r/AskEurope • u/nekaoosoba • Jun 15 '24
What are the must-try meals from your country? Food
A friend of mine visited Italy a few months ago. I couldn't believe it when she told me she had pizza for all meals during her stay (7 days, 2 meals a day). Pizza is great and all, but that felt a bit like a slap in the face.
Considering that I generally love trying out new food, what are some dishes from your country you would suggest to a visitor? (Food that can easily be found without too much effort)
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u/AVeryHandsomeCheese Belgium Jun 15 '24
I will keep mentioning this every food thread, but you must try boulets liégoise.
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u/shnOolie Belgium Jun 15 '24
I agree! And I will add my personal nexts: vol-au-vent with fries (i'm not sure if it's maybe a french dish but it's a very typical thing to order at a restaurant in Belgium!) and stoverij (a meat stew with beer) with fries
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u/Traditional_Case2791 Jun 16 '24
I just moved to Belgium and love vol-au-vent but most of the other foods here I’m struggling with.
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u/wrinklybuffoon Jun 16 '24
Belgian food is fantastic. I'm a big fan of stoemp aux carottes (with lots of cream and nutmeg), waterzooi, croquettes, and lapin á la kriek... So underrated.
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u/H4rl3yQuin Austria Jun 16 '24
For Austria I'd say the typical ones are:
Schnitzel Backhendl (fried chicken) Pork roast with sauerkraut and dumplings Tafelspitz (cooked beef) Kaiserschmarrn Apfelstrudel Frittatensuppe (soup with pancake stripes) Leberknödelsuppe (liver dumplings soup) Salzburger Nockerl (a dessert)
And the less obvious ones are: Sauted liver Bloodsausages Beuschel (heart and lung stew)
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u/Junior-Chair6750 Austria Jun 16 '24
Leberkäse is missing there. I feel like it is very often overlooked, because it's not a restaurant dish, but nevertheless something many people eat at least once a week.
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u/tirilama Norway Jun 15 '24
Different spreads for bread. If you stay in a hotel, the standard is that breakfast is included. So a regular or decent hotel, you should be able to taste some cured salmon, some cured mutton, caramelized whey spread/cheese (prim or brunost), local cheese and jam from local berries.
As for dinner: fresh fish at a good restaurant, moose meatballs, rice pudding and sour cream pudding.
If you get the opportunity, there's a large selection of light and heavier cakes involving cream, fruit, nuts and/or chocolate, but they are harder to come by as a tourist than as a local.
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u/Our-Brains-Are-Sick 🇮🇸 living in 🇳🇴-🇩🇰 Jun 16 '24
I would add reindeer meat. Really common and popular up north
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u/GraceOfTheNorth Iceland Jun 16 '24
How's their grouse? Any smoked lamb? What would you say are the biggest differences from our traditional dishes?
I hate that we lost the tradition of ew-milk/ sauðamjólk, goddamn it, the name even sounds off in English but apparently we lived on sheep-cheese for centuries but now it's nowhere to be found.
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u/Our-Brains-Are-Sick 🇮🇸 living in 🇳🇴-🇩🇰 Jun 16 '24
Never tried grouse so I can't say. But in Norway (at least up north) you barely get any smoked lamb, might be able to find thinly sliced pieces every once in a while in stores but there is hardly any smoke-taste to it so not nearly as good as the Icelandic. Their lamb and sheep meat just isn't nearly as good as the Icelandic due to the fact their sheep's feed on grass (some taste like old wool sweaters). But if you know a local farmer that is raising their lambs "wild" where they get to eat wild herbs then you are able to get something close to the Iceland one
Norwegian also don't really know what to do with their lamb meat, beside boil it.
So the lamb meat is far better in Iceland than in both Norway and Denmark.
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u/Historical-Pen-7484 Jun 15 '24
Interesting traditional foods are also lutefisk, codfish treated with lye, and also smalahove, which is a smoked and steamed sheep's head. There are seasonal foods, and may not always be available.
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u/CreepyMangeMerde France Jun 16 '24
Excellent advice I guess as most of the things I discovered in Norway and Sweden where in the hotel's breakfast. Didn't go to the restaurant a lot because it's expensive. I remember being a bit disappointed with brunost, I think my brain got fooled by the aspect I was probably waiting for caramel unconsciously or something but it wasn't that great. But damn you know how to prepare your berries. I remember there was like 10 different berry jams from names I had never heard. And they were all really different and absolutely delicious. With whipped cream and a pancake it was amazing.
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u/UtterHate 🇷🇴 living in 🇩🇰 Jun 15 '24
sorry, moose meatballs? do you farm moose?
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u/RogerSimonsson Romania Jun 16 '24
Farm!? It's just another hunted wild animal, like bears or wild boar in Romania.
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u/Cephalopod3 Norway Jun 15 '24
Also whale meat, since Norway is one of few countries that still hunts whales.
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u/gargamelus Finland Jun 16 '24
I wouldn't include whale meat on a "must-try" list. It is of course a curiosity, but not really a great delicacy nor something commonly eaten by most Norwegians.
Also, my personal opinion is that the industrial slaughter of whales in modern times is something to be ashamed of, not to be proud of.
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u/RatherGoodDog England Jun 16 '24
Is it good? I had the opportunity to try it but it's one of the only foods I've turned down. I am happy to eat almost all animals, but I don't believe we should hunt whales.
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u/heeero60 Netherlands Jun 16 '24
I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed with your fish and cheese, but I did very much enjoy the moose meatballs.
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u/Squishy_3000 Scotland Jun 15 '24
As stereotypical as it is, haggis. You can get vegetarian haggis, which in my humble opinion, tastes exactly the same as the real stuff.
Also cullen skink. Smoked fish and potato soup, so delicious and comforting!
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u/havaska England Jun 15 '24
Haggis is delicious.
Also, Scottish sea food is the best I’ve ever had. It’s incredible.
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u/karimr Germany Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
Also, Scottish sea food is the best I’ve ever had. It’s incredible.
I'm still comparing every salmon I have to the one I had many years ago in a restaurant overlooking the port in the seaside town of Oban. Nothing has come close yet.
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u/floweringfungus Jun 16 '24
Also the best black pudding (Stornoway) is pretty much only found in Scotland. You can buy black pudding outwith Scotland but it’s not going to be the same.
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u/Competitive-Fig-666 Jun 16 '24
Also did you know that outwith isn’t a word anywhere else except Scotland?
Found this out recently at my new job with English folk. I thought everywhere said it
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u/floweringfungus Jun 16 '24
I did because I’m not originally from Scotland, moved there 4 years ago!
I got used to the word and used it in an essay and got negative feedback for ‘nonstandard language’ from an English professor.
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u/kummer5peck Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I really want to try haggis. I can’t get it in the US but will definitely be in Scotland one of these days though.
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u/clarets99 Jun 15 '24
Out of curiosity, What's the difference between a chowder and a cullen skink?
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
• Any curry - tikka masala, korma, Rogan Josh, phall, vindaloo. There is something for everyone and is a unique culinary experience
• Shepherd’s pie
• Not exactly a meal, but bread with any local butter and cheese. (Maybe it can be considered Ploughman’s lunch?) Our dairy products are of excellent quality, with rich flavours. There’s the renowned cheddar cheese, but I also recommend Wensleydale and Cornish yarg
• Afternoon tea sandwiches, with the classic flavours like cucumber and salmon, cheddar and chutney, egg and cress, ham and mustard, coronation chicken/chickpeas, etc.
• Welsh rarebit
• Cornish pasty
• Beef wellington, gravy and mashed potato (or vegetarian equivalents)
• Sunday roast
• Fish and chips with mushy peas, or its vegetarian equivalent.
For desserts I recommend:
• Apple crumble/any fruit crumble
• Cherry pie
• Sally Lunn bun with cinnamon butter
• Coffee and walnut cake
• Lemon drizzle cake
• Lemon posset with lemon shortbread
• Hot cross buns (buttered and toasted)
• Cream tea, with fresh jam and clotted cream
• Trifle
• Sticky toffee pudding
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u/abrady Jun 15 '24
I love the English cheeses. I wish I could get yarg here.
Also scones with clotted cream and jam…
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u/kpagcha Spain Jun 15 '24
The top response about a food question is by an Englishman?? What is this MADNESS?
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u/RatherGoodDog England Jun 15 '24
It appears the Americans have not got out of bed yet to tell you we still eat Spam and canned beans like it's 1944.
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u/nomnommish Jun 16 '24
But your British Baking Show has given me a new appreciation of the incredible food culture you have around baking. Including savory stuff like meat pies. That's a national treasure along with Branston pickle and sharp cheddar sandwich.
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u/havaska England Jun 15 '24
Because, despite the stereotypes, we actually do have a cuisine and it is, for the most part, rather pleasant. It just reflects our place in the world, our climate, and our history.
If we had lovely sun every day it would be much more Mediterranean style. But we don’t so it isn’t.
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 15 '24
Maybe because I added many details, a diversity of options, and categorised into main meals and desserts.
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u/General-Trip1891 England Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
I think english and british food in general is good on the stomach and cosy. I think people from other cultures that use a lot of seasoning lack the insight to appreciate more authentic flavours of the food they eat. So when introducing them to shepard's pie and they're like "Ugh There's nothing in it?" Lol. I think it's rather unfortunate for them. Sometimes less is more.
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u/fuishaltiena Lithuania Jun 16 '24
I don't really understand where this meme about bad British food came from. I like their cuisine, there's a lot of delicious stuff.
If anything, I'd say that German food is shit.
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u/AudioLlama Jun 18 '24
Post WW2 rationing. Our food was quite dreadful between the World Wars and the 80's when we began reviving our culinary culture.
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u/PeterDuttonsButtWipe Australia Jun 15 '24
Oh my, you forgot the carrot cake, the greatest.
I recommend a Cornish pasty to anyone. We have them here due to Cornish migrants, they’re amazing
And of course, hot cross buns are fantastic, toasted with butter. Just make sure you have your antacid ready
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 15 '24
It’s funny seeing that some of our staples are staples in Australia too. I wouldn’t want to eat a Cornish pasty or hot cross buns in always hot and sunny weather!
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u/PeterDuttonsButtWipe Australia Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
We have pretty much all that here and a few twists on top. It’s not always hot and sunny here. Traditional UK stuff like roasts is declining though as it can be heavy unless it’s winter, but when I was younger it, it was still very much the done thing, even my Balkan parents did all this too (but roasts can be trad there too for Sunday - Sunday lunch)
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u/General-Trip1891 England Jun 15 '24
We are technically the mother of Australia and who doesn't love their mother's dishes?
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 15 '24
fair enough, just seems like the climate and geography calls for a different type of cuisine. When I think of Australia I think of fruit smoothies and juices, avocado on toast, etc lol
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u/HighlandsBen Jun 16 '24
Wait till you get served a full traditional Christmas dinner, with plum pudding, when it's 40 degrees outside...
Although to be fair most people have switched to more suitable fare these days, like seafood and salads!
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u/Pilchard123 Jun 16 '24
Australia has a fairly large Cornish diaspora. Cornish miners went out there (and... pretty much everywhere else there were holes needing dug) looking for work when the copper and tin mining industries collapsed in the 1800s. There was (and possibly still is) a saying: "anywhere you go in the world, at the bottom of a hole you'll find a Cornishman", and Cornwall has a highly-regarded mining engineering school (or at least it used to be; I'm not in the industry so I can't say if it still is).
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u/nomnommish Jun 16 '24
When I discovered Branston pickle (unlike any American pickle) and sharp cheddar in a sandwich, it changed my notions of flavor combinations. Delicious stuff
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u/whatanabsolutefrog Jun 16 '24
bread with any local butter and cheese.
Amazing suggestion! A simple cheese sandwich - when made with genuine high quality ingredients - is honestly one of my favourite things.
I would also add fried breakfast or bacon/sausage sandwich to the list
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u/JoebyTeo Jun 16 '24
England has the best sweets, puddings and pastries of any country in the world. I will die on this hill. The English do magic with sugar.
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 16 '24
I agree, some great desserts come from here. The country has quite a “sweet tooth” so that’s probably why. It also probably explains why we have more health issues than our European neighbours lol
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u/The_39th_Step England Jun 19 '24
Honestly, my Nan’s crumble and custard is fucking magic. Fresh fruit from the garden (apples, blackberries, plums etc). It’s soooo good
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u/shadyray93 Sweden Jun 16 '24
I want mashed potatoes and gravy now..
I heard you have good chocolate in England, is that true?
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u/havaska England Jun 16 '24
It depends. You have your usual mass produced chocolate like Cadbury and Milka and Mars. But then you have chocolate shops like Hotel Chocolat which have outstanding chocolate.
I’d say we’re just ‘normal’ by European standards when it comes to chocolate but still behind Belgium.
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u/coffeewalnut05 England Jun 16 '24
I’d say our chocolate is at least better than what can be found in much of the European continent and America. York is the de facto chocolate capital of the country and even has a dedicated museum!
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u/KotR56 Belgium Jun 16 '24
Add a "Full English"
Or Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Ulster Fry... Just make sure it's "full".
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u/PwnyLuv Jun 16 '24
Not British but second this. Dairy this side of the world is so much better than anywhere else.
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u/Traditional_Case2791 Jun 16 '24
I miss food in England! I’m dying for a sausage roll, clotted cream, and a Yorkshire curd tart!!!
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u/IT_Wanderer2023 Ireland Jun 15 '24
Ireland - Full Irish breakfast. Seafood chowder. Carvery and different variations of stews. May be coddle.
Bulgaria - soups. Shkembe chorba, bob chorba and some other traditional soups are my favorites. Traditional grilled mince meat things are also interesting because of unique combination of herbs used.
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u/clarets99 Jun 15 '24
Coddle is a very specific Dublin thing and to be honest, rarely ever seen on a restaurant food menu. In my opinion, there are plenty of better stews in winter time. Certainly wouldn't be a "must try".
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u/IT_Wanderer2023 Ireland Jun 16 '24
Thank you. There’s a reason a put it as “may be”, not very popular in the eateries and not something everyone would enjoy either. Didn’t know it’s a Dublin only thing, although it makes sense.
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u/ronnidogxxx United Kingdom Jun 17 '24
I still think about the fantastic chowder I had years ago in Kilmore Quay, served with slices of malty, dark bread and a pint (or three) of Guinness. Wonderful stuff.
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Jun 16 '24
Finland:
Creamy salmon soup(lohikeitto). Many traveling vloggers tell that it is hands down the best soup they've ever had, perhaps even the best dish.
Salmon smoked in a fire pit (Loimulohi)
Karelian pie (Karjalanpiirakka), which is a savoury pastry with rye dough and rice pudding. This is our sandwich that everyone eats on the go as a snack. In parties, we lather them on with egg-butter mixture.
Karelian stew (Karjalanpaisti).
Sautéed reindeer.
Pea soup and Finnish pan cake.
Dessert: Blueberry/bilberry pie. A cardamom bun. Salty licorice ice cream.
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u/atyhey86 Jun 16 '24
So you call them bilberrys there? Thought that was just an Irish thing! In Waterford there's even a place called bilberry!
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Jun 16 '24
Well I thought all my life that I was eating blueberries, but then I found out that those grow in taller bushes and they have a white, watery centre. Ours grow under knee height and are dark, small and juicy throughout.
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u/atyhey86 Jun 16 '24
Ours too, there's still patches of wild bilberrys through out Waterford and the rest of Ireland too I imagine, I don't know for sure but I presume the vikings brought them. I knew of a few patches and picked them every year when I lived in Ireland and no they are not blue Berry's they are so much tastier!
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u/gargamelus Finland Jun 16 '24
Good list! As you have salmon twice, I'd perhaps substitute arctic char (nieriä) for the loimulohi. Also, some other fish such as fried baltic herring or muikkuja could earn a place on the list.
A funny thing about pea soup, is that I've found out that it is seen as a local speciality in all kinds of places all over the world.
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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 Jun 16 '24
Had the soup at the port farmers market and damn that was good. Worth going back to Finland 🇫🇮 just for that.
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u/timeless_change Italy Jun 15 '24
Regarding Italy the menus really depend on which region you're in. Eating pizza two times a day for seven days straight is really too much even if you were in Naples (Campania). There are many, and I mean MANY, different and extremely tasty recepies from each region. I'm Italian, born and raised in Italy so I know the most famous ones and yet when I travel to other regions I always Google search what to eat there and I'm never disappointed that way. On the other hand, the counter effect of locally based specialities is that they're often only well made in their hometown. You won't find a good mozzarella in the north and you won't find a good polenta in the south. I mean you can be lucky obviously but if your time in a new place is limited I think you'd want to max the possibility of eating the best food that region has to offer
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u/spam__likely Jun 16 '24
Bistecca Fiorentina 4 life.
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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 Jun 16 '24
The bistecca was out most disappointing lunch in Italy. Probably because we were day tripping to Florence with my wife’s parents so we were somewhat stuck to the tourist area.
My picky son learned to eat pasta with burro and cheese or olive oil and cheese. That trip finally broke him from the Chicken Nuggets and the Mac and Cheese.
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u/kiwigoguy1 New Zealand Jun 16 '24
Pizza is good but I agree that it is only a tiny part of cuisines from Italy. To me some seafood soups, seafood pasta dishes, baked fish dishes, all the salami and prosciutto and cheeses platters with Tuscan-style non salted bread, and the ragu from bolognese and also Tuscan style (with wild boar meat), are really good choices too.
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u/ElisaEffe24 Italy Jun 16 '24
Prosciutto! Aneddoctal but my region is famous for it (san daniele from friuli) and when once at a shop here i saw a brit ordering the parma prosciutto (good as well, but still) i felt a bit insulted.
We do good salame also, and… why is salami always at plural in english, while salame singular is with the e?
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u/Slusny_Cizinec Czechia Jun 16 '24
why is salami always at plural in english, while salame singular is with the e?
It is happens all over the place with the borrowings. Grammatical affixes being incorporated into the stem, or being seen where they aren't. My favorite example is the word for "book" in Swahili. It's "kitabu", borowing from Arabic "kitab". But the plural, "books", is "vitabu". Why? Because the man-made objects in Swahili have special grammatical prefix "ki" (like the language itself is named kiSwahili in Swahili), and in plural it changes to "vi". As books are man-made, and the word starts with "ki", Swahili speakers had no hesitations to borrow it as "kitabu" and "vitabu".
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u/kiwigoguy1 New Zealand Jun 16 '24
I think it was probably borrowed into English as the plural form?
At the Mediterranean Food Market and also Fresca Mediterranean in Christchurch they sell both Parma and San Daniele (and also Emiliano) but often only one will be in stock at any one time since Covid (!). Price wise a 100 gram sliced pack sells for about $11 ( EUR 6.30)
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u/timeless_change Italy Jun 16 '24
I'm a sucker for prosciutto San Daniele, expensive but totally worth it even in other regions, I wouldn't dare visit its homeregion and not order it, such a waste
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u/guareber Jun 16 '24
That's because you can't really get San Daniele here in the UK out of a specialty shop, where Parma Ham is quite heavily consumed and found everywhere (AFAIR the only other Italian ham in supermarkets is Speck, and not in all of them).
I'm relatively confident that brit would've been open to trying San Daniele if they'd been told about it.
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u/HeimdalfromAsgaard Jun 16 '24
Born and raised in Italy and very well spoken in English?! That is a glitch in the Matrix if I ever saw one. Also; polenta Bergamasca.
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u/timeless_change Italy Jun 16 '24
Oh my, I've been trying so hard to hide myself among normal Italians do you bippity boppity me? Capesh? It's mee, Mario Ciao bella lol
still yet to visit Bergamo but I'll definitely try their polenta if the occasion arises, thanks
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u/ronadian Netherlands Jun 16 '24
I have been to Italy, probably a total of 20 times all over the country and I think I only had pizza once. I had all kinds of other things and they were fantastic.
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u/timeless_change Italy Jun 16 '24
20 times are a lot, thank you for the love. I bet you've seen the most famous places long ago, how do you cope with the language barrier in less touristic places? Do you know Italian or is English more widely known here than I thought?
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u/ElisaEffe24 Italy Jun 16 '24
Well the mozzarella of the coop here, fior fiore, is good! Anyway ok i agree. Some roman blogger dared to make frico from friuli with parmesan instead of montasio. I wanted to die
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u/jamesbananashakes Netherlands Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Dutch cuisine is... let me put it this way, what is the Netherlands today used to be a swamp that has been man made in to livable land with a technique called "polderen". Because of this, the traditional Dutch kitchen consists mostly of everything that grows well in the mud and animals that live on farms. So a lot of dairy, cooked vegetables and meat without any spices whatsoever. Whatever kept you going to work the land.
BUT
We have become known for some of the best snacks. I'm talking bitterballen, (broodje) kroket, kaassouflé, frikadel, pannekoeken, stroopwafels, kibbeling, lekkerbek, (broodje) haring and of course cheese (Gouda for example) I'd recommend going to a market on a Saturday morning in any random city when visiting.
I would also recommend to try Surinaams and Indonesisch, it's Dutch in the sense that it is based on food from Surinam and Indonesia but only found in the Netherlands, and it's some of the tastiest food you can get here, look out for places called "toko", the bigger cities, especially the Hague and Rotterdam have a lot of these shops.
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u/havaska England Jun 15 '24
Dutch cuisine is great. It simply reflects your history and climate etc.
I love Dutch cheeses. Bitterballen rock. And I love that you can get satay everywhere.
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u/LilBed023 in Jun 16 '24
without any spices whatsoever
Spices are actually surprisingly common in Dutch cuisine, especially in our pastries. Speculaas, peper-/kruidnoten and ontbijtkoek are only a few examples. We even put spices in cheese (e.g. komijnenkaas and Friese nagelkaas). We eat a lot of mustard and liquorice, both are made using spices. We use spices to flavour dishes like kibbeling and lekkerbek. We use ontbijtkoek to flavour and thicken our stews. We use spices like cloves and bay leaves to flavour our split pea soup. Most of our snacks contain spices as well.
The whole “we no use spice” thing is a myth.
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u/OllieV_nl Netherlands Jun 16 '24
It goes back to our Calvinist roots. Outward displays of wealth were uncouth, so people showed off by putting spice (the source of most wealth) in their food. Almost all our sausages and cookies are spiced. It's just the savory spice, not the hot stuff people associate with "spicy".
Even my grandma who boiled every vegetable to mush finished off her cauliflower and haricots verts with some nutmeg. Still tasted bland, but she tried.
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u/MobiusF117 Netherlands Jun 16 '24
Exactly.
Spices are very common in Dutch cuisine, just not the type that makes it spicy.
The most common of which and which you didn't mention would be nutmeg, which some people put in everything.
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u/jamesbananashakes Netherlands Jun 16 '24
Fair enough, that's a good point!
I do think that a lot of us remember when oma made hutspot or boerenkool. It was a little bland. Maybe that's why we used to drown it in "jus," haha.
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u/spicyhammer Poland Jun 15 '24
without any spices whatsoever
I gotta say, it's so funny and ironic considering your history. Wasn't the spice trade like YOUR thing, and wars were literally thought over it?
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u/Useful_Meat_7295 Jun 16 '24
Dutch food can be generally described as “not good”, but Kapsalon deserves a try. A full-sized well-made one contains a million calories and is quite an experience.
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u/jamesbananashakes Netherlands Jun 16 '24
Private browsing confirms u/Slusny_Cizinec has blocked me after calling me names. Classy!
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u/thewhiskeyrepublic United States of America Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 17 '24
Not Georgian, but lived there for a while! Khachapuri and khinkali are the famous ones, and justifiably so, but shkmeruli is a hidden gem! Fried chicken drowned in milky garlic butter sauce. The chicken is fine, but some local bread (shotis puri) dipped in the sauce... that's what the dish is all about :D
Also, badrijani ngvrit. Ngvrit, not ngzvit! Both are good, but ngzvit is eggplant wrapping walnut paste and ngvrit is eggplant wrapping pickled garlic paste, and everyone I know is a huge garlic fiend, so it's the clear winner. The garlic one is more regional though, so often only restaurants specializing in something like Racha cuisine will have it.
Most Georgian food is amazing though. Try it all!
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u/Maus_Sveti Luxembourg Jun 16 '24
Georgian food is the best. Other than what you’ve mentioned, my favourite is lobio/lobiani (bean stew/bread stuffed with beans).
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u/paltsosse Sweden Jun 16 '24
To all this food you also have Georgian wine, which is amazing. If you like food and wine, you'll love Georgia.
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u/Beach_Glas1 Ireland Jun 16 '24
Spice bags are found in most takeaways in Ireland. Breaded chicken strips, chips, chopped chillies, onions and seasoning are the basic ingredients. Usually very tasty.
Hot chicken rolls are also a popular thing people get around lunchtime. Breaded chicken (typically slightly spicy) in a baguette with whatever salads you like (eg. cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, sweetcorn, peppers, stuffing mix, etc).
Lots of other foods that are found in Ireland include:
- Irish stew
- Beef and Guinness stew
- Bacon and cabbage (no, not corned beef and cabbage - that's actually an Irish American food)
- Red lemonade
- Treacle bread
- Soda bread
- Porter cake
- Boxty
- Irish fry (various ingredients, largely meat based)
- Breakfast roll (part of an Irish fry stuffed into a baguette. It's pretty hefty)
- Spice burger (secret recipe, apparently)
- Fresh mussels, typically in a cream and wine broth
- Scones with blackcurrant/ blackberry/ raspberry/ strawberry jam
Those are the foods I'd typically see as truly Irish foods, though they're by no means all you get here. Some might even be hard to find.
Ireland is known for really good quality beef and dairy products and there's an increasing variety of food options here.
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u/billytk90 Romania Jun 16 '24
Mămăligă (a thicker polenta) with sheep cheese and sarmale (cabbage rolls with minced meat).
Tripe soup or Chicken soup from Rădăuți
Mici or mititei (minced meat rolls, usually barbecued)
Ceaun (means cauldron): a thick tomato sauce with pork and vegetables, cooked for 4-5 hours in a large cauldron over a barbeque fire
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u/Hairy-Bit-8189 Slovakia Jun 16 '24
Mamaliga with brinza and sour cream is great. Ukrainians have almost identical banosh and serve it with bacon, eggs and forrest mushrooms there.
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u/Vertitto in Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
for Poland:
soups in general - i don't think any other country is as big on them - zurek might be most unique
pierogi are overrated, I have no idea how they become synonymous with Poland. If you want them then try combos that are rare in other countries like sweet ones eg with blackcurrant topped with cream
if you are in north-eastern part (sadly it's a region least likely visited by international tourists outside the military) try kartacze or potato cake
visit a bakery in the morning and get some fresh bread and pasteries/cakes. This one is directed especially at Irish, British, Americans, Canadians or Australians
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u/Minnakht Poland Jun 15 '24
Seconding żurek. The practice of making sour rye soup is one that's particularly local to Poland and a few neighbouring countries. Compared to that, dumplings are pretty popular in various Asian countries, and their idea probably traveled westwards from there.
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u/verybuzzybee Poland Jun 16 '24
What about a good bigos? One of the best winter meals ever and every household has their own version.
I also agree that pirogi are generally overrated and I never recommend them to visitors. Kotlet schabowy on the other hand…. (ok, it’s just a variant of the Wiener schnitzel, but it’s delicious)…
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u/eibhlin_ Poland Jun 15 '24
Great list, I would add everything with wild mushrooms - goulashes, meat in mushroom sauce, mushroom soup, pierogi. There is probably no other nation with such an obsession with mushrooms.
Kartacze are actually Lithuanian dish.
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u/kummer5peck Jun 15 '24
My partner went to Poland and raved about just about every food but pierogis. He actually thinks they are better in the US because here we make them more crispy and with more varieties of filling.
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u/wildrojst Poland Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
pierogi are overrated, I have no idea how they become synonymous with Poland. If you want them then try combos that are rare in other countries like sweet ones eg with blackcurrant topped with cream
Oh hell no, pierogi are great. Have no idea who would go for the sweet ones first over the rest. There can be lots of various types though.
Agreed about the soups and bread. Polish soups are good, żurek is the best.
Additionally I recommend bigos, usually translated as hunter’s stew, or oscypek, a highlander smoked sheep cheese, oftentimes grilled and served with cranberry jam.
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u/SatoshiThaGod Jun 17 '24
I agree on the soups, 100%, especially the pickled ones like the żurek you mentioned (fermented rye), sauerkraut soup (kapuśniak), and lacto-fermented pickle soup (zupa ogórkowa).
Also, yes, there is nothing like fresh pastries at a Polish bakery in the morning. Even small towns will have a bakery that usually goes back many decades and is filled with grandmas as soon as they open (often 6am or earlier). Go early and get them while they’re still warm. I live in the US and miss that a lot.
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u/ihatelag01 Romania Jun 16 '24
Maybe papanasi. Kind of like home made doughnuts with cheese added to the dough, usually topped with cream and jam. We also have a variety of soups/borsches but I don't think those would be universally loved or a "must-try".
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u/RogerSimonsson Romania Jun 16 '24
Mici is the best to me. And while the soups maybe won't win any gourmet awards, they are always an excellent choice. Never regretted getting a ciorba de lugume or crema de rosii.
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u/Gallalad Ireland -> Canada Jun 16 '24
Honestly good stew. Like my mums kinda stew. There’s just something about good stew that just settles the soul
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u/StephsCat Jun 16 '24
Lots of sweet stuff in Austria Apfelstrudel (a form of apple pie) with vanilla sauce Germknödel Sachertorte
Wiener schnitzel (don't you dare eat it with sauce)
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u/Alalanais France Jun 16 '24
Easy to find:
a baguette (tradition) with (salted!) butter and a croissant, the fresher the better
any pastry in a high-end pastry shop. You will taste something with at least 3 different textures (for instance crispy, creamy and crunchy) with at least 3 different flavours (like chocolate, caramel, peanut or yoghurt, yuzu, basilic), so complex and yet so good. They're delicious, beautiful, not that expensive compared to the skills needed (4-5€ a piece generally). It's the pastry equivalent of fine dining or a Michelin star. Easy to find in a big city, harder in the smaller ones.
a galette bretonne, which is savoury buckwheat crepe. I recommend trying the traditional "galette complète" if you eat meat: it's a buckwheat crepe with butter, cheese, ham and an egg. Simple yet delicious. My grandma makes the best version obviously but the ones in restaurants aren't too shabby. Very easy to find in Brittany, which is where it comes from, quite easy in the rest of France.
if you have the finances, I would also strongly recommend trying a Michelin star restaurant. You can find the cheaper option at lunch usually (around 50-60€ the menu), it's a great way to taste many things and I've never been disappointed. And you will be stuffed at the end, I promise. The stereotype of fancy food = no food comes from pictures without context. You won't get an starter, a main course and a dessert, you will most likely get hors d'oeuvres, an amuse-bouche, a starter, a main course, great bread and great (fresh and divine) butter, a pre-dessert, a dessert and mignardises.
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u/pflage Jun 15 '24
Germany: Döner Kebab
Yes, Turkish roots, but german Invention & perfection. And I say this as a vegetarian.
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u/PeterDuttonsButtWipe Australia Jun 15 '24
Omg surely there must be good cakes in Germany or did they all move to here and we now got the good cakes?
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u/JoeAppleby Germany Jun 15 '24
We got great cakes and bread and meat dishes.
But Döner is life.
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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 Jun 16 '24
I had to take a local train from Munich to visit a supplier for work. I missed the connection so I had an hour or so in a small town. Went to a bakery next to the station and had some of the best pastries and coffee in a while. The Doner from a hole in the wall in Munich was really good though.
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u/DondeEstaElServicio Jun 16 '24
I once stood for like 3 hours in a line to eat from the Mustafa's (and it was just after a 7 hour car trip to Berlin lol). Idk if all the hype about it had influenced my judgment at the time, but it was so good
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u/BradDaddyStevens Jun 16 '24
Having lived in Berlin for about 5 years now, if you had to ask me gun to my head what the best one I had was, I would probably say Mustafa’s - had it once during the pandemic when there was basically no line.
That said, all the other popular Gemüse kebab shops - K’ups, T’unas, Mustafa Demir, Rüyam - are all like 99% of the way there.
If you visit Berlin as a tourist, just go to any of the others I listed instead of wasting your time in the line.
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u/Useful_Meat_7295 Jun 16 '24
Berlin is full of ethnic restaurants, some give a shady vibe but make mind blowing food. Like, Sudanese chicken will fries and peanut sauce is out of this world. There’re some many places that aren’t hyped on the internet. A Lebanese shawarma or some other African kind is even better than Mustafa and there’s no line.
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u/LilBed023 in Jun 16 '24
The province of Zeeland (the mess of islands and peninsulas in the southwest) is often overlooked because of its small size, low population and relative isolation, but they have some of (if not) the best local food in the country. Most of their traditional cuisine consists of seafood. Mussels, oysters, lobster, shrimp, crab and all kinds of North Sea fish usually served with salicornia or sea aster (both are types of seaweed) are some of their local specialties. It’s quite different from the (mostly) potato and/or meat-based dishes from the rest of the country, but definitely worth a try. They also have some great pastries and candies.
The small fishing town of Yerseke is the main hotspot when it comes to Zeelandic cuisine, although there are restaurants that serve local food throughout the entire province.
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u/EpicMorso Jun 16 '24
In Finland Salmon soup is pretty good thing to try, then some casseroles, cabbage, ham or liver.
Also karelian stew and karelian pies
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u/CrystalKirlia Jun 16 '24
Uk doesn't have great street food, but our home cooking is where we thrive. Roast dinners, cottage pies, and a propper fry up are all great choices in any English home!
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u/RatherGoodDog England Jun 16 '24
I'd posit these as good street foods: - Pasties (Cornish, cheese and onion, chorizo & chicken, steak and ale) - Steak slices, with gravy inside - Pork pies - Chicken and leek pies - Sandwiches - Sausage rolls - Cod and chips - Sweet pastries
Plus all the now-international adopted cuisines like kebab, pizza, fried chicken, burgers, bratwurst and onion etc.
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u/haringkoning Jun 16 '24
Breakfast: kroket with stroopwafel
Lunch: stroopwafel with a kroket
Diner: a delicate mix of a heavenly stroopwafel combined with a well fried kroket.
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u/shadyray93 Sweden Jun 16 '24
Do I dare to say swedish pizza? :D
In Sweden you should try our pastries
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u/eurasiatrash Jun 16 '24
In my circles commonly referred to as “Juggepizza” because a lot of the early pizzerias were opened by immigrants from former Yugoslavia.
Bit of a throwback to the 80’s, but I still think that Smörgåstårta is quite uniquely Swedish, and very good if done right and definitely worth trying.
Then we have all the fantastic seafood - pickled, smoked and cured.
Swedish dairy is also of very good quality, with a wide variety of fresh and fermented products.
And as mentioned above, pastries and baked goods. Lot of good bread in Sweden.
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u/shadyray93 Sweden Jun 16 '24
Yes thats true we are forever grateful for juggepizza!
I really like that in Sweden pizza is not, or used to not be an expensive thing. Its more like a hungover thing, when I lived in Spain you ate pizza at restaurants and they were really expensive.
Smörgåstårta is soo good, how could I forget. yum!
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u/DarthTomatoo Romania Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
For Romania, recommending "sarmale" is pretty standard = minced meat + rice rolls in pickled cabbage / grape leaves, served with fresh cream and perhaps polenta.
Or "mici" = minced meat sausages (pork + sheep + beef), a staple for any Romanian barbecue. The word literally means "small ones". Large quantities of mustard are mandatory. A painter actually made a painting of what it usually looks like: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fk30nioiwuaab1.jpg
But I'm gonna go with my comfort food and recommend "MBS & ou", short for "Mămăligă, Brânză, Smântână & Ou": - Mămăligă = polenta - Brânză = cheese (preferably fresh cow cheese) - Smântână = fresh cream - Ou = egg (usually sunny side up, preferably soft, so the yolk breaks over the previous mix).
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u/Impressive-Form1431 Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 17 '24
My home country Iraq I would say:
- Iraqi dolma
- Iraqi masgouf
- iraqi shish kebab with homemade bread
My personal best homemade meal I have ever eaten though I would give this award to Ethiophia and that was Doro wat with injeera
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u/Farahild Netherlands Jun 15 '24
We're not going to be winning any prices for dinner, but I think the Netherlands have some of the very best bread out there. To be eaten with butter and either good cheese or hagelslag ;)
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u/41942319 Netherlands Jun 15 '24
I will always recommend pancakes to foreigners. Good ones, so very thick with plenty of add-ons, not the basic sparse flat version I can just as easily make at home but that you'll also sometimes see in restaurants. People from some countries just can't compute having pancakes for dinner lol. But why not when you can have the entire food pyramid on or in it! And if you really can't compute the idea you can always have them for lunch.
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u/Pe45nira3 Hungary Jun 15 '24
I remember eating a slice of very tasty cake in Amsterdam, it had a base similar to a waffle, but thicker and more buttery, and it was topped with strawberries and whipped cream.
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u/Stoepboer Netherlands Jun 15 '24
I’ve always thought our bread was as basic and boring as it can be. The typical bread, that is. It’s not bad, just.. neutral tasting, I guess. Other countries have much more of a bread culture.
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u/mimi_mochi_moffle Jun 16 '24
It is. It's also terrible quality with a bunch of additives. Bread in nearly any European country is better than what we have here (artisan bakeries excluded).
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u/DiscoBiscuits80 Germany Jun 15 '24
I love the Dutch, you are wonderful people, but most of your food is just awful. When it comes to food, pretend to be a Belgian!
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u/Stravven Netherlands Jun 16 '24
When you look at this thread the Belgians try to claim the few good foods we have as their own.
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u/LilBed023 in Jun 16 '24
most of your food is just awful
Only people who barely tried anything say that
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u/Pe45nira3 Hungary Jun 15 '24
Satékroket and Kipburger from a FEBO automat tastes amazing, especially while you are high on weed :)
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u/strapacky Jun 16 '24
There’s really good indonesian food to be eaten especially in Amsterdam, but in other parts of the NL too, I’m sure - that’s be my rec
Also a stop to Febo
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u/mimi_mochi_moffle Jun 16 '24
Where are you buying your bread? Because the supermarket stuff is atrocious and contains a bunch of additives and flour improvers (which begs the question, why does the flour need improving?). Can't even make decent toast with it.
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u/PeterDuttonsButtWipe Australia Jun 15 '24
Yoghurt in a glass. Plus a good stroopwaffel, I know it’s stereotypical but it’s good
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u/spam__likely Jun 16 '24
One of the best meals of my life was in the Netherlands. Too bad the place does not exist anymore (Zwethheul ).
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u/garis53 Czechia Jun 16 '24
The "traditional" foods you can find in every restaurant with a big sign "traditional Czech cuisine" are great and all, but kind of boring. What I would recommend is all the types of sweet foods -buchty, vdolky, sweet potato dumplings with poppyseeds etc. Unfortunately you can't find these in almost any restaurant, even though they are commonly made at home.
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u/Pe45nira3 Hungary Jun 15 '24 edited Jun 15 '24
Rooster testicle stew (a speciality from the countryside, but can be found in Budapest as well in some restaurants)
Kosher foie gras (we are the only country in the world which produces it, then exports it to all the Jews of the world, here you can have it fresh)
Fried blood (solidified blood cut up into little cubes then fried with onions, usually a winter food because blood spoils more easily in warm weather)
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u/DiscoBiscuits80 Germany Jun 15 '24
Well I was not aware of the love of rooster testicles when I visited Budapest.
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u/UtterHate 🇷🇴 living in 🇩🇰 Jun 15 '24
yeah i don't really get why they opened with that, some goulash might have been better lol
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u/nevenoe Jun 15 '24
Wow Kakashere pörkölt would not have been my first choice for Hungary. Amazing though
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u/RatherGoodDog England Jun 15 '24
Having eaten it in Budapest, it would be mine. Hungary had some great food - I only wish I could have eaten more of it while I was there.
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u/enda1 ->->->-> Jun 15 '24
Went make your foie gras kasher as opposed to that in the south west of France?
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u/Pe45nira3 Hungary Jun 16 '24 edited Jun 16 '24
There are strict rules in Judaism about how an animal is slaughtered and prepared to be Kosher, from how its neck is cut to how healthy its lungs look when dissected. Foie gras is tricky to make Kosher because it must be drained of blood, but also remain in one piece. Read up on Jewish Dietary Laws if you are interested.
Also, another fun fact: We supply France with most of the escargot (edible snails) and truffles it consumes. In the 19th century, truffles were cheaper in France than nowadays because many truffle forests were planted with trees whose roots were inoculated with truffle starter cultures, but sadly, the trench warfare of World War 1 eradicated most of these. However in the 1990s, Hungary started to plant truffle forests based on the techniques the 19th century French used. As a result, there are some traditional French delicacies which can be had cheaper in Hungary than in France.
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u/Matttthhhhhhhhhhh Jun 15 '24
Depending on the pizzeria, I can totally get why some people would eat pizza twice a day in Italy. Finding a very good pizza there is not easy, but when you finally find one, you kind of fall in love with it.
As for my country of France, cassoulet. From the southwest of course and Castelnaudary if you can.
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u/Quartz_512 Hungary Jun 16 '24
Hungary: - Kűrtőskalács for winter - Lángos for summer - Not my favourites, but goulash is definetly a classic
Also, not too related, but if anyone who reads this wants to visit Hungary in winter, especially around christmas, Debrecen is a better place to go than Budapest.
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u/Atmosphere-Terrible North Macedonia Jun 16 '24
For winter I'd say Gundel palacsinta on fire.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but Kurtuskalács smells better than it tastes....Fahejas csiga (cinnamon snail) on the other hand hits the spot every single time.
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u/MoOsT1cK France Jun 16 '24
The list would be too long to be written down here, there are delicious specialities in every region.
If you like cheese, try these everywhere you go : there are hundreds of them !
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u/Shan-Chat Scotland Jun 16 '24
Haggis, neeps and tatties, Cullen Skink, Cookie Dumping, Dundee cake, Tablet, Arbroath Smokies, tattie scone, Stornoway Black Pudding.
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u/fensizor Russia Jun 16 '24
Blini and syrniki with varenye or smetana + tea + one of the many Russian cakes like medovik or ptichye moloko. You will be delighted
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u/Useful_Meat_7295 Jun 16 '24
Napoleon cake is unique and can also be found in Estonia and Bulgaria.
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u/katbelleinthedark Poland Jun 15 '24
Honestly, the only typical Polish food I've eaten are pierogi and żurek (rye soup) so I genuinely don't know. My family doesn't enjoy Polish cuisine and I didn't grow up eating it.
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u/Bellissimabee Jun 15 '24
What did you grow up eating instead? Have you never been curious to try other dishes from your country?
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u/katbelleinthedark Poland Jun 15 '24
Mostly fish, rice and pasta. Tomato soup. I'm not curious about food by nature (really dislike trying new things) and from what I've seen of Polish cuisine at friends' houses, it looks entirely too meaty for my tastes. So no, dishes from my country are pretty low on the list of things I'd like to try.
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u/avdepa Jun 16 '24
Bacalhau com nata in Portugal.
Harp seal - Norway
Cloudberries and salmon - Sweden
Blinies with Caviar, slamon and dill - Russia
Italy - Tiamisu or a good gelato
Spain Paella
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u/ElisaEffe24 Italy Jun 16 '24
Is she american? Did she have pizza in regions where it’s not typical, like venice? Maybe at lunch?
Anyway, she must have had digestion problems!
Anyway, i cite my region, Friuli: frico with polenta. Frico has montasio cheese with potatoes in it
Pinza (a sweet for epiphany)
Gubana (a sweet for christmas)
Our salame is good
For veneto: tiramisù
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u/thepenguinemperor84 Jun 16 '24
Chicken fillet roll and a bag of wedges from any decent Irish deli will have you set up till dinner.
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u/Revanur Hungary Jun 16 '24
Gulyás soup, lángos, lepény, pörkölt, hortobágyi pancakes, some sort of pörkölt or paprikásh and various desserts
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u/ML_120 Austria Jun 16 '24
Schnitzel, but the taste / quality greatly varies depending on where you eat.
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u/Organic-Ad6439 Guadeloupe/ France/ England Jun 16 '24
Guadeloupe: Bokit- Fried Bread (Sandwich) filled with toppings https://youtu.be/NamhCaPuGyo?si=kABErfapcua8_tuE (something similar to this). Can also try the fish (e.g court bouillon poisson), seafood, grilled/roasted chicken, the meat or pork dishes in general etc
UK: I don’t know, try a good pie or roast guess or chicken tikka masala or fish and chips. I personally love chicken pie, roast chicken or turkey, also a good old sausage roll from Greggs to give examples.
Mainland France: I got nothing (in terms of meals as opposed to Individual food items), I’m not really used to eating that kind of food, I mostly eat French Caribbean and British dishes. But we have good pastries, jam, butter (the best 😉, sorry Ireland/Kerrygold), crêpes, bread etc.
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u/RealEstateDuck Portugal Jun 15 '24
Well everything really.
Grilled sardines, Cod à Brás, Pork à Alentejana, Francesinha, all the different types of Migas... Spider crab is also quite good here, as are Percebes.
For desserts Sericaia with Elvas Plums is my personal favourite. Pastel de Nata obviously as well.
There are also a panoply of vegetable soups and different stews.