Where ya from and what do you eat?

[Hal Johnson]

Marco's post gave me an idea...

Im half Lebenese and half Scottish. Unfortunately, the Scottish side of my family doesnt offer much in the way of strange wonderful foods, but the Lebenese side does. Kibbeh, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbeh , is a dish my grandmammy (called Sitto in arabic) makes usually at Christmas or easter. Very tasty, very different from what I usually eat.

Though I am no cook (i stink in the kitchen) I do enjoy basically every type of food and am always open to suggestions. So I ask - what do other people eat and where's it from? Fista and I are always stumped when it comes to seeking out different foods, especially in Waterloo, so Im hoping you guys can offer up some good choices.

Edited February 29, 2008 by Guest

[MarcO]

From my Scottish side, I ate traditional breakfast fry-ups growing up, on weekend mornings. It really should be illegal to serve this to anyone who can't cook for themselves but it's those awesome square sausages, blood pudding, British style bacon, eggs, beans, potato scones and when it's all fried up you dunk pieces of white bread into all the fat and fry it up. The average Scotsman lives to, I think, 32.

Apart from that, it was the post-war mentality of convenience shit foods, so I ate a lot of frozen fish sticks growing up. Never again. Mince n' tatties, a lot of that. HP Sauce. Mmmmmmmmm.

We did have haggis occasionally, never made at home, but occasionally served at other people's houses. I certainly had it in Scotland when I was there ten or so years ago. It's not quite the horrors you would think, it's actually rather unremarkable. But tasty ennough. Beyond that, there were Yorkshire puddings and Sunday roasts. YUM!

On my Polish side, my dad loved Polish sausage. We also had cabbage stew, I forget the name of it, but that slow roasted cabbage in cream sauce with kielbassa and whatever was around thrown in. It's this sdie of my heritage that made that Polish dish I posted earlier look so good.

But to be honest, my favorite food memory growing up was the simple lunch my Mom would make me when I might come home from grade school for lunch (I lived pretty close to my school). Just bread topped with medium or old cheddar and broiled in the toaster oven. Some cracked pepper on top and I would be happy, just watching The Flintstones, munching away. You could really taste the love.

Great thread idea!

[Ms Zimmy]

My dad was born in Holland and we didn't eat much traditional Dutch foods unless we went to my Oma and Opa's...lots of gouda and salamis, soups with Maggie...my Oma would make meatball soup, she would make about 600 tiny little meat balls...we loved it.

My mom is Québécoise and my grandfather had his own trap line...they were a family of hunters and outdoors peeps, so we ate lots of wild game, partridge tourtiere, moose, venison, caribou. My mom didn't like to cook wild game…so we slowly stopped eating it, lots fresh fish (we lived our cottage all summer so we would fish everyday)...lots of stews, we raised our own chickens and laying hens. All homemade preserves and bread.

Lots of desserts, like molasses cookies (that has to be french, I have never heard of anyone else eating those), lots and lots of pie, my mom would send us out and pick berries all day with my cousins and my mom and aunts would make pie all day....sugar pie (a huge butter tart...can there be anything better then that, although I forget what it tastes like now).

[Hal Johnson]

My mom is Québécoise and my grandfather had his own trap line...they were a family of hunters and outdoors peeps, so we ate lots of wild game, partridge tourtiere, moose, venison, caribou.

Both sides of my family landed in Quebec, in Royn-Noranda. Though I grew up in Toronto, I know exactly the life you mean. Many of my relatives still live up north and whenever I visit its Moose-meat this, or Moose-meat that.

I took the family up last year and it happened to be Moose hunting season. I had completely forgot that guys drive around with Mooseheads on top of their cars to show off their kill! You should have seen the look on my fiance's face! Welcome to the north my dear...

[phorbesie]

i grew up on the west coast so nothing too ethnic...

but we lived on the beach, so my dad would take me out to catch crabs on the beach and then we'd cook them up for dinner. also we had tons of blackberry bushes all over the place so i'd bring home buckets of them and my mom would make pies all summer long. that's my favourite kind of pie haven't had it forever...sigh.

i don't remember anything else that was too special. lots of salmon of course!

[AdamH]

The Jew side loves a good falafel, good hummus and good bakklava...when I say Jew I mean "Foods that Jews, Palestinians, lebanese and Greeks all claim to have invented"

The honky side loves everything else really. I love it all though Poutine and Shwarma I'm done with having had each far too many times in 5 years in Ottawa.

And for the record, and FYI Bouche, I LOVE sausage as a main course and I HATE stuffed peppers

[Ms Zimmy]

Both sides of my family landed in Quebec, in Royn-Noranda.

I took the family up last year and it happened to be Moose hunting season. I had completely forgot that guys drive around with Mooseheads on top of their cars to show off their kill! You should have seen the look on my fiance's face! Welcome to the north my dear...

I have family in Royn-Noranda, and all over Quebec really...I find that they talk louder the further north you go.

Yeah the moose heads... :confused: I don't get it...But then, when we used to go play at my grandfathers house, he would have beaver pelts stetching in his living room...nasty. Once I remember playing in his yard, we were building a fort (of course) and I found a beaver in the snow, it was skinned, no fur or skin. Talk about a bunch of kids freaking out. It must have fallen off the truck or something.

[Hal Johnson]

I have family in Royn-Noranda, and all over Quebec really...I find that they talk louder the further north you go.

Hahaha! They talk louder, can tell you anything about any boat and motor and can whip you at Euchre and Cribbage. I miss the north.

[phishtaper]

The Jew side loves a good falafel, good hummus and good bakklava...when I say Jew I mean "Foods that Jews, Palestinians, lebanese and Greeks all claim to have invented"

i must admit, ive never heard anyone claim baklava as jewish next you'll be telling me that borscht is chinese lol

[rubberdinghy]

Scottish = Bland....

Story of my life....

My brother once sneaked garlic into my Dad's spaghetti sauce....he would not eat it.

[c-towns]

straight up meat and potatoes here, I never new you could eat meat that wasn't well done for the first 15 years of my life, I've cooked the most succulent steaks for my folks and they are unimpressed.

I do have some relatives from Quebec who had sugar bushes so amazing maple sugar was always at the table, my gramma also made a teeth melting maple sugar/fudge like dish.

[Ms.Huxtable]

I have a Scottish/Irish/Welsh background but none of the traditional food ever made it into my belly. We were raised on a farm in the country so we ate A LOT of chicken, corn and potatos. In fact, I visited my grandmothers last year and they both served me the exact same meal, I couldn't believe it. Chicken, corn, potatoes and iceberg lettuce.

The food I recall from my childhood was Kraft dinner, tomato soup (made with water not milk), peanut butter sandwiches, Mr. Noodles, fish sticks, puffed wheat that came in huge sacks, basically anything that was cheap enough to feed a family of 6.

One of my favorite things that Mom would make was in a big roast pan (the size big enough for turkeys) she would put white rice, some water, a couple cans of mushroom soup and peices of chicken. I actually loved that dish cause it was the fanciest thing she made!

[Hal Johnson]

To be honest - I was terrified of the lebanese food my family would make when I was a kid. It all smelled funny and had scary names. It wasnt until I was older that actually tried it and liked it. It was like Green Eggs n Ham!

So until that point, my favorite meal was Sheppard's Pie. What a combo! In fact, Sheppard's Pie is still up there for me.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

One of my favorite things that Mom would make was in a big roast pan (the size big enough for turkeys) she would put white rice, some water, a couple cans of mushroom soup and peices of chicken. I actually loved that dish cause it was the fanciest thing she made!

Hahaha, when booche was in his 20s that was the meal he made to impress the ladies!

Edited March 4, 2008 by Guest
cosmic irony or summat

[djmelbatoast]

My family is Scottish so we had the most bland food imaginable.

Mince and tatties. Why would anyone ever boil ground beef?

Boiled Lima beans.

Roasts cooked until they were tough as leather.

Dinghy, you say your dad wouldn't eat garlic? Well mine wouldn't eat pasta. He'd have Chicken Noodle Soup and leave the noodles in the bottom.

Also, my grandfather never ate pizza in his life, wouldn't even try it. Would just ask for some mince and tatties if it was ordered.

[phishtaper]

hey, there seem to be a lot of scots here. (perhaps we could unite and take over.) my mom also served boiled lima beans when i was a kiddie - sadly, they were my exotic.

friday nights were burger nights. 52 weeks a year. i quite liked fridays, specially in the summer. wasnt there some deal about eating meat on friday because of some religion or something? or, eating fish on fridays?

[Ms Zimmy]

It all smelled funny and had scary names.

Haha

[bradm]

wasnt there some deal about eating meat on friday because of some religion or something? or, eating fish on fridays?

http://www.happinessonline.org/BeTemperate/p18.htm

Aloha,

Brad

[Jakis]

I am yugoslavian and french so at big family dinners there was always cabage rolls, meat pie, perogies. We also had molasses cookies at dessert.

[fluffhead77]

mom is from Montreal, so tons of tortiere and split pea soup. Dad was a classically trained French chef that spent the bulk of his career cooking for the British Royal family, so it was lots of different foods all the time but tasty!

[phishtaper]

Dad was a classically trained French chef that spent the bulk of his career cooking for the British Royal family

is this true? or, have I just eagerly eaten up a big plate of gullible?

[Esau.]

Russian/Ukrainian/English heritage.

Although I haven't eaten some of these dishes in years, I did fairly regularly while growing up.

-Cabbage rolls

-perogies

-boiled potatoes (always when growing up)

-ponchiki

-ukha (fish soup)

I also ate a lot of wild game (moose, venison, bear, elk etc) since my Dad was an avid hunter for many years, up until my early teens anyway. Now-a-days, I still get moose, caribou & musk ox meat for BBQ'n, usually around mid-march I have some caribou & musk ox sent to me from a friend in the Yukon & get my moose meat (usually ground) from a buddy on the rez.

I eat a good amount of fish as well (bass/pickerel/perch), especially since I do a fair bit of camping/portaging & fishing during the summer. I have had some great perch dinners recently though, after a couple of ice fishing trips this year.

Aside from that, I eat your everyday foods as I'm not the most creative (or just lazy I guess) when it comes to cooking.

[fluffhead77]

Dad was a classically trained French chef that spent the bulk of his career cooking for the British Royal family

is this true? or' date=' have I just eagerly eaten up a big plate of gullible? [/quote']

It's the truf'... I can provide photo evidence of the Royals taken from my bedroom window in W. Castle if need be.

[ollie]

My brother once sneaked garlic into my Dad's spaghetti sauce....he would not eat it.

Your Dad is a good man.

[rubberdinghy]

Ollie, you don't like the garlic...

Fluffhead...the avatar scares the hell outta me!