Edinburgh - Loch Ness

The distilleries in Scotland are divided into five regions. However, three smaller regions with more distinctive characteristics are Speyside, Campbeltown and Islay. Highland and Lowland are rather general geographic areas and there are not many representative characteristics. I used to think that all Scotch whiskys are smoky (band-aidy), but I found the most smoky ones were made in Islay region (and Campbeltown whisky is smoky also), so these weren't my top choice of destinations (in addition, they're very inconvenient locations to visit...). Instead, I found that the Speyside region has the highest concentration of distilleries in Scotland. Although the distilleries in this region use peat to create smokiness, it's at a much lower level than ones made in Islay. Besides, the pioneer of Japanese whisky studied at a distillery in Speyside, first. So, I decided I should focus on Speyside for this trip to Scotland.

The tour I joined today is "Loch Ness (famous lake for Nessie) and Highland Distillery." I wasn't crazy about distilleries in the Highland area. But I thought this could be a good preview for what is coming next (in Speyside).

The tour company's choice of distillery was Deanston. I had never heard of the distillery before. Because that was the first stop of the tour, we arrived around 9:00 am and started the tour of their production facility. Unfortunately, there wasn't any actual production going on, since it was Sunday.

Although there are many types of Scotch whisky, such as single malt, blended malt (blend of two or more single malts), blended grain (two or more different grains, usually wheat or corn), in general single malt is considered as the highest quality among these. This is like single varietal wine versus blended wine. Although single varietal wine is considered as better than blended in the US, blended wine is more common in Europe (rather region-specific). I'm sure it's more cost effective for the whisky makers to produce blended whisky in order to provide consistent quality. However, I prefer single malt in order to highlight each whisky maker's expertise (not the blender's technique). I'll be focusing more on single malt in this trip.


Here are some beautiful pot stills. In Scotland, double distillation is common.

Most single malt whisky is sold at different age levels, such as 12yr, 15yr, 21yr, etc. I thought that these are the same whisky and that the only difference was how long the whisky was aged in the casks. It is, in fact, not only a difference in the number of years the whisky is aged, but also a difference in the choice of casks. Traditionally, sherry or port casks are used to develop the flavor but American bourbon casks are another option also. It seems higher-graded whisky (longer aged) is aged in sherry casks and the other (shorter aged) is often aged in bourbon casks. Distilleries use the same casks several times (up to 3 times in many cases), but the first use will transfer the most flavor from the previous product in the casks (such as sherry, port and bourbon).

After the tour, they provided two versions of 12-year single malt tastings, the right is regular 12yr and the left is also 12yr but aged in new casks (first time used). We completed the tour at 10 minutes before 10:00. However, we had to wait until 10:00 for the tasting, because it is prohibited to serve whisky at distilleries before 10 AM by law.

Obviously the left had more complex flavor. As I expected from whiskies from the Highlands, I didn't find any smokiness. I'm not sure if they used peat at all. Very clean finish and easy to drink.

That was a very good introductory course in Scotch whisky.

After visiting the distillery, we moved on to Loch Ness. Unfortunately, I didn't see Nessie, though....





We got back to Edinburgh pretty late, so I went to a restaurant near the tour drop-off location, called Indigo Yard, a very hip restaurant with a mostly young crowd. The service in Scotland in general is pretty slow. But this restaurant was even slower.... plus the waiter didn't bring the right beer. This is Franciscan Well, a brewer in Ireland. I'm going to Ireland after Scotland but wanted to have Scottish beer, though... This IPA is pretty light despite the color. Like the IPA I had last night, it's less hoppy than I usually have. I guess this is more the standard level of European hoppiness.

Since the starters looked more interesting, I ordered a few dishes. I wanted to have Scottish eggs but they were out..... So, the first dish is a chicken and chorizo terrine. The terrine is made with small chunks of chicken rather than chicken pate. Some terrines smells like cat food, but this one had a very fresh smell.

This is crab and crayfish macaroni. I was expecting something like mac 'n cheese. But the white sauce is much more soupy. Still, the flavor and seasoning were excellent.

Steamed mussels in garlic cream sauce with beer, shallot and mustard. Too much liquid at the bottom and I didn't taste anything but cream. I wonder if they forgot to add the other ingredients....

This is the entree pork dish, spit-roasted porchetta pig. The pork skin was rendered well but very tough (rather than crispy). Like the chicken I had last night, the meat was pretty dry. Probably, it's the Scottish style to cook meat well?? The au jus that came on the side was very tasty. I was happy with the seasoning at this restaurant overall.

Although the service was a bit questionable, the food was pretty good.


Tomorrow is the highlight of this trip. I'm going to the Speyside region to visit 3 distilleries and then go to the Brewdog brewery, which is a leading craft beer in Europe (maybe not "craft" beer anymore because they are pretty big now). Got to get up really early to catch the 5:30am train to Aberdeen...

Frankfurt (transit) and Edinburgh

Scotland and Ireland.... not particularly known as foodie destinations. However, the purpose of the trip is not food this time. It's whiskey (or "whisky" when referring to Scottish or Japanese spirits) and beer. Although Japanese whisky was my first interest in whiskey, I found that Japanese whisky originated from Scotland. Since Scotch whisky is a bit smoky (what I call "band-aidy"), I am more fond of Irish whiskey. So, my initial plan was to go to Scotland first to learn the basics of whiskey, then to Ireland to find my favorite whiskey. However, as I learned the history of whiskey, my interest and plan changed gradually. I will explain that as I continue the blog for this trip.

Anyway, my trip starts from Frankfurt, Germany. Because there were 5 hours of layover in Frankfurt, I decided to go to the city center, which is only 20 minutes from the airport by train.

I went to Salzkammer, which is close to Hauptwache station. It was a sunny and warm day. So, I took an outside table. I first ordered Apfelwein (apple wine) and the waiter suggested mixing it with club soda. It was a great choice for such a fine day.

I got to have sausage when in Frankfurt! Luckily they had a sampler with 4 kinds of sausage. One of them is Frankfurter, of course. The most interesting one is a cheese sausage, with small cheese pieces inside the casing. When I cut the sausage, the melted cheese oozes out. I've never seen anything like that. I don't think this is something standard in Germany...

The next dish is something I haven't had before, "Frankfurter Gruene Sosse", a regional dish in Frankfurt. Boiled eggs and potatoes on top of creamy green sauce, which resembles green goddess sauce but is less tangy. The sauce is made with a variety of different green herbs.

A very standard German (Austrian) dish, Wiener schnitzel. It was good but I've had something better in the US (possibly this could be more authentic, though). The accompanying sauce is cranberry but each piece is much smaller than what I usually see in the US. Probably European cranberries are smaller?

After having a nice lunch in Frankfurt, I continued my way to the first "real" destination, Edinburgh, Scotland. As soon as I checked in to the B&B, I headed to the pub restaurant that the owner of the flat recommended, called Teuchters. This place is divided into two sections, pub and restaurant. I went to the restaurant. I was expecting more "Pub food" but the restaurant serves some pretty fancy dishes. All the menu items included something Scottish but more upgraded.

Nonetheless, I started with my first glass of beer in Scotland! Since it's called Deuchars IPA, I thought at first that this might be a German beer. But it is indeed made by a Scottish brewer, Caledonian brewing company. IPA is getting popular in Europe but it's much less hoppy and obviously darker than most IPAs in the US.

I started the meal with Haggis on top of neeps and tatties (mashed rutabaga and potato) with mustard whiskey cream sauce. The top of haggis is crispy and it didn't have any gaminess. The sauce had a perfect balance of acid from mustard and richness of whiskey and cream. Perfect seasoning balance. Very good start.

The first entree is Parma ham wrapped chicken and black pudding. Since I'm in Scotland, I should have black pudding, but I'm not really into blood sausage. So, this was the perfect compromise for me. It was served on top of tomato and red pepper sauce. Because of red pepper, it wasn't too acidic and tasted very sophisticated. Unfortunately, the choice of chicken meat was breast and it was overcooked. Although the black pudding and the sauce gave some moistness, it was still dry... Flavor and seasoning were spot on, though.

The next entree is braised ox cheek. The Madeira jus was very rich and the ox cheek was very tender and moist. It could have had a little more salt, but very good dish otherwise.

This is a good start to the trip. I signed up for the tour to Loch Ness and a Highland distillery tomorrow!

Ho Chi Minh city - Cooking class

Today is the last day in Vietnam and also the highlight of the trip, the full day cooking class from Ho Chin Minh Cooking Class. For this class, I chose 8 dishes and 1 dessert from the list posted on their website.

At 7:30 am, I was picked up at the hotel and transferred to their farm, which is outside of the city. Because of the awful traffic in the city, it took 2 hours to get there (it was originally expected to be 1 hour). Compared to other large cities in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok and Yangon, Ho Chi Minh City is the most chaotic, from my experience.

When I arrived, they showed us their small farm and had us pick ingredients for the cooking class.

This is lemongrass. I thought that each stalk grows individually. I wouldn't have expected this bush to be lemongrass.

Here is the Oyster Mushroom "cave".  The bags are filled with wood shavings that have already been colonized by the spores. The mushrooms grow from a "spout" at the end of the bag and can be harvested by tearing them off - more mushrooms will then grow back in their place.
Each bag will eventually produce 20 kg worth of mushrooms!

The first dish is the spring roll. I've made this before by myself and it's pretty easy to make. But I chose the dish because I wanted to know how to wrap it properly and how to make the shrimp look nice. The wrapping procedure was nothing new to me. But I learned that shrimp should be inserted after partially wrapped. Then, only single sheet of rice paper is on top of the shrimp so that the color of the shrimp is more prominent. Also, I found the rice paper we used in the class is much thinner than what I'm used to, so I only needed to splash water on the rice paper instead of soaking in warm water. The dipping sauce wasn't the peanut based sauce that I'm accustomed to, but a watery fish sauce- and citrus juice-based sweet and spicy sauce. I learned that Vietnamese fish sauce is less pungent than that from Thai cooking. I would expect the sauce to be very fishy if I had used Thai fish sauce to make the same sauce.

The next dish is the lotus rootlet salad with grilled pork. I've had lotus rootlet salad before in the US. That's why I requested this dish. I didn't know that it comes with grilled pork. Despite the meat, it's still refreshing.

This is something unique. The lotus rootlet salad above is wrapped with mustard leaves. The wrapped salad and shrimp are tied with a chive. The dipping sauce is the same as the one for the spring rolls.

This is Pho Bo (beef). I was so glad that we made this from scratch. I was worried that they might prepare the broth ahead of time and just have us assemble the finished soup because it takes so long to make the broth. They had me make the broth as soon as I arrived with beef bones and spices. I was really excited because that's the part I wanted to learn. The rest is simple. Season the broth with fish sauce, sugar and salt. A simple but flavorful dish.

This is the dessert, banana spring roll along with coconut cream. It's the end of morning session. The dessert is very simple but satisfying. The coconut cream was premade, though.

After a short break (resting in a hammock), I started to work on the rest of the 4 dishes. In the morning session, I made each dish one at a time. In the afternoon session, however, I worked on all 4 dishes at once.

First, stir fried shrimp and veggies with tamarind sauce. The shrimp are tossed in egg white and tapioca starch, and then deep fried. They are then stir fried with veggies and tamarind sauce. I would say this is the Vietnamese version of sweet and sour shrimp.

The photo may not do this dish justice. But it is braised pork cooked in a clay pot. The seasoning is basically fish sauce and caramelized sugar. Because of the caramelized sugar, it gets dark and looks salty. But in fact it's well balanced.

Grilled pork on the rice vermicelli. This is pretty standard Vietnamese dish at Vietnamese restaurants in the US. The only difference is the lack of lettuce. Instead, I chopped various herbs and added enough to replace the lettuce that I would normally expect.

This is fish in the claypot. Basically this is prepared in the same way as the pork dish above. One unique ingredient is a hard boiled egg. Before it is added to the claypot and braised, the egg is seared in the wok. The instructor said that the egg will keep it's shape by the process of searing it.

As I expected 8 dishes and 1 dessert was A LOT!! I was super full after I made everything. I'm leaving tonight and have time for a dinner. But I don't think I can eat anything before the flight.

I was expecting hot and humid weather before I came to Vietnam. Luckily it wasn't that hot by Vietnam standards, yet it's still quite hot. But what killed me is the humidity. I feel like I sweated enough for a year worth on this trip... But I believe the amount of sweat will compensate for the weight gain from all the food.

Ho Chi Minh - Street food tasting tour

I took the afternoon flight from Hue to Ho Chi Minh City and then cab into the city. I was expecting some traffic in Ho Chi Minh City but it's much worse than what I thought. I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't make it to the evening street food tasting tour, because of time.

I did make it but it took more than 1 hour for 7 km ride. I've seen crazy traffic with tremendous numbers of motorbikes on TV before, but now I see that, in Ho Chi Minh City at least, that it does actually exist - that's no exaggeration!  It seems that no regular traffic rules apply and it's unbelievable I don't see any accidents...

A little bit after I checked into the hotel, the street tour guides arrived at the hotel to pick me up. I booked this tour from Vietnamstreetfoods.com. They offer both motorbike and walking options. Although I wouldn't have to drive the motorbike myself, I felt uncomfortable to even sit on the back in such crazy traffic, so I chose the walking option. The two guides arranged a taxi and took us to district 4 (my hotel is in the district 1). It's only a few km but it took more than 30 min....

The food market/stands area in this district is huge We started from the fruit section. The guides told me that I can choose any fruits I'm interested in. Two fruits grabbed my attention.

The first is a custard apple.  It looks like a young pine cone. It does taste like cherimoya that I tasted in Peru. In fact this has more flavor than cherimoya and it was really good. The only problem is the custard apple is much smaller than cherimoya (slightly smaller than tennis balls). There are many seeds and the skin tastes bitter. It needs some experience to eat this.

The second fruit is milk fruit. It's called this way because the juice resembles to milk. The guide told me a story about this fruit but I didn't quite understand it completely. They are the third guides since I arrived in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the English level of the Vietnamese guides (also hotel staff) is not as high as other countries I've visited. They all have great personalities to make it up for, though.

This is the milk fruit after cutting into half, seeds stayed on the other half (like an avocado)

This is fresh sugar cane juice with kumquat. It's still pretty sweet but not syrupy. The added kumquat juice makes it refreshing.

This is the kumquat used in the sugar cane juice

After the fruit section, we moved to "cooked" foods vendors area. The first snack was fried dough with minced meat inside. This is the Vietnamese version of piroshki. The guide told me the name but unfortunately I don't remember it....

Suddenly, one of the guides asked "do you like snake wine?" Not really... But I said "why not," instead. So, it's the snake infused (?) wine. I don't know what exactly the liquor is. It tasted neutral, like vodka. In fact it was as strong as vodka in terms of alcohol. I don't know what snake is supposed to taste like. But I didn't taste anything unusual. Just a strong liquor flavor.

The next stop is bahn mi. This is the second bahn mi after the one I tasted in Hoi An (the one Anthony Bourdain visited). This one is made with various meat products. Very flavorful with spiciness and sweetness. But I liked the other bahn mi better.

Next, a short break with fresh coconut juice. I chose the chilled coconut since it's very hot and humid. When ordered, they cut the top off and stick a straw. It tasted very fresh. The guide told me that it takes a day to chill the juice completely because of the thick coconut flesh,

This is something I've never had. Minced meat is mixed with seasoning and wrapped in betel leaves. They are grilled at the front. Smells wonderful!

They are served with rice paper, rice noodles and a veggie/herb plate. The two unique veggies on the plate are starfruit and and young banana. Both are sliced thinly and give a hint of bitterness. The rice paper is very thin and I didn't have to soak it in water. After wrapping everything with the rice paper, the whole roll is dipped into the fish sauce based dipping sauce. Very good.

This is Pho!! It's a hot and humid day (although it was after 7:00pm by then) and inside the restaurant it was like a sauna because of the boiling pho broth. The girl in the photo below was drenched in sweat. Vietnam is a very hot country. I wonder how so many soup noodles dishes became popular in such an environment...

The beef was lightly cooked in the boiling broth, so it's not as rare as what I'm used to

The guide showed me how to make dipping sauce for the beef. You can directly add the condiments to the broth or dip the meat. But it seems more Vietnamese to eat Pho the second way (at least among the Vietnamese around me). It's hoisin sauce (the guide called it sweet soy), hot sauce, citrus juice (kumquat) and house made chili sauce (dried chili flakes in oil). These are mixed before dipping. So far, I haven't seen "World wide famous Sriracha" in Vietnam!! I saw something similar, though. Sriracha is manufactured in the US. So, I guess Sriracha is the US version of the Vietnamese hot sauce  made by Vietnamese immigrants in the US.

The last stop of the tour is seafood! The scallop below is grilled with shallot, scallion and peanuts. Served with sauce. Don't know what the ingredients for the sauce but I guess shrimp paste is included. Very savory sauce.

Grilled shrimp with chili. When I taste the shell, it's very spicy. But after being peeled, there's only a hint of spiciness. Very fresh shrimp. Also, it comes with a similar dipping sauce.

This seafood eatery had many different varieties of seafood. I saw some giant clams that I've never seen. If I was going to stay longer, I would like to come back here.

During the tour, we had quite a few things that came with ice, such as sugarcane juice, teas and even beer. I didn't feel completely comfortable with this (because of the unknown water source) but I gave up eventually because it was so hot and I needed something cool. Many of the ice "cubes" were big cylinders with a whole on one side. After I came back to the hotel, I Googled the ice in Vietnam in general. It seems this big cylindrical ice is safe to consume. Even other types of ice are usually ok in big cities. I should have checked this before I came to Vietnam....

Tomorrow is a full day cooking class!

Paradise cave and back in Hue

Other than Vietnamese foods, the main event of this trip is the Paradise Cave. The nearby Phong Nha cave has been know well for decades as a UNESCO World Heritage site. On the other hand, the Paradise Cave was discovered in 2005 and is still relatively new to tourists. However, the view inside was amazing! I felt like I was in some kind of sci-fi movie. Very surrealistic.

Because I wasn't convinced with the Bun Bo Hue that I had yesterday, my mission for dinner is to find a good Bun Bo Hue. After I came back from the Paradise Cave, I asked the hotel clerk where to go. I did emphasize what I'm looking for, real Bun Bo Hue that locals would go for. He suggested a street vendor, but wasn't sure whether or not the stall has a name. When I got to the area that the hotel clerk mentioned, I found the vendor that looked very local. The hygiene seemed questionable but I really wanted to have "real" Bun Bo Hue. Still no blood curd. But all the customers were locals and the soup was spicy. The broth was very flavorful. Probably this particular vendor doesn't serve blood curd? Or skips it for tourists? Anyway, I did enjoy this Bun Bo Hue.

Also, this vendor served another noodle dish called Bun Cha Ca. Bun Cha Ca is a regional soup noodle dish from Da nang. It's supposed to be served with fish cake but this preparation seemed to use fish ball with what was most likely crab. The major flavor is lemongrass as well, but it's more predominant than in Bun Bo Hue. This is not as spicy as Bun Bo Hue.

In general, the food portions in Vietnam are much smaller. When I go to Vietnamese restaurants in the U.S. for Pho, for example, there are regular and large sizes. Normally the regular portion in the U.S. is just right for me, so that gives you an idea of how small the portions are. In any case, I was ready to try more food.

On the way to the hotel, I found the sign for Be Hien"Banh Canh." Banh canh is a type of noodles made with rice flour and tapioca flour. The tapioca flour creates a chewier texture and resembles an Udon noodle. This particular Banh Canh is served with crab/fish balls and blood curd. Yes, blood curd! I really don't care for this because of the lack of flavor. But I would never ask them to skip it because I don't want to give them an impression that I'm not ready for "authentic" food. I forced myself to eat it, though. The broth is made with pork and quite flavorful.

I'm flying back to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing any culinary differences between Central and Southern Vietnam.

Hue

I had a minor stomach issue in the morning but so far that's it. I guess I my stomach can handle the street food in Vietnam!

As soon as I finished breakfast at the hotel in Hoi An, I moved to Hue, which is 2.5 hours north of Hoi An. The most famous dish in Hue is Bun Bo Hue. While there are so many regional noodle dishes in Vietnam, Bun Bo Hue is the nationally recognized soup noodle. Unlike the more well-known Pho, which doesn't contain chili in the broth, Bun Bo Hue is usually spicy and made with lemongrass and fermented shrimp paste. It's also served with blood curd.

However, I was disappointed when I saw this Bun Bo Hue. The broth wasn't spicy at all (though the optional spicy condiments were on the table). Also, although I'm not a big fan of blood curd (because I can't really detect any flavor), not including blood curd made it look less traditional. The restaurant looked pretty authentic but there were signs in different languages. They probably toned down the dish so as not to offend tourists. It tasted good but didn't pack enough punch...

After sightseeing in the city of Hue, I was wandering the night market area by the Perfume River. One of the street vendors was selling skewered foods. After ordering, these are all deep fried in oil. When I was picking the skewers, I asked what they were. Unfortunately, the communication didn't work out. Perhaps it's better not to know??  They all looked different but tasted almost the same, except for the green one on the left which, I was told, contained "vegetables."

The next stop was another of Hue's local foods, Banh Beo. On top of steamed rice cakes in a small shallow bowl, there are different toppings, such as pork rind, scallion and shredded dried shrimp. These are served with sweet and tangy fish sauce.

This stand also serves Banh Nam, which is almost same as Ban Beo, ingredients-wise. The biggest difference is that the ingredients are wrapped in bamboo leaves (kind of like a Vietnamese tamale). The bamboo aroma is transferred to the rice cake.

Two of Hue's famous must-have dishes are checked off the list! I'd like to try another Bun Bo Hue tomorrow, though.