The amount of international cuisine on offer these days is quite amazing. In my regular UK supermarket I can buy foods from all around the world, including Halal and Kosher.
Having been born in 1946, I can still remember that the only Rice available in the shops was 'Pudding Rice'. Pasta was still unheard of, and China was just some far off place where people smoked Opium.
Curry was still considered exotic in the 50's and 60's, and it eventually became popular via packets made by Vesta; as did certain so-called Chinese dishes. People knew no better. It took another 60 years for Chicken Tikka Masala to become Britain's favourite dish.
Chinese and Thai foods have now become so popular that take-away restaurants are everywhere.
However, North African dishes are yet to become favourites, and I expect that will remain so.
Most households would now eat Pasta or Pizza every week. We eat Swedish Meatballs, German Sauerkraut, Greek Salads, French Croissants, Spanish Paella, Turkish Kababs, and Danish Pastries.
French cuisine, once regarded as the epitome of fine-dining, is really very similar to English cuisine, and in fact I think we have now overtaken them in the gastronomic league table. Their decline is very noticeable in France itself.
I am personally very fond of Ground Cumin, so any excuse to use some is welcomed, and North African dishes appear often on the Magnon table.
So what is my favourite national cuisine? I really don't know, but The Maghreb, China, and India are all jostling for first place. I really must make my mind up!
We were the same growing up. Even spaghetti was exotic. But my mother mother did make a mean curry. However it was a sweet curry with marmalade and coconut. The exact recipe was lost but all the siblings make something similar.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile back here on a Greek island Chinese, Indian and even Moroccan are exotic. Anything like that is made from scratch. Not much in the supermarket except instant noodles, curry and cumin.
I miss a good Chinese. Made a curry yesterday, neither sweet nor too hot.
Lovely
My father's older brother had worked in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and had taught him the secrets of a good curry. Father used to make a curry occasionally when I was small; they were very good.
DeleteMy brother shared a flat with a Ceylonese student when he was at uni, and learned the art of curry making then. He introduced the rest of the family to curries, except for one uncle who had served with the RAF in India during WW2 who had developed a taste for real Madras there.
ReplyDeleteI never tasted one of my Uncle's curries, but I expect they were even better than Father's. I'm not sure how long he stayed in Ceylon, but he eventually caught para-Typhoid, and had to be repatriated.
DeleteThe first time my mother cooked spaghetti she served it up as a vegetable. I first tasted pizza at the Ideal Home Exhibition in the 70s. Ski yogurt was a new thing and Dad's Vesta curries (that he alone ate) were 'exotic'.
ReplyDeleteI do remember the Vesta 'Chow Mein'; it was dreadful. I'm amazed the trades' description folk didn't sue them!
DeleteNow you've made me feel hungry, and I've just finished breakfast.
ReplyDeleteJust in time for lunch!
DeleteIt is surprising that you did not mention a special delicacy that is enjoyed all across this island - the Yorkshire pudding. To witness a golden Yorkshire pudding rising is to stand on the edge of heaven.
ReplyDelete"To witness a golden Yorkshire pudding rising is to stand on the edge of heaven."
DeleteYorkshire Puddeing... to actually get a Yorkshire Pud to rise would be a miracle to me... in 75 years, it is one thing that has totally eluded me... I have followed this recipe and that recipe very carefully [gods alone know how many].... temperatures observed, no opening of oven door to check.... and all I ever get is shoe leather!!
I had an Aunt in Shropshire who made the world's best Yorkshire Pudding. She would just pour the batter underneath a roasted lump of Beef; and woooosh! Gosh it was delicious!
DeleteLe Pré de la Forge... Please accept my most sincere sympathies. Not being able to bake Yorkshire puddings means that your life is incomplete. You have missed out on one of God's finest gifts. In contrast, Cro's Aunt Bessie in Shropshire had demonstrably discovered the key to enlightenment.
DeleteMy mother was one of five sisters, and she was the only one who had the "knack" of making golden, fully risen, Yorkshire Puddings. Whenever we visited my aunt's, my mother was always dragged into the kitchen to make the Yorkshires
DeleteI suppose we think that we know what foreign foods taste like but my son lived in Hong Kong for 2yrs and he said the food was totally different to what we call a Chinese takeaway. Plus the teas that he used to send me were like twigs of wood which actually improved when brewed more than once.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that's right. Often foreign foods are altered to suit the new country. In France, Chinese food is totally different to the UK.
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