What food experiences from your country would you recommend to tourists?
What food experiences from your country would you recommend to tourists?
Not necessarily the best meals (or places), but the meals (or places) that best represent your culture.
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I mean if you've never eaten Pupusas, I don't know what life you're living.
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We have a Salvadoran restaurant near us (in Maryland, USA) and we love these!
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Loroco y queso!
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What is even that flower? I wonder if I can grow it in my apartment in Canada cause that shit is delicious. They sell frozen loroco where I live but it's expensive. And I haven't been to El Salvador in a decade for the real thing
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There is one pupusa place where I live and they don't season their food and it just breaks my heart.
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Currywurst. Chopped fried or grilled sausage with ketchup and curry spice sprinkled on top. Often served with fries.
You can get it almost everywhere in Germany, especially at street festivals. Simple, absolutely unhealthy and delicious.
Edit: I would also have said the Döner Kebab. Veil or chicken grilled on a vertical spitroast, sliced into thin strands of meat, loaded into a slightly toasted flatbread along with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onions and depending on the region and restaurant white or red cabbage in vinegar and oil, together with a yogurt sauce.
But you could argue that Döner is Turkish because it was invented by a Turkish immigrant and is usually prepared by Turkish descendants (or those who look Turkish). But then again I heard that restaurants in Turkey started offering German Döner because that's what tourists expected to get.
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One of my biggest regrets in life is not eating currywurst while I was in Germany. I will make it right though. Maybe next year.
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Pa amb tomàquet, bread with tomato. No, really.
You take some slices of bread, or something like a baguette or ciabatta sliced longitudinally to make a sandwich. Good bread, mind, not that spongy stuff you get in the U.S. Something with some crust, with a bit of a crunch. Slightly toasted (but not burnt) is good, and easier, but not necessary. You can eat this hot or cold, it's good either way.
Anyway, as I was saying you take some bread, and you take some tomatoes. Red, juicy, the tastiest the better. Slice one in half, take half, rub the sliced part on one side of the bread (on the crumb, obviously, not the crust), until the bread has soaked a good amount of the tomato's juice (you could do both sides if you wanted to, but it'd probably be a bit of a mess). It's not a problem if some small bits of the tomato's meat also end up in the bread, but you don't want big chunks (unless you want tomato as a topping, though that'd be a bit redundant). You don't want the bread to get too soft, don't ruin that crunch. If the tomato is juicy enough you can reuse it for the next slice, until it runs out of juice or you're just left with the skin.
Once you've got all your slices done, sprinkle some salt over them. Don't go overboard, you want to be able to taste the bread, and the tomato.
Finally, dribble some good virgin olive oil on them. Again, don't go overboard, don't drown them. Once you're done you can take one of the slices and use it to help spread the oil and salt on the other ones by tapping the crumbs against each other.
You can now eat the slices as they are, toast them if you want, accompany them with cured meats (cured ham is fantastic with this) or cheeses, as a side or as toppings, or as the filling of a sandwich (seriously, unless you're making a hot dog, or a cheese melt, or a hamburger, or something like that this is the way to make a sandwich; once you've tried it you won't be going back to plain or buttered bread).
Experiment, have fun, try different kinds of bread, more or less tomato, oil, or salt, toasted or untoasted, different toppings (anything you'd put in a sandwich will almost certainly work), oil from different types of olives, maybe rub some garlic on the bread before the tomato, if it's hard enough to take it... there are infinite possibilities and combinations, and unless you go overboard with the toppings they're just five minutes away as long as you've got some bread, some tomatoes, some olive oil, and some salt.
(Also, if you've got really good bread and really good oil, but would rather skip the tomatoes, pa amb oli, bread with oil — and a sprinkle of salt — can also be an excellent snack to eat by itself before a meal, though pa amb tomàquet is better if you want to eat it with toppings, or as a sandwich.)
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Found the Italian?
If you don't live in Italy and you're naughty, rub a little bit of garlic on the bread before the tomato :-).
Italy has so good food it's crazy (and I'm living in France!) but it seems impossible to get that bread, those tomatoes etc elsewhere (there is surely some magic to it too). It's like oranges from Naples. You just don't make them anywhere else.
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Literally my favorite bar food from southern Spain, cozy and fresh!
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Boston cream pie... more like a cake. Very delicious. If you're ever in Boston, you can visit where it started at the Parker House Hotel (Omni).
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New York pizza and hotdogs, Philly cheesesteaks, Vermont cheddar, and San Francisco sourdough clam chowder bowls. I'm sure every state has their specialty, so you'll have to visit every single one to try everything :p
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on the east coast of Canada, in the French speaking region known as Acadie (not in Quebec), there is a dish known as Poutine Rapée. it is not the delicious "cheese fries and gravy" Poutine, oh no. This is a big fucking potato dumpling with seasoned pork and onion inside it. Making them is an art form. They are super delicious. Eat one of those for lunch and you'll go for hours.
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As a former Maritimer, I feel robbed that I was exposed to Halifax donair and not this instead.
Donair sucks and donair pizza is an abomination, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. This on the other hand sounds amazing.
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well bud, I enjoy donairs enough for both of us put together, so don't you worry about that. I could eat the arse end out of one right now and I'm not even done my coffee.
But yeah, Poutine Rapée is absolutely tits. Like a "cult classic" movie or a super amazing hotspot that only the locals know about, if you know you know, and now you know. I hope wherever you are that you have a kick-ass day.
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- BBQ, from any/all regions
- Cajun food -- very important one!
- Fried chicken and waffles -- I tried explaining this umami to a handful of people in Japan, and they didn't understand.
- Casseroles of all kinds
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Good point on the BBQ. The differences between regions is substantial, and although you may not like one region’s BBQ, you may very well love another region’s. I for one am not a fan of the vinegar based BBQ, but a good dry rub, or mustard base, I am all there.
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Ok so everybody is always about the stroopwafels, the fries with lots of mayo and the raw herring. And that's all fine unique and dandy.
But the real thing that many food travelers miss is the smoked eel. They are delicious smokey fatty fishes, really unique to dutchland, Japanese unagi doesn't hold a candle to it.
They are horrible looking, hard to peel (yup you peel the eel) but they are the best culinary thing our country has, and I'll die on this hill. Goes with a korenwijn type (Dutch gin)
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JÄGERSCHNITZEL. ifykyk.
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Nostalgieglückstränen, nehme ich an. Ne? NE?!
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Mmh, the uniquely East German taste of Realsozialismus
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Uhh yeah 🤤
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Just some pasta with tomatoes, cut in small pieces, with a bit of olive oil and some basil. It takes 10 minutes just of waiting for the pasta to be ready. As simple and quick as delicious.
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Cold smoked raindeer meat.
Just amazing.
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Apart from the obvious cheese and chocolate, i‘d reccomend some good ol rösti with a spiegelei
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I'll fight you!
- Cheese: France, évidemment
- Chocolate: Belgium, potferdomme
- Rösti: ...'mkay, I'll leave you the potatoes leftovers fried in a greasy pan, but ffs not the dried-out thingy from Migros please
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Oh hell no. Alway buy the potatos, steam them for 20 mins and then they‘re ready to be grated into the pan. Don‘t forget the aromat!
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Bunny Chow! Chicken curry in a bread bowl
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Bunny chow is so good. There’s a South African expat who runs a store/restaurant by my house here in Texas and makes what seems to be pretty authentic bunny chow and Vetkoek. Unfortunately, I found out that he and his wife are so aggressively MAGA that I legitimately wonder if he left S.A. because he was sad to see Apartheid go.
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Seems far too common. My parents had a difficult time getting into the US so hearing about "all the illegals just strolling into the country" vitriol Fox spews seems to indoctrinate them
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I was wondering what South African dish I would see here. Can't go wrong with a Bunny Chow. But I would also mention Koeksisters, Melktert and our best braai meat, Karoo Lamb Tjops
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The Southwest of Germany has two really regional dishes that are worth a try. The one is Käsespätzle which is a special Swabian type of egg-noodles with cheese. The other is Maultaschen which are Swabian Ravioli.
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My favorite thing when I visited SW Germany was Fleishkase (I've also heard it referred to as Leberkase), and I've been unable to find it anywhere here in the states. I ate it at least once a week, grilled on a crusty bread with mustard from a Barbarossa bakery, and anywhere I traveled that had it on the menu I tried it (shoutout to Trier for having my favorit!)
I've been meaning to look into how difficult it is to make. I've been dreaming about it for like 2 years now 😭
Edit: Also, yes, kasespaetzle is next level fantastic. That I can kind of get at the Commissary on most military bases though, because us Americans want access to all the neat shit we get used to while serving overseas. However, while it's yummy, it's also prepackaged noodles just-add-water type shit at the Commissary, and not half as good as what I had over in Germany. Does scratch the itch when I'm craving it though!
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Leberkäse is kinda hard to make yourself and is basically made from what's left after slaughtering a pig and using all the good stuff for something else. Käsespätzle however is super easy to make from fresh dough yourself. For one pan the Spätzle are just made from 250 grams of very fine flour finely mixed with 5 fresh eggs. You just need to get some water cooking and then can either do a technique called "Spätzle schaben" where you just need a small kitchen board and a knife to get them into the water or use a Spätzlepress which is a specialised tool just to make them (safes you a lot of work).
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I was never a big Leberkäse fan, but I go to Trier on a regular basis now. Do you maybe remember where you got your favorite Leberkäse from, because I always found the food in Trier to be either mid at best or hella expensive.
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Can confirm both of those are fantastic!
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Poutine, but just the classic kind. Cheese curds and brown gravy over fries. Don't go to a poutinerie for the first time ever and order some stupid shit like buffalo chicken poutine. And don't order your first poutine from McDonald's either.
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The best poutine I had was at the Montreal airport, no joke. Big ol pile of Smoked Meat on top!
I love poutine. The only reason it hasn't caught on here south of the border is it's Frenchy.
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The best is in Quebec. Ottawa is a good second best.
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He he the Swedish kebab & bearnaisesås pizza (no one said it had to be good, and I didn't say surströmming which is something nobody eats after all). Very popular! You might never forget it except if the Italians finds out and declare war on Sweden and everyone dies.
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what's different about the swedish kebab vs turkish ones?
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USA: Real barbeque. I don't mean braised meat slathered in a sticky sauce, either. I mean tough cuts of meat, cooked slow and low over woodsmoke until it is fall-off-the-bone tender. No sauce required.
Much easier to find this in the southern US, with Texas, Missouri, and the Carolinas all being particularly famous BBQ regions. In the northern states, your best bet is gonna be to find someone local with a smoker - not just a grill.
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A Bunnings Snag.
If you visit Australia our main hardware store called Bunnings hosts charity bbq to fundraise. For a couple dollaroos you get a barbequed sausage on a piece of bread with your choice of onions and/or condiments.
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I can't read the word "dollaroos" without hearing it in an Australian accent. I hope Australians read the word "loonie" and think there's perhaps a slightly intoxicated Canadian involved.
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The first time I tried a sausage sizzle from Bunnings, I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it's because all my mates have been recommending giving it a try and hyping it up and whatnot, and I was really looking forward to it when I finally got around to it, but I didn't really find it all that after the fact.
I mean, it's not bad. It's a couple of bucks, it's a great sausage on white bread, I'd get it again no worries. I kinda just expected more I guess.
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If you come to America, go to a diner. Diners are attempted in other countries but they never get it right.
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And gas station hot bars in the southern US are really staggeringly good food.
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Fish and chips, the UK's national dish. Curry sauce or mushy peas optional. From a proper local chippy for the real experience.
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I'm listing countries where I've lived and split into Savoury, sweet and drinks categories, some countries have less items because I couldn't think of other examples. On most places and categories I tried to limit myself to 3 entries.
Argentina
Savoury
- Churrasco - Argentinian bbq, it's just meat with salt and possibly chimichurri (a "sauce" made with some herbs, restaurants around the world seem to call any dressing chimichurri but the traditional one is the best and only one for me)
- Fugazzeta - Essentially a thick dough onion and cheese pizza
- Empanadas - Similar to a calzone but with more fillings, it can be made in the oven, fried or grilled in charcoal. Traditional filling is meat but also very popular are Humita (corn with bechamel sauce, one of my favorites)
Sweet
- Alfajor - two biscuits with dulce de leche in between, usually covered with chocolate.
- Postre Balcarce - One of my favorites desserts, it's a sort of cake with peaches, almond, merengue and other stuff, look it up.
- Media Lunas - Sweet croissant.
Drinks
- Mate - A sort of tea, drunk in a special cup with a special straw.
- Paso de Los toros pomelo - Grapefruit flavoured tonic water.
- Fernet con coca - An alcoholic drink made by mixing Fernet (a bitter liquor) with a can of coke.
Brazil
Savoury (northeast)
- Acarajé - A Bean paste fried in dendê oil, filled with shrimp, Vatapá (a paste made of shrimp, coconut milk, peanuts, etc) and Caruru (a paste made with okra, personally I don't like it)
- Moqueca - A stew made with fish, shrimp, tomatoes , onion and dendê oil
- Beiju - A tortilla made with cassava flour, filled with a variety of fillings.
Savoury (general)
- Coxinha - A fried potato dough filled with chicken and usually requeijão/catupiry (a special creamy cheese)
- Pastel - Similar to Argentinian empanadas, but the dough is lighter and it's only served fried.
- Feijoada - A stew made with black beans and some meats (sometimes eaten with orange)
Sweet
- Brigadeiro/Beijinho - Cooked condensed milk with chocolate powder or coconut.
- Pudim - Cooked condensed milk (Yes, Brazilians love condensed milk) with eggs and a caramel sauce.
- Paçoca - Sweet peanut crumbly cylinder.
Drinks
- Guarana - A soda made from a fruit found in Brazil.
- Caldo de cana - Pressed sugar cane, essentially natural sugary water.
- Caipirinha - An alcoholic drink made with lime and cachaça (a typically Brazilian alcoholic drink). Cachaça is not vodka, and a caipirinha made with vodka instead of cachaça is called a caipiroska.
Italy
Italian food is very well known, so I'll list less known dishes, some of them are still known but not to the same level of Lasagna and Tiramisu.
Savoury
- Parmegiana - A lasagna made with eggplant instead of dough and LOTS of parmesan cheese
- Panzerotti - Similar to a calzone, but lots more filling and a thinner dough
- Putsnesca - garlic, anchovies, capers and black olives tomato sauce, usually eaten with Penne
Sweet
- Panettone - A sweet bread with caramelized fruits and raisins
- Panna Cotta - Cooked cream topped with some sauce
- Pastafrola/Pasta frolla - Sweet tart filled with jams
Drinks
- Lemoncello - Lemon liquor.
- Aranciatta - Similar to Fanta but I think it's made with tonic water because it has a bitter taste to it.
- Soda - A traditionally made soda with syrup and sparkling water, they have several flavors.
Ireland
Savoury
- Guiness stew - A stew made with meat, potatoes, onion, carrots and Guiness.
Drinks
- Guiness
Spain
Savoury
- Tortilla de patatas - A sort of tall omelette made with fried potatoes and usually onion.
- Paella - Seafood and veggies with rice and saffron.
- Patatas bravas - Fried potatoes with a spicy sauce.
Sweet
- Crema catalana - Custard topped with caramelized sugar.
- Churros/Xurros - Fried dough covered in sugar and cinnamon, made to be eaten by dipping in chocolate or dulce de leche.
- Turrón - A sort of nougat.
Drinks
I've only recently moved to Spain, haven't had any traditional drinks here, if someone has some recommendations let me know.
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Tostone. Take a green unripe plantain (similar to a banana). peel it cut into 3 or 4 parts depending on size. Soak in salt water over night. Dry and fry 3 min. Remove from oil and smash it flat. Fry for another 3 min. Salt and serve with crushed garlic in olive oil.
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Tacos, Enchiladas, Papusa’s, Gorditas, Tamales, etc. I’m very spoiled where Im at.
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Okay this is going to be a little less high brow then many other suggestions
Fat Shack - There are a number of locations in USA mostly in Colorado and Texas but there are in about 10 state. I would never call this food good for you. But it may be one of the most American things ever.
The main sandwich they make is called the Fat Shack and is a hoagie roll filled with Cheesesteak, chicken fingers, jalapeño poppers, mozzarella sticks, french fries & honey-jalapeño mustard. And you can get your choice of sauce (I always choose cheese sauce because at this point why not). The smallest size of this sandwich comes in at 1600 calories.
All their food is in the same theme and most locations have a you bring it we fry it thing too. They make no guarantees but will try to fry anything you want to bring in.
If you are visiting an area with one or live near one it is quite the experience to eat one of their meals and really one may be enough for a lifetime.
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Pork and rice, with pickled vegetables and an egg on top.
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Belgium: French Fries, yes. Common Tourist Etiquette Mistake: don't put ketchup on it, just don't.
Laos: Laap (of fish preferably) and sticky rice, the dry on eyou make a ball with your fingers, grab a tiny bit of extra-spicy Laap, and let it explode in your mouth. Chew lengthily to allow the rice to restore balance in your innards.
Morocco: Couscous. Not a joke, so good and also kind of mandatory on Friday Noon. I love my Fridays!
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Irish breakfast roll
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I'm Ukrainian. We have a very particular way of making salted hearing. It's really good and totally different from more commonly sold salted hearing and I would recommend it to anyone.
We call it селёдка (see-leot-ka)
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If you come to Chicago, definitely grab an Italian beef, a Chicago style hot dog, and some deep dish.
If you’re adventurous, try a shot of Malort. I personally like it, but it’s generally hated and used as a joke on tourists.
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The US at large? Too diverse to have a specific cuisine but corn is a native food here, I recommend corn on the cob, either just with butter or the fancy Mexican style, and also try cornbread.
Local food, we have Cuban sandwiches and deviled crab, I didn't know until recently that those are only served around here, despite the name these are Florida foods. Cuban sandwich is a three meat affair on Cuban bread, deviled egg is a sort of fried dough with seasoned crabmeat in the middle.
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None sadly. I have the distinction of being in a culinary-bland area in a large culinary-rich country with too many things to choose from if I step out. Even in ancient times, the highest level of culinary creativity you'd get is whatever grew in the fields slapped onto a dish. Not that I mind that much, I'm not huge on food.
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Where I’m from you can enjoy some pork with boiled cabbage and potatoes or some nice potato stew with cabbage and lard or cabbage stuffed with minced pork (with potatoes) or, if it’s late in winter, some pickled cabbage with salted pork. And potatoes.
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Going more state than country to narrow it down a bit: coney dog, hani, microbrews, walnut and cherry salad, pasties, Vernors float, native trout, apple pie/cider, cherry wine
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Moose steak.
And lutefisk (lye fish) is not as scary as it sounds.
EdIT: spleling
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Nordic or Minnesota? The world will never know.
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Noggie.
I considered adding whale steak to the list to make it more clear, but decided against it, because of the perceived controversy. It's delicious, though.
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I'm not usually much interested in "food experiences" but nonetheless I have an answer and it is the sugar shack pancake breakfast.
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Oh yeah, that is the best! They have one at the conservation area near me. You go there around March and slap on some cross-country skis to get to the shack. Then just as the cold is starting to set in a bit, you walk in there where they're boiling the sap and take in the aroma. Then you sit down at a long table and gorge yourself on pancakes with the syrup still hot and mixing with the butter. And then on the way back, if you have any bird seed in your pocket, you can just hold it out and chickadees will land on your hand. It's magical!
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Texas food is pretty grim, but we we have some good stuff.
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Beef is very cheap here, so if you like steaks, I'd recommend a nice steakhouse. Especially if you're European, y'alls steaks are the stuff of nightmares.
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We also have good tex mex, which probably explains a lot of our obesity issues.
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Watermelons here are both much better and much larger than anywhere else I've ever been.
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Chicken fried steak does kick the shit out of schnitzel, even if mushroom sauce is amazing.
Otherwise we mostly import any cuisine worth a damn.
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Bro - no mention of Texas BBQ? Beef brisket with Texas-style BBQ beans (savory, not sweet for those who haven't had them) is amazing.
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Derp. Totally didn't think about it, I haven't been able to get any for years now.
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Canadian cuisine isn't really distinctive, but you should really try French fries with salt and malt vinegar before you perish.
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Is malt vinegar on fries a Canadian thing? It's my go to for otherwise plain fries but I don't think its very common in my area.
I have nothing to contribute myself, I've only been briefly to anywhere in Canada other than home and I can't think of anything that isn't gimmick fast food, doesn't originate from other countries, or have a near identical equivalent elsewhere in the world. Like I had friends that lived on the rez and sometimes their parents would prep bannock dough that we would cook over a firepit and fill with honey and it was excellent, but its literally just honey on bread that was cooked on a stick.
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Bannock is definitely Canadian.
It's not that we don't have good food here, we absolutely do, but there's very little that I'd Identity as Canadian specific cuisine, other than bannock, poutine, etc. It's just all sort of nondescript to me.
And I think the British also do malt vinegar. It's the best way to eat your fries.
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In Texas, Tex-Mex.
In the US, it's really hard to say. We're too diverse.
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Taiwan: Come visit us!! The majority of the foods on my list youq can get at most night markets.
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Beef Noodle Soup - You've gotta try the beef noodle soup; it's practically the national dish! Imagine slurping down spicy broth with tender braised beef and hearty noodles. Total comfort food.
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Bubble Tea - No trip to Taiwan is complete without bubble tea. It's the perfect combo of tea, milk, and those addictive tapioca pearls. Totally worth the hype!
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Gua Bao - Think of Gua Bao as the Taiwanese burger. It's a fluffy steamed bun stuffed with juicy pork belly, sprinkled with peanuts and cilantro. So good.
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Stinky Tofu - It might smell funky, but stinky tofu is a must-try street food. Dare yourself to try it fried up crispy with some pickled cabbage on the side.
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Lu Rou Fan - This is a go-to comfort dish: simple braised pork over rice. It's unassuming but unbelievably tasty.
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Oyster Omelette - This is a unique mix of eggs and oysters with a sweet potato starch that gives it a chewy texture, topped with a sweet and spicy sauce.
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Pineapple Cake - For a sweet treat, grab a pineapple cake. It's a crumbly, buttery pastry with pineapple jam inside—a perfect souvenir too.
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Dumplings - You can't go wrong with dumplings, steamed or fried. Dip them in soy sauce and chili and you're set.
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Shaved Ice - To cool down, shaved ice is perfect, especially piled high with toppings like red beans and fruit.
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Mango Shaved Ice - Upgrade to mango shaved ice if you’re there in mango season. Fresh mango with shaved ice and condensed milk? Yes, please!
We are super friendly too and the majority of the population speaks English.
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