Guide to Greek Town

No one is reading this blog, but I won't stop!

You know what was good, War and Peace and you know what's better? THIS BLOG Jerk-wad. Despite the reality that I am now writing to no one I will...Not...Stop! Why? I am very bored and find this entertaining (up to a point) More entertaining...?

(Dancing with Cats.)

In other news I will be spending the summer in Kansas City, KA which combined with Kansas City, MO is damn famous for BBQ, particularly beef brisket, don't know for sure I will have time to sample that or Stroud's famous fried chicken.

In recent developments I went to the Purple Pig in Chicago the other night with my Aunt who is a big fan, it was my second visit with her. It is a very good small plates restaurant, basically Mediterranean tapas. Everything here is simple and good and while not cheap  it is far from expensive especially given its Magnificent Mile location.  We had some really nice vegetable salads including fava beans with hard boiled egg and fried prosciutto. (I discovered in Guatemala fava beans are essentially the greatest food ever, wonderful earthy complicated flavor all on its lonesome) But a dish that really caught my attention that evening was an eggplant tapanada, chunks of marinated roasted eggplant with green olives, capers, and probably some other stuff in a vinaigrette served on toast pre spread with goat cheese. The contrast between the rich cheese and the acidity of the eggplant was not only really delicious but also really interesting.

Back in The USA!!!!

Back in the USA, Sing it now, back in the USA. MMM I can smell the apple pie. I can hear the band now.

So I've been back a couple weeks and update this blog occasionally if anyone still cares. Events that could provoke me blogging:

1. Eating BBQ

2. Getting Bored.

3. Eating something delicous

4. A Narcasistic apreciation for my own Cooking.

5. A Camera (B-day is July 15th)

6. Somehting exciting happens.

With this in mind you should know we stopped down at Dreamland BBQ in Alabama. It was quite an adventure. Dreamland is an Alabama instituition with several locations through out the state. We meant to stop in Montgemory but I had bad directions so we ended up having lunch at 3:30pm in the Birmingham location. This was fitting as it is the location I have visited on many rides through the state with my father and brother.

Now many, including my father belive dreamland has the best ribs (period). This was my first visit since Memphis which in retrospect lives up to its reputation as a serious BBQ meca. (time will tell if it is the best, I'm heading to Kansas City this summer). So the verdict:

As easily as people claim one rib is the best or pork but or whatever, I find it is often difficult to compare BBQ. The key to any good dish of any kind is a balance between diffrent flavors that leave the eater with a complex and satisifing experience, yet what those flavors or textures may be can be widely diffrent. For example what I loved so much about cozy Corner in memphis was the balance between the crispy texture, rich smoke flavor, the sauce, and then the subtle natural flavor of the pork itself. While I can say I prefer Cozy Corner, Dreamland has some great qualities that have a distinctly diffrent character.

Like I said Smoke, texture and spice were the Kings in Memphis, the main characters at Dreamland was the pig and the sauce. While not the best, these were the meatiest both in quantity anbd flavor of any rib. In Guatemala I noticed how much more flavorful pork was (though the beef was gross) and lamented the widely discussed blandness of American pork. These ribs were an exception they had a lot of that mellow bacony porkyness that is often overpowered by smoke in BBQ. At the same time smoke was definetly on the back burner for these ribs, the flavor was present but always in the background.

Now the Sauce at Dreamland is a perfect sauce for me. it's spicy, and by that I mean it has a bite, it's thin which I always prefer, tomato paste and corn syrup can go fu*k themselves when it comes to BBQ. The combo of the spicy thin sauce with the heavy meaty ribs defenitly elevates Dreamland beyond any average joint and surly has contributed to it's fame.

Though for the record I believe Hogly Wogly in St. petersburg is just as good despite not being famous.

P.P.S. Dreamland didn't used to have sides, just meat and potato chips. They should probably go back to this formula, the slaw was good but the mac n cheese was distinctly velveetaish.

Wrap it up

We have been realxing liberally this past week back in San Pedro on Lago de Atilan which is still quite nice.

I have found San Pedro is an excellent place to get coffee which grows in the streets and all over the mountains. In the tourist establishments one can even find a good french press.

We also noticed a lot more men whereing traditional dress which is not common here and fairly nonexisitent most places.  The exception being Solola the capital of the department surrounding the lake. We visited the friday market in Solola where men where colorful red embroidered pants and insanely colored and woven cowboy jackets.

We also ate this fruit at the market. I do not know what it is called. it contains slimey sweet seeds that togther look like human brains. Tastes kind of like pomegranite but less tart.








Hell yes I am a cowboy, just do not tell my buttocks which were feeling the pain after a pleasent jaunt in the country.












We have also been sleeping alot because we are kind of bored and drinking a lot of licuados, smoothies, because they are delicous. Also I got stung by a bee on my face and I look like I got into a fight, which i did with a bee.

The Verapazes

The Verapazes are in the center of Guatemala and feature some of the greenest mountains I have ever seen. They are paticularly striking as you aproach them from the flat lowlands of Petan.

We fist headed to Semuc Champey, one of Guatemala{s most discussed tourist atracktions. We stayed in a annoying hostel but that was ok because it was just a few meters from the secluded Semuc Champey. Semuc is a series of crystal clear pools formed by a river that apear perfectly turqoise because they are in lime stone. After an afternoon of relaxing we headed to the major city of the area, Coban.

Coban is not a major tourist atraction but we found it perfectly charming. At night there is a choice of about 10 vendors who all serve chrassco, grilled meat. There is a veryn interesting church here above the city where in the typical maya catholic fashion people perform ceramonies at alters outside the church.

In Coban we also visited a  Coffee Finca owned by the Diseldorff family. I did not ask how the Diseldorff family avoided  the expulsion of Germans from Guatemala during World War II.  Turns out raw coffee beans are quite sweet, who knew.

And ofcourse no trip anywhere would not be complete without the CIRCUS! The trapeeze artist is also the tick taker, and the rope dance sells churros. The circus was great fun with tigers and horses and xenophobic clowns. The place probably seats 500 and there were about 15 people there, giving the evening a certain David Lynch feeling.

We also saw this in Coban

Tikal, el corazon del mundo maya

Yes Tikal is that awesome, and our guide said they filmed than one scene in star wars here.

Livingston

 

 Leaving Honduras we amazingle made it all the way to Livingston in Guatemala in one day. Livingston is one of only two towns on Guatemala small Caribean coast. It is only reachable by boat, which is awesome, and is home to the only black commuity, the Garifuina, in the country.  It is not paradise but the scruffy town full of people willing to sell you most anything has a certain charm. Also, I drank out of a cocanut there. I also fell in love with the local Garifuina specialty tepado:

 

Tepado is a soup with a soup with a whole grilled fish, shrimp, and maybe crab and maybe conch, and definetly sweet and savory plantains in a cocanut milk broth. It´s excersise to finish a gigantic bowl and is more beautiful than the white sand beaches Livingston does not have.

Leaving livingston we took a jungle cruise down the rio dulce where we saw tons of birds and generally had a good time.

On to Tikal...