World Travel--Dinner by Dinner

All week, I plan Sunday dinner.  As a hobby, I try to perfect a gourmet menu for each of some 30 different nationalities and ethnicities.  Jonny urges me, only half in jest, to stick to Italian and Mexican, but my tastes and imagination range world-wide.  On August 2, 2020, we ate Cambodian food, and Dave said it was one of the best meals I had ever fixed.  We dined on pineapple lemonade, barbecued flank steak and shrimp in a cilantro lime marinade, white pepper coconut chicken curry, rice, salad, a bowl of sliced tropical fruit, and coconut ice cream with banana pudding for dessert.   How appalled my dear father would have been, if he were my guest!  When I traveled abroad as a child, my dad searched out US military bases wherever he could, to avoid having to eat the local food.  He was a retired Naval officer, and preferred eating hamburgers at the base snack bar to any French bistro.  When we traveled for two weeks through Russia, Dad ate the same, safe meal every single night--steak and plum ice cream.
 

Michael loves food from exotic lands, just like I do.  I appreciate his encouragement!

Audrey is more beautiful each time we see her, raised by her great mom, Heidi.

We had just one table of guests for the Cambodian meal, rather than our usual two or three tables.  Grant and Meg said they liked the small group.  It was easier to get to know each guest better.

Alan prefers food he can identify, but he is a good sport about trying out strange things at my house.

On August 9, 2020, we had an English dinner.  We began with mulligatawny soup, the English version of curry which the colonists brought home from India.  Our entree was beef Wellington, the fanciest entree on traditional English menus.  It is a beef tenderloin smeared with mustard,  then wrapped in prosciutto and sauteed mushrooms, and finally encased in puff pasty.  It is served with a cream sauce flavored with brandy.  For dessert we ate sticky toffee pudding, another classic English dessert.

I used my fancy lace tablecloths for this elegant meal.  "If you're English aristocracy, you eat beef Wellington.  If you're an English common worker, you eat fish'n'chips."  I assume some of the crowd might have preferred the fish'n'chips!

On August 16, 2020, we ate food from Portugal.  We started with pineapple-peach sangria and bacon-wrapped dates.  The entrée was paella accompanied by salad, fruit, and my Portuguese sweet bread, made in big round loaves brushed with egg whites to make the crust extra-crispy.  Alan also brings a loaf of his homemade bread to add to the luxury of the meal.

Again, we were a small group, fitting snugly around one big table.

Our last Sunday dinner of the month, on August 23, 2020, was from Ireland.  I collect traditional ethnic cookbooks, and also books written by contemporary authors, showing how to adapt traditional recipes for modern tastes.  Much of my meal came from a recipe book by "Clodagh," a TV chef in Ireland.

Oatcakes are traditional in both Ireland and Scotland.

I served both baked salmon and corned beef and cabbage.

It is so fun to have Michael K and Rebekah join us more often, now that Rebekah works in Salt Lake City!