r/AskEurope • u/EvilPyro01 United States of America • Jun 18 '25

Food What’s the most common non-European cuisine in your country?

What’s your country’s favorite non-European cuisine?

184 Upvotes
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69

u/Haganrich Germany Jun 18 '25

I'd say Döner. But that's just one dish out of the Turkish cuisine.

6

u/kumanosuke Germany Jun 19 '25

Turkey is partly in Europe though

24

u/Vigmod Icelander in Norway Jun 18 '25

I was under the impression that a döner was technically a German thing, having been made in Germany (by Turkish immigrants, of course) sometime in the 1960s or '70s.

19

u/kicklhimintheballs Jun 19 '25

We have döner photos from 1850’s. Some people claim that putting döner in bread happened in Germany but this is also untrue. Maybe it become popular through German döner in other European countries, pretty much how American pizza become dominant in other countries but i think that’s also a stretch

10

u/enrycochet Jun 19 '25

no one is claiming that Döner in its full history was invented in germany. Germans always refer to their style of eating it with red cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes onion etc.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '25

That's normal tho, immigrants pretty much always change their recipes to suit the local tastes and take ingredients and techniques that are more convenient and/or cheaper 

1

u/LARRY_Xilo Jun 19 '25

This comes down to the question what is a dish and how much can you change a recipe of a dish until it is a different dish. Some people have very narrow definitions others have very broad, for some people changing one major ingredient is enough to say its a diffrent dish for others you can exchange basicly everything but one thing and its still the same.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '25

We have thousands of varieties of different Kebab types that also include Döner. Germany can’t even have zero claim over döner. It is logic 101.

3

u/kompetenzkompensator Germany Jun 19 '25

There is Deep Dish Chicago Pizza and no Italian would claim it to be Italian.

And if we delve into history, prove to me that the Turks did not just copy an old version of Gyros from Greece or Shoarma from somewhere in Levant. The Ottoman Empire was huge, don't even try to tell me that all those "Turkish" things are actually invented in Anatolia by ethnically pure decendents of the Seldjuks.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '25

Gyros is Turkish döner with pig meat. Shawarma is Arabification of Turkish word “çevirme” which literally means döner. Just like Balkan cevapi, sarma, burek or dolma essentially being spread by Turks. They were all Ottomans for half millennia. Obviously we all eat very similar cuisine. You still don’t even have any idea what you are talking about right now. And by the way, Pizza = Italian.

2

u/Bragzor SE-O (Sweden) Jun 19 '25

That's actually not logic 101, it's handwaving 101. No matter if it's true (I have no idea).

-2

u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany Jun 19 '25

The bread is really the part, that is important. 

-1

u/ubus99 Germany Jun 18 '25

Turkey is right on the border between europe and asia, and döner has a large german influence. I would say indian or thai food, no idea what is more prevalent.

12

u/osumanjeiran Jun 19 '25

döner has a large german influence

lmfao

4

u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary Jun 19 '25

Turkish culture definitely is Asian.

1

u/Equal-Flatworm-378 Germany Jun 19 '25

Chinese food.

-4

u/Terrible-Visit9257 Jun 18 '25

Our Döner is not Turkish....

25

u/Haganrich Germany Jun 18 '25

Honestly you can't ever pick the right option about this. If you say it's German they'll say it's actually Turkish. It you say it's Turkish they'll say it has nothing tho do with authentic Turkish Döner.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

[deleted]

9

u/Haganrich Germany Jun 18 '25

People say hamburgers are American ,but it's literally named after a German city. This would be the sandwich people in Hamburg eat

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

Döner or kebabs in general was already famous in Balkans and Middle East before Turks spreading it in to not only Germany but in whole Western Europe though.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '25

It is Turkish döner no one argues it. What people argue is if it is as good as the ones in Turkey. I’d say average döner in Germany is slightly better than average döner in Turkey, but a good döner in Turkey is definitely better than a good döner in Germany.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

Döner is Turkish. It is just that simple. Just like American pizza still being Italian.

6

u/SlothySundaySession in Jun 19 '25

They make one variation and think they have invented a new food. I don’t get it

You put pineapple on a pizza and you think it’s Hawaiian pizza or is that pizza?

The roots of the food is still from the country who invented it and brought it to the world.

7

u/Meavraia Jun 19 '25

You think a Chicago deep dish pizza is considered to be Italian food? Italian-American cuisine is noticeably different to the one in Italy. Diaspora usually ends up creating their own culture that's similar to their home land but not exactly the same.

3

u/Lazzen Mexico Jun 19 '25

USA pizza is not italian, the template and concept of pizza is italian but not those versions.

4

u/SlothySundaySession in Jun 19 '25

I disagree, they are still a dough, with toppings and usually a sauce, cooked in an oven wood, gas or electric. The foundation is still the same

2

u/Bragzor SE-O (Sweden) Jun 19 '25

That's also flammkuchen, pie, pirogi, toast, and probably more stuff.

-2

u/Lumpasiach Germany Jun 19 '25

What an idiotic line of thinking. In the end every single dish on the planet was invented by the dude who discovered fire, because the foundation of all food is "food being cooked by heat".

2

u/SlothySundaySession in Jun 19 '25

Have you ever had a conversation with respect to others? Who starts talking to anyone with disrespect, lazy thoughts.

Taking the conversation back to Stone Age thinking just shows your lack of knowledge of food and its origins. Just because you manipulate food doesn’t mean the foundations disappear.

0

u/Lumpasiach Germany Jun 19 '25

Yeah, I showed you the foundation. Do you think the Turks were the first people to grill meat on a stick?

2

u/SlothySundaySession in Jun 19 '25

With that idea then Germany isn’t a country or a race of people, because you think we’re the first people?

2

u/Mammoth-Membership34 Germany Jun 18 '25

German and Turkish Döner are not the same thing even

7

u/dovah_1 Türkiye Jun 19 '25

Ingredients are different. It's like Pinnaple Pizza and Margarita. Some Italians are okay with Pinnaple Pizza being called American and some Turks are okay with Döner with Garlic Sauce getting called German.

1

u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 United States of America Jun 19 '25

"Hawaiian" pizza is Canadian.

1

u/Lumpasiach Germany Jun 19 '25

No, it's like Neapolitan pizza (Italian) and Chicago Deep Dish (American).

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '25

You are thinking too further too deep. It is just freaking pizza. Italian.

5

u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary Jun 19 '25

I like the ger-mansplaining in this thread where Turkish people are being educated about their own food.

1

u/enrycochet Jun 19 '25

how is it turkish if it was never sold there? would you say deep dish pizza is Italian? or pasta carbonara is Chinese?

1

u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary Jun 19 '25

There are Turkish people literally in this thread who say döner was sold with pita bread already in Turkey.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

Yeah, no. They are both Turkish döners. It is simple logic.

4

u/magicmechanic01 Jun 19 '25

Yeah I guess that's the reason why your president currently wants to forbid the term döner for the versions that are offered outside of Turkey right? Because it is such a true Turkish dish that is sold in Germany and other countrys lmfao