I am from Indonesia, which is one of the eating rice 3 times a day countries, at least traditionally. My parents often ask whether I feel full after eating carb that is not rice, especially bread/potato/pasta (Asian noodle is kind of an exception). In the past they won't even consider that I have eaten yet, they will say 'there is rice in the rice cooker and some side dishes' and tell me to eat.
There was (and probably still is) a habit of almost everyone, to eat instant noodle (ramen) with rice. We consider the ramen as a side dish because it has seasoning. And yeah they taste good together actually if you don't see the health implication.
And from another culture that I experience on my own, I see my Turkish husband's family eating everything with mountain of bread, even when they have pasta, oily rice, or dishes that is mostly potato with few bits of meat/ other vegetables.
Both families have reduced the carb intakes nowadays thankfully.
Is there anything such in your culture? Does not necessarily have to be carb though.
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>I see my Turkish husband’s family eating everything with mountain of bread, even when they have pasta, oily rice, or dishes that is mostly potato with few bits of meat/ other vegetables.
Pretty much this. Especially with older generations, there’s this notion that if you don’t eat bread, you won’t be full. This habit comes from, well, poverty. Bread is basically cheap filler, and if you eat bread you won’t eat so much of the actual meat, vegetables etc. Even families who are well-off keep the habit, because, well, tradition.
It’s changing nowadays, though, at least for those who can afford a balanced diet and are more health-conscious. But bread still is a major part of the diet for most people. I know some who won’t even come to dinner if there’s no bread.
I’m from Manchester, UK and I find it difficult to feel full or satisfied if I haven’t eaten meat with a meal. There’s some exceptions like soup with bread but even then, it’s a snack at best. I know quite a few people who won’t consider it a meal if there’s no meat.
I mean I eat pretty much everything with bread but other than that I’m not sure. I don’t eat the same things everyday nor with every meals like you guys do with rice.
In Ireland, even restaurants from cuisines where potatoes aren’t common—Chinese, Thai, Japanese—will often have something potato-based on the menu. Many people’s favourite thing to order from a Chinese is a “spice bag,” an only-in-Ireland dish made of chips/French fries, fried chicken bits, the bare minimum of vegetables and five spice powder.
Lots of elderly people in Norway insist that it’s not dinner unless you have boiled potatoes with it, so as an example spaghetti with potato on the side isn’t uncommon (nor is, apparently tacos with boiled potatoes, though much less common).
My mum loves to tell the story of when my parents had just started dating seriously and having my (paternal) grandparents over for Sunday dinner. She made some oven roasted ham and decided to also oven roast some potatoes as a side, but when my grandfather heard that, he insisted that she had to boil at least one potato for him as well since the roasted potato didn’t count.
In Spain, specially older people need to have bread in every meal. My grandma bought a lot of it everyday, when comparing her & my parents household they ate twice the bread we did.
In Italy it seems it’s the same, older generations need 1 pasta dish per meal, or so it looks like
This habit is disapearing but here in France it was bread. You get bread with every meal, going out to get fresh bread is a daily habit (and eating a fourth of a baguette on the way back also is).
Breakfast in bread and jam/butter (tartines). At noon, you have the main meal of the day and bread often goes well with the first dish as well as the second.
In the evening, third meal, often soup and bread complements it nicely.
To add to that, you can have cheese with any of those meals and eating cheese without bread is barbaric.
There’s also all the charcuterie ( cold cuts ?) that is made to eat with bread. Often served as or with the first dish.
And when you don’t have much time to eat, the go-to is a baguette split in half with butter and ham, bread again.
We’re also quite proud of our bread and quite desperate for it when traveling aboard. Not every country have a bread culture and it can be weird to have such an important part of food to be missing (or absolutely atrocious, looking at you Spain).
Similar in Northern England for the bread with meals. I think it’s happening less now but my nans generation had “rounds of bread” with everything. It’s common to see it in a work class restaurant as a menu item.
There’s a term “butty” which is any food added to a piece of bread and eaten either with the bread folded over, or another slice during a meal.
I recently was staying at mum’s due to a family emergency and I took over making food. I was getting fresh loafs and toast bread pretty much everyday. Still don’t know where it was all going with 3 of us.
I think some would say a hot pastry from Greggs for the whole of England.
I think a pub lunch in a countryside pub in winter is definitely an important part of English culture. Bonus if they have a fire on.
Where my Zimbabweans 🇿🇼
Here it’s sadza, preferably made with white maize meal. It’s one of those things you say, “what should we put with our sadza” and not everyone can afford 3 meals a day so it can be a once or twice meal. Or it’s cooked different, one is porridge consistency.
In Portugal, if there’s no meat or fish, a lot of people feel like it’s not a real meal, especially older generations. And ham doesn’t count.
Not quite the same thing but I think here in the Netherlands and some surrounding countries, people find it odd if a meal has no vegetables.
Also to address some things on the rest of your post, it’s somewhat common in Portugal to have rice and potatoes in the same dish (usually chips or roasted potatoes, never boiled), and some people keep some bread by their plate too nibble on throughout the meal, but it’s not considered part of the meal. But other combinations of carbs aren’t common.
Well, it’s a bit opposite to what you ve wrote.
In Poland traditional meal has a) meat. b) sorce of carbs (mostly potatos) and c) fresh vegetable salad. When a child says they’re full and can’t eat everything in a plate, average grandmother/ mother would reply “you may leave potatos, but I ISH MEAT.”
This statement became a meme in our culture.
Thus, you’ve finished your meal if you’ve finished your meat. (Traditionally, bc we have rapidly growing share of vegetarians/ vegans).
England doesn’t really have a specific favourite carb. We eat bread, potatoes, pastry, pasta/noodles, rice pretty much equally.
I do know a lot of older people who will only consider it a meal if it has meat. Some more traditional older people will refuse to eat any meal that doesn’t include “meat and two veg”, typically some sort of fried, stewed or roasted meat/fish with vegetables and potatoes and a sauce like gravy or parsley sauce.
Well this was more a thing in school when you went.. the normal food was always served whit “näkkileipää” rye crisp bread, really dry and crunchy but soo good, it was a thing at least when I went to school that everyone was eating it at lunch.