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Eastern European food (and Mexican and some Chinese cuisines) are deeply underrated - they belong in the same category as French or Japanese, but long-held prej
by JBReefer 8y ago
Eastern European food (and Mexican and some Chinese cuisines) are deeply underrated - they belong in the same category as French or Japanese, but long-held prejudices devalue them. It's a pity, but it also means you can get an _amazing_ meal for cheap in Greenpoint.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoJust curious where you are located. I've lived in Las Vegas, The Bay Area, and Salt Lake City and Mexican Food definitely gets the appreciation it deserves here. My favorite restraunt Utah doesn't even serve Mexican food... they serve "Imperial Aztec Cuisine from Mexico City"
- lainga 8y agoI think Brooklyn (as in Greenpoint, Brooklyn)
- bluGill 8y agoI live in Iowa. Lots of Mexican restaurants where native Mexican's serve good food. However if you have actually been to mexico you will know it is only vaguely related to Mexican food as served in Mexico. If you speak Spanish to the help they will admit they don't eat the food where they work because it isn't like home.
- inferiorhuman 8y agoSo what do they eat?
- bluGill 8y agoThey probably go home and cook their own meals most of the time. Just like most people who can't afford to eat out for all their meals.
- inferiorhuman 8y agoAh, I'm curious because it's not uncommon to see some restaurants and bars patronized by food service folks. SFGate periodically runs "where do the chefs eat" type human interest stories from time to time.
- gastrmedox 8y agoI've heard the same comment from Mexican immigrants, but for different reasons. A Mexico City expat friend of mine derides all Mexican restaurants, even the higher-class ones are just "ok". I suspect that Mexican dishes highly according to the part of Mexico, but experience in higher quality Mexican restaurants in DC leads me to believe there is also a huge quality difference.
- bluGill 8y agoThere are definite regional differences according to my wife She grew up just a couple miles from Mexico so a vacation in Mexico wasn't a long trip, plus the random Sunday "lets go to the other side of the river for lunch and cheap sugar" trips that are possible when the country is that close. I have never lived close enough to Mexico as to make it the trip a non-event and so I don't have personal experience to report)
- Symbiote 8y agoOn a long road trip across the southwestern USA when I was a child, we went into a Mexican restaurant in Yuma, Arizona, where no-one spoke any English. Fortunately, the owner's teenage daughter came home for lunch, and she spoke English, but she didn't know translations for what was on the menu. My mum asked her what she was having for lunch, and then asked for the same. The girl translated for her father, he grinned, and brought the best meal of the trip. Unfortunately, we had no idea what it was called.
- inferiorhuman 8y ago> I've lived in Las Vegas, The Bay Area, and Salt Lake City and Mexican Food definitely gets the appreciation it deserves here. I disagree, and I'd look to the words of Bayless and Bourdain. Mexican food in the Bay Area, at least, is almost entirely taquerias.
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoI'll give you that The Bay Area is actually significantly behind Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas. But I would try Lolinda if you are craving different. https://www.yelp.com/biz/lolinda-san-francisco?osq=meixican+Restaurants https://www.yelp.com/biz/lolinda-san-francisco?osq=meixican+...
- inferiorhuman 8y agoFunny thing about Lolinda, one of their line cooks stabbed some guy to death. I was on the jury and man did that case reaffirm my cynicism towards our judicial system. There are a handful of less casual Mexican places in the Bay Area, but not many (Tres Agaves and Nopalito come to mind). Lolinda is actually Argentinian, not Mexican, though.
- malvosenior 8y agoI think you're right about Eastern European food. Mexican and Chinese do have high end representation. It's pretty paltry on the East Coast but you can go to Rosa for Mexican in NY or Red Farm for Chinese to see examples of high end. Of course there are lots of places in Mexico or Asia where you can get extremely high end cuisine of that type. I have very little experience with Easter European food (but love it!) so can't say if it's the same in its native region but I bet it is.
- bllguo 8y agoGP noted that "some Chinese cuisines" are underrated. Emphasis on "cuisines." China is huge - food can be divided into 8 regional cuisines. In the US you mostly see 2 - Cantonese and Szechuan - and no, Chinese-American doesn't count! There is a lot that people are missing out on. I haven't been to Red Farm but some cursory searches show it's categorized as Chinese-American cuisine.
- bobthepanda 8y agoYou can actually find some of the best Chinese places these days in college towns with high Asian populations.
- kleiba 8y agoWhen I lived in California, Mexican food was cheap and almost always delicious. Where I currently live (somewhere in Europe), Mexican food is always expensive, sometimes good, but most often mediocre. I am yet to have an amazing and cheap Mexican meal over here.
- icantdrive55 8y agoIf someone held a gun to my head, and told he to open a restaurant with my meager saving; I always felt it would be a take-out burrito place. I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't like a burrito, or pizza. My point is I think a clean burrito joint would go over practically anywhere. It needs to be clean, and the portions need to be generous, and the owner needs to keep an eye on the business.
- PeterisP 8y agoIn many parts of Europe kebab shops have taken the role that burritos and such occupy in Americas; the dishes are a bit different in ingredients and taste, but they're similar enough in the business details & way of consumption to be pretty much replacements for each other.
- freeflight 8y agoIn some places, there's pretty much a kebap shop over-saturation, at least in Germany. Luckily these past years a lot of the "US food" has become way more popular. Tons of "artisan burger" restaurants and burrito/taco shops popping up. US-style food trucks, with all kinds of different offerings, also have become very popular.
- stevenwoo 8y agoThe BBC covered the kebab situation in Germany last year. http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170203-germanys-favourite-fast-food http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170203-germanys-favourite-...
- bsder 8y ago> Eastern European food (and Mexican and some Chinese cuisines) are deeply underrated Well, one interesting point is that native Mexicans and native Chinese would hardly recognize what we in the US call Mexican and Chinese. As for Eastern European food, I think some of it may simply be quantity. I can't think of a single ethnic dish in my family that wasn't meant for an army and was meant for one. Even the article author talks about having made 1500 dumplings. And many of the dishes get better on the second day. It also doesn't help that ethnic dishes tend to all have little quirks about how your mother, grandmother, etc. did it and you won't like somebody else's quirks. The author's grandmother had her own quirks to her dumplings, for example.
- Zigurd 8y agoWith recent Mexican and Chinese immigration you now do get restaurants that are a taste of home, even in the northeast. Most of these are newer restaurants, with many patrons speaking Spanish or a Chinese language. Eastern European food, however, is more challenging regarding authenticity once you get past the delicious dumplings. Not too many people want to go out of their way for boiled meats and cabbage, or fatty vinegary stuff in aspic. Egg salad on a hot day at the Latvian church picnic. Brrrr. I expect these cuisines to evolve the way food in the UK has, developing a new native cuisine.
- your-nanny 8y agoWhat eastern european food have you eaten? P.s. many people from places like Poland consider themselves Central European. Some even Western European. I think this is about how they feel about being aligned with Russia, but also where their affinities lay
- bobthechef 8y agoThe EE/CE/WE labels have their uses, but I find that the way the EE label is used is more of an indicator of Western ignorance than anything else, kind of like the term "Dark Ages". In the Western mind, EE might as well be a country. England, France, Germany, Italy...Eastern Europe! It reinforces the Cold War era stereotypes that are still around, that it's just this huge, culturally homogeneous mass where everyone speaks some riff on Russian.
- lkrubner 8y agoThis should be emphasized. Back in 2009-2011 I lived in Brooklyn and me and my friends would bike up to Greenpoint, and I would have a great lunch for $10. People should especially go the restaurants where the people mostly speak Polish, and English is a second language for them.
- gastrmedox 8y agoHamtramack in Detroit also has great Eastern European food, or did in the 80s and 90s. Many families in Central Michigan and Upper Michigan even have paprikash, goulash, and dumplings for the occasional meal. Btw the sausage in Hamtramack is fing awesome. If only Detroit could export its food like Brooklyn does. Detroit-style pizza is just so much better than yours ;)
- subpixel 8y agoMy office was in Greenpoint until 2010 and sadly all the truly great places we loved are long gone, with much of the Polish community.
- dzhiurgis 8y agoI’d suggest trying / making Lithuanian zeppellins. They are heavy, but good. Especially if you nail bechamel sauce!
- adamsea 8y agoAgreed. Mexican cuisine in LA is a whole nother level, whether street food or fine dining.
- bradleyjg 8y ago> It's a pity, but it also means you can get an _amazing_ meal for cheap in Greenpoint. Any specific recommendations if I'm going to make the schlep on the G?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deepsand 8y agoThe final episode of the Netflix series Ugly Delicious [1] holds a 'face-off' between Asian dumplings and Italian stuffed pasta. Although quite tongue-in-cheek, they mention that similar foods exist in many cultures. I recommend the series as they tackle themes regarding the prejudice against certain cuisines, as mentioned by OP. Warning, you'll be hungry after and during each episode. [1] https://www.netflix.com/title/80170368 https://www.netflix.com/title/80170368
- montyf 8y ago> they belong in the same category as French or Japanese Huh? French food I can understand, though I don't have much of a taste for it, but Japanese food is terrible -- I was there for two weeks. A lot of foreigners are deeply disappointed when they travel to Japan, especially by sushi (though I found a couple of good sushi places). However, by far the best food in Japan is found in Chinese-style restaurants. Chinese food completely eclipses Japanese. Eastern European food is fantastic. It completely spoiled me and my gf -- we couldn't stand the much-loved Spanish tapas when we went there. And Poles make as good or better pizza than Italians. And then we went to Asia and found ourselves in a whole different ballgame. > you can get an _amazing_ meal for cheap in Greenpoint I completely sympathize -- Polish food is rewelacyjne when you're used to shitty American food.
- laumars 8y agoIt's all just down to personal preferences. On balance I much prefer western European food to eastern European despite having polish grandparents who used to cook amazing pierogi.
- realusername 8y ago> Huh? French food I can understand, though I don't have much of a taste for it You probably have not tried the ones you like, I'm french myself and there's so much variety in France it's impossible to try everything, I probably know less than 50% of the regional specialties despite being native. There's very few national dishes unlike most other countries.
- ericd 8y agoDo you like beef? Japan produces some of the best beef in the world. Or it might just be your taste, but many people disagree with you about it being objectively bad.
- ivan_gammel 8y agoJust in case you are living in NYC, try Teremok - it's a Russian fastfood chain which just started expansion to USA, that I cannot wait to see here, in Berlin. I'm always going there in Moscow to eat some blini.
- sametmax 8y agoIt's not about taste. It's about diversity. Almost all countries avec a few good dishes. What used to make france a great place for food is that you could it a different delicious dishe every day of the year if you wished so. The food quality is seriously going down in my country though.