Day 8 - Japan - World Cup Eating Challenge

Day 8 was a true case of my best laid plans gang aft a-gley...

When I thought of this challenge, one of my first plans was to find a way to work sushi in. I knew this would be a little difficult on the "cooking" side of things though. Ironically, not for the reason you would suspect. Most people think of sushi and figure it would be really hard to make the rolls. I actually took a class on how to do this and fashioning some temaki, nigiri, or maki doesn't worry me so much. However, I have a lot of concerns about the quality of raw fish I'm eating. I just don't feel comfortable that the fish I buy at the supermarket would be high enough quality to eat raw and I wasn't feeling like doing the fake fish California roll thing.

But I had a plan! I saw an idea on Pinterest for a tuna plate with a side of avocado. I currently had 5 avocados at home (down from 8) as a result of poor planning and sales at Whole Foods so I thought this would be perfect.

My solution for the raw fish was great too. At Costco they sell cut up raw tuna with different sauces and things. I felt more comfortable with this than cutting my own raw fish and it felt like a healthy alternative. However - once I got to the tuna stand, I knew this wasn't going to work. There were four options for the tuna and they were all drenched in sauce. The only one that didn't look too bad was a wasabi flavor which I'm not a fan of. I was pretty disappointed but at this point I was hungry and I wanted some sushi so I decided just to get a pre-made sushi roll package.

While pre-made sushi doesn't compare to getting it fresh at a restaurant, I actually really like it. It's one of my favorite grab and go meals and they are typically pretty affordable. This one only set me back $11 and it was huge. I normally don't eat a lot of rice but I like to make an exception for sushi. It really does bind the rolls together and in moderation, I don't think it's that bad. I'd had a huge workout on Wednesday and I knew my body could handle the extra carbs and calories.

So Costco - you kind of let me down yesterday but you also came back with the save. Just to show that there were no hard feelings, I made sure to buy a new cook book (The Paleo Kitchen - so excited!) and a pack of cider. Ok, I did those things for me.

Day 7 - Cameroon - World Cup Eating Challenge

Once the ball got rolling on this challenge, I realized how fun it would be to really branch out and try something I wasn't at all familiar with. I scoured the internet for Cameroonian and Ivory Coast recipes. A lot of dishes involved some heavy stews and dishes that not only wouldn't be enjoyable in summer but also would require a lot of ingredients that would be difficult for me to get together.

However, I was really excited to find a recipe for Cassava Fries. Cassava, also known as yucca or tapioca, was definitely something I'd seen at my local Hispanic market and I remember enjoying yucca fries in Brazil once. I also thought it was cool that these two different continents, South America and Africa, both used this ingredient in so many of their dishes. This was definitely the way to go for me.

The yucca itself is actually pretty difficult to work with. You have to peel the thick brown skin off. It's a little sticky and doesn't smell amazing. From there, it needs to be cut into chunks and boiled for 10-20 minutes until it's more tender.

When it was soft to knife point, I made sure any extra rind was off and also cut out the vein that runs through it. I cut it into fry strips and heated up my grease.

My recipe recommended lard or fat over oil so I used duck fat. The first batch got to the "golden brown color" the recipe said to look for but they didn't really feel done for me yet. I cooked them all longer until they looked more burnt than done. 

My issue with the fries wasn't flavor - they taste fine and I really liked my seasoning of garlic salt, chili powder, and paprika. However, the inside of them has a kind of gumminess that I know is typical for tapioca. I just could not get over the texture and only ate a few of the fries. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away though because it felt ironic to waste a dish from Africa even if it was very inexpensive to make. If anyone wants some cassava fries - I have a whole bunch I could give you. 

Back in the day when I was really experimenting with cooking and wasn't as comfortable with techniques and seasoning and how different products act when cooked, I had a theory that about half of the recipes I tried would work. It's been a while since I thought of that because cooking with high quality products and fresh produce has made it really easy for me to try new things with great results. However, this challenge is definitely pushing me outside of the box and closer to that 50% mark. After not loving these fries or my mac and cheese, I'm happy that Day 8 is taking me back out to a pre-made product.

Day 6 - Korea - World Cup Eating Challenge

I can still dress Brazilian!

Changing focus from teams that are winning and my favorite teams has really shaken up my schedule. My original plan had been to take every opportunity to make Brazilian dishes. However, I realized that would mean I'd miss some opportunities for other teams. Therefore, Tuesday became Korean day and next week I'm taking up my last chance to make Paella. It's funny how this challenge has really evolved from "I want to make Brazilian food" to truly eating globally for a few weeks.

One of the things I really wanted to do was try to cook as many of the dishes as possible. I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest looking up recipes. However, it became clear that for some of the countries, the amount of items I'd have to purchase to even make a simple dish would just be very prohibitive or I didn't feel confident that I'd hit the mark. I realized that there were some instances where I'd be much better off just grabbing a bite out.

So I was very happy when I saw that Seoul on Wheels was going to be at the Soma Streat Food Park on Tuesday. It was perfect - I could go grab a bite of Korean food and watch some of the Brazil - Mexico game in the sun.

Seoul on Wheels, like many popular food trucks, has taken ethnic food and incorporated it into more casual dishes like tacos, burgers, and fries. I was hoping for something a little more traditional so I tried ordering dumplings but they were all out. There were other items like kimchee and rice bowls that I could have opted for as well but I wasn't in the mood for them so I settled on tacos.

I got short rib and chicken tacos and they were really good. The short rib was a dollar extra and had a lot of fat and cartilage left despite being boneless. I think I would have preferred trading that out for another meat option. The chicken, however, was amazing. Both tacos had great sauces and flavor and they were perfect for a light lunch.

Phew, I was really worried there

While I have your attention, I also just want to sing the praises of the Soma Streat Food Park. When it came into my neighborhood a couple of years ago, it was so hard to not try to go there every day. It's such a convenient dining option and perfect for groups with varying tastes. Dan and I love watching football there on Sundays with some bottomless mimosas and watching a bit of the World Cup there provided a similar experience. I actually couldn't believe how crowded it was for a weekday. Definitely check it out!

Day 5 USA - World Cup Eating Challenge

I love trying food from around the world and this challenge has been opening up a lot of possibilities for me. However, my boyfriend really likes good old American comfort food. Since I had some gluten free pasta and a big chunk of cheddar cheese, I thought I'd try my hand at making some macaroni and cheese. 

I am definitely one of those kids that grew up on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and I'm pretty sure that's the first thing I ever learned how to cook (maybe second only to tacos). I'm surprised that making it from scratch wasn't much harder. I found a recipe on Pinterest that said to boil the pasta is the same number of cups of milk and then also add that many cups of cheese. I had about 3 cups of my quinoa based pasta so I used 3 cups of almond milk and 3 cups of cheese. 

I thought I'd also go for the extra step of baking the pasta. Since the idea was to avoid gluten, I tried making a topping of bacon, almonds, and walnuts instead. The bacon was a great idea but the nuts really ruined it for me. I also thought baking it really dried it out. Next time I would just add the bacon straight into the pot and call it a day. A little butter and seasoning probably wouldn't have hurt either. 

Keeping with the gluten free alternative theme here - we also enjoyed an American cider. Angry Orchard is a pretty common brand of cider but they came out with some more craft style ciders that Dan and I love. This one was called "The Muse" and the cider is made in the same style as champagne. It has a really rich flavor and it's not sweet which is something that bothers me in a lot of ciders. We found this at Costco. There is also a flavor called "Iceman" which is made like ice-wine as well as one called "Strawman" that we haven't been able to find. 

All in all, the pasta didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to, but Dan loved it so he's gotten to make a couple of meals out of it. Sadly, the cider didn't last quite as long.

World Cup Eating Challenge - Day 4: France

The second and third day of my challenge had me making some simpler dishes so I wanted to really ramp it up now that I'd had a few days to plan and looking at the schedule, the fourth day gave me a great opportunity - France.

I love French cuisine and watching a lot of cooking shows, I hear a lot of "French techinique" or mother sauces or being classically trained - however, when it came down to the challenge I was suddenly drawing a blank. I kept jumping to cop outs like French fries or French toast or French onion soup and even though I knew there were better options.

Finally I came up with two great options - roast duck or steak frites. I decided to see what was available at Costco and sure enough, they still had a few ducks left so I decided to go with that option. It's hard to believe that just a couple of months ago I'd never made duck and now here I was cooking up my third duck this year. Roasting duck is actually really easy. All you have to do is clean it, season it inside and out, and put it in the over for 30 minutes per pound. I also cut off the extra skin and render it for duck fat. Duck fat is pretty expensive but it's an amazing fat/oil to cook things in. The duck fat can also be used to confit a future duck.

As for sides - I used also used some of that duck fat to cook my carrot "fries" and then added some fresh parsley. The salad was lettuce, spinach, radish, and goat cheese with a olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I paired the whole dish with a rosé that I got for my birthday from my aunt and uncle. The rosé is from Provence and is made by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The wine is my ideal kind of rosé - very dry with lemon and citrus notes. It went wonderfully with our French meal. I've seen this wine a few times at Costco but it wasn't there last time I checked. It's been getting a lot of press so if you're interested in trying it, I suggest you track down a bottle as soon as possible.

I've been having a lot of fun looking up recipes for the countries I'm not as familiar with. Today I learned a lot about different African cuisines. I've also been trying to guess which teams will make it to the round of 16 because I'll get an extra chance to make their recipes. I'm really excited to keep cooking new things!

World Cup Eating Challenge - Day 2 and 3: Mexico and Greece

It's funny to only be a few days into my challenge and already think about how it's changing. I've decided to completely throw out the rule that I should try to focus on winners for two reasons. First, it will making planning almost impossible. Yes, I can assume that a handful of teams will easily win their groups, but I'd like to be able to plan out more than just meals from those countries. Which brings me to the second point - this might actually be a really fun way to try out dishes from countries I'm not familiar with at all. I have no idea what they eat in Camaroon or Cote d'Ivore, but wouldn't it be fun to find out? I think the group round might be a good chance to try and experiment with fun new dishes. Let's carry on with how the last few days have gone though.

Day 2 - Team Mexico

Mexcian food is probably my favorite. I could eat it everyday and know how to make a variety of things so when it came time to figure out what I'd make for Mexico's first game, I obviously drew a blank. Luckily, a friend let me know that Whole Foods was having a sale on avocados. That place really is amazing. Somehow 5 avocados for $5 ended up costing me $40, but I guess that's just the mystery of Whole Foods. I decided that the avocados would make an amazing guacamole. My secret to amazing guacamole - instead of hand cutting the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro myself... I buy pre made pico de gallo and mix it in. Some may call this lazy, but I call it outsourcing.

I served the guacamole with plantain chips. I like these as a healthier option over regular chips. I get a lot of crap from people about these kinds of healthy choices. However, every time a friend or myself has brought these to a party, they always disappear way before the normal chips. Healthy options can and generally do taste better than the unhealthy stuff.

The whole thing was topped off with a shot of tequila. My friend Carter Raff is a distiller and for my birthday he gave me bottle number 1 of his new tequila so I knew what would be a perfect pairing with my snack and it was amazing.

Day 3 - Team Greece

The third day of the Cup coincided with a friend's wedding. Obviously dinner was out of my control and generally getting all dolled up for a fancy party can make it hard to plan out lunch too so I knew I had to figure out something for a breakfast dish. I thought about my options for the day and I didn't want to start out with a heavy English breakfast so I decided to look up Greek options figuring that might be a little heavier. I quickly came up with a Greek yogurt fruit bowl with honey and nuts with a side of olives.

I don't eat a lot of dairy outside of cheese so I never jumped on the Greek yogurt train, however, I know it's really popular with a ton of health benefits, and I was excited to try it out. I wasn't expecting yogurt to be bitter but the honey and fruit really worked well with it and it was delicious. I was also surprised at how stuffed I was after. I didn't think a bowl of fruit and yogurt would be so filling.

The olives are castelvetrano olives. I used to hate green olives but these are much milder and are easy to snack on without too much of the astringency that I dislike in most olives.

The wedding was really fun as well and Dan and I made sure to make full use of the photo booth so there was plenty of proof of how fancy we were! Congrats to JP and Jaya - everything was beautiful!

All in all this challenge has been really fun so far. Day 4 is in the oven and I picked some supplies for a couple of other meals this week. I've also been scouting out recipes so if you know any good ones send them over. I'm pretty stumped for the African countries, Switzerland, Iran, Australia, or really any suggestions at all.

Eating Around the World... Cup Day 1

I know I've been gone from the blog writing for a while so first a quick little intro on that. Basically, I've been trying to figure out a way to re-brand and figure out what direction I want to go in. Do I write about wine or food or adventures? Is there a way to combine them and make it worthwhile? What about my other interests? It's hard to find a balance between what's interesting for me to write but also interesting for anyone that might find their way here. I'm still trying to answer a lot of questions on what direction I want to take but I know that I can't just focus on food or wine or my lifestyle. I need to hit on all of them somewhat. So the big picture of this blog is still under construction but a had an idea for some posts in the meantime....

A World Cup Eating Challenge!!!

I love food. Like a lot. I also love the World Cup. While I'm a true blue Brazil and USA fan (get it - because they both have blue as a color...), I thought it would be fun to celebrate the rest of the World as well.

So here are the rules:
- Eat something from any of the countries playing on any given day. E.g. today's options are Mexico, Spain, Australia, etc.
- There should be an effort to actually cook something. I have to make some exceptions here because I'd love to have sushi for Japan but I'm not sure I trust consuming raw fish from the super market.
- Bonus points for not repeating. This isn't a strict rule because I plan on showing some preference to Brazilian and American dishes.
- Have fun eating a variety of global dishes and trying to experiment a little bit in the kitchen!

Last night, to celebrate Brazil's victory in the first match, I decided to make two of my favorite Brazilian dishes: Pão de Queijo and Brigadeiros!

Pão de queijo (cheese bread) has always been one of my favorite Brazilian treats. I never knew what amazing mix of ingredients made it possible. What kind of cheese was in it? What kind of flour was used (I knew it wasn't regular flour)? I'd only ever made it from packages so when a friend sent me a recipe for these guys, I was excited to get answers to my questions.

Pão de queijo is gluten free and uses tapioca flour. This is what gives the middle that ooey gooey delicious center. This recipe uses Parmesan and cheddar cheese (which I put in a little extra of) and adding just the right amount of salt really makes the flavor pop. I also used almond milk instead of regular which doesn't seem to make any difference.

The only real difference between making them from scratch and the package seems to be the consistency before they are cooked. When they are from mix, I could roll them into balls. However, the scratch recipe requires ingredients to be blended together and the result is a very liquidy consistency. Therefore you need to use a mini muffin tin to get some shape to them. This didn't bug me though because the final product is delicious!

I had the opposite happen when I made brigadeiros (little dulce de leite based chocolate balls). Normally I made these from scratch using sweetened condensed milk and chocolate powder which are brought to a boil on the stove. However, I found a pre-made container at a corner store in the mission and decided to give that a shot.

There was no indication if it was pre-cooked or not but by the consistency, it seemed to be so I just rolled them into the little balls and coated them in sprinkles. After eating a couple, I'm still not sure if they needed to be cooked or not. The consistency seems off from either. They're still delicious but I prefer the old fashioned method better.


I think Day 1 of my food challenge was a success and I'm excited to continue celebrating soccer through food!