Regional Eating

[TexDanm]

I was raised eating a VERY varied diet made up of Traditional American, lots of
Seafood, Mexican, Cajun, German and Italian. Have any of you ever heard of an English Restaurant??? What do they eat over there? I'm part Scott/Irish and presumably English but never remember eating anything that was identified as "English" crusine. My wife and I are both half German and mostly identify as that over the other many things. We are also both part Native American, my wife more than me. She is about 25%. I am 5th generation Texan. Here, that is a nationality. We were here and citizens of the Republic of Texas.

I love a variety of foods. For people raised where I was raised Cajun and Mexican are classified as home cooking whereas Italian fare is foreign (Italian Food!). Because Texas was settled by people from all over the world our cuisine is wildly variable depending on where you are. For someone like me that loves good cooking and a HUGE variety, I love to go to things like the Texas Folklife festival where all the different types of Texans bring out the best of their special cooking.

 

[JahaRa]

I am back in the town I grew up in. I lived in southern New Mexico, and my sister still does, where the famous "Hatch Chile" is grown. It is a hybrid chile that has been around for a long time but in the last 25 years has been so popular it is shipped all over the U.S.

When I was growing up the usual meals were enchiladas (which were just corn torillas fried soft, put on a plate and covered with red chile sauce (the same chile most people eat green, but is red when ripe). We would top that with a fried egg. We always had frijoes (pinto beans usually cooked with a small amount of pork or a ham bone). Flour Tortillas for bread. There was a rice dish that had tomato sauce, onions and what ever other vegetables were available.

My family was what is called "gringo" so we did not eat like that all the time, my mother's family was from the south but no one ever taught my mother to cook so her biscuits were from a betty crocker cook book (and Betty would have turned over in her grave if she ever saw or ate one). We usually had fried meat of some sort and potatoes with vegetables until my dad took over the cooking. He tried a lot of spices and must not have had a very good palate as he never got the hang of which spices went with which meat or vegetables. By the time I was 12 I was told I had to take over the cooking and I loved the food my friend's mothers made so I got recipes from them and cooked all the traditional local food, not always adequately, like my torillas were never round. Sopapillas were easier, except you need a lot of lard to cook them. I learned to make fry bread from the Navajo girls that would come stay the weekend. When I left home I learned how to cook cabbage so that it was edible from my sister in law, who is from North Carolina. I learned how to make biscuits from my mother in law, who had never used a cook book and but she made the best biscuits I have ever had.

If you come to a New Mexican restaraunt in this area you will always find tacos, enchiladas, sopapillas, carnitas and chips with salsa on the menu. Everything else is different depending on the restaraunt. The hole in the wall places are the ones I recommend as their food is more like the food prepared in the home. The trick is finding the places that use fresh chile.

 

[JahaRa]

Oh, I was going to say, I never had meatloaf or tuna casserole until I left home. I am not fond of either.

 

[JahaRa]

I was raised eating a VERY varied diet made up of Traditional American, lots of
Seafood, Mexican, Cajun, German and Italian. Have any of you ever heard of an English Restaurant??? What do they eat over there? I'm part Scott/Irish and presumably English but never remember eating anything that was identified as "English" crusine. My wife and I are both half German and mostly identify as that over the other many things. We are also both part Native American, my wife more than me. She is about 25%. I am 5th generation Texan. Here, that is a nationality. We were here and citizens of the Republic of Texas.

I love a variety of foods. For people raised where I was raised Cajun and Mexican are classified as home cooking whereas Italian fare is foreign (Italian Food!). Because Texas was settled by people from all over the world our cuisine is wildly variable depending on where you are. For someone like me that loves good cooking and a HUGE variety, I love to go to things like the Texas Folklife festival where all the different types of Texans bring out the best of their special cooking.

Based on the way my mother cooked I think the English don't have a cuisine, they just boil the hell out of everything.

 

[TexDanm]

YUCK!!! About the only purely boiled thing that I really like a lot is boiled shrimp. When I make soup or stew I always brown the meat before anything else. I then add to it and make the soup or stew. We broil or fry most things even if we then put them in a pot to make things.

 

[Duke]

Based on the way my mother cooked I think the English don't have a cuisine, they just boil the hell out of everything.

Nobody goes to the UK for the food or the weather.

 

[TexDanm]

I have wondered about this sort of thing in the past. we have French, Italian, Mexican, Greek, all sorts of oriental and eastern restaurants just to name the most common. The greatest number of Americans have at least some English ancestry but nobody has ever heard of a British or English restaurant or even a food identified as such. Even what we do hear of we don't know what it is. What is a crumpet???

 

[JahaRa]

I have wondered about this sort of thing in the past. we have French, Italian, Mexican, Greek, all sorts of oriental and eastern restaurants just to name the most common. The greatest number of Americans have at least some English ancestry but nobody has ever heard of a British or English restaurant or even a food identified as such. Even what we do hear of we don't know what it is. What is a crumpet???

Oh, someone told me what it is once. I think it what we in the U.S. call an english muffin. I found this: What Actually Is a Crumpet?

 

[Lynne]

I have wondered about this sort of thing in the past. we have French, Italian, Mexican, Greek, all sorts of oriental and eastern restaurants just to name the most common. The greatest number of Americans have at least some English ancestry but nobody has ever heard of a British or English restaurant or even a food identified as such. Even what we do hear of we don't know what it is. What is a crumpet???

A griddle bread that is unsweetened and made with milk, flower and yeast. Serves with butter.

 

[TexDanm]

Thank you all for enlightening my ignorance about British cuisine. LOL My Brother in law tried working the rigs in the North Sea. He liked the work but then on his 2 weeks off period ashore he nearly starved to death. According to him they even messed up the Mac Donalds. He always did have a sort of flighty stomach.