Hungary

Post 99! Wow! Tonight we ate a pork and paprika dish from Hungary, simply spiced and simmered all day. We served it with rice and vegetables and it was really nice, although quite plain. Mum and Dad had tomaotoes stuffed with courgettes and breadcrumbs; not something the kids would be into (ew tomatoes) but nice for grown-ups. Watch out for post 100 coming soon!

Honduras

Baleadas are the Honduran equivalent of Mexican burritos. They are tortillas, rolled or folded with beans, cheese and sour cream, and optional mince. We all enjoyed this light but satisfying meal tonight, and especially liked listening to the funky Latin-American music.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is famous for its firey curries, so it's a surprise that Grant waited this long to cook from there! He made a delicious chicken and potato curry, cooked in coconut milk (light) and spices. It was very nice, especially paired with pappadums and rice. It was quite spicy, but the kids actually managed to eat a fair amount- they are finally toughening up a bit!

Romania

It was lovely to have the Hosegood family over for dinner last night, especially as it gave us a good excuse to cook a big roast pork. We found a recipe called Pulpa de porc la tava from Romain, which is simply salted roast pork. We accompanied it with Salata de fasole verde (green bean salad) and Cartofi prajiiti pai (roasted chip potatoes). It was a great meal, and went deliciously with a nice Montana Chardonnay (thanks Vicki!) We followed it up with an type of bread pudding, layered with apple slices and sultanas called Budinca de mere. Not from Romania, but a very nice accompaniment, were strawberries and chocolate sauce. All in all a very good meal.

Mauritius

Finally an African country that doesn't exist on beef stew! Although it does help to be settled by the Dutch, Portugese and French if you want an interesting cuisine. We had Daube du Poulet, which was lovely chicken pieces simmered in a rich tomato sauce with lots of spices. We had it with coucous, and agreed that it was very nice. We were lucky enough to have Ella, our friend and neighbour joining us tonight, and she really enjoyed the dinner too. We had strawberries for pudding, just because they were there.

Niger

Grant cooked another delicious African stew tonight, this time from Niger. Slow-cooked beef stew seems to be a staple of most Northern and Central African countries, but each one is slightly different. This one was based in a rich, spicy tomato sauce, with spinach and onions, and was called Shoko. It was very nice, although it got "a bit spicy" for the kids...

Belarus

Most of the meals from this part of the world are gutsy, hearty peasant food. They mostly involve potatoes and all sorts of meat, especially offal. Thick potato pancakes are especially popular, and come in many guises; such as served with sour cream, or layered with meat or vegetables. We chose Potato Aladdzi a la Miensk. This was made with grated potatoes, formed into pancakes and fried, then layered with lightly seasoned pork mince and baked. It was filling, hearty and delicious! We all absoultely loved it and cleared the bowl. We served it with green veges and it was just great. We agreed that it would be perfect for a midwinter meal (although it feels like midwinter today!!!), and would made a great lunch. To finish, we had baked apples called Bierascie Manner. These were cored, then filled with an egg custard containing some sultanas and cinnamon, and baked. Again, they were beautiful; lighter than the English baked apples served with lots of sultanas and brown sugar etc, and quite a delicate flavour. These too got the big thumbs up, so we will be returning to Belarus soon!

Japan

It was really hard to choose one ubiquitous meal from Japan: sushi, tepanyaki, miso... we decided to go for tempura as it is different to anything else we've eaten and is something we would not usually try (all that oil!) So we mixed up some tempura batter (flour, egg, ice water) and dipped carrots, broccoli, beans, chicken and shrimps in it. We deep-fried them in batches, then served them with rice and a beautiful dipping sauce made from soy sauce, ginger, garlic and brown sugar. The flavours went together very well, and we all enjoyed it. It was interesting that we all had different favourites: Mum liked the beans and broccoli, Niamh loved the shrimps (of course) and Carter liked the rice and chicken together. Dad missed out because he was at work.

Yemen

Last night we were planning to eat from Yemen and had already half cooked our Yemenite dinner when we got invited out for a bbq. So we took our Halabi Kebab (Yemenite Meatloaf) and put it on the barbie and ate it with sausages and Watties tomato sauce! Talk about an inter-racial marriage! We also took our Bint al Sahn, which is called a honey cake but is actually unsweeted bread dough, rolled into flat discs, brushed with butter and stacked then baked. The idea is to drench it with melted butter and honey then rip pieces off and dunk them in the sauce. It sounded lovely, and indeed would have been if I had only been able to bring myself to use that much butter and honey! Sadly, I could not do it so it was a dry hunk of bread with a lovely top layer! To be fair, it went very nicely with fresh strawberries and butterscotch schnapps sauce, and wasn't too rich, but boy I'd love to try it the way it's meant to be....

Bulgaria

Being just above Greece, Bulgarian food was always going to be great! (Greek being my favourite cuisine). But we decided not to go the usual meat/chicken way, and ate potato and vegetable omlette. In other words, a frittata, made with cubed potato, lots of veg, herbs, eggs and a bit of cheese. Drizzled with a little olive oil, it was divine! We all loved it, and Niamh has elevated it to her new favourite meal! She chopped all the potatoes, mixed the egg mixture and cooked all the veges. I think we have another foodie in the making...

Guatemala

Tonight we ate Polo en Pina, which translates as Chicken with Pineapple. It was chicken pieces, slow cooked with wine, vinegar, onions, tomatoes, fresh pineapple and spices. We served it with rice, and it was really tasty, although the kids struggled with the concept of mixing fruit and meat. And now, we get to say..."you're not in Guatemala now Dr Ropata". Yes!!!!! We are thinking of eating from Japan tomorrow, in honour of the Melbourne Cup winner; the link is tenuous, but we are scraping the barrel now...

Uzbekistan

Again, going from memory here, as we ate this last Thursday....Plov, the national dish of Uzbekistan is similar to pilaff from Europe or biriyani from India. It is rice, lightly spiced with cinnamon, cumin, salt, chilli etc, and slow cooked with diced lamb and carrots. This was lovely, thank goodness, and we all enjoyed it alot. We did drizzle it with olive oil, which may not be very Uzbeki but really lifted the meal. Will be making this again.

Denmark

Sorry, I didn't write this straight away, so am going from memory! Last Tuesday we ate fish baked with beer from Finland. It sounded good- fish (cod), covered with onion, carrot, lemon rind, vinegar, a few spices, then sprinkled with breadcrumbs and covered with beer, then baked. Well, it was disgusting! It might be because we didn't have molasses so I used golden syrup instead... Needless to say, no-one ate their fish. Thank goodness for potatoes!