General Food Discussions

[Anonymouswizard]

I agree with a lot of this. I do feel to an extent that Chinese food kind of "cheats" in such comparison due to the sheer size of the country and its variety. The same applies to an extent to Indian food (which is also excellent).

When I think of Chinese food I'll primarily be thinking of Cantonese cuisine (the kind easiest to find outside of China), or Harbin style cooking (due to having a good friend from there who refuses to teach me her recipes). I probably should have specified I was mainly thinking about those two (incredibly far apart) areas.

The other country shamefully missing from the above list - which if asked who produces the best food in the world, I would probably answer instinctively - is Italy.

Of course! I completely forgot them! I wouldn't consider them the best food in the world, but they're one of the cuisines I'll cook to impress (along with the Cantonese food I have a rough handle on). I love me some Italian-style pizza (altough American-style is still great), and can personally cook a large number of pasta dishes (some of them even authentic!).

[Razade]

I feel that authentic Mexican cuisine really gets overlooked which is a real shame. Especially their savory dishes. It's way more diverse than tacos and burritos. Things like mole and torta are astounding and living close to the boarder, it's easier for me to get things like Mexican chorizo, avocado and eggs on a fried tortilla than it is for typical American breakfast. Which is fine, because I way prefer it over oatmeal or bacon.

[Peelee]

I feel that authentic Mexican cuisine really gets overlooked which is a real shame. Especially their savory dishes. It's way more diverse than tacos and burritos. Things like mole and torta are astounding and living close to the boarder, it's easier for me to get things like Mexican chorizo, avocado and eggs on a fried tortilla than it is for typical American breakfast. Which is fine, because I way prefer it over oatmeal or bacon.

Speaking of, I just discovered that my favorite breakfast is American, albeit having several differing origin stories (amusingly all based in NYC). On a wholly unrelated note, I had a fine eggs benedict this morning (well, a smoked salmon variant, at least).

[Anonymouswizard]

Speaking of, I just discovered that my favorite breakfast is American, albeit having several differing origin stories (amusingly all based in NYC). On a wholly unrelated note, I had a fine eggs benedict this morning (well, a smoked salmon variant, at least).

Eggs Royale?

[Peelee]

Eggs Royale?

That's a fantastic name, I gotta say. But nah, it was at First Watch (which I assume is a national, or at least regional chain), and they swap out like half the ingredients. It's still wonderfully delicious, though, and I never have any regrets. The tomato is a great touch. I love me some tomato.

[Anonymouswizard]

That's a fantastic name, I gotta say. But nah, it was at First Watch (which I assume is a national, or at least regional chain), and they swap out like half the ingredients. It's still wonderfully delicious, though, and I never have any regrets. The tomato is a great touch. I love me some tomato.

Ciabata?

CIABATA!?

*shudders*

I love Eggs Benedict (one of the few American dishes I truly do love), my friends even make jokes about it because it shares my first name (yep, Eggs Anonymouswizard). Considering that the only real difference between Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale is whether you use ham/bacon or smoked salmon.

[Aedilred]

America has got a couple of things right when it comes to breakfasts: waffles or pancakes with maple syrup and fruit are pretty great. Obviously the pancakes have to be good pancakes; some of those I've encountered have been like eating insulation foam. Even so it's not something I'd want to eat all that often.

For my money, the best breakfasts are Irish. Irish breakfasts are pretty similar to English cooked breakfasts (bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, beans) but they tend to have a wider variety of ingredients, including things like white pudding and potato farls which are rare in England, and of course a cup of tea on the side (Ireland, astonishingly, consumes even more tea per capita than does the UK).

[Peelee]

Ciabata?

CIABATA!?

*shudders*

I love Eggs Benedict (one of the few American dishes I truly do love), my friends even make jokes about it because it shares my first name (yep, Eggs Anonymouswizard). Considering that the only real difference between Eggs Benedict and Eggs Royale is whether you use ham/bacon or smoked salmon.

a.) The lightly toasted ciabatta actually does a wonderful job of sopping up hollandaise and egg yolk, so it's perfectly fine by me.

2.) I now believe your name is Benedict Cabbagepatch.

[2D8HP]

....All of which is perfectly true, but if anything makes this whole "The US is better at food than UK because barbecue" be an even weirder proclamation, since it seems you are co-opting African American cuisine and claiming it for the entire US?

Sorry, that is actually deeply disturbing. It's like claiming Roma accomplishments for whatever country has been kicking them around.

Grey Wolf

Weird it my be but otherwise there is no widespread indigenous to the United States cuisine (that I can think of) that isn't very similar to food from other countries.

From watching "Cook's County" they're lots of dishes that developed in the U.S.A. but they're mostly regional and "African-American cuisine" was also largely a regional cuisine until the 1940's, while most other non-regional "typically American" dishes have foreign antecedents (often British or German).

My favorite barbeque place near me in Oakland, California was established by an "African-American" couple*who were born in Alabama and, like many, moved north and west in the 20th century.

I understand that "back east" it's different (such as in the hills of Appalachia), but where I live, while their families may have come to California later than some (such as the "Californos" who's ancestors were here when California was Spanish) most folks around here's families just haven't been in the territory of the U.S.A. for as long as their "African-Americans" neighbors (unless you're including in that category more recent African immigrants, a fair number of Ethiopians and Eritreans have come here these past few decades. Oh! Speaking of cuisine, Ethiopians and Eritreans have established some really good restaurants here!).

The banjo was a west African instrument that (in the U.S.A.) is now usually associated with "bluegrass' music from Appalachia where few African-Americans live, while the Saxophone was invented by a Belgian, but the top three Saxophonist I can name are all African-Americans, and the fourth performs in a music genre (Jazz) that was original invented by African-Americans.

During the 20th century three African-American band leaders/composers (Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington) along with a Lithuanian/Polish-American (Benny Goodman who led an integrated band in a time when that was notable) were asked to be "cultural ambassadors" and travelled the world showcasing "quintessential American music"

Is there a European country where the composers most known to the world are mostly Roma (there may very well be, I don't know)?

I really don't know much about the situation of the Roma in Europe, and maybe this is just because most of my neighbors were African-Americans when I grew up, but the analogy just doesn't seem apt to me, and I guess what I'm trying to say is that, while I suppose there's some exceptions (like the Amish and isolated "Lovecraft country" villages in New England) African-American culture is mostly so integral to broad American culture that it's very difficult to distinguish between them, as the culture of the U.S.A. is so blended and new on this continent that very little isn't "co-opting" of someone, at least a little bit.

[Razade]

All of which is perfectly true, but if anything makes this whole "The US is better at food than UK because barbecue" be an even weirder proclamation, since it seems you are co-opting African American cuisine and claiming it for the entire US?

Sorry, that is actually deeply disturbing. It's like claiming Roma accomplishments for whatever country has been kicking them around.

Grey Wolf

Well...Peele is wrong. It being disturbing or not set to the bottom here, Peele is deeply mischaracterizing the history and evolution of BBQ a great deal. Barbecue was here before the first Europeans landed. The Arawak and Carib people had been doing something similar for centuries and the Europeans (and their slaves) developed it from there. You can't really "co-opt" something when the prevading culture had a hand in it across the board. Did African American slaves make BBQ? Yeah of course, slaves did a lot of the cooking especially in the South where slavery was an institution because cooking back in those times was dangerous and took a long time just as much as farming and everything else. But it wasn't just the slaves doing the cooking and it certainly wasn't just the slaves pushing new techniques and recipes. European settlers who didn't have slaves were doing it as well and they had just as much a hand in it all.

American Barbecue and its various styles grew as the borders of the wider culture began to manifest and as trade goods became easier to get post-Revolution (there was a BBQ at the celebration of our Revolution by the by). The various sauces and styles were thanks not to the African influences of the spices but the European settlers that made their homes in the various parts of the country. You find a mustard based sauce in the Carolina's (my personal favorite) thanks to the German and French influences of those colonies. You'll find that this style and the original vinegar based barbecue that dominated what...it was back then...was most often applied to pigs. They were easier to raise than cows and needed less land. You'll also see that those styles had the sauce made separate and added after everything was cooked, mostly because the meat was dry. Which changed as you got to the British colonies where the sauce, a vinegar and tomato base, was added onto the meat while cooking to form a glaze that helped preserve the cooking juices.

You saw a shift from pork to beef as you got to the frontier where German and British settlers pushed into the lands granted by the Louisiana Purchase where there was more room to grow and raise cattle. This made the Carolina and Virginia styles that had dominated evolve because they were using those styles on a totally different animal. You don't even see what is generally the barbecue that the wider world attributes to us, which is Memphis and Kansas City, until the 1900s. Early 1900s but ya know, past the Civil War. Mostly because molasses was easier to get...because it got cheaper and the Memphis style thrives on that. Same with brown sugar which is a more Kansas City style thing.

It's reductionist to equate barbecue to "slave food" when it really was a ton of different cultures coming together and adding onto and evolving something that was already present. Which is how all cuisine is made and to claim it as "disturbing" is...strange to me. European Settlers, Native American, African Slave...they all worked to make what we call BBQ...what it is. BBQ isn't just a food made in the Americas, it is part of our history and it's a part of our identity. It's a history of the evolution of cooking techniques and an expanding and growing pantry, of family and of the frontier. BBQ grew and changed the more land and the more peoples came to our shores. It's a continuing history as things like Hawaiian BBQ grows more mainstream, things like Alabama White step out of their narrow fields and other similar cooking techniques from the rest of the world come to us. You'll see Korean style BBQ blending in with Mexican BBQ in Kor-Mex food trucks. You'll see local BBQ places experimenting with things like yuzu and tamarind. I know Texas is playing with BBQ ramen, where brisket is used over pork cutlets, with thicker noodles and a heartier based sauce. With soy and mirin in the brisket even. I for one embrace it. You don't have to like it, though I think it's really unfair to judge an entire cooking style to four bad places, but ya know. I hope at least a larger glance at the way more involved history of the cuisine makes it less "disturbing".


That said, the U.S has contributed more than just BBQ to the world. The oldest and most famous cocktails for instance are American. The Old Fashioned is the oldest recorded cocktail dating back to 1806 and was made in the former colonies long before. Of the other six cocktails considered "essential" to the art, (the Daiquiri, the Jack Rose, the Manhattan, the Martini, and the Sidecar) five of them were invented in the US and one is...of dubious origin. That one being the Martini which was either invented in Cuba by an American or California. Not to mention we boast a great many other fairly iconic drinks like the Sazerac, Screw Driver, Bloody Mary were all invented in the US. We're not talking mixed drinks here, because really...no one can say where that was "invented", but the conception and the art of cocktails is a distinctly American thing arising from much of the same sort of evolution as BBQ. The more techniques and ingredients we had, the wider our creative spirit led us. Until Prohibition. Which is a topic we can't discuss but man did it really kill the scene for a while there. We're really just recovering and playing catch up to the rest of the world who took what we began and ran with it.

[Peelee]

I feel it's important to note here that there's a massive difference between what southerners call barbecue and what the rest of America calls barbecue. My wife, for instance, considers barbecue as anything cooked on a grill. So hamburgers and hot dogs are barbecue. Culturally, though, you come to Alabama, fire up the grill, and ask your neighbor if they want some barbecue, they're gonna be confused when you try to hand 'em a burger (someone made a pretty funny video on this. Can't find it though). Barbecue down here is chicken, ribs, pulled pork, or brisket, heavily flavored with either sauce or dry rub, and more often smoked than grilled. Looking into it, it seems like this style originates from the Caribbean, but was still heavily influenced by southern slavery.

Also, i dont know Key.

[Razade]

I feel it's important to note here that there's a massive difference between what southerners call barbecue and what the rest of America calls barbecue. My wife, for instance, considers barbecue as anything cooked on a grill. So hamburgers and hot dogs are barbecue. Culturally, though, you come to Alabama, fire up the grill, and ask your neighbor if they want some barbecue, they're gonna be confused when you try to hand 'em a burger (someone made a pretty funny video on this. Can't find it though). Barbecue down here is chicken, ribs, pulled pork, or brisket, heavily flavored with either sauce or dry rub, and more often smoked than grilled. Looking into it, it seems like this style originates from the Caribbean, but was still heavily influenced by southern slavery.

Also, i dont know Key.

Sure but that's a lot of modern digression as regional styles grow more distinct and separate from their original source. In the Carolina's a BBQ is just pork. In Texas it's brisket almost exclusively. In Memphas its ribs.

You'll find that the smoking comes from the Caribs who had giant smoke pits they'd dig into the dirt, layer with leaves and cover the meat (also wrapped up in leaves) with hot coals and then bury. The Spanish took that and made the grills and smokers we equate today. While a lot of the South had slave labor to do the work, you'll find the recipes and the spice combinations and that sort of thing to be from predominately European palate. Especially since that's often who the slaves were cooking for. It's not a nice look in history but the history of cuisine and cultures rarely are. BBQ isn't the first or late style of cooking with blood on it. Italy didn't get those tomatoes from a nice manicured garden after all. BBQs were more than just a slave thing and certainly more than a Southern thing. Numerous presidents held them, they were something done by rich and poor alike for festivities (because meat was expensive) across the country after the Revolution and as noted it was something done when we won our independence. At the Capitol.

[Honest Tiefling]

Speaking of, I just discovered that my favorite breakfast is American, albeit having several differing origin stories (amusingly all based in NYC). On a wholly unrelated note, I had a fine eggs benedict this morning (well, a smoked salmon variant, at least).

Isn't New York also associated with the invention of the potato chip (the crispy kind, not the weird soggy ones you get from England) and the fortune cookie?

[Florian]

BBQ isn't the first or late style of cooking with blood on it.

There's something to that. As a continental European, you're pretty much used to "cultural/cuisine exchange" through war and occupation. When you have at least basic knowledge on continental languages, it´s actually quite easy to see and understand from where something originates, at which era and how it progressed from there into a localized version that later on became a "classic". And it is not like the UK or France came up with curry, nasi gorreng or rum on their own without their colonies.

Around here, we're normally confronted with the situation that the occupier forces a cuisine on the loser of a conflict, which will then adapt is and localized it as part of the actual mainstream when the occupation is over. Hey, it´s not like I´d complain. A lot of stuff goes back to France under Napoleon or the KuK Empire, which are now household stables and restaurant classics.

But: This is where I actually have to agree with Grey Wolf a little bit. We are used to change by being conquered, change by conquest rubs sensitivity to certain things absolutely the wrong way.

Beyond that, I've also got to admit that I'm not fond of the different BBQ styles found across the USA.
I´ve grown up next to a major U.S. Army base, so I got to sample the various different styles, been over to the States before and found it, well, overrated.

Disclaimer: No, my comparison point is not the local German grilling culture. We get our brats and kebab right, forget the rest. I'm speaking more Argentina, Tuscany and Poland.

Isn't New York also associated with the invention of the potato chip (the crispy kind, not the weird soggy ones you get from England) and the fortune cookie?

Completely wrong. Potato chips originally come from Saratoga Springs and their industrial production hails from the South (Leys). Fortune cookie are actually an old japanese thing, but their actual modern incarnation can be at least partially traced back to California.

Speaking of NYC, been ages since I had a proper Reuben on Rye. Gotta fix that tomorrow.

Edit: Something that makes me cry inside a bit: Brandenburg is actually the region that produces the best potatoes of the world. That is no hyperbole, terrain and climate are simply perfect for potatoes, up to the point that our farmers can go the full range of certified bio-organic without having to lift a finger.
But we simply don't have any local producers that want to try their hand at turning that into perfect potato chips. Noooooo!

@the brazenburn:

Before I forget it: Calamari and Octopus are some of my favorite food. It´s simply a gastronomical reality that anything that comes battered, can be kept frozen and prepared deep-fried is considered to be a god-sent and vastly preferable to keeping the base product fresh and preparing it as mine en place. In most cases, unless you're at a dedicated Greek or Japanese restaurant, battered and deep-fried will be the only option.

Personally, one of my favorite starters is a dozen baby calamari, lightly pan-fried in olive oil with a bit of garlic and doused with white wine vinegar, served with ciabata bread.

One of the weirdest calamari dishes is something that is more or less a japanese fast food: A whole calamari, stuffed with spiced sushi rice, simmered in dash stock, sliced up and eaten with soy sauce.
It´s basically another form of "inside out sushi".

[halfeye]

the Saxophone was invented by a Belgian, but the top three Saxophonist I can name are all African-Americans, and the fourth performs in a music genre (Jazz) that was original invented by African-Americans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_G

It's a weird instrument he plays, and I don't particularly like the sound of it, but it is a sort of saxophone and he is very popular.

[Florian]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_G

It's a weird instrument he plays, and I don't particularly like the sound of it, but it is a sort of saxophone and he is very popular.

I'm actually a big fan of Kamasi Washington. Great jazz saxophonist and I can only recommend The Epic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamasi_Washington

(I'm actually hanging out too much in jazz lounges and cocktail bars.)

[2D8HP]

...been ages since I had a proper Reuben on Rye. Gotta fix that tomorrow.....

Oh yes!

Going to Saul's...

[Florian]

Oh yes!

Fun fact: Going to a russian grocery store to get some "Russian Dressing" will net you some blank stares and maybe a "We. Don't. Have. ketchup".

[Domino Quartz]

You'll find that the smoking comes from the Caribs who had giant smoke pits they'd dig into the dirt, layer with leaves and cover the meat (also wrapped up in leaves) with hot coals and then bury.

This sounds kind of similar to a traditional style of cooking, done by the native (polynesian) inhabitants of New Zealand, called "Hangi." With a hangi, you heat up some stones in some way (usually on a fire) in a pit in the ground. Then you wrap up the food (meats like fish, chicken, pork, along with vegetables like kumara [sweet potatoes] and potatoes) in leaves (traditional), cloth or aluminium foil (more common nowadays), put it in the pit with the hot stones, and bury it for 3-4 hours.

As for the "what BBQ is" discussion, here in New Zealand, "barbeque" refers to anything cooked on a barbeque (what people in the US might call a grill). So, things like meat patties/hamburgers, chicken wings or drumsticks, steak, sausages and so on.

Anyway, when I was living in the US, I wondered why Americans hated fruitcake so much, since I love fruitcake (especially covered with almond icing/marzipan and fondant). Then I tasted some American fruitcake and realised why - it's because american fruitcake isn't made properly. So, here is a recipe that I inherited from my mum (and she from her mum):

Spoiler: actual good fruitcake

Show

Mum's Ginger Ale Christmas Cake

Ingredients:
8½ cups / 1.5kg dried fruit mix
1½ cups ginger ale
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ginger
½tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
250g butter
3 eggs
4 tbsp brandy (optional)

Directions:
Place fruit in a large mixing bowl and cover with ginger ale. Leave overnight. Sift flour, baking powder and spices into a bowl and add sugar. Cut butter into this until crumblike. Beat eggs and add to soaked fruit. Combine fruit and flour mixtures thoroughly. Turn into a 22cm square paper-lined cake tin. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for about 3 hours. When cool, make holes in top with skewer and pour in brandy if desired. Ice.

[tyckspoon]

This sounds kind of similar to a traditional style of cooking, done by the native (polynesian) inhabitants of New Zealand, called "Hangi." With a hangi, you heat up some stones in some way (usually on a fire) in a pit in the ground. Then you wrap up the food (meats like fish, chicken, pork, along with vegetables like kumara [sweet potatoes] and potatoes) in leaves (traditional), cloth or aluminium foil (more common nowadays), put it in the pit with the hot stones, and bury it for 3-4 hours.

Slow-roasting/baking things in a big hot pit is one of those cooking techniques that just comes up again over and over around the world; it's a lot like how virtually every culture has some native variant of 'stuff wrapped in bread pocket' (calzones, pierogi, empanadas, kolache, etc.. you can find something pretty similar to this in just about any place that deals with bread at all, and even the ones that don't probably found a way to the concept with other foodstuffs.)

[Peelee]

As for the "what BBQ is" discussion, here in New Zealand, "barbeque" refers to anything cooked on a barbeque (what people in the US might call a grill). So, things like meat patties/hamburgers, chicken wings or drumsticks, steak, sausages and so on.

Which I totally get. When people do that in America, though, they're just tricking me into thinking there's ribs or pulled pork when they got hot dogs and burgers going. No slight to the food, I love a good hot dog, but ain't nobody eats a barbecue flavored potato chip expecting it to taste like a burger, is what I'm saying.

[Tvtyrant]

Which I totally get. When people do that in America, though, they're just tricking me into thinking there's ribs or pulled pork when they got hot dogs and burgers going. No slight to the food, I love a good hot dog, but ain't nobody eats a barbecue flavored potato chip expecting it to taste like a burger, is what I'm saying.

I think you are mixing up Barbecue and A barbecue. A barbecue is an event where people hang outside around someone who grills raw meat for eating while people are there. Barbecue the food is narrower then the foods found at a barbecue, where it basically includes all grilled foods. Also macaroni salad for some reason?

Basically the word means an event as well, a barbecue is like a picnic but in your yard and cooked at the time using a grill.

[Peelee]

I think you are mixing up Barbecue and A barbecue. A barbecue is an event where people hang outside around someone who grills raw meat for eating while people are there. Barbecue the food is narrower then the foods found at a barbecue, where it basically includes all grilled foods. Also macaroni salad for some reason?

Basically the word means an event as well, a barbecue is like a picnic but in your yard and cooked at the time using a grill.

Not according to my wife's Michigan family I'm not.

[Razade]

I think you are mixing up Barbecue and A barbecue. A barbecue is an event where people hang outside around someone who grills raw meat for eating while people are there. Barbecue the food is narrower then the foods found at a barbecue, where it basically includes all grilled foods. Also macaroni salad for some reason?

Basically the word means an event as well, a barbecue is like a picnic but in your yard and cooked at the time using a grill.

Not according to my wife's Michigan family I'm not.

It's a regional thing.

[Florian]

I don´t know why, but today I woke up with a serious case of 80s food nostalgia.

That got me thinking about some things. Before globalization reached the actual stage and before supermarket chains and their logistics reached the 90% saturation point (There is basically no point in Germany that is farther than 30 minutes away from a supermarket - on foot), it were actually the breweries which dominated the whole soft drink and lemonade market. They all had bottling lines, so they got into the franchise business to brew, bottle and distribute some brands as a licensed product.

So, right now, I'm a serious craving for these things:

Foodstuff:
- Spaghetti alla Carbonara. (Especially the "wrong" version by Miracoli. Miracoli was basically the first ever brand to introduce pre-packaged pasta with sauce and grated cheese to Germany - most of the sauces would be unrecognizable to an Italian .... But, this is how most of us learned cooking...)
(Youtube: Spliff - Carbonara)
- Haribo Saure Apfelringe. Apple-based wine gums, coated with sherbet powder. As I kid, I seriously gouged myself on that stuff.
- Toast Hawaii or "Schnitzel Hawaii". Yes, the trinity of pineapple, cheese and ham works. No, we're not talking about pizza hawaii here, this is a very different approach to it. Schnitzel Hawaii is basically a chicken-based Cordon Bleu, with pineapple as an addition. Both were common in working class pubs back then.

Alcohol:
- Berliner Weisse mit Waldmeister, (very) hard cider with Waldmister. I think Germany is the only nation where stuff based on Waldmeister (Galium odoratum) is part of the mainstream taste.
- Rumkandis. It used to be common to spent holidays on the north sea coast, or even on Sylt if you could afford that. This spread friesian tea culture around a bit. An important part is the use of rock sugar, in fall and winter, it is common to marinate lumps of rock sugar in cask strength (overproof) caribbean rum for extra flavor and warmth.
(Youtube: Die Ärzte - Westerland)
- Radler. A common way to drink beer in german-speaking countries is a 50:50 mix of a lager type beer with either citrus or orange lemonade. No, this is not from the 80s, but this was my go-to drink back then, especially in the beer gardens of Munich.

Lemonade and ice cream:
- Cura Maja Split and Capri. Very basic by todays standard, the first is vanilla, coated with passion fruit, the second is plain orange and that's it. Oh man, it was so good when sugar simply wasn't the main ingredient and stuff was not so damn sweet.
Spezi. As mentioned earlier, breweries used to be the driving force behind lemonade, not companies like Coka Cola. We already had Fassbrause and Caramalz, when Coke was introduced to the market, two kinds of lemonade that are made using malt or malt extracts. Coke initially was too sweet, so we came up with a 50:50 mix of Coke and regular orange lemonade. The funny thing is, good Spezi and lemonade came in regular beer bottles back then, closed with a regular cap. A major newspaper outlet did a series of interviews with refugees, mainly from Syria, about how they see Germany. A thing that struck me as excessively funny was the awe one of them displayed when he said: "A German can open any beer bottle, with anything, at any time". This is why.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Weird it my be but otherwise there is no widespread indigenous to the United States cuisine (that I can think of) that isn't very similar to food from other countries.

Taking from other countries and improving on it until it becomes yours is fine - that's how things work, nothing wrong with that. Taking from your slaves... that is a completely different ball of wax. That Americans, say, do Hamburgers better than Hamburg is fine. That they claim African-American culture as their own is not. Although it seems, according to Razade, that it is not actually the case. I am in no position to judge that particular scenario, knowing absolutely nothing of its history (I'm still trying to figure out how what I ate wasn't BBQ).

Is there a European country where the composers most known to the world are mostly Roma (there may very well be, I don't know)?

Flamenco springs to mind, which tends to be thought of as a "Spanish" music, but in Spain I was frequently informed it was in fact "Gitano*" music - i.e. Spanish Roma.

And if you don't know Paco de Lucía, you should familiarise yourself with him ASAP.

Grey Wolf

*Watch out for this word. I have been hearing more and more that it is demeaning, although Spanish Roma I met and befriended happily called themselves gitanos, so it might be one of those words that only works in Spanish and has to be avoided in English - such as the Spanish word for black.

[2D8HP]

....Flamenco springs to mind....

Oh wow I didn't know that!

Thank you for dropping some knowledge on me @Grey_Wolf_c!

That actually makes Spanish Flamenco seem like an equivalent to American Blues/Jazz/Ragtime/R&B/Rock n' Roll to me, an art "gifted" to a nation by a minority within it which is then gifted to the world.

Like cuisine.

[Neptunas123]

Anyone ever tried to make Thai soup ?

[the_brazenburn]

Like tom ka gai, or like the less creamy varieties?

I love and have made the first, dislike the second.

[Florian]

Anyone ever tried to make Thai soup ?

You mean the one with coconut and chicken that is a little bit spicy?

Food like that is actually easy-peasy and can be done while half asleep or drunk. That's not it. The challenge is more to have the right ingredients, condiments and spices at home, at a reasonable price.

For stuff like this, use google and any of the major food p**n/recipe sites/channels and be done with it. The actually important part is knowing what you do with either the left-overs or the basic ingredients that you have lying around, ex: when you're doing thai soup on a regular basis, being able to do summer rolls is a boon.