Meal 45: Czech Republic

For our second nosh in the Catskills, it was also a culinary journey to the heart of Europe with a Czech meal. Between the roasting goose and the yeasted dumplings and pastries, there was a lot of on-again, off-again kitchen prep work, all the better to enjoy the spectacular weather and fresh mountain air in the very relaxing lawn out back:

It's so special cooking in the old mill in Bovina. First of all, the kitchen is completely open, with plenty of space for collaborative cooking. And check out that stove, with two ovens and so many burners that four of them remain covered to create more counter space. This was an excellent meal for this kitchen, because I needed a lot of help in the end, and there was ample space for multiple concurrent projects. Here's Lucy helping make the kolace for dessert, and thanks also to Kirsty, Mills, and everyone else who pitched in!

Even the little things, like different dishes, help shake it up. What fun to serve this hearty, rustic meal on metal plates!

The whole idea of food production comes full circle here, on Creamery Road. The dining table is placed under a hopper that used to dispense grain, and that now houses a light that highlights the serving dishes. Seated around the table, in chairs hand-built by Sarah-Doe's parents, are Lucy, Paul, Angus, Mills, Lisa, Kirsty, and Sarah-Doe herself. Note the copious wine and beer!

Okurkový salát se smetanou | Cucumber and sour cream salad | Recipe

A quick little salad to liven the appetite and get us in the mood. It was nice, but I think it would have been better with a bit of garlic and maybe some pepper. Also, unexpectedly, it made for a nice garnish and enhancer for the soup.

Bramboracka | Potato soup | Recipe

I don't know why, but it always surprises me how simple it is to make soup. At it's most basic, all you gotta do is combine water with a few ingredients, let it cook for a bit, and voilà! This one is only a bit more complicated, with a bit of sautéing at the beginning and some thickening with flour at the end, but all in all it's no big deal to throw together onions, mushrooms, and potatoes and make a hearty and rich soup.

Pečená husa | Roast goose

The true national dish of the Czech Republic is pečené vepřové s knedlíky se zelím, shortened to Vepřo-knedlo-zelo, meaning roast pork with dumplings and cabbage. But since we had pork for the previous meal, and a large crowd worthy of a bit of experimentation, I decided to swap for a goose instead. I couldn't find a fresh one, but no worries, since having such a hunk of frozen and slowly defrosting mass in the cooler helped keep all our perishables cold on the drive up.

If duck is the fattier, richer version of chicken, then goose definitely holds the same relationship to turkey. From this thirteen-pound bird, I rendered two cups of schmaltz just from the excess hunks of fat, and then the roasting released about another quart. All that fat actually makes it a really forgiving animal to cook. The only preparation, other than ensuring full defrosting, was rubbing with salt and caraway seed, and placing in a pan with a cup of water. About five hours of slow roasting at 325°, with a few flips, and the skin was so crispy and the leg just pulled apart.

I just had to make a gravy with this all. I poured out about three cups' worth of fat, added in chopped gizzards and neck, and after a bit of frying, deglazed it with some boxed wine leftover from the previous trip.

All in all, so tasty! As a dark-meat fan I was in heaven because every bite of meat was rich and flavorful. Those who like crispy skin were in luck: a goose has more surface area relative to meat than a turkey, and it crisped up so nicely.

Knedliky | Dumplings | Recipe

Czech dumplings are essentially dense boiled bread dough. However, these were really dense. This probably came from having used old yeast that was in the fridge for probably a year or two too long, so it never really rose properly. Oh well, it still was a good medium for conveying gravy to the mouth!

Dusene zeli | Braised green cabbage | Recipe

The classic Czech ensemble is best known for being accompanied by sauerkraut, but in the late summer when fresh green cabbage is abundant, this braised version just makes more sense. While I would have used the Cuisinart at home to shred three pounds, in the country we only had a decades-old box grater on hand. The abundant caraway seeds don't just provide a bit of flavor and crunch; it turns out they are a time-tested folk remedy for the gas and bloating that starchy vegetables like cabbage produce.

Kolace | Pastries | Recipe

The kolace (and its many different spellings) is the strongest culinary symbol of Czech-American identity, and is probably the Czech Republic's best-known dessert. It's a yeasted dough with a fruited filling; in this case we went with raisins and cottage cheese. It's almost like a scone in not being too sweet, and would make for a lovely breakfast pastry too.

The moon was full that night, just like our bellies.

We're off for a few weeks, due to a trip to Alaska, and we'll resume toward the end of the month with our very final C meal, from Cyprus!

Photos by Laura Hadden, who loved eating goose, hanging out with her friends, and trying to teach Emmylou dog skills in the Catskills. 

Meal 44: Cuba

A friend who's been to Cuba suggested that "for many Cubans, food at the moment is state-issued ham sandwiches, which you could approximate with some layers of wet cardboard standing in for bread, and finely shaved erasers for the ham, all encased in a blister pack of clear cellophane." Our guest Tennessee reported that by far the most disgusting food she's had in her life was "street pizza" in Havana, during her time as a student there.

Fortunately, we were able to lean instead on the culinary traditions of families who've left Cuba. In fact, the structure of the meal was suggested by my colleague Wendy, who's from a Cuban family in South Florida. (Note the distinct lack of vegetables. Apparently this is very authentic.) Our guest Alex agreed that this food reminded him of what his Cuban mom makes.

Fortunately, we didn't have to contend with rationing, so this turned into quite the feast. The five mile bike ride back from the Food Bazaar supermarket was quite the haul, with a nine-pound pork shoulder and a three-liter jug of olive oil anchoring my saddlebags. Like I imagine many things in Cuba to be, the preparation was long and slow, folks trickled in as the smell of slowly barbecuing pork roasted through the house, and the payoff was lovely. Our guests were Sam, Beni, Nathalia, Ian, Alex, Tennessee, Kirsten, and Demián.

Cocteles | Cocktails | Recipes at bottom

Sam was eager to mix some cocktails, and Laura and I were fully in support. As a major sugar producer for centuries, Cuba also developed a substantial rum industry. Pretty much everywhere besides the US they enjoy Havana Club and other Cuban rums; even Bacardi was based in Havana before they absconded with their yeast to escape nationalization and set up shop in Puerto Rico.

We started out with mojitos, of course, with fresh mint from the patio and a simple syrup made of demerara sugar. Now, I order mojitos frequently at bars, and it's fair to say I've had dozens if not hundreds in my life. This was one of the best. Not too minty, not too limey, and rather than being pure sweet, the richness of the demerara really held it together. Check out the recipe at the end.

The other drink Sam made was also rum-based, but in a very different direction. Made with orange liqueur, (homemade) grenadine, vermouth, and aged rum, it's called El Presidente, but I think of it as a Rumhattan. The vermouth balances the sweetness, and provided it's made from quality ingredients, which this sure was, it's a really complex drink worth lingering on.

Plátanos maduros | Fried sweet plantains | Recipe

Baked plantains are definitely easier, faster for such a big crowd, healthier, and less labor intensive. But there's nothing like coins of super-ripe plantains shed of their nearly-black skin, cut on the bias, fried to within a minute of burning, and touched with a hint of salt. No matter how many of these I make, they always disappear.

Lechón asado | Roasted pork shoulder | Recipe

 

The planning for this dish started many months ago, when I wantonly suggested to a friend that I could build a pit in her backyard and roast a whole 80-pound pig in it. Among the many reasons this was a poor idea is that she's vegetarian! Anyway, I was happy to learn that you can do something similar with just part of a pig, hence the nine-pound shoulder. I hadn't once done a true charcoal this summer, and I'd be chagrined to miss this opportunity.

It started the night before with a mojo — not to be confused with mojito! — of sour orange juice, lots of olive oil, a smattering of onion, and 30(!) cloves of garlic. (Note that if you use fresh sour oranges for this recipe, it takes a lot of them! I got barely a cup from nine whole fruits, and filled the rest with lemon and lime juice.) I stabbed the shoulder with a knife a few hundred times, especially in the skin, to let the marinade in.

The next day, I built the coals, pushed them to the side, and let this beauty roast indirectly for six hours on low, slow heat. Interestingly it only took a few hours to reach safe-to-eat temperature, but two or three hours of extra cooking makes it so tender you can pull it with a fork. (One thing I'd do differently next time is to let the coals simmer down even more before putting the pork on. I think the outside seared too quickly and ended up closer to burnt than roasted.)

The pork turned out simply delicious; two days later we're still eating it for every meal, like a Thanksgiving turkey. It's a really cheap cut of meat (usually under $2/pound), and you can make it easily in the oven and not be fussy on the grill, so if you've got time and a crowd to feed, consider it!

Pan cubano | Cuban lard bread | Recipe

Would you guess that this bread is non-vegetarian? Well, the secret to its golden-brown hue and delightfully springy texture is none other than lard. What can I say, it's a really, really tasty loaf. The recipe is a little over the top in complaining about how long it takes; if you already make bread you'll know that two one-hour rises is pretty speedy actually. (I also have begun using diastatic malt powder in place of some of the sugar while proofing the yeast, and that speeds up the rise, improves the texture, and makes it last longer.)

I actually made two loaves; we used the second today to make a sandwich with some leftover pork. (And yes, we put pickles and other Cuban sandwich accoutrements on it.) Yum.

Moros y cristianos | Rice and beans | Recipe

Cubans prepare rice and beans several different ways. Given my fondness for interesting food names, the choice was clear. Moros y cristianos means "Moors and Christians," a reference to the pairing of two different items on the same plate, just as two peoples shared the Iberian peninsula for centuries. Beyond the fun name, it's a super-tasty dish, with a onion-bell-pepper sofrito plus cumin providing that classic Latin rice smell and flavor. (Sometimes the dish is black, I think that's from saving the bean-cooking water for cooking the rice too.)

Yuca con ajo | Manioc with garlic sauce | Recipe

The same thing as manioc and cassava, which we've encountered many times. I think this is my favorite preparation of this starchy, bland root: covered in a sauce of olive oil, citrus and garlic!

Flan | Recipe

Tres leches refers to a dessert that has evaporated, condensed, and fresh milk. We made a tres leches rice pudding for Costa Rica, and a tres leches cake is to Latin America what tiramisú is to Italy: a baked good drenched in sweet liquid. Anyway, hold onto your arteries, because this flan is cuatro leches, courtesy of cream cheese! Probably non-traditional, but really, really tasty. As with the mojitos, the sugar in the caramel is demerara, which further enhances the rich, nutty flavor. And the flan itself was just great, perfectly set, not too sweet, just darn tasty.

It shouldn't surprise you that the Cuban music was top-notch, and thanks to our guests who'd been to Havana and beyond, we heard several stories of life in a country so close yet so far, such as the tradition of pouring a little splash on the ground from a newly-opened bottle for los santos.

Next, we're heading to the hills for the Labor Day weekend, where we'll do our Czech Republic meal!

Photos by Laura Hadden, whose love for Sam's mojitos knows no bounds. 

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Drinks (notes by Sam)
El Presidente:
1.5 oz. aged rum (I was using Bacardi 8)
3/4 oz. dry vermouth (I used Foro, which is Italian-produced and I don't think it's on the US market yet. Any French/dry vermouth would be good, and any blanc vermouth might be even better -- I hear Dolin blanc vermouth is fantastic in this drink)
1/4 oz. curacao (I used Clement Creole Shrubb, which is based on rhum agricole from Martinique, and has lots of vanilla and spicy notes to it. I bet the new Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao would really work well here too.)
1/2 tsp. or dash grenadine (I used homemade grenadine, made of equal parts Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice and superfine sugar, shaken like hell till they combined.)
Stir with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.
Mojito:
2 oz. silver rum (we used Don Q)
1 oz. lime juice (I actually just did the juice of half a lime for each drink, and was making two drinks at a time.)
3/4 oz. simple syrup (we used demerara sugar, of course, and I think that really made the difference. I also made it "rich simple syrup", with a 2:1 sugar:water ratio.
10 or so mint leaves
Seltzer water
RumDood has an extensive discussion of technique at the above link. I tend to depart a little bit from that, and I very gently muddled the mint in the bottom of each serving glass. (Too much, and it gets chalky or bitter.) I juiced half a lime into the shaker for each serving, added the rum and simple syrup, filled with ice, and shook like hell. Then strained that into the serving glasses, topped with soda (maybe two ounces, though it was inexact), and gave it a quick stir. (His dry-shake technique looks like one I'll have to try, though.)

World Food Day + United Noshes: DR Congo

You're invited to our biggest Nosh yet! In celebration of World Food Day, and in partnership with Hostelling International New York and World Food Program USA, we're hosting a big feast on Sunday, October 14, featuring the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's at 104th and Amsterdam in HI's historic building, and if the weather's good we'll be dining outside.

Whether you've noshed with us before, or are still waiting to give it a shot, we'd love to share chicken in palmnut sauce, peanut stew, and fufu with you! The meal will be suitable for vegetarians and omnivores alike, and it's BYOB.

We're selling tickets in advance so we know how much food to make. We very well might fill up, so buy your spot today! Tickets start at $15, and all proceeds beyond the cost of food go directly to World Food Program USA and will be doubled by Google. (If you're interested to volunteer with cooking, setup, and other tasks, please reply!)

Feel free to forward to friends, and we're looking forward to seeing many of you there.

Meal 43: DPR Korea

Nothing about making a North Korean meal is easy. First of all, it's even hard to find someone from North Korea to talk to: estimates say that only 14,000 people have managed to escape the totalitarian state in the 59 years since the end of the Korean War, and there's virtually zero Internet access within the country. Secondly, except for a particular noodle dish, most (South) Koreans aren't really aware of which of the foods they eat originated across the DMZ. And thirdly, when you search for "North Korean food," you tend to find information about famine and international relations, not recipes. Needless to say, this meal is a feast of an abundance that probably only a privileged few would ever enjoy in North Korea.

With help and research from my officemate Soo Young, whose grandfather hailed from the north of Korea, and some clutch advice from my Korean foodie friend Monica, I managed to cobble together a menu. But that's not all...now to make the darn meal! I made the kim chi the week before, and the beef broth a few days before. We took a trip all the way to the H-Mart in Flushing, Queens on Saturday for ingredients, I spent most of Sunday afternoon prepping, and then Soo Young and I spent the evening frying, folding, steaming, and cooling. I've never seen so many prep bowls used in one meal!

Before we continue, a note on the meal order. You may be wondering, "North Korea? But you just cooked Croatia, how's that alphabetical?" Well, we go by the strict alphabetical order of this UN member list, and the official name is Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Yes, we have three more C's to go, but for a variety of reasons we have to do those later.

Along with Soo Young, we had Lauren, Padraig, Jens, Melanie, Angad, Michele, and Rachel — she's the one with the headphones and microphone, recording for an upcoming radio segment!

Bindaetteok | Mung bean pancakes | Recipe

If you'd handed me a bunch of yellow split mung beans, I'd never have thought to soak them in cold water with a bit of rice for a few hours, then puree it, add some preserved fiddlehead ferns, onions, pork, and seasoning, and then fry it like pancakes. But Koreans have been doing exactly that for at least three hundred and fifty years. And I can see why! (And not just because it's fun to mix.) From these basic ingredients a wonderful richness emerges. The crisp outside contrasts with the soft inside, too, which makes it all the more fun to eat.

Mandu | Dumplings | Recipe

So many cultures wrap things in dough that you'd think everyone figured it out on their own. But apparently everyone from the Turks to the Koreans learned to make them from the Mongols many centuries ago — and they have virtually the same name in Turkish and Korean! These ones are made primarily of ground meat and chives, kept separate in the bowl to preserve texture and flavor until being stuffed, which Soo Young did so beautifully. You can pan-fry them, make them into a soup, or steam them as we did.

Pyongyang naengmyeon | Noodles in cold broth | Recipes: Kim chi, beef broth, noodle dish

Apparently, if you ask a South Korean to name the most distinctive dish from across the DMZ, most will mention these chewy noodles in a cold broth. From their unassuming appearance, would you have guessed that this probably took more prep work than any other single United Noshes dish? I mean, I could have used the broth packet included in the package, but that's just cheating.

A week ago I made the mul kim chi, which unlike the red-slathered stuff you're probably more familiar with, is only moderately spiced and is fermented gently in a brine. (Mul means "water.") It was actually not as hard as I'd expected, you pretty much chop up a bunch of stuff, throw it in the brine, let it sit for two days, and it magically ferments on its own. Perhaps the hardest part was clearing out enough space in the fridge for the big pot.

Then a few days ago I made the beef broth. Unlike in the Western tradition, where the bones are first roasted and thus the broth has a rich color, the Korean way is to do an initial boil to get off the gunk, dump that water and scrub the pot, and then do a second boil for several hours. The broth ended up almost clear, and Emmylou has been very happy to have some bones to chew on.

Finally to make the noodles, made of a combination of buckwheat, sweet potato and wheat. After just a few minutes they get chewy, and you immediately strain them and run cold water through them to prevent overcooking. Cop them with Asian pear and marinated cucumber, gently place half a hard-boiled egg, pour in a mix of beef broth and kim chi water, and serve this labor-intensive bowl of pure cold refreshment.

Oh, and I made a hot sauce to put on top of it too! Red pepper paste, Asian pear, and lots of other yummy stuff.

Bulgogi | Marinated grilled beef | Recipe below

According to Soo Young, a survey or study showed that this is the dish North Koreans most wish they could eat. Thinly sliced beef is marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, etc., and then grilled, or in this case quickly pan-fried. We enjoyed it ssam style, wrapped in a lettuce leaf and spread with a particular sauce. Really tasty.

Sujeonggwa | Cinnamon-ginger drink | Recipe

If most of the rest of this stuff was really complicated, this was shockingly and deliciously simple. Just simmer cinnamon and ginger (separately), add sugar, chill together, sprinkle with pine nuts and dried persimmon if you can find it, and you've got summertime refreshment that tastes like Christmas. Just for fun I turned half of it into sorbet, which was really refreshing too. What a pleasure to have a light dessert after four different tasty and filling dishes.

It will likely not surprise you that it's extremely difficult to find North Korean music online, so alas our soundtrack was lacking — but given that we were recording for radio that's probably for the better. Next week we turn to the only other country in the world where you can't buy a Coke: Cuba.

Photos by Laura Hadden, who regrettably forgot to sip Hennessy in honor of the late Dear Leader. 

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Soo Young's guide to Korean beef

meat:
- For Bulgogi, get bulgogi sliced meat at the Korean grocer, or thinly sliced tenderloin or sirloin works best
- For Kalbi, use sliced short ribs (with or without the bone), typically double the thickness of bulgogi
- For LA Kalbi - LA stands for "lateral axis" cut, bone-in cut, which you can find at the Korean grocer
- Other - you can use this marinade for chicken (but I'd probably include some ginger and pepper for the chicken marinade). i do not recommend this marinade for pork. there is a spicy pork recipe that is better for pork.
marinade essentials:
There is nothing EXACT in Korean food, so approximate and adjust to taste;
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar/brown sugar, or substitute some of the sugar with natural sugars like a fuji apple pureed. I'd choose a fuji apple or asian pear.
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh ground pepper
4 minced garlic cloves
optional, but in order of recommendation:
2 chopped scallions - personally, I like to chop them longways at an angle (optional)
1 tablespoon ground roasted sesame seeds (optional)
1/2 onion chopped - personally, I like to cut the onion in half from top to bottom, and then chop longways, but you often see restaurants also slice the onions down the middle - good for grilling
king oyster mushrooms, sliced - especially great when you're grilling
Make the marinade in one bowl. Dip each slice into the marinade and then put into a container for storage. That way, no matter how much meat you have, you get an even distribution of marinade. Let the marinade do its magic for at least 1-2 hours for bulgogi, and longer for kalbi since it's a thicker cut of meat. I like to often put my marinaded meat in a large ziploc bag, marinade overnight (and even freeze it if I'm headed to a barbecue the next day).

how to cook your bulgogi:
- stovetop on a pan (gets you a juicy version)
- charcoal grill
- gas grill
the meat is served well done.
how to serve:
- Bulgogi dup bap - You can serve it over rice (bulgogi dup bap). Typically you serve the stovetop version, so you've got some juice for the rice.
- Ssam - Serve with red leaf lettuce and red bean paste, soy bean paste, or my favorite: ssam jang, which is a combination of the two. Sometimes restaurants serve other types of lettuce/leaves and vegetables and a scallion salad to go with the ssam.
- Main Dish with ban chan - Korean food is typically served family style, so this could be your main protein dish, and you'd serve it with other banchan (side dishes) including kimchi
- Other: I've seen people get really creative and use bulgogi in fusion food, including bulgogi burritos, bulgogi hamburgers, bulgogi topping on pizza. The bulgogi burritos were my favorite of the three

Detour: Olympic-but-not-UN Potluck!

What do Hong Kong, Guam, Bermuda and Aruba all have in common? Well, aside from being islands in warmer climes, they are all a part of the special group of places that compete independently in the Olympics but aren't UN member states.

Since we had a spare week due to some schedule shakeups, we thought we'd take a brief pause from our march through the alphabet and also acknowledge the great international spectacle that is the Summer Games. What's more, we did this one as a potluck, and it turned out super successfully! As we drank and ate our ways through the foods of some of the smallest teams, we gathered on the porch to watch the rather bizarre closing ceremonies on a TV perched on top of the barbecue.

Piña coladas (Cayman Islands), painkillers (US Virgin Islands) and rum punch (British Virgin Islands)

If you like piña coladas...well, you'll probably also like the other two drinks featuring rum and pineapple juice. Thanks to Elly, John, and Katie for the concoctions! These sweet, cold drinks definitely got us into the mood. (See the little bit of red in the middle? That's from a macerated cherry left over from the Croatia meal!)

Papaya with coconut (Cook Islands)

The Cook Islands make for a small dot in the South Pacific, roughly between Tonga and Tahiti. Their cuisine places an emphasis on simple preparations of fresh foods, and so to balance out the heaviness of the rest of the meal I decided to make a simple dish of papaya with a squeeze of lime juice topped with fresh scraped coconut. To be really accurate I should have used the smaller "solo" or Hawaiian papaya, but on the East Coast those are really hard to find so I went with a big, and unfortunately less sweet, Mexican papaya. (Fun fact: my grandfather was the first person to grow Hawaiian papayas in Mexico!)

Pernil (Puerto Rico) | Roast pork shoulder | Recipe

Congratulations to Puerto Rico for their silver in 84 kg mens wrestling and bronze in mens 400 m hurdles! In celebration, Elly and Jeff whipped up a mean pernil. Simply encrusted with a few spices and slowly roasted, it was a meaty and tasty treat, best enjoyed with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkling of cilantro.

Keshi yena (Curaçao)

The Netherlands Antilles was dissolved as a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and since then the new smaller countries haven't set up Olympic Committees. So its athletes (along with a South Sudanese marathoner who, understandably, refused to run under the Sudanese flag) participated as Independent Olympic Athletes under the Olympic flag. Anyway, all those former Dutch Antilleans were from Curaçao, so that's what I went for.

This dish, which means "stuffed cheese" in the local Papiamento creole, has a telling history. Apparently the Dutch landholders would get wheels of cheese shipped from the Old World, and scoop out the insides. When only the rind remained, they'd give it to their slaves, who then filled it with whatever they could find and bake it. Today's recipes includes all sorts of ingredients that reflect the very diverse trading influences on the island, from Indian-inspired English piccalilli to Portuguese olives — and I found the recipe on a local Jewish community's website!

Chicken kelaguen (Guam) | Chicken-citrus salad | Recipe

Marinating meat in a citrus sauce is popular the world over. Kelaguen is the version they enjoy on Guam. With most meats it's made from raw and the acid does the cooking, but with chicken you have to use heat to cook it first. So that's what Chrys did. Chilies gave it some kick, and the tender meat of a young coconut added a nice bit of crisp to balance out the soft meat.

Baked pork chop and rice (Hong Kong) | Recipe

As a "special administrative region" within China, Hong Kong does a lot of things separately from the mainland, including its government system, its currency, and yes, its Olympics team — which won a bronze in women's keirin cycling. Amy, who hails from Hong Kong, made us a dish that she calls her comfort food: a casserole with layers of rice, pieces of fried pork chops, a sauce with big chunks of tomatoes, finished with a layer of melty mozzarella cheese. With a vaguely Asian basis but also some Western ingredients (tomatoes) and techniques (baking cooked rice just isn't something normal Chinese cuisine does), Amy gave us an appropriate taste of her home.

Braised pork belly with preserved greens (Chinese Taipei, aka Taiwan)

Taiwan is not a part of the UN. The Republic of China, as Taiwan's government is formally known, was in fact the representative for China's seat until 1971, until the People's Republic of China took it over. Taiwan has tried many times to gain readmission to the UN, but many factors, not least of which is the PRC's permanent seat on the Security Council, keep this de facto country of 23 million people out. Not wanting to upset the PRC, the US does not officially recognize Taiwan or the ROC as a de jure country, but in de facto terms we're great buds, with embassy-like non-profits in each other's capitals and lots of trade. It's this weird state of affairs that leads to the nonsensical name of Chinese Taipei for much of their representation in international affairs such as the Olympics — and congrats for the silver in women's weightlifting and the bronze in women's taekwondo.

Anyway, when I met Katie, she was sad to hear that we weren't planning to do a Taiwanese nosh, because her partner Phil's family is Taiwanese and a great cook. So when we whipped up this idea, she was the first person I invited. And wow! This was just spectacular: richly spiced and falling-apart pork belly, braised with some sort of preserved green his mother brought back from Taiwan, scooped into a small, fluffy taco-like pancake and topped with pickled mustard greens, cilantro, and chopped peanuts. So much yum.

Fungi (Aruba) | Cornmeal | Recipe

We've experienced fungi, fufu, and all the other names for mush many a time at our Noshing table for both African and Caribbean meals, but I gotta say that Annie did a darn good job with her version. This cornmeal-based one was much more solid, and much of it was cut into pieces and fried, so hence, delicious.

Rum Cake (Bermuda) | Recipe

With all that food, one dessert was enough! Christen made this scrumptious rum cake. She's definitely my kind of cook because the cake arrived with that notch at the top missing — she couldn't resist tasting it!

This culinary tour did leave out two qualifying teams: our American Samoan representative couldn't make it, and Palestine will get a full meal as a permanent observing member of the UN. And with that we're back to the list, albeit a tad out of order, with a dip into the d's with Democratic People's Republic of Korea — aka North Korea — coming up.