Traveling & Food Culture

Alex and I have a few shows that we dvr daily (reruns). There's Sex and the City which I watch during lunchtime or while making dinner. Alex's favorite is Two and a Half Men. We usually end up watching it together after dinner or later in the evening. The last show is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.

 

If you have not seen this show and you're interested in food, cultures, or traveling then you should definitely check it out! It's on the Travel Channel. We love to watch it because it gives us a little taste of different countries (even continents). While we can't always travel to places as exotic as Andrew we're looking forward to doing a little US travel over the next 6 months.

 

We'll be heading to Cincinnati, Cleveland, Niagara Falls (Canada), Louisville (for Derby!), Chicago, Columbus, Toledo, Sandusky and potentially even a cruise out of Galveston, TX and a weekend trip to Washington, DC. It's so fun to have friends in all different cities and to have the flexibility and income to travel for a short weekend or even a week!

 

We also have a wish list of places we would like to go... Among them are Europe, New Zealand or Australia, and Hawaii.

Luckily our taste buds change every 7 years and I'm becoming more adventurous with food and seafood. As we've learned from Bizarre Foods, the food in a place can help you learn just as much about their culture as you can from the people.

I just found and tried this recipe last night that turned out to be Hawaiian... It's a delightful way to bake ahi or mahi mahi encrusted with an onion mayonnaise with fresh crab meat.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. block of ahi or mahi mahi
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup chopped round onions
• 1 cup shredded or chopped crabmeat
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Preparation:

• Cut fish into steaks about 3/4 inch thick.
• Salt and pepper fish as desired and place in a baking dish.
• Stir mayonnaise, onions and crab meat together and spread over fish.
• Spread bread crumbs evenly on top of fish steaks, pressing lightly to hold in place.
• Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20-25 minutes.

Maybe I have been watching too much Bizarre Foods because I always seem to want to write about food! For this recipe I used ahi tuna. I thought that I had crab meat already on hand, but when I realized I was out I went ahead and made the recipe without it and it was still delicious. If you're making this for company or happen to love crab, I would recommend throwing it on top because it adds an extra luxuriousness to the entree.

Since I'm not a fish lover, the thought of grilling fish was a little intimidating since I would have no idea when it would be done. Baking seems to be a great place to start. Next on my list will be tackling salmon!