Like many people from the part of the world where I grew up in, I have been long hesitant to try different kinds of cuisines. A main fear behind this is that I may suffer a bad reaction to the food, otherwise it has usually been my dread for novelty that has often kept me away from trying new varieties of food. It has only been in recent years when I have started overcoming this hurdle and opened up myself to giving it a shot at trying new food cultures, at the very least giving them a taste instead of shying away. 8 times out of 10 I have enjoyed the new cuisine which I have tried, and this in turn encourages me to be even the braver with the next food when the opportunity arises.
Food is highly personal even in a globalized world and so naturally, peoples' taste are not universal. Therefore, some foods are easy to adapt to, while others need our pallets trained in order for us to savor them and appreciate their taste. Sometimes, certain foods are a love-at-first-bite situation where anyone regardless of where they come from would be immediately satisfied and pleased with. The more I experiment with new foods, the more this distinction becomes clear to me, and therefore I appreciate differences in food cultures ever the more.
This summer, one of the projects keeping me busy is that I am supporting some culinary writing and editing, whereby my focus is on a chapter on Grain Bowls. This theme has therefore naturally led me to not only discover what grain bowls are, but also learn more about them beyond reading about them. I have, as part of my research, made a grain bowl at home from leftovers as the book focus is on how to repurpose leftovers as a way of alleviating food waste. Secondly, I have visited a restaurant to eat a grain bowl, which I easily consider to be the most Instagrammable meal I have ever had.
If you are like me, you probably have never heard of grain bowls, as was the case with me before I started on this project. Grain bowls are a type of food that consist of a base grain such as rice, quinoa, or buckwheat which are layered with a protein, legumes, other vegetables and optionally nuts for a crunch. Originating in humble Buddhist circles among monks in Asia centuries ago, they are thought to have come to be through the alms bowls that the monks received food donations in. They are a salient example of the old becoming new because they are currently seeing a boom and resurfacing as trendy delicious meals which are a favorite for Gen Zs and fitness fanatics.
Packed with nutrients and bursting with flavors, grain bowls are an affordable meal. They have the double advantage of being perfect for using leftover food and ingredients in the kitchen, as well as whatever we may bring home in a doggy bag. I discovered the joys of grain bowls when building my first grain bowl this month. I rumbled through my freezer, fridge, and kitchen to gather ingredients after thumbing through two recipe books on grain bowls for inspiration. As a result, I settled on reusing my chicken-and-green beans as well as the remaining quinoa from an earlier salad which was idling away in the cabinet. I was glad to furthermore make use of a sweet potato which had been part of a pair that I had enjoyed, one half boiled and buttered, but hadn't quite found inspiration for how to prepare the remaining other. For the sauce, a soy sauce dressing from one of the recipe books fit perfectly with the ingredients readily available in my kitchen. It was very rewarding to have made a meal without even stepping outside to do additional groceries, as is often the case when I want to cook a new meal at home. Yay, leftovers! Below is the recipe I used for my at-home grain bowl and the soy sauce recipe along with the cook book I referenced it from.
The Flamingo Papaya Chicken Quinoa Grain Bowl
All ingredients were found in my kitchen, didn’t need to buy.
Quinoa
Sweet Potato
Roasted Chicken and Steamed Green Beans Garlic
Soy Sauce Dressing (From Cookbook Recipe)
- The quinoa was the remaining grain leftover from an earlier recipe. I prepared it in a 1:2 ratio with water, brought to a boil and simmered under low heat, covered, for 10 minutes before taking it off the stove and letting it continue to cook uncovered. Once ready, I added some to the bowl and saved the rest for another future grain bowl.
- The chicken and green beans were already cooked and sitting in the freezer. I had thawed them in the fridge overnight, so I only heated them up in the microwave then added them to the quinoa in the bowl.
- The sweet potato had been sitting unused for some time in my kitchen. I peeled, then cut them into halves and sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil until browned and a little charred. I then added in crushed fresh garlic, salt, and pepper for the last few minutes and continued to sautéed until the garlic was fragrant. Once ready, I added the sweet potato to the grain bowl.
- Prepared the Soy Sauce Dressing (below) using leftover lemon, which I squeezed the juice from one half and saved the rest for a later meal. Honey, extra-virgin olive oil, soy sauce and salt were ingredients in my kitchen. I drizzled the dressing as the last addition over the bowl.
Soy Sauce Dressing Recipe
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil) 1⁄2 teaspoon honey
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Mix all ingredients together to make the dressing.
Source: Page10-11 from the book “Supernemt I en skål: Let og lækkert med Poke & Buddha Bowls” by Ilona Chovancova.
Thankfully, here in Denmark there are youthful healthful restaurants where one may sample “professional” grain bowls. In week 2 of the current food project, I had the pleasure to visit Olioli restaurant, a chain which offers Poke bowls, which is what grain bowls originating in South Korea are called. On an overcast yet warm day, my husband and I visited Olioli to eat some Poke. As is my standard practice, I perused through the restaurant's website to try to decide on what to order beforehand, as this greatly reduces my food-ordering anxiety whenever ordering at a restaurant new to me. This exercise led me to discover that while the restaurant had standard Poke bowls, they also offered build-your-own options to suite the tastes of their visitors. Perhaps this choice is tailored to those who know more about which food combinations they prefer to see in their Poke.
My husband and I opted for the beef bowls which were served on a bed of rice and topped with edamame, carrot shavings, bean sprouts, spring onion, red picked onion. A satisfying creamy sauce was drizzled over the Poke bowl, bringing the different tastes together. In addition, the restaurant offered us some soy sauce, which we could optionally add to the meal. We ordered some seaweed on the side, and we both thought its fantastic flavor paired well with our Poke bowls. The restaurant has three different sizes of Poke bowls to choose from, so this allowed us more freedom to customize the portions as we wished. I enjoyed the aesthetics and texture to match from the Poke bowl while my husband, who was in fact trying grain bowls for the first time, marvelled at how tasty and filling the meal was. We washed down the Poke bowls with healthy smoothies, which complemented the healthfulness of the nutritious Poke bowls.
I feel encouraged that despite once being very prudish about my food choices, projects like these continue to improve my openness to trying new cuisines-both in cooking them myself and enjoying them at a restaurant. When exploring culture through food, I have learned that the rewards far outweigh the risks. If you have never tried grain bowls, I highly encourage you to dig in to them, I can almost guarantee that it would most likely leave you too with a smile on your face.
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