What is your country's national or traditional dish?

Al Hart

Some would say in the UK it's Chicken Tikka Masala .....

Chicken tikka masala - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

Someone else mentioned this.

Any of you from the UK - Did your grandmother serve you Chicken Tikka Masala?

Al Hart

Being Scots, I think most folks here already know what our national dish is.... and a recipe would only suffice to put others off. Made badly it tastes like dog food, but made well I'd trade the finest fillet steak for a spoonful of this "warm, reeking rich" delicacy any day!

Nevertheless, here's a photo- exactly as it we serve it at a traditional Scots Burns Supper, cut open with a "sgian dubh"- a small knife traditionally (and hygenically) kept in the top of your right sock!
[attachment=0:223s3zdn]haggis.JPG[/attachment:223s3zdn]

I had some of this in Edinburgh a few years ao and it was pretty good. But I don't think I have the nerver to 1: Try to make it. 2;) Try to serve it here in Colorado. (Although as a small part of an appetizer plate with other Scottish dishes it might work.)

While in Edinburgh I ate twice at the Peacock for the Fish and Chips. It was great!

Jackson

LOL, that's amazing- Edinburgh is my hometown and the Peacock Inn is one of my family's favourite eateries entirely on the basis of their fish and chips! You chose well!

Re: haggis, even in Scotland almost nobody makes it themselves- Macsween's Butchers are pretty much unanimously acknowledged as having perfected the somewhat gruesome recipe many decades ago and the vast majority of haggis fans are now happy to leave the actual preparation to them. http://www.macsween.co.uk/

Unfortunately for many Scots-descended Americans it's currently illegal to import haggis to the States, but then maybe many American diners are glad of this! LOL

Al Hart

@jackson said:

LOL, that's amazing- Edinburgh is my hometown and the Peacock Inn is one of my family's favourite eateries entirely on the basis of their fish and chips! You chose well!

Yes - I had lunch there while my wife was off on the tour bus to Glasgow. It was so great that I took her to dinner there the same night.

DSCN0005-50%.JPG

I loved Scotland, and although you probably won't appreciate it, I loved the accent as well. (What accent? )

I took the city tour bus three times because the people giving the narration were so friendly, and so fun. And the third time around we got to see Queen Elizabeth and Price Phillip entering a house - (with much less security then we Americans would have thought possible - even prior to 9/11) - from the top of the bus.

Can't wait to get back.
(I see from the Photo that this visit was in 2000)

Mike Lucey

@al hart said:

Do you ever eat it, or only we tourists?

Yep, and love it especially on cold wet winter evenings

utiler

@mike lucey said:

Guys,

I'm not too sure what the national dish is here in Ireland but the Net tells me its Irish Stew!

Mike

I wish I was Irish, Mike; I love Irish Stew!!!!!

Australia - T-bone steak and veg [not the 'shrimp on the bbq you thought....]

Or maybe bucket of banana prawns, slice of lemon and a cold beer.

notareal

Karelian hot pot or Sautéed reindeer.

Al Hart

@notareal said:

Karelian hot pot or Sautéed reindeer.

Thanks - the link mentions Finland.

solo

Another South African dish, and my favorite.

Peri-Peri Chicken

500 grams chicken tenderloins
seasoned flour
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
3 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander leaves or parsley
2 teaspoons chicken stock powder
1/2 red chile -- sliced
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 kilogram baby potatoes -- parboil and quarter
Peri-Peri basting sauce

Sprinkle the chicken with the seasoned flour. Mix together the oil, garlic, coriander or parsley, dry chicken-stock powder, chili and lemon juice to make a paste. Toss the chicken into the mixture to coat. Stir fry in a hot frying pan in the olive oil for 5-8 minutes until the chicken is just cooked. Add the potatoes and peri-peri sauce and warm through. Serve with extra peri-peri sauce, Portuguese rolls and fresh sambal salads, e.g. chopped onion, cubed avocado, diced cucumber, cubed tomato, cubed pineapple etc.

Al Hart

I local friend advised a Harry Potter theme. I suggested that most of the foods mentioned in Harry Potter might only appeal to a younger crowd.

@unknownuser said:

I think you might underestimate the number of Harry Potter fans among people (in particular women) who might also be in the range of people who might regularly dine at Sansone's. You may even know a couple of them fairly well.

I didn't mean that there weren't any older fans, just that the older fans might not like the same foods as the characters in the book:

The ones which best qualify as traditional foods are: shepherd's pie, Cornish Pastries, steak and kidney pudding, Yorkshire pudding, and spotted dick (which we remember so well from the Aubrey / Maturin series). Still these could work well as a combination English / Harry Potter theme.

Al Hart

@utiler said:

Or maybe bucket of banana prawns, slice of lemon and a cold beer.

Isn't that the same as "Shrimp on the Barbie?"

I was surprised when Outback Steak House first opened that their idea of Australian dishes was:

Kookaburra Wings
Aussie Cheese Fries
Walkabout Soup of the Day
Alice Springs Chicken, etc.

I was surprised that they couldn't adopt anything which sounded like an authentic Australian food.

For instance, our Rodizio Grill (Brazilian) offered things like Quail Eggs which we don't usually see at other restaurants.

Al Hart

@solo said:

Another South African dish, and my favorite.

Peri-Peri Chicken

Thanks Solo - we made Peri-Peri Shrimp last year - so I still have a tin of Peri-Peri powder left over. (I was doing a similar apprenticeship for appetizers).

What do you serve it with?
[edit: I guess I could have read the end of the recipe ]

Is Peri-Peri a South African term, or an island nearby?

solo

Peri peri is originally a Mozambique Portuguese dish, South Africans (myself included) used to vacation in Lorenzo Marques and the meal was adopted into our cuisine, after the collapse of the Portuguese Mozambique it became one of our traditionals. Nando's chicken a large International Peri chicken chain is South African founded and is doing a great job in spreading the dish around the world.

utiler

@al hart said:

Isn't that the same as "Shrimp on the Barbie?"

I was surprised when Outback Steak House first opened that their idea of Australian dishes was:

Kookaburra Wings
Aussie Cheese Fries
Walkabout Soup of the Day
Alice Springs Chicken, etc.

I was surprised that they couldn't adopt anything which sounded like an authentic Australian food.

Thanks Franchising for you I guess, Al.....

I expected the shrimp joke sooner than later; gee that thing has stuck hasn't it?

Chris Fullmer

Good, you've been to a Rodizio Al. That is very traditional Brazilian food. A nice Onion and Beet salad, quail eggs, all you can eat BBQ, cheese bread, Guarana, Musse de maracuja (passionfruit mousse)or pudim (flan more or less). That is a fine meal!

Chris

PeterCharles

@al hart said:

Someone else mentioned this.
Any of you from the UK - Did your grandmother serve you Chicken Tikka Masala?

Of course not, we get it at the local Indian restaurant or take-away!
Most younger generation English females have lost the ability to cook anyway. Best they can do is warm something up in the microwave.

Aerilius

What I present is rather not a national but a regional dish from Palatinate (='Pfalz') in south-west Germany (we Germans are more regional).

Potato soup Palatine type
Grumbeersupp - palatine dialect for potato soup
**Ingredients for 4 servings
* 15 medium potatoes
* 1 large onion
* 1 small celery tuber
* 2 medium carrots
* 2 pole (s) leeks
* 175 g butter
* 1.5 l broth
* 200 g cream
* 1 pinch (s) pepper
* 1 pinch (s) salt
* 1 pinch (s) marjoram

Preparation
Wash and clean the potatoes and the vegetables and cut them into small cubes. Dampen them in butter. Cook it with one liter of meat broth for half an hour.

Pass the soft vegetables and the potatoes through a food mill or puree it with a blender. Fill it up with the remaining broth. Season to taste with salt, pepper and marjoram. Refine it with cream before serving the soup.**

Dampfnudel - German dumplings
Dampfnudels with delicate crust
Dampfnudels with custard and fruits
**Ingredients
* 500 g flour,
* 1 sachet instant yeast,
* 350 ml milk,
* 150 g butter

Instructions
Stir the yeast into the flour.
Warm the milk a little. Alternatively, this can be done by using 250 ml of milk and adding 100 ml of boiling water to it in a jug.
Gently stir the liquid into the flour. Beat until smooth, adding more liquid if necessary.
Leave the dough in a warm place to rise.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saucepan which has a lid. Run the melted butter around the saucepan to coat the bottom and sides generously, then leave to cool.
Cut the dough into 6 equal chunks. knead each chunk lightly into small round balls.
Coat each ball on the bottom and sides with the cooled melted butter, then place on a baking tray in a warm place to rise.
When the balls have increased to about double their original size place them in the prepared saucepan. Add a large teacup full of warm water, place the lid on the saucepan and put on a fairly low heat.
Cook for about 20 - 30 minutes, but keep a watch on them to make sure they do not burn. When the dumplings are cooked they will be golden brown and crispy on the bottom.
Serve with custard or white wine sauce and tinned fruit.**

And the last one scares again and again tourists, but it's the most original one. I have a rendered an image here:
Saumagen - sow's stomach
Saumagen contains potatoes, carrots and pork and tons of spices. It is served with sauerkraut and bread and Wine Schorle as beverage. That's a refreshment made of white wine and mineral water and it needs to be drunk from a 'dubbeglas'. The well-fed person in the background illustrates how healthy it is. His name is Helmut, when he was Chancellor, he tried to palm it off on his friend Reagan and other state guests.

TIG

For England you might think, "Fish and Chips", or perhaps, "Roast-Beef and Yorkshire-Puddings"...

However, recent surveys show that the most popular dinner in England is "Chicken Tikka Masala" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tikka_masala or http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=Chicken%20Tikka%20Masala&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enGB236GB318&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi ] - I eat it almost every week - it's delicious ! The British have a long tradition of loving curries from "India" - this one's invented for UK tastes and is VERY popular...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chickentikkamasala_67780.shtml

Al Hart

Solo - I think we would like to find something with more representative South African flavors, and less like "Chicken Tenders". have you tried Bobotie?

Al Hart

Well, inspired by Solo, we are going South African for our first meal (come by and join us on June 10th).

With a combination platter of Frango Piri-Piri, Lamb Sosate, and Boerewors - Pumpkin Frittes and Chakalaka Relish - and Malva Pudding (using Oprah's recipe)

In a couple of weeks I'll start soliciting for ideas for the second meal. Perhaps we'll choose a more traditional country - Spain, Greece, etc. or a South American country.

Thanks for putting me on track for this Solo - and thanks to everyone else as well. Keep the ideas coming.