I am going to give into my glutinous side for a minute and
declare that I love food. I love cooking
food, eating food, experimenting with new recipes, discussing food with
friends, family and strangers. I love
going out to eat at new restaurants. I
love Italian food, Chinese food, Thai food, Mexican food, Greek food and even
the traditional Canadian staple known as poutine. So for me, one of the highlights of any trip
or vacation is discovering the little mom and pop shop tuck back into a corner
that sells the most mouth watering and authentic local fare.
As much as I like all types of international food, I will
have to admit that my skills in the kitchen leave much to be desired and the
contents of my spice cabinet can fit in the palm of my hand. Most of my culinary experiments result in
something akin to Hiroshima. My version
of Italian includes frozen pizza and don’t even get me started on Thai (think a package of Mr. Noodles). It can’t be my fault though; I am confident
that it is a genetic flaw passed on by my mother but where she got it from I
have no idea because my grandmother can make stroganoff that will make you cry
it is so delicious.
But I digress back to the point at hand. International food. How many of us wish that we could replicate
the flavours of Thailand or the spices of Cuba for ourselves and win the
approval of any dinner guest? Or rather
how difficult is it to find authentic international cuisine in your local area
that isn’t sitting under a heat lamp swimming in grease and MSG? I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find a
good Greek restaurant in my town since moving here almost a year ago. Even good Mexican food is hard to find and
you got to wonder how hard can it be to make a decent taco?
It seems the only solution is to travel more. And hey, I am not opposed to travelling to
Thailand in order to experience, what I can only assume, will be amazing Thai
food. Unfortunately, I cannot go and
pack a year supply of take-out and leftovers in my carry-on in order to bring
the flavours of Thailand back with me.
Same goes with Cuba.
Refried-refried beans just don’t sound as nice.
The good news is that there are great programs available to
students and tourists travelling to foreign destinations that allow them to
bring all the food they love home with them, no doggy-bag required. It is called
“learning-to-cook-it-for-yourself”, or, if you prefer, “culinary school”.
Through a number of organizations including International Career
Studies, tour groups and individual travellers have been invited to travel
to destinations such as Cuba and Thailand in order to work alongside
master chefs and culinary experts in order to learn how to combine ingredients
and spices, work with the different traditional cooking methods, and create
menu items that scream authentic flavour.
The Cocina
Culinary School of Cuba is just one of the schools that are opening its
doors to international students. For
three hours a day, three to five days a week, you can take a short course of
Cuban cuisine that will cover regional foods and typical menu items, cover some
theory, provide lots of hands on instruction and in the end students receive a
certificate from the Federation of Association of the Republic of Cuba as proof
of participation.
Courses are designed for beginner to advanced cooking students
and the chance to learn to prepare international cuisine from professional
international chefs sounds irresistible for someone like me that truly
appreciates good, genuine regional food.
The only other option to satisfying my craving for time-honoured
Cuban home cooking is to move there permanently but I doubt my employer would
allow me to telecommute nor does that entirely solve my problem of wanting to
experience different types of international food. And if I thought finding a good Greek restaurant
here was hard, I can only imagine the limited options found in the
Caribbean. Plus I would miss poutine.
What are some of your favourite international foods? Would you be interested in learning to cook
them for yourself?
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