What is your favourite ethnic food?

[PartyPooper]

Poll question: What is your favourite ethnic food?

Mine is Mexican and Italian.

What's yours?

Poll result (92 votes)
Mexcian	(17 votes, 18%)	Vote
Italian	(15 votes, 16%)	Vote
Chinese	(9 votes, 10%)	Vote
Thai	(17 votes, 18%)	Vote
Japanese	(6 votes, 7%)	Vote
Canadian	(1 votes, 1%)	Vote
French	(3 votes, 3%)	Vote
English	(1 votes, 1%)	Vote
Russian	(1 votes, 1%)	Vote
Other	(22 votes, 24%)	Vote

[Nicole]

1. Italian

Mexican is a close second.

[grannylib]

17. I voted Thai but I love anything spicy...Mexican, Somali, Ethiopian,

Chinese (Hunan and Szechuan especially)
Red pepper rocks!

[GirlinContempt]

2. Etheopian

Followed by Thai

[rooboy]

3. Indian. n/t

[PartyPooper]

8. Yes, that should have been included in the poll.

I love Indian food...especially eaten in London restaurants! And, my partner does a great curry here at home.

[Gardeaux08]

18. Indian!

Tandoori chicken and a mango lassie would be really good right now.

[Misunderestimator]

95. Ditto... with Thai a close second.

[yellowdogintexas]

102. curry, anyone? Love that stuff!!!!!

but I also love Mexican, Italian, Greek, Chinese/Thai/Korean too

[phusion]

4. Other: Indian

mmm... saag paneer.

Thai is up there along w/ Vietnamese...But nothing beats Indian food.

[MADem]

19. I like Indian food too

I also like Mexican, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese, but I seem to have them more often. So when I do have Indian food, I really enjoy it. Tasty stuff!

[tuvor]

5. What's "Canadian food"?

Poutine and bannock?

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. Tim Horton's?

That's a uniquely Canadian thing.

And wash it down with BC Grower's apple cider.

[tuvor]

9. LOL

Tim Horton's is owned by Wendy's!

[fortyfeetunder]

11. wiping off the drool...BC apple cider...

one of the best things about going to BC!

[grannylib]

12. *lol* I actually kind of miss Tim Hortons...worked in Canada for a while

and went there a lot (there were eight of them in a town of 40,000, I shit you not...)

[Goathead]

84. They have them down here. I saw one in Ohio. Dayton I think. n/t

[enigmatic]

32. Tim Hortons!!!

Since I moved up here I've become a unrepenant Tim Hortons worshipper...

[imenja]

14. good point, that slot could have gone to Indian, or even Vietnamese

which is marvelous

[derby378]

46. Four-bean chili?

Had some at Epcot once - pretty damn good.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Thai

Followed closely by Mexican. or basically anything hot & spicy

[imenja]

10. Thai and Indian

[Robeson]

23. Yep, those are my two favorites!.....

...yummy!

[Celeborn Skywalker]

13. Italian

then Mexican, followed by Chinese and Thai.

[tammywammy]

15. Indian

Also Italian, Mexican, Lebanese, Chinese, Japanese...really anything, but Indian is at the top of the list.

[gollygee]

99. I vote for Indian too

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY

[mark414]

16. West African

damn!

[MADem]

20. Or Cuban/Jamaican/Carribbean food....

Beans and rice, rice and peas, aki and saltfish, cuban sandwiches....all that good stuff!

I like all food, when I think about it. I might not be so thrilled with whale blubber, but I'll give most foods a whirl!

[kwassa]

36. Pan Caribbean, South American, Yucatan ....

black beans, rice, chicken pibil ..

[Skittles]

21. I kid you not - I LOVE ENGLISH FOOD

fish & chips, shepard's pie, steak and kidney pie - I learned to love it as a child in England and I still love it. Never tastes NEAR as good here as it does over there though.

[PartyPooper]

27. I love English food, too! And, the UK pubs serve some of the best!

[Skittles]

52. yes, my mum and I are big fans of pub grub

yes INDEED

[R. A. Fuqua]

34. my girlfriend lived in the UK for a few years

(getting her masters degree).

She has introduced me to "tea time" and I love it. We do it the way the English do--with cream and sugar in the tea. She makes the little tea sandwiches and savories, with little pastries and sweets depending on how hungry we are.

I absolutely love the British custom of tea-time--it is very refreshing to take an afternoon break--and tea really hits the spot--especially in cold weather. I love the food too--light, tasty and delicious.

She also makes a great English breakfast---YUM--but that is heavier fare and I don't do that everyday.

[Skittles]

53. lol

my mum thinks "tea time" is ten times a day - tea is for EVERY occasion. Get up - tea. Leave the house and return - tea. Favorite program coming on - tea. Anyone visits - tea!!!!!

[R. A. Fuqua]

89. yeah--my gf too!

she is always--"let's put on the kettle and have a pot of tea" (when we have just barely finished the last pot!

but taking tea is a nice habit....

[starroute]

22. Southeast Asian, really

I voted Thai, but it's also Vietnamese, and Indonesia, and that whole area. Half Indian, half Chinese, and with a lot of interesting local variations.

[saltpoint]

24. Voted 'Thai' -- Take me to a Thai restuarant and --

-- I'll eat everything but the table cloth.


-----
edit: Thaipo

[Radical Activist]

25. I eat a lot of Mexican, Italian and Thai

Its easy to eat vegetarian that way. Midwesterners just aren't good at making vegetarian meals.

[driver8]

26. Cuban is my favorite...followed closely by Indian and Thai n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

28. Someone already mentioned Canadian, so...why is English food on there?

Don't get me wrong, I do like roast beef & Yorkshire pudding, fish & chips, and so on, but it's not really what you'd call one of the world's great cuisines. Unless you really LIKE meat pies and offal, that is.

[UncleSepp]

29. German!

There is very little good German food in Seattle

[Robeson]

33. My wife and I are going to be in Seattle for the first time in....

...September. She will be exhibiting a quilt at the quilt show in La Conner, which is North of Seattle. We want to see Seattle, but I've heard that traffic in Seattle is a nightmare. Could we stay in Seattle, or should we stay north of the city. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated!!!!

[Tektonik]

40. Hey I have a friend who comes from La Conner!

[UncleSepp]

61. La Conner's a bit far from Seattle

It should be an hour and a half to Seattle from La Conner when traffic is normal. Probably you're safer staying in or close to La Conner, and then going into Seattle as a day trip to see it. That way you won't end up getting stuck trying to get to the quilt show on time.

All in all the traffic's not so terrible as people make it out to be - the worst part is trying to cross Lake Washington on either I-90 or SR 520 during the rush hour, or when there is a sports game going on in Seattle. This is the best resource for trying to plan a trip:

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/seattle /

It shows by color what the traffic is like. La Conner is off the north end of the map, north of Marysville. Once you're that far out, you don't really have to worry about it, though. There are also average travel times between points which are dynamically calculated, those are helpful.

Hope you have a good time in Seattle! Where are you coming from?

[Robeson]

77. Thanks for your feedback....

...This is very helpful. We're flying in from Nashville and we're looking forward to it. We'll be at the Quilt show and visiting Seattle for 3 to 4 days. After that we're going up to Vancouver for 3 days, so its going to be real fun!

Thanks for your help!

[UncleSepp]

88. You'll like the weather :-)

The fall and especially winter are much milder here than in Tennessee. You might see some light rain, but you're not going to find it to be too cold. Bring hats hats are good, umbrellas not too helpful.

Give me a shout when it gets near to time for you to come over, we'll put up a post in the Washington forum and see if we can't get a few DUers together for a coffee or a beer or a whatever you like while you're here.

[Robeson]

96. That sounds great....

...I'll be sure to let you know so some of us DU'ers can try to get together!

[Arugula Latte]

58. And that's a good thing!!

German food ... I'm sorry, but bleaahhh. I guess my being a non-red-meat eater doesn't help my perception of German food.

[UncleSepp]

60. Germany's got great vegetarian food

It's easier to find a vegetarian, organic, low fat, and special diets foods in Germany than in the US. There are plenty of good fish dishes too, and better fowl - duck, goose, not just chicken. Of course none of that makes it into German restaurants in the US - here, it's all sausage all the time if you find any at all

[AlienGirl]

97. That mushroom dish at People's Pub is pretty good

[RagingInMiami]

30. Italian food is by far my favorite

Followed by Mexican and Cuban.

[Tektonik]

31. Mediterranean food of all kinds

[Squatch]

59. Exactly my choice...to include

Italian, Moroccan, Greek, Lebanese, Spanish, etc.

[uppityperson]

103. Vote for Mediterranean-Near/Middle Eastern

[flordehinojos]

35. Cuban ...

Cuban ... from the midnight sandwiches, to the frituritas de malanga, to the fried plantains, red beans and rice, to the carne mechada (roast) or the picadillo, to the guava paste and cheese (swiss or cream cheese) on bread and a good cup of cuban coffee with ... AZUCAR (as Celia Cruz used to say).

[RagingInMiami]

63. Do you live in South Florida?

[Zenlitened]

37. Thai, definitely.

In my house, growing up, Italian was not considered ethnic food.

[fishwax]

38. Thai food

i could eat it every day.

[cleofus1]

39. mmmmmmm

fry bread and caribou

and taquitos and guacamole

sushi

sea cucumber in a clay pot

Der weinershnitzel

[Aiptasia]

41. Sushi.. Japaneese

I'd live in sushi restaurants if I could afford it. Japaneese cooking in general is sam fantastic if it's authentic.

Big Chirashi bowls...

Unagi donburi bowls...

Big steaming pots of chicku-soba noodles, shrimp and squids! I must have seriously been Japaneese in a former life.

[tibbir]

42. Mexican - actually Tex-mex which is something

actually an ethnic food unto itself, followed by cajun food from Louisiana.

[MissMillie]

43. I love all food

I've never tried some of those ethnic foods, but I'll bet they've got something I like to eat.

[July]

47. That's what I say.

"Mmmm. Food. My favorite!"

If it's made well, I'll like it. Of course, I might even like it if it isn't (memories of Turkey Slop in high school cafeteria).

Except for tripe and fennel, it's all good to me.

[cleofus1]

48. what you don't like tripe?

roasted over an open fire marinated with beer? (mmmmmmm crunchy)

or even better....menudo.....

[July]

49. I have tried it . . . my mother loves it. I just can't go for it. nt

[MissMillie]

55. Someone here once asked, "What would you want to eat as your last meal?"

I responded, "one of each."

[I see you]

44. No choice for Cajun Food? That's my fave.

[derby378]

45. General Tso's chicken!!!

If I have to be pinned down to just one ethnicity, there you go. Serve it up with steamed rice, some crab Rangoon, an egg roll, and some Kikkoman soy sauce, and I'll be your little friend.

I also crave Indian, Italian, and Tex-Mex.

[Yupster]

108. Yup that General Tso

Don't know how good a general he was, but he sure knew how to make chicken.

Pretty much any Chinese restaurant, it's a good safe choice.

[noonwitch]

50. Mediterranean- Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern

I had lebanese chicken with pita, garlic sauce, salad and rice pilaf the other day for lunch. Mmmm.

I'm making shrimp sauteed in garlic, wine and olive oil for dinner tomorrow (I got my tax return!). I'm serving it on spinach pasta, with a Dole ceasar salad and pinot grigio.

[LiberallyInclined]

51. Sushi & Tempura i.e. Japanese Mmmmmmmmm! Ethiopian 2nd...

followed closely by Thai.

[BigMcLargehuge]

54. Portuguese

[ironflange]

56. Canadian?

That's supposed to be ethnic?

[u4ic]

72. How about filet of salmon with Saskatoon chutney

bannock and fiddleheads? With buttertarts for dessert?

Ugh...

[flamingyouth]

57. Japanese, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese

[MrScorpio]

62. Greek/Turkish

It's almost the same

[bobthedrummer]

64. Chinese.

[Heidi]

65. Anyone who wants my Spaghetti Carbonara recipe . . .

just say so! I live an hour from Milan and have wheedled wonderful recipes out of excellent and unsuspecting Italian cooks, vile and prying woman that I am!

[Goldmund]

69. PLEASE!

I'll be cooking this weekend and that sounds like a great dish to make!

[Heidi]

80. Dinner time here . . .

I'll post the recipe in the morning (your night). If you have to shop tonight, though, you'll need

-- No. 7 spaghetti (any kind of pasta is OK, though)
-- Grated melting cheese (almost any kind of Swiss cheese will do)
-- Freshly pressed garlic (1 or 2 cloves)
-- Cream (half and half)
-- Ham (cubed, but you can do that yourself. About 1 cup)
-- Chicken or vegetable boullion (for boiling the pasta)
-- 3-4 Tbsp. oil (to keep the pasta from sticking together)
-- Bread for accompanying garlic toast

[Goldmund]

82. Thank you so much!!!

[Heidi]

106. Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe

This is very quickly prepared; after you've made it a couple of times feel free to improve by adding reconstituted, dried porcini mushrooms, finely chopped onion, etc. Serves about six people.

Pasta Ingredients
No. 7 spaghetti (this is a little fatter size spaghetti than the "thin" spaghetti, but you can use penne, bucatina, zita or whatever sort of pasta you prefer.)
2 chicken or vegetable boullion cubes (for the pasta water)
2 tablespoons olive oil (for the pasta water)

Carbonara Sauce Ingredients
1 cup, cubed ham or bacon
2-3 Tbsp. olive oil or regular vegetable oil
1 (not a full HEAD) garlic, pressed or crushed
90 ml (2-3 Tbsp.)dry white wine
1.5 cups cream (half-and-half)
1/4 Cup grated melting cheese (for thickening the sauce)
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese; freshly grated

Instructions
Boil pasta water with 2 boullion cubes and 3-4 Tbsp. oil in large pan, then cook pasta.

While pasta is cooking, heat oil and fry the ham or bacon with crushed/pressed garlic until meat is brown and crisp. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes. Beat the cream and melting cheese together in a bowl, then stir into the bacon or ham mixture and cook on medium-low for 2 minutes, or until bubbly and thicker. (The carbonara sauce should be thinner than a typical gravy but NOT watery thin). If the sauce is too thick, you can add a little more dream. If it's too thin, add a little more grated cheese.

Test the pasta by tasting a strand for doneness. When pasta is cooked to taste, drain it and pour into a large serving bowl. Add the pasta to the pan and mix well. Add several grinds of black pepper and freshly shaved parmesan cheese over the top, and serve.

Serve With:
Green salad
Garlic toast
A nice, light red wine

[Goldmund]

66. Indian, and French is a close second

But English?? Who the hell voted for English???

[Taxloss]

67. No Indian option?!

I voted Chinese, by the way, but I was surprised Indian was omitted. But I'm very pleased English was included, and even more pleased people are actually voting for it! It's really pretty good!

[Goldmund]

68. It is???

Like what?

By the way, I love English culture, from Byron to the Beatles... But food, man, the food BLOWS!

[Taxloss]

70. You haven't had the right food.

Fluffy Yorkshire puddings? Rich Steak and Kidney Pie? Proper roast beef? A West Country Cream Tea, with scones? Any cuisine can be prepared badly; when it's done well, English food is very good.

[Goldmund]

75. Alright, now I'm hungry

Maybe you're right, I haven't had the right food. Every "English" restaurant in NY that I've been to serves these bland meat puke-fests. You know, next time I'm in London I'll give you a call and maybe you can show me a good English restaurant?

[Taxloss]

79. I know quite a few. And we do have a reputation problem.

The trouble was, our restaurants here were lousy for years, but began to improve in the 1980s and people came to expect better. Now, things are quite good, but there's a way to go.

Also, with its emphasis on pastries, pies and meat, English cuisine is very easy to overcook and turn very stodgy indeed.

But the best is as good as any cuisine in the world. But it isn't a cuisine for vegetarians ...

Rest assured that we have similar stereotypes about American food ... but that doesn't stop the general public wolfing down McDonalds.

[Goldmund]

81. Those ain't stereotypes

That's the truth. When you want to eat something fancy in America (I guess I shouldn't speak for the whole country -- it's that way in NY) you don't go to a restaurant that serves American food. There are some exceptions, like Cajun cuisine -- but for the most part, the stereotypes are the whole truth.

[Taxloss]

83. In American-style grill here in London

I've had some lovely meals.

And they're not healthy, but your breakfasts with waffles and pancakes and syrup and crispy bacon ... worth every coronary.

[Goldmund]

85. LOL

Worth every coronary!!!

To each his own I guess... Myself, I'm never hungry in the mornings and usually just have an apple. I've never really understood the pancake/bacon/butter breakfasts.

As far as the grill, yeah you can have good American grill. Except there's not much indigenously American about it. They make it everywhere else I've been to -- Americans just slap a "Made in USA" label on it.

[UncleSepp]

90. Nail on the head - not the whole country

Problem is, describing "American food" is like describing "African food" or "Asian food", perhaps worse. There's so much diversity in American cuisine. Also, some of the best dishes aren't found at fancy restaurants, no matter what culture's food you're tasting.

There's Southern food. Nothing quite like crispy fried catfish and hush puppies - unless maybe it's a buttermilk biscuit! Oh and don't forget the vinegary, smoky greens. There's Cajun food, like you mentioned - the spice, the rice, the seafood. These are ways of thinking about cooking as much as they are dishes.

There's highly localized dishes based on local ingredients - grouper sandwiches and mullet spread on the Gulf coast, alder-smoked salmon and geoduck clams on Puget Sound. Then there's dishes which are continent-wide, but which are made "right" a hundred different ways depending on who and where you ask. There's barbecue, but whose? Austin, Atlanta, St. Louis? Smoky, pungent, sweet? Tomatoey? Or chili - now those people who put chili on spaghetti noodles are just nuts in my book, but I can see both sides of the beans/no beans debate.

The two strains of American cooking I can identify, and I'm no real foodie, are "lookwhatIgot" and "whatchagot". "LookwhatIgot" includes fat, juicy, enormous cuts of meat served with very little spice or sauce, accompanied by simple vegetables cooked simply, showing off their generosity and freshness. "Whatchagot" encompasses almost everthing else. When whatchagot is corn suited for cattle feed, you get creative, and out come grits. When whatchagot is a handful of spices, some rice, some shrimps, a leftover end of sausage... looks like the start of some gumbo! When whatchahad in Maine was lobsters and crabs and crawly things that prisoners didn't even want to eat, you made do and boiled 'em up. Now those dishes are lookwhatIgots, but times change. Escargot made the same upgrade.

Someday, American whatchagot will make it onto fancy tables in some unrecognizable form, like American Chinese food is to Chinese Chinese food.

I'd be curious to know what the stereotypes about American food are. The only one I know of is that the Germans seem to think we eat yellow corn on EVERYTHING. I got a frozen "American style" pizza once that had yellow corn on it. That one's just plain baffled me.

[meow2u3]

71. I had to pick Italian

Otherwise, the ghosts of my mom and grandpa would come back to haunt me for eternity

[mondo joe]

74. Italian food isn't ethnic food anyway. It's normal food.

If you're Italian.

[u4ic]

73. Chinese, followed by Ukrainian........n/t

[Goldmund]

76. Ukrainian?

Can't say I've ever had it. What kind of food do they make?

[u4ic]

101. Perogies, kubasa (garlic sausage), cabbage rolls

borscht (which is only good if you have a whole bunch of veggies in it) are the ones people are most familiar with. There are lots more.

I live in Ukrainian central (Edmonton, Alberta), where all of the above are sold at your corner supermarket.

[warrens]

78. Vietnamese

Japanese and French tied for second

[chaska]

86. Indian

[Danmel]

87. I love Vietnamese food

Big bowls of steaming pho,with bean sprouts and thin sliced beef and hot sauce and basil and mint.
Crunchy spring rolls and cool summer rolls
This amazing grilled lemongrass chicken you wrap up in lettuce leaves and dip into nuoc cham sauce
Really thin grilled pork chops marinated and so so tasty
Just delicious food- fresh flavorful, vibrant, not greasy, it is awesome.

Nothing beats a nice big bowl of Pho if you're not feeling great, or if you are!


I also like Thai, Indian, Japanese, pretty much all Asian food.

I'm a pretty easy person to feed- I don't like beets, brussels sprouts, blue cheese, fennel or tripe- otherwise, I'm pretty much there!

[LostinVA]

91. Greek

[ThorsHammer]

92. Tie between Italian and Greek/Middle Eastern (gyros, baklava, etc)

[deutsey]

93. Thai

And there are no Thai restaurants where I live.

[Magrittes Pipe]

94. Indian.

[AlienGirl]

98. Ethiopian, Indian, Middle Eastern

Followed by just about everything else.

Tucker

[Yupster]

109. Never tried Ethiopian

I went to an African restaurant (Boma) in Disneyworld of all places and my wife and I loved it. The high point of our eating for the week. Would love to try other African foods.

[Blue_In_AK]

100. Where's your East Indian??

Beyond a doubt my favorite, and most fun to cook.

[SmileyBoy]

104. Chinese, if it's done right.

There's this one place I used to go to in Minneapolis that had literally the BEST food I ever had.

[solinvictus]

105. I voted Russian...

Pagachi, jalubki, piroshki, pierogi, and all the soups and sausages. Mmmmmmm!!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

107. I voted Japanese because I can't live without it, but really it's whatever

I'm in the mood for: Japanese, Thai (really Indonesian), Indian, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Korean... No fun to have to choose just one. Also, the time of year makes a difference. Don't want really hot dishes in the middle of summer very often and vice versa for the coldest season.

Making me hungry!

[Jamison]

110. I voted "other"

because my fav. is Indian. My fav. Indian dish is chicken tikka masala.