Food rants and raves

[Agostinho]

Mexican restaurants here tend to be pretty tacky Montezuma's-style joints, it must be hard for anyone opening a serious Mexican place to overcome those stereotypes.

I have noticed a slight increase in Spanish-speaking people around the place in Adelaide (Flores & Usucar for starters ) so maybe we'll see a bit more Latin American food other than all the Argentinian steakhouses before too long

Next time you're in Melbourne there's some fantastic South American (particularly Venezuelan) restaurants around Fitzroy worth checking out.

Mmmmm, arepas...

[Old Gregg]

Shit yeah, that sounds good..

[David Votoupal]

I wish there were places we could get pupusas, and khachapuri.

[shinAUFC]

Not to open up a can of worms,

but who are we to say what is and is not genuine Mexican food?

It reminds me of a time a mate who for all intent and purposes is 100% australian with an italian name decided he was now full blooded , born and bread calabrese, decided to tell my parter who was born and lived over ten years in milan that she knows nothing about italian food LOL (to be fair he was not aware she wasnt born here)

im not starting shit, just curious what makes it genuine?

[sevengoals]

^^
Interesting point.
I suppose if you had visited said country and spent time there, living amongst the locals, eating with them at their home tables or street food, you would get an idea of what's authentic.
Of course there would also be variations in the recipes from house to house, not everyone makes the same dish exactly the same.

I rarely go to Greek restaurants in Vienna because most taste like the tourist restaurants in Greece but the Viennese look upon them as "authentic" because they are like the Tavernas they go to on the Greek Islands.
Authentic Greek Taverna in a tourist area?
Mixed meze platter,
Souvlaki, chips and Greek salad for everybody...
Baklava +Greek coffee for desert
Yer right.

I suppose it depends on who the migrants are.
We have good Turkish restaurants here in Vienna because we have a big Turkish community.
Asian food tends to be "Europeanized" but good places are showing up. They don't do "heat" well here in Austria.



Interesting read in the Age
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/globa ... 1b0bh.html

[bundibundi]

Its true that there is a big increase in central/south americans coming to Adelaide. I know a lot of Colombians who have come to Australia with a view to live there. I love it, latina women are the best in the world in my opinion, happy to have them in Australia Strangely enough it seems to be the people from the spanish speaking countries that stay... Brazilians seem to have some kind of attachment to their country and mostly always end up going back, though they do find Australia an ideal place to study due to its similar weather and the people are generally a pretty welcoming mob.

Back on topic, I'm not a big fan of beans which seems to be a staple in a lot of central/south american food. Brazilian cuisine isnt very exciting, beans rice and whatever you can fit in a deep fryer. However, one dish to try is Feijoada - black bean stew with all the bits of a pig or cow that you would never want to eat. Its actually delicious, and is luckily made of the only bean I can stomache - black beans. Otherwise, brazilian BBQ or churrasco is quite nice. highly seasoned meats (a shit load of salt garlic and onion) are slow grilled on a woodfire BBQ and cut into small portions, one benefit of the high saltiness factor is that you need to accompany it with a good cold beer.

The best restaurant in Adelaide (IMVHO) is Royal Tandoori on Unley Rd (dont be fooled into going to the Raj on Taj next door!) amazing indian food. Next is Ying chow (a friend of mine said that a reporter for the times travelled the world reviewing restaurants and named it his number 1 restaurant. Im yet to find any evidence of this claim), I've tried a lot of the other restaurants in chinatown and Ying chow just seems to do it for me every time. Ding hao for yum cha a close second. Special mention to Lemongrass for the crocodile, it was delicious.

Anyone in Sydney should try out any restaurant Shane Watson is executive chef of these days, everything he touches turns to deliciousness. He was the head chef at The Red Sea (from my restaurant rules days) and his career has only blossomed since opening up restaurants in Qld Fiji and NZ, last I heard he was head chef at Wildfire but a quick check of their website lists someone else (an adelaide boy by the looks of it).

The best food in the world is Japanese. I love it and would live on it it if I could. Weird wacky and delicious. Who would have thought eating a raw piece of fish with a little soy sauce could be so nice.