Food:Spain vs Italy vs Greece (Sicilian, Chinese, population, water)
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Where I live, up in the north, we often eat gulasch but we know it is a Hungarian dish, or we weekly eat strudel but we are aware ours is a modified version of the original Austrian one.
P.S. Wienerschnitzel is originally Italian, long live Cotoletta.
Strudel is not "austrian"... Venetians learnt from Turks how to prepare strudel.. and later on Venetians taught Austrian how to prepare STRUDEL..
France and Spain, common sense, better produce, better weather, profoundly different regions, the first cookbooks, the same inheritance med, roman, greeek, gothic, musmlim, borbons, haupsburg, the atlantic, America,etc.
All wheat originated dishes of Europe have near eastern origns, including pasta, not only strudel
talking about pasta, in a weird way homemade traditional Greek cuisine is much more relevant to pasta than to dishes that most of people think:
South mainland "Krytharaki"
South mainland hilopites
Aegean makarounes
South mainland "Gogkes"
pastitsio:
all these dishes are part of Greek cuisine and recorded here since at least late 15th-18th century, but foreigners know Greek cuisine for "gyros" which was completely unknown here until 1950's, when it was brought to Greece by Greek communities which used to live in middle eastern countries and were deported from there and settled to Greece.
The fact that you will only find such dishes in small towns and villages (and homes everywhere in the country) strengthens this distorted perception about what is Greek and what's not. gyros on contrary is sold everywhere in Athens nowadays
these dishes along with dishes like this
or this (pork with chestnut)
are the things we usually eat on sundays. Everyday cuisine is somehow more "vegeterian" and has more fish, squid octapus etc
Spanish ifood is the best, but differently from France and Italy, Spain does not know how to sell the Spain brand. The problem of Spanish cuisine is that there are 20 or 30 different cuisines, and reunifying Spanish cuisines under the Tapas or Paella umbrella is a crime.
All wheat originated dishes of Europe have near eastern origns, including pasta, not only strudel
talking about pasta, in a weird way homemade traditional Greek cuisine is much more relevant to pasta than to dishes that most of people think:
South mainland "Krytharaki"
South mainland hilopites
Aegean makarounes
South mainland "Gogkes"
pastitsio:
all these dishes are part of Greek cuisine and recorded here since at least late 15th-18th century, but foreigners know Greek cuisine for "gyros" which was completely unknown here until 1950's, when it was brought to Greece by Greek communities which used to live in middle eastern countries and were deported from there and settled to Greece.
The fact that you will only find such dishes in small towns and villages (and homes everywhere in the country) strengthens this distorted perception about what is Greek and what's not. gyros on contrary is sold everywhere in Athens nowadays
these dishes along with dishes like this
or this (pork with chestnut)
are the things we usually eat on sundays. Everyday cuisine is somehow more "vegeterian" and has more fish, squid octapus etc
My MIL is from Fourni, a small island between Ikaria and Samos. Her Greek cooking (and my wife's) includes a few standard dishes like Pasitiso, but does not include many noodle dishes regularly, other than Minestra, small Orzo noodles cooked with tomato and very occasionally lamb, served as a side dish.
Standard Greek fare is souvlaki, seasonal horta (greens) at every meal (dandelions are a favorite,) tzitski sauce with dill, never mint, taramosalata, or humus at most meals, various cheeses that are close to aged mizithra and the frying cheese whose name I forget. Avgolemono, split pea, lentil, or fava bean soups are specialties. Rice is the most common grain served with meals, although bread or crackers are normally on the table for the dips. Lemon, dill, oregano, and olive oil season nearly every meat, except lamb, which gets rosemary instead and is roasted with potatoes and onions. Goat is popular (and tasty!,) but expensive and not always easy to get where we live.
She has a full range of seafood dishes too, but I am allergic, and her Greek American husband isn't a fan of the stronger seafood dishes, so they aren't cooked as often.
My immediate family like sweet meat sauces and noodle dishes close to what is pictured above too, but I don't think they are dishes from the small island, rather recipes learned here in the states since I have never seen my MIL make them.
(sorry for the bad spelling of Greek words, I am an xeno!)
Last edited by westsideboy; 03-21-2019 at 09:35 AM..
I'd chose:
- Italy for wheat-based dishes like pasta (plno need to eat bread, pasta wheat is better than bread wheat, making it suitable for some Gluten- and yeast-intolerant people according to my test results).
- Spain and Greece for sea food. Italy's just not that popular for it abroad.
- Greece for salads (feta, olives, tomatoes and cucumber salads taste great, yet very simple to make).
- Greece for junk/street food (gyros FTW, not gluten-free though...). But maybe in Spain they have Mexicans offering tacos so it might be a tie. I wonder what's the street food in Italy like, pocket sized pizzas?
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