Culinary Globe-Trotting: Our Weekly International Cooking Challenge

We've recently started a fun thing at home that's helping us explore new foods and teach geography to our two young kids.

Here's how it works:

1. Visit random.country and click the button.
2. Get a random country and find its national dish.
3. Cook that dish one night during the week.

Sometimes, the national dish has hard-to-find ingredients. When that happens, we search for " popular food" and pick something else. If we can, we also try to make a dessert or side dish from the same country.

An Example - Eritrea

Every week, our routine is the same. On Saturday, one of the kids hits the big green button on random.country. The first country that pops up is our pick. We plan to cook from this country on either Monday or Wednesday, depending on how easy it is to find the ingredients.

Recently, we landed on Eritrea. I knew it was in Africa, but that's about it. So, I learned something new too.

I chatted with our oldest about where Eritrea is and watched some YouTube videos about it. She's only four, so it's hard to tell if it's sinking in. She's picky with food, so she didn't try what we cooked next.

According to random.country, Eritrea's national dish is Zigni. We decided to give it a try with beef and some new spices, served over our usual white rice.

It turned out great. We're planning to use the Zigni sauce again with chicken and chickpeas for variety. A heads up - it's quite spicy.

For dessert, we tried Himbasha, a bread with raisins and sesame seeds. It was different, not a favorite, but it was traditionally Eritrean.

That's our weekly routine.

Turning This Into a Product

I think there's potential to turn this activity into a product. I've found something similar online, but I believe it can be improved.

I've shared this idea with others, and they're intrigued. The question is, can this interest translate into sales or subscribers for a real product? That's the tricky part.

The appeal of this idea is its broad potential. Most people eat, many cook, and lots want to try global cuisines. This product could help those looking for new meal ideas.

Marketing it on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram seems promising, as they love unique cooking content. The big questions for me now are:

1. What would a basic version of this product look like?
2. What's the ultimate goal for this product?

I'll explore these questions in future posts as I think about building this product publicly.