Big news week for the UN:Palestinians ask for a state!
Iran continues to act douchey!
And, of course, there's my story in Wednesday's NY Post about where the diplomats at the little countries go when they want some home cookin.
We picked five countries with under a million people.
The most interesting story was probably the Bhutan restaurant. It's a sushi restaurant... but the owners are from Bhutan. And, if you call in advance, they'll make you some authentic Bhutanese food. (It was almost like going into a speakeasy.) I got a dish of dry and spicy cured pork and beef -- which was terrific! (A little chewy. But good.)
Unfortunately, a lot of the story wound up on the cutting room floor. But here are some of the juicy details.
My favorite of the restaurants (that I visited) in terms of taste was probably the Cypriot restaurant -- seriously delicious.
Marc Weydert, an attache for the Luxembourg mission to the UN told me that Lea Linster is the only female chef who has won the Bocuse d’Or competition -- and she's from Luxembourg.
That being said, there’s no straight Luxembourg restaurant in New York City. (Café Luxembourg on the Upper West Side was named after the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.) And trying to find some of the more rustic Luxembourg dishes such as "Wäinzoossiss" (a special Luxembourg-style sausage made with spices and wine) or "Kuddelfleck" (tripe or cow’s stomach, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in oil) is a hopeless cause. However, "Gromperekichelcher", which is the Luxembourg equivalent of potato pancakes, are not too difficult to find an approximation of.
And, Weydert adds, Luxembourg wines are making an appearance in New York, too. La Cave, a wine shop in Mamaroneck, NY, is about to start carrying some of the best Luxembourg wines: Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Gewurztraminer.
Finally, I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get into more detail about the Icelandic food at Scandinavia House. According to Morten Sohlberg, the owner, the lamb "is lamb which we raise on our own farm upstate. It’s a specific breed that comes from Iceland."
