What is your favorite food culture?

[Critical]

My boss every year took us to Cheesecake Factory for our Christmas party and now that I am laid off I am glad I don't have to go there anymore. I do not like the place but I know there are others who love it.

I never go there unless someone else is paying. Some of their cheesecakes are okay (I'm not a sweets person), but I think their food is mediocre. I've eaten there a number of times over the years and I've never really been impressed The ONLY chain I will go to is BJ's Brewhouse. I'm lucky enough to live in a city with hundreds of choices that aren't chains....or are little, local chains. My favorite Mexican around here is a locally-owned chain of only 7 restaurants in our metropolitan area.

M_Shell - you're making me crave Indian food! I like butter chicken too - they sell a pretty good frozen butter chicken at Trader Joe's. None of the Indian places here make it, so TJ's helps satisfy the craving! I made aloo gobi and korma (with leftover turkey) earlier in the week. There was a fabulous Indian takeout at my university campus. I ate there at least twice a week. They never had much of a line. Those clods waiting in long lines at the burrito place (or, ick, Burger King) didn't know what they were missing!

I don't have a favorite cuisine - if the food is great, it doesn't matter! We have pretty much everything in this city: Greek, Indian, every kind of Middle Eastern, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, French, all Asian cuisines, Italian, of course and anything else you could want. We're totally spoiled. Sometimes, deciding where to go out to eat takes a LONG time!

[pikachu]

An online friend of mine gave me a recipe for butter chicken. I haven't tried it yet. There's one restaurant in my area that has butter chicken on the menu but only at lunchtime. One of these days when I have the day off from work and have time for a leisurely lunch I'll have to go there and try it out! I'd rather try the recipe once before attempting to make it so I know how it's supposed to taste.

I made jambalaya for my dad once without ever having had it and honestly, I didn't know if it came out right or not. It didn't taste that great to me so I didn't know if I did something wrong or if the recipe just didn't appeal to me.

[M_shelll]

When I first started to try more new foods, pretty much right after I moved here, a coworker of mine from India made a huge batch of butter chicken for the whole office. I was amazing lol, she used to tell us even the best Indian restaurants here weren't very good compared to her moms cooking so she made one of her moms recipes to show us, even the people who didn't normally try new food were all over it. My favorite way to have it is on jasmine rise with naan bread.

[Bunny555]

I grew up on Italian cuisine and all that came with it. I still put up a pot of sauce (we don't call it gravy here) every Sunday morning and my son and his friends show up like clockwork to dunk bread into the pot before it's done. I also grew up in a predominately Polish neighborhood so their food is very near and dear to my heart.

[Cootie]

I love Mexican, Asian and Hawaiian food! I have friends who had a Hawaiian restaurant and I got to try many new foods and I enjoyed those experiences. I grew up in Southern California and have lived in Hawaii, so those locales have influenced my palate. But I find I like trying many types of food - there are great food carts in Portland that I visit and I try many types of foods. Ultimately at home, I try to work from my favorites and cook with nutrition in mind. And use what local ingredients I have at hand.

I would like to add that it would be great to have Bunny555 as my next door neighbor so I could try out some of her cooking! And those of you who can cook Indian food, I would like to know more!

[Lucynda]

I consider myself very lucky to have grown up in possibly one of the most multicultural cities in the world Melbourne Aust.
More Greeks than Athens, more Maltese than the whole of Malta, a mini Vietnam, a Chinatown, and Little Italy not to mention communities of SE Asians, South Americans, Turkish, Pacific Islanders and even Ethiopians
I remember the first time an Ethopian restaurant opened in a street near my university close to 20 years ago and all I could think of was seeing the Red Cross on TV giving out SAO biscuits to starving Ethopians and my silly teenage brain wondering how many things could they make out of SAO biscuits and porridge.
I now live in Singapore soon to be moving to Jakarta so I am lucky that I have always loved Asian food and the spicier the better so my favourite is probably Malaysian, although I do love Thai food and Vietnamese and Singapore Chilli Crab has be the best thing ever created and I cant resist a good Chicken curry
So maybe I will just say SE Asian including India, then again if offered a curry or a Souvalaki not sure which I would choose but that maybe just because I am a little home sick at the moment

[Rattus]

I truly hate to do the one-upmanship thing , but I live in what is actually (at least according to UNESCO) the most multi-cultural city in the world. We have a little bit of everything here, and it's a fantastic place for the inveterate restaurant goer. Which, sadly, I am not. We do have some excellent delivery places though.

Oh, and I forgot to mention above, love Ethiopian food. Have a hankering for an injera and some spicy lamb right about now.

[SugarMama]

Italian, then Mexican, then Polynesian. That's all I'd want in Heaven

[pikachu]

Italian, then Mexican, then Polynesian. That's all I'd want in Heaven

The men or the food? lol!

[SugarMama]

The men or the food? lol!

YES