It’s an interesting question. At the end of the day, yeah, it’s about how the food tastes to me. But I am interested in seeking out restaurants that remain true to the tastes of the cuisines they are presenting, as they tend to expand my palate and have me explore flavors and combinations I would not in restaurants trying to tie the flavors to local tastes. When I go out to eat, it is partly to explore and get out of my comfort zone. I understand this is a minority position, but I want to try things that are different to what I normally eat and not adjusted so much to local tastes, so I do tend to seek out restaurants like that. And when I travel, that’s that main way I explore the culture: through the local food and drink.
And, “authentic” is often nothing more than an arbitrarily-chosen regional variation of a dish declared by locals and/or food-elitists to be a platonic ideal of the “right” way to prepare a dish.
The authentic version of that dish might be different than the authentic version being prepared in the restaurant across town, which is different than the authentic version being prepared by the immigrant preparing the dish in a country across the sea.
In Philip DePoy’s mysteries set in Georgia, both the Easy and the Fever Devlin series, he describes authentic country southern cooking at great length, in terms that make your mouth water and stomach rumble. He’d agree with you. I have to say, the American SE really understands the pig better than anyplace else. Best breakfast sausages and bacon I’ve even had were in North Carolina.
I like most sales of cooking and eating, though each has dishes I love and dishes I don’t care for. So, for example, even though I don’t much like olives or feta cheese, I adore moussaka and several other Greek dishes. I love the various spice combinations of several Indian cuisines, though not the carb-heavy nature of restaurant cooking. Love Thai food, the fire of Ethiopian, love sauerbraten, love gulyas, even love the freshness and quality of ingredients in Scandinavian food, even though it is not spiced.
Not interested in a diet of grubs or fried crickets, though. The outback is not for me.
This, and your insistence on calling it southern-style barbecue, is ridiculously pedantic. If a New Yorker declares pizza part of their culinary tradition, if a Washingtonian mentions salmon and coffee, if a Chicagoan mentions hot dogs, if a Minnesotan mentions casserole, I’m not going to nitpick them to death over it. I know the New Yorker isn’t claiming “exclusive” ownership of pizza, because I understand how conversations work.
Did you genuinely think I or anyone else in this thread was, by calling barbecue part of Southern cuisine, trying to deny its membership in the cuisine of any other culture? If so, which specific post did you so badly misunderstand?
I certainly enjoy trying new types of food, and I agree that’s fun. However, there are many different ways for food to be new, authenticity being only one of them. The Korean Taco truck in the gas station parking lot may not herald from a pure national tradition, but all things being equal it’s likely to be more exciting than the fifth Mexican restaurant I’ve passed on the main strip through town.
And once I’ve tried two restaurants and I’m deciding between them for tonight’s dinner, I give zero weight to which one of them was more authentic.
I have to stick up for southern style vegetables. Just because it is deep fried does not make it “Southern” and very few of the veggies I’ve had from my southern family have been deep fried.
Green beans were mentioned, and my wife and I could not be further apart on this subject. Her family is from Milwaukee and she thinks you should add a tiny bit of water to a pan, add the steamer basket… fill it with the beans and turn the heat on for about 10 seconds or so. She considers this the correct way to serve them… I consider them raw.
I will be allowed about once a year to make my version. Start with a big pot and chop a bunch of bacon and fry it up. Once there is enough fat rendered toss in some chopped onion and fry until tender. Toss in the beans, a cup or two of chicken broth and a healthy dose of red pepper flakes. Put a lid on it and let it simmer for as long as you want.
The kids always come back for more of mine.
My eye was immediately caught by the “rahm schnitzel”. I used to order rahmsteak at a very small restaurant within walking distance of where I lived in Frankfurt. It came with wonderful new potatoes and baby carrots out of their garden.
All this talk made me break my diet. We had a shrimp po’boy and red beans and rice from our local Cajun food truck. The boy knows what he’s doin’ in that kitchen.
I consider myself low-maintenance when it comes to food/restaurants. I’ll go wherever the group wants to go without complaint. I like a wide variety of cuisines, and I can find something to eat on any menu.
With one exception: Ethiopian.
I’m game to try anything once, and in fact I’ve given Ethiopian a sporting try twice. I just find it so irredeemably disgusting that if my friends’ plans include hitting an Ethiopian restaurant, I’m out.
No. I just got sick of being told I would LOVE Southern cooking if only I got it from the right place and people, and what about barbecue? That’s Southern!
Yes, I like barbecue, even Southern style barbecue. I just don’t consider barbecue exclusively Southern. I still don’t.
Jesus, I love Japanese cuisine, but I don’t go after all the Dopers in this thread that said they weren’t fond of it. Christ, I find non-barbecue Southern cooking not to my liking, and everyone goes apeshit. Fine! Go burn a cross on my lawn!
What would you say if someone said, well I hate Japanese cuisine, but I really like ramen, but since noodles in soup is universal, I don’t really considering it part of the cuisine. Ridiculous, right? That’s basically what you are saying.
Even saying I dislike non-ramen Japanese cuisine is basically silly as it’s taking out a part of that cuisine for no real reason. You don’t dislike that cuisine because you like a good part of it.
I get the feeling there’s nothing about the South you like.
Sure, they both have a bunch of German dishes I’d rather not eat, so there’s not much difference. Let’s go somewhere else.
Whoa. That’s a completely new one to me. Mustard on pierogi? Interesting. I’ve only seen butter, bacon, sour cream, and maybe some kind of gravy.
Okay that’s it. I’m out of the thread.
That puts you in the highly rarified company of EVERYBODY ELSE ON THE FREAKIN PLANET.
I don’t really care that you don’t like Southern cuisine. If you don’t like pulled slow-cooked smoked pork barbecue with spicy vinegar sauce (hereafter referred to as “barbecue”), that’s okay, everyone is allowed to be wrong about something.
I’m just saying you’re being super pedantic about the issue, and you don’t need to be.
Got just the place:
And I think this says it all for most places:
We specialize in German cuisine, however our buffet is Kid friendly for those little ones who just won’t try it.
If you ONLY serve the food of one cuisine, you’re not going to attract the families and groups with the picky eaters. So I think you’ve just about GOT to put some chicken strips and hamburgers on the menu for the unadventurous. I think the best example I ever saw of this was the Chinese buffet in west Texas that had chicken fried steak fingers ala Dairy Queen on the buffet. Cause PawPaw isn’t gonna eat that other stuff.
Except for the “kids” part, that’s my house as well. I’ve grown to love my wife’s green beans, but your way is what I grew up with and crave every now and then.
Well, in all fairness, Spud’s version had a bunch of non-German offerings that I’d eat. I’ll eat lots of stuff, I was happy to try German food, but didn’t like it even after a second try. Eastern European/German food just isn’t appealing to me, for reasons detailed earlier.
I just want to point out that your menu has things like a “German Sampler Trio” with Jalapeno peppers, fried mushrooms and fried shrimp. Three of the most German dishes I can think of.
Then there is “German Spaghetti Style”… ground beef, tomato sauce and toast. Cordon Blue, and Goulash.
Then we move onto Tenderloin Steak, Rib Eye Steak, New York Steak (is that New York Bavaria?), Big Shrimp Plate, Chicken Dinner, Chicken Salad, Turkey Salad, Chicken Strips, Corn Dog, and Cheese Burger.
This is the least German of any German restaurant I can think of. I actually checked to make sure this wasn’t from a satire site.
Yeah, I’ve done the sour cream thing and had them made with bacon and potato. If we bring them home from the local church basement where they’re made fresh, though, I’ll do something unholy like mustard or hot sauce to jazz it up a bit. I grew up with my mother’s perushke, which had ground meat filling and were deep fried. Heaven on a plate.