Around the World in 80 dinner parties - Ideas please.

The_Miser

angeltreats wrote: »

The Miser - I don't suppose you know a good website for Brazilian recipes? Doesn't matter if it's in Portuguese

Sorry, Angeltreats. I learned from friends in their kitchens and from talking to chefs. That was a decade plus ago and being awkward I even prepare caipirinha differently to the BBC. Also I tend to go for the fiddly haute cuisine stuff whilst the better half does the straightforward cooking; Brazilian would not get a look-in.

Remember that Brazil is much bigger than the lower 48 states of the USA and that almost everyone is descended from immigrants from every country you can think of. Therefore cooking can be regional and largely imported - up near Salvador it is hotter than spicy - Nando's Portuguese restaurants (if there is one near you) starts to get near it. You get Japanese cuisine in the Rio - Sao Paulo states and inland, German in the far south, Asian ............. in fact everything you can think of. My memories are of rice, chickpeas, couscous, roast beef so tender you can cut it with a blunt fork, sweet potatoes, coconut and its milk used in cooking, fruit galore including I'm told 48 varieties of orange - some I liked, some were horrible IMHO and some you can't get here (abacaxi for example*) ............ I didn't have any (my host was of Portuguese origin) but I heard of a lot of Eastern European dishes mentioned.

In the house veg was a very small part of a mainly meat meal.

Day to day lunch it was burgers, fried fish and the like with fruit juice for lunch. I avoided salads (precaution against Montezuma's revenge) though they were plentiful in restaurants.

Start with bacalhao which is dried cod and is a popular basis in both Brazil and Portugal; there are plenty of recipes around. You could start with

http://www.cucabrazuca.com/

For drinks when I was there people drank beer (lager types, bottled and draft), soft drinks including a lot of fruit juice, my favourite fizzy guarana (made from a forest nut and in powder form said to be healthy) and in company a cachaca neat with a beer chaser. We only occasionally had mixed drinks - caiparinha etc. and virtually never ever wine. (There was a problem in transporting and keeping wine at an appropriate temperature - things may have changed since). Any meeting or encounter required a ritual cafezinho which is very very thick strong coffee drunk with plenty of sugar and no milk - about two small mouthfuls. To get over the caffeine I would also drink a lot of a herbal tea called Mate in the office. (Just looked it up - anti obesity, anti cholesterol, anti-oxidant ... thanks to my secretary!!!)

BTW - Brazilian and European Portuguese are very different; my best friend in France is Portuguese but we have to talk in French!

* The dictionary will translate abacaxi as pineapple but it is very different to what we get here.

curiouscrafter

Hi all,

I have decided once a fortnight, myself, husband and children (6 & 4) will have a themed dinner evening.

We do try to all eat togther in the evenings but this is not always possilbe due to work/afterschool clubs etc.

I would like to have Greece as our first theme and I am going to cook Mousakka and a feta cheese salad.

I have printed off some flags to decorate the dinning room and some have facts about Greece - food, history - gods, olympics etc.

I was wondering what I could do for starters and pudding? And if there is a film we could watch after that is Greek related?

Thank you in advance

valentina

:)What about Grease? (sorry...)

Here's some films
http://www.greecetravel.com/film/mattspicks.htm

ska_lover

What a lovely idea!

curiouscrafter

valentina wrote: »

:)What about Grease? (sorry...)

Here's some films
http://www.greecetravel.com/film/mattspicks.htm

hahaha, :T very good, so obvoius, we have that film too! :rotfl:

esmf73

Greek starter - houmous / tzatiki dips with greek salad - lots of feta / grilled halloumi cheese - yum

Greek pud - baklava / fresh fruit / lemon or pistachio ice cream!

Can I come and bring my kids too?!!!

SCFC1961

Film - Big Fat Greek Wedding, but not sure if children will enoy it!

Justamum

What a fantastic idea. I might steal that from you. A Greek theme would be brilliant for us because my DH is half Greek Cypriot.

When we went to visit his family there about 10 years ago, we were driving in the Troodos Mountains and stopped for a while. On a seat we found a beautifully wrapped dessert. It had lots of chopped nuts inside, and the casing was a very short pastry - almost shortbread. It was absolutely delicious. We're quite convinced it was left for us by one of the Gods! :rotfl::rotfl:

Rosiglow

What a lovely idea!

For films, how about My Family and Other Animals? Or Disney's Hercules perhaps?

Rosi

zippychick

this thread is along a similar theme

let us know what you decide to make and we will merge this later on

Zip