Posts Tagged With: whales

Great Arctic Eats – Narsaq, Greenland

Posted on April 28, 2024 by pauldelancey

Narsaq

Do you love to eat in a town with no more than 1,348 people? Do you crave a bustling town with an invigorating night life? Do you absolutely need art, history, and fantastic scenery? Do you want to stay a while in a beach town not overrun by surfer dudes and day trippers who leave their trash everywhere? Do you want it all and still be above the Arctic? Is it essential that you dine on tasty food? Then, oh my gosh, Narsaq, Greenland, is the place for you.
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Weather update as of press time: It’s cloudy with a temperature of 38 degrees. It should rain two days from now.
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Let’s visit Narsaq’s five best restaurants as listed in TripAdvisor(tm).
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The  restaurant to go to is Klara. It earned eleven reviews over the years and an average rating of 3.5. According to a lengthy review, this eatery “meets your basic needs.” One reviewer spoke of Narsaq as being “off the planet.” Mars is off the planet and as of press time has not even a single restaurant.  So “meets your basic needs” is quite an accomplishment. Klara’s cuisine is local and international. It has table service.
Ahem! Customers rave about the staff’s pleasant, enthusiastic, and pleasant attitude. How great is that? The menu runs to seven items six days a week, with an absolute socko weekly special. Many people speak of Klara’s food as being nice to really good. Be sure to sample the dishes made from local produce. Don’t leave withhout trying the highly regarded crepes with local berries.
I know I want to go here
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Winning the silver medal on our restaurant tour is Ulo Netcafe. It has only one review, but that one customer loved it gave the eatery a 5. Woot! The diner said it was the metropolis’ best restaurant.  The customer also averred that Ulo Netcafe possessed a cozy atmosphere and really good food. The local produce came in for special praise. (Just like with restaurant Klara. Clearly local-produce conoisseurs will want to high tail it to Narsaq.)
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Third place on our dining tour is Café Inugssuk. Unfortunately, no one reviewed on TripAdvisor. However, Café Inugsuk Facebook(tm) page has 28 reviews. The one I saw said the eatery is always cozy, with not too many people, and is a good place to have a drink. Lovers of live music will be happy here.
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We now visit Qajaq Brewery. No one as reviewed it on Tripvisor nor does it seem to have a website. I know it is a pub, a brew pub.  Perhaps it’s frequented by those in the Witness Protection Program. Those people tend to shun publicity.  So, if you do go Narsaq-and why would you not?–please try Qaqjaq Brewery and let me know what you think.
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We finish our culinary adventure at Arctic Café Narsaq. The café is named after the Arctic and serves European, Danish, and healthy cuisine. It has live music. Arctic Café Narsaq doesn’t have any TripAdvisor ratings. Boo! It does, however, have a Facebook page. Yay!
Arctic Café Narsaq on Facebook. Knowing Danish helps a lot here.
By far, the best way to reach Narsaq is by plane.(Motoring to Narsaq can be frustrating and problematic.) Travellers need to fly to Copenhagen or Reyfavik, then jet to  the international airport in Narsarsuaq. Almost there. Then catch either a boat or helicopter transfer to Narsaq. Local Greenlanders can take the Sarfaq Ittuk passenger ferry. Easy peasy.­­­
Go to Nanortalik Open Air Museum for how could you possibly travel all the way to eastern Greeland and not visit an Inuit village up close? Indeed, one TripAdvisor happily proclaimed, “finally got here,” and so will you. Village is constructed with great attention to detail and authenticity. Step back in time and see Inuit life depicted from earliest times to the present. Go there. Go there. 60 TripAdvisors reviewers gave it a 4.5 rating.
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Make your way to Narsaq Museum. It garnered a 4.0 rating from 34 reviewers. This cozy museum provides detailed descriptions of the history and culture of the Saqqaq, Dorset and Thule peoples. See kayaks and hunting/fishing equipment. Take in the rooms room devoted contemporary life and mining. The helpful attendant knows a lot.
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People wishing to take boat tours should be all means stampede the office of South Greenland Boart Charter 44. This company recieved a TripAdvisor of 5.0 from a clearly satisfied customer. South Greenland Boat provides day and mult-day tours. Come see fjords, ice caps, dolphins, and whales all from your comfortable boat. Further trips to places visited by their boats can be arranged. Doesn’t this sound way cool? Hee, hee, see what I did there?
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As always, “Good eating. Good traveling.”
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: great arctic eats, things to see and do | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Egg Foo Young

Posted on October 2, 2023 by pauldelancey

Chinese Entree

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EGG FOO YOUNG

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INGREDIENTS – VEGGIE & CHICKEN MIX
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8 eggs
1 small chicken breast
1 medium white onion
2 stalks green onion
1 stalk celery
1 garlic clove
1 cup bean sprouts
2 teaspoons sesame oil
½ teaspoon cornstarch (3 more tablespoons below)
1½ tablespoons soy sauce (¼ cup more below)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons peanut oil
no-stick spray
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INGREDIENTS – SAUCE
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3 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
⅔ cup water
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Serves 4. Takes 35 minutes.
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PREPARATION – VEGGIES & CHICKEN MIX
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Beat eggs. Dice chicken breast, white onion, green onion, celery, and garlic clove. Put sesame oil in frying pan or skillet. Add white onion, green onion, celery, garlic, and sprouts. Cook on  for about 5 minutes on medium heat or until veggies are tender. Stir frequently.
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Add chicken breast, ½ teaspoon cornstarch, 1½ tablespoons soy sauce, salt, and white pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes on medium or until chicken bits have all changed color. Stir enough to prevent burning. Remove veggie/chicken mixture from frying pan and set aside.
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Spray pan with no-stick spray. Add peanut oil. Cook peanut oil on medium heat. Add ¼ of the beaten eggs and cook with medium heat until egg begin to set. Use a spatula to cut this big patty into 4 patties. Flip over all egg patties. (You might want to use two spatulas.)
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Add ⅓ of the veggie-chicken mix to the top of the 4 patties. Add another ¼ of the beaten eggs and cook on medium until egg on top begins to set. Flip these egg foo young patties. You should now have 2 layers of egg and 1 of mix for each patty. Repeat this step 2 more times until you have 4 layers of eggs and 3 of the mix. Don’t let the  egg layers burn. Place patties on serving plates.
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PREPARATION – SAUCE
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Add 3 tablespoons cornstarch and ¼ cup soy sauce to small mixing bowl. Mix with fork or whisk until well blended. Add dry sherry and water. Mix with fork or whisk until well blended. Add this mix to pan. Bring to boil using medium heat. Remove from heat. Mix with spatula until sauce thickens. Ladle or brush sauce onto egg foo young patties.
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TIDBITS
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1) Many solar orbits ago, 1728 in fact, the second half of the Foo clan finally set off from China in search of culinary freedom. But where to go? They decided to let the next morning Sun decide. As luck would have it, the Sun rose in the east. So they trekked east to America.
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2) Their leader Egg was a good man. So much so, that for ever after, whenever a man was held to be a nice guy, people would call him a “good egg.”
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3) Anyway, Egg Foo led his tribe to the Asia-North America land bridge, which no longer existed in 1738. The Land Bridge had only existed up to 16,000 years ago. The first half of the Foos had managed to cross the Bridge before it disappeared. But Chow Fun had lead the first Foos and he was a dynamic, go getter.
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4) The nice Egg Foo was not. In fact, the second Foos were rather disorganized. They really meant to leave only after the first Foos departed. But delay after delay occurred. The Foos would seem to be ready, then a little girl would forget her doll. Alfonso Foo–a Spaniard who’d married into the Foo clan–realized he’d forgotten his spear and went back into his tent to get it. Hunana Foo, decided to go through her mail. This reminded Xiangzhao Foo that she had forgotten to stop her mail and so hopped off to the post office to do so. In the meantime, Zingzin Foo had gotten peckish and decided to have a rather robust breakfast. Meilee Foo, went through her wardrobe for the 32nd time.
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“Did everyone remember to bring snacks?” asked Egg, No one had. So, all the Foos went back to their tents to make some. “Did everyone remember to bring caps?” asked Mama Xi. “It gets cold at the Asia-North America land bridge.” No one had. So the men folk took to shearing sheep and the women to knitting caps. And so it went. Before anyone knew it, ­­16,000 years had passed. The Bridge had long since been covered by rising water levels.
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5) Fortunately, Egg’s descendant, Egg DCXV–a brilliant man who really deserved to be remembered in history–made the Foos collect tons of krill. It was simplicity itself to trade this food to balleen whales in exchange for passage across the Bering Strait.
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6) In 1878, the Foos finally entered San Francisco. The locals remarked how young Egg DCLV looked. So, it was inevitable that Chef Egg’s first entry got called Egg Foo Young.
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7) Chjcken-egg historians claim that the Egg Foo DCLII joined the Cole-Younger that terrorized Missouri after the Civil War, heralding the formation of the Cole-Younger-Foo (CVF) gang. Naturally, lcocals referred to the Foo’s leader as Egg Foo Younger. In time, folks shortened his moniker to Egg Foo Young. Egg historians even aver that Egg Foo DCLII served this entree to the CVFs before train robberies. However, little evidence exists to support this preposterous, alternative claim.
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– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pabellón Criollo

Posted on July 27, 2018 by pauldelancey

Venezuelan Entree

PABELLÓN CRIOLLO

INGREDIENTS – PULLED MEAT

3 garlic cloves (2 more cloves later)
1 medium onion
1 tomato
2 pounds flank steak
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon cumin (¼ teaspoon more later)
1 teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon pepper (¼ teaspoon more later)
3 quarts water (or enough to cover ingredients)

INGREDIENTS – BLACK BEANS

2 garlic cloves
1 small onion
¼ cup olive oil or oil (¼ cup more later)
1 green bell pepper
1 15-ounce-can black beans
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt

INGREDIENTS – RICE & PLANTAINS

1⅓ cups rice
2 plantains or bananas
½ cup olive oil or oil

SPECIAL UTENSILS

3-quart pot
4 plates with 3 sections. These are mighty hard to find if you’re looking for them at the last moment.
sonic obliterator

Serves 4. Takes 2 hours 50 minutes.

PREPARATION – PULLED MEAT

Dice 3 garlic cloves, medium onion, and tomato. Add diced garlic, onion, tomato, flank steak, bay leaf, ¼ teaspoon cumin, oregano, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and enough water to cover ingredients. Bring to boil using high heat. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2 hours 30 minutes or until meat is tender to the fork. Remove and discard bay leaf. Remove meat and place on plate. Pull flank seat apart with forks. Save stock for future soups.

PREPARATION – BLACK BEANS

While flank steak simmers, mince 2 garlic cloves and small onion. Seed and dice green bell pepper. Add garlic, onion, green bell pepper, and ¼ cup olive oil to pan. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Stir frequently. Add black beans, ¼ teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and salt. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

PREPARATION – RICE & PLANTAINS

About 30 minutes before flank steak should be ready to be pulled apart, cook rice according to instructions on package. Peel plantains. Cut plantains into slices 1″ wide diagonally along the length of the plantain. Add plantain and ½ cup oil to pan. Sauté slices for 3 minutes on each at medium heat or until plantain softens and browns.

PREPARATION – FINAL STEP

This step is much easier if you have a plate that is divided into 3 sections. Carefully add enough pulled flank steak to make a pie wedge that takes up ⅓ of the plate. Carefully add enough beans next to the flank steak to make a pie wedge taking up ⅓ of the plate. Carefully add (Yes, you are doing things carefully here.) enough rice to take up the remaining ⅓ of the plate. Add ¼ of the plantain slices to the outside of the rice pie-wedge.

Zap, with your sonic obliterator, any guests who fail to appreciate just how much heart and soul went into the preparation of this dish.

TIDBITS

1) This dish, pabellón criollo, is enormously popular, among Venezuelans. So much so, that Venezuelans will bring the ingredients for this dish wherever they travel or migrate.

2) And boy, they sure have migrated. On May 1, 16,870 BC priests revealed to the proto-Venezuelans that their gods would be having a millennium-long jamboree in a land beyond the Great Mother Sea. Of course, everyone knows the best time to petition gods is when they’ve been drinking, eating pulled beef, and dancing and singing up a storm.

3) So, all the proto-Venezuelans took to their rafts and floated and paddled their way down the east coast of South America, suffered ice storms in the Straights of Magellan, endured fresh-water deprivation, and got eaten by gigantic sharks and whales.

4) All of which sucked, especially when compared to jamboreeing with the gods. So once there, the proto-Venezuelans stayed and planted rice. This is how rice came to India, Vietnam, China, and Japan.

5) The proto-Venezuelans were pretty happy. Then the gods’ beer ran out. The deities became surly and hurled thunderbolts and really hard bread rolls at the humans.

6) Life sucked again. Enough to brave the perils of an ocean voyage back home. This is how peoples from Asia settled the Americas, not by the headline hunters who crossed the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska.

Chef Paul

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.

Categories: cuisine, history, international | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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