Around the world in 193 meals

Talk about traveling the world via food. A husband-and-wife team blogging under the name United Noshes, is making one meal from each member state in the United Nations, alphabetically, as a series of dinner parties. That’s 193 meals, featuring widely varying ingredients from diverse cuisines.

Jesse Friedman and his wife, Laura Hadden, began this culinary journey three years ago “as a way to explore the culinary bounty of New York City,” their home at the time. The couple has cooked their way from Algeria to Libya so far, starting at home with intimate groups of friends and, as the project snowballed, cooking for dozens of guests in large venues.

Word about their adventure spread, and as their blog readership grew larger so too did the meals and the mission. What started as an exploration of culinary diversity morphed into a fundraiser, first for the U.N.’s world food program, and now for Mercy Corps, an international relief and development organization based in the couple’s new home city of Portland, Oregon. Diners each make a small donation, and to date the project has raised over $20,000 USD.

Friedman and Hadden expect to reach the halfway point of their project in a few weeks, but it will take about four more years for them to finish the project.

Photos of Algerian harira from indexed blog Great British Chefs and the Zimbabwean Goan prawn curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation: Britain’s 100 Favourite Curries