*** Favorite Mission foods ***
 

This deserves its own thread.

Common staples on my mission were white sticky rice and canned meats.

The most common meats were canned mackerel (cheap), corned beef, and Treat.

Spam was too expensive to eat very often. Normeat was down pretty far on the list. Used exclusively for spaghetti.

My mission comp put it this way: "You know how Spam is imitation meat? Normeat is imitation Spam."

Canned corned beef, cooked with chopped onions, served with rice and soy sauce.

Treat, cubed, browned with a can of corn. Served over rice with sweet and sour sauce, or just soy sauce. This was a very popular one.

Peanut Butter on steamed rolls.

Jiaozi.

Fried Noodles.

Rice and Soy Sauce.

McDonalds.

My favorite mission food was when the maid used to make lemon-merengue pie. Some elder from ancient times had also taught her to make brownies - those were good too. Of course, her home-made bread was great as well. The street vendors selling satay, tom yum soup, cashew chicken, and all other forms of Thai-food goodness at rock bottom prices were good as well.

Then I got kicked out of Thailand and went to the Philippines. While our houseboys in the Philippines did the laundry and cleaned and such, they weren't much for cooking. Fish or chicken, along with rice and a combination of soy sauce and lemon juice - that's about all they could muster each day. The shock of going from some of the best food in SE Asia to some of the worst was enough to make me sob bitter tears of despair.

Meatballs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Add some potatoes and white sauce and I could have eaten that forever. And yes, meatballs made in Sweden are much different and much better than meatballs made anywhere else (including Italy).

Bolivia:

hot Saltenas off the street (meat filled pastry, like an empanda)

Saltado de Pollo: spicy chicken chunks served over rice, potatoes, tomatoes, and onions. Add some ahi (hot pepper sauce).

Mocochinchi (this weird plum juice that was delicious)

Fresh baked bread every morning

Great soda flavors, like pineapple and papaya

I've had the ones at Ikea. Delicious!

Best food we ate was stuff we made ourselves.

We got our parents to send taco seasoning over and we cooked homemade soft-shell tacos. Making the tortillas was tough, but once we got some practice, they were pretty good.

Near Abbeville, MS is a buffet called Abbeville Catfish that was owned by a member of the Oxford ward. He would let the missionaries eat for free as often as they wanted, so long as they tipped the waitresses.

I noticed though, that literally every item in the buffet was either deep fried or smothered in cheese. Sometimes both.

I have eaten at this establishment and can vouch for it.

I did not go on a mission, but I went with my parents for a bit. So this partially counts...Ateke a cous cous like grain topped with sauce gran is really good, often replaced with futu (pounded manioc). This you could get at one of the local maquis for about 20 cents. I also ate best meal I have ever eaten there and it was local cuisine, fish and some incredibly flavorful and hot spices. I still have not forgotten the taste of that food almost fifteen years later.

This time with my parents also where I got my extreme Francophilia, because as in most former Franch colonies they make incredible breads and pastries, and there are usually several within walking distance of just about everywhere. the water was supposedly not drinkable, although I drank it a number of times and I never got sick, so we had Orangina everywhere we went and it consequently is my favorite drink.

Ah, the nostlgia.

arancini - deep fried rice balls filled with tomato sauce, cheese and peas.

panzerotti - scone with tomato sauce, cheese and ham.

stromboli - like panzerotti, but baked.

focaccia, especially spinach focaccia.

and of course the many, many different pasta dishes.