If you had to choose the cuisine of just one country or culture what would it be?

a reply to: nonspecific

French and Jamaican were my first thoughts. Delicious!

After a few more moments, I would honestly take British food and the realisation has left me appalled.

It's because of what I'd need to give up and it created a sense of appreciation for what we have here.

Full English breakfasts and Sunday roasts are obvious ones and mix in with bacon & egg butties and chicken salad sarnies. Then we've got chicken tikka dishes and all kinds of curries too. Battered fish and chips. Steak pies and lamb hotpots and you've already mentioned beans on toast. Pasties and more pies - chicken, game, pork, mince etc. Smoked mackerel with scrambled eggs. Pork sausages and mash with English mustard. Chinese chicken omelette is (technically) an English dish too.

I'd be heartbroken to give up chilli sauces and peri-peri and the craving for fried chicken would haunt me. Then again, whereas the Italian cuisine makes us live longer, British menus do the opposite so the heartbreak would be cured by a heart attack.

If I had to choose just one ?

Italian.

Italian all the way for this pussycat.

Bacon carbonara, fettucinni alfredo, shrimp scampi, ricotta and spinach stuffed cannelloni, lasagna, pizza (with plenty of extra "za"), herb garlic and black olive focaccia bread, bruschetta, stuffed arancinis, minestrone soup, capicollo and prosciutto (with pretty much anything), spumoni ice cream, lemon gelato....

Nom nom nom.

originally posted by: Trueman

Well, I always thought Rome is overrated.

Food wise it is to a degree, although certain neighborhoods, like Trastevere, have interesting cuisine.

a reply to: nonspecific

OH that's easy. ITALIAN!

It's my favorite to cook. Wine and all kinds of cheese. I can make anything! So Italian it is. MMMMMMM

This is really easy for me; I tend to judge upon where I ate the best when I visited their respective countries.

First choice: Italy. No brainer. Several courses in a modest little trattoria, no menu, however patience and endurance is required. Do NOT use up all your room on the antipasto. Great local fare. Nobody shops for the week, but for the day. People were great. I nearly stayed there forever. Italian would do me well for the rest of my life, thank y'verymuuuuuch.

Very close second: Mexico. WOW. Fish, and all manner of meats, sumptuous vegetables, great regional differences. Friendly people. I could survive well for the rest of my life on Mexican cuisine.

Third: Jamaican/Caymanian.......... these two are very close together, and mostly differ by various spices and favored fish. This is the cuisine in which I mostly cook, although I foray into others every week. This cuisine renders lesser meats into flavorful and tender dishes. The toasty Scotch Bonnet pepper plays a major role, and fresh thyme, basil, garlic, ginger, pimento seed (allspice), and oregano are recurring themes.

Really interesting to me to see everyone else's choices and why.
♪ it's a small world afterrrrrallll.......... it's a small small worrrrrlld.... ♪