Vatican City

When pulling the next country, Vatican City didn’t seem likely to have a cuisine associated with its culture. It’s smack dab in the middle of Rome. I figured it would just be Roman Italian food. Or perhaps, whatever the country of origin of the current Pope.

After researching, I found there isn’t a particular cuisine but there is a particular recipe that was created for Pope Pius XII. From http://memoriediangelina.com/2009/07/06/fettuccine-alla-papalina/:

Fettuccine alla papalina, or “Fettuccine for the Pope”, is an upscale reinterpretation of the earthy spaghetti alla carbonara. The story goes that the dish was prepared for a certain Cardinal Pacelli, soon to become Pope Pius XII, who had asked the owner of a restaurant in the Borgo (the area of Rome that lies between the Vatican and the Tiber River) to make him a more delicate version of the classic Roman dish. So, the restauranteur came up with this more refined dish, substituting fettuccine for the usual spaghetti, prosciutto for the guanciale, Parmesan for the pecorino, and adding a splash of cream.

So, there you go. Vatican City food. Who knew?

I made fresh pasta and whipped up the dish. The dish is very good and something I would definitely make again.

 When getting ready to pull the next country, my thought was: Please, a country with an actual cuisine (sorry Iceland) and no huge political issues! Up next: Paraguay.

Yemen

The thing about my project is I need to put religion, politics, public opinion and government behind. I want to learn about the food of the country. I may disagree with many things about a country but the food can be a uniting experience. I have watched Anthony Bourdain’s shows, No Reservations and Parts Unknown and learned much about many countries in the world. Another great food travel show is on Netflix: Somebody Feed Phil. This show is about how food is an important avenue to understand people.

So off I go to Yemen. For 5000 years this land has be inhabited. The country has a long and illustrious history, which can be studied online or I am sure many other places. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades Yemen has had a poor reputation for terrorist support and currently a terrible civil war which has devastated the country. It’s a mess there and the U.S. is involved. I have no further comments about this part of the country’s situation.

The food is my interest. Middle Eastern food is a favorite of mine. Much of the region has similar foods. I searched around to find something out of the ordinary about Yemeni food.

I came up with the following recipes:

Hilbeh – spiced fenugreek dip

Malawah Bread

Jarjeer Salad

Chicken Mandi with Rice

The Hilbeh was the oddest item. The jellied fenugreek had an odd bitter flavor that is hard to describe.  It tasted better when the bread was dipped in it. Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but it’s not something I am inclined to make again.

Recipe: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/hilbeh-traditional-spiced-fenugreek-dip-from-yemen-385725

The Malawah Bread is delicious. I was a bit intimidated, there is no leavening. Basically

flour, salt, water, butter and a process that include tying the dough into a knot. It turned out into buttery crunchy layers sprinkled with nigella seeds. This little black seed has a distinct onion flavor. I also add them to my naan recipe.

Recipe: http://www.shebayemenifood.com/content/yemeni-malawah-bread There are 2 instructional videos part way down the page, one in Arabic & one in English. Fun to watch.

The salad was somewhat unremarkable. Basically an arugula salad with a lemon, olive oil and sumac dressing. I did leave out the raw onion because my stomach rebels against raw onion so maybe that would have made it more interesting.

Recipe: https://www.anediblemosaic.com/tangy-arugala-salad-with-sumac-salatat-jarjeer/

The Chicken Mandi was also very good. The spice mix is slightly different than most Middle Eastern combinations. It has a fairly large amount of clove in it which dominates the flavor. I used 2 different recipes, each had a slightly different mix of spices that I mashed together. Very much reminded me of biriyani.

Recipes: https://www.munatycooking.com/2016/02/yemeni-chicken-mandi.html#wprm-recipe-container-8757

http://ayshakitchenette.blogspot.com/2015/04/yemeni-chicken-mandi-rice.html

I really liked the dishes I found. I would probably put much less clove in the spice mix. I like clove but it was too prominent. Another adventure into food accomplished.

The next draw from the jar actually came up with Vatican City. Geesh, reminded me of my first thought of Iceland. Well, stay tuned, Vatican City has its own cuisine, really, well sort of…….