Timor-Leste, banana leaf presents

Olá,

Timor-Leste, more commonly known as East Timor became officially independent from Indonesia in 2002. The country’s borders however were established by the Portuguese in 1702.

For this country I decided to cook ikan pepes which is essentially a fish curry that is cooked in a banana leaf. The curry was made with tomato, palm sugar, chili, squid paste, turmeric powder, macadamia nuts, lemon grass and tamarind pulp. The snapper was served on a bed of rice.

The meal was quite nice, the combination of flavours created a taste that was somewhat sweet, somewhat spicy and somewhat fruity. Snapper is a firm fish and not bad at all.

I’m actually about to jump on a jet plane, not to Timor-Liste but to the United States and also Canda. Still set to complete my challenge by June, or so the plan goes.

Tchau

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Thailand, bad recipe, bad ingredients or just a confirmed bad cook

สวัสดี

Thailand, one of the most popular holiday destinations for Australians and one of the places I have visited. For this hot and humid country, I decided to cook one of their national dishes, pad Thai.

There are many versions of pad Thai, the one I selected contained prawns, pork, with bean sprouts, noodles, egg, chilli, fish sauce, tamarind juice, palm sugar among other things. I really do like pad Thai and the recipe was quite good. However the issue with this meal is probably the chef. The noodles I bought were rice noodles from an Asian shop. I soaked the noodles before cooking them in the wok but it would seem that the noodles don’t cook very well in the wok.

The noodles, may, or may not have been a little crunchy. It is a good thing I don’t have any housemates to share this failure with. In spite of the noodle saga, the pad Thai sauce and remainder of the meal was quite tasty.

ลาก่อน

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Tanzania, akin to porridge

Habari,

This African country shares a recipe with some other parts of Africa and the Arab world, the country was introduced to boko-boko or known in Arabic as hareesa over the years. The Arab traders made their first contact with the Tanzania people in the 13^th century when they landed on the coast of the country.

The boko-boko was made with slow cooked goat with rice and wheat added to create a meal that was similar to porridge in texture and almost in taste as well. Ghee was heated in a separate pan with onion and spices added. Ghee, which is essentially butter without the fat solids allows the onion to become somewhat crispy without burning. The ghee mixture was used to garnish the meal.

Boko-boko did indeed taste similar to porridge, the goat meat was largely indiscernible and the spices added a little bit of flavour to the blandness. It was edible but not a favourite.

Kwaheri

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Tajikistan, oily rice

Салом,

Tajikistan was yet another state that at one point made up the USSR. The country has ties with Uzbekistan and share a national dish.

For Tajikistan I decided to cook plov. This dish is an all in one meal and used lamb as the meat with turnips, rice, carrot and apricots. There were a few seasonings.

Rice cooked in this manner is always sort of oily, probably not my favourite way but I like the flavour apricots and raisins bring out in a meal.

Хайр

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Taiwan, spicy water and soy sauce

你好,

This island is governed by the Republic of China, not to be mistaken with the People’s Republic of China which rules mainland China. Taiwan is a country with close cultural ties with the mainland.

For this country I decided to cook Taiwanese Noodle Soup which was soup made with rice wine, soy sauce, beef, ginger, garlic, chili, star anise and tangerine peel. The soup then had pickled mustard greens, bean sprouts and noodles added.

Usually I quite like soup how this one was an exception in a big way. The soup was watery and tasted far too much of soy sauce and the rice wine did the flavours no favours. I quite like the green beans and noodles with the soup though. The soup was quite spicy in parts due to the chili but mostly the taste was a bit too strong for me.

再見

Sam’s rating: 5/10

Syria, lamb and salad

مرحبا

For Syria, yet another part of the Arab world I decided to cook Syrian spiced lamb chops with a green bean salad. The lamb chops were spiced with Baharat spice mix which is well known in the Arab world. The combination paprika, cumin, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves create a mixture of sweet and smokey.

The green bean salad used tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds, oil and sesame seed oil.

I am not usually a big salad eater but I really enjoyed the green bean salad and served with the lamb chops it made quite a nice meal.

وداعا

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Switzerland, photo problems

Guten Tag,

Switzerland has a number of influence from its neighbours with four official languages including French, German (the most widely spoken) and Italian. The fourth is Romansh spoken by people in the Grisons region of Switzerland. Likewise, the cuisine of Switzerland has a number of difference influences, I decided to cook veal and mushroom sauce and rösti.

  

While cooking this meal I was actually in a different kitchen and so I was missing the parsley however I made the meal without it. The rösti was made by using grated (cooked) potato and then frying this in a frying pan. The meat was added around it and topped with the mushroom sauce.

The meal reminded me somewhat of the cream sauce used for the Swedish meatballs. The rösti probably could have been made a bit better but all in all it wasn’t too bad.

Auf Wiedersehen

Sam’s rating: 7/10