jcardoza2021

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Global Food Studies: Food Blog

As part of my studies for my bachelor's in the science of nursing I decided to take Global Food Studies to complete my world cultures requirements. One of the assignments of this class is to create a food blog to analyze my cultural influences and personal food choices. My name is Jermaine Cardoza I am a cape Verdean/ Portuguese American who just so happens to be married to a spicy Brazilian man. In learning about food and culture I have learned that as a nurse I am basically a modern-day forager. I tend to not put much thought into food these days as I work overnights in a busy emergency room here on Cape Cod Massachusetts. While the culture of nursing has taken over my life, I refuse to let it take over this blog. Outside of nursing my biggest influence in cuisine choices is my husband. My husband and I love to eat and cook food we have had to come to a happy medium when it comes to cooking and add or omit things to entice each other taste buds. My husband's cooking is limited to Brazilian food as it tends to be his connection to home. When he is often home sick, he calls his mother for a recipe and cooks something amazing for us. I was born and raised on the Cape, so I am a bit bolder when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen. My family is Cape Verdean and Portuguese, but I grew up eating all the American staples and a few traditional dishes from Cape Verde and Portugal. I have great memories of the care packages my paternal grandmother used to send me while attending college in Florida. Nana as I called her would send me Munchupa, Canja, (both are Cape Verdean soup) and my favorite treat  Gufong (a Cape Verdean donut). She would make the soup and freeze it for a couple of days then overnight ship it to me to enjoy. What I would do for just one last care package...

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Greek food: To continue with my birthday weekend my husband and I went to an Estia a Greek restaurant located in Falmouth Massachusetts. Estia is one of my husband’s favorite restaurants. After a delicious martini with porcini peppers stuffed with feta cheese, we were ready to order out meals. For appetizers we decided to have the grilled calamari, lamb lollipops, and stuffed grape leaves. For my main courses I ordered braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and broccoli. My husband ordered the chicken kabobs with risotto. The stuffed grapes leaves were the best appetizer the lemon dipping sauce on them really elevated the flavor. Unfortunately, the grilled calamari and the lamb lollipops did not meet our expectations. Fried calamari is the way to go, the texture of the grilled calamari was just too gummy for my liking. The lamb lollipops looked amazing and were cooked to perfection. However, they were overpowered by the amount of rosemary they were cooked with which made them less than desirable. My main course of braised short ribs where absolutely amazing along with the mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes had some feta cheese or something in them that was a delectable surprise. I'm not sure how Greek braised short ribs are as just about every restaurant has them on the menu. The chicken kabobs are my husband’s go to meal at this restaurant and as always, he was in heaven and ate every last bite. We always like to try a new item every time we go to a restaurant and over all the experience was really good minus the calamari. We have had the lamb lollipops in the past and they have been amazing so maybe there was a new cook who over did the rosemary. After appetizers and dinner, we did not have any room for dessert but that did not stop us from taking a piece of baklava home for the both of us. This phyllo dough dessert is a staple in Greek food and has layers of honey, nuts, and cinnamon. It was a great treat to eat just before bed and end my birthday weekend.

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Jagacida=  Jagacida or Jag is a traditional Cape Verdean rice dish. It can be eaten as a side dish or can even be a main course. I often eat Jag for dinner and wake up the next morning and pan fry the jag and put two fried eggs over the top. Jag consists of spices, green beans, linguica and in my family must be made with uncle bens non-converted rice. The recipe for Jag varies depending on the family or the cook. In our family my auntie Val makes the best Jag just do not tell my mom that as she taught her sister how to make Jag. Jag starts buy melting a stick of butter and sautéing the onions till they get translucent then you add in the linguica. After which you put in a whole can of green beans including the water. At this point you add the spices such as seasoned salt, paprika, and pepper. I also like to add some garlic and a giant squeeze of ketchup. After all that is in the pot you mix it around and add the rice and mix until all the rice is nicely coated with the mixture. Then you add your water and bring to a boil. Once your Jag is boiling you give it a stir, put on the lid, and let it simmer for 30 min. Jag is a great dish to cook the day before as it tastes even better after letting it rest for 24 hours. If you bring jab to a party, it is generally one of the first items to be devoured.

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Munchupa the considered to be the national dish of the Cape Verdean islands. This Is a hearty stew enjoyed year-round. The recipe for Munchup varies from family to family but there are a few base ingredients that are the same no matter who makes them. Based off my great aunts' recipes ingredients include yellow samp (dried corn), beef shank, kale, lima beans, onion, linguica. My grandmother used to put potatoes and other cuts of meat as well. My grandmother used to make me Munchup, and freeze it so she could send it to me when I lived in Florida. For me Munchup was the taste of home when I lived out of state. My favorite part of eating Munchup is the samp. When I cook it, I add extra just because their can never be enough samp in my stew. Munchup is a stew that does not require a lot of spices just some salt and pepper is all you need. I personally like to put some red pepper flakes in my Munchup as I prefer mine to have a little kick to it. But it is cooked on low and slow to intensify the flavor profile. Like most cape Verdean food Munchup tastes better the next.

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Conja= Is a simple but delicious Cape Verdean chicken soup, every culture has their own version of chicken soup. Conja has a much thicker broth then traditional American chicken soup. What is interesting is I always considered Conja to be a Cape Verdean soup but my husband who is from Brazil makes a delicious Conja. Both cultures call their chicken soup Conja except the Portuguese version is even thicker than the cape Verdean version of the soup. Traditionally the soup is making with chicken on the bone, rice, onion, and celery. The most important part of cooking Conja is using the chicken with the one so that the bone marrow flavors the broth. This should not be skipped as the marrow adds extra richness to the flavor profile of the broth. as with any cape Verdean food it is always enjoyed best the day after making it let it rest so the flavors have time to marry. I have great memories growing up eating the soup in my grandmother’s kitchen. the recipes very from person to person. My grandma Bessie used to make the best Conja. Unfortunately, she never shared her recipe with any of her children as it was a secret recipe she took to her grave. However, my grandmother made a version almost as good, and this is another item she would freeze and send to me when I lived in Florida.

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Gofong- is a tradition Cape Verdean dessert that is similar to a plain old fashioned cruller donut. Gofong are a sweet dessert that is crunchy on the outside with a firm but soft center. They can be enjoyed plain for breakfast with coffee or tea. When It comes to dessert you can top them with chocolate sauce, condensed milk, or powdered sugar. The recipe of the Gofong varies from family to family. In my family generally we use banana or squash. I have experimented with pumpkin and apple which turned out fantastic. They do come into versions one of which is made with flower and the other with corn meal. I prefer the ones made with flour as they tend to be moist, and have more flavor of the banana or squash really comes through. Whereas the corn meal tends to be on the dry side and the flavor of the corn meal competes with the other ingredients. Typically, ingredients include flour/ corn meal, sugar, baking powder and banana/ squash. The dough is very dense when mixing after which you roll the dough into the size of a thick finger. You then deep fry them till a little more than golden brown. After that you let them rest on a paper bag to absorb the excess oil out of the donut. These are one of my favorite cape Verdean foods to eat. I like to eat my plan I do not need any sauce or sugar on them.

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The Thuan Loi Restaurant experience. If you like Vietnamese food this restaurant is Yarmouth Massachusetts is the real deal. It a very unassuming restaurant that you would just drive passed and not think about twice. My husband and I stumbled upon this gem and where not disappointed. We tried the national dish of Vietnam called pho. It is a delicious soup that is Made with natural beef broth and served with flat rice noodle, Rare Steak, Beef Brisket, Flank and Beef Tendon. Topped with chopped scallion, cilantro, and onions. Bean sprouts, basil, chili peppers, and lime are served on the side. Pho is a great soup packed with flavor and protein. Also on the menu is their fried rice. I have never had fried rice so good in my life. They make their fried rice with jasmine rice. I am generally not a fan of jasmine rice but Thuan Loi rice is perfection. All the flavors blend well together and there is no overpowering flavor of peanut oil. We tried few other things on the menu as well that I can remember the name of, but everything was extremely delicious, and we cannot wait to go back soon.

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Blooming onion:  I was first introduced to the blooming onion years ago at the Outback Steakhouse. Sadly, the one on Cape Cod closed and I went many years without eating one. This all changed when I walked past the clearance section at CVS. YES!!!! CVS, honey... I purchased an air frying for 70% off making it a whopping 20 dollars... I quickly rushed home and took it out of the box and to my surprise it had a recipe book inside. The one that stood out to me was the blooming onion. Elated that my taste bud would be reunited with this savory, salty, and crunchy onion I made it for the first time that night. The hardest part is cutting the onion properly, so it looks like a flower in bloom during springtime. The trick is to cut off the top of the onion and leaving the root end in tacked. Then turn the cut side down and cut the onion in 4 quarters. Then cut each quarter in half. Then you need to cut each 8th in half one more time. After which you dredge the onion in seasoned flour and give it an egg bath. Then repeat one more time dip in flour and give an egg bath and then flour one last time. Then give the top a misting of cooking spray and place in the air frying on 375 for 20 minutes. While it is cooking make the zesty dipping sauce with mayo, sour cream, ketchup, Cajun seasoning, paprika, garlic powder, and for an added kick some house radish sauce. This is a great go to recipe for last minute guest as it is a tried-and-true party favorite. Cutting the onion in 16th gives you nice crisp petals to pull off the onion and dip in the tangy dipping sauce

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Japanese BBQ: I was reading anther students blog who shared with the class that her favorite place to eat was a Japanese BBQ restaurant called Gyu-Kaku. It sounded fantastic and right up my husband and I’s ally of food we love to eat when we go to New York. My birthday is January 15th, so we made a reservation for a late lunch for something fun for use to do since a party is not a clever idea due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We were overly excited to be there and took a quick look at the menu and since it was are first time, we decided to go with the supreme all you can eat menu for $60 per person and you can choose from 71 different items. They advise you to order cautiously as they may also charge extra for copious amounts of wasted leftovers. We were able to choose thinly slices of beef like filet mignon, ribeye, beef tongue, and many others great cuts of premium beef. Other option included where  pork belly, BBQ calamari as well as sushi. The meat came with either a marinated or seasoned with salt and pepper and you cook the meat yourself at the table for 2 to 3 minutes per side depending on the cut. I personally love eating steak and I was in heaven when it came to the meat portion of this meal. I was excited to try the spicy addicting cucumber which was not very spicy or addicting. We got to try bacon chips which almost seemed like it was fried and then dehydrated bacon the texture was a bit like Styrofoam. I would have to give the bacon chips a five-star rating they were absolutely delicious and much more addicting than the cucumbers. I like to eat a little bit of everything with each bit so I got the garlic fried rice to add to every bite. At first, I was not impressed with the rice as the taste was ok, but I think i was more just disappointed it did not look like the picture on the menu. Once I dug deep into the rice the bottom was brown and caramelized with thinly sliced onions which added a crunchy smokey flavor that enhanced the rice and it quickly turned my disappointment into pleasure as I finished every grain of rice. My husband and I eat pork belly all the time but the Brazilian way to prepare it is too deep fry or air fry it, so it is nice and crispy. The pork belly on the electric stove was just a mushy mess and I could not get passed the texture to enjoy the taste of it. At the end of the meal, we got the Taiyaki with ice cream as it was the closest thing to cake, they had on the menu. It was a fried puff pastry shaped like a Koi fish filled with a sweet red bean cream inside. I must say while the dessert was hot it was absolutely delicious. I was quite surprised how tasty red beans could be in a dessert. My husband said this is something that he used to eat in Brazil all the time. In general beans do not grace the dessert menu in America unless it chocolate or vanilla beans. Overall, the experience was great, and I would absolutely go back. They had a meat lovers' option that was significantly less expensive but limited options that I think would suit me better the next time visit as the meat was the best part of the experience.