Most underrated national cuisine

[mrswdk]

Which dishes don't getting the mad props they deserve, yo?

[Bernie Sanders]

I love the Korean fire meats!

[Army of GOD]

American you fucking commie

[tzor]

I'm going to have to say "German." Morocco and Turkey do get respect in my area of Long Island. But all the good German restaurants in my region has gone out of business (not because they were bad, but because they didn't pass themselves on from one generation to another).

Not listed but worthy of great mention is "Northern Italian" which tends to be hidden by the plethora of Southern Italian or even Sicilian establishments in my region. I remember a very well high end Northern Italian restaurant a reasonable (but still long) distance from my house.

As a side note: The people who talk about a "national cuisine" are typically those from the small European countries (that are generally smaller than most of the "states" of the United States) or just plain "Dumb Americans" (who generally don't realize that the cuisine from one side of the country to the other is as different as night and day. Even nations like Italy do not have a overarching cuisine.

[tzor]

American you fucking commie

Do you even know what "American" is?

[Army of GOD]

American you fucking commie

Do you even know what "American" is?

hot dogs, hamburgers...

[mrswdk]

200-300 years as the 'melting pot' of cultures from all around the world, and the end result is a sausage inside a bread bun.

[TA1LGUNN3R]

200-300 years as the 'melting pot' of cultures from all around the world, and the end result is a sausage inside a bread bun.

True genius is the ability to see the simplest solutions where others cannot.

-TG

[mrswdk]

200-300 years as the 'melting pot' of cultures from all around the world, and the end result is a sausage inside a bread bun.

True genius is the ability to see the simplest solutions where others cannot.

-TG

Yeah, like the genius is the guy who swims across the Atlantic rather than building a plane.

[jonesthecurl]

English. Or more properly British, and again there are regional things. Mrsw, you complained in the other thread about lumping all of china into one cuisine. The same is true of India (where most people also throw in Pakistani and bangla Deshi, and often Nepalese). As tzor says, "Italian" isn't one thing. I suspect the same is true of most countries.
I'll be happy to put up a few classic Brit dishes if anyone wants to hear, and when I get time.

[mrswdk]

Yeah, well as I pointed out in the other thread, saying 'Chinese' and 'Indian' is as broad and expansive as saying 'European'. For a proper like-for-like comparison, saying 'Sichuanese, Goan, Italian and French' is comparing 4 similarly distinct cuisines, each with the same level of similarity and common ground within the range of dishes they cover.

And I meant 'English' because: a) I can barely think of more than 2 things distinct to each UK country which is not England, and b) when you say 'British' most people just think of England anyway.

[mrswdk]

And c) just be glad I included England in the first place. The vast majority of distinctly English dishes are pretty fkn boring (pie and mash, fish and chips, toad in the hole, etc.).

[waauw]

Greek cuisine is amazing as well. You haven't really eaten until you've eaten at a true Greek restaurant.

[Serbia]

I've eaten at an Ethiopian restaurant before. Very unique eating experience, for me at least. No utensils, and the food was good as well.

Bollocks.

[riskllama]

Ethiopian I quite enjoy. and, them Koreans could give the reddest necked Texan a serious run for their money in the BBQ pit...

[Dukasaur]

By "German" I assume you mean "Czech", because every good food the Germans take credit for -- schnitzel, sauerkraut, pilsener, potato pancakes -- is something they actually stole from the Czechs.

Czech food is by far the best food in the world, followed closely by Bavarian and then Hungarian, which also isn't represented on your poll.

Of non-European food, Moroccan is pretty damn good. But I voted Ethiopian just because.

[waauw]

By "German" I assume you mean "Czech", because every good food the Germans take credit for -- schnitzel, sauerkraut, pilsener, potato pancakes -- is something they actually stole from the Czechs.

Czech food is by far the best food in the world, followed closely by Bavarian and then Hungarian, which also isn't represented on your poll.

Of non-European food, Moroccan is pretty damn good. But I voted Ethiopian just because.

Really? Last time I was in Budapest the only real Hungarian food I could find was goulash and kürtőskalács, and goulash isn't even that special. Every country in europe has its own variety of goulash-like food.

[jonesthecurl]

Greek cuisine is amazing as well. You haven't really eaten until you've eaten at a true Greek restaurant.

Agreed. I spent a lot of time in Greece, and loved the food.

[mrswdk]

I have a Czech colleague, and whenever he has mentioned Czech food the beer sounds good but the food has sounded heinous and definitely not German (shitty fried latkes and so on). I meant German.

[Dukasaur]

By "German" I assume you mean "Czech", because every good food the Germans take credit for -- schnitzel, sauerkraut, pilsener, potato pancakes -- is something they actually stole from the Czechs.

Czech food is by far the best food in the world, followed closely by Bavarian and then Hungarian, which also isn't represented on your poll.

Of non-European food, Moroccan is pretty damn good. But I voted Ethiopian just because.

Really? Last time I was in Budapest the only real Hungarian food I could find was goulash and kürtőskalács, and goulash isn't even that special. Every country in europe has its own variety of goulash-like food.

A good goulash is magnificent! There are regional variations, though. Szeged goulash is my favourite. Has to be luxurious, though. Can't cheap out and thin it down.

I have a Czech colleague, and whenever he has mentioned Czech food the beer sounds good but the food has sounded heinous and definitely not German (shitty fried latkes and so on). I meant German.

If you've never experienced it, your ignorance is forgiven.

[iAmCaffeine]

Greek cuisine is amazing as well. You haven't really eaten until you've eaten at a true Greek restaurant.

There's a Greek restaurant near me. When I was a teenager, my friend's dad took like five of us and ordered a plethora of starters 'cause he knew his shit. I had scampi with something for my main, I don't think that's Greek, but it was good. Two others had meatballs and they just crumbled. I laughed. They weren't happy.

I can't believe you missed out Greenlandic.

[tzor]

Do you even know what "American" is?

hot dogs, hamburgers...

Not really and they are actually relatively recent inventions.
Hot Dogs come from Germany.
Hamburger is harder to pin down but it is still late 19th century.

"English settlers in the seventeenth century ate three meals a day, as they had in England...For most people, breakfast consisted of bread, cornmeal mush and milk, or bread and milk together, and tea. Even the gentry might eat modestly in the morning, although they could afford meat or fish...Dinner, as elsewhere in the colonies, was a midday, through the wealthy were like to do as their peers in England did, and have it mid-afternoon...new England's gentry had a great variety of food on te table...An everyday meal might feature only one or two meats with a pudding, tarts, and vegetables...The different between the more prosperous households and more modest ones might be in the quality and quantity of the meat served...Supper was a smaller meal, often similar to breakfast: bread, cheese, mush or hasty pudding, or warmed-over meat from the noon meal. Supper among the gentry was also a sociable meal, and might have warm food, meat or shellfish, such as oysters, in season."

---Food in Colonial and Federal America, Sandra L. Oliver [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2005(p. 157)

[Symmetry]

Maybe Korean, but only because a lot of people think "dog". That said, Korean food is pretty well known to be excellent for people who don't think that.

English is pretty underrated, but British chefs are pretty famous around the world now, and England has a ton of world class restaurants, so that's kind of an outdated opinion.

For underrated, I'd go with Belgian. Apart from chocolate, they kind of get ignored. Good mix of French influences and more northern European meat dishes. Also, the best chips.

[jonesthecurl]

Incidentally, Mrsw, a good toad in the hole is a sublime and wondrous thing. Done badly it is one of the most disgusting things going.

[Symmetry]

Incidentally, Mrsw, a good toad in the hole is a sublime and wondrous thing. Done badly it is one of the most disgusting things going.

Aye, it's dependent on being able to make Yorkshire pudding well, making or getting the sausages right, and knowing how to make gravy properly. Each is an art form in itself. Done right, it's great. Get any one wrong, and it's stodge.