Burundi: lourobbo's kitchen

Woooo! Finally we're on to the last B and it's Burundi. I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks now, as there are a number of restaurants lined up for the start of C.

Burundi cuisine is heavy on the beans, but I did manage to find an appetising looking tuna recipe to go with them.

The tuna was marinaded for an hour in a red wine/garlic/herb mix and then grilled  and served with a mayonnaise aioli.

Black eyed peas, potatoes, dessicated coconut together with a variety of spices made a tasty accompaniment.

Not a bad way to finish up B for Burundi!

Burkina Faso: lourobbo's kitchen

On a roll again, merely days after getting back on the A to Z eating trail, I'm in the kitchen, cooking Burkinabe recipes.

Burkina Faso is a small land locked country in West Africa, once known as "The Republic of Upper Volta". I'd never heard of it until I started reading The Travel Book for this eating tour - James had, as it hosts one of the better known cycling events.

On the menu, we had a main course of Munyu Caf Couscous followed by afters of Banfora. The munyu is another recipe that has peanut butter as a core ingredient, so as I started to cook, had high hopes of it being a winner. Other key components  - MEAT (non-descript), tomato purée and cabbage.

 

I decided to try and counteract the vast quantities of peanut butter with at least some nod to healthiness, using turkey as the meat. I'm sure this would normally be lamb or beef, but the turkey worked well and it was reasonably tasty dish. The couscous was a bit bland, the recipe didn't call for any additional spices, but together with the saucy dish, it wasn't bad at all.

 

For a little sweet dish to follow, I made a batch of Banfora. These are a very similar to Welsh cakes, except with pineapple pieces rather than sultanas. Again , very simple to cook, the hot plate was perfect for frying them up. I think I made them a little thick, but they certainly tasted fine.

Overall conclusion on Burkina Faso - perfectly acceptable. But I can't see it taking off as the next big cuisine to hit London.

Bulgaria: Arda 2

We're back on the trail! Sorry for the short delay in proceedings, not sure what happened other than time ran away with us, but we return with a trip to Bulgaria on the Seven Sisters Road.

There were 3 restaurants that came up on a search for Bulgarian delights in London - one quite near Sue in Willesden that had some dreadful reviews, a second place in Harringay and Arda 2, which we settled on based on a recommendation from Allison's Bulgarian neighbour.

Suzanne rang ahead for our Wednesday evening jaunt. The nice man who answered the phone was most apologetic, unfortunately there would be no live music tonight, but he was very much looking forward to seeing us!


Allison, Paul and Umbreen accompanied us to Finsbury Park, a short walk from the tube along the Seven Sisters Road to the garish orange of Arda 2. It proved to be a good indicator of the decor inside - the most glorious bright green illuminated bar, stage with stacked synthesisers, glitter ball, orange walls, the must have Bulgarian flag and TV tuned to Europap satellite channels. Marvellous.

Having been given a prime spot in the middle of a reasonably sized restaurant, thoughts turned to beer. Two Bulgarian varieties to choose from. But alas, none in stock. And no Bulgarian wine either, the guy who delivers to Arda 2 had apparently decided to stay in Bulgaria a couple of days extra and they were low on the authentic alcohol. So we reverted to type, ordering Peroni and Corona (and a couple of Perriers). The menu was extensive but with help from our waiter, we opted for a couple of large salads and a Pepper Burek to share.

The salad with eggs was the Ovcharska, and another plate very much the same without the egg and pieces of salami, was Shopska (or Shepherd's salad). The pepper burek was very tasty, a roasted red pepper, smothered in feta and then deep fried.

These starters would have been perfectly adequate for the 6 of us, but then the extras started to arrive, our waiter was keen to ensure that we had the full Bulgarian experience, bold claims of this is the best food in London. Ok, well, we'll give it a go. Two plates of fried cheese arrived of the yellow and the white variety, I'm guessing cheddar and feta. Very tasty, who can argue with melted cheese in batter?

And to finish off the course, a lovely plate of beef tongue.

It wasn't as revolting as it looks, but the only way I can describe it, shredded tender beef with a fuzzy coat. I don't think we discovered any life long fans of tongue amongst us that night.

By this stage,we were starting to feel full. Little did we know, the main course, the Arda special, would make sure of it. Again, we left it to the discretion of our host to bring us food. And boy did he deliver. Two ENORMOUS platters of meat arrived. Pork in a multitude of forms (burgers, kebabs, steaks, ribs) on a bed of beautifully sauteed potatoes. And a second dish of lamb meatballs, ribs, steaks etc with chicken (in case we were still hungry) with mountains of roasted vegetables. The true meaning of a meat feast, all nicely cooked, seasoned well and tasty. God knows how a vegetarian would cope in Bulgaria with this typical fare, fried cheese I suppose!

 

Think that's the end? Oh no. I didn't think we could actually fit any more in our stomachs, but our waiter then appeared with a platter of desserts. Homemade cake, which looked very much like wholemeal sandwiches but tasted good. Watermelon, berries, grapes and the familiar creme caramel which seems to be prevalent across Europe. Pleasant way to finish what had been a fantastic meal.

Bulgaria turned out to be a real surprise, more meat than we could possibly eat (please, no more, I don't want any steak for at least a week), great value for money (£18 a head including tip!) and a very attentive waiter. An excellent night all round!

Food ****
Atmosphere ***
Value for money *****

Brunei: lourobbo's kitchen

A quick post for a quick meal. No restaurants that we could find for Brunei, so I cooked "Mee Goreng" for James and I on Saturday night. Brunei cuisine has a lot of Malaysian and Indonesian influences, lucky for us as we're both partial to noodles.

This recipe for Mee Goreng had chicken and shrimp as the main ingredients but there seemed to be several different ways of cooking it. I liked this one as it used spring onions and fried shallots for garnish.

A great success, speedy to make and clean plates all round.

Brazil: Comida

We've been looking forward to Brazil ever since starting this challenge. James's sister, Faith lived in Fortaleza for 5 years and was keen to see whether London could offer anything close to the real deal.

There were a couple of restaurants to choose from, but we settled on Comida, a Churrascaria restaurant in South Molton Street and booked ourselves a table for Friday night. It was an unseasonably warm evening for April, people were sitting outside, but we took our table inside. The decor was nothing to write home about, fairly basic with small formica tables for 4 and a buffet along one side.

But at the heart of the restaurant, what we'd really come to experience - the flaming grill, chock full of skewers of meat.

We started with a round of drinks - Brahma beers, Caipirinha cocktails and a fizzy Guarana drink, popular in Brazil:

We unanimously opted for the "all you can eat" buffet, the waiter took our order and then wandered off. It wasn't immediately obvious what to do next, but after a few minutes trying to work out where to get the plates from, caught sight of another table starting to help themselves to the BBQ accompaniments - various carbs: rice, beans, potatoes and some limp salad leaves. Faith warned us not to load up too much on the buffet sides. It turned out to be good advice.....as the meat had started to arrive.

Let's start gently, with a couple of chicken legs and some chorizo style Brazilian sausage. So far, so good. Tasty with a very distinctive BBQ taste. Then our waiter started bringing out the big guns....large skewers with beef and lamb joints, which he sliced onto our plates at the table.

 

                                 

   

By this stage of the meal, the waiters had worked out that Faith can speak fluent Portuguese and this broke the ice for some high jinks. I'm sure he was joking with that knife....

You really can get your money's worth at a Churrascaria. The meat just kept coming until we couldn't face another morsel. Next time I go to one of these...I probably won't bother with any of the side dishes, and also make sure I'm ravenous. That steak was gooooooooood.

Now for some scoring:

Food: ****

Value for money:****

Atmosphere: ***

Botswana: lourobbo's kitchen

James and I spent a lovely week in St Ives and I was all set to catch up on the Eating the A to Z of London project having some time on our hands, we'd been on a go slow recently. Botswana was next and no restaurants readily available to try their cuisine. Then James reminded me of one of the key points of the challenge....it was supposed to be within the boundaries of the M25. Doh!

So I cooked a bolognese instead.

Home from holiday,  I wanted to crack on with Botswana. I had another scout around for restaurants, but to no avail, so then back to some favourite sites that I've been using so far to source the recipes.

On the menu, Botswanan Chicken Groundnut Stew. It sounded revolting - chicken casseroled in a sauce of peanut butter, tomato puree, ginger, sugar and chilli flakes. With some fried onion and peppers in the mix. Served on a bed of mashed rice, shaped into balls.

But how wrong could I be, it was scrumptious and definitely one for the recipe book. Here's the preparation and cooking:

The sauce can only be described as a salmony pink colour. The chicken was browned with the onions and green pepper and, and then covered with the sauce, brought up to a simmer and allowed to cook away for an hour. I served it with rice balls - rice "overcooked" mashed and shaped into balls.

The whole thing was really quite good. A rich sweet nutty sauce, warming comfort food.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: lourobbo's kitchen

Hello foodies...taken me a little while to get round to writing up Bosnia. It's a couple of weeks ago now, I've almost forgotten what I cooked.

Let's look back at the photos:

 

To put it simply, Bosnia is about pies! Filo pastry pies. I made two types - Burek (spiced mince meat) and Krompirusa (potato, carrot and onion) served with a simple feta salad. They were quite straightforward to make, although I think I might have overfilled the rolls and the filo can be a little temperamental to roll into the "snail" shapes. A tasty meal however, and I'd do this one again.