Hotel Taddart - Midelt, Morocco

Midelt is located in a "V" shaped valley situated between the Middle Atlas Mountains and the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco. We were in a car driven by a hired guide who was driving us from Fez to Merzouga, in the Sahara Desert, and we'd just passed through the Middle Atlas Mountains.  

Midelt is in a high plane at an elevation of 4,948 feet. There was a stiff wind and it was quite chilly. Our guide pulled in to the Hotel Taddart, a large building standing nearly alone on the outskirts of town with only a few cars in the parking lot. 

Only a few cars in front of this wide and spacious building.

Sign above the entrance.

We learned through sad experience that our guides took us to the most touristy, high priced eateries in Morocco. They would go to some hidden location with their other guide buddies and eat a free meal while we got quite ordinary food for an extraordinarily high price. 

The Hotel Taddart dining room was cavernous and there were only a couple of other tour groups eating there. 

Part of the dining room. 

The High Atlas Mountains visible through the window, streaked with snow. 

First we were brought some "apple juice" which was apple in milk, a very strange combination. I drank it, but I was not particularly fond of it. 

I was missing eating salad on our trip and was intrigued by a side-salad, so I ordered a salad with an interesting combination of banana, pineapple, orange, cheese (not something we saw much of in Morocco), olives, beets, tuna fish, corn, turkey ham (the Moroccans are Muslim and don't eat pork), a few leaves of lettuce and some salad dressing. It was actually kind of a nice change of pace.

We also shared a bowl of soup with rice and vegetables. Pretty thick and not particularly spicy, but not bad on a cool day. 

I got a tagine of beef as a main course, cooked with prunes. The prunes and the gravy were good, but the beef was kind of stringy. We had lots of tagine meals in Morocco and this one was middle-of-the-road. 

Judy got some kabobs with chicken and beef along with rice and vegetables. 

For dessert we shared some flan and it was the best part of the meal. I associate flan with Mexico, so this was a little bit of a cultural adjustment for me. 

We could certainly have done worse, and did worse on our trip, but it was not the real, authentic Moroccan restaurant experience I was hoping for. It would take another guide and another day to get that. 

Brined and Grilled Wild Boar Loin

About four years ago I grilled a wild boar loin from a pig shot by a friend in central California. I recently purchased a wild boar loin with the intention of brining it and cooking it a little more medium rare for a comparison (the last one I cooked to medium). 

In addition to the salt brine I added some mandarin orange juice and let it brine and marinade about an hour. Note that after the brining the loin has turned a brown color.

Loin in salt brine and orange marinade.

Brown color after the brining.

Although this loin is cooked medium rare I did not like it as well as the first loin I cooked. The first loin was larger and I think just a better quality of meat. This smaller loin was okay whereas the previous loin was excellent. 

This loin was just okay. It was good, but not outstanding like my last boar loin. 

Grilled Llama Ribeye

I got a beautiful llama ribeye from Exotic Meat Market. It was a much larger piece of meat than the llama porterhouse I tried about four years ago. 

Llamas in Peru.

Llama ribeye

I've been experimenting with brining and marinade and decided to brine this ribeye (1 tablespoon of salt for each cup of water) for about two hours with added orange juice (squeezed from mandarin oranges on our own tree) and some spicy sesame oil. 

Llama in brine and marinade.

Then I grilled it on our outdoor gas grill. The meat really started to puff-up, it looked like a small roast. I worried about getting it cooked through and eventually cut it in half, lengthwise, and cooked it on the ends for awhile. I've not been able to find anything on-line to explain why the meat puffed up as it did, but ultimately it tasted great, although parts were still quite rare. Llama is not gamy, but it does have a more robust flavor than regular beef. 

We had some left over that I warmed up in the microwave and had several days later and it was wonderful. This is one I may need to try again and perhaps sous vide it for awhile, or perhaps cut it into strips to allow for more even grilling. 

Northwestern Crow

On our cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park in southern Alaska I photographed a crow on rocks in Resurrection Bay near some harbor seals. There are 38 species of crow and this particular species is known as the northwestern crow, found along the coast and offshore regions of southern Alaska, British Columbia and Washington state. 

Northwestern crown in southern Alaska

It is indistinguishable by eye from the American crow we are used to seeing. Only a close investigation would reveal that it has a smaller bill, shorter tarsus, and smaller wing chord and tail length. It has a diet of fish, shellfish, crabs and mussels. 

Sheep Milk Butter

In addition to goat milk butter, Judy also got me some sheep milk butter for Christmas. It is under the label of Tre Belle Donne (Italian for three beautiful women) from Sierra Nevada Cheese Company partnering with Great Basin Shepherding which raises and milks the sheep east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the Great Basin of Nevada. 

I was surprised to find the butter in a plastic package and also to find that when I left it out awhile to try it it got quite liquid, thus the reason for the plastic packaging. 

It is only lightly salted and, unlike the goat milk butter that has a very distinctive taste, I probably would not know the difference between this and cow milk butter if I was not alerted to the difference. 

I like it a lot, but I like cow milk butter a lot too and do prefer saltier butter. It was very fun to try but, other than for the novelty of it, I would probably not pay what I am assuming is a premium price to have it. 

Takashi - Salt Lake City

I flew into Salt Lake City in November to visit my mother and made arrangements to meet my brother, Matt, and his wife, Carol, at Takashi, the no. 3 rated restaurant in Salt Lake on Trip Advisor. One of my friends had been there earlier in the year as guests of the owners - he was a friend of the parents of a player on Real Salt Lake who was engaged to the owners' daughter and visited with them. Matt had also been a number of times and said it was his favorite restaurant in Salt Lake. 

Takashi does not take reservations, at least for smaller parties, so we had to wait awhile and we had plenty of company. It is very popular. It was an eclectic group of visitors from the very young to the old and it was dark and very noisy. When we were finally seated it was difficult to hear each other as we talked at our table. 

I had some dishes I'd read about, Matt had some favorites and we picked a few other dishes that looked good. 

Carol wanted the green papaya salad that has a "piquant chili-lime dressing" and ground peanuts. It was similar to green papaya salads I've had at Thai restaurants and I would rate it as average. 

Green papaya salad

We had a vegetable tempura with dashi dipping sauce and green tea salt. The tempura included green beans, onion rings and sweet potato. It is very similar to vegetable tempura I've had in Japanese restaurants and I would rate it as average. 

Vegetable tempura

I'd read on-line that the sable fish was very good, so we ordered the sablefish marinated in a saikyo-miso and then baked. Sable fish is found in the North Pacific at very deep depths. It is mild with a flaky texture and a high fat content similar to that of wild salmon. Saikyo miso is a white miso with lots of rice malt and a little bit of a sweet taste. The piece of fish was small, but very flavorful. This was a fish I'd never eaten before and it had great flavor. This was above average.

Sable fish and Asian slaw

Closer view of the sable fish. 

I read a review about the ridiculously tender flank steak. Ours was not ridiculously tender, it had a little bit of chew to it, but the flavor was wonderful. But what really made the dish was the chimichurri sauce that came with it, very spicy, and the reason this is an above average dish and worth ordering.

Flank steak with green chimichurri sauce.

The shitake lamb shank came next - I figured we could not go wrong with lamb. It was the most moist and tender lamb I've ever eaten. It literally fell off the bone. It was not the most flavorful lamb I've had, I would have liked more of the strong lamby taste, but the tenderness alone made it worth ordering. 

Lamb shank

We had a series of sushi rolls and I may be mixing up the rolls, but here is where I think Takashi is average. I did not like any of them as well as the those I get in the typical sushi restaurant in California. The Takashi website has been down and I can't find the ingredients in the various rolls. 

The Takashi spider roll. I believe this may have a whole blue crab in it. A little unusual, but not a real taste winner.

The T&T, I believe. Rather unremarkable. 

Forrest Gump. The sauce in the middle was very, very hot, as hot as anything I've had with sushi, but that is about all that stood out. The flavor was not all that great and the sushi itself was bland. Finally, we shared a dessert with a brownie and ice cream which was pretty good. 

I enjoyed Takashi a lot. Some of the items on the menu were very creative and I love the concept of small shared plates. It is known as a sushi restaurant, but I felt that the better items were the non-sushi items. If I have a chance to go there again, and I would like to, I will probably explore the non-sushi part of the menu. And I may try the flank steak again because that spicy chimichurri sauce is really killer. 

Goat Milk Butter

Judy gave me an 8 oz. package of goat milk butter for Christmas. 

On a hunch I checked 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die and found it listed (page 268). I was anxious to try it, so I set it out and found that it was white. 

I heated up a couple of dinner rolls in the microwave and applied the butter and found that it melted very easily. 

I also discovered that it has the taste and smell of goat milk cheese, although perhaps not as strong. I enjoyed it, but I'm guessing it would be too much for some people.