Dave's Photo & Travelblogue

Relaxing in Budapest

German holidays are great, as long as you can avoid the traffic. Leaving at 7am from Munich we missed most of it and made it to Budapest in the early afternoon. Our greeter was an enthusiastic howler in need of a toenail trim:

Late lunch at the hotel restaurant. This fantastic dish of homemade smoked salmon and quail eggs was six euro. (The pumpkin soup was also up there with the best I’ve ever had, for 2.50).

After wandering around the beautiful castle above the city at sunset…

…we had a coffee and enjoyed this great night view! I think this is officially the best view I ever had from a coffee shop. It was definitely worth the pricey cuppa. (Hungarian expensive = Munich standard price!).

I’m already looking forward to the next 2 days of sightseeing!

Happy Easter. Just to cover my bases, I’ll be pouring one out for JC… probably a real Czech Budweiser

Roasted Garlic Habanero Hot Sauce

So, I’m out of Blair’s Death Sauce, at least the “less strong” varieties like Salsa de la Muerte that are usable straight over food. I decided to try my hand at some hot sauce of my own. For those that know the habanero, it’s one of the hottest peppers in the world, 50-100 times hotter than a jalapeno. Here are the ingredients of my sauce:

List of ingredients for Roasted Garlic Habanero Hot Sauce:

• 20 habanero peppers
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 3 rawitt chilis
• 1 large shallot (not pictured in photo!)
• 1 head garlic
• 1/2c white vinegar
• 1/2c water
• 1/3c lemon juice
• 2tsp brown sugar
• 1tsp roasted cumin
• 1tsp salt

I halved and then roasted 3/4 of the habaneros (seeds and all) along with the jalapeno and the peeled garlic cloves. This was done in the oven, maybe around 350°F for 15-20min until lightly browned. Then everything went in the blender including the remaining (uncooked) habaneros. Roasting supposedly reduces the heat a bit (nooo!), and I also wanted to keep some fresh habanero flavor, so I left 1/4 of the habanero pods raw & unroasted.

Here’s the final result:

The flavor is amazing! Perhaps because it’s so fresh, and hasn’t been processed as much as your average store-bought hot sauce. Due to the high acid content with vinegar and lemon juice, I suspect this will keep for a very long time (months or more). Although I am a bit concerned that it could grow mold eventually. I’m also looking for some pH test strips to check the acidity, as this will tell how safe an acidified food is. I suspect it’s in the mid to low 4’s, making it long-term shelf storage safe, but for now it’s in my fridge.

If you do give homemade hot sauce-making a try, let us know here! Until then I recommend Blair’s Death Sauces. Available in Germany at www.importladen.de. My favorite is Salsa de la Muerte, as most of the hotter ones have to be diluted – I like to drizzle my food with sauce.

Happy tasting, and don’t numb your tongue too much!

Forum Vini 2010

By: David Douglas

For longtime readers, you might remember last year’s Forum Vini article. I went back this year for my fourth Forum Vini dose of fine food, wine, and spirits! This year I experimented with only natural light: no flash, and all photos are using my Nikon 35mm f/2 lens + Nikon D90. I often white-balanced on an index card before each shot.

Delicious Goufrais chocolates… amazingly cool on the tongue. True fine chocolate truffles.

Once again, Enoteca Palmieri was in full force with some great wines (more photos below in the full album). Check out the shop at Augsburgerstr. 25 in Dachau. Palmieri had the largest bottle of wine that I saw at Forum Vini!

Palmieri also had something else special: grappa infused with olives! This is a really unique, delicious spirit. And that’s coming from someone with a big (and varied) liquor cabinet.

Delicious oil, vinegar, and sherries from Aecovi Jerez:

Once again I stopped by Dr. Schätzl of Moosburg to check out this year’s display. Here’s a stunning array of different exotic oil: pumpkin seed, poppy seed, walnut, and more…

And a list of other exhibitors who are shown below in the gallery:

• Wein- und Sektgut BARTH, with a unique German sekt.
• Wein aus Portugal from Brissac.
• Varied wines from Italy, Chile, and Australia from San Rocco.
• Vinos La Vid: importing from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Austria.
• Fancy glasswork from Weingut Freiherr von Neveu.
• Strawberry-chili liquor from one of last year’s favorites, Weingut Michel-Roos.

Thanks to those at the stands who allowed me permission to photograph them or their products. I had a great time, and (I think) found some great photographic opportunities!

Full album of photos:

Forum Vini 2010

Omakase at Sushi-Dai

At Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, there are several sushi restaurants where tourists try out never-frozen fish at what is truly a bargain price for some of the world’s freshest sushi. I went to Sushi-Dai. After a mere 2h in line (starting at about 7:30am) I sat down in the tiny restaurant for my Omakase (chef’s choice) breakfast. This is the entire restaurant, which explains the long wait times:

Here’s my delectable piece of Toro, or fatty tuna:

This one I don’t recall the name, if anyone knows just leave a comment. I am guessing red snapper?

The first piece is Uni, or sea urchin. The second, Aji or horse mackerel (I think).

Yet another “no idea” (I should have brought a pen and paper!).

A few rolls, then Anago (Sea Eel) and another slightly-unsure.

There were a few more, 10pcs in all plus 1 more of my choice (anything on the menu); then the rolls, layered egg nigiri, and miso soup. Well worth the 3900 yen (roundabout $40 depending on the exchange rate).

Let me be clear: this was the best sushi I’ve ever eaten anywhere, for any price. By far. Never frozen, well prepared by a good (and friendly) chef. Tsukiji is truly amazing!

Homemade Sushi

I love eating raw food. Usually it just tastes better to me, and has a great texture compared to most things cooked. And in today’s markets, it’s relatively safe for healthy adults to eat several kinds of meat & fish raw. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor nor a nutritionist, and I take no responsibility if eating raw food makes you sick).

Below is some of my homemade sushi from a few days ago. I always buy the fish in a high-end market, and ask the fishmonger what he recommends for sushi. Often they say “Nothing today, come back on xxxx” – and I definitely respect that. Usually they have tuna and salmon; on the right days sometimes another one or two. You can also find frozen sushi (such as pre-cooked Unagi, or eel) in some Asian shops.

Of course to get this nice blur, I used my 35mm f/2. ISO was cranked up to 800 to avoid using a flash, and I white-balanced on an empty plate before shooting.

Despite that I once ate raw chicken in Kyoto, I don’t recommend that for everyone. Nor would I ever recommend eating raw pork, because the consequences are too dire. But I’ve never been sick from raw beef or fish. Of course I only consume these in countries where I trust the food processing chain.

So, if you live in a well-developed country, check out the best fish market you can find in town – maybe you, too, can make your own sushi for a fraction of the restaurant price!

Shocker at the Oktoberfest

This one is for my Skydive Orange peeps. Some of whom will be here starting tomorrow, for Oktoberfest 2010 (200th anniversary)! This shadowy shocker is compliments of the Nikon 35mm f/2.

A tasty beer at Hacker-Pschorr near the Theresienwiese.

I love this picture of my buddy eating a Steaksemmel. Blurry-background-girl must have been wondering, “Why is that guy aiming such a huge camera at someone eating a sandwich?”

I’ve posted a few other pics from this day on the Guided Munich Blog.

Can’t wait to see Scott, Amy, and Eric here for Oktoberfest – it’s gonna be a blast!

Downtown Siem Reap

On July 18th I flew from Singapore to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Priority #1: relaxing to recover from a rather travel-weary state. Siem Reap was just what the doctor ordered!

My hotel (Angkor Spirit Palace) is quite nice, for the $20/night I paid via hotels.com. There were a few blips in the description: I had to argue for the complimentary breakfast, my room lacks the promised safe, and (contrary to the description) there is no whale-watching onsite. Shocker!

For the afternoon I headed into town by the hotel’s complimentary tuk-tuk. Here’s what I found around the Old Market. Cellphones are everywhere in the world, even in the poorest of nations:

You’ve gotta love some of the restaurant names in Cambodia. The fine print: “Don’t serve dog,cat,rat,wrm. Died in, 1999.”

I haven’t seen any 7-Eleven’s here in Cambodia. But they have the next best thing, the 6-Eleven! Note the blurry scooter with a whole family riding on it.

Well, just wait a few seconds and another fully-loaded scooter will come by. Then I can get a better focus on what would break about eighteen laws in most Western countries.

I’ll cap today with a shot demonstrating the short depth-of-field of the 35mm f/2 lens. Even on that first taco, only half the cilantro is in focus!

I can recommend Viva as decent Mexican. Especially considering it’s about as far away from Mexico as you can get. More authentic than anything I’ve ever tried in Germany! Plus, you just can’t beat $0.50 USD draft Angkor beer. Which is the standard price all along Siem Reap’s “Pub Street.” So far, an awesome (and very relaxing) experience!

Chilli Crab

When in Singapore, you must have a chilli crab. If you can take the heat, that is! I love ‘em, and on July 15th I headed to the East Coast Seafood Center my hosts.

Jumbo Seafood is the undisputed king in my book. They have everything known to Poseidon on the menu, and the crab is fantastic.

One of our number was not yet old enough to take the heat. He preferred the tasty (fried?) buns. Also, did I mention a few days ago that the 35mm f2 lens can practically see in the dark? 1/15s, f2, ISO 1600 on the Nikon D90.

And here’s a tasty chilli crab claw, coated in glorious chili-egg-sauce:

At this point, I was (obviously) recovered from the dumpling incident. This means I was ready to get up the next day and visit not one, but two zoos! One in the daylight, and one at night. Anyone ever been on a real safari? I’m dying to try it one day…

Yes, it’s all about FOOD

I’m sure there are more things to do in Penang, but we had our eyes on the local delicacies! Before heading back to Kuala Lumpur on July 11th, we stopped at a food fair and feasted on what the vendors had to offer. Laksa, Hokkien noodles (very spicy), satay sticks…

Here’s the spread at our table. On the far right you can see (if I remember correctly) chrysanthemum juice.

On the way out of town we stopped at Ghee Hiang, a gourmet shop that sells buns, cakes, white coffee, sesame oil, that kind of thing. The buns are awesome, but the signage is even better. I couldn’t resist…

I’m not kidding when I say all we did was eat. Here was our delicious pork-soup-stew dinner, called Bah Kut Teh (thanks, JK!).

Alright, I promise, no pictures of food tomorrow – haha!

Rotorua – Thermal Everything

I realized that a post from last month didn’t publish properly. So here’s a break between Thailand and Malaysia: a short flashback to New Zealand! On June 15th I woke up refreshed (and a bit cold) at the Cosy Cottage Holiday Park, in the thermal-spring town of Rotorua.

For those not familiar with such places, a holiday park is a combination of campgrounds, camper parking, and cabins / backpacker rooms. Like many places I’ve stayed in New Zealand, the heating in my backpacker room was not very good, so it pays to have a good sleeping bag if you travel in the winter. I didn’t, so I froze my arse off for two nights.

Cold room aside, his holiday park is pretty awesome. It has access to a beach on Lake Rotorua where you can dig a hole that fills with hot thermal water. Or you can soak in the thermal springs-fed hot tubs. For dinner you can cook food in a thermal-vent powered steam oven (more on that below).

Rotorua is all about bubbling, steaming hot thermal features – beaches, hot water, and boiling mud.

By the way, try taking a picture of something that’s boiling. It’s not so easy! Boiling is all about motion, seeing bubbles rise and burst. A still frame of anything boiling is about one tenth as interesting as you might think.

Besides Rotorua town, I checked out two attractions: the Skyline area with a gondola, a tires-on-cement luge, and several other adventure activities; and Rainbow Park, a forest conservation area that helps raise kiwi birds and release them into the wild (among other things). Here’s a green tree gecko, a native of New Zealand:

To be honest, Skyline was a disappointment (seeing as I live near the Alps). The view was nothing spectacular. And I didn’t realize I could have hiked to the top of the gondola in about 15 minutes, rather than pay >$20 to ride in the (painfully slow) cabin. The luge was pretty cool – I would have done it a second time to try the “advanced” course if my gloveless hands hadn’t been nearly frostbitten from the cold.

I went back to Rainbow Park at night to get pictures of the kiwi birds. Unfortunately, just one was out and about, and he stuck to the darkest area in the whole enclosure. Since using the flash on nocturnal animals is strictly out, and I’d forgotten my tripod, here’s the best I could do. It’s a crop of a hand-held 2s exposure of a frenetic pecking bird. But it is a photo of the elusive kiwi!

It strikes me that “kiwi” can refer to a fruit or a bird, and is a friendly nickname for New Zealanders. So if you say “I had a kiwi last night,” it’s not certain if you ate fruit for dessert, broke a conservation law by eating endangered animals, or got lucky with a local hottie. Hmm…

Now, on to steam ovens! Here’s the rack of lamb before cooking:

The lovely steam oven itself:

And finally, the lamb after four hours of steaming in a volcanically-powered oven:

It’s very tender and moist, with a texture just like pulled pork barbecue! In fact, I’d recommend to use a lower grade of meat than prime rack of lamb, because I suspect this oven would make even the toughest pork or beef flake apart in moist tidbits. By the way, the cost of this hunk o’ lamb in New Zealand: $5 USD! I love this country.

Tomorrow, (a.k.a. 4 weeks ago) I’ll relate my visit to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. It definitely lives up to its name!