Meal 43: DPR Korea
Nothing about making a North Korean meal is easy. First of all, it’s even hard to find someone from North Korea to talk to: estimates say that only 14,000 people have managed to escape the totalitarian state in the 59 years since the end of the Korean War, and there’s virtually zero Internet access within the country. Secondly, except for a particular noodle dish, most (South) Koreans aren’t really aware of which of the foods they eat originated across the DMZ. ...
Meal 36: China
When asked over the past year which upcoming meal intimidated me the most, I’d answer “China.” The most populated country in the world covers a huge variety of cuisines, virtually uncountable ingredients and cooking techniques, and tremendous extremes: it has 9,100 miles of coastline and also the point on Earth farthest from any ocean. China is a telling example of the imperfection of using the United Nations member list as a proxy for the world’s cuisines. But here we are. ...
Meal 29: Cambodia
Having grown up in the Bay Area, I had more than my fair share of many southeast Asian cuisines, including Thai, Vietnamese, even Burmese. But I’d never really encountered Cambodian until this meal. The core ingredients are pretty similar to those of its neighbors, especially the triptych of galangal, kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass. Yet as the Wikipedia page observes, the country is full of wetlands and floodplains, a geography which is reflected in a culinary style where solid and ...
Meal 25: Brunei Darussalam
Hands down, Brunei posed the biggest challenge to date. Partly due to the fact that this small, wealthy, Islamic sultanate is proud of its internationally diverse culinary culture, there’s not a ton of info available online about distinctly Bruneian foods. It was an online treasure hunt, with plenty of Google Translate and a few key finds such as an article from a Philippine newspaper, leading me mostly to ethnically Malay recipes that seemed to also be popular in Brunei. Then, ...
Week 19: Bhutan
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is closer linked culturally, ethnically, and culinarily to Tibet than to India with which it shares most of its border. Given its generally high altitudes, the standard way to cook is with slow simmering over a small fire, with lots of yak butter and cheese for energy in the cold climate. The stovetop is a fine substitute for the fire, but for better or for worse (and, given what I’ve read, perhaps for better), yak ...
Week 14: Bangladesh
It’s apparently well-known across the Subcontinent that Bengalis take their cooking and eating very seriously. In fact, most Indian restaurants you have eaten at were probably actually run by Bangladeshis. (At the risk of greatly over-simplifying, Bengali refers to both a language and a culture, whose homeland after the partition of 1947 upon Britain’s departure was split into the mostly Hindu state of India of West Bengal whose capital is Kolkata; the mostly Muslim eastern portion of Pakistan, which gained ...
Week 13: Bahrain
One of the unexpected discoveries of cooking around the world has been learning just how many different ways there are to cook rice, far beyond the basic boil-then-simmer that a rice cooker does. For example, parboiling, as I’ve learned, involves cooking it quickly in a rolling boil for a few minutes, until it’s soft on the outside but still crunchy on the inside. Then you drain it, and then either put it in another dish or cook it on its ...
Week 11: Azerbaijan
“Do you have narsharab?” I asked the older gentleman, whose dusty and rambling Middle Eastern grocery shop seems to wither a bit in the shadow of the much busier, more popular, and crowded neighbor across Atlantic Avenue, Sahadi’s. “Where are you from?” he responded. “That’s not the English name for what you’re looking for. Do you speak Persian?” I’d been emailing with Marsha, our Azeri guest for tonight’s meal, who said that narsharab was a must. But somehow I didn’t ...
Week 8: Armenia
Armenia has a very long and tough history. The country as it currently stands is a small patch of just a few million people in the south Caucasus, with a diaspora of many million more around the world. As with many diaspora populations, the culinary tradition is a core part of identity, so I was glad to have our friend the nomad, Ed, helping me through it properly. The meal was quite delicious and a heck of a lot of ...
Week 1: Afghanistan
By virtue of the alphabet, first up in the culinary romp around the world is Afghanistan! I had it easy with the research for what to cook, since my good friend Oliver lived in Kabul for two years and is very into food. I took his advice on what to cook just about exactly, merely turning to the internet for the recipes. (Don’t think I know anyone with deep experience on Albania, so next week will require some more planning.) ...