the piri-piri tea party: food traditions around the world

14 Jun 2013


I hope you are feeling hungry because today's post is an awesome one bringing food from around the world to your table. Sit back, relax and grab a pen and paper for your next meal's recipe. 

Food is a gateway to other cultures


This quote from Hapa Mom sums up why I think cooking our children food from around the world and making their taste buds tingle with different tastes, textures and smells is a very important aspect of making our children feel at home in the world. A great example of that is Becky and her kids exploring French cheeses.

Our daughter's love for spicy Portuguese chorizo and strong French goat's cheese since she was 10 months old and her eagerness to taste feijoada and unknown fruits (like acerola) while we visited Brazil last summer are just part of how we try and raise a little global citizen. We are a foodie family and we love to discover cultures through food. We hope that LJ will share this love. 

Below you will find amazing and often very simple family recipes to share and/or make with your kids and bring a little taste of the other side of the world to your table.

Bon appétit!

Europe

Britain:
- Scotch rolls: easy yet delicious pastries.
- Rarebit: Welsh cheese on toast.

France:
- Quiche: easy week-night dinner option.
- Huguenot split pea soup: most likely a very multicultural dish rather than French.

Ireland:
- Colcannon: delicious mashed potato with cabbage.

Italy:
- Chicken parmesan: easy crockpot version.
- Raviolis: homemade and surprisingly easy.

Poland:
- Blinis: delicious topped with smoked salmon.

Portugal:
- Caldeirada: the best fish stew ever (honest!).

Russia:
- Cutlets: little meat patties (and morning-sickness proof).

Ukraine:
- Pierogi: Russian or Ukrainian mashed potato-filled dumplins.

Americas


photo from De su Mama

Belize:
- Fish serre: an impressive yet easy way to impress your friends.

Bolivia:
- Tamarind Pop: a great alternative to lemonade to cool down.
- Charquecan: great kids finger food. 

Costa Rica:
- Tamal Asado: a sweet cornbread.

Cuba:
- Arroz con pollo: Cuban version of a paella.

Peru (& the Andes):
- Spicy fries: a lovely and easy way to spice up your fries.
- Huancaina sauce: a great sauce to put on meat or crackers.

Puerto Rico:
- Arroz con gandules: a rice with peas dish traditinally eaten for the holidays.

USA:
- Zucchini rounds: very easy baked zucchini (courgettes).
- Bannock: a traditional Saskatchewan bread.
- Homemade yoghurt: woah! 

Africa


Morocco:
- Chicken and preserved lemon tajine: my kind of food! Off to make it!
- Sweet couscous: fruits and couscous - what's not to love?

Tanzania:
- Irio: mashed potatoes with veggies. Great to get the kids to eat vegetables.

Irio - Image from the Global Table Adventure

Asia


China:
- Hot and sour soup: comfort food at its best.
- Fortune cookies: I bet you have had them but never baked them yourself.
- Pineapple rice recipe: so aesthetically pleasing and surprising.
- Wonton soup: like eating little clouds

India:
- Lamb stew: slow-cooked sweet lamb.

Philippines:
- Pancit: you can't go wrong with rice noodles and chicken.

Australia & Oceania


New Zealand:
- Pavlova: delicious meringue topped with summer berries

Papua New Guinea:
- Mumu: veggies and meat in banana leaves.


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You can also learn a little bit more about some countries' food habits in the following posts:
- about eating Injera with your hands like in Ethiopia?
- about the great British roast dinner or fish and chips with mushy peas.
- about the sweet tendency of the Dutch kids food
- a lovely Japanese breakfast spread
- or why my family and I adopted British food.

How about organising a global feast in your school? Or how about taking part in the largest global feast in the world with dishes from every single country?

Other activities around food include this great discovery travel of Norway or Mongolia.

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This post was written for the Multicultural Kids blogging carnival, a fabulous community of bloggers dedicated to raising world citizens through multicultural art, crafts, food, etc. Thank you to all who participated.

Some of the classification of the dishes is a little aleatory and may reflect the writer rather than the country itself as many of us have multicultural origins too.

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