Safari

Japanese food is refined and elegant, its preparation and presentation honed over the centuries so its flavours are pure and delicate. Like many of the most highly developed cuisines on earth, Japanese food celebrates and highlights the flavours, textures and colours of seasonal produce. The first produce of the season is prized.

Australien, 1975: Es ist das Jahrzehnt von Pappkarton-Wein, schlimmen Frisuren, schlechtem Geschmack - aber verdammt guten Zeiten! Ein gestrandeter Blauwal verhilft einem verschlafenen Surferstädtchen zu plötzlicher Berühmtheit und bringt bei den Bewohnern einiges ins Rollen.

Croatia's central location in Europe means its cuisine offers the best of many different regions - along the beautiful Dalmatian coast, the food is Mediterranean, with many distinctly Italian influences. Further inland, what's known as continental Croatia is full of rich Austro Hungarian style dishes. The emphasis on food in both regions of Croatia is the same - the joy of getting extended families together.

Brazilian food is an exuberant, colourful mix of Portuguese, African and native foods including some from the Amazon. The native Indians had developed ways of preserving meats by smoking and drying them, they cooked corn porridge, cassava meal and sweet potatoes and discovered delicious foods such as heart of palm. In the middle of the 1500s, when Portuguese sailors discovered they could venture on long sea voyages by taking salted cod along with them for food, the area known as Brazil was discovered and colonised, and is now the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.

The French have elevated food into an art form …nowhere else on earth is so much attention paid to what people are going to eat and how they eat it. The reason is steeped in history - the fostering of the royal court, the subsequent revolution, the discipline of the apprentice system, the quality of ingredients and creativity of the chefs, and simply, the love of good food.

Pakistani cuisine is the lesser known food of the sub-continent and is rich in tradition, full of marvelous and diverse dishes. Pakistan was created in 1947 when India was partitioned and has a predominantly Muslim population. Although Pakistan is relatively new, the cuisine has developed many more years and incorporates elements from its neighbours - India, Afghanistan and Iran. The varied regions also means there are a whole range of different foods - from the fertile valleys and the sea of Sindh province; to pastoral Baluchistan, from neighbouring Iran; to the Punjab with its five rivers and the rugged North West Frontier, home of the chappli kebab.

Moroccan food is one of the most cleverly balanced cuisines on earth – spices are used to enhance the flavour of dishes and there is nothing like the warm waft of beautiful spices that seduce you when you open the lid of a tajine. The essence of Moroccan food is a communal style of eating, with many dishes shared by the family. The meal time is very social and eaten at a leisurely pace with much laughter and talking.

Korean food is some of the healthiest on earth, with an emphasis on vegetables, meats cooked simply and without much oil and a near obsession with the fermented vegetable kimchi. Much of the food that exists today and the customs surrounding it have come from royal cuisine and the complex customs of the ancient court. The food is a study in balance with consideration given to temperature, spiciness, colour and texture along with careful presentation.