I, for one, think Southern American cooking has been waaayyy overpraised.
The premise of Southern cooking appears to be, “Hey ya’ll, let’s batter and deep fry THIS!”
I mean, c’mon! Chicken fried steak? Catfish nuggets? Southern fried chicken? Even the goddamn vegetables! Fried green tomatoes anyone? Fried okra. Fried zucchini blossoms, for cryin’ out loud!
And the stuff they don’t fry has little flavor at all. Their famous cornbread tastes like sawdust without Northern sweetness. They overboil their greens into glop. And then they ruin that glop by tossing turkey chunks into it.
And grits? And biscuits and gravy? I actually like those, but only after I’ve doctored it up with salt and pepper and hot sauce and egg yolks and butter and bacon bits and whatever else I can get my hands on to give it some TASTE!!
Okay, the iced tea is good. Other than that, meh. And I can’t wait for this foodie trend to get the hell off the Food Network.
I can’t think of any middlin’ to major cuisine I pass on as a whole. (When you’re down to things like Native Canadian/American and jungle tribe stuff, I’m probably out.)
But I don’t do raw meat/poultry/fish, and I generally dislike sweet foods (other than dessert stuff - things with sweet sauces or raisins or the like) within any cuisine.
I can’t say I’m crazy about Indian food (curry mostly) or Tex-Mex (the eternal burrito/chili/cheese/tortilla). I will eat such food for a change of pace, and sometimes I enjoy it if I’m hungry enough, but I can’t say either cuisine is among my favorites. I am all alone in this, but I don’t like ultra-hot food.
I’ll go with Japanese. There’s nothing wrong with sushi; it’s just kind of boring. And the Japanese seem to simply have no understanding of the concept of “dessert”.
Total OP fail. The totally nonsensical attack on Southern Cuisine shows a total and complete lack of taste as well as taste buds, as well as an amazing lack of understanding, research, experience with the cuisine and food in general.
Well you say “not care for” rather than dislike so in my case it would be Italian. It is invariably my last choice when offered a list of possible meals. I can think of over a dozen cuisines I would choose ahead of it.
Mind you once every few years I crave Italian just like I do with KFC.
I mean, I like Italian food, but you would think there was no other European food the way the cooking shows go on about it. Even French cuisine has fallen by the wayside in comparison.
I like Italian, but dammit, give other cooking styles a chance!
I like most foods but in general I don’t care for the flavor profile of most Filipino food. Now their roast pork is awesome but the rest is on a scale from meh to NOPE. (Pancit to balut)
And in the end, most restaurant Italian falls into a very narrow range, and it comes down to whether the sauce is in the flavor band you like. Yes: meh. No: yuck. But for what often tries to be a fancy, high-end cuisine, it’s pretty… same-same.
I really don’t like Sichuanese Chinese. They put this spice called huajiao （花椒）in everything and it’s a nasty piece of work. Makes your mouth go numb and salivate like pavlov’s dog. Bud gnarly shit.
I have never been able to enjoy Thai food. Maybe I just need someone to recommend dishes. That’s what helped me appreciate Japanese food (no, not just sushi).
Not that I dislike it, but if asked which restaurant to go to, I would never choose Italian, because I can get that at home and better. (And neither I nor my partner are Italian.)
Most Asian cuisines are more appealing to me if they’re spicy, but this can go off the rails. There’s a Sichuan place we like here, but all the hot dishes have chopped dried peppers in them that are as appealing as pieces of cardboard - and if you chew them, like cardboard, they will fry your mouth. (And I like things pretty hot.) I’ve never encountered this liberal use of the pepper obviously added at the last moment and thus dry, uncooked and not even softened. I push them all aside, which gets me dirty looks from the minimal-English owners and staff.
Thai is best spicy, too, because the other choices are bland and perfumed. Try a spicy chicken or beef with plain or sticky rice. They will often adjust the spice level to your preference. (I once dueled over months with a tiny Thai chef, and my later orders were “try to kill me.” She damn near did.)