What's a popular food/dish in your country/culture?

[Leyelle]

In my country we eat a lot of viveres = plain boiled root vegetables and green bananas. Occasionally they'll be boiled in salt water and eaten with sauteed onions, and if farmers can afford it, they'll eat it them with a fried egg, but eggs are not cheap, especially in the mountains.

Our national dish though, is mangu, fried cheese, fried salami and fried eggs (aka, a heart disease starter pack.) I'm not sure how many people besides my family actually eat fried cheese, but mangu and mofongo are pretty popular.

(Oh, I'm from the Dominican Republic, forgot to mention that.)

What do people eat in your country? We can help each other write more realistically when we write characters from other countries/cultures.

[thepenmonster]

There's a reason we all have high blood pressure here in Nova Scotia.

Donair

Poutine

In general tho it's potatoes, meat, and veg.

[kyupol]

Adobo

Lechon

Palabok

I don't like them though and only eat when it's served to me so I'm not rude. lol

[kyupol]

I love poutine. Especially Canadian Burger King one.

[applebun]

I have quite the mixed background, so describing the foods from every culture would be a bit too long (and boring lol, as these are actually pretty “mainstream”). So I’ll just describe some popular foods in Germany, where I currently live:
Traditional German cuisine has a lot of boiled potato dishes, and I mean a LOT. This was even somewhat of a problem for me as a child who DESPISED boiled potatoes (still hate them now). Mashed potatoes, potatoes boiled with peel on, potato salad… every dish would have a side of boiled potatoes. Basically anything that has potatoes in it. French fries are also quite popular for this reason, even though they aren’t traditional German cuisine.
Then, bread. I kid you not. You’ll usually hear this as a stereotype, but it’s true. Bread, both for breakfast and dinner, and there’s like infinite variety. Germans will cry at the sight of your generic toast that, according to a friend, “you can flatten and fold origami out of it”. Though it does get boring to eat bread all day every day (had this experience at a German summer camp & it was NOT pleasant).
Also, Döner (actually, Döner kebab). Especially popular in the big cities. Certain people will argue that it’s not “real” German food, but contrary to popular beliefs, it’s a German invention - it was invented in Germany by Turkish immigrants. Go to Turkey and you won’t see a single Döner anywhere. It’s hard to describe all the stuff that goes in there, so here’s a picture:

Hope this excessive info dump on German food will help you with whatever you’d need it for lol.

[Leyelle]

It might be useful. I have a German character who somehow is incapable of gaining weight, and I can see her eating the last item on your list even though her roommate would probably harass her for it, since it looks like it would be hard to eat while still looking like a lady XD. But what ethnicities are you? I'm curious, I have a lot of different ethnicities in my mix too. Being Dominican and African American, I'm also part Spanish (and most likely Arawak)

[Lensing]

I didn´t know you were german too

[Lensing]

There is a lot of stereotypes about german food. The bread stereotype which @applebun described
is 100% true. Bread is super important and we have (literally) thousands of different bread recipes.
My father is only happy when there is good bread (toast is bad) and potatoes in the house.

German food is very varied. People usually only know the cliché stuff and the fast food and
think we all live on sausages, bread, bretzl, currywurst and döner.

We have a large variety of soups and other dishes. There are unlimited german and local
dishes. Healthy and unhealthy stuff. Main dishes and dessert.

Currywurst, fries + mayonaise is a quite popular fast food thing.
(I love it, especially when I´m drunk)

Lental, bean, pea soup are very common

The other picture is Sauerbraten (some kind of sour meat), red cabbish, knödel (some kind of dumplings)
not very healthy but super delicious

The last picture is a local dessert where I live (Münsterland, West Germany) they serve it on every
wedding. Some kind of pudding with chocolate pieces and rum. It´s called "Herrencreme" and
it´s highly addictive, I actually ate it yesterday in a restaurant

[NickRowler]

Black beans are common in Guatemalan dishes

Black beans with rice

Refried black beans on corn tortillas. Ducal is a good brand if you want to try it.

Bonus is when they were serve with Queso Fresco

[Caro]

I’m Puerto Rican so our food is very similar!

I make a lot of Puerto Rican food every week. Like arroz con gandules, habichuelas guisadas, pastelillos, tostones, etc.

[WildMoonCrow]

Norwegian food actually varies a lot depending on what part of the country. I’m from eastern-inland Norway, and meatballs with brown sauce and boiled potato is very popular (not the tiny Swedish meatballs, big ones). There is also minced moose which has been fried with onion and boiled potato. And the strange but actually very tasty, Rømmegrøt (sour cream porridge topped with cinnamon and sugar) with boiled potato and fish
These are just popular in the tiny corner of Norway I’m from :3
Brown cheese is probably one of the most famous things from anywhere in Norway tho, it’s like a sweet-ish goat cheese.

[quintellit]

I would have to say Red rice and stew!

[thepenmonster]

live on sausages, bread, bretzl, currywurst and döner

Challenge accepted!!

[applebun]

hard to eat while still looking like a lady

lol, young German people would probably disagree with you here. They say “Döner macht schöner“ (“Döner makes you beautiful”). And yes, it rhymes.

As to what ethnicities I am: It’s complicated, especially right now. I live in Germany, have lived here all my life, but I’m not “technically” German as I don’t have a German citizenship. I am technically American, but I would actually be considered a second generation immigrant in the US. As for my family & ancestors, they’re Eastern European (a mix of different countries here) and Jewish. So, with everything that’s going on in the world right now… yikes. Yeah, I think “yikes” sums up my cultural identities perfectly. Also a perfect recipe for identity crises on a regular basis.

But hey, I can at least tell you about any of the foods eaten in any of these cultures. At least something useful that comes out of this crazy mix.

[ShidoDraws]

I'm a Hmong American, my culture's food is kind of mixed between Vietnamese dishes and Laotian dishes. Even in recent history our dishes have adapted to Thai dishes. And in today's world my people are now into burgers and pizzas. (Unenthusiastically) Yay, congrats to us.

So I can't even say what is my culture's popular dish when we don't have a country in so long. Because we were farms before the 1970s, historically people usually eat rice with chili peppers, if they get to eat at all.

But if you ask another person they'd probably say papaya salad or sticky rice in bamboo or sticky rice in banana leaf. In today's society though it's probably leaning towards kapoon (some sort of noodles) and naab vaam (a sweet treat).