An American Dinner Party

Tonight, Matt and I invited his Chilean "family" over for dinner. I put "family" in quotation marks, because, technically, Matt is not related to them, but he considers them family. He stayed with them in 2011 during his first year in Chile.

We invited them over for a typical American dinner. When I was planning the dinner, though, I had to really think about what an American dinner consists of.

My diet is wonky, as most of you know. I'm a vegetarian (and was vegan for two and a half years), I don't eat wheat, and I don't drink alcohol. So, most of the foods I make at home are not really American cuisine staples. When I'm cooking for myself, or for me and Matt, I make mostly Thai inspired dishes (for example, I had curry three ways and three different nights this past week).

So, I really had to stop and think about what an American meal is. If you had to throw a dinner party for people from another country, and you wanted to show off American cuisine, what would you cook? (I really am curious! Leave comments below please. I've turned on an anonymous feature for those that do not want to register with the Blogger website but still want to comment.)

I decided I would make four main things: a protein, a starchy side, a vegetable, and a dessert.

Being from the south, and being quite proud of our food heritage, I knew I wanted to either make pulled pork BBQ or fried chicken. I don't eat meat, so I knew this would be a tricky venture, as I wouldn't be able to taste the food as I cooked it.

Fried chicken would've been neat to make, but, truthfully, it's not that foreign here. I pass both a KFC and a Popeye's on my walk to work. So I decided to go with the low-and-slow goodness of pulled pork BBQ.

I bought two pork shoulders/butts (called paleta de chancho here, by the way - I had the hardest time figuring out the names of the cuts of meat, as it's never been something I've had to say in Spanish before), seasoned them with herbs and brown sugar, then roasted them at 250 degrees (122 degrees Celsius) for about 5 hours. Then I added some BBQ sauce. I also toasted some buns for people to make sandwiches.

Here it is after roasting a while.

I transferred it to a pot to keep it warm and moist while it got nice and saucy. I am really proud of this! Not bad for an herbivore.

Our guests very confused by the pulled pork at first. They didn't know what it was. They thought it was tuna by the look of it! We explained that it was pork with a BBQ flavor. Then they were more willing to try it.

I made coleslaw so that the meal would have some texture. And coleslaw is always good atop a pulled pork BBQ sandwich! 

For the starchy side, Matt and I considered the following: french fries, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. Fries are boring and, in my opinion, don't require enough creativity in the kitchen. They're not fun to make, and oven-cooked french fries don't have the same crispness that freshly-fried ones do. Mashed potatoes are found in lots of Chilean restaurants (called pure de papa), so those weren't uniquely American enough to make. We decided upon mac and cheese! 

I love making mac and cheese. My aunt Stephanie has a great recipe, so I've always used that one. Her recipe calls for very specific cheeses (sharp cheddar, mild cheddar, monterey jack, velveeta, etc.), which I sometimes would vary, but I always had the same basic ingredients. It's hard to find those cheeses here, especially velveeta. There is no velveeta in Chile! I improvised by buying two packs of American cheese singles. I stacked them all up and cubed them. They give the same textural effect as velveeta. I also used cheddar and queso mantecoso, which is a lighter flavored semi-soft cheese, which I thought might be similar to the monterey jack.

I was barely able to snap any pictures of the mac and cheese as it was snatched up so quickly!

Yummy!

The green beans were a special favorite for me. I have always loved green beans (it's why my dad calls me Bean), and in high school, a bowl of green beans was my breakfast for every day of senior year. I love them.

I made these with veggie stock, black pepper, and lots of garlic.

Some might say that green beans aren't truly southern if they haven't been simmering with a ham hock, but I'd say these measured up!

And lastly... dessert! I made brownies, because I feel like they're a very American dessert. I didn't make these from scratch; our grocery store carries Betty Crocker mixes, so I just use a mix. I was told they turned out well! Everyone had seconds, so that was a good sign. We served them a la mode (which is a French phrase, not Spanish) with vanilla ice cream and manjar sauce. (We also had some leftover pineapple ice cream, which some people had with their brownies. It seemed like an odd combination to me, but pineapple ice cream is by far the most popular ice cream in Chile, probably because it's used for the creation of terremotos, a type of cocktail served over ice cream. The pineapple ice cream is also vegan, because it's not made with milk, but with water.)

It took so much willpower to not have any brownies.

We toppd the brownies a la mode with manjar, which I realized I cannot keep in the house, because I will eat it with a spoon until the whole tub is gone. (I have similar rules for peanut butter and Nutella. I love spreadable, spoonable things, I guess!)

Everything was a big success! I wish I had taken photos of all of us, but it felt so much like a family dinner that I didn't even think to take any. We're seeing them again on the 18th and 19th, so I will take some pictures then. 

Let me know what you would serve at your own typical American dinner party in the comments!