GBAChef: Your recent foreign food addictions

[FAST6191]

Everywhere I have been in the world there have been lots of "foods of the world" shops/aisles/sites and lots will have relatives that drag things here and there. Being the experimental sorts I imagine we all give things a punt from time to time and well "? million people can not be wrong" is often applicable to food. Take away type things can count but try to avoid them if you can as such things are usually "? with a ? twist". Naturally things you discovered on a trip can count in this.

My absolute favourite has to be lemon and passion fruit juice, I got it when wandering around Amsterdam one morning and it was delicious. I have not been able to find it since (and I visit every shop I can) so I can not reasonably add it to this list.
I will go through a few points in time where I like Kvass (a fermented black bread drink reasonably common in eastern Europe and Russia) but I do not seek it out.
There are these cherry biscuits similar to Jaffa cakes (I think they are Polish) that I will occasionally buy a pack or three to munch on the way back from the supermarket.

I will also take foods you miss when you visit somewhere else (squash when I visit the US. I can deal with the sub par bread, I can deal with the awful cereal and though it has effects very similar to withdrawal I can even give up salad cream but the lack of squash gets to me).

Comments along the lines of "of all the things you like ?" and "kind of amusing that I could go down to the corner shop and get hundreds" as well as things you get asked to bring somewhere/back also play.

 

[Veho]

The most recent discovery for me would be some ginger and garlic sauce I found at a local exotic condiments store. It's made in Thailand and the company is called "Thai Dancer", but googling for "Thai ginger sauce" yields no results other than the product in question, so I'm not sure whether it's a common, popular thing there, or whether it's a fluke by that company and I'm one of the rare consumers. Similarly, there's a chili mint sauce I like that a friend brought from Tunisia but I don't know if it's a thing there or just a single sauce by a single company, as I haven't seen any others like it.

Of the things I know are regional "specialties" and that I ask people to bring me are Marmite, Vegemite and other "mites". I loves me some yeast extract.

Kvass is nice and I have a glass whenever I come across it (which is exactly once a year, at the international food fair) but it's not worth the hassle of acquiring it around here (or forcing people to get for me).

 

[FAST6191]

Ah yes that reminds me
Kecap manis
Recently I have been able to find it in the UK but for years the only place I could get it was in the Netherlands. I had never found a soy sauce I like (as in for every type of soy sauce before it then it was the best I could do to choke it down) before this one and it is wonderful by itself and as a cooking ingredient.

On marmite if you like it (I do) then give the extra strong/XO stuff a go.

 

[Blaze163]

Been addicted to pizza since childhood, since I'm not Italian I guess that counts.

 

[ilman]

Sushi.
Put anything edible in a sushi roll and I will eat it. Homosaki goes very well with bacon, potatoes or even eel meat(it's a lot tastier than it sounds...and crunchier).
Sadly, it's so damn expensive here. I really need to learn how to make some myself.

Lasagna and spaghetti are awesome, easy to make Italian dishes.

Ramen is awesome, as well. Especially with tons of soy sause.

Also, the pomelo fruit is pretty damn tasty and it's very cheap here. (like .30 euro per kilo)

 

[Satangel]

The classic American cookies, like this;

Can't imagine the amount of butter in it, don't even want to know frankly.

 

[snikerz]

Weed brownies are pretty amazing

 

[mr. fancypants]

macarons are heavenly. sweet with a sort of cream within it and a crispy on the outside

 

[Wolvenreign]

I'm trying to lose weight, so I've been staying off of this, but...my favorite food in the whole world is cheesecake. Everything from the texture to the taste is pure heaven.

Edit: D'oh, foreign. My bad. =P

 

[Foxi4]

Curry of all sorts.

Where I live, "Curry" is understood as this:

Spoiler

...meaning strictly as a spice which is often used in chicken seasoning or in sweet hamburger or salad dressings and whatnot, but finding curry paste, be it green, red in a store (not so much online - it's easy to hunt it down on the Internet). Finding an Indian restaurant is a pretty big undertaking too - I've only ever seen two of them near where I live and they're both considered to be somewhat "posh", which is naturally the exact opposite of how Indian food is treated in the UK.

Seeing that I've been traveling to the UK quite a bit in the recent years since my girlfriend lives there, I got a taste for the simple, everyday curry Brits enjoy. I love Korma, I love Tikka Masala (even though "Indian" is a debatable term in this case as it's a curry likely designed in Britain and for Brits), I love Jalfrezi, I love everything that goes with curry as well, from naan breads to onion bahji's.

Even though for many it won't seem like something incredibly exciting or exotic, it's just not a kind of meal you get to eat where I live. I always liked using a lot of spices in cooking and I've used curry powder on numerous occasions, but since trying out an actual curry, I began looking for curry pastes and incorporated them in my diet. Many-a-times I tried to replicate the taste of a proper curry with varied success - I have a tendency to alter recipies to better suit my tastes so whatever I cook can't really be considered a traditional curry anymore.

Whenever I'm in the UK, I always have a curry. It doesn't matter if it's from a jar or from a restaurant - it's a curry and I love it.

 

[pyromaniac123]

Salted herring fillets

 

[FAST6191]

Curry of all sorts. [stuff]
Whenever I'm in the UK, I always have a curry. It doesn't matter if it's from a jar or from a restaurant - it's a curry and I love it.

I am half surprised. Most other places any of us end up in Europe or even the US you can usually find a halfway decent curry house that does not cost the earth. In most places I have been in the UK you even have your choice of parts of India from which they plan most of their dishes.

My main problem these days (and going back to school days) is I have a few clients that come from India, Bangladesh and the like and they are inclined to feed me. If I am not careful it is like eating canned vegetables when you grew up eating fresh. As it stands having now had a bunch of proper meat stuffed paratha I can not even look at a keema naan (a thing I used to really enjoy) without a wave of apathy coming over me.


Similarly as it is a classic.

 

[Foxi4]

I am half surprised. Most other places any of us end up in Europe or even the US you can usually find a halfway decent curry house that does not cost the earth. In most places I have been in the UK you even have your choice of parts of India from which they plan most of their dishes.

My main problem these days (and going back to school days) is I have a few clients that come from India, Bangladesh and the like and they are inclined to feed me. If I am not careful it is like eating canned vegetables when you grew up eating fresh. As it stands having now had a bunch of proper meat stuffed paratha I can not even look at a keema naan (a thing I used to really enjoy) without a wave of apathy coming over me.

Similarly as it is a classic.

I suppose it's the joy of only ever having the opportunity to eat a given kind of meal when you're abroad, in my case every couple of months. Like I said, you won't get "curry in a jar" in a supermarket around here and you'll be lucky to "go out" for a proverbial "Indian" without having to look up where the nearest "Indian" is as unlike in the UK, those restaurants are few and far between. I probably don't have the sophisticated palette necessary to be fussy about my curries yet, although I can tell the difference between a "good" and a "bad" one - it's just that for me it's more like choosing between a "great" and a "good" one.

Great video by the way.

 

[Theconejo]

I went to Taiwan last year and the food was really great. All day, any meal, it was just delicious. I miss the beef noodle soup we had in Taipei at a place under the expressway. The restaurant had a big window to the kitchen. And as you walked by or walked in the smell of the broth was in your every nerve. Aroma that made you forget where you were going, a smell that made you pause while talking to someone just to really take it in and appreciate it. When looking into the window you would see a border of stark white beef bones, remnants of days past and gallons of broth made. Bones piled 2 feet tall on the bottom edge of the border and 3-4 on the outer edges. This border which framed the kitchen let you know what they were all about, flavor. Rest assured I haven't found broth or noodles as good as that place.

Sushi.
Put anything edible in a sushi roll and I will eat it. Homosaki goes very well with bacon, potatoes or even eel meat(it's a lot tastier than it sounds...and crunchier).
Sadly, it's so damn expensive here. I really need to learn how to make some myself.

Are you able to get basic Japanese ingredients? Honestly it isn't too hard to make some when you have a craving. To make real exceptional sushi takes a lot of practice. Last job I had was at a Japanese place in Chicago and worked closely with the sushi chef, 14 years experience. He showed me a lot and basically said it just takes time and practice.

- Get sushi rice, and measure out to keep a 1:1 water to rice ratio. In actuality it's 1:1 with a splash more water, an amount I never measured just fiddled until I got a end product that was acceptable.
- soak rice in water for 20 min.
- put in an accommodating pot, obviously chose the right size for how much you are making.
- cook on high for 10 min
- drop to medium-low for 12
- cut heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes
- dump hot rice into a big bowl and add a vinegar mixture to the hot rice
- fold the rice over onto itself, try not to break the grains
- taste it, make adjustments based on your preferred taste
- spread the rice in the big bowl to allow to cool down in temperature

Seems like a lot but really it isn't at all. When it cools enough to touch you can go ahead and make whatever you wish. I made a lot of hand rolls when I was hungry because they are probably the fastest thing to make. My maki skills got pretty good and I was getting the hang of nigiri too. All because of practice.

So get yourself a bamboo mat, or use a clean damp towel(old school) if you are doing maki rolls(for forming), sheets of nori, rice, and whatever you want to put inside. Have fun with it.

Ps: the vinegar mixture we used was kombu that was steeped in a mixture of rice wine vinegar, mirin, and a little sugar. Play around with the ratios for your tastes.

 

[Duo8]

I like most food that aren't from my country. I hate my country's food.

 

[Sicklyboy]

I just like food.



Ahem. As far as "foreign" goes, I'd have to say things like sushi (though I have never been a fan of tamaki), sashimi, and hibachi. When you live in the great 'murrica, where every other street in any semi-major city has a restaurant for every culture of life, "foreign" becomes a term that can only be used loosely.

Oh oh oh. Actually, I do have a pretty recent one that I would consider foreign, I had never had it before this. Two months ago or so I went to a Middle Eastern food joint a town or two north of me, pretty small place, and ordered a lamb and lettuce shawarma on a pita with hummus on the side. It was freaking delicious.

 

[Duo8]

I just like food.



Ahem. As far as "foreign" goes, I'd have to say things like sushi (though I have never been a fan of tamaki), sashimi, and hibachi. When you live in the great 'murrica, where every other street in any semi-major city has a restaurant for every culture of life, "foreign" becomes a term that can only be used loosely.

Oh oh oh. Actually, I do have a pretty recent one that I would consider foreign, I had never had it before this. Two months ago or so I went to a Middle Eastern food joint a town or two north of me, pretty small place, and ordered a lamb and lettuce shawarma on a pita with hummus on the side. It was freaking delicious.

Looks like a Doner.

 

[Sicklyboy]

Looks like a Doner.

Pretty much the same thing.

Edit - it's worth mentioning that that was the first time I'd ever had lamb. It was taaaaasty :3