I'm at your nationality's restaurant. What should I get?

[Atomic_Mama]

I am “from away” but I live in Down East Maine now.

Lobstah! Fried clams! Wild Maine blueberry pie!

My real home is ChiTown … I’d recommend a Jim’s Maxwell Street Polish with mustard and grilled onions, at 5 a.m. after the blues joints have closed down … the odor will linger in your car for quite some time, but they’re delicious

[Cub_Mistress]

German food: bratwurst, rotkohl (red cabbage) and potato dumplings with beef gravy. for dessert, anything with torte in its name will be delicious. Bienenstich cake is wonderful too.

Southern food: fried chicken, biscuits, my mom’s potato salad (no longer available, sadly) seasoned green beans cooked until very soft, and a fresh strawberry pie like they serve at Shoney’s ( Big Boy in other areas)

[Banquet_Bear]

…hangi.

Hāngī

[Don_t_Panic]

Lutefisk.

Well, if you’re a complete masochist. Otherwise, just go next door and have a pizza, like a normal person.

[Aji_de_Gallina]

Perú:
Appetizer: ceviche or tiradito
Main: Lomo saltado / Arroz con Pato / Seco
Dessert: Suspiro de Limeña (if you’re into super weet stuff) / Mazamorra morada / Arroz con leche

Any Peruvian restaurant that can’t nail these is not a true Peruvian one.
I didn’t put Ají de Gallina because it’s always better homemade.
Two more specialty dishes are Pachamanca (in itself a full meal) and Pollo a la brasa.

[etv78]

Is there ANY authentic Italian dishes? Everything I can think of is Italian-American.

[susan]

Italian cuisine - Wikipedia (“Ingredients” heading):

Italian cuisine has a great variety of different ingredients which are commonly used, ranging from fruits, vegetables, sauces, meats, etc. In the North of Italy, fish (such as cod, or baccalà), potatoes, rice, corn (maize), sausages, pork, and different types of cheeses are the most common ingredients. Pasta dishes with use of tomato are spread in all Italy.[29][30]

In Northern Italy though there are many kinds of stuffed pasta, polenta and risotto are equally popular if not more so.[31] Ligurian ingredients include several types of fish and seafood dishes; basil (found in pesto), nuts and olive oil are very common. In Emilia-Romagna, common ingredients include ham (prosciutto), sausage (cotechino), different sorts of salami, truffles, grana, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and tomatoes (Bolognese sauce or ragù).

Traditional Central Italian cuisine uses ingredients such as tomatoes, all kinds of meat, fish, and pecorino cheese. In Tuscany and Umbria pasta is usually served alla carrettiera (a tomato sauce spiked with peperoncini hot peppers).[32] Finally, in Southern Italy, tomatoes – fresh or cooked into tomato sauce – peppers, olives and olive oil, garlic, artichokes, oranges, ricotta cheese, eggplants, zucchini, certain types of fish (anchovies, sardines and tuna), and capers are important components to the local cuisine.

Italian cuisine is also well known (and well regarded) for its use of a diverse variety of pasta. Pasta include noodles in various lengths, widths and shapes. Distinguished on shapes they are named — penne, maccheroni, spaghetti, linguine, fusilli, lasagne and many more varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini.

The word pasta is also used to refer to dishes in which pasta products are a primary ingredient. It is usually served with sauce. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognized names.

Examples include spaghetti (thin rods), rigatoni (tubes or cylinders), fusilli (swirls), and lasagne (sheets). Dumplings, like gnocchi (made with potatoes) and noodles like spätzle, are sometimes considered pasta. They are both traditional in parts of Italy.

Pasta is categorized in two basic styles: dried and fresh. Dried pasta made without eggs can be stored for up to two years under ideal conditions, while fresh pasta will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. Pasta is generally cooked by boiling. Under Italian law, dry pasta (pasta secca) can only be made from durum wheat flour or durum wheat semolina, and is more commonly used in Southern Italy compared to their Northern counterparts, who traditionally prefer the fresh egg variety.

Durum flour and durum semolina have a yellow tinge in color. Italian pasta is traditionally cooked al dente (Italian: “firm to the bite”, meaning not too soft). Outside Italy, dry pasta is frequently made from other types of flour (such as wheat flour), but this yields a softer product that cannot be cooked al dente. There are many types of wheat flour with varying gluten and protein depending on variety of grain used.

Particular varieties of pasta may also use other grains and milling methods to make the flour, as specified by law. Some pasta varieties, such as pizzoccheri, are made from buckwheat flour. Fresh pasta may include eggs (pasta all’uovo ‘egg pasta’). Whole wheat pasta has become increasingly popular because of its supposed health benefits over pasta made from refined flour.

[Vaevictis]

@Chronos

Counting myself as American: Cornbread. There is no food more distinctively American than cornbread.

I think turkey has an equal claim.

[Vaevictis]

@Cub_Mistress

German food: bratwurst, rotkohl (red cabbage) and potato dumplings with beef gravy. for dessert, anything with torte in its name will be delicious. Bienenstich cake is wonderful too.

Cool list. Torte is going to be just as much Hungarian as German or (more than the German) Austrian. Just look at the legal disputes over Sacher Torte.

[Ruken]

To the USA list we should add a sandwich made from Wonderbread, Skippy peanut butter (or another of its ilk) and concord grape jelly. IMO disgusting, but very American.

[scr4]

@Chronos

Counting myself as American: Cornbread. There is no food more distinctively American than cornbread…

One could make the case for New England clam chowder, or Buffalo wings, or PB&J sandwich, or macaroni and cheese, or BBQ ribs, etc.

[susan]

My Oregonian wife suggests

free range, organic, non-GMO foods and herbs
THE herb
wild salmon and smoked salmon (especially Chinook)
Shrimp louie (Oregon pink shrimp)
razor clam
Dungeness crab (note: the official state crustacean)
Tillamook cheese, artisanal cheeses
potatoes
chanterelles
hazelnuts
cranberries, apples, pears, sweet cherries
marionberry cobbler
fruit pies
microbrew beer
pinot noir
coffee
specialty tea

[etv78]

I’m part Irish so:

Soda bread

[cardinal_fang]

@pulykamell

[snip]
Töltött karalabé: Stuffed kohlrabi. It’s kohlrabi hollowed out, stuffed with a meat and rice mixture, served in a sour cream sauce. Perhaps my favorite Hungarian comfort food.

This sounds amazing. Is there a vegetarian version?

[Ranger_Jeff]

@MsRobyn

A nice corned-beef sandwich – not too fat, not too lean, sliced thin but not too thin – on rye (with seeds, thankyouverymuch) with a little brown mustard. No cheese, no mayonnaise, no bread but rye (although pumpernickel is good in a pinch). Said sandwich must be served with a half-sour pickle. Fake orgasm optional.

I highly recommend a Claussen Kosher Dill spear. Closest thing you can get to one out of the right barrel.

@susan

**Ranger Jeff, **may I get a side of matzoh crumbled into coffee? It reminds me of my grandpapa from the old country.

Of course, mamaleh. I’ll tell you what, I’ll get you some nice jam and sugar cubes and make you a nice hot glass of tea. Be careful you don’t poke your eye out with the spoon.

[Nava]

@DingoelGringo

Dominican Republic, Don’t get the Mondongo. It is made of fecal matter from some ruminant animal.

No, of the tripe. The shoe ain’t the same as the feet, the tripe ain’t the same as the shit.

If you’re not willing to eat tripe, don’t get any sausage that says “natural casing”, including chorizo, salchichón-saucisson…

For Spain, it’s not so much a matter of the dish as of whether the cook knew what (s)he was doing. Paella in a restaurant in Coventry where the personnel insulted each other liberally in Spanish, Galego and English: great, as were their ham, their chorizos a la sidra (thumb-sized raw* chorizos roasted in hard cider), their callos (see mondongo by any other name), their manitas de cerdo (pigs feet), their roasts… boy, we sure went through a lot of meat! OTOH, trucha a la navarra in Madrid, not unless it’s in La Favorita (which is owned by the “Navarrese Association of Opera Aficionados”) - too often, the takes Madrid cooks have on other regions’ specialties are unrecognizable or worse to those from the specific region.

• as opposed to dried

[sandra_nz]

Welcome to Restaurant New Zealand!

For your starter, I recommend the green-lipped mussels, served in garlic butter.
For your main, I recommend the lamb, or perhaps the flounder.
For dessert, I recommend the pavlova served with kiwifruit slices.

chuckle

No sir, I assure you no kiwis are harmed in the making of your dessert.
Not at all sir, it’s the first time anyone has ever told me that joke.

[astorian]

You’re at an Irish restaurant?

I’d say get a taxi and go somewhere else. But have a few drinks first, if you’re so inclined.

[amanset]

@Nava

For Spain, it’s not so much a matter of the dish as of whether the cook knew what (s)he was doing. Paella in a restaurant in Coventry where the personnel insulted each other liberally in Spanish, Galego and English: great, as were their ham, their chorizos a la sidra (thumb-sized raw* chorizos roasted in hard cider), their callos (see mondongo by any other name), their manitas de cerdo (pigs feet), their roasts… boy, we sure went through a lot of meat!

Interesting. I’m from a small town just outside Coventry, so when I am back in the UK I invariably find myself there. Can you remember the name and/or location of the restaurant? I’m always interested in dragging my Parents somewhere new that has got a recommendation from, well, someone.

[MrDibble]

[ul]
[li]Smoorsnoek (paté of Snoek). [*]Bobotie (lightly curried mince ‘pie’ with a savoury custard topping). [*]Waterblommetjiebredie (Water Hawthorn Stew - note that’s a picture of the contents of a can of the flowers, not the stew, which is better made with fresh flowers anyway). [/li][li] Venison braaied. (Take your pick of Springbok, Kudu, Eland, Gemsbok, Impala, Wildebeest…, Or Ostrich or Warthog. Or Snoek with apricot jam, or Lobstertails in butter.)[/li][li]Malva pudding (Heaven).[/li][/ul]