Event # 4 Homemade meals

For event # 4, we attempted to make meals at home.  We ended up making 6 different meals representing 6 countries.  These meals were either homemade or partly homemade with part of the meals being store bought.  Some of the recipes were from my mom’s old cookbooks.  After we made and ate, we voted on our favorites.

Gold    South Korea       Bulgogi 

Years ago, my mom learned how to cook a little bit of Korean food and it has always been every ones request for special occasions.  This time she made the chicken version of bulgogi.  We served the bulgogi with rice and a Korean cucumber side dish recipe with a cucumber fresh out of the garden.  This meal was the winner!

 

Silver    Mexico  Carnitas

We tried carnitas awhile back and enjoyed them, so we decided to make our own.  For Father’s Day we found a simple recipe in an old Mexican cookbook my mom has.  We opened a couple jars of salsa and cotija cheese from Whole Foods.  We ate this as tacos and we had an excellent meal.

Bronze       Sweden          Swedish meatballs

This recipe was from my mom’s old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. We’ve been using this recipe for years and always enjoy it. I also bought a jar of lingonberry jam to go with the meatballs.  This meal came out excellent as always.

India      Tikka Masala

I bought a jar of Braswells Tikka Masala Slow Cooker sauce from world market.  Then we cooked it with chicken thighs in a slow cooker and served with basmati rice and garlic naan from Whole Foods. This was very good and very easy to make, but just not quite a medalist.

US          Rockie dogs

This is my favorite concession item at a Rockies game.  We made a better version this time at home. We grilled hotdogs and topped them with sautéed peppers and onions with sauerkraut.  Everyone enjoyed these but they were not quite as good as some of the other meals.

Poland      Potato Cheese Pierogi with kielbasa

I bought a bag of Pierogies Factory Pierogi at Whole Foods.  We just boiled them, which was okay, but I think they would have been better sautéed. These were good but very filling. We ate the Pierogi with kielbasa and sauerkraut

Event # 4 was a lot of fun, we enjoyed making, eating, and awarding medals to all of these different international meals.

2021 Food Olympics - Event #3 Frozen Appetizers

 

For Event #3 I bought and ordered some frozen appetizers from Omaha Steaks, Whole Foods and King Soopers.  We found 8 appetizers representing 6 different countries.  Then over the last couple of months we tried them out one at a time.  After we tried all of them, we ranked them 1-8 and awarded medals.

The first thing we tried were the 2 appetizers from Omaha Steaks both representing the US.  The Filet Mignon Pastry Bites were really good.  

They were like mini pot pies with beef and a few veggies in a little pastry cup.  These got out ahead on the leader board quick and weren’t about to move anytime soon.  Next was the Gourmet Franks in a Blanket these were pretty good as well.  

They were little all beef hotdogs with puff pastry wrapped around with a hit of Dijon mustard.  These were good just not as good as the filet mignon bites.

Then we followed up by eating the appetizers from Whole Foods.  The first one was another US contestant the Jalapeno Cream Cheese Small Bites.  

These were little triangles filled with a mix of cream cheese and other cheeses with diced fresh jalapeños.  It was similar to a jalapeño popper but with a different outside shell and diced jalapeños that were fresh and not pickled.  They Had a decent amount of heat.  These I thought were just better than the franks.  Next, we tried the Tres Latin Foods, Chicken and Cheese Pupusas.  pupusas are a typical food in El Salvador.  These particular ones are made in Boulder, CO.  

They had a chicken, bean and cheese filling inside a masa patty.  They tasted like a bland enchilada with no sauce.  They were much better if you added some salsa.  This was definitely the worst appetizer yet.  Next up was the Sukhis potato Samosas our Indian contestant.  

These were also triangles These had a crispy pastry like outside and filled with peas, potatoes, and Indian spices.  They were very good on their own. The box also includes a cilantro chutney that was kind of like a salsa which made these samosas even better and into the silver medal spot for now.

Next up was the Brazi Bites Brazilian Cheese Bread.  

These were bread balls with a lot of cheese.  They were pretty good and would go good with anything.  Not the best appetizer but also not the worst.  After this was the Spinach & Cheese Spanakopita representing Greece.

 

These had layered phyllo dough that kept breaking off with feta and spinach.  They were excellent, I really enjoyed them.  They just beat out the Indian samosas to get into solid medal position.  

Then we finished up with South Korea.  We tried the Bibigo beef and vegetable mandu that we found at King Soopers.  

These were basically like Chinese dumplings or potstickers but a little larger.  They were filled with a lot of bulgogi beef and a few veggies carrots, onions, cabbage, and a few glass noodles.

And as the last contestant the Bibigo mandu takes the gold dropping the Omaha Steaks filet mignon bites to silver, the Greek Spanakopita to bronze and the Indian samosas out of the medals.

Gold South Korea Bibigo beef and vegetable mandu

Silver United States Omaha Steaks filet mignon bites

Bronze Greece Whole Foods Spanakopita

Bop & Gogi – Centennial, Colorado

November 18, 2015

I read about and had been intrigued by this place for some time now, especially how you got to choose your three side dishes. This included kimchi, cucumber and other veggie sides and Jap chae among various other side items, but sometime along the way they changed ownership so I didn’t know how much had changed but I still wanted to try the place out. We arrived for quite a late lunch after a doctor’s appointment in Denver. The place was empty except for one or two other people that came in. We went up to the counter and checked out the menu I eventually ordered a Kim Bop roll with bulgogi along with my entrée of spicy chicken and mom and dad both got the bulgogi  plate. They didn’t ask what sides we wanted so I guess you don’t get to pick your sides anymore.  

 

 

Soon after that the Kim Bop roll arrived, mom asked if she could have some of it (she ended up eating half of it) so she really enjoyed it as did I. This is basically like a sushi roll but without the sushi it had spinach, carrot, cucumber and imitation crab along with pickled radish with the rice and the seaweed rolled around it. This was freshly made and you could actually see them making it and rolling it up.  


Once we were done with that our plates came out these came on sectioned trays with the entrée in one, rice in one and the three side dishes in their own section. the three side dishes they had were jap chae which this version was cold noodles with raw vegetables, a salad with sesame dressing it was good and I thought the dressing was very good but don’t know how Korean it was and bean sprouts.

These were all nice and plain and went nicely with my spicy chicken which was grilled chicken with a spicy sauce on it and after a while I didn’t really care too much for the sauce and it was a tad spicy for me.

The bulgogi did not have great meat quality and there was a good amount of fat and tough and chewy spots, but it had a very good flavor. After eating we left and I was thinking I should’ve tried their kimchi since they said it was fresh made, but I didn’t really think about it when I was there but maybe next time. My meal was alright but I think I would get something else next time, but I for sure would get another Kim Bop roll or two because it was just that good.

10639 E Briarwood Ave B2, Centennial, CO 80112

Kaya Korean Restaurant – Westminster CO

Friday the 13^th July 13, 2012

I had never been to a Korean Restaurant, but have had Korean food that my mom learned to cook that has always been one of my favorites.  This place was rather confusing the name anyways,  on the menu and yelp it says Kaya Korean Restaurant, the sign outside just said Korean BBQ, the google map says Korean Garden and their business cards and the to-go bag said Dae Gee.

They have some of their tables have grills right in the middle of the tables, but we didn’t really want to cook it ourselves, so we took one of the regular tables.  We were going to just order one of the family dinners but they said we could only order that at the grill tables because I think they only let you cook the Galbi at your table.  So we just ordered 3 different meat dishes Chicken, beef and pork bulgoki as well as Jhob chae (I’ve also seen it spelled chap-chae or jap-chae) which was listed as an appetizer.  We all also got cokes.  The whole place was empty when we got here at about 5:30 but as we waited for our food the place started filling up and there were quite a few Koreans.  After a bit our waitress started to bring out the food. 

First she sat down some small plates that were kind of half bowl half plate.  She also brought out rice in individual bowl type things.  Then she came with a tray of side dishes that she went through the names but went kind of fast, there were probably about 10 of them.  Fish cakes, kimchi cakes, kimchi, spicy cucumber, bean sprouts, beef garlic and peppers, broccoli, mashed potato, a salad with cabbage and carrots and onions.  Some of these like the kimchi and the cucumbers were a little spicy, but not as hot as I would have expected.  The Kimchi I thought was really good, and I didn’t think I liked kimchi before, but the last I had was out of a jar.  This was like the difference between a jar of salsa and fresh salsa.  The potato salad I thought was a little weird how it tasted like normal Asian flavors but in potatoes which I hadn’t had anything like it before.  All of these were pretty good, except I didn’t really care for the fish cakes.  They also brought out a plate of lettuce and some kind of sauce, for eating the meat with but this was harder for me to do than just eating it with a fork.

Right after these came out; the entrees came one at a time.  The last thing to come was the jhob chae which was an appetizer.  Other bulgoki that I’ve had that my mom makes she cooks it longer.  All of these dishes were lighter cooked, and all had very good flavor, but it was the low quality of meat that I didn’t like. 

It was a little tough, chewy, and grisly in places.  The pork was spicy, probably the hottest thing we had that night.  The chicken and the beef were not spicy at all. 

The jhob chae dish was great, the noodles were clear yam noodles  with stir-fried veggies which were carrots, cabbage, onions, mushrooms and spinach with a little bit of beef.  This dish was what I expected it to be and it was delicious.  I really liked how they served the meal with a bunch of side dishes, which is traditional for Korean food. So you would get a lot of variety.   I probably would have given this place a 5 star rating if the meat would have been better.

 7570 Sheridan Blvd  Westminster, CO 80003

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