oh-my-god-i've-never-had-that potluck extravaganza

We just had our first dinner of the term! We love having people over and doing things like potlucks, and that's one of the many things that made last term so awesome. And we still have the Christmas lights (and tree...) which makes our house even prettier.

Oscar and I came up with the idea of this extravagant food potluck, inspired by his mom's idea of sweet sushi. Originally we were going to make sushi with gummy bears and fruit roll-ups. Then we decided to colour the rice with food colouring. And then Ricko suggested using natural dyes, such as beet, to colour the rice (because he says you can die if you eat artificial food colouring, which is probably true if you drink like a bottle each day, but in any case we decided to follow his advice). So the sushi idea morphed completely, but we built the potluck around it. Here's the Facebook event description:

we will be having the first-ever oh-my-god-i've-never-tried

-that potluck extravaganza! everyone will bring a CRAZY dish made with unusual ingredient combinations, or something that looks really unique and exotic! the purpose of this is to have many things people have never tried before, so you could even make something really special from your country. the conditions for the dish: has to be edible, has to be original-looking or original-tasting, and it would be better if it was vegetarian so we all can try everything. AND there will be awesome prizes for the most extravagant dish so be creative.

SO what did people bring? Here's the list of awesome and extravagant food:

strawberries for the happy island sushi

pre-blend blueberries

- HAPPY ISLAND SUSHI - by oscar and olivia. 4 types of rice: coconut rice, carrot rice (orange colour), beet rice (bright red colour), and blueberry rice (purple colour). 5 fillings: umeboshi, cream cheese, mango, banana and strawberry. Endless combinations! Oh yeah, and in addition to this we had special 'wasabi' made from mashed carrot and beet, lemon, salt and chilli pepper. And for people that didn't like seaweed, aka Vale, we made seaweedless sushi using coconut rice, filled with melted chocolate and fresh strawberries, and coconut shavings sprinkled on top. And a chocolate sauce at the side, of course.

carrot, beet and blueberry rice

Try-it-yourself part: to make the rice you first have to make the juices. Blend the carrots, blueberries and beets (separately) with water. Then sieve the mixes to get the water with the intense colouring. Cook the rice normally, using 1:1 rice to colour water ratio. For the coconut rice just use coconut milk instead of water. 

SO GOOD! The coconut rice and blueberry rice are really delicious, they really taste like coconut and blueberries. Possible ideas for other coloured sushi (which I'll get around to when we finish all the rice we now have in the already-exploding fridge..): using spinach extract to make rice green; using orange juice to make rice taste like oranges; using coffee and milk to make coffee rice...

- PEPPERY BLOODY ORANGE SALAD A LA MINT - by vale. A delicious salad made with pepper, bloody oranges and mint! But it doesn't stop here. The pepper comes from the Himalayas, the oranges are rare because of their bright red colour, and the mint was hand-picked by Vale... She also made ate de membrillo with cheese.

- EGGS A LA VAMPIRE - by emil. Eggs cut in half and filled with eggs, yougurt, celery and pepper.

green eggs & ham

- GREEN EGGS AND HAM - by nichole. Inspired by Dr. Seuss, Knickers made (scrambled) green eggs and (vegetarian) ham! Awesome idea.

- COMPOST SALAD - by nancy. Salad with gummy worms! Just like a compost.

- FRIED CHEESE - by paula. Authentic mexican fried cheese, like the one they sell outside of clubs. Tomas claims he was the brains behind the whole frying cheese operation, but Paula denies this.

- JAMAICA WATER. Which apparently is Jamaica tea... we had a discussion about this and it was decided it will now be referred to as Jamaica iced tea.

- COCONUT SOUP - by ricky. This is one of the best soups I've ever tried and I'm not even kidding. Made with many secret ingredients, I know Ricko used like 5 cans of coconut milk, a bag of coconut shavings, mini corns, palmitos, pepper, onions, and tomato, and mixed everything in the HUGE pot Yaku (Taku+Yasu) use for making a month's supply of curry. It is truly delicious. Thanks El Salvador.

- CURRY SOBA - by yasu & taku. Mmmm authentic japanese food. Noodles with japanese curry, which is completely different to indian curry by the way.

- FRIED PLANTAINS - by tomi. Patties made with plantains, fried and sprinkled with salt.'

the feast

- BREAKFAST MUESLI - by manuel. A yummy mix of yogurt, muesli, apples and many fruits. I can see how this could be a very good breakfast.

- NESTEA and DR. PEPPER - by ceci and susan. When all else fails, bring something to drink!

- CAVIAR AND SHRIMP SOBA - by julie.

- POPPY SEED BREAD - by phoebe ('s mom). A delicious imported (came directly from Oregon!) bread and a bar of butter.

- MEXICAN CANDY PLATE. Bomvasos, Dedos Indi, Picafresas and Rellerindos.