With the ever-increasing popularity of food fusion, it has become increasingly hard to find authentic, unadulterated dishes that represent different cultures. Today, restaurants focus more on coming up with inventive and hybrid recipes rather than sticking to the authentic or original ones. This means that you don’t really get to know about or explore a wide array of exceptional and scrumptious authentic dishes from around the globe that are simply waiting to be discovered.
So, if you want to discover 8 hidden, authentic dishes that need to be more popular in the world over, then read on.
Table of Contents
1. Kolaczki
Kolaczki is a small biscuit that is a popular snack in countries such as Poland, Russia, and Austria. The biscuit is basically sweet, delicious fresh fruit jam – the most common ones are apricot and fig – wrapped nicely in soft pastry made of cream, salt, flour, and butter. The baked goods end up becoming the Kolaczki biscuits. You can have them around Christmas, Easter, or even with your tea.
2. Har Gow
Har gow is a part of the traditional Cantonese cuisine. It’s a dumpling that is served in dim sum and you can find it at the Kogarah Clubhouse that specializes in authentic Chinese dim sum cuisine and other original dishes with a contemporary spin to them.
This type of dumpling is also often referred to as a shrimp bonnet thanks to its pleated shape. Har gow usually has a shrimp filling with an uber-thin dough covering that is traditionally transparent and smooth. Each tiny har gow dumpling has at least 7 pleats on it and is small enough to easily fit into your mouth in one go.
3. Cuccidati
Cuccidati is a fig-stuffed biscuit with Italian and Sicilian origins. These delicious and sweet biscuits are usually served on Christmas. The exterior of the biscuit is made with cookie dough and usually covered with some icing that is topped with rainbow sprinkles.
The pastry is rolled to cover the filling, and the prepared pastry rolls are either chopped into small tubes or bowed around to form a circle or ring. When prepared in a ring shape, these biscuits are called buccellati, which translates into “little bracelets”.
4. Tofu Skin Wrap or Roll
Tofu skin roll or wrap is a popular Chinese dim sum dish that is also widely loved in Hong Kong. The outer layer of these wraps is made of tofu skin, which is essentially dried sheets of boiled soy milk. The fillings of these wraps range from pork and red meat to various vegetables to seafood.
Tofu skin wraps are usually prepared as fried or steamed rolls and are often presented in restaurants in a bowl that consists of two or three rolls. The steamed tofu skin rolls are usually the ones commonly served as a dim sum dish. The steaming process hydrates the skin, which makes the rolls soft and tender. You can find this version of tofu rolls in The Pearl Kogarah in the Kogarah Clubhouse as well as other Chinese dim sum restaurants.
5. Khachapuri
Khachapuri is a traditional Georgian dish that consists of cheese-filled bread. Although it’s a quite popular street-food item in certain parts of Armenia, its main value lies in Georgia, where it has the stature of being the national dish of Georgians. The bread is leavened and allowed to rise, after which it is shaped in different ways. Usually, the cheese sits in the middle of the bread so that you can break off the crust and dip it in the cheese before devouring it. The bread filling usually contains eggs, sulguni cheese, and various seasoning items.
6. Fujisan Bread
Fujisan bread is a must-have food item and is named after the striking Japanese Mount Fuji. This fluffy bread is prepared via a fusion of Japanese dough-preparing method with French pastry-making techniques. This amalgamation of two widely different cuisine techniques results in a tender, brioche-like bread that also has multiple, plush layers of croissant. However, despite its various French and Japanese influences, the most followed recipes of this fusion bread are of Chinese origin!
To prepare the delicious Fujisan bread, bakers prepare a tangzhong, which is a Japanese mix of cooked flour and water. Once it’s cooled, they fold this mix into the dough mixture. This results in the soft and creamy texture of the bread. As for the croissant-like golden-crusted exterior and layers of the Fujisan bread, bakers use the French folding technique of lamination. The prepared bread is then dusted with powdered sugar.
7. Scallop Gaozi
Gaozi or jiaozi is a popular kind of Chinese dumpling that is most commonly eaten by Chinese people during the Chinese New Year. Even though scallop jiaozi is a huge part of the Chinese cuisine, jiaozi, in various reinvented forms, is also widely popular in other Asian and Western countries.
Traditionally, the tiny purse-shaped jiaozi consists of ground meat mixed with seasoning. It is wrapped into a thinly rolled slice of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the sides together. You can either boil, steam, or pan fry jiaozi and then have it with the staple black vinegar and sesame oil dip. To have delicious, traditional Chinese Scallop gaozi or jiaozi, you can head to the Pearl Kogarah.
8. Spanakopita
Spanakopita, more commonly known as Greek spinach pie, is an old Greek dish that originated about 400 years ago. This savoury pie dish made with spinach and feta cheese is a staple of Greek cuisine. In fact, it is so popular in the country, that you can easily find it at nearly every bakery or cafe in the country. Traditionally, Spanakopita has a scrumptious filling of feta cheese, chopped spinach, egg, spring onions, and seasoning.
So what are you waiting for? Now that you know about these authentic dishes that are widely popular in their origin countries, make sure to try them all!
Author Bio:
Grant Amer is the General Manager of Kogarah Clubhouse. He has been working with the Kogarah RSL Club for 30 years, and is excited to present the new Kogarah Clubhouse to the community. The all-new Kogarah Clubhouse features The Pearl and the Blake Street Kitchen, Blake Street Kitchen is the new go-to in Kogarah. From the morning coffee to catch-up with the girls, or a date night with “the one”, Blake Street Kitchen is the place to be.