When I was traveling the world I always learned about new food, then when back home I’d try to recreate it and invite friends and family who have no possibility to travel to taste it.
Now I haven’t had the possibility to travel to new places for the last couple of years, but I wonder if you guys have some tips what I could try to make. Something not too complicated but to some extend exotic.
My tip would be the the Sabich which I tried in Jerusalem in 2019. A flatbread with eggplant, egg, other vegetables and sauces. Sweet and savory.
Curries are pretty hard to screw up, yet are extremely satisfying. Thai, Indian, Japanese, they’re all good.
Pretty much just thickened stews, so you can add or remove things to your taste or make it seasonal. Can have any meat or can be vegan or anywhere in between. Serve up with rice or bread. Extremely versatile all around.
Somewhat related, African Peanut Chicken Soup. Hearty yam and carrot, in a spicy peanut broth. It’s all familiar ingredients, but in a combo your taste buds may not be familiar with, so comforting and exotic at the same time.
In addition to my specific recommendations, I recommend checking out Beryl Shereshewsky for inspiration.
She cooks user recommended home cooking from around the world. She’s usually able to recreate them pretty accurately, but discusses substitutions if there’s something hard to get, which isn’t often.
Her videos are by topic, so if you want a breakfast or dessert, or even as simple as an egg dish or toast, it’s there.
Ice cream soup:
- Place 2-3 scoops of ice cream in a bowl
- Use a tablespoon to vigorously stir the scoops in the bowl until they have the consistency of a thick soup
- Garnish with chocolate syrup and serve
Exotic is in the eye of the beholder. When I was a kid (around 1970?) my dad brought home a couple of Russian Cosmonauts who were visiting JPL. My mom made fried chicken or something, but what fascinated them was her pecan pie. One was saying he would see if his wife could try making it, and we wondered afterwards how it would taste, considering they’d probably have to substitute walnuts… And did they have molasses or corn syrup?
This is a pretty neat story. How surreal was it to have Russians at your house in the 70s?
Also here is an article from the 70s that said the USSR was the largest producer of sugar beets in the world. So it’s safe to say they had molasses. Not sure about what nuts they had.
Molasses were not very popular though. Sugar was mostly used directly. Tons and tons of fucking walnuts. Never heard of pecans until iron curtain fell.
Really, interesting I wonder where the molasses went? It is just a by-product of sugar production. I would have figured it would have been all over the place as a cheap sugar source. Do you mind saying what part of the USSR you were in? I wonder if it was regional? I will have to do some reading
What’s exotic to you? It rather matters where you are from.
So, unless you happen to be Dutch, you’ve probably never had tiny Dutch pancakes: https://www.wandercooks.com/poffertjes-dutch-mini-pancakes/
You don’t actually need to special pan, but it sure helps a lot.
Okay… I don’t consider this exotic (unlike pumpkin pies), but you probably do so here’s how to prepare candied squash/pumpkin.
Ingredients:
- 1kg of squash. Any sweeter variety works*. Only the flesh; no seeds or skin. Cut it into large-ish cubes (~4 cm should be good)
- enough water to cover the above.
- 10g of food grade quicklime, or roughly a tablespoon.**
- 500g of sugar.
- 500ml of water. (yup, again)
- whole cloves and cinnamon sticks to taste. 3~4 cloves and 2~3 cinnamon sticks should be enough.
- Put the squash cubes into a bowl, cover them with water, and add the quicklime. Mix it a bit, and let it rest for 3h.
- Drain the water and rinse the cubes. Then use a fork to pierce a side of each cube (so the syrup penetrates it.). Reserve.
- Boil the 500ml of water. Add sugar, cinnamon, cloves. Let the sugar dissolve.
- Add the squash cubes, and cook them in the syrup, over low fire. It needs to be low fire, otherwise you won’t be able to cook them evenly.
- Keep cooking them for 1h or so, mixing it occasionally. Be gentle, as you don’t want to break the cubes. The syrup should reduce quite a bit, and the cubes should be soft on the inside; some leathery skin is expected (and desirable), but if they’re still tough and the syrup reduced too much it’s fine to add a tiny bit of water to compensate the loss.
- Let it cool and enjoy. They should turn out like this:
Notes:
* traditionally this sweet is made with this sort of squash, known in Portuguese as “abóbora menina”:
You can use pretty much any sweeter variety of squash though. Kabocha, pumpkin, buttercup etc.
** using quicklime on food might sound weird, but it’s fairly common across the world. For example they use it in North America to nixtamalise maize, and in China for century eggs. I don’t think that you’ll have a hard time finding it in Korea.
An American colleague brought a homemade pumpkin pie in to the office once. I legit thought it was a cheesecake until she said otherwise.
It creates an outer “skin” that keeps the candied cubes firm and whole, and has a rather interesting texture, that contrasts with the creamier inside. Without the quicklime you end with a spreadable jam instead.
That’s really interesting! I wonder if there are any savory applications.
