yum yum!

Friday was definitely a good food day! It was my work's International Food Day for lunch. For being a fairly small company - 300 employees, we have a lot of diversity. There's a lot of diversity among our 150 employees in DSM but the remaining 150 employees are spread across 11 countries. For the International Food Day, in order to participate in the eating, you have to bring a dish. Lucky for me USA counts as a country and I made my aunt's famous Caramel Bars.

There were soooo many tasty dishes to sample! One of my favorites, also from the USA, was the Cherry Pineapple Surprise. I didn't take any on my first pass through the line, but one of the gals I was sitting with got some and said it was delish - and she was right. Sooo good. Definitely a nice surprise.  :) Hopefully I can get the recipe and try and make it myself.

Don't worry. I didn't just try foods from the USA. I did a really good job of trying a little from many different countries. There were more than 50 dishes with 16 countries represented. CRAZY! I didn't try everything but I wish I could have. There was just too much. But it was really fun and I got to experience some new foods in a non-threatening environment. Here's some more pics of the foods I tasted.

This Indian dish was one of the first in the line and I almost passed it by because of the color. But it was actually really good and I'd have it again. Not too spicy either.

Very tasty veggies! There were lots of mushrooms in the mix which could probably be considered my favorite vegetable so definitely one of my favorite dishes too.

You can't really go wrong with italian and I was super impressed that this meal was not only homemade but also made in a crockpot. I really need to start using my crockpot more creatively on dishes like this.

 I wish I could have tried one of each section because they were all different - mushroom, cheese, cottage cheese...and some others that i can't remember.

 I'm glad I got to try this little individually wrapped snack from Vietnam. Our table's concensus was that it's probably considered a sweet or dessert in the country but in comparison to an American sweet or dessert this was much more bland.

 My Grandpa used to make homemade ice cream for special occassions and it was delicious. However, we always just had vanilla. This homemade ice cream was blueberry flavored though, so it was fun to try something different.

 This little ball was probably one of the biggest surprises. I totally thought it was going to be creamy but it wasn't at all. The consistency was so unusual - very much a shock when I took a bite.



I was excited to try this Indian dish out. Pretty much it was lamb pieces, rice and SPICES. It was good but had some kick to it. It's good that I only had a small portion because a regular helping would have been way too spicy for me.

Not only did I have a delicious lunch on Friday but my family went out to dinner with my Grandma at her "retirement resort". Dinner at the restaurant there was great and it was fun to catch up with my Grandma. We ordered a slice of red velvet cake to share but given how delicious it was both Jackie and I decided that next time we'll both be getting our own slice :)