Culinary School is winding down and we are starting to focus on specific cuisines. This week we dabbled in Asian Cuisine and explored some of the flavors from Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China. Everything was really delicious and one of the best parts about the night is that we used absolutely NO butter! (my waist thanked me for that!)
Before diving into all the fabulous dishes we made, I want to share with you some of the exotic asian fruits and vegetables that we sampled.
This Rambutan was AMAZING… similar to a lychee… and perfect for cocktails.
This little morsel of goodness is a longan… and tasted a bit like fermented alcohol, but was otherwise delicious.
The big thing in the front is a cherimoya… and these are some of my favorite fruits. I was first exposed to the cherimoya in Tahiti a few summers ago and seriously ate them by the bagful. They aren’t really in season right now so it was only ok… but if you can find these in peak season… BUY THEM ALL!! And then eat them!
This is a kiwano… wasn’t my favorite taste… but look at those colors!
Asian melon tastes a bit like cantelope to me…
Now these inner banana leaves aren’t bright and vibrant, but check out that pattern on the inside! It would make a fabulous stamp!
Ok… onto the dishes!
This is tom-yum soup. I ate about 6 bowls of it. Each bowl was stuffed with shrimp and chicken and I was full before the other food was even done. Not smart!
Stir-fry noodle salad was filled with ground pork and shrimp and a billion cloves of chopped garlic… this is my kind of meal!
Chinese Chicken Salad – now you wouldn’t find this over in any country in Asia… but it is so popular in America that we just had to make it! I think it is the best chinese chicken salad I have ever had… and I have had a lot!
Beef and Chicken Satay with a Peanut Dipping Sauce with a Pickled Cucumber salad! These little bites were delicious, and the peanut sauce was an authentic sauce which means it didn’t taste as peanuty as I am used to… but it was still tasty!
BBQ Chinese Spareribs… perfect. delicious. amazing.
We also made different types of sushi…
California Rolls
Eel Rolls…
Last but not least was the Fried Banana and Jack Fruit with coconut ice cream. There aren’t even words for me to describe this… it was so freaking delicious I ate like I was a starving child and had never had food before. I am making this coconut ice cream again, with a few variations, so stay tuned because it is seriously mind blowing!
Only 3 more classes left before the big GRADUATION! Next up is more Asian Cuisine and then Latin American cuisine!
These are some fascinating ingredients! I've only tried the horned melon, made something with it a few months ago but didn't take a picture, then my store didn't have it again until this week. So, I'm looking forward to trying it again.
So glad you highlighted all these fruits! I'm headed to SE Asia this fall and now I can keep my eye out for some of them. The food looks amazing! It sounds like you are learning so much!
Lori – have so much fun in Asia this fall! All the fruits were really fun and so beautiful – I am sure there will be plenty more to try too!
So cool! I love seeing all of the unique fruits. Since I love canatloupe, I want to try the Asian melon! Thank you so much for sharing! Keep the pics coming
What a great class! Asian is so tasty!
Everthing looks amazing! I would love to learn how to make sushi at some point. Great pictures, as always! It's so awesome seeing everything you're learning and making.
What a feast for the eyes, Gaby. Be careful though. The cuisines of Asia will steal your heart and your palate. If you have the chance read Fushia Dunlop's book about becoming a Chinese cook. I suspect you'd love it and move on to her very authentic cook-books.
All of these were fascinating to learn about. A majority of them i hadn't seen or heard of before. i would love to be able to go to culinary school.
Everything looks amazing but the soup is calling my name. I could eat just that for dinner.
your so lucky that you get to go to a real culinary school!im so jealous.I'm glad you liked recipe.and I love your blog it's so cute!
Would love to have these recipes posted pn here!! Everything looks AMAZING