Cooking every National Dish on Earth!

A friend and I are attempting to cook the national dish of every country in the world.

Our journey is called "Cuisine and Country".

We are both absolute amateurs and what we know about cooking between us would barely cover the surface of a small cracker.

The proof is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mW4F4iuoGA

Each week we intend to select a country and cook its national dish!

So far we have done Succotash from Equitorial Guinea and Stamppot from Netherlands.

We are here for all the advice, guidance, suggesions and experience we can gain from this fantastic community.

We would really appreciate feedback on our first two dishes.

Hi tipplej - welcome!

What a fun project!

Please start a new thread, introducing yourself here http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

Looking forward to following your adventure around the world!

Lee

QSis said:

Looking forward to following your adventure around the world!

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Me too.

Sounds interesting project. Good luck to you.

QSis said:

Hi tipplej - welcome!

What a fun project!

Please start a new thread, introducing yourself here http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

Looking forward to following your adventure around the world!

Lee

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Will, do. I'll do that now.

Thanks for the encouragement. It's going to be a long road!

Saliha said:

Sounds interesting project. Good luck to you.

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Thanks very much indeed. I think we will need luck, miracles and a lot of help.

We have out work cut out for us this week though. We have just filmed "poutine" from Canada, but are now setting our sights on Jordan's tricky looking "Mansaf" for a real challenge next week.

Mmmm... mansaf is yummy. I have ate it while I was in Jordan some years ago. Are you aware that in the traditional mansaf also includes boiled sheep head on the plate?

It may looks quite stunning.

Jason and Paul,

Just watched the Stamppot video and, though a terrific idea, was a bit long. I confess, I fast-forwarded it from the potato-peeling to the plated dish.

The finished dish looked great, and you both seemed to like the flavors! Looked like something I would love to eat!

Any chance of you guys posting your recipes and photos here? If no still photos, maybe you could video the printed recipes?

Lee

Saliha said:

Mmmm... mansaf is yummy. I have ate it while I was in Jordan some years ago. Are you aware that in the traditional mansaf also includes boiled sheep head on the plate?

It may looks quite stunning.

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Yes, I have seen pictures and I actually know a farmer who could probably get me a sheep's head. That said, I really cant imagine preparing that and putting it on youtube.... I worry that may stretch taste and decency a bit! Not that I'm sure I could stomach preparing a head for cooking... *shudder* But Jordan is next up, so it will probably not be a head we use, unless one day lots of people really want us to give it a go!

QSis said:

Jason and Paul,

Just watched the Stamppot video and, though a terrific idea, was a bit long. I confess, I fast-forwarded it from the potato-peeling to the plated dish.

The finished dish looked great, and you both seemed to like the flavors! Looked like something I would love to eat!

Any chance of you guys posting your recipes and photos here? If no still photos, maybe you could video the printed recipes?

Lee

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Hi Lee.
Thanks very much indeed for the feedback. We're really not sure whether to make very punchy 5 minute videos or try to aim for 15 minute cooking show videos. We like to cook, entertain and have fun but are conscious that people may not want to watch that long. That said, if you fast forwarded it, you certainly missed the fascinating facts about the country and flag! I guess we want to cater (pardon the pun) for all audiences!

If you could bring yourself to watch the bits you fast-forwarded we would be really interested to know if you still feel we should shorten them and cut out the bloopers or not. A few people have said change nothing and a few have said make them a little shorter, so we are going to have to find out in the long run what people want us to do.

The dish was FANTASTIC by the way, but the Canadian one we did this weekend.... was.... something else....!

We are using a combination of recipes and I like to add something of our own to make it unique (although trying to make sure we stay authentic too). certainly happy to post recipes / pics / videos here if it interests people. Not sure the best format?

I guess it will take a little while to get going as we take around 4-5 hours to make and video a dish and then 8 hours to edit the video (plus some washing up time!) I guess it would be quicker if we took less footage and had shorter videos.

We would love to see what people think of our effort on Canada's poutine when we get it uploaded this week!

I am sure that you will survive from traditional mansaf (with or without sheep head) but hopely you don´t try the national dish of Iceland.

It is called as Hákari which means fermented and dried shark. Its taste and smell can compare to Swedish special dish called Surströmming (fermented baltic herring). Because of its (awful) smell, it is recommend to eat outdoor party.

Smell is like a rotten fish.

to all Swedish (and Iceland) people but one time of your favourite food was enough to me.

Saliha said:

I am sure that you will survive from traditional mansaf (with or without sheep head) but hopely you don´t try the national dish of Iceland.

It is called as Hákari which means fermented and dried shark. Its taste and smell can compare to Swedish special dish called Surströmming (fermented baltic herring). Because of its (awful) smell, it is recommend to eat outdoor party.

Smell is like a rotten fish.

to all Swedish (and Iceland) people but one time of your favourite food was enough to me.

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I am sure we will do Iceland but will probably try and find someone from the country to help! We know nothing about fermented shark cooking!

tipplej said:

If you could bring yourself to watch the bits you fast-forwarded we would be really interested to know if you still feel we should shorten them and cut out the bloopers or not.

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Okay, guys, I went back to the video to watch the parts I zipped through, and here's my feedback:

What I found interesting and entertaining were the parts around food preparation, cooking, and eating, and I enjoyed any of those bloopers.

I would have omitted the horsing around with the globe and the speeding up and rewinding bits.

I haven't watched the poutine video yet.

Let me say this: It's obvious that you guys are having a ball with this project, and I think you should do what makes YOU happy!

Again, I really love the goal!

Thanks for sharing with us!

Lee

QSis said:

Okay, guys, I went back to the video to watch the parts I zipped through, and here's my feedback:

What I found interesting and entertaining were the parts around food preparation, cooking, and eating, and I enjoyed any of those bloopers.

I would have omitted the horsing around with the globe and the speeding up and rewinding bits.

I haven't watched the poutine video yet.

Let me say this: It's obvious that you guys are having a ball with this project, and I think you should do what makes YOU happy!

Again, I really love the goal!

Thanks for sharing with us!

Lee

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Thanks a lot for taking the time to give feedback Lee. It's really useful.
Don't worry the globe has been retired!
I was amazed at how good the poutine tasted. What sounds so simple and bland just had the most incredible flavours.

We are loving this cooking journey so far although recording it is hard work. The mansaf is looking to be a real challenge. The dish could be amazing but we will have to wait and see. They certainly likes their spices in Jordan!