Around the World in 80 Dishes
- Lucy and the lens
- Jul 10, 2020
- 14 min read
Updated: Oct 13, 2020
This project began, like a lot of 2020's projects around the world, as a Covid-19 lockdown project. Marooned in our house in a suburb outside of Cologne, Germany, there was very little else for us to do but eat, wistfully dreaming of the places we were supposed to be visiting and the people we'd be apart from, and hoping that things would get better for everyone.
Since one of our favourite things to do when travelling is to try local food, we thought that we'd try replicating the experience at home. The plan was to work through the alphabet, choosing a country beginning with each letter and researching traditional dishes from that country. We'd then try to cook the dishes as authentically as our little kitchen and local supermarkets allowed, from scratch: no pre-mixed sauces, no pre-made dough,and so on. We had to make some compromises: "butchering our own chook" for Afghani chicken was off the table, for example, and some more local spices just aren't obtainable in Germany! But we did discover an incredible Asian supermarket nearby, which turned out to stock almost everything we needed, anyway!
So here's what we made, in alphabetical order, of course! Where possible, I've included a link to the recipes, which we tried to source from locals rather than choosing ones adapted to western palates!
Afghanistan - Lawang
Lawang is a succulent chicken dish with a fragrant sauce that bursts with the flavours of cardamom, turmeric, ginger, garlic and even a cinnamon stick. The sauce is yoghurt based, and the most difficult part was adding the yoghurt at the right time to avoid curdling it! The result, though, was perfection, and we've actually made this one again for guests since lockdown measures were relaxed. We served it with white rice, lemon wedges and grilled vegetable skewers. We used this recipe for the lawang chicken.
Australia - Lamingtons
Australia's most famous dessert (aside from fairy bread, which we decided was a little too easy!), lamingtons basically involve sponge (which we made from scratch) cut into squares and coated in a chocolate icing, then dunked in desiccated coconut. They were delicious plain, but we also went the extra mile and added a strawberry jam and cream filling to some of them. Would we make them again? 100% yes. The recipe we used also includes an incredible recipe for home-made sponge that helped us to make the best sponge we've ever tasted, hands down.
Austria - Wiener schnitzel
Living in Germany, we're no strangers to a schnitzel. We've also had the original in Austria: a wiener schnitzel is simply a pork loin hammered flat, breaded and fried. It's served simply, with a lemon wedge squeezed over it, cranberry sauce, and fries or boiled potatoes on the side. We went for herby boiled potatoes with chives from our tiny balcony herb garden! For an added touch of authenticity, start with a little side salad consisting of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion and shredded carrot: it always seems to come with every restaurant schnitzel we've ever had in Austria and Germany! The meat itself was so delicious and tender, we're not sure we can eat another restaurant-made schnitzel ever again!
Brazil - brigadeiros
These gooey, chocolate-rich treats are made with condensed milk and are just too good! The recipe is quite straightforward, but the fun part is rolling the mixture into balls and coating them with chocolate sprinkles. No, actually, I take it back: the really fun part is eating them!
Bulgaria - Tarator
Tarator is a cold and refreshing soup consisting of cucumber, yoghurt, garlic (usually raw, but we chickened out and cooked ours!), dill, and walnuts. It was very simple to make, and perfect for a hot day! Best served with garlicky bread! We used this simple recipe.
China - Chicken chow mein
For this one, we discovered it was more authentic to use a spice paste from the Asian supermarket than to try and replicate the spices with the limited options in the German supermarket! Aside from that, though, we tried to keep the contents authentic, with noodles from the Asian supermarket, carrots, baby corn, spring onions, snow peas, courgette, bean sprouts, and bok choy.
Cyprus- Lamb souvlaki, grilled halloumi, grilled aubergines and veggies
We discovered that food in Cyprus is very similar to some of our favourite Greek dishes, so we had a lot of fun making beautifully-seasoned lamb souvlaki, squeaky grilled halloumi, grilled aubergine, and a big pot of baked mixed veggies. We also made our own tzatziki! This recipe was our inspiration for the souvlaki.
Denmark - Smørrebrød
This traditional open-faced sandwich, usually on thinly-sliced rye bred, has been taken to the next level in Denmark in recent years, with restaurants dedicated to them serving elaborate and beautiful versions. After getting inspiration from this restaurant's page on how to craft the perfect Smørrebrød, we created our own using traditional combinations as much as possible. The first vital step is to spread the rye bread with butter, as the dish literally translates to 'butter bread'. Other key rules include eating your sandwiches with a knife and fork (never your hands) and working your way from the fish ones to the meat. We created:
Roast beef with leafy greens, horseradish, home-pickled red onions
Smashed avocado with lime and chilli, boiled egg and salad
Creme fraiche, salmon, avocado and fried capers
Liver pate with crispy bacon, fried mushrooms and home-pickled red onions
Serrano ham with asparagus and pesto
Ecuador - Beef empanadas and locro de papas
Beef empanadas were a non-negotiable when it came to Ecuador! We made our own dough from scratch, which turned out to be simpler than we expected, and filled it with a herby mince mixture. The trickiest part was executing the fold to seal them up, but they turned out looking lovely without any leakage at all during baking! To go along with these, we chose locro de papas, a cheesy potato soup with lots of spice! We couldn't find the Ecuadorean achiote spice we needed for this, but the internet has lots of suggestions for substitute combinations of spices. We used the same website for both recipes: Laylita's authentic Ecuadorean dishes!
France - Cheese souffle and coq au vin
There are so many iconic French dishes, we struggled to choose just one! We settled for two absolute classics: cheese souffle and coq au vin! The coq au vin was fairly straightforward to make, stewing potatoes, shallots and chicken thighs in a sauce made with plenty of red wine! The cheese souffle was trickier but ultimately worth the fiddly task of separating egg whites and yolks, whipping the whites until fluffy, and tempering the egg with the hot cheesy gruyere sauce! They were so jiggly when they came out of the oven! We used this recipe for the coq au vin, and this one for the cheese souffle.
Germany - Mettwurst and spargel
We've cooked and eaten plenty of German food during our 5 years living here, so we decided to pick something we'd never really done before: mettwurst and spargel. Spargel (white asparagus) has a whole season dedicated to it here, with the average German eating it every day for over a month! You can buy it at special little stalls on the street during the season, and it's usually paired with hollandaise sauce. We also opted for mettwurst, which is essentially a special type of high-quality raw pork tartare, which is eaten piled on bread with raw onion. Probably an acquired taste, but the meat is so rich, it's an incredibly decadent treat!
Hungary - Beef cabbage rolls and meggyleves
You can't get much more Hungarian than cabbage rolls. We went for a delicious beef roll with garlic and paprika, served with a tomato-based sauce, and I never thought I'd be enthusing about cabbage rolls, but here we are: they were absolutely delicious served with mashed potato sprinkled with chives from our herb garden! This recipe was a winner, although we increased the recommended amount of paprika in both the beef mix and the tomato sauce to give it more of a kick! We paired it with a sour cherry and sour cream soup called meggyleves: this is popular served cold as a starter in the summer, but we cheated and had it for dessert and were surprised by how filling it was! The recipe we used can be found here. It's also common to add any other fruits you have on hand, so we threw in a few strawberries, too!
India - ladoos
Ladoos are spherical, bite-sized snacks and can come in a range of flavours. I went for coconut and cardamon flavoured ones. The centre of these balls is filled with condensed milk, toasted coconut and cardamom, and then rolled in more coconut before being topped with some pistachios. So addictive!
Iran - Tahdig and shakshuka
Tahdig is a Persian classic in Iran: it's a basmati rice dish cooked in a pan and then flipped out onto a plate, so that the top ends up with a tasty, crunchy crust! We really enjoyed learning about how Persian dishes made use of fragrant spices such as saffron and other flavours such as rose, and this tahdig was no exception: the crust was flavoured with a mix of saffron and turmeric. The shakshuka was surprisingly both tasty AND healthy: we had to make a spicy, red pepper and tomato-based sauce in a pan, onto which eggs were cracked and cooked just like fried eggs! The finishing touch was parsley from our herb garden.
Italy - Spaghetti carbonara, risotto, pizza
To be honest, whenever we feel like treating ourselves, we usually opt for Italian food. When we visited Emilia Romagna a couple of years ago, we learned how to make carbonara the authentic way, with eggs , parmesan, pecorino, and pancetta - no cream! Now it's one of our favourite treat meals.
My personal favourite home-made Italian dish is chicken, bacon and mushroom risotto and made with generous amounts of white wine!
We also tried our hand at making our own pizza, keeping it classic with tomato, plenty of mozzarella, and basil from our little balcony herb garden. So, so good!
One final dish I had to try making after my visit to Venice this summer was chocolate salami! This might look like a salami sausage, but there's no meat involved: it's mainly a chocolate and biscuit mix, dusted with icing sugar! Cut it into small slices for an irresistible dessert!
Japan - Katsu curry, udon noodles, sushi, and okonomiyaki
Japan is our favourite place in the world for trying new food: when we were there, we completed a foodie checklist with over 30 different dishes on it! We were desperate to replicate some of these at home. We put our sushi kit to good use and made salmon and avocado rolls as well as some nigiri. We followed this authentic recipe to make a delicious katsu curry (we found the curry spices and the genuine panko crumbs at the Asian supermarket - the correct panko makes a huge difference!) We also bought far too many packs of udon noodles at the Asian supermarket and combined these with a miso broth, spring onions, and roast pork slices. We even finished off our feast with some mochi and a matcha latte from Bokksu, the Japanese snack subscription box I subscribe to, and added some tapioca pearls from the Asian supermarket (they took over an hour to cook!). All in all, it was a highlight of our quarantine!
We also took advantage of AirBnB's current selection of online experiences, joining a cooking class run over Zoom by a woman in Osaka called Keiko! She taught us and a few others (from Italy and Australia) how to make Osaka-style okonomiyaki, a comfort food that combines shredded cabbage, flour and egg into a batter which we fried in a pan, adding sliced pork, shrimps and our choice of any other fillings, since "okonomi" means "whatever you like"! Keiko even taught us how to make the special sauce that is drizzled on top once cooked. It was great fun, and our finished product ended up looking not too unlike the ones we'd eaten in Japan - even Keiko said it looked like a restaurant one!
Kazakhstan - Besbarmak
We can honestly say we had absolutely no clue what Kazakh food would involve, but when we discovered that one of their most popular dishes involved both meat and home-made pasta, we knew we had to try it! The name "besbarmak" translates as "five fingers", and is a reference to the communal way this dish is eaten: with everyone digging in to the same dish with their fingers, not cutlery! Slices of seasoned beef rest on top of flat pasta squares on one big platter, and the idea is to use a pasta square to scoop up the meat. It was originally cooked by nomads using a special slow-cook pot called a kazan, but we achieved the tender meat effect with a slow cooker! It was our first time making our own pasta from scratch, too, and it won't be the last! We used this recipe, which also begins with an interesting article about the culture and history behind the dish!
(South) Korea - Bibimbap
Before we made this dish, we thought that a bimbimbap was similarto a stir-fry, with one sauce for all the veggies and meat....we were very mistaken! A bibimbap is full of so many different flavours, as each element of the dish is cooked in a different way using different spices, oils and garnishes. Aside from the rice base, we chose seven main elements for our bibimbap: beef with a hot gochujang (Korean spice) sauce, shiitake mushrooms with a simple marinade, carrots, snowpeas, beansprouts and spinach all cooked with different spices, and the fried egg on the top. Toasted sesame seeds were the finishing touch. We used this as our base recipe, and followed the provided links for cooking each individual veggie. This was one of our favourites - both to cook and eat - so far!
Lebanon - falafel, kofta, hummus, baba ganoush, fattoush
We decided to have a go at a Lebanese mezze spread, made up of hot and cold elements. I'll break it down, as we chose quite a few dishes to try!
-Hummus - we made this with the help of an AirBnB experience: a Lebanese cook gave us her secret tips for making the smoothest, richest hummus and we cooked and decorated it live with her guidance!
-Baba ganoush: this dip made from eggplants was quick, easy and delicious! We used this recipe
-Falafel: somehow we'd never tried making it before, so we wanted to do it right, using dried chickpeas and pre-soaking them rather than buying tinned ones: this makes all the difference, according to this recipe we used!
-Kofta: we went for a beef kofta and made it Lebanese style, according to this recipe
-Extras - for a finishing touch we added herby feta, olives, artichoke hearts, stuffed peppers and, of course, lots of pita bread!
Morocco - chicken tagine
We don't own a tagine pot, so for this one we went for a slow-cooker version instead. Ever since we visited Marrakech a few years ago and took part in a really fantastic food tour, we'd been holding on to a package of the Moroccan spice mix, ras al hanout, which we'd been given at the end of our tour. Now was the perfect time to use it! This fragrant spice mix made up the base of our chicken tagine, and we also added olives, lemon, raisins and dates, just like the one we had at Riad Kniza in Marrakech! We served it with a couscous made with some veggies, sliced almonds and chickpeas, which reminded us of when our food tour guide took us to 'Mama Souk', the woman who giant pots of couscous for all the stall owners in the souk!
Nauru - coconut and lime cod
We stumbled upon this recipe that originates from Nauru, a tiny island country in Micronesia, while looking for interesting ways to cook cod! Nauru has limited resources and have to get a lot of food shipped in from the mainland, but two things they have an abundance of are coconuts and fish! This dish involves a lime-based marinade before coating the cod in coconut and frying it. It's often served with sweet potato, but we couldn't find any, so we had to settle for plain old potatoes instead!
Norway - lefse (potato pancakes) and kjøttkaker (Norwegian meatballs with gravy)
We'd never made pancakes from potato before, but these lefse turned out looking just the way they were supposed to! It took a while to knead the dough, but grilling them in a pan was a quick and easy process. Norwegians eat them as a sweet snack, with butter and sugar. We also made a batch of Norwegian meatballs - the secret, apparently, is corn starch! - served with a flavourful meaty gravy and mashed peas. One of the tastiest dishes yet!
O- to be cooked!
Peru - cod escabeche with quinoa salad, and alfajores
We've really enjoyed Peruvian food in the past: the flavours, colours and textures are so vibrant and fun! I knew I wanted to try making dulce de leche (a smooth caramel) the 'traditional' way, by boiling cans of sweetened condensed milk for several hours! It seems crazy, but it works, and the tasty confection can then be used to make alfajores, a popular Peruvian sandwich biscuit. The recipe I found came out amazingly thanks to some special ingredients: corn starch and lemon zest!
I also made cod escabeche, with its unique sweet-and-spicy flavoured marinade. This was so flavourful, and went really well with a vibrant corn and quinoa salad.
Poland - two kinds of pierogi
We loved hunting for the best pierogi during our long weekend in Warsaw and Krakow a few years ago, and had been dying to make our own ever since. They can be stuffed with all kinds of fillings, and either fried, grilled or boiled, so we decided to make two kinds: the classic pierogi ruskie, stuffed with a cheese, onion and potato mixture, grilled and served with bacon bits, more onions and sour cream; and boiled blueberry and cinnamon-filled ones, served drizzled with vanilla sauce. Both kinds were heavenly!
Portugal - pasteis de nata
This was another dish that we'd enjoyed very much in-country (they were served freshly-made as part of our breakfast at our B&B in the little town of Obidos). However, we'd initially dismissed making the famous Portuguese pastry, pasteis de nata, as being too difficult. We decided to give it a try though, and found it easier than we'd expected! The custard filling came out tasting exactly like the real deal - the secret is in the cinnamon stick and lemon zest added to the mix! The one error we made was not stretching the pastry far enough up the sides of the muffin tin, so there was a little bit of custard overspill on some of the tarts! They did, however, cook up just like they were supposed to, with the iconic brown spots on the top of the delicious cooked custard. We'd make these again, using this spot-on recipe!
Q - to be cooked
Russia - chicken kiev
We'd tasted many an Anglicised chicken kiev, but it wasn't until we visited a Russian restaurant in Tallinn, Estonia, that we discovered what a chicken kiev should really be! The trick to stuffing your chicken full of runny, garlic butter that pours out when you cut into it is to make the butter into a log and then freeze it a little before wrapping the chicken around it. This allows you to seal it inside before breading and frying it. Sadly, the photo doesn't make it look particularly exciting, but it tasted great!
Serbia - cevapcici and belolucene paprike
Cevapcici are little minced meat sausages stuffed with flavours including cumin, cayenne and paprika. They're popular in Croatia as well as Serbia, which is where we once tried them! We served ours with a Serbian salad involving soft cheese and roasted red peppers, another popular staple. Both recipes felt really authentic - we even had to translate the salad one from Serbian!
South Africa - bobotie
Bobotie is a South African variation on meatloaf mixed with moussaka, and the country's national dish. As well as minced beef, it features sultanas, a bunch of aromatic spices and even apricot jam, which gives it a really fragrant savoury-sweet taste! It's topped with a layer of eggy milk and bay leaves and baked in the oven. It was pure comfort food, and we ate a planned two days' worth of it in one sitting....whoops! Here's the recipe we used.
Sri Lanka - curry and home-made naan bread
This curry was super delicious thanks to its creative combination of spices: we'd definitely made curry with a cinnamon stick before! It also featured coconut oil, coconut milk and chillis. I thought it could use a little something extra, so I also tried making naan bread for the first time - it was a surprisingly easy method involving flattening the dough and cooking it in a pan for just a few minutes.
Thailand - Pad Thai and chicken satay
Pad thai is the national dish of Thailand, and the one thing we always order when we go out for Thai food. Its peanutty flavour is too good to resist, so we decided to make our own! An authentic pad thai uses fish sauce and oyster sauce rather than just soy sauce, which gives it a special flavour in addition to the peanut. Speaking of peanuts, we also made chicken satay, because one peanut-based dish is not enough!
USA - southern-style home-made corn bread, BBQ pulled chicken, and mac and cheese
This meal was really just an excuse to make cornbread, I'm not going to lie! We loved every bite of cornbread we had while road-tripping through the southern US, and we missed it! Cornmeal isn't as easy to get over in Europe, but yellow polenta makes a close substitute - slightly different texture but the same corn taste! We combined our cornbread with some BBQ pulled chicken done in the slow cooker, and some home-made mac and cheese! We wanted to add collard greens to make the whole thing a little less 'yellow', but collards aren't really a thing in Germany either!
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