Are there dishes or traditions whose origins are contested between your country and another?

19 comments

1. Fries most likely did originate in France but since we are the ones who perfected them and have turned it into a vital part of our culture and way of life, we like to claim them for ourselves. Just like how the French stole croissants from Austria.

2. I’m not sure it’s very contested, but what in English is known as a “Danish pastry” is actually local variation/development of Austrian pastries! There is even a particular pastry known as “Wienerbrød”, Viennese bread.

3. Oh boy.

   Tokaj wine, pálinka, to name a few.

   But the hungarian cuisine is part of the wider central-european family, so we share a lot of dishes with the region, but these two were actively contested in front of courts.

   Afaik Hungary won, mostly.

4. Curry, the national dish of England, is contested – not by England, they never claimed to have invented it, but by France and India.

   While India (and generally that part of Asia) has a long history with curry, France claims that King Louis VI, almost a thousand years ago, was the first to come up with the idea of taking gutter slop, mixing it with spice and serving it to English nobles at feasts, as a cruel joke, to prove that they’d eat anything.

   (the above text is an excerpt from one of Charles de Gaulle’s favourite jokes, apparently)

5. For Germany: I wouldn’t know any contested dishes (although there are many shared culinary traditions in border regions – e.g. the Bavarian, Austrian and Czech cuisines have a lot in common). But, given the strongly regional character of the country, there are some disputes internally. An example would be the Swabian Brezel vs the Bavarian Brezn. But for conflicts: Forget West and East, the real dividing line is how you make potato salad (with mayonnaise and onion or with oil and vinegar). I, however, take a neutral position in this long and drawn-out war.

6. Oh I got a few:

   ​

   The origin of the **pretzel** (German: Breze, Bavarian: Brezn) is disputed between various regions of southern Germany, from Bavaria to Alsace. (this we’ll never know, but at least it is quite certain that the use of lye for Pretzels was a Bavarian invention)

   Between Vienna and Milan there is a dispute about the origin of the famous **Wiener Schnitzel**. It is said to originate from the Bistecca Milanese, which is almost the same thing, but typically served with different sides. (quite credible, but then again, the Italians have enough world famous dishes for themselves)

   In Vienna there is a legend which locates the origin of the French **croissant** in Vienna: it is said to have been used to mock the crescent on the Ottoman flag during the 1683 Turkish siege if Vienna (highly unlikely, but the story is quite catchy, so it sticks).

7. it’s more of a local dispute than with another country, but the name of dumplings with cheese and potatoes here is “ruskie” which just means it’s from Red Ruthenia (polish: Ruś Czerwona), but many people wrongly assume it has something to do with Russia.

8. In Norway there’s stuff like italiensk salat, meksikansk gryte and americansk blanding.

   The italiensk salat is a sandwich spread/coleslaw-like salad with carrots and other veggies soaked in mayonnaise, the closest Italian thing I can think of is something called “*Russian salad*” or a more generic “*rice salad*” (wait rice salad may or may not have mayo), with no eggs and no onion. IIRC it is something very similar to a Russian potato salad ([source: Life of Boris)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpXanUgokx0), while the Norwegian potato salad is just potatoes, onions and mayo.

   *Disclaimer from the mayo factory: Italian salad is not Italian, the name is given because the ingredients recall the Italian flag, red for carrots, white for mayo and green for cabbage.*

   Meksikans and amerikansk gryte are pre-cooked rice stews with tomato, paprika, legumes, people can add extra meat or beans while cooking them. One is a little more spicy, with the other is very plain. Imho, they have nothing to do with Mexico or the Americas in general, just the (US) flag as a decoration of the box (correction the meksikansk one have no flags, just tortillas and guacamole, also is vegetarian/vegan friendly).

   Still I heard no American claiming the Norwegian sold, frozen vegetable mix of peas, corn and carrots is a traditional *American* dish.

9. I remember looking up pierogi on the DST Wiki and some anti-Polish degenerate in the comments was trying to convince everyone that they aren’t a Polish dish, but a Ukrainian one. To deny us our rightful culinary cultural heritage like that! You really have to be a monster.

   [Here](https://dontstarve.fandom.com/wiki/Pierogi?commentId=4400000000000031992&replyId=4400000000000068570), have a link so you can raise your blood pressure.

   I hope they accepted the truth after all those years.

10. Sarmale?

    Musaca?

    Pălincă?

    Gulaș?

    Mangalița pig?

    Ciorbă?

    Borș?

    Compot?

    Cozonac?

    Rară neagră wine which is also popular in Ukraine under a different name or in the US under it’s ukrainean name afaik.

    At least in this region it’s hard to not have dozens of dishes that one might consider traditional in his country, but are also *traditional* for other countries as well

11. This is not one related to my country, but feta is subject to this.

    Greece got the EU to claim it is Greek and only Greek (regional traditional foods get legal protections). The problem is that feta is produced all over the Balkans for centuries, if not millennia.

12. Portugal and Spain have a lot of common dishes but I think to avoid any conflicts, we just call it “our” variant.

    For example gazpacho/gaspacho has its origins in southern Iberia, there is the Spanish variant and the Portuguese variant.

13. Quite a few local ones between Devon and Cornwall:

    Origin of the pasty – current earliest evidence suggests Devon was the inventor, and when this was released a few years ago, Cornish UltraNats were absolutely fuming and ranting.

    The Cornish nationalist movement in the earl 20th century sought to get local foods marked as Cornish as part of the movement, even if they were shared across both counties. This has led to a lot of association between traditional food in Devon being branded as Cornish. The Cornish pasty is a prime example of that.

    Saffron buns are another, though it’s not clear where the origin was.

14. A national dish can be claimed by more than one country, and borders in Europe changed all the time. Even when they didn’t change, culture and food don’t completely change at the border.

    I don’t think we have had a problem with Spain in things like this gazpacho or (gaspacho in Portuguese), which is a dish that is from the southern part of Spain and Portugal but is considered a Spanish national dish by foreigners.

    It’s a more southern Iberian dish than a Spanish dish. There are variations of the dish in Spain and in Portugal.

15. There’s a bunch of dishes, that we consider czech, but come from other country, and some are adapted to a certain degree.

    For example:
    Schnitzel (originally austrian or maybe milanese?)
    or
    Goulash stew (arguably hungarian)
    or
    Langoš (hungarian)

16. Irish and Scots both claim to be the first to distill whiskey or whisky if it’s Scottish. We’ve probably been arguing about who made it first ever since it was first made on the islands. Whiskey also used to be called ‘uisce breatha’ (Water of Life) in Gaeilge and whisky used to be called ‘uisge beatha’ (Water of Life) in Scots Gaelic.

    For the Scots (I’m not Scottish so please correct me if any of this is incorrect) it is believedthe oldest reference to whisky occurs in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls for 1494,where there is an entry stating that malt was sent “To Friar John Cor, byorder of the king, to make aquavitae”. Aqua vitae being (you guessed it)Water of Life.

    For us Irish it is believed that the oldest reference to whiskeyoccurs in the Annals of Clonmacnoise for 1405, which attributes the death of achieftain after “taking a surfeit of aqua vitae” at Christmas.”the drink was not aqua vitae for him, but rather aqua mortis”.

    Now there’s been instances on both sides of older evidence such as manuscripts forthe Scots and a deerskin parchment for the Irish both the legitimacy of theseare up in the air and that’s where the history gets muddled. It’s a funargument to have over a whisk(e)y but it’s possible that distillation waspracticed by the Babylonians in Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC so bothsides might be wrong.

    ​

    (edit: put into paragraphs so it’s not a brick of text)

17. Onion soup with bread and cheese is disputed between Italy and France: we do know the origin was with Caterina de’ Medici, but we don’t know if she transferred a dish from her homeland, or if she transplanted it to Tuscajy, and thus Italy.

    Also, the classic fight between Milan and Wien for the schnitzel is an heated debate indeed!

18. Oh boy! Greece and Turkey have so many disputes over… Food. Tzatziki, baclava, yogurt, coffee and so many more.

    What I believe is that most of the dishes Turkey claims are not theirs are probably either Greek or Persian or from some other civilization that thrived in our region. Turkish people used to be nomads up until they settled in Anatolia, it wasn’t possible for them to have sophisticated cuisine but since we all lived under the ottoman rule, Turkish names of popular dishes became the norm and now they claim everything as theirs. Lol

19. Well there’s the Full Irish (Breakfast)….

    Or is it the Full English…

    Or the Full Scottish

    Either way it’s a cooked breakfast with sausages, back bacon, pudding, eggs, beans etc. and then different regions will have there own slight variations….