I know what Daal and Chapati are but I had to look up 'collard greens'. Does that make me an Aussie?

Collard greens are astoundingly good, but very much an acquired taste. They're a cornerstone food of southern US cooking, although here we just cook them in bacon drippings and a spot of vinegar (or hot sauce). Mmmm

Warrior, I'm surprised you knew what Daal and Chapati were. Have you had it before?

It's interesting how some Southern Cooking and Indian or Kenyan cooking intersect. I've seen okra, collard greens, and certain types of pickles that are very similar between the two.

I believe that the Kenyan way is to put oil, cumin (probably a Kenyan-Indian hybrid, the cumin), and tomatoes in a pot, throw in some collards and water, and then steam them until they are tender. Some people make it with meat. My mom recently found out that collards and spinach make for a tasty combination.
I agree that they are an acquired taste, SL. Personally, I can only enjoy eating them plain if I am eating them with the ugali/corn mush.
I have to have them with hot sauce or something otherwise. Vinegar sounds really good! I bet that would mask that certain aftertaste?

So here's a question, does anyone else around this blue globe have the same habit when they hear other accents, be it in music, movies, or even talking to someone from another land?

After spending three weeks in Connecticut, I found myself saying "to-may-to" instead of "to-mah-to".

When I have been watching a lot of British television I start pronouncing the "ance" such as glance and dance the British way but than I go back.

Which British way? A long "a" (glaahnce, daahnce) as they do down South, or a short "a" as they do up from where I'm from?

This way:(some people in Australia manly those from south Australia say it this way too). Other states say it with the short a.

@ BellanotfromTwilight, it is a strange coincidence, isn't it? The Kenyan variety sounds delicious! I don't think, however, I've ever had any Indian food. Outside of the major cities I don't recall even seeing many Indian restaurants, for that matter. As for W4J knowing what they are I'm pretty sure any country that was once part of the UK would likely have some knowledge of Indian food since India was part of the Empire for many, many years and soldiers, diplomats, etc. who served there likely brought back many cultural items with them, including curios and recipes for food they'd eaten there. Being totally unfamiliar with Indian cuisine the only things I know about it are that many dishes use curry and that there's no meat involved.

@ W4J - I actually ended up looking Meat Pies up...they look quite good! Does the meat inside have a soupy consistency or is it solid like a hamburger? And does it use hamburger or bits of steak/meat?

I have a kenyan friend and the food her family makes is very nice(most of the time). They tend to stick to vegetarian dishes because they have to buy halal meat which sometimes can be more expensive.

I don't like meat pies for reasons states before. I think you can get ones which are more solid but most of the time it is soupy I believe.

ooooh Daal and Chapati, only had it once in my life, but it was sooooo tasty! (we had an Indian friend who made it for us, with spices he brought from India )

I guess while I'm on the Indian wavelength, I can just mention how much I'm addicted to the Indian way of making tea We have an Indian store only about an hour away from where we live, so I go there to get my hands on the tea and spices (and here's something I found ironic, the Indians and the Russian share the same word for tea, chai! )
But yeah, I'm generally very fascinated with the Indian culture, dress, food and dance. (I even danced a little bollywood in the years before, though unfortunately, I'm too blonde too look Indian )

Russian signature dish...um...probably borscht (I mean, I think I can come up with several dishes that could be considered 'signature dishes' but I honetly think borscht takes the cake!)

Here's a question, in the US/England/any other country you may be from, is it at al popular to go out in the forest around autumn time and collect mushrooms? Here, it's what just about how half the population spends their autumn. The mushrooms are then either dried, frozen or marinaded, and later used for soups, pies, or eaten just like that. (Fried together with potoates is one of my favorites ways of eating them )

I don't like meat pies for reasons states before. I think you can get ones which are more solid but most of the time it is soupy I believe.

Hmm...that makes it sound like a beef pot pie. Here a pot pie is a little pastry kinda thing that essentially looks like a tiny pie, but it's filled with a meat stew concoction. Chicken pot pies are the most popular but they also have turkey pot pies and beef pot pies. Can you pick up one of your meat pies and eat it like a sandwich? I think I'd like to try one of those

Here's a question, in the US/England/any other country you may be from, is it at al popular to go out in the forest around autumn time and collect mushrooms?

People will do that in the fall here but my understanding is that it's not because they enjoy it but rather because some of the mushrooms net you some very big money. The mushrooms command some fairly insane market prices and are used for a variety of things from medicine to being included in super pricey restaurants. I used to have gigantic mushrooms that would sprout on my front lawn and were a real eye sore. You can do your best to mow the stuff down but they always pop up again . One day I was doing some work in the front yard and a man pulled up on his moped and said to me, "Hey man, you ever watch the Smurfs?". I said "Yeah...". He then said, "Your lawn looks like Smurf Village. Ha ha hahahazzzzzzzwwwwaa" as he rode off on his moped.

I keep the lawn so short now that the merest hint of mushroom will have me out on the front lawn and mowing like a madman! I read someplace on some website that some of them can actually be used for cooking, but one requires a qualified myconologist (a doctor of mushroomology ) to tell a good one from one that'll give you a bad tummyache. Or worse. But I'm just not brave enough to try it.

I've not heard of people going hunting for mushrooms in the areas I've lived in. We were always told as children not to pick or eat mushrooms because we couldn't tell whether they were poisonous or not, and I actually have a cousin who ate some wild 'shrooms without telling anyone and was hospitalized because they weren't the edible kind. So, for myself, I'll stick to buying mushrooms from the local grocer.

While the state I live in even has an 'official' state mushroom (the morel, which apparently is quite delicious), in my experience it's pretty rare for people to go mushroom picking because it can be dangerous.

But there are people who go morel hunting, and I recall one time I was having a picnic at a state park when a brief rain shower brought a quick growth of mushrooms - and a group of mushroom hunters showed up right away to gather them.

I'm not that brave.

Speaking of pot pies, a variation is the pasty, a heartier version popular in mining areas such as Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Minnesota's Iron Range. The story goes that in times past they were an easy, hand-held lunch for the miners. So when I went to the UP for the first time, I had to play the tourist and find a pasty place. Delicious!

Is there any one dish which anyone would consider their country's "signature" dish? In the US it's probably the cheeseburger, or maybe pizza. What would it be in Australia, Russia, and Norway? And Varna, if you say "Lutefisk" I will sob uncontrollably

I won't say it then
Actually, I think lutefisk is our most bizarre dish, not our most popular one. And people tend to love it or hate it. I'm closer to the second group ...

Some years ago, a popular radio programme arranged a voting for our most popular dish, and the winner was Fårikål (mutton in cabbage). (Sorry I can't format the link.)
As a dish in daily use, the fårikål might be more of a signature dish for Norway than the lutefisk. (I like it very much.)

Meatballs might be another signature dish, actually.

Mutton...that's sheep, right? I've never had it myself, but a meat/cabbage combination sounds rather nice.

@ Stargazer, that looks reeeeeallly good!

I suppose in addition to hamburgers/cheeseburgers one could call Chili a national dish of sorts. Every living American soul has at some point consumed some form of chili, and it's a dish that can be modified in countless different ways. Probably like wild rose's borscht. I need to try that borscht recipe out...I foresee a trip to the grocery store in the near future!

I don't like meat pies for reasons states before.

Actually, meat pies are more of a fast food, like fish & chips or hamburgers, and a lot depends where you get them. The traditional meat pie is something like the ones you get with peas at Harry's Café de Wheels, I've heard. One of our local bakeries does really nice pies, not only the traditional ones, but also Chicken & Mushroom, Mexican Beef (with Capsicum & Chili), Beef Vindaloo, which is a bit nicer than just plain curried Beef, and others. Yes, some meat pies, being made with minced meat instead of diced meat, can be a bit heavy on the gravy, but others, particularly the freezer ones @ the supermarket, can also be a bit dry.

Flo Bjelke-Petersen was the wife of Joh (Johannes) Bjelke-Petersen, who came from New Zealand, and became a famous Queensland premier. Senator Flo, who was particularly famous for her pumpkin scones, was in the Federal Parliament's Upper House, called the Senate.

If I were to choose an Australian signature dish, I'd still go for a Sunday roast. Or a backyard barbecue. I know you don't like lamb very much, but on Australia or Anzac Day there is nothing like a nice leg of lamb, rubbed with garlic, well seasoned with rosemary leaves, served with roast vegetables like pumpkin, potato, carrot etc., and don't forget the mint sauce. This is supposed to be the dinner that most girls wouldn't pass up even when they won a date with Tom Cruise. At least Nicole Kidman must have thought so when she named her daughter Sunday Rose.

The signature dish for Scotland is Haggis, I believe. When it isn't oatmeal porridge, that is. Served up as a flambé 'ed pudding after a lot of speechifying on January 25th, which is Robbie Burns' day. To make a haggis, they take all the nice bits off the sheep and cook the rest of it, eg the stomach, in a pudding, using oatmeal and herbs etc. Haggis is served with neaps which is basically turnip. Actually the Scots use oatmeal quite a bit. Just as I've heard the Dutch use nutmeg in everything, and it appears that in the USA they deep-fry everything.

Perhaps the Norwegian background is closer to Scottish and the accent is therefore more likely to come over for a Norwegian than the southern English accents

You could be right. I've been to the Orkneys which has a regional flag suspiciously like the Norwegian flag, which has a lot of links with Norway, and where the native language is not Scottish Gaelic, as in the Hebrides and highlands of Scotland, but a form of Norwegian. Malcolm Canmore's first wife was from the Orkneys, possibly, and in the Shetlands, in particular, the people there are closer to Norway than to London. And did you know that English dialects in Yorkshire & Sunderland do show where the Danelaw was during the time of Alfred the Great.

Over the Long weekend my family watched some Star Trek movies from the Voyager series. Captain Janeway speaks in a distinctly USA accent, and I've been noticing again all those "o" sounds which come across as more like "ar" sounds, and words like hostile or missile pronounced like hostal and missal, not at all the objects I'd associate with hostile missiles. I've also noticed how Australians also flatten vowel sounds so they can sound like something else, for example She'll be roight, instead of right.

Wagga, actually, you're right. The signature dish would be the classic Aussie BBQ.

And no, most of us don't cook shrimp on the barbie. Shrimp are just a smaller variety of what we call 'prawns'.