Try New Things - Cooking Class at Quattro

So...today we'll take a break from GEV's Grecian adventure to tell you about all the awesomeness from Saturday night. 

I live in Houston. This city is so huge, I can hardly keep up with all the activities that go on. But, I like to expand my horizons and try new things...and often times I drag my friends along for the ride...like the Kemah Crawfish Festival - that didn't exactly turn out well b/c they ran out of crawfish and I'm still not even sure how that could be possible. Before that we went to the Old Town Spring Crawfish Festival - that was such a big hit that we go back every year. (as you can see...I love crawfish and festivals). We tried an outdoor flea market at Discovery Green earlier this summer...and that was fun...we also stumbled upon Morris Day and The Time performing in the park that day....super cool. The International Festival is usually pretty dope too. I'm a big fan of the byob painting classes too. Even if the thing turns out to be not so awesome...we make it fun. It's really just an opportunity to do something different in a city where you can get caught up in a very mundane social life meaning: going out to the same places, seeing the same people, drinking the same drinks, etc. 

In true GEV fashion, I was perusing the Travelzoo deals and found one for a cooking class at Quattro, the restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston. The deal was $149 for 2 and included unlimited wine and champagne, a 3 course meal, and instruction from one of the chefs at Quattro Restaurant on how to prepare the main course. Without hesitation, I purchased it and then started an effort to recruit a friend. 

I cook all the time so this wasn't about "learning how to cook". This was more broadening my cooking repertoire and stepping outside the norm. We arrived and were seated at the Chef's Table with a group of about 12 people - couples and groups of girlfriends...and nice mix of really friendly people - all ready and raring to go for this Mediterranean themed cooking experience (appropriate b/c I just got back from Greece...ha). We strapped on our aprons and chef hats and were escorted into the kitchen. 

Chef Hassan, pictured below, was our teacher for the night. After an introduction to the kitchen, the chef and some safety tips, we were slicing and dicing veggies - preparing them for the Portuguese Seafood Stew we would be preparing for our entrees.

I was generally just excited to be inside the restaurant's kitchen. I've had random aspirations to be a cook or even a baker. Plus, the kitchen was still fully operational while we were inside learning so I watched all the components working together...a behind the scenes look at how my dinner gets prepared and this life I've often contemplated.

Chef Hassan explained that we would be using a French country pot for the stew and that many of the techniques we would learn that evening would be derived from his education in French cuisine. 

All our ingredients were lined up and with appropriate utensils (knives, spoons, cutting board, etc) and Chef Hassan coached us through how to dice the onions, peppers, garlic and tomatoes. We took turns chopping cilantro and sipping champagne in between.

When we had prepared all the ingredients, we added the diced onions to a hot pan with olive oil and let it saute for a few moments then we added the garlic. Next we added the diced red and green peppers, then diced tomatoes, allowing those veggies to cook down and the flavors to get going in the pot. We deglazed with white cooking wine...added tomato paste and delicious lobster stock that had been previously prepared by the chef. He divulged the process of preparing the stock. The bodies of the lobsters are boiled with veggies and herbs for 6 hours. Then the bodies are removed from the water, ground up and strained three times to get all the flavor - that's the short version - but when you get at the end is this rich and delicious broth that really added depth of flavor to the dish. We put the lid on the pot, reduced the heat and let it simmer. 

We added the pre-cooked orborrio rice...then the seafood....shrimp and white fish first since they were raw and the shrimp were huge....then clams and mussels. We covered the stew again. 

Gratuitous chef's hat selfie time....

We had a chance to take our seats again to enjoy this delicious salad that Chef Hassan prepared for us. I'm not going to even try to describe all the ingredients. I recall tomatoes, watermelon, mozzarella cheese, there was a green colored puree at the bottom....seriously, I hate tomatoes but this was an incredibly delicious salad. What's even better is that the chef told us that he had just made the salad up for us right before they brought it to the table. We all nearly licked our plates clean.  

Whenever I fall in love with a wine, I take a picture of the label so I can find it on my own. This bottle was served with our salads and it was divine. 

After the salad, it was time to head back into the kitchen to finish off the stew and plate. Chef Hassan grilled some thick slices of bread...maybe it was ciabatta...not sure. He showed us how to use the seafood in the stew to make it look pretty. 

Mine turned out really well (or at least I think so and that's all that matters). I must say, I was very impressed. The ingredients we used didn't seem that sophisticated on their own but when combined in the pot...they created something that we really outstanding. And, while I've created a variation of this dish at home on several occasions, the thing that really made this stand out was the lobster broth - something I will have to be sure to incorporate from now on. Well, maybe not the lobster broth because it sounds really complicated to make....I may just have to settle for store bought seafood broth.  

After dinner, which was incredible and filled my stomach beyond its capacity, we were served  this amazing dessert. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate....but I can't find words for this. I was too busy taking pics of it to remember exactly what it was but I know this...there was chocolate mousse, there was a rice krispy texture in the crust, there was mango sorbet on the side and oreo cookie crumble on top. 

Overall this experience was really incredible and totally outside my norm, which was the whole point. Krystal and I were both super excited the whole time and it was reflected in our finished product. Chef Hassan provided us with easy to follow instruction, good for beginners and advanced cooks. I had a really phenomenal time and I'd do it again. What made it even better was a cool, diverse group and a chef with a great personality who seemed eager to teach us the things he knew and patient when people asked him a million questions. I shot a video too....see below.

Agios Giannis - Mykonos (This beach will melt your heart)

Have you ever been to a place that just made your heart melt and your knees weak???

Welcome to Agios Giannis. A lesser visited area of Mykonos that will absolutely blow your mind. 

My iPhone and its panorama feature were really a necessity as you can see....to get it all in one shot was just my good fortune.

Thanks to Elizabeth, we caught the bus to Agios Giannis to find a restaurant called Hippie Fish that she wanted to try. We walked down this steep driveway and descended upon one of the most peaceful, serene and beautiful coastline scenes that has ever existed. I had to stop for a second just to take it all in. As you can see from the above pic, it was one of the most perfect days ever. Not a cloud in the sky, the sun kissed the surface off the water and its reflection lit up the crystal clear water. It was as if God himself was shining down light, boasting on his beautiful creation. And He would be well within his right on this one. I've seen some things in my lifetime, I haven't seen them all, but....no lie....this definitely makes it into my top 5. 

After I had a chance to snap back into reality, we found Hippie Fish Restaurant. Off jump, I was a little annoyed with this place. The host had us standing at the front of the restaurant for quit some time. In passing, he mentioned they were completely booked for the afternoon but the place was empty. Eventually we understood that he meant the tables at the edge of the patio had been reserved and we would have to sit elsewhere. Honestly, that was beyond reasonable. We still had an incredible view. 

  

One of my favorite parts was watching this older Italian couple having lunch beside us. You can see them in the pic above dressed in all white. Ya'll, I gotta find me a love like this. They were obviously wealthy and very much in love. The wife spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to take selfies on her phone. She snapped a few photos of herself, examined them and seemed to pretty pleased with herself. After she got the hang of it. she walked over to her husband and sat in his lap, took the straw hat from his head and placed it on her own and had an impromptu photo shoot right there at the table. What was so beautiful is that the husband seemed just as enthused about being there with his wife taking selfies all afternoon as she did. He grabbed her around the waist, held her tight and flashed a pretty white smile for the camera. I imagined that they were sending these photos to their friends and family with the hashtag #wishyouwerehere. Maybe the hashtag game was too advanced for them, who knows. Nevertheless. despite their age, they still seemed to be young at heart. When I'm 70, I want to be doing the same thing. Having lunch in an incredible restaurant on a beautiful beach in Greece, wearing all white and straw hat with no agenda...just enjoying myself with a man who shares my love for travel, can appreciate the beautiful things and just be in love...sigh.

Alright so back to the story...so the food was incredible. We ordered hummus with pita bread and grilled calamari as an appetizer. Then I got the seafood pasta.Those things in my pasta appear to be shrimp but they look very different from any shrimp I've ever had.

I took a picture of the check b/c it was the first time I had see Greek written on paper while in Greece. I had no clue what it said...they actually could have been curse words and I wouldn't have known. The phrase, "it was Greek to me", kept replaying in my head.

After lunch we wanted to explore the other side of this small beach. And now...I'm gonna inundate you with my incredible photography skills and make you a little jealous. Above all, though, I hope I get someone fired up enough to go see it all themselves.

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

 

  

  

  

 

  

 

And here I am....just as happy as I could be b/c I witnessed it all  with my own two green eyes. I still can't get over how clear and blue the water was....

 

Up next, more scenes from the Mykonos Island!

Dance Drink Never Sleep! Mykonos

The title of this post is basically the motto of Mykonos Island. If ever there was a party island....this is it.

After the flight from Istanbul, which was just shy of an hour, we landed at the tiny Mykonos Island airport, went through the most lax passport control I've ever seen, gathered our luggage, took about 6 steps and we were already outside the building. To our delight, the shuttle to the Yiannaki Hotel was waiting for us. The hotel was only about 6 mins from the airport so our transfer was short and sweet. We arrived to the cute little, family owned hotel and were greeted by Vickie, my favorite hotel personnel of the whole trip. Vickie provided us with two welcome beverages and all the information we could ever need for our two days on the island. To be completely honest, we were ready to party when we arrived and Vickie had us pretty pumped so went to the room and freshened up and then we headed out for a first look at Mykonos and the night life.

Our first stop was the hotel pool and bar area. We were immediately approached by the owner of the hotel, Yianni, who welcomed us with complimentary watermelon mojitos and then sat down for a chat. (Please note that he did not offer us watermelon flavored alcoholic beverages because we're African American and he thought we might enjoy them because of that stereotype...you know. Watermelon is actually a very highly consumed fruit in Greece. We noticed the restaurants brought it out after a meal pretty regularly...just thought I'd clarify b/c I know what some of you are thinking...I thought it too...jokingly, of course.)  It took a while for the drinks to come out but it was worth it because the bartender came from the kitchen carrying two of the most beautiful, exotic looking drinks ever (well not ever but they were pretty close). I'm not sure if the taste of the drink was enhanced by the fact that they were free or that the owner ordered them for us because we appeared parched from our journey but seriously....no joke...they were delicious and well poured I might add. Fresh watermelon and mint....yum. This gesture from Yianni was among many of the awesomely hospitable gestures we experienced during our time in Greece. 

That's Yianni. He caught me taking a selfie and photobombed.

I drank some before I remembered to take a pic but...yeah...mojito delightfulness. 

After the adult beverages, we were ready to do some damage. We had heard of the island's reputation, but we had no real clue what was in store. 

As an aside, the buses in Mykonos are on a constant loop between all the touristy areas, stopping at other local places in between. You don't see many Grecians on the bus though, most of them drive motorcycles, scooters or ATVs. Of course, we were slightly confused, the bus stops are a tad hard to comprehend for first timers and it doesn't help that they do not keep the posted schedule at all. The bus stops remind me of the old wooden kiosks that are in front of the courthouse. On Tuesdays the weekly foreclosure lists get posted.

About 23 mins after it's scheduled time, the bus finally arrived and whisked us away to Old Town Mykonos. We hopped off and entered into what we referred to as "the Mykonos maze", a never ending cluster of white buildings that house all the shops, restaurants, cafes and bars in the area. All the structures look exactly the same in the dark and during the day light hours. We tried to find landmarks to help us find our way but we got so lost in the maze, so many times. Fortunately, that first night I was intuitive enough to forgo the stilettos that I brought to match my dress so I was able to succesfully traverse the maze with minimal injury. 

We followed the small crowd into the maze, it appeared to be deserted and we were a little disappointed. We came to a fork in the path, chose to turn right and few steps later we realized we just hadn't gone far enough and eventually found the crowd. Since we had no clue where to go first we figured, when in doubt, drinks are always a good starting point. We dipped into the first couple different bars we saw with drink specials and jumped right in. Initially we thought we'd stick with the night's protocol and ordered watermelon mojitos. But, we noticed another concoction called rum and pera. Just like is sounds, its a shot of rum served alongside a shot of pear juice as a chaser. That quickly became our go-to drink. This picture is deceiving...it looks like we had all these shots but if you read the previous sentences, you know that's not true. I wanted to get a pic of the drink itself but er, uh...that didn't happen as planned.

As the night progressed, we found that bouncing from place to place was the best way to get a full perspective. A street vendor, who became a constant and random fixture in our evening, attempted to show us around a little but that got confusing after a while and we decided to go it alone. We stopped at Katerina's - a recommendation from Yianni that we just happened to find - had we attempted to actually look for this place in the Mykonos maze, we may have had to call a search and rescue team to find us. Katerina's very handsome bartender, George, served us some pretty bluish-green martinis - something citrusy. Then Elizabeth struck up a conversation with a lady at the bar who turned out to be the owner. Again, in the way of Grecian hospitality and kindness, she ordered several rounds of drinks for us...on the house. 

This last pic of Elizabeth and the owner of Katerina's is blurry. To me it represents the whirlwind of the night's events lol. 

At this point, we've already had an awesome time but there's still more to see so we kept moving. Around the next corner we were lured by the sounds of familiar pop music to another place called Omega. Omega was more of a club than the other spots we stopped in. I made friends with the guy dancing on the bar and met a really gorgeous male model from Pakistan. The bartender from Katerina's followed us there, which was a little creepy (later that night, we had to use some stealth-like ninja moves to lose this guy). We danced the night away at Omega and left when the crowd began to thin out. We checked out a few other clubs and then found our way to Little Venice, the outermost edge of the Mykonos maze that faces the Aegean Sea. Even at night, the backdrop of the sea as we partook of a club sandwich (hold the tomatoes) and chips was enchanting. This little area was quite charming...and so was the male waitstaff at the restaurant we selected for our 4 am snack. Here are some pictures I shot with my iPhone of Little Venice. Not the best quality, my hands were a little unstable, but it was beautiful. 

So, the party doesn't stop til like 6 or 7 in the morning on Mykonos. And actually, we heard that some places are still jumping until way later than that....but our old bodies couldn't hang and we poured ourselves into bed shortly after our stint in Little Venice. The problem was, we had to find a way out of the maze and to a cab. We had heard that it was nearly impossible to find cabs so that was a little daunting. First things first...get out of the maze. A nice couple who had obviously succumbed to the maze before us noticed we were lost and directed us to the outside. I'm thankful for them...otherwise we might have coming up missing, like when ships get lost in the Bermuda Triangle. Then for 10 euros a kind cab driver took the scenic route back to our hotel. I'm obviously leaving some things out. Its like Vegas, what happens there, stays there (in general). Nevertheless, night one in Mykonos was a success.