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Meal 54: El Salvador
After a three-week trip to India, where our senses were entranced with spices, I was afraid that Salvadorean food would prove mild and uninteresting. While it’s true that pupusas are a pretty...
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Meal 57: Estonia
Vikings, Russians, Swedes, Poles, Russians, Germans, Soviets… pretty much, if you were an empire within a few hundred kilometers of Estonia, you probably had dominion over this small country at some...
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Meal 65: Germany
What a convergence — my 30th birthday, the one-third point for United Noshes, a gorgeous day, an apartment with a backyard…and a cuisine and culture renowned for good cheer around food. While German...
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Meal 70: Guatemala
Corn, beans, tomatoes, squash, peppers, turkey…if it’s a classic New World food, chances are you’ll see it in Guatemalan cuisine. While it’s incorporated smatterings of good stuff from Europe (note the...
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Meal 71: Grenada
Until Hurricane Ivan wiped out most of the nutmeg trees, this little speck of a 133-square-mile Caribbean island country was the world’s number two producer of the spice. It’s become so important to...
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Meal 75: Honduras + Holy See
Our first, and only, two-state meal! Here’s why: the Holy See, as the “legal personality” of the Vatican City, is one of two non-member permanent observing states at the UN. The other, Palestine, has a...
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Meal 80: Ireland
I thought this was going to be a meal of corned beef and raisin-studded soda bread. I quickly learned that that would be perhaps the meal of an Irish immigrant in America, but not really one to be...
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Meal 81: Italy
In the estimation of many, Italy is the true heart of Western gastronomy. France gets so much of the glory, but it wasn’t until Catherine de’ Medici of Florence married French King Henry II and brought...
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Meal 94: Latvia
Thanks to my grandfather’s Latvian physical therapist, I got plenty of on-the-ground advice. She connected me to folks from back home, so huge thanks to my new Latvian buddies Mara, and particularly...
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Meal 99: Lithuania
Bye-bye, Baltics! Lithuania is the southernmost, and alphabetically last, of these three little countries across the sea from Finland. While they do indeed have the roasts and fish and rye breads and...
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Meal 100: Luxembourg
Food from this little Grand Duchy bordering Belgium, France, and Germany is for sure Germanic, with pork and potatoes, but also with a surprisingly strong showing from fresh beans. It’s also one of the...
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Meal 101: Madagascar
The same geographic isolation that’s led to the lemurs and other unique fauna and flora for which most of us know this island, also meant that even though it’s not far on an absolute basis from where...
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Meal 103: Malaysia
It turns out there’s a subtle but important distinction between “Malaysian” and “Malay.” The latter refers to an ethnic group and their language; the former is the name of a country composed of many...
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Meal 107: Marshall Islands
For centuries, the fate of this Micronesian island group has been entirely subject to the machinations of much greater powers. Its very name, after an English explorer, was consecrated in maps by...
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Meal 110: Mexico
Just like other great cuisines like Chinese and French, there’s plenty of regional variety in Mexico’s food. And just like rice with Chinese and bread with French food, there’s a ubiquitous starch...
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Meal 117: Myanmar
Burmese food is intense. Funky, fiery, crunchy, soupy, tangy, herby…a full meal is a real workout for your palate. It bears some resemblance to Thai food, but with more crispy bits, more turmeric, and...
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Meal 123: Nicaragua
I try not to knock the countries whose food we cook, but I have to admit I’ve generally found Central American food to be pretty boring. The Nicaraguan food we cooked mostly fits the pattern, with one...
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