Hello and welcome to my recipe challenge. I hope that you will enjoy reading it and getting involved. The recipe challenge is very simple, to cook a meal and dessert from 52 countries of the world; a meal from one country every week for one year. The reason is partly because I am doing a food writing course, and also because I liked the idea of going on a food odyssey to discovering the cuisines of different countries regardless of how obscure they might be. I hope that the blog will give people an insight into what is out there beyond the favourite ethnic dishes that we know and love in the UK.
The Experiment
By day I work in a clinical trials office so I thought it only fair that a proper experiment should be randomised! There was no selection involved which you may guess from the outcomes. This will be a research experiment on my part but I would also appreciate the help of readers. Please don’t feel shy to get involved if you can - if you have a family background or travel experiences in any of these countries get in touch. Perhaps you would like to right a commentary on your experiences of the food of a particular country from the list below.
The List:
- Australia
- Sweden
- Turkmenistan
- Guatemala
- Kiribati
- Andorra
- Burma
- Suriname
- Luxembourg
- French Polynesia
- Denmark
- Norfolk Island
- Syria
- Chile
- Liberia
- Kyrgystan
- Pitcairn islands
- Vanuatu
- Israel
- Albania
- Gabon
- Wallis and Futuna
- Panama
- Lithuania
- Kenya
- Uzbekistan
- Tukelau
- Georgia
- Estonia
- Moldova
- New Zealand
- St Vincent and the Grenadines
- Belgium
- Belize
- Egypt
- Algeria
- Poland
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Jan Mayen
- Rwanda
- Honduras
- Haiti
- Paracel islands
- The Gambia
- India
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
- St Kitts and Nevis
- Samoa
- Iceland
- Greece
- Venezuela
A note about Ethnic foods in the UK
Brits are the largest consumers of ethnic foods in Europe according to the 2011 Ethnic Foods report by markets research firm Keynote and the ethnic food industry in the UK was worth about £1.64bn in 2009. The ethnic cuisine that we dine out on the most is Indian. In fact between the two of them Indian and our other adopted favourite Chinese dominate the market - they account for a staggering 70% of ethnic food sales in the UK.
Not that we don’t experiment as well, and new food trends are constantly emerging. Recently Mexican chains have become a common feature on London high streets and are set to expand across the country. Other cuisines such as Korean, Polish, South American and Scandinavian are becoming more popular too.
But what about all those countries that don’t feature at all, what do they have to offer? The reasons why some foods succeed and others don’t is partly down to e.g migration demographics. This might account for why in mainland Europe sales of Chinese food are thought to be higher than in the UK because of the presence of large Chinese communities in Spain, Holland, Ireland and France. Other factors accounting for the success of ethnic food include how transferable the food is to be eaten in a convenient way e.g. can it be put in a wrap or sandwich or cooked simply as a stew. The key ingredient is that the food can cross over to suite British tastes beyond the ethnic population.
