All posts filed under: Food Culture by Country

About the food of Ukraine

“A dream is sweeter than honey.” Proverb from Ukraine This week we’re ambling over to Ukraine, in Eastern Europe. We can get there on foot, by car, or plane, but why not chug-chug-chug through Ukraine’s ‘tunnel of love,’ a 3-mile section of lush, green train tracks? Seriously. What a dream. And then there’s the food. The food of Ukraine is hearty, spirit-warming vittles. Wheat porridge, called (Kutia/Kutya) is the traditional dish for Christmas eve. All year round, there’s lots of bacon, pasta casseroles [Recipe], dumplings (called Varenyky), and potatoes (caviar-potato pancakes, anyone?). On any given day, there will be roasts. And plenty of them. If all that sounds heavy, it is. This kind of food helps locals weather through chilly winters in the northern highlands. Where there is a Ukrainian, there is an apparent love for beets. Locals serve beets in salads [Recipe], roasts, and even in the ubiquitous borsch. We made borscht back when we cooked Belarus [recipe]; the main difference here, is that there are more vegetables and some added meat, like pork and beef. Then there’s stuffed …

About the food of Uganda

“The person who has not traveled widely thinks his or her mother is the best cook.” Ugandan Proverb Oh boy, what truth this proverb holds. But I’d say the opposite, too: the further I travel from mom’s cooking, the better I remember mom’s food – and the more I crave it. After all, distance makes the heart grow fonder. And I’m sure this is the way with Ugandans as well. If you’d like to float about in one of the world’s largest lakes, you just might take a trip to Uganda, in central/eastern Africa. At the southernmost edge of this beautiful country, you’ll find Lake Victoria. The lake is so large, the last time it dried up completely was 17,300 years ago. Fish reigns supreme in this part of Uganda. Pass through the center of Uganda, and you’re in the middle of marshland. Further to the north, Uganda is drier. A quick scan of typical recipes from Uganda told me one simple fact: the cuisine is a celebration of peanuts. Peanut oil is used in kebab marinades [Recipe]. Peanut sauce drapes over …

About the food of Tuvalu

This week we’re scooting out into the Pacific, all the way to Tuvalu – a country which is as much fun to eat as it is to say. I wasn’t convinced I’d find much info on these water-lapped islands, especially considering Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world – behind Monaco, Nauru (also in the Pacific), and the Vatican City. It is made up of just three reef islands and six atolls. An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef like these: There’s generally a lagoon inside. Not a lot of room for growing food. But it does make for some awesome roads. Then I stumbled across Andy Explores and I knew everything would be okay. In this fun spirited blog (by a Boy Scout, no less), Andy takes his readers through his year in Tuvalu. Stories include learning to fish, cooking like a local, waiting for the monthly food shipments (literally just once a month), meeting the epic Graham Hughes (one of two people who have been to every country in the world, including the amazing …

About the food of Turkmenistan

There’s no way to dance around it… In Turkmenistan, you can come face to face with the “gates of hell”… The only catch? Darvasa is no supernatural place. This “hell” is manmade. Way back in 1971 this crater was formed while drilling for natural gas. There was a collapse and, to prevent the escape of fumes, some people decided they should … set the gas on fire. (Had I been around, I would have definitely been against throwing a match* in a giant pit of natural gas… am I alone in this?) Geologists claimed the fire would burn off in a few days. More than forty years later, here we are. The gas still burning, burning, burning. (Something about this feels like a Jim Morrison lyric.) Darvasa is now a major attraction, with tour guides flicking cigarette butts around the place, laughing over flare ups. Sounds like the beginning of a sci fi movie. This week, we’re skirting past the “gates of hell” and diving into the fresh summer bounty of Turkmenistan. Sure, this puppet shaped …

About the food of Turkey

Turkey walks the line: her western borders dip into Europe, while the rest lounges in Asia. Indeed, Istanbul – is the only large city in the world to span two continents. Pretty awesome. Her extensive mountains cradle many small villages and cities, but it is her coastal plains and valleys that produce the most luscious produce. There’s everything from citrus to corn, and olives to barley. The food will fill your spirit as well as your mouth. A few years ago I watched a show about Turkey and in it, I saw someone eat what looked to be a pizza. But they rolled it up like a burrito. They call it Lahmacun [Recipe]. Epic. The list of popular dishes is like a who’s who of my favorite dishes: all manner of meaty, spiced kebabs, glorious stuffed grape leaves, tabbouleh (called kisir) [Recipe], lovely pide bread, sweet, nutty baklava. Much of this can be enjoyed as part of meze, or a meal of many small plates (similar in theory to Spanish Tapas). Just about everything can …

About the food of Tunisia

The castles in Tunisia don’t look like they are made of stone. Not European stones, anyway. Those make for grey castles – the kind most of us are familiar with. No, Tunisian castles look like sandcastles. The soft yellow stones look like knobs of buttered polenta. Or couscous. I know, because this is one of the twelve countries I visited when I was a teen. I went for my senior trip (from Luxembourg, where I was living at the time). While I was there I wanted to eat up those castles. I mean look at this… But before I ever saw the castles, I had to feel Tunisia. I stepped off of the plane, into the heat. The humidity squeezed me like a giant hug. Not only was it hot enough to swim at 8 a.m., it was hot enough to want to. The food was suitably refreshing. I had lots of tomato salads, grilled meats, and even grilled salads [Recipe]. In the morning, chakchouka was common, a quick fix cobbled together with simmered eggplant, peppers, onion, and …

About the food of Trinidad & Tobago

If you’d like to dig into a melting pot, try visiting Trinidad and Tobago via stovetop travel. These Caribbean islands, right off the coast of Venezuela, are known for having absorbed a bit of Spain, Portugal, France, Dutch, China, Africa, Creole, and Indian cooking… and spat it back out in their own, lovely cooking style. From what I can tell, the food is spicy, bold, and – like a brilliant tapestry – layered with infinite threads from the many influences… which weave an intricate flavor portrait. Curry is probably Trinidad and Tobago’s most popular food, often seasoned with an incredibly hot batch of Green Seasoning, or some variation thereof. This could be fish curry, chicken curry, long bean curry, or pretty much whatever your heart desires. The ever popular Stew Chicken is a great example of a curry-like dish made more robust with bits of ketchup and Worcestershire sauce [Recipe]. Some even add ginger and soy sauce. Hot peppers (a.k.a. Scotch Bonnet or Habenero pepper) and seasoning peppers, which are a lot like scotch bonnet peppers with …

About the food of Tonga

If you’d like to make some friends, you might want to head over to the “Friendly Islands,” a.k.a. Tonga. There are 170 of these islands to choose from, all dotted through the Southwest Pacific, in Oceania. They got their nickname because they were so kind to Captain Cook when he came there to visit in 1773. Even with all these islands, the CIA World Factbook claims its total area is just four times that of Washington D.C. In this scattered tropical country, vanilla, banana, coconut, and pumpkins grow with ease, despite the tough soil. The soil is best used, perhaps, for underground ovens, where entire pigs can be roasted, along with root vegetables. Once you arrive, stay a while. You can dine on all manner of seafood, along with boiled Taro, Sweet Potatoes [Recipe] or even dumplings… Many Tongans pour on a coconut caramel sauce, to make things even richer. The one with Taro is called Faikakai Topai. As with most of Oceania, Spam is a “thing” – you can find it baked in banana leaves …

About the food of Togo

There’s an old Togolese proverb which says “Do not roast all your corn in the winter.” The proverb sums up Togo nicely. While the words point to importance placed on resourcefulness in this small, west African country, it also points to something much more obvious. The Togolese love their corn. As with most proverbs, they draw from the popular culture from whence they originate. This skinny strip of a country in western Africa really does love their corn, especially cornmeal. Cornmeal cakes called Djenkoume are a popular staple, as is fufu (stiff cornmeal porridge, although sometimes it is made with yam). Either might be served with chicken [like Grilled Togo Chicken], goat, or wild game. What does a Togolese person do when they tire of cornmeal? Eat cassava. It can be savory, on the side of goat stew, or an after dinner treat, served as a soft, sweet porridge. From the dry savannas and tropical coast, this land also loves their peanuts. In fact, groundnut stew [Recipe] (an old favorite from our Ghanaian Global Table), makes …

About the food of Thailand

From her thick, green mountaintops in the north, all the way past her flatlands, through her river basins and glittering skyscrapers, Thailand has it all. And if you thought her landscape is stunning, you should taste the food. There’s a zing to Thai food that keeps me coming back; at first I thought it was the sour notes, formed from hefty squirts of lime juice. I do adore a good burst of lime…But over the years I’ve realized Thai food is far more complex than that. There’s a dance going on in every bite, especially in the salads, like som tam (green papaya salad [Recipe])… sure, there’s bright bursts of lime juice, but there’s also the smack of salty fish sauce, the brutal burn of Bird’s Eye Chili peppers, something sweet (usually palm sugar) and there, somewhere in the background, a hint of bitterness. In preparation for this week’s Global Table, we ate at My Thai Kitchen in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We covered the table with several selections, most notably the beef salad, the green curry …

About the food of Tanzania

A few months ago, my next door neighbor, Jonathan, told me he was going to Tanzania to shoot documentary footage at an orphanage in Tanzania. “Your going to Tanzania?!” I exclaimed, thrilled with the serendipity of the situation, “Tell me all about the food – what do the children eat?” Over the next several minutes, he enthusiastically described the food of this east African country, possibly most well-known for the breathtaking peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. (Incidentally, if you ever get the chance to read the autobiographical book Travels, by Michael Crichton, you’ll find a wonderful passage about his hike to the summit of this great mountain). He said, while the food itself is simple, even outside of the orphanage, it remains utterly craveable. There’s an old Tanzanian saying that states “Little by little, a little becomes a lot.” And so it is with the food. Even when there is a little, if it is good and the supply keeps coming, it fills the heart and belly to capacity. The first food Jonathan mentioned was ugali, the white …

About the food of Tajikistan

In Tajikistan, if you don’t have bread, you don’t have food. It doesn’t matter if the table is piled to the ceiling with meat, vegetables, and sweets. Bread is the purest sustenance to the Tajik people, especially nan (a thick flatbread Tajiks love to decorate with ornate markings). And why not. Bread makes all kinds of sense in this rugged, mountainous land bordered by China, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan (the country actually sits in Asia). Nan stores well because, if it dries out, the hardened discs can be hydrated with stews or the like. The bread also goes with everything, and is extremely economical, such as yogurt Naan [Recipe]. Along with the nan, a Tajik table often includes communal meals enjoyed out of a single platter. Examples include plov (or rice with root vegetables and meat [Recipe]) or Qurotob (a mish-mash pile of flatbread topped with cheese, fried vegetables, and onion). If the weather feels a bit nippy, locals might pull up to a steaming bowl of lagman soup (lagman are thick, homemade noodles, which we made back …