*not really at all actually, but there was a very unique exception once last week. After months of casual talk around the workplace, an International Lunch Day was successfully coordinated. I’m hesitant to admit it but the enthusiasm around this common theme of food and culture was uplifting: in addition to bringing in food, some people were unexpectedly passionate for the occasion, dressing up in beautiful ethnic garb. For me, this was a great opportunity to try some dishes for the first time or try my coworkers’ takes on dishes I’m already familiar with and I enthusiastically showed up to work on a day off to do so.
I’ve mentioned this a number of times before, but nothing beats the wholesomeness of the labor of love that is home cooking. A lot of the food brought in for this event was made at home. This department-wide collaborative potluck of sharing good food opened my eyes in general. I brought in Som Tam since I’ve been craving this refreshing, sour, and pungent vegetable dish for a while, but I was also informed that there’d be a number of rice, pasta, and starchy dishes. Carbs are tasty and a lot of the most distinguishable ethnic foods are carbohydrate-based but I crave a balance with vegetables and protein as much as possible.
My photos from this day are not great but they do some justice to the fact that there was A LOT of food made for this occasion. From left to right:
West African Chicken and Potato Stew: (in the covered aluminum tray) I didn’t get to sample unfortunately, but each chicken piece was generous.
Som Tam: (container with the turquoise lid) I’m surprised that by the end of the day, 2/3 of the salad was gone. I’ll admit to making it around a week prior to this event but thanks to the lime juice, tamarind paste, fish sauce, and sugar dressing/marinade, the salad definitely tasted better over time. This salad was also more soggy than it should, but no one complained (to me anyway).
Waakye: (large aluminum tray with purple rice) Ghanaian rice and beans, served with spaghetti and Shito sauce. From what a coworker told me, spaghetti and other sides are commonly eaten alongside this typical breakfast item.
Ripe Plantains: these tasted fried to me, plain on their own but enjoyable with salt and other sauces.
There are varying condiments for various foods on the table in and by the plastic quart containers such as Mint and Cilantro chutney and Tamarind chutney for samosas, as well as Shito sauce and Garri (grated cassava that is dried and then fried; doesn’t really have much taste in my opinion but adds nice texture to other dishes)
Shito sauce is composed of tomatoes, spices, various aromatics, and dried seafood at varying quantities – I knew prior to this day that West African cuisine does involve dried shrimp, dried fish, etc. but I couldn’t quite picture how – I only picture this in Southeast Asian cuisines. It’s fascinating to see dried, fermented seafood used in other ethnic cuisines. Upon reflection, this sauce definitely fascinated me the most from this day. Reminds me of how fascinated I was with berbere, a complex blend of spices from Ethiopia.
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Baked Ziti: (behind the plantains) the little bit I had was nice and cheesy, but admittedly I didn’t have much.
Fried Rice: the fried rice contained typical add-ins like shrimp, Chinese sausage, and egg.
“Puff Puff”: (next to the baked ziti) this reminded me of a very glutinous donut. I’m pretty sure this was fried; I tasted nutmeg and cinnamon as well but it wasn’t very sweet at all. I’d go as far to call this a somewhat savory Nigerian beignet.
Cheese Byrek: this cheesy Albanian version of Borek (Eastern European phyllo dough pastries) contained goat cheese, feta cheese, spinach, parsley, and pepper. One of my favorite dishes on the table, can’t go wrong with cheese! I’m surprised that I’ve not had interest in feta cheese until I was reminded of it thanks to this pastry.
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Baked Yam and Baked Plantain: (in the covered containers) similar to the other tray of plantains, plain on their own but complimented other foods on the table. The plantains cooked here were green/unripe.
These starches represented Nigerian cuisine while the ripe plantains were Ghanaian. While I learned quite a bit about Ghanaian and Nigerian foods from this event, one of the first things I realized is that these cuisines undeniably overlap. These starches are also prevalent in Latin American and Asian cuisines, but in general root crops are fundamental staples in any food culture.
“Turkey Cutlets”: (oblong ceramic dish with handles) these reminded me more of Indian-seasoned turkey meatballs, but I found this recipe and better remembered how these tasted – wouldn’t have thought to mix mint and cilantro with turkey, even though I really like the combination of mint and cilantro in general!
Spicy Fried Mackerel: (square dish on the right) these packed quite a bit of heat and I enjoyed this with the yam and plantain sides. Even though the fish was spicy on its own, I enjoyed a little bit of Shito sauce with it as well. Regular fried mackerel was also on the table (behind the baked yam and baked plantain containers).
The salad in the upper right hand corner was eventually moved to the table. This was arguably the only healthy food option on the table.
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Uppma: this was my favorite dish previously unfamiliar to me on the table. This Indian dish is made of semolina grains and tasted like it was cooked in coconut milk. Ginger and other seasonings were also added to this but besides the complex taste, the texture definitely stood out to me. This reminded me of cous cous (ironically also made from semolina) but the grains were smaller than quinoa seeds and were quite soft. In ways the texture reminded me of polenta made with coarse corn meal, but this definitely tasted better!
(Behind the uppma are the baked yams, uncovered.)
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Macaroni bel Bechamel: this is the one Egyptian dish that I’m familiar with, kind of like a meaty Italian Baked Ziti where the meat is seasoned with cumin and cinnamon. Cumin is one of my favorite spices used to season red meat and cinnamon is just one of my favorite spices in general: seasoned beef + cheese + pasta = YUM! (Side note, I definitely recommend beef or lamb seasoned with cumin, if one hasn’t tried either already.)
Vietnamese Green Curry Soup: I’m surprised this soup was not spicy. This may have been vegetarian because I only had potatoes and carrots in my portion but there were bean sprouts, cilantro, and lime wedges on the side that I added without hesitancy.
Vegetarian Samosas: one of the most familiar Indian foods around, I’m not surprised these savory pastries quickly disappeared from the tray. I like these most with mint and cilantro chutney, which I’m glad there was ample quart-sized container full of.
Biryani: (large tray with rice) whatever cooking liquid this rice cooked in must have been very aromatic because this rice was quite flavorful.
Dominican Rice and Beans: (back tray, upper right hand corner) I didn’t try this version but based on the color of the rice, it’s obvious to me that sofrito was added to the cooking liquid.
Egg Rolls: Not afraid to admit that I didn’t eat this either, but the thought was briefly there.
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(Better picture of the Samosas, Curry Soup, and Macaroni bel Bechamel.)
Spicy Beef: I didn’t get to try this, but this is a West African dish.
Japchae: (upper right hand corner) I’ve made this Korean noodle dish many times before so I looked forward to this version – maybe there’s something in this that I ought to add to make mine taste better. This version had quite a bit of pepper as well as spinach, both which I purposefully haven’t cared to add. I liked that this did not have too much sesame oil though. I really like the taste of sesame oil and quite a bit, usually because I make lots of Japchae at once and the potato vermicelli noodles to stick to one another easily after cooking. This makes this dish rancid much faster, though.
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Dominican Cake: I’ve heard a bit about this cake before, finally having my first taste of this cake once I moved to Manhattan. Alas, I found it dry, excessively sweet, and sort of tasteless. My expectations were low for this but given that this cake was 12-14″ in diameter and around 5″ high (based on the box size) I had to try this since there was more than enough cake for everyone. Fast forward a few bites and I can definitely say that this cake, when made at a reputable place, hits the spot! This was a very moist yellow cake with a hint of cinnamon. The frosting was also lighter than expected (as I was expecting a heavy buttercream with too much powdered sugar and/or butter plus food dye). It didn’t surprise me when the person who brought this in told me that this cake was not made at a bakery.
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Kesari: This is an Indian dessert and while I tried to taste most everything, this is one that I didn’t get to try but wish I did. For me, Indian sweets can be uncomfortably sweet but the use of semolina in a dessert that isn’t an olive oil pound cake fascinates me. I can only imagine the flavors are simultaneously unusual and harmonious.
Nutella Bread Puddling: from a self-professed “mutt” but hey, I’ve been craving Nutella for a while. There was a bit of rum in this also; it complemented the Nutella’s sweetness.
Carrot Cake, some individually-wrapped Korean sponge cakes with mochi inside, and a Guyanese dessert (not pictured) rounded out the dessert section.
I took pictures of some food while I helped with cleanup. A lot of leftovers remained and I think all the food was only finished after 2 more days.
Viet Green Curry Soup above, Macaroni bel Bechamel below.
There were many trays of leftovers and I shamelessly took pictures of some of them.
I didn’t mind helping with cleanup: I enjoyed playing Fridge Tetris with all this food, packing myself 3 days worth of lunches in the process! While I was able to try almost everything eventually, I definitely didn’t try to do so during the actual lunch. Assisting with the cleanup allowed me to pack a little bit of each dish I didn’t yet sample so I could enjoy later, as well as pack what foods I really liked to enjoy again.
Three of my favorite foods from this lunch!
Seeing different cultural takes on what are otherwise similar dishes (rice and beans, cooked starches, pastas, etc) and having others try these cultural variances convinces me that this day was a success. International dinner nights back in high school were personally satisfying for me for similar reasons. Then again, I love learning about food and culture? If anything, I definitely achieved my objective of trying foods that I’ve never had or heard of as well as sample and appreciate foods that I was already familiar with. African food, like Filipino food, is best homemade and I feel lucky to have some homemade African food, as well as homemade food from other cultures.
If there’s another International Lunch Day, I’d like to make laing, a spicy Filipino dish containing dried taro leaves stewed in coconut milk. It’s not healthy at all, but my African coworkers are familiar with taro leaves and most everyone else has a spice tolerance. This is arguably my favorite Filipino dish. Or I can make ginataan, lupiang sariwa, or sisig (just kidding, too much mise en place involved with those three dishes, but I’ll probably represent the Philippines next time). Anyway, taro leaves and corms seem to be used in almost all cuisines and frankly, I’d love to eat an African or Indian dish made with taro.
Here’s to hoping there’ll be another International Lunch Day at work in the future, preferably on a day where I’m scheduled to work =]
Tasty Trials and Errors 