Join us as I share how we travel the world, passport-free, right from our kitchen. Recipes will be shared each day as well as some of the why’s and how-to’s.
What if your cooking skills or confidence in them are …. lacking? What if you just don’t have the time, your kitchen is non-functioning or you just plain don’t feel like cooking or baking? Don’t stress about it, you can find other ways to “taste” a foreign country.
The obvious option is to make reservations! There are countless ethnic restaurants. It seems that the larger the city, the greater the diversity. In the college town nearest to us, my two favorites are the Tibetan restaurant and a great Greek restaurant (mmm…baklava!). I know, not everyone lives near such a treasure trove.
Even in smaller towns, you can usually find at least one ethnic restaurant. The whole experience can be fun. The smells are usually so different. There is usually some music to add to your “taste”. If you are really lucky, you may even have the opportunity to hear some of the language.
Another option to going out to eat, order in. Can you get a meal or a sampler as take-away? Do you know someone native to your country? Maybe they would enjoy sharing a taste of their homeland. The first time I ate any Arabic food was in college, cooked by three young students. It was delicious! They had some special oil and seasonings brought from home. It was a treat to share their meal and observe their customs in eating it.
Another option (and often cheaper and easier), is to get some fresh fruit from your country. I normally try to purchase local produce only. To get a taste, sometimes you have to break a rule or two. The produce section can be your ticket to tastes from around the world.
Papaya, coconut, carambola, pomegranate, and kiwi and just some of the fruit available at my local Meijer. If you are unsure where a fruit comes from (often the signs say where they are native to) you can search it online. We have learned many interesting things from the Wikipedia pages of various native fruits.
Some fruits should come with instructions on how to cut/open them. We searched online and found a few YouTube videos on how to open a pomegranate. Once seeing it done, it became quite easy. There is something so fun about eating fresh pomegranates while reading about them in Scripture or other literature.
You don’t need to shop from only the fresh fruit. We have picked up dates to eat as we read about Iraq. We ate dried figs while learning about Turkey. Don’t forget about preserves, jams and other spreads, too. While ‘rowing A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert (from Five in a Row vol. 2) we enjoyed lingonberry jam. How about some Vegemite while reading about Australia (affiliate link to Amazon)?
Now, I know this whole post is about how you don’t have to cook to taste the world, but I have to share a recipe! This weekend is when we have our mission focus at church. The country to be featured is Jamaica, so I’ll share what I will be making.
Banana Fritters
2 T gran. sugar
1/4 t baking powder
1 C all-purpose flour
pinch nutmeg (when doubled this will be 1/2 t)
pinch cinnamon
pinch salt
4 small ripe bananas (the riper the better)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 t vanilla
2-4 T vegetable oil (or butter) – for frying
nutmeg-sugar for dusting
juice of lime when served
In a small bowl, combine sugar, baking powder, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, mash bananas. Stir in egg, vanilla and sugar/flour mixture. Mix until well blended.
Heat 2 T oil in a skillet (cast iron is best!)over medium heat. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls (a cookie scoop works well here). Turn when the top starts to look dry; fry until golden brown on both sides. Heat more oil as needed. Drain on paper towels. Keep warm in slow oven (250º-325º).
Sprinkle with nutmeg-sugar (this is like cinnamon-sugar 4t spice to 1/4C gran. sugar). Drizzle with lime juice when serving.
I combined a few recipes here. Some called for the lime (or lemon) juice to be added to the batter. That is probably what I will do as this is all made the day before. Some recipes also call for 1/2 C or so of milk to the above proportions of flour, bananas, etc. If the batter looks too thick, I will add milk to thin. It should be like a thin pancake batter. The recipe should make 20, so I will triple it.
There really are a lot of resources to taste the world. I forgot to mention this series when I shared about books I find recipes in. I have borrowed Everybody Bakes Bread from the library. I love that there are recipes included for different types of breads. I recently learned of the other books: Everybody Cooks Rice, Everybody Serves Soup, and Everybody Brings Noodles. It is so interesting to see the similarities the world over.
Whether you have some new ideas for your existing geography studies, or have learned a way to add geography to what you already do, I hope you have enjoyed this series. It has been fun for me to share this with you. I hope you enjoy eating your way around the world!
Be sure to follow the “hop” and check out some of the other posts from my fellow Crew mates. We will all be posting something new each day in keeping with our own themes. Two of my favorite ones that I read yesterday were about Bringing Books to Life (especially the post in the kitchen) and Giving Your Kids a Heart for Missions (those posts are here). You can find our main post, the starting point, right here.
