Earning Farmgirl Sisterhood Merit Badges

Farm Kitchen

18. Palate Pleasers

Beginner

• Write down some of the more unfamiliar foods/dishes you've tried in your life. If you're a picky eater, ask yourself why. Is your list of favorite exotic foods short or long?
• Using cookbooks or blogs for recipe inspiration, pick out a cuisine you've never eaten before and study it. What makes it different than American food? Are you nervous to taste it?
• Shop for your ingredients to make your ethnic dinner.

Intermediate

• Now that you've assembled your pantry needs for your chosen cuisine, start cooking.
• Especially if the process unnerves you and your palate, invite a friend to share in the experience.
• During dinner, discuss the places you've traveled or want to travel to, the strangest foods you've eaten, and what you'd be willing to try. Octopus? Alligator? Ostrich?

Expert

• Replace two of your typical dinner recipe rotations with something new and more exotic.
• The next two times you go out to eat, go somewhere new that you would have never tried before. See if you can ask the chef for something he or she would really love to make for you, even if it's not on the menu. Review them on Yelp or Google, especially if you loved them.
• Find an alternative to the "one-stop shopping" of our American grocery stores. Stop by an Asian market to find the ingredients for your new spring-roll obsession, or a Mexican market to tempt your hot-pepper cravings. Learn the difference between Thai food and Chinese food, and the difference between Latin flavors and Mexican ones. Has your palate changed since beginning this badge?

April, 2024 Edition