eating? Archieven - Niels Quinten

Canada

18 March 2021/in eating?, What is everyone.../by Niels

Canadian Lunch

– Kadyos (beans, jackfruit, pork (but usually it’s beef))
– Rice
– Melon

My mother made Kadyos, which is a typical Filipino dish. It’s actually a popular comfort food unique to IloIlo, a provence in the Philippines where I grew up until I was about five years old.

My mother made this dish a lot when I was growing up here in Canada. When I visited my hometown in Iloilo when I got older, I had the chance to taste the local version. My god I was blown away, it tastes so good, I’m not sure why that is.

Maybe it’s the local ingredients, or the whole psychology around it, but the pork seemed much more chewier back there.

*This project is not about what typical food in a certain country is, it’s about what someone in a country eats, which can be any food.

USA

17 March 2021/in eating?, What is everyone.../by Niels

Lunch
– New York “Everything” Bagel
– Tomato Vegetable soup

This is a typical New York Bagel and some soup. We’ve ordered it from this place just 5 minutes or so around the corner from here.

Yemen

16 March 2021/in eating?, What is everyone.../by Niels

Yemeni Lunch

رز (roz/rice)
دجاج (digag/chicken)
خضروات (khadrawat/vegetables)
صانونه (Sanunah/vegetable sauce)

This is a simple meal, nothing too fancy, but very typical in the Southern part of Yemen. Cooked fresh by my mother, so it’s a home cooked meal.

Germany

15 March 2021/in eating?, What is everyone.../by Niels

German Dinner
– Minestrone mit Pesto und Oliven (Minestrone with Pesto and Olives)
– Italienischer Wein (Italian wine)

Well, this actually isn’t German food at all, but I don’t know a lot of people who really eat typical German food all the time. Except for my 82 year old grandmother, she still does. But a lot of the times we eat dishes from other countries, often Asian dishes.

Malaysia

14 March 2021/in eating?/by Niels

Dinner

– 蒸蛋 (Steamed egg)
– 咕噜肉/酸甜肉 (Sweet and sour pork)
– 苦瓜 (vegetables/bitter gourd)
– 老黄瓜汤 (Yellow cucumber soup)
– 饭 (Rice)
– 中国茶。(Chinese tea)

I’m eating my dinner at an Economic Rice or Zap Fan (meaning mixed rice in Cantonese). It’s a restaurant that basically offers a buffet. Different foods are available, you just put the ones you like on your plate and pay.

I often come here, it’s convenient and there are rarely any queues. Also, I live alone and these kinds of restaurants are not expensive, so most of the time I eat out. Most people in Malaysia do. Of course, if you’re a big family, then it makes more sense to cook your own meals. And there are also a lot more expensive restaurant where you wouldn’t go and eat everyday.

But you know, this meal is only one meal. If you really want to understand Malaysian food, you’ll need to take pictures of a lot more dishes. For example, usually the Chinese restaurant – such as the Economic Rice – have non-halal food. But a lot of Malay are Muslim and only eat Halal food, which you can much more easily find in the Malay restaurants.

Belgium

13 March 2021/in eating?/by Niels

Belgian Breakfast

– Havermout (oatmeal)
– Gemixt fruit (mixed fruit)
– Koffie (coffee)

I actually should have eaten bread for this breakfast with you, I believe that’s more representative of a Belgian breakfast. If you think about it, Belgians really have a bread culture. I remember in the 80’s when my parents hung a bag in front of the house, near the mailbox. The baker would then drive past all the houses in the neighborhood and place either white bread (wit brood) or grey bread (grijs brood) in the bag, depending on if you wrote “white” or “grey” on the bag.

But that’s how it was back then I suppose, food was much more simple. Even before that time, I remember my grandparents usually ate a simple breakfast: bread with eggs. Actually, they usually also ate some meat with it. In that sense they were lucky because it wasn’t common to get meat on your plate back then. But there was a small forest next to my grandparents house, so everyday my grandfather placed traps to catch bunnies which they could then eat.