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The undiscovered country, from whose bun No sausage e'er returns, puzzles the will Hamlet Act 3, scene 1, more or less ICSA Vegan reminded me of just how much cooking talent and knowledge GWC contains. It also reinforced that we are at our best when we reach beyond our comfort zone and try something new. In that spirit, I'd like to present a new challenge to you all: seek out new life, new civilizations, and boldly cook what you've never cooked before. Choose a cuisine you've never cooked before. I don't particularly care how you define cuisine; Wikipedia takes a stab at categories, if you're looking for inspiration. Cultures, countries, historical periods, religions - all of these can be said to have an associated cuisine. Don't overthink this, just find a tradition you've never worked with before and run with it. Once you've chosen a cuisine to cook, I'd like you to do a couple of things. 1. Prepare at least three things that fit your chosen cuisine. Present them like with any of the other four and a half dozen ICSAs we've done. 2. In addition to your cooking, tell us about the traditions surrounding your chosen subject. Let your inner anthropologist out to play. If it's a religion-oriented cuisine, a bit of scriptural or historic/social context would be great; if you're cooking a country's cuisine, talk about what makes their food - or more broadly, their country - different. In short, I'd like you to learn (and then teach us) not only what the food is, but also a bit of why it is, where it is, or who it feeds. Prizes I'm going to offer three prizes to the ICSA poll winners. They are of approximately equal value, and just like the theme of the contest they're a little different from the norm. The First Place winner will get first choice, Second second, and third place will get the remaining prize (or a suitable alternative). The prizes are: - A Gift Certificate for $15 to Penzeys, Amazon, or another suitable online retailer of the winner's choice. - One slab of my home-cured bacon. This bacon is made from humanely-raised Eden Farms Berkshire pork belly, cured and smoked lightly. It's pretty goddamn good. Net weight ~1.5 pounds, US/Canadian entrants only due to shipping time/freshness. - Two pounds (or perilously close to it) of homemade peanut brittle or, if you prefer, spicy chile/pumpkin seed brittle. I've been making this stuff for a few years now and it's pretty goddamn good too. In addition to the above prizes, I will present a winner of my choice with the Franz Boas Memorial Exploratory Anthropology Award. This very special Chairman's Prize will go to the person who I feel best completes the cultural description portion of the event. Deadline for submissions is Noon Pacific time on Monday, March 4th. I want to give everyone a little more time than usual since this might be a harder challenge than usual. bartolimu fucked around with this message at Jan 23, 2013 around 22:45 |
| # ? Jan 23, 2013 22:31 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 17:59 |
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Whoof. Sounds hard, because now I'll need to wrack my brain for stuff I haven't made that doesn't involve some midwestern cream of sodium soup abortion. I tend to be a fairly adventurous cookist, so this one'll have to take a bit of time to figure out. That said, maybe I missed it, but what's the deadline on this puppy?
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| # ? Jan 23, 2013 22:39 |
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I knew I'd forgotten something. Updated with deadline.
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| # ? Jan 23, 2013 22:46 |
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awesome theme. I'm gonna have to think pretty hard to find a cuisine that I haven't tried making yet, which should be fun. Dino, you should totes try and make midwestern food vegan and without canned stuff. I think that may actually be impossible, though. :P
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 06:33 |
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Never made Indian food before, seems like a good time to check it out.
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 11:01 |
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Oh what a cool idea! I've been wanting to try to make Ethiopian food for a while but it's so intimidating (the spongy sour bread, mostly) so this may just be the kick I need to give it a go. I'm vegan too but just got a cool cookbook with vegan recipes from all over the world, so it should come in handy!
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 13:15 |
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GrAviTy84 posted:awesome theme. I'm gonna have to think pretty hard to find a cuisine that I haven't tried making yet, which should be fun.
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 17:58 |
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Mrs. Gunderson has this one in the bag.
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 18:20 |
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All right, there is enough lead time here, I have been wanting to make Eritrean cuisine (which is totally NOT the same as ethiopian  ) for a while. I should probably do an NICSA first, but what the hell.
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 18:45 |
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Plus_Infinity posted:Oh what a cool idea! I've been wanting to try to make Ethiopian food for a while but it's so intimidating (the spongy sour bread, mostly) so this may just be the kick I need to give it a go. I'm vegan too but just got a cool cookbook with vegan recipes from all over the world, so it should come in handy! Same here. Dino., why are you asking your husband about the deadline?
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 19:57 |
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therattle posted:Same here. Are we going to have an Ethiopian cook-off?! Neato!
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 21:10 |
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I might go with Korean food, on account of that's a food I don't think I've ever tried to cook!
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 23:37 |
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I am now having a minor meltdown as to whether I should even bother trying to compete in this... I thought I might get to cut my teeth on a NICSA, but I really want to try. gently caress. 
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 23:37 |
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Thei posted:I am now having a minor meltdown as to whether I should even bother trying to compete in this... I thought I might get to cut my teeth on a NICSA, but I really want to try. Bah. Just jump in head-first. If the theme is inspiring to you, your best bet is to just go with it. The whole point is to try something new. 
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| # ? Jan 25, 2013 01:24 |
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I'm so in on this ICSA; I might try my hand at Japanese cuisine for it!
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| # ? Jan 27, 2013 18:48 |
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Definitely going to try to get into this - pretty sure I've chosen a cuisine but it was tough. Almost went with Korean but I don't know if I've had any legitimate Korean food ever, so I'd have no idea if my food tasted right or not...
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| # ? Jan 27, 2013 22:07 |
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Wife and I have never cooked Jamaican food before... and everyone knows everything is better jerked. I am going to have to do this one!
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| # ? Jan 28, 2013 04:26 |
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Well now, this sounds like a tempting 1st ICSA. Been meaning to cook some Moroccan food and this is as good excuse as any.
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| # ? Feb 5, 2013 22:20 |
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I've never ICSAd but this sounds great. I've been meaning to learn some techniques around Japanese food for a while, maybe I can embarrass myself online while I do so. I'm vegetarian, so I'd always seen it as a cuisine with a heavy emphasis on seafood, but that's not really true with things like mushroom dashi and the like.
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| # ? Feb 9, 2013 14:06 |
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Vagueabond posted:I've never ICSAd but this sounds great. I've been meaning to learn some techniques around Japanese food for a while, maybe I can embarrass myself online while I do so. I'm vegetarian, so I'd always seen it as a cuisine with a heavy emphasis on seafood, but that's not really true with things like mushroom dashi and the like. Find the book "Kansha" by Elizabeth andoh. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1580089550 Edit: you can thank Mediaphage for rec-ing this book to me.
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| # ? Feb 9, 2013 19:02 |
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GrAviTy84 posted:Find the book "Kansha" by Elizabeth andoh. Have had this book for a couple of years and really enjoy it. edit: Make the stomped noodles. Really easy and SUPER tasty. XmasGiftFromWife fucked around with this message at Feb 10, 2013 around 01:09 |
| # ? Feb 9, 2013 19:58 |
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GrAviTy84 posted:Find the book "Kansha" by Elizabeth andoh. My goodness, this looks fantastic! I'm definitely getting a copy. Thank you (and you too, XmasGiftFromWife!) for the recommendation.
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| # ? Feb 9, 2013 21:35 |
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I didn't do the vegan ICSA due to holidays/laziness, but last night I bought almost everything I need to make three-course (vegetarian!) dinner from Papua New Guinea. And I am going to do it tonight drat it! Whoo! I just need to track down some fresh lemongrass and ground cilantro. Fun Fact: I've never done one of these before, I know nothing about plating and the kitchen is a mess. 
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| # ? Feb 12, 2013 16:03 |
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Hmmm... operating from a locked-down compound in Libya, so doing any fancy ethnic food will be difficult for me. However, I think I can pull off Orthodox lenten recipes, so I'll give that a try! I can include some great stories about working with the Ecumenical Patriarchate (the "Vatican" of the Orthodox world) when I lived in Turkey. I'm not Orthodox, but I had enough fun hanging out with them (and picked up enough liturgical Greek) that this could be a fun challenge.
the_chavi fucked around with this message at Feb 16, 2013 around 16:02 |
| # ? Feb 16, 2013 16:00 |
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This is your ten-day warning folks. Two weekends remain before the deadline. Also,the_chavi posted:Hmmm... operating from a locked-down compound in Libya,
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| # ? Feb 22, 2013 15:27 |
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ICSA 57: "We need breathing room!"
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| # ? Feb 24, 2013 15:02 |
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Hm, it's going to be something ~super wacky~ since I've tried to do at least one of everywhere.
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| # ? Feb 25, 2013 16:31 |
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It's not looking so good on the submissions front right now. Anyone plan on joining DentArthurDent?
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 21:27 |
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bartolimu posted:It's not looking so good on the submissions front right now. Anyone plan on joining DentArthurDent? For some reason I thought there was more time left. Getting groceries tomorrow (might push it to tonight now that I've noticed) but I doubt I'll have my whole entry done by the deadline.
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 21:53 |
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bartolimu posted:It's not looking so good on the submissions front right now. Anyone plan on joining DentArthurDent? TychoCelchuuu entered as well but didn't post the link in this thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3534472
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 22:02 |
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I'm in. I have the ingredients and will be cooking up a fantastically new experience for my palette tonight.
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| # ? Mar 2, 2013 23:38 |
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I got a bunch of fun groceries tonight at the international market, cut a dish off my menu, and have started my preparations. I'll be spending my Sunday in the kitchen and it won't be a detailed writeup, but I should have something together before the deadline.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 03:49 |
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You probably shouldn't read my entry.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 03:55 |
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This lurker will also be posting an entry, hopefully to go up sometime tomorrow morning.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 06:06 |
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I usually expect so much from your posts. Somehow, you still delivered. Bravo. edit: I got hosed by my paycheck only coming in on Friday and the deposit not taking effect till Monday at the earliest so I suck and can't do this one. As my first. Worst poster.
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 07:19 |
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I tried to do one! http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...hreadid=3536527
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 18:02 |
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Scott Bakula posted:TychoCelchuuu entered as well but didn't post the link in this thread
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| # ? Mar 3, 2013 19:01 |
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Here's a post about the things I made Fishes_Swim fucked around with this message at Mar 3, 2013 around 20:24 |
| # ? Mar 3, 2013 20:22 |
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Continuing DentArthurDent's theme of slimy dead mollusks and cabbage that's well past its sell-by date, here's my entry
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 08:04 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 17:59 |
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Here is my entry.
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| # ? Mar 4, 2013 13:58 |
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