THE BATTLE OF THE SIDE DISH

Panipuri (or golgappa), Indian street food served up in a restaurant:

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In THE BATTLE OF THE BAKED POTATO, butter won, with bacon and cheese, sour cream and cheese coming next in the poll.

It's now the turn of side dishes to do battle. This is going to be a difficult battle, side dishes vary a lot from country to country. But here goes.

A side salad is a small dish served to accompany the main course of a meal. For the purposes of this post and poll, I'm excluding condiments (eg pepper, salt, vinegar), dips (eg aioli, crème fraîche, guacamole, hummus, pesto, raita, salsa, sour cream, taramasalata), sauces (eg apple sauce, barbecue sauce, gravy, ketchup, mayonnaise, miso sauce, mustard sauce), and chutneys, pickles and relishes. The side dishes in this poll are solid!

My favourite side dishes are beans, Bombay potatoes, bread, carrots, fries/chips, halloumi cheese, hash browns, mixed vegetables, mushrooms, onion bhajis, onion rings, patatas bravas, peas, spring rolls and tarka dhal, with saag aloo being the side dish I most like. It's when I go to Indian restaurants that I go town on side dishes. In my opinion, a saag aloo is the king of Indian side dishes. Saag means spinach and aloo means potato. The dish is a mix of spinach and potato. Just as mint and chocolate go together, spinach and potato work perfectly together.

Saag aloo:

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My least favourite side dishes are artichoke, aubergine/eggplant, brinjal bhaji, courgette/zucchini and water chestnuts, with Bombay duck (also known as bummalo) being the side dish I most dislike. Bombay duck, a species of lizardfish, is a very smelly fish! I defy anyone to like it!

What are your most and least favourite side dishes?
Have you noticed that increasingly at restaurants side dishes have to be ordered to make up the meal you want?

I've noticed that at restaurants I have to order more side dishes to make a meal that I want to eat. Before covid and the cost of living crisis, restaurants are increasingly presenting things as side dishes that were were once part of the priced-up main course plate. I often have to separately order battered mushrooms and onion rings to go with my burger and fries main meal when once they were thrown in. Likewise when I order a fried breakfast at a greasy spoon cafe here, I have to separately order grilled tomatoes, hash browns and sautéed mushrooms to go with my bacon, sausage and eggs when once everything was thrown onto my plate. Clearly restaurants aren't thriving. I hope restaurants recover as I love the idea of communal eating.

Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite side dish. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.

Given that anything can be served as a side dish, it wasn't easy compiling this poll. A poll on this site can only have a maximum of 20 answer options, so unfortunately there was no room as poll options for: aloo gobi, artichoke, asparagus, aubergine (aka eggplant), bean sprouts, beetroot (aka beet), bhindi bhaji, bok choy, bokkeum, Bombay duck (aka bummalo), Bombay potatoes, brinjal bhaji,broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (including Sauerkraut), champ, chickpeas, chole, clapshot (aka clapshaw), courgette (aka zucchini), couscous, crispy seaweed, croquettes (aka croquetas), dumplings (eg gnocchi), fried onions, halloumi cheese, jeon, jjim, jorim, kale, kimchi, leeks, lettuce, mashed potato, mixed vegetables, namul, neeps and tatties (a Scottish haggis side dish), onion bhajis, onions (including fried and sautéed onions), pakoras, papad (aka papadams), parsnips, patatas bravas, pigs in blankets (aka kilted soldiers), prawn crackers (aka har beng), roast potatoes, saag aloo, samosas, souse, spinach, spring rolls (including pancake rolls (aka chun guin)), squash, swede (aka rutabaga), sweetcorn (aka corn), sweet potato fries, tarka dhal, thoran, tomatoes, truffles, tteokbokki, turnips, water chestnuts, yams and Yorkshire pudding.

I think fries/chips will win the poll, with baked potatoes/loaded skins, bread, pasta, rice and salad faring well in the poll.

I want to thank @EnigmaInitiative for her invaluable advice in compiling this poll. Obviously, any mistakes with the poll are my mistakes unless 'other' wins!

Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.

Bombay duck:

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