The Sea

This is it!!!!The ultimate meal from around the world, that we have been planning for months! Yes, now that all the countires are coloured in, we have eaten from the sea. And what a magnificent meal it was! We covered most bases: fish bites, calamari, prawns, smoked salmon, kippered hoki, mussels, crabsticks, sushi (made from seaweed) and a couple of salads thrown in there for good measure. It was an amazing feast, made even more special by having all the family around to share it with us (and a couple of nice bottles in wine didn't hurt either!).

We really want to thank everyone who supported us on our quest; we loved getting comments on our blog and encouraging emails from friends and family. We loved being able to share some interesting meals with friends and family, and appreciated people's ongoing interest. Thanks to those who supplied recipes for us, and the Neals for providing the chocolate fish for the Around the World Seafood Dessert!

This journey has been far bigger than we ever planned! We were going to just try some new recipes and have some fun, but ended up eating some pretty bizarre and exotic meals, and really stepping out of our comfort zone. We have learnt so much more from this we thought we would.

Jo's geography has improved no end, and her cooking skills have expanded to include making dumplings, hand-rolling pastry, and generally not being afraid to try combinations that just shouldn't work!

Grant reckons the message that one should not make any assumptions about any food without trying it have been reinforced by this trip, and he has discovered a new love for beef stews!

Niamh has learnt that countries close to each other tend to eat quite similar meals (eg Asia, Northern Africa, Meditterrean etc) while those from different regions are really different! She has also been interested in learning why people eat certain foods, for example eating a lot of seafood while being a coastal country, or eating cheap cuts of meat and lots of potato in poorer areas.

Carter has been adventurous throughout, and tried things that not many 3 year old would have. He reckons he's loved it all.

We have learnt that while ingredients and spices vary hugely across the world, the vast majority of cuisines are based on rice, potatoes or bread. Most countries have a national dish which involves wrapping or accompanying meat or vegetables in some sort of bread; be it crepes, roti, naan, tortilla, foccacia of African maize bread.

I think we have also learnt to appreciate a meal as an occasion, a celebration, and a time to enjoy being with family, something we sometimes forget in our busy lives.

Memorable moments include the Mongolian hotpot, eating with our hands from Oman, stinky fermented cabbage from Korea, and the Swiss fondue. Some of the desserts have been amazing, in particular the layered cake from Russia. The music has been a really neat aspect of the experience. It just seems right to be eating curry while listening to Indian screamy kind of music; spinach pie and folky peasant tunes; Asian curries and stirfries with twangy mandolins. We got up and danced to the Greek music and tried our cossack dancing skills to Russian folk tunes.

It's been a blast, and we are all the richer (and fatter!) for this experience. Watch this space as we decide what our next culinary adventure will be....

Antarctica

We decided before the finale that we should eat from Antarctica as we had a big, white space left on our map. So we emailed the chief at Scott base, and asked if there was anything that was queintessential fodder for the Antarcticans. The reponse was anything that is Kiwi in origin, as they are all New Zealanders working down there. We had slow cooked lamb shanks with mashed potatoes, which were very nice...but when we told her this she said that they would never eat that down there! This is because they have to pay by weight to fly all their food in, and the bones are just wasted weight. Also, they have to fly all their rubblish out, so a whole lot of lamb shank bones would be very expensive! They would be more likely to eat lamb rumps or stir-fried meat. Isn't that interesting?