A Taste Of The Exotic

When I get stressed or overly tired, dreams of traveling to some exotic, mystical place begin to creep into my subconscious.  It is serious fun.

Picture yourself at a table on the Left Bank in Paris, sipping an espresso and nibbling at a pastry after a wonderful meal, drinking in the sights and sounds around you, wondering if Hemingway sat at your same table jotting down character notes from the conversations, sights and smells around him. 

Or walking along the still-visible trail of an old Silk Road trading path toward a long-forgotten caravanserai, crumbling in the distance, while smelling the wonderful scent of grilling, spiced food from a local hole-in-the-wall restaurant along the road ahead.

From marketplace to meadow and everywhere in between, the mental pictures are fun to imagine.  But even more fun is finding recipes that I can make from here that bring the exotic to where I am at the moment. 

I've been craving a taste of the exotic lately, and thought I'd share some of the recipes I've been perusing with all of you.  After glancing through these, it is clear that I'm in a mood to spice things up a bit:


-- Grilled Chicken with Sriracha Glaze
-- Garden Veggie Crustless Quiche
-- Crockpot Chicken Thighs with Olive and Caper Sauce
-- Slow Cooker Char Sui Pork
-- Black Bean Soup
-- Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps
-- Chinese-Style Stove-top Pot Roast With Noodles
-- Boka Dushi
-- Indian-Spiced Lentils and Lamb
-- Durlacher Hof Austrian Ricotta Crepes
-- French Onion Soup
-- Thai Chicken and Coconut Soup
-- Shrimp Pad Thai
-- Rogan Josh
-- Hungarian Beef Goulash (from the crockpot)
-- Crockpot Spicy Dal

(Photo of a male peacock taken by Christy Hardin Smith at the Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World.)