During the course of the years with exchange students, we’ve frequently heard, “I want the recipe for this when I go home!” This was such a common refrain that it has become clear that what we really had to do was to create a whole cookbook for our students.
The recipes herein are derived from a wide variety of sources. Many are from our students themselves; others are our own family recipes. Still others are adaptations of recipes found in cookbooks or on the Internet.
Many of the ingredients may be difficult to find in your country. (Many of them are difficult to find in the USA!) The Internet is wonderful for locating unusual items for cooking. Specifically, Penzey’s Spices has nearly every spice mentioned in this whole book. If they don’t list it, try searching Froogle for the item you seek. Shipping may be expensive, but at least we can get those hard-to-find ingredients now, where before we simply had to do without.
Since the USA is just about the last place on Earth where the metric system is not widely used, all of these recipes had to be “metrified.” This process may have been imperfect; if a quantity or a temperature seems wildly out of line, please accept our apologies in advance – and feel free to e-mail or call us for a clarification.
We hope that this collection will help to remind you of your time here in our family. You have helped broaden our understanding of your cultures and foods, and we’re glad to return the favor.
With much love,
Mom and Dad