A thing or two about yogurt and why you should make your own

My husband and I have been making our own yogurt pretty regularly since about 2010 when our sweet neighbor in San Diego introduced this great idea to us. At the time money was tight. I’d cook as often as possible but always bought yogurt at the store. I knew better than to buy the individual 6 to 8 oz small cups of yogurt because the bigger 32 oz tub was clearly a better deal. Little did I know that I could be eating something way better for way cheaper and that’s when I learned about the possibility of making my own. Our neighbor Del showed us which yogurt maker to buy and how to do it. Soon enough we were on our way to eating healthier yogurt that cost at least half of what we were spending. 

It's been a few years and now I’m a bit of a yogurt snob. I haven’t quite gotten to buying my own lactobacillus bulgaricus et al concoctions, so from time to time I still buy some yogurt at the store to use as a starter. I refuse to buy anything with additives or added sugars because I’m a purist at heart when it comes to yogurt. Yogurt is just one of those magical foods rooted in simplicity.  

About yogurt and the home made process

So let’s start with the basics. As far as ingredients go, all yogurt is—and is supposed to be—is milk and bacteria. The process that turns the liquid milk into yogurt is just a heating process: milk has to heat between 180-195 or even 200 degrees Fahrenheit and then brought back down to 110 degrees. At that point, bacteria is added to the milk usually in the form of a starter from another batch of yogurt. About a cup of yogurt is mixed into the warm milk and then the mixture sits in a comfy warm container for about 9 hours— a typical ‘work day’ for the bacteria. Afterward, the container goes in the fridge and once it cools down, voila! you’ve got yourself yogurt. 

Homemade goodness

What’s really cool about this food is that it’s full of protein, calcium and probiotics and even has a bit of sugar, which is naturally there already from the milk. A cup of pure whole milk has about 11 grams of sugar, it’s just the way it is. Yogurt also has fats in it from the milk (mostly saturated fat), and whole milk makes the best kind of yogurt, especially when it comes to consistency. The fats in the milk help give yogurt that smooth creaminess to it, which can be enhanced even more by straining it for an hour or two. Straining removes the whey in the yogurt and leaves you with a bit of a “yogurt concentrate”, aka greek yogurt. All greek yogurt is is strained yogurt, which is why it’s more expensive: you need more yogurt to make the equivalent 8oz container. It also has more of everything (more fat, more sugar, more protein per ounce) so you don’t need to eat as much greek yogurt as you would regular yogurt. 

Putting our homemade yogurt in the "Wave" strainer to make Greek Yogurt -- leave it straining longer and you've got Labneh!

Store bought yogurt

Ok, so back to my snobbery with yogurt. When our homemade yogurt sits in the fridge for more than a week, I don’t like to use it as starter because it doesn’t have as much useful bacteria that I can put to work later. We’re pretty good about making yogurt once a week or so but when we forget, we have to replenish the starter with a fresher batch of store bought yogurt. 

Ideally I’ll make it to a fabulous store like Berkeley Bowl that offers plenty of choices. I usually buy organic yogurt and I devote time to looking at the ingredients. If the yogurt only lists two ingredients—milk and probiotics/bacteria— then I get it. If it starts listing crazy things like pectin, sugar, the evil, evil high fructose corn syrup, gelatin, citric acid, etc. I put it back on the shelf. When I’ve been in a bind and go to stores that don’t have a lot of variety, I’ve had to buy yogurts with things like pectin in them and my homemade yogurt just isn’t as good. A good, pure organic yogurt starter is essential to making great homemade yogurt. 

But that’s only half the battle. Milk is just as important and should not be skimped on. I always opt for organic whole milk and I buy the whole gallon so I can make my 64 oz tub and use the rest of the milk in coffee/tea. If I feel like splurging, I’ll buy the really fancy milk like the Straus whole organic milk from grass fed cows that comes in a glass container but at 9 bucks per container, it’s not something I always do. Still, even then you’re more than breaking even if you compare the cost of a store-bought 32oz fancy organic plain yogurt to the cost of the milk, which will yield more than 64oz of fancy organic plain yogurt anyway.

"Yogurtnomics"

	Cost per ounce	Total cost (excl. taxes)	Savings per 32 oz container
32 oz. Store bought Leading brand yogurt, non-organic, “all natural”	$0.09	$2.78
1 gallon non-organic milk	$0.03	$3.20
32 oz. Homemade non-organic plain yogurt	$0.03	$0.96 (not even a buck!!)	$1.82
32 oz. Store bought Organic plain yogurt (fancy)	$0.15	$4.79
1 gallon fancy organic milk (yields 4 32 oz containers)	$0.06	$7.70
32 oz. Homemade organic plain yogurt	$0.06	$1.92 (omg that's less than store bought non-organic)	$2.87

Return on your $40 yogurt maker investment (comes with a 64 oz tub):
Total cost of buying two 32 oz tubs of fancy store-bought organic plain yogurts: $9.58
Total cost of making two 32 oz tubs of fancy organic plain yogurts: $3.84
Difference in cost: $5.74
Pay back period: after making 7 homemade yogurts

Low-fat and yogurt marketing nonsense

When it comes to store bought, I also don’t even bother with the non-fat or low-fat yogurts. Almost every single one of them has added sugars to compensate for the lack of fats and to enhance the taste so now you’re eating something that is less healthy even though you think you’re eating a health food. I’d rather eat naturally occurring fats, aka whole plain yogurt, than added processed sugars, aka low or non-fat yogurt. I refuse to buy those branded flavored yogurt single-serving cups that pretend to be healthy; you might as well just eat a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and call it a day. If you want to eat yogurt because it’s healthy, I would avoid anything that isn’t plain. You can add fruit or honey to it at home and keep it healthy that way.  I’m also weary of "extra-creamy/smooth" claims because there are usually additives that make that happen. For example, I was really excited when I saw a new yogurt at the store claiming to use a secret Australian recipe. When I was in Australia I ate yogurt like it was my job and I’ve missed it dearly. I could barely contain my excitement at the dairy section when I saw that we were finally getting Aussie yogurt in the States. To my surprise, however, this yogurt wasn’t pure goodness but instead had the pectins and gelatins I like to stay away from. So the lesson with plain yogurts is to always look at the ingredients and to just walk away if the list has anything other than milk and bacteria. 

Why get pre-flavored ones when you can just DIY?

Anyway, if you want to save a couple of bucks on your grocery bill, eat a truly healthy product and stay away from additives, make your own yogurt at home. If it seems like too much of a hassle, at least do yourself a favor and get the good ol’ stuff with just milk and bacteria in it. Your gut will appreciate the friendly bacteria and your organs will appreciate taking a break from processing any extra sugars! 

If you're a foodie in Berkeley and you haven't been here yet...

... you're missing out! And no, it’s not Chez Panisse. Or Cheesboard.— co-posted with fellow foodie, Nancy Li (photos/captions)

Think back to your childhood memories and try to remember how you felt when you visited your favorite toy store. The sheer joy from being in the store is hard to forget and even harder to replace. Throughout my life, I have found several blissful spots that make me explode with joy — although I have yet to write about them, Yushan in Taiwan and my godmother’s dining room are two of a handful of these places. These powerful places that heighten almost all my senses are hard to find and to my surprise, and unexpectedly, I found one of those places last year in Berkeley, California. What was most surprising to me was that I suddenly felt overcome with joy and I wasn’t outside hiking a mountain or in the middle of a fantastic meal. No. I was in a supermarket. And I was ecstatic.

Entrance to Berkeley Bowl West in Berkeley, California

Greetings, foodie!

It’s hard to describe a Berkeley Bowl (West) experience in writing but we will give it our best shot. The back of the massive 54,700 sq. ft (5,000 sq. m) space feels like it offers a curated version of everything that grows in California’s Central Valley plus a variety of many other fruits and vegetables you’d find in farmer’s/street markets throughout the world. The produce section in the back splits into the organic and the non-organic section and has a fantastic bulk area with four rows of bins full of dry goods. The organic section is much more seasonal and the majority of the produce is actually affordable. Now that dark leafy greens are in season, I saw at least four varieties of kale, at least seven different kinds of organic mushrooms and a kind of lettuce I had never seen before, leopard lettuce. 

Organic glory!

The larger non-organic section could be a produce market just on its own and there is almost nothing they don’t have — my recent favorites are the bins full of shishito peppers, baskets full of Mexican guayabas/guavas, the bulk section where you can fill your own bags of baby kale, wild arugula, mizuna or the banana/plantain section where, even if my 6 ft 3 in husband were to stretch his arms out, he would still not be able to hug all the kinds of bananas and plantains offered. 

Them 'shrooms!

The bulk section, my go-to spot for granola-making, has three rows of floor to ceiling bins stocked with anything from organic coarse pink Himalayan salt and goji berries to roasted salted, roasted unsalted, raw, smoked, slivered or crushed almonds. I may or may not have spent one hour in this back area during several of my visits there. Time flies when you’re food shopping, I have proof!

I'm a sucker for value and spend a lot of time at the bulk section

The rest of the perimeter consists of a large and busy meats and seafood section where you can get their deli peppered bacon, massive cuts of pork shoulder or the wild caught, seasonal fish. There is also a huge L-shaped refrigerated dairy section that wraps around the south-eastern corner of the store. If it wasn’t so frigid, you may be able to spend more time thinking about which of their 20+ selection of egg dozens to get or which of the milks to try next: organic whole, organic whole cream top, Strauss in a glass container or in the larger plastic gallon? Decisions, decisions! 

Life without yogurt would be miserable! They've got St. Benoit further down the aisle (can't see it though!)

Across the store in the north perimeter you can go snag a free sample of the featured cheese and walk around the DJ-booth-like cheese section. You may go bananas if you’re a fan of zee goats; you’ll freeze in excitement about all of the opportunities — humboldt fog, raw goat milk cheddar, the truffle tremor, the cremont, the goat gouda or any of the other Cypress Grove ones. For me, if I visit the Bowl with a type of dish in mind, I’ll get stuck on various sections as I move down this little piece of cheese heaven. The other day it was all about the blue cheese; I was struggling to pick the right mix of blues for Smitten Kitchen's blue cheese and chive buttermilk biscuits I was planning on making. Mind you though, I’m not complaining. For those of you with a sweet tooth, there is a lovely selection of delicious desserts immediately adjacent to the cheeses and they feature a phenomenal Tiramisu according to my friend Nancy. 

A lady ate half the samples after this picture was taken -- goat cheese can have that effect on people

Knowing that the middle section is full of the more processed, packaged and high-margin goods, I tend to skip it. But from time to time I do get sucked in. You can find yourself spending way too much time picking the next mustard or three for your fridge door - how about a green peppercorn or a seeds and suds (beer) one? The same could happen in the spice section where you could buy at least six different brands of spices or over by the tofu racks where you can get organic firm tofu, organic non-GMO firm, non-organic silken or how about some teriyaki, BBQ or spicy baked tofu? I don’t know about you but this kind of decision-making is something I get really excited about.


I still don’t think I’ve done Berkeley Bowl justice. Hopefully the images below will help. But even better, next time you’re in the Bay Area and you’re in the East Bay (Berkeley/Oakland), make sure to pay a visit to one of the best food stores on earth. Fellow foodie adventurers, you won’t be disappointed.

Bulk meets organic

The milk rainbow at the Bowl

J'aime le fromage

Blueberries, anyone?

The spot for 'rug and other salad greens

It's hard to capture how huge the Bowl is, those apples are so far (behind he toddler)!

Great stop before camping trips

I don't have much of a sweet tooth but Nancy definitely recommends these

I hear this ox tail is one of the best in Town

Wall to wall meats

Delicious results after a day at the Bowl: Ox Tail Soup at Nancy's!

Words of wisdom from grill master Mr. Castle

Grilling is a very fun and tasty way to prepare food. Throughout our travels we found plenty of coal BBQs and outdoor cooking with wood. In the United States, gas grilling is much more popular and we've been enjoying very flavorful and juicy meals, straight off the grill. But not all food from a grill is, juicy, tender or delicious. So what's the secret?

First things first, buy the right equipment. Look for a gas grill with a high BTU output. Look for about 10,000 BTUs per burner anything lower could jeopardize your grilling experience. Look for a grill with stainless steel components (burners, flavoring bars and grates). This will cost you more initially but will last for ever.

Grilling in Indonesia - coals and low BTUs

Taking care of your grill. 
The best way to clean the grill is with a steel wire brush immediately after you're done grilling your food. Dip the brush in water and brush the grill racks while they're hot. This is very similar to giving your gas grill a steam bath. It gets hot so it is best to wear heat resistant gloves if you want to keep your arm hairs on you. You'll probably keep the grill outside so make sure to get a snug cover for it, it will reduce rust and wear and tear.

For grilling meats, novices will do best by using a meat thermometer. So, here's a quick guide to grilling like a pro -- no more dry, rubbery, un-chewable meats!

Part I.
Chicken

Turn on your grill and turn on your burners on high -- as high as they go (for larger grills you only need to turn on one side). If your grill has a built-in thermometer, check it and you know it is done once it's reached the highest temperature (between 400 and 500 degrees F depending on the grill). Grab your marinated chicken and put it directly on top of the flame. For chicken breasts with bone and skin, put the bone side down first about 3 minutes. Then repeat on the other side. For skinless, boneless breasts, put the convex side down first (this part of the breast has a thin film on it). For non-breast chicken pieces, put them on the grill any way, cooking on high for about 3 minutes on each side.

After cooking on high heat - you can either move the chicken away from the flame or you can leave it in the middle, turning off the middle burners and turning on the laterals. The point is you want the chicken off the direct flame and you want it cooking with an indirect flame.

When is it done? For smaller pieces like drumsticks and thighs, it should take about 15 minutes. It will be done once the meat is tender and coming off the bone (if there are bones). You can open it up a little bit with a knife and make sure there is no pink, the meat should be completely white. For the chicken breast, a grilling thermometer will be your best aide. Once you reach the poultry temperature, you're all set. Once you've grilled enough, you won't even need a thermometer and you can "just tell".

Important tip: once you turn down the flame, close the lid and keep it closed until it's done.

Part II.
Salmon

Perfectly cooked salmon

Heat up grill on the highest setting. Use heavy duty foil and put a little bit of oil on it, placing the foil directly on the rack as the grill heats up so the foil is hot.

Place the salmon on the foil skin side down. If you don't want to use foil, that's fine but the skin might stick to the rack, giving you extra homework during clean-up time. Turn down the heat without moving/relocating the fish and close the cover. Keep an eye on it and when you see white juice oozing to the top of the fish, that means it's done.

Remember: don't flip the salmon, just cook it skin side down with the lid closed!

Part III.
Meat (medium done)

Heat up grill to the maximum temperature. Place steak on the grill, cook one side for about 3 minutes on high heat. After, turn down the temperature to medium high and flip the steak. Leave the steak on top of the flame and do not close the lid for cooking your steak. For medium done steaks, it will be done once juices (blood) start flowing to the top (a meat thermometer can also help you out here).

It's gotta be hot for steaks!

Tip: A very tasty and simple steak marinade is simply adding salt, pepper and a little bit of oil to the steaks just before grilling them. No more, no less.

Part IV.
White fish

Slow and low temp "grilling", Iraqi style

The best way for white fish is to use the French method for steaming. If you place the fish directly on the grill rack, it will probably get stuck and create a mess. Grab yourself two pieces of foil. Place a nice bed of vegetables on the foil so they go underneath the fish. Place the fish on top and then add another layer of vegetables. Use the other piece of foil to put it on top of your fish and veggies. Seal the foil well so that no air escapes and place your foil pouch on the grill.

This whole process should take about 10 minutes and should be cooked on medium high.

Part V.
Pork loin

You'll need an extra tool for this: a meat injector. Also, give yourself a whole day to prep this. Marinade the pork loin by injecting it with your favorite marinade, leave in the fridge over night. Heat up your grill to the ultimate maximum (just like for chicken and meat). Put the loin on the rack once your grill is hot and cook each side for no more than 3 minutes. Once the entire outside is cooked, turned the heat to the lowest setting possible, close the lid and cook for at least 4 or 5 hours (ideal cooking temperature is about 300 degrees F so that it's slightly pink and delicious juicy inside).

I have been very lucky to enjoy wonderfully grilled meals by Mr. Castle for decades now. Thank you dad for these wonderful grilling tips!

Gourmet extraordinaire and desert camping in Nevada

Desert camping isn't for everyone. Conditions can be harsh, especially for peak heat times in the middle of summer. Without natural sources of water and shade, dehydration and sun poisoning could easily happen. Extreme self-reliance is the best way to survive and lack of preparation could have devastating consequences.

A very fancy desert (Dubai)

Good thing we're not everyone and we love extremes! For our first week back in the United States of America, we decided to go desert camping for a week, in the middle of the northern Nevada desert. We had actually planned on going there before we left on our 6-month sabbatical and paid $380 each to secure our spot for our tent. Usually, camping is never that expensive. However, this type of camping is as unique as it gets so we had to commit eight months in advance to it.

We're talking, of course, about Burning Man: absolutely, 100%, one of the most epic events we have ever attended in our lives. Burning Man is very hard to explain so it is best to just go see for yourself. The reason it's so hard is because the event becomes what you want it to be. Many people bring their children for a family experience, many people come to do ultramarathons and others, like us, come as foodies, not knowing what to expect but excited about everything.

Our two good friends spent all summer planning for Burning Man. One of them, in particular, planned everything in insane detail and we had everything from 1,000 baby wipes to superglued seals on every single car window to keep the majority of the playa dust out.

All four of us are total foodies so we went on very fun food shopping sprees and prepared meals in advance. We packed the 'obvious' camping food such as canned beans, corn, rice and curries in pouches, but we also packed exciting foodie treats. We were thrilled to find bacon jerky and purchased the Costco size bags of that amazing treasure. We brought two huge logs of goat cheese, a large wedge of Manchego cheese, an entire wooden box stuffed with smoked salmon from Seattle, garlic and jalapeño stuffed olives, a case of V-8 fruit and veggie juices and our home mix of hemp and almond granola with raisins.

Preparing the lasagna sauce

Eliot made a gallon of home-made cold brew coffee and Drea made cinnamon tea soda syrup. We also made two pans of home made lasagna with beef and de-cased Italian sausages (Drea did this by hand), an entire head of garlic and a dash of nutmeg to give it a Bologna twist. Our friends made an amazing summer gazpacho with tons of parsley, lemon, Tunisian olive oil and refreshing cucumbers plus at least two dozen juicy home-made meatballs in an amazing home-made tomato sauce (peeled AND seeded tomatoes!). Oh and let's not forget their tasty garbanzo, parsley, parmesan cheese salad.

We showed up at Burning Man and were in awe for at least 144 hours. The dry heat suppressed our appetites a bit but we still found time to indulge in decadent meals. Thanks to our extremely detail-oriented friend who planned 99% of our journey to the desert, we were able to keep our pre-made meals frozen solid with the 50 pounds of dry ice we stuffed in three coolers.

The Man

De-frosting was super easy: we took out the containers in the morning and by dinner time, they had naturally thawed. We ate the gazpacho and garbanzo salad cold and then heated up the lasagna and the meatballs on the propane camp stove. Our other campmates brought a healthy kale and broccoli salad and we destroyed it our first night. We also indulged in the best home-made grilled cheese sandwiches we've ever had! Part of the secret was toasting the bread on both sides and using three layers of cheese (we're getting hungry just writing this!).

Fire cyclones as the Man burns on Saturday

Burning Man thrives on a gift economy and we were lucky to have delicious treats along the way. At Burning Man, you give. The gifts we received were absolutely fabulous. As far as food goes, we had Montreal-style smoked meat sandwiches (think gourmet smoked/corned beef and spicy mustard) served by our Canadian neighbors, fresh ground coffee used to make legit Vietnamese iced coffee (ice is a highly coveted item at Burning Man), emperor's tea from China prepared in front of us at a formal tea ceremony (the tea had to be smuggled into the US because it is worth more than gold by weight!) and cheese fondue straight from a fondue pot!

We will try to make this a yearly event for us and we look forward to the foodie events we missed: bacon bloodys, morning hash browns, home-made pickles, massive barbecues and whatever else we are bound to walk or bike into.

Co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com

Robot Heart Party

Awesome Playa Sunset

Biking around, checking out art exhibitions everywhere

Indonesian food is terrible! Or not...

I have to admit it, initially we chose to go to Indonesia not for its spectacular food but rather for its nature and adventure potential. When we were trying to choose which island to focus our travels on, we wanted the path less traveled and Sumatra became a candidate.

Sumatra, beautiful, wild and delicious!

We finally settled on it not just because of adventure but because contrary to all popular belief, Sumatra was supposed to have the best food in all of Indonesia. Could it be true? We figured there's only one way to find out so we booked our ferry and plane tickets to our first destination in Sumatra: Padang.


As a city, Padang is just "meh" and surprisingly expensive. Like $30 dollars for a shared room expensive. Turns out Padang is the launching point to the surfing mecca at the Mentawai islands and prices are hyper inflated. The saving grace for the city is that supposedly, it has the spiciest food in Indonesia. That's definitely something to get really excited about! But wait, it's Ramadan, will there even be anything to eat? Yes. Oh yes there was.

We got the impression that Muslims in Padang are pretty chill about the whole Ramadan thing as we saw hoards of them 'cheating' and eating throughout the day. Good news for us! Our first stop was a coconut stand on the side of the road prior to arriving at our hotel. After a long flight, a nice juicy coconut was exactly what we needed.

Pile on the goodies please!

We then walked over to one of the best restaurants in Padang (according to our guesthouse) and just drooled as the waitstaff piled plate after plate of all sorts of dishes all smothered in bright red hot chilies: braised tofu, beef, potatoes, fish, dry beef, curry beef, yellow chicken, saucy chicken, silken tofu, eggplant and boiled eggs among many, many others. This amazing dish pile is apparently called Nasi Padang. YUM!

Similar to Ethiopia, the custom in Padang is just to dig in with your hands and enjoy. We didn't realize that you don't really get to "order" your food, instead they just pile it on and you ask them to take away the reject plates. Naturally, we just tried eating everything on the table until we were stuffed beyond belief. The favorite was definitely the Beef Rendang, tender chunks of beef cooked in a toasted coconut sauce. We tried ordering more of it but they had just run out and the three of us nearly fought over the last little piece. A close second was a deep fried spicy fish that felt more like fish jerky but was so crisp that you could even eat all the bones.

Roll up your sleeves, and scoop it all up (crispy fish @ 10 o'clock, the last of the beef Rendang at 5 o'clock)

We only ended up staying in Padang for a short day and decided to hit up the dinner spot once more for lunch before heading out to the airport. At 1pm, the place was packed with locals and there was even a live band playing. You wouldn't have known it because the whole city looks like it shuts down between sunrise and sunset but luckily for us, the restaurant was definitely open, you just had to know to pull away the curtain and slip in through the very narrow entrance. Apparently in Padang, not even Ramadan stops people from eating and given how delightful the food was, it's no wonder!!

Got chilies?

So Padang was kind of a bust but from a foodie perspective, it was definitely worth the visit! Plus I was able to find a fruit I thought only Colombians had, tomate de arbol. I ordered it as a fresh fruit juice from this little old lady who couldn't believe I didn't want any sugar in my juice. It was delicious, just like the Colombian version and I was in heaven! I was also very glad I didn't get any sugar in it: apparently Indonesians have one of the highest per capita consumption of sugar in all of Asia. Watch out for spikes in diabetes, Indonesia!  [China, by the way, is the #1 in Asia and India is the top consumer in the world]

[Note: I found this nice blog where you can read much more about Padang cuisine. This blogger had a bit more time to explore the food options than we did: http://afastar.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/west-sumatera-cuisine/]

Best way to end a meal: fresh fruit and coconut

While Padang was quite the exciting food city, we were shocked to discover one of Sumatra's best kept culinary secrets: the Batak people in Lake Toba are food geniuses!! One of my good travel buddies from Spain even commented how she does not like Indonesian food at all but Batak food was really good!

I think one of the tricks to this simple but delicious food is the lake itself. Lake Toba, a few hours west of Medan, is a gem of a place. The depth of the lake (almost 1 kilometer!) helps to keep the water clean and is home to delicious fish. We walked into a small hole-in-the wall restaurant for a late lunch, hoping they would serve us food. They were happy to have us and we all decided to order their fried fish. As is typical in most developing countries, our fish was deep fried whole and served with some veggie garnishes. We weren't expecting much but as soon as we took the first bite, we looked at each other all wide-eyed and almost simultaneously went "mmmmmmm!!!!!!!!"

One word: succulent!

The fish had definitely just been caught that morning and our hosts clearly knew what they were doing because it wasn't that greasy, which probably means they heat up the oil just right: even the tail was crunchy enough to eat it all! As a Colombian, deep fried whole fish is just one of those things you grow up with and the ability to eat the tail of the fish so that it feels like a potato chip is a true sign of excellence in the kitchen (my dad taught me this when I was probably 5 years old).

Best BBQ fish in town

Anyway, "Shugary Restaurant" is a must if you ever find yourself in Tuk Tuk. The fried fish was topped by our chef's dinner the next day: slow cooked whole fish on the barbecue. The chef made a little BBQ brush out of lemongrass he used to keep the fish moist with home-made marinade as it cooked for almost an hour. His wife fixes a great veggie salad (with cheese!) and she makes toasted coconut from scratch, which she then uses to top off a fruit salad with passion fruit.

Shredding coconut is a very laborious process and actually a great arm work out. My friend Jamie and I took a cooking class in Tuk Tuk and we had a first hand experience on how tiring this process is! But, regardless, making things from scratch is probably the other secret to Batak cuisine.

A coconut grinder really helps to get all that meat out

We learned to make sambal (like a chili paste) from scratch without the use of any electronic devices: we used a good ol' round stone and stone tablet to grind chili, garlic and shallot into a deliciously spicy paste. I learned to wrap fish in banana leaves to trap all the flavor and moisture as it steams. We also used heaps of the ground coconut to make our own coconut milk and used a mortar and pestle to make a coconut paste we used for a chicken Rendang. Similar to beef Rendang, we coated pieces of chicken in a toasted coconut paste and slowly cooked them until tender perfection!

Banana leaves keep the fish nice and moist

All in all, Batak cuisine was simple, yet flavorful, fresh and cooked with tender loving care. As an added bonus, the Batak eat a lot of pork and although it wasn't the best pork I had ever had, my tastebuds happily welcomed the change and made me long for bacon...

TLC @ Shugary

Shugary's delicious toasted coconut fruit and home-made muesli with passion fruit

What do you do with all that ground coconut? Make coconut milk, of course!

Mortar and pestle for Rendang dishes

Making chili sambal like a cavewoman

Nile blues and mountain highs

The source of the Blue Nile

It was a bitch getting out of Addis Ababa. Because it was the week of [Coptic] Easter all the buses were booked in literally every direction.

"Want to take a bus to Bahir Dar? Not til next Thursday."
"How about Harar?"
"Sorry, booked til Friday."
"Do you have buses that go anywhere in the country for tomorrow?"
"No." [smile]

Travel infrastructure in Ethiopia is... limited. In a country of 80 million people, there are literally only TWO private bus companies. In spite of the high demand for private transportation, these companies refuse to buy more buses, hence our problems finding a way out of the city.

Anyway, we opted to take a cheap domestic flight on Ethiopian Airlines (the only domestic airline in the nation) to ensure we actually got to our destination. We were on a mission to explore the northern highlands.

We started out in Bahir Dar, perched on the banks of Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. Bahir Dar was a laid back beach town and we really enjoyed the one night we stayed there. We took a boat out onto the lake and into the mouth of the Blue Nile, wondering at the prolific number of wetland bird species and water buffalo. We visited one of the ancient Coptic Christian churches that sit on the many islands scattered around the lake and we even had a dance battle, which we obviously lost, at a local wedding.

Blue Nile Falls

As we plied the waters out onto the lake we heard a scream from a passing boat. Our captain turned the boat around and we pulled up alongside. Turns out it was a happy scream! One of the passengers on the boat was a an absolutely wonderful woman we had met at a fruit juice place in Addis Ababa. She was in Bahir Dar for the weekend with her boyfriend and they insisted we join them that night for a traditional Ethiopian meal.

It turns out that the couple was actually staying in our very same guest house! They took us out to a local Ethiopian night club, beating back the tuk-tuk drivers who are always on the lookout to cheat foreigners on fares. The night club was a huge open space the size of a small warehouse. We arrived around seven and were a bit worried because it was nearly empty. We ordered food and waited. Before long, hundreds of people started to trickle in until the entire building was standing room only. As the food arrived, a troupe of music performers came up on stage and started belting out some traditional Ethiopian folk music. They were soon joined by a team of professional dancers. Ethiopian dancing is as unique as it is impressive. They move their shoulders in the way that salsa dancers move their hips. It's a sight to be seen and you can check it out here on Youtube.

The Simien Mountains

The next day we explored the Blue Nile Falls outside of Bahir Dar. It's a beautiful place and the water was impressive even in dry season. Then we piled onto a local minibus (a police officer was transporting a shackled prisoner on it too!) and made our way to Gondar, site of an ancient Ethiopian castle and jumping off point for our four-day trek in the Simien Mountains.

The mountains were absolutely fantastic. They were 110% different than the Himalayas. The Simiens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and they look like a raised plateau that towers thousands of meters above the surrounding foothills. The sides of the plateau are sheer cliffs but the top is undulating hills. Our trek took us along the edge of the cliffs, circumnavigating the plateau. It felt like another world. We were always on the edge of a multi-thousand-meter drop and the views were mind-blowing. We spotted rare endemic species like Ethiopian wolves, ibexes, cliffspringers and tons of baboons.

Ibex vs. Baboon

The only downside of the Simiens are that they're quite expensive to visit and we feel that we got ripped off big time. You're required to hire a guide and a scout through a local operator in addition to all the camping equipment etc. The upshot is that they are well protected and that we got a truly luxury camping experience. Our tents were already set up for us when we arrived at the campsite and there was hot coffee/tea waiting for us. Not a bad way to experience the outdoors. We summited the third highest peak in Ethiopia and then moved on to our next trekking destination: Lalibela.

Lalibela is one of the most touristy places in Ethiopia. It's famous for its surfeit of ancient churches carved from solid rock. These feats of engineering rival Petra and are a big draw in a country with little tourism. The only problem is that the local priesthood who manages the churches charges criminally high entrance fees and pockets the cash, none of it goes to the community and there's a lot of local tension because of it (what would Jesus do, right?).

Shepherd kids hard at work

Anyway, we weren't interested in the churches, we were interested in the mountains. Lalibela lies in a deep valley and is surrounded by a semicircular mountain range. We had arranged to trek these mountains with a unique organization called Tesfa Tours. Tesfa means 'hope' in Amharic and the organization works with remote local villages in the mountains to host trekkers who want to traverse the terrain. It's a fantastic system that generates local employment, promotes positive interaction and provides an amazing experience at the same time.

We stayed in local-style cliff top huts, munched injera and sipped fresh roasted coffee at the end of every day of trekking. There was no running water and no electricity -- we were definitely in the middle of nowhere. The mountains are gorgeous, alternating between village farmland, rocky wilderness and wide open views of the entire Lalibela valley.

The Lalibela range

The experience was amazing but, after nine days of it, Eliot was sick and we were both completely exhausted (although Drea took an awesome local cooking class in town). We realized we had been burning the midnight oil a bit too fast in Ethiopia. We had planned back-to-back excursions across the Northern Highlands with no room for rest in between. And this was in a country with the worst transportation infrastructure we had encountered.

We had plans to visit the south and explore the Bale Mountains as well but we realized we needed to switch it up before we burnt out. Beware of the over-crowded itinerary in any long-term travel plans you may have. This was our mistake and we were determined to fix it. So we made a game-time decision to escape to Zanzibar for ten days...

Time to go exploring

co-posted on www.eliotpeper.com