# What country would you starve in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075 "2010-08-31T01:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/61 "2010-08-31T17:56:17Z")
Because of my aversion to dairy, I find almost nothing in France that I can eat. Everything is covered in cream or cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/62 "2010-08-31T17:56:37Z")
Oh, and from what I’ve heard of West African cuisine (never had it myself), I don’t think I would gain a lot of weight there. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/63 "2010-08-31T17:57:47Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Man oh man. I spent last summer in India and I hardly ever got spicy food. I think they saw me coming and were like “uh oh, gringa! Get something mild!” > > I love spicy food. ☹ This can easily be remedied by a few persuasive words in Hindi, or if you’re in the US/Cananda by saying “oh I have a relative/cousin/I eat Indian food often”. Pronouncing the names of food correctly also helps. Honestly, 99% of white people can’t handle it. At my favorite Indian place, months ago I watched white people consistently leave 90% of their food because they asked for it “medium” or “spicy” and can’t handle it. Rather than never get their business again, the establishment simply calls it like they see it, and gives the nice white people what they want. The best was a guy a few tables down who asked for “something not spicy and without cream”. I muttered “Just order a bologna sandwhich, you pathetic cracker.” Seriously, by that token even Jewish deli food is spicy - better watch that pepper on the pastrami! **Mr Accident** , you’re not alone. As a kid, Friday night was often Indian food night at my house. My brothers and I learned to not wear our going-out-to-hang-out-with friends clothes to the dinner table, or we’d be teased mercilessly :p. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/64 "2010-08-31T17:59:29Z")
> [@Teacake](#): > > > [@SanVito](#): > > > > Cuba by a country mile. You can only get (stringy) chicken, pork, unspecified-type-of-white-fish, boiled rice and beans. And that’s it. Not a vegetable, herb, sauce, spice or discernible flavour in sight. > > I don’t know when you went there, but this certainly wasn’t true last summer. We had a variety of extremely well cooked and imaginative dishes, both traditional and based around other cuisines, all over the island, including a wide range of fruit and vegetables as well as fresh meat and seafood (all totally recognisable and delicious). Yeah, a buddy of mine (my best man) and his friend spent a couple months in Cuba and thought the food was just fine. They spent most of their time in some small town, living in a local man’s house. They said the food was comparable to the home cooking in Costa Rica (as in _not_ resort food, but local fare). Granted they were also drinking quite a lot. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/65 "2010-08-31T18:03:07Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > I never really understood the whole spicy Indian food thing. Yes, it has a lot of different spices so you can probably call it spicy but it’s not the type of spicy that burns the tongue. > > Thai food is the spicy one. As much as I love spicy foods, every Thai salad I’ve ever tried has been pretty painful to eat. Although with other dishes, especially soups, I can handle the full on spiciness. This, except that we love the spicy! We finally found a Thai place that doesn’t white-spice their food, and we go there often enough that the staff knows us by name. But Indian food just doesn’t click for me. I like and use some of their spices, but I would never voluntarily choose to go to an Indian restaurant. But the country is so huge I’m sure I’m missing out on some pocket somewhere that makes food that would make me drool. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/66 "2010-08-31T18:03:29Z")
North Korea? But I guess I’d be no worse off than the locals. Other than actual famine situations, I’d probably find something edible in any country. Besides, I’m Finnish, we eat weird stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/67 "2010-08-31T18:12:14Z")
> [@lindsaybluth](#): > > > [@Kyla](#): > > > > Man oh man. I spent last summer in India and I hardly ever got spicy food. I think they saw me coming and were like “uh oh, gringa! Get something mild!” > > > > I love spicy food. ☹ > > This can easily be remedied by a few persuasive words in Hindi, or if you’re in the US/Cananda by saying “oh I have a relative/cousin/I eat Indian food often”. Chelo, chelo, chelo! Seriously, I was in a non Hindi-speaking part of India, so I don’t actually think that would have helped. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/68 "2010-08-31T18:17:00Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@tr0psn4j](#): > > > > I never really understood the whole spicy Indian food thing. Yes, it has a lot of different spices so you can probably call it spicy but it’s not the type of spicy that burns the tongue. > > > > Thai food is the spicy one. As much as I love spicy foods, every Thai salad I’ve ever tried has been pretty painful to eat. Although with other dishes, especially soups, I can handle the full on spiciness. > > This, except that we love the spicy! We finally found a Thai place that doesn’t white-spice their food, and we go there often enough that the staff knows us by name. But Indian food just doesn’t click for me. I like and use some of their spices, but I would never voluntarily choose to go to an Indian restaurant. But the country is so huge I’m sure I’m missing out on some pocket somewhere that makes food that would make me drool. The place I frequent puts huge chunks of those peppers in their soups if you order it “hot.” So with the tom kha gai, I get it as spicy as possible, and even when eating the peppers, I’m okay. But when I order something like Larb, it just absolutely destroys me. I’m not complaining though, sometimes it’s fun when a food makes you sweat and tear. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/69 "2010-08-31T18:40:26Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > There are plenty of Italian restaurants in Tokyo. Also McDonald’s. Just saying. I’ve been to an Italian restaurant in Beijing – not my choice, but the host didn’t like Chinese food, and he was paying. I’ve also eaten at restaurants in Italy, and it was a decent imitation of Italian food, even if I preferred the local cuisine, and Mongolian, while in Beijing. I’ve eaten a wide range of cuisines, including Afghanistani, Chilean, Ethiopian, Kazakhstani and Malaysian, and I haven’t found one yet that I didn’t like. Japanese is one of my favourites, partly because it has such a wide variety – though I do draw the line at wasabi 😕 ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/70 "2010-08-31T19:02:56Z")
> [@GHO57](#): > > Besides, I’m Finnish, we eat weird stuff. What kind of weird stuff? I am going to Finland soon and I want to be prepared ahead of time! ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/71 "2010-08-31T19:29:24Z")
I doubt I’d starve anywhere. I don’t seem to have any food allergies and I’ve liked or at least tolerated pretty much everything I’ve ever eaten. I did once get a Chinese meal in Vienna that may as well have been prepared by someone pissing on raw cabbage. Maybe it was. I could only eat half of it. Apart from that… ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/72 "2010-08-31T19:35:33Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > > [@GHO57](#): > > > > Besides, I’m Finnish, we eat weird stuff. > > What kind of weird stuff? I am going to Finland soon and I want to be prepared ahead of time! [Wiki on Finnish cuisine.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_cuisine) That Karelian pastry thing on the top right doesn’t look too bad. 🙂 Most of the foods listed in there look pretty good actually. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/73 "2010-08-31T19:38:37Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > > [@Teacake](#): > > > > I don’t know when you went there, but this certainly wasn’t true last summer. We had a variety of extremely well cooked and imaginative dishes, both traditional and based around other cuisines, all over the island, including a wide range of fruit and vegetables as well as fresh meat and seafood (all totally recognisable and delicious). > > Yeah, a buddy of mine (my best man) and his friend spent a couple months in Cuba and thought the food was just fine. They spent most of their time in some small town, living in a local man’s house. They said the food was comparable to the home cooking in Costa Rica \*\*(as in _not_ resort food, but local fare). > \*\* > Granted they were also drinking quite a lot. The part I’ve bolded may be the answer. We stayed well away from any resorts or tourist places, apart from a couple of hotels where Cuban people apparently go for their honeymoons, which were lovely in a very Soviet way. **San Vito** , did you fall into the tourist trap? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/74 "2010-08-31T19:55:39Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@suranyi](#): > > > > There are plenty of Italian restaurants in Tokyo. Also McDonald’s. Just saying. > > No there aren’t. Either this is a repeated whoosh, or I’m missing something. I’ve visited Tokyo and there are many McDonalds restaurants there. Some of them have dual language menus on the counter - Japanese kanji on the front, English on the back. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/75 "2010-08-31T20:03:44Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > There are parts of Canada where fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by and/or really very expensive. If I had to rely on moose meat I’d be in trouble. Had a friend live in Nunavut for a few years. Should the road of life ever take you grocery shopping in Iqaluit for the love of God, he tells me, look at the expiration dates. You will occasionally see contests on soup cans, cereal boxes, milk cartons, etc., where the deadline to enter elapsed several months ago, if not longer. Things don’t just get thrown out. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/76 "2010-08-31T20:12:40Z")
Quoth **Pooka** : > [@](#): > > Can’t imagine starving anywhere, but I had a hard time eating out in Ireland, other than in “ethnic” restaurants. Irish restaurants were of poor quality and extremely overpriced. Restaurants, maybe, but I’ve had some excellent (and reasonably-priced) pub food in Ireland, and of course a proper Irish breakfast is nearly enough for a full day. Quoth **Siam Sam** : > [@](#): > > The smart people in Nepal eat Indian food. Nepali food is pretty disgusting, the staple being this cruddy gruel-looking shit. I’ve had some good international cuisine in Kathmandu and Pokhara, but if I had to subsist on Nepali “cuisine,” I would probably lose a lot of weight. You mean daal bhat? That stuff’s great. Don’t judge it by appearances; it’s mostly just lentils and rice (plus veggies and spices). As for myself, there are a few foods I don’t like, but they’re spread out over many different ethnicities, and I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an ethnicity that didn’t have many choices I liked. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/77 "2010-08-31T20:13:26Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > > [@GHO57](#): > > > > Besides, I’m Finnish, we eat weird stuff. > > What kind of weird stuff? I am going to Finland soon and I want to be prepared ahead of time! …but that would ruin the surprise. But when you get here… there’s something you have to try, the “[Sisu Horna](http://www.flickr.com/photos/hmch/3581751231)”-sweets… well, not actually \*sweet \*as such, but candy. Also, did you check out the Wiki page? Try Mämmi (easter section) or mustamakkara (under other specialties)… or the potentially lethal yet tasty Korvasieni (Gyromitra esculenta) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/78 "2010-08-31T20:30:51Z")
For me it would be Japan and probably Southeast Asia. I eat pretty much everything except seafood (and, on preview, unwashed anuses of any kind), so like **silenus** I’d have a tough time there. In contrast to other posters, I LOVE Indian, Indonesian, Thai, Szechuan (non-seafood) and Ethiopian food and could eat that stuff all day long for the rest of my life and be happy. I apparently also have iron guts so absolutely nothing except pathogens bothers me. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/79 "2010-08-31T20:35:25Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > > [@silenus](#): > > > > No there aren’t. > > Either this is a repeated whoosh, or I’m missing something. I’ve visited Tokyo and there are many McDonalds restaurants there. Some of them have dual language menus on the counter - Japanese kanji on the front, English on the back. It was a reference to the “Italian” restaurants, not McDonalds. I wouldn’t trusy an Italian place in Japan any more than I would a “Genuine Texas BBQ” joint in Naples. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/80 "2010-08-31T20:49:23Z")
I struggled on a two week trip through China, and my Vietnamese girlfriend actually would have starved to death if we hadn’t found some boxed crackers for her. What’s apparently happened is as China has become more prosperous they’ve added ever more sugar and oil to their cuisine, so that it now resembles the worst overcooked, over-sauced, oily Chinese food you get here. Panda Express is a close approximation, though not quite as bad. Vietnamese cuisine, on the other hand, is the best in the world, although they are showing disturbing signs of following in China’s footsteps. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075.md?page=5)