Results 1 to 15 of 28

Thread: "Ethnic" foods - what do you enjoy?

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Windham, Vermont, USA
    Posts
    40,828

    "Ethnic" foods - what do you enjoy?

    I have to smile - I was tickled pink to find Lingonberry jam in my grocery store, and thought - "I haven't heard of that or had it since I was little, from my Swedish grandfather," and sure enough, it was the only thing on the shelf imported from Sweden! I love it - it is tart and sweet and altogether yummy, I wonder, why do we not have it here? Do lingonberries not grow here?

    I am such a mutt, that I get to claim many different ethnicities, really, but the Swedish Coffee ring, breads and cookies, Lingonberry jam and it used to be lots of fish (before I became allergic to it) are strongly prevalent in Scandinavian cuisine. I love all sorts of food really, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Polish (before I became allergic to cabbage) so many who I have not one drop of blood from, but the Swedish ones resonate with me.

    What "ethnic" foods do you enjoy, and how do they figure into your heritage or not?
    I've Been Frosted

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Portland, Orygun, USA
    Posts
    2,565
    I'm Swedish from my Mom. My favorites are Potatis Korv (potato sausage) and Smur Bachelsur (butter cookies). I can buy the sausage at a specialty butcher and my niece has the tins to make the cookies at Christmas time.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Illinois, USA
    Posts
    28,379
    It's pączki day and I'm part Polish! I ate half a paczek earlier in the day. One of my co-workers brought them from the bakery and they were huge. Pączki are kind of like bismarcks in that they're made with yeast vs. baking powder. Dumplings, please pass the dumplings. Bread dumplings, potato dumplings, fruit dumplings. Love pierogi (no onions in mine, though). I like the flavor of barley which is popular in Czech cooking. Beef barley soup, yum! I like borscht, but I don't like liver dumpling soup. Can't stand liver sausage, bleecchh! No, thank you.
    Praying for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine, and around the world.

    I've been Boo'd ... right off the stage!

    Aaahh, I have been defrosted! Thank you, Bonny and Asiel!
    Brrrr, I've been Frosted! Thank you, Asiel and Pomtzu!


    "That's the power of kittens (and puppies too, of course): They can reduce us to quivering masses of Jell-O in about two seconds flat and make us like it. Good thing they don't have opposable thumbs or they'd surely have taken over the world by now." -- Paul Lukas

    "We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterdays." -- Persius, first century Roman poet

    Cassie's Catster page: http://www.catster.com/cats/448678

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Kentucky, LAND OF THE EASILY AMUSED
    Posts
    25,224
    Growing up I had to chance to eat lots of stuff - mostly things like brains, cheeks, tongue and offal.
    Mom cooked "america" dishes too. Like meatloaf, fried chicken and stuff like that.

    My favorite story is about being asked "What do you eat at Thanksgiving?" I answered, "Tacos, beans, rice and tortillas......"

    The one thing I do miss about living in CA was the choice of foods.

    I was able to enjoy Filipino, Korean, Japanese, Greek and a few I forgot...Chinese?

    There were a few things I didn't like, but only because I had eaten that dish once and the second time out it was not as good.
    I ate pancit at a work pot luck, then had a chance to eat it at a home I was doing some work in. The second time it was not as appetizing, but I finished the plate because I was a guest.

    So I am willing to give any dish a few tries, due to the way people cook things! There are some mexican dishes have a regional twist to them, the recipe varies from state to state (in Mexico) But, I will try anything!

    One dish that haunts me to this day is turtle soup. I had some as a kid and it was the most delicious thing I ever ate.
    It was thick, spicy and wonderfully tasty. I know that some turtles are endangered, but that is one meal/food that I would eat again, no questions asked!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Windham, Vermont, USA
    Posts
    40,828
    Quote Originally Posted by RICHARD View Post
    One dish that haunts me to this day is turtle soup. I had some as a kid and it was the most delicious thing I ever ate.
    It was thick, spicy and wonderfully tasty. I know that some turtles are endangered, but that is one meal/food that I would eat again, no questions asked!
    I bet the recipe would take just as good made with some other meat, like chicken or a pork or a fish that was not endangered ... as you mentioned it was thick, spicy and wonderfully tasty ... and you know the spicy part didn't come from the protein!
    I've Been Frosted

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Methuen, MA; USA
    Posts
    17,105
    Well, anyone who knows my last name won't be surprised to learn I love Italian food.

    What may interest some:
    - my Dad's side is Sicilian, NOT Italian (BIG rivalry there, and a move for Sicily to secede from Italy is constant, there is another protest march this month over there). So we have many things which Italians to not; and vice versa. One example is polenta - that is northern Italian. I did try it once, I was in my 40's, and nope, not my thing. Sicilians eat lots of fish (being an island!), meat is a specialty item.
    - my Mum was from England. That diet is rather bland, and nothing touches anything else. She was PERFECT for my Dad in this respect. Dad's brothers and sisters always joked that he grew up on bread, he does not like Italian spicey foods. Since I do, I often use garlic; Dad wouldn't even come in my apartment when I had been cooking, he can't stand the stuff.
    - Since my Mum and Dad lived with Dad's parents for two years when they marred, Mum made lots of Italian dishes. And some English. I spent much of my childhood with Dad's parents (Mum was ill) so I grew up with their cooking. (Unlike my brother, by then Mum was doing lots better, and HE takes after Dad and hates spices and herbs.) I never had "American" food, and don't like much of it, to this day. I have never had 'mac and cheese,' the very idea makes me gag. (Mac is macaroni = pasta, belongs with tomato sauce, and 'American cheese' is a gross plastic cheese PRODUCT, yuck.)
    - I grew up in a Sicilian enclave. Everyone around us was also of Sicilian descent -- with a small few Neopolitan families. (Another great rivalry -- I had a fist fight with a girl whose grands hailed from Naples, when we were both in 7th grade). Hence everyone at school ate as I did, we brought the same things for lunches (no hot lunch back then). And 4 years of college, I was a commuting student, just went in for 4 classes in a row and drove back home. I did not realize I ate an ethnic diet, until I moved to DC at age 21 for law school. I rented a room with a family of Lebanese descent. (THEY did not eat an Amercian diet, either!) HOLY MOLY I never even HEARD of the foods they ate! But I loved most of it - and so my love of food developed.
    .

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Copyright © 2001-2013 Pet of the Day.com