meat - i should log off

Foodie Friday: Shashlik

October 8, 2010 By Jillian

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time you probably know that we break one of the most widely recognized travel rules at almost every chance we get-eating street food. Now we’ve written about our adoration of street food before and certainly Danny’s constant attraction to meat on a stick, so its possible that you think street food is delicious everywhere and certainly meat on a stick should never be passed up. Well, this week’s foodie Friday is going to prove that untrue.

Shashlik is simply meat on a stick. Grilled over a coal fire, its found all over Central Asia. No, it’s not any sort of exotic meat, its mutton (sheep), ground up and sometimes mixed with some chopped up onion. It’s generally served with a generous helping of naan (white bread) and often with some vinegar and raw onions. Unfortunately, shashlik, perhaps like so many meats on a stick, is often made with the fattiest and poorest cuts of meat. More than once there were bits of bone in my shashlik, but perhaps the most off putting of all, for me at least, was the layer of greasy fat in your mouth afterwards. No wonder its served with vinegar and onions, nothing less would cut through the fat.

Before you get angry or grossed out, let me clarify- Shashlik isn’t disgusting, not by any means. It’s just fatty, really, really fatty, and frankly the ubiquitous fatty taste and texture left in your mouth was so off putting to me I could hardly stand to eat it after a few days. Danny of course was more willing to give the meat on a stick a chance, but eventually he too agreed that it wasn’t the most eerrrr ‘delicious’ of the meats on a stick. Perhaps the Central Asians should take some lessons from our meat loving friends.

IF YOU GO: In Central Asia you’ll have to try shashlik once, but don’t say we didn’t warn you. Kazakhstan did serve it up a bit better than Uzbekistan, however.

Foodie Friday: Biltong

January 8, 2010 By Danny

When we were at our first Braai a few weeks ago biltong was mentioned but we’d yet to try it. Similar to beef jerky, but made of just about anything, our CS hosts ensured we went to Mozambique with a good supply of the stuff. When we ran out, some other South Africans staying at the same place as us, ensured we’d continue to have enough.

On our way into Kruger National Park we read in our guidebook that the park actually began as a refuge for the animals from biltong poachers. Ironic then that the first gift shop we walked into had entire wall of biltong from a host of different animals ranging from the traditional beef and not so hard to find ostrich to all manner of game including kudu, impala, springbok and the list goes on.

Later that evening, while sharing a Braai with some friendly people in the campsite, I asked some questions and was told that kudu is probably one of the better game meats to try because it is a browser (eats bushes) rather than a grazer (eats grass) and that usually means the meat is of a better quality. We opted to try some Kudu and taste it alongside the beef and….could not tell the difference for the life of us.

Foodie Friday: Braai & Boerewors

December 25, 2009 By Danny

One of the things we missed out on while we were in Argentina was taking part in an asado. This is the Argentine version of our Bar-B-Q and although we’d had enough meat we would have liked to enjoy one first-hand during our 6 weeks in the country. Imagine our surprise then when on day number 3 in South Africa we found ourselves enjoying the South African version of the BBQ.

The word braai comes from the Afrikaans word for grill, and grill they did. Of the group that we were invited to join everyone took a turn grilling except for the host. We probably spent about two hours cooking because there was just so much for the 10 of us and there wasn’t a morsel of hamburger to be found. As for last week’s Foodie Friday there were no exotic meats to try although there were a few suggestions. Instead, we had chicken breast, chicken wings, steak, and probably 6 different varieties of sausage.

Most, if not all, of that sausage was boerewors, which is is basically South African sausage. Generally strongly seasoned with about a million of varieties from spicy, cheese, and even garlic. The most amazing part was that for all the varieties, it was all beef.

Missing from the braai though, which our hosts soon remedied was our first taste of biltong. Pronounced with their accents such that I thought they were talking about “bull tongue” it is basically sun-dried beef, something akin to jerky, but spiced and a good bit more flavorful as well. This specialty though can actually be found, or so I’m told, in ostrich, kudu, and impala varieties as well.

There are braai pits nearly every where we go, including inside the cricket stadium. Its one thing for the grocery store to have a specialty braai foods section but the gas station does as well. As the weather here is always wonderful it really isn’t much a surprise that a weekend here wouldn’t be complete without a braai.

Foodie Friday – The Other Meats

December 18, 2009 By Danny

As we travel we obviously like to try the different foods an area offers. Often this goes beyond just the cooking style or cuisine of an area. In the Andes we were able to try Llama and Alpaca (even on a pizza in Bolivia) and weren’t permitted to leave Peru without trying Cuy (guinea pig). In Brazil we enjoyed Piranha soup, we went to Oaxaca with the sole purpose of eating a grasshopper, and when we came home the only thing I wanted to eat was buffalo (bison).

The nice thing about all these foods is that they are truly local, providing us with a rich cultural experience while allowing us to directly support the local economy as well. Many though have an additional benefit, they are better for our bodies than traditional red meat. By the time we left the states we rarely ever had beef on our freezer, preferring bison meat instead because it was better for us, the economy, and the environment, if maybe not quite as perfect for our pocket book.

But now we are in Africa (yes, we arrived a couple of days ago now) and the idea of eating those “indigenous” meats here has a very different connotation. Sure, we’re about to head into Mozambique where supposedly the fish just comes right out of the sea, through the grill, and onto your plate in a matter of seconds, but what about the rest of those animals that Africa is famous for? Is it ethical to have a zebra kabob or an elephant stew? We do expect to eat Ostrich (heck, you can even get that as fast food in the USA) but what else should we look for and try?

Foodie Friday: Carne, Carne, Carne!

November 20, 2009 By Jillian

This is our last foodie friday in South America so we should probably dedicate it to something we can’t escape here in Argentina- red meat. For most of latin america red meat is prohibitively expensive for the general population, so we’ve been eating mostly chicken and when we can find it, fish. That was until we got to Argentina. Now we can’t find fish.

Argentina is like heaven for red meat lovers. It’s delicious, available everywhere and very inexpensive. At every restaurant from the five stars to the local diner, red meat is on the menu in a list that would make even the top US steakhouses jealous. Cut after cut, which is usually translated as something different on every menu, the steak usually comes by itself, simply prepared with even salt or pepper. Every dining establishment has a steak sandwich (lomito sandwich) on the menu, and trust us, its delicious even at the bus station.

A “bife de chorizo”, which no lie is usually about 14 ounces or more of steak usually runs less than $10, and as you can imagine its enough food for an entire day. After more than a six weeks in Argentina and Chile we’ve had our full of steak, but we just can’t get away from it. I kid you not, Danny’s been looking for trout or salmon at every restaurant for the last three weeks and he’s only had salmon once…and that was in Chile. We just can’t get away from red meat.

When Danny’s parents came to visit us, his Dad made it a mission to eat steak at lunch and dinner every day. Not that its hard to do, but after a few days he had us all begging for chicken or a salad. Imagine what we feel like after six weeks! I’m certainly not complaining, I’m a red meat person myself, but every once in a while a girl needs a salad or a grilled chicken breast just to balance things out. Our cholesterol and weight probably don’t appreciate Argentina, but our palates certainly do. You can bet that once we leave I won’t be ordering a steak for a while.

Foodie Friday: Shashlik

Foodie Friday: Biltong

Foodie Friday: Braai & Boerewors

Foodie Friday – The Other Meats

Foodie Friday: Carne, Carne, Carne!

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