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

Uzberkistan, a night of plov

Salom,

I decided to cook a national dish of Uzberkistan, lamb and rice pilaf. The lamb, onion and grated carrot was cooked in a casserole dish before currents (with lemon juice to substitute for barberries), coriander, cumin and pepper were added.

After the combination was fairly well cooked the rice and salt was added to finish it off. The meal was flavoursome and aromas. It tasted similar to the other plov dishes I have made.

Xayr

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Uruguay, the impossible sandwich

Hola,

Uruguay, located in Latin America, Uruguay has a sandwich style national dish called chivito. Traditional comfort food, there are a lot of versions to this national dish. I decided to cook it with thin rib steak, pancetta, eggs, ham, Monterey Jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and roasted peppers.

The meal is similar to many meals found in cafes, what I call an impossible sandwich since it is impossible to get your mouth around it. The chivito was really nice. It had aioli rather than butter which makes a nice alternative. Monterey Jack cheese is a very soft cheese and is perfect for melting. I had never had pancetta before and I really liked the flavour it added to the meal.

I would make a sandwich using some of these ingredients and this has taught me a thing or two about sandwiches. However I would like to get my mouth around it.

Adios

Sam’s rating: 8/10

United States, hamburgers

Hey y’all,

So for the United States there was no other alternative but to cook the hamburger, a very appropriate national dish for the USA.

The meat patties contained mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, onion and mince. The patties were fried and then put on the bun with additional mustard, tomato sauce, bread and butter cucumbers and goula cheese.

Overall, the combination was really tasty, including the cucumbers which I found rather surprising considering I don’t particularly like either cucumber or mustard. A very nice meal overall, I would like to put my own twist on it with pineapple, bacon and bbq sauce, maybe next time I cook them.

Bye

Sam’s rating: 8/10

United Kingdom, it feels a lot like England

Hello,

Today everything seemed to have a wee touch of the mother country to it. The day started by waking up to a misty, drizzly, wet, winter’s day with a breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, sausages, baked beans and toast. The breakfast was to use up food but it turned out to a rather English affair.

For England I had decided to cook a roast beef and vegetables with Yorkshire puddings. The roast beef was marinated with English mustard and seared over a frying pan prior to roasting in the oven. I had never cooked a roast this way before and the searing helped keep the juices inside the meat. The potatoes were pre-boiled and shaken in a strainer to rough up the edges, the potatoes were roasted covered in duck fat, garlic and thyme. I also cooked parsnips, peas, broccoli and carrot to serve with the meal.

The Yorkshire puddings were made with flour, eggs and milk, so simple and so very tasty. Oil was added to cupcake dishes and heated in the oven. Once the oil was hot the pudding batter was added to it and it was cooked until golden, the result was a big success, I really like Yorkshire puddings with gravy. Yorkshire puddings are pretty much just stomach fillers but so good.

The gravy contained juices from the roast, red wine and plain flour. It was simple to make and is quite nice, the quantity of red wine called for in the recipe is a touch high in my opinion. The gravy added a different taste to a traditional Australian gravox gravy.

I always like a good roast, this roast was better than most, all due to the humble Yorkshire pudding.

Bye

Sam’s rating: 9/10

United Arab Emirates, ghee I wonder

مرحبا

Al harees is a meal consumed across the Arab world, particularly at Ramadan. The UAE considers it to be one of their national dishes and the key ingredient was pearled wheat.

I also found ghee in our supermarket which was great, ghee is quite easy to make using unsalted butter but it will be nice to give it a taste and see if my version and attempt at it was accurate.

The pearled wheat was soaked overnight before being cooked for half an hour. Then the chicken which was salted in water was added and the combination was put over low heat for three and a half hours. The result, as always was a consistency similar to porridge. Cinnamon was mixed with the ghee and poured over the al harees.

Pearled barley is much nicer than what I cooked for Tanzania, boko-boko, an Arab influenced dish consisting of cracked wheat and rice which gives a similar sort of texture to al harees. Surprisingly, it was nicer than expected, filling but interesting enough given only three spices went into it, salt, pepper and cinnamon. I left the sugar out to make it more authentic according to other recipes. It is the sort of meal that you want to eat fresh as it doesn’t freeze well.

وداعا

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Ukraine, a hearty soup for winter

Здравствуйте

Heading into winter the Ukraine meal was quite appropriate to cook. The meal was a traditional red borscht soup. This was a very hearty soup with sausages, beets, carrots, potato, tomatoes and cabbage with garlic, salt and pepper for seasoning. It is the first soup that I have ever had with sausages, interestingly you take the sausages out of their case before you start to cook.

The soup was topped with sour cream and parsley. The sour cream does add a different flavour to the soup and initially it tasted nice before it started to curdle and go throughout the soup.

I was quite apprehensive in tasting the soup but it was much nicer than I had expected, lovers of tomato soup would also like this one given the tomatoes in it.

до побачення

Sam’s rating: 8/10

Uganda, a pleasant surprise

 Habari,

Uganda, another African country with dishes similar to elsewhere in the region, this time however I decided to cook rolex, not the watch brand but a food that is typically sold on the street. I guess the watches would also probably be sold on the street there, maybe more so in Thailand.

Anyway back to the cooking, rolex was made with a chapati, I enjoyed making the chapati but unfortunately I had trouble without a rolling pin to get it very thin, I think mine ended up too thick. Never the less, the chapatti dough was rolled out and fried. To make the rolex, an egg was beaten and put in the frying pan, once cooked it was transferred gently to the chapati with tomato and cabbage added before being rolled.

I thought this meal might be quite bland but I really liked it. As a sucker for garlic, I enjoyed the flavour of the chapati and would make it again. I would probably put more of a western twist to it, maybe some bacon, chicken and maybe even beans would go well.

Kwaheri

Sam’s rating 9/10