Poll - best food by country/ethnic group

[civvver]

Note this is authored by an american so sorry if I missed some little pocket of an amazing genre of food. I tried to put as many I could think of that resonate, leaving out ones I don't think would garner many votes. For example I've never heard anyone say "oh man we need to go get some Norwegian food," or "let's go to a British restaurant." America has too many regional things to just say american food, so I just did the most distinctly american thing I could thing of that isn't represented anywhere else that I've seen- bbq. I'm talking like texas brisket, st louis ribs, carolina pulled pork kind of bbq. You might be a big fan of US east coast seafood, but seafood is also very present in Mediterranean dishes for example. I know lumping entire countries together is not the most accurate representation of every culture's cuisine but when you say let's eat at a French restaurant it means something distinct compared to like a Japanese restaurant, even though there's a huge difference between Japanese sushi and steakhouse. But with the limitations of a poll that's what I could do.

Oh and pizza gets it's own category.

Asking cus my friends are taking me to an Indian restaurant tonight and I've never had Indian food. Which is actually quite strange, since I live in an area with a large Indian population and tons of Indian restaurants.

But quite definitively my favorite type of food is BBQ. I prefer texas style as brisket is my favorite. But I love levantine food as well, chicken shawrma, the garlic sauce, falaffel, baba ganoosh, hummus, and of course who doesn't love Italian?

 

[Gori the Grey]

Malaysian

I do love it that in your poll, Pizza is a country/ethnic group all on its own. I someday want to travel to Pizza, since all the Pizzans I've met have been such lovely people.

 

[Synobun]

Pizza, I suppose. I'm comparatively a picky eater and go for rudimentary tastes. A lot of ethnic dishes have unpalatable consistency or are heavily spiced with a large amalgamation of ingredients. Not horrible but not something I would actively seek out.

Some average pepperoni pizza or a cheeseburger is tough to go wrong with, and the taste meshing is fairly straight forward.

 

[warpus]

I voted Japanese, because IMO it has the greatest amount of variety. You can get steak, all sorts of varieties of raw fish, cooked fish, a variety of soups, noodles, there's pork dishes, all sorts of different types of pancakes, stir fries, all sorts of deep fried things, there's curry, there's dumplings, all sorts of foods on skewers, salads, there's a bunch of varieties of hot pots, all sorts of different types of chicken, a great variety of vegetarian dishes..

I love Thai food and Greek food and Italian.. but for me Japanese food offers the greatest amount of variety. So that's why Japan gets my vote

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There's an old Bonanza episode in which the Cartwrights had Italian guests. The wife of the guest family decided to cook an Italian meal... without asking Hop Sing if she could use his kitchen. The two of them fought, argued, and many angry words were exchanged. When the dust settled, Hoss asked Ben what was for supper.

"Sweet and sour pizza," Ben replied.


In other words, the poll should have been multiple choice.

 

[civvver]

I voted Japanese, because IMO it has the greatest amount of variety. You can get steak, all sorts of varieties of raw fish, cooked fish, a variety of soups, noodles, there's pork dishes, all sorts of different types of pancakes, stir fries, all sorts of deep fried things, there's curry, there's dumplings, all sorts of foods on skewers, salads, there's a bunch of varieties of hot pots, all sorts of different types of chicken, a great variety of vegetarian dishes..

I love Thai food and Greek food and Italian.. but for me Japanese food offers the greatest amount of variety. So that's why Japan gets my vote

Wow I had no idea so much variety in Japanese food. Sounds almost like american levels of variety, only most american food has heavy influences in other cultures so it's not distinctly american, but it is extremely varied.

There's an old Bonanza episode in which the Cartwrights had Italian guests. The wife of the guest family decided to cook an Italian meal... without asking Hop Sing if she could use his kitchen. The two of them fought, argued, and many angry words were exchanged. When the dust settled, Hoss asked Ben what was for supper.

"Sweet and sour pizza," Ben replied.


In other words, the poll should have been multiple choice.

That's too much of a copout cus I would just vote for everything.

 

[AmtrakQuebec]

Québec cuisine!

C'mon, we have Poutine, Meat Pies, Sugar Shacks and Beaver Tails... it is a cornucopia of hilarious sexual food!!

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Malaysian

Only took one reply and the best answer was given ayyyyy

 

[Hrothbern]

Malaysian

Indonesian.
Not that far from Malaysian.

I grew up in a flat, neighbouring an Indonesian family that fled Indonesia because of Soekarno.
Sunday was extended family dinner with countless of different stuff, I helped, when invited, in her kitchen on Saturday, tasting everything and was hooked forever.

Must add that the Surinam kitchen (Latin American with Hindustan influence) is great as well (fresh made ginger ale mmmmm)

But I like most real kitchens, as long as they are authentic in their use of spices.

 

[warpus]

Wow I had no idea so much variety in Japanese food. Sounds almost like american levels of variety, only most american food has heavy influences in other cultures so it's not distinctly american, but it is extremely varied.

When I was in Japan for 3 and a half weeks, I was basically trying to eat something new every day. And yeah, there are influences from other places that have crept into the cuisine here and there. Japanese curry is for example in many ways similar to a western "Meat potatoes and gravy" type of dish. I looked into it and that's basically where it came from - British sailors/travellers who brought over western food. I can't remember the details at all, but the most popular type of Japanese curry is basically a pork cutlet with rice and gravy overtop. It's not quite gravy, it's a curry sauce, but it might as well be gravy.

There is a lot of variety in individual types of dishes - for example tempura or sushi.. But the main thing for me is that there is such a great variety of types of food. Next time I'm in Japan, whenever that is, I will probably have a whole bunch of foods to try that I never got a chance to try when I was there. I only had one type of Ramen for instance, and would love to have one with a different type of broth and different toppings, but I only found time to eat ramen once. Each day I was basically looking for restaurants where I could try something new.. or just walking into a place and looking for something on the menu that I hadn't eaten yet.

I am also quite addicted to Japanese gyoza dumplings. I haven't been able to find any here in Canada that taste the same though.. The ones in Japan were INCREDIBLE. Everything I eat here sucks in comparison. If I had to eat properly prepared gyoza dumplings for the rest of my life, I probably wouldn't mind. Assuming that the dipping sauces were done the way they did it in Japan.

Great, now I'm hungry

 

[Perfection]

USA #1

 

[Zkribbler]

USA #1

USAians aren't an ethnic group. Our ancestors were thrown out of every self-respecting country in the world!

I someday want to travel to Pizza,

Check out the Leaning Tower. It's great!

 

[warpus]

I think you mean USABBQ#1

But even then, I think Korean BBQ is probably better

 

[Perfection]

USAians aren't an ethnic group.

Yeah but they are a food group.

 

[Kyriakos]

You shouldn't have "mediterranean" as a category when you already have italian and greek. Or make it "other mediterranean"

As for me, well, i really don't eat as healthily as i should.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm torn between Indian and Chinese. They're each kind of a cheat, encompassing several kinds of cooking, like saying "European" so you can have Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Greek all at the same time.

 

[Perfection]

I'm torn between Indian and Chinese. They're each kind of a cheat, encompassing several kinds of cooking, like saying "European" so you can have Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Greek all at the same time.

you get all those (sans Portugal) with Mediterranean. So if you're going the cheat route...

 

[warpus]

Peruvian cuisine should really be up there. It's the best cuisine in South America, not to mention the most interesting.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I love Japanese, and of course, Italian. Indian is good as well.

One ethnic food group that doesn't get a lot of love is Mexican. I don't mean the Tex-Mex garbage from the US Southwest that passes for Mexican food. I mean real Mexican food. You have to go deep into Mexico to get the good stuff. Try hitting up the little towns on the west coast, north of Manzanillo. There is some fantastic food there, and they really know how to do BBQ as well. (The beaches and snorkeling are good too)

 

[FriendlyFire]

I voted Japanese, because IMO it has the greatest amount of variety. You can get steak, all sorts of varieties of raw fish, cooked fish, a variety of soups, noodles, there's pork dishes, all sorts of different types of pancakes, stir fries, all sorts of deep fried things, there's curry, there's dumplings, all sorts of foods on skewers, salads, there's a bunch of varieties of hot pots, all sorts of different types of chicken, a great variety of vegetarian dishes..

I Lub JAPAN too
(hi five)

I am also quite addicted to Japanese gyoza dumplings. I haven't been able to find any here in Canada that taste the same though.. The ones in Japan were INCREDIBLE. Everything I eat here sucks in comparison. If I had to eat properly prepared gyoza dumplings for the rest of my life, I probably wouldn't mind. Assuming that the dipping sauces were done the way they did it in Japan.
Great, now I'm hungry

Solution is to hand make them yourself. Though all the Japanese places will have their own take on Gyoza with secrets ingredient like Sake or Soy with ginger or Dashi or Kombo seaweed. Then there is skill it takes in pan frying them just right.

I do like the Polish take on dumplings with cheese filling, when I hand make mine I add in cheese