The Ten Most Unique Asian Countries Foodwise?

[StudentFloris]

For my school project I have to dive in the cuisine world of Asia.
As a start I wanted to have ten countries I would look at, the ten most unique countries in Asia when it comes to the kitchen.
I would like your opinion on this topic, what do you think are some of the most unique countries in Asia, and so, why?
Thanks for your time!

[fiction-factory]

48 to choose from here
http://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-in-asia/

[rowanwitch]

Vietnamese food is usually worth a look
If Mongolia is included in asia then their cuisine is interesting

[Tilly2]

There's nothing quite like a Thai Green Chicken Curry.

[pastafreak]

They are probably all unique...
I'd choose, among others, China and India for sheer size and variety. Also on my list would be Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Lebanon, the Philippines. Nepal, Korea, Mongolia and Armenia out of curiosity.

[Canary42]

Ooops - what was I saying earlier about dropping into semantics. Hoisted by my own petard.

[StudentFloris]

As a respond to some people with the point of: there is no most unique, I am referencing to the following:
I live in Holland, and with Unique I mean the things people from West Europe will be the most astounded by or know the least. Maybe Japan with their raw fish, or India for their curries or dishes we have never seen here.
Perhaps a country like Turkey is known here, where as if you would ask on the street for cuisine in Armenia or Bangladesh they wouldn't know.
If you would go to every country in Asia, which top then of countries would you think have the food which is the most memorable or astounding? Doesn't have to be flavourwise, perhaps you are terrified by it or perhaps it looks beautiful.

[margarettom]

I sometimes wonder if people deliberately try to put off people posting on AB, if they don't live up to their purist standards. Obviously, not having English as a first language is not an acceptable excuse!

[gingejbee]

If StudentFloris is actually Dutch, I must say that the English used is very good - probably a good deal better than woofgang's Dutch.

[Canary42]

/// I sometimes wonder if people deliberately try to put off people posting on AB, if they don't live up to their purist standards.///

I think it's sometimes more likely to be "exercising a favourite hobby-horse" than that. Guilty on occasion myself.

[StudentFloris]

Woofgang, I thought about my last thread for a while, and I think I explained my usage of the word ‘Most unique’ as best as I can.
I am aware that there is perhaps a better word for it, but I’m only a 17 year old student and my English word range isn’t that big, so for my level, I think I brought out my question pretty well.
And thanks for the other comment already everyone, I will respond to any confusion if needed.

[Buenchico]

Replacing 'unique' with 'individual' might be better English but I'm sure that your English is far better than our Dutch anyway ;-)
(Goedenavond!)

Here in the UK there's often a bit of confusion about what is meant by 'Indian' food. That comes about because when the whole of the Indian sub-continent was part of the British Empire 'Indian' restaurants started to appear in this country. However the families coming here to run those restaurants mainly came from those parts of the sub-continent which later found independence as East Bengal, then as East Pakistan and finally as Bangladesh. So the vast majority of 'Indian' restaurants in the UK are run by families with their roots in what is now Bangladesh, serving cuisine largely associated with that part of the world.

So I'd separate what most people here call 'Indian' food (which is really Bangladeshi food) from, say, the food of southern India. (I'd associate dosas with Kerala but not with the more northern parts of India, for example).

So that gives you 'Indian' (= Bangladeshi) food as one reasonably distinctive style of cuisine, with 'South Indian' as an entirely separate one. Other types of Asian food which are commonly found here in the UK, with each having something distinctive about them, would be Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, Lebanese and Malaysian. That gives a total of nine distinctive food styles (most of which I suspect you could find just as easily in Amsterdam as we can in London). To look for one more, to make your list up to ten countries (and with the emphasis on finding something totally unrepresented elsewhere in the list), I'd suggest looking to those Asian countries which were formerly members of the Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan.