Back from Turkey!

Still basking in the warm memories of our 12 day trip to Turkey, I reluctantly settled into my (tiny) airplane seat for the 10 hour trip home. We had left our hotel at 3 am that morning to make our flight from Istanbul to Frankfurt, then suffered through a long, painful 5 hour layover in the crowded, smoke-filled airport before finally boarding a flight to Denver.

Ten hours gave me a long time to consider all that we had jam-packed into our 12 day vacation. Turkey is a fascinating land of contrasts - East meets West, Islam meets secularism, ancient history meets modern day. I concluded that the most unique (or "eunuch" as pronounced by our Turkish tour guides...hee hee) thing about our vacation was the hot-air-balloon ride we took over Cappadocia. The most entertaining thing was the public latrine at Ephesus (ask me about it...I'd be happy to share in any forum except a food blog.) The most interesting thing was Ayasofya, a 6th century building that was first a church, then a mosque, and now a museum. The most relaxing thing was the view out my hotel window in Kusadasi...



But the most tasty thing? This would be a matter genuinely worth pondering over a 10 hour plane ride... It's so difficult to pick out just a few things. I had very little understanding of Turkish cuisine before our trip - kebabs, baklava, that's about it. Let's just say that the food way exceeded my expectations.

One thing that (very pleasantly) surprised me was the Turkish olive oil. It is superb in quality, very smooth and flavorful. We ate first-press olive oil (with a little bit of bread to go with) at a small restaurant surrounded by its olive groves. I would have been happy with just the bread basket, but that tiny little restaurant with its wood-fired oven and griddle just outdid itself. Here is the kitchen and our chef preparing grape leaves for dolmas.




Turks do truly amazing things with eggplant, and peppers too. Their yogurt is thick and full of flavor, like nothing you ever have in the States. They use spices in robust, sensual ways I've never experienced. And if you ever have a chance to try gozleme or hingal, DO IT. They love desserts dripping with honey. (Who doesn't?) Yes, their roasted meats and kebabs are wonderful, especially the lamb. But there is SO much more, and you have to taste it to believe it.

(Unfortunately, for us in Denver, you have to travel all the way to Turkey to get this stuff, as our city's only Turkish restaurant, as far as I know, has just recently closed.)

Now, off to the grocery store, as 4 out of the 5 meals I've had since being home have consisted only of Honey Nut Cheerios...

Hiatus

So, May will likely be a dry month for this blogger. I haven't really had anything super-interesting to post about lately. Had an idyllic weekend brunch of coffee and croissants at Bistro Vendome with Mr. M, and a dinner of green curry, spring rolls, and drunken noodles at Thai Basil last week.

I did visit Szechuan Chinese Restaurant in Lakewood this weekend on the way back from the mountains. I am always looking for good Chinese food, as I've never really found any in Denver. There are some okay places in the Federal/Alameda area, but other than that, nada. So, on the recommendation of Jason Sheehan, Westword food critic, I stopped at Szechuan, which supposedly has good dumplings. All I could say about the dumplings is that they are huge. Other than that, no comment. Everything else we ordered tasted like something I would get at the Panda Express at DIA while waiting for my delayed or cancelled flight.

Noteworthy, however, was the superb "Jed-i" sandwich I had today from Marczyk's for lunch - basil pesto, fresh mozz, and proscuitto San Daniele on ciabatta. mmm, SOOO good. Not cheap ($8), but SO worth it. It beats most things you can get on the go. Personally, I'd go a little easier on the proscuitto, but overall, a great sandwich.

We will be out of town for the last half of the month, so you'll not hear from me again until June. See you soon.

A Deal Too Good To Pass Up!

As recently heralded in 5280's "top 101 Denver dining experiences", Luca d'italia offers a dinner special at the bar on Tues, Wed, and Thurs that is just too good to pass up. For $25, you choose 2 glasses of wine (from the by-the-glass list), a salad, and a pasta entree.

Mr. M and I showed up and took 2 seats at the small bar around 7pm. The restaurant was about 3/4 full, decent for a Thursday night. We were greeted with a small amuse bouche, a goat cheese and butternut squash puree on a crostini. We each ordered a glass of wine while we considered the dinner options. There is a choice of two salads - one spinach salad and one panzanella, both which were very good. The two pasta dishes were a penne with rapini and housemade sausage and a fusilli with wild mushrooms. The courses were on the small side, but with all the noshing we did on the beautiful bread basket, we were both actually quite full at the end of the meal. (It didn't stop us, however, from splitting the vanilla arborio rice budino at the end of the meal, complemented by an extra glass of Prosecco.)

Try it out - you won't be disappointed. It's a wonderful cost-controlled option for dining well at one of Denver's finest restaurants.

Cinco de Mayo at home

Mr. M and I had heard of the party happening this weekend in Civic Center Park for the Cinco De Mayo Celebration. However, as the weather this weekend was not extremely cooperative, and definitely not conducive to walking around outside, we celebrated our own Cinco de Mayo by visiting the recently opened Mexican drive-thru joint near our house. The building previously housed a forgettable burger shack or wings place, but a few months ago it reopened as a branch of the Santiago's chain. We ordered a load of food - guacamole, enchiladas, tacos, burritos - and took it home to eat in our comfortable, warm, dry kitchen. We opened a few Coronas and tucked in to a very hearty, satisfying, artery-clogging feast. We were stuffed for a mere $14.

According to the Westword, Santiago's is supposedly a purveyor of excellent breakfast burritos. I'll have to try them next.

Cheap lunch in Cherry Creek

We had (yet another) beautiful day in Denver, and I grabbed a quick lunch with a friend at Crepes 'n Crepes, a tiny but quaint little place at 3rd and Detroit. We sat at one of the four tables on the shaded patio outside, and for a mere $6, I dined on a buckwheat crepe daintily stuffed with a creamy spinach and feta mixture that would make any Greek spanakopita proud. The waitress also offered two complimentary sauces to serve alongside - a walnut pesto and a roasted red pepper sauce, both of which were nice. My friend had the classic ham and swiss crepe, which I've also enjoyed on multiple occasions.

There is a sweet side to the menu also, where you can order crepes with any variation of chocolate, nutella, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, caramel, etc etc if you're feeling indulgent. I've tried many of these and have never suffered a moment's disappointment.

So if you're shopping in tony Cherry Creek and want to save your pennies for that fancy pair of Pradas, have a $6 gourmet lunch at Crepes 'n Crepes.