Zimbabwe, here at last

Hello,

Zimbabwe, the final country in my challenge and while this is a very average dish to finish with it is seasoned with the taste of success at having completed my challenge within the time frame I had set. 197 countries later with a wide variety of foods tried in 18 months. I was well and truly satisfied when I went to the supermarket recently, there was no spice on the rack that I hadn’t cooked with except for the pre-blended spices i.e. chicken seasoning. In the 18 months I had tried beef, fish, pork, chicken, veal, venison, rabbit, crab, mussels, clams, prawn and even frog and snails overseas. The number of different vegetables and fruits I have tried are also far reaching from apples to zucchini, although there are still a lot in between I haven’t yet tried.

Anyway, Zimbabwe’s national dish is sadza and I decided to cook this with vegetable chili with peanut butter cabbage. A vegetarian meal which doesn’t sound the least bit appealing but here goes. People haven often said “Why eat it if you don’t like it?” and while there has been meals that I would have preferred not to have put my taste buds and stomach through the ordeal, it is all about the experience. It is highly likely I will never visit every country in the world but I now can say my stomach has (albeit my version of that country).

The chili contained chili (of course), tomato, carrot, onion and capsicums. In addition I cooked the peanut butter cabbage which contained peanut butter, cabbage, tomato and onion. Finally, I made the sadza which is essentially corn meal and water. The meal was very bland and certainly not a good one to end this journey on but it would have been edible if I was hungry.

So there, it is finally done after 18 months, five days before my ultimate deadline. You may notice (not that anyone reads this blog) that there are still white patches on the map (those places I haven’t cooked), these places are still “provinces” of the likes of France, England, Denmark and the like. I coloured in Greenland (a province of Denmark) a long time back which would be another “white” spot.

A special thanks to my housemates for assisting me with sourcing ingredients, cooking and putting up with some weird and different dishes from time to time.

Now what? I have learnt a lot more about cooking and hopefully I can cook a little better drawing on a number of cultures the world over. Despite everything, no matter where you are food is food and life sustaining.

Goodbye

Sam’s rating: 5/10

Zambia, peanuts

Hello,

Second last country on my culinary tour of the world, for Zambia I decided to cook their signature dish of nshima and ishashi.

The nshima is eaten over much of Africa and is known as many different names although the ingredients used are slightly different due to the corn grown in the area. In any case cornmeal was added to the water and heated up, very simple to make, not unlike couscous.

Ifisashi is Zambia’s version of greens in peanut sauce. It seems that central Africans also like the taste of peanut sauce. The ifisashi was made with ground peanuts, kale (for collard greens), tomatoes, cabbage and beef.

While not one of my favourite meals it was a big improvement on pap (a dish similar to nshima) and I could eat it again if I really had to.

Goodbye

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Yemen, yoghurt marinade, mmm

مرحبا

Yemen is the only country that begins with Y and the third last country on my cook around the world. For Yemen I decided to cook a chicken and rice meal which has a yoghurt based sauce. The chicken was cooked with onion, yoghurt, mastic, curry, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, cumin, coriander, turmeric, curry powder and saffron.

The rice was cooked separately with saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, pepper and salt before being added to the chicken meal. This meal was very tasty, a slight bite to it but very nice. The saffron added new smells to the meal.

وداعا

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Vietnam, there is something in my soup

chào bạn,

Vietnam, the home of some tasty dishes but I decided to go with the national dish for this country, pho. The soup was made with beef bones and a number of spices including ginger, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, pepper and cloves.

After the soup was cooked, lime and fish sauce were added before the dish was topped with rice noodles and garnished with mint, coriander, chili and green onions.

I like Asian food in a typical sense, dumplings are nice, stir fry, fried rice and a number of other dishes however when it comes to soup I don’t think Asia is the country for a good soup. The soup was watery, rather bland and with what I consider strange things to have in a soup like chili, mint, coriander and large rice noodles. Not to mention it doesn’t make eating with manners that easy either

Tạm biệt

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Venezuela, slowly and soft

 

Hola,

For this South American country I decided to cook pabellon criollo which is basically slow cooked beef with beans and rice. The beef was cooked for two hours with carrot, celery, onions and a bay leaf. Red peppers, garlic, tomatoes were added along with salt and pepper for seasoning.

The black beans were boiled with a ham hock, onion, garlic and a bay leaf seasoned with salt and pepper. The ham tasted amazing in my opinion.

Overall, the beef part was a little bit too watery and a touch bland but very tender and soft from the slow cooking. The ham and beans were very tasty, the ham was lovely and tender having cooked for a long time on low heat.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Vatican City, a city with a cuisine?

Ciao,

Tonight was Vatican City turn to star on a plate, the smallest nation in the world and probably the most difficult to find a recipe for. The city has sovereignty purely because of the pope and the need for independence.

For the Vatican City I decided to cook fetuccini alla papalina which apparently was a request of a pope who wanted a traditional roman dish. The pasta was boiled and the prosciutto was fried with onion and butter before being mixed with the pasta. The pasta sauce was made with parmesan reggiano, double cream and eggs. It was all tossed together before being served with quite a bit of pepper.

This meal was very filling but quite tasty, it probably had a bit too much pepper for my liking but it has been a long time since I have had pasta so I enjoyed it.

Ciao

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Vanuatu, coconut joy

Hello,

Vanuatu is a popular holiday destination for Australians, I decided to cook a banana chicken dish. Bananas were sliced and put on the bottom of a casserole dish, chicken was put on top of it with pepper, spring onions and pumpkin. The meal was boiled in coconut milk.

Overall this meal was alright, definitely not my favourite and there were few spices. It was very simple to make and coconut and chicken does go pretty well. I am not a big fan of peppers or pumpkin so that is probably the key reason for my lack of enthusiasm.

Goodbye

Sam’s rating: 6/10