I’m cooking one of the most iconic dishes or meals from every country, in one year, as authentically as possible. 195 countries in 365 days. My husband and four kids are along for the ride!
Food has been my number one hobby for most of my life and it’s been great to explore different cultures through their food at a deeper level. I’ve met so many other chefs and foodies across the world who have given me tips and recipes from their particular country.
I’ve been documenting every meal on my instagram account @aricookstheworld (also on Facebook) and trying to get as many followers as possible. I like to have my meals critiqued, or have a native give interesting facts about the meal or country, what I did right and what I did wrong. I am not great at networking, so if anyone has experience and has any advice let me knowI am not great at networking, so if anyone has experience and has any advice let me know!
Check it out if you’re interested and spread the word!
I have a brief look at your IG, nice concept! I’m interested in cooking different cuisines in the world, I’ve once tried to cook a different region in France weekly, 3 or 4 different dishes in a week, for several weeks. It’s a lot of research and sourcing and commitment, how do you mange all this, especially with young children? How about the leftover ingredients especially spices? You must stock up a lot of ingredients.
That’s similar to what we’re doing! And French food is amazing, good choice. My husband lived there for a while and we eat it a lot. What’s your favorite? I cooked with a lot of diversity before I started this project so I did have a lot of spices already! I’m also a bit of a hoarder when it comes to food supplies haha. There’s a few random spices I’ve had to buy or order but I’ll go through them eventually.
I have an excel spreadsheet to stay organized and planned meals out for several months before starting. But it’s definitely tricky! I’ve had to get really good at prioritizing my time. Leftovers were rough the first week but I’ve gotten really good at cutting recipes so we don’t have any leftovers. We have a few friends that we call to come try out the foods when we do have leftovers!
One of my all time Favorites was bibimbap, but that was a favorite before I started this. We loved Belize’s stewed chicken a coconut rice. Anything with homemade pita. Bouillabaisse was one I’d never made but was so much better than other seafood stews I’ve had!
Thanks! I planned things out for about two months before I started, and I try to have tentative meals planned about two weeks in advance.
Amazon and ethnic grocery stores in my area have been my best friend. Turns out we have African, phonecian, middle eastern and Asian grocery stores All within 20-30 minutes of my house I never knew about!
Thanks! I’ll definitely be posting more in Instagram but I’ll try to update here as well when I can! I only have so much time with 4 little kids Gotta pick and choose
Right now, due to the hot temperature, the first thing that comes to my mind is lemon tart. I’ve made twice bouillabaisse from scratch, and liked it a lot. My husband is French and I live in France since many years.
We have a special event here in Hungry Onion called “Cuisine of the Quarter”, 4 times a year, the members vote for a different cuisine and a bunch of us will participate.
The master list is here for the previous cuisines.
You can see a few French dishes we have made during the French COTQ.
Oh I’m going to enjoy going through those! Thanks for telling me about it, that’s such a great idea.
Lemon tarts are divine! I haven’t done France yet, but my tentative plan is to make Bouef Bourguignon (per my other French friends suggestion, because it’s one I haven’t made yet. What would you suggest? I’m sure I’ll end up making more food than I should but French food and patisseries have a special place In my heart!
Started to watch a few days, it’s great with so many details each day. Loved the marathon video of Day 2, Tamales with Salsa Verde and Frijoles Puercos, how much time it took you?
Also a bit surprise by your versatile approach, you choose to jump from a continent to another each day, really dynamic. I would have difficulty in doing that and probably could do one countries after the other in the same continent.
Tamales were one of my favorite! It took maybe a hour? Easy but time consuming for sure.
Yes originally I was thinking I should move from continent to continent, but I didn’t want to get bored with a certain type of cuisine. There are a lot of African countries with pretty humble meals and I didn’t feel like eating it for two months straight . Also I like to invite friends and family over to share the meals who are from/have experience in certain countries. So whenever a friend comes from out of town I plan a country around them!
Gotta pick and choose
