Ollie H.

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POMMES FRITES HAS BEEN RESURRECTED #pommesfrites #greenwichvillage #macdougalstreet #latenightsnack #belgianfries (at Pommes Frites NYC)

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It finally stopped snowing. At least it's all pretty. (at Newport Hospital)

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Part 22 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (5/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Somalia Speaking of sweets, I wrapped up my dinner with another #sabayad, but with a drizzle of honey. This is a common snack or dessert, especially during #casariya. #SomaliCuisine #Africancuisine #harlem #safari #sabaayad #sabayaad #AfternoonTea (at Safari NYC)

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Part 22 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (4/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Somalia To wash down all the food, I tried out a Somali tea, called #Shaax or #Shaah #tea. It was an incredibly sweet chai-like tea flavored with #cloves, #cinnamon, #ginger, #cardamom and a generous but not overbearing amount of sugar. In #Somali society there is a tradition called #casariya, which loosely means #AfternoonTea. During this period, much like other afternoon tea occasions, there are servings of sweets and snacks alongside the tea. Tea is often taken in the morning and at dinner as well. #Africancuisine #harlem #safari #SomaliCuisine (at Safari NYC)

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Part 22 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (3/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Somalia To accompany my goat dish it was suggested that I get some #sabaayad, a popular #Somali #flatbread. The #sabayad was flaky, tender, buttery and had a slight sweetness to it. The dough is made from flour, water and salt, and it’s made on a hot griddle. The #sabayaad, also known as a #Kimis, is a close relative of the Indian #Chapati and #paratha. This #bread is popular around East Africa and normally served with beef or lamb stews. It’s also more popular consumed in the northern parts of Somalia, and it’s a must-have when bringing guests over for festive gatherings and weddings. #Africancuisine #harlem #safari #SomaliCuisine (at Safari NYC)

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Part 22 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (2/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Somalia Next up was a familiar favorite - #Sambuusa, a not so distant cousin from the Indian #samosa. The pastry is thinner and flatter than what a traditional samosa has, and it’s filled with #beef and #cilantro, a very simple combo that worked especially well with the green #bisbaas sauce, a Somalian #hotsauce which had fresh flavorings of lime, cilantro, jalapeno in a yogurt base. In Somalia, the #sambusa can be eaten at any time, but is usually reserved for special holiday occasions like #Ramadan, #Christmas and #Meskel. #Africancuisine #harlem #safari #SomaliCuisine (at Safari NYC)

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Part 22 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (1/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Somalia I could hardly contain my excitement when I heard a new #AfricanRestaurant popped up in #Harlem named #Safari. Only a select amount of #AfricanCuisines are represented in New York, and I’m so happy to have tried this one. I didn’t give myself much time to research the cuisine beforehand so I asked a lot questions to the server and eventually the chef (who was so gracious to come out of the kitchen and speak with every patron who dines there about the food when it’s not busy). #SomaliCuisine is influenced by an extensive array of cultures because of Somalia’s tradition as being a major trade location and because of Somalia’s rich maritime history, especially commerce in spices. Their culinary influences extend from East African to Arab, Ethiopian, Yemeni, Persian, Turkish, Indian, and even Italian (Italy was the European power that greatly influenced Somalia during colonization). Based on the menu offered, they suggested getting the #HilibAri, which is #goatmeat that has been roasted for six hours and served over a bed of lightly spiced #BasmatiRice that has a bit of an orange color to it. Accompanied with the #goat is stir-fried red and green peppers and onions to round out the dish. The goat was incredibly soft and juicy and flavored with a bit of Indian spices; the only difficulty with this dish came from removing the meat from pieces of bone left in some pieces. #goat #Africancuisine #harlem #safari #SomaliCuisine (at Safari NYC)

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Part 21 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (3/3) Today’s Cuisine: #Uruguay Wanting to end on a lighter note, I picked out the #ChipironesALaPlancha, or #GrilledSquid with white wine and onions. The dish is quite simple, but incredibly refreshing. The squid was tender and it worked very well with the black sauce included. Due to Uruguay’s access to the sea, seafood is often liberally in the country. The practices and preparations of squid and other seafood originate from the #Basque and #Galician regions of #Spain. #Squid #LES #LowerEastSide #UruguayanCuisine #SouthAmericanCuisine #Charrúa (at Charrua)

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Part 21 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (2/3) Today’s Cuisine: #Uruguay Because of the strong Italian influence, I stepped up to try a #pasta dish offered by #Charrua, to see if I could taste the difference between the two cultures. The dish I tried was #FettuccineALaCaruso. The dish starts with a base of cooked #fettuccine and topped with a specialty Uruguayan #sauce called #CarusoSauce, which is a warm sauce made of cream, mushrooms, ham and onions. The sauce had a distinct flavor that I never experienced on any pasta before and it was addictive, however due to the contents it’s also incredibly rich. Because of the strong Italian roots, Uruguay offers the whole spectrum of various pastas. The sauce, though originally made in Uruguay, also had Italian inspiration. The sauce was created in the 1950s by Uruguayan chef Raymundo Monti in #Montevideo. Monti wanted to create a new dish following the current traditions of Italian cuisine at the time. Through this exploration he made Caruso sauce, which was named of the Italian Tenor, Enrico Caruso, who gained a lot of popularity after touring in South America in the 1910s. The culinary world initially thought of the sauce to be a modified béchamel sauce, but because the flavor was ultimately different the sauce gained international culinary recognition as a delicious unique sauce. #fettuccine #caruso #SalsaCaruso #UruguayanCuisine #SouthAmericanCuisine #LowerEastSide #LES #Charrúa (at Charrua)

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Part 21 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (1/3) Today’s Cuisine: #Uruguay When I put some research into #UruguayanCuisine, I was surprised to see that the national menu was somewhat limited. Uruguayan culture unsurprisingly had a large amount of Spanish and Italian influence and a bit of German influence in their desserts, but a large focus was placed on pizzas, pastas, empanadas, sandwiches and barbeque grilled meats called #asado. Asado is particularly popular in large part to eighty percent of the land in Uruguay being available for grazing livestock. Aside from Asado, one of the most popular dishes is the #Chivito, the #nationaldish of Uruguay. Though the term in Spanish translates to ‘little goat’, the #sandwich has no goat meat in it. The myth behind this sandwich is that an Argentine woman entered a restaurant in Uruguay asking for some goat meat like she had back home – but because the chef didn’t have any goat he tried to make a sandwich with any immediate ingredients available in his kitchen to hide the fact that he had no goat meat for her. The sandwich was a success and from that the Chivito sandwich was born. This sandwich is ridiculously complex - inside the two pieces of bread is a thin slice of #filetmignon with #mozzarella, black olives, #bacon, hardboiled egg slices, mayonnaise and #ham, and that’s usually just the base of the sandwich. The restaurant I went to, #Charrúa, had a couple variations of this sandwich to offer. I tried out the #ElCanadiense version, which had the same base ingredients, plus lettuce, tomato, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions and Canadian bacon. And if that wasn’t heavy enough, the sandwich is traditionally served with a side #FrenchFries. The sandwich was amazing and I could manage to taste most of what was packed into it, but it was also so rich it felt like a brick in my stomach after I finished eating it. #SouthAmericanCuisine #LowerEastSide #LES (at Charrua)

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Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (5/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus My last dish of the night – which I gluttonously ordered after my sixteen #meze, is the #GlykoKaridaki (walnut #sweets ). This dish is made from an unripe #walnut, which is harvested early so that flesh is tender. The walnuts are boiled in a mixture of water, sugars and spices until the liquid becomes settled like syrup, which can take a number of days. Sometimes lemon juice is used to maintain the original color of the food in question that you are sweetening as it prevents oxidation. This walnut is merely part of a wide array of sweet food preserves offered in #Greece and Cyprus. Others include almonds, figs, dates, apricots, cherries, quince or grapes. Based on size these preserves are usually served in a single spoon as a gesture of hospitality, and because of the sweetness, the #Glyka are served with a glass of cold water. #KaridakiGlyko #ZenonTaverna #Astoria #Queens #Mediterranean #cypriot #cypriotcuisine (at ZENON TAVERNA)

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Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (4/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus Pictured are the remaining three #HotMeze - #Halloumi, #LoukanikoSpitisio and #Lountza. Halloumi cheese is possibly one of the most well-known and delicious exports from Cyprus. The cheese is composed of sheep and goat’s #milk. It’s unique in that the cheese has an unusually high melting point, allowing it to be fried or grilled and still maintain shape. #Cypriots can and have liberally added halloumi to many dishes, including salads, sandwiches, or as an accompaniment to cooked vegetables or served alongside any cooked meat. Its texture is similar to fresh mozzarella, but prepare for a saltier but distinguished flavor from other cheeses. Halloumi was created around the Medieval Byzantine period and its popularity spread throughout the #MiddleEast. A great pairing with this cheese is the #Lounza, a cured #pork tenderloin. Traditionally the meat matures in a mixture of village wine and coriander seeds for about 15 days, followed by a curing process of 20 days. If you find yourself in Cyprus, the most popularly consumed sandwich for a fast bite is a Halloumi and Lountza sandwich. The Loukaniko Spitisio is a #porksausage that also goes through its own particular process before coming to the dinner table as a #CypriotMeze. The #pork marinates in a concoction of red wine, coriander, salt, pepper, and schinus seeds, which the owners get from a Cypriot pepper tree on their yearly trips to Cyprus. After a certain period when the curing phase is complete, the meat is ground up and stuffed into pork intestine casings. The meat used is pretty lean, which better allows the marinade flavor to come out. #ZenonTaverna  #CypriotMezePlatter #KypriakiMezedes #Meze #Astoria #Queens #Mediterranean #cypriotcuisine (at ZENON TAVERNA)

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Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (3/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus (Warm Mezze part 1) Next up on the agenda was part one of the #HotMeze, which all came out sporadically as they were being finished. The five dishes pictured are - #DiganitoKalamari (#friedsquid ), #Sheftalia (#pork #meatballs ) #Souvlaki (pork #kebab )., #Ortikia (Quail) and #KeftedesArnisia (#LambMeatballs ). The #squid was prepared the Cypriot way, in that the meat was very tender and there was a limited amount of batter which allowed me to actually taste the squid, with just a little bit of lemon and garlic to assist. The Lamb meatballs were sautéed in wine and lemon, with just a bit of parsley and onion stuffed with the ground meat. Simple and delicious. The #sheftalia, a traditional #Cypriot dish, was delicious. It’s normally prepared by chargrilling the meat while it’s encased in #CaulFat (a membrane that surrounds animals’ stomachs) instead of a sausage casing, and the meat is cooked until ready. The magic of this dish is that the caul fat makes the exterior a little crispy, while keeping the meat internally very juicy and flavorful. The ground meat used is only mixed with parsley and onion, making it so that the meat stands out more than anything else included with it. Sharing the plate with the Sheftalia is the Souvlaki. The Souvlaki, made famous by the Greeks, has its own Cypriot version as well. It’s considered a ‘healthy’ fast food on the island made with high quality meat hoisted up by steel skewers in a #foukou (Cypriot grill) to cook evenly. Very little seasoning is added so the quality of the meat cannot hide behind excessive spices or herbs. I don’t know if I ever had #Quail before this experience, so bonus points for me! This dish was incredibly well prepared – it was marinated in a combination of #wine, #oregano, #lemon, and #garlic. Quail seems to be commonly served as a mezze dish in #CypriotCuisine as it’s a common game bird on the island now more specifically bred for consumption. #ZenonTaverna  #CypriotMezePlatter #KypriakiMezedes #Meze #Astoria #Queens #Mediterranean #calamari #lamb (at ZENON TAVERNA)

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Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (2/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus Next up were a series of #ColdMeze all brought out at once with a hefty plate of bread – they do not play around. The pictured seven dishes are #Tzatziki, #Melitzanosalada (eggplant dip), #Scordalia (garlic dip), #Tahini, #Tarama (red caviar dip), #Pantzarosalada (beet salad) and #Hummus. I’m not a fan of #beets myself, but however it was prepared made that #meze palatable. The best dishes of this group were the simpler and more familiar, like the Hummus, Tahini, and Tzatziki. All I can really say is that they all tasted incredibly fresh and they were some of the best that I’ve been served. The eggplant dip was also great, I must have eaten that one the quickest. If the series of cold Meze look familiar to Meze normally found in a Greek or Turkish place, I don’t blame you. By virtue of being an island nation in the #Mediterranean near Greece and Turkey, they are bound to have a great deal of identical, or at least incredibly similar dishes. Cyprus has a great deal of history and influences, most of which is attributed from Greece and Turkey in regards to food, and to a lesser degree, Byzantine, French, Italian, Catalan, Ottoman and #MiddleEasternCuisines. Cyprus is controversially split into two parts, a Turkish North and a Greek South as a product of tensions and fighting between the two larger countries over who could gain more influence in the island nation ever since both made failed attempts of annexing the island. #ZenonTaverna  #CypriotMezePlatter #KypriakiMezedes #Meze #Astoria #Queens #Mediterranean #Cypriot #cypriotcuisine (at ZENON TAVERNA)

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Part 20 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (1/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Cyprus Since starting this food exploration I’ve met a great deal of fellow food enthusiasts -the most interesting were a pair Wall-Street guys who only take vacations to try out high class restaurants around the world. Their humor and their laid back demeanor made up for the amount of pretentiousness I listened through their many food explorations as well and they had a few fun insights and brought attention to my attention a lot of tips in my own exploration. They, and countless others since speaking with them at the beginning of the year, have mentioned to take a day to explore #Queens if I ever have any trouble finding a particular culture’s dish. And for #CypriotCuisine, I had to do just that. I traveled to #Astoria with a dear friend of mine to a Greek / #Cypriot restaurant named Zenon Taverna – I researched and found out that the restaurant is owned and operated by Greek Cypriot immigrants so I know that I was in for the real thing. They started us out slow and easy with the first dish, a #CyprusSalad. The #CypriotSalad has a couple of distinctions that separate it from a Greek Salad. It contains all the ingredients inherently in #Greek salad, but additionally includes lettuce, parsley or cilantro, and coriander (which is a spice more commonly found in Cyprus than Greece). #ZenonTaverna  #CypriotMezePlatter #KypriakiMezedes #Meze #Mediterranean  #cypriotcuisine (at ZENON TAVERNA)

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Part 19 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (5/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Vietnam To wrap up so many of the delicious Vietnamese dishes, I wanted to try a bit of a lighter dish, #GoiDuDu, or #PapayaSalad as it’s translated. This dish is actually of #Laos origin, but there are many versions in the neighboring countries in #SoutheastAsia. The base of the salad is a large serving of thinly sliced #papaya, and the Vietnamese version usually comes with #shrimp, #porkbelly, #peanuts, fish sauce, lime and more. It’s not only a great palate cleanser but also has an abundant array of flavors and spice on its own. #CoBa #vietnamesecuisine #chelsea #SouthEastAsia (at Co Ba)

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Part 19 of 25 World Cuisines to try. (4/5) Today’s Cuisine: #Vietnam Next on my list of dishes is #Hanoi specific creation, called #BunChaCaHanoi, or #BunChảCáLãVọng, which is a #RiceNoodle Dish with pan seared #Fish coated in #Tumeric and #Dill. This dish has no Southern equivalent or alternative creation, which I was able to find through my search at least. The dill in particular only seems to be utilized (albeit rarely) in northern Vietnamese cooking, making it distinctively unique. It is said that the dish was originally created in Hanoi and was a product of the Doan Family in Vietnam. The dish was prepared for North Vietnamese insurgents during the war. After the reunification of Vietnam, a street was named after the dish in Hanoi, and the Doan family established a restaurant, which was named after the dish as well. Unsurprisingly they only serve the one dish they made popular. With this dish, and many dishes around East Asia in general, the recipes play around a lot of with flavors and colors. This dish is particularly salty and savory, while also fresh, tender and crunchy. #SouthEastAsia #vietnamesecuisine #chelsea #CoBa (at Co Ba)