Memorable foreign food you can't get at home.

[ERD50]

I had to look up "Arrosticini" to be sure that the meat is not the part that is cut off.

It is not! So, perhaps the castrated mutton is less gamy. Note that it is mutton meat and not lamb.

That's what I was wondering as well. He said they were small!

OK, not really 'foreign', but AFAIK, you cannot get beignets outside of New Orleans. At least I've never seen them. And as wonderful as they are fresh out of the fryer, I also recall taking some back to the hotel room, and you just don't want to eat them later. And this was probably just hours later.

They are just a bit of dough, deep fried and topped with powdered sugar. I'm not big on such things, but these were just wonderful. I could go for some a few times a year as a treat, if I could find them.

-ERD50

 

[sailor]

But now I remember getting some little sweet-bean filled cookie-like things that we bought from a street vendor in Seoul. They poured a kind of waffle-batter into a metal mold that was fish-shaped (and flipped open/close like a waffle maker), scooped some bean paste into it, more batter on top (or the other side, can't recall), and closed the mold to finish cooking.
-ERD50

Try looking inside of your local Korean mega store (Super-H Mart or Assi plaza comes to mind).
The frequently have stalls with Bungeoppang
My kids love it, especially now when the old man who makes these told them, that they can have chocolate filling instead of bean paste.
Instant happiness to the young sailors
In Japan they are called Taiyaki

 

[ERD50]

Try looking inside of your local Korean mega store (Super-H Mart or Assi plaza comes to mind).
The frequently have stalls with Bungeoppang
My kids love it, especially now when the old man who makes these told them, that they can have chocolate filling instead of bean paste.
Instant happiness to the young sailors
In Japan they are called Taiyaki

Yes! That is it. Now at least I now what to ask for.

Here's a video with links to the recipe for the sweet beans. I winged it for a recipe I made, and it was close. I did look for these in the Korean Mega-Mart near us (Matsuwa - I didn't try H-Mart). That is where they had other bean filled pastry, but not these fish cakes. But in the video, she says they are only good warm/fresh.

Not sure I want to buy the pan for such occasional use. I suppose I could get the same basic flavor (w/o the cool fish shape) with DW's Æbleskiver pan.

Fish-shaped bread with sweet red bean filling (Bungeoppang) recipe - Maangchi.com

-ERD50

 

[F4mandolin]

It seems that there really are a lot of people who would eat something that I would push across the table as fast as I could. Good curry is about it for me. I spent 5 years in Okinawa.......really didn't find much I could eat "willingly". I tried raw fish a couple of times....tasted ok, texture left something to be desired. Yoka Soba at one place was my fav. Other attempts got me soups that had floating tentacles/eye balls/etc that......well......I guess I am inhibited. But the Soba place just outside the N Gates of Torii Station ......mmmmm. Especially after a dive. Now.....there was a Pepper Steak place outside Giessen in Germany..........THAT, would be the meal I would want once a week.

 

[Rusa]

Bermuda Gold liqueur (loquat fruit liqueur).

A very inexpensive dark chocolate from the Amsterdam equivalent of Target (their in-store brand). Wow! Best dark chocolate ever for $2.

 

[photoguy]

All this talk of korean food is making me hungry.

What I miss most is Gimbap. My mother used to make huge batches of this which I just devoured. Sometimes korean grocery stores have this but right now I'm in an ethnic food desert.

I also like Jajangmyeon noodles but I don't recall seeing it very often in restaurants in the US. Koreans considered this a chinese dish, but I don't think it's really from china (probably "chinese inspired")

I've also never seen bindaetteok in korean restaurants (I've only had it homemade and it didn't look like the picture in wikipedia). Usually korean restaurants will have the more common pajeon. However pajeon is made with flour where as bindaetteok is made from ground mung bean so it has a very different consistency.

Hotteok is typically a street food (pancake with melted brown sugar filling). I tried making this but it was a disaster. Probably for the best since it's not very healthy.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Saoto soep. Javanese soup from Suriname. Best place is at Waspada, near the Alcoa plant, in fact the only place to eat near there.

 

[NW-Bound]

There are quite a few dishes or food items mentioned in this thread that I have not heard of. Asian countries have quite a few pastries or rice cakes that are fairly unique.

Here's a list of "50 Best Foods in the World" that I ran across a while back. Look through it, and you will find quite a few familiar items. There's no explanation on how the listed foods were selected.

PS. Hah! There was no list as I forgot to attach it.

Now there is. See: World's 50 Best Foods.

 

[tuffshed]

Cola Nuts. While hitchhiking around Zaire around 30 years ago (yes I had a life even before FIRE) you would see in markets people with a plank with mounds of earth. Inside the mounds were Cola Nuts. They were kept in earth because they oxidize rapidly in air. They were about the size of an avocado pit as I remember but were whiteish. They were a favorite when sitting around a bar and drinking beer. You would nibble on the nut, just a scrape and the white flesh would turn florescent pink in front of your eyes (the oxidation part). They were VERY bitter and were an acquired taste, but went well with the local beer (take that all you wine and cheese snobs).

Every time I saw that old 7 Up commercial (These are Cola Nuts, These are Un Cola Nuts...) I would long for a beer and a Cola Nut.

 

[MRG]

It's not a foreign food, and folks in New York State are welcome to laugh. A Genesee Cream Ale would be a real treat. You might find it out here, every couple of years, with luck.

Last 6 pack I found was $9.99, I used to buy it for $0.99.

MRG

 

[John Galt III]

Nothing quite like a half a roasted hanchen and a plate of pommes frites, and maybe some Resina or Ouzo, at a roadside cafe on a Greek island, as you are encased by stunning blue sky above, ocean beyond, and white sand below.

 

[ERD50]

It's not a foreign food, and folks in New York State are welcome to laugh. A Genesee Cream Ale would be a real treat. You might find it out here, every couple of years, with luck.

Last 6 pack I found was $9.99, I used to buy it for $0.99.

MRG

Hah! I remember having a Genesee back in the 70's. I occasionally brew a Cream Ale. Nice light, fresh tasting beer.

-ERD50

 

[FUEGO]

Great foods that we could almost certainly find here at the right price (if we don't mind driving 15-20 minutes):

Empanadas. We ate these almost once per day in Buenos Aires. A little cafe across from our hotel sold these delicious little treats. We would get a dozen (they're cheaper that way!), polish off most of them for dinner, and then have the survivors for breakfast or lunch or dinner the next day. We have replicated them at home and they come pretty close, but the dough isn't quite right. I know there are a few empanada places around town, but they are pretty expensive (4x the price in Buenos Aires) and quite a drive. I guess it's better than a 5000+ mile flight to the other side of the globe.

Mole Poblano. Had some unbelievable mole poblano in Puebla, MX (it's home). I've had it elsewhere in Mexico and a couple of times stateside and it wasn't quite as good. Maybe I'll pick up some mole poblano at the latino grocery next time I visit. Mmmmm...

I guess my access to good Laotian/Thai/Cambodian food makes up for a lack of mole and empanadas. DW's family cooks some mean cuisine. They'll also cook up some interesting treats ("Pop Pop eats anything" as my kids say). Turtle, raccoon, squirrel, snake. Tastes like chicken (dark meat), deer, rabbit, chicken, respectively.

 

[audreyh1]

Come visit the Valley! We have an Argentinian empanada chain, AND mole poblano is pretty common menu item at the Mexican restaurants (probably doesn't match Puebla though). So you don't have to travel 5000 miles.

 

[Lucantes]

From my prior military days, I have fond memories of Turkish Chicken Tava and Shawarma from Saudi Arabia. You can find Shawarma in the states, but never found one as good as the ones in Saudi. Maybe cause they are too overloaded here. You know, bigger is better theory.

As far as treats go. I do miss bonbons that I would pick up during frequent trips to the UK.

My wife and I have Saudi Shawarma's almost every Thursday evening after work (Thursday eve here is like Friday in the USA as we are off work on Fridays and Saturdays), we love em!

Have tried some in other places but I agree they never seem to taste as good, can't imagine we will find good ones in Cocoa Beach when we retire in 2017!

 

[crtreedude]

I just received a few bottles of lizano salsa from costa rica. Can not get it in the U.S. It is used on everything in Costa Rica like ketchup in the states.

Yes you can.

Lizano Salsa (23.7 fl oz) Costa Rica Sauce: Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food

Lizano ships to the USA.

 

[crtreedude]

It's not a foreign food, and folks in New York State are welcome to laugh. A Genesee Cream Ale would be a real treat. You might find it out here, every couple of years, with luck.

Last 6 pack I found was $9.99, I used to buy it for $0.99.

MRG

Argh.... you got to be kidding me, but then again, I was a teenager in Monroe County, I suspect you know why the stuff makes me want to throw up!

 

[FUEGO]

Come visit the Valley! We have an Argentinian empanada chain, AND mole poblano is pretty common menu item at the Mexican restaurants (probably doesn't match Puebla though). So you don't have to travel 5000 miles.

We have at least 3 empanada places in town, but they are a bit of a drive. One of the empanada places is owned by a family in our neighborhood and their kid goes to school with our kids (we haven't received a friends and family discount yet, though).

Most of the local Mexican places have mole poblano too, but it isn't as good in my experience (so I stopped getting it).

We are lucky to have a large Latin American immigrant population so there are tons of authentic Mexican, centroamericano and S American restaurants in the neighborhood and within a mile or two. And there are probably 10 latino grocery stores within 2 miles too, so ingredients aren't hard to come by.

 

[John Galt III]

It's not a foreign food, and folks in New York State are welcome to laugh. A Genesee Cream Ale would be a real treat. You might find it out here, every couple of years, with luck.

Last 6 pack I found was $9.99, I used to buy it for $0.99.

MRG

You made my day, MRG. I can get GCA here for $12.89 a 30 pack !
Ice or regular. Thank you.