If that’s a banana in my curry, I’m plenty glad to see it.

This dish is called Voodoo Chicken because when I invented it, I was slogging through one of those dreadful snuffly colds that intensifies for weeks. I resolved to throw into one easy-to-make dish every health-inducing ingredient I could find in the kitchen. And I woke up the next morning with a bare minimum of symptoms.

Bet your chicken soup can’t say that!

It also fulfills the requirements of combining bananas and nutmeg for the January Improv Cooking Challenge at Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.

The dish is an implausible mish-mash, which means its musical accompaniment is another implausible mish-mash that somehow works: The Caribbean (Facebook). The band’s most recent album, Discontinued Perfume (iTunes, Amazon), is a bizarre and wonderful fusion of rock, jazz, folk, lounge, and Brazilian music. Let’s preheat the oven to 350, regard some chicken breasts with a bleary eye, and check out “Mr. Let’s Find Out,” the track that’s earned the loudest critical plaudits.

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This is pork on the verge of a volcanic explosion.

One iconic dish for Illinois is Chicken Vesuvius, which I’ve been intending to make for over a week, except that suddenly chicken is a thought that makes me sicken. So I bought a ham slice and a package of hot Italian sausage — decisions that also turn this dish from a two-hour project to a fairly quick dinner.

Since the theme today is clearly “unexpected delights,” I skipped the Boston Phoenix’s first choice for Illinois and went with its second choice, Yawn (Bandcamp). As is so often the case lately, I can’t figure out the lyrics and nobody seems inclined to tell. But the production makes me smile. Read the rest of this entry »

I owe some cows an apology.

For some time, I’d been intending to tackle vegetarian Mexican to accompany a recommendation of Rodrigo y Gabriela (listen). The food hadn’t been cooperating. I’d been postponing listening to the music until I had the right menu, which turned out to be a mistake, as now that I have, within half a song… I might have been outright purring. This Spanish guitar playing is so splendid that I might also have found my matts and hairballs disappearing.

In any case, I’d also not grasped that Rodrigo y Gabriela’s support for animal rights includes the right of the cow not to have its bodily fluids appropriated for human use. At the same time, the bowl enchiladas turned out rather well, and the cheese isn’t essential to the effect, so to the cows… [small voice]… I’m sorry. Shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, that’s a yam you see yonder.

My original plan was to commemorate the Uruguay-South Korea match by turning pasta, for which Uruguayans feel amore, with the trusty Korean stir-fry sauce in an homage to fried rice. U.S.-Ghana was to be represented by yam-peanut pancakes, which I may have to tackle some other time.

It will be explained below how things got out of hand. The out-of-handness of things makes it possible to turn to Ghana’s hiplife movement for a compilation album, Black Stars (listen) (details about album). The album name is in turn appropriate to the occasion, as Black Stars is also the name of Ghana’s football (soccer for us Americans) team. It is these confluences of influences that allow me to get through the day, also to consume so many yams. Read the rest of this entry »

The lure of happy hour was supposed to result in a bye on today’s matches, but I was clutched by an urge to construct date-pistachio scones in honor of the England-Algeria face-off.

This led to my discovery of Rachid Taha (listen), whose specialty is punk/techno updates of a traditional Algerian/Arabic sound. It seems everyone else knew about Taha as the go-to guy when one’s movie soundtrack needs an exotic Middle Eastern sound with a contemporary edge. He seems to be loosely linked to the subgenre of raï, which combines reggae, funk, blues, and North African beats. Read the rest of this entry »

The kick-off to the World Cup Food Challenge would not be complete without host country South Africa. These sweet-savory corn muffins are the result of a conflation of vetkoek (tempting because it’s often stuffed with mincemeat–but I don’t deep-fry) with mealie-bread (a sweet corn bread), garnished with the East Indian influence that shows up in South African fusion cuisine.

Well, it’s garnished with cherries because everything’s improved with a cherry on top. And it’s accompanied by South Africa’s Freshlyground (listen) because lead singer Zolani Mahola was featured in the 2010 FIFA World Cup theme song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa).” In summer 2010, the group is performing at festivals in Europe and Africa, supporting its new album, Radio Africa. Read the rest of this entry »