Foreign Food in Foreign Countries

I don't think that they use "fat-free" meat here

When I'm in Europe, one thing I miss is Asian food - as I eat it often here.

About 20 years ago, I was somewhere in the south of France, and saw a Vietnamese restaurant, my favourite cuisine. I went in, saw some things I liked on the menu and ordered.

The food came and I started into it just as I would here - putting some of the main dish into my bowl of rice, holding the bowl in my hand, and eating it with a fork.

I looked up and almost the entire restaurant was watching me eat. That was apparently not how it was done there - where they eat their dishes and then eat their rice separately. The owner came out to see what the fuss was - after the Vietnam war he'd gone to France and his brother had gone to Australia. He had no issues with the way I was eating, so I continued to provide a spectacle for the rest of the onlookers.

The food, however, was a bit Frenchified, and not quite the fresh and chilli flavours I was looking for.

In New York recently, I put Vegemite (which I had with me) on a bagel, to the consternation of the old lady sitting next to me in Au Bon Pain.

Some local food not only changes over the time but alos when produced in a foreign country.

[Modern] Doner kebab - the fast food favourite in Germany - was invented in Berlin in 1971 ..... and introduced first in Turkey in the 1980's (or even later).

There's a local Italian restaurant that does a real good job. The owner spent time in Italy learning how to cook, and he's been mighty faithful to his craft.

Also, when Korea finally caught on to bacon, they apparently couldn't take the amount of fat and sodium in American varity. What they make here is thicker and leaner.

However, street vendors call corn dogs "hot dogs," and they're battered so thick that you're essentially eating deep fried bread with a tinge of hot dog weiner in it. You pretty much have to find a place that specializes in hot dogs to get a real one.

The Korean version of Chinese food in no way resembles the way it has been interpreted in the West. Since I've never been to China, though, I can't testify as to how it compares.

Oh, and for years, Koreans put corn on every pizza, regardless of which toppings you asked for, and ofter regardless of whether or not you asked them not to put corn on it. It's not bad. Just strange. Now Pizza Hut, Dominos, etc, have set up shop here, though.

Are you sure about that Walter? I remember eating doner kebabs in the late 70's in western Sydney - that's a pretty quick transmission of an idea pre-internet.

When i first arrived in Ireland in 1977, i went in to this restaurant in Limerick and ordered a hamburger. I was brought a dry, almost tasteless item that did not remotely resemble beef. When i inquired about it, i was told, rather rudely, that if i had wanted a beef burger, i should have ordered one. I had a patty made from ground ham.

Hamburgers in the United States are traditionally made from what is called a chuck steak or a chuck roast. As recently as the 1950s, chuck steak was referred to as Hamburg steak. The butcher in our town (who was also our next-door neighbor) had s sign on his display case for hamburg steak, for which he only changed the price, and another for ground hamburg steak. According to Wikipedia, hamburg steak has been used as a term for ground beef since at least the 18th century.

I didn't argue about it, and having once eaten a beef burger in an Irish restaurant, i gave up on getting a good one. However, in 1978, my landlady in the west of Ireland began making hamburgers from beef ground fresh daily, and she added chopped onions to it. She and her husband had run a hotel in New York for 15 years. Soon, if you wanted on of Mrs. McNamara's hamburgers, you had to get to the dining room early.

In Canadia here, they have what is called a hot hamburg sandwich, or a hot hamburger sandwich--something i've never seen in the States. It's a freshly cooked beef patty on a thick slice of bread, with fries on the side, and brown gravy over the whole shootin' match. It are very good.

I wonder if the joker in Québec who invented poutine about 50 years ago was inspired by the hot hamburg sandwich.

Well, it is said so:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24685617][b]Doner kebab 'inventor' Kadir Nurman dies in Berlin[/b]
Wikipedia: Kadir Nurman (credited with having invented the döner kebab)
etc. etc. etc.

Nova Scotia donairs are already different - their sauce is made with sweetened, condensed milk.

Now there's donair soup.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/donair-soup-at-souper-duper-soup-shop-in-dartmouth-a-big-hit-1.3211441

mmm

ok


___


The Turkish mother of donair goes back centuries. Hard to give credit to Germany for a food eaten around the world for well over a century. Germany can get credit for calling it a doner.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304432704577350194262835880



I thought this bit was interesting as shwarma here is usually a blend of lamb and beef, with the ratio and spices varying from restaurant to restaurant

Whatever - you get in many restaurants in Turkey both versions.

Actually,no-one did or does so. All those report refer to information by the Association of Turkish Döner Producers in Europe (Atdid Avrupa Türk Döner Üreticileri Dernegi).

Any couple of years, there's the DÖGA "Döner Fair" (Döner Gastronomie Messe) in Berlin ....

Maybe it is a terminology thing - doner kebab, shawerma, gyros (or chiros or yiros) - even souvlaki(!) seem to be used interchangeably in Australia.

Wikipedia disagrees with the german origin theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab

The spread via the ottoman empire seems reasonable. Maybe it's about the presentation and accompaniment rather than the meat.

PS - I'm still trying to remember what foreign cuisine we tried in Italy (so imagine it wasn't bad or good) - it was probably Austro-Hungarian in Trieste. Which is line ball on whether you could consider it 'foreign'.

Just like calling the choucroute in Colmar 'foreign'.

I've had Italian in Colmar (France), Pafos (Cyprus) and Nice - always good and not remarkably different from any Australian version. Although the ragout-style of the Nice meal is a little rarer in Oz. But Nice has an enormous Italian linkages historically.

Not sure what category I'd put Strasbourg's tarte flambee - a very different take on pizza - sans tomato and very thin crust.

Tarte flambée ("Flammekueche")is original in Alsace (and Baden and Palentine) It was original made after having baked bread - to still use the heat of the oven.

"Flammkuchen" is listed by the UNESCO as "Intangible cultural heritage".

I remembered another one! Vietnamese in Tonnere on the Canal du Borgoigne.

Um. Not what we get in Australia. Tame in flavours. Almost like Chinese was in Australia in the 1970s. Edible, but not interesting. Decidedly Asian looking owners and staff. But quiet. I think I found it on Tripadvisor just now and it's closed. Thanh Thanh.

Am I deluded to think we get pretty good/authentic vietnamese in Australia?

No, says me..

A Vietnamese restaurant opened in Columbus, Ohio about 20 years ago, and it was great. Good food, carefully prepared, and it was like the food you get in Vietnam. The restaurant didn't do well, though. After about a year, they began to tone it down in terms of spicy food. Slowly, they began to build up a reliable clientele, and it became one of those crowed, come-early-to-get-a-table kind of places. But it wasn't Vietnamese food any longer. Last i knew, though, they were still in business and doing well.

As a few here know, I was introduced to vietnamese food by our check in clerk, in our lab, then a lab for the doctor's practice but also larger, as an immunology lab, at large, and sometime later, nationally large. Two of my favorite people ever were the keepers of new test tubes that arrived, one a guy from Eritrea and one a young woman from Vietnam.

The person from vietnam, wonderful woman, don't get me started, introduced us to a vietnamese restaurant in LA that her parents liked, thus the start of a love affair for us re vietnamese food, and later friendship of us with the chef, more stories.

Well, I could go on and on. Here, though?
Bob and Diane and I ventured to a variety of places of asian claims here, and my view was.. not good.

I suppose this is not re the thread idea. I'll do better next time.


So, I will posit that Vietamese food in Albuquerque sucks, anecdottaly.

In Lisbon (Portugal) we did French at a Michelin star restaurant. It was a hoot (as Michelin star restaurants should be: fun!). We did the Degustation. Mrs Hinge still refers to the 4th course as 'that which will not be named' tiny little sheets of pressed frog on tiny little pegs on a tiny little clothes line.

Man, we loved Portugal.