in beared the careful consideration of the chef.

Next was the fried dish hidden inside a hexagonal mesh basket. The almond crusted shrimp was the jewel of the seafood and vegetable treasures under the cover and a touch of the "green tea salt" served with the dish added enormous amounts of flavor to each piece. 

We were halfway through the Kaiseki menu when the refreshment was served. Marinated slices of Abalone were nested inside a half shell reflecting beautiful colors of the mother-of-pearl from around the edges. The green innards served on the side complemented the colors, taste and the texture of the Abalone meat.

Crystal Eggplant and Yam Stems were the more interesting pieces of the steamed dish adding subtle colors to the Tai served in broth. The little wooden spoon was a nice decorative and functional touch to this hot dish. 

Our dinner reached its climax when the rice dish came to the table in its very authentic container. Opening the wooden lid, we found meat and vegetables covering the rice. 

We spooned some into our bowls that was complemented with the red bowl of soup. 

We were the only ones left at the restaurant when the dessert was served at the end of the three-hour feast. The miniature glass of Soymilk Pudding surrounded with mochi icecream and pieces of melons, nectarines and strawberries looked like another tranquil garden through which we strolled hand-in-hand yet to another week of culinary adventures.

ご馳走さまでした (gochisōsama deshita)