So, as we have said before and as I you have probably gathered, food is pretty important to us when we travel. That sounds ridiculous, food is obviously important to most people when they do most things...but I'm sure you get what I mean! We are foodies, and when we travel we find that food is a wonderful way to get to know a bit more about a culture and they way it works. After all, an army marches on it's stomach and what feeds a country and how it is prepared often goes a long way to explaining their daily lives! To that end, when we find a cuisine in a country that we really like we often see if we can seek out a cooking course somewhere to learn first hand how to recreate the local delicacies. Over the course of our travels we've done a fair number of these and each has provided a different insight into a country or culture we have been in. This week I've chosen to tell you a little bit about three of our favourite cooking courses from around the world. Our first ever course was in Kanchanaburi in Thailand back in 2013 and it was certainly a great start. We did it at 'On's Thai Isaan Vegetarian Restaurant'. Geographically the Isaan region is situated in north east Thailand but the food and culture contains strong influences from both Cambodia and Laos as well as Thailand. The style of food lends itself very easily to being made exclusively vegetarian (and even in many cases vegan) so it suited Riv perfectly. The course is run out of On's restaurant and is conducted in her makeshift outdoor cooking station. At the start you are given a choice of a number of different traditional dishes to cook. We chose Pad See Ew, Tom Yum soup, Curried Brown Rice and Penang Curry. In order to prepare these dishes we were shown all of the ingredients and how to prepare them before following detailed instruction on the methods to combine and cook them all. On was a wonderful teacher and once each dish was prepared we delighted in being able to sit down and enjoy our handiwork. At the end of the meal On then prepared us a regional variation of a classic Thai dish for desert, mango with black sticky rice and coconut cream! This experience was certainly a brilliant introduction to the wonderful world cooking courses. The real beauty of it was the fact that we were introduced to such a wide range of cultural and culinary influences which at the time we knew very little about. This short class alone provided us with an understanding and appreciation for this culture that we would have found very hard to grasp without the opportunity to see it though the eyes of our stomachs! The next course we undertook that I believe definitely needs a mention was at 'Crescent City Cooks!' in New Orleans in the USA. We did this in 2016 about half way through the introductory stage of our epic two year long honeymoon. Now I'm not going to say that food was something we expected to be a particular highlight when travelling around the states given the countries reputation for size over...well everything! However, going through the south we discovered that traditional southern cooking, which blends Creole and Cajun culinary influences (amongst many others) can be something quite magical! We signed ourselves up for the one day hands on cooking class during which our instructor (Scott) taught us how to prepare three of the most quintessentially southern dishes in existence! Gumbo, Jambalaya and Pecan Pie! Whilst teaching us how to prepare the dishes (using all traditional methods but also with explanations of faster/easier techniques), Scott also taught us about the history of southern food in America and why and how it became what it is today! This class entirely represented why we love to learn about food when we travel and demonstrated how truly influential something as simple as an evening meal can be on a society. The final cooking class I want to talk about was done very recently when we were on our second to last stop in Colombia in Cartagena. This experience was again a real affirmation of our feelings about taking cooking courses when we travel but for a totally different reason. The class was conducted by a company called Duran Duran Tours which is a family owned and run business. It began with a tour around a local food market to pick up all of the ingredients we would be using to prepare our food. This was a great introduction as we were given the opportunity to see a local's food market rather than a tourist orientated one and we got to learn a little more about the local and regional ingredients used in cooking. After the market it was back to Duran's house where him and his family all got their hands on deck to join in on the class. We prepared an astonishing amount of food ranging from Colombian street food staples like papa rellena and empanadas to traditional beef based dishes using herb and spice combinations exclusive to that particular area of Colombia. What made this experience quite so special (apart from the amazing food) was how we were welcomed so warmly into Duran's house and invited to share in the cooking of foods which played such a significant role in both his culture as a whole and his family. This unquestioning welcomeness was something we had experienced throughout our time in Colombia, but having a chance to be invited into someone's home and to share with them such a personal experience as cooking with and for a family was certainly something we will never forget!
As I said at the start food and cooking provides incomparable insight into countries and cultures. With each of the experiences I have talked about we both feel we gained something a little bit different, whether it was knowledge of cooking methods, culinary traditions or historical influences. We have taken something away from every class we have attended and look forward to continuing to participate in foodie fun times around the world!
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This week I am going to invite you to join me in the wonderful world of steamed corn based snacks known as 'tamales'. As with empanadas these come in a variety of shapes, sizes and flavours throughout South America, but the basic premise remains the same. A corn based dough encases some combination of meat, cheese, eggs, rice or vegetables and creates something I believe to be truly magical!
My first authentic encounter with one of these South American staples was in northern Argentina in Jujuy and it was the start of a difficult love affair with which I struggled pretty much until I reached Colombia. Fundamentally my problem lay in the fact that my first taste of this little treat was just too good! Riv and I were wandering around a fairly deserted Jujuy township (it being a Sunday there wasn't a whole lot going on) when we stumbled across a woman with that ever familiar and oddly inviting polystyrene box that as a traveller around South America (or indeed Asia) you know is likely to be filled with some form of street food treat! We wandered over and enquired about the contents, at which point she opened it to reveal a selection of tennis ball sized corn husk wrapped parcels which smelled incredible. With absolutely no idea whatsoever about what lay inside this parcel (our Spanish was still pretty weak at this point) we agreed to buy one and see! What a wonderful and dreamy decision this was! Unfortunately for Riv, after unwrapping the husk and breaking open the thin corn dough exterior, the centre revealed an amazing concoction of meat, potatoes and onions...no sharing this time! It was delicious! Hands down the best thing I had eaten in South America up to that point! There was a very subtle sweetness from the corn dough which was perfectly balanced by the rich saltiness of the meat and then all brought together by the small chunks of perfectly cooked potato. It was honestly a tennis ball sized chunk of foodie heaven! This was it, I had found it, my South American street treat!! Most regions/countries/continents we had visited up until this stage had had them and now, just two weeks into our trip I had found South America's answer! According to my Google research that night these could be found all over the continent and came in a variety of different shapes, sizes and forms...much like the empanada! I was set...or so I thought! As I said earlier, this was in fact the start of a long and complicated relationship. Having discovered these wonderful street treats I then spent the weeks and months following attempting to find them again! Turns out they seemed to be frustrating elusive elsewhere in the continent. Argentina failed to provide anymore for the rest of our stay, Chile never presented any at all and neither did Brazil or Bolivia! I was starting to wonder if I had in fact imagined tamales altogether, based on some deep-seated psychological desire for corn based steamed meat snacks...!! Then, finally, when I least expected, when I had all but given up hope, I found them again in Perú...well sort of! I saw 'tamales con pollo' on a menu in a restaurant in Lima and immediately jumped at the chance to try them again! Oh boy was I disappointed!! I was served a soggy mush of corn meal with a piece of chicken in the centre roughly the size of a penny! This was not the tamale that I had remembered! I was not happy! Onwards to Ecuador and my faith in the existence and tastiness of tamales was restored. Suddenly those ever enticing polystyrene boxes once again presented with tamalified goodness and they were meaty and delicious!! I basically ate my way through Ecuador's annual supply of these at every stop we made for fear that once again they would disappear into an imagined nothingness! My fears proved to be completely unfounded as our arrival in Colombia revealed the biggest, best and tastiest tamales so far! No longer was I happily munching on a tennis ball sized snack, but rather feasting on banana leaf wrapped delight more comparible to the size of an average book! I had finally re-located the dragon, after months of fruitless (cornless) chasing and it was even better than I had remembered!! Viva Colombia for bringing the tamale back into my life...stomach! Lesson to be learned here, if you want a good tamale and you want to find it easily in South America your top location should be Colombia...and I highly highly highly recommend it!! Pacay(Before allowing this to be read I am going to include a short disclaimer to state that I am aware of the fact that parts of the following food and consumption descriptions sound faintly pornographic! I attempted to edit this in order to moderate the result of the content but it just didn't work, so I'm sorry, but what follows can only be described as soft food porn!)
This slightly daunting looking fruit appears, at first glance, to be an over-sized, dried, tough and wrinkly sugar snap pea pod. Not too appealing or particularly inviting. I had seen these on a number of occasions throughout South America protruding from the baskets of women sitting on the side of the street but had always ignored them as they simply appeared too alien for me to even contemplate. Honestly, the first few times I saw them I couldn't even figure out if they were edible, let alone if they were sweet or savoury, or required cooking or preparation in order to consume. By a stroke of luck, a bag of aforementioned alien pods was purchased by a local woman with whom we were sharing a bus on one journey in Perù. When she noticed the bug-eyed gringo, watching with childish fascination as she tore it open and began to suck the white flesh from the outside of large purplish/black seeds, she kindly offered one. For me, this was the start of a bit of a love affair...with the fruit!! Riv was not convinced, but I thought they were fabulous. The taste is reasonably reminiscent of lychees or rambutan, slightly fragrant and very sweet. The texture, I will grant you, is a little odd. It is a little bit like firm candy floss and it dissolves in your mouth in a similar way. The way it is eaten is by cracking open the pod (sometimes this is easier than others) and then removing each seed individually, which as I said, is covered in this soft white fluffy flesh. If the fruit is sufficiently ripe then simply sucking should remove all of the edible fruit and leave you with a bare and actually quite pretty looking seed. This is definitely an example of one of the more unusual fruits I have tried along the course of our travels and one I may very well have ignored altogether had I not been shown how it was consumed. Just goes to show that sometimes you need a bit of local guidance to figure stuff out but if you can get it, delicious things can be discovered! A Match Made in Strange Foodie Heaven - Chocolate and CheeseOk, I will fully accept that on first consideration this sounds like a pretty foul combination, but we are not talking about a cup of Cadbury's powdered hot chocolate and a slice of cheddar here!
We tried this for the first time in the Valle de Cocora just outside of Salento in Colombia after an unexpectedly tasking trek through the National Park. We were both mildly apprehensive about trying this local snack but were in dire need of some kind of hot drink and substinance and this what was on offer! It turned out to be a risk certainly worth taking and we both agreed we had found a taste combination that would definitely be replicated at home, upon completion of our world travels. This particular gastronomic pairing is a bit of a Colombian institution and involves a careful balance in the flavours of the two elements. The hot chocolate isn't your typical sweet and creamy affair, but rather a slightly bitter and thick melted chocolate mixed with just enough water to give it a silky drinking chocolate texture. On the side is the addition of a hearty thick slice of local fresh made cheese. This cheese has a texture not too dissimilar to haloumi but a taste closer to that of a very mild feta. When the flavour of the bitter sweetness of the hot chocolate and slight saltiness of the cheese are combined it is quite literally a match made in heaven! Neither of us are really sure of the 'correct' way to consume these two elements together and we took slightly different but equally satisfying approaches. Riv opted to take a small bite of the cheese and chew it before taking a mouthful of the chocolate to wash it down. With the cheese having a mildly porous surface I chose to treat it a little like a biscuit (cookie) and dip it into the chocolate and warm it slightly before biting off the warm chocolatey section. We both tried each other's ways as alternatives and agreed that either seemed equally valid. I can picture many of you sitting there with faces of disgust at the mere concept of this, but don't knock it till you've tried it! Trust me, this is one of those good unusual combinations...If Heston Blumenthal can convince people that bacon and egg ice cream can be a thing then give the Colombian's a chance to introduce you to the wonderful world of hot chocolate and cheese! Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?! Welcome to the first ‘Foodie Friday’. This is our place to introduce you all to some of the foods we have sampled from around the world. Sometimes we will give you information about dishes we have loved (or hated), sometimes weird and wonderful foods we have tried and sometimes we will just tell you about a local delicacy. If it’s something we have learned how to cook we might even give a recipe. This is our space to selfishly indulge our inner foodies in the name of ‘blogging’ while sharing some of the culinary joys of our travels with you!
Currently being in Ecuador, prior to going to Colombia and having just left Perù, I am going to start with something a little controversial but definitely a regional speciality in all three…cuy. Those of you who speak Spanish or have visited South America will know what this is…and for those of you who haven’t…can you guess…? It’s guinea pig. Within this region it is highly uncommon to keep these animals as pets. As with all animals used for meat around the world they are farmed and viewed as being functional rather than cute, fluffy, cuddly creatures! For anyone out there looking for a little bit of random trivia, the reason they are called cuy in Spanish is this is an onomatopoeic naming based on the sound that they often make when communicating…“cuy, cuy, cuy”…anyway, I apologise, I digress! In Perù this is a relatively cheap and commonly consumed meat, particularly in the highlands, but it can be found throughout the country. In Ecuador it is actually considered to be a speciality meat and is only really eaten on special occasions. I have tried cuy in both Perù and Ecuador and I can honestly report that it is very tasty. Some have said that it is a pointless meat with very little taste and others…rather uninventively say that it tastes like chicken. I have to say I disagree with both of these statements. I don’t think it is a pointless meat at all. Obviously guinea pigs are quite small so there isn’t a huge amount of meat on them (you do need to eat the majority of an entire guinea pig to feel full) but what meat there is has a very distinctive taste. I would liken it to the taste of a game bird or potentially if we wanted to go down the poultry comparison road the dark meat on a turkey… Most places you will find that it is simply roasted whole and then you are served a portion of it with some rice or potatoes (or both) and some salad. If you come to South America it is well worth trying. I am fully aware and accepting of the fact that the pet association many of us have to these little creatures could be off-putting. I myself am a former (and future) pet guinea pig owner, however, I was not going to let that stand in the way of me trying something new and different and I recommend you do the same. You may need to take a slight mental leap of faith to overcome this unusual culinary hurdle (as previously mentioned they are roasted whole thus making cuy very much an example of ‘food with a face’) but it is worth it! Go forth, be adventurous, bite the bullet…or in this case the guinea pig. Most of you would be judged hard for doing this in your own countries so why not give it a go when it is totally socially acceptable! Enjoy!! |
Follow us on Instagram or send us a messageAbout Foodie FridaysWe love food, as most people do! And when we are on the road this doesn't change. We, like many people, believe that food is one of the best ways to really get to know a culture and it's people, as so much about the way people live their lives around the world is centred around food. This means that when we travel we actively seek out the local foods and delicacies. Sometimes that comes in the form of unusual and exotic produce from markets and sometimes from street food vendors serving an array of barbecued, fried, steamed or entirely indistinguishable goodies. Having tried and tested these goodies for some time now, on our adventures around Asia, Europe, North and South America we have discovered some pretty wonderful treats that we have decided should earn a bit of publicity. So, as the working week drifts away and the weekend winks at you like a naughty temptress we will share with you one of the delights that we have encountered from around the world! We hope you enjoy reading about these as much as we enjoyed eating them! Archives
October 2017
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