When cuisine bridges cultures

I feel privileged to have had many culinary cross-cultural exchanges over the past few years. Some of them have been documented on this blog, for example when Tomer from Israel taught me to make shakshuka (which I'd never heard of back then, but has now appeared on several cafe menus around Canberra) and when Sergio from Spain introduced me to Spanish omelettes. I've been a volunteer English language tutor for several years and a couple of my students have returned the favour by teaching me how to cook dishes from their countries: Hermine from Austria showed me a fabulous potato goulash and and delectable creamy mushrooms, while Yan from China gave me a delightful lesson in making Chinese dumplings. Lucky, lucky me. All of these dishes have become favourites in our household.