Chef Pro III: Week 11: Fusion Cooking

The week before this class we all drew slips of paper which contained our countries or regions for this class. I drew Ireland, Greece, Asia, California, and Carribean.
Then for class we drew from three cups: 2 were countries and 1 was a type of dish to prepare. My first dish was Asia/Carribean/dessert. I greated a potsticker filled with a sweet potato, coconut puree. I fried the potsticker and sifted some confectioner's sugar on top. It was not too bad and best of all, it fit the assignment. I drew California/Ireland/soup next. Hmmm--this was a little tougher.
I made a vegetable broth based soup with fresh vegetables and chopped potatoes. It was light and pleasant tasting. For the next dish I drew Asia/Greece/appetizer. I saw some nice looking eggplant, tasted it and was surprized at how sweet it was. I made tempura batter, fried the eggplant and then made a Greek yogurt, cucumber sauce.
For the next dish, Carribean/Asia/entree, I made a chicken stir fry with various vegetables, chicken, and a sweet and spicy sauce, served with rice. Not too imaginative, but OK. Finally, the Greece/Ireland/amuse bouche, a grape leaf stuffed with a mashed potato/feta cheese filling. This was not too bad but truthfully I despise grape leaves so I'm glad I didn't have to eat it.
Overall fusion was fine but I was not feeling well that night. A couple days before I had twisted my back in some strange way and sprained it pretty badly, requiring a trip to the doctor and presciptions for a muscle relaxer and pain meds. Simply standing was very hard and I kept having muscle spasms in my legs. My goal was just to get through the class and survive so I felt good that I completed the assignments and even made fairly good dishes.