Help with Multicultural Luncheon

[krisrishere]

There will be a luncheon next week involving high school-aged children with different ethical backgrounds. I need to come up with a lunch that features their heritages...on one plate. This isn't an elaborate meal, it's a simple lunch for kids and I want them to eat what's on their plate! :) Our standard lunches consist of "the norm"; salad, protein, vegetable, carb, dessert, but I would be willing to relax that as long as everyone had something they liked. I've done some searching online and many of the recipes I've found have ingredients I won't be able to find here. I'm hoping you guys could help me out.

Here are the countries:
Senegal
Latin America
India
Indonesia

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[Isabella]

All of these areas have rice as a main staple

Senegal - rice dish
Latin America - plantains
India - dal or tandoori chicken or saag paneer or Kheer
Indonesia - Chicken Satay

You mention not being able to find ingredients - where are you located?
There's always mail order!

[krisrishere]

I'm in Virginia Beach, VA. Most of the food has to come from my contracted food purveyor. If I have to get anything outside of them, I can only use my local supermarket (because we have their credit card). Even though I buy from a national food purveyor, the list of actual food I'm *allowed* to purchase is laughable.

[KiltedCook]

First, I *do* hope you mean "ethnic" backgrounds, not "ethical" backgrounds <grin> I'm a Personal Chef and prepare these basic cuisines all the time. Here are some simple and flavorful ideas that won't turn off the kids of any country:

** Peanut or Millet Soup for Senegal, in Africa - lots of recipes on line. Basically finely ground raw peanuts and/or millet grain (not millet flour), simmered with simple vegetables and chicken or vegetable stock. Thin as a soup, or thick as a sort of gruel.

++ Latin America isn't a country, but Arepas are common food in that area and easy to make - they're small fat "tortillas" made from Masa flour (available in your baking aisle) topped with shredded beef/pork or chicken in spicy tomato sauce (sorta like taco meat) with black beans and hominy (a type of corn found in your canned goods aisle).

++ For India you could make a chicken/garbanzo/vegetable curry with real curry spices not that red&white canned crap spice. Turmeric, ginger, cayenne, allspice, caramon, cumin, etc... Or buy a jar of "Garam Masala" spice blend from the spice rack at your local megamart.

Indonesia is a huge area culturally, but Coconut Mango Rice is common there. Cook your short grain (sticky) rice with coconut milk or coconut water rather than plain water. Peel, pit and dice some mangos and stir into the cooked rice. Or, you could poach Basa/Sutchi (Indonesian catfish) in coconut milk and chile powder (Indonesia is big on "sweet and spicy" or "spicy fruit" - cayenne & fruit cocktail).

[krisrishere]

Sorry for the typo. Yes, I did mean ethnic. :) Thank you for some great ideas. As you mentioned, Latin America is not a country, unfortunately we don't know *exactly* which country this person is from, so a broad range of "Latin American" food will have to suffice for this culinary example.