Education for the Palate

 

An international food evening is a fantastic idea when there are exchange students from almost 40 different countries!  We were all ordered to bring a traditional dish from our home country, and then all partake of a delicious global buffet! 

 

The only slight problem for me was the Canada doesn't really have a traditional food.  Except maybe maple syrup.  But that isn't available in grocery stores here.  And maybe pemmican?  But I definitely don't have smoked buffalo and whatever else the natives would put in that stuff. 

 

So I decided to just make raisin buttertart squares.  If I had any luck there wouldn't be any other Canadians at the food evening, and no one would know that it's really not traditional.

 

So Kim and I packed up the squares and set off into the night toward the metro station.  It was pouring rain so we were glad we didn't bike that night (and also Kim's bike was stolen and she didn't have her new one yet).  We emerged in the middle of the city from an underground station and had no idea which direction was which, and it was dark and still pouring rain.  But after asking a few kind Rotterdamers about our location we managed to orient ourselves correctly and soon found the café where the dinner was to be hosted.

 

And wow was it ever an incredible dinner!  I love to try new foods and there were definitely plenty of those that night.  French cheese, Korean omelette soup, Scottish bacon and cheese pancakes, sweet buns from I can't remember where, and about two dozen other things!

 

My buttertart squares were also a big hit!  They were gone pretty quickly, so next time maybe I should make more. 

 

But the absolute most delicious thing that I have ever tasted in my whole life was Turkish baklava.  I cannot begin to describe how good that stuff was.  You'll just have to try it for yourself someday, which I highly recommend.  It's a very sweet pastry with ground pistachio nuts.  I hope the guy who brought that is also at the next international food evening!

 

I also tried a few sips of Kim's beer, because beer-drinking is a very common practice in Holland.  I don't get why though.  That stuff tastes like a liquefied bucket of dirty weeds.  Not that I eat weeds, but I imaging if I did they would taste a lot like beer.

 

I think I'll stick with good old fashioned water!  0 calories, very healthy, and a whole lot better tasting than beer.  And maybe I'll have an occasional hot chocolate on special occasions.

 

But all in all a fantastic and educational evening.  I can't wait for the next one!