Really interested in what this is. Everything picked so far has been pretty reasonable for round 1 imo.

It's 100% just personal preference of what I would want to eat & not a value judgment on the pick itself.

To make it more interesting you should also ban that person.

sigh

i really hate my draft position

give me a second to think of something that can compete

this was never going to happen; i would have sprinted to the podium

it's the last of the top tier cuisines for the purposes of this kind of draft

(i'm doing a great job of pre-hyping my selection!)

I still feel like there could be as much difference between #11 and #20 as between #1 and #10.

Mexico

Actually, I'm sorry for bitching; I actually think that my pick right now has potential top 3 value.

For the last selection in the first round, I choose





Singapore is quite possibly the most food-obsessed nation in the world. Its location at the center of so many major historical trade routes and in proximity to the cuisine of so many different countries has led it to develop its own incredible culinary heritage that combines, refines, riffs, and often improves upon the food of its neighbors, its trade partners, and its one-time colonizers. In particular, the Singaporean brands of Chinese (in many of its regional variants), Indian (ditto), Thai (thritto), UNDRAFTED, and UNDRAFTED cuisine are delicious, distinct, and simply unparalleled. There are also complex and delicious cuisines found almost exclusively in Singapore, such as Peranakan food.

Singapore is the true multi-ethnic melting pot of a giant percentage of the world's cuisines, picking and choosing the best parts to adopt for its own, and Singapore citizens take well advantage of it. They eat ALL THE TIME and are spoiled for choice at any hour of the day. And the bountiful spices, fruits, and other ingredients readily available in a dense city-state with four official languages and a proximity to both the tropics and the sea ensures high-quality seasonal ingredients throughout the year.



There are dozens upon dozens of Singaporean food blogs dedicated to sussing out which of the thousands of hawker stalls in the corner of this food court or the intersection of these streets serves up the very best version of chili crab



or laksa



or biryani



or satay



or Hainanese chicken and rice



or char kway teow



or whatever else you care to name



in town.

Also, in 2016, a chicken rice stall and a pork noodle stall in Singapore became the first two street food locations to be awarded Michelin stars. Since Singaporean cuisine is literally centered around stalls like this:



...it should be no trouble at all to translate the epic greatness of this country's cuisine to the food festival venue. The entire city is a damn food festival already.

damn I wanna go to Singapore now

It takes me too long to do writeups. In the interests of moving things along, and because I've got a memo I really need to start editing, I'm going to post my next pick now and write it up more fully later.

For the first pick in the second round, I choose



There were a few other things I considered for this slot that I'll be sad to miss out on, but I think phở



banh mi



gỏi cuốn



banh xeo



bún chả



and bún bò huế



as well as the French influence, the commitment to fresh herbs, and the conscious balance of different tastes, textures, and temperatures in each dish was something I couldn't pass up on.

With the #12 pick, Team soah selects:

fwiw I think Mexico is one of the best picks so far and an insanely strong foundation for a draft

this was one of the ones i was considering

great choice -- you're required to have a stand selling cuy

Yikes. I was debating between two others for #9 because I thought I'd be safe taking this one at #12.

**** me we really wanted Vietnam.

**** me twice we also wanted Peru

I am not a fan of Thai food

Truly the culinary capital of Latin America, Peru sits at the crossroads between the Old World and the New World. The ancient civilizations like the one that built the Nazca Lines, the Spanish conquistadores, and the later Asian immigrants all had a hand in crafting this country's unique offerings.

Just like the Eskimos supposedly have a dozen words for snow, so too are we Americans woefully ignorant of the variety of staples like corn and potato. I was once eating a meal in Peru when it occurred to me that my meal consisted of mostly just different types of corn.

While waiting for your food, you snack on cancha, which is like a larger and softer (but still crunchy) version of popcorn -- no popping required.




You can drink chicha morada -- purple corn. It has a sweet flavor.




There are other types of corn that I don't know the names of, like the one that is served with ceviche -- fish or seafood marinated in lime juice.




You might also notice something that looks like a sweet potato in that picture, which is more or less what it is. A popular dish with another type of potato is the causa -- more specifically, there are many types of causas, depending on what you add to the potato paste.




Meat-lovers are welcome as well. Whether you eat beef, chicken, or alpaca there are traditional plates for you.




Or you can join Gadarene and eat a guinea pig.




I may have mentioned something about Asian immigrants. Well, after bringing rice (and sushi!) to Peru, they tried to make their traditional Chinese food, but they had to do it with Peruvian ingredients. The people love this fusion, and you can't throw a brick in Lima without hitting a chifa restaurant. So, for example, if you didn't like that lomo saltado a couple pictures back, you could order a tallarín saltado instead.




Looking for something spicy? Just ask for a rocoto relleno:




Peru has a strange and varied climate, with humid desert along the coast and mountains in the interior. There's a remarkable fruit called lúcuma that grows there, but attempts to cultivate it elsewhere have failed. It's sweet, and it's used mostly as a flavor for dessert items like ice cream and cheesecake.




But I'd be remiss if I finished off this writeup with mention of Peru's national drink -- and I don't mean Inca Kola. Pisco is a distilled alcohol made from grape, and it's used in dozens of cocktails, many of them variants of the lime-based classics pisco sour and chilcano.

Great Peru writeup.

xander filthying it up itt

gotta be honest I expected more love for our "french tart" line

China might be a first round pick if you were 7th up or something, but not round 1 pick 1 certainly.

I would put Japan, Italy, France, Spain, India & Mexico in front of it for sure (in some order)

chinese food is mostly pretty bad

and by the way, general tso's chicken is from new york city in 1973

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=7639868

The fact that you think those two sentences have something to do with one another goes a long way to explaining how you arrived at your opinion

this forum is filled with ignorant americans who think general tso's chicken is chinese food.

i didn't make that post for you

i've never been to china. i'd guess that chinatown in sf has some food that is fairly close to what you'll get in china. lots of people in chinatown don't speak english. it's a pretty chinese community. food their is disgusting.

i've eaten fancy chinese dinners with shark fin soup. i didn't like them. i thought ****ty kung pao chicken type of food was better than the fancy chinese stuff i had at different wedding rehearsal dinners for millionaires.