Cuisines

[lenquixote66]

What was the first cuisine you ate other than your native cuisine ?

 

Somebody was surprised when I posted that the first time I ate pizza was at age 16.The first time that I had a full meal of a cuisine not my native one was Chinese at age 19.

[Harters]

It must have been Dutch. I would have been about 12 and my parents and I went for a week long holiday - mainly so Dad could visit the bulb fields. He was a keen gardener and I've got those genes from him. I have no recollection of what we ate. 

 

The next cuisine will have been Italian in about 1965 (when I was 15). The school organised a two week trip to Italy. We stayed in hostels and I have a vague recollection of the food not being at all good. Lots of pasta which was all entirely new to me.

[dahirsh]

I think most of us would have been young enough we would have no memory of it.  We rarely ate out when I was young, but I would still say I had both pizza and chinese when I was too youngto recall.  

[CntPAcruiser]

We had what passed for pizza at home from an early age, but it was the "kit" kind, definitely not real pizza. I first had real pizza in high school. But as for earliest, I think it was on my tenth or eleventh birthday when an aunt asked what I would like for dinner (she was buying takeout for our family), and much to my parents' chagrin, I asked for Chinese. My aunt ate a lot of Chinese takeout and I knew it, but I had never had it, and I was thrilled that she let me choose. I was in heaven, and the rest of the family, apart from my aunt, were probably lost (or starved). 

[CGTNORMANDIE]

Good question…let me think.  My father was a pilot in the Air Force.  During WW II he flew “The Hump” over the Himalayas between India and China.  He developed a real fondness for Chinese food.  He was again called to active duty during the Korean War and we had to move to Washington, DC. I was only 3 years old.  On Saturdays, if he wasn’t flying, he would take me to Chinatown in DC to get Chinese takeout.  I’ll never forget the smells of the food being prepared.  By the time I was 4 years old I was addicted to shrimp fried rice, egg foo yung, shrimp egg roll and chop suey.  

Edited June 18, 2023 by CGTNORMANDIE

[crystalspin]

On 6/16/2023 at 10:42 AM, lenquixote66 said:

What was the first cuisine you ate other than your native cuisine ?

I thought about this a lot! I decided it was French. My high school French teacher REALLY loved all things francois and took us to Montreal AND offered an evening French cooking class where she gave us all the paperback edition of Julia Child.

 

Later I taught myself Chinese and Mexican cooking, also from books.

[lenquixote66]

11 hours ago, crystalspin said:

I thought about this a lot! I decided it was French. My high school French teacher REALLY loved all things francois and took us to Montreal AND offered an evening French cooking class where she gave us all the paperback edition of Julia Child.

 

Later I taught myself Chinese and Mexican cooking, also from books.

Excellent