- Vamazelli is a Guyanese sweet noodle dish.

A lot of times when you hear about noodles it's always something in the savory form.

Don't always see it as something sweet, so I wanted to share a little bit of my culture and my tradition with Vamazelli.

So Vamazelli is toasted Vermicelli noodles, slightly spiced with cinnamon and clove, boiled down and simmered into a milk syrup.

What I'm doing right now is I'm parching the noodles in some melted butter with cinnamon sticks just to toast the noodles.

Typically for us Muslims, we eat this on Eid mornings to celebrate.

Eid al-Fitr is the holiday that us Muslims will celebrate after we have completed a 30 day fast for the month of Ramadan.

The tradition is that you start your day with something sweet so that it begins on a good or happy note.

Starting to slowly change color, getting a little toasted.

(lid clinking) Yes.

Now the noodles are soft, I can slowly introduce the milks over it.

And slowly it'll start to thicken and be absorbed by the Vamazelli noodles.

I'm also pairing it with raisins and sultanas which are pretty much a golden raisin and a little bit of chopped up cherry.

This is what I'm looking for.

Typically, when we make Vamazelli cake at home, it's a large cake.

However, I'm in a time constraint, so I decided to serve the judges their own little individual Vamazelli, so that I have enough time so that it sets to form this solid Vamazelli cake.

It could be good, it could be bad.

We will see.

- Salmah.

- Adorned with a cherry is my Eid day Vamazelli.

Vamazelli is a Guyanese sweet breakfast.

Traditionally, in Muslim households we enjoy Vamazelli for the start of Eid day.

- This is amazing.

I wasn't sure what to expect and biting into it, it was truly an experience, delicious and flavorful.

And I might make this for breakfast myself.

(all laughing) I'm thinking coffee, a little bit of this.

I'm feeling good.

- It definitely tastes better than it looks.

There's no getting around that.

- Yes, I get it.

- It's just a very interesting shape and color, but the flavor itself is great.

And I think it's almost like an oatmeal, with the same spices and flavor and texture.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

(knife slicing) - Okay, cool.

Native American culture, we don't really do a ton of noodles, so I have to get creative with this one.

To find recipes getting connected to where I come from, which is being an urban native person living in Seattle.

So I'm gonna make a Bison Pho.

Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup with rice noodles and thinly chopped beef on top.

Pho everywhere in Seattle, and it's one of my favorite dishes.

But instead of beef, I'm doing bison, which is the traditional native food.

I start toasting all of the different spices and seeds to pull out some flavors.

- All right, 30 minutes y'all.

That's all we got.

Let's go.

- That is not a lot of time to get a good consistent flavor in the broth.

We have coriander, star anise, cloves, fennel, black cardamom, and cinnamon stick.

I put them into a cheese cloth, tie it up, and then throw that into the broth.

The noodles are pretty basic.

I know this is a noodle challenge, but honestly I feel like the noodles are an afterthought in this one for me.

The trickiest part about this dish is gonna be the broth.

If I can pull off the broth, the rest of it'll be super easy.

(beef sizzling) I want these guys to be like medium rare.

Bison is a traditional food of the Coeur d'Alene people.

You get in there.

For the Coeur d'Alene's, when you came back from one of the buffalo hunts you would be considered an adult.

So in my case, I didn't go on the buffalo hunt, but I arrived as a kid when I went to college at the University of Washington in Seattle, and then left as an adult.

I was exposed to a million different cultures.

I'm really proud of where I come from and the people I come from.

I think when it jumps out of the pan that means it wants to be done.

Thank you - Maria, it is your turn.

- So I made a Bison Pho.

I wanted to incorporate the traditional Coeur d'Alene food of bison with my history in Seattle.

- It's hard to get a, like a really intense flavor in such a short amount of time.

So, I think you did a really good job with that.

The bison is perfectly cooked.

Overall, I think it's a really nice looking bowl of pho and I think you nailed the broth on the Pho.

- Absolutely, Leah.

The broth is great.

It is hearty.

It's rich.

It's flavorful, but you wanna be careful though on your noodles.

They were a little overcooked.

It felt like they definitely took the backseat, but when you have a broth and bison so well cooked, I am enjoying all of this.

- Thank you.

(knife slicing) - I feel a little bit better about this round, so I know what I'm doing.

(Khela giggling) I don't ever know what I'm doing.

I am making salty beef and mushrooms over egg noodles.

Who does not love beef and mushrooms together?

My goodness, it's so tasty.

Time for drunken mushrooms, mm.

You ask my boys what their favorite dish is.

It's steak and mushrooms over egg noodles.

They're extra wide, yummy Amish noodles that I get at the farmer's market and my kids go nutso for these noodles.

Look at that pretty piece of meat.

I'm gonna do Ribeye 'cause it has a lot of flavor and it can cook fast.

All kind of about the same so they cook the same.

- [Maria] How you doing pumpkin?

- I'm good.

How are you?

- [Maria] Good, that sauce looks awesome.

- [Khela] Thanks, it's the pan.

- I love the color.

- Hopefully the wine's cooked out this time.

- If you're cooking with alcohol, cook all of the alcohol off.

I still taste some of that in there.

- I think I got the wine in early enough.

I might add a little bit of extra stock and a little bit of extra butter 'cause you can't have too much butter.

(Khela giggling) - Khela, it is your turn.

- I made a saucy beef and mushroom over egg noodles.

So it's kind of a play on a casserole, right?

We had lots of casseroles in the '70s.

I'm really old right this second.

(Alejandra laughing) - The actual dish itself is very hearty, very comforting.

The mushrooms are really meaty.

The beef is a bit chewy, but the mushrooms itself, it just like melts in your mouth.

- Yeah I mean, just like Tiffany said, the mushrooms are sliced perfect, they're caramelized, they've been roasted off.

Just watch when you're cutting your beef, you'll sometimes have pieces like this that look very lean, that'll overcook.

And then there's other pieces like this that look like 90% of it is fat or gristle.

Just take that extra step now to really refine it.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Leah Cohen.

Thanks so much for watching.

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