Week Twenty-Seven – Quinoa

This week’s blog is brought to you in association with Wunderbar…  It truly is a bar of wunder!

Wunderbar – Not the sort of thing you want to confuse with a Wunderbra…

This week’s food first is quinoa.

The first thing I need to point out is that ‘quinoa’ is one of those words that has the potential to cause a great deal of embarrassment in social situations.  It is one of those dangerous little words that lurk in depths of the English language that isn’t pronounced how you think it should be.

You find yourself merrily chatting away about something interesting, perhaps the weather, and then you happen to mention you are trying to eat a new food a week for a whole year.  Taken aback with amazement, your conversational partner probes for you further details.  You attempt to elucidate, but then make the faux pas of mispronouncing the food you most recently ate…

Let’s imagine how this might pan out in script form: –

Quinoa – The Movie

It seems that we can draw three conclusions from this hypothetical situation:  One – I appear to want to be in Made in Chelsea.  Two – I clearly don’t get invited to parties.  Three – It is pretty much impossible to convey the pronunciation of words when you lack a basic knowledge of phonetics.

I guess I’ll just have to find another way to explain…

Apparently, quinoa phonetically is  /kɨˈnoʊ.ə/ – Yes, that would have been my first guess too!

It seems that the nice people at International Phonetic Alphabet HQ have an ingenious, yet complicated way of demonstrating how words should be said.  I must have missed the relevant English lesson at middle school when my parents recklessly squirreled me off to Centre Parks during term-time back in the late 80s.

It’s probably a bit tardy to start learning a new alphabet at this late stage in a blog entry, so maybe it would be better if I tried to convey how it should be said via the medium of ‘it sounds a bit like…’

Here goes…

Quinoa sounds a bit like: –

“Can you just check in my handbag for my key, Noah?”

Alternatively, I probably could have just suggested “keen-wah”

What do you all mean you all knew how to say it??

I couldn’t be keener to try some quinoa.

Anyway…

Quinoa is a pseudocereal, in that while not truly a cereal, it is used as such.  It is also classed as a superfood and is high in protein and gluten free.  It looks very similar to cous cous and can be used in a great variety of ways – breads, biscuits, soups, tortillas and a whole lot more.  It can also just be boiled and served as a standalone accompaniment to a meal…  This is the preparation option I decided to take.

It tasted something like brown rice with a hint of wholemeal pasta.  I know people always say it about a food someone hasn’t tried before, but mine tasted suspiciously like chicken.  This, possibly, may have had something to do with the fact that I boiled it in chicken stock rather than plain water.

If my quinoa adventure has piqued your interest, this year just happens to be the International Year of Quinoa.  Check out the website for a far better overview…  I think you may even be able to buy t-shirts made from the stuff – It’s that versatile!

 

Have a nice week… áj ǽm dʒə́st ɒ́f tú lə́rn fənɛ́tɪks and watch some episodes of Dr Quinoa, Medicine Woman.