Last night, I attended an event for a fine organization to which I belong, The International Club of DC. I highly recommend it as a group; they host terrific parties at various embassies in DC, in hopes of fostering understanding and appreciation among folks from different nations. Last night’s party at the Embassy of France, not too far from the Maryland line, featured foods, drinks and music from the nations of the European Union. The club has many events throughout the year and this one is particularly popular, especially with the college/grad school crowd.
These are the countries of the E.U.:
Member states of the EU (year of entry)
- Austria (1995)
- Belgium (1952)
- Bulgaria (2007)
- Cyprus (2004)
- Czech Republic (2004)
- Denmark (1973)
- Estonia (2004)
- Finland (1995)
- France (1952)
- Germany (1952)
- Greece (1981)
- Hungary (2004)
- Ireland (1973)
- Italy (1952)
- Latvia (2004)
- Lithuania (2004)
- Luxembourg (1952)
- Malta (2004)
- Netherlands (1952)
- Poland (2004)
- Portugal (1986)
- Romania (2007)
- Slovakia (2004)
- Slovenia (2004)
- Spain (1986)
- Sweden (1995)
- United Kingdom (1973)
Some of the interesting things I sampled include Lithuanian fried (dark) bread with garlic and herring on top — which was richer and less fishy than I would have guessed. I also tried Maltese ricotta pie. I must confess, I’ve never even contemplated the food of Malta, but I sure do think their puppies are cute. The ricotta pie was mild and creamy. Scotland had a full complement of various Scotches on hand, which certainly gets the party started. England had lots of beers, which worked as a good chaser. Austria hosted the coffee table, which is appropriate — they take their coffee seriously! The Czech Republic had these dessert flavored “spa wafers” in chocolate, hazelnut and other varieties. They are light and crispy and sweet; they definitely satisfy a sweet tooth. I’m gonna keep an eye out for them!
Many of the Baltic countries’ tables and even Spain had some form of Salad Olivier, which in today’s incarnation is a mayo-based salad with ham, potatoes, peas and pickle bits. In history, though, if you check out the link about, you will see that it started out as quite the rare and gourmet concoction.
A new thing I tried was on Sweden’s table: a hot dog in a homemade bun, topped with shrimp salad and mashed potatoes. It’s really good, in a guilty pleasure kind of way! I will be headed to Sweden this week and reporting much more on what they eat there.
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