From Flags to Feasts

My friend Marsha’s nephew, Jesse Friedman, has started a four year project –  to cook a meal once a week from each of the 193 countries in the UN plus Palestine.

His blog, United Noshes, will feature the stories and  recipes from each week. Last Sunday was week two – Albania. The resulting six course meal was full of the colors of the season, including this beautiful stuffed egglant dish with tomato topping.

Jesse and his wife Laura Hadden live in Brooklyn with access to ethnic foods from around the world. Jesse is doing the cooking, with lots of help from friends, and Laura is taking the photos of the results. I think the best part will be sitting down once a week to eat together with friends.

I learned about the connection between cooking and color from Lindly Haunani.

Here’s a quote from the introduction to our book:    “Lindly is inspired by the visceral and emotive potentials of working with color. Her approach is informed by her lifelong passion for cooking. She prefers to rely on her experience and intuition – a bit of this, a bit of that, taste, then adjust. When designing a color scheme, she is often inspired by the different interlocking colors (and flavors) of food as they appear in a recipe, season, or cuisine.”

And from Lindly’s website: “Just as in cooking, I love to be inspired by individual ingredients and then amass a large collection of prepared ingredients, much in the same way a sous chef would spend hours preparing her mise -en –place before beginning to cook. Unlike a tray of two hundred pot stickers, the clay pieces I fashion by hand have a tendency to last a lot longer!”

Extra credit question from yesterday: What three countries are not members of the UN?

Kosovo – Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on on February 17, 2008 but has not gained complete international recognition to allow it to become a member of the United Nations.

Taiwan  – In 1971 the People’s Republic of China (mainland China) replaced Taiwan (also known as the Republic of China) in the United Nations. China will not allow the acceptance of Taiwan.

Vatican City –The independent papal state of 771 people (including the Pope) was created in 1929. They have not chosen to become part of the international organization.