I should preface this by pointing out that I am not so awesome in the kitchen that I can just whip something up…I find that I constantly rely on recipes, usually to an exact “t”.  For that reason, one of my favorite recipe sites that has useful reviews and is easy to manipulate serving sizes, is Allrecipes.  The next site that I often probably rely on the most is Food and Wine Magazine’s site.  Not having the luxury of the print issues here with me, I can get just as much usual information off their site to help with some great dinner ideas.  And of course, no meal plan would be complete without checking for recipes from some of my absolute favorite chefs like Emeril and Bobby Flay on Food Network’s site.

Since I am in a new country with obvious challenges awaiting me at the grocery stores, I decided to try and keep my culinary exploits themed each week.  This way, I could concentrate on a group of ingredients, not go all over town (or so I thought), and  learn more about a particular culture’s food. 

In addition, since we only brought as much wine as we could legally carry (basically 9 bottles a piece), we were going to be on the hunt for new wines to try here since that stash would not obviously last for 4 months until we returned to the States on vacation!  US wines are very expensive in Taiwan so it was going to be time to try some European ones and delve into the completely unknown world of South American and Australian wines. 

All that being said, my first week’s menu inspiration actually came from one of only two hard copy Food and Wine Magazines that made it here with me.  I went to pick up the magazine, accidentally dropped it, and it opened to the most amazing looking Greek recipes.  Shrimp Saganaki.  Hmmm…..this gave me an idea.   Greek week and we could try to find some Greek wines to pair with the menu items.  HAHA.  Yes, there is much more European wine here versus other world regions, but let’s just say Greece did not make the cut anywhere we searched.  So, I tried to keep it to at least European varietals as to somewhat keep with the theme!