So this upcoming semester I will be attending college on a campus with a buffet style meal plan. Growing up in a small town with nothing more than a mom ‘n’ pop restaurant, this is going to be one of the first times I’ll get to experience true multicultural food. My questions are: How do you expand your palate? And what multicultural foods would you recommend someone should try? My favorite food right now is Bone-out Chicken, and one of my closest HS friends whom I will be rooming with next year recommended General Tso’s.
I won’t go over common US/European foods since most people eat this in the US daily. Here’s a list of the cuisines I grew up with and know a bit about thanks to coming from a multinational family.
Cuisines I highly rate:
-Japanese: generally quite healthy. This can range from noodles (ramen, udon, soba, etc) which you can do many things with (stir fry, eat with soup etc) and is generally quite cheap and easy; curry - meat is optional and I usually have it without (though it’s a lot better with the fried pork or chicken katsu). Cook it one day and it can last you the best part of the week. Sushi is really good and a great way to impress friends/partner. Very fancy.
Caribbean: I can only really speak for Jamaica but this is a super underrated cuisine and is one of my favourites. There are many tutorials online. These dishes are generally quite healthy (says Usain Bolt at least) and is always a great way to impress guests. Can be spicy. Curry goat and jerk chicken are probably the most well known dishes. Best served with rice and peas (you should probably take a look at how they prepare it because it’s way different to normal rice and normal peas) and salad/coleslaw. Plantain is really nice too.
African: Speaking mainly about Ghanaian but a little about Nigerian too. Two words: jollof rice. Learn to make this and you’re sorted. Quite spicy but very tasty. Very filling and energising so if you’ve got a tough week ahead, this is a go to. Different countries do it differently. My favourite is Nigerian, but apparently the original is Gambian. There are, of course, many more dishes, but this is a must have/staple.
Other cuisines I like but don’t know much about:
Indian
North African/Arab
Thai
Mexican
Edit: I thought this was things to cook. Ignore all the “cheap/easy to make” parts, but they’re all great cuisines anyway.