Recently, we performed our best Chef Emile and Julia Childish imitations and helped out some friends who just opened a restaurant here. We were asked to conduct a TV cooking show, teaching Mongolian viewers how to prepare a couple simple foods with local ingredients as a way to help promote their new business. We thought it was a good idea and we had lots of fun doing it. And we're now famous in these parts. Now, more of the stares we continue to attract everyday are coupled with grins of recognition.
We wanted to prepare foods that were relatively simple, used only locally-obtainable ingredients, are culturally-relevant to us and are tasty. Jim demonstated a New England chowder recipe, suitable for a dairy-based diet and the approaching winter (it was -25C, yesterday). Meanwhile, Julie dazzled with a delicious apple cake that drew raves and sang a beautiful Mongolian song for the audience. Of course, the best part of the experience was the eating when we were done taping.
A teaser promotional ad aired for about a week before the broadcast. The ad featured many shots of me cooking and of Julie singing. The local producer likes to play with his studio gadgets and sped up the tape of Julie's song. She sounded like one of the chipmunks, which was cute. Upon seeing the ad, the elderly mom of Julie's co-worker called her daughter and asked a perfectly reasonable question: why was Julie singing while I did all the work? For us, that's an adorable cultural reflection...besides being a pertinent question in my domestic life. Why, indeed?
