1. Indian "Bhel Puri"
"Chicken Pakora" or "Bhel Puri"? "Bhel Puri" or "Chicken Pakora"? – that the main dilemma when visiting Indian restaurant. That is exactly what happened to me yesterday, when sitting like a Rodin "Thinker" in one of the Tbilisi Indian restaurants and thinking about the same dilemma. Finally, I made a choice for Bhel Puri as it's the most delicious food of Indian street kitchen. When my order delivered and tried the first bite of the curry rice, roasted meat and spiced vegetables I understood why Indians are so proud of this dish.
2. Moroccan Kebab
I've been dreaming about travelling to Morocco for years. I look at pictures on internet, listen to Moroccan music and sometimes even try to discover their national food recipes. That's how I came across to Moroccan "Shish Kebab", which quite differs from Kebab's Georgian interpretation.
We wrap minced pork or calf meat in thin Lavash and dip in Narsharab sauce, but Moroccans do it differenty. Moroccans love mixing beef tenderloin with various ingredients. They combine meat with thinly sliced onions, parsley, coriander, paprika and white pepper, soak in olive oil and roast on a spit. It's served with aperitifs as they place kebab in the middle of the table rounded with Pita bread, sour cream, green olive, mint leaves and potatoes.
3. Germany – Currywurst
I guess only German speakers can pronounce the name of "Currywurst" correctly – a dish consisting integral part of the German cuisine – sausage. Sausage, roasted potatoes and chili sauce – these ingredients make the Currywurst one of the most popular meals in Germany and in fact children love it as well. Its enormous popularity drew attention of German gastronomy specialists and they've discovered that Germans eat about 800 million Currywurst per year.
4. Indonesian - Nasi Goring
Rice is the ingredient which automatically makes you think of East. Do not close your eyes for imagining travelling East - otherwise you won't be able to read the text below. Try to feel Indonesian tropical climate with your open eyes, take a walk to its phosphor green terraces; gaze at the lazy flowing rivers for hours and touch the century old Pagodas with your own hands.
Nasi Goring is the food uniting this landscape in its aroma. Half-boiled rice is roasted with onion and garlic in butter. They first add various sauces to the mixture and top with chili in the end. Add some chicken, an egg and the dish is ready. It smells unbelievable good… and mouthwatering. In 2011 Nasi Goring became one of the winners of CNN annual culinary competition and got the status of one of the most delicious meals in the world.
5. Kenyan Ugali
Georgian Ghomi twin has been discovered. It was born in Kenya and was called Ugali. Who knows, maybe it even speaks Megrelian, but we will know only after tasting it locally made.
Its recipe is exactly the same as of Ghomi and it's really amazing how two people in two different continents, having different cultures and mentalities made the same dish. Probably it has to do something with the same ingredient.
6. Kenyan Samosa
Do you remember cake called "Napoleon"? Try to remember how its dough tastes. Samosa has the same thin, airy dough as Napoleon and I'd call it a vegetable cake, as it's made exactly like our cake. If adding peas, lentil, onion, potato and spices to a mixture of various kinds of meat and bake for 30 minutes in the oven, we'll get the Kenya's most favorite pie, which Europeans appreciate a lot too.
7. Arriva! Spicy Mexican – Tacos & Tostados
Life without Mexican sombrero is not a full life – thought a man who designed the very first sombrero hat, and he was right. Mexican culture is one of those cultures that needs to be closely experienced.
Let's start with the culinary. Mexicans almost never eat bread and it's a part of their culture. They appreciate corn, more than wheat, probably because Mexico is a homeland of corn. "Tacos" and "Tostados" are made of corn. Taco is soft like a pancake, while Tostado is crunchy like a cookie. These components wrapped in a soft Tortilla theoretically shouldn't fit each other, but practice proves different. Combination of beans, avocado puree, cheese, seafood, chili sauce and tomato spices, crunchy and soft contrasts, or even sweet, spicy, salty and sour aromas taste wonderful together and in this Mexican kitchen looks like Portuguese a lot.
8. Greek Souvlaki and Pita
Every country has its own bread of a distinct taste, shape and aroma. It shows the culture and spirit of the whole nation. I thought Pita was Greek bread, but it turns to be Arabic. While Souvlaki is definitely Greek dish, it is usually eaten together with the Pita bread. Souvlaki is a meat and vegetable grill, which will be made just right in front of you in the streets of ancient Greek towns. Moreover, they'll even give you co-author rights to choose sauce, onion, salad leaves or any other ingredients according to you preferences.
9. Austrian Schnitzel
Schnitzel is my favorite meal and if you haven't tried it yet, wish you to taste it as soon as possible. Austrians have quite nourishing kitchen and the Schnitzel is not among the lightest meals. It tastes great and it's easy to make. Traditionally Schnitzel is made of pork, beef, calf or a chicken fillet. There are also alternatives, like soy or tofu, which work as basis for vegetarian Schnitzel.
Wrap a thinly sliced boneless meat in a mixture of egg, flour, and breadcrumbs, place it in the oven and wait to bake. Do not forget, salt and pepper and some mustard if you feel like adding it.
10. Ishikari Nabe
Japanese kitchen is known for its attention to the details. They consider not only taste and health benefits of the ingredients, but their color as well. Green, yellow, red, brown and black products are traditional to the Japanese kitchen.
Ishikari Nabe is made out of salmon. They stew the large pieces of fish together with vegetables. The final stage of preparing is adding tofu, konnyaku (or damon's tongue), tomato and cabbage and dress all of these with Miso. The mixture of these healthy products cooked on a low fire has a very special taste.
