Welcome to Suriname!!  A tiny country on the coast of  northern South America that seems like nobody knows about it. We chose this out of 33 countries that start with S because it seemed very interesting, and we didn’t really know anything about it. Being full of Indians, Africans, Maroons, Chinese, Javanese, White, and Amerindian people it is one of the most diverse countries in the world.

The Dutch colonized Suriname. Well, that seems quite crazy because the Dutch didn’t really have any other colonies. Spain and Portugal were the one who colonized pretty much all of South America, except most of the Guiana area. This area was easy to colonize because it bordered the Caribbean sea which was easy to access from Europe. It was made colonized by Spain, Portugal, England, France, and Holland.

The Dutch and British then brought in lots of slaves, then People from India, and Java (Indonesia) and Suriname became what it is today, even though it has lots of border disputes with neighboring countries.

Here’s our Power Point for more information about this interesting country: suriname

Interesting Facts

• The Dutch gave New Amsterdam to the British in exchange for Suriname when the Dutch invaded in 1667.
• Suriname is the leading producer of Bauxite, the main metal found in aluminum
• Adults under the age of 30 are not allowed to get married in Suriname without a written permission from their parents
• Suriname has a famous Toad “the Surinam Toad” or also known as “Pica Pica” and has some seemingly unique reproductive practices. The female Pipa Pipa raises tadpoles to mini toad size in the spongy skin of her back and doesn’t have a tongue or teeth

Food

Suriname has a mix of food. The slaves and workers brought over there own foods and  mixed it with the local dishes. Suriname food is pretty mild except they have a really spicy sauce called: Sambal. Besides that they also have there own take on Indian and Indonesian foods.

Dinner

Cabbage Salad  – The Recipe is in Dutch so use google translate to see what it was in English. The salad was crunchy and really good.

Pom Recipe – It is a chicken and cassava casserole. The Africans in Suriname modified this recipe from one that Jewish people there brought over.  Its a traditional dish eaten on special occasions. It is crunchy and soft, I liked the chicken on the bottom the best.

 

 

Dessert

Bojo Cake – Basically coconut, cassava, sugar and egg and We added sugar on top to make it more sweet. After that it was really good also. It is soft and I had this several times after we made the cake.

Breakfast

Fried Plantains with Bakabana Sauce – The Bakabana sauce is a spicy peanut sauce. It
couldn’t stop eating them because they were so good. The freed plantains are sweet and go well with the Bakabana sauce.

Roti – Borrowed from the Indian’s, Suriname people love Roti. We just mixed two cups of flour, 1tsp salt 1Tbls oil and 3/4 cup water. Then let the dough sit for  a bit them cooked the dough up in a hot pan.

Culture

 

For the Culture we danced to a type of music called Kaseko, which comes from the french “casser le corps,” which mean “to break the body.” So the dance does has a lot of movement and some people play the drums. Somebody sings and a choir replies. It really a combination of African, European and American styles developed by the slave that were there. We watched this to get an idea of the dancing and sound:   Kaseko dance.

Flag

The star in the center of the flag represents the unity of all ethnic groups, being a very diverse nation.

The red stands for progress and love, the two green stripes stand for hope and fertility and the white stands for peace and justice. For more information go here: Suriname Flag Wikepedia

By Isaac

For R we chose Romania, because we hadn’t “traveled” to Europe in a while! While this country is most famous for its storied cruel ruler (Count) Vlad Dracula, that is just a small portion of its history. Romania’s story also includes two separates states, Hungarian rule over Transylvania for hundred of years, Russian control for sometime, Communism and finally free elections and entrance into the European Union in the 1990s.

What we found most interesting about Romania is how much the land is similar to our state of Maryland with its mountains, forests, and coastline and a climate of lows in the 20s and highs in the upper 70s. Consequently many of the animals  – deer, foxes, bears – and crops – wheat and corn – are similar as well. With its 2,000 year history does have way more castles and much older, cuter villages!

Inspired by Isaac, I decided to put together a Power Point of information and he helped on several slides! You can read it her: Romania.

And some interesting facts about Romania we enjoyed were:

• Romania was known as Dacia in ancient time
• Walachia and Moldavia were the first Romanian states.
• The Parliament Palace in Romania’s capital of Bucharest is the largest legislature building in the world
• In 1884, Timișoara became the first European city to have electric street lighting
• Francesco Illy, the founder of Illycaffè was born in Romania in 1892. He also invented the first automatic steam espresso coffee machine

FOOD

Romanian food, as expected, has Eastern European flavors. Ground meats, soured cabbage and other vegetables and lots of cheeses and cream! While the spices don’t provide much heat, they are flavorful of coriander, paprika and black pepper. And fortunately I have a friend who is Romanian (Thanks Felicia!), so she shared some great recipes to make our meals truly authentic!

Breakfast

 

Romanians eat a traditional European breakfast with eggs, meat, bread and cheese. The big difference is they prefer vegetables (not fruit) on the side – like cucumbers –  and usually have on had a eggplant/red pepper spread called Zacusca. We couldn’t find any at Whole Foods so we decided to make some ourselves.

• Hard boiled Eggs
• Fried Ham
• Crusty Bread
• Soft Cheese
• Zacusca – We followed this recipe, sort of, cutting it back by three-fourths and using jared roasted red peppers and pre-roasted the eggplant. Isaac loved it so much he had it for breakfast the next day and Daddy declared it would go great with wine!

Dinner

 

My Romanian friend provided me with a complete menu for dinner – including some fabulous dessert. We were not surprised by the stuffed cabbage but were intrigued by Romania’s love of feta cheese!

• Romanian Stuffed Cabbage  – what makes this Romanian is that the cabbage is “soured” so it tastes more like sauerkraut. All the adults enjoyed this (grandparents joined us, too!) but the kids were not the biggest fans
• MĂMĂLIGĂ CU SMĂNTĂNĂ – Everyone thought this was delicious. Basically polenta with lots of feta cheese and cream!
• FOR DESSERT: Salam di biscuiti – Literally translates into “Salami of biscuits
  (cookies)”. So yummy and quite easy to make. Daddy said this was definitely a repeat!

CULTURE

 

 Romanian is famous for its pottery! Particularly in the town of Horezu where they have been making pottery the same way for centuries – even still using a hollowed bull horn and feather tip to paint! 

So we learned all about Romanian pottery and Horezu here: Horezu Pottery And watched it in action here (though the best video we could find was in French): Romanian Pottery And then we decided to paint some of our own pottery (or, err, acrylic plates) in the same style!

Next up is S. We have a lot to choose from, but we finally going to South America to explore Suriname!