Around the World in the Hetzel Kitchen

History : Gained independence from France in 1975.  Since then has had more than 20 coups or attempted coups. Location : Islands in Southern Africa, at the northern mouth of the Mozambique Channel, near Madagascar Area : 2235 sq km; 180th largest in the world         Slightly more than 12 times the size of DC Terrain : Volcanic islands Official languages : Arabic and French Religion : 98% Sunni Muslim Population : Almost 8 million; 162nd largest in the world Capital : Moroni Diplomacy : The US does not have an embassy in Comoros GDP : $800 million; 205th largest in the world Military : Women were first allowed in in 2004 Source: CIA Factbook Back to Africa, where we will stay for a little while.  I didn't know much about Comoros, and didn't know there were so many island nations around there.  This is why I do this.  Learning. Finding a recipe wasn't as difficult as it was for some other African countries, but there also weren't a lot of choices.  After

Excuses.  I could find a ton of them for why I have not written.  I bet I could even make a list.  I will not give into that desire, however.  I will limit myself to two.  One isn't really a good one, but it is true nonetheless.  I think the second one is legit.  I guess you can judge for yourself. Months ago, I very quickly found a recipe that I wanted to do for Colombia.  It had all of the makings that I look for.  New ingredients, delicious-sounding.  AND it was published in the Washington Post from the cook at the Colombian Embassy.  How perfect! Here it is.   Sorry it is annoyingly on multiple pages. I went out and bought all of the ingredients except for two: papa criolla (Colombian potatoes) and dried guascas.  Couldn't find them in the Latin American section.  No worries.  Visit to the Latin American grocery store: no luck.  I even asked and the guy there couldn't help me.  A trip to the gigantic international grocery store didn't help either.  I was stuck

Yes, it has been a really long time.  I'm not going to go into why - that is for next post.  I can tell you that I am back to cooking.  Two more countries checked off and I've already got a few recipe ideas for the countries after that.  No, I have not given up. Please assume I had witty and hilarious things planned for this post.  I just forgot them all. So, China.  I already made duck and vegetable stir fry, pot stickers and kung pao chicken.  I really wanted to make quail for the third day.  Kevin however, had other ideas.  And I obliged him.  Partially because he is cute and partially because it seemed like a good idea. For him I would make Char Siu, or Cantonese Roast Pork.  The best part of that is Char Siu was one of the ingredients in Yangchow Fried Rice.  He could get a lot of his favorite things all in one meal.  It also seemed like a good way to round out our Chinese experience. "Lean pork butt" was the cut of meat that the recipe called for, and I