Gloria Jean's Coffee -- Istanbul airport

Antoinette Ego has a lot of nice things to say about the food in Turkey, doesn't she?* Yadda, yadda, yadda. Whatever. But did you notice she didn't mention anything about the coffee? That's because the coffee in Turkey sucks!  What about Turkish coffee, you say? Surprisingly, Turkish coffee is not served that much anymore. After the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the loss of the Arabian countries, coffee fell from favor, and tea growing was subsidized in the Black Sea region. Today guests are more likely to be served tea than Turkish coffee. And at hotels, which feel obliged to offer coffee with breakfast, filter coffee is the norm. Bad filter coffee, that is. The very worst of the bad filter coffee can be found at airports.  Our departure from Istanbul featured a cup of Gloria Jean's coffee at Ataturk International. OMG.

Antoinette Id

* A. Ego's posts:

Istanbul Delights, with notes

Goreme for Gourmands

Mezze to Die For

Alero -- Cleveland Park

I have nothing against Alero. The Cleveland Park location has a cozy interior for warming up in winter, and a pleasant deck for slurping decent margaritas in the summer. Those features can make up for ho-hum Mexican food. But last week I ventured beyond the Mexican standards to try the ceviche (strictly speaking a Peruvian dish) and the spare rib fajitas (which turned out to be an unhappy marriage of Chinese sweet and sour flavors with Mexican style grilled onions and peppers inside a cardboard textured, too-small pancake). My wrathful eye is particularly trained on the mealy ceviche and its distasteful spices. This dish depends on its freshness and tart lime and seafood flavors, neither of which were delivered here. Not even two pitchers of margaritas on a lovely summer evening could wash away the memory of inedibility, which lingered into the next day.  The loss of Sabores from the neighborhood is felt ever more acutely.

Antoinette Id