Thursday, September 20, 2007

emre mermer'in steakhouse

Restoran açmamak için 1997 den bu yana dayandım.Her restorandan çıktığımda şükredip kesinlikle bir restoran açmayacağım diye kendi kendime tekrarlıyordum.Zira bir restoran demek hayatın sadece o olması, gece gündüz , 365 gün çalışmak, çalışmadığını zannettiğin anlarda dahi iş düşünmek demek. Detay,detay,detay.Sonunda barcelona da tatildeyken geride kalanlar 50 derece sicakta steakhouse u actilar. Kasapta yaptigimiz alistirmalar ise yaramisti ayni eti yapmayi becerdik.

Friday, January 26, 2007

The same movie and samba


I like to watch the same movie again and again as if it is the first time and i like it. Today it is friday and we went to a very nice restaurant for lunch "Aprevizel" in Santa Teresa. The food was so so. Then we take a taxi and we came to citybank to get some money and change money. I have to pay the hotel and need some extra cash. That's why we I took all the cash and all our credit cards with me. In the bank ,i couldn't find my vallet. İt wasn't a joke. I return immediately to taxi but it was gone. We call the restaurant ,no good news. We try to talk the taxi drivers to make an announcement ,nobody speaking english. I said lets go back to santa teresa to hotel maybe Denise could help us. Let me explain the situation briefly. 700 Usd , 3 credit cards, id cards. No other card left with us , no money at all, we have to live 2 more days, pay the hotel nearly 900 usd, it is friday 5 o'clock in Rio. On sunday we have to leave. We don't know anybody, during weekend we cannot transfer money from somewhere. Can you imagine?
And in Torino i did the same thing just 3 months before. How clever i am. I told you i like to watch the same movie. No second plan, nothing ,nothing. Anyway, i was hopeless turning back to the hotel. Olga remember that "San" was written on the taxi while we arrive to santa teresa. I said could this be santa teresa taxi's. Then we saw a taxi written santaxi . We stop there and try to explain our problem desperately. He was very relax .He call their central station to make an announcement. 2 minutes later he said they found it in the taxi and five minutes later the taxi driver came with all my valet , money. Lucky ,lucky, lucky.... You know the joke: two guys went to a movie. İn the movie there was horse-racing. One of them ask the other " do you wanna bet on black horse?" the other accept and win. The one who ask for the bet said İ knew that yours will win because İ saw the movie before. Than why did you bet on the white horse? ask the winner. Well bet for the surprise.
So luckily i win did time and all my chance turn. Because since we are in Rio we didn't see any woo-ow girls and samba. Yesim and Olga wanted to take samba lessons i show you the photo and you decide.:)))))))

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Churrascaria


Today at the end of Coppacabana beach in Leme we went to a churrascaria restaurant called Marius. Our first churrascaria experience was in Tribeca Newyork. They have open buffet and a fix price. You take what ever you want from salad bar including everything like pasta, sushi .You have a card with two sides, green and red. After finishing salad part you turn red part.They begin to bring you all kind of meat.All of them was very nice.You can eat as much as you want and it is unbeleivable.We paid something like 185 usd that night in tribeca churrascaria Plataforma. To eat at night was a big misteak because you eat a lot .So İn Rio we went at lunch time.And İn Marius you can choose seafood or meat. As we had meat experience and also Argentine was very succesfull, we preferred sea food. Although I knew that I shoudnt eat much from salad bar, it was so good that i couldnt stop myself. Then prawn, lobster,oyster,codfish and many many other things I dont remember came infront of us. That was unbeleivable. Per 60 usd per person you can not each that much seafood anywher else.May be fareast. After that lunch I had to run all the way from Coppacabana to İpenema (that makes nearly 10 km).

Life in Rio


When you go to a new city, how do you discover? Like everybody else lonely planet was our guide till i lost. For the essential place to go and many other usefull information it is good. But you feel too much like a tourist and everybody can see. In Rio you can never feel safe because of the crime. People are warning you all the time "dont act like a lost tourist with your camera". Than i bought wallpaper city guide which have some nice place to go. Another resource is blog . There you can find many things. When i begin to research Buenos Aires and Rio ,only english written blogs were helpfull and i was angry with the other languages. My blog was in Turkish . In BA many people speeks english. In Rio nobody speek english. Even in very touristic place most of the documents are in portuguais. It is a big problem because it doesnt sound like spanish,italian and you dont understand even very simple words. The only way is body language and write the thing you want in portuguais and show them. Otherwise you eat by chance , you go somewher by chance.Brasil is the only country in south america who speak portuguais.
Foods are delicious. Brazilian, amazon,portuguais, franch,japanais all kind of kitchen are very good. Always ask for the menu .We eat one time without seeing the menu and the bill was 100 usd for lunch. İn İpenema and Leblon restaurants are more international.In Santa Teresa, Centro and Lapa you find more local restaurant with a better price and different taste.
Nigthlife with Emir is a bit difficult but last nigth we went to Trapiche (a bar) and listen fantastic music alive.
Another thing i love in rio is the people walking with their surf on the streets either going to sea or coming back. After 5 oclock people are coming to ipenema and surfing, joging,playing volleyball. The beach is full of people making sports. That was also great. So life in Rio consist of music, ocean, sports, food ,beach..........

Monday, January 22, 2007

18 Days


We met Melih from Cesme Alacatı Agrilla on the airport .He was going to Buenos Aires for 1 month just for tango. In Che Lulu guesthouse we met other people travelling in south america since several months. Then we came to Rio and in milfont guesthouse there are people staying in Rio for 2 months. Olga was in south america since 4 months travelling in Peru, Kolombiya, Argentina and she came to Rio for 2 months. Finally today waiting a tram ,İ talk to a half swiss , half italian guy Fabian 42, he was travelling the world.He said he privatized himself. He was im salvador and planning move to brasil.

This is our longest holiday since we are together. Until high school i was making holidays for 3 months. And then maximum 1 week. When you travel to a new place, the first 2 days you try to get use to everything . Your body suffers, the weather is different, the bed is different.You get easly tired things like that. Also there is very few time to see everyting on the wrigth moment. When you are running these other guys are reading books, talking to each other, drinking caiprinhia( local brasilian drink). They miss nothing. Altough you want to see all the streets you pass from the same street unintentionally.

I think my vacation and the time for myself, my love and my son will increase after this long long vacation.

Rio de janerio


After 7 days in buenos aires what is left in my mind are great steak(parilla= grill= steakhouse) , tango, huge farm. BA was just like an europeen city. Che lulu is the name of the guest house where we stay in Palermo viejo.(great place) the house and the area is really very good to stay. We went every night and day to the selected restaurants. I understand that i dont like luxury international restaurants Especially when you are in a different country. And the food in local places were much much better and cheap. Most of the parillas we went were excellent.
After 3 hours flight we came to Rio. Of course to the guest first in Santa Teresa Denise Milfont guesthouse.İt is such a lovely place.Santa Teresa was once upon a time best area where rich people were living. Later on they prefer other places like İpenama ,leblon . It is located on the hill. The threes and houses are unbelievable.They are very cheap like 300,000 reas with a garden. Denise is lovely person ,warm, helpfull, smiling all the time. All the places she recommend us were fantastic. Our room is infact not aroom but a part of the house with Rio view ,dont know what to say. Now a days there is an bohamian life in Santa teresa they say . Nice restaurants, bars ,people. You here music from everywhere but it is not like music coming from the bar. Four kids on the street singing or from a house.You feel like the city is singing all the time. We spend all saturday in İpenama just watching people and the ocean. Emir is having first of everthing in Rio. His first summer,beach, ocean ,summer rain. He is together with us all the time. Even in Lapa ,Rio's most crowded nightlife area.
Thanks god we still have one week in Rio.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

BUENOS AİRES DİARY



This picture is from livestock market in BA . Today i made a little tour starting from livestock market until fattenning farm.It was a great experience for me .I saw many the differences between Turkish meat market and Argentine. Most of their bulls are hereford,black angus brought form England at 1800's. So they change their livestock breed. These animals are great for beef production. The market is strongly controlled by the government. People eat 75 kg per year per head in argentina which is the highest in the world. That's why politicians are trying to keep the meat prices as low as possible. I guess this will lower the quality of the meat in the future. On the other hand, they have huge amount of everything. Animals,corn,land, cheap labor. The price for 1 kg of livetsock is 1 usd. In Turkey it is 3 usd. Plus the quality of the bull is much more better. They are slaugthering the animal at 300 kg alive which is very low than my expectation. I didnt understand the logic behind this process. They are treating in two different ways. One for export animals second for local market. Quality of the meat is very high but marbeling is not an issue in argentina.As they are concentrated on export all of their meats are vakum packed. İt can wait until four months.
They are using heifers and steers for good meat. So the animal is young and has enough fat. Their farms are very simple and very efficient.

There are so many things to write but in an other time when i comeback to turkey. By the way i am going to die from eating meat. Every lunch and dinner i eat great meat. Beef de chorizo is the best.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

MERMER FAMILY IN BUENOS AİRES


This is my son's first travel abroad . He is only 3,5 months. We are in hotel lulu (it is a guesthouse in emile zola , palermo viejo). He has fever 38 degree since yesterday.After some treatments ,now it is 37 degree. BA (Buenos Aires) was not so different to me after Europeen cities.But everyday ,we are discovering beauties and difference. Last night we went to a tango bar called Sabor tango. It is like turkish weddings.People are looking each other to find his or her tangomate.We didnot understand the real motive behind this scene. Do really people come to tango or find someone. Anyway my love lost her belief end respect to tango. She was planning to attend tango lesson. Our little son Emir was with us. He wasnt interested to portenos girls(BA local girls).
We had, as butcher family, three times argentine steak till now. How do i find it? Well first of all, they dont ask you how you eat.So it comes to you between medium and well done. It is soft but not like butter nor that juicy. These restaurant are called "parilla a la carbone" . Bife de cauriso (sirloin) is about 2 inch (4-5 cm). Price is unbelivable about 5 usd per 16 oz( 500 gr).
Today is sunday and we went to San telmo where flea market and antique shops are. Lots and lots of people( tourist like us) walking around .

By the way it takes 24 hours to come from istanbul. And in madrid airport we spend 4 hours and it is fantastic building. We met Melih from Agrillia Alacati. He is a fanatic of tango . He will stay in BA for 1 month just for tango.
I took many pictures with my new fantastic nicon d70s.

I love my wife, my son, travelling and Buenos Aires.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

SLOW FOOD TURKIYE


Slow Food International'in baskani Carlo Petrini dukkanimiza geldi. Yaninda Italya da gastronomi okuyan ve slow food icin calisan iki genc Emre ve Tan vardi. Amaclari Turkiye'de slow food icin calisan gruplar olusturmak, konuyla ilgili kisilerle tanismak idi. Haziran 2007'de bu gruplar toplanacaklar daha sonra kasim ayinda Mexico da yapilacak dunya slow food toplantisina katilacaklar. Fikir sahibi damaklar (FSD) in kurucusu Defne Koryurek (ayni zamanda Dukkan' in ortagi) ve beni, ilk grubun liderleri sectiler. Ziyaret esnasinda dukkanimizdaki izgarada taze sosis, dry age steak ve kuzu pirzola yaptik. Hepsini cok begendiler. Kuzu pirzolayi yerken Carlo, bu kuzu trakya kivircigimi diye sordu. Evet yanitini alinca Trakya kuzusunun dunyanin en guzel kuzu eti oldugunu ve bunu bir marka haline getirmemiz gerektigini soyledi. Onlar gittikten bir gun sonra bir e mail aldim. Trakya da kuzu yetistiriciligi yapan bir uretici ortaklasa bir calisma yapmak istiyordu. Bayramdan sonra gorusup, bir kuzusunu alacagiz. Bir yandan dunyada neler var diye arastirirken (ocak 2007 de Arjantin ve Brezilya ya gidiyoruz.) bir yandan ulkemizdeki en guzel etleri ariyoruz. Konumuzla ilgili bilgimizi, gorgumuzu artirirken dunyada bu isi yapanlarida tanimaya basliyoruz.
Gelecek senede daha guzel isler yapmak dilegiyle .