What is your country's national or traditional dish?

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.

solo

Oooh! sosaties and boerewors! yummy.

I have had tomato bredie and babootie many times, not my favorite, but pap and Chakalaka certainly is one of my soft spots.

What I'd give to join y'all.

Al Hart

@solo said:

What I'd give to join y'all.

Just find a way to talk Google into flying you to Colorado for a meeting, and then drop by.

(If it works, met me know your secret.)

EscapeArtist

Post deleted because I didn't read the OP's post carefully enough. Why would I want to tell an American about Apple Pie? Silly me...

Jackson

Mmmmm....braai'd boerewors with a little All Gold tomatie sous!

Daniel

@escapeartist said:

Post deleted because I didn't read the OP's post carefully enough. Why would I want to tell an American about Apple Pie? Silly me...

Not everyone reading these posts are from the USA; some might be interested in that.

Al Hart

@escapeartist said:

Post deleted because I didn't read the OP's post carefully enough. Why would I want to tell an American about Apple Pie? Silly me...

The US is a big place. After we have offered a few foreign dishes, we may want to go for some US regional dishes. However we will probably not do the Colorado stuff - Buffalo steaks and Rocky Mountain Oysters.

solo

If you are planning a taste of the USA theme, then my suggestion would be a taste of Louisiana, there are so many excellent choices.

EscapeArtist

If anyone wants the apple pie recipe, I'll be happy to send it via PM until the US cuisine thread shows up .

One thing comes to mind when you mention the cuisine of Louisiana: Crawfish etouffee and dirty rice. Some of my favorites.

Bep

I like all seasonal foods.
This time of the year it is time to enjouy the new (soft+fat) "maatjes Haring",or "Hollandse nieuwe"
The first barel of this years New Herring was traditionaly sold today on an auction for charity for €66.000.
We Dutch eat about 30.000 ton of this dilicatesse a year.

Greetings Bep van Malde

Maatjes Herring

Stinkie

@bep said:

We Dutch eat about 30.000 ton of this dilicatesse a year.

And with good reason, too. Yum!

ely862me

excessive fishing...not good

Bep

@ely862me said:

excessive fishing...not good

We Dutch ar fisching this herring sins about the year 1500 ,we made a lot of mistakes in the past
but it is very regulated now a day's to not disturbe the continuity of the commercial herring fischery.

Bep van Malde

Al Hart

@bep said:

This time of the year it is time to enjouy the new (soft+fat) "maatjes Haring",or "Hollandse nieuwe"

I used to get Maatjes at the Imbiss when I lived in Hamburg, Germany, Yumm!!

Al Hart

This was a great success! (South African Night -See information below)

We sold out and served up 50 plates of food. I did about 1/2 the preparation work (chopping vegatables, skewing meat, making sauces, etc.) And filled about 1/2 of the plates. At one point we have more than 14 plates to serve all at once - a table of 6 and 4 other tables - so the rest of the cooking staff jumped in to help. (They weren't going to let the quality of the restaurant suffer just so I could learn how hard it is to complete 14 orders and dish up the plates)

I wanted to do Spain or Greece for July, but the Chef insists on a more obscure country. There are some ideas in this thread already (smaller countries or areas) - Palatine - Finland - Romania - Belgium - Hungary. I will consider them. Also, a South American country might be interesting.

Keep the ideas coming.

@unknownuser said:

Food is an Expression of the Heart

In this case, it’s an expression of our returning guest chef, Al Hart. Al has had two guest chef appearances at Sansone’s, as well as contributed to our Wine and Tidbits promotion throughout 2008. Join us Wednesday June 10th as Al Hart and Chef Robert recreate the national dishes that have captured the hearts of Africa.

A Special Combo Plate of:

Lamb Sosatie — grilled marinate lamb kabob with apricots, and green peppers

Boerewors (bu : ravors) - a traditional sausage of beef, pork, spices and vinegar

Frango Piri Piri—Chicken Piri Piri is originally a Mozambique Portuguese dish that is now a staple in many African restaurants.

Your African Taste Bud Safari will be completed with Pumpkin Fritters, Chakalaka Relish and Malva Pudding, and some wonderful wine selections from this amazing wine growing region of the world.

eeva

well, for a finish dinner i would suggest something like this:

for starters karelian pasties served with egg-butter (hardbolied eggs mixed with butter and salt) or gravlax

as the main dish glowfried salmon with potatoes

and as desert leipäjuusto served with cloudberries

i am getting hungry and i wish i could be in finland at the moment!