We are coming to the end of our first sweep—from Ethiopia to Australia and the Pacific Islands on the beach comber route. Aboriginal DNA relates the closest to African DNA, making it the oldest population outside of Africa, on earth, which I think also means that these early migrators pushed hard and fast all the way to Australia (where they then hunted all the macrofauna, who had no fear of primates because there were none, to extinction). Crazy. Freaking homo sapiens!

Here are the final three soups from this region:

Today and Tomorrow until it’s gone: Anthony Bourdain’s Malaysian Kunching-style Laksa.
Spicy, withhomemade laksa paste, shrimp, chicken, homemade broth, coconut milk, galangal.

And look at this cute little galangal critter I found while testing the recipe

Through Monday: (Non) Roo Stew. We are making a recipe for Kangaroo Stew from Australia, but with beef instead of Roo—simple, hearty, beef and sweet potato stew that is perfect for the cold weather.

Starting Friday: Samoan Banana Soup. Yeah we went there. We’re making soup from bananas. Technically, this coconutty, creamy, tapioca studded soup is more of a dessert—but who says you can’t have a sweet soup? Or soup for dessert?

Then next week we start on a new path radiating out from the Middleast, in what was the Fertile Crescent.