Annual celebration Thursday at Backus
A time to celebrate things that unite people as well as what makes them different. A time to enjoy customs, and great food. A time to enjoy each other — and shake off the winter doldrums.
The annual ethnic food festival.
Local cooks will line up on the Backus stage Thursday, each with their prepared recipes of foods from around the world —Spain, Guatemala, Korea, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Holland, France, Italy, Mexico, Vietnam, Cameroon and China — in particular.
Backus Community Center’s annual Ethnic Food Festival is scheduled from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Cafe tables, and live music by local musician, Gary Hooker, will be provided.
Food tickets at $1, will be sold at the door to provide opportunity for a wide range of tasting the ethnic foods, which will include both hot and cold entrees as well as desserts. Wine, beer and beverages will be available.
Newcomer festival cook Joan Evanoff will be presenting sarma, an authentic “pigs in a blanket.” It is a Slovakian recipe that represents her late husband Sam Evanoff’s heritage. The name Evanoff is Bulgarian.
“It’s quite a chore but I learned to do it,” she said. “My family dearly loves it.” Evanoff explained that a soured head of cabbage, which takes months, is used. She buys the soured cabbage which is now available in Virginia, Minn., but noted it is hard to find. After the cabbage is aged, the outer leaves are peeled and rolled around a specially spiced filling which is then boiled.
Evanoff said sarma, made in larger rolls, is quite different than the usual pigs in a blanket
Rommegrot, a sweet-cream porridge, will be presented by Craig Moe. Moe, member of the Sons of Norway, has been enjoying rommegrot since he “was a little kid,” he said. His mother, Johanne Moe, made it during the holiday season.
The Norwegian dish may be eaten as a dessert or a main meal. “It’s fairly bland,” Moe said. This is sometimes typical of the nostalgic dishes that remind immigrants of their homeland.
The porridge is made from boiled cream and flour which thickens. “The butter comes out of the cream and then you add scalded milk,” he explained. “It gets really smooth and you add salt.”
This is also Moe’s first time cooking for the festival.
Festival alumnus Kay Arnold will bring Spanish topanodos to the ethnic-food table. Arnold, whose original last name was Houglum, told The Journal that she “has some Spanish blood” from her mother’s side of the family; and that her son-in-law is Spanish.
Topanodos are typically an hors d’oeuvre which are served on French bread and eaten at many Spanish gatherings, even in bars. A mixture of olives (ripe or green), fresh garlic, basil, parsley, capers and pine or sunflower nuts is blended with olive oil and lemon juice. After French bread slices are spread with the topping — fresh Parmesan and cherry tomatoes garnish the top.
Arnold will also be preparing her recipe of the Scandinavian spritz cookie. She mentioned that she was going to Holland and noted that fellow cook Carole Johnson, who grew up in Aruba, will again be preparing speculaas — the windmill cookies of Holland. The secret of the deliciousness of speculaas, said Arnold, is tied to the special blend of spices which are renown in the Dutch Indies. Arnold’s daughter, with the Spanish husband, lives in Holland.
“The Ethnic Food Festival gets rid of the winter blahs,” Arnold added. “Last year, people were lining up before it starts. It’s a great success. It’s so fun to try it all, although you do get pretty full. ... So many people (locally) were brought up with ethnic food.”
Arnold said enjoying ethnic dishes all in one place represents the ways in which food connects people.
She added that she wished fighting in the world would end, and that people everywhere would begin to celebrate — what unites them.
If you go
WHAT: Annual Ethnic Food Festival
WHEN: 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Backus Community Center
COST: Tickets at the door, $1 each for the sampling of a variety of foods
WHY: Live music • Wine, beer and beverages • Fellowship
PRESENTERS:
Among the people scheduled to present ethnic foods are: Carole Johnson, Kay Arnold, Joyce Rasmussen, Dawn Kruger, Harold Schumacher, Julie Schumacher, Carol Schumacher, Joan Barkovic, Craig Moe, Millie Ballan, Wanda Pelland, Hoa Sobczynski, Linda Merrill, representatives of The Rose Garden, Bob Scholler, Dorie Pullar, Joan Evanoff, Joe Gust, Bunny Green, Betty Villalta, Dean Lindstrom, Jay Hokenson, Wanda Linder, Ann Kaushagen, Janine Burtness and Barb Albert.
The diversity of the above names provides fun clues as to who will be presenting which ethnic foods on Thursday.
