Mmm. International food!
Today my work day was awesome. First there was this event called "Passport to the World." It was just upstairs from my office and there was all kinds of interesting foods and beverages from places like India, Turkey, Pakistan, Mexico (of course), Bangladesh, China, Egypt, and Nigeria. I ate enough tiny servings of these things that I was quite comfortably full when I was done, so I'm going to go through the foods I sampled:
I didn't actually get to try any of the food from the Pakistan booth. But they did have some green soda that I tried. I thought it was going to be like Thailand's green Fanta, but it was definitely different. It tasted like rose flavored cream soda. I could have sat there smelling it for a while. It was quite tasty. Oh, and you'll hear me say that a lot - all the food was yummy! But anyway, like I said, the Pakistani food wasn't out yet so I had to move on.
The Scotland table didn't have any food, but I knew right away whose booth it was. It was funny - their sign said "Failte gu Alba" and I stopped and was like "Ah! Scotland!" The guy at the booth smiled and said "Yeah." I grinned and told him his sign gave him away to me, not the kilt since he was on the other side of the table. I chatted with him a bit, and he has been here since August. I told him my husband and I liked football, and he asked me Celtic or Ranger (Heh). He claimed to "not care." He was wearing a Black Watch kilt. Since most his family's from England, he felt better wearing black watch, heh.
The food from Bangladesh was really tasty. I tried a beef dish with curry, which about a "medium" spiciness per my Thai-tuned taste-buds. It was a very, very dark curry and resembled a Mexican dish I had once. They also had a chickpea curry, which was only a light spiciness. With both they served a lightly fried rice seasoned with tumeric. For desert, they had these little, sweet, rose-flavored kind of "cheese" ball. Yum! Oh, and the drink they presented was this yogurt drink that was sour and spicy. It wasn't what I was expecting since I'm used to sweet yogurt drinks but it was very interesting and still yum. One of the students had impeccable English and was in traditional bangladeshi clothes. The clothes looked very well suited for hot climates. He was very charming and out-going.
The Mexico table had tacos. Of course, we're all familiar with tacos, heh. ^_^ I only had one since I was sampling. I had chopped beef rather than chicken.
The Nigeria table had several different things. I saw the fried plantain and immediately got excited. I love fried banana. However this was different than what I am used to - it was salty! They quite reminded me of potato chips, with a slightly smoother texture. I also had a tiny slice of meat pie, with ground meat (beef I think) and potatoes. Salty. They offered a beverage - a tiny cup of soda that tasted like fizzy molasses (but consistency of soda, too). It was really good.
The India table was one of the best presentations there. Of course, all the ladies were in their saris and looked fabulous. I've always thought India has some of the world's most beautiful cultural clothes. One lady had a presentation of the famous people who are Indian, another had a presentation about Indian dress traditions, and more were serving the food and describing what was in it. It was a very good presentation over all. Of their food, I had a chickpea curry dish with diced tomatoes and lots of cilantro. It wasn't spicy (hot), but salty. They served it with lightly fried rice seasoned with tumeric, and a few lentils scattered through out. For a beverage, they had a very spicy ginger tea.
The table for Turkey was pretty - they had all these abstracted glass eyes that apparently are pretty common there, used for protection against the "evil eye." Cool! They had four different pastry kind of things, but I only tried two - one was a potato pastry (I don't know what it is called). It looked like baklava, but instead of sweet, it had potato in it and was salty and yummy. The other was a cake with toasted peanuts on top. It was drenched in a light sweet syrup.
Over all, the Passport to the World was awesome. Too bad they only have these once a year!
I didn't actually get to try any of the food from the Pakistan booth. But they did have some green soda that I tried. I thought it was going to be like Thailand's green Fanta, but it was definitely different. It tasted like rose flavored cream soda. I could have sat there smelling it for a while. It was quite tasty. Oh, and you'll hear me say that a lot - all the food was yummy! But anyway, like I said, the Pakistani food wasn't out yet so I had to move on.
The Scotland table didn't have any food, but I knew right away whose booth it was. It was funny - their sign said "Failte gu Alba" and I stopped and was like "Ah! Scotland!" The guy at the booth smiled and said "Yeah." I grinned and told him his sign gave him away to me, not the kilt since he was on the other side of the table. I chatted with him a bit, and he has been here since August. I told him my husband and I liked football, and he asked me Celtic or Ranger (Heh). He claimed to "not care." He was wearing a Black Watch kilt. Since most his family's from England, he felt better wearing black watch, heh.
The food from Bangladesh was really tasty. I tried a beef dish with curry, which about a "medium" spiciness per my Thai-tuned taste-buds. It was a very, very dark curry and resembled a Mexican dish I had once. They also had a chickpea curry, which was only a light spiciness. With both they served a lightly fried rice seasoned with tumeric. For desert, they had these little, sweet, rose-flavored kind of "cheese" ball. Yum! Oh, and the drink they presented was this yogurt drink that was sour and spicy. It wasn't what I was expecting since I'm used to sweet yogurt drinks but it was very interesting and still yum. One of the students had impeccable English and was in traditional bangladeshi clothes. The clothes looked very well suited for hot climates. He was very charming and out-going.
The Mexico table had tacos. Of course, we're all familiar with tacos, heh. ^_^ I only had one since I was sampling. I had chopped beef rather than chicken.
The Nigeria table had several different things. I saw the fried plantain and immediately got excited. I love fried banana. However this was different than what I am used to - it was salty! They quite reminded me of potato chips, with a slightly smoother texture. I also had a tiny slice of meat pie, with ground meat (beef I think) and potatoes. Salty. They offered a beverage - a tiny cup of soda that tasted like fizzy molasses (but consistency of soda, too). It was really good.
The India table was one of the best presentations there. Of course, all the ladies were in their saris and looked fabulous. I've always thought India has some of the world's most beautiful cultural clothes. One lady had a presentation of the famous people who are Indian, another had a presentation about Indian dress traditions, and more were serving the food and describing what was in it. It was a very good presentation over all. Of their food, I had a chickpea curry dish with diced tomatoes and lots of cilantro. It wasn't spicy (hot), but salty. They served it with lightly fried rice seasoned with tumeric, and a few lentils scattered through out. For a beverage, they had a very spicy ginger tea.
The table for Turkey was pretty - they had all these abstracted glass eyes that apparently are pretty common there, used for protection against the "evil eye." Cool! They had four different pastry kind of things, but I only tried two - one was a potato pastry (I don't know what it is called). It looked like baklava, but instead of sweet, it had potato in it and was salty and yummy. The other was a cake with toasted peanuts on top. It was drenched in a light sweet syrup.
Over all, the Passport to the World was awesome. Too bad they only have these once a year!