Hector

I don't get the thing with Schawarma... Now what is it? All we got here is the wonderful Döner-kebabs (rolling) and Alexander Kebabs (Iskender) and they are most excellent. In sweden, we would never call american brochettes "kebabs", we will call them "barbecue spits". And Döner kebab is here synonymus with "Kebab". PS. We had MC Moroccan burgers in sweden, and Mc Sahara. with Khoubs arabi amd lamb. Somebody interpreted it very wrongly, and thought that through Mc Donald's "Moroccan" campaign Mc Donald's supported the Moroccan "occupation" of Western Sahara, so it was the subject of debate for a month.. hahaha. so ridiculous...

My uncle remembers the first time he ate Pizza (!).. Which can seem very strange for most Americans who've practically switched from sucking on the nipple to eating pizza slices! But he remembers in the early 60's in Sweden, when he got a dinner invitation to an Italian immigrant woman who cooked pizza for him and his mistress. When he first saw the pizza he reacted like: WOW! What is this? how are you possible going to eat this thing? It was unlike anything he had ever seen. And remember that up to that period of time, swedish food was almost always cooked potatoes with meat/fish and thick sauces, some kind of porridge or open sandwiches and nothing like pizza or even that kind of white bread. He sat quitely around the table and tried to repeat how the woman ate her pizza. But he wouldn't manage. So he sat thru the whole thing. just cutting small parts with his cuttlery of the centre of the pizza and putting them in his mouth. the crust and lots of the pizza was left over.

I've bought a huge quantity of Sticky rice, I've never cooked it, but I have eaten it alot at many good chinese restaurants. Now I wonder how I should cook it, is there any great recipes how to use it? Look I don't even know how to steam it, have got a steamer though.

I think that Arab and moslem cooking has had more influences in Italy than just in Sicilia, Remember that Sardegna (& Corsica) and up to as far north as the tuscan island of Elba was conquered by "the Moors". The Tuscans was one of the pioneers of ice cream making, which gives you at least a hint that there's an arab influence in Tuscan cooking. Probably it spread from Corsica or Elba.

What is Nuevo Latino cuisine actually? Some kind of nouvelle cuisine style of US and Canadian latin dishes? And what do you mean with latin? mostly mexican or Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican etcetra?

Eritrean food is quite similar to Ethiopian I think. that's what my Eritrean friend said.. With variations of course!

Reindeer is great. I love smoked and sliced Reindeer heart. Never get it often though, don't live close to Lapland, live in southern Sweden, and from here it's closer to Milan than Lapland is. The most "exotic" thing I've ever eaten must be grilled Opossum in Australia, and damn, it didn't taste good at all. Tasted dirt.

CD interested that you imply that veg. oil is preferable to dripping. In my neck of the woods beef dripping seems to be considered to be the best way to cook chips! ← Definitley.. animal fat does so much more to your food than you think!!

Wow these were some amazing stories! My favorite is definitly the one about that family Markk encountered Hilarious! Me myself, have only experienced anything nearby to this when I was an exchange student in Great Britain, living in a tacky small sea side small town in southern England. I was, along with a another Swedish guy, a Libyan, a Spaniard, a Czech exchange student; living as paying guests of a very strange couple. There was our host: the very old sailor Brian, who talked some kind of cockney dialect which you couldn't understand a single word of. Then there was his wife: the old Portugese housewife that did most the of the housework and always made Brian and us food. The thing was that the food the old portugese woman served us was horrible. And the horror continued for months, We and our families at home paid here a pretty reasonable sum to give us food and housing, and we added some extra pounds every week to make them increase the quality of everything. so we thought she could at least make an effort. But the housewife always insisted on serving a dish consisting of almost uncooked, unspiced, unsalted chicken, with a dash of nasty rancid white wine and then fried bacon to us.. Almost three times a week. The rest of the week we got almost always chicken nuggets, frozen pizzas, just french fries, and cereals for dinner. a week. For breakfast, there was only cereals and milk, and the same was with the lunches, except sometime there was a ham-sandwich with mayonaise laying around in the fridge. The only kind of seasoning we had overall was "Heinz Salad cream" and malt vinegar. No salt, no pepper. nothing whatsoever. And when the woman noticed that after weeks of this horror, my swedish roommate wouldn't eat her chicken and that the rest of the crowd in the house was critical of it, and barely touched it. She became furious and just screamed at us - You are the worst exchange students evaaar... you no like chickin'? I make chickin me own way.. I know how I make chickin, I've made it for 30 years. She had so much pride in this this of lousy piece of raw bloody chicken!.. You can't really understand it. After all, strangly this was what she served most of the week. I wonder how she and her husband handled all the bacteria of uncooked chicken.

What's a "Thai Cotton Nymph"? this sounds very interesting.. hmmm....

Isn't there any local food in Dubai? nothing from the Emirates at all? No restaurants serving this?

How do you make gochu jang at home?? is it very like other chilli pastes? or something different added. I've never tried it.. I think.. my experiences of eating and cooking korean food out is very limited.

One of my friends who is a bartender had his birthday the other day, and he served us some nice coctails and longdrinks. I possible cannot tell what was in them. But in one longdrink, he used something carbonated, soft drink or soda water or something.. and somehow he made the drink in such a way so that the bubbles of the carbonated liquid never got mixed up with the other liquid, they stay on top of the liquid like small floating stones. It was very neat. When I asked my friend how to do that, he answered simply that "it was one of those holy secrets of the bartender guild that never should be revealed to outsiders" Now I'm asking the insiders here for help! really want to know how he made this. Do you know how he made the bubbles stay on top?

Sounds wonderfull! The Dominican Republic seems to have many culinary tricks of it's sleeve. I've only tried the black beans and coconut rice, and a palm heart sallad from there. But there seems to be so much more goodies to try. It would be nice with a recipe for Salcocho, Mofongo and Roast Domingan Pork! And how you make the sazón ranchero (or preparado) would also be very nice to know.

Dim Sum is so irristibly good it's dangerous! then again I only eat it like once a year.. I can only find real Dim Sum at one restaurant around here.

Bloodpudding is great! Blood pancakes too, But I don't get them very often becasue they aren't eaten in my region of sweden, and very few takes the effort to make them. We though make a soup every november the 11th which is thickened by 2 cups (half a liter) of Goose Blood. It's great. We call it "Black Soup"

This spirit is found throughout the Med. I think the origins are Greek, someone will correct me if I am wrong. ← I would love to get my hands on a book that details the history of alcohol. What a fascinating subject. From what I have read, it seems fairly likely arabs first came up with the process of distilling alcohol, in their alchemy (another arabic word, heh) experiments. Just looking up etymologies in the dictionary (the great pastime of the chronic procrastinator), alcohol = al kohl = the powder of antimony. Cultural bias aside , I have read that licorice spirits really came to greece and turkey from the east. Again, going on the etymology, raki/raka would have certainly come from arak, which means "sweat" in Arabic -- a reference to the condensation that happens during the process of distillation. ← In Sweden we make a kind of booze called Arrack which is a distillate of fermented sugar cane juice and fermented Javanese rice - which creates a sharp smoky rummy spirit. It comes from a time when swedish sailors where sent to Indonesia and China to trade with spices. Might there be an Arak/Raki name connection? Swedish cooking is influenced by turkish too. We even had a small population of turkish immigrant traders in the 18th century. Nuts, raisins and spices was bought to sweden from turkey (which was allied with Sweden since the 1400s against the russians). And we even make our own kind of Dolma, which is proved to has comed from a Swedish kings long time residency in Constantinople in the 18th century.

This is a North African Arab influence in Turkish cuisine. Remember the Saracens were North African Arabs who introduced semolina pasta to Sicily before the Turks were ever in Algeria. And the Sicilians and Algerians have sweet dishes made from pasta like the one you describe. This spirit is found throughout the Med. I think the origins are Greek, someone will correct me if I am wrong. ← Yes I remember.. Nuts and honey seems to have the leading part in the desserts throughout the middle east, but I'm not sure of the origins of this. If you look into the antique Roman cookbook, "De Cucinera": which is the Roman cook Apicius wrote down most Antique Roman recipes which has been saved to this day can be found. You'll find a cake with antique Greek origins, which is a little uncorfotably called "placenta" (anyone for "placenta" tonight?). This cake was consisting of honey, a varity of nuts, sesame seeds and an antique dough (made with flour and water) in layers. It's almost exactly like todays greek or turkish Baklava cake but without any lemon or sugary brine which can be added today. The similarity is very striking. It was except eaten as a snack for the Roman or Greek nobility, appearently used often as a gift or sacrifice to greek gods at various temples. The Algerians too have sweet pasta dishes? I had no idea.. you learn something everyday. Would be nice with a recipe.

This is very interesting for me as a northern european, never heard about such things as japanese spaghetti. How come spaghetti has been so incorporated in Japanese food since japan is a country with an allready perfectly well-functioning delicious noodle culture. And why has the japanese made there own sauces instead of just snitching the italian dishes. Here in Sweden, there's mostly only italian or italian-inspired pasta dishes though pasta is a eaten daily by almost every swede. Except a dish with baked macaroni , eggs, milk, ham and chopped leeks which is really swedish.

For many Europeans.. Turkey is Middle Eastern by it's essence. but that's just prejuidices I think.. Turkey is really european in someplaces, especially in western Turkey. I think turkish cuisine is mostly close related to Greek even though Greeks and Turks is often not so keen to agree on their cultural similarities due to age old conflicts. Some dishes in Greece and Turkiey is basicly all the same. Mostly when it comes to the Mezzes or the Mezedes eg. the apetizers which is basicly the same; with the shrimps, the white cheese, the pies, the seafood, the use of yogurt, the grilled lamb, the abundance of vegetable dishes with courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etcetra. (many turkish vegetable dishes did I recognise when I was travelling in Tunisia though) The Turks make liquorice-spirit exactly the same way as the greeks, and drink it even though they are moslem. Even the desserts are so simillar: the marmelade candies, the many dishes with honey and nuts. Noodles with nuts and honey, dough with honey and nuts, yogurt with honey and nuts, etcetra, Where these countries differ is when you see outside influences on the cooking, in eastern turkey you can enjoy kibbeh and dishes with bulgur along with your grilled lamb, and off course Persian influnenced Fesenjan: fowl cooked with pomegranate and walnuts. In greece there's off course the addition of wine and pork to the cooking, sometimes even pasta, which wouldn't be a choice for a turk that would rather eat some pita. but the countries are more simillar than you might think in the ways of cooking...

The chillies where not popular among the spanish so much, but it was the portugese who discovered the magic of the chillies which the spanish bought to Europe. and planted them on wathever soil they went to.. wether it was the shores of Angola, East Africa, Arabia, Indonesia, India, and China.. they introduced the chillies everywhere. and portugeses always rounded the Cape Of Good Hope when they set sail from Portugal. That's the story.. The same goes for oranges. In many countries.. oranges i called "portokal" or similar, because it was the portugese who bought them.

I love "Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham" if you're looking for really sofisticated stuff, it's not too expensive for being a 2 star michelin restaurant. (23 £ for a three course dinner). It's like 1 hour drive from Bristol, but definitley worth it. The bread is absolutely amazing, and the dishes is incredible. Lovely restaurant overall. Check out menus on: http://www.lechampignonsauvage.co.uk/ Driving directions: http://www.viamichelin.co.uk/viamichelin/g...x=30&image.y=13 And then there's exellent country cooking in Somerset if but you have to look for it the local country pubs. Don't forget to buy some local cider. The Indonesian Restaurant (called Sumatra or Java or Something) on Gay Street (unforgettable street name) in Bath is lovely too... Great indonesian curries and cheap duck dishes.

What's Israeli sallad? How come the israelis has incorporated falafel so much to their dining, they seem so crazy about it.

Most likely turnip. By the way, do turnips exist in Sweden? In Germany no one knew what I was talking about. I had to substitute rutabaga. (aka, er, swede...? ) ← No we don't have them, allthough rutabagas and parsnips are plentiful!! I don't even know the swedish word for "turnip" and didn't know what it looks like.. til I've googled on them now, and it's the falafel vegetable!

Cloudberries (Molter) or Hjortron as we call them in swedish.. is sooo fantastic.. You're really privileged once you've found them.. I remember being in Norway when I was about 11, living with my swedish-norweigian friends family up in the cold and beautiful mountains east of Lake Mjösa. We went out for just a day in the woodless mountain tundra and got into a swamp where we found millions of untouched small bushes of cloudberries growing freshly in the summer-sun. HEAVEN. Hjortron is truly the beluga of berries. I think Lakka liqour is a damn waste of fabulous cloudberries. Seafood is what you really haveto try when you're up here in the cold but very clean waters. but what you got to try is the fabulous gravlax with "maitre d'-sauce". Cured salmon served with a dill and mustard emulsion. Looovely. All the different types of herring, pickled, fryed, smoked or cured, nobody in the world serves herring like the swedish. Eels is also so good. Southern and west-Swedish Fishsoup is very hard to find, but extremly good. If you come in august, you can experience "the great crayfish boil", were we swedes get drunk on Aquavit (Finns have vodka) and eat buckwise of boiled dill-flavoured crayfish. Almost as good as the shrimps and white wine. (which substitutes the crayfish all year long otherwise). I don't really know about Stockholm, I live in the south of sweden so I don't get there very often, but traditional swedish food is often served there more than in other places. Especially in the city centre and Gamla Stan.