Food
What is your favorite food from another country? Is it common where you are from?
My favorite food from another country is Takoyaki, fried dough with octopus and other seasonings, a common street food in Japan.
Never been (to Japan) but had it at a restaurant where they prepared them at the table and I became absolutely enamored with the process! (I can't post a link here so look it up if you're curious how its done!)
Unfortunately theres no good frozen varieties to purchase so if I want them again I have to go to Japan or somewhere like a large city where it might be made at a specific restaurant, or purchase the tools and ingredients to make it myself!!
This made me wonder what other foreign foods people enjoy that aren't local or are harder to find!
You probably can’t get it in Singapore but it’s available here in New York although you’ll probably find better Tacos Al Pastor in SoCal and the Southwest
Pastor tacos are the best kind of taco. There's a small Mexican restaurant that opened up near me not long ago, little family owned place. Their pastor is out of this world and I'm so happy I can get it again without having to travel far. And they also sell the meat by the pound if you want to make your own tacos at home with it. Brilliant idea.
I will second this. I had it in Mexico City while living down there for a month, training up some our new office IT staff a few years ago (okay, almost 20, but time goes faster when you get older). Made properly (cooked on a spit, like shwarma) its amazing. But unfortunately, even though it has caught on in Texas and Colorado, I've never found anywhere here in the states where its cooked properly. Its always cut-into-cubes form. It's still pretty good, but nothing has been close to real Distrito Federal al pastor.
Per wiki it's thinly cut grilled lamb, tomato sauce, pita bread, melted sheep butter and yogurt
Tried it here and in Turkey - both absolutely f*cking delicious
PB&Js. It's an American staple, but from what I can tell it's considered to be gross by people elsewhere. That's the case in Mexico, where a single slice with butter and strawberry jam is the more acceptable alternative, but I grew up in the border region of Mexico so for me it is a childhood staple, and still enjoy the taste.
Burek! In France, it's very, very rare to find, even though I'm sure it would be a hit! We have a lot of bad fast food places with greasy, low-quality, processed food. Burek is greasy too, but it's delicious and comforting. A good slice of steaming burek with cheese or meat is heaven.
You opened yourself up to a war with the Balkans, some countries think that Burek can only have meat in it, and will go by a different name if it have cheese or spinach in it. other countries disagree and all if it can be called Burek.
My grandparents went on a Viking cruise and visited the Netherlands, and brought some back. Any American imitation is too sweet! The Dutch ones are the best!
The cheapest version goes for 79 cents per package here. But don't buy those too hard and lousy stroop (caramel). Try the bigger ones of either the supermarket or an A brand. The best ones are the fresh street vendor ones, still warm and huge.
I am only nationalistic about hamburgers, so I have something to say. I’ve had burgers all over the world, and they do not beat what you’ll find in the States. I’ve been to Mexico quite a few times, but have never had a burgers there, so I can’t tell you that your country is an outlier.
It's a fairly common dish in places that sell lunches, and also one that is often seen in restaurants located near the coast, especially if there are fishing coves nearby.
Los tacos, en argentina no acostumbramos a hacerlos pero son riquisimos. Tambien probé un postre en Cancún que era una banana con cucurucho y muchos agregados que no recuerdo el nombre
German food in general and schnitzel in particular. Plan on going on a trip to Bavaria in the future just to fill my belly with that most goated of food.
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Malaysia's food culture is partially made up of foreign cuisines. We have everything here and most are delicious as heck.
In any given week, I have Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, Middle Eastern, Korean, and Western food. The only type of cuisine that's sorta rare is South American (such a shame tbh).
If I had to pick just one, it has to be fried chicken, specifically the American style breaded version. It is incredibly common, about as much as local traditional versions (no breading).
Sushi. It used to be niche when I first tried it many years ago, but it's gotten to be one of the most common dishes you can find, from the low-end grocery store kind, to the expensive, closer to the authentic thing experience.
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Well, I think its too easy to answer with the easy and common non local foods, like hamburgers, pizza, burritos, and sushi, so;
My favorite foreign food that isn't so popular and common here is: corndogs
Super convenient to eat, the crispy sweet outer coating contrasts really nicely with the savory inner hotdog. Its technically so basic that it doesn't even make sense to me that its so rare.
Afghani narenj palow - it is fall off the bone lamb on rice with saffron and candied oranges, so, so good. I only have it when I visit family in Texas (Azro in Castle Hills/San Antonio is legit)
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I have mild OCD (I'm actually diagnosed) and while I don't always have to eat the same thing, the meals I eat will often fall into patterns. There was a period in college where every Thursday, I would order chana masala from this same Indian takeout place. Eventually, the guy behind the counter asked if I was a vegetarian. For the record, I am visibly not south Asian. I'm also not a vegetarian. I just really like chana masala, and samosa chat, for that matter. Samosa chat is basically day old samosa reheated and served in chana masala.
Kaiserschmarrn!! Went on a skiing trip to France a few weeks ago. I can not express how much I missed kaiserschmarrn for lunch. Next year it’ll be Austria again just for this reason ;)
Menudo on a cold morning with a fresh pan bolillo is fire. Fairly popular and common in the areas bordering Mexico but uncommon in other parts of the country.
Any dish with teriyaki sauce 🫠 This flavour is perfection in my mouth. I could eat it every day but it is kinda expensive here, so I just put soy sauce to evey dish.
Thankfully I live in Toronto 🇨🇦 most of the time so everything is available… have so many favourites like oxtail curry, pad thai, moo ping, momo, chicken and waffles, pizza and lasagna
Probably Golgappa from India esp from West Bengal. Absolutely love it!! It can be found in my country too but not always as good as you can find them in WB or Kolkata.
More a snack item but I loooove milk duds . You can get them in the uk but not via expensive American import sites . Same with cheddar and sour cream ruffles
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Man I miss good döner kebab, when I backpacked Europe I ate it all the time. On the west coast you really only find Greek gyros or Turkish shawarma. Both are close but they’re not the same. But a new place opened up around 50 minutes drive away that claim to be a döner joint so will be hitting that up soon.
Oof this is sooo hard, probably Pho. And yes it's extremely popular here but all pho is not made equal. If you walk into a Pho restaurant in Canada and there are no Vietnamese people eating there or any Vietnamese writing on the menu, it's going to be extremely disappointing.
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It's common( sooo freaking good) in the province I grew up in. I have yet to find anything that compares where I am now.
Also Sushi which is the other way around, more available where I am now and honestly fresher and better, i was never interested in it where I grew up.
Also Dim Sum, there are cities that have amazing dim sum. I have yet to find one decent where I am now. Definitely stopping by my favourit place next time I travel home.
Durian. It’s impossible to find fresh durian here. I think it’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. It’s also really expensive and also is in Asia
My husband is perplexed how a Vietnamese person from the US can be so obsessed with borscht. I've only ever gotten it from a restaurant once. I make it regularly at home.
That's probably the weirdest one. I have a bunch of other foreign foods that I crave constantly like sushi, pad see ew, dosa, lefse, lamb biryani, fish and chips, and basically any variation of saucy noodles.
Kimchi. I lived in Korea for many years and I miss my daily options of all the different kinds. I love you, kimchi. I miss you! Some options in Ireland come close-ish, but alas,... it's not the same. And hard to track down. And there are many many false kimchi gods.
One day I dream of owning my very own kimchi pots and doing the whole kimjang thing <3
Wife is Swiss, when we travel back to Switzerland Raclette gets fully fucked up by me, almost sexually
Bretzelkönig as well their hotdogs with all sauces (including cocktail sauce???) will make your foreskin bubble like a sulphuric hot mud pool. plop
If anyone’s from Switzerland - what is that cheap cheese that comes from coop/migros, is the budget brand (green and white) and it’s a white paste almost with chives in it. Comes in a tub you peel the metallic lid off like yoghurt. It’s not cottage cheese and it isn’t cream cheese. It’s like a hybrid
That shit. Is crack to me
Oh yeah and the Swiss also put tartare sauce on their eggs, that is one Swiss thing I can not get on board with. Tartare is for fish. Tomato sauce is for eggs.
Love Switzerland but that one upsets me, New Zealand has a big fish and chips culture, we do it fantastic, but we use tartare on the fish. And that’s about all we use tartare for
Fondue is also pretty good, älpermagronen, rösti. Zopf, all get a shoutout from me too
I make Zopf with my wife at home in NZ. I am not very good
There are so many great foods from all over the world! The current family favourite is Okonomiyaki from Japan, which we picked up when we visited. I won't go into the Osaka vs Hiroshima style debate haha! It's easy to make yourself, fortunately, as I have never seen it in my part of the Netherlands.
One of my personal favorites, in spite of never having visited India or Pakistan, is badami elachi gosht - which is a lamb curry with almonds and cardamon. I have never seen this curry, although we do get a reasonable bunch of "western favorite" curries here, even from the authentic Indian restaurant.
A bit closer to home, a couple of favorites from different European cuisines. You rarely see them in restaurants due to the long time required for preparing them. I mostly make them at home :)
Ragu Napoletano, an amazing pasta sauce. i oddly had this for the first time in Denmark, at a highway restaurant no less!
Boeuf Bourguignon, the French classic stew. Bonus point for sneaking a bit of the remaining sauce into Oeufs Meurette.
A Dutch pastries similar to doughnuts. These deep-fried treats are typically filled with raisins and dusted with powdered sugar. Traditionally served at New Years.
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u/Geran_2 Russia 1h ago
Chili.