At the start of this year, Pencil and I resolved to explore the world from right here at home by cooking a meal a week from a different country, going from A-Z.
We spent the first 7 months of this year trying to decide where to start. Strong contenders for the letter “A” included Andorra, Azerbaijan, and Angola. We made some progress on researching recipes and ingredients, and planning a night to do the thing, but didn’t quite make it to the follow through stage.
By the end of July, I made an executive decision for us – instead of trying to cook a novel foreign cuisine meal each week, we were going to switch gears and just eat a new foreign cuisine meal each week.
I told Pencil that I was taking him out for a mystery meal tonight, and we ended up at Rumi in Brunswick East for dinner. This restaurant doesn’t focus on any specific country’s cuisine, but the broader region of the Middle East. Rumi – the poet-philosopher that this restaurant is named after – was born in Afghanistan, and even though his life and influence extended far beyond Afghanistan, I’m still counting this meal as a tick against the letter “A”. (Sue me.)
Great meal, especially the Sigara Böreği (cheese cigars), Almond Taratoor dip, and Eggplant M’nazleh. I will be going back.
And as for Pencil and my adventure exploring world cuisines, we have 5 months and 25 cuisines to go.
Mouthful of Ahimsa 