Not necessarily the best meals (or places), but the meals (or places) that best represent your culture.
Clond smoked raindeer meat.
Just amazing.
Canadian cuisine isn’t really distinctive, but you should really try French fries with salt and malt vinegar before you perish.
Is malt vinegar on fries a Canadian thing? It’s my go to for otherwise plain fries but I don’t think its very common in my area.
I have nothing to contribute myself, I’ve only been briefly to anywhere in Canada other than home and I can’t think of anything that isn’t gimmick fast food, doesn’t originate from other countries, or have a near identical equivalent elsewhere in the world. Like I had friends that lived on the rez and sometimes their parents would prep bannock dough that we would cook over a firepit and fill with honey and it was excellent, but its literally just honey on bread that was cooked on a stick.
Boston cream pie… more like a cake. Very delicious. If you’re ever in Boston, you can visit where it started at the Parker House Hotel (Omni).
- BBQ, from any/all regions
- Cajun food – very important one!
- Fried chicken and waffles – I tried explaining this umami to a handful of people in Japan, and they didn’t understand.
- Casseroles of all kinds
Good point on the BBQ. The differences between regions is substantial, and although you may not like one region’s BBQ, you may very well love another region’s. I for one am not a fan of the vinegar based BBQ, but a good dry rub, or mustard base, I am all there.
Apart from the obvious cheese and chocolate, i‘d reccomend some good ol rösti with a spiegelei
I’ll fight you!
- Cheese: France, évidemment
- Chocolate: Belgium, potferdomme
- Rösti: …'mkay, I’ll leave you the potatoes leftovers fried in a greasy pan, but ffs not the dried-out thingy from Migros please
Oh hell no. Alway buy the potatos, steam them for 20 mins and then they‘re ready to be grated into the pan. Don‘t forget the aromat!
Currywurst. Chopped fried or grilled sausage with ketchup and curry spice sprinkled on top. Often served with fries.
You can get it almost everywhere in Germany, especially at street festivals. Simple, absolutely unhealthy and delicious.
One of my biggest regrets in life is not eating currywurst while I was in Germany. I will make it right though. Maybe next year.
Turkish immigrants didn’t invent döner. They changed the ingredients a little according to local people’s tastes. Döner dates back hundred of years back. Döner is Turkish, no one can argue about that. However you can call your version of döner local food of your country. Same logic goes for pizza, origin of it is Italian (maybe Greek idk) but there is American pizza.
I have never seen a German version of döner here in Turkey. I guess you can find it in some really busy touristic places.
I’m not usually much interested in “food experiences” but nonetheless I have an answer and it is the sugar shack pancake breakfast.
Oh yeah, that is the best! They have one at the conservation area near me. You go there around March and slap on some cross-country skis to get to the shack. Then just as the cold is starting to set in a bit, you walk in there where they’re boiling the sap and take in the aroma. Then you sit down at a long table and gorge yourself on pancakes with the syrup still hot and mixing with the butter. And then on the way back, if you have any bird seed in your pocket, you can just hold it out and chickadees will land on your hand. It’s magical!
I mean if you’ve never eaten Pupusas, I don’t know what life you’re living.
I have no idea what it is but I want to eat it now.
Corn tortilla dough is filled with cheese/pork/beans and other yummy options, and cooked on a greasy ass flat grill. Served with a Salvadoran vinegar slaw, they’re delicious
oh my sweet fuck I want that so bad now
We have a Salvadoran restaurant near us (in Maryland, USA) and we love these!
Loroco y queso!
What is even that flower? I wonder if I can grow it in my apartment in Canada cause that shit is delicious. They sell frozen loroco where I live but it’s expensive. And I haven’t been to El Salvador in a decade for the real thing
The US at large? Too diverse to have a specific cuisine but corn is a native food here, I recommend corn on the cob, either just with butter or the fancy Mexican style, and also try cornbread.
Local food, we have Cuban sandwiches and deviled crab, I didn’t know until recently that those are only served around here, despite the name these are Florida foods. Cuban sandwich is a three meat affair on Cuban bread, deviled egg is a sort of fried dough with seasoned crabmeat in the middle.
I’m Ukrainian. We have a very particular way of making salted hearing. It’s really good and totally different from more commonly sold salted hearing and I would recommend it to anyone.
We call it селёдка (see-leot-ka)
I’m listing countries where I’ve lived and split into Savoury, sweet and drinks categories, some countries have less items because I couldn’t think of other examples. On most places and categories I tried to limit myself to 3 entries.
Argentina
Savoury
- Churrasco - Argentinian bbq, it’s just meat with salt and possibly chimichurri (a “sauce” made with some herbs, restaurants around the world seem to call any dressing chimichurri but the traditional one is the best and only one for me)
- Fugazzeta - Essentially a thick dough onion and cheese pizza
- Empanadas - Similar to a calzone but with more fillings, it can be made in the oven, fried or grilled in charcoal. Traditional filling is meat but also very popular are Humita (corn with bechamel sauce, one of my favorites)
Sweet
- Alfajor - two biscuits with dulce de leche in between, usually covered with chocolate.
- Postre Balcarce - One of my favorites desserts, it’s a sort of cake with peaches, almond, merengue and other stuff, look it up.
- Media Lunas - Sweet croissant.
Drinks
- Mate - A sort of tea, drunk in a special cup with a special straw.
- Paso de Los toros pomelo - Grapefruit flavoured tonic water.
- Fernet con coca - An alcoholic drink made by mixing Fernet (a bitter liquor) with a can of coke.
Brazil
Savoury (northeast)
- Acarajé - A Bean paste fried in dendê oil, filled with shrimp, Vatapá (a paste made of shrimp, coconut milk, peanuts, etc) and Caruru (a paste made with okra, personally I don’t like it)
- Moqueca - A stew made with fish, shrimp, tomatoes , onion and dendê oil
- Beiju - A tortilla made with cassava flour, filled with a variety of fillings.
Savoury (general)
- Coxinha - A fried potato dough filled with chicken and usually requeijão/catupiry (a special creamy cheese)
- Pastel - Similar to Argentinian empanadas, but the dough is lighter and it’s only served fried.
- Feijoada - A stew made with black beans and some meats (sometimes eaten with orange)
Sweet
- Brigadeiro/Beijinho - Cooked condensed milk with chocolate powder or coconut.
- Pudim - Cooked condensed milk (Yes, Brazilians love condensed milk) with eggs and a caramel sauce.
- Paçoca - Sweet peanut crumbly cylinder.
Drinks
- Guarana - A soda made from a fruit found in Brazil.
- Caldo de cana - Pressed sugar cane, essentially natural sugary water.
- Caipirinha - An alcoholic drink made with lime and cachaça (a typically Brazilian alcoholic drink). Cachaça is not vodka, and a caipirinha made with vodka instead of cachaça is called a caipiroska.
Italy
Italian food is very well known, so I’ll list less known dishes, some of them are still known but not to the same level of Lasagna and Tiramisu.
Savoury
- Parmegiana - A lasagna made with eggplant instead of dough and LOTS of parmesan cheese
- Panzerotti - Similar to a calzone, but lots more filling and a thinner dough
- Putsnesca - garlic, anchovies, capers and black olives tomato sauce, usually eaten with Penne
Sweet
- Panettone - A sweet bread with caramelized fruits and raisins
- Panna Cotta - Cooked cream topped with some sauce
- Pastafrola/Pasta frolla - Sweet tart filled with jams
Drinks
- Lemoncello - Lemon liquor.
- Aranciatta - Similar to Fanta but I think it’s made with tonic water because it has a bitter taste to it.
- Soda - A traditionally made soda with syrup and sparkling water, they have several flavors.
Ireland
Savoury
- Guiness stew - A stew made with meat, potatoes, onion, carrots and Guiness.
Drinks
- Guiness
Spain
Savoury
- Tortilla de patatas - A sort of tall omelette made with fried potatoes and usually onion.
- Paella - Seafood and veggies with rice and saffron.
- Patatas bravas - Fried potatoes with a spicy sauce.
Sweet
- Crema catalana - Custard topped with caramelized sugar.
- Churros/Xurros - Fried dough covered in sugar and cinnamon, made to be eaten by dipping in chocolate or dulce de leche.
- Turrón - A sort of nougat.
Drinks
I’ve only recently moved to Spain, haven’t had any traditional drinks here, if someone has some recommendations let me know.
If you come to Chicago, definitely grab an Italian beef, a Chicago style hot dog, and some deep dish.
If you’re adventurous, try a shot of Malort. I personally like it, but it’s generally hated and used as a joke on tourists.
He he the Swedish kebab & bearnaisesås pizza (no one said it had to be good, and I didn’t say surströmming which is something nobody eats after all). Very popular! You might never forget it except if the Italians finds out and declare war on Sweden and everyone dies.
what’s different about the swedish kebab vs turkish ones?
Bunny Chow! Chicken curry in a bread bowl
Bunny chow is so good. There’s a South African expat who runs a store/restaurant by my house here in Texas and makes what seems to be pretty authentic bunny chow and Vetkoek. Unfortunately, I found out that he and his wife are so aggressively MAGA that I legitimately wonder if he left S.A. because he was sad to see Apartheid go.
Seems far too common. My parents had a difficult time getting into the US so hearing about “all the illegals just strolling into the country” vitriol Fox spews seems to indoctrinate them
I was wondering what South African dish I would see here. Can’t go wrong with a Bunny Chow. But I would also mention Koeksisters, Melktert and our best braai meat, Karoo Lamb Tjops
Irish breakfast roll
