Monday, April 13, 2009

Demonstrating Mexican Lunch to Japanese Friends (Mar 17)

Stephanie Cohan and I have been trying to figure out a good day to make a Mexican lunch with some of our Japanese friends and finally made it work out on Saint Patrick's Day of all days! I met these girls at the French Language Schools Amira and CPAB over the last year and have had fun getting to know them.

Several months ago, we had a Japanese lunch at Takako's apartment and now it was our turn to show them out to make American or Mexican cuisine. We settled on Mexican because it's more interesting than American cuisine, plus Stephanie is vegetarian, which defeats the purpose on making some of the most traditional American options. Stephanie and I demonstrated how to make 3 different kinds of Mexican dishes: Guacamole, Tasty Racy Quesadillas and Chicken Enchiladas. I had printed off the recipes for each person with detailed directions on how to make each item. We had the ladies help prepare the dishes so they would know how to make them on their own. Everything turned out delicious and I've heard that one of the girls, Naoko, actually made the guacamole and quesadillas for some friends of hers and her husband's recently.

We will be going to Takako's apartment again to learn how to make some more Japanese dishes in the next few months. The first time we made shrimp tempura which tasted fantastic; however, I was never brave enough to try and make it on my own! Stephanie, Maria and I have also made salmon sushi rolls in the past which have turned out pretty good. We all enjoy experimenting on making new kinds of cuisine. I've really come to like Thai food as well and have made it a few times and have gone to several restaurants here that are extremely good. In particular, I like the red and green coconut curry based Thai dishes. One of my favorite Thai restaurants in Brussels is 'Le Deuxieme Element' in the Saint Boniface area of Ixelles.

Takako, Mizuki, Naoko and Stephanie waiting to dive into the 'Tasty Racy Quesadillas'!
Takako making her first ever quesadilla!
Naoko making a quesadilla...she used to live in Houston, so she knows how good Mexican food tastes!

2 comments:

Dallas said...

That looks like a lot of fun, and very tasty too.

Anonymous said...

Hello Stephanie, I ws looking Mexicans in Flanders Belgium and I found your web. I am a Mexican and I am going to move to Belgium this coming summer, actually we are living in Dubai. Are you learning Dutch as well?
Is nice to know the Mexican Food is apreciated! Cheers! Gabriela. email: gbartmb@hotmail.com.