Future So Bright: International Food Week — Texas Style

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a blogumn by Josh Grelle

Have you ever happened to pass by some cool ethnic restaurant and made a mental note to check it out, but never managed to eat there? I’ve been doing that a lot it seems. There are a lot of restaurants here in Plano, TX, so the lack of variety in the food I have consumed has been a little disappointing. We (we being my mother and I) set out on a quest to redeem ourselves.  Our solution was drum roll please…… International Food Week. Our hopes were high as we planned out our meals for the week. We had recently bought one of Emeril Lagasse’s international cookbooks so we found our recipes in there.

On the first night of  IFW (International Food Week) we decided to have Thai food. We made chicken satay with  peanut sauce and a side of sticky rice. I loved the chicken. It was super yummy, however the peanut sauce was just so-so.  On the second day of IFW we had a Puerto Rican pork roast with Portuguese rice. I liked both of these dishes. The rice was nice and flavorful and the texture of the meat was outstanding. For our next dinner we hade Beef Stroganoff — the flavors were very strong, I don’t know if that’s how its supposed to taste because I had never eaten it before, but if it is, then I’m thinking I like beef stroganoff. For the fourth night we decided to have Korean food. We made pork and rice lettuce wraps with siracha sauce poured on top. The flavors were amazing together. They were nice and spicy and delicious.

We ended the week with lasagna. My mom got a pasta roller (she had been wanting one ever since reading the “Notes From A Nester” post about pasta rollers), so we made fresh noodles. Although I have had lasagna before I have never had it with homemade noodles so that was a pleasant change. We were planning on having two more nights of IFW but it was cut short by an impromptu camping trip. We had decided to have vegetable curry with naan bread and Moroccan rice for one night and Jamaican jerk chicken for another.

We’re hoping to continue this by having a dish from a new country once a week. So if you have any suggestions for recipes or countries that have great cuisine then send them along cuz im open to anything.