United Nations Day is celebrated every 24 October to mark the official existence of the United Nations Organization in 1945.  To commemorate this important day, the Omar Niode Foundation would like to honor those who spend years to appreciate, cook and taste world cuisines by referencing the United Nations.

Charles Bibilos, a New York City-based eater, writer and private tutor is on a mission to eat food from every country in the world without leaving his city. Bibilos had set several criteria: countries are included only if the population is over 1,000,000 and food must be cheap. 

The United Nations of Food is quite flexible in terms of where the foods come from. They can be prepared in restaurants, food trucks, churches, mosques, and private homes. However, a native of the country must be involved in the food preparation, either as cook, chef or restaurant owner.

Archiving his progress in the United Nations of Food blog since August 2010, Charles Bibilos has eaten authentic cuisines from 124 out of his 160 target countries.

We are thrilled that Charles Bibilos listed Indonesian food as one of his favorites.

In Post No. 54 Indonesia: heaven on earth… specifically, in a parking lot in Astoria Charles described his visit to an Indonesian food bazaar in Astoria.

Some of the foods he tasted: chicken fritter, lontong ayam (chicken rice cake), nasi rendang (rice with caramelized beef curry) and serabi (rice flour pancake with palm sugar syrup and coconut milk) are popular Indonesian foods.

Charles Bibilos not only described the four appetizers, a full entrée, two desserts he ate but finely illustrated his cultural ineractions through communications with the Indonesian smiling ladies who were at the bazaar.

Visiting the Global Table Adventure site created by Sasha Martin is like sitting in a cozy library and traveling the world through pages and tastes of global cuisines.

The site is a celebration of every country in the world, a place where every week Sasha and her family (husband Mr. Picky and daughter Miss Ava) share their knowledge about a country, its food, and recipes tried in their little kitchen in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Global Table Adventure has videos staring beautiful Miss Ava tasting the foods, beginning with where the country is in the world map. The adventure, started with Afghanistan when Ava was 7 months old will reach Zimbabwe before she turns five.

Sasha Martin sharpened her culinary and writing skills through a variety of venues including her thesis The History of Artisan Bread Baking in France for Wesleyan University and a one year education at The Culinary Institute of America where she received the M.F.K. Fisher Writing Scholarship

We are very pleased that Sasha has researched and cooked several Indonesian dishes and included the recipes in her blog. These dishes  were gado-gado (Indonesian mixed salad) and peanut sauce, beef satay,  and nasi goreng (fried rice).

Sasha who has cooked foods from 145 countries out of her target of 195 countries believes that we create peace when we learn about each other, when we understand one another.

She is delighted that people join her family’s adventure by trying recipes or even starting their world cuisine trek.

Jesse Friedman and Laura Hadden are cooking meals from every United Nations member country as a dinner party and fundraiser for World Food Program USA.

The United Noshes, based in Brooklyn, New York, is a multi-year project to cook one feast from every United Nations member and permanent observer in alphabetical order, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Jesse, a product-marketing manager for Google, learned to cook from his father and to bake from his mother, began cooking for a large number of people when he was the food coordinator in a college folk festival. Laura who is managing a media for a non-profit story telling organization, and is an independent multimedia documentary producer, considers herself a reluctant foodie.

Jesse and Laura research recipes and prepare meals traditionally to create authentic cuisines.  The United Noshes like working with people from the country whose food they cook or those who have lived there. Around any country meal, usually sit the couple’s old friends, new friends, and friends of friends.

The United Noshes team who started their tasty project in July 2011 has not yet reached Indonesia but already cooked meals from 48 out of the 194 countries targeted. With a rate of 3 countries a month, they plan to cook Zimbabwean meals in the beginning of 2017.

Through the United Noshes blog, husband and wife Jesse Friedman and Laura Hadden meet new friends, learn cooking techniques and ingredients, explore the world through shopping and eating, and assist the less fortunate with thousands of meals. As of October 2012, the United Noshes has raised a total of $9,263 for the World Food Program USA

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NOTE:

We highly appreciate Charles Bibilos, United Nations of Food; Sasha Martin, Global Table Adventure; and Laura Hadden, United Noshes who graciously granted permission to use materials and images from their remarkable sites.

Other images: United Nations and Lightspring/Shutterstock