By Alex Krasov, staff writer. Photography by Jason Ortego
Even if you’ve sworn off New Year resolutions, it’s still January. And if you live by the Gregorian calendar as most of us do, you just can’t help but review, reassess, and plan for the coming year. Here at Art and Entertain Me, we’d like to offer a few suggestions – namely, resolutions you will actually want to keep.
Eating out is fun, delicious, and expensive. But staying in and cooking more doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, one San Francisco-based company insists “life’s too short for food to be boring”. We couldn’t agree more.
A totally un-boring dinner of carne asado with Chimichurri, salad with pecan balsamic vinaigrette and spicy paprika finishing salt, and vegetable quinoa with smoked paprika.
Hungry Globetrotters is a small operation, less than a year old, and is founded on a simple idea. Founder Vijay Rajendran loved the experience of breaking bread abroad and learning about new cultures through their food, but how to make that accessible to everyone—not just those who can hop around the globe? Easy! Find the best spices, sauces, and most distinct flavors of a region, plan a simple step-by-step menu that any home chef can execute, and deliver it to them every month. And that’s exactly how Hungry Globetrotter brings a South Indian dinner right to your San Francisco door. Or any U.S. door for that matter. And a different dinner every month to be precise.
“We really focus on that unique discovery, whether it’s a great chai mix or a really good soy sauce. And because we work with small, local food brokers we can take risks that big retailers can’t,” says Rajendran.
You can sign up for the World Dinner Club to get a different box each month, or order specific boxes as gourmet gifts for friends and loved ones. (That has the extra bonus of fulfilling that “be more generous” resolution…)
The standout in the Argentine Asado Dinner Box was definitely the balsamic pecan vinegar—a little sweet, a lot nutty, and tangy in a way that elevates a simple salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and avocados to glorious heights.
The monthly box contains nothing perishable, and the recipes rely on you to do a little grocery shopping before you start cooking, but the process is made seamless with the set of recipe cards listing all the necessary ingredients and clear, easy instructions for preparing each part of the meal. Picking out your own proteins, veggies, and dairy items also means you can customize the meal to suit your tastes. The recipe cards cleverly list several options for almost every part of the meal so you’re never stuck searching high and low for that one missing ingredient or scrapping the plan altogether for that one finicky eater who is gluten-free/paleo-friendly/vegan-but-also-freegan/etc. This is California after all.
The recipes put together by Hungry Globetrotter are ingenious because they’re fast, easy, unique, and delicious. The steps are flexible enough for first-time cooks who want to try something new, and each recipe takes under an hour to prepare from start to finish (some go a little longer because of extra marinating time). And the meals turn out spectacularly—thanks in the large part to the highly curated flavors in each box. The South Indian Sampler box was packed with goodies we’d never encountered before, including the addictive Mumbai Masala Cobra Corn—popcorn tossed with Indian spices. It’s really a terrific cheat: for minimal effort and not much time, you get to fulfill your resolution and eat a restaurant quality meal. Lucky you.
So whether you’re trying to impress the family or a special someone, or starting a monthly dinner club with your friends, do yourself a favor and become a Hungry Globetrotter in 2013.
Check out the offerings here: http://www.hungryglobetrotter.com/
Sign up for the monthly club here: http://www.hungryglobetrotter.com/products/world-dinner-club
Order the Argentine Asado Dinner Box by itself here: http://www.hungryglobetrotter.com/collections/latin-flavors
Order the South Indian Sampler by itself here: http://www.hungryglobetrotter.com/collections/south-asian-flavors
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