On their appetizer menu, fresh and crispy spring rolls are both typical of Lao cuisine. We ordered the Crying Tiger, which is sliced and grilled flank steak served with spicy lemongrass sauce and soy sauce. Lemongrass, galangal, and padaek (Lao fish sauce) are key ingredients in Lao cuisine. This dish and Larb (also on the menu), is one of the most famous Lao dishes (Wikipedia: Lao Cuisine) and is spicy marinated meat and/or fish combined with herbs, greens, and spices. The dish may be served raw. Our Crying Tiger was very flavorful and spicy.

We also ordered Pad Thai and Panang, which they also have in Laos. The most emblematic dish they suggested we order was Kai Yang (barbecued chicken), which was slowly grilled chicken that was seasoned and served with sticky rice. We also ordered the recommended Green Papaya Salad to go along with it. According to Wikipedia’s entry on Kai yang:

Kai yang or ping gai is a dish originating from the Lao people of Laos and Isan (Northeastern Thailand), but it is now commonly eaten throughout the whole of Thailand. The dish is a standard staple of street markets and readily available at all times. Being a typical Laotian/Isan dish, it is often paired with som tam/tam mak hoong and sticky rice. It is also eaten with raw vegetables, and often dipped in spicy sauces such as Laotian jaew bong. The Laotian name for the dish is means “roast chicken.” In Laotian restaurants in the West, it is known as “Laotian barbecued chicken” or “ping gai”.

A whole chicken is often halved and pounded flat. It is marinated and then grilled over a low heat on a charcoal flame for a long time, but is not cooked to be burnt or dry. The marinade typically includes fish sauce, garlic, turmeric, coriander root (cilantro), and white pepper.

We thought that this dish was really delicious. The sticky rice really separated it from Thai cuisine. We read on Lao Food that this is one of the key staples of Lao cuisine, where the food is often raw or room temperature and served with sticky rice. Diners take small handfuls of the rice, knead it into a ball, and then dip it into condiments and eat it, along with fish or meat. The sticky rice went really well with the chicken, and it also came with a tangy sauce, which was probably tam mak hoong, which is a traditional sauce eaten with sticky rice.

Lao cuisine has many regional variations, according in part to the fresh foods local to each region. A French legacy is also apparent in the capital city, Vientiane, such that baguettes are sold on the street, and French restaurants (often with a naturally Lao, Asian-fusion touch) are common and popular.

The final dish we ordered was Wild Boar Basil, which the owners said was also Lao. According to Lao Food, hunted or wild animals are common in Lao cuisine, due to the proximity to the forest. We couldn’t find a lot of information on this dish, aside from the fact that it seems common at other Thai restaurants.

The one stample of Swedish cuisine does, in fact, seem to be the meatballs and lingonberry sauce. The lingonberry is plentiful in Sweden. IHOP’s Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce is actually surprisingly authentic. The Swedish pancakes (crepes) are similar to the French crêpes. The traditional pancake in Sweden is served with whipped cream and jam, and that is how they were served at the House of Sweden (we had strawberry jam). They can also have savory fillings.

According to Wikipedia’s smörgåsbord:

The members of the Swedish merchant and upper class in fourteenth-century Sweden and Finland served schnapps table
(brännvinsbord), a small buffet presented on a side table offering a variety of hors d’oeuvres served prior to a meal before sitting at the dinner table. The most simple brännvinsbord was bread, butter, cheese, herring and several types of liqueurs, but smoked salmon, sausages and cold cuts were also served. The brännvinsbord was served as an appetizer for a gathering of people and eaten while standing before a dinner or supper, often two to five hours before dinner, sometimes with the men and women in separate rooms. The smörgåsbord became popular in the mid-seventeenth century, when the food moved from the side table to the main table and service began containing both warm and cold dishes. Smörgåsbord was also served as an appetizer in hotels and later at railway stations, before the dining cars time for the guests. Restaurants in Stockholm at the 1912 Olympic Games stopped serving smörgåsbord as an appetizer and started serving them instead as a main course.

We had the requisite open faced sandwich, which is so popular in Scandinavian cuisine, except the Swedish sandwich was topped with meatballs. We also had some hot dogs; unlike American hot dogs, these were thinner and much longer. They did not fit inside the bun and were served with mustard. These are called falukorv, and a large traditional Swedish sausage made of a grated mixture of pork and beef or veal with potato starch flour and mild spices:

The history of Falukorv reaches back to the Falun copper mine during the 16th and 17th centuries, where ox hide was used for ropes and some of the meat remaining after slaughter was used for sausages. The sausage was based on the Lyoner sausage; the recipe, in which the meat is smoked and salted, was probably brought to the region by Germans working in the mine.

The tradition of preparing the meat in this way was revitalised in the late 19th century by the butcher Anders Olsson, whose initiative led to the development of the modern Falukorv, which uses a mixture of pork and beef or veal. Falukorv has enjoyed high popularity since then.

The designation Falukorv received protection in Sweden in 1973. (Wikipedia – Falukorv)

The most interesting item we tried was the Princess Cake, also known as the Prinsesstårta. We bought a large slice of this cake, which is layers of white cake with whipped cream, jam and then a layer of marzipan that was sprinkled with powdered sugar. According to the Wikipedia Princess Cake entry: ”the original recipe first appeared in the 1930s ‘Prinsessornas Kokbok’ cookbook, which was published by Jenny Åkerström, a teacher of the daughters of Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. The cake was originally called ‘Grön tårta’ (green cake), but was given the name ‘prinsesstårta’ or ‘princess cake’ because the princesses were said to have been especially fond of the cake.”

We also learned was that Swedish Fish really are Swedish. The candy was made by a Swedish candy company called Malaco. They decided to start exporting to the North American market in the 1960s and 1970s and created Swedish Fish and Swedish Berries. The original color was red with a unique flavor, perhaps lingonberry. However, in Sweden they are called “pastel fish” (pastellfiskar), are paler in color, and more translucent. The are less sweet and more fruit-flavored, and also come in a licorice and salty licorice flavor.

The 2011 Finnish Christmas Bazaar was today at the Unitarian Church on River Road in Bethesda, Maryland. We were surprised to find the place completely packed, and encountered a lot of Finnish-speaking people. We didn’t know there was such a large Finnish community in the area. There were lots of Christmas items to buy and a small cafeteria serving Finnish food, which was mostly open-faced sandwiches, breads, and pastries.

There were several open sandwiches we tried, including a sandwich with lox, a sandwich with salami, and a sandwich with herring. When we looked up Open Sandwiches on Wikipedia, we saw that Finland was mentioned as a one of the countries that favors these, along with all of Scandinavia:

The Scandinavian open sandwich (Danish: smørrebrød, Norwegian: smørbrød, Swedish: smörgås) consists of one piece of buttered bread, often whole-grain rye bread (Danish: rugbrød, Swedish: rågbröd), topped with, for instance, cold steak, shrimps, smoked salmon, caviar, hard boiled eggs, bacon, herring, fish fillets, liver pâté (Danish: leverpostej, Norwegian: leverpostei Swedish: leverpastej), and/or small meatballs. This is typically complemented by some herbs and vegetables such as parsley, cold salad, thinly sliced cucumber, tomato wedges and/or pickled beets etc. on the same slice of bread. A condiment, such as mayonnaise, or mayonnaise-based dressing is also often included in some form. An old traditional replacement for butter on a piece of bread with herring is pig fat. There are many variations associated with the smørrebrød/smørbrød/smörgås and there are even special stores, cafés and restaurants (especially in Denmark) that specialize in them. In Finland the sandwich is called voileipä which also means “butter bread” and the Finnish rye bread is ruisleipä.

We enjoyed the liberal use of butter on the sandwiches. We also smelled like herring for most of the afternoon after eating the sandwiches. The sandwiches were presented in a pretty way, so we liked that.

The most interesting item we tried was the Karelian pasties, which is a pretty dish consisting of potato encased in a rye shell topped with egg. We thought it was unusual and yummy. Wikipedia describes it as:

The oldest traditional pasties usually had a rye crust, but the North Karelian and Ladoga Karelian variants also had wheat alongside of rye to improve the baking characteristics of the available rye breads. The common fillings of this era were barley and talkkuna. The 19th century first introducedpotatoand buckwheat as new fillings, and later due to trade, also rice and millet.

Nowadays in the most familiar and common recipe the pasties are made from a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Butter, often mixed with boiled egg (egg butter or munavoi), is spread over the hot pasties before eating.

In addition, we sampled some glögi, which is Finnish mulled wine. It was delicious and served wit slivered almonds and raisins. For dessert we had joulutortut, which is a star-shaped Finnish pastry filled with prune preserves. There is a recipe for it online.

We tried to get a variety of everything we could find, since we were really only familiar with goulash as being Hungarian. The first item we tried as an open-faced sandwich served on rye bread. It had a type of pimento cheese spread, slices of salami, sliced bell peppers, and sliced pickles. We read that this type of dish is a common Hungarian breakfast food. Salami is popular in Hungary and they make many varieties.

We also ordered some main entrees. These included the infamous Hungarian goulash and a bean soup, served with sour cream. The Budapest Tourist Guide describes goulash as:

Authentic gulyás is a beef dish cooked with onions, Hungarian paprika powder, tomatoes and some green pepper. Potato and noodles (csipetke in Hungarian) are also added according to some recipes. Hungarian goulash is neither a soup nor a stew, it’s somewhere in between. Though in Hungary it’s considered rather to be a soup than a stew, so look for it among Soups on restaurant menus. If cooked in the proper way goulash has a nice and evenly thick consistency, almost like a sauce. In Hungary gulyás is eaten as a main dish; noodle or pastry dishes, especially the ones made with cottage cheese (túrós csúsza, túrógombóc, strudel) go down well after the heavy soup.

Our soups came with noodles (nokedli or galuska), which were similar to spätzle and a liberal dollop of sour cream.

The entrees came with túrós csusza, which was noodles with cottage cheese, chopped bacon, and sour cream. Chew.hu notes:

Along with mákos tészta (poppy seed pasta), túrós csusza (“TOO-ROS CHOO-SA “) is a Hungarian pasta dish that non-Hungarians are likely to find somewhat outlandish. In addition to heaps of túró (curd cheese), túrós csusza is usually topped with plenty sour cream and cubes or strips of greasy bacon.

We actually found it to be similar to a cross between a carbonara and an alfredo. This is a very traditional Hungarian dish. There’s a recipe for it on Best Things Hungary. Along with this, we were also served szekely kaposzta, which is a traditional stew made of cabbage, sauerkraut, and pork. There are recipes for it online, and it is a perfect winter dish. Our other entree was white rice topped with tomato, which was rather bland.

They had a wide variety on desserts and we received somloi galuska with our meal and ordered palacsinta. The somloi galuska is best described by Eastern European Food at About.com (which also includes a recipe):

This decadent Hungarian trifle recipe is known as somloi galuska (shom-loh-ee gah-LOOSH-kah), and is made with three different-flavored sponge cakes, pastry cream, raisins, walnuts, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

The traditional presentation is to scoop three balls of this dessert into a bowl or on a plate, dollop with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate sauce. A modern presentation is to cut it into squares so the different layers are evident. Rum is traditionally used in the simple syrup and chocolate sauce, but it can be omitted.

Ours did not have raisins, but did have chopped walnuts, whipped cream, and rum in it. It was definitely decadent, especially after all the other heavy food.

The palacsinta was a filled crepe. These can also be eaten with savory fillings, but ours had strawberry jam, apricot jam, and nutella garnished with whipped cream. We read that this is very traditional.

By the time we left, the whole building was packed and their was dancing and a big party happening.

April

• Sunday 10(?): Thailand – Songkran Festival (MD)

August

• Sunday 28: Sri Lanka – Sir Lankan Food Bazaar(DC)

September

• Saturday 17-Sunday 18: Ukraine – Saint Andrew Orthodox Catherdal Festival (DC)
• Sunday 28?: Greece - Saint Sophia Greek Festival (DC)

October 2011

• Saturday 1-Sunday 2: Russia - Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist  (see our post) (MD)
• Sunday 2: Turkey – Turkish Festival (DC)
• Sunday 9: Italy – Festa Italiana (DC)
• Saturday 15-Sunday 16: Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia - St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral (DC)
• Wednesday 19-Sunday 22: Armenia - St. Mary Armenian Apostolic Church Fall Food Festival (MD)

November 2011

• Friday, 4: Russia - St. Mark Orthodox Church Ethnic Food Festival and Bazaar (MD)
• Saturday, 5-Sunday 6: Hungary - Hungarian Christmas Bazaar (MD)
• Saturday, 12: Denmark - The Annual Danish Christmas Bazaar (DC)
• Saturday, 21: Finland - Finnish Christmas Bazaar (MD)

December

• Saturday, 3: Sweden – Swedish Christmas Bazaar (DC)

For Oktoberfest, Old Europe had a variety of Bavarian dishes, including weisswurst with pretzels. As it turns out, pretzels are traditionally German (unlike other cuisine that’s actually invented in America). They have existed in Germany for centuries and was brought here by German immigrants. However, the hard pretzel is an American culinary invention and was invented in 1850. Pretzels are so popular that the annual United States pretzel industry is worth over $550 million and the average American consumes about 1.5 pounds (0.7 kg) of pretzels per year (see “Pretzel“).

Weisswurst is a veal sausage that is rarely served outside of Bavaria. In fact, the sausage helped coin the term “weißwurstäquator”:

Weißwurstäquator is a humorous term describing the (supposedly) very different culture and dialect of the southern part of Germany, especially Bavaria, and the rest of the country. The term refers to the fact that Weißwurst is a favorite dish in Bavaria, but seldom served in the other regions.

We also had some beer and some delicious dishes, including weiner schnitzel. According to Wikipedia:

There is a debate as to where schnitzel originated. Some say it appeared in Vienna during the 15th or 16th century. One hypothesis is that it could have been brought to Austria during the Battle of Vienna in 1683 by Polish and German troops. According to another hypothesis, it was introduced in 1857 by Field Marshal Radetzky, who spent much of his life in Milan. The term Wiener Schnitzel itself dates to at least 1845. Variants of this dish are common around the world.

In addition, we had a dish with fried pretzel dumplings and potato pancakes with apple sauce. Our other traditional dish was the Rheinischer Sauerbraten (marinated beef, topped with a sweet and sour raisin sauce, and toasted almonds served with), which is considered the national dish of Germany and has an ancient history:

Several sources believe sauerbraten was invented by Charlemagne in the ninth century AD as a means of using leftover roasted meat. Saint Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is also credited with popularizing the dish in the thirteenth century. Julius Caesar has been assigned a role in the inspiration for sauerbraten as he purportedly sent amphoras filled with beef marinated in wine over the Alps to the newly founded Roman colony of Cologne. According to this legend, this inspired the residents of Cologne to imitate the Roman import. While quite common, these claims are largely unsubstantiated.

We also asked for extra dumplings and spätzle on the side. Spätzle, a German noodle, which is more like an egg noodle and dense and irregular in shape. We learned that spätzle‘s origin is not unknown:

Various regions claim to be the originators of this noodle. Written mention of Spätzle has been found in documents dating from 1725, although medieval illustrations are believed to place this noodle at an even earlier date. Today, in Europe spätzle are largely considered a “Swabian speciality” and are generally associated with the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The leading German producer is Herrman, which produces approximately 13,000 tons per year. The estimated annual commercial production of spätzle in Germany is approximately 40,000 tons, which does not include spätzle made by individual households and restaurants.

According to Old Europe‘s website, they will have a new winter menu:

The winter solstice is met with our wild game menu. Venison, Wild Boar and Hassenpfeffer join savory cabbage, home-made soups and the tradtional hot-mulled Burgundy called “Glühwein” to warm the body and gladden the heart.

Armenian food has a lot of elements that might already be familiar to many from other Ottoman cuisines. Items featured at the festival included lamb and chicken kebab (served in platters off the skewer at the festival, these kebabs were prepared in bite-sized chunks), hummus, cheese pies, dolmas, and baklava.

Advantour describes one key element of Armenian food: the importance of meat and diary:

Armenian Cuisine is as ancient as its history, as the land it is standing on. Armenian

culinary traditions are over 2000 years old. The abundance of meat on Armenian tables is the result of the most ancient development of cattle breeding in Armenian uplands which led to such a variety of livestock and poultry. Cattle breeding was also the source of various dairy products – basically brine-ripened cheeses as well as sour-milk products which serve as the basis for traditional Armenian dishes and beverages.

We ordered stuffed peppers (stuffed with ground beef, rice, vegetables, herbs, and spices), tepsi boreg (baked pastry made of phyllo dough filled with feta cheese and shredded mozzarella), khadayif (dessert made with shredded phyllo, sweet cheese, and simple syrup), and kurabiya (four-based cookie shaped like a diamond or the letter “S”). They also offered eech (bulgur salad), kebab, hummus, yalanchi (stuffed grape leaves), Armenian style green beans, and more.

Stuffing is apparently a feature of Armenian food, according to Armenian Cuisine on Wikipedia, which notes:

In addition to grape leaves, Armenians also stuff cabbage leaves, Swiss chard leaves, eggplants, zucchini or squash, tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, various meats (particularly organ meats), whole fish, apples, quince, and even cantaloupe.

We really enjoyed the tepsi boreg, which also seems to be common in Turkey since we found a lot of Turkish sites referring to it. This is a cheese pie filled with feta, but the pastry is also soft and almost lasagna-like in the middle. It was cut as a rectangle. Our other cheese pie, the triangle boreg, was filled with muenster and had a crispy phyllo crust. We probably have never met a cheese pie we don’t like.

The food festival had an impressive spread of desserts. Since one of us has a prohibitive nut allergy, we ended up only getting those desserts that did not contain nuts. This included choreg, which is brioche-like bread that was filled with cheese. It wasn’t sweet, but was more savory. This was also available in a twisted variety and this bread is common in the Ottoman Empire countries and is often served at Easter. We sampled a cookie called kurabiya, a sweet and simple cookie which reminded us a lot of Greek kourambiethes and other Middle Eastern cookies we’ve come across. Finally, we also tried khadayif (or kanafeh), which we’ve also seen in the Middle East (especially during the end of fasting at Ramadan). This one had cheese in it and was soaked in syrup and topped with vermicelli noodles. We would have liked to try some of the other desserts, which looked very interesting and unique, but were prohibited by their nut content.

The festival ends on Saturday, Oct. 22, so we recommend going to St. Mary’s, if possible, because this might be the only place to sample Armenian food in the area.