As someone who’s traveled quite a bit, this article struck a chord with me:
A recent Reddit discussion has highlighted how trips abroad are capable of permanently changing a traveller’s diet, with commenters revealing foreign dishes they had on their travels that they now can’t stop eating.
The list includes acai from Brazil*, Morocco’s cinnamon-dusted oranges, onigiri (Japanese rice balls), pasteis de nata (milk custard tart) from Portugal, ajvar (a red pepper paste) from the Balkans and even spaghetti carbonara from Italy — which is quite different from the stuff you’ll get at Olive Garden, trust me. (There’s other less-salutary stuff like haggis and buffalo wings on their list, but whatever.)
*can someone tell me the difference between acai and blueberries?
One of the foods on the Reddit list struck home for me: French baguette and butter — which, having sampled it in Paris, made me refuse to eat American shelf bread ever again. Seriously. Who would have thought that simple bread and butter would be an exquisite meal all by itself? (Well, anyone who’s ever tasted the real stuff.) It’s one of the few dishes which I prefer eating with unsalted butter, because the bread becomes unutterably sweeter.
That Portuguese tart (not Sarah Hoyt) is very familiar to me as the Afrikaans melk tert (they’re almost identical, and the Seffricans have even made a cream liqueur based on its taste). The only difference is that the Porros use puff pastry instead of pie crust pastry. Hmmmm… now that’s a thought.
I”m going to try the Moroccan oranges this weekend after I’ve done the Friday shopping (no oranges in the house), but with three different sugars as an experiment to see which tastes best. (Light brown, Demarara or 10x mixed with the cinnamon, in case you’re wondering.)
I’ll also try making ajvar, which sounds like hummus mixed with ground spicy red peppers, but I’ll use South African Peppadew spicy peppers because they are spectacular.
There are a couple that I’ve encountered on my travels which I wish were staples Over Here.
One of my all-time favorite imported meals happens to be poutines, from Canuckistan, but only one place around here makes them properly (the Holy Grail pub in Plano). I must have eaten poutines at least twice a day when driving back from Montreal to Detroit, along with Tim Horton’s coffee to wash them down.
Another is Viennese Sachertorte which, having had some in meine schones Wien, would kill me if I could find it here because aaaaargh it’s luvverly.
Over Here, we’d call it “death by chocolate”, because it really is.
There are a few others, but I think they would be best enjoyed in their home countries (e.g. pisco sours in Chile and Welsh rarebit in Britishland). Of Wadworth 6X and Greggs sausage rolls we will not speak.
And so, Gentle Readers: tell me about your favorite furrin dishes, in Comments.
