"Ethnic " foods forum

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Gravy Queen

Head Chef
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
1,272
Location
Over the rainbow
I find the use of the word "ethnic " on here, a little odd . When I have looked through the threads , I just see foods from all over the world, indeed , many of those from within the US too . What makes this ethnic ? I thought at first it meant any nation outside of the US but then that doesn't make sense either . Would it not be more accurate to re-classify it as World Foods or even with sub forums for people maybe searching specifically for English, Asian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese ?
 
The word ethnic does sound a little old fashioned, doesn't it?
But we all know what it means ;)
 
Considering how broad the definition of ethnicity is, all food is ethnic. DC should probably consider dispersing those threads into their appropriate descriptive categories - soups, beef, pork; pasta, rice, beans; etc.
 
A contributer asked where the Chinese food was ? In Ethnic foods . Where is the Italian food ? In Ethnic foods. Where is the Mexican food? In Ethnic foods .

Where is the American food ? In Ethnic foods . We are all ethnic .

Time for a more accurate update and rename I would say ?
 
I like the idea of "World Foods" with country-specific subsections (e.g. China, Italy, France, Thailand, etc).

It may be difficult to categorize some recipes, though. I would suppose those could go under the general forum recipes section.
 
Thanks for the suggestion.

The site team has started discussing this. If a change is made we want to be sure we get it right the first time and as such it might take some time for this to come to fruition.
 
I like the idea of "World Foods" with country-specific subsections (e.g. China, Italy, France, Thailand, etc).

It may be difficult to categorize some recipes, though. I would suppose those could go under the general forum recipes section.
I like "World Foods" too.
 
I like World Cuisine, it better describes what the section is trying to delineate.
 
If all foods are world foods, why do they need a separate category? We also have "World Foods" recipes in the generic categories. Why confuse the issue?

Chinese Pepper Steak - World foods or Beef?

Hungarian Goulash - World foods or Beef or Soups, Stews and Casseroles?

American Chop Suey - World foods or pasta?

I vote we eliminate the category all together. It makes the site more inclusive without arbitrary segregation.
 
If all foods are world foods, why do they need a separate category? We also have "World Foods" recipes in the generic categories. Why confuse the issue?

Chinese Pepper Steak - World foods or Beef?

Hungarian Goulash - World foods or Beef or Soups, Stews and Casseroles?

American Chop Suey - World foods or pasta?

I vote we eliminate the category all together. It makes the site more inclusive without arbitrary segregation.

Agreed.
 
I totally agree with Andy. Eliminating the category makes the most sense. Then people can tag their recipe as "Asian", "Italian", etc. Keeping the categories to the actual food items then searching on that for specifics is the most logical IMHO.
 
I totally agree with Andy. Eliminating the category makes the most sense. Then people can tag their recipe as "Asian", "Italian", etc. Keeping the categories to the actual food items then searching on that for specifics is the most logical IMHO.
Ya know, I think that's the way to go. We just have to remember to tag posts.
 
I totally agree with Andy. Eliminating the category makes the most sense. Then people can tag their recipe as "Asian", "Italian", etc. Keeping the categories to the actual food items then searching on that for specifics is the most logical IMHO.

I agree as well. I know it would be a huge task to move all the threads in that category to new ones, so I'd like to volunteer to help with that, if needed.
 
Last edited:
The more I think about it, the more I agree with Andy's idea of eliminating "ethnic foods" as a sub category.
For example, if I'm browsing the pork category for something to make with the pork I have, many good pork recipes are hiding in the "ethnic foods" and missed altogether.
 
The more I think about it, the more I agree with Andy's idea of eliminating "ethnic foods" as a sub category.
For example, if I'm browsing the pork category for something to make with the pork I have, many good pork recipes are hiding in the "ethnic foods" and missed altogether.

That's true. But by that reasoning a lot of pork recipes are hiding out in the outdoor cooking forum, let alone the sub-forums of smoking, grilling and what have you... or the slow cooker forum or one of the other ones. I was surprised to see we didn't have a stir-fry forum, or maybe I missed it.

That is the caveat. You can never be too descriptive. And on the other hand KISS.

I thought Andy's suggestion was perfect when I read it. Now I'm thinking the World Cuisines idea might be better. If you have some pork and are leaning towards sweet 'n sour, go browse through the Asian Cuisines/Pork forum. It narrows it down instead of one catch-all pork forum, let alone what to do with Outdoor Cooking or any of the others. As in what if I take my wok outside :wacko:

So my ultimate suggestion is to turn the whole index page (concerning foods) into World Cuisines. Get rid of Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison and instead have American: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison, European: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison, African: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison... actually, Venison should probably be omitted and in a "Game Meats" forum...

So really I do not see a right or wrong way to go about this. Nothing will work to appease everyone. But I still think the term ethnic is a bit clumsy. What is ethnic to some isn't ethnic to others.
 
Oh!!! This is a dilemma, at first I agreed with GQ , then with Andy, then as each post came along, I could see merit......my head is spinning! I guess it's a good thing I am not a mod or tech. ;). I like the term Cuisines of the World, but honestly how would we break that down? There are 196 countries in the world and for the most part, the cuisine is different. Talk about cumbersome. What about International Cuisine and just breaking it down to

Middle Eastern
Asian
Italian
French
German
and
Other
But then we would probably miss someone and oh dear!!!! As I said a dilemma :)
 
...So my ultimate suggestion is to turn the whole index page (concerning foods) into World Cuisines. Get rid of Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison and instead have American: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison, European: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison, African: Beef, Pork, Lamb & Venison... actually, Venison should probably be omitted and in a "Game Meats" forum...

I agree simplification is good idea. Fred, with your suggestion, we'd have to add a group of new forums for every location around the world. Besides, many foods cannot be tied to a single modern country so much as a region. I can see arguments over whether a specific dish is Libyan, Moroccan or Egyptian.

As globalization continues, we'll all be eating new and different foods for us. I suggest we don't apply labels at all, just identify a dish by its main ingredient.

Having an Ethnic Foods forum with "other countries'"recipes and American dishes in other categories says this is an American food forum first. Not a good message to send. DC has become a global forum with members from around the world. We shouldn't try to label food origins, just ingredients.
 
Diligence with tags, not only of ingredients but also cuisine would be needed.

Andy's idea is elegant and simple. Creating a whole slew of new forums and then getting all the recipes in the correct one could be very time consuming.
 
Back
Top Bottom