National cuisines (recipes welcome!)

[Atthis]

Have you ever tried to grow the porcini mushrooms from spores in the dried ones sent over? (or are they killed by the oven?) I wonder why they don't grow here....

No, I've never tried growing them. As you pointed out, I wouldn't want to be responsible for bringing the "Australian mushroom industry to its knees". Anything that I get goes straight in a pot, and then in my belly! I was browsing the internet for boletus info, and rumour has it that they do actually grow in some areas of Victoria. But their location is a jealously guarded secret. Not fair! Apparently they grow well in New Zealand, too.
Nice mushroom pic, by the way. But I don't know what sort it is. I haven't seen any like that here. The only ones I've picked where I live are the regular button mushrooms, and red pine mushrooms (also called saffron milk caps).

I can't think of a national Australian soup either. My favourite nationality for soups is probably Polish. And I just looove all things sour, so unsurprisingly most of my favourite soups are the ones with some tang. There's a Polish gherkin soup, made with pickled gherkins and root vegetables; a lemon soup, made with whole sliced lemons; and my all-time favourite, a soup made from sauerkraut and (surprise, surprise) porcini mushrooms! This one I only have at Christmas time, though. Polish beetroot soup is really good too.

I wish I could grow enough tomatoes to make tomato soup like you, Farseer! At least my tomato soup is incredibly quick and easy - I just use stock and bought tomato juice. It turns out surprisingly good, if you add a few herbs and spices.

I never eat tinned soups, but I like some of the packet ones. My favourite would probably be Thai tom yum soup (Trident). Takes 3 minutes to cook, and you can add whatever veggies you have in the house. Oh, and a squeeze of lime juice to make it nice and sour. Yum!