Greetings from Panama! This week's food blog round-up is extremely scrumptious. Please do not read if you are hungry!

#1: From Greece, Wanderlust Sha
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce you to Ms. Sha, the empanada queen! Oh,…just take a look at those photos. Just be prepared with some drool cleaning agents for your computer, after seen this post, it will be all over the place. Promise.

#2: From Vietnam, Noodle Pie

Tip off: Is this the best sandwich in Saigon? He received this in the comments section of his blog two moths ago. If you read further you will learn about the what, who and when of this finger lickin’ story!

"Another sarnie tip-off. A woman sets up (after 5:30pm) a "banh mi thit nuong" stand. The thit nuong are like little grilled sausages. Plus, she throws on some bbq sauce. Best sandwiches I've had in Saigon. A real gem of a find."

Upon reading the suggestion I grabbed a camera, snatched the nearest notebook, powered out of fortress pie, hailed a passing chariot and headed out in search of this "gem". A mere 64 days later I alight at this pavement stall at 37 Nguyen Trai street in District 1. I'm hungry, but zen. I've arrived. I grab the plushest, fur lined, plastic stool I can find and order.

If you are still hungry,this is the link for you then!

#3: From Canada, The Domestic  Goddess

An excerpt from How much better can ice cream be?

Then the car will roll to a stop on a gravel driveway and us kids would begin to stir. From under blankets, pillows and “barf bags” we would emerge, blinking at the sunlight. My parents would get out and stretch their legs, urging us to get out of the car and do the same. No, we hadn't arrived at our destination – rather we had simply arrived. Bobcaygeon was only about 30 minutes from the cottage and it was there that we would stop, take pee breaks and indulge in the definitive ingredient of the entire trip: Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream.

“Made the old fashioned way with fresh milk and fresh cream. These are the first two ingredients in our ingredient list – compare this to other ice creams…No butter or imported butter oil. Only the freshest of milk and cream” With flavors ranging from ‘Vanilla’, ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Strawberry’ to ‘Sugar Shack Maple, ‘Chocolate Peanut Butter’ and ‘Death by Chocolate’, this is truly the best, most delicious ice cream that Ontario has to offer.

#4: From The Kitchen Parade

The Veggie Evangelist cooks up an international round up of recipes using the pretty, broccoli rabe aka rapini. In case you're wondering, it's pronounced "rob," as in the orange-breasted robin.

A kitchen parade indeed, that will help you prepare these leafy greens and scattered clusters of broccoli-like florets:

Pasta with Broccoli Rabe & Sausage Sweetnicks’ Little Nick loves this!
Shell Pasta with Sausage & Greens Simply Recipes
Guy Card-Saving Pizza Something in Season
Linguini with Rapini The Garden of Eatin’
Sausage & Broccoli Rabe with Orecchiette Mona's Apple

#5:  From Pease Porridge

Scones (to put honey on) is one of those handwritten recipes found on lined paper; maybe credited to a relative or a friend, some of whom we only vaguely remember, a few of them we have never met.

My mom's scone recipe is very simple and plain.  It looks like either she copied it in a hurry, or she copied it from someone else who copied it in a hurry.  But it works.  In a world of a million-million scone recipes, these are dependable, tried and true.  Make them and you'll understand why they've lasted so long, and why I'll pass them on to my own kids someday.

Go ahead, click on the link, you would not regret it!

#6: From Australia, Tomatom

Do not stall. Do oysters talks about the best and the worst oysters in Australia. If you have plenty, just follow some of his food fascist recommendations:

• Do save those sexy, salty juices.
• Don't much them around too much (kill the kilpatrick).
• Do make a zesty lemon/lime dressing perhaps with hints of chili and fish sauce.
• Don't throw out the shells. Crush them with a bloody great hammer and put in the garden.

Head over to his blog to get the complete list of tips and learn about oysters.

#7: From World on a Plate

Erin Go Blah No More! is a tribute to the Irish ‘modern’ cuisine. It has come a long way from the long held stereotypes of heavy, bland and boiled dinners and other unsophisticated fare.

Modern Irish cuisine combines Irish simplicity with French training, with one of the basics of great cooking–the use of the freshest and more often than not local ingredients, which is all adds up to a culinary renaissance taking place in the Emerald Isle.

Fare includes distinctly Irish offerings such as river oysters, grass-fed lamb, cows and pigs as and fresh or smoked salmon. This fish is prized for its creamy flesh that ranges from pink to orange to deep red. A traditional Irish appetizer marries thin slices of smoked salmon atop brown bread. Unfortunately, due to over fishing and pollution, true wild Atlantic salmon is growing scarce and the  the wild salmon season is but a two month window, so farmed salmon is commonly available these days.

See you soon!