A few years ago Alex and I were not able to travel so much. We both really missed going to new places and experiencing new things. So one evening we came up with a way to bring one of the greatest things about travel to us…international food night!
Picking a Country at Random
So we each wrote down 5 countries on bits of paper in secret…
and then we popped our countries in a hat…
and of course next we drew countries out for the order in which we would cook dishes
Interestingly enough we had not listed any of the same countries. The first country that came out for us was Finland, so we looked up their national dishes. Unfortunately Finland does not have the most exotic choices, and is not really known in Europe for its culinary delights. However, we choose Finnish Meatballs (Lihapyorykoita) and while this might not be the most exciting dish, we enjoyed learning about Finnish cuisine and had fun cooking up our meatballs.
Favorite International Foods
Delicious food is one of our favorite aspects of travel. Some of our favorite countries for food include Malaysia, Thailand, Greece and Japan. Thai warms our hearts with spicy flavored goodness, as we got engaged on the island of Koh Phangan, Thailand.
We also enjoy seeking out these restaurants on our travels too. Being of Greek decent, I love visiting great Greek restaurants in the USA. But it’s also great to try new dishes and open yourself to new experiences!
Have any other tips for bringing travel to your home?
Is the Zagreb Zoo in Croatia Worth Visiting? 
The Most Unique Pubs in Amsterdam
Oh! Have you heard about the couple in New York that are cooking national dishes from every country alphabetically, and blogging about it? I heard it on the America’s Test Kitchen podcast. They do a bunch of research on the national dishes of the country they’re cooking, gather ingredients (which is probably super easy in New York — Dublin might be a bit tricky!) and learn how to cook those dishes. They do about 1 country a month. Great idea! What’s been the best so far?
Huh… no we had not heard about that, but the link is http://www.unitednoshes.com/ looks, very cool! Yeah, there would be some tough items to find in Dublin 🙂 We loved the dish we cooked from Belgium, it was Poulet à la Bière (http://www.food.com/recipe/poulet-la-bi-re-chicken-in-beer-425697). YUM!!!
What a great idea. I like to take walks around the parts of my city (London) that I’m not so familiar with. I find that it really is travel, I just don’t have to go very far.
Thank you and thank you for sharing your idea! I agree, part of traveling is exploring, and sometimes we’re lazy about exploring our won backyards.
Yes, and in London no one can afford a backyard so it’s doubly important!
Haha, yes we had the same experience in Amsterdam. But with these cities there is always something wonderful to explore for the first time and things frequently change!
Go to couchsurfing website and invite someone who’s travelling around to have dinner at your place. It’s great to learn about the different countries… but you’re probably already doing that 🙂
Funny you just mentioned this. We hadn’t used couch surfing in some time and were thinking about this so we invited someone to stay next weekend 🙂