Cuban  Beans and Rice

Sam traveled to Cuba with Global Exchange, a group which leads cultural exchange tours in all parts of the world.  This purpose of this particular trip was to attend the Afro-Caribbean Music and Art Festival in Santiago.  In addition, the group attended lectures about life in Cuba and visited a number of political, historical, and cultural sites in Havana and Santiago.  Their days in Santiago were filled with concerts of music and dance from all over the Caribbean.  Most of the time, the group at together at hotels, but on one day, when there was the option for a free afternoon, Sam and his friends decided to go to the cigar factory and then to lunch on their own.  The bus driver had picked up a hitchhiker earlier in the day and when Sam asked him about a place to eat, the young man told him that he would take him to a good place.  He met them when they finished at the cigar factory and took them to a house for lunch. There were very few actual restaurants in Santiago, and the main way to get a meal was to look for a sign at someone’s house saying meals were available.  There they had a very traditional lunch of fried chicken and  beans and rice prepared by the woman of the house.  Besides the food, they enjoyed the opportunity to have a private and unrehearsed conversation with the young man about his life in Cuba.  Now you can enjoy Cuban Beans and Rice from Sam Cooks , a vegetarian version.  Buen Provecho!

Lincolnshire Relatives

Lincolnshire Relatives

Sam’s great-grandfather, Samuel Baker, for whom Sam is named was one of seven brothers from Lincolnshire England.  Samuel and six of the brothers emigrated to the United States and settled in the Mid-west.  Samuel started the family farm on which Sam grew up, and which still remains in his family. Sam’s grandmother, Emma Howard, emigrated with 2 siblings but left 3 more in England. As the generations passed, the Baker and the Howard families and their descendants in the U.S. and in England remained in touch across the pond.  Finally, in 1971, at the end of a trip to Europe, Sam went to London, where he met up with his parents and his sister Barbara in order to meet the members of the Howard clan who were still in England.  Sam’s father, Lester, met his four first cousins for the first time, and Sam and Barbara met their generation of the family in England.  Sam’s family drove to each of the cousins’ homes for individual family visits, and then met at one home in Lincolnshire for a family reunion. The English relatives had been planning a special “Christmas in July” ever since they had heard that Sam’s family would be visiting.  The fruitcake normally made in summer for the Christmas celebration had been made in December so that it would be ready for the reunion dinner.  The family all gathered at a big table to everyone’s great pleasure.   Sam especially remembers the delicious food prepared by his relatives–shattering myths of boring food in England. Now he brings some of those delicious foods to Sam Cooks in honor of his family heritage. Enjoy!

Greece

When Sam traveled to Greece in 1968, the island of Aegina, just an hour by boat from Athens, felt as far from the urban hubbub as any of the more remote islands.  People came to the island to lounge on the beach or to bury their legs in the warm sand as a balm for arthritis.  (Sam, young at the time, went for the former)
After a day at the beach, Sam perused the little cafes lining the harbor in search of a place to eat within his five-dollar-a-day budget.  He found one, sat at a table in the open air facing the Aegean, and enjoyed two dishes for which Greece is most famous: mousaka with its distinctive lamb and béchamel sauce layers, and Greek salad.  Unlike Greek salads now popular in the U.S., in their homeland, they are more simple, a plate of sliced ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, perhaps a few olives and chunks of feta cheese drizzled with olive oil.  Sam’s budget even allowed a glass of the distinctive Greek wine, retsina, before boarding the boat for the return trip to Athens.  Now you can enjoy mousaka here in Wellfleet from Sam Cooks.  Kali orexi!

Sam’s just mad about Saffron

During Sam’s two year employment in Portugal, he made many visits across the border to Spain. The city of Sevilla appealed to Sam on that first trip because it combines European and North African influence.  There, Sam stayed in the old Moorish part of town in a very basic rooming house.  He wandered labyrinthine streets too narrow for cars, getting lost and finding his way again.   He enjoyed flamenco performances and bull fights.  He toured the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe built on the site of a Moorish mosque, parts of which are now part of the cathedral.
And he discovered paella, a dish he knew from the states, but found to be a special pleasure in Spain because it was always just a little different in each restaurant.  Paella is a saffron rice dish that is made with whatever seafood and meat are available in a particular time and location.  Like Sevilla, paella, a seafood stew with saffron and paprika flavors, combines the influences of Europe and  North Africa.  Sam tried paella in every restaurant he visited.  At lunch, he ordered it as a main course.  In the evening, he often had a small portion as one of his tapas servings in a wine bar.  In Spain, the dinner hour is late by U.S. standards—often 10 PM or later.  Sam and his friends, used to an earlier dinner hour, often made the tapas plates their evening meal.
Now he brings flavors of Spanish saffron and paprika from  Andalusia to Sam Cooks.  Buen Provecho!

The German side of Sam’s family

On Sam’s visit to Germany, the food was familiar from dinners at the homes of his great aunts and uncles on his mother’s side.  Sam’s maternal grandmother, Barbara Ulrich, had come to the U.S. with her family and settled in Southern Illinois.  When Sam’s family visited them, they always had a German food fest including all kinds of German sausages and potato and red cabbage salad.  So, when Sam visited Germany, he loved the food that tasted like home.  Unlike his traveling companions, he enjoyed every different kind of German sausage and the familiar salads that brought back memories of those family dinners.  Now from Germany through the Ulrichs of Southern Illinois, Sam brings to Sam Cooks two family favorites: Knockwurst, Bratwurst and Kraut and Black Forest Potato Salad.  Mahlzeit!

Arab and Jewish Meals in Israel

In 1978, Sam was invited to participate in a Lisle fellowship international seminar to study the conflict in Israel. Twenty participants from nine countries met in Israel, dispersed in small groups to both Jewish and Arab small rural communities where they stayed with families. Afterward they gathered together to discuss their experiences and observations.
While their focus was primarily socio-political understanding, much of their interactions in the communities revolved around food. Sam’s first stay was with a Jewish family with two children. Their home had many modern appliances familiar to travelers from the U.S. There the food was familiar, a flavorful roast chicken for the Shabbat meal was like something they might have had at home. Though the family described themselves as not religious, they observed the rituals of the Friday evening meal as an important tradition within their culture. They lit candles, chanted prayers, and broke bread. From that Shabbat dinner in the Jewish Israeli village, Sam brings Chicken La Sabra to Sam Cooks. B’tayavon!
The following week, Sam’s small group visited an Arab community where he stayed with a young family with one child and another expected. Life in this village was more traditional, with fewer modern appliances. Because Sam was visiting in the month just before Ramadan, anyone who wanted to marry had to do so before the month of fasting began. As a result, Sam attended three wedding feasts during his stay. There, he sat at tables with the men in the party, while the women gathered in another place. Huge plates of rice and lamb were set in the middle of the table and eaten with the hands. Dancing and strong coffee followed, coffee so strong that Sam didn’t sleep the first night he tried it. The espresso at Sam Cooks will not cause sleepless nights. Bih hana wal shifa!

Portuguese National Dish: bacalhau

In 1992, Sam moved to Portugal to teach for two years in the American International School in Lisbon. He lived in Cascais near the school, studied Portuguese, taught math, and set out to sample as many kinds of Portuguese food as possible. Whenever he went out to eat with Portuguese friends, they encouraged him to try baccalau, dried salt cod. When Sam first tried bacalhau, he found it to be too strong in flavor and filled with bones. But eventually he discovered that there were many hundreds of ways to prepare this national favorite, a number of which he found delicious. His favorite was Bacalau a Gomes de Sa, which he had for the first time at the family home of a Portuguese colleague. In this dish, the potatoes are cooked and then literally punched until they smash open. The cod, once caught in waters near Portugal and cleaned and dried on the beaches, now must be imported from the North Atlantic.
On a number of weekends Sam accompanied his friends Randy and Natalia to Natalia’s family home in the tiny village of Santa Amaro in Northern Portugal. There, they enjoyed food prepared from homegrown ingredients including bread, wine, cheese, butter, olives, meat, and vegetables, all grown, raised, and prepared on the family farm. Sam joined Natalia’s extended family for long, large, and leisurely Sunday dinners, served at midday. As a special treat, the family sometimes served bacalau, one of the few foods they would purchase for the occasion.
After two years of working, traveling, and eating in Portugal, Sam returned stateside with an array of Portuguese recipes, a number of which you can try at Sam Cooks, including of course, bacalhau with punched potatoes.
Bom apetite!

During Sam’s two year employment in Portugal, he made many visits across the border to Spain. The city of Sevilla appealed to Sam on that first trip because it combines European and North African influence. There, Sam stayed in the old Moorish part of town in a very basic rooming house. He wandered labyrinthine streets too narrow for cars, getting lost and finding his way again. He enjoyed flamenco performances and bull fights. He toured the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe built on the site of a Moorish mosque, parts of which are now part of the cathedral.
And he discovered paella, a dish he knew from the states, but found to be a special pleasure in Spain because it was always just a little different in each restaurant. Paella is a saffron rice dish that is made with whatever seafood and meat are available in a particular time and location. Like Sevilla, paella combines the influences of Europe and North Africa. Sam tried paella in every restaurant he visited. At lunch, he ordered it as a main course. In the evening, he often had a small portion as one of his tapas servings in a wine bar. In Spain, the dinner hour is late by U.S. standards—often 10 PM or later. Sam and his friends, used to an earlier dinner hour, often made the tapas plates their evening meal. In this way, Sam sampled ten kinds of paella in his five day trip.
Now he brings his own version of paella from Andalusia to Sam Cooks. Buen Provecho!

Poulet aux olives vertes. (Chicken with Lemon and Green Olives)

In 1969, Sam traveled to Europe for the first time. Determined to be guided by Frommer’s Europe on Five Dollars a Day, Sam left for Europe with just enough money to last 6 weeks on exactly $5 a day for housing and food. Of course once in Europe, this meant a good deal of hunting for inexpensive hotels and eateries. Sam and his traveling companion arrived by train in Paris very late at night. So late in fact, that Sam did not want to “waste” any money on a few hours in a hotel. They first tried to sleep in the train station, but when that was closed for the night, they had to move on. Ever inventive, Sam found a car with doors unlocked. Sam set his alarm for early in the morning and he and his friend settled into the car for the night.
The next day, as a reward for saving their housing allowance, they decided to have some really good French food. They asked at the hostel for a recommendation and were directed to a simple restaurant, serving peasant dishes. Sam ordered roasted duck with green olives. In this way, they spent a whole day’s budget on wine, bread, and the wonderful duck. Once he returned stateside, Sam set about experimenting to make this delicious dish. It has been a favorite ever since. Now Sam has traded the duck for chicken and offers this special dish poulet aux olives vertes at Sam Cooks. From 1969 Paris to 2007 Wellfleet, bon appetit!