With cooking every country basically eats similar things and prepares food similar ways.  Most countries focus on sides like vegetables to add to the meats and spices to add flavoring.  Still with both food preparation and timing being important.

When we made the Vietnamese meatballs we chopped and blended the ground beef and coated our hands so the meatballs would roll up easier.   With the meatballs anything could be added to them.  I would eat them with cheese, fruit, or some crackers.  We also made some fried vegetables and chicken.  The same thing goes for this meal. I would change the vegetables made or even add some more meat like shrimp.

It’s usually pretty easy to mix and match meals. Adding different vegetables or meats can make the meal taste different.  Even adding some different spices or taking some away can give the meal a different taste.  I would recommend trying different meals from different countries and this class to anyone just to gain the experience and culture.

- Brett Price

The dish we prepared from Szechwan region of China was “Kung Pao Chicken”. I’ve seen this dish before, but never wanted to try it because of the heavy use of peanuts. In my mind, peanuts and chicken does not and should not be mixed together. To my surprise, it turned out better than I thought. The peanuts, wine, and sauce all meshed well together and came out with a great place. I don’t think i would buy this dish from a mall restaurant. If anything, I would make it myself. The next dish was more of an appetizer if anything called Tempura from Japan. Tempura is deep fried vegetables, seafood, poultry, or meat. I can actually see myself making this at home. The batter we made gave it the pretty golden brown look. In out tempura we used chicken, mushrooms, onions, and carrots. Surprisingly enough, the onions did not taste like a onion ring. All of the vegetables that we fried had a great taste, even the mushrooms.

In conclusion, another great week for a culinary student as usual. As our days of class are winding down, I hope to apply everything I have learned in my kitchen. I have already prepared 3 of the dishes from class at home and I would love to prepare many more.

The Tempura we prepared was also quite surprising. This was my first time using peanut oil in my cooking. In the reading form the previous night I learned that peanut oil has a higher burning and cooking point than vegetable or canola oil. I have had fried chicken, mushrooms, and onions before, but this was a first for me having fried carrots. I thought the carrots would still be a bit crunchy but they turned out to be perfectly cooked. The tempura was fried really light. I think it was the batter that made a difference. We also cooked karintos, which are deep-fried cookies. I was really excited about them because we didn’t really prepare anything sweet in the course. Although they weren’t what I expected they were still quite delicious. I thought that they were going to be sweeter tasting than they actually were. The tasted more like a fortune cookie to me.

These were my favorite dishes of the week. I really enjoyed preparing them and I would definitetly prepare them again. I would more than likely try to prepare them for a dinner with a special someone. I wouldn’t try to get fancy with the side dishes and I would try to stay in the culture and maybe just prepare some type of fried rice, maybe chicken or shrimp. I would also maybe add egg rolls or maybe spring rolls tho make it a little more authentic.

- Enoby Ironbar

When I first thought of Africa I was not imagining this type of food. It was extremely flavorful and spicy! It was interesting to find out that the country of Ethiopia did not have sugar for many years so they substituted spicy seasoning for sweet. Can you imagine drinking coffee or tea with hot red pepper? Does not sound very appetizing to me. The Italian Fascists introduced it in 1930 which was not very long ago if you think about the development of food.

It was also interesting to me to learn how Ethiopians eat only with their hands. They use the bread injera to pick up the food item. It sounds very messy however it was pretty easy compared to using a fork. Ethiopian food is very deceiving when you take your first bite; at first it was not hot then the flavors built  and my mouth and stomach felt on fire. Then I realized how much red pepper she had added, it was at least 2 cups ! Ethiopians are used to the spices and even small children eat the spicy dishes.

Overall I think the class really enjoyed studying Ethiopian cooking. If I ever try to make it again I will serve rice with the chicken to tone down the spiciness. Africa is not a continent that many think would be a culinary destination but I must say this class experience really changed my opinion. Africa has overcome many natural disasters so it has been challenging for tourism to be popular. However I will tell everyone to try Ethiopian cooking if they ever get the chance. It was an amazing experience that I will forever carry with me.

Thank you Mrs. Abbas for cooking for our class and sharing an experience most of us will never have the opportunity to have.

Sarah Jones

In class we made Baba Ghannouj which is an Arabic dish that basically means eggplant sesame dip and Spanakopita which is a Greece dish that means spinach-feta cheese pie. I enjoyed making both dishes. I’ve made hummus before, which is also an arabic dish, and it is very similar to the baba ghannouj. It’s an easy dish to made that is delicious and would be great served with pita chips. This is a dish that I would definitely make to entertain guests but I might add roasted red peppers to it or purple onions to give it color. To make the dish the recipe calls for tahini which is ground up sesame seeds into a paste, now I now know how to make it fresh instead of having to use a store-bought product that wouldn’t be as fresh. I also really enjoyed the spanakopita. It really reminded me of a Quiche just with a crust on top. Making the dish isn’t hard just lengthy. The recipe calls for layers upon layers of Phylo dough to be the bottom crust but if done right it makes for a wonderfully flakey buttery crust. I’m actually considering serving this dish at my wedding. The only difference I would make is to possible add more cheese to the dish but other than that it was great. I really enjoyed this weeks cooking assignments and look forward to the weeks to come.

- Ryan Harries
JSU Culinary student

The first dish we prepared was Baba Ghannouj which is an eggplant sesame dip. I’m not much of an eggplant enthusiast, but as a Culinary major I have to try everything. The dip itself turned out excellent with some Tostito scoop chips on the side of course. What would seem like an easy dish, it was actually very difficult at first beause we were dealing with tahini which is a sesame seed paste. Since we made the paste from sesame seeds, it was difficult for us to grind it with our food processor. Once we got the ball rolling, it turned out to be better than I thought. I’ll take Baba Ghannouj over Hummus any day.

The next dish we prepared took the longest but the end result made it worth the while. This dish is called Spanakopita which is a spinach-feta cheese pie. This dish interesting to say the the least due to phyllo dough we used. Phyllo dough is paper thin dough that needs to be handled delicately otherwise it will rip apart. Another thing that made Spanakopita interesting was the heavy use of dill which we could taste in the finished product. It took almost 45 minutes to complete the dish. The finshed product itself turned out great. The texture of the phyllo dough made for good  presentation, and the flakiness made for the great taste. The dill also played great part in the taste which is very unique because most of us rarely consumes dill on a regular basis.

In conclusion, yet another great week of class. I learn something new every day about different cooking methods, and cultures. I’m excited about our Countries for next week.

Working with Phyllo dough is time consuming but it is very flakey and light. I enjoyed the dip . The egg plant got lost in this or I didn`t taste it .I problably would grill it instead of roasting and also red bell peppers . The spinach I would add artichoke and a creamy cheese and some lemon juice along with other ingredients.

 There are several recipes in this section I want to and will try. I make a lot of Shiskabobs vegetable,meat,fruit. these are a favorit of the children. I really enjoy stuffed peppers and I am going to make the Dolmades. I will get the grape leaves from my grape vines. the yogurt-tahini sauce looks good and now that I know how to make tahini I can make this one also.

  I learned that the dish we prepared could take as long as a day to prepare and cook, but it’s worth it.  They usually clean their food, especially the meat, very thoroughly.  This makes the food last longer and shortens the cooking time. I also learned that at meal time everyone generally eats out of one big dish and with their hands.  I think it’s important to eat meals together.  It’s a time to catch up on life and have a good time being with family.

Ethiopians usually use a lot of spices and herbs when cooking their meals and I think the spices were the secret.  I love spicy food, so I was very pleased with the taste.  I think the spices had a strong effect on the food and brought out the taste in everything else.  The onions topped on the chicken was also a nice taste.     

If I were to reproduce the meal at home I wouldn’t change a thing.  I liked it just the way it was.  There is so much that could be served with this dish.  You could add more vegetables like different potatoes ie. red and white, okra, even some peppers.  If I were going to add any meats it would be chopped steak or even some seafood.

When i think of Greek food, i always remember Mrs.Tony, my neighbor.(ive been blessed to have such colorful and nice neighbors through out my life.) She grew up greek and often made my mother and i a huge bowl of her famous greek salad. Which contained a large amount of olives and olive oil, onions, feta cheese and numeros herbs that I cant remember for the life of me. And for the holidays she made a big pan of Baklava  for us. I never got a chance to actually help her make the Baklava , but I did watch her as she covered the Phyllo with a wet towel while she drizzled honey and cinnamon on the other layers. It was so good that my mom and I  would Fight To The Death for the last crumb.