Does Your Region Have A Particular Delicacy Or Meal Associated With It?

[sablebrush52]

Us Romanians claim that we have some particular dishes, that are original to our country, when in fact they are adaptations from various occupying cultures throughout history. I guess the most emblematic is the traditional "Sarmale" which in essence are meatballs with rice rolled in kraut, fresh cabbage leaves or grapevine leaves, and boiled. You can find variations of this dish in other cultures in the Balkans, most notably being the greeks and the turks - the latter not eating pork sarmale anyway. Tripe soup is another traditional meal, and while you have cultures that use a cow's stomach to cook a soup, ours has a local note with plenty of garlic and sour cream. Eastern Romanians (former Moldavians) eat a lot of polenta, which basically corn flour mixed in boiled water and stirred to a thick paste. I guess the only dish, so to speak as it's not truly a dish, that I didn't find in any similar form in other cultures is the "mujdei" - in its simplest form a dip/sauce made from mashed garlic, slowly mixed with oil, herbs, spices, and water. Variations exist.

I was born and grew up in the largest city of the former Banat Independent Principality under the Habsburg empire, in fact in my family my grandfather was the first generation to be born under Romanian rule and government. I am used to the german style chicken soup, plenty of schnitzel, cartofen salad, a variety of sausage ranging from your classic pork/game, to blood sausage, liver sausage and so on. In fact Empress Maria Theresia brought many people in order to colonize the region from Baden Wurttemberg, the Ulm area (which I am thrilled to say I get to visit again next week), that call themselves schwabben. From them we have spetzle (some sort of german pasta), apple strudel, speck (smoked pork leg), etc. My wife comes from what was formerly known as the Duchy of Transylvania, so she is used to a bit more of a Hungarian influence in her cuisine. I know that we don't always see eye to eye as she likes her pork knee bean stew, while I can't stand it. I later found out that pork knee is also big in bohemian and bavarian cultures. Cabbage and cumin soup is another big hit where she comes from, and spicy peppers are a must eat on a daily basis. Generally the Germans eat fatty food, and it was well understood why, since most land Germans in our area were farmers, which meant lots of manual labor demanding a high caloric meal. It was not unusual for my grandfather, after a day o collecting hay, to have raw lard, bread, cheese, onions and tomatoes for lunch. We try to stay away from traditional stuff, and eat less meat nowadays. The food is tasty as hell, but it will send you to an early grave, especially if you have a desk job and over indulge in it.

Our traditional drink is tzuica or palinka, which is a plum brandy. The Germans call it schnapps, and it can be made from fruit other than plum - my personal favorite being quince. I don't know why Romanians made a claim over it, as being the inventors in the Ardeal area. I also know that we had a fight with the Hungarians over this in as far who gets to claim it as a national heritage thing, and honestly I don't know what came out of that. At the end of the day, I like may rakjia (as we call it in Banat) and I prefer drinking it over any other type of had liquor.

Romanian delis also invented Pastrami, which may very well be their most significant culinary contribution to the world of food.

 

[sablebrush52]

you must have a very strange pallet if you hate English food but eat SH*t like macdonalds

He could have gone to Wimpy's. Personally, I like British food when it is well prepared. Bangers are a favorite. British cheeses are second to none. Steak and kidney pie is a delight.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"You probably had a 'broodje gezond' (a 'healthy roll')."

Thanks for that Frank, that was what we had though I would have skipped the lettuce!

"Cajun Haggis"

Jesse, that's exactly what I thought when I saw the image ?

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I cannot abide menudo. It smells like a chili infused bowel movement.

?
My wife says the same thing. You gotta clean the tripe (which is a stinky process). But nothing stinks worse than cleaning chitterlings.

 

[alaskanpiper]

I'd never heard of Dungeness, Kent until your mention if it and google set me right! In my admittedly biased opinion, Dungeness Crab is the best-tasting of all the crabs I've tried. I know folks in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (Baltimore, Washington DC) love their blue crabs, which I will have to try at some point. The only blue crabs I have had were in a place called Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with unbelievable humidity. I could not drink beer fast enough to get drunk, though I tried valiantly. I was just sweating it out faster than I could absorb it. The crabs were fine, but they took so much work for so little meat that I left the restaurant hungrier than when I arrived! The Dungeness Crabs are big enough to provide some nice chunks of meat for your effort, though they pale in size compared to the big Alaskan King Crabs.

I have never had anything that even comes close to rivaling the richness, flavor, and size of Alaskan King Crab.

 

[BarrelProof]

Try Zachary's in Oakland.

I’ll try nothing that puts me in Oakland. I’ll agree to call it a close second.

Kidding aside, I know there are great pizza joints out there. But, having sampled plenty all over the world, I am always excited about how well our humble little pizza brewpub stands up against them.

 

[Duke of Erinmore]

Us Romanians claim that we have some particular dishes, that are original to our country, when in fact they are adaptations from various occupying cultures throughout history. I guess the most emblematic is the traditional "Sarmale" which in essence are meatballs with rice rolled in kraut, fresh cabbage leaves or grapevine leaves, and boiled. You can find variations of this dish in other cultures in the Balkans, most notably being the greeks and the turks - the latter not eating pork sarmale anyway. Tripe soup is another traditional meal, and while you have cultures that use a cow's stomach to cook a soup, ours has a local note with plenty of garlic and sour cream. Eastern Romanians (former Moldavians) eat a lot of polenta, which basically corn flour mixed in boiled water and stirred to a thick paste. I guess the only dish, so to speak as it's not truly a dish, that I didn't find in any similar form in other cultures is the "mujdei" - in its simplest form a dip/sauce made from mashed garlic, slowly mixed with oil, herbs, spices, and water. Variations exist.

I was born and grew up in the largest city of the former Banat Independent Principality under the Habsburg empire, in fact in my family my grandfather was the first generation to be born under Romanian rule and government. I am used to the german style chicken soup, plenty of schnitzel, cartofen salad, a variety of sausage ranging from your classic pork/game, to blood sausage, liver sausage and so on. In fact Empress Maria Theresia brought many people in order to colonize the region from Baden Wurttemberg, the Ulm area (which I am thrilled to say I get to visit again next week), that call themselves schwabben. From them we have spetzle (some sort of german pasta), apple strudel, speck (smoked pork leg), etc. My wife comes from what was formerly known as the Duchy of Transylvania, so she is used to a bit more of a Hungarian influence in her cuisine. I know that we don't always see eye to eye as she likes her pork knee bean stew, while I can't stand it. I later found out that pork knee is also big in bohemian and bavarian cultures. Cabbage and cumin soup is another big hit where she comes from, and spicy peppers are a must eat on a daily basis. Generally the Germans eat fatty food, and it was well understood why, since most land Germans in our area were farmers, which meant lots of manual labor demanding a high caloric meal. It was not unusual for my grandfather, after a day o collecting hay, to have raw lard, bread, cheese, onions and tomatoes for lunch. We try to stay away from traditional stuff, and eat less meat nowadays. The food is tasty as hell, but it will send you to an early grave, especially if you have a desk job and over indulge in it.

Our traditional drink is tzuica or palinka, which is a plum brandy. The Germans call it schnapps, and it can be made from fruit other than plum - my personal favorite being quince. I don't know why Romanians made a claim over it, as being the inventors in the Ardeal area. I also know that we had a fight with the Hungarians over this in as far who gets to claim it as a national heritage thing, and honestly I don't know what came out of that. At the end of the day, I like may rakjia (as we call it in Banat) and I prefer drinking it over any other type of had liquor.

Buna ziua! I have travelled to that region twice with a friend who was born in Reschitz and also enjoyed sarmale and tuica. A few weeks ago, her dad (speaking about Habsburg roots - the guy when speaks German has a really strong Austrian accent) supplied me with 3 bottles of the good stuff.

Also tasted mamalige (is it spelled that way?) when travelling further to Maramures. Great country!

 

[jpmcwjr]

Try Zachary's in Oakland.

Best deep dish ever, and the thin ones are very good, too.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I’ll try nothing that puts me in Oakland. I’ll agree to call it a close second.

Kidding aside, I know there are great pizza joints out there. But, having sampled plenty all over the world, I am always excited about how well our humble little pizza brewpub stands up against them.

There are gorgeous parts of Oakland. I used to live in the city next door.

 

[BarrelProof]

There are gorgeous parts of Oakland. I used to live in the city next door.

I’m positive there are. Google images will be just fine!

I am envious of the ethnic food scene in more populated areas, however.

 

[dino]

Chicago Hot Dog. 'Nuf said.

 

[karam]

Ah food, easily my favourite subject! In fact whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I make a point to visit a supermarket, or food market as I believe that nothing connects people like food does.

Greek here, and a big meat eater, however, the things I crave the most are humble lentil stew, and Greek baked beans made with a lot of tomato and olive oil. Other than that, Greek cuisine is extremely regional and used to also be seasonal too, born out of thrift but desire to have a good meal. Being an Athenian it's a blessing and a curse as we get most of everything (because 1/3 of Greece's population lives here, but their roots are elsewhere so they want to eat their stuff, so that's catered for), but the best of nothing (as the really good stuff rarely leaves its point of origin).

On English/British cooking, it has gotten an undeserved bad rep, I spent 12 years there and learnt quite a bit, a lot of it from Dorothy Hartley's Food in England book, it is a pity the British people themselves have no clue what their cuisine is all about. English cheeses are good, but so are French and Italian and Greek cheeses - if anything any non-post-communist country has good cheeses. It's a pity that communist regimes destroyed centuries-old shepherding traditions and forced having just nameless "white" and "yellow" cheeses in so many countries, something I've researched and cross-referenced with people from several Balkan and Slavic countries.

The *best* food I ever ate was in Milan, bar none, but in terms of cuisines, I consider the French - especially deserts - to be the most balanced and complete, whatever that may mean.

Wife is Serbian, I love their gibanica, sarma, shnenokle and 101 pepper dishes with pork or mutton.

Few people know bread and sausages as much as the Germans, and few people do butter like the Irish - though northern Italian bufala young butter is incredible. Fries and mayonnaise from a Belgian Frituur, and Danish pickled herring sandwiches are very memorable.

In terms of sweet drinks and spirits I got to hand it to Poland for their meads and sweetened vodkas like Krupnik and Zubrowka (fun fact, Zubrowka vodka contains 1792 Flake - no it's just coumarin!), but barrel-aged Rakija can rival any Scotch on the planet, except Ardberg

When I think of the US I think of three things: corn, BBQ and New England seafood, however so far, of your great country, I've only seen lower Manhattan and an hour's worth of Huston while waiting for a connecting flight - I did make a point to visit Mighty Quinn's in Manhattan though

Once in a while I crave Indian, north African or middle eastern food, but otherwise not a massive fan of non-Western cooking.

I'm a total pig as you see, but I hope a discerning one, and in fact I approach pipe smoking in the same way, it's all about taste!

You can take all of that from me though and leave me with feta cheese, and Greek olive oil and I'll still be content.

 

[dino]

And, of course, Lou Malnati's deep-dish pizza

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Chicago Hot Dog. 'Nuf said.

View attachment 36014

You forgot the Italian beef sandwiches, Dino!

 

[BarrelProof]

Ah food, easily my favourite subject! In fact whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I make a point to visit a supermarket, or food market as I believe that nothing connects people like food does.

This. 100%. Whenever I travel to another country, I do the same thing. In addition to this, I almost exclusively eat out and try to get as much street food and local food as I can. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy nicer restaurants, but I’m more interested in the everyday, pedestrian cuisine when I travel.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

This. 100%. Whenever I travel to another country, I do the same thing. In addition to this, I almost exclusively eat out and try to get as much street food and local food as I can. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy nicer restaurants, but I’m more interested in the everyday, pedestrian cuisine when I travel.

Definitely!

 

[dino]

You forgot the Italian beef sandwiches, Dino!

But of course, those who come to the Chicago Pipe Show always stop for a Lou's pizza and a Portillo's beef.

 

[sablebrush52]

Best deep dish ever, and the thin ones are very good, too.

I prefer the regular pies myself. Their deep dish is seriously deep dish. And being that the company is owned by the employees, everyone has a stake in offering a great product and great service. Zachary's is on the very short list of eateries I always visit when I'm in the Bay area, another being Fenton's.

 

[mawnansmiff]

"Some say this is about national dish in south west Texasland, ..... "

Paul, I often find myself smiling at your turn of phrase but this one had me in stitches! Keep 'em coming chum ?

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[tobefrank]

Anyone visiting Amsterdam should check this place out. It is the fastest food out there.

Drop your coin in the machine, pick your window and grab your deep fried snack or hamburger. I once had a bad case of the munchies and ate about 20 snacks at one of these places.

AFAR Review
Any list of cheap eats in Amsterdam would be remiss if it didn't include FEBO, the Dutch culinary tradition of eating from a wall of fast food vending machines. With 20+ outlets in Amsterdam, it's easy to find a FEBO de Lekkerste (literally, FEBO the Tastiest). If it's past midnight, chances are you'll bump into a handful of Dutchies there, trying to inconspicuously grab a late night frikkandel (minced meat hot dog) or kroket. At the push of a button, out comes a hot snack for munching on while peddling home over cobblestone streets.

No one knows exactly how long those mayo-laden burgers are allowed to sit there under heat lamps in FEBO windows. But no one seems to care, especially at 3:00 in the morning, after the bars and nightclubs have closed and there's no other option for a before-bed snack.
By Melissa Adams , AFAR Local Expert