United Nations of Food
August 3, 2015 10:16 AM Subscribe
He can do waaaaaaay better with the Irish Breakfast than he does going to a crappy Midtown pub. He doesn't even have to leave Manhattan - St. Dymphna's is in the East Village.
(Although, if it's sort of a weird post-ironic cognitive dissonance he's after, there's a Greek diner in Astoria that serves an Irish Breakfast; it's been commemorated in song, as well.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
(Although, if it's sort of a weird post-ironic cognitive dissonance he's after, there's a Greek diner in Astoria that serves an Irish Breakfast; it's been commemorated in song, as well.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
This is fantastic. And I guess I should not be surprised that this project seems to have been going on for at least five years. (Which I realized only after looking up a couple of places and finding out they were closed.)
posted by Hactar at 10:43 AM on August 3, 2015
posted by Hactar at 10:43 AM on August 3, 2015
I may have groaned aloud a little bit while reading the Indonesian entry. Sorry, coworkers. It's just food porn, not porn porn.
Seriously though, please take me to that parking lot.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 10:48 AM on August 3, 2015
Seriously though, please take me to that parking lot.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 10:48 AM on August 3, 2015
There is a Bhutanese restaurant here in NYC. Its like Nepalese but with way more weird cheese.
Also Kyrgyz food is fundamentally the same as the other turkic countries with a lot of Muslim Chinese food from the diaspora chased out Xinjiang.
posted by JPD at 10:55 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also Kyrgyz food is fundamentally the same as the other turkic countries with a lot of Muslim Chinese food from the diaspora chased out Xinjiang.
posted by JPD at 10:55 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
This sounded very familiar at first, until I realized that the blog I was thinking of was about cooking down the UN list rather than straightforward eating. United Noshes was the one I remember reading.
posted by Azara at 10:57 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Azara at 10:57 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
also allow me to pour one out for the departed "Yemeni Cafe"
posted by JPD at 10:57 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by JPD at 10:57 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ambitious! I applaud his efforts. I love Nepali food, so that's the post I had to hit first - and oops, a mistake or a misunderstanding (which is to be expected, really, given how unfamiliar this stuff can be) -- gundruk isn't a mushroom stew with mung beans; maybe he means thukpa, but that usually has noodles in it so I'm not sure.
Gundruk, *fabulous stuff*, is fermented and dried greens of various types, which are then reconstituted and eaten as a vegetable side dish in the winter.
Gundruk info, from the Taste of Nepal cookbook
Now, I've got a craving and NO gundruk anywhere nearby.
posted by infodiva at 10:58 AM on August 3, 2015
Gundruk, *fabulous stuff*, is fermented and dried greens of various types, which are then reconstituted and eaten as a vegetable side dish in the winter.
Gundruk info, from the Taste of Nepal cookbook
Now, I've got a craving and NO gundruk anywhere nearby.
posted by infodiva at 10:58 AM on August 3, 2015
I'm fairly confident you can accomplish 90% of that task in Queens alone, certainly without stepping foot off of Long Island with some trips to Brooklyn.
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:59 AM on August 3, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by Divine_Wino at 10:59 AM on August 3, 2015 [7 favorites]
Another similar blog was The Confined Nomad, previously on MetaFilter. It's currently down, and so is the Internet Archive or I would link to the wayback version. You can see the first several months of posts on the old wordpress.com version of the site.
United Noshes
A similar project is Global Table Adventure.
posted by jedicus at 11:06 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
United Noshes
A similar project is Global Table Adventure.
posted by jedicus at 11:06 AM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Mission Totallypossible.
posted by srboisvert at 11:16 AM on August 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 11:16 AM on August 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
My favorite part of The Confined Nomad was when he called up the Permanent Mission of Angola to the UN asking where to find food and the receptionist invited him over to her house because there aren't any restaurants. I think I remember another UN food project where a country had their ambassador's chef prepare a few platters.
posted by zachlipton at 11:27 AM on August 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 11:27 AM on August 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
There are no Dutch restaurants in NYC. A Dutch event the author went to only had Gouda cheese. For shame.
posted by monospace at 11:37 AM on August 3, 2015
posted by monospace at 11:37 AM on August 3, 2015
There are no Dutch restaurants in NYC. A Dutch event the author went to only had Gouda cheese. For shame.
NYC Mefites, one of you should open a place selling pannenkoeken! They are terrific.
posted by Area Man at 11:55 AM on August 3, 2015
NYC Mefites, one of you should open a place selling pannenkoeken! They are terrific.
posted by Area Man at 11:55 AM on August 3, 2015
I had a hard time liking it. "Authentic" is a bit of a dog whistle . "Naked pictures of my girlfriend" was icky even with a "psych!". In much of the US (including NYC if Bourdain is to be believed) "a native of the country must be involved in the food preparation" means you're going to be limited to South American cooking.
United Noshes gets points for doin' it alphabetically and its hard not to like GTA when they put fancy fancy cakes just below the fold..
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:57 AM on August 3, 2015
United Noshes gets points for doin' it alphabetically and its hard not to like GTA when they put fancy fancy cakes just below the fold..
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:57 AM on August 3, 2015
Funny the blog is called the "United Nations of Food" and has an entry for Taiwanese food. Taiwan for many complicated reasons has no representation in the UN.
posted by FJT at 12:05 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by FJT at 12:05 PM on August 3, 2015
I assumed that "authentic" meant "faithful to a cuisine", as opposed to "half-assed/Americanized version" (ex. Taco Bell, or a "deli" serving generic frozen grocery-store bagels).
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:24 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:24 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm surprised that Nicaragua was among his 30 hardest foods to find. I remember there was a Nicaraguan-owned restaurant or two when I lived in DC, though I think they generally just sold themselves as Latin American. And there were plenty of refugees in the 80s and onward, which usually results in someone opening a restaurant to feed their fellow expatriates. I wonder why it is so easy to find Salvadoran food and so hard to find Nicaraguan?
posted by tavella at 12:28 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by tavella at 12:28 PM on August 3, 2015
My favorite part of The Confined Nomad was when he called up the Permanent Mission of Angola to the UN asking where to find food and the receptionist invited him over to her house because there aren't any restaurants. I think I remember another UN food project where a country had their ambassador's chef prepare a few platters.
Here's the Angola entry in this project (plus eight other countries); this guy went to a fundraising event held by the "United Nations African Mothers Association", in which wives of African ambassadors cook food from their countries.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:37 PM on August 3, 2015
Here's the Angola entry in this project (plus eight other countries); this guy went to a fundraising event held by the "United Nations African Mothers Association", in which wives of African ambassadors cook food from their countries.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:37 PM on August 3, 2015
In much of the US (including NYC if Bourdain is to be believed) "a native of the country must be involved in the food preparation" means you're going to be limited to South American cooking.
He doesn't say that the food prep chain has to be 100% natives of that country.
Also, in my experience, a lot of times the Spanish-speaking food prep in NYC kitchens is from various parts of Central America and Mexico.
posted by joyceanmachine at 12:43 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
He doesn't say that the food prep chain has to be 100% natives of that country.
Also, in my experience, a lot of times the Spanish-speaking food prep in NYC kitchens is from various parts of Central America and Mexico.
posted by joyceanmachine at 12:43 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Some of the best Mexican food I've had in NYC was made by Chinese people. "Authentic" in New York City is HARD.
posted by monospace at 1:22 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by monospace at 1:22 PM on August 3, 2015
I'm fairly confident you can accomplish 90% of that task in Queens alone, certainly without stepping foot off of Long Island with some trips to Brooklyn.
The Bronx has something to offer this quest as well, I'm learning.
posted by jonmc at 1:58 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
The Bronx has something to offer this quest as well, I'm learning.
posted by jonmc at 1:58 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Authenticity is overrated.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:01 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mrgrimm at 2:01 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
The need for authenticity in food (especially the "must be prepared by a native" requirement) is so strange. You just ate something new and wonderful, do you really need a third party's approval to enjoy your food?
posted by indubitable at 2:02 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by indubitable at 2:02 PM on August 3, 2015
I don't think the authenticity requirement is strange. If you've been to that country before (or you are from that country, or your family is, or you grew up eating their food), then you want your food to taste like it would in that country. My family is from Thailand, so I like my Thai food to taste like it does in Thailand. Sure, some Americanized Thai food can be good in its own right, but I consider that a different type of food than authentic Thai food.
And even if you've never tried that country's food, it's not unreasonable to want to know what food there tastes like. I'm curious about other countries' foods. If I eat an Americanized version then I'm not getting the same experience. It's like watching a dubbed foreign movie. Or learning a foreign language from a non-native speaker with a bad accent.
Finally, there's no reason food can't be "authentic" if it isn't cooked by a native of that country. Anyone can learn how to cook anything. What's important is how it tastes. For example, I find it really obnoxious when people go to a sushi restaurant and complain that they overheard the chefs speaking in Chinese (gasp!!! the horror!). There's a lovely sushi restaurant in the East Village (sushi dojo) run by a white guy and it's not that uncommon to see white guy sushi chefs in other high-end NYC places. So I'm guessing his requirement that "a native be involved in the food preparation" could be as little as "a native was involved in picking the menu and training the non-native kitchen staff" or "the chef learned cooking techniques with a native and then opened his/her own restaurant."
There can be good authentic food and there can be bad authentic food. Inauthentic food can be great. But that doesn't mean there's no reason to want authentic food.
posted by pravit at 3:02 PM on August 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
And even if you've never tried that country's food, it's not unreasonable to want to know what food there tastes like. I'm curious about other countries' foods. If I eat an Americanized version then I'm not getting the same experience. It's like watching a dubbed foreign movie. Or learning a foreign language from a non-native speaker with a bad accent.
Finally, there's no reason food can't be "authentic" if it isn't cooked by a native of that country. Anyone can learn how to cook anything. What's important is how it tastes. For example, I find it really obnoxious when people go to a sushi restaurant and complain that they overheard the chefs speaking in Chinese (gasp!!! the horror!). There's a lovely sushi restaurant in the East Village (sushi dojo) run by a white guy and it's not that uncommon to see white guy sushi chefs in other high-end NYC places. So I'm guessing his requirement that "a native be involved in the food preparation" could be as little as "a native was involved in picking the menu and training the non-native kitchen staff" or "the chef learned cooking techniques with a native and then opened his/her own restaurant."
There can be good authentic food and there can be bad authentic food. Inauthentic food can be great. But that doesn't mean there's no reason to want authentic food.
posted by pravit at 3:02 PM on August 3, 2015 [6 favorites]
You just ate something new and wonderful, do you really need a third party's approval to enjoy your food?
No, but if I want to have food that actually resembles what people from that country actually consume and enjoy -- yeah, it helps. It also cuts down on the amount of time you spend patronizing places where a white dude decided that he could cook the food better than the people who have been making it for hundreds of years. I don't know if that's an issue for you, but it is for some people.
Which is to say, that to me, the "native of that country" rubric isn't even a real guarantee of quality food, given enormous regional variances. I'm Chinese-American, and when I walk into a place that says it serves hand-torn noodles, but realize the staff speak Cantonese to each other in the kitchen, I'm going to sigh and expect not-that-great noodles. If I'm in another kind of Chinese restaurant and hear the staff yelling at each other in Mandarin, I know that even if the menu doesn't say so, the siu mai are either frozen and roughly the quality of Trader Joe's, or filled with sticky rice, rather than the right and proper and only-appropriate-filling-under-heaven of minced pork and shrimp.
On the other hand, if they're speaking English in the kitchen, it'll probably be tasty and interesting, but I'm going to pay a lot more, the cuts of meat they use are probably gonna be gwai-lo style, and it's definitely not going to be what my grandma took me out for.
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:07 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
No, but if I want to have food that actually resembles what people from that country actually consume and enjoy -- yeah, it helps. It also cuts down on the amount of time you spend patronizing places where a white dude decided that he could cook the food better than the people who have been making it for hundreds of years. I don't know if that's an issue for you, but it is for some people.
Which is to say, that to me, the "native of that country" rubric isn't even a real guarantee of quality food, given enormous regional variances. I'm Chinese-American, and when I walk into a place that says it serves hand-torn noodles, but realize the staff speak Cantonese to each other in the kitchen, I'm going to sigh and expect not-that-great noodles. If I'm in another kind of Chinese restaurant and hear the staff yelling at each other in Mandarin, I know that even if the menu doesn't say so, the siu mai are either frozen and roughly the quality of Trader Joe's, or filled with sticky rice, rather than the right and proper and only-appropriate-filling-under-heaven of minced pork and shrimp.
On the other hand, if they're speaking English in the kitchen, it'll probably be tasty and interesting, but I'm going to pay a lot more, the cuts of meat they use are probably gonna be gwai-lo style, and it's definitely not going to be what my grandma took me out for.
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:07 PM on August 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, I think the UN of Foods is a cool website concept, but of course it's a total gimmick. It's not like everyone within a country's political borders eats the same sort of food, and of course the food in different countries can be virtually identical. Just within China alone he's missing out on so many unique regional cuisines. And that's just Han Chinese - obviously Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnicities eat completely different food.
But a gimmick is a gimmick, so assuming the political boundaries are most important to him, his requirement for needing a native of each country to be involved in the food is fair. Otherwise, he could just google a recipe, cook it himself, and then say he'd eaten that country's food. And that would probably be a cool website too, but not what he set out to do.
But I'd love to see a similar website that just documents all the different culinary traditions (irrespective of political borders) that you can try in NYC area restaurants. Chowhound search can help with that, but it's often far out of date.
Other notes:
Burmese - they have an awesome food fair in LIC every now and then. It's similar to the Indonesian one someone linked above.
Armenian - no Armenian yet, really? That surprises me, given the other former Soviet Union food available in Brooklyn. I also had the impression there are a decent number of Armenian-Americans in the NYC area.
Kyrgyz - as JPD says, the food in Kyrgyzstan is similar to other Central Asian countries - and obviously you're not going to find any place in NYC making specifically Kyrgyz foods like those dried yogurt balls or kymys... but I'd say the ashlyanfu at Cafe Kashkar in Brighton Beach would count. I think the dish is actually from Dungans, but Kyrgyzstan is definitely the country where ashlyanfu is most popular. Also, there's a Cafe Arzu in Brooklyn that might be run by someone from Kyrgyzstan. It's billed as an "Uzbek" restaurant, but there are plenty of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan with Kyrgyz citizenship, and the political nationality seems to be the only thing he cares about.
posted by pravit at 4:09 PM on August 3, 2015
But a gimmick is a gimmick, so assuming the political boundaries are most important to him, his requirement for needing a native of each country to be involved in the food is fair. Otherwise, he could just google a recipe, cook it himself, and then say he'd eaten that country's food. And that would probably be a cool website too, but not what he set out to do.
But I'd love to see a similar website that just documents all the different culinary traditions (irrespective of political borders) that you can try in NYC area restaurants. Chowhound search can help with that, but it's often far out of date.
Other notes:
Burmese - they have an awesome food fair in LIC every now and then. It's similar to the Indonesian one someone linked above.
Armenian - no Armenian yet, really? That surprises me, given the other former Soviet Union food available in Brooklyn. I also had the impression there are a decent number of Armenian-Americans in the NYC area.
Kyrgyz - as JPD says, the food in Kyrgyzstan is similar to other Central Asian countries - and obviously you're not going to find any place in NYC making specifically Kyrgyz foods like those dried yogurt balls or kymys... but I'd say the ashlyanfu at Cafe Kashkar in Brighton Beach would count. I think the dish is actually from Dungans, but Kyrgyzstan is definitely the country where ashlyanfu is most popular. Also, there's a Cafe Arzu in Brooklyn that might be run by someone from Kyrgyzstan. It's billed as an "Uzbek" restaurant, but there are plenty of Uzbeks in Kyrgyzstan with Kyrgyz citizenship, and the political nationality seems to be the only thing he cares about.
posted by pravit at 4:09 PM on August 3, 2015
shouldn't he just call his website Dining Out in Queens? ( edit: i posted before reading above, but it stands).
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:47 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 7:47 PM on August 3, 2015
omg Egyptian food looks frickin awesome!
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:17 PM on August 3, 2015
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:17 PM on August 3, 2015
if there is a kyrgyz place offering Kymys, please let me know about it so I can make sure I never go there.
posted by JPD at 7:25 AM on August 4, 2015
posted by JPD at 7:25 AM on August 4, 2015
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Okay, it's a guy with a hot plate and a can of Spaghetti-O's. But he wears the pope hat and everything!
posted by Guy Smiley at 10:29 AM on August 3, 2015 [4 favorites]