The 3 Cuisines You Don't Know You Love - Yet

When we eat, we tend to stick to what we know. For instance, if we are ordering takeout, there is a high chance that you will go with what you have ordered before. It’s just the way things go - you know what you like and you like what you know, right? But how did we ever get to eating what we eat without a little experimentation first?

Lebanese

This can be quite hard to get a hold of in terms of finding a restaurant or takeout near you that specialises in it, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t have an experiment in your kitchen. Lebanese food bases its flavours around fish and poultry as the main meats, with red meats hardly making an appearance. Grains and fruits are used in conjunction with one another, flavoured with olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. It’s quite a simple cuisine with few ingredients involved, but they pack a punch when they’re put together and turn into something that’s absolutely to die for.

Cajun & Creole Cuisine

There are a lot of people who stand by the fact that you can’t get proper Cajun or Creole cuisine outside of Louisiana, the state that is famous for this style of food. Not all of us are able to rock up at The Hotel Francis and step outside to sample the dishes, but it’s something to take on board when planning your next trip. Louisiana is situated on the Gulf of Mexico, and as such has a lot of sustainable seafood to play around with - shrimp is the staple meat used in this style of cooking, and dishes like Gumbo and and Jambalaya have become known worldwide for their brilliant tastes.  There are so many herbs and spices involved in these dishes that it’s hard to pin down the exact taste that hits your mouth. It’s indescribable, but definitely has hints of pepper to it to add a bit of heat to your tongue. Usually served in a variation of pots to pick and choose from, it’s similar to Spanish tapas except it’s all for you - and the portions are usually a lot more generous.

Vietnamese

We tend to stick to Thai and Chinese foods when we’re thinking about foods from the orient, but Vietnamese has just as much to offer (if not a little bit more). This cuisine has a lot of focus on fresh ingredients used, and centres the flavours on these; it encompasses spices, herbs and fruits which are found all over Asia. There is little dairy and oil involved in the cooking process, and with the meats used being lean meats or fish/seafood (crab especially), it is considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world. Fundamentally, there are five flavours which are to be incorporated into each dish, offering a taste sensation: sour, bitter, spicy, salty and sweet. It’s this combination of all of these, which are meant to correspond to different organs in our body, which gives Vietnamese cuisine its unique flavourings.