Thought I’d ask this because I want to discover more foods from across the world
(Also I shouldn’t have to say this to americans, please state where you are from and state where you are from without acronyms or shortened names because I’ve seen US Defaultism on lemmy and not all of us are going to know your acronyms considering we’re global users)
From Almeirim in Portugal, there’s “sopa da pedra”, translates to “soup of the rock”. It has several kinds of meat, beans, potato, and it’s usually eaten with bread (some say even a specific local bread type, but I’m not picky on that). It used to come with a stone in it traditionally, but for higiene reasons restaurants are not allowed to anymore. Some people at home still do it, I believe.
With it there is an old tale:
There was once a poor friar that was traveling. Once it came time to rest, he knocked on someone’s door and asked for their hospitality in exchange for a soup. His hosts let him in and they see the friar pulling an old smooth stone from his pocket and putting it in a pot, along with water.
“Some seasoning would make this soup better… Do you happen to have any chouriço?” [best translation I’ve got is “meat”, or maybe “sausage”] asks the friar. And so his hosts find him some chouriço that they throw in the pan.
“It’s looking great! Now this soup would really improve if we could thicken it up a little. Do you happen to have some potatoes or beans leftover from yesterday?” And some potatoes and beans have indeed been leftover from yesterday. The friar adds it to the soup.
The friar asks for a few more spices, olive oil, and soon there is a delicious smell coming from the pot. What a nice soup!
They eat and once the soup is finished the friar fishes out the stone, washes it and puts it back in his pocket. Tomorrow he’ll knock on someone else’s door along the way ;)
chouriço reminds me of “chorizo”
Wonder if there’s some related etymology there
Chorizo is the Spanish variant, our neighbors. Chorizo and chouriço are not quite the same, but similar. AFAIK they have different seasonings.
Ha! We have a very similar folk tale in Hungary about a soldier returning from war with a rock, asking an old lady to cook the “stone soup”, asking for more and more legit ingredients.
Out of curiosity, is the soup similar?
Just re-read the tale, it’s actually a bit similar, it has sausages (kolbász, much closer to chorizo than the english type), potatoes and rice.
That’s so interesting! I wonder if some immigrant took it from one country to the other, along with the story
All I could find was that the version I know comes from Székelys of Bukovina. Maybe it’s convergent evolution of resourceful people🤷♂️
From Bulgaria, banitsa, it’s a bit difficult to describe, but it’s sorta like layered dough with cheese and eggs, though this description really doesn’t do it justice…
Looks a lot like the moldovian Vertuta. I bet they taste similar.
My wife spent 18 months in Bulgaria. When she talks about the food banitsa invariably comes up as something she desperately misses.
I’m Belgian so only one answer is allowed
Belgian fries with mayonnaise and Flemish stew
Weirdly the replies to your comment won’t load on the lemmy instance I’m on, don’t know about other instances
They do seem to load on your instance so I’m thinking it’s some sort of federation issue
Anyways here’s a screenshot for anyone else who can’t see the replies
I pick vol au vent. 😁
Allez, een Américain Frites alsteblief !
Very admirable, it’s a good choice
If you take it with fries, of course 😁
This interaction is basically me at a restaurant
As neighbor Dutchy, I can agree! Delicious.
I love my local dish: crab cakes. I hate my local seasoning: Old Bay. Never bought a can in my life.
Old Bay has the amazing ability to smell dusty and stale even when it’s fresh from the tin.
A few kg of meat, traditionally (in the rhine-area) from horse, nowadays more beef, marinated for 1+ month in a few litres of wine and vinegar, with some vegetables. Slowly cooked so it disintegrates on your fork.
The sauce you get from Sauerbraten is sooooo good, too - goes well with any veggies and/or pasta to eat alongside it.
Yep, we always save a lot of sauce for later in the year, as we (my family) only makes it one time a year, for christmas (on the 25th and 26th). With dumplings on the 25th and noodles on the 26th.
This may come as a surprise, but it’s Kaiserschmarrn. I’m from Austria btw.
from the Arabian peninsula; Shawarma, bukhari or mandi.
Bonus: Foul and tamis, but those are from afghanistan iirc? They’re very popular here though
“Braaibroodjie” - South Africa
It’s a Toastie made on a wood fire, usually containing tomato, onion, cheese and buttered on all sides
Vegemite on toast is just good.
Foreigners always fuck up the ratios.
I’m not Australian, but I guess the ratio is at least 1:1
You start with “surely I need more than that” amounts of vegimite and “surely I dont need that much” amounts of butter and adjust inwards over time until you hit your preference.
I bought a small (20 g) jar at an international store on a whim. I followed the advice I’d seen of lots of butter and just a tiny bit of Vegemite and I have to say it was pretty tasty. I then had the intrusive thought to really slather it on and… yeah, if that had been my first experience I’d be convinced it was the most vile substance known to man.
Singapore here Nasi lemak is to die for Coconut rice with a side of fried fish/chicken,fried egg,deep fried anchovies and peanuts topped with sambal (a sweet chilli paste) Used to eat it for breakfast daily Bring on the heart disease !!
From China, boiled dumplings/water dumplings. Preferably stuffed with pork and garlic chives with a little bowl of black vinegar and sesame oil to dip in.
My favorite food of all time. If it was possible to have dumplings every meal and be healthy I 100% would.
I love Chinese food so much. I’ve visited twice, and always make room for food.
My favorite street food is probably sheng jian bao, the pan fried buns with soupy pork filling sealed in.
In terms of a single standalone dish, it’s hard to say. I like noodle dishes, like Taipei style beef noodle soup. Or Wuhan style re gan mian.
And for the type of meal where there’s a lot of dishes on the table to be shared, my favorite dish in that setting is probably Mapo tofu. I did a food tour of Chengdu once and just everything Sichuan is so good, but Mapo tofu is just all my favorite Sichuan things in a single dish.
Northwest US: smoked salmon with a side of berries. Sockeye with little or no sugar added is the best IMO. The berries should be native varieties if you want to try for authenticity, though the invasive blackberries are really tasty, too.
Finland: only had it a couple of times 'cause it’s expensive, and takes long and is tedious to make, but loimulohi (fire salmon). It’s salmon nailed to a plank and then heated up by an open fire. Very tasty.
Pretty much any big enough fish can be made like that, but I’ve only had salmon.
I imagine there is something like this in a lot of languages, but it’s always amused me that Bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef/pork) translates literally to “fire meat”
I’m happy to learn Finns have a similar word!
In Japan, we usually trade that for skewers and have them staked in the sand around a fire, rotating them every now and again
That sounds amazing
here in the PNW (Pacific North West) of North America, we have lots of different kinds of salmon but wood fired salmon on a cedar plank (like a roofing shingle) is food fit for the gods
the natives have done it for ions and it is something you have to try if you like that fire salmon
also natives make salmon candy, which is dried salmon belly, dude its the best jerky ever made
German here. I don’t know if its reaally local, but mine would be a family dish called “Holzfällerpfanne”, the “lumberjack skillet”. It’s made out of fried potatoes, slices of apple, Champignons, fried onion, fried cabanossi and cheese on top (a lot of it).
So you basically slice all ingredients, fry the raw (and peeled) potatoes for a few minutes, add in the champignons, wait a few more minutes, add the apples next, and after another few minutes add the onions and cabanossi. When everything is slightly browned, spread a good amount of cheese on top, cover the pan with a lid and wait until the cheese is fully melted. Tadaa!
Deciding when to add which ingredient so everything is perfect at the same time is kind of key here, so it may help to fry the onions und cabanossi in a seperate pan to not overdo them.
Germany (Rhineland Region) I would go with “Mettbrötchen” even though it’s so plain it’s so unique in its style
Thailand - gaeng tai pla, som tam, mango sticky rice. First 2 are really spicy, so probably not for everyone.
gaeng tai pla
Is it the same as “Kaeng tai pla”?
Yes, just different transliteration. A Croatian magazine actually ranked it as the worst food in the world, which we Thai took offense for hahaha. https://www.nationthailand.com/life/food/40036968
Add to that jungle curry, gaeng pa!!! Also very spicy.
Jungle curry is heaven on earth!
