National dish

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A national dish is a dish, food or a drink that represents a particular country, nation or region. It is usually something that is naturally made or popular in that country.

The concept is highly informal and vague, and in many, if not most cases the relationship between a given territory or people and certain typical foods is ambiguous. Typical dishes can vary from region to region, and the use of the term "national dish" does not always imply the existence of a "nation" in any legal sense; e.g. rösti is the national dish in German-speaking Switzerland and fondue is in French-speaking Switzerland, although the political integrity of the Swiss state is undisputed.

Similarly, countries can share a national dish; e.g., traditional food in Austria, the German state of Bavaria, and the Czech Republic is similar; whereas bigos, borscht, and pierogi are popular in several Central and East European countries and generally associated with one or more of them. Beverages can also be assigned the status of a national "dish", such as beer in Germany, Belgium or the Czech Republic, wine in France or Spain, vodka in Poland, Finland, Russia & Sweden. Although in recent years beer has picked up popularity in Poland as a social beverage of choice.

National dishes also function as stereotypes. These can be either autostereotypes, describing a nation's self-image, or heterostereotypes associated with a nation in the outside world, or both. While most "national dish" stereotypes are positive to neutral, they can also acquire the status of ethnic slurs.

For example, sauerkraut continues to be seen as the German national dish, accounting for the usage of kraut as a pejorative term for Germans, even though the dish has become quite rare in today's German cuisine.

Similarly, the French are said to have a particular taste for frog legs, although the dish is not actually very common in that country, and the French are sometimes referred to as frogs in English. The epithet refers to the Franks having toads charged on heraldry, replaced by lillies. This was in further reference to the inaccurate French origins in Frisia, where the lily pads are still used for their national symbol.

Up to the 1980s, Germans used to identify Italian and Turkish immigrants as Spaghettifresser ("spaghetti devourers") and Knoblauchfresser ("garlic devourers"). However, this usage all but disappeared when the German population began to embrace Italian, Turkish, and other immigrant cuisines in the 1980s and is rather seen as an affectionate term if it occurs at all.

An interesting case in this context is the German-style döner kebab. Supposedly invented by a Turkish immigrant in Berlin in the 1970s, it became the most popular German take-away food during the 1990s, but is almost exclusively sold by Turks and considered a Turkish specialty in Germany; however, in Turkey it is often associated with Germany.

In some cases, supposed national dishes are similar to urban legends, especially when relating to countries that are exotic from the perspective of another country. E.g., the popularity of fried spiders in Cambodia, dogs in Korea is largely overestimated in the West. Urban legend-like national dishes can also turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, as demonstrated by the example of the Scottish deep-fried Mars bar, which is believed to have become at least moderately popular after English media circulated the story of its existence.

For more on the stereotyped usage of foods and its political implications see Freedom fries.