Join twowildtides on the country challenge. Each week, we’re going to be heading to a new country (in spirit). Primarily, we’ll be cooking a meal from each country; but we’ll also be watching travel documentaries, reading travel blogs, and listening to music. During the global pandemic, travel was largely inaccessible. We want to reignite our wanderlust, satisfy our travel bug as much as we can, and learn some new things along the way. I have a feeling our bucket list will have a number of items added to it through this experience as well. We created a simple alphabetical spreadsheet with all the countries of the world, and each week we will draw a random number that corresponds with a country on the spreadsheet.
This week, we found ourselves in Namibia, which is a country on the southwest coast of Africa. Namibia is known for its wildlife population, specifically cheetahs, and its beautiful national parks. It has an extremely dry climate and the largest sand dunes in the world.
While researching Namibian dishes, I noticed two patterns: 1) they incorporate a lot of specific, local ingredients (such as worms and mushrooms) and 2) many popular dishes are telling of the country’s colonial history. I tried to find a dish that was authentically Namibian, rather than German- or Dutch-inspired. Kapana is a local street food that has an interesting history of entrepreneurship and economic development. It’s grilled beef with a particular spice blend, served with fresh salsa. We followed these recipes by Namibian food blogger Ester Kocht:
This dish was extremely easy to make and the spice blend was delicious. I made a double batch of the spice blend to store in the cupboard for future meals and even used it on a pork tenderloin later this week for pulled pork tacos. I will certainly make Kapana again for potlucks, BBQs, finger foods, or to serve with rice for a full meal.
Let us know what you think!