Mark Kurlansky - International Night A Father and Daughter Cook Their Way Around the World

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Copyright 2014 by Mark Kurlansky and Talia Kurlansky

Text illustrations copyright Mark Kurlansky

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Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

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ISBN: 978-1-62040-027-2

First U.S. Edition 2014

This electronic edition published in 2014

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To Mariantheres nobody with whom we would rather have dinner

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE FAMILY RITUAL

Before it was a book, International Night started as a family game. Our daughter, Talia, who has a far better memory than mine, says that she originated it. I dont remember what the starting idea was because so many elements have been added since then that it is truly a collaborative concept. Our idea was to spin the globe once a week, and wherever Talias finger landed, we would cook a meal from that place on Friday night.

Sometimes, though, between deciding on the recipes, shopping for the ingredients, and preparing the food, we needed more time, and Saturday or Sunday worked better. Some weeks the weekend was too packed for an International Night. Some weeks we were traveling, and more weeks I was traveling. But we enjoyed the game so much that we persisted, and eventually we had fifty-two International Nights, one for every week of the year.

Talia and I cooked the meals together, and I carefully recorded the menus and recipes for each. The dinners led to discussions about the places and their cultures, with the dialogue always beginning with geography at the globe. Occasionally Talias finger would land on a place I had never beenten times out of fifty-twoand then we would learn together.

Of course Talia, Marian, and I enjoyed some dishes more than others. There was never a night in which there wasnt at least one dish that pleased all of us. But I suppose that is like traveling. Some nights you eat better than others. Some nights we ate wonderfully.

I tried to accommodate certain food prejudices of Talias, and unlike what is commonly believed by adults, all kids have their own tastes. So some kids may love things Talia hated, and the reverse. The one consistent taste is that kids like food that they grow themselves, harvest themselves, and make themselves.

Talia inexplicably loves marinated anchovies and fresh sardines, so we use them whenever possible. She usually does not care for soup, but, for example, how can you go to Quebec without potage Saint-Germain? And some soups she loved. As I overheard a teenager in Manhattan saying to his friend, I really like soup if its a soup I really like. Certainly not all the recipes will appeal to everyone, but like Talia, Marian, and me, most anyone will find dishes in every meal that they enjoy. Occasionally we offer alternative dishes if we suspect that our choices will not be popular. And if there was a dish that we didnt like, we reworked it another night or found a substitute. But it is always difficult to guess the tastes of others. All you can do is make good food.

We cooked wherever Talias finger landed. If it landed on a country with widely varied regional cuisines, we tried to cook from the region on which she landed. This has led us to two very different Canadian nights, three very different French ones, and three Italian ones. We could have done more than one English, Spanish, or German night, but on those countries she landed only once. We did not do places she landed in the US because the idea was to be international. We made an exception when she landed on New Orleans and Hawaii because those places have such distinct cuisines that it tasted like going to another country. If she landed somewhere we had already been, we would spin again. For some reason she kept landing on Kazakhstan. Well, its large and in central latitudes. But Russia is even larger and it was only after forty-seven nights that she finally landed there.

It became Marians task before dinner to guess the country to which we were going. Since she had a whole globes worth of countries and regions to choose from, we gave hints, small factswhen possible, geographic factsabout the country to guide her along. She guessed some countries fairly quickly, although I think she is still working on Tanzania. You will find the hints we gave for each country at the beginning of each night. You can use ours, or you can make up your own if you would like to play this game with your family too.

We tried to make each International Night an occasion. Talia would enter the dining room to announce the night, and we liked to have some music. She announced Jamaica Night to Jimmy Cliffs Miss Jamaica, and could there have been a better accompaniment than Prokofievs theme from the great Eisenstein film Alexander Nevsky when she announced Russia Night in peasant costume? If Nevskys triumphant march into Pskov with a bass-voice chorus swearing to defend Mother Russia doesnt get you in the mood for borscht and Stroganoff, what will?

You can also create your own customs. I tried to make this both fun and an educational experience. Food is the best way to teach history and geography and most everything else.

Mark Kurlansky

TALIAS INTRODUCTION

Introducing International Night! That was my line. Before the meal was served I would march out to announce that nights country. I would be wearing an outfit designed by me to match a traditional style from that country and it was made entirely out of stuff in the house. I had an advantagemy father has traveled to most of these countries. So for Mongolia Night I could borrow a traditional hat he had brought back from Mongolia. For Ireland Night I had a leprechaun hat and red beard I got when I visited Ireland. But for other nights, like Switzerland Night, I just put together some things on my own: a straw fedora, a white shirt, my fathers suspenders, shorts, and a plastic yodeling pickle that a friend had given me at a birthday party. For Argentina Night I wore a long dress, a flower in my teeth, and I danced the tango. On Hawaii Night I wore a fake hula skirt that I found in my old dress-up clothing box and a bikini top. On Senegal Night I wrapped a cotton flower print on my head.