Around The World In A Meme

When I was tagged for this meme last week by Stephanie of The Feast Crusade, I knew I had my work cut out for me.
For while I've been doing this blog thing for a couple of months now, I haven't really taken the time to explore a whole lot of other food blogs. Oh sure, I have my two or three favourites that I check regularly, but beyond that I really haven't checked out many sites.

"So," I thought, "time to go exploring."

I dusted off the trusty pith helmet and set off into the wilds of Foodbloggia. A week of exploring has netted me the following culinary jewels. Off we go.

1-Please list three recipes you have recently bookmarked from food blogs to try
Scrounged Recipe #1
Once again, I found an excellent recipe at Hungry In Hogtown. Seems my friend Rob took a break from from his seemingly endless string of El Bulli molecular gastronomy masterpieces to make this really REALLY tasty looking Vanilla Loaf.

Scrounged Recipe #2
While casting about for some new food blogs to peruse, I found a truly amazing (and simple) dessert at Station Gourmande. The author simply calls the dessert "Banane Surprise". This is an enjoyable site, but a little challenging as it is written completely in French. Here is a transcription of the dessert in English. I'm fairly sure I got this right, but if not, it's still close enough for rock 'n roll.

Banane Surprise
Banana
Dark Chocolate
Shredded Fillo Dough (Kataïfi)
Cooking Oil

Slice the banana in half lengthwise, then cut it in four or five pieces.
Place a piece of chocolate between each banana segment.
Loosely wrap each segment with some of the Kataïfi. This looks sort of like fresh angel-hair pasta, but being fillo, is much more fragile.
Heat some oil in a very hot skillet. Place a few of the bundles into the skillet, and brown on both sides.
Remove from skillet onto some absorbent paper towels, then serve immediately.

Ohhhh yeah!!!

Scrounged Recipe #3
Sausages and Sparrows. No, not those kind of sparrows. In this case, that means spätzle. Yeah, baby. I found this recipe at a neat site called A Chicken In Every Granny Cart. Ever a fan of German and Austrian cuisine, I'm definitely trying this one.

2-A food blog in your vicinity
Recently, my friend Sue told me about a site authored by a friend of hers located here in Toronto called Once Upon A Feast. So I checked it out, and was impressed by the variety of recipes, and the posts about her love of kitchen toys and gadgets.

3-A food blog located far from you
When I search the FoodPornWatch site, I look for blog names that catch my eye, and one of those was MonkeyBites, which is located in Seattle, Washington. The subtitle of the blog is "Don't throw poop, eat pâté....a food blog". I was hooked right there. The blog is a good read, and includes interesting recipes, including one post featuring several recipes using dried Hibiscus Flowers.

4-A food blog (or several) you have discovered recently (where did you find it?)
Aside from the blogs mentioned above in the recipe section, I have been bloggening my horizons, so to speak, by scanning the FoodPornWatch website. For those of you unfamiliar with this site, it is a list of registered food blogs that have recently submitted a post. I figured that since I took the trouble to register my site here, I should avail myself of the service as well. Here is what I found:

Stirway To Heaven. This site features some pretty remarkable-looking desserts. Although this site is from The Netherlands, and the author primarily writes in Dutch, an English translation of the recipes is supplied. Nice.

Naughty Curry. The ladies at this site take everyday dishes and spice them up with primarily Indian flavours. Some very funky stuff here. The posts are written in a conversational style that is very engaging, and they totally draw you in to their world. This is a current favourite of mine.

5-Any people or bloggers you want to tag with this meme?
No, I think that about does it. If anyone I've tagged is bugged about it, I apologize, I just really dig your sites, and I want to share them with others.