Eats ~ Istanbul

I am editing food photos in the middle of the night and

it made me so hungry I had to nip into the Turkish Delight.

The foods of Turkey are delicious!

Eats ~ Prague

We have had a lovely visit to Prague and have had 

the chance to sample some delicious food.  Here

is a sampling...

Elle's Kitchen: Bacon Pancakes

I have been seeing this recipe on Pinterest

for a while and since Brennan is leaving us

for a few weeks, I thought we should send

him off with a hearty breakfast.

In researching this recipe, I found it was 

first developed by the Aunt Jemina company

in 1962, though it has been around for a long

time, I never heard of it until recently.

Cook the bacon on a tray in a 365 degree F oven

for 10 to 15  minutes or longer until fully cooked.

Place the bacon strips on a griddle or in a 

pan, make sure to grease the griddle or pan

with some of the bacon grease, butter or Pam.

Pour prepared pancake batter over the bacon.

Wait for the pancake to bubble around the edges,

it won't bubble where the bacon is.

Flip and cook on the other side.

Serve with butter and maple syrup.

We rarely have a big hot breakfast around 

here these days.  We are all too busy and 

eat at different times.  Today we sat around

the table talking, about travel, of course and 

pulled out the World Atlas to dream of future

journeys.

Little Tibet

On Saturday we headed south to visit our

guy in Bloomington.  He has such a busy 

schedule that we only got to spend 2 hours 

with him but we made the most of it and

went out to lunch.  We headed to Kirkwood 

and we were going to go to our favorite

Turkish restaurant when we decided to take

a stroll down the street since the temperature

was above freezing and we were getting another

snow storm later in the day and temps in the 30's

actually felt balmy after the winter we have

endured.  Just down the block we came upon a

restaurant called Little Tibet and in our ongoing

quest to sample the foods of the world, we decided

to give it a try.

The boys had Kham Ando Thugpa, a hearty

stew.  I sampled Mr. Wonderful's and I found

it to be hot but not very flavorful.  The guy

from Bloomington requested a bolder heat 

level that I would call "Scorch Your Esophagus".

I sampled his too and I think I actually was

breathing fire for a bit.

I ordered Sha Balay, described as pan-fried

dough patties filled with seasoned ground beef

and yellow onion.  I didn't get what I ordered.

My patties had just a sliver of beef with no spice,

no onion, sadly...  Well, glad to try something new

and different but this is not food I would get a 

hankering for anytime soon.

Neat to Eat ~ Gestreken Mastelle

In the city of Gent, in Belgium, is one of the

smallest storefronts I have ever seen.  It is 

the space of a closet ~ by that, I mean the 

closets of our youth, not the closets in today's

McMansions.  I "discovered" it by scent, I

could smell that irresistible aroma of butter

and cinnamon, it made me think of an apple

fritter.  I turned the corner and came upon

this young man.  He was a good looking guy

with a fabulous sales pitch ~ he could sell ice

to eskimos.

Gestreken Mastelle are traditional treats in Gent.

They sort of looked like a flattened bagel.  In the

old days you would cut the bun in half and add

butter and brown sugar and heat it with your

clothes iron.  The name means "ironed buns" in

Dutch.  This guy was using something like a 

panini press and you can get them now with all

sorts of savory fillings, like salmon and brie.

We had been climbing through castles and

churches and cobblestone streets and a

snack seemed like the perfect thing.  We got 

out our euros and then noticed everyone in the 

crowd had their euros out as well.  Needless to 

say, it would have been a long wait and we 

needed to move on.  So, sadly, I didn't get to

taste this treat ~ but it is a reason to return

to lovely Gent someday.