The End

Taking the time to look back, I'm actually amazed by what I accomplished.  I can actually see the progression from simple ethnic meals to full blown feasts.  I made more desserts in one summer than I typically make in an entire year.  I was able to get my littles to try a vast assortment of new and interesting foods without any prodding.  I discovered a few recipe gems that were easy enough to incorporate into our hectic fall schedule.  These few things are what I came away with from our summer project.  My disappointment was huge, though, when asking the littles to summarize their summer and our Around the World Tasting project didn't even register, even while standing next to the huge wall map covered with flags!

Speaking of flags... it occurred to me after I was done posting our last meal, that I should have included a picture of the flags that the middle little created with each countries post.  Instead... I'll post them here... all 15 of them, created (some with a little help) by my 6-year old middle little.

Brazil

Romania

South Korea

Netherlands

Argentina

Spain

China

Morocco

Russia

France

Costa Rica

Saudi Arabia

Albania

Liberia

India

Our flag wall

 And here is our wall map with the eldest's thumbnail-sized flags.

I also asked the littles and husband to tell me their favorites from the summer.  Some of the responses were pretty predictable based on their reactions during the actual meal... a few other responses were a little surprising.

- The middle little said that Netherlands was his favorite "because it was food that I liked" and also liked South Korea because of it's flag.
- The eldest's favorites were Costa Rica, Albania, India (chutneys), and Brazil.
- The littlest didn't really give me any responses, but my guess would be Argentina's empanadas, Russia's piroszkis and borscht, and Costa Rica's hearts of palm salad.
- The husband said Costa Rica's fried plantains, France's boeuf bourguignon, Albania's lamb with yogurt, India's mango chutney and aloo gobi, and Russia's borscht.
- My favorites included Argentina, Spain, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, India.  For me, the experience is a little different, because my measurement is based on how much I enjoyed making the meal as well as how much I enjoyed eating the meal.

Of course, China, Argentina, Russia, Costa Rica, Albania and India will stand out as the meals I enjoyed the most as we were able to share them with friends.  Though of these, Albania may very well be the highlight, with the introduction of the Yeni Raki to the table, no matter how horrid the drink actually was.

Some parts of the project stand out for negative reasons, too.  Liberia's sweet potato pone was the consensus for the worst new taste experience.  The middle little did not like South Korea's kimchi even a little.

Though the project covered more than just the food/meals.  We learned a lot of interesting facts about each country, thanks to the two older littles doing some simple research.  However, sometimes the littles weren't so excited about looking up information, so there was a lot of pushing and nagging to encourage them to do their part of the project.  I would say that was the part that I disliked the most.  I just really wanted them to be as excited as I was.  The flags always were the first thing completed... as they loved the creativity involved with that part... but looking facts up on the computer wasn't as appealing.  I thought that Russia had the most interesting facts, but that is just my opinion.

As far as moving forward... there is no plan at this time.  I know that littles have already started a list for next summer, but maybe next summer, we can actually take a real vacation.  Or I'll take a friend's suggestion and keep the cooking a little closer to home by taking a culinary tour of our own country.