Day/Country #11 -- Somalia

Somali Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 637,657 km²

Population: ~10,000,000

Capital: Mogadishu

GDP (PPP) per capita: $600

Official Languages: Somali, Arabic

Known For: Civil war, Laas Geel Neolithic rock art,

pirates,  

It's back to Africa for us and this time to semi-arid Somalia--a place most of us probably associate only with pirates and civil war.  But I, and I hope you, will be pleasantly pleased to discover that of course, there's a lot more to it.

During the Middle Ages Somalia was the home of several powerful empires or sultanate states, and it is generally believed that in antiquity Somalia was part of a land known as Punt that was an important source of trade to the Ancient Egyptians. The country has (or possibly had; see below) world class beaches, and has one of the worlds best preserved and impressive collections of Neolithic rock art.  It also has one of the lowest incidents of adult HIV/AIDS in Africa (as low as 0.7%), attributed primarily to the country's widespread adherence to Islamic beliefs and principals.

But yes...Somalia has long been a land of conflict.  In the 1800's the British and Italians each claimed part of the Somali coastline (the longest belonging to a single country in Africa) and by 1920 the British had also claimed the interior of the country by finally defeating the Dervishes (yes, as in 'whirling dervishes'...although strictly the British defeated the Dervish army, which had previously conquered so many of the previous sultanates...).

Somalia enjoyed a little stabilty following the establishment of the Somali Democratic (read 'communist') Republic in 1969 after a coup d'etat by military general Mohammed Siad Barre, who can be credited with the adoption of the first national standard Somali language and writing system (yes, in 1969, hard for some of us other ex-British Empireans to imagine!).

Somalia, not all civil war and pirates; children
swim in a stunning river (www.earthtrek.com)
and beautifully preserved rock paintings at Laas
Geel caves (mikegreenslade.photoshelter.com).

Then comes the bit we all know about...the collapse of the communist government and
outbreak of civil war in 1991, which raged for over a decade and saw the development and dissolution of various autonomous regions, notably Somaliland (which is the only region Lonely Planet advises you to visit, mentioning that the necessary armed guards are much cheaper to hire there than in the capital).  Civil unrest in Somalia continues to this day despite a permanent federal goverment being established in 2012.

One last thing I came across during my quick google that is so disturbing I have to share it with you (I mean besides the usual atrocities associated with civil war), is that the war was used as an opportunity by two European companies (one Swiss, one Italian) to sign a contract with the self-styled Somalian 'president' (presumably he just happened to be the most powerful rebel leader at the time) to dump millions of tonnes of toxic waste off the Somali coast (presumably saving themselves the millions of dollars it would have cost to dispose of the stuff properly whilst also contributing millions of dollars to the further arming of that particular rebel faction).  All might have gone unnoticed had the 2004 tsunami not stirred up and washed a lot of the toxic waste ashore and caused the incident rate of symptoms consistent with radiation sickness to spike all along the northeast African coast!  Disgraceful!!

Anyway, this is a food blog, so I'll get off my soap box and present to you an exquisite Somali-inspired dish of mango chicken curry with Ambe sauce and fragrant rice that I enjoyed so much I had seconds, and then had the rest for dinner (Mum wasn't quite so inspired, but she did say she'd definitely make the fragrant rice again, and again).

Made with mango pulp, curry powder and coconut milk (plus a little sugar and garlic) the Ambe sauce was hearty with a tropical zing that went well with the chicken and array of vegetables (I also enjoyed the whole chunks of mango Mum chucked in on a whim--yum!).  In addition the rice, flavoured with cinnamon, cardamon and cloves, would make a simple but extremely tasty side dish to any number of meals, including this one.  Delicious!

The Somalians apparently drink a lot of chai tea so Mum tried an original chai tea-based cocktail she called Bur Massif (although I argued it should have been a mocktail as Muslim's don't drink alcohol).  The blend of chilled chai tea, vodka, cranberry juice, limoncello and sugar syrup was okay...we drank it...but we won't make it again in a hurry; a pity, as it was such a nice colour!  I think some tweaking may be in order to get this one right.

Rating (out of 5):

Mango Chicken curry with Ambe Sauce 4/5

Somali Fragrant Rice_4.5/5
Bur Massif Cocktail 2/5

Day/Country #10 -- St Vincent and the Grenadines

 Vincentian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 389 km²

Population: ~103,000

Capital: Kingstown

GDP (PPP) per capita: $11,700

Official Language: English

Known For: La Soufriere volcano, picture-perfect

beaches, filming location for Pirates of the

Caribbean movies.

At last!  I've found time to take my turn at cooking and we've made it (gastronomically if not geographically speaking) to St Vincent and the Grenadines!

Other than being vaguely aware that the country consisted of islands (32 as I discovered) somewhere in the Caribbean I did not know anything about the place...but after just a few minutes of googling I was delighted by what I found--it's the first place I've googled and immediately felt like I want to go there!  This might have had something to do with the enticing website A Taste of Vincy.  However, on reading the entry for SVG in my Lonely Planet Travel Book I further found out that SVG is a popular spot for the rich and famous; suffice it to say I am neither of these things and suspect I probably cannot afford to go there!  But it might be worth looking into one day none the less...

Anyway--back to the food!  My few minutes of googling convinced me that cooking SVG food was going to be next to impossible due to a lack of readily available (even un-readily available!) tropical ingredients here in the deep south.  Happily there is a wonderful website The Cook's Thesaurus which tells you not only what all the unfamiliar ingredients are ('what is breadfruit?' for instance) it also tells you what you can substitute for that ingredient in a dish (in the case of breadfruit you can use potatoes...I suspect it's nothing like the real thing, but it works for our purposes).

Consequently I came up with a trifecta of dishes including Callaloo Soup (which calls for callaloo and tannia but I used spinach and sweet potato); the national dish of SVG, Bul Jol (roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish; I used potatoes and hoki); and for our first forray into the realm of sweet treats: Arrowroot Cakes--I was intrigued by a recipe that called for a whole pound of arrowroot! Anyone who has used it before most likely only used a tablespoon or two to add starch to their cooking...we didn't have a whole pound (~450g) of it to use, but I dumped a 200g box in and hoped for the best.

The results...a nice and surprisingly filling meal!

The soup consisted of chorizo and spinach boiled in water and coconut milk with chives, sweet potato, onion and garlic (on a whim I used chorizo instead of beef like the recipe called for; it was a tasty alternative that I dry-fried initially to crisp off and get some of the fat out).  Mum loved the final product but I think the soup could have done with a little less water and a little more time to let the flavours infuse and strengthen (I made the whole meal in a little over and hour, but like all soups I think it will probably taste so much better on the second day).

As for the improvised Bol Jul, roast potatoes are always nice and the fish was also good, seasoned with chives, garlic, onion and thyme, then coated with flour and crisped fried in a pan, served with a tomato, thyme, garlic and onion sauce/salsa.

Finally, dainty little arrowroot cakes lightly flavoured with lime juice made a zesty desert and a sweet end to our SVG-themed meal (although they could have done with another two minutes in the oven...).



But lets not forget the cocktail!  Mum came up trumps today with another original she's dubbed 'Soufriere' after SVG's famous volcano which has a nasty once-in-a-generation habit of erupting and wiping out people's crops...a big deal for a country who's economy is built primarily on banana plantations!

Minus the ash and smoke but with a lovely rich red colour and intense fruity flavour Soufriere was a refreshing hit of creme de cassis, cranberry juice, sugar syrup and rum--we are in the Caribbean after all :) 

Thanks SVG for inspiring a lovely meal!

Rating (out of 5):

Callaloo (er...spinach) Soup 4/5 (would recommend making this in the morning then reheating in the afternoon to eat if you want a stronger flavour).

Bul Jol 3.5/5
Arrowroot Cakes 3.5/5
Soufriere Cocktail 4/5

Day/Country #9 -- Turkmenistan

Day Nine and I'm ashamed to admit that due to unscheduled circumstances Mum is doing the cooking for a third time in a row (I promise to make it up to her somehow).

Consequently our culinary journey took us not to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but to the opposite side of the world...to Turkmenistan.

 Turkmen Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 491,210 km²

Population: ~5,125,693

Capital: Ashgabat

GDP (PPP) per capita: $7,846

Official Language: Turkmen

Known For: Turkmenbashi, national censorship,

Bukhara carpets, Darvaza Gas Craters

Turkmenistan, lying in the heart of the Middle East, gave Mum a bit of trouble, both in terms of finding a traditional dish to cook and because of her aversion to the country's national censorship (websites such as youtube, twitter and facebook are banned, among far more important things) and its politics (having declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 after 69 years of Soviet rule, Turkmenistan was run by 'president for life' Saparmut Niyarov who banned things like opera and the circus for not being 'Turkmen' enough).

We can't do much about the country's politics (which have become more democratic in recent years, with the first ever opposition party being established in 2012...a small step on a long road; according to Wikipedia residents are restricted in their international travel, and universities are encouraged to reject applicant who do not have Turkmen surnames), but Mum did make progress with the food.  On further investigation she discovered that most of the popular dishes in Turkmenistan are essentially Turkish with a Russian twist.

With that Mum came up with a variation on a dish called Pel'Mani, involving lamb and onion-stuffed dumplings (homemade!) served with curry-oil (curry powder, tumeric, garlic and chilli mixed with oil), tomato sauce/salsa and yoghurt (we substituted sour cream at short notice as it turned out our yoghurt had turned into a small ecosystem all its own).

Mum was dubious but I, an avid dumpling fan, tucked in...and of course it was fantastic.  The lamb gave the dumplings a good strong flavour, but they wouldn't have been so nice without the trio of sauces drizzled on top.  The zesty combination of flavours made us both glad that Mum had made enough dumplings for us to have a second meal of them again--probably soon!

Our drink for the day was another original cocktail made with iced green tea and vodka which Mum dubbed Darvaza Crater in deference to the burning crater formed when, while drilling for natural gas in 1971, the Soviets tapped a massive gas cavern that subsequently collapsed (drill rig and all).  Concerned about the discharge of poisonous gases the geologists set the pit on fire, thinking it would burn itself out in a matter of days.  Forty-two years later the crater is still burning and has become popularly known as 'The Door to Hell'...which is where this cocktail belongs!


After the first sip it was clear it needed...er...something, but even dosing it with copious amounts of sugar syrup only made it register on our rating scale, but certainly not move up it!

Rating (out of 5):

Pel'Mani 4.5/5

Darvaza Cocktail 0.5/5

Day/Country #8 -- New Caledonia

New Caledonian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 18,576km²

Population: ~256,000

Capital: Montevideo

GDP (nominal) per capita: $38,921

Official Language: French

Known For: Kagu bird, Kanak communities,
Grand Terre's immense lagoon

Moving closer to home, today we 'went' to New Caledonia to try tropical oceanic cuisine with a French twist.

Though popular dishes include bat soup, and variations on raw fish and bananas, in the absence of readily available edible bats and having had a recent glut of raw fish and bananas, Mum decided to try a popular dish at the higher end of the French-influenced New Caledonian spectrum.

(For those of you keeping track, yes Mum is cooking twice in a row so I owe her one).


Today Mum created a delicious dish of Vol Au Vent aux Fruites de Mer (seafood-filled pastry cases) served with mango and chilli salsa.

We used bought vol au vent cases and filled them with prawns, squid, poached hoki and red onion with a creamy sauce made from shop-bought bechemel sauce fortified with butter, cream, dijon mustard and nutmeg.  To give a touch of colour (and a gourmet finish) the vol au vent were garnished with bright red salmon caviar.

In short, c'était délicieux!  Served warm (not hot!) the vol au vent were a lovely fresh and summery dish and having the fruity salsa on the side gave the meal a nice tangy twist.  There were supposed to be two spare vol au vents (they weren't small) but...er...there wasn't--it was so yummy we ate the lot!

Having a special drink with our international meals has rapidly become a tradition and today we enjoyed Kir Royale: creme de cassis (a liqueur made from black currants and red wine--homemade!) and champagne.  If you're the sort of person who thinks plopping a juicy strawberry in a champagne glass is a great idea then you have to try this sweet, fruity, bubbly treat!


Rating (out of 5):

Vol Au Vent aux Fruites de Mer 4.5/5

Mango & Chilli Salsa 4/5
Kir Royale 4/5

Day/Country #7 -- Uruguay

Uruguayan Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 176,215km²

Population: ~3,324,460

Capital: Montevideo

GDP (PPP) per capita: $17,204

Official Language: Spanish

Known For: Hosting the first ever football
world cup in 1930, gaucho (cowboy) culture

One week into our global food tour and we head to South America for the first time to try a popular dish from Uruguay.

According to Lonely Planet Uruguay, a small country by South American standards, is notable as a place of relative peace and prosperity, being highly secular and having a strong independent press and low levels of corruption (things we Kiwi's tend to take for granted).

Apparently it is traditional to eat gnocchi on the 29th day of each month, in deference to Uruguay's Italian heritage and the fact that by the end of the month most foodstuffs except for flour and potatoes often would have run out.

Today is not the 29th however so we were able to try a dish that is so popular in Uruguay it is widely regarded as the national dish--Chivito.

'Chivito' translates as 'little goat', but has come to mean toasted a steak sandwich with seared rump steak and layers of salsa golf (tomato sauce & mayonnaise blend), smoked ham, red peppers, fried onions, dill pickles, pancetta, salsa and melted mozzarella (we didn't have any mozzarella so we used colby).  The entire stack is held together with olive skewers and looks rather impressive on the plate.

Our chivito was joined by clerico, the national drink of Uruguay, which consists of very cold white wine served with fresh fruit macerated with sugar (Mum's trying to cut out sugar so she used a pinch of stevia powder instead).


What can I say? The sandwich was delicious; a meat-lovers dream that would happily grace the menu's of many trendy cafes (although theirs would probably look a little prettier than ours and have loads of garnish and a tiny side salad) . The drink was light and refreshing and chock full of yummy fruit to chew on afterwards...although the slow drinker will discover that the fruit readily absorbs a lot of the alcohol and gives a bit of a kick to the unwary.



Rating (out of 5):

Chivito 4/5
Clerico 3/5

Day/Country #6 -- Ashmore and Cartier Islands/Torres Strait Islands

Ashmore Reef

Ok, so we've discovered a small flaw in our grand plan; the countries list we downloaded also includes external territories belonging to other countries, and today we struck one: the Ashmore and Cartier Islands.  These uninhabited tropical reefs lie in the Timor Sea off the coast of Western Australia, and have belonged to Australia since 1931.  Indonesian fisherman have rights to land their boats there, but no one lives there permanently...probably because all the fresh water supplies are contaminated, often with cholera!

So, what to cook?  Uninhabited islands can't be said to have 'traditional fare' and I didn't want to do Australian or Indonesian (the nearest inhabited landmass) themed dishes as they will come up in due time as countries in their own right.  I toyed with the idea of doing an oceanic hunter-gather themed meal; no doubt it would be fun, but would most likely have to be lacking in truly tropical foods. So instead I've opted to go for a subset of Australian culture and cuisine that originates from islands lying off the tip of north Queensland and having a similar environment to the Ashmore and Cartier Islands--the Torres Strait Islands.

Torres Strait Islander Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 566km²

Population: ~8,089

Capital: Daru

GDP (PPP) per capita: ?

Official Language: Yumplatok

Known For: Successful overturning of 'terra
nullius' legislation to gain native land
rights; threatened by rising sea level.

These islands (~2000km east of Ashmore Reef) are administered partly by Australia, partly by Papua New Guinea, and consist of 14 inhabited islands out of a total of 274 (covering an oceanic area of 48,000km2!).  Torres Strait Islanders are Melanesians and culturally distinct from Aboriginal Australians, so now seemed the perfect opportunity to try some of their traditional recipes--especially since the Torres Strait Islands mysteriously aren't on our list and otherwise might have been missed altogether!

The meal I came up with includes four Torres Strait Islander recipes: numus (fish marinated in onion, lemon, chilli, garlic, soy and white vinegar), sabee sabee vegetables (diced root vegetables and onion boiled in coconut milk), sabee rice (rice cooked in coconut milk) and mini dampers (small crusty bread buns).  I didn't have coconut milk so I just used a can of coconut cream and split it half and half between the pot of vegetables and the pot of rice, then topped both up with water, which seemed to work a treat.

The end result was the easiest meal I've cooked on this expedition so far but that was nevertheless tasty and nutritious.  The damper was overkill and while nice in it's own right, wasn't needed with the other dishes. I was dubious about the numus while I was making it (raw fish twice in two days after all) but it was really nice and Mum and I both went back for seconds. Finally I was particularly impressed at how tender and moist the rice was, without having a particularly strong coconut flavour; I'll be cooking a lot more rice this way in future!

A Torres Strait Islander recipe inspired meal (clockwise from top right):

mini damper, numus, sabee sabee vegetables and sabee rice.

One last thing...I created a monster yesterday when I suggested a cocktail as an after dinner treat.  Today Mum had mixed up a new cocktail before I'd even finished cooking!  She's dubbed it Turtle Crush, seeing as how a lot of Torres Strait Islander recipes include cooking some part of a turtle and my meal obviously did not.  It's made from midori, vodka, pineapple juice, orange juice, lime juice and soda over ice, and while nice, we both agreed we liked yesterday's cocktail better.

Original cocktail -- Turtle Crush

Rating (out of 5):

Numus 4/5

Sabee Sabee Vegetables 3/5 (a bit bland, but it didn't help that I slightly overcooked them)

Sabee Rice 5/5 (perfect if you like moist, tender rice!)

Mini damper 4/5 (lovely damper in it's own right, though didn't really go with and wasn't necessary to accompany the other dishes; sesame seeds on top gave them a nice twist)
Turtle Crush Cocktail 3/5

Day/Country #5 -- Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 28,400km²

Population: ~523,000

Capital: Honiara

GDP (PPP) per capita: $3,191

Official Language: English (Pijin)

Known For: History of head hunting,

Gaudulcanal, ecoadventure tourism

Staying tropical but moving into the Pacific, today we had a taste of the Solomon Islands.

I've decided Mum really likes her multi-dish approach to a meal, which is great--why stop at only one dish when there's so many new dishes and flavours from each country we can try?!

This time around we had a quadruplet of: Poisson Cru (a salad consisting of raw tuna marinated in lemon, lime and coconut and served tossed with tomato, carrot, cucumber and red onion); squid stuffed with shrimp, crab meat (surimi), cilantro and chives; fried banana with seared par-boiled sweet potato/kumara; and finally winged beans, pattipan squash and costata zucchini (all home grown!) stir-fried in soy sauce, sesame oil (the recipe called for oyster sauce but we didn't have any) and garlic.

(Don't worry, if you're at a bit of a loss I'll admit that before today I had no idea what a pattipan or a costata zucchini was or looked like either; to me 'pattipan' sounds like some kind of bite-sized Christmas pancake, but I can assure you it's a delicately flavoured little round green squash with a texture similar to a firm zucchini/courgette).

The result was a plate of food that was bursting with flavour and perfect for a gorgeous warm sunny day (something we've been mostly missing out on this summer but miraculously had today...perhaps Mum's cooking inspired the weather Gods to more tropical endeavours for a day?).  The coconut in particular gave the whole thing a fundamentally tropical twist that was light and refreshing.  I found myself closing my eyes, envisioning gently breaking waves on a long and warm white sandy beach, and reaching for a nice fruity cocktail...

...while we couldn't conjure the relaxing tropical beach, Mum was suitably inspired after our summery lunch to invent a delicious original cocktail--we've dubbed it 'A Study In Pink'.

Dishes (clockwise from top right): stuffed squid, stir-fried wing beans and squash,
poisson cru and fried banana & sweet potato.

Rating (out of 5):

Poisson Cru 4.5/5

Fried banana and kumara 4/5 (went very well with poisson cru, and I'd give panfried banana a 5/5--yum!)

Stir-fried winged beans & squash 4/5 (although Mum said 2.5/5 as she didn't like the woodiness of the winged beans)

Stuffed squid 3/5 (Mum would rate it higher but we both agreed to experiment with different stuffings next time in order to increase the flavour)
A Study In Pink Cocktail 5/5

Day/Country #4 -- Uganda

Ugandan Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 236,040km²

Population: ~35,873,253
Capital: Kampala
GDP (PPP) per capita: $1,414
Official Language: English; Swahili
Known For: Gorillas, Lake Victoria

After a short excursion it's back to Africa for us--this time I landed Uganda as my country for the day.

Within a few minutes of googling (there's a surprising number of resources out there) it was clear that whatever I made it was going to have to include cooked bananas (on their own forming the basis of a dish called Matoke), and I soon found a dish that looked like an interesting mix of flavours and an interesting challenge to cook: Luwombo.

Apparently a Ugandan 'Royal Christmas Dish' Luwombo combines panfried chicken with smoked fish, steaming it together with vegetables and peanut sauce in banana leaf-wrapped parcels.  Sounded like fun!

The hardest part was finding banana leaves at short notice...in short I couldn't.  Happily we have a couple of grapevines in the garden mature enough to be sporting some decent sized leaves and I found about three of these was enough to wrap one parcel sufficiently to stop the sauce oozing out of corners (dipping the leaves in hot water first makes them more supple and stops them tearing).

Steaming was a bit of a challenge as I didn't have a steamer big enough to steam three parcels and half a dozen plantains (I used the smallest green bananas I could find at the supermarket) all at once.  I improvised, using a large, deep roasting dish half filled with water, a roasting rack (to hold the parcels and bananas out of the water, and a larger shallow tray weighed down as a lid.  The fit wasn't perfect however so in our fan baked oven the bananas (which were skinless) dried out a little and went a bit leathery on the outside, but they still tasted surprisingly good!  The parcels cooked to perfection and it was fun to dish them up and have to open them before eating--like little dinner presents! (I wonder if that is an intentional Christmas connotation??).

One interesting thing was that in making the sauce and in particular adding the smoked fish (which I've not hitherto been a fan of) the flavour pre-steaming was overwhelmingly salty...and I was a little worried I'd made something rather unpalatable!  Happily once steamed for an hour with the chicken and mushrooms the flavours all infused together nicely.  Both the peanut flavour and the saltiness diminished resulting in a nicely blended dish that miraculously turned out to be Mum and Dad' favourite thus far!

Luwombo parcels ready for steaming (left) and the finished dish ready to eat! (right)

Rating (out of 5):

Luwombo 4.5/5 (even with smoked fish, though use a bit less if you're not a fan of this flavour)
Steamed bananas 2.5/5 (would rate higher if I'd steamed them properly and they stayed moist)

Day/Country #3 -- United States of America

USA Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 9.826,675km²

Population: ~317,466,000
Capital: Washington DC
GDP (PPP) per capita: $52,839
Official Language: (American) English
Known For: LOADS of stuff, some of it
good, some not so much...

Day Three and we're going red, white and blue (...they do know other countries have flags with that colour scheme too right?!).

With such a large country and such a contrasting array of fare on offer, it was always going to be hard to choose a cooking style let alone individual recipes--anything ranging from Native Alaskan dishes involving whale blubber and seal flippers, to the famous southern cajun-style cooking, to the popular fast food that's high on grease and low on nutritional value...

Obviously with so much to choose from the USA is a contender for being a repeat-country in order to maximise
the variety of flavours we are trying to explore (although, I'm not sure seal flippers and whale blubber is something I'd be keen to try outside of the Arctic Circle!).

This time around Mum went with another trifecta of dishes to try and capture one branch of American cuisine: southern style hotdogs with homemade buns, avocado and homemade Ancho Sauce; Caesar salad; and homemade onion rings (again, we wanted to avoid deep fat frying if possible so Mum oven baked them).

The overall result was predictably tasty in that slightly fatty, boldy-smearing-itself-all-over-your-tastebuds kind of way. The hotdog buns turned out a bit dense meaning the hotdogs were extra filling...not so good when we'd already gone for enormous portion sizes in true American style.  The dogs themselves were southern style-inspired sausages rather than the chipolatas we in NZ normally associate with American hotdogs (which meant they had infinitely more flavour and rank comfortingly lower down in the disturbing 'mystery meat' stakes). The Ancho sauce was the tastiest part and the thing Mum was most proud of (we've bottled the rest to use at a later date).

Caesar salad is an old familiar to western palates so while nice, couldn't stand out as an exciting new flavour.  Finally, the onion rings were a hit; being homemade they were far less processed and had far more flavour that the frozen crumbed rings you buy from the bulk freezer in the supermarket--mainly because you can throw whatever spices you like into the crumb coating.

Rating (out of 5):

Southern Style Hotdogs 2.5/5
Ancho Sauce 4.5/5
Caesar Salad 3/5
Onion Rings 4/5

Day/Country #2 -- Mauritania

Mauritanian Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 1,030,700km²

Population: ~3,359,185
Capital: Nouakchott
GDP (PPP) per capita: $2,121
Official Language: Arabic
Known For: Desertification

Day Two and my first country proved to be Mauritania (already we are beginning to appreciate that due to the ratios of countries to continents we can expect to be eating a lot of African food!).

Mum had teased me that I would find it impossible to find a traditional Mauritainian dish to cook so I had a bit of a chuckle when the very first website I clicked on had the perfect recipe: the national dish of Mauritania, Thieboudiene.

This dish, composed of seasoned fish, stewed vegetables and rice is quite straight forward and contains ingredients most people would have readily available (with the exception of okra; we also didn't have cabbage or eggplant on hand but I threw in kumara/sweet potato and some kale for a bit of variety).

While the recipe calls for the fish to be deep fried, Mum and I both try to watch our grease and oil intake so I pan-fried the seasoned fish and set it aside before gently reheating it to lay on top of the finished rice and vegetables before serving.  Both the fish seasoning (red pepper, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper) and the sauce that forms from stewing the vegetables (in tomato paste, onion, garlic and water) are very simple and yet remarkably tasty!

I perhaps went a little overboard with the quantity of vegetables I used so my final dish ended up being a highly fortified version of the one pictured in the original recipe (which I suspect is the non-tomato version) but it tasted great and I'd happily make Thieboudiene again...although I'd use less water and try and make my sauce a bit thicker next time!

(Again, appologies for having no photo of our dish...we started taking photos after the first week, I promise)

Rating (out of 5):

Thieboudiene 4/5