Writing With My Mouth Full

Pressed Taleggio Cheese Sandwich

I walked in Sur La Table to pick up some kind of exotic dark chocolate to satiate my craving last week and I ended up leaving with something heavier: a cast iron grill press. I don’t know what came over me, but as soon as I saw it in the store, I had to have it. I imagined using my Le Creuset grill pan more and pressing the beef steaks and the lamb chops I expect to cook this autumn and winter, but then The Times published an article devoted to grilled cheese with a recipe from Los Angeles.

I first discovered taleggio at Otto on their mushroom pizza. I remember that after tasting it, I went to Di Palo the next day to buy some. I baked it with mushrooms, too, but using a tart shell. Taleggio has a very strong and tangy smell that I find appetizing, so my mouth watered as soon as thought of it melted in between pressed bread. And who doesn’t like paninis, right? You can use a heavy pot lid–cast iron if possible–if you don’t have a press.

I used cinnamon raisin bread instead of just raisin, and I picked up the apricots from the dry goods aisle. I love the arugula here, so if you can get the spicy kind, the better. As a last touch, I sprinkled some of Terra de Sal’s flor de sal from Portugal. The sandwiches made a very sophisticated brunch on Sunday morning.

Ingredients:
half a pound taleggio cheese, rind removed, at room temperature
8 slices cinnamon raisin bread
15 dried apricots
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
half a stick unsalted butter, softened in microwave for 15 seconds
arugula, throughly washed and dried with a paper towel
olive oil, salt

1. Place apricots in small saucepan and add enough water just to cover. Bring to full boil and immediately remove from heat. Mix in capers, mustard and teaspoon of olive oil. Pulse in blender to chunky consistency. Set aside.
2. Spread one side of each bread slice evenly with some butter. With buttered sides down, top four slices with a spoonful of the apricot mixture, a handful of arugula and equal portions of cheese. Top with remaining slices, buttered side up.
3. Place large skillet over high heat and melt a small knob of butter. Reduce heat to low and add sandwiches. Using an iron grill press, put on top of the sandwiches and press. Cook until browned and crisp on both sides, about 2 minutes a side. Transfer to a platter lined with paper towels, and sprinkle each with a pinch of salt. Cut in half and serve.

Mloukhiya, Tunisian Beef Stew

My new thing lately is buying cookbooks when I travel. My latest is a Tunisian cookbook with all of its recipes written in French. The Internet was very helpful when it came to figuring out what I needed to do to make it edible. It wasn’t just the pretty food photographs that made me buy it, but this mloukhiya recipe. When the Dr. and I were traveling in Tunisia and scouring the food markets, one of the least familiar spice we saw for sale was that of the corète of Japan. Whenever we asked the seller, they told us it was powdered spinach because of its color. A trip to the grocery store in Carthage solved the mystery. I went to the spice aisle and picked a packet up with an English translation of its contents.

I later found out–happily, too–that the mloukhiya plant is what we Filipinos call saluyot because the English name of the plant translated to corchorus. This recipe is a beef stew using the powdered leaves simmered for a long time until it is thick and almost black. You know it’s done when it has the consistency of stewed okra. My father is Ilocano, but I don’t remember ever eating, or liking, saluyot. I may have to revisit those childhood memories.

Mloukhiya is generally prepared to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Fast-Breaking, or the end of Ramadan. Because I’ve inundated you with Tunisian stories for the past two weeks, I just thought it was appropriate to publish this recipe today. I still have to check out the African store in my neighborhood to see if they sell the spice.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds of beef chunks
1 large onion, quartered
1 packet of powdered mloukhiya
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
3 sprigs of mint leaves, leave some for garnish
chili flakes
salt, pepper, oil

1. Season the beef chunks with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In the meantime, in a large Dutch oven, add the mloukhiya in 8 cups of water and some olive oil. Slowly stir with a heat-resistant spatula until the powder is fully-mixed in. Use the spatula to keep the mloukhiya from sticking to the sides of the pot.
3. When the mixture takes the consistency of a thick cream, bring to a boil, uncovered, and then lower the heat and simmer, covered. Stir occasionally and pour in a little water from time to time in order to maintain its initial volume.
4. Add the beef chunks with the rest of the ingredients and continue to simmer for about 2 hours, or until beef is cooked through. Season with salt, pepper and chili flakes.

Cap Bon Peninsula to Carthage to La Marsa

To wrap up our two-week vacation in Tunisia, we just had to drive around the Cap Bon and end up in La Marsa so we could drop off our rental car and catch our flight out of Tunis. From Kairouian, our scenery changed from small town to suburbia. Nabeul is the country’s ceramic center and is increasingly the place tourists go to to escape the beach resort town of neighboring Hammamet.

We drove to the souq and checked in our cheapest accommodation to date, Pension Les Roses, at 15 dinars a night. At that price, or about US$12, there were no extra amenities. In fact, I had to ask for the owner and pay an extra dinar to unlock the bathroom door for me when I wanted to use the shower. I’d like to think that I’m an excellent packer–I finally got to use the just-in-case bed sheet on our bed. We had a balcony that looked out to the souq and the roof of the building next door. The marble columns and tall blue shutters in our room reminded us of the places we stayed in Cuba: family houses frozen in time. But as the tourists left town, the stores closed and it was difficult to look for a place to eat. We tried three recommendations from our guide book before we lucked out at L’Olivier, a German-friendly restaurant. Surprisingly, the mussels and squid were not overcooked, plus the fish stew with couscous was delicious. We ended up splurging for about 40 dinars including a few beers.

We left Nabeul the next day and made a few stops around the peninsula. It was a sunny and gorgeous day and driving the winding roads reminded us of wine country and the Pacific Coast. Kerkouane’s main tourist attraction is its Punic settlement ruins. Because the town was set on the coast, forts and towers were built to protect it from attacks. Excavations of kilns have also revealed it as a town of craftsmen and merchants. From the color of the water next to the ancient site, we imagined it was a very pleasant place to live.

The coastal caves of El-Haouaria were off-limits when we arrived. There was a small sign warning visitors of falling rocks, so all of us who tried to get a closer look of the yellow sandstones ended up walking around La Daurade Restaurant’s backyard instead.

When we thought nothing could be more beautiful than the view of the Mediterranean from El-Haouaria, we discovered the hot spring town of Korbous. The road was hugged by steep cliffs and narrow ravines and the sea stretched as far as our eyes could see. We wanted to stay here for the night as soon as we saw the small houses atop the coastal cliff-face and asked a guy at the Thermales et Touristiques to show us a room. It was a ghost town, but apparently, Tunis’ locals vacation here because of its hot springs and water treatments. The room we saw looked out to the blue, blue sea, but alas, it was unkempt and dirty because it wasn’t the high season. We were sad not to stay.

Carthage, the home of military hero Hannibal, was the setting of Dido and Aeneas’ romance in Virgil’s Aeneid. It was considered one of the greatest cities of the ancient world, and thus, also World-Heritage listed. Although its remains and sites are scattered about–you can’t tell its history right off the bat with the BMWs and the 250-euro nightly rate at Villa-Didon–its epic past is still impressive. What gave me the chills, however, was not the amphitheater ruins, nor the Carthage Museum on Byrsa Hill, but the manicured lawn of the American WWII cemetery on rue Roosevelt. There are 2,840 graves honoring the soldiers who died during the war and a Wall of Remembrance is devoted to the 3,724 others who were never found. It was so peaceful in there that we felt like we were trespassing. It was a humbling experience to be reminded of the horrors of war.

We ended up in La Marsa for the night at the American-owned Hotel Plaza Corniche. We met the older man who owned the place. We ended up chatting with him and his business partner after we found out we were all New Yorkers. The restaurant was next to the hotel pool and dinnertime was obviously its busiest. We were surrounded by big groups dining loudly and by young female locals out on a date with older male foreigners. Plaza Corniche was definitely the place to be in these parts. Kitschy as their decoration may be–there is a neon palm tree, Chinese lanterns and statues of butlers–we enjoyed our stay there because it allowed us to wind down and get ready for our flight back to the States. It was only too bad that they didn’t allow us to eat the wine and cheese we bought from the grocery store in the town center. We wanted to sit and eat by the pool before dinner time our last night, but the receptionist told us that we had to go back to our room if we wanted to eat something we didn’t buy from their restaurant. Because of that, we stepped out for dinner and refused to spend another dime there. I suppose it was just like being in New York City.

It was time to fly home. Bi-salama, Tunisia, and bari kelorfik.

El Jem to Monastir to Kairouian

From Mahdia, English John, the Dr. and I jumped in the car to catch the sunset at El Jem, Tunisia’s most impressive Roman monument. It would have been more impressive, of course, if we actually made it inside. We arrived in El Jem just a little before 6pm after a 45-minute drive. When we walked to the gate, the guard told us El Jem closed earlier because of Ramadan. The sign said closing time is at 7pm. We begged and pleaded for him to let us in, even for just fifteen minutes, so we can take photographs from inside, but he shook his head and pretended he didn’t understand French. Funnily enough, he spoke enough French to ask us for 10 dinars each.

We refused to give him a bribe to let us in. We walked away from the gate, cursed him so that he doesn’t get to enjoy the forty virgins in paradise and just walked around what was once the crowning glory of ancient Thysdrus, a town that enjoyed prosperity in the first few centuries.

El Jem is amazingly intact. It is is also a World Heritage-listed monument and is considered the third largest colosseum in the Roman world. Emperor Gordian reportedly committed suicide inside when a rebellion against Maximus was becoming obviously doomed. It was a bummer not to watch the sun set from inside, but like the Dr. said, C’est la vie.

The next day, we left English John and Mahdia and started our drive back to Tunis. We made a quick stop at Monastir to pay our respects to Habib Bourguiba, the man responsible for Tunisia’s independence from France. In 1934, Sorbonne-educated Bourguiba led a movement to break away from the ruling Destour Party. On April 9, 1938, the French killed a lot of its supporters demonstrating in Tunis. Bourguiba was arrested and sent to exile to France. Years later, he was able to bring international attention to Tunisia. By 1954, the French announced negotiations for Tunisian autonomy, and when an agreement was reached a year later, Bourguiba returned home a hero. The country was granted independence on March 20, 1956 with Bourguiba as prime minister. When it became a republic, he was declared its first president until President Ben Ali toppled his government in November 7, 1987. Today, every Tunisian town has an Avenue Bourguiba and an Avenue 7 Novembre. The mausoleum itself is reached via a long, paved walkway with green and gold arches and a marble courtyard.

Monastir’s star attraction, though, is its ribat, or defensive fortress. It’s Tunisia’s finest example of Islamic architecture, with its labyrinthine passageways and staircases. Unfortunately, it is also promoted by the tourism board as the film set for Monty Python’s Life of Brian, including the scene where Tunisian extras laugh at Biggus Dickus.

From Monastir, we went back inland to visit the fourth holiest city of Islam, Kairouian. We were told that seven visits to Kairouan equals one visit to Mecca. Since it’s an important pilgrimage destination and North Africa’s holiest Islamic site, it’s also World Heritage-listed. Non-Muslims are only allowed through one of the nine gates of the Great Mosque. We arrived there at 2pm and missed the opening hours, so we followed a young kid who took us to the roof of the carpet shop a few doors down to see the view of the domes. This privilege required us to browse through the store’s carpets and uncomfortably say no to all of them.

We also followed the boy to Bir Barouta, a well whose waters is supposedly connected to the well of Zem-Zem in Mecca. Drinking the water from its well is an important moment for those who believe that. The water didn’t make me sick, even though we’ve read that you have to drink at your own risk. The scene inside, though, is a little bit more staged–a camel with colorful scarves hanging on its side, walks around the well to turn the wheel that draws the water. We left a couple of dinars for the man who ordered the camel to start moving in Arabic.

Feeling like we’ve given enough dinars to Kairouian’s locals, we returned to our car and left for the Tunisian north cape.

Sfax to Mahdia

We said good-bye to Houmt Souq, Jerba, and drove a long way up the east coast to Sfax. On our map, Sfax and Sousse were the two locations besides Tunis that looked like busy cities because of several roads connecting them with surrounding towns. We vowed to skip the tourist traps when we first looked at our road map, but since there was no way back up to the capital without avoiding at least one of them, we chose Sfax. In our guide book, it described Sfax as bypassed by packaged tours and the place to see what most people say is the best medina in the country.

We parked our car and walked through Bab Jebli, one of the original Aghlabid gates, an Arab Muslim dynasty. We bought some fruits to eat since no restaurant inside the medina was to open until sundown. We went inside the fish market where the action was in full swing even in the middle of the afternoon. We also walked through Souq des Etoffes where the Cairo market scenes from The English Patient were filmed. We shot one of our best videos while in there, but it was hard for me to point and shoot with my digital camera without being stared at by the locals.

The medina was a chaotic mess. Even so, we knew that they are laid out according to strict Islamic principles. We appreciated that the narrow streets kept the sun’s rays at bay, and that the stones cooled the afternoon air. We seemed to have walked for almost an hour before we found Hotel Enasser right smack in the middle of the busy market. No one we asked wanted to help us out. Some of them didn’t speak French and they waved us away or just turned their backs on us whenever we asked. By the time we checked in and paid for our 25-dinar room, we were exhausted.

When we made it back to our car, I asked the Dr. sheepishly, Can you keep driving or do you think we should stay? He agreed that we should leave for a more quiet town before it gets dark. We went back to the hotel and painfully tried to get our money back from the receptionist. I watched as he argued with the Dr. in French about how we just broke his heart by changing our minds about the town he grew up in. Yada, yada. We probably didn’t give Sfax a chance, but our first impression was that it was like Manila: polluted, crowded and noisy. We just weren’t in the mood for too many sensations at once.

So we left and kept driving up to the next town of Mahdia. It is situated along the Mediterranean and described as a small fishing village, “the sort of place to spend a few days resting from the rigours of life on the road.” That sounded good enough to us after our Sfax experience. In Mahdia, we drove on a narrow street along the water–we knew we’ve come to the right place. We parked and hauled our packs through Place du Caire and checked in a rooftop room in Hotel Medina for 15 dinars.

Sitting in the rooftop terrace as the afternoon breeze gave movement to the drying blankets was like arriving in a quiet beach after an assaulting day of getting there. We met our roof-mate, English John, who was traveling sans girlfriend. The three of us ended up having dinner together by the fishing port at Restaurant de la Medina and hunting for beer at Le Lido right after. It was weird to be talking to someone in English–I certainly felt like it was the first time I had a real conversation with anyone besides the Dr.! All this time, it had been the Dr. doing the talking in French, so English John’s company was definitely comforting.

The next day, the Dr. and I explored the coast. We walked to the fragments of the original Fatimid walls along the shoreline, through the Muslim cemetery and the Punic necropolis. We didn’t go inside Borj el-Kebir, a large fortress situated on the highest point of the peninsula, but we did end up all the way to Cap D’Afrique where the local kids jumped off sharp rocks to swim.

After spending some time on the beach and before we set off snorkeling with Subway, one of the only two water activity companies in Mahdia, we visited the markets. We were inspired enough with the excellent produce we saw that we actually planned a home-cooked meal. The spices were much cheaper than in the souqs we’ve visited, the vegetables more colorful and the meats–the meats!–were more alive! I was like a kid on Christmas day.

That night with English John, the Dr.’s four-spiced medium-rare lamb chops with fried mullets were on the menu with my watermelon tomato salad and pickled cucumber appetizer. English John walked to the same bar from the night before and provided the booze as his contribution to our night’s elaborate meal. We used our hands to eat and finished every morsel. Hands down, it was the best meal we had in Tunisia in what became our favorite place in the country.