Jackie Robinson Day

Jackie Robinson

I know it's late, but we've all been sick the past week so I've fallen behind on writing. On Thursday, April 15 we celebrated Jackie Robinson Day along with all of Major League Baseball. I must say, this is the kind of day that celebrates everything great about America, notably baseball and racial equality. I know, I know, we've still got a way to go to real equality, but I think we've still come a long way since Jackie first took the field in a Dodgers uniform back in 1947.

Patties baking in the oven

So what could be more American than to celebrate by eating hamburgers? We used a version of a recipe from Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious. Most of her recipes involve sneaking vegetable purees into regular dishes. I can't reprint the recipe here (for copyright reasons, obviously), but I can say we deviated from her recipe by using about 50% ground beef and 50% sweet potato puree. It is very delicious. I really recommend for everyone, but especially people who aren't really big fans of hamburgers and beef. We made this recipe with some friends a few months back who don't eat a lot of beef and they loved it.

Jalapeño Humor

You'll also notice that we put cucumbers on the burgers. This is something they do back in Hungary. I'm still a fan of pickles, but I got to admit, cucumbers are very good on a burger. We also had onion rings on the side, which we just bought frozen in a bag.

Just missing some Cracker Jacks

We tried to catch some baseball, but you know it's hard since we're about 10 hours ahead of the US. We followed some of the Red Sox game online (pity, they lost) and then the next day got to watch the Angels on a replay. It was neat to see all the players wearing the number 42 in honor of Jackie, but it still would have been better had they shown a Dodgers game.

Georgian Language Day

Road Sign in Georgian and English

There are too few days set apart to celebrate language, so even if it's for a language with only 4 million speakers, it's noteworthy. The Georgian language is one the average person probably knows little about. Georgian isn't related to either of its neighbors (Azerbaijani is Altaic, and related to Turkish, whereas Armenian is Indo-European), and is only related to the much lesser known languages of Svans, Mingrelians, and Laz. It's also a language with a long history--dating back to at least the 2nd century. The language has its own alphabet, and is well known for its insanely long consonant clusters (for example გვფრცქვნი transliterated as gvprckvni, which would mean "You peel us").  The language also derives many of its words from roots. For example, the root kart could be used to form the words Kartveli (a Georgian person), Kartuli (Georgian language), and Sakartvelo (what Georgians call their nation).  Ultimately, the language has a long literary history as well.

Chakhokhbili (Chicken with herbs) with Mtsvane Lobios Salati (Green Bean Salad)

Georgia also has an excellent though little known culinary history. The Caucasus region is blessed with a variety of vegetables, fruits, and spices. I found a ton of recipes on this website, and had a hard time choosing among them. It'd been a while since we'd had chicken, so I went with the simple chicken and herbs recipe. I wasn't able to get all the spices so I improvised a bit and added some thyme. I made the green bean salad just by steaming green beans, and making a vinaigrette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You'll notice mashed potatoes on the plate, which was actually a Dutch recipe (with onions, garlic, and cabbage mashed in). I know it doesn't fit in, but I felt the meal needed some starch, and it's how I like to make to make my mashed potatoes. It was a very enjoyable meal and the chicken tasted amazing. We hope to be able to try more of the Georgian recipes off the site above in the future. 

New Year's Day (Thailand)

This looks like more fun than watching a ball drop at midnight

Today was New Year's Day in Thailand (and a lot of other Southeast Asian countries as well). Thais usually celebrate by sprinkling water on others (or using super soakers, whatever works). Some may also make New Year's resolutions like in America.

With all that said, we probably should have done something a bit more special today, but you know, it gets exhausting trying to celebrate a different holiday you know very little about every day of the week (though I did go out for a jog, which was one of my many neglected resolutions from January). So I just put together a Yellow Thai Curry from a packet. I've done this several times before and it usually turns out really well. You sauté the curry paste in oil then add coconut milk. Then you throw in whatever vegetables you have lying around (so as long as it has potatoes. Yellow curry simply must have potatoes!) Serve with rice and then you've got a delicious meal.

I'd usually make it with just vegetables or throw in some chicken. This time I decided to be all vegetarian and do it with tofu. Now it should be said that I've had some very good tofu in the past, but I've never really cooked with it myself. Apparently, you need to think of tofu like a sponge. It usually comes soaking in a yucky tasting water, so you've got to get all the moisture out and marinate it in what you want it to taste like. Sadly, I didn't do this and it ended up tasting too much like the yucky water. It was still eatable, but it would have been better without it. Sigh, hopefully I'll do better this coming new year.

Yuri's Night

On April 12, 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space. Now that the Cold War has completely cooled down, everyone around the world can commemorate this amazing achievement in human history. While most choose to hold a party or watch sci-fi movies, we decided to try to make щи, which may only be two simple letters in Russian, but becomes a whopping five letters when transliterated to English as shchi). 

We more or less followed the recipe found here. We didn't have any mushrooms, so I substituted it with chopped up hot dogs (which wasn't as bad as you'd think). I don't think we had enough sauerkraut to make this work as the soup turned out very pleasant, but not as bitter as it probably needed to be. Still, with a little bit of sour cream added toward the end, it made for a very nice soup.

Juan Santamaria Day

Statue of Juan Santamaria in Alajuela, Costa Rica

In the United States, we know surprisingly little about our American neighbors, despite being actively involved all over both North and South America. Most Americans probably don't know that our nation burnt Toronto (then called York) to the ground, or that we had captured Mexico City in the Mexican-American war. Surely, even fewer Americans have heard of William Walker--yet I bet most people in Nicaragua and Costa Rica have. Walker was a filibuster, an individual who illegally engages in foreign wars. He also a Southern and slave-holder before the US civil war. After a number of stratagems, he found himself president of Nicaragua and was eying Costa Rica to build his own private slave empire in Central America.

Yeah, I don't remember hearing about that one in history class. But then again, I didn't go to school in Costa Rica. The Costa Ricans advanced northward to defend their nation. As the traditional story goes, a young drummer from the town of Alajuela volunteered to complete a suicide mission on the condition that someone look after his mother. This boy, Juan Santamaria, succeeded, but was killed in the process. Today, he's celebrated as a national hero and even gets his own day.

Amazing Costa Rican Breakfast

So to commemorate we put together a meal centering around gallo pinto--a mix of rice, beans, and various vegetables (see the recipe here). It was very tasty, but you may want to make sure to add enough salt and some hot sauce. We had eggs and toast on the side, and completed the meal with a green salad. I could eat this sort of thing every day of the week: delicious, cheap, and nutritious.  

International Day of the Roma

Flag of the Roma, with a wheel symbolizing their migratory nature

Is there a people more despised in the world than the Romani? Probably not. When I lived in Europe I heard plenty of Anti-Semitic and Antiziganistic comments. Since this is a peaceful place, I won’t repeat any of them here (they ranged from ignorantly nonsensical to arguments in favor of ethnic cleansing). Nevertheless, I would occasionally meet someone who stand up to defend the Jews and denounce their enemies as jealous racists. A few minutes later though, the same people would also mock the Romani (who are perhaps better known by the arguably derogatory term “Gypsy.”)

Distribution of the Romani people in Europe, with the largest wheels representing a larger population

I for one have always felt that racism can be fairly hypocritical. The same people who will say vile things against Mexicans in the US probably really like going out for tacos and fajitas. Others who hate black people may thoroughly enjoy hip hop music. So, is this any way to thank them? The Romani have also contributed greatly to music, culture, and fashion in the Western world. Yet in too many countries radical right-wing, neo-nazi hate groups claim that they’re the source of all the nation’s problems. I find it hard to believe that a group that’s been left so destitute and helpless by the community and governments that many survive by digging through garbage could really be considered so a large threat, but these are the times we live in. These days, middle-class people enjoying a high quality of life are being made to feel like victims, while the real victims are made out to be enemies of the state.

So on this day we want to show solidarity with the Romani people, as well as the groups that work to improve their lives (see Amnesty International’s piece here and US Sec. of State Clinton’s comments here). We also want to celebrate Romani culture from a food perspective, which is easier said than done. Linguistic evidence has shown that the Romani people originated in India, and migrated west to Europe and various parts of the Americas (Texas, for instance, has a decent sized Romani population). Wherever they are, they tend to take on aspects of the surrounding culture, so what a Romani eats in Germany is different from one in say Bulgaria). Several Hungarian dishes claim to be cigány or gypsy in origin, including one of my favorites—cigánypecsénye. Unfortunately though, this dish requires a lot of pork, which I can’t get in the Middle East. So we opted for cigány csirkés lecsó, with the recipe here in Hungarian. Basically I just made up lecsó, which is similar to French ratatouille, and is made of fried onion, yellow bell peppers, and tomatoes. Since it's Hungarian, feel free to add a little bit of paprika as well. I basically cooked all this in the crock pot with the chicken for a few hours. 

The recipe said to eat it with bread, but we wanted something a bit more filling so we went with pasta. Here's to hoping for a better, more equal world for everyone.

Tartan Day

Do you need an excuse to come here?

Tartan Day is a Scottish holiday the same way Orange Chicken is authentic Chinese food. In short, it's not. If we want to be pedantic it's really just a North American take on things. Tartan Day was first held as a one-off event in New York City 1982 and then was picked up again in the mid-eighties by members of the Scottish diaspora in Canada. Since then it's grown in popularity throughout North America, and in other parts of the world as well. In recent years, in fact, it's even been picked up in Scotland, largely as a way to promote tourism (though pictures of the countryside alone should do the trick).

Black Watch Tartan

So, what exactly is a tartan then? Well, it's the criss-crossing multicolor design you'll see on kilts (or on Scotch Tape for that matter). Different designs can represent different regions or clans, though some are universal and can be worn by anyone (like the Black Watch, seen above). If you want to have a bit of fun and get into the spirit, why not try this webpage that lets you design your own. 

The holiday was chosen to commemorate the end of the 1747 Act of Proscription, which basically had made it illegal to wear anything with a tartan pattern (I'm sure it was enforced by the original fashion police). Today though, the day is much more about celebrating Scottish heritage. And though I don't have as much as a wee dram of Scottish blood in me, I decided to get together as authentic of a Scottish dinner as possible (especially since we had some guests over).

Probably the first Scottish dish that comes to mind would be haggis, but that sounded a bit too complicated for the amount time we had. So I put to together the far simpler dish, mince and tatties (which is ground beef and potatoes). A really easy recipe can be found here. Instead of adding extra gravy, I just put 3 tsps of cornstarch in (since I figured gravy, plus beef stock, plus the meat itself was a bit of overkill). I also added peas. I just diced the potatoes and boiled them to tender, then sprinkled them with rosemary.

All that was leftover from the evening

The mince and tatties alone was pretty tasty, but the real highlight of the night was making Scotland's most famous desert: fried candy bars. Though Mars bars are apparently more authentic, we had some Snickers bars handy. You need to make sure they are frozen for at least a couple of hours before, so that they don't melt in the oil. Then make up some pancake batter (which must include eggs, so that it sticks properly to the candy bar) and completely soak the bar in the batter. At this point, you want to deep fry it for around 30-50 seconds. We don't own a deep fryer, so we just put a bunch of oil into a small pot and it worked fine. The oil does need to be hot enough though, otherwise the whole thing will fall apart. 

We spent the rest of the evening watching the episode of Samantha Brown where she goes to Edinburgh and commenting about how gorgeous it is there (again, seriously, have you seen any pictures?) If you can't go, at the very least get on grooveshark and search for some bagpipe music. 

Qingming Festival

Incense Coils in Hong Kong's Man Mo Temple

We were fortunate enough to visit friends in Hong Kong at this time last year, completely unaware that our trip coincided with the Qingming Festival. Though translated in several different ways, one of the most common renderings of Qingming into English is "Tomb Sweeping Day." It is a day to think about your ancestors and those who have passed away, to pay respect to them, to maintain their tomb, and to offer what gifts you can to them. These gifts most often come in the form of joss paper (also referred to as "ghost money"), which is burnt as an offering so that the deceased have good possessions and money in the afterlife.

Illustration of Burning Gifts and Joss Paper

Traffic was pretty heavy as a lot of people were going out to the local cemeteries. We visited the Man Mo Temple in downtown Victoria during the Qingming Festival and there were many people there burning joss paper and incense. It was quite a beautiful (not to mention aromatic) ceremony. Though we ourselves are not Buddhist, this is still a good day to reflect on those who have come before us and are now gone, and also to look forward to day when we can hopefully be reunited (if your religious beliefs allow for such a thing). At the very least, today was a great day to try making Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup.

Wonton Noodle Soup in the Pot

We more or less followed this recipe. We can't buy pork here so I substituted beef for the filling and used one mutton and one chicken bullion cube for the stock. Otherwise, this is a pretty easy recipe to follow, and it tastes like the real deal. It's also always fun when you get to construct part of your food (in this case wontons, but the same goes for any dumplings, empanadas, or ravioli). Though I must admit, I think I overloaded a few of the wontons and they bust open in the stew. Ultimately though, I have to say that it was incredibly rewarding to make something that I'd only been able to have in restaurants before.

The next best thing to being in Hong Kong

Here's hoping for a joyful day, for both the quick and the dead.

Užupis Day

Entrance Sign to the Republic of Užupis

I've never been to Lithuania, but I get the feeling I'd like it there. Take for example Vilnius' Užupis neighborhood. Imagine the people basking in freedom for the first time after the fall of the Soviet Union. They look around their neighborhood and see a now unsightly statue of Vladimir Lenin. What should they replace it with? Perhaps a statue of a national hero? Or how about one of the nation's poets? Oh, I know. Let's replace it with a statue honoring American avant-garde musician Frank Zappa. Strange as it sounds, this is precisely what they did.

Frank Zappa Statue

As if that wasn't strange enough, in 1996 the neighborhood decided that it had had enough of being a part of Lithuania and declared itself an independent republic, based on artistic ideals. They drafted their own constitution, created their own set of flags, and enlisted a 12-man army. The short constitution is definitely worth a read, as it lists several peculiar and idiosyncratic freedoms (e.g. a dog has a right to be a dog, everyone has the right not to be distinguished and famous). In a sense, the light-hearted tongue-in-check constitution is refreshing, since in America more and more vitriol seems to be spread on all sides about how our constitution should be interpreted.

Of course, it's hard to say exactly how seriously we should take all of this, since the people of Užupis intentionally selected April Fool's Day to be their Independence Day. As such it could be one of the greatest pranks ever pulled--just strange enough to be true and impossible to discredit, so that it can be repeated every year.

At the very least, what can be said of Užupis is that even if the people aren't really a sovereign nation and pay taxes to the Lithuanian government, their declaration of independence can nonetheless be seen as a declaration of community. They're still a united neighborhood and a strong community, which is something admirable and lacking in most neighborhoods in the United States, especially as attitudes shift from serving the good of society to placating the good of the community. 

Ultimately Baked Cepelinai with Apple Sauce

With that said, perhaps the real practical joke was the recipe I attempted to make in vain, since it did not work at all. I found this recipe for Cepelinai (the name actually means Zeppelin), which are meat-filled potato dumplings on Wikipedia. Perhaps I needed to squeeze more of the water out of the grated raw potatoes, but when I attempted to boil these they simply did not hold together, and I ended up with a gross potato soup with meat floating around. I even tried adding a little flour to them, but it didn't work. If anyone knows how to hold these things together, please let me know. I ended up baking them in the oven, which worked fine, but dried them out. They still tasted fine, but weren't the moist dumplings I had hoped for.

Let me close with a few lines from the constitution of Užupis as I put on some Zappa. 

Everyone is capable of independence.

Everyone is responsible for his freedom.

Everyone has the right to cry.

Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.

No-one has the right to make another person guilty.

Everyone has the right to be personal.

Everyone has the right to have no rights.

Everyone has the right to not be afraid.

Do not defeat.

Do not fight back.

Do not surrender.