Which meal best exemplifies your country?

Question

This can be from your country of birth, or country of residence.

Please describe the very best meal that you'd serve, or recommend, that sums up the best tastes or cuisine of your country. Please state the country it's from, and please describe what's in the meal, because not everyone will know what certain dishes are if they're unfamiliar. Thank you.

The Q is = Which meal best exemplifies your country?

Answer 1

Hi. Although Mansaf is not my favourite meal, it's one of my favourites.

The national meal in Jordan is Mansaf. This is rice, with a yogurt based sauce with pieces of meet (lamb) cooked in it.

The yogurt sauce is made from something called Jameed- which is dried yogurt- it's much richer than normal yogurt when soaked in water and crushed in the blended to get the sauce. Jameed pieces look like white rocks- if you taste one you'll see it's very salty! When soaked they become soft and can be blended in the blender with water. The resultant is a very thick sauce that is diluted with chicken (or meat) stock.

A lot of gee is added to both the yogurt and the rice. Traditionally the meat is placed raw in the yogurt and cooked in it- nowadays though no one does that and we cook the meat before hand by boiling it with flavourings, and then just placing in the yogurt to exchange flavours.

The proper way of eating the Mansaf is with the rice spread in a very large dish with all the meat arranged on top, and decorated with nuts. Then you pour some of the yogurt in front of where you’re standing and eat by hand. It sounds nasty I know but it's a lot of fun- and very hard to master the skill of caa'balleh, which means of ball making. That's because when eating you literally make a ball of rice with meat in it, and then eat it without ever having your hand touch your mouth because that's very rude. So you kinda flip it into your mouth when it's close by.

In a small family setting, women may like to eat with their hands as well and this is very acceptable, although they generally dislike it (as they are delicate flowers lol).

Even though this is the traditional ay of eating Mansaf variations include, eating with a spoon from he huge dish instead of by hand, or just eating seated and using plates. The latter is what happens most of the time now. It’s considered girly of men and boys who choose to eat with plates when the rest are eating by hand from the main dish.

The rice and yogurt are usually coloured to be slightly yellow.

When someone wants to poor some yogurt sauce in front of his area, he must always ask everyone else if they would like some first. Failing to do so is seen as unwelcoming and selfish. Also, if I'm standing next to my grandfather for example it's his duty (traditionally) to place pieces of meat on the rice I'm eating from, as a sign of taking care of me. But this is rarely done nowadays.

It's absolutely unheard of that one east with both hands- the other hand is always kept behind your back.

Traditionally the host must not stop eating until the guests do to make the feel comfortable and continue eating as much as they like. Also when finishing the guests should say some thing like " Yekhlif alaykum", or "Daymeh" which is an evolved phrase that means may your banquets always last.

I love the tradition of Mansaf, as it's such a powerful connection to our traditions, and a way of gathering the family.

If anyone wants the detailed directions for making Mansaf I can give them to you. Don’t worry there are alternatives for Jameed that you can easily get your ands on. It’s delicious.

Answer 2

This is quite a hard one to answer. As a chef, I was trained French, and I have since studied Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Italian and North African cuisine, and there are many delicious foods from each of these areas.

I am English. English cooking has a somewhat tarnished reputation, but there are many good dishes available, outside of fish and chips and roast beef.

The English are a pretty solid race - the 'Bulldog Breed', so I have chosen my menu accordingly.

Starter. Leek and potato soup, with crusty brown bread

Main. Bacon, onion and potato gratin.

Dessert. A cheeseboard of Leicester, Lancashire, Cheddar and Stilton cheeses.

Drinks. Marstons Pedigree or Bathams Best bitter beer, or Cotes de Rhone or South African Roodeburg wine.

Port, with the cheese.

Janneau VSOP Armagnac and a Hoyo de Monterrey cigar afterwards.

EDIT. That Mansaf is bloody gorgeous. My neighbour is Moroccan, and when I am cooking it, with my kitchen door open, he sticks his head over the fence and demands a bowlful!

He went back to Morocco for a visit, and when he got back here, he presented me with a beautiful Moroccan Tagine (cooking pot). He's an excellent chap.

Answer 3

I am Scottish and the best three courses to some us up, in my opinion are:

Cullen Skink - a fantastic soup that has fish and cream (amongst other stuff), a superb way to start the meal.

Main - Haggis neeps and tatties. A classic dish; neeps are turnips by the way, and the tatties must be mashed.

So there you have it Scotland, fish, meat and fruit and lots and lots of cream.

Hurrah

Sweet - Cranachan. Toasted oats that are heated dry in a pan to get rid of the chaff. While cooling whip up some double cream and fold fresh raspberries through it. Once the oats have cooled mix them through the cream and raspberries. Serve in hurricane glasses. Make sure they are cold and serve with a fresh raspberry coulis.

An alternative starter would be smoked salmon served simply with lemon juice and pepper.

Answer 4

Hmmm... Going back far enough in history...Bannick.

Seriously, though, the second largest country on the planet, with a population of 35+ million people, and a glorification of multiculturalism...

Canada doesn't really have a "national" dish. My diet is a perfect example, a little Italian, a little chinese, some vietnamese, some monglolian, some "generic" beef and tater varients.

Answer 5

We eat a lot of different foods. Usually we have a meat with some starch food (rice, potatoes, etc) and a vegetable. We also eat a lot of pizza, burgers and hot dogs. If you ask some Americans what their favorite food is though, many might reply Mexican, Italian, or Chinese food, even though it is very different from food in those actual countries. Though we don't like to admit it, fast food is a big part of our diets, too. It may be unhealthy, but its really convenient when your schedule is hectic!

Answer 6

Annie Louisiana, good answer for USA as others foods from south are great.
Most American foods are adaptations (from immigrants) from other countries. A couple of American creations that exemplifies U.S. are:
Hamburger (not that McDonald's crap but a good "greasy-spoon" burger.

Ice cream

Out here on the West Coast we have San Francisco Sour Dough Bread w/ Dungeness Crab.


That Mansaf sure sounds good.

Answer 7

Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding Cabbage, roast parsnips and Crispy Roast Potatoes, with thick rich beef gravy.
Followed by Apple Pie and Custard. (Brambley Apples are a must).
This is as English as it gets!!

Answer 8

Aberdeen Angus Steak - I live in Scotland and this is the best meal you can have , rare of course , with a baked potato , sour cream and mushrooms and a nice salad . Yum !

Answer 9

In Australia we don't really throw 'a shrimp on the barbeque'! We actually call them prawns and I like mine cold with seafood sauce.

Meat pies are probably the thing associated with Australians but I probably only eat one once a year.

I'll have to stick with tradition and say 'Meat pie with a bit of dead horse (sauce)'.

Answer 10

Roast beef and veg with Yorkshire Pudding.
I could send you my recipe but you'll have to make do with this from Norwich for now -

http://www.deliaonline.com/cookery-school/how-to/how-to-make-yorkshire-pudding,26,AR.html

Followed by apple crumble and custard of course!

Edit : Actually Yorkshire is a *county* in England but we call it "God's Own Country" and we shall declare independence soon!