Gathering the best recipes of national dishes

[soederman]

Hi all,

I am creating an app and a web service with recipes of all the national dishes in the world (one for every country).

I have through thourough research of the web now a list of all national dishes!

I have also gathered 5-10 recipes for each dish but now comes the work of choosing the best recipe for each dish or creating a better one than can be found on the web.

How would you suggest me to go about getting help from fellow forum members with this job?

Should I post one Thread per country/dish in the "Regional Cuisine" perhaps? For each country that has a sub forum it seems reasonable. But is it ok to "spam" the sub forums that contain a lot of countries?

I hope that I can add interesting information about national dishes and their recipes to all the forum users and at the same time I hope to get help from you in voting for the best recipe. Or even better, try cooking a dish, write a short review and take a picture of it. That would be really awesome!

Will add links to the threads when I start creating them.

Thanks for reading all the way down here!

[liuzhou]

What is a national dish? What, for example is America's national dish? Or China's? Or anywhere else's?

Every country?

What does "best" mean? Best food? Best recipe? Way too subjective.

Edited August 11, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[soederman]

Here's my take on the criteria for what should be a national dish (not all need to be fulfilled, but the more the better):
Must be a dish (not a bread or a dessert, or an ingredient, etc)
Typical for the country (both what the people themselves thinks but also what people in other countries thinks)
Daily favored food
Popular/High acceptance in most parts of the country
If possible, only found in that country/originating from that country
Forming part of the country's identity/culture
Represent a nation's heritage

Secondary if hard to choose between two equals:
Easy to cook for people around the world (replacable ingredients)
Shorter cooking time

[soederman]

Then of course it must be yummy!

[Mjx]

In the 1950s a compendium like this may still have had some reality, but globalization means that today, a lot of what are regarded as any given culture's 'national dishes' don't really exist as such: they've been modernized to accomodate contemporary tastes to the extent that the resemblance to the original dish may be restricted to name, outside their culture they may be understood so generically that they're charicatures of the reality, or they may simply be museum pieces. I can't think of any food that is exclusive to one country, whether in terms of origins or current availability.\

I'm curious about how you're selecting these recipes: where are you from, and what have you selected as the representative national dish for that country?

[ChrisTaylor]

Here's my take on the criteria for what should be a national dish (not all need to be fulfilled, but the more the better):

Must be a dish (not a bread or a dessert, or an ingredient, etc)

Typical for the country (both what the people themselves thinks but also what people in other countries thinks)

Daily favored food

Popular/High acceptance in most parts of the country

If possible, only found in that country/originating from that country

Forming part of the country's identity/culture

Represent a nation's heritage

Secondary if hard to choose between two equals:

Easy to cook for people around the world (replacable ingredients)

Shorter cooking time

Yeah, but there's still a whole lot of people that thing French people live off frogs and snails. An outsider's perception of what is typical is worthless. And, any more, most dishes that meet your 'yummy' criterion are widely avaliable in some form or another. I doubt there's any dish, anywhere that will tick all of those boxes.

[liuzhou]

Let's take a few examples.

Korea (is that one country or two?) I'm guessing most people outside Korea would first of all think of 'kimchi'. But that is outside your criteria.

Japan. I'm guessing most people outside the country would think of sushi. But that isn't a dish. It's a type of preparation for hundreds of dishes.

China. Maybe Peking Duck. Something only really eaten in hotels or dedicated restaurants (often by tourists) and generally in one relatively small part of China. I've never heard of it being made at home. And it isn't one dish anyway. It is several.

Or you could choose Dim Sum from the opposite end of the country. Ooops. That's not a dish.

India. 99% of people will say curry - a concept almost unknown in India.

Let's say England. Roast beef? Fish and Chips? No, the most popular dish is curry!

What about France? One dish? Do me a favour.

And every dish I have listed is widely available outside the relevant countries, so by your definition excluded. So we have to start all over again.

I'm sorry, but I really think the whole idea of reducing any country's cuisine to one dish is a loser. And a waste of time.

Unless you have come up with some definitive incontrovertible list. Which I think is impossible You say you have compiled your list. Can we have a few examples?

Edited August 11, 2013 by liuzhou (log)

[Ashen]

I think it is an interesting idea. when you say one for every country, what is your criterion to be included on your list.

Are you using only United Nations voting members or are you including other sovereign states like vatican city ? There is also dependant territories to think about.. Puerto rico for instance has a distictive culture and cuisine but is an unincorporated territory of the USA , I am not even sure how to classify Palestine.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Ashen (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Here's my take on the criteria for what should be a national dish (not all need to be fulfilled, but the more the better):

Must be a dish (not a bread or a dessert, or an ingredient, etc)

Typical for the country (both what the people themselves thinks but also what people in other countries thinks)

Daily favored food

Popular/High acceptance in most parts of the country

If possible, only found in that country/originating from that country

Forming part of the country's identity/culture

Represent a nation's heritage

Secondary if hard to choose between two equals:

Easy to cook for people around the world (replacable ingredients)

Shorter cooking time

This set of crieteria functions best for each city in Ecuador (my country), rather than the country as a whole. Our national cuisine is so varied that it would be a disservice to pick only one dish and say it's "representative." Generally when one hears the name of an Andean nation the immediate idea is "Cuy" but that's a main ingredient that is very difficult to find in most of the rest of the world, due to its being classed as a pet rather than livestock. Equally, a very Ecuadorian food is Colada Morada (it's not made in any other country) but it's a dessert drink, so it falls outside of your criteria as well. And our coast is renouned throughout Latin America as a mecca for seafood preparations, but to choose that ignores 2/3 of the country!

It might be an idea to expand your criteria to include several dishes from each country, to allow for this kind of diversity....

[lochaven]

OMG people. Just give the guy a recipe of what you think he is asking for. All this discussion is driving me nuts. If you can't come up with one, just move on.

[liuzhou]

Just give the guy a recipe of what you think he is asking for.

Given his or her reluctance to give any examples, it's a little difficult to know what he or she is asking for. If we knew what was being asked we might.

If the conversation challenging the whole concept is driving you nuts, you can move on just as easily as anyone else.

[lochaven]

liuzhou

.....and now I have.

[soederman]

Hi all,

Glad to see the interest this topic brings

I was waiting to post the dishes until I received some reply to my question:

How would you suggest me to go about getting help from fellow forum members with this job?

Should I post one Thread per country/dish in the "Regional Cuisine" perhaps? For each country that has a sub forum it seems reasonable. But is it ok to "spam" the sub forums that contain a lot of countries?

Anyone have an idea of where it would be suitable for me to post them?

My list of countries comes from this list at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states

But then I added a couple of more that are geographically separeted islands or similar and thus would have a different idea of their "national dish", e.g. Puerto Rico. Other examples of "countries" in my list are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I have been generous and rather choosed to include rather than exclude. My list therefore consist of 244 "countries"

The ambition is of course to expand with more traditional regional recipes, but you have got to start somewhere otherwise I would never launch Therefore I have decided to start with one dish for every "country". Several countries have an official national dish, others have a clear dish that can be considered a national dish but is not official, in other countries there are several candidates to the "title" and there I have used my criteria as mentioned earlier to help pick one dish.

I never said a national dish must have a tick in the box in all my criteria, but if one dish have more tick in the box in my criteria list then another candidate then I know I have a "winner". I certainly don't expect my list to be final and I would hope to get some reaction and hopefully counter suggestions if people think I have made the wrong decision.

Myself I am from Sweden. We don't have an official national dish and we have several contenders. The thing that helped me choose "Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, lingonberry and cream sauce" from the list of candidates was actually the outside perspective. Probably the "fault" of IKEA that have made people outside of Sweden to think of Swedish meatballs when naming typical Swedish food or the national dish. A thing that disqualified another candidate "Peasoup with pancakes" was that Peasoup takes very long time to make the traditional way.

Korea: is of course two countries: North Korea and South Korea. And I have picked "Bulgogi served with Kimchi" as the national dish for both countries (that one was quite easy)

Japan: Sushi is my choice here, but you are right that it is not crystal clear a dish. But thinking of having a recipe of a dish comprising of Sushi in a traditional way (e.g. not including the "California roll" but only those originating from Japan)

China: one of many large countries with big variations depending on where in the country you are. But I had to pick one dish and then the choice falls on the famous "Peking duck".

Dim sum is my choice for Hong Kong, and similar to Sushi I will have a recipe for a dish that consist of the most typical dim sum such as Gao. But here I still have a job to choose which Dim sum to include in the dish recipe.

India: Similar problem as China and other big countries with diverse foods for different regions. Decided on "Tandoori chicken" that would probably be the dish that most people would accept if only choosing one dish for all of India.

England: "Roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding"

France: Difficult I confess choice finally fell on "Pot-au-feu"

Ecuador: "Ecuadorian Ceviche"

USA: "Macaroni and cheese"

However I would prefer to take the discussion of individual countries/dishes in separate threads so it will be easier for forum members to find and discuss the topics they are interested in.

So if you are interested in more of what I have, please advice me where you would like me to post.

Thanks!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

If this is the case, then what have you chosen for Peru? I ask because Ceviche as a dish originated there and it's therefore not really a good example of Ecuadorian national cuisine (although it is very popular here, no doubt.)

EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

...

Ecuador: "Ecuadorian Ceviche"

....

Edited August 11, 2013 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I am an American. I live in the US. I am old and have cooked most of my life. I don't think I have ever made macaroni and cheese. Not even modernist.

[soederman]

Hi,

I will post one thread for every country in the Regional Cuisine sub forums. It will probably take a while to get them all out so if you have any preference of which I should start with or you want to see next, please just write it in this thread.

The discussion about individual countries/dishes will then be taken in those threads and not here. Hope you are ok with that.

[Lisa Shock]

This reminds me of seeing my Japanese Facebook friends passing around a recipe for a typical Okinawan dish: Taco Rice. Yep, it's rice covered in shredded iceberg lettuce, chopped tomatoes, avocado, onion, etc. topped with taco seasoned ground beef.

I too would like to object to mac & cheese as representing the US. IMO, you should pick something that we developed and elevated like barbeque. Not a recipe that Thomas Jefferson picked up while he was in France and Italy and was later a feature of British cookbooks. That said, the US is huge and very regional and each of those regions has unique specialties: gumbo, jambalaya, crab cakes, fried chicken, lobster roll, brisket, chili, chioppino, chowder, etc.

The best selling fast foods in the US are burgers, pizza, and submarine sandwiches. Honestly, I'd go with pizza before mac&cheese. At least pizza is something we adopted, changed and is now literally everywhere you go in the country. And of course, burgers were created here and we consume a lot of them.

[Tri2Cook]

EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

Duh... poutine!

No, not seriously.

[Kerry Beal]

EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

Duh... poutine!

No, not seriously.

Tortiere of course!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

Duh... poutine!

No, not seriously.

Tortiere of course!

Sacrilege! It's obviously back bacon with saskatoonberry bannocks, drizzled in maple syrup....

That, or a Montreal bagel covered in smoked meat.

[heidih]

EDIT - also, out of pure curiousity, what have you chosen for Canada (my country of birth)? It's another country that's awfully hard to pin down.

Just re-enforcing that it is almost a fool's errand to do a list like this - the locals can't even agree! - then to present it as a consensus is not valid.....

Duh... poutine!

No, not seriously.

Tortiere of course!

Sacrilege! It's obviously back bacon with saskatoonberry bannocks, drizzled in maple syrup....

That, or a Montreal bagel covered in smoked meat.

Just re-enforcing that it is almost a fool's errand to do a list like this - the locals can't even agree! - then to present it as a consensus is not valid.....

[Ashen]

On Canada.- if you aren't allowing desserts items like buttertarts, beavertails, Nanaimo bars then Kraft Dinnner has to be a serious contender.. With hotdogs for the gourmand palate

as far as the consensus thing goes, I don't think it has to be unanimous as long as the recipe is considered representative of a country by a large number , inside or out .

I am assuming this is just an enterainment app not a definitive reference app.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Ashen (log)

[liuzhou]

I'm still struggling to see any point to this exercise. Reducing a cuisine to one dish is ridiculous and of no benefit to anyone.

Also, the partial list you give clearly illustrates the impossibility of sticking remotely close to your own set out criteria.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

On Canada.- Kraft Dinnner has to be a serious contender.. With hotdogs for the gourmand palate

And fancy Dijon ketchups?

[Keith_W]

I'm in Australia. I struggle to think what our "national dish" would be. I think national dishes are more readily identified by people outside the country than by the people in it. However, I do think some foods are uniquely Australian. The dishes I am about to name are NOT the height of culinary perfection, or even refinement, but they ARE uniquely Australian:

- Kangourou Cuit a'la Terre. (Fancy French name for "baked kangaroo in an earth oven"). Dig a hole in the ground. Shovel in some hot coals. Throw the whole kangaroo in, fur, guts, and all. Cover with leaves, then bury the whole thing. After 3 hours, dig the kangaroo out, peel off the singed fur, and enjoy. Method also works for goanna (a type of lizard)

- Damper (i.e. campfire bread). Mix self raising flour with a pinch of salt, sugar, oil, and water. Wrap in foil. Throw into the same pit the kangaroo went into. Retrieve and eat.

- Prawns and Snags on the Barbie. Gather overweight beer swilling mates around. Throw the prawns and snags (sausages) on the "barbie" (not actually a barbecue, it is more like an outdoor electric hot plate). Massively overcook the prawns and snags, then douse in ketchup or BBQ sauce. Eat, avoiding the corks swinging from your akubras.

- Dimmies (i.e. "dim sims"). An Aussie dim sim is a bastardized version of a Chinese shumai. The Aussie version is a giant meatball as big as a fist, and about as subtle. It can be either steamed or deep fried.

- Moit Pois ("meat pies"). Real Aussie meat pies must have at least 10% meat in it. The rest can be ground up snout, anuses, and the like. Microwave your frozen moit poi and slather on ketchup. Eat whilst watching the cricket or footy.