EAT THE WORLD CHALLENGE
One of my favorite things about travel, and really life in general, is food. Out with my sister and best friend one night in the States, my sister turned to her and said "The best way to make Nikki happy is with food". She said this in relation to some kind of moaning and groaning I had been doing prior to sitting down in the restaurant. My best friend turned around and said "I know!". Of course they know this! I've dragged them both willingly and unwillingly to various restaurants and submitted them both to my moodiness and grumpiness when I haven't gotten food or something was wrong with my order. Everybody who knows me, knows I love food. So along with travel, its pretty high up there. Naturally, when I discovered the blog Global Table Adventure through a travel blogger friend (Ashley at A Southern Gypsy), I decided this was how I was going to spend my weekends when I am not traveling - EATING THE WORLD!
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What is EAT THE WORLD?
What is this "Eat the World" challenge, you ask? Sasha from a Global Table Adventure embarked on a challenge to cook meals and dishes from a new country every week. Starting in February 2010, they cooked and ate a meal from every country and territory in the world, finally completing the challenge in November 2013.
What an exciting adventure to take on! Upon discovering this blog, I instantly decided that I needed to do this too. I've found myself eating out a lot at restaurants - an easy and expensive way to satisfy your wanderlust but also throw your savings for travel down the drain! We all know it is much cheaper to cook food at home! So when I saw this blog, I thought I WANT TO DO THAT!
I decided that I was going to drag my boyfriend along for this as well. I thought he was not going to be interested frankly, and I thought it was going to be difficult to get him to on board or enjoy it! Well, I was WRONG! He is just as excited as I am and has some very strong opinions. He has been very vocal about how we should undertake this challenge, and has decided he would like his own special section on the blog posts. For a while now he has wanted to be featured on my Instagram or Blog as "THE TRAVELING NINJA".... And so here he is...
MEET THE TRAVELING NINJA
Fast Facts:
He is actually not in fact a Ninja
He was a state runner-up in wrestling and has a black belt in Taekwondo so I guess that counts
He has traveled to four countries: The Bahamas, Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and throughout the US
He's obsessed with Alabama football
He also insisted on using this photo for his profile on my blog - even after I said that it's not fair that he looks like a super model and I look awful!
He would also like it to be known that he will be very strict with his reviews, in order to be authentic as possible for his new readers. In other words, don't expect many 10's from this guy. The Traveling Ninja is also responsible for helping with movie selections and providing the kitchen space. Here's a picture of us from our first trip together to the Bahamas! I had a lot of fun taking pictures, while he did all the work!
HOW THE EAT THE WORLD CHALLENGE WILL WORK:
We will be cooking a meal from every country whenever our weekends allow. The country will be selected randomly every week, to avoid indecision and overwhelming feelings. I thought it may be a good idea to pick countries that will have easy recipes or things we know we will like to start with, but I was loudly drowned out by the Traveling Ninja. He insists on a random picking. The new country will be selected after our meal of the week. We will also be pairing our meal with a movie that is set or filmed in the country we are eating from. We both love movies so this will be a fun way to enjoy both of our hobbies!
OUR FIRST CHALLENGE
We wrestled with which country to start with. At this point in the decision making process we hadn't figured out how to do everything. I thought alphabetical order would be good, so we don't miss anything out. My boyfriend, who hasn't traveled as much, and possibly isn't as adventurous with food as me, was not keen to start with Afghanistan or Albania. I thought about going in reverse alphabetical order, but we may run quickly into the same problem. I didn't want to start with something too adventurous, and scare him or myself off the challenge. I then decided to settle on my home country of South Africa! Easy for me, delicious, and a slice of home! I am excited to partake on this new adventure! Click the EAT THE WORLD Tag for all our posts, or check out our first EAT THE WORLD: SOUTH AFRICA for the rest of our eating adventures from home.
