Madagascar What a fun way to eat a meal! In Madagascar, the family sits around a mat on the floor and serves themselves from bowls in the middle. So that's what we did! We had beautiful chicken cooked with garlic and ginger, it was super yum. We served it with rice, which is a staple food in Madagascar, and which they eat three times a day. We thought this was odd, but then realised it's not so different to us eating bread all the time. We finished up with a Madagascar fruit salad, which they would make with orange, strawberries, melon and pineapple, but we made ours with orange, kiwifruit and tinned pineapple. It came with a beautiful syrup, and was sprinkled with vanilla which they eat lots of. It was great. Niamh has posted the recipe because she knows all of you will love it. We will finish by saying "Veloma", Malagasy for goodbye. Madagascar Fruit Salad: 4 cups of chopped fruit, as described. Mix together in a bowl. In a saucepan, put 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tabs lemon juice. Bring to a fast boil then pour over fruit. Chill for an hour. When serving, sprinkle with vanilla extract (real vanilla essence) We served ours with yogurt.

Czech Republic Food from this region is typically rich, hearty comfort food, and the meal we had tonight certainly fit that bill! We had beef and bean goulash, with veges and bread to mop up the sauce. It was beautiful, and we all gobbled it up. In fact I am going to post the recipe because I know lots of people who would enjoy this. We followed it up with a baked apple pancake, served with icing sugar and jam which was also yum. We all have sore tummies now! Beef and bean goulash: Fry one chopped onion and some cubed stewing beef until brown. Season with salt and pepper. At this point I tipped it into a slow cooker, but you could cook it in the same pan. Pour over the bean juice from a tin of beans (we used cannelini) and some beef stock to cover. Simmer until tender. Add tin of beans, 1/2 tsp paprika and 2 tabs tomato puree. I thickened it with some flour. That's it!

Bangladesh We were pleasantly surprised by tonight's dinner, as we thought all food from Bangladesh would either be very boring or very spicy! But this was neither. It was called Reshmi Kabab, and was made from chicken mince, onion, garlic, coriander and lots of spices (but no chilli), and pushed onto a skewer. In Bangladesh, they would cook it over a charcoal fire, but we had to make do with an electric frying pan. They were still really nice, and we served them with rice and stir fry veges and some yogurt for dipping. Niamh says she enjoyed eating like a native of Bangladesh, using her fingers to scoop up the food. Carter liked the whole lot. This is definitely one to have again, especially since it took minimal preparation.

Afghanistan We had a really interesting meal from Afghanistan tonight. It was a chicken, chickpea and vege stew, which in itself was pretty plain, but we served it with this unusual rice which is part-boiled and then cooked with oil so it goes crispy on the bottom and fluffy on the top. Niamh and Dad loved the chicken, Mum liked the chickpeas. Apparently it is a common family meal in Afghanistan, which makes sense as it utilises cheap, obtainable ingredients and spices. We had a traditional Afghan/Middle East drink called Aryan. The kids loved this (the grown-ups stuck to a special Afghan beer...called Stella Artois) and asked for the recipe to be posted for all to enjoy: Ayran is very popular across the Middle East, especially in Turkey. It can be served with any meal, or just for a quick snack drink. I have heard Ayran does wonders for a hangover. INGREDIENTS: 1 pt. of plain yogurt, whole milk (no fat free or skim milk yogurt) 1 1/3 cups cold water salt to taste PREPARATION: Mix yogurt and water in blender, until well blended. Add salt if desired. Start off with an 1/8 teaspoon salt and work your way up. Serve in ice filled glasses. Yields: 4 servings We listened to some fantastic Afghan music, which Niamh described as being "very welcoming", and talked about the Tampa refugees and living conditions in Afghanistan. What a fascinating place.

Saudi Arabia We had lovely fresh falafel from the middle east tonight. It is made from ground-up chickpeas, bulghar wheat, and some other beans and is apparently very popular in Saudi Arabia. We had the falafel balls in pita bread with salad and sour cream dressing, and it was really yum, although the kids thought it was "a bit spicy". It's always good to have another vegetarian option in the repetoire, although Stew doesn't agree with me on that one! We listened to some funky arabic music too.

Egypt We found a recipe that had been posted on a website byDr Maged el-Bialy. He said that "Fattah is a traditional meal that is enjoyed by all Egyptians and is considered the most famous dish in Egypt. It is served in the Bairam feast (an Islamic holy feast after the month of Ramadan) but can also be served at any time of the year". So we thought it was a perfect meal for us to try! So what is it? Basically, it is a stew made from layers of crispy baked pita bread, Egyptian cooked rice, and stewed meat, all layered and covered with meat juice. Then it has a topping of tomato paste cooked with spices. It was really, really good! It took a while to make, but the flavours complimented each other so well and it was a great, filling, hearty meal. We all love it, and are all keen to have it again some time. "Bel hana wesh shefa" (eat and be happy with good health).

Tibet Well, I was a bit skeptical about tonight's dinner: Momos which are a typical Tibetan meal. They are basically dumplings, made with a chicken, meat or vege filling, wrapped in dough and steamed. Don't sound very inspiring do they? But they were delicious! We made 2 batches-one with a seasoned chicken mince, and one with vegetables. The vege one was a a bit plain, but the chicken was so yummy that um, sorry Dad...we ate yours. We served them with some dipping sauces including sweet chilli and soy sauce. Niamh says she loved the meat ones, and had 3! Carter loved both of the flavours. Here is a photo of the momos; if you'd like the recipe give us a comment. we will definitely have these again.

It's been a while since our last post sorry; Mum hurt her back on Saturday so not much cooking has happened! However, we hope to be back on track this week with meals from Afghanistan, Tibet, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Can you guess where we have a big uncoloured section on our map?

Austria We felt it is was time to return to Europe, and where better than Austria? We had schnitzel, traditional potato salad and fresh veges. The schnitzel was so good that Niamh and Carter ate an adult sized portion each! The recipe did say that the oil in the pan should be deep enough so that the meat doesn't touch the bottom! Like hell! Sorry Austria, but I just put a smear of oil on the pan and that was it, but it was still really good. The potato salad was served warm with a vinegar and stock dressing, and was nice but quite an adult flavour. We finished up with Vanillekipferl, which is a traditional Austrian sort of biscuit made with ground almonds and covered in icing sugar. We have included a photo of some of these, along with one of the meat and potato salad. Niamh says" I loved it, especially the pudding". Carter says "I loved it!". We listened to an Austrian radio station and even heard some yodelling!

Myannmar Used to be known as Burma, and the food is an interesting mix of curries (from one border) and stir-fries (from the other). We went for a simmered pork and vegetable dish, served with hokkien noodles. It was very good, and because the pork was marinaded then simmered for an hour it was so tender. We tried to find a nice Burmese dessert recipe, but didn't fancy seaweed jelly or semolina with coconut milk, so settled for some pears and apples instead...

Hey folks-just a quick note to let all you ardent readers of our blog know that we are off on holiday tomorrow morning, so won't be posting until Thursday. Unless we eat some exotic food in New Plymouth. Yeah Right.

Greenland Eating from Greenland is rather difficult as they tend to eat whale blubber, rotten shark, and fermented goodies, but they also eat reindeer (!) and we were lucky enough to be given a fillet of wild venison, which we figured was close enough. So we had roast venison with veges, gravy and cranberry jelly and it was great! Carter3 says "I loved the meat". Niamh says "I loved all of it". And we coloured in a huge hunk of land!

Caribbean I know that's cheating a bit-the Caribbean is made up of about 10 different countries, but they're all so little and close together, they must eat the same stuff right? We went for a generic Caribbean meal of battered shrimps with a potato salad recipe from Cuba. Yum! the shrimps were to die for; quite literally as they were deep fried and drenched in oil! Oh well, all for the cause eh? We loved this meal of course, and it only got better when we had caramalised fresh pineapple with ice-cream (kids) or yogurt (Mum-enough fat for one night!) We know we shouldn't dance at the table, but that funky Caribbean music leaves you with no choice! Tonight was one of our best nights!

U.S.A We were told by several American friends that Sloppy Joes are the quintessential American meal, so gave it a go today. Sloppy Joes appear(unless we missed something) to be flavoured, slow-cooked mince served over a hamburger bun. As soon as I dished it up, I thought of those American High School Cafeteria meals, because it really was just slop! We kept looking for the veges! I guess in The States they would serve this with fries, but we just found it really boring, both in flavour and texture. Maybe it grows on you... On the plus side, I didn't get around to making pumpkin pie, so we figured the next most American pudding is banana splits. Needless to say, they went down well. I have added photos to prove it! We loved listening to The Star Spangled Banner (very stirring), then some fantastic country music, including Devil Went Down to Georgia!!! Here is the link to the website with all the radio stations for those that are interested: www.surfmusic.de

Vietnam We sat around the table with an assortment of shredded veges, chicken, herbs and rice paper, then had a lot of fun trying to wrap rice paper rolls! By the end I think I was close to acheiveing the tight, rolled look that you get in the restaurants, but the first few were write-offs! I think we were too greedy and tried to stuff them too tight. These were beautiful, especially dipped in sauce. They are also a really interesting way to eat fresh veges for a change.

Libya Tonight we had Grandma for tea yum yum. But seriously folks we had Grandma to visit and she enjoyed Tabikha Bil Houmus from Libya with us. Carter would like to impart these words of wisdom. "I liked some of my dinner, potato, rice, chicken, but not those beans." Personally I thought this was an outstanding sucess and would recommend this to any one. Once again we forgot take a photo, proabaly not a bad thing as it would not do it justice. Grandma has asked us to post the recipe as she enjoyed it so much. Hey everyone if you try one of the recipes please let us know. Ingredients. This served 5 of us with a take away dinner for Grandma. 1 Tin chick peas tabs Oil 3 Potatoes 1 Onion Parsley Chicken 750 gram 2 Cinnamon sticks Salt and Pepper to taste 2 cups of Water Put everything in frying pan, bring to boil. Return to simmer for 1 hr we returned 13/4 hours later. Serve with rice. Something we did that is not totally authentic but added flavour was 1 tsp of crushed coriander seeds and 1 tsp cumin added. I also added 1 tabs of cornflour to thicken sauce.

Cameroon Sorry folks, Mum's been sick this week so not much global adventuring has been done! We were back on track tonight when Dad cooked Curry of Beef Cameroon. This recipe was so damn good we have decided to just post the recipe so you can try it for yourselves. It is well worth it-trust us! The recipe calls for fresh coconut, pineapple and mango, but we substituted tinned and it was fine. 1 small onion, chopped 1 tab curry powder (to your taste) 1 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper Oil 500 grams chuck steak, cubed 1/2 tin pinapple pieces 1/4 cup raisins 1 tin coconut milk 1/2 tin mango pieces Cook the onions and spices in oil. Add meat and cover, simmer for 1 hour. Alternatively, we used sliced beef schnitzel and simmered for 20 minutes only. Add pinapple, raisins and coconut and simmer for another hour. Add the mango strips a few minutes before serving. Correct seasoning if needed. Serve with rice. Serves 4. We'd love to hear from anyone who has tried any of our recipes so far!

Canada We all know that they eat lots of salmon and maple syrup in Canada. So we found a recipe that combines them both! Salmon fillets glazed with real maple syrup. This was as yummy as it sounds and we all just about licked our plates clean! Philippines Feeling sick. Cooked noodles, veges and a little bit of steak with a garlic, oil, lime, chilli, soy sauce and ginger sauce. Nice. Went down well.