Regional Foods and You - Hate, Love, and Pain

[EvilRoy]

So I'm travelling for work. Nothing C19 unsafe where I am, just distance work within the acceptable borders. Driving town to town again got me thinking about regional cuisines - it doesn't really matter where you go nowadays, somebody is going to claim this or that food is a local favorite. God help you if you got to a bar and someone thinks you need to be welcomed with the local specialty drink. Just about every town I pass has a billboard or a menu item listing such a dish.

I was curious to know what the people of the escapist have as local foods, and whether you actually like it or not.

I'm from western Canada myself, so off the hop I'll admit it - I don't like maple syrup. I actually prefer the fake maple flavoured corn syrup that you get. The real stuff tastes borderline alcoholic, and its somehow so much sweeter than even corn syrup. I'll eat a maple flavoured cookie, but real maple syrup on my waffles will probably give me a stomach ache these days. Not to mention the price of the stuff.

I do actually like green onion cakes and donairs, although they don't particularly like me. Once a month tops, but that single meal is glorious.

 

[Trunkage]

Well, our country cuisine is like Lamingtons and Pavlova. I don't particularly like chocolate but coconut is good, do lamingtons are okay. Pavlova is far too sweet. It take a very fine hand to make it taste good. And not collapse in on it's self

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

As a person from California I'm not a fan of avocado, and we try to put that shit on EVERYTHING.

On the upside, mission burritos were invented in California and they are the tits.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I do actually like green onion cakes and donairs, although they don't particularly like me. Once a month tops, but that single meal is glorious.

Had to look up what "donairs" was, didn't realise there was such regional variation in the good ol' doner kebab. TIL etc.

If only DaystarClarion was still around to regale us with the eminent merits and benefits of good, proper, English cuisine, we'd all be singing his praises. Ah well...

But seriously speaking, English food (and to a lesser extent British food at large) is rarely, if ever, worth writing home about. But I'll claim my ethnic card and say yeah, I quite like Cantonese cuisine as a whole, probably much more so than any other variety of provincial Chinese fare (e.g. 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (century egg/pork congee), 炸兩 (dunno how to translate this contextually), 腸粉 (noodle roll) and of course, the hilariously misattributed 古老肉 (咕嚕肉)(sweet n sour)). Granted, these can be found elsewhere, but to me, the shit that's cooked up in HK is what appeals to me most.

As for where I'm living currently, can't speak much for the local specialty: stinky tofu/臭豆腐. -.-

 

[Gordon_4]

Well, our country cuisine is like Lamingtons and Pavlova. I don't particularly like chocolate but coconut is good, do lamingtons are okay. Pavlova is far too sweet. It take a very fine hand to make it taste good. And not collapse in on it's self

Also meat pies. And weirdly - at least to what I gather from the US - the humble bbq sausage. Like I don’t think it’s a hard rule but I’ve seen a few YouTubes of Americans trying to recreate like the sausage sizzle sandwich and none of the ones I saw were able to obtain the humble thin bbq sausage. Usually they had to use some kind of Italian gourmet chipolata or something.

 

[Dalisclock]

Had to look up what "donairs" was, didn't realise there was such regional variation in the good ol' doner kebab. TIL etc.

If only DaystarClarion was still around to regale us with the eminent merits and benefits of good, proper, English cuisine, we'd all be singing his praises. Ah well...

But seriously speaking, English food (and to a lesser extent British food at large) is rarely, if ever, worth writing home about. But I'll claim my ethnic card and say yeah, I quite like Cantonese cuisine as a whole, probably much more so than any other variety of provincial Chinese fare (e.g. 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (century egg/pork congee), 炸兩 (dunno how to translate this contextually), 腸粉 (noodle roll) and of course, the hilariously misattributed 古老肉 (咕嚕肉)(sweet n sour)). Granted, these can be found elsewhere, but to me, the shit that's cooked up in HK is what appeals to me most.

As for where I'm living currently, can't speak much for the local specialty: stinky tofu/臭豆腐. -.-

I'm curious, does the UK do any justice to Chinese? Because pretty much nowhere in the US seems to that I've tried. I had some in Malaysia and HK and it's vastly different then US "Chinese" food and I realized what I was missing all this time. And now the US version is kinda ruined for me. I apologize I don't know the regional differences as far as Chinese Cuisine is concerned.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm curious, does the UK do any justice to Chinese? Because pretty much nowhere in the US seems to that I've tried. I had some in Malaysia and HK and it's vastly different then US "Chinese" food and I realized what I was missing all this time. And now the US version is kinda ruined for me. I apologize I don't know the regional differences as far as Chinese Cuisine is concerned.

There's good Chinese food in the US, you just have to go to specific areas and not just any local "Chinese" restaurant, especially in the midwest.

If you're in California or New York you can get authentic Chinese food fairly easily. I even went to a pretty decent dim sum place in Philadelphia. Any major US city that has a Chinatown should have some pretty authentic Chinese food.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I'm curious, does the UK do any justice to Chinese? Because pretty much nowhere in the US seems to that I've tried. I had some in Malaysia and HK and it's vastly different then US "Chinese" food and I realized what I was missing all this time. And now the US version is kinda ruined for me. I apologize I don't know the regional differences as far as Chinese Cuisine is concerned.

It used to be really good when HK immigrants were the majority among the Chinese working in restaurants. Before I left, though, it was very hit and miss as some were "mainland-ified" or just westernised to pander to the local palette. Chinatown in London is still pretty good though on average.

 

[Trunkage]

There's good Chinese food in the US, you just have to go to specific areas and not just any local "Chinese" restaurant, especially in the midwest.

If you're in California or New York you can get authentic Chinese food fairly easily. I even went to a pretty decent dim sum place in Philadelphia. Any major US city that has a Chinatown should have some pretty authentic Chinese food.

There are some authetic places in Brisbane, so I could imagine there would be places in smaller US cities.

That being said, not the biggest fan of authentic Chinese. Or Thai. But the dishes that ARE replicas (like, I think, Pad Thai) are usually way better at an authentic place

 

[Kae]

On the upside, burritos were invented in California and they are the tits.

Pretty sure they were invented in México, I thought they were from Sonora but the Internet says they are from Chihuahua, specifically Juarez City during the Mexican Revolutionary war of 1910.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Pretty sure they were invented in México, I thought they were from Sonora but the Internet says they are from Chihuahua, specifically Juarez City during the Mexican Revolutionary war of 1910.

Sorry, meant "Mission Burritos" were invented in California. And they are the tits, and 100% better than regular burritos.

 

[Chimpzy]

Well, our most internationally famous foods would be french fries, waffles and chocolate. I'd say we have little reason to compain. Yeah sure, we have other traditional dishes too, but we're such a small country, so they all tend to be pretty much the same everywhere.

 

[Kyrian007]

As a Kansan, a lot of visitors (of which we don't really have many) figure our local delicacy would be BBQ. And that's only true if you are up over by Kansas City... which is mostly in Missouri, not Kansas. But the ethnic influences on our food is really weird here. We are host to a lot of descendants of relocated "Pennsylvania Dutch." So German food is more common than one might think. In my hometown, which was the site of many Lebanese refugee families settling here, there is a fairly strong presence of that tradition of Lebanese cuisine (think a mix of Greek and Middle Eastern, although many people around here claim Greeks stole everything that is good in their menu from the Lebanese.) I'm kind of lucky in that regard. In Wichita I can find Char Kway Teow at a Malaysian place or get Pupusas and Plantain at a place serving food native to El Salvador. We are a little spoiled for choice. I vacation occasionally at lakes in NE Oklahoma, and its hard to find a place that doesn't have something "chicken fried" on the menu. Although to be fair to Oklahoma, its usually mind blowingly good comfort food. But seriously, sometimes I just want falafel or kufta.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Also from western Canada. I think I've eaten maple syrup one time? It was ok, I think?

Poutine is really good, though.

Pretty sure they were invented in México, I thought they were from Sonora but the Internet says they are from Chihuahua, specifically Juarez City during the Mexican Revolutionary war of 1910.

You would be wrong. Despite what erroneous beliefs you may hold, America actually invented most things, from baseball to freedom fries.

 

[EvilRoy]

Had to look up what "donairs" was, didn't realise there was such regional variation in the good ol' doner kebab. TIL etc.

If you ever decide to try one definitely come prepared. When I was in grad studies we had a lot of international students and a couple expressed a desire for a "doner" and a few of us - thinking this was just a difference in accent - took them out for donairs. The look on their face when they bit into it was pure gold, but we truly had no idea there was this other thing called a doner kebab that apparently tastes quite different.

Well, our most internationally famous foods would be french fries, waffles and chocolate. I'd say we have little reason to compain. Yeah sure, we have other traditional dishes too, but we're such a small country, so they all tend to be pretty much the same everywhere.

I did not know french fries were from Belgium - honestly I figured they were from the US just based on how prolific they are in NA. That's cool though, that means that a Poutine is a Quebecois-Belgian fusion, and a donair poutine is a Quebecois-Belgian-Halifax-Turkish fusion, and if you want to do what a buddy of mine used to do and get a ladle of butter chicken on top of that then it becomes a Quebecois-Belgian-Halifax-Turkish-Indian fusion. And heart disease if you aren't careful, but we threw away concerns about that back when we started adding gravy and cheese to everything.

 

[Chimpzy]

I did not know french fries were from Belgium - honestly I figured they were from the US just based on how prolific they are in NA. That's cool though, that means that a Poutine is a Quebecois-Belgian fusion, and a donair poutine is a Quebecois-Belgian-Halifax-Turkish fusion, and if you want to do what a buddy of mine used to do and get a ladle of butter chicken on top of that then it becomes a Quebecois-Belgian-Halifax-Turkish-Indian fusion. And heart disease if you aren't careful, but we threw away concerns about that back when we started adding gravy and cheese to everything.

There's an ongoing dispute and various theories about where fries are from, Belgium or France. I'm inclined to believe they originated either in Belgium itself or in French Flanders, which is culturally very similar and was once part of the historic county of Flanders in medieval times.

 

[Dalisclock]

As a Kansan, a lot of visitors (of which we don't really have many) figure our local delicacy would be BBQ. And that's only true if you are up over by Kansas City... which is mostly in Missouri, not Kansas. But the ethnic influences on our food is really weird here. We are host to a lot of descendants of relocated "Pennsylvania Dutch." So German food is more common than one might think. In my hometown, which was the site of many Lebanese refugee families settling here, there is a fairly strong presence of that tradition of Lebanese cuisine (think a mix of Greek and Middle Eastern, although many people around here claim Greeks stole everything that is good in their menu from the Lebanese.) I'm kind of lucky in that regard. In Wichita I can find Char Kway Teow at a Malaysian place or get Pupusas and Plantain at a place serving food native to El Salvador. We are a little spoiled for choice. I vacation occasionally at lakes in NE Oklahoma, and its hard to find a place that doesn't have something "chicken fried" on the menu. Although to be fair to Oklahoma, its usually mind blowingly good comfort food. But seriously, sometimes I just want falafel or kufta.

It's interesting you say that. I live in Portland, OR and we have a reputation for being liberal(not entirely undeserved, but not the anarchist hotbed FOX NEWS and the like seem to think we are) and a West Coast city to boot, so lots of Asian(of all types) restaurants. Despite that, there are quite a few good BBQ and Southern places here, far more then I would have imagined.

 

[Baffle]

I like Yorkshire puddings. Once had them in Tunisia, and they looked like Yorkshire puddings but they were made of puff pastry or something. Was unusual.

 

[Xprimentyl]

UKers, apparently "jacket potatoes" are a thing over there that Americans have only recently discovered and are struggling to wrap their heads around. Well, lo and behold, I've been making them for YEARS, and didn't know it. For me a "normal" baked potato has always been basically a blank canvas, butter and cheese serving as mere primer paints, upon which I created works of art using damn-near everything in the fridge; I don't know what my fellow Americans don't get about that.

 

[Kyrian007]

It's interesting you say that. I live in Portland, OR and we have a reputation for being liberal(not entirely undeserved, but not the anarchist hotbed FOX NEWS and the like seem to think we are) and a West Coast city to boot, so lots of Asian(of all types) restaurants. Despite that, there are quite a few good BBQ and Southern places here, far more then I would have imagined.

Well; with the exception of the German food I mentioned, the diversity of choice is mostly just a Wichita thing. You get into the smaller towns and more rural areas... and about all you get is occasional Italian, Mexican, and Asian restaurants here and there. But yeah the strange thing, our BBQ situation is generally fairly dismal when compared to KC. Although, that's a tough comparison. Between Joes, Jack Stack, and Arthur Bryants; KC has phenomenal BBQ. Southern food... we don't really have a lot of that other than a couple of creole joints. Oh, and one fusion place that is Cajun/Vietnamese (crawdad Pho and Banh Mi Po' Boy is amazing. )