My daughter is working in Korea right now, and she just sent me a picture of the meal she had last night, and asked me if I had ever been to a Korean restaurant. I remember going to a Japanese restaurant, where they prepared most of the meal for everyone at the whole table, right in front of us (it was fun to watch and delicious to eat !), but I don’t think that I have ever been to a Korean restaurant. That started me thinking about this country, and the many different types of cultures and diversity of foods that we have here. Even the foods that we consider “American food” was probably from immigrants from the UK, or one of the European countries, at some point. Except for something that would be a Native American dish, everything that we eat here has made its way from some other country, and most of it has been embraced as part of our food culture now. It was interesting to read @Terry Page ‘s post about the crumpets, and to see the pictures he and @Holly Saunders posted of the different little grilled breads that are all similar, but each just a little different in recipe or how they are prepared. Here is the picture that Robin sent me of her dinner.
yes you're right Yvonne, same here, doubtless much of our food started off somewhere else, and has been altered to suit the taste of the indigenous British.,...Indian food and Chinese food in particular I"ve eaten Korean food..as well as Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc on many occasions, we have a lot to choose from here, and I would happily sit down and eat your daughters' dinner, it looks delicious...
A lot of our foods came from the days of the empire, plus from immigration as you mentioned for American food @Yvonne Smith I think the food of the indigenous Brits was pretty boring by modern standards, with mainly root vegetables and whatever we could hunt and kill. These days we are all mixed up, pizza is fast becoming king here in Russia as it is in most countries we visit. That meal of Robin's looks good, I don't recall having had Korean food yet, my favourite at the moment is Georgian
I marveled at how boring European must have been before the Western Hemisphere was explored. As @Terry Page mentioned, it was largely meat and root veggies minus potatoes. True beans, squashes, pumpkins and most of the nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, etc.) came from the "New World", as well as maize/corn. Much of what is thought to be Italian food--pasta (China), polenta and tomato sauce (New World), and zucchini (New World--came from elsewhere. Italians had olive oil and garlic, as well as onions and lettuce. Wheat apparently was once grown over most of Europe, but the "Little Ice Age" caused massive famine and resulted in the switch to root crops and cabbage in Germany and barley and rye in much of northern Europe, since wheat could no longer mature once the climate cooled. Bulgogi is probably the most famous Korean dish, along with Kimchee. Bulgogi is unique by the way the neat is sliced, but Kimchee is essentially spiced up sauerkraut.
Georgian cuisine is the most popular in St.Petersburg, we have half a dozen Georgian restaurants within a few hundred yards, a new one just three doors down from Lisa's apartment. Georgian breads are to die for, full of calories though their wines are excellent as well. Some of the breads, usually served hot and often stuffed with cheese and an egg
We really like two kinds of food, American and Mexican. We also like spaghetti and meatballs and my wife loves lasagna. Chinese food has too much sugar in it, now that we are both Diabetic II. Just not into any exotic food and definitely don't like food from India. However, our Turmeric vitamin supplement is made out of curry. We've seen some dishes on the Food Network that make us wizzy (aka, mentally sick). Had to turn the channel.
Turmeric is a plant, and its name IS turmeric, Guys. I have some growing outside in a planter. Robin bought some turmeric root and she didn’t use all of it; so she brought them over and I planted them, and the are over 2 feet tall now, and starting to grow new tubers. Turmeric is what makes mustard have that beautiful yellow color, and It is one of the plants used in making curry. They remind me a little of ginger, except the ginger tubers seem to grow faster. I will probably have to bring mine in over winter before I get new tubers that I can use. Here is a picture showing what the turmeric plant look like.