About this time last week I had that pleased feeling, the one you get when you come up with an idea that you're sure no one has ever come up with before, like the feeling that cheese guy must have had. You know, the cheese guy. That first guy who looked at a lump of moldy milk and thought to himself, "Ooo, I should try eating that." And after realizing that he had not just committed suicide and could maybe actually sell moldy milk to other people and call it "gourmet," he must have felt really clever. Like he was on to something.
Well, it turns out I was not in fact really clever nor was I on to anything when I came up with what I thought was the brilliant idea of cooking one meal from every nation in the world and blogging about it. It's been done before. More than once, actually.
But I am still going to do it, because I think it will be really fun. I also think it has the potential for being at least mildly entertaining, especially when you consider that I'm going to attempt to feed all of this food to my four children, ages 6, 5, 3 and 1.
Just a few notes before I start on this project:
1) I really don't want someone calling CPS on me for starving my children, which is probably what will happen if I try to force too much culinary education on them in too short time. They will be tortured enough if this happens to them once a week. So, this blog will be updated weekly instead of daily.
2) I live in a small town in Northern California, where exotic ingredients aren't that easy to come by. I may mail order a few things, but let's face it ... I'm a stay-at-home mom with four kids so I'm not going to be spending $37.99 plus $9.99 shipping for extract of octopus sucker, which is not something I anticipate using on more than one occasion. So while I will do my best to stay true to the spirit of a recipe, I may substitute or exclude. When I do, I will tell you so.
3) I'm also--at great risk to my four-and-a-half-star chef rating--going to post all the recipes I try to make, along with each country of origin, on Food.com (and on this blog) in the hope that someone out there will cook along with me. If you want to view the recipes over there, my chef ID is GiddyUpGo.
So here it is, the unofficial list of nations of the world. Depending on who you ask, there are between 168 and 258 countries on Earth, so what the hell, I've never been one for taking the easy way out. I'm going to do the long list, which at one country a week I figure should take me about five years.
1 Abkhazia
2 Afghanistan
3 Akrotiri
4 Albania
5 Algeria
6 American Samoa
7 Andorra
8 Angola
9 Anguilla
10 Antarctica
11 Antigua and Barbuda
12 Argentina
13 Armenia
14 Aruba
15 Ashmore and Cartier Islands
16 Australia
17 Austria
18 Azerbaijan
19 Bahamas, The
20 Bahrain
21 Bangladesh
22 Barbados
23 Bassas da India
24 Belarus
25 Belgium
26 Belize
27 Benin
28 Bermuda
29 Bhutan
30 Bolivia
31 Bosnia and Herzegovina
32 Botswana
33 Bouvet Island
34 Brazil
35 British Indian Ocean Territory
36 British Virgin Islands
37 Brunei
38 Bulgaria
39 Burkina Faso
40 Burma
41 Burundi
42 Cambodia
43 Cameroon
44 Canada
45 Cape Verde
46 Cayman Islands
47 Central African Republic
48 Chad
49 Chile
50 China
51 Christmas Island
52 Clipperton Island
53 Cocos (Keeling) Islands
54 Colombia
55 Comoros
55 Congo, Democratic Republic of the
57 Congo, Republic of the
58 Cook Islands
59 Coral Sea Islands
60 Costa Rica
61 Cote d'Ivoire
62 Croatia
63 Cuba
64 Cyprus
65 Czech Republic
66 Denmark
67 Dhekelia
68 Djibouti
69 Dominica
70 Dominican Republic
71 Ecuador
72 Egypt
73 El Salvador
74 Equatorial Guinea
75 Eritrea
76 Estonia
77 Ethiopia
78 Europa Island
79 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
80 Faroe Islands
81 Fiji
82 Finland
83 France
84 French Guiana
85 French Polynesia
86 French Southern and Antarctic Lands
87 Gabon
88 Gambia, The
89 Gaza Strip
90 Georgia
91 Germany
92 Ghana
93 Gibraltar
94 Glorioso Islands
95 Greece
96 Greenland
97 Grenada
98 Guadeloupe
99 Guam
100 Guatemala
101 Guernsey
102 Guinea
103 Guinea-Bissau
104 Guyana
105 Haiti
106 Heard Island and McDonald Islands
107 Holy See (Vatican City)
108 Honduras
109 Hong Kong
110 Hungary
111 Iceland
112 India
113 Indonesia
114 Iran
115 Iraq
116 Ireland
117 Isle of Man
118 Israel
119 Italy
120 Jamaica
121 Jan Mayen
122 Japan
123 Jersey
124 Jordan
125 Juan de Nova Island
126 Kazakhstan
127 Kenya
128 Kiribati
129 North
130 Korea, South
131 Kuwait
132 Kyrgyzstan
133 Laos
134 Latvia
135 Lebanon
136 Lesotho
137 Liberia
138 Libya
139 Liechtenstein
140 Lithuania
141 Luxembourg
142 Macau
143 Macedonia
144 Madagascar
145 Malawi
146 Malaysia
147 Maldives
148 Mali
149 Malta
150 Marshall Islands
151 Martinique
152 Mauritania
153 Mauritius
154 Mayotte
155 Mexico
156 Micronesia, Federated States of
157 Moldova
158 Monaco
159 Mongolia
160 Montserrat
161 Morocco
162 Mozambique
163 Namibia
164 Nauru
165 Navassa Island
166 Nepal
167 Netherlands
168 Netherlands Antilles
169 New Caledonia
170 New Zealand
171 Nicaragua
172 Niger
173 Nigeria
174 Niue
175 Norfolk Island
176 Northern Mariana Islands
177 Norway
178 Oman
179 Pakistan
180 Palau
181 Panama
182 Papua New Guinea
183 Paracel Islands
184 Paraguay
185 Peru
186 Philippines
187 Pitcairn Islands
188 Poland
189 Portugal
190 Puerto Rico
191 Qatar
192 Reunion
193 Romania
194 Russia
195 Rwanda
196 Saint Helena
197 Saint Kitts and Nevis
198 Saint Lucia
199 Saint Pierre and Miquelon
200 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
201 Samoa
202 San Marino
203 Sao Tome and Principe
204 Saudi Arabia
205 Senegal
206 Serbia and Montenegro
207 Seychelles
208 Sierra Leone
209 Singapore
210 Slovakia
211 Slovenia
212 Solomon Islands
213 Somalia
214 South Africa
215 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
216 Spain
217 Spratly Islands
218 Sri Lanka
219 Sudan
220 Suriname
221 Svalbard
222 Swaziland
223 Sweden
224 Switzerland
225 Syria
226 Taiwan
227 Tajikistan
228 Tanzania
229 Thailand
230 Timor-Leste
231 Togo
232 Tokelau
233 Tonga
234 Trinidad and Tobago
235 Tromelin Island
236 Tunisia
237 Turkey
238 Turkmenistan
239 Turks and Caicos Islands
240 Tuvalu
241 Uganda
242 Ukraine
243 United Arab Emirates
244 United Kingdom
245 United States
246 Uruguay
247 Uzbekistan
248 Vanuatu
249 Venezuela
250 Vietnam
251 Virgin Islands
252 Wake Island
253 Wallis and Futuna
254 West Bank
255 Western Sahara
256 Yemen
257 Zambia
258 Zimbabwe
Wish me luck, as they say, I'm gonna need it.
