Yours “default” day to day meal?

[PALEOKNIGHT]

Let’s talk about food!

Where I live, the most standard meal are Rice and Beans, it’s a thing we eat pretty much every day. That can go served with different stuff, like meat and salad or even pasta, or be prepared using different seasoning or methods, but those two are always there!

I’d heard that’s a local thing, other countries do consume this combination, but it’s not the basis of their food.

I’ve always been curious, is that true?, if so, what is the thing people eat almost EVERY DAY in other places? If you have one, please tell me!

[Tommie ΘΔ]

Ah I love rice and beans! Not sure exactly where you're from, but my Abuela is from Puerto Rico and it's a very common dish there. She cooks it for us a lot and it's the best

I live in South Carolina, USA. I don't personally eat a lot of these foods because my parents are northerners of immigrant families, so we've got our own thing going on. However: a lot of common foods down here are fruits like peaches or just anything fried. South Carolina produces a lot of peaches, so that's a big thing around here. Plus the typical American foods such as burgers and what not. Soul Food is pretty big here as well, which is sort've a blend between American and African cuisine.

I'd say the foods that are most common down here (excluding fast food) are peaches, mashed potatoes, corn, and mac n cheese

[WidgetOtaku]

Currently, on my breakfast, I’d get Weight Watchers toasts with jams, almond butter, or even other types of spread if we’re feeling fancy lol… Like creton, which is a type of cooked meat based spread (often pork) famous in most regions of Quebec.
There’s also a side of fresh fruits, depending on what dad had brought from the grocery.
And to wash it down is decaffeinated coffee with lactose-free milk.

[Willardonic]

I try to eat seasonal vegetables in priority, and more or less local depending on availability.

At the moment I thrive on butternut squash soup for dinner, with whatever else I can add: carrots, celery, parsley etc.

Eggs are great! Scrambled or fried in chili oil is best, imo.

I rarely buy meat but when I do, I try to buy at the local market, and look for cheap big pieces like whole chickens or turkey to cook all at once and piece apart during the week.

But when I'm REALLY lazy, coffee & pastry makes for a great lunch aha

Cheers :)

[xwindows]

I won't say for my area as whole (as they are very varied); but for me, it's...

Fried chickens, several forms of them.

• Golden fingers (0), served with rice, with either regular chilli sauce or Thai sweet chilli sauce dipping.
• Fried chicken breast (or chicken thight), served with rice or sticky rice, with jim jaew sauce dipping. (1)
• Fried chicken drumetts, served with rice or sticky rice, with jim jaew sauce. (1)
• Torikatsu... this one is interesting, as I could have that in various ways, and I like them all pretty much equally:
  
  • Served with rice, with regular chilli sauce, Thai sweet chilli sauce, or jim jaew sauce as dipping (1), or with pepper and soy sauce (2)
  • Served as a part Thai salad (3) with chopped cabbage, shreded carrots, and a sprink of baked rice and chopped long corriander, spiced to the ear-whistling-hot level with special sauce (6), eaten with rice. (4)
  • Served as a chicken sandwich, with those same chopped cabbage and shreded carrots (optionally also seared onion and tomato), but flavored with salad cream, served in burger buns, hotdog buns, or even a pair of regular sandwich breads; in the same vein as (and was inspired by) McChickens, but with much more vegetables.
  • Served as a regular chicken salad, with those same chopped cabbage, shreded carrots and salad cream again; but eaten as-is without breads.

(0) In case it isn't clear: it's chicken tenderloins (or more commonly, long strips of chicken breast) with thick tempura batter, fried crisp.

(1) Technically, I rarely use actual jim jaew sauce for these nowadays, but rather use the same sauce that I use for Thai spicy chicken salad (4), which tasted vaguely like jim jaew sauce, but easier to make. (6)

(2) Which I figure that (minus the peppers) would be one of the ways that Japaneses would have their torikatsu.

(3) There are multiple kinds of Thai salads, the kind which I'm referring to in this post is "ยำ" (Yam) salad, which tastes in same rein as tom yum curry.

(4) In Thailand, this menu is called "ข้าวยำไก่แซ่บ" (read "khao yam kai saab", lit. rice with Thai spicy chicken salad). It has been so popular that even KFCs (which is an American chain) branches that open in Thailand often have a version of this in their menu. (5)

(5) As partially documented in this blog post.

(6) Made using Thai fish sauce, lime juice (rice vinegar also work as substitute), cane syrup, and liberal amount of baked chilli papper flakes. Someone in my family would jokingly call this "universal yum sauce" (pun intended), because it can be lazily sprinked on (or used as a dip for) a lot of menus, including something mundane like supermaket-bought grilled chicken or even something boring like omelette, and make them spicy and yummy.

[TheFrugalGamer]

I'm in the U.S., so I could have any number of things, but lately I've settled on a breakfast of fried egg, potato, flour tortilla, and salsa, every morning. It's great and I never get tired of it. It seems to be just enough to get me over to lunch without feeling too hungry.

That said, I could probably eat nothing but rice all day long and be happy. Only it's a lot of carbs, and the rest of my family gets tired of it! But rice is so versatile and goes with so many things, it's probably my favorite food.

[Rosaria Delacroix]

My usual breakfasts have been a little haphazard, as of late. I'll usually have a snack packet of salted, but otherwise plain nori sheets, and then a single serving (about a small handful) of sunflower seeds- flavoured like crab roe, super yummy. Sometimes if I'm feeling really snack-y while waiting for the kettle to boil, I'll eat one of the mini chocolate chip granola bars while waiting for the hiss and whistle. Then I usually have two hot mugs of matcha, (two tablespoons worth dumped into a one litre French Press, increasingly diluted throughout the evening, as I've weaned down my caffeine tolerance significantly over the last few months- I mostly just like having a hot, or iced drink at hand; I've also been cutting down on sugar from drinks, so a tablespoon of sugar for several litres of weak tea is all I have), with plenty of full fat milk: and go about my day.

This is significantly less food than I would eat during an academic term. I prioritize my ability to function cognitively while on campus, (and I have far more physical activity worked into my days, due to commuting and running around all over campus), and often am there from sunrise to late at night, so being full and not distractingly, gnawingly hungry is important. My performance plummets when I'm ravenous, so I always make sure to have breakfast: even if its just shovelling fruit and toast into my face before I run out the door. I've mostly just been relaxing and resting at home, so I don't work up as much of an appetite. (I'm also Canadian, for what it's worth.)

[haumeaGeth]

My default meal is Vaguely Asian Soup. Which cuisine my soup leans towards depends on my mood that day, but lately it's been tending towards Vietnamese tomato egg soup. I have a stock of various sauces and spices I can choose from, and I always try to throw in at least one veg and one protein; bonus points if I get a carb in as well. It's easy, I can make a single serving, and it's warm and nutritious and filling. Probably my favourite dinner, and I don't usually get sick of it because I can make it different every single time.

[kasperkat]

I'd say the standard food, at least for my area of the US, seems to be like...eggs. So many eggs. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, hard-boiled...just eggs. Maybe because there's so many farms in the area.

[Whey Isolate]

As someone who's lived around Rhode Island/Massachusetts for a while my default breakfast is usually a toasted fluffernutter sandwich because it's really easy to bag up and bring to class/work.

My default meal is Vaguely Asian Soup. Which cuisine my soup leans towards depends on my mood that day, but lately it's been tending towards Vietnamese tomato egg soup. I have a stock of various sauces and spices I can choose from, and I always try to throw in at least one veg and one protein; bonus points if I get a carb in as well. It's easy, I can make a single serving, and it's warm and nutritious and filling. Probably my favourite dinner, and I don't usually get sick of it because I can make it different every single time.

Omg same!! For lunch and dinner I like to throw noodles and whatever vegetables/proteins I can scrounge into my cast iron pot (the flavor is better I swear) and boil them in a broth with (among other things) lots of ginger, garlic and laoganma sauce.

I also try to cook different things when I get the time--I really wanna get good at all my family recipes even though I'm kinda estranged from them cause I don't wanna completely lose the Chinese side of my culture

[_ghost_]

The southern US serves a lot of fried meats along with a roasted vegetable or two. I notice a lot of pasta as well, usually mac and cheese but my college dining hall seems to do a different pasta based dish every day. Rice is also served a lot.

Potatoes are everywhere. Never in my lifetime have I gone to Grandma's for a family dinner and not been served potatoes, and they're served in the dining hall a lot, too. They were a staple in my house growing up, served in a lot of different ways. Usually mashed, which I prefer with the skins and with a lot of butter, or baked. And I love sweet potatoes, either baked or in a casserole (which, in my opinion, is meant to be topped with pecans and brown sugar rather than marshmallows, which is acceptable but just too sweet for me).

I personally end up eating sandwiches a lot. Grilled cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods (served with tomato soup to dip it in, of course). And I wasn't really a smoothie person until college but they've become a staple for me.

[caracalled]

Hahaha, I love this thread, getting lots of interesting ideas!

Where I live, meat isn't really that cheap, so my meals will also typically consist of rice and beans (on account of my brazilian fiance) or this chickpea stew. (the link is paywalled unfortunately but I'm sure people here know how to get around that)
Chickpeas especially are (at least comparatively) insanely cheap here (around 40ct a can, or 1,75€ for 500g dried), so I often make large amounts of stew ahead of time in our pressure cooker (also something we own thanks to the brazilian fiance) to then freeze and defrost whenever :D
Prepping food is how we get around, really. Even just making & freezing brötchen, breakfast english muffins and sigara börek or having homemade hummus and cacık in the fridge makes it so much more convenient to eat in and not spend money on takeout/expensive groceries (which i'm definitely prone to bwahahha)

[BlazingCobaltX]

Since last year I've gotten into the habit of making a "Good Morning Shake", which I actually have at noon sharp after a 16hr fast. I did this because I find it very hard to get satiated from a regular meal. Something about the heaviness of the shake works with getting extremely full for several hours. Over time I've added more ingredients and made this shake a compensatory meal for the foods I don't get enough of the rest of the day.

In one bullet shake jar, add:

• 300ml kefir (fermented yoghurt)
• 1 scoop protein powder (vanilla flavour)
• 1 mini scoop magnesium powder
• One piece of fruit or a generous spoon of jam
• Handful of walnuts
• Dash of chia seed, kurkuma, and cinnamon

This shake is very delicious and it helps to know I get my essential nutrients this way. Nowadays, I vary between this recipe and throwing these ingredients in a bowl and eating it like that (replace kefir with regular yoghurt).

As for general Dutch breakfast: It's bread and toppings. While cheese and meats are typical, it's also very normal for kids to have Nutella or chocolate sprinkles in the morning. This culture has unfortunately made me very gung-ho on having something sweet first thing in the morning. Lunch is the same, mostly.

This type of meal stopped being satiating for me very early on; during my teens I would sometimes eat up to 8 pieces of bread a day (which isn't all that rare). I wish we had more of a warm lunch type of culture.

[crazyroostereye]

My Default meal has become a Leberkas-(semmel), a southern German Dish consisting of Pork, Beef and Bacon usually served with Sweet Mustard and often in a Bun. It also can be served hot or cold (I prefer hot). As in my Area I can get it vary easily at any Butcher, Bakery, Grocery store and even at the small Kiosk at my Work it makes an easy quick dish when I am hungry. And is good alternative then going to your typical Fast Food Joint.
  For the Americans, yes it looks like Spam. No It doesn't Taste like Spam I think, never actually tasted Spam.