Gustoso…..

In honour of Italy winning the football we have named our new blog Gustoso.

Hope to see you over there….

Wrapped Up for Takeaway

Ahhh, all good things must come to an end.

The original challenge was to eat as many dishes from each of the countries participating in The World Cup. Of course, if we had done a little more planning to start off, we might have realised the plan was a little flawed. We really should have cooked the countries we didn’t think would make it through to the second round in the first two weeks…..

Of the 32 countries we ate 24 different cruisines over a period of 31 days.

We ate Italian and German three times, and only had a few nights off.

We discovered that delis and health food shops are vital to finding many of the rarer international ingredients.

Best plate: Italy vs Ukraine – Tagliatelle with ragu; Piccata al limone (veal with lemon sauce) and Char-grilled vegetable salad

Best Cup: Schneider Weisse The Orginal German Hefe-Weizen

Worst Plate: We ate Portugese twice, and both times it scored low. We would love it if you can prove us wrong, so please send us us your recipes?

Worst Cup: Brahma Beer
Most eventful match: Italy vs USA

Most painful match: Switzerland vs Ukraine

Embarassing moment: The butcher said he’d never been asked for frog’s legs before!!!!

Big M has started to save up for the European Cup which is in two years time, just so we don’t have to get up in the middle of the night and try to hold down a full-time job at the same time as following the football.

As you might have worked out by now we love our food, and are longing for a new challenge. So if you have any good ideas, please let us know.

Italy vs France

The Italian Cup
Paul Jaboulet Aine Les Traverses 2003 (Cotes du Ventoux)
Umani Ronchi Montepulciano D’Abruzzo 2004

The Italian Plate
Homemade sun-dried tomato and roasted onion pizza
Insalata Caprese (Tomato, Basil and Mozzarella salad)
Quaglie e Risotto Milanase (Quail with Risotto Milanese)

Score
* Big M – 9
Well the last dish had to finish on a high and it did. The spectacular colours of the Italian flag of the salad was a good omen for Italy. The pizza was our best creation yet and we have been making pizza for lunch on a Sunday for weeks. The quail wrapped in panchetta were fresh and tender but did not taste as gamey as I thought they might. And lastly, any wine from the Abruzzo region of Italy is a good one and this was no exception.

* Little m – 9
Another wonderful meal that tasted as good as it looks. It was fitting to finish on an Italian meal with their entertaining win.

Comments
We bought buffalo mozzarella cheese for the salad which was delicious, but terribly expensive! You can only use the freshest tomatoes with this dish.

Sadly we have reached the end of our little challenge. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did, and perhaps we might have even inspired you to try a recipe or two.

Germany vs Portugal

The German Cup
Jagermeister (herbal liquer)
Blue Nun Qualitatswein
Weihenstephaner Tradition Bayrisch Dunkel
Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier
Weihenstephaner Pilsner

The German Plate
Knackwurst in beer
Hot German potato salad
Football shaped Bavarian chocolate mousse

Score
* Big M – 8
The knackwurst again was an impressive German sausage and confirms to me that they really do make the best sausages. However the beer did not impose too much difference on the taste as I thought. The potato and the bacon of the salad go together like Italian football and controversy. I think we have now nearly tried the whole range of what Weihenstephan has to offer and my favourite was the Kristall Weissbier.

* Little m – 8.5
I have been intrigued by the Jagermeister bottle for awhile now. So it was with high hopes we had a nip on the rocks. Sadly it reminded us both of (naturopathic) herbal medicine! Now I’m going to have to find a cocktail to use up the rest of it, yet disguise some of its herbal taste.

The potato salad and sausages were excellent, and I hope we have them again!

Comments
We went shopping today for our two big feasts. One shop I can highly recommend to Brisbane readers is Di Maggio Mediterranean Deli (11 Clarence St, Coorparoo). They make their own pastas and sauce (- a dish of 500g lasagna is only $4!!!!). Most of their stock is Italian.

If you are after a German Bakery, visit the King of Cakes at the Gailey 5 Ways, Indooroopilly. (Also in Graceville and 17 Mile Rocks).

A Night Off

Big M had a break from cooking, and we went out to a lovely Italian restaurant on top of the hill at Bardon called Avanti Cafe & Pasta. From past visits, I can highly recommend their pasta dishes and you will be spoilt for choice.

On this occassion, it was terribly noisy, but we couldn’t resist rating our meals! I gave my special of the day – veal with tomato & roast vegetables a 7, only because it was lukewarm and I had to send it back to get reheated. Big M had Cioppino a bouillabaisse with plenty of great seafood. I give it an 8.5 for its freshness and quality of seafood, I have never had such good calamari.

Our biggest decision now is who to cook for on the weekend. Italy or France? We love both cruisines and have cooked two recipes a piece for each country. So please let us know if you have any recipe recommendations to help us decide. Either way, I am sure it is going to be a feast!

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Plate
Saudi Spinach with Chickpeas
Flatbread

Score
* Big M – 7.5
The taste of tomatoes went well with chickpeas and the flatbread mopped up juices well. We cheated this time and bought flat bread. For the Trinidad and Tobago dish we made flatbread – it takes quite a while but was worth every minute for the difference from the bought one.

* Little m – 7
A nice light vegetarian dish which was a little like Indian without the chilli!

Comments
Another easy vegetarian dish from Vegetarian World Food.

This is another one of our make up dishes. We have also missed the following football-loving countries: Angola, Iran, Paraguay, Poland, Serbia & Montenegro, Togo, Ukraine and the USA. These countries were knocked out of the competition early, and were a little more difficult to find recipes for. I am wondering if we have missed out on anything good?

Portugal vs France

The Portuguese Cup
Chateu Silex 2003 (French wine Costieres de Nimes)
The Portuguese Plate
Caldeirada De Peixe (Portuguese Fish Stew)

Score
* Big M – 6.5
The fish bought was not the best quality and did not really remind me of a stew as it did not take long to cook and so the flavours did not infuse.

* Little m – 6
I’m a fussy fish eater – I like to be able to see no bones, and it can’t smell fishy! The recipe calls for slices of crust-less bread, which made yummy jumbo croutons.

Germany vs Italy

The German Plate
Wiernerschnitzel - lightly breaded veal
Karotten in Bier – carrots in beer
Spatzle – German style egg noodles

Score
* Big M – 9
The carrots were the highlight, sounds silly but the beer sauce worked wonders! The schnitzel was also faultless and so brought it to a 9.

* Little m – 7
The veal and carrots were great. I thought a bit more beer sauce for the spatzle would liven it up.

Korea Republic

The Korean Plate
Korean Beef and steamed rice

Score
* Big M – 6
Good tastes, bad meat.

* Little m – 6
The beef was marinated in a lovely sauce and would easily have this meal again with some stir fried bok choy, capsicum, onions and carrots. Sadly the cut of meat we bought from Coles was tough and chewy!

Cote d’Ivoire

The Ivorian Plate
Savory Ivorian Chicken and Vegetables

Score
* Big M – 7
This was much better than the Portuguese equivalent but did not inspire too many emotions, I guess we are getting used to great cuisine!

* Little m – 7
A tomato flavoured rice dish, with pieces of chicken.

Comments
Cote d’Ivoire is also known as Ivory Coast.