International Taste Test Courtesy of World Market

Living in the spectacular mountains of western North Carolina, fall is tourist season. We're  overrun with leaf lookers trying to take in our beautiful scenery and because of that, J's restaurant is impossibly busy. With the cooler temperatures and the changing colors, we had to jump on an opportunity for a date before the hellish rush of October and we went out on the town.

Our primary goal (besides spending time with each other) was to buy a couch for our new house, which we did. However, with home renovations and the purchase of said couch (and chair!) our date night budget was slashed. Yet, there are still inexpensive ways to have fun and not miss out on any adventures. 

While in Asheville, we went to one of our favorite stores - Cost Plus World Market. For those of you that have never been, World Market is exactly what it sounds like; a store filled with international treats of all sorts - including homegoods from a variety of countries, jewelry with cultural flair, and a plethora of foreign food items. They have niche cooking utensils and hardware - like North African tajines, hammered copper pots for curry, Oktoberfest beer mugs shaped like boots and more. But to me, the most exciting part of the store is the imported food and beverage department that is filled with all sorts of spices, candies, sauces, beers and wines from around the globe. Some of the items are fairly familiar, like Toblerone chocolate bars or Nutella; and some we've heard of but never tried, like vegemite or spotted dick, but the majority of items are (to me) completely foreign. 

And for foodies like us, that makes for a perfect date night stop! For less than $12 we both got several treats to try - that's cheaper than one movie ticket at some A-ville theaters. Aside from the finances of it, this trip was partly inspired by a series of Buzzfeed videos where they give a panel of staff members food/drinks from foreign countries or cultures. These videos are hysterical - partly because we're learning about random foods ourselves, like Japan's Every Burger wheat crackers or the infamously awful malort liquor; but that also it seems each panel has completely different responses, someone will inevitably love it, and others will be skeptical if not grossed out (except everyone hated Vegemite). 

This video was our main inspiration. I knew World Market carried the Ramune soda and I was dying to try it! 

Ramune soda comes in a glass bottle with two chambers - a large one at the base and a smaller one in the neck. To open the soda, you break the plastic cap to create a plunger, push the plunger down hard on the lid to force a marble into the smaller chamber. This creates a whole lot of fizz and a very satisfying glass-on-glass noise. Apparently, the marble serves no practical purpose other than stopping the flow of soda if it were to get overturned - but for some (childish?) reason, it's a whole lot of fun! 

We tried the "original" flavor, and if I am to go by the pictures on the bottle it is cigarette-smoking pig, melon, life preserver and Japanese lantern flavored...but I think that's inaccurate. It's got a very clean taste that is very simple; it reminded me of a very weak ginger ale or lightly sweetened seltzer water. J also got a strawberry Ramune - which appeared to be a very popular flavor at World Market. It was very tasty and quite sweet, not unlike the Southern Nehi drinks. There are over two dozen flavors of these sodas (we saw about six at World Market) and I'm certainly eager to try more! These would make great stocking stuffers, too (and WM is the place for one-off single serving treats for gifts). 

Also, J grabbed a bag of chocolate covered Turkish delight which was nothing short of disgusting. This appears to be a more traditional variety of the "delight" flavored with rosewater and according to the packaging, paprika (no, we didn't read the ingredients list prior to purchase.. damn). I bit into mine and immediately spit it out. J attempted to eat two or three pieces to isolate the ingredients, but to no avail. 

We also got a bag Walker's shortbread shaped like Scottie dogs (a favorite in our house); a Nutfulle hazelnut truffle, which tasted like a Ferrero Roche treat on steroids and a dark chocolate wafer cookie which you place atop your coffee cup to get warm and gooey, this was a hit for J despite his mega coffee cup trying to swallow the cookie whole.  

If you're a remotely adventurous eater or suffering a case of wanderlust on a budget, I highly suggest hitting up a World Market, specialty store or even the ethnic aisle of your local grocery store. You can find all sorts of interesting treats and even pre-packaged items to make unique international meals. 

If you're looking for a more regular culinary trip outside your comfort zone, I highly suggest signing up for a monthly subscription service. We highly enjoyed our Goodies subscription - which sent us a box filled with 8-10 snacks per month for $7 - until the company closed. There are many other food services that fill almost any niche and price range. For example, Plated ($60) offers all the ingredients to a gourmet meal, plus instructions, delivered straight to your door; Skoshbox ($12) and Candy Japan ($25) provide Japanese candies, snacks and "goodies" monthly; Tiffin Trove ($15) sends the Indian ingredients for a meal, all you have to purchase is the perishable items; and there are so many more - from gluten-free, to healthy, to wine-of-the-month! Like our shopping excursion, they can be hit-or-miss (hopefully no one sends you Turkish delight) but the thrill of a monthly mystery package and taste-test is a great experience. 

So, never suffer from food-travel FOMO (fear of missing out) - you can easily escape the mundane by a quick trip to the grocery store. Even buying one new item can open your horizons! 

"Get Well" Panang Curry

My poor husband is sick. We thought his allergies were riled up from our recent new home renovation projects, but the sniffling has turned into coughing and a sore throat -- and now he's just pitiful. He's been curled up in our over-sized recliner with our "magic" (read: threadbare) blanket since last night. So today called for some serious get well food, beyond the Reese's cups I grabbed this morning, some real, homemade comfort food and I knew just the thing: panang curry.

If you've never had Thai food before or are intimidated by hot curries, this is a great place to start. The flavors are smooth and vibrant without being too spicy (heat or literal spice) and the ingredients are familiar, not foreign or off-putting (which also makes it easy shopping). Being filled with common vegetables and only a few non-pantry staples, you're able to ease out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

Unlike some curry dishes, which can be thick and almost gummy, this recipe uses two cans of coconut milk, making for an almost soup-like sauce that is creamy and sweet and perfect served over rice.   This thinner sauce allows the vegetables and meat/tofu to shine as solid, beautiful bites independently of the broth instead of being coated in one-note of flavor. Each of the bites is able to full of flavor and texture - which is made even better by large cuts, especially on the meaty mushrooms. Go as heavy as you want on the vegetables - the original recipe called for tiny quantities and I've increased them by almost half and it's still a thin broth with hearty vegetable pieces - you could even add more!

 

I first made this recipe last fall - following the original to the letter - but have since adapted it to our tastes and to my "use what's on hand" leftover philosophy. We both enjoyed the traditional, tofu preparation but carnivorous varieties are delicious, too! After last Thanksgiving, I used the overwhelming amount of turkey and have continued to experiment with it. Today, I thawed out two chicken thighs, boiled them in heavily salted water and pulled the meat off of the bone. But honestly, you could use almost any pre-cooked poultry cut (I wouldn't use ground meat) but leftover KFC or grilled chicken leftovers would be delicious!

In addition to being an easy trip to the grocery store (only panang curry paste might warrant a search in the "ethnic" aisle - an easier to find substitute is red curry paste, which is the main ingredient in panang curry paste anyway), this recipe is completely painless to cook - using only one pot and taking less than 30 minutes to complete. With good mise en place and prepping all of your vegetables and proteins ahead of time, this recipe literally requires two steps - browning the spices and dumping in everything else!

I don't think I have an easier international recipe in my arsenal and this curry certainly beats chicken noodle soup for curing any cold!

Panang Curry

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil
2 T chopped garlic
1 t grated ginger
2 T panang (or red) curry paste
2, 13.5 oz. cans coconut milk (FYI: I've tried this with light coconut milk and didn't enjoy it as much, but it's still good)
1 T palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 t salt
1 T reduced sodium soy sauce
1 - 1 1/2 T lime juice
1/4 c roasted and unsalted cashews, roughly chopped (much cheaper when bought in the bulk dry goods aisle)
1 1/2 c quartered white mushrooms
1 c chopped white or yellow onion
4 Thai basil leaves (optional - these are hard to come by here, so you can easily nix them)
4 - 6 oz. cubed protein (raw, extra firm tofu or any precooked poultry cuts)
10 broccoli florets
1 cup chopped red bell pepper (these can be expensive, so don't hesitate to use cheaper, green peppers)
15 snap peas (strings removed)

Method: 

In a well-seasoned wok or heavy-bottom sauce pan, heat oil on medium heat. When hot, add ginger and garlic and sautee until light brown - don't let it brown too much or your garlic will be bitter.

Stir in curry paste. Whisk in coconut milk, sugar, salt, soy sauce and lime juice. Start with 1 T and add more to taste, it can be a bold flavor. Also, taste carefully for the salt; it doesn't take much but just a pinch brightens the flavor of every vegetable and the curry paste.

Add vegetables and proteins and simmer until tofu is cooked completely and vegetables are al dente (you can cook them softer if you'd like, but I prefer a bit of a bite).

Serve over warm rice, especially jasmine, and top with cashews and sriracha, if you like. And if you're a "dipper" like I am, this sauce is great soaked up by naan or spring rolls (we especially love Healthy Choice's Thai chicken spring rolls).

Caribbean Fare - Conch & Cocktails

For the vacation we've been planning since before we got married, J and I and a couple from church (our Wednesday Game Night buddies) went on a four-day Caribbean cruise. Last Saturday, we drove to Port Canaveral, Florida, got on the Carnival Sensation ship on Sunday, hit Freeport Harbor and Port Lucaya (on Grand Bahama Island) on Monday, Nassau on Tuesday and spent a day at sea on Wednesday. This was an amazing trip and I want to tell you all about the fun we had!

This trip fulfilled so many firsts for us - my first trip to Florida, our first cruise, first international excursion, and first double-date vacation.

Even with all the new adventures, we stuck to some of our best vacation traditions, including exploring the local food scene.

In Freeport, we were running from Tropical Storm Bertha who descended upon us as we arrived at the beach in Port Lucaya. It was a torrential downpour with taxis not returning to the ship for three hours, so we took a Bahamian "alcove tour" as we searched for shelter from the storm. After being soaked to the bone, we happened across a candy shop where I bought a favorite Caribbean soda - Goombay Punch.

Note my sopping wet shirt!

Goombay Punch is a fruity, yellow soda with the most prevalent flavors being pineapple and lemon. It's a bold flavor bursting with fruitiness and sugar. I tried a sip and was blown away with how shockingly sweet it was. For perspective: a can of Coke has 39 grams of sugar, a can of Goombay Punch has 54 grams of sugar. That's almost 1.5 times as sweet as a traditional Coke!! The bright flavor and sugaryness overwhelmed me but I couldn't quite put my finger on why it tasted so familiar. Then I got a whiff of the bright yellow, bubbly liquid and I figured it out: if you took a bag of gummy bears, melted them down and added a touch (only a touch) of carbonation, you'd have Goombay Punch. I think this could be a good base for a Caribbean cocktail - think rum and Coke, but with Goombay - or in teeny tiny servings, but there was no way I could drink 12 ounces of this in a sitting!

Next, we headed to try a Caribbean staple - conch. Conch is the seafood item from the beautiful, curved pink conch shells (you know, the big, cliche shells you put to your ear to hear the ocean). It is an "edible marine snail" that is illegal to harvest in the United States, so it is rare to see on American menus (since it must be imported from the Caribbean). We knew we had to seek out these critters while we had the chance!
After going into sugar shock from my soda, we stopped in at After Dock, a restaurant in the center of the shopping district for conch fritters.

The fritters were like a mix of a crab cake and a hushpuppy. They were fried bread fritters with hearty chunks of conch inside with a spicy seasoning and a bold dipping sauce, like a zesty thousand island dressing. The conch pieces were chewy but the flavor was great and the breading was fluffy and light. I imagine that like most invertebrate seafood items - scallops, calamari, mussels - conch can easily develop into a tough, rubbery meat. I enjoyed the dish and would certainly eat this again, and would love to try different preparations of conch. 

J and I also toasted our adventure with Bahama Mama cocktails. These drinks are fruity, usually made of pineapple and orange juice, and rum-filled. The After Dock's version was heavy on the grenadine and ruby red grapefruit juice giving it an acidic bite to match the rummy burn. Being constantly vigilant to avoid heartburn, I'd prefer a more traditional cocktail with a little less citrus and more "gentle" fruit juices.

If a trip to the islands isn't in your future, here's a more traditional Bahama Mama recipe to give you a refreshing taste of the Caribbean. 

Ingredients:

1/2 fluid oz. rum (Tortuga is made in country, if you're going for authenticity)

1/2 fluid oz. coconut rum (Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay has been a favorite of mine for many years)

1/2 fluid oz. of grenadine syrup

1 fluid oz. orange or grapefruit juice

1 fluid oz. pineapple juice (I'd go heavier on the pineapple, lighter on the citrus)

1 c. crushed ice

Method:

Blend all ingredients in an electric blender until at a slushy consistency or mix rums and juices, pour over ice and pour over grenadine for the "sunrise" ombre effect.