A Multicultural Feast: Take Two!

This week was packed full of even more cultural presentations, and thus even more food! We started out the week by covering the different regional areas of the United States, including Alaska (Salmon Dip), Northeast/Mid-Atlantic (Cheddar Apple Pie), South East (Mississippi Okra and Tomatoes), South Atlantic (Ambrosia), South West (Shrimp Po' Boy Sandwich), and the West (Island Mango Tilapia).  Then we moved on to more ethnic groups, including African American (Baked Macaroni and Cheese), Greek (Moussaka), French (Macarons), Hmong (Tapioca with Coconut Milk), Mexican (Chicken Chimichangas), Scandinavian (Lingonberry Muffins), Caribbean (Fried Plantains), German (Apple Dumplings), Chinese (Stir Fry Tomato and Eggs), Native American (Fry Bread), Filipino (Pineapple and Coconut Curry), and Japanese (Yakisoba)!

Ambrosia

Macarons

Yakisoba

Multicultural Foods class is foodie heaven! And even my teacher could tell how much I was enjoying myself.  After my presentation on Greece, the first thing she said was something along the lines of, "I think we can all tell you really love food!" Haha. What can I say...am I that transparent?! I guess I might have been just a little overenthusiastic. But how can I help myself? I have had so much fun these past two weeks and have met some wonderful people, like my new friend Abby (turns out she has a food blog too! check her out at http://thetickledpinkturnip.blogspot.com/)!

Shrimp Po Boy Sandwich

Apple Tart with Cheddar Cheese

Okra and Tomatoes

So, again, I wanted to share some of the recipes and experiences with you all from this week.  I'd like to say I'm pretty adventurous when it comes to trying foods, and I will rarely ever not try something at least once.  However there were a lot of things we made this week that I had never had before.  The Alaskan Salmon Dip being the first.  It consisted of smoked salmon, lemon juice, onion, horseradish (which I am normally not a fan of!), garlic, capers (also have never tried these...and I will admit I have been slightly scared of them. Something in the name made me think they were going to be hard and spicy, kind of like those little seeds that are in pizza sausage!), mayonnaise, cream cheese, salt and pepper, and pecans and parsley for garnishing.  Everything basically just gets mixed together and eaten with crackers or chips.  So the horseradish and capers were the reason I was leery about this one at first. but the horseradish was not even noticeable, and the capers were a nice surprise!  In fact they weren't crunchy at all. Haha. I have no clue where I got that idea from.

Alaskan Salmon Dip

I would definitely make it again, some changes I would make to make it more healthful are: Substitute olive oil mayo for regular mayo and add less of it, Substitute Neufchatel cheese  for regular cream cheese. With those substitutions, it is a dip that is actually not half bad for you. Granted you probably shouldn't eat it every day, but the salmon is high in health omega 3 fatty acids, and the chopped nuts (whether you use pecans, walnuts or almonds, are also full of healthy fats.

I can see this is already turning into something longer than I would like, so I will just talk about the Greek Moussaka and then get to the recipes for the rest, because that's the important part right?!  So, Moussaka (pronounced moo-sah-KAH) is a very popular dish in Greece, the origins of which are fuzzy....I think it came from the Arabs to the Turks, and then from the Turks to the Greeks.  But nevertheless, it made its way to Greece and became very common.  It is a layered dish that is precooked ahead of time, and then baked in the oven to further develop the flavors (similar to lasagna in that way!).  The recipe we used was from Simply Recipes and can be found HERE.

Moussaka

Ours didn't look as pretty as the picture, But it sure tasted good! :)  So, for the layers...they consist of potatoes, eggplant, spiced lamb meat sauce, more eggplant, cheese, bechamel (pronounced bay-sha-mel), and more cheese!  The meat sauce has a plethora of different flavors going on, which really give this dish something unique I think. There is cinnamon, allspice, oregano, garlic, black pepper, salt, onion, red wine, lemon, and tomato paste!  All of the layers took a while to prepare and put together, however it was definitely worth it, because it was really good and it was something new and unique that nobody had ever tried before. I know that I'll be putting it in my recipe book.

The recipes for the Salmon Dip and the rest of the above dishes can be found through the links below:

U.S. Regional Recipes
Salmon Dip - Alaska
Ambrosia - Florida
Cheddar Apple Pie - Vermont
Okra and Tomatoes - Mississippi
Shrimp Po' Boy Sandwich - Louisiana
Island Mango Tilapia - Hawaii

Ethnic Group Recipes
Baked Macaroni and Cheese - African American
Moussaka (includes nutrition information)- Greek
Macarons - French
Tapioca with Coconut Milk - Hmong
Chicken Chimichangas - Mexican
Lingonberry Muffins - Scandinavian
Fried Plantains - Caribbean
Apple Dumplings - German
Stir Fry Tomato and Eggs - Chinese
Fry Bread - Native American
Pineapple Coconut Curry - Filipino
Yakisoba - Japanese

Try a few!

I actually was obsessing over this song a couple months back when I heard it at a wedding, but I just found it in my iTunes library again today and thought I would share it.  Plus it fits with the theme this week because Enrique is Spanish. :P  Enjoy "Finally Found You" by Enrique Iglesias.

Thanks for stopping by!