I don’t get to travel much, but when I do, I make it a point to seek out regional specialties not readily available where I live. Small, locally owned restaurants, family bakeries, even some fast food that I can’t get around here.
For instance, last time I visited family in VA I saw a Red Robin. Now there are none in NY Metro area that I know of, so I’ve never eaten there. Family looked at me like I had two heads, but hey, I want to try something new to me. We went, it was pretty good, and we all had a good time.
I also make it a point to get Amish made apple pies whenever I pass through an area where they are available, as well as the mom-and-pop roadside custard/ice cream/farm stands.
There are a lot of good “ethnic” restaurants available to me, as well as H-Mart and Hispanic markets. I grew up eating lots of Italian and Chinese. So homemade pies and fried chicken and jello molds are sort of “foreign” to me.
Additionally regarding serendipity, one of our most memorable travel meals took place in a small family run Turkish restaurant in the small city of Villafranche sur Soane, France. Our target restaurant in the Beaujolais was closed for emergency, so there we were, pushing 8 pm in the boonies with no din in sight. We crossed the river to what looked like the most plausible place, only to find them rolling up the streets, lights going off in shops, people leaving for home. We started frantically looking for someplace, anyplace, open. Finally bright neon lights on a back street! Park the car! We were warmly welcomed into a tiny dining room, then ushered into the lush back garden. The oldest son was front of house. I ordered off the menu, and he snatched it away and said, “No, Mama will cook for you, I will decide.”. And he did and she did. We had to turn off the parade of dishes coming to us, each delicious and beautifully served. We closed the place, and Mama came out of the kitchen with a treat bag for us. The whole family came out to pose for a photo, at their suggestion. They were so excited to have guests from so far away, San Francisco! The tab was embarrassingly low. And who knew Turkish wine was so delicious!
The same is true for basically all countries in the world.
Nothing sad about it.
Just a fact of human nature.
1 Like
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
44
Have to disagree. We can and should be better than that.
I live in a country that has rightly welcomed 100k white, Christian Ukrainian refugees fleeing conflict yet is planning to deport to Rwanda brown Muslim Afghan refugees fleeing conflict. It saddens and appals me.
Searching for a specific dish through Google maps or through other map searches, rather than an online search for restaurants brings up many mom & pop shops with no internet presence. There’s an extra step where I then sort out places that have changed their menus or have closed.
I’m often looking for specific dishes rather than specific restaurants, so it works for me! I used this approach to find all the places selling custom Kiev Tortes in Toronto. It pulled up Ukrainian and Russian bakeries I wouldn’t have known about.
I also try places that catch my eye while walking by.
I’m trying to get back to less planning, to a more fly by the seat of my pants approach to trying new foods and restaurants.
5 Likes
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
59
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I do this too. Sometimes if I’m lucky they have an old FB page with an outdated menu on it.
If I’m alone, I don’t care and I just give it a chance and wing it. If others are involved, I’ll swing by a day or few hours before and see if I can get a current paper menu or photo the wall menu.
I went to an Indian lunch buffet with a friend of mine who grew up in India. According to him it was a mix of authentic dishes from North India, Mughlai, Haryani and a bit of Bihari. So he encouraged me to try small portions of a bunch of dishes and then we got to the end of the second huge steam table and it was a couple of what looked like Chinese food. I was kind of confused so I asked if that was Indian food. And he laughed at me and said something along the lines of “Do you think Americans are the only country that has fake Chinese food?” I tried a couple of them and it was like eating Chop Suey seasoned with Five Spice.
I imagine there are fairly authentic Chinese restaurants in India but there are also Indian-Chinese fusion cafes kind of like the American-Chinese fusion cafes in the US. Which is kind of cool.
The Chinese food made for the Indian client base with a taste for the Indian-style Chinese cuisine is Hakka food, originally made by the Han Chinese who work outside China and Hong Kong.
I’m not sure where you live. There are Hakka Chinese restaurants serving Hakka dishes in many big cities in North America and elsewhere- which are not fake Chinese- they are diaspora Chinese dishes. The restaurants often serve both Chinese and Indian dishes.
There are at least a dozen good Hakka Chinese restaurants in the Toronto area. Some favourite dishes are crispy ginger beef, and chili chicken.
Here’s a recipe for the Chilli Chicken at a popular Toronto restaurant. The author is a former Chowhound named Suresh Doss.
That makes sense! Thanks for the info. I was in the Washington DC metro area at the time (1990’s) and we had a strong Indian community even back then. Apparently we had a strong Hakka community as well.
Now I have to check out your link to the article.
I really like the ginger beef that’s served in Toronto’s restaurants, which is almost identical to Calgary’s Ginger Beef, another dish created by diaspora, but in Calgary
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
65
Indo-Chinese food is well known in Mumbai. And Mumbai street food restaurants in the UK will usually have items on tier menu. My favourite local place has, amongst others, their take on Hakka Noodles and Gobi Manchurian.
I am trying to find a place with Hakka dishes near where I will be for lunch tomorrow and Bansari in Fairfax County looks like a close match. I may just try the Hakka noodles, either veg or chicken… I don’t get back to the DC metro area too often now that I live out on the Chesapeake Bay so fitting in a new cuisine will be a win-win for me! Though Harters mention of the Gobi Manchurian may be represented on the Indo-Chinese part of the menu of Bansari, as well…
Hope you enjoy it! I was thinking of trying 2 Hakka restaurants I haven’t tried in southwestern Ontario for takeout tonight. I am leaning towards a few dishes, including Chicken Manchurian, Chilli Shrimp and deluxe Hakka Noodles.
Indo Chinese food is an old and big tradition across most Indian cities, especially Kolkata
The diaspora Chinese communities in India date back centuries and really took off in the 18th century, especially in ports e.g. Kolkata, Chennai (Madras), etc. In Kerala, Chinese style fishing nets are still common, woks (called Kadhai or Vaanli elsewhere in India) are called Cheena Chatti (China pots), some vocabulary words in common, etc.
The India-China connection goes back over a thousand years linked to the spread of Buddhism and the travel of scholars.
So Indo-Chinese diaspora food is a legitimate and delicious offshoot, not fake.
I went to Bansari in Fairfax County, just off Gallows Road. I ordered Chinese Bhel and Hakka Noodles with chicken. The Bhel was an odd dish that was tasty in a chili sweet way. It was kind of a middle America salad, with green and red peppers, green onions, cabbage sliced thin and a small amount of sprouts. It was served with a rather sweet chili dressing that packed a little heat. But the ingredient that really stood out were the chow mein fried noodles. It gave it an odd, crunchy texture that really made the dish. Not a great dish but a fun and refreshing one.
The Hakka Noodles were the star of the show. Just delicious with a hint of ginger and soy sauce in the background but the overall spicing kind of reminded me of some sort of a Mongolian/Uyghur/Northern India rice dish, maybe a touch of Hoisin sauce? Not sure.
Obviously, I didn't recognize it and couldn't narrow it down. So I don't know what it was, but the entire meal I was enjoying the food and thinking, "This reminds me of another dish..."
All in all, I didn't know what to expect, I don't know exactly what I got and why it seemed so familiar even though I didn't recognize the dish. And I want to go back and try it again.
I call that a win.
