What would you cook for a foreigner?

Athenagdlyt

Athenagdlyt

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Each place has its own traditional food. We all know that a travel experience is not complete without the gastronomic explorations that come with each visit to a foreign land. In this context and for the sake of discussion, it would very interesting to know what native food would you serve or cook to someone who visits your country for the first time.
 
Well.. I haven't really had a home country for many years now... so I don't really know which country we are talking about here. But anyway: for me it has to be something that has some special local ingredients, most often a type of meat but it can be something else too. If the dish is made out of beef, pork, lamb or chicken etc. then it's more than likely that they can have something very similar in their country.
 
I suppose a lot would depend on where the person was coming from and what the food was like in their culture. For the most part food is very similar all over the world. Almost everyone eats rice, vegetables, etc. The difference is in the preparation and in the seasonings used. I don't generally eat the "local cuisine" and there aren't much indigenous foods/dishes I can think of since most of the dishes are based on African and European foods brought over when people from those places came to or were brought to this country.
 
In my current situation being back in North America, I would cook some North American food. Maybe set up some sort of burger bar to let the person add all the toppings they want on their burger. I would maybe make some buffalo wings or something of the sort. I think the main thing I would focus on would be dessert. I would make pecan pie, pumpkin or apple pie.
 
I would love to say that I'd cook a traditional English dish, but they are all a bit bland really. Maybe a full English breakfast or something like a cottage pie. What I wouldn't do is attempt to cook a dish that originated from my visitors home country - I would probably just embarrass myself!
 
My local dish is flying fish and coucou but the truth of the matter is that I have never prepared the dish; the coucou at least. It calls for cornmeal and okras and adding the cornmeal at the right time, making sure the final product does not have any lumps, and is of the right consistency. If I want to expose them to my local dish I would have to call in some help for the coucou. Well the flying fish I would definitely take care of my side.

When I have guest I like to get a sense of what they like. Outside of that, I like to play it safe with visitors and introduce them to traditional rice and peas, and stews that are impossible to dislike.
 
I cook normally for any visitors to my home. We often host touring cyclists (via a site called warmshowers) and they eat whatever I have planned for that day. So if I have planned to cook an Indian meal unless they have specifically told me they don't like Indian, they will get Indian. If I have planned a middle eastern dish, they will get that. I guess that is one of the beauties of the British diet: we have incorporated so many different countries' foods into our menu that it is perfectly normal to eat Indian or Chinese or Italian etc any day of the week.
 
I would cook something traditional! In my case, probably Brazilian regular rice and beans, a really yummy steak, and just add some salad/veggies on the side. Simple, but delicious and very traditional. I'm sure very few people would say they don't like that.
 
Whenever we had a foreigner visitor in our house of course we cook our own traditional food for them to experience the taste the local food of the country they are visiting. It just happened most of them be it Americans, Swedish , Koreans who had been our visitors in the past are all adventurous people and eat all what we cooked for them. That is why we had no problems with what food we are going to prepare and we serve them our own foods.
 
When ever we have any of Night Train's family visiting from Hong Kong or China, NT's Dad cooks 'English' things like salmon fillet with vegetables, or a roast lamb dinner, on the basis that these things are not easy to find over there.
 
If I had any foreign visitors, I would probably cook the same way I always do but would check to see if they had certain things they didn't like and then adapt my recipes accordingly. I have visited a few other countries and adapted to their foods, so I figure most people are okay with it.
 
My boss is a Swedish and one time I invited them for a dinner in our house together with my other colleagues. I prepare special Pork Adobo - a Filipino dish and "Sinigang na Hipon". According to them they like it. We also ordered lechon (roasted pork) and local native delicacies. YUMMY
 
Probably something very Norwegian from one of the regions seasonal dishes according to the availability of the produce. Maybe right now Skrei ( a type of cod coming in to spawn in the Nordic water from late January to May, a migrating cod) with mandelpotet, the tongue and roe , topped with bacon bits and lots of butter.
Or it cold be the mutton in cabbage : Fårikål , layers of cabbage , with salt and pepper, and the pieces of meat. Its cooked for 3 hrs or more , served with some sort of potato.
Or if it was a weekday with limited time, it would be Salt sild( salted, cured herring sides) , with chive on potatoes with butter, fresh cut onions and a lot of the rich creamy sour cream.
 
i would take them to a local farmers market .and get whats in season,so let the quality of the food talk..i try to use a farinaceous dish as a garnish,so looking at the markets at the moment some great lamb coming through,so maybe a slow pot roasted shoulder of lamb with saffron and mint white beans,with roasted heritage root veg,and as a one off a Yorkshire batter pudding as I'm British
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/yorkshire_pudding_69240
 
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