International cuisines

[Oblomov]

I have been to many parts of the world and tried local cuisines. I seem to be an odd man out because I absolutely cannot stand Italian food. The very thought of that cheesy, herby taste makes me nauseous and I have tried to eat in many reputable Itralian restaurants, including in Rome. Ugh!

 

By contrast, I generally like French cuisine (not frog legs though!), Chinese and of course, Indian food.

 

But what I cannot understand is why my UK acquaintances think that I am nuts because I don't like Italian food.

[Adam]

I love Italian. I crave it. All my favorites are Italian. I have had traditional Italian and Westernized Italian and I love them both.

 

I also like Chinese and French. Not too big on Indian. I also enjoy the slavic foods such as Ukranian dishes. My heritage is Ukrainian so I guess its in my blood

 

To each his own is what I like to say!

[Fay]

I like Italian food, we only ever used to go out to dinner at Italian restuarants when we lived in the UK, and easting Italian food in Rome was just perfection for me.

 

I also love a good curry, nothing too spicy though, and chinese is a firm favorite too, and very good VFM ( value for money ).

 

Of course I also have to say that Spanish food is great, the seafood is wonderful here, as are the tapas, chorizo, serrano ham...yum...oh and its almost lunch time.

[Guest ii]

For me French cousine is the "home food", the comparison point, control group. I adore Italian, though. And there's something so pure and simplistic and delicious in the Finnish way of cooking, where you keep things simple and let the own tastes of the ingredients shine. There's some big similarities with that and South African cuisine, which I also love. What I don't like, in general, is Asian foods, Chinese, Indian or Thai. Which kind of sucks, as BF is all about Thai food and all that.

[Princess Orchid]

I love Italian - pasta especially. Every so often I crave a good pizza, but only the thin crust kind. I find things like stuffed crusts revolting.

 

I'd say my favourite Italian dishes involve cream though, rather than the tomato based sauces.

 

On the other hand, i love French food as well. Escargots, fresh seafood, anything in a delicate buttery sauce, frogs legs, duck, red meat barely cooked, steak tartare...mmm...

 

And Chinese food as well - although I lean towards the noodles, every time. Soup noodles - nothing better on a cold day, right? And Japanese food - tempura udon and sashimi! Mmmmm!

 

Indian food I'm rather ambivilant towards. I don't mind it, and I like some of the more interesting stuff, but really I don't care much for the bog standard classics.

 

Mexican and south American food I tend to get the odd craving for. It must be the cheese. I'm not a fan of refried beans, but a good fajita or an enchilada, and those deep fried things - what are they called? Oh yeah, churros. Dipped in chocolate. Oh yum!

 

Greek food I like if done well. Trad Jewish cooking as well - there's a place in Toronto that makes a mean Matzoh soup, which is something you just don't get in the UK. I miss things like Vietnamese Pho, and Korean food, and proper dim sum.

 

Ah...food...

[Oblomov]

The only time I liked Pasta was....in Paris! Mexican food is OK once in a way, but I would not crave after it. Thai cuisine is great, sometimes better than Chinese.

 

I don't actually know much about indigenous Spanish cooking, but there used to be a seafront restaurant in Southampton - Los Alamos I think it was called - which was exellent.

 

From the replies I guess, I am the odd person out, but after many years of struggle, I have made the decision to politely decline any invitation to go to an Italian Restaurant anywhere.

 

PS: I was holidaying in northern Queensland last year while diving off the Great Barrier Reef. Staying at a laid back hotel in Palm Cove, I thought it safe to mention my dislike of Italian cuisine to the local waitress when she suggested something. It turned out that duty steward the following evening was an Italian immigrant and word had filtered down of my (non) preferences. He seemed very offended and to appease him, I ordered 2 portions of the only Italian food that I love - their Ice Cream!

[Kell]

There are so many diverse Italian dishes you can't possibly dislike ALL of them, surely? You just haven't found the ones you like just yet.

 

I used to be really picky about food. Nowadays, although I still know what I like and refuse to eat things I know I don't like, I'm far more willing to try new dishes from other cultures. I love many Turkish, Indian, Italian, French, Spanich, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Hungarian dishes - you name a country and I'll be willing to give at least one of their recipes a taste.

 

I'mnot a huge fish fan and things like calamari are OUT along with shellfish, as are snails and other molluscs, and insects of any kind, but I've tried swordfish and shark. I've also tried kangaroo, ostrich and crocodile. And I'd LOVE to give snake a try!

[papillon]

I love Italian food too, and agree with Kell, you just haven

[Oblomov]

There are so many diverse Italian dishes you can't possibly dislike ALL of them, surely? You just haven't found the ones you like just yet.

I have been to hundreds of Italian restaurants around the world in the last 30-odd years, including places like Rome, New York, London, Sydney, Orlando, Munich and Chicago to name a few. I have tried almost every kind of dish of offer just to see if I could like something, but I 'll touch my heart and honestly say - NO. In Rome, the guy suggested that I try Gnochi in a reputable restaurant and by the time I had meandered through a third of the stuff, I was ready to throw-up. There is something about that cheesy, herby taste that seems to be common with almost all Italian dishes that I abhor with a passion. I don't know why, but that is the case. Rome is my favourite city in the world for atmosphere, but to eat quietly seek out non-Italian restaurants.

[Roland Butter]

I'm happy to stick with traditional English food. You just can't beat a nice curry.

[Angel]

I adore Italian food - it is one of the main influences in this house. Curry is also a strong contender - DH has a variety of recpies that he uses. Occassional Chinese.

 

Having said that - we are quite content to eat English fayre

[Adam]

Mexican and south American food I tend to get the odd craving for. It must be the cheese. I'm not a fan of refried beans, but a good fajita or an enchilada, and those deep fried things - what are they called? Oh yeah, churros. Dipped in chocolate. Oh yum!

 

Oh I forgot this! I LOVE Mexican and Latin foods

[Echo]

Italian food is my comfort food, especially pizza and pasta. My dad is half Swiss-Italian, and his father was an amazing Italian chef. I also like some Chinese and Indian food, but I don't have a lot of experience with French, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, or Japanese food. I'm a very picky eater, so I've never been adventurous. I sort of just like what I like.

[Maureen]

Our cuisine in Malta is influenced by the Italian one, so naturally I like it. We also cook a lot of Maltese-Italian dishes, and use lots of herbs as seasonings.

[angerball]

I'm indifferent to Italian food. I used to really enjoy it, and I'll eat it if it's infront of me, but I don't love it. Mind you, I haven't really tried much of it, apart from 'the usual'. I don't think I really crave any one country's food; I like bits from each. I like some Indian, and others I can't stand. Same with Chinese. I like most Japanese, and Mexican. I don't think I've ever tried French food though.

[sirinrob]

well I'm with the OP on this one, rather have good Indian if I'm feeling in an Asiastic mood - preferably homemade or Austrian , especially in the winter, far more varied flavours imo.

[Talisman]

Middle Eastern cooking is probably my favourite, especially Israeli. Israel is the best place in the whole wide world to go if you happen to be vegetarian (or pistacarean as I am), because of the wonderful kosher dietary laws, which forbid the consumption of meat and milk within 6 hours of each other - for that reason, it is easier for a lot of Israelis' to be vegetarian, or even vegan. There are what they call dairy free restaurants everywhere, which are basically vegetarian restaurants.

 

Most countries from my considerable experience, have very little concept of what being a vegetarian is all about - in France I was given an omelette with ham in it. Since when has a pig been a vegetable !

 

In Israel though it is a breath of fresh air - in Tel Aviv they have a wonderful juice bar on the beach where my sister and I had freshly squeezed strawberry juice, and in old Jaffa we had a huge and wonderful warm salad, with about 20 different vegetables - heavenly. Instead of having greasy burger stalls on the street you get healthy falafel in pittas (this was before my wheat intolerance showed itself), and then there are the desserts. You haven't tasted baklava until you have tasted it fresh from one of those street stalls in old city of Jerusalem. Heavenly !

 

I am also quite partial to a nice Chinese - and you haven't tasted proper Chinese food either until you have been to China.

[BookJumper]

As a part-Italian born and raised in Italy, I miss the food so much. My mum's homemade pesto/blog sauce are to die for (she's a Brit but cooks better Italian food than a lot of Italians mums I know), and as for my nan's lasagne... mmm!

 

Forget (ugh) Dolmio and give me mozzarella that doesn't bounce off walls, non-vegeterian parmesan (oh, the abomination)!, give me marrow-full T-bone steaks over a bed of saffron rice, give me Neapolitan pizza topped with basil leaves the size of a quarter-slice, give me Amatriciana bucatini showered with smoked bacon pieces and salted sheep's cheese, give me a whole pig's knee on the bone and pumpkin ravioli and pears with cheese...!!!

 

*swoons*

 

Compared to the above, I find English food a little unvaried, however when well made it's homey and comforting and tasty. Shepherd's pie, steak & ale pie, bangers and mash, Sunday roast... - made with love from quality ingredients they can be so nice.

 

Polish food I also love, which is unsurprising given that blood-wise I'm more Polish than I am Italian or British. Cottage cheese and caramelised onion pieroghi (oversized ravioli), beetroot soup (I don't even like beetroot! so go figure), mounds of cooked meat for breakfast... now that's my kind of food.

 

I also adore japanese, both sushi and noodle-based (why oh why oh why is it that in England restaurants that do one rarely do the other?), although I'll only eat salmon if it's cooked in rice vinegar; chinese in nigh on all its manifestations, curry (this needs to be mild; give me a honey/pasanda/butter/delight/kashmir dish, a peshwari naan, some panir cheese and a glass of mango lassi and I'm happy)...

 

I don't think I've ever tried a cuisine I didn't like at all, to be honest. Germans and Austrians have the best sausages and beer in the world; the Hugarians make the best fried cheese ever; the Spanish have cured meat platters to die for; the Greeks rock with their overflowing kebabs, lovely dips and iced coffees; I could go on.

[Nollaig]

I have no taste whatsoever.

 

For example, I love tiramisiu, the cheap not-Italian kind you just buy in packets in a supermarket. Had it in an actual Italian restuarant which was run by Italians, so they should know what they're doing, and I didn't like it. Both my parents had been to Italy and said it was the same as any you would get there, and they loved it.

 

I love Chinese, but tend to love microwaveable ones as much as any in a Chinese restaurant.

 

Hate anything spicy, so no Mexican or Indian or anything for me.

 

In fact, my favourite dinners contain good ole potatoes - my favourite is cabbage, bacon, mash; carrots and gravy optional.

[Talisman]

The other food I should mention, which I am sure Frankie will approve of, is Finnish. I only spent 3 days in Finland when inter railing as a student, but have very vivid memories of that time.

 

Finland is famous for its many different varities of wild berries - there is an outdoor market in Helsinki (and I am sure most towns), where you buy them by the litre in big tankards. I remember buying one such tankard and sitting on a bench eating them with bread and cheese for lunch in the sunshine. That same evening we went out for dinner in a posh restaurant - can't remember what I had for the main course, but I still have dreams about that Finnish cheese cake - it wasn't like the cheese cake that we know, but floating on a bed of warm milk - absolutely to die for !