"Expateries" - a (Delicious) Traveling Phenomenon

In my travels to various countries, I’ve encountered one ubiquitous feature in just about each place I’ve visited: the expat-run gourmet eatery. On the one hand, these establishments stick out like sore thumbs – imagine an amazing gelateria on a remote Kenyan beach. On the other, they also channel their strangely cosmopolitan environs – remote towns often chalk-full of international visitors. For all the assumed contradiction between the local and global, however, these kitchens often manage to fuse the best of both realms.

While the category encompasses a wide variety of restaurants, cafés, bakeries, etc., these expat eateries tend to share a few traits. For one, their offerings usually meld elements of two countries. Indeed, the owners are often aspiring and adventurous cooks from other countries who have made a new home in distant lands. A green chili-white chocolate-vodka cheesecake that I had in Mumbai’s Theobroma dessert café (run by sisters Tina and Kainaz) comes to mind, for example. Yum!

Second, their décor and ambiance offer a little taste of home and respite for the travel weary or home sick. They can channel aesthetics that seem to appeal to citizens of the world. At Yacout in Marrakech, for instance, I remember recalling flashbacks to The Park lounge in New York, with its indoor trees and chic fairy lights. As a result, they often stand apart from typical restaurants – just like their food.

More often than not, they rely on imports – imported food items, wines, and recipes. Even décor is inspired or borrowed entirely from far away places. In a sense, their offerings are real fusion food – melding local ingredients with foreign recipes or techniques, which are sometimes acquired with real effort. In Zanzibar’s Stone Town, for example, Amore Mio (see photo above) is a real labor of love run by an Italian family that moved to the East African island and set up a bonafide gelateria – with an imported gelato maker! In pursuit of such eclectic visions, great pains can be taken. In Santo Domingo, for example, the owners of Hotel Ataranzana bed and breakfast (Bernhard and Suzanne) imported their own cheeses and salamis from Europe for the delicious daily breakfast service!

But the most recent ‘expatterie’ experience I’ve had, which really inspired this whole entry, was a chic-comfy Peruvian joint called Cicciolina in the heart of Cusco. Its owned by, as you probably guessed, an Italian replanted into the Inca heartland. The café-resaurant- tapas bar serves delicious food to the hike-weary, fresh from its imported gourmet oven, stellar tapas with a local twist, and great cocktails. In fact, the owners have also gone into the wine importing business, opening a distributor called Baquito, that supplies other area restaurants with imported South American and European bottles.

The décor in Cicciolina deserves special praise. The restaurant is on the second floor of an old colonial building, with a gorgeous bar bedecked in red flowers and hanging ornaments, and black or espresso tables, mirrors – very chic. Someone’s clearly put a lot of effort and love into the place. Perched from one of those corner high tables, I enjoyed a whole range of offerings – the Pisco sours are excellent, and the bartenders offer an informative intro to various types of the grape-based liquor.

I was so enamored with Cicciolina’s foods that we ate there three times in our three days in Cusco. I can strongly recommend their brunch foods – I had a great poached egg-asparagus and brown bread open sandwich. Not sure what they put in the balsalmic sauce, but it had a nice special sweetness to it. And the evening tapas are wonderful – showcasing typical Peruvian flavors in a classic Spanish form. Savory mushroom bruschetta and a roasted red pepper bite come to mind. What a delicious postcolonial concept!

El Sabor de Ceviche

I ventured to Peru at the beginning of August. The journey was primarily to see the country’s famed Incan ruins, and to observe economic conditions – but I certainly harbored culinary ambitions as well.

As most of you have likely heard, however, a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Peru just a few days after I returned, on August 15. It doesn’t feel right writing about fanciful food experiences in a country where so many are without access to emergency healthcare, supplies or shelter. Not to mention, more than half of Peruvians live in poverty. So let me first encourage you to help the cause, keep monitoring news reports from the region, and donate or volunteer as you can. A few websites to help Peruvian victims -

CARE

UNICEF

CRIMSON SOLIDARITY (started by friends of mine)

How can anyone write about the highlights of Peruvian cuisine without mentioning ceviche (unless, of course, you’re a vegetarian)? I’ve been in love with the dish since I first tried an interpretation of it, with trout and lots of lime and peppers, in Nicaragua in 2002. Two months later I was surprised to see another version – but this time in the thick of New York’s high dining scene, with scallops and grouper and blood orange marinade, at the then-called Bouley Bakery.

Ceviche was coming “into fashion” on the haute-cuisine stage at that point. The dish immigrated from its Peruvian home, where it was already migrating to other parts of the region (like Nica), all the way to New York. I loved it because, whether at a simple café in Central America or a fancy joint in the Big Apple, it is a great summer dish, light and refreshing, melding two of the season’s best flavors – fresh fish and fruit.

So what is it exactly? Ceviche (sometimes called cebiche) is a dish of raw fish marinated, or “cooked,” in citrus juice. It was originally eaten by the Inca. In Peru, the dish’s home, that citrus juice is typically from Peruvian limes. It’s traditionally marinated in chilies as well, and accompanied by boiled sweet potato, fresh boiled maize and thinly sliced sweet red onions to balance the heat and acidity. The fish is often a white sea fish (given Peru’s massive Pacific coastline), sea bass or grouper. But there are certainly variants on the theme – in northern regions of Peru, you can find more exotic seafoods used such as white and black conch.

The “secret” of ceviche, though, is that the fish are not actually raw. They’re not quite “cooked,” either, since that term implies the use of heat. Rather, the acidity of the citrus juice chemically denatures proteins in the fish used for ceviche. The process renders the meat an opaque color, which can give it the appearance of having been cooked. But the texture of the meat remains raw, almost like sashimi.

There are two important tricks to preparing ceviche. Both involve maintaining a fine balance in the fish, so as to avoid undercooking it without overcooking. One is in the cut of the fish. Select the freshest fish you can find, and make sure that you slice it into thin, bit-size pieces. This increases the surface area that’s exposed to the citrus juices, allowing them to work best. The second trick is to not over-marinade your fish – too much exposure to the citrus can give it a tough, leathery texture. Your seafood will determine length of exposure. Generally, a flakier fillet, like flounder or snapper, or tender shellfish like scallops may only need to marinate for about 15 minutes. Denser fish, such as mahi mahi, can take closer to 50 minutes or an hour to “cook.”

Remember though, citrus juice cannot kill bacteria in the same way that heat can. So it’s very important to pick fresh fish, free of bacteria and parasites, to prepare this dish. Where this is not possible, some advise picking deep-frozen fin fish, which has been at -4F for at least a week.

And now, without further ado, a recipe for basic ceviche –

Ingredients
2 lbs of fresh red snapper fillets (no bones), cut into thin ½ inch pieces
½ cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
½ cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
½ red onion, very finely diced
1 cup of fresh peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1 serrano or other hot chili, seeded and finely diced
1 sweet potato, boiled until soft, peeled and cut into big slices
1 ear of boiled sweet corn, kernels removed
2 teaspoons of salt
dash of ground oregano
sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Directions
1. In a casserole dish, preferably ceramic, place the fish, onion, tomatoes, chili, salt, oregano and cayenne pepper.
2. Cover with lime and lemon juice.
3. Let mixture sit covered in the refrigerator for an hour, then stir, making sure more of the fish gets exposed to the acidic lime and lemon juices.
4. Let sit for two more hours, giving time for the flavors to blend.
5. Serve accompanied with boiled, peeled sweet potato and corn, garnish with red onions.

Optional:
You can use shrimp or scallops, or another flaky white fish instead of the snapper. You can also add key lime juice or grapefruit juice (freshly squeezes, no sugar added) instead of regular lime juice to add additional flavor.

Chef Pankhurst Shares a Recipe

With my rave review of Savoy Cabbage, you can imagine how excited I was when Peter Pankhurst, the restaurant's head chef, agreed to share a recipe. I had a delightful amuse bouche at his restaurant during my visit in early July, a light sweet corn mini-pancake, topped with smoked salmon and a creme fraiche sauce.

Many thanks to Chef Pankhurst for sharing the recipe, which I'm including in this post - and I hope you try it for yourselves! This light, pretty finger food would be perfect for a cocktail party or appetizer. It's easy to make if you can handle making pancakes, offers a classic flavor combination, and looks so elegant!

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup corn meal or polenta
1 tablespoon baking powder
100ml cream
75ml milk
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ear sweetcorn, boiled till tender and kernels removed
Smoked salmon, thinly sliced
Crème fraiche
Chive tips, to garnish

1. Mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Mix with a whisk to make a batter somewhat thicker than normal pancake batter. If too thick add more milk. Fold the sweetcorn kernels into the batter just before using.

2. To cook, drop teaspoonfuls of batter into a lightly greased frying pan. Flip cakes after approximately 45 seconds andcook on the opposite side for about 25 seconds.

3. Taste 5 or 6 cakes to see if they are OK. This can be difficult, so taste as many more as you need to ensure top quality. If necessary, start over, but try to save some for your guests.

4. Garnish with thinly sliced smoked salmon and top with crème fraiche. Garnish with chive tips.