Which country actually makes the best food?

[Victim of Progress]

I would say America has the best food as well. As far as worst food goes: Russia and all of the other Eastern-European countries. I've eaten that stuff for my whole life and I cannot stomach it anymore.

 

[Buckets]

Saying British food is crap across the board is a pretty fucked up. Italian food is greasy, American food is too heavy, Chinese and Indian food is spicy. But you know what, I LOVE them all. Variety in the diet is a great thing so to pick one above the others is impossible for me.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Quite fond of asian cuisine in general.

Lots of intricate flavors and, usually, pretty damned healthy compared to a lot of stuff I've shoved into my facehole. Lots of rice-based dishes and what-not that I can make pathetic attempts at replicating too.

 

[Smoketrail]

I once spent a month in Mexico and absolutely loved trying some more authentic food, even if once I did have to pick out chicken claws from my soup (which was otherwise great). That said one of my favourite meals was a barbecue put together by a South African family, great food, deliciously seasoned meat and Indian influenced flavours.

There was just so much of it though. It started as lunch and by the time it got to about 11pm they had started discussing what they were going to do with all the meat they simply hadn't had time to cook.

 

[BrokenTinker]

Chinese - insane amount of branches, but the core principles attracted western chefs for centuries (let's ignore the pizza origin debacle, but just look at marco polo's rather detailed journals).

The traditional sayings (there are more modern version, but isn't converted into mnemonics)
"sic, hurn, may" which translates to "colour, aroma, taste" (all 3 must be well presented)
"tim, suin, fu, la, ham" - "sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, salty" (never let one dominate, while using at least 3)
"juk, fun, mein, fan" - porridge/congee, noodle, egg noodle, rice (staples)

And then from that, you've the explosion that's chinese cuisine.

But that's just for "general cuisine".

If we want to get specific, then it's a whole different ball game.

French does "rich" marvelously, anything cream-based really can't be criticized. This of cource include it branches like acadian (Doner... sauce is so sickenly sweet, yet go so well with the spice) and creole-cajun.

Spicy is all in the domain of SEA, every type of spicy can be had there, from the ever so soft slow burn to the raging inferno. This is due to the fusion of a bunch of different cultures that unabashedly borrow from each other. The curries alone can blow ppls' mind, ranging from fruit curry (yes, just fruit and spice), to booze curry (so good, and they use a variety of them, including the hard stuff) to almost everything you can think of. Southern indian curries/spicy food is KING when you are limited the just vegetables.

BBQ is a toss up between korean, japanese and the americas. Korean BBQ is so common nowadays, all those marinated meat in thin slices is flavourful without overpowering the meat. The japanese uses the clay grill which is AMAZING for seafood (crabs~ :Q___), the americas for range of sauce and prep. Argentina with their juicy, juicy beef, closely followed by the brazilians. Americans with the greek-mexican-spanish-native-caribbean influence.

Chocolate-wise... I don't want to start a war, so I won't comment

Munchie snacks, you've the east asian duking it out with the north+south africans. Senbei (rice crackers), processed seafood (dried squid, cuttlefish, seaweed, etc...), jerky (bak kwa and co) on the east asian side vs the stirfried grasshoppers (don't knock it, it's REALLY like shrimp and you can buy them in a paper bag and eat it like popcorn), jerky (biltong it's FINALLY getting some traction here in the west, it's a tad pricey, but damn is it ever good.

In term of mutton, the near east takes the crown (kebab and the apparatus itself is ingenious).

Pork is a toss up between China-Korea (famous black pig) vs Iberia (Spain/Portugal, famous iberian ham, sorry italy but they are just that much better xD)

Beef... is another battle with blood, so I'll back down on this one xP

Chicken is SEA, especially their free range ones (actual free range, they run around the outside of the house to feed and shit). It's so god damn flavourful due to their abundant exercise.

"Misc Lean meat" is a toss up between the kangaroo and bison, they are totally different meat, but have the flavour with minimal fat.

I think I'll skip the seafood and baked stuff, otherwise I'll be typing until tomorrow xP

 

[ThreeName]

Turkey. There is not a single doubt in my mind that Turkish cuisine is the height of human culinary achievement.

Japanese is good also but I'm not massive on raw fish, and a sushi roll can't beat a solid kebab, nor a chicken katsu a chicken pide.

 

[fenrizz]

Turkey. There is not a single doubt in my mind that Turkish cuisine is the height of human culinary achievement.

I second this.
I have delevoped a great love of turkish cuisine over the years, particularly Ottoman.

 

[Dwarfman]

It's nearly dinner time and I'm pretty hungry. Let's talk about food.

For most of my life, I heard that British food is terrible. I wouldn't necessarily say that, though too much of it is drenched in oil and fat, which kills the flavour. Black pudding and haggis are fantastic, particularly with eggs. I think most of the complaints about British food are as a result of the places in the UK that poorly imitate the cuisine of other countries.

The best food in Britain undoubtedly comes from overseas. I'm not really sure what sort of state I'd be in if there weren't options like Thai, Chinese or Indian ingredients available here. A relative of mine came back from the US a few months ago and told us a lot of stories about the fast food joints. Supposedly, McDonalds, KFC and the like are not really a big deal due to the incredible variety of fast food joints and greasy spoons that do absolutely mouth-watering food. They also reportedly had some pretty amazing curries in Afghanistan, which was a shocker.

What's the best food you've ever eaten, and where did you eat it? It's time to decide which country produces the most delicious food, or, failing that, argue until our faces turn purple.

There are several questions lurking in here so I'll answer them....

What's the best food I've eaten?...The food I don't have to cook! Seriously as a chef nothing tastes better than not doing anything and letting some other sucker do it for you.

Where did I eat it?...Every where from fine dining to dive bars. Family gatherings and good times with friends. I do have many favourite and memorable food moments that could answer this question but it would take too long.

Which country produces the most delicious food?...None. And all them. Food is often defined by regions and countries but good food and good chefs know no borders. Both roam the world like wayward gypsies spreading delight and fellowship wherever they go.

...The other answer to this is, Your Mum! Seriously the food you grew up with and that was cooked for you by - stereotypically I know - your Mum, is probably the food you'll gravitate to as you get older.

 

[Cowabungaa]

My vote goes for the bigger Mediterranean area. From Morocco to Greece and the Near East, the entire area has my favourite flavour palettes with amazing variations and combinations combining flavours from all over the globe.

It's such an incredibly vibrant and passionate area when it comes to food, but that's no surprise seeing that it has acted as a cultural melting pot for thousands of years. Eat that, USA, you got nuffin' on that.

The correct answer is New York.
New York takes the food of every culture on earth and prepares them perfectly.
The only problem is that it's expensive.

Oh man, don't tell that to any Southern European native, their mothers will school those chefs. I love, for instance, how during one Anthony Bordain show him and one of his star chef friends went to some Mediterranean island to prepare I think fresh shrimp or small fish. And while he was preparing them for cooking this random middle aged lady strolls up and starts laughing at the Michelin-level chef is doing it all wrong and then teaches him how to do it.

I love to see that sort of thing, you can see the passion, care and love for food just beaming out of those people. It feels so incredibly alive.

The other answer to this is, Your Mum! Seriously the food you grew up with and that was cooked for you by - stereotypically I know - your Mum, is probably the food you'll gravitate to as you get older.

Hah, not if you know my mother. She's dreadful in the kitchen, I actually prefer the grilled cheese sandwiches and raw vegetables I eat most of the days now that I live in a student flat.

 

[MeatMachine]

Turkey. There is not a single doubt in my mind that Turkish cuisine is the height of human culinary achievement.

I second this.
I have delevoped a great love of turkish cuisine over the years, particularly Ottoman.

The Janissaries were well-known for being just as good at cooking as they were at fighting. I wish I had the opportunity to eat more Turkish food... I've only had it once before, but it was damn fine for something that was totally unlike anything else I've had.

I know America gets ragged on for having shitty food and all (fast food, "chemical-heavy" dairy, etc), but I sincerely pity everyone that has never had the privilege of eating a high-quality American steak.

 

[Kae]

Mexico. Tex-mex rules. Not debatable.

While México it's most definitely the correct answer I struggle to see how that horrible bastardization of Mexican food called Tex-Mex rules...

I hate Tex-Mex so much, but anwyay, Mexican cuisine is actually pretty awesome, going from tacos to tamales to whatever, it all tastes good, it has spice and it's varied, sure there maybe is too much use of corn and depending on how much spice you can take your mileage may vary but it's good nonetheless, it doesn't taste anything remotely close to Tex-Mex though, they aren't really the same thing at all, so joking aside it's fine if you like that but that really does count as American food than Mexican since it really isn't at all like Mexican food, they tend to use different ingredients and prepare food differently, for example tacos are typically[footnote]There are recipes that do have the hard fried tortillas but they are generally very different from tacos.[/footnote] eaten without frying the tortilla and that Mexican cheese mix they use for them, yeah that's not really there, even when we use cheese it isn't even the same cheeses they use, so the flavours are actually extremely different.

 

[Hoplon]

... America has altered all of these to our own purposes, and most of those foods are completely unrecognizable from the original.

Therein líes its problem, I think. Unless you're sampling NYC, I'd say American food isn't very good. Or healthy. It looks the part but it never tastes like it.

Yeah, on holiday in the USA a few years ago, had both the best and worst of the food there. Like pretty much anywhere else it varies from the ridiculously good to the plated despair. Thought the best was a Italian Restaurant in the Sonoma valley