Georgia, not bad

მიესალმები

This country has made world headlines a few years ago for all the wrong reasons, a former member of the Soviet Union, the country seems to have a rocky relationship with Russia.

In any case, we decided to cook Chakhokhbili, a chicken dish that is served with rice. My housemate froze my share so I didn’t taste it straight out of the pot but it wasn’t too bad.

მშვიდობით

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Gambia, the shape of the world

Hi,

This country is an interesting shape, the country is surrounded by Senegal and it is amazing how such borders come into being. The nation follows the Gambia river and is a former colony of Britain. Amazingly, the slave trade ended in Gambia just over 100 years ago.

We cooked the national dish Domoda, it seemed typical to many African dishes that I have made with peanuts used as a flavouring. Sadly, I can never get too excited about peanuts so my rating was fairly ordinary.

Bye for now.

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Gabon, peanuts again

Bonjour,

For this French speaking African central west African country I decided to cook Poissonsen sauce aux arachides, otherwise known as Fish in Peanut Sauce. I am not really fond of peanuts but peanut sauce seems to be typical of this area of the world.

The fish was quite nice, even smothered with peanut sauce, I must say I prefer my fish with lemon rather than peanuts but different all the same.

Au Revoir

Sam’s rating: 7/10

France, my tastes are not refined

Bonjour,

The French always have exquisite taste about their food and in fact all things French. The possibilities were quite broad for France, fish eggs, frog legs or snails? Or maybe I will just cop out and go for the Blue Cheese, Bacon and Chive Stuffed Pork Chops.

Or so I thought it was a cop out. I have never been much of a fan of cheese, my idea of cheese is that it is best in Chicken Kiev, on pizza or in a burger. Blue cheese added a new taste to my taste buds, not for the best though!

I’m sorry, but my tastes are not quite refined enough for the French.

Au Revoir

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Finland, more fish soup

Hei

Finland, when my parents were in Finland dad tried a reindeer steak. Well Rudolf only visits Australia once a year and I am quite sure many children will be upset if I had a Rudolf steak. Nevermind we settled for Finnish Lohikeitto, a traditional salmon, potato and leek soup.

This soup was much better than the other fish soups I have tried so far, not as watery and more flavour.

näkemiin

Sam’s rating: 7/10

Fiji, I can’t eat without frowning

Hello,

Fiji, well we had to have fish, more precisely Fijian Kokoda. I knew as soon as I read that it was raw fish that it would certainly test my stomach. The fish is actually “cooked” in lemon juice over night or for 8 hours and served with lettuce, onion, chili and tomatoes among other ingredients.

Eating it, well it must have been funny to watch me eat it, I couldn’t stop frowning, certainly too much lemon for my taste, I felt like I was sucking on lemons.

Bye!

Sam’s rating: 6/10

Ethiopia, new experiences

Firstly, Ethiopia’s language, Amharic isn’t on Google translate so no hello or goodbye this post, you’ll just have to imagine it. Eretria’s meals have some similarities to Ethiopia with the two nations side by side. For this country we decided to cook Zilzil Tibs and Injera.

ZilzilTibs, is an extremely spicy dish with berbere and spiced butter, water is essential, well, for me anyway.

Injera, apparently plain flour doesn’t really substitute the Teff flour but hey, I tried. The plain flour sat for 2 days, bubbled and smelt horrible. The mixture was then fried like a pancake but remained much more gooey then it should have.

All in all, it may have been better if I had used the right ingredients and had a bit of Ethiopian cooking experience.

Sam’s rating: 5/10