Saturday, August 30, 2008

Vegetarian Dumplings from South Korea

The same day last week that we ate kimchi, Elliot and I made Vegetarian Dumplings. We found this South Korean recipe in a cookbook that we checked out from our local library. The dumplings are easy to make and the taste is not very complex. What I liked most about this recipe was making the little dumplings before we fried them. I've never used dumpling (wonton) wrappers before, and it's kind of fun!

Here is what the finished product of our labor looked like:

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Kimchi from Korea

Last week we made kimchi, a Korean snack/side dish that we are attributing to North Korea, although it is eaten in both the north and the south. We made it too salty-- it was our own fault for not being careful when we tried to make less than the original recipe called for. But despite our error, I can tell it would have been tasty.

I've had store-bought kimchi in the past and I really didn't like it because the taste was too strong. This homemade kimchi has a much milder taste, however. We only fermented ours for 2 days, and we made a vegetarian recipe that does not include fish paste. It was a better flavor, in my opinion.

I'd like to try to make this again, being more careful with the salt next time. I really think it will taste good when we prepare it properly.

Elliot with our first-ever jar of kimchi:

Monday, August 18, 2008

Complete Jollof Rice from Benin

Another success!

I cooked our second World Peas recipe tonight, a rice and vegetable dish from Benin called Complete Jollof Rice. It was a little bit spicy, but very good. Like the stew from Armenia, it was different than anything I've ever had before. Here's what the meal looked like when it was done cooking:

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Mobile, AL and the USS Alabama and USS Drum

This last weekend Mary and I decided we would go to Mobile, Alabama, stay at a bed and breakfast, and go see the Battleship, USS Alabama and anything else in the park where that ship is perma-docked.

Mary had visited before when she was younger and thought that I might like to visit. Boy was she right! We spent at least 4 hours there touring the the USS Alabama, the USS Drum and various military planes and tanks and things. The ship and the sub were so cool!

They have many things to see at this nice park, including not only a totally awesome battleship and submarine but many airplanes, helicopters, tanks and artillery. We looked at them all.
In the next post I will be showing you my favorite parts of each of the main tours.
Yeah, you get to climb aboard both the Alabama and the Drum and really see what it must have been like to live in very close quarters, on a seafaring Navy ship!

Also, the Air Force painted that helicopter to look like a caterpillar so that when people saw it in pictures taken from far away they would just think it was bug, close to the camera, or so I assume.

USS AlabamaUSS DrumHelicopter disguised as a Caterpillar

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Ailazan from Armenia

Our first "World Peas" recipe! (See the post immediately below this one.)

Last night, Elliot prepared Ailazan (click here for a link to the recipe, posted on our other blog), which is a vegetable stew from Armenia. I must admit that we were skeptical at first. But then it started cooking and it smelled soooo good. It turned out to be quite yummy! The stew is a bit oily for what I'm used to, but we ate it with bread and that resolved the problem perfectly.

Here is a picture of Elliot chopping the vegetables:


The ingredients, right before we put the pot on the stove:


The finished product:

World Peas

Elliot and I both enjoy cooking. We have our old, trusty stand-by recipes, of course. But we try to cook lots of different types of recipes, inspired by different cultures and representative of many different regions of the world.

It was only a matter of time.

That's right. We have decided to cook (at least) one recipe from each country in the world!!!

Wikipedia currently recognizes 245 "political entities" and so that's what we've decided to use as our list of countries. It will take us years. But we will do it!!! I'm determined. (At least for now.) It might be hard to find native recipes for some of the countries, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Here are the rules: 1) the recipes must be vegetarian (of course); 2) we will strive to cook main dishes; 3) if we cant find vegetarian main dishes we will look for side dishes but desserts will be a last resort; 4) we will try to make the recipes as authentically as possible, so no meat substitutes (like fake chicken) unless it is otherwise hopeless without the switcheroo.

I will publish the recipes on my recipe blog, and give you hyperlinks to the recipes. This post will become "THE MASTER LIST OF RECIPES" and I'll make a link on the right-hand side of the blog so that you can always click to this post.

So far we've made recipes from 19 out of 245 countries.


Here is the country list, with links to the recipes we've made beneath the country:

A

  • Flag of Abkhazia Abkhazia
  • Flag of Afghanistan Afghanistan
  • Flag of the United Kingdom Akrotiri and Dhekelia
  • Flag of Åland Islands Åland
  • Flag of Albania Albania
  • Flag of Algeria Algeria
  • Flag of American Samoa American Samoa
  • Flag of Andorra Andorra
  • Flag of Angola Angola
  • Flag of Anguilla Anguilla
  • Flag of Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda
  • Flag of Argentina Argentina
  • Flag of Armenia Armenia
  • Flag of Aruba Aruba
  • Flag of the United Kingdom Ascension Island
  • Flag of Australia Australia
  • Flag of Austria Austria
  • Flag of Azerbaijan Azerbaijan

B

  • Flag of the Bahamas The Bahamas
  • Flag of Bahrain Bahrain
  • Flag of Bangladesh Bangladesh
  • Flag of Barbados Barbados
  • Flag of Belarus Belarus
  • Flag of Belgium Belgium
  • Flag of Belize Belize
  • Flag of Benin Benin
  • Flag of Bermuda Bermuda
  • Flag of Bhutan Bhutan
  • Flag of Bolivia Bolivia
  • Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Flag of Botswana Botswana
  • Flag of Brazil Brazil
  • Flag of Brunei Brunei
  • Flag of Bulgaria Bulgaria
  • Flag of Burkina Faso Burkina Faso
  • Flag of Burma Burma
  • Flag of Burundi Burundi

C

  • Flag of Cambodia Cambodia
  • Flag of Cameroon Cameroon
  • Flag of Canada Canada
  • Flag of Cape Verde Cape Verde
  • Flag of Cayman Islands Cayman Islands
  • Flag of the Central African Republic Central African Republic
  • Flag of Chad Chad
  • Flag of Chile Chile
  • Flag of the People's Republic of China China
  • Flag of Christmas Island Christmas Island
  • Flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  • Flag of Colombia Colombia
  • Flag of the Comoros Comoros
  • Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Congo (Zaire)
  • Flag of the Republic of the Congo Congo
  • Flag of the Cook Islands Cook Islands
  • Flag of Costa Rica Costa Rica
  • Flag of Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire
  • Flag of Croatia Croatia
  • Flag of Cuba Cuba
  • Flag of Cyprus Cyprus
  • Flag of the Czech Republic Czech Republic

D

E

F

G

  • Flag of Gabon Gabon
  • Flag of The Gambia The Gambia
  • Flag of Georgia (country) Georgia
  • Flag of Germany Germany
  • Flag of Ghana Ghana
  • Flag of Gibraltar Gibraltar
  • Flag of Greece Greece
  • Flag of Greenland Greenland
  • Flag of Grenada Grenada
  • Flag of Guam Guam
  • Flag of Guatemala Guatemala
  • Flag of Guernsey Guernsey
  • Flag of Guinea Guinea
  • Flag of Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau
  • Flag of Guyana Guyana

H

I

J

  • Flag of Jamaica Jamaica
  • Flag of Japan Japan
  • Flag of Jersey Jersey
  • Flag of Jordan Jordan

K

L

  • Flag of Laos Laos
  • Flag of Latvia Latvia
  • Flag of Lebanon Lebanon

  • Flag of Lesotho Lesotho
  • Flag of Liberia Liberia
  • Flag of Libya Libya
  • Flag of Liechtenstein Liechtenstein
  • Flag of Lithuania Lithuania
  • Flag of Luxembourg Luxembourg

M

  • Flag of Macau Macao
  • Flag of the Republic of Macedonia Macedonia
  • Flag of Madagascar Madagascar
  • Flag of Malawi Malawi
  • Flag of Malaysia Malaysia
  • Flag of the Maldives Maldives
  • Flag of Mali Mali
  • Flag of Malta Malta
  • Flag of the Marshall Islands Marshall Islands
  • Flag of Mauritania Mauritania
  • Flag of Mauritius Mauritius
  • Flag of Mayotte Mayotte
  • Flag of Mexico Mexico
  • Flag of the Federated States of Micronesia Micronesia
  • Flag of Moldova Moldova
  • Flag of Monaco Monaco
  • Flag of Mongolia Mongolia
  • Flag of Montenegro Montenegro
  • Flag of Montserrat Montserrat
  • Flag of Morocco Morocco
  • Flag of Mozambique Mozambique

N

  • Flag of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Nagorno-Karabakh
  • Flag of Namibia Namibia
  • Flag of Nauru Nauru
  • Flag of Nepal Nepal
  • Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
  • Flag of the Netherlands Antilles Netherlands Antilles
  • Flag of New Caledonia New Caledonia
  • Flag of New Zealand New Zealand
  • Flag of Nicaragua Nicaragua
  • Flag of Niger Niger
  • Flag of Nigeria Nigeria
  • Flag of Niue Niue
  • Flag of Norfolk Island Norfolk Island
  • Flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus
  • Flag of the Northern Mariana Islands Northern Mariana Islands
  • Flag of Norway Norway

O

  • Flag of Oman Oman

P

Q

  • Flag of Qatar Qatar

R

  • Flag of Romania Romania
  • Flag of Russia Russia
  • Flag of Rwanda Rwanda

S

  • Flag of Saint Barthélemy Saint Barthélemy
  • Flag of Saint Helena Saint Helena
  • Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Flag of Saint Lucia Saint Lucia
  • Flag of Saint Martin (France) Saint Martin
  • Flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  • Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Flag of Samoa Samoa
  • Flag of San Marino San Marino
  • Flag of São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe
  • Flag of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
  • Flag of Senegal Senegal
  • Flag of Serbia Serbia
  • Flag of the Seychelles Seychelles
  • Flag of Sierra Leone Sierra Leone
  • Flag of Singapore Singapore
  • Flag of Slovakia Slovakia
  • Flag of Slovenia Slovenia
  • Flag of the Solomon Islands Solomon Islands
  • Flag of Somalia Somalia
  • Flag of Somaliland Somaliland
  • Flag of South Africa South Africa
  • Flag of South Ossetia South Ossetia
  • Flag of Spain Spain
  • Flag of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
  • Flag of Sudan Sudan
  • Flag of Suriname Suriname
  • Flag of Svalbard Svalbard
  • Flag of Swaziland Swaziland
  • Flag of Sweden Sweden
  • Flag of Switzerland Switzerland
  • Flag of Syria Syria

T

  • Flag of the Republic of China Taiwan
  • Flag of Tajikistan Tajikistan
  • Flag of Tanzania Tanzania
  • Flag of Thailand Thailand
  • Flag of Togo Togo
  • Flag of Tokelau Tokelau
  • Flag of Tonga Tonga
  • Flag of Transnistria Transnistria
  • Flag of Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago
  • Flag of Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha
  • Flag of Tunisia Tunisia
  • Flag of Turkey Turkey
  • Flag of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan
  • Flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands Turks and Caicos Islands
  • Flag of Tuvalu Tuvalu

U

  • Flag of Uganda Uganda
  • Flag of Ukraine Ukraine
  • Flag of the United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
  • Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
  • Flag of the United States United States
  • Flag of Uruguay Uruguay
  • Flag of Uzbekistan Uzbekistan

V

  • Flag of Vanuatu Vanuatu
  • Flag of the Vatican City Vatican City
  • Flag of Venezuela Venezuela
  • Flag of Vietnam Vietnam
  • Flag of the British Virgin Islands Virgin Islands, British
  • Flag of the United States Virgin Islands Virgin Islands, United States

W

  • Flag of Wallis and Futuna Wallis and Futuna
  • Flag of Western Sahara Western Sahara

Y

  • Flag of Yemen Yemen

Z

  • Flag of Zambia Zambia
  • Flag of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe