About a year ago, my son Tim asked me if I would cook a meal from a different country at least one night a week. It sounded like a cool idea, as I love to cook and am blessed with a family of adventurous eaters, but like so many other things I think about yet never do, I put the idea on the back burner, so to speak, and pretty much left it there to simmer.
Last night we watched Julia&Julia. When it was over, Timmy said, "Well, if SHE could get through an entire cookbook in 365 days, why couldn't you make a meal from a different country once a week, huh?" - Hmmm...the little sh*t threw down a challenge!
The Almanac lists 193 countries in the world. Turns out, this is a somewhat dynamic number though, as new countries are continually formed depending on political agendas - usually war. Given that reality, this project will try to reflect our ever changing global map, while doing justice to each country's regional cuisine. In the process, I hope to expand my world views and cultural insight, one meal at a time.
So here's my goal: Prepare 1, possibly 2 meals per week from a different country, until I've worked my way through all the World's countries in alphabetical order.
First stop: Afghanistan
p.s. I'd really like to communicate with people from around the world to collect authentic recipes!
