2021 Food Olympics Recap

 We started the Food Olympics in August with a tribute to Tokyo, host of the actual Olympics, with a Japanese snack box. Most of the items in the box I thought were awful. After this we continued with 9 different events including Cookies, Snacks, Frozen Appetizers, Homemade meals, Sodas, cheese, take out, Breakfast/dessert sweets and finished with an international snack box.  Some of the highlights of the 9 events were

I found out I like wafer cookies especially the Loacker Quadratini Lemon Wafers from Italy 

and the Meiji Hello Panda Chocolate Cookies from Japan      

    

 I really enjoyed the Sabine’s Collections Garlic, Chives and Parsley Baguette Crisps from Canada

 

·         I enjoyed eating the Frozen Appetizers including the South Korean Bibigo beef and vegetable mandu     and the Whole Foods Greek Spanakopita   

 

·        It was fun to try to cook and eat foreign meals including Bulgogi, Carnitas and Swedish meatballs

 

·        The cheese event was really fun but hard to judge. I tried Aged Manchego from Spain and Jarlsberg from Norway for the first time and really enjoyed them.

 

·      The whole family enjoyed Nordy's BBQ. I also enjoyed getting takeout from local restaurants including chicken pad Thai from Chili Thai, kung pao chicken from Asian pearl bistro and the al pastor burrito from Mi Tierra

 

·        We really enjoyed the Cannoli and cherry turnovers both from Whole Foods

 

·        The international snack box event was a lot of fun and a little different than others since I didn’t know what was in the box.  We enjoyed the Teashop Bourbon Creams from the U.K. 

      and the Dolcetto Petites Cookies and Cream Wafer Bites from Indonesia             

 

Here is the final 2021 Food Olympics medal count

Medal count
	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
US	3	2	1	6
Italy	2		1	3
Mexico	1	1	1	3
South Korea	2			2
Canada	1	1		2
Spain			2	2
Indonesia	1			1
Norway	1			1
Switzerland		1		1
Thailand		1		1
UK		1		1
Belgium			1	1
China			1	1
Greece			1	1
Ireland			1	1
Japan			1	1
Sweden			1	1
	11	7	11	29

The 2021 Food Olympics was a very successful and a very fun event!  I was able to eat lots of food and try new foods from all over the world.  We had foods from or representing more than 30 different countries! Most of these were very good, but some were not so good.  This was so much fun, and I was glad I could do something that corresponded with the actual Olympics.  I hope you enjoyed reading and following along.

2021 Food Olympics - Event #2 Snacks

 For Event #2 I also went to World Market and picked out various snacks from various countries.  I was also going to get a barrel of cheese balls, but I forgot to grab them.  So I ordered them a few days later from Walmart.  I ended up with 7 different snacks from 7 different countries.  Then just like Event #1 we taste tested the snacks, but with just 4 tasters this time.  Then we all ranked each snack 1-7 and averaged the ranks.

And after the taste testing, we have a tie, 2 ties in fact!

Gold    Canada - Sabine’s Collections Garlic, Chives and Parsley Baguette Crisps    

2 of us ranked these #1 and the other two picked these second.  They were nice and crunchy with good garlicky and salty seasoning, making it a gold medal quality snack!  They were also good in soup.                                             

Gold    United States - Utz Cheese Balls  

These were included as an American snack because what’s more American than an oversized barrel of cheeseballs.  These were nice and cheesy with a puffed-up texture like you would expect. These also received 2 first place and 2 second place votes. Tying with the baguette crisps for the gold!

 

Bronze   Ireland -Keoghs Dubliner Mature Cheese and Onion Potato Crisps

These were alright, they had a mature cheese taste, but they weren’t heavily seasoned and didn’t quite have enough of the cheese flavor.

 

Bronze   Japan - Japanese Pringles      

These basically tasted like regular Pringles, but not quite as seasoned. They were also a little different shaped, not quite as long.

Italy - Dolcetto Olive Oil and Sea Salt Tuscan Crisps          

These were just okay.  They were thin and crispy, but also kind of plain and boring. 

 

United Kingdom - Burt’s Sea Salt and Black Pepper Chips

These had noticeable black pepper flavor, but they also had weird taste to them that no one liked much.

 

Japan - Amanoya Himemaru Japanese Rice Crackers        

These were awful and had a very bad after taste.  No one liked them at all, and everyone ranked them in last place.

We had a very good and very close Event #2, and even had to give out 4 medals!  Event #3 will be coming soon!

2021 Food Olympics - Event #1 Cookies

 

For this event I visited World Market and picked out 11 different cookies from 9 different countries and then added a package of Oreos so I could have an American contestant.  After I had the 12 cookies collected, the rest of the family came for a cookie taste test.  Everyone all 7 of us sampled each of the 12 cookies. Then each cookie was ranked 1-12 by each person.  We added up each ranking, averaged them and had the lowest score win.            

Gold       Italy - Loacker Quadratini Lemon Wafers

These had the most first place votes with 4.  They were wafer cookies with lemon cream that had a strong lemon flavor that was from real lemon juice. These were definitely my favorite.

Silver      Canada  - Canada True Maple Cream Cookies

Another of most of the taster's favorites.  They were maple leaf shaped sandwich cookies with a tasty maple cream filling.  We weren’t rating the cookies by the package, but these had the best box of all the cookies with nice scenic pictures of Canada.

Bronze      US - Oreo

Just the good old Oreo.  This surprised me how well it did, but Oreos are pretty good.

UK - Walkers Chocolate Shortbread Scottie Dogs

These were Scottie dog shaped chocolate flavored shortbread cookies and the best of the 3 shortbread cookies and the most fun.

Japan - Meiji Hello Panda Chocolate Cookies

These came in individual bags.  They’re small cookies with chocolate filling.  They were perfect for the Olympics because they’re from Japan and have pandas playing different sports on the outside of each cookie. Two of us really liked these and in my opinion should have finished better.

Netherlands - Daelmans caramel Stroopwafels

Most taster’s thought These were pretty good. One taster didn’t like these saying they were too sweet. They were Flat waffle sandwiches with caramel filling. Good on top of a cup of coffee.

France - St Michel Galettes Butter Cookies

Shortbread cookie that was just favored over the Irish shortbread, but I personally don’t like shortbread all that much.

Ireland - Grace's Irish Shortbread

Another Shortbread cookie but this one was cloverleaf shaped.  This was slightly worse than the French shortbread.

Spain - Gullon Chocolate Maria Biscuits

Just an okay cookie, with a light chocolate flavor and the worst of the chocolate cookies.

Netherlands - The Old Mill Mini Peanut Cookies

These were really hard cookies with peanuts, and no one really liked them. They did however have a nice white package with a blue Dutch windmill.

Thailand - Pocky Strawberry Biscuit Sticks

These were in stick form and dipped in a strawberry coating.  These weren’t very well liked.

Thailand - Lotte Koala's March Mango Cookies

Cookies with an odd tasting mango filling that no one liked very much.

That was Event #1, Italy, Canada and the United States all medal!  Stay tuned for Event 2, coming soon!