Cross Cultural Cooking: a Competition

You know how you always see those interviews and meme's going around, where whenever people are asked what they like most about blogging, they say it's the people you meet? For months I was a silent lurker on numerous blogs, but the moment I started my own blog, I realise how nice the feedback is, and I jumped in with both feet. And now I can also brag about the wonderful people I meet on a daily basis. And, of course, the recipes. Never in my life have I had so many recipes at my fingertips, in any cuisine imaginable. And every recipe will have feedback from likeminded devoted fans. It's great. I love it.

I also love how people take recipes and run with it. Everybody will tweak and change and make it their own. Whether it's a long-forgotten recipe you've been looking for for ages, or an ethnic dish you need to impress the in-laws with, chances are somebody has written a post about it. In fact, chances are many people have written about it, so not only do you have several recipes, but also several ideas to play with.

One cuisine I've never known much about before, and enjoy reading more about, is Lebanese, and my good friend Arlette's blog, Phoenician Gourmet, is one of the great ones around. I love reading her posts, and I always learn something new from her recipes. Arlette and I have decided to celebrate our cross-cultural friendship with a competition for our readers. We challenge you to take any Lebanese or South African recipe, tweak it, chop and change it, and make it your own. We will do a round-up, and the most original adaptation will win our prize, which we will send to you wherever you are.

The prizes are two beautiful dish towels and a fabulous Nordic Ware reversible cookie cutter, with 4 winter shapes each side, from CSNstores.com.

Excited? Here are the rules:

• Choose any South African or Lebanese recipe from any blog, book or internet site, and adapt it to your own taste and/or culture.
• Blog about it before Monday 17th May, and send a link and photo to willworkforbiltong (at) gmail (dot) com
• If you don't have a blog, send your post to me, and I will post it for you on my blog.
• Arlette and I will post a round-up, and announce the winner.
• Your entry should be for this competition only.

I'm very excited to show off my cuisine to everybody out there, and I know Arlette feels the same. I hope you have a great time inventing.

UPDATE: Here is Arlette's post for the competition. Have a look, it's lovely! http://phoeniciangourmet.blogspot.com/2010/04/cross-cultural-cooking-competition.html