Introducing Italy

Buongiorno! I am pretty happy to announce that this week coming (and the week prior, but whatever) is Italy week here at the Roundtheworldvegan kitchen.

Since I was little I have always wanted to visit Italy. It looks beautiful, the language is beautiful, and most of all, the food is divine! I probably wont be getting there for a long while, but it doesn’t mean I can’t bring a little Italy into my kitchen.

First, a little bit about Italy.

Where is it?

There it is!

Well, its in the Mediterranean Sea, sharing borders to the north east with Austria and Slovenia, and to the north west with Switzerland, France and San Marino.

Facts and Figures

• Population:58,090,681
• Median Age: 43.7 years (Really quite high)
• Birth Rate: 1.32 children born per woman (one of the lowest in the world)
• Life Expectancy at Birth: 80.33 years
• GDP per capita:$30,700 (2010 est.)
• I usually cover religion, languages and ethnicities here, but Italy seems to be quite homogeneous, according to the CIA world fact book: 90% catholic, nearly 100% Italian (the CIA is counting German-Italian and Slovenian-Italian as the same), with the predominant language being Italian, except in border areas.
• Unemployment: 8.4%
• Economic Equality (Gini Index): 32, which is more equal than Japan or Canada, but not as equal as Sweden (the fairest) or Australia.

Random other Italian bits and pieces

• One of the healthiest, longest living groups of people in the world live in Campodimele, Italy (according to a book I got for my birthday about living forever (a long time) via good nutrition).
• Italy competed in the Eurovision Song Contest frequently from the first in 1957 until 1997. It hasn’t entered since 1997.

Mmmm, this is the Italy week menu!

• Canneloni (my favourite pasta dish)
• Stromboli – rolled pizza
• Gnocchi – potato dumplings
• Risotto
• Arancini – risotto balls
• Gelato
• Big salads
• Riso Nero (from my book)
• Antipasti, various
• Braised Lentils
• Bruschetta
• some kind of polenta
• “meat” balls, if I get time

Hope you can join me for it!

Introducing: the Philipines

A while ago now, I came across a book about Phillipino food at the Coburg Library. I can’t find it now, so I can’t tell you who it was by. It was, I think, called “The Food Of The Phillipines” and it was small and full of really interesting recipes.

In anycase, this is what made me decide to cook from the Phillipines, a country which I will now introduce you to.

Where is it?

The Philipines is an archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam. Being a group of Islands, it doesn’t have any land borders with anyone, but it is close to Malaysia.

Stats and Facts

• Population: 99,900,177, making it the 12th most populous country in the world.
• Median Age: 22.7 years
• Fertility Rate: 3.23 children per woman
• Life expectancy at birth: 71.38
• Religions: Roman Catholic 80.9%, Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1%
• Languages: Filipino (official; based on Tagalog) and English (official); eight major dialects – Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan
• Ethnic Groups: Tagalog 28.1%, Cebuano 13.1%, Ilocano 9%, Bisaya/Binisaya 7.6%, Hiligaynon Ilonggo 7.5%, Bikol 6%, Waray 3.4%, other 25.3%
• Literacy: 92.8%
• Main Industries: electronics assembly, garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, wood products, food processing, petroleum refining, fishing
• GDP per capita: $3300
• Unemployment rate: 7.2%

Menu plan

• sinangag (garlic fried rice)
• Lumpia (spring rolls)
• Harbas con Chorizos (bean and sausage salad)
• Ginataang Talong (eggplant in coconut mik)
• Sisig (mince dish)
• Kalabasa at Sitwa Sa Gata (squash in coconut milk)
• Vegetable Adobo

Introducing Belarus! Amazing!

I think the only people I’ve ever heard pronounce “Belarus” are presenters of Eurovision. So in my head the title of this post must be read in high-pitched, heavily accented English, with far too many exclamation marks, and followed by rapid French which may or may not be an actual translation of the English.

Anyway, here’s some stuff about Belarus! Quoi qu’il en soit, here’ ; s une certaine substance au sujet du Belarus ! Absolutely amazing! Absolument!

Where is it?

Belarus is a landlocked country in eastern Europe, which shares borders with Russia to the East, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to the North and West, and the Ukraine to the South. The capital is Minsk!, which is fun and a little satisfying to say, and it looks to be sort of in the middle of Belarus! Fantastic!

Votre robe a tant de sequins! Son brillant. Je ne me sens pas comme parler du Belarus, personne lit ceci de toute façon. Fantastique!

People and Economy

• Population: 9,612,632
• Median Age: 38.8
• The population has a negative growth rate, due to slowing birth rate and people moving out of Belarus.
• Amazing! huit points!
• Ethnic groups: Belarusian 81.2%, Russian 11.4%, Polish 3.9%, Ukrainian 2.4%, other 1.1%
• Languages: Belarusian (official) 36.7%, Russian (official) 62.8%, other 0.5% (includes small Polish- and Ukrainian-speaking minorities) (inclut les enfants miniature qui parlent Poli ou Ukrainien!!!)
• Religion: Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20%
• GDP per capita: $12,500
• Unemployment: 1% but there is a problem of underemployment

Fun facts about Belarus

• Their presidents serve terms of 7 years! C’est un long temps! Camembert! Absolument!
  
• Belarus has been sending contestants to the Eurovision Song Contest since 2004. Au cas où vous ne pourriez pas dire, j’aime Eurovision beaucoup!
• Belarus has given its 12 points to Russia at 6 out of the 7 Eurovision’s they’ve been to. Essayez-vous sérieusement toujours de sembler raisonnable du Français? Eurovision! Stupéfier! douze points!
  

  Could this man become the president?

Links

• CIA World factbook
• Wikipedia
• The Virtual Guide to Belarus
• Belarus at Eurovision
• To “speak French” as well as me, check out http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt

Introducing: Lebanon!

First up, sorry for the gap in posting. I have a full time job again now, working up to the Vic election, and its taking up most of my posting time Readers can probably expect more gaps over the next 47 days.

This week we have been cooking and eating Lebanese food. I say we, because now that I’m working somenights, Mr is doing some of the cooking. I say “have been” because I’ve been super sack at posting, and am more than a week behind! There’s a whole country we’ve done at home that I haven’t even told you about!

This is an easy one for us. We ordinarily eat a lot of Lebanese (and similar) food, because we live in a suburb with lots of Lebanese restaurants, grocers, bakeries and felafel joints. This means we get zatar wraps with salad on the weekend, we eat felafel when we can’t be bothered to cook, we get great spice mixes, breads, and frozen felafel or felafel mix, and zatar bread has become a car trip tradition. Brunswick really is a yummy place to live.

About Lebanon – where is it?

Lebanon is in the middle east, on the Mediterranean Sea, and borders Syria to the north and west, and Israel to the south. The capital Beirut is approximately in the middle of the coast.

About Lebanon – people and economy

• Population: 4,017,095
• Median age: 29.4
• Life expectancy at birth: 73.66 years
• Birth rate: 1.78 children born per woman
• Religions: Muslim 59.7% (Shia, Sunni, Druze, Isma’ilite, Alawite or Nusayri), Christian 39% (Maronite Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Catholic, Armenian Catholic, Syrian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Chaldean, Assyrian, Copt, Protestant), other 1.3%
• Languages: Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian
• Literacy: Male 93.1% Female 82.2%
• Suffrage: all men at age 21, women with elementary education at age 21. Those in the army can’t vote.
• GDP per capita: $13 200
• Unemployment rate: 9.2%

Did you know…?

Lebanon entered the Eurovision song contest in 2005, but had to withdraw as there was an Israeli contestant and Lebanese law prevents and Lebanese television station from showing Israeli content. The station received a three year ban, and there have been no moves from the country to enter again.

The Menu

This may look a little involved, but most of the food is easy and quick to prepare.

• Babaganoyj (eggplant)
• Tomato salad
• chickpea dip with “beef”
• potato kibbeh
• pumpkin kibbeh
• tabouli
• ful medames
• batata harara
• lentils and rice
• tomato kibbeh
• zatar
• pizza
• felafel

I’d say wish us luck, but we’ve already made half of this list. That said, as you’ll see, we could have used the luck this week!

Introducing Malaysia

This week we’re eating the food of Malaysia, by Mr.’s request for “more familiar food”. Having traveled in Malaysia and lived in Singapore, Malay food fits that bill perfectly.

There are a few cuisines that are prominent in Malaysia, due to a mixed cultural population: Malay, Nonya, Indian, Chinese, Eurasian and fusions of these. I plan to make some dishes from each, except Indian, as there’s a restaurant I want to tell you about instead.

The Menu Plan

I am pretty excited, and I’m looking forward to making some of my favourite foods, as well as some new and interesting dishes I haven’t tried before. I will be using some of my own recipes, one or two internet-provided recipes, and I will be also using a book, The Food of Malaysia, by Wendy Hutton, which Melbournites can borrow from the Preston City Library.

• Nasi lemak (tofu, sambal and coconut rice)
• Kway teow (fried noodles)
• Devil curry (curry)
• Ais limau (lime cordial)
• Nasi goreng (fried rice)
• Nasir kerabu (herbed rice)
• Ayam Masak Merah (red cooked “chicken”)
• Rendang daging (“beef” rendang)
• Asam laksa (sour nodle soup)
• Sambal terong (spicy eggplnt)
• Nonya wedding rice

The country: Geography

Malaysia is made up of the Malay Peninsula, between the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea, a number of islands in both the Strait and the South China Sea, and East Malaysia, which shares a border with Indonesia and with Brunei, on the island of Borneo.

On the peninsula Malaysia shares a border with Thailand to the North, and while they do not have a land border with Singapore, you can travel between the two countries via a Bridge that crosses the Johor Strait. The Capital is Kuala Lumpur.

Map, courtesy of http://travelmalaysiaguide.com/malaysia-maps/

People and Economy

• Population: 25,715,819
• Median Age: 26.5 years
• No of children born per woman: 2.92
• Ethnic Groups: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8% (2004 est.)
• Religions: Muslim 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)
• Languages:
  Bahasa Malaysia (official), English, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Hainan, Foochow), Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai
  note: in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
• Literacy: male: 92% female: 85.4%
• GDP per capita: $14,900
• Unemployment Rate: 3.7%
• Gini Index (indicates equity wealth): 46.1, which is 36th least equitable in the world. (Fairer than Singapore, less fair than the US)

Other Stuff

Malaysia is the first place on this blog (other than Australia) that I have actually visited, so I’m gonna share a little of my own info. I have to say, it is on the whole, entirely awesome. The people are awesome, the food is awesome, the weather is hot and sticky (but I kinda like that if I’m on holiday), its easy to get around, and the buildings, cultural difference, and natural sites are great. We had a whirl-wind tour of KL, Penang, Pulau Tioman, and Johor Nahru (for a wedding), and I’m looking forward to going back to explore further.

For the vegan traveller food is not too hard to come by, if you know where to look. At lunch there is often a Chinese Buddhist restaurant or stall open, with yummy buffets of vegies, mock and tofu. You can also get snacks such as sweet biscuits, rice wrapped up in pandan leaves, and nuts, which you can take with you to munch on while you wander, and when you find them its worth stocking up.

At breakfast and dinner you’ll have better luck looking for some indian food – say you want Jain Food. Dairy can be difficult to avoid in Indian restaurants, as it isn’t common to avoid it, and there are various languages spoken: the trick is to ask a question where “no” is the answer you want, such as, “Does this have dairy”, rather than than, “can you make it dairy-free”, as most wait staff are eager to please, and may to say “yes” when they don’t understand or are unsure, as well as when they mean it.

If you get really stuck there is always fruit, Ais Kechang (a mountain of red beans, shaved ice, colourful syrups, jelly and fruit), and drinks available at markets, and nuts, tofu-dessert and other snacks are around at any supermarket/grocery store.

Also, you can get drinks in a plastic bag. Just saying, awesome.

So, clearly, I’m looking forward to this week, hope you can tag along

Introducing Mexico

I’ve been looking forward to taking this blog to Mexico since I began it. Now that our corriander is preparing to bolt (and needs using before it starts to taste like grass) its time to take a trip south of the border and soak up the spices.

Geography

Mexico is in North and Central America, between the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean to the east. It shares a northern border with the United States of America, and southern borders with Belize and Guatemala.

Mexico is almost 2million Square Kilometers in size, and is the 15th largest country in the world, in terms of physical size. Its a little bigger than Indonesia, and about a quarter the size of Australia.

Economy, People and politics

• Population: 111,211,789, 11th largest population in the world.
• Median Age: 26.7 years old
• Ubanisation: 77% of the population live in urban areas
• Life expectancy at birth is 76 years.
• Ethnicity groupings: mestizo (Amerindian-Spanish) 60%, Amerindian or predominantly Amerindian 30%, white 9%, other 1%
• Religions: Roman Catholic 76.5%, Protestant 6.3% (Pentecostal 1.4%, Jehovah’s Witnesses 1.1%, other 3.8%), other 0.3%, unspecified 13.8%, none 3.1% (2000 census)
• GDP per capita: $13 200 (it was $14 300, however Mexico has been heavily impacted by the GFC).
• Unemployments: 5.5% (has risen from 4% in 2008). However there is a note on the CIA age, stating that underemployment may be as high as 25%.
• 18% of people are below the poverty line, using a food-based scale. Using an assets-based scale, 47% of people are below the poverty line.
• The Government consists of a popularly elected President, appointed Ministers, and an elected Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
• The main language is Spanish, though indigenous languages are also spoken.

Trivia

• Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
• There are 62 Government-recognized indigenous languages.
• Presidents are elected for only one single 6 year term.
• Exports to the US generate more than a quarter of Mexico’s GDP
• There is a special coming of age ceremony for girls in Mexico when they turn 15, called quincera.
• The Mexican flag has an image of bird holding a snake and sitting on a cactus, because it is said that the people were told to settle in the place they saw this. The place they settled became Mexico City.

Onwards and upwards now… looking forward to sharing the food we’ve been eating over the last few days…

Introducing….Australia!

This week we’ll be eating what we grew up eating. That’s right, it’s time to visit our home country, Australia.

Why? Because I still have a whole pumpkin left over from the bounty we scored at my Auntie and Uncle’s place, and, as it turns out, we Aussies eat more pumpkin than many other countries.

But now, its time for some stats and info.

Australia, where the bloody hell is it?

Australia is made up of the mainland, the island of Tasmania, and lots and lots of tiny islands. The Pacific Ocean is to the East, and the Indian ocean is to the West, with the Tasman Sea between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, the Coral sea to the very North East, and the Timor and Arafura Seas to the North.

Basically, its North of Antarctica, East of New Zealand, and South of Indonesia, but shares no land borders with, well, anyone.

We have 5 States and 2 Territories, and the capital is Canberra, which is inland on the Eastern side of the country.

Economy, People and Politics

• Population: 21,515,754
• Urbanisation: 89% of the population
• Median Age: 37.5 years old
• 1.78 children are born per woman
• Ethnicity has been calculated at 92% white, 7% asian, and 1% other. (i don’t know who they’re counting, and if they’re leaving people out)
• About 63% of people claim to be some denomination of Christian, about 18% of people are Atheists (myself included), 2.1% are Buddhist, 1.7% Muslim, 2.4% Other, and 11.3% are ‘unspecified’.
• GDP per capita: $38, 800
• Unemployment is about 5.6%

Australia is a Constitutional Monarchy, with the Queen of England as our Head of State, and the Australian Governor General as her representative. That said, the Cabinet and Prime Minister (who doesn’t exist n the Constitution) actually run the country, although legislation and budgets must be passed by both houses of parliament (explained below).

There are three levels of Government in Australia (for most places – some only have 2): Local Councils, State Government, and Federal Government. There are two houses in Federal Parliament, the House of representatives (lower hose), and the Senate (upper house).We also have an appointed High Court.

We don’t have fixed terms for the Federal parliament, however they are approximately 3 years for Members in the House of Representatives, and 6 years for most members of the Senate. Half of the State senators are elected at every election. There are 4 senators from Territories (2 each for the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory) who are elected every three years. Voting in State and Federal elections is compulsory for everyone over the age of 18.

There are currently a number of political parties in the Australian political arena, as well as some independents. The system has long been considered a two party system comprising of the Liberal Party (economically neo-liberal, social conservatives) and the Labor Party (a teeny bit less socially conservative, economically less neo-liberal,), but that is changing as support for the Greens grows.

The next Federal election has just been announced, and will be held on Saturday the 21st of August, 2010.

Interesting stuff about Australia

• We’re the 6th biggest country in the world – Russia, Canada, the US, China and Brazil are bigger, India is smaller.
• About 1% of the population is Vegan.
• We invented notepads, aspirin and the wine cask
• Right at the moment, we have our first ever Woman Governor General and Women Prime Minister.

Introducing- Tunisia

After a week off, we’re back, and heading to …Tunisia!

Where is it?

Tunisia, or the Tunisian Republic, is a North African nation on the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. The capital is Tunis, located on the Gulf of Tunis, across the Mediterranean from Marsala.

There it is! Courtesy of About

People and politics

Population: 10 589 025 Million

Demographics: The median age is 29.7, the fertility rate is 1.71 (children born per woman), 98% of all people are Muslim, 1% are Christian and 1 % are Jewish.

Economy: the national GDP per capita is $8000. 3.8% of the population have incomes below the poverty line (note that standards differ, and I don’t know what they are for Tunisia). They have approximately 14% unemployment.

Language: The official language is Arabic

Tunisia is considered to be the 27th least democratic country in the world, according to the Economist’s Democracy index. There are several opposition parties, and general elections have been held, making it a Presidential Democracy in theory, however this is reputedly just for show, and Amnesty International reports that severe human rights abuses continue, and Reporters Without Borders claim that journalists in Tunisia are among the least free in the world.

Other stuff about Tunisia

The ancient city of Carthage (seat of power for the Carthaginian Republic) is/was located in Tunisia, on the coast, near the modern capital, Tunis. The ruins are still there.

They have a very pretty flag. See:

So, that’s a brief (very brief) run down on Tunisia…. watch this space for some food. Mediterranean meets African, its going to be yum!

As per usual, you can find info on Tunisia at Wikipedia, the CIA World Fact Book, and here.

Introducing: Japan

Hooray! Its time to visit a new country (via the interwebs), and try to cook their food. I’ve been looking forward to Japan week since we picked it last week. So without further ado, I bring you the facts and figures bit.

Geography

Japan is in the Pacific Ocean, just east of China. It is made up of more than 6000 islands in total, but there are four main ones: Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku. Most of the country is mountainous, but Japan also has the largest single metropolitan area in the world, or so Wikipedia tells me.

The capital is Tokyo, on the largest island, Honshu, although apparently this was never really confirmed by the powers that be, which is interesting to me, coming from a country who’s politicians debated the question of the capital for a long time, and then built a new city to do the job.

Politics and stuff

*Please excuse me while I clumsily attempt to explain the complex political workings of a major power in a few sentences.*

Japan is a constitutional monarchy (hey, us too!) with an Emperor and an elected parliamentary Government.

There was recently (well, last year) a shift in power from the LDP to the DPJ. In brief Western-speak, the LDP are the conservatives, and DPJ are the progressives. It was a very big deal, because the LDP had been in power since 1955 with only one short-lived interruption.

The DPJ are progressive in a Japanese context, as they stand for a change from the status quo, and want to move toward  transparency, participation, and equal opportunity., and wanted to do things like make high school free, and ban temporary work in manufacturing. Exciting times!

An Australian observer may find it odd, however, that this progressive party also stands for free market capitalism (with added security), a smaller bureaucracy, and a cut in gas tax. Such a different context, I suppose.

Other stuff

Population: 126 804 433 (about 6 times as many people as Australia, in about a 20th of the space)

The median age is 44, and they have one of the lowest birth rates in the world, at 222nd out of 233.

With so few children, they treat their babies very carefully- Japan has the 5th lowest rate of infant mortality. A child born in Japan now has the 5th longest life expectancy from birth in the world.

Japan was first ‘properly’ independent in 660BC (i.e. its really, really old)

The main religions in Japan are Shintoism (89%) and Buddhism (71%). Some people belong to both.

Links

All the information presented here was gathered from the following links, with the exception of some of the politics stuff, which was the result of both the links and conversations with a lefty/greeny friend from Japan.

CIA World Factbook

Wikipedia

Here’s a quiz:http://facts-about-japan.com/

And here’s a fun link for the kids: Kids Web Japan

and, of course, some vegan/japan links.

Some very cool blogs: Shizuoka Gourmet; and MacVegan.

and some other stuff:

http://vegan.wikia.com/wiki/Japan

http://www.veganjapan.net/index_engl.html

http://www.vegietokyo.com/ a guide to Tokyo for the vego.

Introducing: The United States of America

Thanks to television, movies, music, international politics and cultural hegemony, we all know something about America and Americans.

They’re wealthy (except those who are poor), polite but loud, overwhelmingly Christian (except for those that are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, or in cults), very large or very skinny, they wear big hats, drive big cars and rule the world, for no particularly good reason, even though they don’t know that much about it. Right?

(Also, they eat a lot of pumpkin, which is the reason for doing the US this week.)

Hmm, I’m sure they’re more complicated than that, and much nicer than I just made them sound.

So, regardless of what you already ‘know’ about the US of A, read on, learn the basics, and maybe a few surprises.

Where is it?

The United States of America is between the Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, and has borders with Canada and Mexico. The USA includes Alaska, which lies to the West of Canada, Hawaii, which is a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, and Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico is actually an unincorporated territory of the USA, but as it is somewhat governed by the US (Military, postal service, citizenship and other aspects), and there are supposedly 4.1 million Puerto Rican people living in the 50 states, I’m going to include them here.

The USA is a democratic republic. They elect a Senate, Congress and directly elect a President, and they have universal suffrage (except Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico, who elect a governor, but not members of the US Government), although voting is voluntary.

Stats

Population: 310,232,863 approx.

Median Age: 36.8 yo

Ethnic Spread: white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61% (July 2007 estimate). This doesn’t include people considered Hispanic, for reasons the CIA fact book explained, but that I didn’t understand.

Religious spread: Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%

Birth Rate: 2.06 (children born per woman)

Economics: The USA has the highest total GDP in the world (if you don’t include the EU, which I don, as it isn’t a country.) The GDP per capita is 11th in the world, at $46, 400.

Bits and bobs

The USA has the 9th highest number of people with HIV infection in the world, but is 68th in terms of percentage adult population living with HIV/AIDS.

As of 2008 they were the single biggest consumer of oil, electricity and natural gas. (Oil usage was more than double that of China, and more than six times that of India).

They have more airports than any other country.

They are the world’s primary consumer of Cocaine.

The first woman to run for  President in the US was Virginia Woodhull who ran in 1872,  before women had full suffrage.

There’s a (small) movement for creating a state out of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and calling it Superior Michigan. There’s also a movement to remove the North from North Dakota (its not just a thing from the West Wing!)

Where can you get info on the USA?

CIA Factbook

Awesome America (the name makes me giggle)

Wikipedia