Tuesday Favorites.... Ethnic Cuisine

AlexDaGator

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Immigrants frequently got into the restaurant business because language skills were secondary to willingness to work your ass off.

Problem is, when new immigrants arrived, there wasn't a market for their foods. Too new. Plus, they had to learn the business. They would get jobs in existing restaurants, move up from dishwasher to busboy to line cook, learn the skills, then get together with family, pool their funds, and open their own place. However, since there wasn't yet a market for their own cuisine, they often cooked the food of the immigrants who came before them until their own cuisine became accepted.

So Polish immigrants opened "German Restaurants" and Greek immigrants opened "Italian Restaurants", SE Asian immigrants opened "Chinese Restaurants" and Puerto Ricans and Dominicans opened "Cuban Restaurants".

Sometimes the real ethnic cuisine would bleed into the adopted cuisine. The "Italian Restaurant" would offer Greek salad and spinach pie, the "Chinese Restaurant" would offer Pad Thai. etc.
Other times, patrons would see (or smell) what the immigrant family was cooking for themselves and ask for that item even though it wasn't on the menu. Eventually, people were ready for real Thai and real Jamaican and real Turkish. The Greek immigrant was able to drop Italian-style spaghetti and lasagna and put gyro on the menu. Later, the Turkish immigrant can drop Greek-style gyro and replace it with doner and shawarma, or have all three on the menu.

That's how it has worked in this country for many years.



Alex.
 

gatorev12

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Some that haven't been listed yet:

Peruvian: lomo saltado, ceviche, fried yucca, Peruvian chicken n rice (they make with a teriyaki type sauce). All are delicious.

I'm partial to Bolivian cuisine since my mom is from there, but outside of DC, it's not really anywhere else. Pique macho, majadito, trancapechos (best sandwich ever), silpancho...all are amazing. Salteñas and papas rellenas are also good.

South African: biltong is better than beef jerky, hands down; and the South African curry dishes are unique and extremely flavorful (Cape Malay curry is excellent).

Caribbean/Jamaican: jerk chicken is the famous one here, but love the spices in many of the dishes.

Moroccan: love lamb tangine over couscous.

For something exclusive to America, it has to be Cajun (Nola mentioned it, naturally); but there's a growing movement in St Augustine to really promote a Spanish/Minorcan style revival of dishes and flavors used by the early settlers. Datil peppers are unique to the region and add an interesting flavor to most any dish.
 

itsgr82bag8r

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Fish & shellfish.

Preferably trigger or scamp with a sack of fresh oysters and a cooler of shovel nose or spiny lobster. Maybe a few conch fritters for dessert.
 

Blonde Gator

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The basic question was mis-stated.

Favorite ethnic food? ALL of them.

One I do best............Mexican, definitely. Been there. That makes it pretty easy. Of course, the "idea" of ethnic food is totally skewed by the consumer. TexMex isn't Mexican, nor is AZ Mexican.

Having said that, everyone should cook and eat the flavors that please them. Whatever that may be!

For a blonde Scandahoovian chick, I can cook Mex that will blow your socks off. And it's my fave stuff to cook, too! FUN!
 

Blonde Gator

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Fish & shellfish.

Preferably trigger or scamp with a sack of fresh oysters and a cooler of shovel nose or spiny lobster. Maybe a few conch fritters for dessert.


What about Crack'd Conch, 2Bag?

Jimmy Buffet wrote that song about me, you know! ("She can eat her own weight up in {insert seafood here}"). Doesn't matter.....crab meat, lobster, oysters, etc. Mr. BG almost divorced me before he married me, because his BFF & I scarfed a dozen dozen Tamales Bay oysters in one night!. One of the best nights of my life, although I must say the weather in San Fran sucks! Especially for eating oysters on the deck!
 

Detroitgator

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Some that haven't been listed yet:

Peruvian: lomo saltado, ceviche, fried yucca, Peruvian chicken n rice (they make with a teriyaki type sauce). All are delicious.

I'm partial to Bolivian cuisine since my mom is from there, but outside of DC, it's not really anywhere else. Pique macho, majadito, trancapechos (best sandwich ever), silpancho...all are amazing. Salteñas and papas rellenas are also good.

South African: biltong is better than beef jerky, hands down; and the South African curry dishes are unique and extremely flavorful (Cape Malay curry is excellent).

Caribbean/Jamaican: jerk chicken is the famous one here, but love the spices in many of the dishes.

Moroccan: love lamb tangine over couscous.

For something exclusive to America, it has to be Cajun (Nola mentioned it, naturally); but there's a growing movement in St Augustine to really promote a Spanish/Minorcan style revival of dishes and flavors used by the early settlers. Datil peppers are unique to the region and add an interesting flavor to most any dish.
I always had to pick up a kilo of biltong in Dubai on my way back into Afghanistan. Failure to do so was, well, a complete fail.

NOTE: do NOT... i repeat, DO NOT, eat biltong on a flight! You have been warned, and your fellow travelers thank me in advance. A friend of mine from RSA and I had a very short flight from Dubai to Doha and I think we ruined, permanently, the cabin of an Emirates plane. Also, we made no new friends and I have never seen this guy not make a new friend!
 

AlexDaGator

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Some that haven't been listed yet:

Peruvian: lomo saltado, ceviche, fried yucca, Peruvian chicken n rice (they make with a teriyaki type sauce). All are delicious.

I'm partial to Bolivian cuisine since my mom is from there, but outside of DC, it's not really anywhere else. Pique macho, majadito, trancapechos (best sandwich ever), silpancho...all are amazing. Salteñas and papas rellenas are also good.

South African: biltong is better than beef jerky, hands down; and the South African curry dishes are unique and extremely flavorful (Cape Malay curry is excellent).

Caribbean/Jamaican: jerk chicken is the famous one here, but love the spices in many of the dishes.

Moroccan: love lamb tangine over couscous.

For something exclusive to America, it has to be Cajun (Nola mentioned it, naturally); but there's a growing movement in St Augustine to really promote a Spanish/Minorcan style revival of dishes and flavors used by the early settlers. Datil peppers are unique to the region and add an interesting flavor to most any dish.

Can’t speak specifically for Bolivian but there’s a big South American community in the Orlando area and I know Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Venezuelan are represented.

Alex.
 

cover2

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USA Southern, Mexican (and variants), and Italian are our favorites to eat and mine to cook. If I had to pick a favorite dish out of each, it would be:
  • Fried cubed steak (pork or beef), rice and gravy, collards, and peas.
  • Fajitas (shrimp and chicken) with peppers, onions, fresh pico, fresh guac, and sour cream or lime crema.
  • Tie - spaghetti with homemade sauce and meatballs; shrimp scampi; chicken piccata (my wife’s favorite that I make).
 

itsgr82bag8r

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What about Crack'd Conch, 2Bag?

Jimmy Buffet wrote that song about me, you know! ("She can eat her own weight up in {insert seafood here}"). Doesn't matter.....crab meat, lobster, oysters, etc. Mr. BG almost divorced me before he married me, because his BFF & I scarfed a dozen dozen Tamales Bay oysters in one night!. One of the best nights of my life, although I must say the weather in San Fran sucks! Especially for eating oysters on the deck!

Well, those WERE left-coast oysters that probably cost 10x their Florida cousins! :lol:
 

gatorev12

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Can’t speak specifically for Bolivian but there’s a big South American community in the Orlando area and I know Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Venezuelan are represented.

Alex.

There's a Bolivian restaurant in Miami, but it isn't that great tbh. There's several up in the DC area (which is where there's a huge community of Bolivians, oddly enough) and a few of them are pretty good.

Can definitely think of a few good South American places in Orlando though. Idrive has several good Brazilian places as well.
 

jdh5484

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USA Southern, Mexican (and variants), and Italian are our favorites to eat and mine to cook. If I had to pick a favorite dish out of each, it would be:
  • Fried cubed steak (pork or beef), rice and gravy, collards, and peas.
  • Fajitas (shrimp and chicken) with peppers, onions, fresh pico, fresh guac, and sour cream or lime crema.
  • Tie - spaghetti with homemade sauce and meatballs; shrimp scampi; chicken piccata (my wife’s favorite that I make).
Add Cajun blackend redfish bites over red beans and rice and you're golden!
 
Last edited:

Bernardo de la Paz

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There's several up in the DC area
Never checked out a Bolivian restaurant up there, but for Peruvian chicken my favorite was El Pollo Rico in Arlington.

half-chicken-with-2-sides.jpg


el-pollo-rico.jpg


Just another Mexican place /Detroit
 

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