Did you ever cooked any of the dishes you tasted out of your country? I live in Thailand and my little family favorite dish is Pad Thai and curry (any colored one). When I go back to visit my big family in Hungary I always bring curry and last time when I went back I did make Pad Thai also. I find a shop in Budapest which sells Asian ingredients and beside what I bought here in Thailand could find many other things to add also. My family loves it and I am happy to show up with new tastes of our planet 😉
[Edited: 2011 Jun 14 14:49 - missmvictor:148721 ]
Reply to this While in Thailand and Bali we took cooking classes and yes we have cooked both on our return to the US. Frequently before we travel to a country we spend some time trying to cook the native foods. We both enjoy cooking and this gives us great pleasure.
Reply to this All the time - various meals that have passed my palate in India I've attempted to replicate (with varying degrees of success) back at home. After eating some of the wonderful options in Malaysia, I purchased a cookbook from there and have tried some of those recipes as well. I'm am yet to seriously attempt the Ethiopian meals, but intend to do that at some stage.
Reply to this All the time 😊 I make a mean cambodian pumpkin and coriander soup and thai prawn, lime and mint salad regularly. I also make a Cambodian hot pot and am in the process of trying to perfect Roti :-)
I have found many chefs/cooks very helpful when asked how to make the dish - I love the impromptu cooking lessons I had learning to make the prawn lime and mint salad on a beach in thailand and I got taken into the kitchen in a restaurant on Sisowath quay to learn how to make the Pumpkin and Coriander soup.
We had a really fun morning in Siem Reap when Giant decided to take over the kitchen at the hotel and show the staff how to make pancakes that werent 3 inches thick like a cake. I think they were too terrified of this big tattood westerner waltzing into their kitchen and grabbing pots and ingredients to throw him out. We did have better pancakes the next day :-)
Id say my main cuisines of interest at the moment are moroccan, greek (lamb marinated in yoghurt and herbs for three days yummmy!), indian and have just bought an african cookbook so looking forward to trying out some recipes.
D&M thats a great idea actually..I need to find some malaysian food I actually like..so far ive not been a fan of anything ive eaten in Malaysia. Im sure there are great dishes, just havent found them yet.
Reply to this Shane,
I had no clue that you can cook! 😉 Well Ethiopian food sounds good. I hope next time you come to Bangkok you can teach me to do some of the dishes. 😉
Cindy,
I do understand your point. I have no interest of the Malaysian food. I've been there few times and whatever I ate did not make me to love it.
Now that we are leaving in Bangkok I love to cook Hungarian food as I miss the taste of my country time to time. And not last when we have friends around from different environment I like to cook them some Hungarian as it's so different from other countries.
I love the food from the Middle East and Indian also. I just had a friend for dinner tonight who brought me some Butter Chicken sauce. I can't wait to try it.
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There were a few Malaysian foods that didn't excite us and that was one of the reasons we took the class. We made an assumption they would teach us to cook things that many would enjoy and that is exactly what happened.
Reply to this May be next time I should do the same and I might start to like it. Thanks 😉
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If you take a class and end up not really liking anything they have you prepare you will generally learn something about their spices, cooking techniques and possibly be introduced to a new fruit or vegetable that you have never cooked.
Plus it is fun.
Reply to this I can vouch for Shane being a great cook :-P
When I was in Thailand I did a one day cooking class, but have not experimented with the recipes since as much as I'd like to.
I've made Japanese dishes quite a bit - my easy favourite being okonomiyaki.
Reply to this Here is one of my Thai feasts from a little while back - I make all of the spice pastes as well. Jo, glad you still have fond memories of the Mussaman!
Reply to this Shane,
That looks wonderful. I can't believe you didn't invite us over for dinner!
Happy cooking.
Reply to this I did, just last night but --> FAILED! I tried a very simple Tajik potato dish but somehow I couldn't replicate it even if I helped prepare the dish when I was there.
Learning how to cook meals from a place one goes to is a splendid (not to mention delicious!) way of learning about the culture and people. I should have done it before but I'm glad I did it now.
Reply to this I have just cooked Thai coconut curry, with basil and pineapple rice. This is one of my favourite things to eat in Thailand.
There are lots of Asian food shops here in Munich, Germany, so I can buy ingredients all the way from places like Thailand. The labels on the food packets in the Asian shops are often in the language of the countries they are from, with a sticker of the translations to German on top of them.
The basil I put in the curry is Italian basil, rather than Thai basil. But, I think they have a similiar flavour, even though they look a bit different.
[Edited: 2011 Jun 25 20:29 - Mell:49612 ]
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