Any ethnic cuisines you highly recommend?!
-Not chinese
Answers: For a party also?
-Not chinese
Thai Cuisine
Green Papaya Salad
Green Curry Chicken
Tom Yum Goong Soup
Indian Cuisine
Samosa
Chicken Curry
Naan Bread
I like Ethiopian...stews with Injera breads that you scoop up the stews with...
I love Japanese - I know you may be thinking - that is still asian - but there is a lot of different japanese dishes out there!
peruvian and thai you won't regret.
When it comes to parties, you have to take both taste and convenience into consideration.
I really like Ethiopian, Mexican and middle Eastern cuisine, but a lot of their dishes are stew based or have sauce, so they aren't very party friendly, especially if you have light carpets.
If you do decide to go with any of those, stick to appetizers like salsa and hummus, and cover your carpet or spoon them in small cups (I learned that the painful way after having salsa stains on my light blue carpet)
Italian is good because Italian appetizers are not too messy, if you keep the sauce in Dixie cups.
Thai wraps are good.
Crab rangoon, spring and egg rolls are always hits at parties (I know you said not Chinese, but those are convenient and good)
Indian samosas are good, if you can find them in smaller sizes
Mini quiche is very easy to make, and you can get really creative. Crepe cake is also good (stack a bunch of crepes with whatever filling you have on hand then slice into wedges)
Turkish mini-bureks are also good
I like Greek salad kabobs, and they're good for vegetarians (but not for vegans)- put olives, cubes of Feta cheese and cherry tomatoes on small skewers
I hate to admit this, but good old American pigs in a blanket and mini burgers are usually the first thing that disappears at parties
AFRICAN CUISINE- INFO
African cuisine combines traditional fruits and vegetables, exotic game and fish from the oceans that surrounds her, and a marinade of cultures, colonies, trade routes, and history. Africa is a whole continent, from arid desert, to sub tropical wetlands, plains, and the oft- featured movie "jungle." Films have given Westerners an exotic view of Africa, from the big game hunter movies of the 1950's to recent movies showing colonization such as "Out of Africa." Woven within these movies are scenes of colonial food traditions, from the British to the Dutch, glimpses of native cuisine. Western views of Africa then, even if we have not traveled there, comprise a combination of the exotic, environmental preservation, hunting, and local cultivation.
African cuisine, formerly not well known in the West, is growing in popularity as immigrants bring the dishes of their country to small family restaurants in the West. To a traveler, it would be impossible to categorize "African food" just as it would be impossible to state the cuisine of any continent by one name. If you are intrepid, and take a safari tour from Kenya, your culinary experience will be much different from eating at the French and British influenced restaurants of Johannesburg, tasting Doro Wat of Ethiopia, Portuguese inspired spices of Angola and Mozambique, or the coconut and fish stews of Nairobi. Yet, all are part of African cuisine.
Northern Muslim Africa, along the Mediterranean from Morocco to Egypt is part of the Mediterranean culinary rim. Saharan Africa is for the most part subsistence. This article will cover sub Saharan Africa. Certain regions are distinctive for the development of indigenous cuisine, or incorporation of outside influences. These were distinctive by trade, colonization, or adaptation of imported foods, such as the New World peppers, peanuts, and corn. They are: Ethiopia, Nigeria, East and West Africa, the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and South Africa. You, the adventurous traveler, are encouraged to seek out local restaurants, outside of the large tourist hotels, to savor African cuisine.
Ingredients
What are ingredients for the traveler? African American cooking, with ingredients carried from the New World to Africa and back, gives us some clues. Mealie, the African name for corn, is used to make the soft cornmeal mush and batters that are a characteristic of African and American southern foods today. Fufu, brought to America by Nigerian slaves, is a stiff cornmeal or yam mush, directly related to southern spoonbreads and cornmeal. Porridges and ground millet, sorghum, teff, barley, and cassava flour make up the fritters, batters, flatbreads, griddle cakes, and grits known not only in the American South, but is part of the homemaker's repertoire in Africa.
The prime characteristic of native African meals is the use of starch as a focus; accompanied by a stew containing meat or vegetables, or both. Starch filler foods, similar to the rice cuisines of Asia, are a hallmark. Cassava and yams are main root vegetables. Steamed greens, mixtures of hot spices with root vegetables, stew with and without meat, particularly chicken, all are African inspired. Peanuts, called groundnuts in Africa, feature heavily in many dishes from a garnish to peanut soups. Melons, particularly watermelon, are popular.
Nigeria and the coastal parts of West Africa are fond of chilies in food. Coastal recipes include fish marinated in ginger, tomatoes, and cayenne, cooked in peanut oil. French cooking influence in Senegal uses touches of lime juice, chopped vegetables including scallions, garlic, and marinades. Peanut oil, palm oil, and often coconut oils are common. The black eyed pea is a staple of West Africa. Okra, known also in the American South, is native to Africa; used in many dishes to thicken soups and stews. Tropical fruits, particularly the banana and coconut are important ingredients.
Outside of Muslim Africa, alcoholic beverages are part of the diet. South Africa is known for the production of good quality white and red wines. South Africa also produces a tangerine based liqueur called Van Der Hum. Tusker, the famous Kenyan beer, is exported for those who want to recreate a meal. Beer goes well with most African cuisine.
The most famous alcoholic drink in the interior is the Ethiopian honey wine, Tej, which has been made for centuries. Bees are the earliest domesticated animals. Wine made from their honey is a slightly acquired taste, similar to the mead of Old England. Ethiopia lays claim to another first, the cultivation of coffee. The Ethiopian coffee ceremony includes lighting of incense, passing around the beans for guest's approval, and roasting on the spot. From Ethiopia, coffee spread to Yemen, and on through the Arabic world to Europe.
Let's start with Ethiopia, with the most isolated of the African cuisines. Removed geographically from the rest of Africa, it is one of the purest indigenous cuisines. Its high interior plains, cool nights and long growing season provide an abundant variety of food. It is a meat based diet. Ethiopians are very particular about the freshness of their meat. It is typical at traditional Ethiopian weddings for the bride and groom to serve fresh slices of just slaughtered raw beef to guests. A popular dish remains a version of steak tartare; raw ground beef served with assorted condiments. Accompanying many dishes is the fiery Berbere, a spicy hot pepper paste. Doro Wat, a stewed chicken, is the national dish. Doro Wat is composed of meat, onions, tomato, stock, and hard cooked eggs. Teff, the smallest form of millet, is ground into flour, used in a thin fermented batter to make Injera. Injera batter is poured upon a griddle in a large spiral, where it blends into a large 24" circular flatbread. Cooked in minutes, the spongy sourdough like bread becomes the plate for the Wat, and replaces a spoon.
South Africa has emerged as a polyglot cuisine. European colonization, the adaptation of the native Bantu cooking, and large scale immigration of foreigners and workers have all contributed. Dutch settlers brought their forms of agriculture, and the British merchants imported the "mixed grills" that now include African game meats. French cultivated the vineyards, known worldwide today. Malay workers contributed curries, adding spice to a traditional plain English-Dutch influence. British empire Indians who came to build the railroads forever influenced cuisine with dals, lentil soups, and curries. Game, and lamb, the famous South African lobster, and a vast repertoire of fish add to a truly cosmopolitan cuisine. Still, in the bush and smaller towns with mostly native Africans, the main meals remain starch and stew based. South Africa's most unusual meat is called Biltong. It is a spicy form of jerky, wind-dried, used in traveling, snacks, and can be found not only country wide, but throughout Africa.
In the bush, one may find the most traditional African foods. The African village diet is often milk, curds and whey, (Ethiopia is justly known in the Bible as the land of milk and honey) and dishes of steamed or boiled green vegetables, peas, beans, and cereals. Starchy cassava, yams, and sweet potatoes round out a daily diet. The most unusual use is the local Baobab tree. This thick trunked tree looks somewhat in silhouette like an upside down carrot, growing wider at the base. Baobab seeds are dried, crushed and ground, and the flesh of the fruit is used in powder form to thicken sauces. In each locality there are numerous wild fruits and greens that are used in all manners of cooking. Yam feast days are common, often accompanied with eggs. West African cuisine makes croquettes of yams, fried in peanut oil. Along with the banana and plantain, the starchy vegetable form of banana, these comprise important elements of the diet. Yams are often served with eggs.
Cooking techniques of West Africa often combine fish and meat. Flaked and dried fish is browned in oil and combined with chicken, yam, onions, chili oil and water to make a highly flavored stew. Beef and mutton are not common in West Africa, used mostly as a condiment; as it is very tough.
East Africa is huge. Kenya is larger than France; Uganda is the size of the Midwest, they are huge countries with immense plains. The European influence is less, as this side of Africa was last changed by the trade ships. The diet of the East African is again starch based, with millet, sorghum, bananas and milk mostly found as curds and whey. Cornmeal is now such a basic part of African cuisine is hard to believe that it was a new World import.
Home to some of the greatest game preserves, East African cuisine is distinctive for the almost total absence of meat. Cattle, sheep and goats are regarded as more a form of currency, and status, and so are not eaten. The Masai, live almost entirely upon the milk and blood, but not the meat, of their cattle.
Settlers influenced East Africa by importing their cuisine almost in its entirety. The first settlers, were the Arabs, settling in the coastal areas. The many pilaf dishes, rice cooked in the Persian steamed and spiced manner remain. Pomegranate juice, saffron, cloves, cinnamon, all spice East African food; showing the Arabic origins. Eventually, and many centuries later, the British, and their imported workers from India conspired to forever influence the East African diet, including boiled vegetable, and curries.
The Portuguese influence upon Angola and Mozambique is pervasive and subtle. They were the first Europeans to move to Africa south of the Sahara in the 15th century. Settling so long, this relatively inconspicuous European country influenced African life more than the more direct and intrusive British, French, and Dutch.