Craving ethnic food in middle America

Over the past week, I have been struggling with cravings for ethnic foods, specifically: Chinese vegetable egg rolls & spring rolls, and Mexican barbacoa tacos and burritos.   Living in California, not only was fresh local produce available year round, there was also a wide variety of restaurants with foods from different countries and cultures.   Even the fast food restaurants generally have ethnic-inspired selections!

While the midwest was also a melting pot of immigrants (my own mother was a British war bride), and I fondly remember growing up eating German, Swedish, etc. foods at community potlucks, it is about a 35 mile drive from my little hometown to the nearest Chinese or Mexican restaurants.   (Which unfortunately does not lend itself very well to a 10 p.m. Wednesday night craving of egg rolls…!  LOL)

I did find out a popular restaurant in town, has one evening a week of Indian food, which I am very excited about trying!  And I am planning some short road trips to local towns offering Mexican and/or Chinese restaurants.   I may also stock my freezer with at least a few ’emergency’ packages of frozen ethnic food options, to avoid any future sudden late night cravings.

And of course there is also the opportunity for me to learn to cook some of these dishes, myself.  I have been watching a lot of Iowa Public Television cooking shows, and they inspire me to keep adding new recipes, and exotic spices to my dishes.  Hey, if you have a great recipe to suggest for me, please send it to me via my website email address!

What foods could you just ‘not live without’?