My favourite cuuisine is probably Thai / Vietnamese - but I turn my hand to cooking almost everything - except sushi.
I love to cook what I consider to be a typical Australian meal, although I can't offer it to dlowan, (like Jespah, no red meat). A couple of legs of baby lamb, pierced with garlic, rosemary and occasionally anchovies (makes a difference), amd slow roasted on a rack, so the juices drip down. As many kinds of roasted vegetables as I can manage. I spice up the traditional mint sauce with chili and fish sauce, and make a gravy with the meat juices (with fat removed).
I usually have a small horde arrive if I cook this, and they eat an incredible amount. I guess for most of us, our standard food is pasta or Asian (both quick and easy after a long day), so a time consuming meal like this is a much enjoyed novelty.
I'm an equal-opportunity gourmand. I despise going out to eat and paying Perfectly Good Money for something that I cook well myself.
With ethnic cooking, there is always something new under the sun.
Back in the 40's I remember going to a playmate's house and seeing the calendar on the kitchen wall marked "steak", "pork chops", "chicken", "steak", "pork chops", "chicken".....
This was all my playmate's mother could cook--and my playmate said defensively that this was all there was to cook.
Her divorced husband was a doctor, so the problem wasn't money--just poverty of the imagination.
I love all of those, plus Vietnamese, Filapino, and more. I cook primarily italian. But I voted for Indian, since that is what I miss in my new small town in a lightly populated county. There is only one indian restaurant and it is quite terrible in contrast to the many good ones in Los Angeles.
I eat italian twice every day at work, had a Schnitzel for lunch today, and urs53 and me are going to eat chinese tonite... And we came to this without using a2k for communication!
I am a Thai girl - loooooooove the incredible fragrance and cleanness of the tastes. I make a lot of Thai and Indian food when I entertain.
Now that Adelaide has really good, authentic Chinese restaurants (as opposed to the old Cantonese-made-over-for-the-west stuff) I can finally get my friends out to eat Chinese food too - and this is a delight. I also adore steamed yum cha.
Italian is great, as is Japanese - I so agree with Jerry R about the cleanness and lightness of that food.
We have lots of restaurants where I live, and lots of ethnic choice. The developing Australian cuisine is a fusion of the best of east and west - which makes sense where we live - and this is a delight. We have the main developer of this cuisine right here - Cheong Liew - and his brilliance has nurtured a whole generation of Oz chefs, since he had a long period where he worked in the local training school.
I voted for Italian. I absolutely love pasta. But - oh, a really good hamburger - we are not talking fast food here! Sushi and sashimi! Indian! Yum. The problem is we live in a small town in Southern Germany. So it's pretty easy to get good Italian, German and maybe Greek food. And there is McDonald's... But that's more or less it! And I admit - I love to eat but cooking is not really what makes me happy. BigDice though, he really enjoys cooking. And I enjoy eating what he cooks. So it works out ok. :-)
I'd consider replying if there were an "all of the above" or "other" option in this poll. Good grief, just one cuisine? You must be kidding! Variety really is the spice of life.
And think of all things that are missing from the list. I would be very unhappy if I couldn't have Korean kimchee or Brazilian feijoida. If it didn't involve changing metros and trekking across town, I'd have Ethiopian food more regularly. Now that winter is upon us, what about Slavic food, dark breads, hearty stews, piroshki type dumplings? And then there is the Middle Eastern mezze and its Russian cousin zakuski. No couscous, no tapas, no pickled herring, no nasi goreng? I'd weep.
Now, ethiopian food. Tell me what to order. There is an ethiopian restaurant at the end of my street. It looks interesting but i'm a bit nervous about venturing in - i have noooooo idea what to order, and don't want to order turkey lungs or something by mistake. Any suggestions?
The only thing i really know is that they recommend a group of no fewer than 4 per table.
I'm very happy with my neighbourhood these days - thai, chinese, hakka, peruvian and ethiopian restaurants within a tiny walk (as far as i go to the subway to get to work each morning). Greek and middle-eastern (several good meze places), and tamil and indian and vietnamese and japanese sushi bars ... within about a 5 - 10 minute drive. Almost anything else i can imagine, including mongolian, available within 30 - 45 minutes.
Toronto is a real treasure trove for the food explorer.
I am having a look around. Jespah kindly invited me when able2know started, but this is my first time here.
Ethiopian food is a breeze, not many unusual unmentionables. Do go with friends though, because the table gets one shared platter. On it you might have various wots, or stews, of chicken or lamb or beef. They should offer some form of spiced lentils (always among my favorites) and other stewed or fresh vegetables. There might be some sort of stir fried dish (called, I think, tibs). The only thing you want to know is that there is a dish of seasoned beef like steak tartare. I think it's great, but whenever I have seen it on a menu, they always offer to cook it for you if you don't want your beef raw.
All of these dishes are arranged in mounds on a large platter that has been covered with injera, a flat spongy bread. You rip off a chunk of bread, use it to pick up a lump of food, and eat with your hands. To wash it all down, they might offer you Ethiopian honey mead. Otherwise, a refreshing beer goes down well, too.
Now that you mention it, i recall learning about injera in high school. I love love love lentils, so this looks like something i could really enjoy. A visit to Promise (the Ethiopian restaurant) over Christmas/New Year's might be nice - an opportunity for something completely different.
