I’ve been really stuck on a lot of the small island nations - St Kitts and Nevis? Palau? With food - I prefer to go to a proper restaurant but for harder cases like Abkhazia I ordered some candy online (and debatable whether that’s a country any way)
Anyone else have a similar project?
Sounds like the sort of thing you could write a book about your journey kinda like an A J Jacobs book. He writes books about his journey following rules to the letter for a while. This could be similar to his book where he thanks every person responsible for his morning coffee.
You could do ABBA which is a brand of pickled herring and a band for Sweden. Not sure if there is a book in the same spirit.
Great book by a Swede… The 100 year Old Man who Climbed Out A Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Surprisingly good and funny. Light hearted. If you like books about people being on the road. Good stuff.
Nah, Västerbottensost is far more interesting.
It is a unique cheese made in Burträsk in Sweden, and I can recommend it far above pickled herring
also Nine Treasures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDmdlk14DV8&t=0
and my favorite Trigger Calvary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icPhDK3PTqc&t=1
Scotland
Food: Haggis, neeps, and tatties.
Music: Songs of Two Rebellions by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
Book: Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting (although i loved it when i was younger) is a bit grim.
Have you ever heard of “McAuslan in the Rough” by George Macdonald Frasier. Very fun, light hearted, but heartfelt, well written and more Scottish than a dram of the wee creature.
And yer no foolin’ we the Haggis, tatties and neeps.
Estonia
Food: Verivorst with lingonberry jam ideally, but cranberry will do in a pinch. Short of that, you can try our famous mustard, Põltsamaa Kange 
, which might be easier to import if you’re located far away.
Music: I’m mostly into hip-hop so in Estonian language I’d suggest Valitud Mõtted by Noizmakaz (‘Select Thoughts’) or Ühendatud Inimesed by Chalice (‘Connected People’). Both are from the 00s. Anything by Metsatöll is great if you want to listen to folk metal, I won’t even give you a specific album. Good Man Down by Ewert And The Two Dragons for something in English, it’s pretty good and has kind of a modern folk vibe (folk-ish music has been really popular last few decades here).
Book: Truth and justice is the obvious choice if you have time for a pentalogy. If you want something more modern and funny, The man who spoke Snakish is THE book to read. Andrus Kivirähk is a national treasure. Any time I happen to turn the radio on when his and Mart Juur’s show is on, it makes my Sunday morning much better. Somehow I’ve got like 300-400 books here in this house and that’s not one of them so I should go buy it since I’ve only read parts of it.
Canada: Poutine/Rush-Moving Pictures or 2112/Margaret Atwood - whichever title interests you.
Alias Grace is slept on, but Oryx and Crake fucked me up and changed my life.
Poutine is one of those foods that could be used as an argument for a benevolent creator deity.
Norway: kjøttkaker i brun saus (fried meatballs in gravy). “Grand Declaration of War” by Satyricon is a good introduction to Norwegian Black Metal. Any book by Jo Nesbø is a page turner, but if you want a true classic, go for Edda (collection of old Viking poems).
I should put together a spreadsheet, but really just through a kinda memory palace thing. Same way I track my place in books.
Russia: Eat Beef Stroganoff+buckwheat+chanterelles, read “Master and Margaret”, listen to “Целлулоид” (Celluloid) album by Tequilajazz.
It’s Album Time by Todd Terje is Norwegian electro jazz and one of my all time favorite albums
Laufey is an Icelandic singer of the traditional jazz pop style, I highly recommend her live albums. One was recorded with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Australia has a lot of fun hyperpop influnced acts and influencing acts. Skin by Flume is an all time classic but recently I would recommend I Love my Computer by Ninajirachi
choke enough by Oklou is a French dreamy bedroom pop album that I really enjoy, great for rainy days.
AAA is a great collab album between South Korean indie band HYUKOH and the Taiwanese synth jazz group Sunset Rollercoaster
Music Can Hear us by the German DJ Koze is a meandering exploration of sound that’s bound to have something for everyone eventually
KISS OF DEATH is a heavy hyperpop/hip-hop type deal from the Russian duo IC3PEAK, not dissimilar to the somewhat famous south African duo Die Antwoord.
And Philharmony is a wonderful synth pop album from the influential Japanese artist Haruomi Hosono that brings hardcore 80s vibes.
Those are just off the top of my head (and thus heavily skew towards recentish releases) let me know if anything piques your interest as I can find many more album recommendations.
The Netherlands. Food: Kapsalon, or poffertjes. Album: “Moontan” by The Golden Earring (though I prefer “Paradise in Distress”). Book: “De Ontdekking van de Hemel” (The Discovery of Heaven)
Yeah I did a similar thing - cooking a dish from every country in the world. Think I got to 30 countries or something and then I got distracted with other projects. Also struggled because the list I made had some nations without inhabitants.
Anyways! For Denmark, I’d recommend
As a classic alternative try:
-Frikadeller with potatoes and gravy
-Shubidua (any album)
-barndommens gade (street of childhood) by Tove Ditlevsen
New Zealand here. The most traditional Pacific Island foods are cooked in an earth oven - cover the food in tinfoil, wrap it in wet sacks, place it on hot stones in a hole you’ve dug, then cover it with earth until enough time has passed to cook it. Chances are you won’t find that in a restaurant, so I’m going to recommend our favourite dip. Take one can reduced cream (like condensed milk but thicker and unsweetened) and mix thoroughly with one packet dehydrated onion soup. Cover with film and leave in the fridge for an hour to set. Simple!
For an album I’m going to recommend We Rise by alt-metal band Devilskin. It’s uniformly good and singer Jenny Skulander has a powerful voice.
For a book, try Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir. Sci-Fantasy necromancers in space. How can you go wrong?
