My Mouth is Happy!

Long ago.......seriously......17 years ago, I lived far, far away.....seriously........in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.  When I was in fifth grade, my family went to live in a family's apartment and they came and lived in our house for ten months.  My dad taught English and physics (THAT was interesting...teaching physics to students using their second (or third) language! 

We also worked with some other Americans with the IMB.  While we were there we had MANY opportunities to enjoy the local cuisine.  Let me must tell you, if you even go to a Russian or Kyrgyz house for a meal...don't eat anything beforehand!  They expect you to eat and likely to seconds...if you don't, "you must be ill!"  One house we went to seriously provided a seven course meal! 

(This is one of the salads we had....pickled carrots and cucubmers...so good!)  Salads, bread, main course 1, main course 2, main course 3, dessert, and tea!  We ate for 3-4 hours....though it was all good, it was too much!  Since leaving 17 years ago, I haven't had any of this delicious food....until Friday night!  We recently discovered that tucked away in Memphis there is a restaurant owned by a Uzbek man (from Kyrgyzstan) that serves many of the dishes we remember.  It is called EuroStyle and was, oh, so authentic!  We walked in and there was a man sitting at the door with an electric synthesizer and microphone singing with lots of revirb.  The floor are wooden and the tables covered in plastic, lace tablecloths (not really as tacky as it sounds).  We sat down at the table and there was a table of women sitting next to us, chatting away in Russian.  A nearby table was for a birthday party...with a bouquet of flowers in the center of the table (VERY authentic!).  We were immediately transported back to Bishkek just by the atmosphere.  Then came the food.  Oh, goodness!  We ordered three dishes to share, but there were others we wanted to try.  First we ordered plov.  

This is a delicious rice dish with carrots, onion, and lamb.  According to recipes I've seen, you should use equal parts carrot, onion, and lamb.  Then the rice is cooked on top of all that without stirring.  It was great!  One thing I liked about this recipe was that it was not nearly as oily as the plov we had in Bishkek.  The only thing missing was roasted garlic!  You WILL see this dish recreated on my blog in the future!  The next dish was laghman, which is apparently the national dish of Kyrgyzstan.

I was SO excited about this.  It is basically a vegetable and lamb soup over HOMEMADE noodles.  Oh my yum!  I'm not big on pasta but these noodles were fantastic!  This was the last thing I had, and my mouth loved it....Daddy did too!

(This picture was posed!)  Once again....at some point, not promising when, this (or a version of it) will appear on my blog!  Finally, the piece de resistance....pelmeini! 

Oh goodness.  THIS was my reaction to pelmeini....I spontaneously made a silly face and just giggled! 

You may think, "oh, but that's just ravioli!"  My dear friends, I must beg to differ!  There is just something unique about the filling of pelmeini that defines it from any other filled pasta.  I don't know what it is but it is delicious!  We learned to make this when we were in Bishkek, but never made it at home. 

I've got to figure this one out, too.  It is served with smitana (sour cream) but we often added salsa to it.  SOOO very good.  Finally, we ended with blini.  This is basically a dessert crepe. 

When we were in Bishkek, we would fill them ourselves, usually with honey or raspberry preserves and may dip it in smitana.  These were serves already rolled with blueberry filling and whipped cream.  The blini itself was very good but I left like they really needed to serve it with honey to make it "authentic" in my eyes.  Still delicious!  Another offering on the menu that we wanted to try were the varenki (or piroshki....and bread pocket filled with potato, mushrooms, and/or meat).  These were street foods in Bishkek and were great.  There is another dish called Beshbarmak that we want...and the owner said that if we called him a couple of days before coming, he'd make it for us....but he couldn't use horse like they would in Kyrgyzstan...we're okay with that!!!  :-)  So, if you live near Memphis and want to try Russian, Central Asian, or European cuisine, we HIGHLY recommend trying out EuroStyle.  It is fantastic!!!!

Randomness with Some Food

Question: Does anyone know how (or if) Blogger will let you respond to your comments through e-mail? I try to post responses in my comment section but know that some people who I want to respond to don't necessarily come back looking for my response.

Fun wedding reception item: I went to a wedding a few weeks ago and they had a dessert reception. They had chocolate ganache balls (I didn't really like these), cheesecake, biscotti, brownies and ice cream, brides cake (of course), fruit, cheese, and these PRECIOUS parfaits. I thought the were too cute to pass up a picture of. What a perfect summer dessert. This was made with whipped cream but you could totally make these super easy by using cool whip. :-)A few days ago, LisaMichele gave me such a sweet blog award...The Lovely Blog award. Apparently, this comes from having a positive attitude in your blogging...which I'm not so sure I always do but appreciate it nonetheless. So, here are my awards...and you guys follow with 13 other people who deserve the award!
Sarah at Ghost World
Cate at Sweetnicks
Katrina at Baking and Boys!
Emily at Sugar Plum
Jenna at Eat, Live, Run
Megan at Party of Two...praying for more
Paula at The Cookbook Junkie
Kate at Kate in the Kitchen
Abby at Confabulation in the Kitchen
Deborah at Taste and Tell
Red Dirt Mummy
Laura at The Dawkins Narrative
MaryLindsey at Hope in my Pocket

Finally, I went home last week (and do have the BEST banana bread coming for you) and we tried out a new restaurant called Pei Wei. It's kind of a bistro P.F Chang's and was very good. I had Vietnamese chicken salad wraps, which were delicious. Mama had Mongolian chicken (that had yummy mushrooms in it) and Daddy had Mandarin Kung Pau, which was pretty good and not too spicy. Try this place out if you've got one near you. They even have the famous lettuce wraps that PF Chang makes.

Dr. Claire

This past Thursday, my family came into town to attend my long coat ceremony. For four years I've been wearing the well known short coat of a medical student. It's one of the ways they distinguish us from the residents and attendings. So, this ceremony is a pretty exciting time! It's when we finally get that coat...with our names embroidered above the pocket with that all important "M.D." following it! (Yes, mine will have to be tailored!) I had a great time, even though my best friend and I were at mirror image tables (i.e., ALL the way across the banquet hall from each other at the same table). The food left something to be desired. The salad was your typical iceberg with feta/bleu cheese (not sure which), bacon, and (depending on your bowl...mine had none!) tomatoes. For the entree we had chicken cordon bleu (not stuffed but with ham melted to the chicken by cheese), about half of a red potato, and squash. Dessert was either carrot cake (which was pretty good) or chocolate cake (which was SOOO rich...I barely had a taste). Despite the lack of exceptional food (it was hotel food) it was a wonderful evening. One of the best times was when they had all of us stand up after receiving our long coats. It really hit me then that my class had done it, we were all doctors! Pretty cool! The next day was my official graduation. We had to get there an hour and a half before it started (WHY? Please, tell me why!) and then sit through all the other schools being announced as the medical school was next to last. However, then we were all hooded with the lovely green that designates a medical doctor. Do I feel different? Not really, until someone calls me Dr. Claire...then it's kind of weird. After graduation we went to a new restaurant called Mint. It was a cute little southern place with sandwiches and seafood. The food was pretty good outside of the french fries. I got a portabello sandwich. I enjoyed it but there was just a bit too much goat cheese for me. Daddy had the shrimp po-boy. The shrimp was brought in that day and hand breaded in the restaurant, so I'm sure it was great. Mama had the roasted chicken quesadilla with watermelon salsa. I didn't get much feedback on that one but I think it was pretty good (not as good as Daddy's crawfish quesadilla the next night!). Philip got the butter burger with fried pickles on it. He ate it all, so I'm sure it was good. Finally, Aunt Betty, who came all the way from Houston to see me graduate, had the green plate special (b/c of Mint) which was roast beef, greens, and Hoppin' John salad. She seemed to like the salad part the best. Cute place...I'd try it again sometime. It was a GREAT weekend and now my blog address is TRUE! Cookie DOC! :-)

A Perfect Match!

Well, yesterday I had my match day ceremony...that means that I found out where I'll be doing my pediatric residency! In November/December, I went to several different locations and interviewed. Then in February, I submitted a rank order list, telling the powers that be where I wanted to do my residency (and the programs submitted lists telling which residents they wanted). Then, yesterday, all was announced across the entire nation. Before all that, though, my class had a party at a local pizzeria/bar. It was lots of fun to see my fellow classmates, as fourth year has us so spread out we don't ever see each other. Unfortunately, I spent the entire time waiting for a wonderful pizza to come out (this place has LOTS of unique pizzas); however, they never brought one out, so I had to settle for supreme. It was good but not quite what I wanted...oh, well...at least I had fun! The next morning, the alumni association hosted a breakfast for us. My dad was able to attend with me. They had tons of food to choose from. You could make a breakfast burrito, though I chose to just get eggs. They also had grits, waffles, biscuits, hashbrowns, muffins, cinnamon buns, and fruit. I got eggs, which were SO GOOD, grits, which were not so good, an apple muffin, which I ate the top of (that's my signature move!), and fruit...excellent raspberries, cantaloupe, strawberries, and blueberries, all painstakingly grabbed with ice tongs! After breakfast we moved to the student union where the ceremony began. After lots of waiting we all found out where we would be going. About half the class is staying here. We had a couple going to Utah, a girl going to NYU (she was SO excited, jumping in the air!), a guy going to John's Hopkins, a girl going to Mayo Clinic, a guy going to Duke. I am going to be staying here at Blair E. Batson Children's hospital along with three other people from my class (and eight other people from elsewhere)...Sarah, me, Yakela, and Josh. After the ceremony my family went to Walker's Drive-In for lunch. They are known for their grilled redfish sandwich, which my dad got.It has the fish, red onion, cheddar, bacon, avacado, aioli, and is served with sweet potato fries. Philip and Kenna got the hamburger.Kenna had cheddar on hers. Philip got bacon and pepper jack cheese. Mama got the turkey sandwichIt had avacado, pepper jack cheese, tomato, and aioli. I got a grilled chicken salad (after pondering the redfish vs. veggie sandwich - both of which I've had before) that I've never had before. It had green apple, dried cherries, feta, roasted corn, avacado, and grilled chicken on top of field greens with a lemon vinegarette. Very good! I think that some red onion would have made it perfect...and maybe a piece of focaccia. We enjoyed good weather, good food, and good fellowship!

New York City!!!! Day 4

The last day in the city...boo! We made it a "late" morning and left around 10. The bus to FOREVER to get there and then to FOREVER to get into the city. It took us until 11 to get there. Then we had to ride downtown on the subway. When we arrived, we saw the WTC site (from only one side). That area is HUGE! It just amazed me how big the area was and then realized that on Sept 11, that area was just bedlam. There were so many buildings close by that looked untouched, though I'm sure they've been renovated/fixed up since then. Then we walked through Battle Park and caught the Staten Island Ferry. It was a nice ride over because we had the breeze. It wasn't quite as brisk on the way back but was still beautiful. We then "sprinted" to Brooklyn, as we were already late, to meet a friend at Grimaldi's for lunch. This was the BEST pizza! We had ham, mushroom, and onion. One thing that made it so good is that they use fresh mozzarella. Oh, so good. Then my parents and Holly had ice cream from a little shop under the bridge. I was determined to have gelato, so I didn't get any. After the walk across the bridge, we went to Chinatown and Little Italy...where I got my gelato! I had pistachio flavored. It was really good but I think I would have prefered a different flavor. Then we went to the Harley shop where Daddy did NOT get a $45 t-shirt! Too expensive...at least we had fun in F.A.O. Shwartz! That place is so much fun...too many pictures to show, but I did play of the BIG piano! When we left, we went to get dinner before our final Broadway show. Holly had mentioned this Argentinian place she used to work at, so we went there...Sosa Borella. It was great (and put ice in the water!). Daddy had lemon rosemary chicken with gorgonzolla mashed potatoes. Mama had a spinach ravioli with lamb bolognesse. I had the crab salad...mmmm! Perfect and light after pizza and gelato! THEN we went to Mary Poppins. This show was SO much fun! Not one that you want the CD for but very enjoyable. I wanted a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down T-shirt but they don't make them! And so ended our trip to NYC. I really enjoyed it and would love to go back sometime. We had a great variety of food and there was so much more to sample!

New York City!!!! Day 3

No sleeping in for us on Tuesday...we were up bright and early to head to the TODAY show! We didn't do the super early thing and there was really no need. We arrived by 8:30 (after eating our GA peach for breakfast!) and I quickly found a spot on the far end of the outdoor area. My dad scooted behind the crowd and got a great shot of Meredith. Then they made their way to the front and called me over. We were on the show at the beginning of the 9 o'clock hour! So cool...we even came home with the script that Natalie Morales used during a segment. Such great weather, too. After the TODAY show we made our wayback to the M&M store, which was fun; but the better store was the Hershey's store. Mama found some great syrup and I found my favorite...Reese's! Then we traveled to the Central Park area and stopped in Alice's Tea Cup for an early lunch. It ended up being pretty good. Mama got the asparagus soup (which was good but I was glad I didn't have a whole bowl) and egg salad sandwich. Daddy had pesto tomato soup with curry chicken sandwich. I had the same sandwich as Daddy but whole. It was very good except no ice in the water...what is up with that and NY restaurants?! We then made our way to the American Museum of Natural History where we touched the moon, found an asteroid, and played with dinosaurs. After a walk through Central Park we decided to look for supper. WOW...we walked FOREVER. Know this...there is NOWHERE to eat on 5th Avenue! I think we walked from 77th street to 54th before we (I...it was my fault, I didn't want hamburger) found a great little Thai restaurant called Chai. It was perfect and hit the spot. Mama had cashew chicken. Daddy had grilled chicken. I had the special with stir fried chicken, snow peas, tomato, mango, and cashews...SO GOOD! We then decided to make it an "early" night and headed back to Secaucus. Of course, we stopped at Au Bon Pain for breakfast and nighttime snacks. The next day had BIG plans with great food to be sure!