England - Our 27th Meal

We are back in Upper Michigan for the summer, and decided spontaneously to do some more country date nights. Mark and Opa didn't have enough lead time to acquire specialty ingredients, so they decided to choose a country with very familiar ingredients... England! They cooked a very delicious Sunday roast. 

Tom Collins with Beefeater gin, and iced tea (hot tea is traditional but it's too hot here!)

A feast fit for King Charles III!

Delicious roast beef

This horseradish sauce was AMAZING! I don't even like horseradish - or so I thought - and I ate so much of it I got a stomachache haha. I even had it on my salad the next day.

Parsnips and carrots

Roasted potatoes

Minced meat pie! It does not contain meat (although it did in ye olden days), but rather spiced dried fruits and nuts. Very tasty!

Michigan mincemeat pie

England Stats

• Population: 56 million (California and Florida together have 59 mil)
• GDP: UK is 9th in the world (compared to US #2), but that includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
• Life Expectancy: x, x in the world (US is a pathetic 59th, at 76.33)
• Founding Date/Age in 2023: x / x
• Official Language: x
• Rankings:

France - Our 26th Meal

Bienvenue en France ! (Officially, the French Republic.)

Les chefs

For our hors d'œuvres, we made pissaladière and pâte en croûte. 

pissaladière - attractive but unappetizing 

The pissaladière was (for my palate) quite an unusual concoction of carmelized onions, anchovies (which I don't care for), and black olives cured in oil. Extremely salty and rather fishy. It was not a hit in our family, but I gifted the rest on Buy Nothing, and our neighbor reportedly enjoyed it quite a bit! Shows to go you.

pâte en croûte

Making the pâte en croûte was a labor of love - over 100 steps in this recipe. 

It was also an adventure to find the ingredients, like noix de veau (veal cushion) and pork neck. I object to veal on moral grounds (and had never previously eaten it), but chose to buy it for authenticity's sake. It made me uncomfortable, however, and I wouldn't get it again. I did enjoy my visit to Gartner's Country Meat Market, an excellent local butcher. It reminded me of the many visits my dad and I made to the Madeira meat market when I was growing up.

Unfortunately, no one liked this dish. The pastry crust was good, but the meat filling had an unpleasantly bland/damp mouth feel. I don't know if this was my error, or if it turned out correctly and we just didn't like it. Always the million-dollar question when preparing unfamiliar foods!

For our plat principal (main course), Oma made boeuf bourgignon, which was delicious.

Oma undertook the ultimate pastry challenge - macarons - and they turned out perfectly!! I helped, in a very limited fashion.

macarons with champagne frosting filling (flavored with a champagne reduction)... complètement delicieux

pots de crème au chocolat - very indulgent

fromage - a selection of French cheeses. 

Murray’s Brie Fermier

Guilloteau St. Angel

 Guilloteau  Fromager Affinois avec des Herbes

Murray’s 18-Mois Compte

Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages

Chevalier du Grand Robert Pinot Noir

 playing with baby

Oma and I both studied French, and Oma was also a French teacher for many years, so this was a perfect (and delicious) team-up. 

France is also one of the few countries I have actually visited! A wonderful trip in July 2017, when Noah was living in Lille.

Jambon fromage

La Tour Eiffel

Ma vie Parisienne

When? December 29, 2023

Who cooked? Lauren & Oma

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) 

pissaladière, pâte en croûte, beef bourgignon, baguette et beurre, fromage, macarons with champagne frosting filling, pots de crème au chocolat

France Stats

• Population: 67.97 million (about 1/5 the size of the US)
• GDP: 10th in the world (compared to US #2)
• Life Expectancy: 82.23, 19th in the world (US is a pathetic 59th, at 76.33)
• Founding Date/Age in 2023: 843 / 1180
• Official Language: French
• Rankings:
• Largest indigenous duck meat producer
• Largest exporter of perfume & electricity 
• Largest percentage of nuclear energy in total energy production
• Most tourist visits per year
• Largest Exclusive Economic Zone
• Most time zones (12)

Phillipines - Our 25th Meal

After more than a year, we are finally back on our country date nights!! For our 25th meal, Mark took us to the Phillipines! The Phillipines is an "archipelagic country," comprised of 7,641 (!!) islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Our main course was a delicious chicken adobo. Mark has been making us a fast pork adobo for years, but this slow-cooked version was a very tasty twist. 

These pork lumpia were awesome! They tasted like latkes to me, I guess because they were fried in oil. Soo good! With a sweet chili sauce. Mark said they were time-consuming and very delicate/fiddly to make.

There was also a lovely cucumber salad, similar to one I make, which I would definitely want to have again.

This laing, made of taro leaves, was really not for me. Sort of a sweet dirty earth flavor.

The kutsinta had a very mild, almost custardy taste. I didn't love the gelatinous texture, but this was fun to try. 

The calamansi juice was delicious!! Like a sweet lemonade or limeade kind of flavor. Paired well with tequila!

When? December 3, 2023

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) 

Chicken adobo, lumpia, kutsinta, laing, cucumber salad, calamansi juice

Phillipines Stats

• Population: 113.9 million (a little more than the 4 most populous US states -- California, Florida, Texas, and New York -- combined)
• GDP: 29th in the world (compared to US #2)
• Life Expectancy: low at 69.27, 135th in the world (US is 59th at 76.33)
• Founding Date/Age in 2023: 1946/77
• Official Language: Filipino, English 
• Rankings:
• Largest producer of 
• Abacá (Manila Hemp)
• Nickel
• Largest archipelagic state without land border in the world by area and population
• Largest papal mass
• Largest indoor arena 

Greece - Our 24th Meal

For our 24th meal, we dined in Greece! (Officially, the Hellenic Republic.) And were joined by our parents and dear friends Sue and Rob. 

Dolmathes! These were a labor of love to make, for sure -- very time-consuming to wrap each individual leaf. I bet it would be relaxing if I weren't in a hurry. They turned out delicious though, very tender and lemony.

Grape leaf with stem snipped... ready for filling!

The moussaka, before it was covered in Bechamel. I really liked this!

Chicken souvlaki, cooked on the grill and served with the veggies you see here. 

Homemade pita bread. We've also had pita at our Iran, Egypt, and Morocco meals, all different recipes.

A widespread love of pita

The dessert, galaktoboureko, a lovely custard pie baked in phyllo dough, and soaked in a cinammon-lemon syrup.

Imported Greek wine

Tsipouro, a Greek brandy. This was a hit. 

After dinner, we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). (We considered Zorba the Greek, but the crowd voted the other way.) In this scene, the main character gets teased by the whitebread girls for her Greek lunch -- moussaka!!

When? August 28, 2022

Who cooked? Lauren 

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) 

Dolmathes, Moussaka, Souvlaki with tzatziki sauce, pita bread, galaktoboureko 

Greece Stats

• Population: 10.72 million (the state of Georgia has 10.5)
• GDP: 55th in the world 
• Life Expectancy: 25th in the world, way better than US (54th)
• Founding Date/Age in 2022: Greece is one of the oldest civilizations and the cradle of Western civilization, but in its current form, was only founded in 1821. 201 years old 
• Official Language: Greek.
• Random fact, 93% of Greeks are Christian
• Rankings:
• Highest consumption of olive oil per capita (26.1 kg or 57.5 lb / year!!!)
• Largest merchant marine fleet by deadweight tonnage
• Highest consumption of tobacco per capita (4,313 cigarettes / year -- that works out to 12 per day!)

Germany - Our 23rd Meal

For our 23rd date night, we had a special guest chef -- Opa helped Mark cook a German meal! And we were joined for dinner by our families out here in Michigan.

A beautiful German feast! Everything was delicious. I especially liked the sauerbraten (roast that was pickled for 4 days) and rartoffelknodel (potato dumplings). 

Picture-perfect and delicious apple strudel. The phyllo dough was not handmade but the rest was!

I surprised myself by liking this beer. The brandy made nice Manhattans. 

Cheers to the chefs!

After dinner, we started to watch the comedy Good Bye Lenin! (2003), but the subtitles were off. We will have to try again with a different version.

I'm glad Mark took Germany, because I can't help but feel a little uncomfortable celebrating the cultural legacy of a country whose most famous "accomplishment" is the near-extinction of my people. I'm sure Germans today don't want to be defined by the ugliest period in their history, any more than Americans today want to be defined by the horrors of slavery, or the genocide of Native Americans. But just as we are grappling with ongoing racism, and the legacy of historic oppression, Germans must keep dealing with the sequelae of the Holocaust. I know that some people would love to say that the Holocaust is in the past, it's history, but sadly that is not true: anti-semitism is alive and well in Germany (see one recent Times piece, for a discussion). The USA also has these problems, but modern Germany is objectively more anti-semitic than the US. Not great.

Anyway, we didn't let these considerations color our meal, which was very pleasant. And perhaps that is a  victory, that we are still here, and can enjoy a nice meal with our family!

When? August 13, 2022

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) 

Sauerbraten (roast and gravy); Rotkohl (sweet & sour red cabbage); Kartoffelklöße (potato dumplings); Erbsen & Karotten Mischgemuse (Buttered Peas and Carrots); Apfelstrudel (Apple Strudel)

Germany Stats

• Population: 83.2 million (like California, Texas, and Florida combined)
• GDP: 5th in the world (following only China, US, India, and Japan)
• Life Expectancy: 27th in the world... UK is 28th. USA is a shockingly low 54th in the world, highlighting our outrageous health and wealth disparities. 
• Founding Date/Age in 2022: Region of Germania dates from 100AD, but officially formed in 1871. 151 years old. 
• Official Language: German
• Rankings:
• Largest producer of rye, hops, lignite
• Largest net exports (balance of trade) 
• Highest government budget surplus
• Largest natural gas importer
• Most Winter Olympic medals
• Best performance at a bunch of sports things
• The world leader in the use of solar energy per capita