Discovering Brazilian Children's Culture with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Brazilian Children’s Culture Exhibit Visit with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I took Florence to an exposition entitled Brazil: Beyond the Rain Forest at the Children’s Museum in Madison (Wisconsin) in the late 90s.

The Brazilian lady, who was running the show, and I spoke about English, French, and Brazilian-Portuguese books for children, Brazil, and Brazilian-Portuguese comic books.

Our wonderful volunteer reader began the storytelling with a great introduction to the most well-known comic characters in Brazil as far as children are concerned.

The volunteer said the characters could be called Monica’s Pantheon.  Monica is a tough little girl, who carries a blue bunny.  Whenever her little friend Cebollinga (onion head) picks on her, she lets him have it with her blue bunny.

Another friend is Magali, who eats melons all the time.  Cascuo is a little boy, who does not like to bathe.  All of his friends want to leave the room when he comes into the room.

Franga is always chasing her dog Bidow, who does not like to bathe very much either.  The last character we meet is Angio, who can fly like an angel.

The volunteer said that there is a Monica Land in Brazil.  Another key fact about Brazil: the all-important key word for comic books is jibi.  (I like comic books, but if you keep reading them your vocabulary level does not increase.  Brazil has a low literacy rate, and their newspapers are not written in high-level Portuguese either.)

The Brazil exhibit was set up in cooperation with a museum in Porto Alegre (Brazil).  One interesting thing that the exhibit explained was the Festa de Bonfim.

During this festival, people tie knots on their wrists with the help of a friend.  Three knots equals three wishes.  When a knot falls off, a wish will be granted.

Another exhibit called “favelas” (Brazilian slums) showed how Brazilian children often helped their parents build a home with found materials.  They also used found materials to make toys.

The most inventive exhibits were the shoebox interiors that children created to make cityscapes of where they lived.  The children exchanged these boxes between Madison and Porto Alegre (Brazil).

To this day, I would still like to say, “Obrigado” – thank you – to the Children’s Museum of Madison for this sensitive introduction to Brazilian children’s culture.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Preparing Greek Meals with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Preparing Greek Meals with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

I put together a lot of lunch and dinner parties when I lived in Wisconsin, so my daughter Florence could learn how to make ethnic food and learn to appreciate and dance to music from different lands.

When my big sister Kathy and my big brother in-law Tony came to visit us, I made a Greek meal for them.  Florence helped prep everything.  She was very good at slicing feta cheese and washing vegetables.

We began our meal with a starter of marinated artichokes and a country Greek salad, which is made without lettuce by Greek families.

For our main dish, I made a roast chicken stuffed with feta cheese, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, and scallions.  (I clipped the recipe from Saveur magazine.)

I soaked the chicken the night before in the refrigerator in a brine to draw out blood and hormones.  I am not Jewish, but blood does rot quickly.  I know why the Jews want meat without blood in it.  Chicken flesh prepared this way almost tastes sweet.

To go with the chicken, I grated some nutmeg into sautéed spinach and made sheet-pan, baked potatoes.

And, for dessert I made lemon-flavored rice pudding.

In addition to Saveur magazine, I was able to make all of these dishes using The Art of Greek Cooking by the Women of St. Paul’s Orthodox Church.  Church cookbooks are a treasure for keeping recipes that help deal with feast or famine situations in the community or rites of passage.

I do not see my sister often, so I wrote up our menu and framed it.  She has a copy, too.  Old family menus go in a family meal journal.  This is an old European custom, but I like it.

Other Greek cookbooks that might interest readers include:

-The Foods of the Greek Islands: Cooking and Culture at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean by Aglaia Kremezi

-The Food and Wine of Greece:  More than 300 Classic and Modern Dishes by Diane Kochilas

-How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking by Michael Psilakis

-Around a Greek Table: Recipes and Stories Arranged According to the Liturgical Season by the Eastern Church by Katerina Whitely

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Making Turkish Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Making Turkish Food with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Mother’s Day 1995

(Recorded in Family Menu Journal)

I thought it was important to teach my daughter Florence about other cultures through food and music.  Those are two areas that are the toughest to overcome for most people when they deal with international affairs.

The third area that is very hard for people to deal with in international affairs is personal space between people.  I taught Florence about the personal space of Asians, the French, and the Spanish when she was growing up, but she paid more attention to the lessons of music and dance.

We made a trip to our local library in DeForest, Wisconsin to get some Turkish music CDs.  I wanted to do a Topkapi Palace Mother’s Day party.

We danced to the Turkish music as I prepared the meal.  I used two very good cookbooks to prepare the food:

-A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

-Classic Turkish Cooking by Ayla Alger

We started with homemade hummus (I use olive oil to thin mine not the chickpea bean water.  It’s more fattening made this way, but less of it goes further) and tabouleh, a parsley and bulgur wheat salad with lemon dressing and olive oil.

Other meze or starters, on the table included cucumber and tomato salad, radishes with butter and bread, and feta cheese with olives.

I buttered layers of phyllo dough and made triangular cheese borek with an herbed cheese pilaf.

For dessert, we had fresh strawberries with Macadamia brittle ice cream.  Then, I served coffee and tea.

I like simple Mother’s Day Meals.  I like to make them myself, because I cook well and can buy better ingredients than what you get in many restaurants. 

My family gives me money for Mother’s Day, and I buy what I want.  I buy clothes according to purchases made by lessons I learned in books like The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering your Personal Style and Building your Dream Wardrobe by Anuschka Rees.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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French Bistro Buffet Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

French Bistro Buffet Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

There are three cookbooks that give recipes for some of the most iconic foods of Parisian bistros, including steak tartare.  (Steak tartare is ground, raw, high-grade beef that is made with raw egg and seasonings.  Since the advent of Mad Cow Disease, most people avoid it in Europe now.)

You can use all the following recipe books to recreate sans culotte, bistro ambiance for your home buffet worthy of the French actress Arletty:

Suggested Cookbooks:

-Bistros and Brasseries:  Recipes and Reflections on Classic Café Cooking by John W. Fischer and Lou Jones

--The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris: Everyday Recipes from the Real Paris by Daniel Young

- Revolutionary French Cooking by Daniel Galmiche

Suggested Buffet Items:

Frisée aux Lardons

(Frisée lettuce with chopped lettuce with warm bacon and boiled egg slices dressed with warm, red wine vinaigrette called gastrique)

Salade Niçoise

There are many ways to make this salad with major debate about the boiled egg slices being authentic or not.  I eat this salad with boiled eggs in moderation, because they contain protein.  Many people cannot eat eggs due to cholesterol problems.  I do not have this problem, so consult a doctor about whether or not eggs are good for you on a personal basis or not.

Poireaux Vinaigrette

(Leeks in Vinaigrette)

Leeks grow well in sandy soil.  I have never figured out why they are now grown in areas with sandy soil in the U.S.  Leeks and potatoes are also used to make a delicious chilled French soup called vichyssoise.

Chèvre Fermier Pain

Warm goat cheese on toasted baguette

Pâté de champagne

Pork and veal pâtés are great spread on toasted baguettes.  They are similar to terrines, but these are served in slices and eaten with a fork.

Soupe au Pistou

Vegetable soup with French pesto from Provence called pistou

Chou de Bruxelles aux Lardons

Brussels sprouts with chopped, warm bacon

Râgout de Champignons

Basically, this is a dish of mushrooms sautéed in lots of butter that you can eat with toasted baguettes.  This is not for everyday, but it helps with “digestion” as the French say.

Sandwich de Saumon Fumé

Smoked salmon open-faced sandwiches

I make these sandwiches with horseradish mayonnaise on pumpernickel bread and drink a Newcastle brown ale with them.  My favorite smoked salmon is Scottish, but it is hard to find.  It is a light, pink color not bright orange.

Suggested Political Discussion Topics

(These have been the political topics of American expatriates for at least 30 years in bistros or at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris with Jacques Chirac presiding when I lived in Paris.)

How to register in your home state to vote, so you do not lose US citizenship.

Taxation issues for Americans abroad – real estate taxes, in particular, have always been hush-hush, but hot.

Nationality of children born overseas to at least one American parent.

TOEFL requirements for children educated overseas.

American financial aid available to children with dual nationality.

French pension coverage for American citizens who go back to the U.S.

The upcoming U.S. election.

Opinions about the safety of steak tartare, swordfish (prone to tapeworms necessitating well-done cookery), raw oysters, sushi, and foie gras standards. 

Best places to buy raw milk Brie (supposedly outlawed) and good picquet (French two buck Chuck wine).

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Korean Buffet Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Korean Buffet Suggested by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Korean grilled bulgogi beef and grilled chicken dak gu yi are becoming well-known in the United States thanks to the boom of Korean restaurants across the country.

There are several dishes in Korean cuisine that lend themselves to a buffet for a discussion of business opportunities in Korea and the political situation of the two Koreas vis-à-vis the US and other countries. 

Bulgogi and dak gu yi both need to be served warm and are rather expensive.  The following dishes can be part of a cold or room-temperature buffet.  They are from the Korean cookbook entitled Growing up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall:

Chilled Buckwheat Noodles

You can cook this dish ahead of time and serve it chilled.  The noodles are sautéed with green onions, Asian pear cubes, cucumber rounds, hard-boiled egg slices, sesame oil, cabbage kimchi, and rice vinegar.

Sweet Potato Noodles with Meat and Mixed Vegetables

This dish is cooked ahead of time and served at room temperature.

You need to sauté green onions, garlic, sesame strips of chicken and beef, mushrooms, soy sauce, sesame oil, Napa cabbage hearts, spinach leaves, and Korean peppers first.

Then, you boil and drain sweet potato noodles.  Add the sauté mix to the sweet potato noodles.

P’an Ch’an and N’amul Selection

P’an ch’an are pickled vegetables made with garlic and spicy, red peppers.  N’amul are boiled vegetables that are dressed with soy sauce, a little garlic, and sesame oil.  The sesame oil gives this dish a nutty flavor.

Both p’an ch’an and n’amul usually accompany bulgogi (grilled beef) and dak gu yi (grilled chicken).

N’amul Suggestions

-cucumber salad

-chilled radish salad

-seasonal eggplant

P’an Ch’an

-cabbage kimchi

-eggplant kimchi

-cubed radish kimchi

Noodles with Meat and Mixed Vegetables

Sauté green onions, sliced chicken breast, sliced beef tenderloin, mushrooms, soy sauce, sesame oil, cabbage hearts, spinach leaves, and Korean peppers together.

Boil and drain noodles.  Add sautéed vegetables and top with egg slices.

You can prepare this dish in advance and serve it at room temperature.

Pan-fried Potatoes

Make a batter for the potatoes with chives, salt, and pepper.

Bake the potatoes after dunking them in the batter on a baking sheet.

The chives give the potatoes in the batter on a baking sheet.

The chives give the potatoes a slight onion flavor.

You can keep the potatoes warm in a chafing dish.

Mushrooms with Steamed Rice

This is a dish made of mushrooms that have been sautéed in oil with garlic mixed with cooked rice.

You can make this dish ahead of time as well and keep it warm in a chafing dish.

The Koreans make a beer called Hite, a barley-and-corn tea, and Soju, a rice spirit similar to the Japanese sake.

There are several items on this suggested buffet that would appeal to many different kinds of diners.  The cookbook has the details and other dishes listed.

Another Korean cookbook that is more oriented towards bar culture is Koreatown: A Cookbook by Deuki Hong.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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