The Food Thread

[Zardnaar]

A spin off from the ask the Russian thread which has brought up food. Basically share your countries food tradition s.

In New Zealand we have or traditional foods which generally only old people eat or we eat it occasionally. Our traditional stuff is heavily influenced by England. Pies, cakes, biscuits roast meat.

Traditional junk food is hanging in there though. A lot if stuff is also Americanized.

Popular ethnic foods.

Turkish Kebab (NZized)
Chinese (Americanized)
Indian

Americans seem to like our beers, Europeans not so much although they seem to like the craft and premium beers.

Good wines apparently the only one I like is Australian go figure.

Most popular protein is chicken, it's cheap, followed by beef.

Vegetarian food is becoming more popular even amoung non vegetarians. Salads seem to be replacing cooked veggies. Personally I only cook potatoe, cabbage, lettuce, sprouts, carrots etc are eaten raw.

I don't eat organs/offal. Would rather go vegetarian. Maybe via a sausage but I don't eat many of them. Only off a BBQ, ketchup, grilled onions.

Burgers and pizza are a bit different. Pizza and fish and chips are the cheap fast food about half the price of a McDobalds combo. Cheap Pizza $2 or $3 USD, piece of fish and chips around $3 more if you want blue cod,sole fillet. Cheap burger $2 or $3 bucks.

Burgers are generally beef and chicken but you can get steak, fish, venison, pork, vegetarian and lamb. Expect salad and often beetroot. Egg, pineapple and are used as well.

McDs, Turkish, Subway, Burger King etc $6 to $8 bucks.

Hipster burger $6 to $9 premium burger meal in bar or restaurant $12 to $18 USD.

Steak meal $15 to $21. Usually ribeye or sirloin. Might get one for $12 on special or $9 at a fish and chip shop.

Seafood and lamb expensive. Only eat sheep Indian or Turkish style.

Delivery's are expensive. Expect $20 to $30 for pizza.

 

[Zardnaar]

Americans complain you can't get good Mexican here. They're mostly right it's hard.

Hangi
Traditional Polynesian food. Steam cooked in the earth. Not really a fan.

Pavlova
An NZ desert. Meringue pie sort of usually topped with whipped cream and strawberries or sliced kiwi fruit or other fruit such as canned peaches. Usually eaten at Christmas time.

Christmas Meal
Usually ham and chicken with selection of summer fruits and veggies. We have a English style breakfast cooked on a BBQ with wine for break fast, skip lunch cooked dinner.

Birthday
Our family normally goes out. Or have takeaways person whose birthday it is picks. Three generations, Grandma eats some strange things for her generation. If it's bring you own it's often takeaways/ bring a plate.

Weird Stuff
Candy, burger,beer and potatoes chip flavour. You can eat a Hawaiian burger, wash it down with mango infused beer and eat pineapple lumps for desert. And eat lamb and mint potatoe chips for a starter.

NZ top tip. Lamb and mint chips do not taste good. Salt and Vinegar are decent and some places do English style vinegar on fish and chips. You can also get balsamic vinegar chips along with feta cheese and herb.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

A lot if stuff is also Americanized.

Can you explain what this means?

 

[Zardnaar]

Can you explain what this means?

The Chinese isn't authentic it's sweet and sour, chow mein etc. It was invented in America in the 60s. America style pizza, burgers, pancakes etc are fairly common and American candy is also here.

A hipster burger bar probably isn't that different from one in USA, UK, Russia etc.

You won't get the range of America though.

 

[Ajidica]

American food seems to consist of the following rules:

-If you put fruit in it, you can have desert for breakfast. (Fruit optional.)
-Put cheese on it.
-If you can't put cheese on it, deep fry it.

 

[Zardnaar]

American food seems to consist of the following rules:

-If you put fruit in it, you can have desert for breakfast. (Fruit optional.)
-Put cheese on it.
-If you can't put cheese on it, deep fry it.

It's not that bad here although you can find it.

Our ingredients are less processed, you can go on a diet here and eat McDonalds.

Americans at NZ McDonalds

I've seen the patties being made here it's not that bad nothing disgusting. Same with the chicken and fish. The fish is offcuts, the chicken is minced breast.

The cheese and buns are the worst part.

 

[civvver]

I'm from the USA so all the food here is very localized, which makes sense since most US states are the size of European countries. But in my neck of the woods there are a lot of immigrants so we have access to fantastic greek, levantine and indian food with pretty good thai and sushi/japanese offerings as well.

If I had to say something that's super unique to USA though it's our version of mexican like tex mex food. Qdoba and chipotle, I doubt those exist anywhere else. The mexican I've had in mexico didn't seem similar at all. And then there's foods like at On the Border or Chi Chi's or wherever, tons of sauce and cheese, fried offerings. I love it, and find it kind of a uniquely american thing.

Also pizza. There are a ton of varieties- regular american hand tossed, deep dish, chicago style, thin crust, new york style. Almost none are replicated elsewhere that I have seen.

And real smoked bbq, I don't mean grilled food like burgers, but smoked meats like ribs, pork and brisket. That seems to be a uniquely american thing.

Then of course our main food tradition is Thanksgiving, the one of maybe 3 days a year we eat a whole roast turkey, with the others being Christmas and Easter, though many people substitute other dishes like ham or roast beef. But on Thanksgiving it has to be turkey. We eat a lot of turkey throughout the year as lunch meat but I don't know anyone who cooks a whole bird other than thanksgiving. That's what thanksgiving is, watching football, doing nothing but eating all day.

We also love our grilling bbqs, mostly burgers and hot dogs or sausages, but also steak and chicken. Like memorial day and labor day it's a thing to have an outdoor party and bbq.

 

[Lexicus]

I wish that I could eschew food and just eat nutrition pills

 

[Gori the Grey]

I eschew food at every esmeal.

 

[Snerk]

I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with food. On the one hand I really enjoy cooking and eating quality food. On the other I regularly have periods with very poor appetite where I basically have to force feed myself because I need fuel and I don't want to lose weight. Puts me off it entirely.

 

[Gorbles]

Now, I'm not saying I can write a post-so-long-it's-thread-killing post on every topic, but I've grown up around food and kitchens with my dad (and increasingly, more of my siblings) in the restaurant business. So hard luck folks, I'm here as well. I'm also British, so allow me to give my opinion on British food and related traditions:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

PFHASHSAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHA

Okay, yeah, nevermind. We're good at some cheeses, we're alright at sausages. We don't really have a dish apart from the rather Northern (Yorkshire and Lancashire would prolly fight over this) tradition of shoving everything in a Yorkshire pudding (take that, Lancashire) and showering it in gravy. We're known for pork pies, generally. Fish and chips apparently, but that's a very (very) localised thing. I'm talking "fishing town on the north coast" or "beach town off of Wales somewhere". To put on my snob hat for a second, if you want the "good stuff". Acceptable stuff you can get most places, most countries, and really I do not judge.

Fast food is as prevalent as it is varied; for example we have a (decent-ish) Chinese down the road from my parents' house, which is what you'd call a stereotypical northern town with a relative lack of diversity. And that's in that kind of place. Pretty normal working-class roots kind of place. Still has a market (with a fishmonger, and so on). Good market, actually. Anyhow, you go anywhere near a city of any description and you'll have literal rows of them, in varying qualities. Depends what you want, really. I spent a lot of time in Birmingham (I went to uni at one of the universities there) and there were some notably good chicken places, and oddly (at the time) Greek places. Greek stuff seems to be pretty vogue these days, and I can't fault it - my wife and I are kinda addicted to the Greek islands and the food they have there (which makes even the more decent stuff British restaurants or pubs have to offer look like something that came out of the wrong end of a horse. If there's a right end). By addicted I mean "we've managed to go there more than once", which for us is a financial and organisational achievement

My dad went into washing dishes as a teenager, did pizza cheffing for a long time, mostly in and around Italian-style restaurants. Some better than others. My mum's a very good home cook, and it was always fun to watch them argue over the best way to do a gravy (thick, naturally. My mum won that one). We scraped by for a lot of the time, but after a couple of head chef stints my dad was finally in the position to risk starting his own business. 14 years later, I'd say that's a relative success. Just the one place, a small restaurant near where they live, but decent, and managed through a couple of (severe) recessions. I picked up bits and pieces along the way. I'd say I'm an alright cook. Not great, never paid enough attention to be good in any real way. But serviceable. That's where a lot of my food background (and tastes) come from, and it's why I'd always rate Mediterranean cuisine over most other types. Some of that's a lack of experience, some of that's because a few I know are based on offal and other parts of animals that honestly I'm just not a huge fan of (tongue, for example. Never could get used to tongue).

So I'm not amazing at working out what "good" British food is, really. I'd say our biggest strength is you can find anything. There are parts of the UK known for good curry houses. Supermarkets are starting to stock more and more food that you'd normally only find in foreign-branded supermarkets or street markets. There are smatterings of all sorts of restaurants across the place. And any pub you stop in has a not-terrible chance of being far better at food than it'd ever look to be, from the outside or the inside.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm from the USA so all the food here is very localized, which makes sense since most US states are the size of European countries. But in my neck of the woods there are a lot of immigrants so we have access to fantastic greek, levantine and indian food with pretty good thai and sushi/japanese offerings as well.

If I had to say something that's super unique to USA though it's our version of mexican like tex mex food. Qdoba and chipotle, I doubt those exist anywhere else. The mexican I've had in mexico didn't seem similar at all. And then there's foods like at On the Border or Chi Chi's or wherever, tons of sauce and cheese, fried offerings. I love it, and find it kind of a uniquely american thing.

Also pizza. There are a ton of varieties- regular american hand tossed, deep dish, chicago style, thin crust, new york style. Almost none are replicated elsewhere that I have seen.

And real smoked bbq, I don't mean grilled food like burgers, but smoked meats like ribs, pork and brisket. That seems to be a uniquely american thing.

Then of course our main food tradition is Thanksgiving, the one of maybe 3 days a year we eat a whole roast turkey, with the others being Christmas and Easter, though many people substitute other dishes like ham or roast beef. But on Thanksgiving it has to be turkey. We eat a lot of turkey throughout the year as lunch meat but I don't know anyone who cooks a whole bird other than thanksgiving. That's what thanksgiving is, watching football, doing nothing but eating all day.

We also love our grilling bbqs, mostly burgers and hot dogs or sausages, but also steak and chicken. Like memorial day and labor day it's a thing to have an outdoor party and bbq.

We have crap Mexican in New Zealand better off not buying it.
But we have a couple here from Texas and Louisianna and they are selling really nice US Mexican food.

 

[Arwon]

I'd often wondered if Kiwis did the beetroot on burgers thing too

 

[FriendlyFire]

Pizza and fish and chips are the cheap fast food about half the price of a McDobalds combo. Cheap Pizza $2 or $3 USD, piece of fish and chips around $3 more if you want blue cod,sole fillet. Cheap burger $2 or $3 bucks.

Fish and Chips is only $3 ?
Expect to pay $10 here in Australia for a good sized fish and chips meal.

 

[Zardnaar]

Fish and Chips is only $3 ?
Expect to pay $10 here in Australia for a good sized fish and chips meal.

Piece of hoki/shark and chips around $5 NZD. The fish will be whatever though.

Blue cod and chips would be $7 to $10 NZD but it varies a lot.

My favorite place would be a pub sit down plate meal for $16-$17 for cod or sole fillet. Not a big fish fan though.

 

[abradley]

I love omelets.
Fast, easy, tastee.

 

[Zardnaar]

Now, I'm not saying I can write a post-so-long-it's-thread-killing post on every topic, but I've grown up around food and kitchens with my dad (and increasingly, more of my siblings) in the restaurant business. So hard luck folks, I'm here as well. I'm also British, so allow me to give my opinion on British food and related traditions:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

PFHASHSAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHA

Okay, yeah, nevermind. We're good at some cheeses, we're alright at sausages. We don't really have a dish apart from the rather Northern (Yorkshire and Lancashire would prolly fight over this) tradition of shoving everything in a Yorkshire pudding (take that, Lancashire) and showering it in gravy. We're known for pork pies, generally. Fish and chips apparently, but that's a very (very) localised thing. I'm talking "fishing town on the north coast" or "beach town off of Wales somewhere". To put on my snob hat for a second, if you want the "good stuff". Acceptable stuff you can get most places, most countries, and really I do not judge.

Fast food is as prevalent as it is varied; for example we have a (decent-ish) Chinese down the road from my parents' house, which is what you'd call a stereotypical northern town with a relative lack of diversity. And that's in that kind of place. Pretty normal working-class roots kind of place. Still has a market (with a fishmonger, and so on). Good market, actually. Anyhow, you go anywhere near a city of any description and you'll have literal rows of them, in varying qualities. Depends what you want, really. I spent a lot of time in Birmingham (I went to uni at one of the universities there) and there were some notably good chicken places, and oddly (at the time) Greek places. Greek stuff seems to be pretty vogue these days, and I can't fault it - my wife and I are kinda addicted to the Greek islands and the food they have there (which makes even the more decent stuff British restaurants or pubs have to offer look like something that came out of the wrong end of a horse. If there's a right end). By addicted I mean "we've managed to go there more than once", which for us is a financial and organisational achievement

My dad went into washing dishes as a teenager, did pizza cheffing for a long time, mostly in and around Italian-style restaurants. Some better than others. My mum's a very good home cook, and it was always fun to watch them argue over the best way to do a gravy (thick, naturally. My mum won that one). We scraped by for a lot of the time, but after a couple of head chef stints my dad was finally in the position to risk starting his own business. 14 years later, I'd say that's a relative success. Just the one place, a small restaurant near where they live, but decent, and managed through a couple of (severe) recessions. I picked up bits and pieces along the way. I'd say I'm an alright cook. Not great, never paid enough attention to be good in any real way. But serviceable. That's where a lot of my food background (and tastes) come from, and it's why I'd always rate Mediterranean cuisine over most other types. Some of that's a lack of experience, some of that's because a few I know are based on offal and other parts of animals that honestly I'm just not a huge fan of (tongue, for example. Never could get used to tongue).

So I'm not amazing at working out what "good" British food is, really. I'd say our biggest strength is you can find anything. There are parts of the UK known for good curry houses. Supermarkets are starting to stock more and more food that you'd normally only find in foreign-branded supermarkets or street markets. There are smatterings of all sorts of restaurants across the place. And any pub you stop in has a not-terrible chance of being far better at food than it'd ever look to be, from the outside or the inside.

Traditional British food here has fallen off q cliff except maybe meat pies. Old people eat gravy and roasts.

I like Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Arabic an Indian as my preferred takeaway foods.

Pub meals here are often as good as restaurants, better in some cases.

 

[Gorbles]

I could live off of lamb kofta and tzatziki dip. Some shrimp saganaki on the side as well. Yep.

Probably wouldn't live for very long on that alone, but it'd definitely be worth it.

 

[Zardnaar]

I have made lamb kofta, as long as you avoid the worst sauces it's reasonably healthy.

IDK how mince meat is made in your country. Here it's fine.

 

[Zkribbler]

Big birthday party here tomorrow night, featuring roast pig. He will be killed just outside my bedroom window early tomorrow morning [pigs really don't want to die] and then cooked all day.

Panzit -- a long noodle. Legend says it bestows long life.

I eschew pork and will concentrate instead on the Chooks to Go barbecued chicken. Filipino chickens are small but much more flavorful than American chicken. The Chooks to Go franchise has the best barbecued chicken on the island.