Global Cafe sells out evening of international cuisine as Charles City Arts Center fundraiser

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A large group of culinarily curious folks gathered at the Elks Lodge Saturday evening to sample the offerings of the Global Cafe, a twice-a-year fundraiser for the Charles City Arts Center.

Eleven guest chefs created 14 examples of cuisine from a dozen countries or regions of the world, and the event sold out.

The food was served buffet style, so patrons could go down the line trying whichever dishes they desired. A “passport” listing the dishes and countries was given to each guest to mark off the ones they tried.

The dishes were, alphabetically by country or region:

• Pacoca (a candy made from peanuts, sugar and salt) from Brazil.
• Red Cabbage, from Denmark.
• Onion soup from France.
• Kharcho (beef soup containing rice, cherry plum puree and chopped walnuts) and ajapsandali (eggplant stew), from the country Georgia.
• Warm potato salad from Germany.
• Boxty (potato pancakes) from Ireland.
• Bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated and seasoned beef) and bap (a rice dish) from Korea.
• Curry chicken from Malaysia.
• Rumaki (water chestnuts and chicken liver wrapped in bacon) from Polynesia.
• Peri peri chicken (barbecued chicken with chili glaze) from Portugal.
• Chocolate malva (Pudding) from South America.
• Kålpudding (cabbage casserole) from Sweden.

Chefs were Elissa Ellis, Par Holmberg, Emily Kiewel, Dave Lusk, Robert Mulcahy, Krista Noah, Patricia Points, Lance Schreier, Barbara Thomsen, Nancy Clarke and Kira Thomsen.