We all have a mental bucket list detailing the adventures we plan to have before we…well…kick the bucket.
My bucket list includes:
1. Swimming in a pool of spaghetti/popcorn.
2. Meeting a white walker (game of thrones) and conversing in guttural noises.
3. Singing a song to the love of my life and said song becoming a national anthem.
4. Visit the graves of Frida Kahlo and Pablo Neruda.
5. Write a book (I’m dead serious).
6. Peeing on snow in Switzerland.
7. Smashing a guitar on stage and managing to look cool while doing so.
8. Live with elephants for a week in Thailand.
9. Grow roses in my garden and not have them die.
10. Save someone’s life.
I’ve detailed my plans, what are yours?
Send ’em to theyoungindependents@inl.co.za. The most spectacular bucket list gets published 🙂 How about that?
My bucket list goes on and on but one of my innermost desires is to taste a spectacular dessert from every single country. That is 194 desserts to be had. That’s an immense amount of sugar, but we won’t worry about that for now. Its a bucket list, what do you expect?!
Here are 10 spectacular international desserts that you have got to have before you die:
1. India- Gulab jamun
Gulab jamun was first prepared in medieval India, derived from a fritter that Central Asian Turkic invaders brought to India. One theory claims that it was accidentally prepared by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s personal chef.
The word “gulab” is derived from the Persian words gol (flower) and āb (water), referring to the rose water-scented syrup. “Jamun” or “jaman” is the Hindi-Urdu word for Syzygium jambolanum, an Indian fruit with a similar size and shape.
2. Holland- Oliebollen
Oliebollen are said to have been first eaten by Germanic tribes in the Netherlands during the Yule, the period between December 26 and January 6 where such baked goods were used. The Germanic goddess Perchta, together with evil spirits, would fly through the mid-winter sky.
To appease these spirits, food was offered, much of which contained deep-fried dough. It was said Perchta would try to cut open the bellies of all she came across, but because of the fat in the oliebollen, her sword would slide off the body of whoever ate them.
3. Egypt- Basbousa
Basbousa (Arabic: بسبوسة), is a traditional Middle Eastern sweet cake. It is made from cooked semolina or farina soaked in simple syrup.
4. South Africa- Melktert
Good ol’ melktert; the Afrikaans name for ‘milk tart’; the classic, South African dessert consisting of a sweet pastry crust, filled with a mild, creamy custard of milk, flour, sugar and eggs, baked in a round pie tin and dusted with cinnamon after baking.
5. Peru- Suspiro de Limeña
Its history starts with the wife of poet Jose Galvez, Amparo Ayarza, who invented the recipe. Galvez gave it its name because it is sweet and light “like a woman’s sigh”.
6. China- Tangyuan
Tangyuan or tang yuan (“soup ball”) is a Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and then cooked and served in boiling water or sweet syrup.
7. France- Soufflé
A soufflé is a baked egg-based dish which originated in early eighteenth century France. It is made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients.
8. Poland- Babka
Babka means “little grandmother” in Ukrainian, Russian, and Eastern European Yiddish. It was adopted by actual “babas” (grandmothers) in the shtetls of Eastern Europe.
9. Niger- Caakiri
Caakiri (or Chakery, Chakrey, Thiacry, Thiakry, Tiakri) is a snack or dessert from Western Africa. It is similar to rice puddings.
10. Japan- Mochi Ice Cream
Mochi ice cream is a small, round dessert ball consisting of a soft, pounded sticky rice cake (mochi) formed around an ice cream filling.