Regional differences

[Ellyn]

First, let me tell you about bibingka. This is basically a baked or roasted coconut milk and rice flour pancake. Wikipedia thinks that people in the Philippines only has this on Christmas, but I personally like it enough to have it any time of the year, which was why I tried out one of these in miniature at the mall yesterday evening.

...Yeah, I'm not going to do that again. It was awfully dry, when one of my favorite things about this cake is how soft and even slightly juicy it can be, like tiramisu.

Still, the experience reminded me of a lot of funny things. One was the first time I tried bibingka with soft white cheese instead of the thin slices of Edam that it usually has (probably why it's associated with Christmas, then--I can have bibingka any time of the year, but the grocery stores that I go to have ordained that that particular cheese be reserved for the holidays.)

Where I live, too, the cake is frequently cooked with bits of hard-boiled salted duck egg, which I think really offsets the sweetness and adds a gummy texture that works just right.

A friend of mine, though, who's from Bacolod (I'm from metro Manila)-- was shocked and absolutely haaated the egg. She had to spit it back out, and I must admit that I laughed at her. In her town, she told me, nobody every puts salted egg in something sweet. That's just weird and wrong!



This probably isn't the only food in the world with regional differences. Can you think of a dish that you grew up with, that has a regional varieties like this?

 

[CoffeeTalk]

Generally anything to do with Seasons, especially Christmas and Easter, there seem to always be a wide variety in every location and region of the world I have ever been in.
Christmas bread and Christmas cakes are very different all over the place.
And how you prepare Bacalao the type cooked in tomatoes and potatoes , that is an interesting thing to observe. With or without olives, black peppers, hole tomatoes , spiced tomatoes, what type of potatoes and salt.

 

[Nikkishea21]

That sounds interesting. In Jamaica we have a lot of native dishes such as our flouza which is a one pot meal. It is quite economical and there is not any meat in it. It is done in coconut juice, this is what the dumplings, yam, banana or whatever carbohydrate source that you have is placed in. You then add your natural seasoning and spices to taste and it is absolutely great.

 

[lizzief79]

There are probably lots of dishes in the UK that are different from one region to the next. One that springs to mind is lob scouse. To me it is fried bacon, with onions and sliced boiled potatoes then cooked in the bacon fat. In a city about 50 miles away, lob scouse is a beef stew dish. Someone I know that moved to my area from down south makes lob scouse with corned beef and potatoes. To me, this is corned beef hash. There are also lots of variations for what people call a bread roll around the UK. I call them barmcakes, but people from other areas might call them a bun.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

There are probably lots of dishes in the UK that are different from one region to the next. One that springs to mind is lob scouse. To me it is fried bacon, with onions and sliced boiled potatoes then cooked in the bacon fat. In a city about 50 miles away, lob scouse is a beef stew dish. Someone I know that moved to my area from down south makes lob scouse with corned beef and potatoes. To me, this is corned beef hash. There are also lots of variations for what people call a bread roll around the UK. I call them barmcakes, but people from other areas might call them a bun.

don't start me on what a bread roll is... there is a very long list of what they can be... bread roll, baps, rolls, stotties, barmcakes, muffins... holding a conversation that involves bread in it can get very confusing in this household and we grew up less than 30 miles apart!