#32 - Central African Republic

Technically Canada is the 32nd country on our list, but we made the executive decision to skip it. This decision was made after we tried to figure out what we would make if we were to have a meal of Canada's "national dish". Would we make poutine? Tortiere? Jig's dinner? Salmon and bannock? Something with maple syrup? Donair? Pea Soup? Smoked meat sandwiches? You can see our dilemma. In the end we decided that we eat Canada every night, so felt justified in the decision to move forward.

The meal Andrew chose to make from the Central African Republic sounded promising - Kanda is essentially a pumpkin seed and beef meatball with a spicy tomato sauce served over rice. It turned out to be, in Andrew's words "one step away from horrific". The smell while it was cooking was promising, but it's hard to find the words to describe the taste....other than not good. Ruth disagrees with this sentiment however, having finished not only her own, but some of mine, and she's planning on taking the rest for lunch tomorrow!

There also aren't too many "fun facts" about CAR. It's a landlocked resource-rich, but economically poor country that used to have a massive rainforest covering 36% of the total land mass (which is about the same size as Texas). But logging/deforestation and poor agricultural practices has resulted in the desertification of the northern part of the country. Joseph Kony (of Ugandan child soldier recruitment and crimes against humanity fame) chose the CAR to hide-out earlier this decade, but has never been captured.