What is a good kit for someone who really, really does not cook?
All Destination Dinners are easy to make, some just take a little more time than others. A great one to start off with is the Pineapple Rice dish from Bangkok, Thailand Kit. Not only is it fast, but the presentation is amazing! Other great starter kits are the Bulgogi from Seoul, Korea, the Jerk Chicken from Jamaica and the Miso Fish from Kyoto. These are all marinades that require very little cooking skill.
Are there any vegetarian recipe kits?
Currently we have one vegan kit, the Falafel from Haifa, Israel. Some of the other kits can be made in a vegetarian style. For example, both the Pineapple Rice dish and the Green Curry dish can be made with baked tofu rather than chicken, just note that both use fish sauce which is made from anchovies and the green curry also includes a tiny bit of shrimp paste. The Jerk Chicken kit can also be made using only vegetables even for the marinade. Just reduce the marinating time to an hour or so or the flavors will overwhelm the veggies.
All of your recipes sound so exotic. Are there any for the not so adventurous?
The kits may sound exotic, but the flavors are nothing but yummy! A great kit to try first is the Bulgogi. This is a nice soy flavored dish. Leave out the Sansho if you want a flavor closer to a teriyaki. Another wonderful dish for the less adventurous is the Pineapple Rice. The flavors are sweet but not overpowering. Yes, the fish sauce is a bit stinky on its own, but it is a key ingredient that unites all of the other flavors and you will never know it is there once everything is added to the pot. Trust us, this dish is really amazing!
The clear boxes in the kits are really cool. Can you tell us more about them?
The boxes, like Destination Dinners, were created and continue to be made in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally created in the 1960's for the pharmaceutical industry, the boxes are an elegant expression of modernist simplicity, stripped of adornment, and almost invisible except for their utility. The are a permanent part of the design collection at the Museum of Modern Art, were used by Andy Warhol for a piece entitled "Portraits of the Artists," and played cameo rolls in movies such as James Bond's In Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Do you have any Recipe Kits from destinations in the US?
YES! As of June 1 we have a Recipe Kit bound for New Orleans. We have two more US destinations in development.