ALL 48 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, RANKED BY FOOD/DRINK
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation...rink-in-europe
Here is the top 10, Do you agree?
10. Hungary
I am a weak-willed man, and so it’s taking all of my feeble willpower to not make “Are you Hungary yet?” puns. I visited Hungary by myself a couple of years ago, and spent the entire trip sitting by myself at various taverns, reading weird Northern Irish novels, and taking down bowl after bowl of goulash, and chicken paprikash, turos csusza (which is essentially cheese noodles made with bacon), rántott sajt (fried cheese), and liptai túró, which is like their version of pimento cheese, and tastes like small spicy angels are resting in your mouth. The beauty of their cuisine is that so much of it is stewed, braised, and -- with their generous paprika seasoning -- offers up just the right amount of spice. It just feels like everything they make is the best kind of comfort food. And yes, it’s making me very Hungary right now.
9. Portugal
Portugal may be piggybacked to Spain, but it manages to avoid the culinary shadow of its much larger neighbor. Yes, they share coastal traits -- SO MUCH SALTED COD -- but when about half your border is coastal, you really start to master the fish game, and signature Portuguese dishes, like the aromatic cataplanas (a traditional way of steaming foods together) or flavor-rich caldeiradas (fish stew), flaunt it. There’s also salted cod stew and lemony salted cod fritters. But in case you thought Portugal just rests on its fishy laurels, dig into cozido à Portuguesa: pork, beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and rice that varies from region to region of the country but is rich and bold and combines so many of the non-ocean-based culinary prides of the country. Plus, there’s salted cod casserole and salted cod in cream sauce.
Portugal also has a bounty of booze: port, obviously, but also Madeira and Vinho Verde. You know what those taste good with? The other 997 ways you could also eat salted cod in Portugal. Or maybe just some olives.
SHUTTERSTOCK / JENNIFER BUI
8. Switzerland
Like most countries', Switzerland’s culinary traditions developed out of necessity. Just while other places were stuck eating a lifetime supply of potatoes, Switzerland was like, “it’s really cold in these beautiful mountains, I bet our stockpiles of cheese would be an excellent way to help consume the bread and pickles we have so we can survive.” Gruyere, Emmentaler, and Vacherin typically get the name calls outside the country, but practically every single town has their own delicious specialty. And while bubbly fondue and oozing raclettes may not be totally substantial for, like, nutrients, there’s also alplermagronen, a rich gratin of potatoes, macaroni, cheese, cream, and onions. You also may have heard that the Swiss make chocolate. That WAS NOT A LIE, and it’s delicious.
Food you haven’t heard of? It’s just as hearty and rich and better than the stuff you’ve been living off of, like Luzerner Chügelipastete, a puff pastry filled with goddamn meatballs and white sauce, or beef braised in wine and served over slow-cooked polenta that soaks up all those savory juices or roti, an iconic dish of salted & fried shredded potatoes that’s basically like hash browns but far better with cheese and bacon in the mix. For that matter, we’re sure there’s SOMETHING boring and bland in the Swiss mix, but then they just add the cheese of the day in, and ALL THE PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED.
7. Croatia
The mix of influences here -- be they Italian, Mediterranean, French on the coasts, and slavic in the interior of the country -- helps set up a delicious mish-mash of foods. They have fantastic olive oil, and the oysters in the small town of Ston are considered some of the best in the Adriatic. Their Babić, Malvasia, prosecco, and Vrbnička žlahtina wines used to be underrated, but are getting more international cred each year. And, perhaps their most famous dish -- roasted lamb “under the bell” -- is worth the hype, considering the meat cooks from both sides (with a domed clay bell covered in hot charcoal on top, and a coal BBQ below) slowly in its own juices.
6. Belgium
So much chocolate. So many different kinds of waffles. A vegetable named after one of their major cities that has, in recent years, taken the American restaurant world by sprouted storm. A complex beer scene featuring upwards of 180 breweries dominated by Trappist and Abbey beers. Large, twice-fried, um, fries. Delicious cheeses, including the AOP-protected Herve, which is often eaten on rye bread covered in pear and apple syrup, and paired with some delicious beer. Belgians may not always be able to agree on what language to speak or even whether they should remain a country, but their damn delicious foodstuffs better not go anywhere.
5. Germany
Most of the foods are heavy -- the bountiful styles of sausage, from brats and bockwurst, to frankfurters, landjäger, and weisswurst; the potatoes, from the pancakes and dumplings (kartoffelklöße), to famous potato salad and whatever schupfnudeln is; the spatzle; the sauerkraut; the krapfen donuts. But they are gloriously heavy -- heavy in a way that makes you feel warm and strong. The beers are, of course, world famous, what with the German Beer Purity Laws ensuring quality, and the widespread popularity of biergarten culture. But head to any cafe around 4pm and you will see the highly underrated kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) culture as well, which is also just a fun thing to say aloud.
4. Georgia
Georgia sits in the middle of the ancient spice route between Europe and the Middle East and Asia, so the country’s dishes are imbued with an incredibly rich and unique use of herbs & spices, like cilantro and dried marigold, that are used in combinations not seen in the other individual regions and are layered for bold, but balanced dishes. And the pinch-hitter of those dishes is khachapuri, a boat-shaped pastry filled with a glorious amount of melted cheese and a raw egg. It’s so popular that the country’s trying to trademark it so places like Panera don’t steal it when they realize HOW MUCH BETTER THE BREAD BOWL CAN BE.
Also in the lineup: khinkali, the twisted dumpling knots that’re filled with pork, beef, or lamb and laden with all those spices, plus onions; kuchmachi, which is one of those dishes where you should not ask what’s in it (hearts, gizzards, and the like) and just savor the deep flavor of pork, fried garlic and onions, coriander, and bright pomegranate seeds; or chahohbili, a peppery, sweet chicken stew. Cheese is abundant (obviously, they put it in bread boats), and tkemali, a plum sauce, accompanies a slew of meat dishes and is, of course, laden with coriander and cumin and peppery bites.
SHUTTERSTOCK / JENNIFER BUI
3. Spain
This is a national cuisine that manages to be cheap, yet satisfying, bold, yet incredibly simple. The diversity is almost overwhelming, so let’s start with the national star: jamón ibérico, an art form of cured meat production, slices of which are buttery, savory, and cost more than a sandwich at Dean & Deluca. That attention to detail and respect of the product is reflected in bowls of briny olives and small, light ham croquettes, and it shines in giant pans of smoky paella, whose proper preparation somehow manages to let vast medleys of very different flavors simultaneously stand alone and mix together. And the Spanish tortilla, an onion, potato, and egg omelet that might just be the epitome of filling simplicity. While the influences poured in over the region’s very long history, centuries of cooking have given Spaniards the time to make all of this food very, undeniably Spanish.
2. France
It is tough to argue against the culinary charms of France: they are, after all, home to the style of cuisine that everyone -- for years and years -- considered the only worthy fancy restaurant food. They pioneered the appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC), ensuring that certain foods and drinks could only come from specific parts of France. The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization even recognized French FOOD as part of a list of things that show “intangible cultural heritage." Also, the movie Ratatouille.
We don’t even need to get into specifics, because everyone knows the dominant hold France has in the wine and cheese game. And how the rest of the world uses hors d’oeuvre to describe first courses, and that steak frites, and onion soup, and baguette with really good warm butter and fleur de sel should have their own national day. But the beauty of France comes from the variety -- as important as the traditional Parisian dishes are -- they’ve also got the oysters from Brittany, Normandy, and Languedoc, the famed quiches of the Lorraine area, and the German-influenced flammekueche in Alsace, plus an extremely underrated beer and cider industry. Je laisse tomber, France. Vous gagnez.
1. Italy
Other countries on this list got docked for lacking enough of their own culinary attributes. Italy is the opposite. Italy’s cuisine has basically been protected by centuries of Grandmothers who refused to take anyone else’s recipes but their own BECAUSE ONLY GRANDMA’S SUNDAY SAUCE IS GOOD ENOUGH.
Sure, Emilia-Romagna is marked by deeply flavored, aromatic lasagna, the Veneto is deeply entrenched in its pea risotto, and Campania boasts Neapolitan crisp-crust pizza. Restaurants in Umbria throw hog heads over their doors when harvests are in during their famous truffle season, and the Tuscans have their simple vegetable and bread ribollita soup. But while the regions are marked by impressively rigid divisions, it's their passion for their cuisine -- not to mention, you know, how great it tastes -- that has made it that way and ensured it’s one of the most cooked and transformed and enjoyed worldwide.
