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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 2, 2009 5:51:36 GMT
How many people grew up eating regional and/or ethnic food as a matter of course? By that I mean, food identified with your own region or national background.
I'm from the southern half of Louisiana, which has its own regional style. My mother's family background is Sicilian, so that is part of my eating culture.
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Post by palesa on Feb 2, 2009 7:49:05 GMT
I think that our white afrikaaner culture is very much rys, vleis en aartapples (rice, meat and potatoes) and all the veggies are sugared and buttered, which is pretty much the way I was raised. Hence the big hips, has nothing to do with child bearing and all of that.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 16:23:27 GMT
Palesa, am I correct in thinking that Afrikaaner food descends from the food culture of the Dutch settlers?
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Post by palesa on Feb 3, 2009 16:26:24 GMT
Yebo! (yes) and there is also a bit of Malay influence in Afrikaaner food.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 17:42:15 GMT
Really? I can't wait to get some recipes from you. You realize that South African food is really under-represented in the popular consciousness? It's never had a wave of faddish promotion such as has happened to Thai, Mexican or so many other cuisines.
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Post by palesa on Feb 3, 2009 17:44:27 GMT
Well, I posted a few bobotie recipes already.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 18:14:26 GMT
Just looked ~~ I don't think I'm quite used to Any Port's configuration yet, even though I do like having the recipes separate from the conversation.
Those look fantastic! Can't wait to try them, and can tell they're open to all kinds of variations. Using lentils instead of meat seems like a good idea to try in other cuisines as well.
Is babotie sort of a national dish in South Africa?
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Post by palesa on Feb 3, 2009 19:04:24 GMT
It is a traditional South African dish.
We have 11 official languages, so I guess we are roughly divided into 11 different cultures, actually more than that so you will find that traditional african food is similar with different variations but mostly meat and pap (maize cooked either into a stiff porridge) and Afrikaaner is very rice, meat, potatoes and sweet veggies with a malay and indonesian influence (did not know that until I googled), then we have the "Cape Coloureds" and their food is very influenced by Malaysian cooking, satay etc. But we also have a very distinctive Indian food, which is not like the food in India (we have a very large Indian population). One of the most well known South African Indian dishes is a "bunny chow" (origin of the name is unkown, different theories) which is half a loaf of white bread, hollowed out, filled with curry and the bread put back on top. It is suggested that this was a good way to serve lunch without needing plates etc.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 3, 2009 19:19:30 GMT
This is so interesting! I am fascinated by how immigration affects the nature of a country's eating.
One wonders if the distinctive Indian food is because the original Indian immigrants came from only one part of their country or, as for the Chinese in the US, those immigrants were originally all men trying to reproduce the tastes of home as best they could.
I come from a part of the US with a strong West African influence on the food, although strictly regional food from any part of Africa is largely unknown.
Love the idea of the bunny chow! It satisfies the instinctive human need to sop bread in the food, but in a more elegant way.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2009 17:39:13 GMT
I come from a part of the US with a strong West African influence on the food, although strictly regional food from any part of Africa is largely unknown. Yet the Africans brought with them watermelons, peanuts and okra, among other items, and that has certainly influenced Southern (and American) eating habits.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2009 17:59:48 GMT
Yes, very true. I have seen cookbooks of all-Africa cooking, and was struck by how many of the techniques and philosophy are similar to Louisiana cooking. However, what I meant by my statement above was that there are no dishes commonly known as "African", nor would anyone where I'm from casually say, "Let's go get some African food".
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 4, 2009 21:40:04 GMT
The food I grew up with is influenced by the alpine setting (cheese and dairy, rye bread, etc) as well as the micro-climate that affords us tomatoes, apricots, grapes and other mediterranean delicacies. Other influences were Italian, French and German. Very little fish was consumed and my parents still prefer fish that isn't too "fishy".
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Post by tillystar on Feb 6, 2009 10:04:07 GMT
My grandmother's cooking was typical for her Irish upbringing: overcooked meat, overboiled cabbage and under boiled potatoes. She was highly suspicious of anything that might contain a hint of spice or any herbs, although would venture to try a prawn or two at Christmas. I even saw her try a snail once. Her idea of food mecca was a decent ploughman''s lunch. Sundays evenings at Grandma's were always a treat. We would have "afternoon tea", she would make crumpets and little triangle sandwiches and cakes for us to eat with cups of tea.
We had a lucky escape from the boiled food (except on Wednesday nights when we stayed at Grandmas) as my Mum had shared a room with an Indian girl at college and later shared a house with another Indian friend. She had learnt lots of recipes and techniques from them and had fallen in love with the cuisine. We grew up eating lots and lots of Indian food, probably more than any other type of food. Partly because she loved the spices, but also I think because rice and beans and lentils were so cheap.
When I was very small we had a neighbour who was a young Indian girl who had recently come to the UK to marry her English/Indian husband. She had a priviledged upbringing and had never been in a kitchen in her life until a few weeks before she left home and was taught a few recipes to keep her husband happy. He soon got bored of eating the same 2 meals and politely hinted if she had any other recipes, I remember her and my Mum spending hours and hours and days in the kitchen while my Mum taught her how to cook Indian food! One of the first things I remember helping my Mum make is samosas.
So the food I grew up eating wasn't a typical English cuisine but definately affected by the local area where we grew up as there were lots of Indian immigrants.
We were always encouraged to try new things and we would drive miles to Limehouse in London to what was famous for being the first chinese restaurant in the UK (although by the time we went it had been open for years) and I remember being amazed at the little round tables, the fish tanks and little wrinkled old chinese men sitting eating with chopsticks. About then my mum got obsessed with Chinese food and we ate chinese for years and years. I remember learning to cook chicken chow mein as my first proper meal I cooked alone.
I do remember going to other people's houses and enjoying the sausage and mash, toad in the hole or meat and 3 veg and wondering why my Mum didn't cook "proper food" like that. After holidays we would suddenly be eating weird things like borsht or tortellini that weren't in those days just normal day to day food and I died of embarrassment when my Mum served it to my friends with that weird basil sauce!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2009 10:53:00 GMT
I just love the idea of an English person teaching an Indian person how to prepare Indian food!
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Post by BigIain on Feb 6, 2009 15:24:11 GMT
I had a great upbringing, but the food was rather typical of City Scotland in the 70s. We did not have much variation and my Mum worked full time too. We had the same things often. Pork sausage, bacon, potatoes, minced beef and lemon sole are the things that spring to mind. Everything was cooked quite plainly too, so fish always tasted fishy. There was never anything remotely exciting, no pizza, no garlic, no olive oil, not even black pepper in my diet.
edited because spellcheck is the work of the devil.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 6, 2009 16:06:29 GMT
My childhood food was very similar. Basic stuff with salt and pepper. Not regional at all really, more general British. There was only one thing vaguely exotic and that was spaghetti bolognaise which my father loved. We didn't eat macaroni or any pasta, nor did we use many spices or any of the modern day things we now accept as normal. I didn't know what cheesecake was until my mid-twenties.
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Post by BigIain on Feb 6, 2009 17:36:44 GMT
Its funny really, Mark. I did not eat pizza until I was 19 and on holiday near Barcelona!! It just was never on the menu. Spicy food siularly was just never on offer, for my first indian meal I forget how old I was, But Frank Bruno was fighting Joe Bugner on the TV later on the same night. I had a very, VERY plain and "small world" existence for my first years as an adult.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 6, 2009 18:11:48 GMT
The only foreign restaurant in my town was a rather scruffy Chinese. It wasn't until 1991 that we had an Indian as well. I don't remember having my first pizza but my first McDonald's was in Chesterfield in 1983 and I was mid-twenties, my first curry was in Derby in 1982. Never had Thai till I went to Thailand in my mid-thirties.
Bruno/Bugner 1983.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 6, 2009 18:46:12 GMT
This is really interesting. What's funny is that everyone who talks about their "plain" or non-exotic childhood foods is talking about food that is alien and exotic to someone else.
Tilly's story is fascinating, partly because it's out of the ordinary. I think for ages and ages people were only exposed to either what was regional or to a particular "outside" cuisine if they happened to live near a large immigrant population from a given country.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2009 18:57:10 GMT
I think it is completely normal to be raised eating the most ordinary and consensual dishes of one's region. Only a few of us had the chance to be raised with a mixed background or in contact with exotic people.
What is more important are the choices that we have made as adults and our willingness (or not) to be exposed to new things.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2009 4:10:32 GMT
What is really a shame is when people turn away from chances to learn about other foods. When we were overseas, my family lived "on the economy" -- meaning in a completely Spanish neighborhood. However, there were other Air Force families there who spent the entire three years of the tour living in an American compound and only eating from the commissary. When I think of the experience my siblings & I had, and the one the "bunkered" kids had, it seems to me those kids were criminally deprived.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2009 6:19:24 GMT
Oh, I came across a truly terrible post on another forum yesterday... let me see if I can find it....
Here it is:
Later, after some people have actually bothered to give some replies (I didn't), the person goes on to say this:
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 9, 2009 6:21:42 GMT
The desire to slap is strong within my bosom.
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Post by mockchoc on Feb 9, 2009 8:10:15 GMT
I was brought up eating things not many around me would have recognised.
Perogie, cabbage rolls, borscht.. something called studanets or ? but I have no idea how to spell it. It's like a home made brawn type thing but a million times better with three types of meat in it, raw garlic and tons of parsley. I miss it! Long time no eat!!! Nan use to make some poppyseed cake too..
When my grandfather was still alive and my g/mother died I'd cook all these for him but it's been ages. Should do it soon before I forget it all I guess.
Otherwise my mum wasn't very adventurous in the kitchen and wouldn't let me use it either.
OMG, I might make a mess! Hmmm...
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2009 4:31:08 GMT
Mockchoc -- is part of your family from eastern Europe? I hope someone in the family has those recipes written down -- it would be a crime to lose them.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2009 4:45:32 GMT
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Post by mockchoc on Feb 11, 2009 5:41:37 GMT
Yes family is from eastern Europe bixa.
I think I have the recipes for most of it written down somewhere in my huge mess but at least in folders.
I should look into it more I guess before it's too late.
Nice croc!
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