Maldives - Gulha
Recipe from https://maldivescook.com/recipe/gulha/
Gulha, traditional Maldivian snacks, are deep fried dumplings filled with a fragrant mix of tuna, coconut, onion and chilli. This recipe also included curry leaves, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, lemon and turmeric. The dumplings can range in size up to roughly the size of ping pong balls. I opted to go bigger, so I could get more filling in. The dough around the outside is very simple, just a mix of flour, water, salt and vegetable oil. Perfect straight out of the oil (after draining off excess of course), the insides are steaming hot and juicy, perfect to enjoy with tea.
Samoa - Panipopo
This picture really does not do any justice to the pure joy that is Samoa's panipopo (pani - bun, popo - coconut). The bun is made of an enriched dough, naturally created from scratch, and is yeasted with plenty of butter. The initial batter is impressively wet, which makes the most gorgeously fluffy dough. After double-proving, the dough is formed into buns and cooked in a sweet coconut sauce of coconut cream, sugar and a little flour for thickening. I really can't recommend this dessert enough. Imagine the iced buns you probably got for school lunches, then replace them with something 100x better, moist and sweet and well flavoured.
Poland - Bigos
Recipe from https://polishhousewife.com/bigos-polish-hunters-stew/ and https://polishfoodies.com/polish-bigos-recipe/
For Poland's bigos, I used an amalgamation of two recipes as I was excited by all of the variations I could see. One added plum jam, where another went for pitted prunes and apples, so I decided to do the best of both worlds. All recipes did share many similarities, however. At the most basic, the dish is a stew of sauerkraut and a whole lot of meat. The recipe at polishhousewife.com calls for diced pork, diced beef, bacon and Polish sausage (or kielbasa). The stew has the unmistakable taste of sauerkraut, but without its overpowering sourness. This, combined with the sweetness of other ingredients, is perfect to offset the very salty, smoked sausage and bacon. I served with both noodles and a hunk of bread I had happened to make the day before. Definitely a dish to revisit.
Serbia - Pljeskavica
Serbia's answer to the burger is pljeskavica, a mixture of pork, beef, onion, sparkling water and paprika. Served in a pitta, the pleskavica is significantly wider and a bit flatter than a normal burger. Any eagle-eyed readers may notice what appears to be two burgers in the pitta, but in reality the patty is just that big that it needed splitting in half. The pitta was also filled with gherkins, slices of onion, ajvar (a fresh sauce of blended roasted pepper and aubergine) and kajmak (a clotted cream-esque fresh cheese). The natural sweetness of the red pepper in the ajvar and the acidity of the pickles worked well to offset the salty patty.
São Tomé and Príncipe - Calulu
Recipe from https://www.maisreceitas.com/calulu-de-s-tom/
São Tomé and Príncipe's calulu is a simple stew of chicken and mussua (or kale, as I used here), cooked with palm oil, garlic, chilli, bay, marjoram and various vegetables including aubergine, tomato and okra. Very tasty, with very tender chicken, but nothing particularly exciting or different.