Living in America, I love the tremendous variety of our cuisine. But as a gourmet cook and world traveler, I’m equally obsessed with foods that are not native to my country. Whether it was a foreign dish my parents made - both of them professional chefs who were masters of international recipes - or a dish I discovered during my travels to nearly 80 countries, there are almost too many to count.
I think about that impeccable alpaca steak at a five-star restaurant in Peru, the sausages we frequently sampled while living in Hungary, this stunning fried fish we had in China, the Tonkatsu we discovered in a tiny restaurant in Shibuya, Japan. But with an abundance of incredible culinary options in the United States, I feel I can find similarly delicious cousins of these dishes if I go to the right place. I need to narrow this down to the international foods that are unique and have no equal.
I also have to consider that most of my favorite Mexican dishes existed in Mesoamerica, prepared by ancient populations who were indigenous to some of the land that became the United States. So I suppose I cannot claim items like tortillas nor tamales as foreign.
However, there are dishes truly foreign to Americans that simply have no substitute. If I had to consider all of my favorite foreign foods, the following would be the top 10 that I simply cannot live without (listed by the frequency with which I eat each food item).
1.) Parmigiano Reggiano
While some of my recipes are better with SarVecchio Parmesan made by the award-winning Sartori company in Wisconsin, many of my authentic Italian recipes wouldn’t be the same without legitimate Parmigiano Reggiano imported from Italy. I buy it at least once a week and there is nothing else like it in the world.
2.) Nigiri
I’m not a huge fan of the veggies that accompany traditional sushi. So I opt for the simplicity of nigiri, just an exquisite piece of seafood atop sushi rice with a thick piece of pickled ginger. I’ll eat it once or twice a week and could not imagine a world without nigiri, especially eel. I’ve eaten this everywhere from San Francisco to Tokyo with unforgettable results.
3.) Pasta
This is another Italian staple I buy weekly and could not live without. Italian-made pastas are so much better than the American-made versions that we just cannot bring ourselves to cook with domestic pasta. We love Seggiano pasta, a British company run by Italians that is available at our local grocery store.
4.) Panang
This famous Thai concoction could actually be my favorite foreign dish! I’ve eaten it in Thailand, I’ve had it in reputable American restaurants, and I make a wonderful version at home. I don’t see myself going more than a month without panang!
5.) Tikka Masala
We ate a lot of this when we lived in India, and I still have this spicy curry once a month. I’m trying not to duplicate similar dishes here, but the curries of panang and tikka masala are so significantly different that each deserves a spot on the list. Restricting myself to panang for the rest of my life would be sad.
6.) Sambal Oelek
This spicy chili paste that originated in Indonesia is something we always have in stock in our kitchen. Whether I’m making sweet chili sauce for crab wontons, or hot Korean food, or even sneaking it into a chicken curry for a little kick, life would not be complete without a jar of sambal oelek.
7.) Spanakopita
My father introduced me to this glorious Greek dish as a child. We used to eat it two to three times each month. Then I started making an award-winning version of my own. I’ve eaten it in Greece too! If I could only have ten dishes from any country for the rest of my life, this would certainly make the list.
8.) Wontons
I eat a lot of wontons. Whether they’re the traditional steamed dumplings that date back to the Han Dynasty, or even the American invention crab wontons (which would be disqualified under the rules of this question), I will not live in a world without wontons.
9.) Ceviche
That picture has me salivating! Nothing can compare to an expertly prepared ceviche, especially the Peruvian version (which I prefer to the other Central and South American adaptations).
10.) Puri
Our Indian neighbors used to make this soft, chewy, puffy bread almost daily. We also got addicted to it in India, and it narrowly outranked other foreign dishes I cannot live without to squeak into my top 10.
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