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Food / drink 🍗 Authentic Restaurants and Meals

michaelskis

michaelskis

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Tomorrow, we are doing Fiesta Friday in our house since we missed Taco Tuesday. So I was thinking about shaking it up and not doing Tacos, but something else and was trying to figure out something that would be real authentic Mexican dish. I am still looking but it got me thinking.

I was wondering if my thoughts of authentic restaurants and meals are really authentic or not, and not just Mexican but from all over the globe. We have an "Americanized" perception of what is or is not Mexican, Cuban, Italian, or Asian, but how far base is it. I don't think there is any question that Taco Bell is authentic, but restaurants are? There are several Mexican restaurants that I have gone to that are a bit on the darker side (lighting wise) that have really bright colored decorations inside, soccer up on a TV in the corner, and they all seem to have the exact same menu of items. They bring out chips and salsa before the meal. Italian places do the same thing with breadsticks. But are these really authentic or just what we think of when we think of that culture?

What are your thoughts. What are the most authentic restaurants or meals that you can think of? For restaurants in the US, do you really think that is how they are in their home countries or regions? For meals, please link a recipe!
 
In our area there are certain mexican restaurants that much more "authentic" than others.

Place 1 - definitely tex-mex / Americanized type place
Place 2 - kinda a mix, but leaning on being more authentic than not. It caters as well to the local immigrants
Place 3 - small hole in the wall with menu in spanish only and rarely seen a 'grino' in the place
 
michaelskis said:
Tomorrow, we are doing Fiesta Friday in our house since we missed Taco Tuesday. So I was thinking about shaking it up and not doing Tacos, but something else and was trying to figure out something that would be real authentic Mexican dish. I am still looking but it got me thinking.

I was wondering if my thoughts of authentic restaurants and meals are really authentic or not, and not just Mexican but from all over the globe. We have an "Americanized" perception of what is or is not Mexican, Cuban, Italian, or Asian, but how far base is it. I don't think there is any question that Taco Bell is authentic, but restaurants are? There are several Mexican restaurants that I have gone to that are a bit on the darker side (lighting wise) that have really bright colored decorations inside, soccer up on a TV in the corner, and they all seem to have the exact same menu of items. They bring out chips and salsa before the meal. Italian places do the same thing with breadsticks. But are these really authentic or just what we think of when we think of that culture?

What are your thoughts. What are the most authentic restaurants or meals that you can think of? For restaurants in the US, do you really think that is how they are in their home countries or regions? For meals, please link a recipe!
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I think there's some degree of Americanization in Mexican cuisine, not only because a restaurant is located here and perhaps catering to a non-Mexican clientele but also because a great amount of American food products are also imported into Mexico. I think the important thing to know is that Mexican cuisine is not monolithic and there are distinct regional differences as well as differences between what one would eat at home, in a restaurant, or at a special event. Much of what is thought of as typical "Mexican" food in the US are dishes from Oaxaca. Rick Bayless has an excellent selection of recipes from all over the country that are adapted to home cooks here. https://www.rickbayless.com/recipes-from-chef-rick-bayless/ (Recipes from Chef Rick Bayless - Rick Bayless)
 
Living in Southern California certainly has its perks with more authentic Mexican food opportunities.

For all of the food types, a small independent restaurant is going to offer a more authentic taste than any chain. There are regional differences too (for Mexican or South American foods, as well as Italian, in your examples) that chains don't typically capture, but a local place might. Really good places will have a menu on those regional specialties, and usually have correct drink menu to go with it too.
 
My old city had a large Asian student population due to the university. This meant we had a number of authentic Chinese restaurants in the area. Most of them would have an American Chinese menu with sweet & sour chicken, beef & broccoli, egg rolls etc. But then also have a traditional Chinese menu. That is where you would find the pig intestines, kidney, tripe, hot pots and other dishes not for the average American. I would sometimes order the bean curd dishes off the traditional menu just because you would get more vegetables and a better tasting sauce. Hubby would sometimes try the fish or shrimp dishes.
 
We have a place in the Town that I live in that is a really authentic Thai, Indian, and Chinese restaurant. The food is wonderful, the biggest challenge is the communication issue. The owners are from Nepal.
 
Here in Metro Detroit it's pretty easy to find what's generally considered "authentic" Indian food and there are tons of Middle Eastern and Lebanese and Greek places. One community now has a large Bangladeshi population and there are a bunch of authentic restaurants and bakeries and stores that cater to them. The area has long had a large Polish population and there are a bunch of pretty authentic Polish restaurants, my favorite being the large Polish Cultural Community Center.

There's an Indonesian place near my office. I've never checked it out and no nothing about Indonesian cuisine... maybe I should go and see what it's all about one of these days.

I recall reading once that one big reason it's so hard to find real, authentic Chinese food in the U.S. (especially outside of the really major metros) but relatively easy to find good, authentic Thai or Indian or Vietnamese or Korean is because Chinese people began immigrating when the population was so much more homogenous and less adventurous about what they were willing to try food-wise. Early Chinese restaurateurs began adding so much sugar and corn starch to their dishes in order to make them more appealing to American preferences at the time and over the decades, that stuck. These days, it might not be right to call almond boneless chicken or General Tsao's chicken authentic Chinese cuisine, but dishes like that could definitely be labeled authentic Chinese-American.

People from those other countries didn't really start immigrating to the states in large numbers until much later (like the 1960s and 1970s) and by that time the population was more heterogenous, had traveled more, and was and more willing to try new things. American servicemen who spent a lot of time in Asian in the '50s, '60s, and '70s also brought back a taste for those types of dishes as well (you'd be surprised at the number of Chinese or Korean restaurants outside of military bases in the middle of nowhere towns even though there are relatively small numbers of Asians in the U.S. military compared to other minorities).
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Here in Metro Detroit it's pretty easy to find what's generally considered "authentic" Indian food and there are tons of Middle Eastern and Lebanese and Greek places. One community now has a large Bangladeshi population and there are a bunch of authentic restaurants and bakeries and stores that cater to them. The area has long had a large Polish population and there are a bunch of pretty authentic Polish restaurants, my favorite being the large Polish Cultural Community Center.

There's an Indonesian place near my office. I've never checked it out and no nothing about Indonesian cuisine... maybe I should go and see what it's all about one of these days.

I recall reading once that one big reason it's so hard to find real, authentic Chinese food in the U.S. (especially outside of the really major metros) but relatively easy to find good, authentic Thai or Indian or Vietnamese or Korean is because Chinese people began immigrating when the population was so much more homogenous and less adventurous about what they were willing to try food-wise. Early Chinese restaurateurs began adding so much sugar and corn starch to their dishes in order to make them more appealing to American preferences at the time and over the decades, that stuck. These days, it might not be right to call almond boneless chicken or General Tsao's chicken authentic Chinese cuisine, but dishes like that could definitely be labeled authentic Chinese-American.

People from those other countries didn't really start immigrating to the states in large numbers until much later (like the 1960s and 1970s) and by that time the population was more heterogenous, had traveled more, and was and more willing to try new things. American servicemen who spent a lot of time in Asian in the '50s, '60s, and '70s also brought back a taste for those types of dishes as well (you'd be surprised at the number of Chinese or Korean restaurants outside of military bases in the middle of nowhere towns even though there are relatively small numbers of Asians in the U.S. military compared to other minorities).
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Good point. My former city received a lot of Vietnamese refugees in the early '80s. As a result we had a some really good Vietnamese restaurants.
 
I've had home made Chinese and it very different than what you get at Chinese restaurant. I've always wondered about authentic Greek food as opposed to what you get at restaurant.
 
Maister said:
Those of you who like learning will love Wondrium. For $9.99 a month you can see thousands of lectures on hundreds of different topics on virtually any subject that interests you. The above link is to a lecture series on food history that we watched. The mere notion of authenticity is something of a joke from a historical perspective when we learn just how much of every culture imports and borrows from other culture's food traditions. Take, Italian cuisine for example - what are the two famous staples of Italian cuisine? why pasta and tomato sauce, of course. You probably already know that pasta noodles originated in China and tomatoes were unknown to European cuisine until after the discovery of the new world, and have only really been adopted into the cooking in the last two centuries. I highly recommend this series
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I agree, most native cuisines where influenced by other cultures. There's also a certain amount of mom had to make what she had on hand and could afford, edible, so the kids would eat it. I see that a lot in Southern cooking. Regional cooking involves the idea of using what is on hand.
 
From another thread- @EsquireHare asked:

Btw, have you been to Pinoy Town in NY? Did you find a restaurant selling Bicolano foods and delicacies? Could you post pictures for me? I love our region and its food!!!
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"Pinoy Town" in the Queens borough of NYC is called "Little Manila" or "Manilatown", but in fact, there's much restaurant food from regions WAY outside the capital city of Manila.

The last three or so times I was in Little Manila, in autumn of 2019, I did not eat at a Manila-centric restaurant. Purely by coincidence, the chefs at the restaurant I ate had lived fairly near your city of Legaspi; the food was pretty much Bicolano! (The exact city from which the chefs had emigrated was Pangpang.)

The Bicolano dishes were very much like Thai dishes, but unlike the Thai restaurants in NY, the food was inexpensive. Once I discovered the restaurant, I kept going again and again. The food was very addictive! That was in 2019. Yesterday our mayor "opened up" NYC a whole lot more, and my mouth is watering thinking of all the delicious food I missed, and I feel like returning to that place soon!
 
Shellac And Vinyl VelocitY said:
From another thread- @EsquireHare asked:


"Pinoy Town" in the Queens borough of NYC is called "Little Manila" or "Manilatown", but in fact, there's much restaurant food from regions WAY outside the capital city of Manila.

The last three or so times I was in Little Manila, in autumn of 2019, I did not eat at a Manila-centric restaurant. Purely by coincidence, the chefs at the restaurant I ate had lived fairly near your city of Legaspi; the food was pretty much Bicolano! (The exact city from which the chefs had emigrated was Pangpang.)

The Bicolano dishes were very much like Thai dishes, but unlike the Thai restaurants in NY, the food was inexpensive. Once I discovered the restaurant, I kept going again and again. The food was very addictive! That was in 2019. Yesterday our mayor "opened up" NYC a whole lot more, and my mouth is watering thinking of all the delicious food I missed, and I feel like returning to that place soon!
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Maybe a particular region in Thailand? I've been to Thai restaurants. Not one of their dishes hits home for me.
 
I'll post some of our family's heirloom dishes some day. If you happen to be here, Shellac, I'll ask my mum to prepare our heirloom dishes for you which you will not find in any of the restaurants in the city. :)
 
Arizona gets some great Mexican food and of course tex-mex crap. There's even AZ-mex. I just know if I see cheddar, it's not real. Also, Mexico, like most places has it's regions. I just go to south Phoenix and find a good hole in the wall. I'll be well fed. We also have a lot of good Indian food around and if you get closer to ASU you can find a decent Vietnamese place or Chinese place. Not like the place next door that is called the Pho, Sushi & Grill with a sign advertising their cajun crawfish. Um...no. Lucky for me I have Oscar's Taco shop around the corner that serves up some great street tacos and the usual enchiladas or tamales.
 
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