At Patrizia's Calabrian kitchen (pork, figs and wine)

"Let's go see the garden" Patrizia walks us down a steep mountain path. I completely fell for her from the first sight. Gorgeous at her sixties she was harmony itself. Married to Enzo, the head of Barbieri family, hostess of the kitchen of the family hotel, mother of three adult children, many times grandmother, she was always shining with genuine care for each and everyone around her. My lovely friend Alina brought us to Barbieri hotel this August. "You just have to meet her" she said, and as soon as I saw Partizia I knew exactly why. We instantly started thinking about bringing a cooking tour there.

Romantic day in Venice

I visited Venice three times before but I can't tell you how different this time was from all the others. It never felt this way without someone I love and I don't think I'll ever dare to return there without him. We had a day only and I was nervous preparing it. I so much wanted him to like it. To me Venice has always been about beauty with subtle romance in the air and, needless to say, about unique local food. I really wanted us to taste it despite Venice's thick touristic cover. And it worked luckily and magically. I would so much want to return...

Hünkar Beğendi - Turkish lamb on eggplant mash

I love lamb overall and this particular way to cook it just became my absolute first choice. I first tried the dish couple of months ago at Hünkar restaurant in Istanbul. Simple and intense melt in your mouth lamb stew with smoky and creamy eggplant mash made a truly perfect combination. I started researching and it turned out that Hünkar Beğendi was a well known dish. There were many recipes around, but none really resembled the version I had at Hünkar. It took quite some time to replicate it, but finally it worked. Now it seems that at home it comes out even better.

Turkish eggplant salad #1002

In Istanbul they told me many times: we are experts in one thousand and one way to cook eggplant. And indeed they are. Eggplant salad on a menu can stand for a dozen different things. One of our dinners included two eggplant starters plus one eggplant side dish and so different all these were that nobody felt overwhelmed by eggplant. However there is much beyond the classics. My favorite eggplant starter in Istanbul was a chef's special at Meze by Lemon Tree restaurant - spicy fried eggplant with sweet tomato sauce and creamy yogurt topping. I couldn't trace it in google, but I still found a way to make it. Trial and error method always works if you go on with it long enough.

Turkish baked halva (sicak helva)

Before I came to Istanbul I heard about sicak helva - a kind of custard made of crushed tahini halva mixed with cream and baked. The dessert is traditionally eaten after a fish main as it removes fish aftertaste completely. The idea really resonated with me, so the evening we did visit a fish restaurant I was more concerned about my dessert than about my fish main. I ended up loving it and cooking it at home. It turned out to be very practical in Moscow, as tahini halva is very common around here.

Eating in Istanbul

A little over a week in Istanbul and I'm in love already. It is proud yet humble. Old yet live and full on energy. Like a wave you caught and can’t jump off. There is no way to get enough. My Istanbul is yet little, but each and every piece of it is precious as it lets you feel some more of this city in a very special way. Not many big names, but these you’ll find without me.

Cacio e pepe (pecorino and black pepper pasta)

I'm giving up my attempts to make this pasta look attractive in the picture, but I have to say: from all the pasta I got to try in Rome cacio e pepe was definitely the best. Now (five minutes after eating it) it actually feels like the best pasta in the world. All in all Rome has three 'big' pastas: carbonara, amatriciana and cacio e pepe. Cacio e pepe is tagliolini dressed with only pecorino cheese and black pepper. You can throw it together in a matter of minutes. So to add to its beauty it is incredibly simple. You just need to get your tree ingredients right.

Almaty (Kazakhstan) - a personal food guide

I was lucky to visit Almaty, the historical capital of Kazakhstan, this summer for the first time. That was also my first visit to Central Asia and the gastronomical side of it was full of discoveries. Horse meat, qurt cheese, lagman noodle, beshbarmak noodle, manti dumplings, tapchans (arbours where you eat seated on pillows at a low table), beautiful mountains under sparkling sun - all felt like being Alice in a wonderland. That's my first take on the city of Almaty and I'm sure it won't be the last one.

Home made Kazakh dinner and Beshbarmak

While I was planning my recent trip to Almaty I wrote an email to my Insead friend Gulnazi. Gulnazi originates from Almaty and moved back to work there some half a year ago. She invited me to her house for dinner made by her mom. That was how I tried the Kazakh beshbarmak for the first time.

Green bazaar in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Green bazaar is the largest farmer's market in Almaty. It is very central, located right next to Zenkov Cathedral (a wooden architectural wonder) and to Panfilov park. With all its special local products (horse meat, local dairy etc.) to me it was one of the strongest impressions of our trip.

As you enter the Green bazaar, you see lots and lots of herbs sold in the market, but as you look closer it turns out they have more relation to medical usage than to cooking. Fruits and veggies are also in the front section. They are not exotic, but some (like peaches, melons, watermelons etc.) are just extremely tasty - I don't think I ever tasted something like those in Moscow. Then you can move deeper to the back section of the market to look into horse meat, and then to the left to see amazing local dairy products.

Horse meat

Horse meat is something I should start with. Overall it is the preferred kind of meat in Kazakhstan. It is more expensive than beef and lamb and is considered healthier and tastier. The whole back section of the Green bazaar is about horse meat.

One of the most popular ways of preparing horse meat is kazy (a special kind of sausage, which is part of traditional beshbarmak noodle dish). This lady, Elemes, located number 1 in row 6 has been a kazy master for 20 years and she kindly explained the process to me.

She started from cutting a shoulder part and cut it into long thick blocks. She also cut some horse fat into thinner blocks. During our visit in Almaty everybody would tell me that horse fat is good for you and it is less heavy than that of lamb, so did Elemes. On top of that the fat makes the kazy much tastier.

Having done the cutting Elemes arranged the meat and fat to approximately shape the future sausage. She generously salted the meat and fat, covered it with minced garlic and ground black pepper. Than she pulled the guts on and formed the sausage, closing it with toothpicks from both sides.

If you are buying fresh kazy as we did, it is meant to be boiled. Elemes advised us to let kasy stand at room temperature at least for 4 hours before cooking. If you need to store it longer before cooking it is better to refrigerate or freeze it. Then it needs to be simmered for 3-4 hours to get ready.

You can also get some hot or cold smoked kazy at the Green bazaar as well as some other kinds of horse sausages, dried horse meat and smoked horse meat. Sellers will definitely offer you a taste before you buy something and you won't regret tasting. I'm not at all a meat lover, but I was really impressed by how good all those things taste.

Dairy

Local dairy products are also very special. Like the meat preparation methods, many of them emerged because of nomadic life Kazakh people used to live in the past. Many of them can be stored for a really long time (months) at room temperature.

Qurt (front row in the picture) is a kind of cheese. It is extremely dry and firm, way firmer than, say, mature parmesan. I wouldn't be able to break a piece of qurt with my fingers, but it is possible to bite into it. Qurt is available salted or unsalted. As far as I got it is mostly eaten as a snack (say, with beer) and rarely is added to some other dishes.

Irymshik (back row in the picture) is another popular thing and it is absolutely delicious. It is made of milk, which went sour. The milk is evaporated slowly for a long time till it turns very thick sweetish chewy and yellow. Apart from qurt irymshik has more relation to sweets, sometimes eaten on its own, sometimes used as an ingredient (e.g. those brown balls in the picture are made of crumbled irymshik mixed with condensed milk and something else).

Kumis is a drink made of mare's milk. It is quite sour and very refreshing. It tasted amazing to me, especially when it was hot outside.

Bread and pastry

The kind of bread I saw most often in Almaty are these round flatbreads, sometimes plain, sometimes seasoned with herbs. Those we got at Green bazaar were extremely fresh and good.

Samsa (samosa) (a kind of meat stuffed pastry popular all around Central Asia) is also available from small pastry shops in the market and around it.

Rakhat chocolate factory

Accross the street from the market you will see a very large pale rose building of Rakhat, the national chocolate factory. As we entered its store I felt like I came back to soviet time stores of my childhood.

The light blue chocolate bar "Kazakhstansky" is considered the classics of the factory. The locals also really appreciate these 65%, 70% and 80% dark chocolate bars and prefer them to imported foreign brands (for, say, baking purposes).

Apart from the chocolate bars the factory, of course, produces all kinds of chocolate sweets. To me they taste similar to those produced by Russian factories.

Related:

Almaty (Kazakhstan) - a personal food guide
Home made Kazakh dinner and Beshbarmak

London gastronomy markets and shopping
A walk around La Boqueria Barcelona market
Kiev (Ukraine) food: a personal guide

More Gourmet travel guides

Singapore food: a personal guide

I was lucky to once spend a couple of months living in Singapore and since than it is always there at the back of my mind as a place I'd love to once move to. Food is one of the reasons and an important one. In addition to Singapore's own amazing flavors you can get great quality food from all over the South East Asia and China so easily and so inexpensively.

London food: a personal guide

I already posted many stories about London, but now it's time to bring it all together. Once again, I'm not pretending it is comprehensive as that would be impossible with such a city. These are just the great places I discovered in London during my first trip. It still has so much more though, that I think I'll keep coming back forever.

Barcelona food: a personal guide

Barcelona is one of my favorite places on earth. I've been there several times and it seems I'll keep coming back forever. Food-wise to me it is first of all tapas and hot chocolate shops (with churros!), but  there is of course so much more than that. Barcelona's gastronomic restaurants once opened my eyes on what's going on in the world gastronomy. It's markets are insanely tempting and cooking classes are wonderful. I also have to say that even for me there is something above food in Barcelona. It is Magic fountain light show and what's inside Sagrada Familia. Now back to food.

Kiev food: a personal guide

Sometimes I just feel like travelling easily and spontaneously with no advance planning and no headache with visas. In those cases I end up deciding between Saint Petersburg and Kiev, which I chose this time. However much I visit Kiev, it always stays a marvelous place for me. It is a summer city with fascinating farmer's market, high quality food (Ukrainian or not) at half the expected price, picturous hills, walking streets, beaches and green parks along Dnieper river.

London bakeries and cake decorating

I got to visit just two bakeries so far, though London obviously has more. With all its amazing street food options it's hard to cover everything. But there could be no holiday without a good bakery in the capital of five o'clock tea.

Very British: pearl barley and cheddar risotto

This dish might truly surprise you. I never thought that one could get such a bursting flavor and such a lovely texture from pearl barley. The idea came from a British cooking class I took in London couple of weeks ago. I'm saying "risotto" here to refer to the technology of cooking a grain, which makes it creamy, and I don't mean to heart anyone. Anyhow my risotto loving family said this one totally counts.

London gastronomy markets and shopping

After London's street food which just finds you on your way the second huge discovery for me were London's gastronomy markets. They are so pleasant to walk around, full of local farmer's products as well as of lovely artisan products from other countries. To add to that, they are also packed with delicious street food and casual eateries. Just one thing to remember - markets are open on market days only, so do check the opening times on their websites before going.

London street food and casual eating

I paid my first visit to London just recently and I'm glad I did. It is better late than never. I had lots and lots of gastronomic discoveries and I thought why not share them. It feels like London is too large and too fast for any kind of comprehensive food guide. This is just my first take on this city. I thought everything will fit in one post, but it apparently doesn't. So this post is about all the casual food, street food and takeaway shops. Later on I'll come back with more about London markets, bakeries, restaurants as well as schools and guided tastings.

Favorite caponata

You might well tell me that it is not the classic caponata and perhaps you will be right. It happened so that I tried caponata in different interpretations here and there and there was one I liked by far the most. It was at l'Osteria (tiny Italian restaurant of Toni Vianello in Paris). Since then I was dreaming to recreate it and finally it worked.

Dal Makhani to die for

Just for you to know, I've been saying that I should start cooking Indian food at home since last January. Only a year and a bit and there you go, I made my first dal. I've never been to India and all my love to the food comes from my Indian friend from Insead. From the dal he made for himself and let me taste at our mutual home in Fontainebleau.