If you are looking for healthy food then you could not do much better than considering the diet of the Spanish Mediterranean. It is purported to be one of the healthiest diets in the world, what with its abundance of fresh vegetables all year round, olive oil instead of saturated fats and high in fish intake, it contains all the goodness you need, natural sugars and salts and a low fat content.

I quote:
"Most Spanish meals are comprised of fresh, health-giving products. Plus, they tend to be easy to make.

What's more, modern Spanish chefs are continually creating new and innovative Spanish dishes, their aim being to offer you meals that are both a delight to your senses and beneficial to your health.
Spanish Food

I am of course biased in that I live in Spain, and one of my reasons for choosing to move here from the UK was the diet and then, of course, the weather.

Salads accompany everything here, natural and local grown fresh herbs are used in almost every dish, and the meat or fish is seasonal and usually fresh on the same day.

I have become very fond of the traditional Spanish mainland diet and swear by it as a healthy and wholesome way to get your daily food intake.

I include two of my favorite tapas recipes here and a link to a great site with loads of good, wholesome and healthy recipes for you to delight in.

'''Spanish Style Omelette - Tortilla'''

Ingredients - for 4 people

* 2 medium potatoes - peeled and diced 1cm square, or thickly sliced
* 6 eggs - lightly beaten
* 1 onion - peeled and chopped
* 1 clove garlic - peeled and crushed with salt
* Olive oil
* Seasoning

Method

* Heat oil in pan, add onion and garlic and soften.
* Introduce potato and sauté.
* Lower heat, cover pan, cook until potatoes are tender.
* Tip potato mixture in with beaten eggs.
* Transfer to another pan with clean oil.
* Cook over low heat 10-15 minutes until mixture is just set.
* Brown upper-side under hot grill.
* Leave to cool, then carefully turn out.
* Serve in triangles or bite-sized squares.
Tortilla

'''Stuffed Peppers - Pimientos Rellenos'''

This one is great for using up left over turkey or chicken, so perfect for an after holiday "special" diet!
Ingredients - for 4 people

* 4 green peppers - cored and de-seeded
* ½ small cooked chicken
* 1 onion - peeled and grated
* 2 ripe tomatoes - halved and grated, skins discarded
* 1 small glass milk
* 1 dessertspoon flour
* Olive oil
* Seasoning

Method

* Heat oil in pan and soften grated onion.
* Add grated tomato and cook over low heat about 5 minutes.
* Remove skin and bones from chicken and finely dice flesh.
* Introduce chicken to tomato and onion mixture.
* Cook 2-3 minutes.
* Stir flour into mixture and cook 1 minute.
* Pour in milk and heat until thickened - stirring.
* Season to taste and stuff peppers with mixture.
* Bake peppers at 180C for 30 minutes approx.
Pimientos Rellenos

This is a giant paella, usually served at large gathering, of which there are many in Spain. Its great watching them clean it out afterwards LOL
http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com/images/spanish-foods.jpg

PS Forgot to mention that pretty much everything contains garlic, which we of course know is excellent for cleaning up your system after lots of over indulgence.

Go to this site for loads of great Spanish recipes:
Spanish Recipes

I would have to spend a week eating Japanese food, and take it a step further and take the regional differences into account. Many popular Japanese dishes have interesting twists from region to region.

My personal favorites which are easy to find the ingredients for:

Tamagoyaki, which is a type of rolled omelet. It can be made sweetened, salty, or with a filling.
Okonomiyaki, which one could compare to a Japanese style pizza crossed with a pancake, and it can be topped with just about anything
Onigiri, rice balls, can be filled with different ingredients. The possibilities with these are endless and they are a lot of fun to make
yakitori, skewered meat like a kabob
miso soup, which i grew up eating for breakfast

There are a ton of noodle dishes to try, such as yakisoba, udon, or ramen. Im not talking about the gross prepackages ramen we all know. There are also just as many rice dishes to try.

I've almost forgotten my personal favorite, Tonkatsu, which is a pork cutlet that is breaded and fried. I like to serve it with curried rice and miso soup

This is a good source for checking out some basic japanese dishes, many of these have recipes as well. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2035.html

I think the foods of India are quite a cooking adventure. I am vegetarian and I find Indian Food a great solution when dining out with friends. There are enough meat based dishes to satisfy my carnivore friends and more than enough flavorful and colorful vegetarian dishes to satisfy me. The spices seem a bit complicated at first, but the same ones are used across many recipes. While Indian food is spicy, it isn't necessarily hot.

Brewing Chai Tea preparing vegetarian protein like Dal, making Paneer cheese, baking Naan bread and toasting and grinding spices for Garahm Masala, will really round out your cooking adventure.

Two of my favorite dishes are Saag Paneer and Chana Masala.

While I realize it may not be SUPER creative and the kids have probably had it, but Mexican food is extremely good and fairly healthy and pretty easy to find some fantastic recipies.

The first and best part of Mexican cooking (and in my opinion one of the tastiest parts!) is simply making corn tortillas. They go with almost everything - I included a simple recipe below.
They are easy to make, healthy and are a staple in Mexican cooking. From there, you can make Fajitas on the grill on Monday, you can make some tacos on Tuesday, enchiladas on Wednesday, Nachos on Thursday (fry the tortillas in some corn oil - maybe not SUPER healthy, but hey...) and then on Friday, mix it up with some stuffed bell peppers or Chile rellenos!!

I've included another link below for a number of great Mexican recipes that are pretty easy and fun to make. I must say (as a side note) HOW FUN!! I love your idea! I think we may do it at our house too!!]

Second side note - I realize that you all thought I would present Irish cuisine. Well, what can I say, my people don't make the greatest food on the planet, pretty much we have bread, beer, cheeses and the like, but nothnig super fun. Such is life!
Have fun!

Chinese.

Dry noodles
Sweet and Sour pork
Duck
Lemon Chicken
and a lot of other stuff

I would choose Japan (the rolls can be fun to make) and rice and fish are on the healthy side.

Another one that I would choose is Italian food, but mainly the regional dishes from the southern regions or cities like Naples, where it does not have a lot of butter but more olive oil and parsely, and a lot of the dishes do include seafood.

Yours sounds like a great idea, and I think I will copy you :)

PS- let us know the country you chose and the turnout

I would choose America, specifically the small section of America that contains Epcot's World Showcase.

Great idea! What a fun concept and a great learning opportunity for the children.

Ethiopian would be very fun and educational for your children. Also very healthy food. Most of the dishes can be made vegetarian. Ethiopian food is traditionally served all on one big platter covered with a special bread called injera

http://pakupaku.info/ethiopian/images/eparty.jpg

you can make your own injera or pick it up at a local ethiopian restaraunt and then cook the rest of the food yourself. Everyone eats off the same plate, you use bread as the only utensel, it is a very family oriented style of eating. Typical dishes include various colors of lentils or greens stewed in ethiopian spices. This is my favorite food of all time. Easy to make and tasty. There are tons of websites that have great recipes. you can burn the traditional frankincense resin incense that would be burned this time of year also for the added experience of involving all your senses. Maybe play some Ethiopian music as well.

Here is a site with a list of some popular dishes. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?categ=ethiopian,vegetarian

It's all about sharing and enjoying each others company, the traditional way to show affection in Ethiopia is for the man and the woman to actually feed each other by hand. Some great cultural experiences to be taught to the children, also a lesson in hygiene is important when everyone is eating with there hands.

Have fun....I think I might try this myself..I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

visit www.cooking food.com or if you want different countries recipies visit www.(country name)cooking food.com for example if you want italian food recipie you have to write www.italian cooking food.com.