{"id":245535,"date":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/around-the-world-in-30-days\/"},"modified":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","slug":"around-the-world-in-30-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/around-the-world-in-30-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Around the world in 30 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gourmet de Hanna<\/strong>
\n2864 Adams Ave. (Normal Heights)<\/strong>
\n619-280-5600<\/strong>
\nPrices: Breakfast, $5.95 to $10.95; Lunch and dinner, $6.99 to $11.99<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Frank Sabatini Jr. | Restaurant Review<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Around
Salmon over cilantro rice noodles (Photos by Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some of life\u2019s best-kept secrets sit right in front of our eyes. Hanna\u2019s Gourmet is a case in point. The eight-table caf\u00e9, soon to double in size, surprises visitors with brilliantly executed international fare that changes continents each week.<\/p>\n

Located on well-traversed Adams Avenue, the caf\u00e9\u2019s humble fa\u00e7ade is easy to miss, given that it\u2019s partially camouflaged by a few adolescent trees. But step inside and behold a \u201cworld tour menu\u201d that has come to include French-style cherry duck breast, Bolivian meat stew, Polish pierogies, Indian curries and other dishes that seem rather ambitious for a neighborhood kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve hit about 40 different countries so far,\u201d said Hanna Tesfamichael, who launched the caf\u00e9 last year with her husband Daniel Tekle, after wowing customers through a catering business that she still maintains. Aside from studying food and nutrition at San Diego State University, from which she graduated, Tesfamichael dug her roots in pastry during a mentorship at Opera Patisserie. She also worked as a nutrition counselor for Jenny Craig, but said she ultimately absorbed the art of cooking while growing up in the East African country of Eritrea, considered a crossroads for some of the world\u2019s best spices.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia was the featured country when a friend and I visited, with Indonesia running next, until Sunday, Nov. 11. The countries are individually spotlighted from Wednesdays to Sundays before Tesfamichael meticulously researches the following week\u2019s culinary destination. In any given month, she circles the globe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a whole wall of cookbooks at home,\u201d she said as we slurped ferociously on East African-inspired black bean soup fortified with a little ground beef, carrots and a bouquet of herbs. A touch of cayenne pepper in the recipe added a kick that goes missing in Mexican versions. Lamb and potato stew was also among the Ethiopian specials, but we proceeded instead to the regular menu, which carries cosmopolitan flair as well.<\/p>\n

Our second stop was Morocco, via an airline cut of chicken breast and wing, with skin on, draped in an apricot sauce that epitomized the rapport between fruits and savories. Served over fluffy rice with a few black olives, the interplay of spices that surfaced was both restrained and sensational.<\/p>\n

Ditto for our ensuing dishes, which included lasagna like you\u2019d find in Milan, with a 50-50 ratio of herby b\u00e9chamel sauce and marinara. The sheet pasta remained light and pliant amid layers of ricotta cheese, ground beef and roasted eggplant. Italian heart and soul was wholly achieved, offering a balanced flavor profile of basil, tomatoes and nutmeg.<\/p>\n

Seared, juicy salmon served over ribbons of rice noodles might fool you into thinking that a Japanese chef is hiding in the kitchen. Tesfamichael uses sesame oil to give the fish its crispy sheath while tinting the noodles green with judicious measures of cilantro pesto. Across the menu, the dishes pay respect to the countries they represent without missing the mark. If Tesfamichael adds any twists, such as turning Polish dumplings into a casserole, they are largely structural rather than flavor altering.<\/p>\n

Her scratch-made desserts are equally masterful and colorfully displayed. After forking through multiple courses, I normally doggie bag the sweet endings and analyze them later. Impossible here. One bite of berry-covered tres leches cake spiked with rum lead to another before chomping into a slice of carrot cake infused with ginger, and then chocolate mousse cake containing bourbon-soaked cherries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all taste and look like something from a La Jolla pastry shop,\u201d my friend said as we entered one of the best food comas I\u2019ve experienced in a while.<\/p>\n

We concurred that the caf\u00e9\u2019s lack of flash and pretense doesn\u2019t fit the high quality of the food, which is exactly what makes Hanna\u2019s Gourmet so special. The only thing missing is beer and wine, which Tesfamichael said is coming very soon.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hanna\u2019s Gourmet 2864 Adams Ave. (Normal Heights) 619-280-5600 Prices: Breakfast, $5.95 to $10.95; Lunch and dinner, $6.99 to $11.99 Frank Sabatini Jr. | Restaurant Review   Some of life\u2019s best-kept secrets sit right in front of our eyes. Hanna\u2019s Gourmet is a case in point. The eight-table caf\u00e9, soon to double in size, surprises visitors […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Around the world in 30 days","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}