What's your national dish - or, is there any such thing?

Poland's easy - pierogi (which may actually be an import from China via the Mongol/Tatar hordes!) People rarely have time to make them at home anymore, except for special occasions, but there are dozens of restaurants specialising in them. Mind you, I love when we do have time, with three generations of women in one kitchen, making pierogi and gossiping.

Mind you, apart from pierogi I'd separate "most popular to make at home" (breaded pork cutlet + potatoes + sauerkraut) from "most popular eating-out food" (donner kebab!) and would rather award "National Dish" to bigos, an amazingly savory concoction of sauerkraut, cabbage, wild mushrooms, and whatever scraps of fresh and cured meats happen to be at hand. It's one of those winter dishes that tastes best when you've been reboiling the same pot for a week, and I cook it for at least four hours before dishing out the first portions.

That ramen looks absolutely wonderful! It's hard to pick popular dishes for the US because we're a nation of everyone and we sure do enjoy all the food influences everyone has contributed. Plus, we're young compared to others. How about apple pie, macaroni and cheese and roast turkey?

Well, here in Brazil it's kind of regional... anyone would say feijoada, but where I live black beans aren't that popular, opposed to the southeast where that's almost the only kind you can afford to buy. In the Northeast region (where I live) there's a lot of regionalisms as well and each state has its typical foods.. up north is even more difficult to get a consensus, they eat very distinct food because of the proximity to the rainforest.
So I would say 'caldinho de feijão' (beans broth), feijoada, and my topmost favorite one, 'baião de dois' (green beans and rice cooked together)which is more regional.
Uh.. I guess beans would be the national ingredient, and of course caipirinha the national drink (though we drink more beer...)!

That's some difficult question, even more in a gigantic country like Brazil!

The USA does get rather a bashing with people saying we have no national cuisine or saying it's nothing more than hamburgers. That's deeply unfair and I think, as Maki points out, barbecue is one of our unique and fine examples of American cuisine.

Now that I live abroad I think of some strange things as American in such a way that they remind me of home. Maybe that's what makes a national dish as much as what people in said nation choose to eat. Macaroni and Cheese is one that stands out, as well as cranberry sauce and potato or macaroni salad. Dare I mention tuna casserole? I love it. Oh, and brownies! And hot fudge sundaes! Ice cream cake isn't one I miss that much but it is very American and it's also really popular, at least among my friends and family. As a New Englander real clam chowder, clambakes, lobster rolls, and snickerdoodles can't be forgotten. Maybe chowder is the American dish.

A decent Caesar salad can't be had for love nor money outside of the 50 United States and it's so popular even fast food outlets offer some horrible rendition thereof. The classic Fawlty Towers episode also requires me to mention Waldorf Salad.

That's a very interesting post. I knew that both ramen and curry are not originally Japanese but I had no idea these are the most popular dishes. According to Wikipedia the national Polish dish is bigos - stewed sourkraut with meat and spices, and I agree but pork chop with boiled potatoes is also very popular and regarded as "our" dish. Old traditional cookbooks mentioned roasted pig stuffed with vegetables as a Polish cooking tradition but you cannot see it on today's table too often. *^v^*

I live in Bermuda, and our three main dishes that we consider national dishes are: codfish & potatoes, fish chowder, and cassava pie.

Codfish & potatoes is a traditional breakfast dish which is simply boiled codfish and boiled potatoes but is served with a tomato based sauce, sautéed onions, avocados, hard-boiled eggs and ripe bananas.

Fish chowder is a red soup, and as many varieties as here are people who cook it, but it's usually served with the local black rum and sherry pepper vinegar to add into it.

Cassava pie uses ground cassava instead of flour to bake this heavy cake, and has a layer of boiled chicken running through the center of it, and the juice left over from boiling the chicken is poured over the top to moisten and brown the pie. This is a traditional side dish or dessert (similar to the American cornbread) that's usually eaten at Christmas or during a local midsummer holiday.

Ok my three top national dishes for the united states are- Pizza, hamburgers, and chinese food. How's that.... ha ha.

イギリス人です。ここにはカレーも国民食。皆大好き.

I think the 2 national dishes of the United States are
1) The Peanut-Butter and Jelly Sandwich
2) the chocolate-chip cookie
and the national drink, of course, is Coca-cola. We are a sweets-loving people, known for walking and eating at the same time.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find an American child who hasn't eaten each of these foods a million times. And when Americans go abroad, these are the things they miss (well, not the Coke...)

There actually isn't any. Not only because no dish is popular in the whole country (I think a few dishes are, like pizza), but because the dishes on the "Croatian autochthonous cuisine" list pretty much all belong to some other national cuisine.

Some of the dishes Croatian lawmakers claim are autochthonous Croatian are: head cheese, oysters, blood pudding, prosciutto, pancetta, tuna in oil, Krautfleckerl, potato gnocchi, potato soup, tomato soup, pasta e fagioli, tripe, beefsteak, sarma, (buckwheat) kasha, Knödel, tomato salsa, biscottini, Buchteln, Kletzenbrot, cotognata, Honigkuchen... Of course, most names are transcribed to Croatian language to hide their origins.

This list is a national embarrassment. Admitting that Croatian cuisine is a combination of the cuisines of neighbouring countries would help Croatian tourism much more.

I live in Belgium and i would say Belgium's 'national dish' is French Fries^^ Belgians are really fond of their fries and the whole take-out french fry culture used to be huge. That is, of course,until doner kebab became really popular.

On the other hand I am turkish myself but I have no idea what Turkeys national dish would be. Since it's such a big country, every region has it's own specialities. For example, the region of Urfa is really known for it's kebabs (really the different types are endless) and the regions close to the Black sea are known for their many dishes in which the main ingredient is the European anchovy. The regions closer to the Aegean sea are known for their many olive oil-based vegetarian dishes. Funny thing is, doner kebab isn't half as popular in Turkey as it is in Europe nowadays^^

Canadian here. Poutine (gravy and cheese curds on fries) is usually quoted as our national dish, as well as maple syrup. Both are delicious, and I highly recommend them to anyone who hasn't tried them.

Australia is a hard one, being such a multicultural country we eat such a variety of foods from a range of cultures.

Traditionally foods thought of as our national dish are VERY British, like meat pies, fish and chips and roast lamb.

But with 25% of the Australian population being born overseas, I don't think that those dishes really represent us as a people any more.

They are still up there in the list mind you, but you would have to add things like pasta and pizza, stir-fry and kebabs.

We are also experiencing a resurgence of traditional Indigenous culture, and a embracing of natives foods, so maybe Bush Tucker should be our national dish.

I was raised in the US but born in the UK, and we visited family there a lot when I was a child, so with nostalgic fondness for British food:

Fish & Chips
Pork Pies
Swiss rolls

All dishes I was excited to eat when we went there.

I think for the US I'll only try to talk about regional dishes, and as a Northeasterner living near Philadelphia, I love cheesesteaks, crabcakes and Maryland Crab Soup. Yum!

Italy: well, we just have too many, national, regional and even city specialties. I'd go with Pizza, although it has been hijacked and sometimes perverted by US-based fast food chains. Wikipedia claims pasta (south, like pizza) and polenta. I'd add Saffron Risotto (also a northern specialty). My town has a couple of specialties seldom found elsewhere, Frog Risotto (yeah, exactly what you think) and Pavese soup, allegedly invented to warm up and feed a defeated French king that happened to take refuge in a farmhouse near my town... @Donsie: Cesar's Salad was invented in Tijuana :)

If it weren't disputed between us and the Kiwis, I'd say Pavlova was Australia's national dish. Instead I'll go for lamingtons, BBQd lamb leg and damper.

Lamingtons I'm pretty sure are an Aussie original. BBQ is certainly not unique to Australia, nor the US, but it's fairly representative of our outdoors (in Spring, Summer, Autumn) lifestyle. And damper adds the historical aspect.

As an outsider, I would've said the US's foods were hotdogs, brownies and clam chowder? Or even things like grits and cornbread which seem uniquely American?

I'm currently living in Japan and I absolutely agree that curry and ramen are the top 2. It's astonishing how few Japanese recognise these as of foreign origin.

This is such an interesting question. I live in Brazil, which I highly suspect is as culturally diverse as it can get. Besides the european influences from the Portuguese colonizers and Italian immigrants (so many of them came to Brazil in search for jobs once slavery was abolished), there is also the undeniable presence of the native indian traditions (especially up north) and african legacy, the result of centuries as the world's leading slave market. Furthermore, Brazil has always been big on miscegenation (blame it on the heat, haha), which lead to the consolidation of its post as a cultural melting pot. I remember going to high school in the US and having to fill in a survey with my ethnicity (caucasian/african american/asian/native american/etc) and literally laughing out loud just at thinking of how to answer- like most brazilians, if I were to be accurate, I would have to check at least five boxes. Our food reflects our rich culture and history, and although there are plenty of dishes typical to certain regions, most of them can be found nationwide nowadays. To pick three: "feijoada", typical of the southeast region, a legacy from when slaves would stew scrap meat with black beans to make it last. It's usually served with sides such as white rice, "farofa", kale and orange slices. In the northeast, seafood is very accessible, and "acarajé" is ubiquitous. It consists of white bean patties deep fried in palm tree oil, and afterwards filled with a spicy shrimp mixture. Finally, up north there is still the prevalence of native culture, and with it "tucupi", a type of broth made from a highly poisonous type of manioc. It is very flavorful and used in the confection of a number of dishes, but if I were to chose one as typically brazilian it would probably be "pato no tucupi", or duck stewed with tucupi and "jambu", a leafy vegetable that leaves a numbing sensation on the tongue. All of these are among my personal favorites, and highly recommended if you ever have the opportunity to try them =)

Nasi lemak! of course, like many other countries, Malaysia has many ethnic races, so we tend to represent each race when we talk about food. Nasi lemak is a pretty safe choice to represent the general public, but roti canai (commonly paratha)for the Indians and bah kut teh for the Chinese. Now I can add Penang Assam Laksa because it is now famous worldwide, thanks to CNN. Hainanese Chicken Rice, Rendang, Banana Leaf Rice... so many! No, there's no national dish, but there are national dishes! :D

So hard to say! I think you can slap them into categories, like festive or celebratory foods, everyday home cooking, and a regional specialty that is popular enough to be attempted elsewhere. Festive? I think Americans love burgers, french fries, and beer. Home cooking that everyone loves? Macaroni & Cheese. Regional specialty--maybe a stretch, but sweet southern barbecue is really special (all barbecue is special to me!), like perfect pulled pork sandwiches.

I really think we're on the same wavelength or something, I posted something on my facebook about eating every national dish (based on the wikipedia) as a life goal when I woke up today!

I actually do agree with Wikipedia's naming of hamburgers and apple pie. After all, they are the only two dishes I can think of (besides ice cream) that are almost always present at our Independence Day celebrations. Apple pie is a no-brainer, due mostly to the cliche "as American as apple pie."

I agree also with the hamburger because it is the only food strongly associated with America that you really can find anywhere in the country. It's not just a regional thing, though the way it is prepared certainly does vary greatly from region to region, establishment to establishment, and household to household. It's what we prepare for pretty much any organized get-together in the summer, and it is what so many restaurants serving the American classics specialize in.

Germany here. Wikipedia lists Sauerbraten and Currywurst as our national dishes. Although those two dishes are well-known they aren't eaten all that much in all regions of Germany. Sauerbraten for example is served in the southern part while Currywurst is typical of Berlin and the Ruhr region. The truth is, that the dish that is eaten most often at home is spaghetti with tomato sauce. Yeah, oh so german, isn't it? XD

Norwegian here. Huh. Wikipedia lists it to be Fårikål, (lamb and cabbage layered, boiled to death), although the official dish is Smalahove (boiled sheep's head, but I don't think people eat that anymore), and the People's national dish would easily be Pizza Grandiosa (a strong resemblence to greasy cardboard)

Tempura also has roots outside Japan, but I suppose it has (as with curry and ramen) been given a distinct Japanese form.

India: There isn't a national dish because a pan Indian cuisine doesn't exist - especially since the regional differences are quite acute.

As much as people tend to tout fish and chips, chicken tikka massalla, fried breakfast or even sunday roast as the UK national dish, in my mind there's only one really.

I came to the conclusion as this is the one thing all of my friends who have moved abroad miss most about food back home, and also just the fact that I genuinely believe I've never come across a person yet who doesn't eat them. You can jazz it up with salad, deconstruct it and do a Garry Rhodes "modern British classic" affair with it or just a quick fix with a big splodge of tomato sauce.

It's quick, it's easy, it's fairly cheap and it's actually relatively good for you as far as a 10 minute meal goes ("meal" may be stretching it a little unless you had some chips with it) and people from 8 to 80 go a bundle on it. I hereby give you, IMHO, the English, nay, dare I say, the UK national dish (a minor technicality).

The fish finger butty.

N°1 dish that I'm pretty sure most Czechs would agree on is Svíčková - Beef Sirloin with Root Vegetable 'n Sour Cream Sauce and Dumplings. The dumplings and sauce combo is ubiquitous in Czech cuisine.

Another dumpling dish that is very popular is Vepřo-knedlo-zelo (Roasted pork with sauerkraut). Variant perceived as more festive replaces pork with a duck. Also the cabbage taste varies widely from sour to very sweet.

The last meal won't be dumplings :) It is something that you all probably know. We call it řízek but it has many other names - wiener schnitzel, tonkatsu or breaded meat steak. I'm wondering how many nations love it as much as Czechs do. I bet that not few.

Yes, I totally agree with the hamburgers and apple pie thing for America. Before I read the response about Japanese food, I paused to think about what America's national foods were. Hamburgers and apple pies were what I came up with first. But America varies so much accross the country and it's such a mish-mosh of nationalities it's a bit difficult to decide on our national foods.

Here in England we are often told that our national dish is now curry, in one form or the other. This might be a popular take away or eat out meal ok. In reality, fish and chips, the English breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and black pudding, and the Sunday roast of beef, lamb or pork are I believe still genuinly more representative of what we really eat, when we have the choice.

Lebanon: tabbouleh !

I do agree that just because there is a "national dish" it does not mean everybody in the country eats it or eats the same version of it. That being said, I would pick the hamburger as America's national dish.

When I asked three of my friends, "What would you pick as America's national food?" they all quickly responded, "Hamburgers."

Of course, somebody from a different region may disagree, which makes it so interesting!

I think part of the "national dish" hype is what tourists/foreigners stereotypically assign to other countries.

Discovering Canada's national cuisine from an article by Ian Brown in The Globe and Mail about a year ago:
A Chinese-Canadian woman was worried that Canadian high-school life was erasing any trace of her son's Asian heritage. So she enrolled him in a Chinese-language high school in Vancouver.

“Why would I want to go to a Chinese school?” the boy said to his mother when she informed him of her plan.

“Because you're Chinese,” she said.

“What?” he shouted. “You never told me I was Chinese!”

You could say the same about Canadian food. We have a cuisine – its local staples include maple syrup, salmon, pickerel, trout, apples, honey, game, fish, bread, berries, corn and wine – but until recently we never thought to call it Canadian.

Since most countries existing today are an amalgamation of 17th and 18th century principalities, kingdoms or duchies, etc., no one can definitely pronounce any recipe a "national" dish. In Europe, you most probably are looking at regional specialities; in N. America, the size of the countries forces the same conclusion on us. However, I would be willing to bet that anywhere you look in the world, you will find such a diversity of ingredients, methods of preparation, and tastes peculiar to an area that the debate will continue even as "nations" change with climate, geography and war.

French from Provence here :) I would say that our regional specialities would probably be the "bouillabaisse" if I'm in Marseille and the "aïoli" if I'm more inland...

Otherwise, I actually think crêpes & pot-au-feu are not such bad choices if I'd have to choose 2 popular dishes across French regions.

Crêpes: as I travelled quite a lot, I would say this is one of the most exported French dish, which you can eat in restaurants or fairs. However I would make a difference between the ones made with buckwheat and the ones made with wheat. The "galettes" which are typical from Brittany, and often salty, could be considered as a "dish" in my opinion. The "crêpes" made with wheat however would be often sweet (so, for me, they would fit more into the category of snacks or desserts) and would be the ones I would make myself at home...

Pot-au-feu: traditional dish for homemade Sunday lunch & really appreciated in Provence as well. Rarely seen outside of France and rarely eaten in restaurants (except for very "specialized" restaurants in such as "bouchons lyonnais" or "meat/butcher-restaurants").

In Provence, the "daube provençale" would be a serious competitor to the pot-au-feu when it comes to Sunday lunch with the family. Another classic in the "slow-cooked meat" area would be the "boeuf bourguignon", originally from Bourgogne as its name reveals.

French from Provence here :) I would say that our regional specialities would probably be the "bouillabaisse" if I'm in Marseille and the "aïoli" if I'm more inland...

Otherwise, I actually think crêpes & pot-au-feu are not such bad choices if I'd have to choose 2 popular dishes across French regions.

Crêpes: as I travelled quite a lot, I would say this is one of the most exported French dish, which you can eat in restaurants or fairs. However I would make a difference between the ones made with buckwheat and the ones made with wheat. The "galettes" which are typical from Brittany, and often salty, could be considered as a "dish" in my opinion. The "crêpes" made with wheat however would be often sweet (so, for me, they would fit more into the category of snacks or desserts) and would be the ones I would make myself at home...

Pot-au-feu: traditional dish for homemade Sunday lunch & really appreciated in Provence as well. Rarely seen outside of France and rarely eaten in restaurants (except for very "specialized" restaurants in such as "bouchons lyonnais" or "meat/butcher-restaurants").

In Provence, the "daube provençale" would be a serious competitor to the pot-au-feu when it comes to Sunday lunch with the family. Another classic in the "slow-cooked meat" area would be the "boeuf bourguignon", originally from Bourgogne as its name reveals.

i really feel that the united states national can't really have a national dish: it's more like state dishes. where i am now, new jersey is almost certainly pizza and submarine sandwiches. wiki lists hungary as goulash (gulyás), and i do agree with that.

I'd also say fish and chips for the UK and roast Sunday lunch. I'm in Scotland and I'm more likely to eat pasta than anything else. Pizza is popular too. We do sometimes eat haggis - deep frozen from the chip shop - but lots of people never eat it.

I agree with the listing of hamburgers for America. It can be dressed up or dressed down, traditional or non - you can take almost any type of cuisine in the world and make a burger out of it. American burgers, tereyaki burgers, curry burgers, lamb burgers, burgers with kimchi, Tex-Mex burgers... it has always struck me as a good food for a melting pot.

Dutch people are not very proud of their food but I would vote for snert (or erwtensoep), a deliciously thick pea soup for cold winter nights.
I think what people cook at home the most is pasta (usually macaroni) with some kind of tomato sauce and for take-away babi pangang is very popular, a Dutch/Indonesian/Chinese fusion dish.

Well, having lived out of Sweden (UK & currently Australia) for over 10 years things might have changed, and this is out of a vegeterians perspektive. I'd say clishe autumn & winter dish swedish meatballs, summer & christmas dish sill (pickled herring in various dill, mustard, onion sauces etc.) with fresh potatoes, hard bread & a swedish präst ost/hard cheese. August crayfish in dill & plenty of shnapps (shoots). Also strömming dipped in bread crumbs, pan fried in butter, brown onion sauce, mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.
Otherwise its a lot of thin pizzas with cabbage sallad, hamburgers and hotdogs and mashed potatoe in thin bread rolls(lika a A4 size sheet of paper).
Ops that probably turned into more that three. Great question=)

I'm in Canada... and I don't know that we have a national dish either. Like all areas, it seems that there are more regional specialties rather than national ones. I do like my maple syrup, and I love poutine (a Quebecois invention). When I lived on the east coast, it was all about lobster boils. When I lived on the west coast, it was all about Nanaimo bars.

What I think is really interesting is the difference in what people believe is a national dish in countries other than their own, versus what people from within that country believe to be a national dish. I think it's a lot easier to reduce a country down to a few dishes from the outside than from the inside. I think a lot of people outside of the US would say the national dishes there are hamburgers, hot dogs and fries. The textbooks my junior high school in Japan used certainly used those as examples of American food.

I couldnt' tell you what the national dish for the US is. there are too many options and most aren't even ours originally. Even apple pie isn't solely ours.

Even regionally a lot of our dishes come from other countries (i.e. pittsburgh is famous for peirogies which are eastern european in orgin). As for me I live in the philly area so cheesesteaks (which seem to actually be american) are our specialty

I don't think there is such a thing as a national dish. There are national favourites which change with time and fashion.

For my French national dishes I choose : Pot au feu, blanquette de veau and tomates farcies.

I'm Turkish and my pick would be doner kebab, although the way we serve it is much different than the pita bread and white sauce atrocity commonly found in Europe... Proper doner is cooked by a charcoal fire and served in a sandwich or wrap, frequently accompanied by a condiment of chopped raw onions with parsley and sumac. There's another version of serving doner kebab which is very popular in Turkey but rarely seen elsewhere: Iskender kebab. The meat is served over a fluffy flatbread with tomato sauce, yogurt and brown butter on top. Absolutely delicious, and always the first thing I go for when I go back to Turkey. Given the popularization of doner worldwide, I'd pick Iskender kebab as a uniquely Turkish national dish.

My other pick would be börek. It consists of fried or baked pastries with savory fillings like ground meat, potatoes, cheese or spinach - like the Greek spanakopita but with a thicker dough than phyllo. Unlike iskender kebab, the best börek is homemade and always close to the heart of every Turk :)

I live in the US and three things that I think of as uniquely American are hamburgers, New England clam chowder and chocolate chip cookies.

I've commented on people's threads above, but thought I would just make a separate point here.

What I notice is that there is a lot of overlapping between what would be considered 'a national dish' and 'the most popular dish'. What is cooked and eaten most in a country isn't necessarily (or, it seems, ever?!) an indication of what the country is most associated with, or traditionally famous for.

With a sharing of cultures and cuisines so prevalent now the distinctions between national diets are blurred. My husband and I are both English and live here but we rarely eat 'traditional' English food - we mainly eat Asian food at home - I cook from scratch and make Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Chinese and Japanese food. If we have a takeaway it's unlikely to be fish and chips from the local chippy, much more likely to be sushi or ramen from the Japanese place down the road (actually run by a Korean lady) or Keralan curry from the South Indian curry house nearby.

I would say that people mainly eat Anglo-Italian food at home now - there's a lot of pasta, spag bol, lasagne etc eaten here. Cottage pie or Shepherd's Pie is still popular too. But I would say our National dish is roast beef etc., or fish and chips.

Looking into other cultures is different to examining one's own, and I would say American apple pie, Jamaican jerk chicken, Belgium moules et frites, German bratwurst and sauerkraut, Thai pad thai, Vietnamese pho, Moroccan lamb tagine, Spanish paella, Mexican fajitas, Italian pizza, Australian shrimp on the barbie, Japanese sushi and Korean... srichacha. Which I know isn't a dish, but it's my first thought when it comes to Korean food (although it goes with everything from a fried egg to cottage pie in this house, so it doesn't always get used traditionally!!)

I am Singaporean and our favourite past-time is eating! We have so many national dishes that it's really difficult to list them down and decide which one I like best.

I have a long list of favourites: Singapore Chilli Crab, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Char Kway Teow (fried noodles with cockles), Bak Kut Teh (Herbal Pork Rib Soup), Roti Prata (Indian Pancake), Nasi Lemak (Malay Coconut Rice).

In Singapore, everybody has his own opinion about which is the best place to get the best food and everybody claims to be the absolute authority on food. Food is just so deeply ingrained in our culture, which is a big melting pot of Chinese, Malay and Indian influences.

I'm not sure...I think it's poutine, the dish consist of fries, cheese and sauce. Sousnds gross, but i find it not too bad. I'm from Quebec.

I have a question not related to the topic, but would you recommend buying bento supplies or anything for that matter on http://global.rakuten.com/ ?

Thank you

Vancouver, Canada — Poutine! and sushi...

hmmm trying to think as i'd have to list 2 countries [i'm a first generation american thru my dad]

for US:
BBQ [any style really]
Jerky/Pemican [you know the dried strips of meat...]
pizza... hand tossed lol

Germany:
Goulash [bravarian style] over potatoes
Sausage [cant pick one here considering germany has one of the most divers amount of this stuff]
Rouladen
Frikadellen

Singapore here! Food here is indicative of our ethnic diversity (mainly Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian). There are too many well-loved dishes to choose from, but I think I'll settle for chicken rice, nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk and eaten with various side dishes such as fried fish, ikan bilis and fried egg) and kaya toast. Kaya is a jam made with coconut, eggs and pandan leaves.

One reason I chose these three items is they are eaten by every ethnic group in Singapore. (Bak kut teh, a herbal pork soup is popular too, but usually only eaten by the Chinese.)

Many foreigners know us for our fish head curry and black pepper crab, but the dishes I listed are more typical of what a Singaporean would eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

First-generation (Czech on my father's side, Hungarian-Israeli on my mother's), so I'm pretty sure I couldn't comment on American foods -- I grew up with some pretty atypical things.

The dishes that come to mind from the Hungarian side of the family are chicken paprikash with nockedli (semolina dumplings), and kerezet -- I think they call it liptauer spread? I remember my grandmother's mostly as a cream cheese base with tons of paprika and onions and some mustard, though I know there were other things in it too.

My father cooked a lot, but I can't think of any one dish that was savoury that I knew of as widespread in Czech culture -- dishes he made that were definitively Czech, sure, but not national-dish scale. Which is a pity; tač was worthy of being a national dessert, IMO. Sweet yeast dough topped with fruit and something vaguely like a streusel topping = delicious.

Israeli foods are a little harder to quantify because it has the same melting-pot quality as the States in a lot of ways. I'm sure many people would contend that chicken soup with matza balls could qualify as the Jewish "national" food, though, and I like my mother's enough that I wouldn't argue!

... all this discussion is making me want to spend the whole weekend cooking.

Hungary:
Goulash soup (different from the ragout-like dish served as "goulash" in Germany), paprika chicken, dumplings made of cooked and mashed potato+flour stuffed with plum (or apricot or strawberry) and "mákos guba".:)

I live in Puerto Rico and i'd say its arroz con gandules roasted pig (ohh that crackly skin)and pasteles with ketchup (kinda like tamales but made with plantains)

Or maybe something more simple and delicious like a toasted ham and cheese sandwich made with pan de mallorca (kinda like a brioche but oh so much better)sprinkled with powdered sugar on top and puertorican coffee with milk, It's sublime people

Canada would be the Poutine and Maple Syrup. Most people will think we get our syrup from trees and do the special boiling process but thats only for the cheesy souvenir shop types. Its a really tasty treat now and then, but we just go get the ones at any store. And for Poutine you can find that anywhere! My school even makes it every Friday! It's really just fries and gravy. But you can get cheese with it or a bunch of other combinations.

For Germany: I read Sauerkraut and Curry Wurst, but which family actually cooks this at home? I think it's Rouladen and Rotkohl (red cabbage), at least I had it as a child a million times and still like to cook it now that I live in the States.

In Egypt, I have to say it's hands down Koshari.

Koshari is very common and sold in street sides, now more commonly sold in poshy/ethnic diners.

Its basically layered dish with rice (Egyptian sticky rice), Macaroni, Brown lentils, tomato sauce that is spicy , garlicy, and fired onions and chickpeas as garnish. Totally vegan it is simply delish! Easy to make at home but required too many pots and pans!

Close second and thrid are "foul medames" , our version of re-fried beans, and Falafel which we locally call taameyya. But made with fava beans not chcikpeas, so much yummier than the Syrian versions you get in the US and in NYC corners.

Now I made myself hungry!

England: We love local seafood so I guess that is where fish and chips originally came from~

We also love our pastries and pastys further in land.

Slowly dieing is the Sunday lunch/dinner which consists of meat (chicken, lamb, beef, duck, turkey@xmas) with roast potatos, veg, yorkshire puddings, and lots of gravy.

So to sum up England I would say Fish and Chips/ Pastys/ Stuff with gravy.

It's not really national but state/regional. Maybe the most prominent idea of the American national dish is burgers and fries with a milkshake. People get really heated debating the best place to get it.

But you'd miss out on the best food of the nation if the regional dishes weren't looked for more. Krispy Kreme in Alabama (my father in law gets me a dozen glazed when I visit and I eat it all! They aren't available where I live.), gumbo in Nawlins (New Orleans), pizza in New York, hot dogs in Chicago, BBQ in Tennessee, etc. Each is unique to the region.

My god it sounds so fatty, but now I'm hungry.

Well, I'll have to go with regional dish! Im from Louisiana so gumbo is an essential comfort food here- either seafood or chicken and sausage. Jambalaya is a close second. Funny thing is these two dishes are mainly made by the patriarch of the family- be it your dad or grandpa. My grampa cooks about once a year and it's a big pot of seafood gumbo for thanksgiving. I don't think I've ever met anyone down here that didnt like gumbo :) Third place would have to go to just boiled crawfish with looots of spicy cajun seasoning.

Trying to get gumbo, jambalaya, or good bolied crawfish outside of louisiana is damn near impossible!

To me, the top 3 of national Japanese dishes are 1. Miso soup, 2. Grilled fish, 3. Sashimi. Those 3 are the most common dishes I eat at home in Japan. Of course, it will vary at each family.

Yes, curry and ramen are two of the most common dishes in Japan. They both are so easy to make at home. Especially, some people eat Ramen for lunch every day. Every house hold may have instant Ramen packages stocked in their kitchen. Also there are so many Ramen restaurants in Japan now a days. They all are different with their own style, and some people call like "Ramen is an art" because each places have different style of Ramen with their own flavors and own noodles.

I agree with the earlier posts on The Netherlands:

'Erwtensoep', also called 'Snert' is a thick pea soup that is widely eaten in Winter Time and something of a National dish.

'Stampot': mashed dishes with cabbage or carrots such as 'Boerenkool', 'Hutspot' and 'Andijvie' are also typical Dutch dishes.

And pancakes at dinnertime is also very Dutch! With confectioner's sugar, apple and cinnamon, bacon or a dozen other variants. It's almost like pizza. ^-^

The above posts left out the raw herring, sometimes on bread with raw onions. I don't like it myself but it is probably the most popular fish.

I think it's easy to name the dishes for the Netherlands because it isn't that big a country, it's similar to naming the dishes of just one of the US states. :P

The Netherlands here: besides from the 'snert','hutspot' and all the cabbage dishes. We also have 'Hollandse nieuwe'. The fermented herring (cleaned and only the two fillets still connected to the tail), eaten raw with finely chopped oinions. Pick it up at its tail, hold your head back and eat. Yum.
Sometimes served with red beet, oinion and potatos.

For France I would add "ratatouille" and "ham and butter sandwich". Ratatouille was at the very beginning typical of provencale cuisine but now most of French people prepare it on summer even in the north of our country. I've add the "jambon-beurre" sandwich because it is still the favorite fast-food for French, and my favorite one too! Especially with a fresh and crispy baguette!

I love the comments inspired by this post! I could keep reading it and learning about new foods all day.

I'm from Ireland and it's not hard to think of our national dishes. There's Irish stew made with mutton, bacon and cabbage served with a parsley sauce (yum!), corned beef, soda bread and fruit cake made with Guinness, which is dense, fruity, moist and rich.

Great post topic and discussion! Nationally: hamburgers. Locally in Hawaii: saimin (variation of ramen) and plate lunches - 2 scoops of white rice (less often brown), protein (anything from a hamburger patty with gravy to mahimahi) and a scoop of macaroni salad (or lettuce salad).

In Québec, it's poutine, which is a mixture of fries, cheese curd and a beef stock based gravy. Most Quebecers find that a bit shameful, since it's cheap fast food, although it is particular to this region and extremely popular. Fast food joints offering poutine are found on every street corner (often open 24h). It's such a popular comfort food that all major chains (such as McDonald's) also offer it.

Personally I find that our national dish (or as in this case, the dish that most represents our culture) should be the kind of heartwarming food that our grandmothers might cook for us. Very rarely do people make poutine at home. I think a true Quebec comforting home-cooked meal would be tourtière, a meat pie made with ground pork and (traditionally) game meat, and which is still the most common thing to serve at family gatherings and at Christmas.

As a portuguese girl... I'd say "cozido à portuguesa" and "feijoada"(with red beans!). Those are definitely the two main dishes that make me think about Portugal. Couldn't say about sweets and cakes... we have so many of them xD

I love ramen! (at least my version of it, since I never ate at a Japanese restaurant). I'd really like to visit Japan and taste these dishes I try to make at home, I'm sure I'd be surprised! ehehe I think ramen is famous mainly because of animes. Most of my friends learned about it from Naruto

Hello Maki

Congratulation for your website, I'm very impress by your culture, your English ... and your recipes :D

Today, I've been trying the potato & Wakame miso soup (mixing Ajinomoto Hondashi and pieces of Konbu for the base).
I had some dry Konbu seaweeds on a shelve for quite some time already (I was missing bonito flakes) but I still used it. Why do you mention that you are keeping them in the fridge ?? Is it not supposed to be stored in a dry place ?

Also, I wanted to comment on your national dish post to give you a little tip on the French national dish or at least the more popular one according to some polls :)

I'm a Frenchman living in Dublin, Ireland ... a french dubliner as I usually say.

It's kind of hard to know what would be the "french national dish". As you know, must of the french dishes are in fact regional dishes of France (meaning from Brittany, Savoy, Auvergne, Burgundy, etc) but not ... French.
From my point of view, I would say that the French national dish should be something like the "coq au vin" or the "Civet de Lapin".
My favorite would definitely be the oysters and the Christmas craze associated !! That's not really a dish though.
I do actually believe that there is not such a thing as "french national cuisine" but in reality a tradition of great great chefs in France. I got that thought comparing French and Italian cuisines. Italian cuisine has very well known dishes and succeeded to export them worldwide (just consider only pasta and pizza). It's one of the best, if not the best, European cuisine and you can find it everywhere. On the other hand, it's fairly rare to find any French dishes in supermarkets out of France but French restaurants and cooking expertise remain still very famous.

Anyhow to conclude my comment and give you my tip, I was reading an article in the french press few years ago reporting that according to polls the French's favorite dish is ... the Couscous (a northern African dish) ! :)

For Vietnam I have to say it's unequivocally Pho (as no 1). It's not just popular outside of Vietnam - you see Pho restaurants more where there's higher concentration of Vietnamese, too. It's just that comfort food dish we always turn to for...breakfast, lunch, dinner, when you're sick, when you want something filling but easy to eat, etc. My grandpa has pho everyday for breakfast in the past 30 years (since the war ended lols, otherwise he'd probably have had it everyday for his entire life). Although when I say Pho it means both Pho Ga (chicken pho) and pho bo (beef pho), even though the more popular pho overseas is beef pho. In Vietnam, pho is actually eaten widely on in the South and the North, but not so much in the Central land - they have their own signature dishes (most of their noodles have very little broth, different from pho).
2nd & 3rd are a bit harder to choose, but I think, just based on popularity and the "vietnamese-ness" of them: banh cuon, and banh mi (banh cuon definitely has a Chinese influence, but the fillings are different, and we dip it in fish sauce, a uniquely Vietnamese sauce (I think Thailand stole it but I might be wrong, haha), and banh mi is obviously a derivation of the French sandwich, with baguette and all, but again, the fillings and the texture of the bread are different).

In Norway the national dish is fårikål. Fårikål literally means mutton in cabbage. It is made of lamb cooked together with cabbage. Fårikal even has it's own day, the last Thursday in September. I think this is because the lambs were slaughtered about the same time. It was selected as national dish in a radioshow in the seventies.

Hi everyone,
I'm from Germany. Sure Sauerbraten and all the other stuff people before mentioned are typically German food. But also mostly regional. What I think is really typically German is the HUGE variety of bread. There is bread made out of almost every grain and there are so many different styles. Sometimes I stay in my local bakery and I'm totally at loss, because it is a very, very small bakery but they have at least ten different sorts of bread and that is just on Monday, on Tuesday there are different breads and so on and so forth. And what I also think makes it clear to me that this is something typically German: no matter where I am during holidays, when it comes to the point of buying bread I'm always kind of disappointed (although it is getting better). No offence: I also like French bread or Italian bread, but all these types you can also buy in Germany. So my vote goes to bread, beer and pretzel.
Greetings from Germany!

I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada and there are two 'regional' specialties that really aren't done the same anywhere else in Canada. Donairs (invented here) - relatives of the Gyro but with a donair sauce (condensed milk, sugar and vinegar usually). I know they serve them elsewhere (there was a scandal in Alberta after a bunch of people got sick because they didn't double cook their meat).

Also, Garlic Fingers. Here they always come with donair sauce for dipping. It's pizza dough covered with garlic butter, cheese and parsley and baked until golden brown. I thought it was too simple and delicious a concept to NOT be everywhere else but i've found it hard to get once I leave Eastern Canada.

For Spain, I'd definitely say it's Tortilla de Patatas... Spanish omelette!! I've lived in diferent regions, and everyone eats the famous paella, some stews like fabada and such... But every in region people makes them very different ways!
However the Tortilla and some variants (either with onion or some other vegetables... but always potatoes!!) is pretty much the same everywhere, every Spaniard has eaten at leats once in his or her life a Tortilla sandwich!!!

In Venezuela it's definitely an hallaca. It's a bit like a tamale in that it is a meat mixture wrapped in yellow corn dough which wrapped in plantain leaves and then boiled. But it has somethings that tamales don't usually have like olives and raisins. Also pan de jamon--and the famous pabellon criollo which in different variations is popular in other places in the Caribbean it is white rice, black beans, shredded beef and sweet plantains. Also the reina pepiada which is an arepa, (here a white corn meal bread) stuffed with mashed avocado and chicken.

In Colombia its probably ajiaco a soup made of chicken, an herb called guascas and several different kinds of potato that is usually served with cream, capers and avocado. It's more popular in the andean regions of Colombia but perhaps because our capital is there it has migrated to most of the country. For sweets there are many but I think it has to be the oblea which is dulce de leche spread on an enormous very, very thin cookie type thing--usually one that resembles the "host" in catholic church service (thin and unsweetened). These I think are the most widely spread but there are so many regional specialties that other regions have also adapted over time... Other dishes, with minor variations are too common other countries in latin america: tamales, arepas, sancocho, mamona etc...

If i had to just pick one for the US, I'd go with Gumbo. Its not an omnipresent dish, but the fact that it was developed by the French-Canadian exiles who would one day become the Cajun people of the south, and combines aspects of food from all over the world, I feel it is a culinary representation of my country's tradition of adopting and combining ideas from other countries and cultures.

Hello, I'm from Indonesia. :) As the biggest archipelago in the world, I think it's quite impossible to decide which ones should be the national dishes. Every province (even town, sometimes) has different specialties and favorites. These days many tourists visit other cities just to sample their delicacies.

I'm going to mention the three favorites (main dishes, desserts are another matter) that are quite well known here:
1. rendang
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendang
2. satay/sate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay
3. soto ayam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_ayam

I chose rendang because it's perhaps sold in many parts of Indonesia. It is quite spicy but savory, too. And due to the spices involved, this dish can last for days. Satay is also a favorite and most Indonesians I know have tried at least one type of satay. As for soto ayam, it's very easy to make and tasty too, and a favorite for young and old alike.

Portugal must be "bacalhau" (codfish). We have it in salt and we have to wash it before cooking it. In my region, we have "tripas à moda do Porto" that is a dish that is made with beans, carrots and porc intestines. ;)

National dish: Mole and Chiles en Nogada

Most popular dish: Tacos, in Mexico you can see tacos everywhere.

Daal in India. Inspite of enormous amount of regional variation, the lentil base is a daily dish at every home.

I'm not sure if there is a real national dish for Germany. At least the two dishes stated by wiki are surely NOT.

Currywurst? Sure, you can buy it in nearly every snack bar or soccer stadium and it's a stable of a lot of cantinas, but for me a national dish is more like something from the "nearly every (grand)mother cooked it".

While both my parents and I were born in the western part of Germany, one of my grandmothers was born in Upper-Silesia (which is now part of Poland). I can't remember ever eating Currywurst or Sauerbraten at home. And both of my grandmothers cooked a lot traditional dishes. Sauerkraut? Yes! Rouladen? Yes, both the meat and cabbage ones. But Sauerbraten or Currywurst? Never ever!

There are things that most, but not all, Americans eat (how many hundred million of us are there now?) and there are things that are ubiquitous in the U.S. and hard to find in many other places.

First Category
--------------

Burgers. Not necessarily beef. Fish burgers, falafel burgers, turkey burgers, whatever--putting a hot patty in a split bun with fixins is definitely an American thing.

Fries or grits. One or the other will "just come" with just about any dinner dish you order at a moderately priced sit-down restaurant that serves burgers. The potatoes may be called something else, but fries is fries is fries.

Pancakes: thicker than crepes, somewhat fluffy on the inside, usually with butter and some type of sweet syrup to taste. A breakfast thing.

Second Category (as far as I know--please correct me)
---------------

Peanut butter. Any store that sells food on at least one rack of shelves automatically sells peanut butter. You can find jars of peanut butter next to the highly processed artificially colored snack foods at gas stations, for crying out loud.

Corn on the cob. Must wear napkin tucked into shirt collar in order to enjoy properly.

Ketchup. Automatically on the table at most moderately priced restaurants. This is a salty-sweet-spicy, tomato-based ketchup that is so thick that getting it out of a glass bottle requires holding the bottle upside down and w-a-i-t-i-n-g. I get the impression that while American-style ketchup is easier to find outside the U.S. than peanut butter, you still have to get it from an American exporter.

I am half bulgarian, half japanese. you already covered the japanese part, so i will opt for the bulgarian. as everywhere else in the world food is regional, but there are few things that are popular in all the areas.

1) Tarator - it is a chilled yogurt soup with cucumbers, dill, garlic, walnuts, olive oil.

2) Moussaka - it is a dish from the Balkans, but we make a different version and opt for the potatoes instead the eggplant and the topping in not bechamel sauce, but yougurt and egg mixture

3) Shopska Salad - it is a simple seasonal salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, onions and local cheese similar to the greek feta ( could be goat,sheep or cow depending on the region ), olive oil and sometimes ( rarely ) vinegar

I just had a thought re New Zealand's national dish - if you were going to choose a dish that is not available anywhere else, it would have to be muttonbird. This is not to say that all New Zealanders like it, or have even tasted it, but it is definitely specific to this country. It is almost fledged chick of the sooty shearwater, which is grabbed from its nest by Maori (only certain tribes are allowed to harvest them) and salted. They taste a little like anchovy.

Netherlands: Do not forget smoked eel...a delicacy. Syrup waffles, at market day the vendors bake, split and fill them with butter syrup.
Capucijners a garbanzo bean like pea, cultivated by Monks in the middle ages. Soaked, boiled slowly, laddled in a deep bowl, with sides of chopped onion, chopped pickles, fried thick bacon slices and a little bacon grease poured over the capucijners... pure heaven. Beschuit, a round tender cripy rusk,and rogge brood,a somewhat sweet sticky black bread both topped with aged Gouda cheese, or Leyden cheese..or jam.memories... Chocolate sprinkles on buttered bread. Muisjes, pink or white sugary sprinkles on beschuit to celebrate the birth of a boy of girl. Orange ones to celebrate the birth of a royal child.
I agree with the new herring... just caught, cleaned and salted. The race back to shore to offer the queen the first ones.
I wonder if that tradition is still happening.

Well, I am a Canadian-Guatemalan. I was born and raised in Guatemala so most of the dishes I know are Guatemalan although my mom being Canadian I do know a few Canadian recipes. But to answer this question I'll stick to Guatemalan dishes.
I have decided to break it into 3 groups since it's so hard to name just three.

Home cooking:
1. Definitely black beans. You can make black bean soup in various different ways, "colados" which is using you black bean soup and then passing it through the blender and cooking it again then serving with cream, then the next phase is "volteados" which is refried black beans. So from an initial recipe you can get 3 different dishes. Also, black beans can be used in a sweet dish: fried plantain filled with black beans that have been cooked with sugar.
2. Cocido: Traditionally it is a beef stew with vegetables, usually corn, cabbage, potato, carrot, güisquil, and then can have others like plantain. My mom prefers to make it with chicken so the brothe is not so fatty. The soup is served in a bowl and the vegetables and meat are served separate on a plate with a side of white rice which most people add to their soup and a slice of lemon to squeeze in the soup.
3. Kak'ik: This is more of a regional dish but easy to make so it has progressed to many areas of the country. It is a Turkey leg soup made with mint and and served with avocado and white rice.

Some very typical dishes that are known here but are either seasonal or just so much work that few people make them are:
1. Tamales: There are red and black tamales. The red are a tomato base and the black are a chocolate base. Each region has it's recipe but basically they are made either with a corn "masa" base or a rice base. They are put boiled in a plantain leaf that had been tied shut. It is a minimum 2 day process and when you make them usually it's with a fair amount of women and you make for at least 50 people at a time since it is so time consuming. I have yet to learn how to make them.
2. Fiambre: This dish is made for November 1st, All Saints Day, and traditionally people take it to the grave sites of their dearly departed. It is a salad with tons of vinegared vegetables and processed meats. There are 2 types, white and red. The difference is basically if you let all the veggies soak with the beats or you add them ad the end. There are competitions in different places in the country and to win best fiambre is a major deal.
3. I am going to add black beans again here since it is such a staple.

One can also go to the supermarkets here and buy prepackaged ready to make traditional soups. They don't taste exactly the same but are time savers and you can take them on the airplane to try out elsewhere. These are also very traditional dishes that are usually very time consuming.
1. Pepian
2. Jocón
3. Mole- not the Mexican really spicy mole, this is a sweeter, definitely mild version.