Gastro Geography

One dish, once a week. From every sovereign nation in the world.

[gastrogeography-blog]

Gambia-- Yassa Chicken

So we’re still in West Africa (Fuck Yeah) and technically this country is called The Gambia, but eh it’s cool I’m gonna stick you in the G’s! This is a really tiny country wedged right in the middle of Senegal. Weird shaped and located country, but bomb ass food. Like you know that bite of something and you just stop the ground and say YAAAAAS JESUS, this is exactly what I did when I ate this chicken. Fuck, this chicken was fantastic, why? Because it had all of Emily’s Holy Trio-- Acid (Lime), Spicy (Habanero), and the Flavor Starter (Onion and Garlic because literally all recipes should have Onion and Garlic).

You marinate the chicken with this fantastic mixture and then you grill it, but not all the way cooked through. After it’s been browned on the grill, you put it back in a saucepan with the juices left from the marinade (If you’re paranoid about ewww gross raw meaty marinade juices being cooked, then make a separate marinade for the sauce) 

Paired this bitch with some rice and green beans, and all was good.

Rating-- 10/10 seriously, this was one of the best chicken recipes I’ve had in a long time. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Traveling, laziness, working, busy, sleeping, tired, excuses. These are just a few words that sum up why I’ve neglected this blog for a few months. Work has been insane, with a mix of people leaving and helping pick up the slack and traveling, it’s been the busiest time at work that I’ve ever experienced. Also, for those who don’t know, my better half lives in Colorado..so I have been visiting him out there as well as weddings and all sorts of activities. Regardless, this is one of the things that have fallen behind! I’ve still been cooking..just not documenting it. I need to get into the habit of cooking, eating and then posting. SO back to the grind!

Gabon-- Gabonese Mustard Chicken

For this west African country (I’ve learned that West African cuisine is pretty fucking delicious) I decided on Mustard Chicken. Gabon at one time was settled by the French, so they have a pretty decent French influence. THis is where dijon mustard comes into play. The ingredients were simple and few, dijon mustard and lemon were the stars. This came together quickly and boy was it fan-fucking-tastic. Ya’ll ever had scallopinni? With the lemon caper sauce...well I’ll be damned, when I bit into the chicken it tasted just like that. Next time, I’mma add some capers to this and make it my West African scallopini. 

Rating- 10/10 seriously, I love scallopinni and this tasted pretty damn close to that without the whole dredging in flour and getting pissed because the oil was too hot and you burned yourself or it was too cold and it soaked into your soggy ass greasy chicken. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

France

Since doing this challenge, I’ve learned to become super excited for some countries..mostly countries that I’m familiar with. In all reality, I’ve learned that some of the countries I’m familiar with tasted pretty good and the countries I had no idea about, tasted fantastic! France was not the case...France was goddamn delicious. But come on, it’s one of the best culinary styles..it’s got to be good. 

Ratatouille- So since I knew i was going to go balls to the wall on dessert, I wanted something that wasn’t smothered in cream, butter and just pure fat and deliciousness. A summer vegetable ratatouille was going to be my main dish. Eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and bell peppers..stewed and turned into an amaze-balls meal. This would be bomb as fuck over pasta, on crunchy bread, cold the next day..you get it, this shit is so good! 

Pot de Creme- When I decided to cook France, I wanted to really go all out for dessert. Something rich and decadent. I really suck at baking, so Pot de Creme seemed to fit the bill. Very few ingredients turned this into a magical little ramekin of fucking unicorn sparkles deliciousness. But can you really hate something that’s mostly just heavy cream and chocolate? I’ll answer that for you, no, you can’t. The flavor possibilities are endless but I chose chocolate. Topped with whipped cream (I didn’t let these cool enough, that’s why my whip cream looks fucked). It was awesome. 

Baguette and Camembert- Yo, this cheese sucks. That’s about all there is too it! 

Rating-- Even with the gross ass Camembert cheese, this dish was a 10/10. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Finland

For this country I made Panukakkua topped with cinnamon apples! This is essentially a Finnish pancake, but not like the american-griddled version one. This is baked in the oven and comes out almost pastry/pancake/cake kinda meal. Anyways, this was great...except for the literal fucking TON of butter. Now i love butter, butter is the shit. Don’t fuck with that canola oil on my toast, nah give me the real stuff. But I also don’t like to swim in it, grab a raft bitches because we’re floating down a river of melty butter. 

The flavor was great, if you could look pass the stick of butter per serving. Literally this bitch could have levitated from the pool of buttery grease that made it’s way in, around, under, over, top, beside the pancake. You can see the greasy shine in the picture. 

So next stop, the cinnamon apples. And I love cinnamon apples. To me there are a few things that make me question a persons character: Do you like animals? Do you like Pollo Tropical? And is apple cinnamon a good flavor? If you’ve answered No to any of these questions..it’s cool, I’ll still hang out with you. But I won’t walk down an alley at night alone with your souless ass. 

Rating-- without all the fucking butter? 7/10. With the river of butter? 4/10.

[gastrogeography-blog]

Fiji-- Ginger Fish and Coconut Bread

Everyone (everyone should) have heard of Fiji, from a tropical island paradise to the fancy water bottles you buy for 20 bucks in the airport. Well, now I will remember Fiji for it’s kick ass food.

Ginger Fish-- Okay, this is just fan-fucking-tastic. Literally so easy and so delicious. Ginger, garlic, oil, soy sauce..that’s it. Well, and the fish. I used a basic white fish (Cod) and baked the fish with the marinade. What happened in the oven turned basic ass fish, into something magical. It was a good salty and fresh and just damn good. 

Coconut Bread-- This seemed to have all the ingredients to be kick ass, I love coconut. Toasted coconut in a bread-like cake was supposed to be great, except I suck ass as a baker. I swear, I’m pretty good on the stovetop but when it comes to baking something, I always fuck it up. The parts that were cooked turned out great, but it was just really dense and I think I under cooked it. Try this recipe because it seemed great, I just can’t bake. 

Review-- Fish 10/10, Bread 6/10. So the fish was awesome, I’ve actually made this recipe a few times since finding it, and it turns out great every time. The bread..it was my fault, so sorry Fiji I fucked your bread up but the fish was just insanely delicious. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Equatorial Guinea

This is a small Western African Country, I decided to make grilled fish with a peanut avocado sauce. 

There wasn’t much to say about this, except trying to grill fish is fucking ridiculous. I chose a flimsy ass piece of tilapia, oiled my grill to the point of a grease fire hazard, and still this piece of fish was all that could be salvaged from the grates of the grill. This is why my presentation is shittier than usual. Regardless, it was a pretty simple dish. I love fish so the fish was good, but the sauce..oh the sauce.

Peanut Avocado Sauce

Well, peanuts and avocado is an interesting mix..and it should stay separated in my opinion. Peanuts are very popular in western african cuisine, and with me it’s a hit or miss. I love peanut butter in a dish when it has lemon in it, if it doesn’t I don’t enjoy it..interesting fact you find out while cooking! Anyways, this didn’t have lemon..and it was just mixed with avocado and beef stock. Mmm..shit wasn’t bueno. It tasted just like you would imagine avocado, peanut butter and fucking beef stock would taste like. Enough said.

Rating-- 2/10 Fish was good, but I like fish. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Estonia!

This week, I tackled Estonia. Estonia is a northern European country above Latvia, and across the sea from Finland. This weeks menu consisted of a smoked cheese tomato soup and kringle.

Kringle-- Let’s start with the best stuff first, kringle. So basically this is an Estonian version of a BEAUTIFUL cinnamon roll. Since I don’t bake, I was impressed as fuck that I didn’t destroy this. Seriously this was great, tastes just like a homemade cinnamon roll, honestly I should have smeared some cream cheese frosting on it..but I digress. This was really good, would be great at a group party to impress some people :) 

Cheese soup-- It’s like a fucking grilled cheese in a soup, without the bread..but seriously cheese and tomato’s are great. I really need to start grating cheese into soup so it melts more evenly, but other than that, I seriously enjoyed this soup.

Rating 10/10

[gastrogeography-blog]

Eritrea!!

This week I tackled an eastern African country called Eritrea. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry I didn’t either. But, I will know..because this was so good!!!

Tsebhi sega-- So this is a pretty simple dish, meat and tomatos. But what makes it FANFUCKINGTASTIC was the berbere spice mixture and the flavored butter. Flavored butter? How can you have a dish be fucked up with flavored butter involved...that’s right, you can’t. Anyways, you simmer butter, garlic and ginger until it smells godamn amazing and then strain out the chunky bits and you have your flavored butter. Berbere is an eastern African spice common in Ethiopia and other Eastern African countries. You can find this pre-made, or use up every spice you have in your cabinet at home. It has cinnamon, clove, paprika, coriander, ginger, cardamom, allspice, etc.etc.etc. Anyways, it’s fucking delicious. Saute your spices, herb butter with some ground meat and throw in some chopped tomatoes..and enjoy the magic. 

Rating-- 9/10 

[gastrogeography-blog]

England

This week, I tackled England! I was also very happy to have my boyfriend in town so I can finally enjoy these meals with someone! :) Anyways, for this menu I asked an English coworker and he suggested cottage pie and Yorkshire puddings. Yes, yes I think you’re supposed to have Yorkshire puddings with Sunday roast but fuck it, they’re good.

Cottage Pie- Cottage pie, is shepherds pie. A good mixture of minced meat, veggies topped with a cheesy potato mix. Can’t go wrong! The meat had Worcestershire sauce and a few other seasonings but the most definite flavor was Worcestershire. Nothing wrong with that, I like that flavor! The potato mixture was mashed potatoes with cheese, placed over the meat..then you add more cheese. My boyfriend who is a cheese addict loved it, I would leave the cheese off the top next time!

Yorkshire Pudding-- I actually used a recipe I learned how to make when I was a child, Breakfast Puff’s, from the American Girl’s Felicity cookbook! It’s essentially a popover bread/muffin thing...either way, it’s fantastic. I love to smear it with butter or jelly!

Rating-- 7/10. This is a good winter meal, next time I would leave out the extra cheese! 

[gastrogeography-blog]

El Salvador!

For this week, I made pupusas with curtido and salsa roja. 

Pupusas-- These are basically corn meal stuffed with a mixture of cheese, beans , meats and any variation you can think of! You then fry the pupusa on a griddle until it’s cooked through. I decided to do a bean and cheese pupusa. It was a bit difficult surrounding the bean/cheese mixture with the masa..and it kinda made my pupusas look janky as fuck. You flattened the ball of masa mixture and sure enough my beans kinda squired out..so it was a mess. But anyways, it wasn’t too bad! I don’t think i made my pupusas thin enough so there was some cooking doneness problems, but overall pretty good! 

Curtido-- This is basically an El Salvadorean sauerkraut. Which was fucking delicious! 

Review-- 6/10 It was good, but nothing too fantastic. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Egypt!

I was really excited this week, I love Middle Eastern food! I’ve been eating Middle Eastern food all my life, I grew up eating hummus before it was cool! :) Anyways..Egypt was kind of a disappointment. For how popular Egypt is, I guess I should say well known, it was hard to find a lot of recipes. Egypts national dish was something I decided not to try (it had beans, pasta, rice, lentils) a shit ton of carbs! Nothing wrong with carbs, but lawd jesus. That’s a shit ton of carbs..anyways I decided to go with Ful Mudammas and Falafel.

Ful Mudammas-- This is essentially a bean dip made with fava beans. It’s mixed with lemon and various spices and served with warm pita bread. It was alright, maybe I wanted to compare it too much to hummus but it was just okay. The lemon really overpowered everything else, and don’t get me wrong i fucking love lemon. It was just like..lemon beans. The pita bread was bomb as fuck though.

Falafel-- So Falafel has gained a lot of popularity, and you can buy it pretty much in any city. I have mixed emotions about falafel, I love the taste but I have issues with the smell. My mom used to make falafel from a mix back in the day, and I remember it smelling like some real strong BO goodness coming from the kitchen. Taste is good, smells like some gym funk. Anyways..I decided to try it from scratch..blending the chickpeas the whole nine yards. Well christ, this was a waste. Not sure if my oil wasn’t hot enough or I was just not destined to make Falafel..they disintegrated each time they hit the oil. The one in the picture was literally the only one that came out decent, looked decent let me say. The outside was good and crispy, the inside wasn’t cooked. Fuck this, easier to buy from someone who knows what they’re doing! 

Rating-- 5/10. It was alright, nothing too spectacular. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Ecuador

This week was Ecuador, and it landed on my all time favorite meals. I tried Locro de Papas and Come y bebe. Locro de Papas was a FAN FUCKING TASTIC soup. It was a simple potato soup but had achiote in it, which made it amazing. Seriously, I won’t even fuck with another potato soup after this. Even so, I think I would leave the cheese out. This is probably one of the only times you will hear me say leave cheese out but it just took away from the thick creaminess of the soup. 

Come y Bebe so this is basically a fruit salad that you can eat/drink. Pineapple, papaya and mango filled up with a bit of orange juice..I topped it with whipped cream because why the fuck not..whipped cream is fantastic. Overall, this was great. Perfect for a hot day! 

Overall-- I loved Ecuador. It was fantastic, the soup was the best part of the meal and cannot wait to add this into my routine! Rating- 10/10 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Dominican Republic!

I love Latin food, so I always get excited when we do a latin country! This week I chose Chimichurri and Mangu. Not to be confused with Argentina’s Chimichurri, this is def a Dominican hamburger. This is a common street food that consists of basic hamburger ingredients, but with a delicious sauce that drips all over this burger. Mangu is pretty much boiled and mashed plantains, with pickled onions to garnish. 

Chimichurri-- This was pretty good. The burger got some great flavor with added sofrito ingredients to the meat. The sauce is what makes this really special, now ya’ll know how I am with mayo. I don’t fucking buy it, look at it, smell it..nah none of that. So of course, the basis for this sauce was mayonnaise. This probably made it less authentic, but I swapped it for greek yogurt. Mix with ketchup and orange juice. Overall, I loved the orange juice flavor this gave the burger. I really enjoyed it, and would probably make it again. 

Mangu-- Boiled and mashed plantains is good by itself, but add some pickled onions on top? Game over. Shit was good. 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Dominica!!

Sorry I've been behind! It’s been a crazy few weeks with work, traveling and the biggest thing I've been doing on my lunch breaks, which I usually use that time to post here..I've been training for a 5k! :) So here we go, a few weeks behind but i’m keeping up!

For Dominica I took the advice of a coworker whose husband is from Dominica. He recommended Saltfish with Bakes and a cucumber salad.

So if you haven’t heard of saltfish, it’s pretty self explanatory. Cod preserved in salt. Saltfish is..a little weird. You have to boil it a couple times to get most of the salt off the fish, but other than that..it tastes pretty damn good after a 3rd boil! I mixed this with tomatoes, onions and garlic and put them between a bake. A bake is..not baked, rather it is a fried dough. Now..it’s hard to fuck up a fried dough and not make it delicious! So no worries, it was a delicious piece of fried dough. The saltfish kind of lost the salty-fish flavor I really enjoyed before I mixed it with the tomatoes..so overall I will make another recipe with saltfish because it’s pretty good! 

The cucumber salad was good and simple. Pretty much just sliced cucumber, onion and some chicken bouillon. Good! 

Rating 7/10

[gastrogeography-blog]

Djibouti

Funny name, lame food. You may or may not have heard of Djibouti and if you did it probably brings up memories of making jokes in middle school when you were learning the countries in the Horn of Africa. Anyways, Djibouti is a fairly small country next to Somalia. So it takes on a lot of the cuisine of the region. There was a dish that stood out known as Fah-Fah or spicy beef stew. And, every recipe I saw was accompanied by conjeera. Which is basically another name for the many flatbreads in that region. 

Review-- Well, i'm not sure if we have a different definition of "spicy" but..this was lame as fuck. I mean damn, if it has the word spicy in it..I usually expect a shit ton of heat..and this was just, lame. No heat, lame mixture of basic vegetables. Just not feelin it. And then the conjeera/injera whatever the fuck you wanna call it, is where the meal ended horribly. I followed the directions, bought special millet flour, watched youtube videos on it...and it was just nasty as all fuck. You whip flour and water until its like a pancake batter..and then you smear it on a flat griddle until it cooks. Don't flip it, just watch this nasty ass bread form. Because you don't flip it..or I fucked something up, which could be possible, but it forms this disgusting texture like..a wet scab. That's probably the best way to describe it..just a leathery gross mess. And..it tasted like raw flour. So..fuck you Djibouti you were bland and tasted like a wet floury scab.

Rating-- 2/10 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Denmark

I've heard that countries in the Scandinavian regions are pretty bland. And, it would make sense if the ground is frozen all the damn time can't really grow an abundance of fruits, veg and spices. But anyways..this dish didn't really change my mind about "northern european" countries. It's interesting to note that Denmark eat's a lot of meat. And when I say a lot of meat, I mean a shit ton of meat. I've heard varying facts about meat consumption ranging from 322 pounds per year to some less than that. Either way, damn. Ya'll like your meats. And potatoes...every dish had potatoes! Regardless I thought this meal looked pretty tasty so I decided to give it a whirl. It is called Hakkebøf. 

This is basically a hamburger patty, with some fried onions and a brown gravy. Overall--the gravy saved it..it was pretty easy to make using the drippings of the hamburger/fried onions. Would I order this in a restaurant? Probably not..but overall it was okay. So for a country that eats a lot of meat and potatoes..I wasn't really surprised that it wasn't gonna blow my pants off with amazing flavor.

Rating-- 6/10 

[gastrogeography-blog]

Democratic Republic of the Congo

For this week, I tackled Poulet NsuNsu. I had mixed feelings going into this country. Like a lot of African countries, peanut butter is a pretty common ingredient in many of their recipes. And..I'm just not feeling it in most dishes. The last time I had this, it was gross. So, I wasn't too excited about this dish.

Well..I was wrong. So, so wrong! This was one of the most delicious soups I have ever had!! I really think what helped was there was a good amount of lemon juice so that may have helped cut the sweetness of the peanut butter. But seriously, this dish was fantastic all around. The chicken was spicy, the broth was fantastic and with a good helping of kale you can't go wrong :) Definitely one of my favorite countries so far!!

Rating-- 10/10