I’M BACK! Bloody nora – not only am I being copied I’m being overtaken!
http://worldoflondonrestaurants.blogspot.com/
http://www.kabulawayo.co.uk/
They’ve only got pictures and decent reviews as well. Puts me to shame. To shame.
I’ve been busy and this blog has slipped, actually slipped is a bit of an understatement, it’s collapsed and is lying in a pile in my cellar getting mouldy.
I’ve actually been to Austrian and Bangladeshi in the last two years, but I’ve not written them up. Now’s my chance to rectify this and get it going again, starting with Austria.
The Tiroler Hut is a relatively well known place in West London, famous for its music, steins and sausages. I went along with a group of friends expecting a proper party atmos.
We were well placed with a big table in the main room and were brought those massive steins of beer that clunk beautifully when crashed together. Cue at least a quarter of an hour of clunking and drinking whilst perusing the menu.Everyone ordered two courses, with something meaty to start and something meaty to follow. There’s actually a main for two described as “Lots of Meat – only for the very hungry”, I passed and ordered the sausage described as a Tirolean favourite. Our starters duly arrived and we chowed down on cold and limp processed meat. No-one looked particularly happy with their choices, but then the music began and we were distracted by a man in full Austrian garb playing pop hits on the keyboard and singing along. He was sitting in a decorated purpose built booth, as a DJ would, and neither his playing nor his singing were much cop. His enthusiasm for it made up for that though, and the looks of wonderment from around the table were justified.
Some reluctantly finished their starters, others gave up hoping for better with the main course. We were all disappointed. The meaty mains were equally cold and lacking any joy. We all went around trying each others dishes, with no-one seemingly finding anything particularly tasty. We consoled ourselves with our ongoing battle to finish a stein of beer.
The entertainment began putting out a set of bells and finding attractive female volunteers to play them along with the music. When entertainment is done with such passion, no matter how bad it is it’s hard to dislike, and it certainly stopped you from focussing too heavily on the quality of the food. If it wasn’t cold when it arrived, it was cold when they took it away.
Steins completed, we tried to order more drinks, but the restaurant was packed and it was hard to get anyone’s attention. The entertainment had turned into karaoke, with a drunk but smartly suited man singing a song in German. After a while we gave up, and made our way back out into the night. The bar was packed and people rushed to take our table. I possibly should have told them how bad the food was, but they looked like they didn’t care.
Would I recommend Austrian food? Well to be honest no, but I can’t say I’ve tasted the best of it.
Oh eck, the competition have found an Angolan place! I’m going to have to pop back before carrying on with Barbados. One of them found an Azerbaijan place that opened near Marble Arch, but in the time it’s taken me to sort myself out it’s closed again. I must not let things get this bad ever again. At this pace it’ll take me just under 50 years to complete the blog. I’ll have to live to be 83. It could be that with changes of countries over the course of that half century, it’ll become a Forth Bridge effort. Zimbabwe’ll be one hell of a party if I ever get there.
Friday, 13 January 2012
Monday, 16 February 2009
Australia
Walkabout
Probably the easiest of the countries so far, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking or planning this country. It took me all of five seconds to invite a couple of people and head over to the Walkabout next to Temple tube. What hits you immediately about this place is the number of televisions hung around the pub. It’s perfectly possible to watch three or even four sporting events at the same time. The best thing about this is if like me you support a lower league football club, and you need a place which will definitely be showing a particular game no matter what else is on at the same time, this is the place to come.
For a country which isn’t exactly renowned for fine beers, there’s a surprising number of Aussie lagers available on tap or in bottles at the bar, and I chose the Toohey’s Extra Dry which is something you don’t see too often.
Obviously, these places make there money from the big Friday and Saturday nights, illustrated by the big stage and PA system - but I always feel like these places are designed in some ways to be hosed down at the end of the night, so everything is a bit too sturdy and heavy duty. That said me, the girlf and my friend Martin sat down on a leatherette sofa to order the most Aussie thing we could find on the menu.
I worked in Australia for a while, and the only thing I really remember about the food was their great liking for pies and sausages. However, Walkabout has kangaroo steak on the menu, which although I’ve never seen an Australian actually eat one, can’t exactly be a national dish from anywhere else, so that’s what I ordered. I expected a tough and gamy meat, but actually it wasn’t too bad, the chips on the side were as good as you’d expect too. My fellow diners chose something a little more worldly than Australian, but neither was too disappointed.
I think pub grub in London’s goes from both extremes, exceptional and pricey gourmet fair to cheap, poorly cooked dross. Walkabout’s food is neither, but it does the job.
Probably the easiest of the countries so far, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking or planning this country. It took me all of five seconds to invite a couple of people and head over to the Walkabout next to Temple tube. What hits you immediately about this place is the number of televisions hung around the pub. It’s perfectly possible to watch three or even four sporting events at the same time. The best thing about this is if like me you support a lower league football club, and you need a place which will definitely be showing a particular game no matter what else is on at the same time, this is the place to come.
For a country which isn’t exactly renowned for fine beers, there’s a surprising number of Aussie lagers available on tap or in bottles at the bar, and I chose the Toohey’s Extra Dry which is something you don’t see too often.
Obviously, these places make there money from the big Friday and Saturday nights, illustrated by the big stage and PA system - but I always feel like these places are designed in some ways to be hosed down at the end of the night, so everything is a bit too sturdy and heavy duty. That said me, the girlf and my friend Martin sat down on a leatherette sofa to order the most Aussie thing we could find on the menu.
I worked in Australia for a while, and the only thing I really remember about the food was their great liking for pies and sausages. However, Walkabout has kangaroo steak on the menu, which although I’ve never seen an Australian actually eat one, can’t exactly be a national dish from anywhere else, so that’s what I ordered. I expected a tough and gamy meat, but actually it wasn’t too bad, the chips on the side were as good as you’d expect too. My fellow diners chose something a little more worldly than Australian, but neither was too disappointed.
I think pub grub in London’s goes from both extremes, exceptional and pricey gourmet fair to cheap, poorly cooked dross. Walkabout’s food is neither, but it does the job.
Armenia
Erebuni
This one’s taken a while to organise. I had a disappointing trip to a place called ‘Garni’ in Chiswick which had been turned in to an antiques shop. You could still see the faded outline of Armen behind the new sign which disappointed me even more. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Chiswick, but there’s nothing particularly right either, so me and the girlf turned right around and travelled back to South London for a curry.
The place I found, Erebuni is hidden away under a hotel in West London and isn’t specifically an Armenian restaurant, it has dishes from Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan as well, but there six or seven dishes called ’Armenian’ on the menu. Enough to have a meal for two with Armenian dishes as starters and mains which’ll do the job.
Your directed to a darkly decorated cellar restaurant in the bowels of the building, in which a couple of bored staff and a pair of bemused residents sit around watching Russian television. A waitress showed us to a table and handed us the extensive menu.
To start we chose Emanbajady (fried vegetables in tomato sauce) and Karmir Babar (marinated red pepper). The Peppers had the tartness of vinegar mixed with the sweetness of the pepper and we’re delicious. The Emanbajady was warming and garlicky too. We had a glass of Georgian wine to wash it down with, though we were tremendously tempted by the ‘Soviet Shampagnskoye’, but not tempted enough to splash out 40 quid for a bottle.
Mains were the “extremely popular” Chicken Tapaka, and Armenian Dolma. We could have chosen a couple of kebabs, but I’m sure they’ll be plenty of opportunities to have them as I travel the world of restaurants. Neither dish was exactly amazing but they were both filling and somewhat homely. Whilst we ate the staff sat together and chatted so that we both felt a bit like we were putting them out to ask for anything.
After considering what we’d spent on the first two courses (more than £16 each), we decided to share an Armenian cake for dessert. It wasn’t anything special.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad meal, and I didn’t expect anything amazing, but for the price (£40 each) it really isn’t worth the trip. It’s neither so good, or so entertainingly awful to be recommended. I imagine that an Armenian restaurant could serve the same homely and tasty food for a lot less money, but as I found out in Chiswick it doesn’t look like you’d get enough business to make a living.
This one’s taken a while to organise. I had a disappointing trip to a place called ‘Garni’ in Chiswick which had been turned in to an antiques shop. You could still see the faded outline of Armen behind the new sign which disappointed me even more. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Chiswick, but there’s nothing particularly right either, so me and the girlf turned right around and travelled back to South London for a curry.
The place I found, Erebuni is hidden away under a hotel in West London and isn’t specifically an Armenian restaurant, it has dishes from Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan as well, but there six or seven dishes called ’Armenian’ on the menu. Enough to have a meal for two with Armenian dishes as starters and mains which’ll do the job.
Your directed to a darkly decorated cellar restaurant in the bowels of the building, in which a couple of bored staff and a pair of bemused residents sit around watching Russian television. A waitress showed us to a table and handed us the extensive menu.
To start we chose Emanbajady (fried vegetables in tomato sauce) and Karmir Babar (marinated red pepper). The Peppers had the tartness of vinegar mixed with the sweetness of the pepper and we’re delicious. The Emanbajady was warming and garlicky too. We had a glass of Georgian wine to wash it down with, though we were tremendously tempted by the ‘Soviet Shampagnskoye’, but not tempted enough to splash out 40 quid for a bottle.
Mains were the “extremely popular” Chicken Tapaka, and Armenian Dolma. We could have chosen a couple of kebabs, but I’m sure they’ll be plenty of opportunities to have them as I travel the world of restaurants. Neither dish was exactly amazing but they were both filling and somewhat homely. Whilst we ate the staff sat together and chatted so that we both felt a bit like we were putting them out to ask for anything.
After considering what we’d spent on the first two courses (more than £16 each), we decided to share an Armenian cake for dessert. It wasn’t anything special.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad meal, and I didn’t expect anything amazing, but for the price (£40 each) it really isn’t worth the trip. It’s neither so good, or so entertainingly awful to be recommended. I imagine that an Armenian restaurant could serve the same homely and tasty food for a lot less money, but as I found out in Chiswick it doesn’t look like you’d get enough business to make a living.
Friday, 7 November 2008
Argentina
Skipping countries is going to happen a lot during this challenge and the last three countries: Andorra; Angola; Antigua and Barbuda I’ve had to let go. Don’t think I didn’t try to find something to keep the run going, Gordon Ramsey supposedly does a lovely Pyrenean Lamb at one of his expensive London restaurants, but it’s not really Andorran. Me and the girlf went all the way to Harlesden to check out Jet Set Dinner and Dance which I’m told has Angolan food, but it’s basically a nightclub and wasn’t open till very late. I’m not going to hang around in Harlesden till 10 at night for this or any blog. I expected there to be something for Antigua and I’m hoping I can return to it, but I searched online and found nothing for either island. So onto Argentina.
There’s only one food I think of when someone mentions Argentina: STEAK. So I as I arrived at La Pampa Grill in Battersea, I was more confident of what I was going to eat that at any restaurant so far. I was pleased to see that almost every main course was a steak of some description, T-bone, sirloin or fillet. When the owner of La Pampa drafted out their menu, he obviously realised how limited this menu would be so rather than just have these 3 items, they added three more items with each of the above steaks “with a fried egg”. Six dishes, all steak, three with egg, three without. The decisions…
Actually there was a chicken and lamb dish to choose from too. The final dish illustrates that the hippy movement didn’t get as far as Buenos Aires, the vegetarian option is simply described as an “Argentinean Vegetarian Dish”. Not so tempting.
Would you believe it, I had steak. Sirloin to be exact and most importantly, without a fried egg. Everyone with me ordered steaks too, we also had some roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables. We ordered a heavy Argentinean red to go with. The only really notable thing about the décor of the restaurant was the high number of stuffed birds of various descriptions adorning the walls and ceiling. Perhaps this is commonplace in Argentina but it doesn’t really encourage me to enjoy my meat. They all looked very dusty and a bit moth-eaten.
Well, in all, the meal was lovely, great steak (as you’d expect) and lovely veg. It’s heavy and filling, but you know you’ve had a proper meal when you leave. Have I learned more about the cuisine of Argentina? Not really, and perhaps if I went to Argentina I would have the opportunity to eat a greater variety of food that the fayre you get in a restaurant in the UK. However, even if the beef heavy menu’s of the UK are all you can find, if it’s what you want then it can’t fail to satisfy.
There’s only one food I think of when someone mentions Argentina: STEAK. So I as I arrived at La Pampa Grill in Battersea, I was more confident of what I was going to eat that at any restaurant so far. I was pleased to see that almost every main course was a steak of some description, T-bone, sirloin or fillet. When the owner of La Pampa drafted out their menu, he obviously realised how limited this menu would be so rather than just have these 3 items, they added three more items with each of the above steaks “with a fried egg”. Six dishes, all steak, three with egg, three without. The decisions…
Actually there was a chicken and lamb dish to choose from too. The final dish illustrates that the hippy movement didn’t get as far as Buenos Aires, the vegetarian option is simply described as an “Argentinean Vegetarian Dish”. Not so tempting.
Would you believe it, I had steak. Sirloin to be exact and most importantly, without a fried egg. Everyone with me ordered steaks too, we also had some roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables. We ordered a heavy Argentinean red to go with. The only really notable thing about the décor of the restaurant was the high number of stuffed birds of various descriptions adorning the walls and ceiling. Perhaps this is commonplace in Argentina but it doesn’t really encourage me to enjoy my meat. They all looked very dusty and a bit moth-eaten.
Well, in all, the meal was lovely, great steak (as you’d expect) and lovely veg. It’s heavy and filling, but you know you’ve had a proper meal when you leave. Have I learned more about the cuisine of Argentina? Not really, and perhaps if I went to Argentina I would have the opportunity to eat a greater variety of food that the fayre you get in a restaurant in the UK. However, even if the beef heavy menu’s of the UK are all you can find, if it’s what you want then it can’t fail to satisfy.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Algeria
Numidie
I’m assuming that the North African and Middle Eastern cuisine I experience on this challenge will be all pretty similar, so I picked a French influenced restaurant in Crystal Palace called Numidie for my Algerian experience. There’s actually another Algerian place called El Bled in Streatham, but it didn’t sound that tempting and I feel scared when I’m in Streatham. For those of you unaware of Ancient Rome and it’s Empire, Numidie is what the Romans called the area which is roughly now Algeria.
I went with the girlf, her brother and a couple of his friends and they were a lovely bunch. I always try to have the local drink with the meal, but knowing the Algeria is one of the stricter Moslem nations I‘m not sure they make such things. In any case, I was pleased to see Moroccan beer and wine on the menu, both of which were very drinkable if not quite award winning.
There’s a warm cosy feel to La Numidie, I like a restaurant busy with seemingly random souvenirs, object d’art and relics, it gives you something to look at while you wait for your food and something to talk about if the company’s dull. Which on this occasion, I should say, it wasn’t. I ended up ordering three courses, which is always a good sign a restaurant’s doing something right. I took the opportunity to eat the most Algerian sounding things on the menu. To be honest, I’ve completely forgotten what I started with and what I had for dessert, but the seafood tagine I had as my main was lovely. Actually, I can’t really remember what those around me ate either , but I do recall that they really enjoyed it. That may be the Moroccan liquids I imbibed on the evening, or it might be the delay between the visit and writing the blog. Perhaps I should increase my professionalism and take notes when I’m out, but then again I’m doing this for the enjoyment not the journalism.
I tend to find that the further away from central London a restaurant is, the better the service. This place proves my point. The staff were friendly, chatty and sharp, and made our dinner all the better. The bill came with a handwritten message thanking us for coming and wishing us a good evening, and though they probably do it for everyone, it finished off the evening nicely.
What did I learn about Algerian food? Well, they seem to eat food typical of the region – lamb, dried fruit, fish and cous cous. I have to say I didn’t eat anything that I wouldn’t have expected from either a North African or French cuisine, but the combination of the two was a very enjoyable experience and I’d recommend it.
I’m assuming that the North African and Middle Eastern cuisine I experience on this challenge will be all pretty similar, so I picked a French influenced restaurant in Crystal Palace called Numidie for my Algerian experience. There’s actually another Algerian place called El Bled in Streatham, but it didn’t sound that tempting and I feel scared when I’m in Streatham. For those of you unaware of Ancient Rome and it’s Empire, Numidie is what the Romans called the area which is roughly now Algeria.
I went with the girlf, her brother and a couple of his friends and they were a lovely bunch. I always try to have the local drink with the meal, but knowing the Algeria is one of the stricter Moslem nations I‘m not sure they make such things. In any case, I was pleased to see Moroccan beer and wine on the menu, both of which were very drinkable if not quite award winning.
There’s a warm cosy feel to La Numidie, I like a restaurant busy with seemingly random souvenirs, object d’art and relics, it gives you something to look at while you wait for your food and something to talk about if the company’s dull. Which on this occasion, I should say, it wasn’t. I ended up ordering three courses, which is always a good sign a restaurant’s doing something right. I took the opportunity to eat the most Algerian sounding things on the menu. To be honest, I’ve completely forgotten what I started with and what I had for dessert, but the seafood tagine I had as my main was lovely. Actually, I can’t really remember what those around me ate either , but I do recall that they really enjoyed it. That may be the Moroccan liquids I imbibed on the evening, or it might be the delay between the visit and writing the blog. Perhaps I should increase my professionalism and take notes when I’m out, but then again I’m doing this for the enjoyment not the journalism.
I tend to find that the further away from central London a restaurant is, the better the service. This place proves my point. The staff were friendly, chatty and sharp, and made our dinner all the better. The bill came with a handwritten message thanking us for coming and wishing us a good evening, and though they probably do it for everyone, it finished off the evening nicely.
What did I learn about Algerian food? Well, they seem to eat food typical of the region – lamb, dried fruit, fish and cous cous. I have to say I didn’t eat anything that I wouldn’t have expected from either a North African or French cuisine, but the combination of the two was a very enjoyable experience and I’d recommend it.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Albania
The Alba
It was my birthday a couple of weeks back so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and invited everyone to a lovely sounding Albanian place, Zigzag in Walthamstow. About 10 of my friends made the effort to get up there and meet me for my 29th. Slight drawback though, although the website suggests they’re a restaurant as does the sign outside, they only food they actually had was peanuts. Not particularly brilliant or Albanian peanuts either. Not even Albanian drinks. I was mocked heartily by all. We went for a Chinese.
So it was with a little nervousness that I headed out to Maida Vale to find Lisi with only my girlfriend in tow, now OFFICIALLY the only Albanian restaurant in London. A moment of panic hit me when I couldn’t find it at the correct address, but I quickly realised they’d just changed the name to Alba and put a heck of a lot of Italian food on the menu. In fact, the Albanian cuisine (all five dishes of it) was restricted to a small corner on the back of the menu.
I don’t think anyone else was eating in there which isn’t a good sign, so me and the girlf pretty much ordered a small portion of everything they had and hoped for the best. While we waited for the meal they decided to blast out Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits, enjoyable, but not really Albanian. One of the only things I know about Albania is that they like Norman Wisdom but there was no sign of him anywhere, just a few black and white pictures of Pristina from the early 20th century. One wonders whether Albania has changed much since.
The food was a pleasant surprise, I had beef sausages and Yash had grilled chicken. We’d both been tempted by some Middle Eastern inspired kebabs, or the beef hash steak but decided to try the items which sounded the most Albanian. Both the sausages and the chicken were very tasty and came with a spicy salad which I now know is a normal salad with slices of raw chilli. One of the reasons I started this blog was to discover the odd eating habits of the world and this would be my first odd discovery: Albanians really like cream cheese. It came with everything, even spread on the bread that turned up with our roasted pepper starter. We ended up having a discussion of whether they were bringing in Albanian cheese or just using Philadelphia, but it was very tasty all the same.
It’s a shame that this place has had to put so much Italian food on the menu in order to survive, I suppose it’s something to do with the location or perhaps the lack of adventure of others, but Albanian food is delicious and we should be eating more of it. It is an excellent mix of Middle Eastern and European tastes and it’s a lovely change from your standard kebab place. If you’re ever in Maida Vale and feeling peckish, I’d recommend it.
It was my birthday a couple of weeks back so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and invited everyone to a lovely sounding Albanian place, Zigzag in Walthamstow. About 10 of my friends made the effort to get up there and meet me for my 29th. Slight drawback though, although the website suggests they’re a restaurant as does the sign outside, they only food they actually had was peanuts. Not particularly brilliant or Albanian peanuts either. Not even Albanian drinks. I was mocked heartily by all. We went for a Chinese.
So it was with a little nervousness that I headed out to Maida Vale to find Lisi with only my girlfriend in tow, now OFFICIALLY the only Albanian restaurant in London. A moment of panic hit me when I couldn’t find it at the correct address, but I quickly realised they’d just changed the name to Alba and put a heck of a lot of Italian food on the menu. In fact, the Albanian cuisine (all five dishes of it) was restricted to a small corner on the back of the menu.
I don’t think anyone else was eating in there which isn’t a good sign, so me and the girlf pretty much ordered a small portion of everything they had and hoped for the best. While we waited for the meal they decided to blast out Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits, enjoyable, but not really Albanian. One of the only things I know about Albania is that they like Norman Wisdom but there was no sign of him anywhere, just a few black and white pictures of Pristina from the early 20th century. One wonders whether Albania has changed much since.
The food was a pleasant surprise, I had beef sausages and Yash had grilled chicken. We’d both been tempted by some Middle Eastern inspired kebabs, or the beef hash steak but decided to try the items which sounded the most Albanian. Both the sausages and the chicken were very tasty and came with a spicy salad which I now know is a normal salad with slices of raw chilli. One of the reasons I started this blog was to discover the odd eating habits of the world and this would be my first odd discovery: Albanians really like cream cheese. It came with everything, even spread on the bread that turned up with our roasted pepper starter. We ended up having a discussion of whether they were bringing in Albanian cheese or just using Philadelphia, but it was very tasty all the same.
It’s a shame that this place has had to put so much Italian food on the menu in order to survive, I suppose it’s something to do with the location or perhaps the lack of adventure of others, but Albanian food is delicious and we should be eating more of it. It is an excellent mix of Middle Eastern and European tastes and it’s a lovely change from your standard kebab place. If you’re ever in Maida Vale and feeling peckish, I’d recommend it.
Monday, 4 February 2008
The challenge
I'm one of those people who likes trying new things, particularly when it comes to food. Even if one of my favourites is on a menu, I'm always going to pick the thing I haven't eaten before. To me a great dining experience isn't about eating the same thing week in week out, it's about trying something new and exotic, ideally in an odd location with even odder decor. It's not about starter, main then pudding it's about the extraordinary ways you can eat your food or have it served. How it can be found, grown, killed, harvested, cooked and eaten using a variety of complex and foreign devices which baffle your average Englishman.
I've travelled a bit, and eaten some odd things in some odd places, but I’ve been thinking. Why do I have to go abroad for these experiences? Surely I don't need to go to Nepal for my Momo, Ethiopia for my Tibs Wet or Peru for a bit of Guinea Pig? I wonder... can you experience every culinary experience right here in London? There are a lot of restaurants in London... absolutely loads, but is there a restaurant for every country in the world?
More importantly, if you ate food from every country in the world, which would be the dullest? Which would be the spiciest? All in all, which would be the best?
This blog is my attempt to find out.
I'm going to attempt to eat my way around the world without leaving Britain's capital city. I'll be going in alphabetical order, Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, using the list of UN countries here and adding Taiwan (who aren't in the UN), Scotland and Wales for good measure. Obviously I'm going to struggle to experience all 195 of them (do you know of an Andorran restaurant, a Kiribatian cafe or a Panamanian diner?) but I'm going to have a very good go. If I miss any, and there turns out to be a place somewhere I didn't know about, then I'll go back and cover it again, I'll also go to any place that'll serve me the national dish for any country with no restaurant.
If you can help me, I'd be most grateful. If you know of a restaurant representing an obscure country somewhere like Djibouti, Liechtenstein or Micronesia, then please get in touch to help me towards my goal. Obviously I won't be needing help with China, India or the USA, but if you want to suggest an obscure cuisine you've enjoyed then post its name as a comment.
And to begin… Afghanistan
I've travelled a bit, and eaten some odd things in some odd places, but I’ve been thinking. Why do I have to go abroad for these experiences? Surely I don't need to go to Nepal for my Momo, Ethiopia for my Tibs Wet or Peru for a bit of Guinea Pig? I wonder... can you experience every culinary experience right here in London? There are a lot of restaurants in London... absolutely loads, but is there a restaurant for every country in the world?
More importantly, if you ate food from every country in the world, which would be the dullest? Which would be the spiciest? All in all, which would be the best?
This blog is my attempt to find out.
I'm going to attempt to eat my way around the world without leaving Britain's capital city. I'll be going in alphabetical order, Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, using the list of UN countries here and adding Taiwan (who aren't in the UN), Scotland and Wales for good measure. Obviously I'm going to struggle to experience all 195 of them (do you know of an Andorran restaurant, a Kiribatian cafe or a Panamanian diner?) but I'm going to have a very good go. If I miss any, and there turns out to be a place somewhere I didn't know about, then I'll go back and cover it again, I'll also go to any place that'll serve me the national dish for any country with no restaurant.
If you can help me, I'd be most grateful. If you know of a restaurant representing an obscure country somewhere like Djibouti, Liechtenstein or Micronesia, then please get in touch to help me towards my goal. Obviously I won't be needing help with China, India or the USA, but if you want to suggest an obscure cuisine you've enjoyed then post its name as a comment.
And to begin… Afghanistan
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