Page 4C
EAT, DRINK & EXPLORE
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Fire up the grill for a tasty summer salad
By KATIE WORKMAN
Associated Press
This recipe sounds,
looks and tastes fancy, but
it takes only a few steps
of preparation and some
simple assembly.
It’s one of those recipes
that demands the best
ingredients you can afford;
it will make a difference.
You can also use rib lamb
chops, which are a bit
pricier.
Play around with the
herb and lettuce mixture.
Any assortment of tender
lettuces and fresh herbs
will be lovely atop the rich
grilled chops and tender,
smoky onions. Grilling
the lemons with the lamb
and onions caramelizes
them, and the juice you
sprinkle over the inished
dish will have a nice hint of
smokiness.
You can let the
onions and lemons sit
in the marinade at room
temperature for an hour or
so, or in the fridge for up to
2 days, for more lavor.
If you have a vegetable
grilling grate, use it.
Otherwise, even if you use
a wide grilling spatula, you
might end up sacriicing a
few of the onion rings to the
grilling gods.
———
Katie Workman has
written two cookbooks
focused on easy, family-
friendly cooking, “Dinner
Solved!” and “The Mom
100 Cookbook.” She blogs
at http://www.themom100.
com/about-katie-workman/
GRILLED LAMB CHOPS, ONIONS, HERB SALAD
Katie Workman via AP
Start to inish: One hour
Servings: 5
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, preferably white
balsamic
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 3 large yellow or Vidalia onions
• 3 lemons, halved crosswise
• 10 loin lamb chops, about 1-inch thick
• 2 cups baby arugula
• 1 cup lat-leaf parsley leaves
Combine ¼ cup of the olive oil with the white wine,
balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper in a shallow baking
dish. Peel the onions and cut them crosswise into ½-inch
slices. Place them in the baking dish along with the lemon
halves, turn to coat with the marinade (it’s ine to stack the
onion slices) and set aside.
Brush the lamb chops with 2 tablespoons of the
remaining olive oil, generously season with salt and pepper,
and let sit for 30 minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile,
preheat the grill to medium/medium-high.
Grill the onions and the lamb chops for about 8 minutes,
about 4 minutes on each side, so that they get nicely
browned on both sides. Turn the onions with a grilling
spatula (you can use a spatula or tongs for the lamb). At
the same time, grill the lemons cut-side down for about 5
minutes. The internal temperature of the lamb chops should
be 130 degree F for medium rare.
Remove the chops and lemons from the grill and let sit
on a cutting board for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, move the
onions to a cooler area of the grill or turn the gas down, and
let them continue to soften while the lamb and lemons sit,
watching carefully to make sure the onions don’t burn.
While the chops sit and the onions inish cooking, place
the arugula and parsley in a medium bowl. Drizzle with
the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, season with salt and
pepper, and toss.
Place the lamb chops and onions on a serving platter. Pile
the arugula and herb salad on top. Place the lemon halves
on the side so people can squeeze them, or squeeze the juice
yourself all over the meal and serve immediately.
Nutrition information per serving: 420 calories; 171
calories from fat; 19 g fat (4 g saturated; 0 g trans fats);
146 mg cholesterol; 403 mg sodium; 11 g carbohydrate; 2 g
iber; 5 g sugar; 51 g protein.
Grilled lamb chops and onions with herb salad.
Here’s the scoop on Cuba’s
irst U.S.-run hotel in 50 years
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press
Meera Sodha via AP
Date, coconut and peanut granola bars.
Naturally sweet granola
bars are sure to be a hit
By MEERA SODHA
Associated Press
Once upon a time, my
Indian grandma was left in
charge of packing school
lunches for my sisters and
me. We were sent off to
school with some potato
curry and a garlic chutney so
ierce my eyebrows twitched
on the bus all the way to
school and I couldn’t bear to
open the Tupperware in fear
of what might be unleashed
on my friends.
After that, I outlawed
traditional Indian food in
my packed lunches, setting
my mother free to get
creative with Anglo-Indian
dishes that became family
favorites.
This granola bar using
dates, coconut and peanuts
is among the recipes she
created. It doesn’t use sugar,
instead relying on dates and
honey as sweeteners. The
dates add a lovely fudgy
texture and the oats and
peanuts give slow release
energy which will keep your
kids (and you) going for a
few hours. Cinnamon and
ginger, in a nod to India,
are used in small amounts
to add a hint of warmth and
extra lavor.
Mum used to make it in
big batches on a Sunday and
ill the house with the most
divine smells, which would
creep under the door while
I was doing my homework.
For the rest of the week,
I’d look forward to packed
lunches knowing what I was
going to get.
———
Meera Sodha is an
Indian foods expert and
author of “Made in India:
Recipes from an Indian
family kitchen.” She lives
in London, blogs at www.
meerasodha.com and tweets
at @meerasodha
DATE, COCONUT, PEANUT GRANOLA BAR
Start to inish: 40 minutes
Servings: 16
• 1 ¼ sticks butter, unsalted
• 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
• 1/3 cup honey, plus more to drizzle
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups rolled oats
• ½ cup roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
Grease and line an 8-inch square baking pan and
pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.
Add the butter, dates, honey, coconut, ginger and
cinnamon to a deep saucepan and heat over a low
lame until butter and honey melt, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the oats and chopped peanuts until mixed,
then spread evenly into the baking pan. Pat the top
down with a spoon to smooth the top and drizzle top
with honey.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown and irm
on top. Cool before cutting into squares.
These bars will keep for up to a week in an airtight tin.
Nutrition information per serving: 200 calories;
107 calories from fat; 12 g fat (7 g saturated; 0 g
trans fats); 15 mg cholesterol; 11 mg sodium; 23 g
carbohydrate; 2 g iber; 13 g sugar; 3 g protein.
HAVANA — Cuba is a land of
architectural splendors, stunning
scenery, warm, welcoming people and
some of the world’s worst hotels.
Communist states aren’t known
for their hotel management, and
I’ve heard and lived a string of hotel
horror stories since I moved here
in 2014: inedible food, rude staff,
sewage leaks in kitchens, glass doors
collapsing into shards onto guests as
they shower.
So when American hotel giant
Starwood announced a deal to
manage the Fifth Avenue Hotel run
by the Cuban military in the upscale
Miramar section of Havana, I was
intrigued. Would Starwood be able
to upgrade a facility that guests
had lambasted online for crickets,
cockroaches and dirty carpets?
A lot’s riding on the answer.
Tourism rose 20 percent last year
after Presidents Raul Castro and
Barack Obama declared detente.
Commercial lights from the U.S.
begin in September, bringing another
surge in visitors. With patron Vene-
zuela collapsing, Cuba needs tourists’
money.
But there’s a shortage of decent
hotel rooms even in facilities labeled
as ive-star. U.S. chains hope to help
solve that problem and get back into a
one-time American playground that’s
slowly reopening its economy after a
half-century of communism.
If American companies can expand
and improve Cuba’s state-run hotel
industry, there could be a lot of
winners.
So I made a reservation.
Using Starwood’s website, I
booked a “Classic Room” with king
bed for two for $250. Testing Star-
wood’s invitation for special requests,
I asked for extra pillows, water and a
map upon arrival.
Starwood has been retraining
staff at the Fifth Avenue, which it’s
renamed Four Points by Sheraton
Havana. The training shows:
Check-in was remarkably smooth for
a Cuban hotel. Front-desk clerks were
solicitous and spoke luent English.
My iancée and I got our key and
headed to our room. It had two single
beds instead of a king, and no water,
extra pillows or map. The front desk
quickly changed us to a room with a
king.
But the rest of our experience was
pretty unpleasant. The hotel had been
rebranded with great fanfare a month
earlier, including promised amenities
like Starwood’s comfortable “signa-
ture beds.” But our mattress was
saggy, with a stained decorative cover
and lat sheet tucked over the sort of
squeaky rubber pad used for bed-wet-
ting children. When I investigated
why a bedside lamp wasn’t working
(due to a missing bulb), I realized
that the entire wall-mounted light
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
In this June 28 photo, a vintage car passes in front of the Four Points
by Sheraton hotel in Havana, Cuba. American hotel giant Starwood has
begun managing this hotel run by the Cuban military, opening one of
the biggest holes in the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba since Presidents
Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente in Dec. 2014.
was loose and balanced in the sole
position that kept it from collapsing.
The hallways carpets looked
new and the paint looked fresh, and
our room did have a new-looking
hairdryer, showerhead and bathroom
tiles. But the walls were scuffed and
dirty. Tables looked like someone had
scraped stickers off them with a piece
of sharp plastic. The minibar door
hung loose on its hinge, with drinks
inside in a pool of room-temperature
water.
The coffee maker came with
two packs of coffee, a teabag and a
sign: “Coffe-Te NOT INCLUDED.”
In-room internet was $5 an hour.
Dispirited, my iancée and I
headed to the pool. The front desk
clerk said it was open ‘til 7 p.m. but
added graciously, “You can swim
until 9 or 10.”
We arrived at 6:30 p.m. It was
closed. A worker treating it with
chemicals from a plastic bucket told
us to come back after two hours.
We went to the spacious terrace
for cocktails and snacks. The shrimp
cocktail wasn’t terrible: a handful of
shrimp doused in Russian dressing in
a martini glass illed with lettuce. But
the menu dated to around the hotel’s
opening in 2010, when it was run by
the Spanish hotel chain Barcelo. How
do I know? Because someone had
taped a little piece of paper with the
“Four Points by Sheraton” logo on the
front. When I pulled it back, it said
“Barcelo.”
Unwilling to try our luck with
entrees, we led for an excellent
privately run restaurant nearby, then
stopped in the lobby for a nightcap.
I asked for an Absolut vodka,
soda water and lime. I don’t know
what came, but it wasn’t Absolut. It
tasted of paint thinner and curdled my
mouth.
When I complained to the
bartender, she tasted and agreed it
wasn’t Absolut but showed me the
bottle and insisted no one at the hotel
had illed it with a cheaper brand or
adulterated liquor. She opened a fresh
bottle of Finlandia and poured me a
drink that tasted as advertised.
I headed to the men’s room but led
the moment I opened the door, driven
back by the smell of raw sewage. We
headed for our room.
Our stay ended the next morning
on its lowest note.
The complimentary buffet looked
inedible and was: a series of warming
pans containing two-toned scrambled
eggs, greasy sausages and swollen
boiled hot dogs loating in tepid
water. To accompany the spread, a
mix of stale and fresh bread rolls and
puckered chunks of guayaba, papaya
and watermelon.
I tried a grayish sausage patty and
spit it out. It was colder than room
temperature. I washed it down with
coffee that was thin and bitter with a
chemical aftertaste.
We checked out and headed home
to recover.
Pablo Casal, the hotel’s manager,
appears to be working furiously to
upgrade the rundown facilities he
took over from Gaviota, the tourism
arm of the Cuban military. Asked
for comment about our experience,
he said that all hotel conversions
take time and guests should expect
rapid improvements in coming
months, including the arrival of new,
Sheraton-standard mattresses and bed
linens by the beginning of September.
“If you stay right now at the hotel,
you can have a good experience. It’s
not the experience that we want,”
he told me. “We want to have all the
standards in place.”
I believe he’ll be able to improve
his hotel dramatically in coming
months. But until then, those
expecting international standards
from the irst U.S.-run hotel in Cuba
in more than 50 years may go home
disappointed.