Big World, Tiny Tiny Kitchen

In starting this project, and in talking about it with friends, I know there are several drawbacks.

What is a country, anyway?
I've gone with a list of 192, the members of the United Nations, plus Taiwan, the Vatican, Kosovo, and South Sudan, but cuisine does not necessarily follow the rules of political boundaries. For a project like this, that's a blessing and a curse. Some countries -- take China -- have hundreds of regional variation in cuisine. It would be impossible to experience the cooking of China in 3-7 separate dishes. Then again, some countries have a lot of overlap. The cuisine of Andorra is basically the cuisine of the Catalan region, blending Spain, France, and a little food of Italy. This will help fill in some of the gaps left in the countries it shares foods with. In the end, it's just easiest to work from a list, arbitrary though it may be.

It's a lot of work, isn't it?
Well, if Ben (the boyfriend) and I can manage to keep it going at a country a week, it'll take four years to complete, but... I was planning on eating every day for the next four years anyhow, wasn't I? It's really not that much extra effort.

How do you choose the dishes?
The internet and the library! I'm trying to use a variety of sources where possible for recipes. There's a gorgeous blog, for example, for Afghan cuisine, but I think different chefs all have unique takes on their food, and I'd like to get a little variety in there. We're lucky to be living in an age when people can post recipes from almost everywhere. I'm also looking at cookbooks in the library.

Aren't you going to miss a ton of foods?
Yeah, probably. But I'd miss a lot more if I didn't cook this way, wouldn't I?

Still, there's a lot to be said for a project like this. In doing this, I'm bound to learn so much about food -- especially seasoning and spicing -- that it's completely worth the effort.

I live in Japan, and while this is, in some respects, lucky, it's also unlucky. Japanese food is delicious, but it's EXTREMELY limited in scope. Foreign spices are often treated with deep suspicion. Italian restaurants serve pizza with hot dogs and penne with ketchup -- BY POPULAR DEMAND. It's a bit sad, because there's a lot more potential than is being realized.

At least one kitchen around here won't be serving hot dog pizza tonight. Let's start!