"Ethnic" foods - what do you enjoy?

[kuhio98]

My brother and his family went to an Ethiopian restaurant while on vacation, and have found a couple in Chicago that they really like. I've never been, but my brother told me that the dishes are highly seasoned and onion is a frequent ingredient. They all come with a flat bread (like a pita, maybe??) that you apparently use as a "pusher". There are lots of vegetable dishes, but there are meat dishes as well......

True story ~ Alaskan friends/family were "outside" visiting Washington, D.C. Someone suggested having Ethiopian for lunch.
They responded, "Ethiopians have food? We always see commercials that they are starving."

[jennielynn1970]

Hey Karen, I lived in Sweden for a year as an exchange student. I loved all their food EXCEPT korv. It is like a hot dog meat, if you've ever had it. I hated it. They made in different sizes, cooked, grilled, fried, you name it they made it, and potatoes were served at almost every lunch and dinner in homes and in school.

I LOVED lingonberry jam, especially on fried bloodpudding. It's not like the German kind, but has cloves and spices in it, and is brown and has a scrapple like consistency until you fry it, then it's like fried bread. You ate it with jam on top, and it was delicious. I had to remind myself I wasn't eating blood though to be able to eat it, lol.

I had reindeer, moose, lutefisk (yuck), and my favorites were the sweets. Almond paste, cocos bullar (coconut covered confections that were made with spun oatmeal, sugar, cocoa, and lord knows what else but it was moist), I could eat 5 of them and think nothing of it. Damsugare (not sure of spelling anymore), but it meant vacuum cleaner, lol. They were green and brown marzipan and had almond past on the inside. Oh so good.

I have such fond memories of my times over there. Skipping classes, going to my best friend's house instead and making scones (real scones, not the huge sugar coated lumps of crap you get here), but buttermilk scones with melting butter on them, with tea. Oh so nice, especially on those cold days we had over there from October until April. We still had snow in May back in 1988, but not much, because of the Russian nuculear reactor meltdown... it warmed up the atmosphere enough that we didn't get as much snow as normal, but it did dip to below 0 many days where you couldn't even wear earrings cause they would freeze in your ears.

I do still have my favorite candy bag from a candy store (found on every block over there, lol), it's brand has an elephant as it's mascot or logo, and the candies were soooo good. Salt licorice is still one of my faves and I found a candy market here in Allentown that sells them!! I was so excited!

Anyway, so I love Swedish food a lot, miss it so much, and almost any Arabic food you put in front of me. Mediterranean (sp?) food you put in front of me. I keep kalamata olives in my fridge at all times, with the pits in of course, because they have more flavor, and it's a tradition with the spitting out of the seed. I just love different flavors and textures and spices (not spicey necessarily), but the spiced flavor of the food. I find American food lacking in the spice department. It's very bland compared to other cuisines. Chinese hot and sour soup with tofu. So good when you have a cold. Takes some getting used to, but I'll take that over chicken noodle soup any day! I could go on and on about food, but I'll stop here, lol.

[Karen]

Jenn, that was fun, thanks for sharing your memories with us - and its funny, as I always thought of scones as English - we make them at home, too - just slightly sweet, without the giant glaze of sugar some commercial places use. And whenever I bring "real" scones anywhere, they get exclaimed over! One of the few regrets my Dad had was that he never got his own father's pickled herring recipe from him, and the store-bought stuff was just not nearly as yummy. I am now allergic to fish, or I'd still hunt that recipe down, as we were all allowed a tiny bit when we got a jar form him!

[RICHARD]

True story ~ Alaskan friends/family were "outside" visiting Washington, D.C. Someone suggested having Ethiopian for lunch.
They responded, "Ethiopians have food? We always see commercials that they are starving."

I dated a woman who once asked me what my family ate for Thanksgiving.

I told her, "Tacos, burritos, beans, rice and tortillas........"

We do turkey - but....I am a tortilla kinda guy. That would drive my mom CRAZY...I was forbidden to eat Thanksgiving dinner with a tortilla in hand!

[mon]

We had Ukranian food last Thanksgiving for a change and it was delicious! One of my favorite Aunties was so irate that there was no turkey that she would not attend. I thought that was hilarious. It's Thanksgiving after all, I guess turkey, cranberries and tradition trump family shindigs and giving thanks. Maybe she just hates perogies

[Karen]

We had Ukranian food last Thanksgiving for a change and it was delicious! One of my favorite Aunties was so irate that there was no turkey that she would not attend. I thought that was hilarious. It's Thanksgiving after all, I guess turkey, cranberries and tradition trump family shindigs and giving thanks. Maybe she just hates perogies

Did she not volunteer to cook and bring a turkey herself? That's what she would have been told in my family, should the situation arise!