Ethnic foods in general

[babetoo]

almost every type of food here , course it leans heavy toward mexican. thirty min away in san diego, the sky is the limit. and of course all the chains as well. lots of choices and i still don't go out to eat much. to expensive.

 

[jpmcgrew]

We ahve nothing here in Raton as far as ethnic food we have one Chinese Place I have never been to as I hear it's not very good and don't consider Mexican ethnic as I live I NM. I would need to go to Santa Fe for any ethnic foods only four hours from where I live. I wish we at least had Indie and a Thai place. I can make it it myself but once in a while you just want to buy it. I think any college town has a lot of ethnic places.

 

[Claire]

My husband laughs at me ... Last week we went out for sushi (Dubuque does have some ethnic restaurants, but not much. I'm amazed that the sushi bar has lasted this long). I made a beef/pork stir fry (all the meat that was looking a little freezer-burned) Made some snitzel this weekend. Yes, I can cook ethnic. But I'd like someone to do it for me sometimes!

 

[Thowing.Fire.Twice]

Ethnic foods, eh? I love small town, mom and pop type establishments, but I hate the big city environment. Even if its really good food, the constant lights, and no personability at around 95% of the restaurants in the big cities bothers me. I would rather have a chat with the staff about whatever than just eat good food, but thats me.

As I'm from the UP, best ethnic food? Cudighi and pasties, hands down. Can't find that anywhere but up there.

 

[Claire]

Pasties are very popular here. But cudighi? Tell me more!

 

[CharlieD]

Some 9-10 years ago we started keeping kosher. i thought I'd never make it, I did. But i miss going out to ethnic places. Closest kosher chineese restaraunt is in Chicago, the second one is in NY. And I love, really, really love chineese food.

 

[Thowing.Fire.Twice]

Cudighi is a pork sausage that can only be found in the UP, and even then it's still hard to find. I make my own...dunno if I'll divulge the family recipe, I mean I will, just gotta find it. But its a pork sausage made with a pungent red wine, cinnamon, all spice, a little clove sometimes. I use it in half and half portions with ground chuck in just about anything But it makes awesome long patties for sandwiches, along with some mozzaralla and grill friend onions and peppers. I'll get that recipe if I can find it

 

[CharlieD]

What is UP? or rather where is it?

 

[suziquzie]

Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Charlie....
Never been there, but its on the list.

 

[DramaQueen]

I was born and raised in Detroit where ethnic neighborhoods were the norm. The restaurants in each neighborhood were plentiful and had some of the best food I ever had. The Greek restaurants line the streets in the Greek community of Detroit as do the places in the Italian and Jewish communities. Hamtramyck, the Polish section of Detroit had places that served fabulous Polish food. I miss having so many restuarants readily available.

Here is Vegas, which has become the food mecca of the country, the restuarants are scattered. There is really only one good Jewish place, one Greek and one Polish restuarant, but Italian restuarants are on every street corner. There must be a million restaurants here but not in clusters like ethnic neighborhoods. Not the same.

I just returned from a 10 day trip with friends from Boston and New York. I love that NY has the ethic neighborhoods where you can buy fresh ANYTHING; and restuarants that serve ethic foods line the streets there too. It did my heart good to see this. Vegas may be a mecca for the likes of Lagasse, English, Keller, and all of the other 5 star chefs and their fancy towering presentations, but where are the little places that serve really good food? And where is there a market devoted to fresh seafood?? New Yorkers have it made.

BTW, pasties are one of my all time favorite foods. There are pastie shops in the UP of Michigan like we have pizzarias here. One on every corner.

 

[urmaniac13]

Although Italian cuisine is very diverse and there is no lack in delicious variety among them, we do enjoy something exotic like middle eastern, moroccan, greek, indian, thai, indonesian etc. on a regular basis. And living very close to the exotic quarter in central Rome we can find all the ingredients readily and with relatively small prices too. We feel lucky about it as Italian folks can be highly conservative and little adventurous when it comes to foreign style of cooking or ingredients, so it would be very difficult to get many things if we lived elsewhere.

 

[Thowing.Fire.Twice]

Yup, Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Marquette and the other places I listed are pretty central to the state. If you are ever up there (Top 10 in the US for any food person), there are a few places you HAVE to stop by. Small town, mom and pop places. I'm related to about 3/4 of the owners too (Tee hee Lawry's Pasties is the best hands down, but if you want bulk, you can hit up Nylund's in Iron River. Gramma T's aren't what I call pasties because they are totally different from what I grew up with. I dunno, hit me up if you need suggestions

 

[snack_pack85]

We live in a small town too, but it's a tourist town, so they have restaurants that should accomodate all pallets. In the main square we have

La Mexicana- No explanation needed
Basil- Thai food
Buona Taviolla- Italian place with the BEST tiramisu you've ever had
The Crooked Kilt- Irish fare
The Greek- again no explanation needed

There are also several small bread and sweets shops, as well as an olive specialty store (We Olive) and a gourmet cheese shop...I am in cooking heaven here. There's a very small italian deli/liquor mart with fresh italian meats and cheeses too!

 

[DramaQueen]

Yup, Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Marquette and the other places I listed are pretty central to the state. If you are ever up there (Top 10 in the US for any food person), there are a few places you HAVE to stop by. Small town, mom and pop places. I'm related to about 3/4 of the owners too (Tee hee Lawry's Pasties is the best hands down, but if you want bulk, you can hit up Nylund's in Iron River. Gramma T's aren't what I call pasties because they are totally different from what I grew up with. I dunno, hit me up if you need suggestions

I'm curious: what is it about Gramma T's pasties that are different? What is your perfect pastie?

 

[geonerd20]

I live in Phoenix and always bemoaned the lack of ethnic restaurants there. However, after much research, I was able to find a whole bunch of really good ethnic restaurants - some large, and some hole-in-the wall places. There are several Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern places. There's a really good Persian restaurant called the Persian Room in North Phoenix/Scottsdale. An Afghani restaurant opened about a year ago, but it's a 25-mi drive and way, and I go there only infrequently. A Burmese restaurant opened a few months ago in Scottsdale, but I wasn't really impressed with the food there.

 

[marigeorge]

I envy you all that have a variety of ethnic restaurants, here in a little farming community in east/central Kansas there is nothing but chicken fried...does that count?! I can't even find a decent Mexican restaurant within miles. So sad after living in the southwest for many years.

Geonerd, there used to be a really good little hole in the wall Thai place on 19th Ave and Campbell years ago, don't know if it is still there or not.

 

[Lefty7887]

Up here we have little as far as ethnic food places. That is the one thing I miss about NYC which had every type of place imaginable a short bus or subway ride away. On the other hand I have the best seafood places all over the place. Fresh dug clams, picked crab meat, lobsters, haddock or sea scallops are all within walking distance.