When I was traveling the world I always learned about new food, then when back home I’d try to recreate it and invite friends and family who have no possibility to travel to taste it.
Now I haven’t had the possibility to travel to new places for the last couple of years, but I wonder if you guys have some tips what I could try to make. Something not too complicated but to some extend exotic.
My tip would be the the Sabich which I tried in Jerusalem in 2019. A flatbread with eggplant, egg, other vegetables and sauces. Sweet and savory.
Exotic is in the eye of the beholder. When I was a kid (around 1970?) my dad brought home a couple of Russian Cosmonauts who were visiting JPL. My mom made fried chicken or something, but what fascinated them was her pecan pie. One was saying he would see if his wife could try making it, and we wondered afterwards how it would taste, considering they’d probably have to substitute walnuts… And did they have molasses or corn syrup?
This is a pretty neat story. How surreal was it to have Russians at your house in the 70s?
Also here is an article from the 70s that said the USSR was the largest producer of sugar beets in the world. So it’s safe to say they had molasses. Not sure about what nuts they had.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/14/archives/soviet-spurring-sugarbeet-crop-drive-to-raise-output-may-depress.html
Molasses were not very popular though. Sugar was mostly used directly. Tons and tons of fucking walnuts. Never heard of pecans until iron curtain fell.
Really, interesting I wonder where the molasses went? It is just a by-product of sugar production. I would have figured it would have been all over the place as a cheap sugar source. Do you mind saying what part of the USSR you were in? I wonder if it was regional? I will have to do some reading
I’m from Ukraine, but I’ve been to a bunch of countries that used to be Soviet republics and I can’t say molasses were popular anywhere. It may have been used for animal feed, but not really popular in any human recepies.
Pecan pie as delicious as it is weird. As an American I consider it an exotic delicacy, even if most of our aunties can make it.