If you could only eat the cuisine from one country

Also worth bearing in mind that curries may well have gone to Asia from Europe.

Fish & Chips in the UK has its own regional variations, especially around the coast.
 
Duck59 said:
I've had "Indian" meals in quite a few different countries, including Iceland, which allows me to say that I have been to the world's most northerly Indian restaurant. However, I use inverted commas because a lot of restaurants that are labelled "Indian" are, in fact, not Indian. I had a thoroughly excellent meal in a restaurant in Copenhagen. The frontage proclaimed "Indian restaurant," but in fact the people running it were of Pakistani origin. This also happens with Bangladeshi restaurants.

On that basis, am I allowed to say "Indian sub-continent" for my choice of food?
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Most Indian restaurants in the UK aren't actually Indian either.....
 
Greek, definitely! But please bear in mind that, apart from being introduced to proper Greek food in a tiny village miles from anywhere with no gas, electricity or running water. several of my Greek family run what can best be described as fast food establishments. The closest has just retired from running a Greek pizzeria in Germany (!) for the last 40 years, and another runs a sort-of transport café, probably in Greece (I have only seen photos of the shop front) but at least somewhere in Europe where there is a large Greek community.
 
Do you remember the price? Cod was sixpence and chips were threppence back in the 50's. If I remember correctly haddock was a little more and had to be pre-ordered. And the only accompaniments available were salt and vinegar. Nowt else.

Well, maybe a few scraps.

And our chippy is still there. Although it's called Arkwright's now, not Slinger's.

arkwrights.jpg
 
Ken Natton said:
I cannot agree with you sidevalve. Yes certainly, there is a great deal of cross fertilisation and that absolutely is a simple reality of the modern world of global communication and widespread international travel. But that cultural and national identity in cuisine still prevails, and actually remains very strong, seems obvious to me. Rick Stein’s travelogues in Greece, in Italy and in Spain make that very obvious. That there are clear distinctions between each of the nations and even the sub-cultures within those nations of all of the South-East Asian nations is another obvious example.
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I think both points are valid. I would guess that most dishes that we regard as ethnic, national or regional probably developed during a time frame that probably started when eating habits became civilised - tables, cutlery etc., and ended early last century, post imperialism. Whilst traditions remain strong in places I suggest that this is in the hands of the older generations. As communities become more global and eating habits becomes more homogenised (and probably American) due to tv and the Internet I wonder how long it will be before distinctions between regional dishes disappear.
 
When I was young, by far the most popular choice for fish and chips, certainly around the north-west of England, was cod. Fresh salmon, on the other hand, was an impossible dream. You had to go to the farthest flung parts of Scotland and expect to pay a fortune for it when you got there. Now, farmed salmon abounds in supermarkets at a perfectly reasonable price and cod has become the fish that makes you wince at the price.
 
Fish and chip shops round here (east London/Essex) always had cod, very rarely anything else. My sister used to get fresh caught cod from someone she knew; I expect ours was a day old. The freshest fish I ever had (in the days when I could eat it) was skate, in Ramsay IOM. It was only available in the evening after the trawlers came in.
 
What a wonderful/terrible question! :)

If the question asked for one cuisine - and not a specific country - I'd say "Asian", since there's such a wide range of sub-genres. But, if I had to pick a country, it would be China. They have spicy food that approximates Thai cuisine, rich food that travels down similar roads to Indian cuisine, and it's a little known fact that China was the first country to create raw fish preparations (which would be called sushi when the Japanese took over). There's such a wide range of options from healthy to fried that I don't think I'd ever get bored.
 
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