What the World Eats: Have A Monthly International Cuisine Day

Here at Sisney H.O.U.S.E., we set aside one day a month as an "International Cuisine Day". It's not always held on the same day each month, but we make sure we get it scheduled in. What better way to teach our children about different cultures? Experience the food first hand! Sometimes we visit an ethnic restaurant...but we have more fun researching and preparing the food here at home. Celebrating at home also lets us play games from that month's chosen country and perhaps dress the part, too.

Your international meal doesn't have to be lunch or dinner, either. Try an ethnic breakfast every once in a while! Or perhaps devote the whole day to a country's meals. And when we are talking about an international meal, we are NOT talking about an America's twist on international cuisine or even what the "best" restaurant in that country is serving, but on the real, authentic, traditional foods families from that country prepare and eat in their homes every day.

With internet capabilities, it's easy to find authentic recipes from countries. Just search for "a typical meal menu in..."

Some of our past/future International Cuisine Day ideas include:

China:
We know a family who moved here from China and up until recently owned a Chinese restaurant. Sin (not sure that is spelled right), the father, taught me how to make Egg Drop Soup and Crab Rangoon. I have helped them in their restaurant and he's also shown me how to make many of the buffet dishes, but we have learned that people in China do not eat the delicious dishes we find on the menu of most Chinese restaurants. Our friends eat a lot of rice noodles, a lot of native rice (not the common white rice or fried rice we love), and very little meat. They love Fish Head Soup and soup made from the tail of a deer (my husband saves the tail of his deer for them during deer season).

Our family loves going to the local Chinese buffet restaurants, but we also make Chinese meals at home. Egg Drop Soup, Lo Mein, Egg Rolls, Crab Rangoon, chicken and beef satay, and stir-fried main courses are a fairly common sight around here. My most recent new Chinese recipe that I've made is Kimchi (a cabbage dish).

Mexico:
Another of our favorite ethnic cuisines are those from Mexico. Taco Bell is nice, but I have a friend whose husband owns one of the local Mexican restaurants and their food is "Delicioso!". Making it at home, I must admit is not as "maravilloso" as El Ranchito's, but we have fun in the kitchen and eating it. Everyone knows that tacos, burritos, and fajitas are good...but a true authentically made tamale is fabulous! Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) is a great day to celebrate the foods of Mexico.

In 3rd grade I met a friend whose mother was from Mexico. I loved going to her house! Their house always had the best cooking smells wafting from the kitchen! Estella's homemade corn tortillas were the best!

While taking Spanish for two years during my high school years, for some assignments we would have to find and prepare authentic foods. There are some amazing Mexican/Spanish desserts to be found!

Africa:
Africa, like the U.S., has many cultural regions within is boundaries. To decide on an African menu, you need to decide on which region to represent. Most meals are served on a mat on the floor with everything put down at the same time. In the cities individual plates are used and a large spoon (no knives or forks).

I know exactly what you are thinking! Many African countries are in extreme poverty and their meals don't consist of much at all. So true. Do you want you child to truly get a feel for what a child in an African country eats each day? Our International Cuisine Day is not only a taste test, it's a lesson on being thankful for what we have here in America (and yes, we will be including regions of the U.S. in our Cuisine Days, too. What you may consider a harsh punishment to your family ("We only get a little bowl of rice?"), is a reality in many countries. I want to teach my children the truth. I want to teach them about compassion. I want them to help others who are struggling to feed their families (that's why we volunteer at our local food pantry once a month). My family may think they are "starving" if we have a skant day of meals, but trust me, we are far from starving. I want my family to learn that a slight hunger pang because they have missed a snack, is NOT true hunger. So, yes, I challenge you to include all the "very little to eat" menus, too.

I highly suggest that you look through the 28 pictures of "What the World Eats" with your family. It's a collection of pictures of families from different countries posing with a week's worth of their groceries. The weekly grocery bills run anywhere from $1.23 to $731.71 (equivalent of American dollars). The U.S. ranked somewhere in the middle.

Greece:
For breakfast we had a small filled phyllo dough pie filled with ham called zambontyropita and Yaourti me meli (Greek yogurt and honey, served separately so that each person can add their own sweetness).

For lunch we had Choriatiki (salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, olives and feta cheese, oregano, basil, dill and/or thyme - no lettuce - with an olive oil and vinegar dressing), Tyrokafteri (a spicy cheese dip made from the seeds of a local pepper, the kafteri - we used hot peppers we had on hand, a soft cheese such as feta , roasted red pepper, oregano, olive oil and garlic) spread on Pita bread. Or you could cheat and buy a favorite cheese spread at the grocery store.

Italy:
For breakfast, cornetto and cappuccino. The “cornetto” is the Italian term for a croissant, filled with cream, chocolate or jam. Focaccia (Italian bread) is another we have tried. To be honest, the girls love plain old coffee with their Daddy, but I am not a coffee drinker but we did try a flavored cappuccino.

Supper, or dinner as they call it in Italy is 5-component dinner. We served what we would call the appetizer, an antipasto (which literally means "before the meal") tray with sliced pepperoni, olives, mushrooms,cheese, carrot sticks. Next we enjoyed the primo, which in our case was a pasta dish (could be soup, rice, or polenta), and in traditional Italian meals the primo is the appetizer not the main course. The main course is called "il secondo" and is usually simply served in small portions - we had beef but chicken or even fish could have been served. We served the contorno (meaning "contours"), which is a platter of vegetables with the il secondo. Italian dessert is the dolce (or sweet). We served up fresh fruit and biscotti.

Ireland:
St. Patrick's Day seems the logical day to schedule an Irish meal.

For breakfast, we actually enjoy a full Irish meal often. Your family may, too, once you realize what it is:  eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes and tomatoes. Except here at Sisney H.O.U.S.E., we consider this just a "truck driver's special", especially if throw some gravy and biscuits on the table with it!

My crew loves potato soup so it's a good place to start. Corned beef and cabbage (not cooked together because I am the only one in our family who loves cooked cabbage) is our own traditional St. Paddy's Day meal. Another of our favorites is potato pancakes, called "Boxty" in Ireland

Sahara Desert:
 I admit it took a little while to find what looked to be a reliable internet source on the type of foods the nomadic people of the Sahara Desert eat. And since I didn't find much at all on the subject, I am going to share with you everything I did find.

Wikipedia had this to share about the Tuareg people who live as nomads in the Sahara Desert:

This site, http://danslapeaudunpapou.survivalfrance.org/content/tuareg-people, contained a lot of information on the Tuareg people. Did you know the Tuareg were the first to invent powdered milk?


We celebrated the cuisine of the Sahara desert by serving up this breakfast: flat pita bread with a heavy cream "sauce" we made (basically, gravy). We substituted millet porridge with Cream of Wheat and drank cow's milk. Yogurt was part of our breakfast, too.

For lunch: bread (called "taguella"), cheese, dates, and melon.

For our traditional afternoon tea: We set a kettle full of tea leaves (could not find any "Gunpowder" tea) and mint leaves (which our Amish neighbors have kept us supplied with this summer) on our gas stove and let it reach a full boil. It's traditional to pour from the same pot three times...the first pouring is very strong, then add more water for a weaker second pouring, and finally add more water for a third pouring which is a very weak tea. The Tuareg people have a saying, "The first pot is bitter like life, the second strong like love, and the last soft like death".

For our supper: chorba (thick soup, similar to minestrone, cooked on a fire fueled by camel dung - but sorry, we were all out of camel dung so we just used our gas stove), taguella (bread), cheese, melon.

Iceland:
Iceland has us, again, confessing that we decided that some of their traditional foods are NOT for the squeamish tummy. We did NOT attempt to duplicate their hakarl (seriously decomposed, rotten shark meat (excuse me, the correct term, I guess would be "fermented") that has been buried in the ground then  served in a sealed glass jar to keep the stinky odor contained as long as possible. They seem to like fermented lamb also...not happening in my kitchen! Nor did we even consider sheep's head - yes, the whole head on a plate...no thanks. And I didn't have the heart to tell my children they also eat horse meat.

For breakfast, we could not find skyr, made of pasteurized skimmed milk and a bacteria culture similar to yogurt. It's not actually yogurt though, it's a soft cheese that is rich and thick and very healthy. We will be looking for it during our next trip to the International grocery store in Carbondale. If not, maybe next time we'll just substitute a different soft cheese. The pönnukökur, or Icelandic pancakes are thin, sweet, and usually rolled up with jam, powdered sugar, or cinnamon, similar to crepes.

Lunch was an easy one: The Icelandic pylsur is a hot dog (granted theirs has lamb in it as well as beef and pork parts) and if you order a pylsur "eina með öllu" (one with everything), it's served up with the works: a sweeter brown mustard ("pylsusinnep"), ketchup, raw onions, crunchy deep-fried onions ("Cronions"), and a mildly tangy remoulade (salad or seafood dressing made with hard-boiled egg yolks, oil, and vinegar, and flavored with mustard, capers, and herbs).

Black licorice is a favorite snack in Iceland, but I am the only one in our house who likes it.

Supper was also a breeze:  Iceland, being surrounded by all that water, has an abundance of seafood and lobster always gets Alan, Maddy, and Kenna's attention.

Russia:
за́втрак (breakfast):  kasha (a type of porridge made from different grains), butterbrots (a kind of sandwich made of a single slice of bread (rye or black bread) and one topping such as butter or ham, boiled or fried eggs, tvorog (similar to cottage cheese), coffee, and tea. Blinis are pancakes that stuffed with a range of fillings.
Obed (lunch): soup (пе́рвое блю́до), meat with potatoes, and kompot (a non-alcoholic drink made by boiling fruit in water - the girls added sugar to theirs), and tea.
Uzhin or у́жин (supper):  My family loves piroggi! There is a /Russian saying that "A home is not beautiful without a piroggi at the feast!" Piroggi are made from leaved, fermented dough, and the rituals of rising and proving the yeast are immensely important. Piroggi can be filled with cheese, meat, mashed potatoes, or vegetables, or you can try sweet piroshky, filled with honey or fruit. Rye bread (ржано́й хлеб), also known as "black" bread (чёрный хлеб) is a Russian staple. Did you know that beef stronganoff is a classic Russian dish?