# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [September 1, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/101 "2010-09-01T19:33:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Huh? If you like Indian, Indonesian, and Thai, you like SE Asian cuisine. > > India is South Asia, not Southeast Asia, and **Vietnamese and Korean food are nothing like Thai (or each other**). But they are all great! I ordered a dish at a Thai restaurant last night that was so hot it had both the cook and the waitress crying. They kept sneaking looks at me as I shoveled it in, wondering when I was going to explode. The waitress was relieved when I finally asked for a second napkin because my nose was running so much. It showed that I was in fact human. 😃 I could happily live on Thai and Vietnamese food for quite a long time. The French influence on Viet cuisine makes it a wonderful blend of flavors and techniques. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/102 "2010-09-02T04:08:07Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > > Have you tried it in Nepal? We found it to be disgusting sewer sludge. > > While I agree, no one goes to Nepal for the food, it was edible and nutritious. We had daal baht most days while trekking, and it could be spiced up with local veggies and some hot sauce. It’s not fine cuisine, but it certainly wasn’t sewer sludge. Well, you can certainly have my share. I’ll stick with La Dolce Vita, the amazingly good and cheap Italian restaurant in Kathmandu. Or the Third Eye, which has hands down the best Indian Tandoori chicken we’ve ever tasted. > [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Huh? If you like Indian, Indonesian, and Thai, you like SE Asian cuisine. > > India is South Asia, not Southeast Asia, and Vietnamese and Korean food are nothing like Thai (or each other). Correct on all counts. (Plus Korea is East Asia.) We just spent most of April in Vietnam, north to south, and no matter the region, it was much blander than Thai, although still quite tasty. This is a common complaint of Thais when they travel to any country, near or far, the supposed inferiority of the local cuisine. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/103 "2010-09-02T07:33:28Z")
[quote=“RickJay, post:84, topic:552075”] > [@lindsaybluth](#): > > [
] > > The places I couldn’t eat would be Norway, Sweden et al., where the traditional dishes are boring, spiceless fish. Oh, look, another herring. How can you eat such boring food so often? First of all, Scandinavians don’t eat that much fish that it can be considered our primary food. And second: have you never had pickled herring? And would anyone think of [Surströmming](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surstr%C3%B6mming) as boring!? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/104 "2010-09-02T09:21:04Z")
The Finnish wiki on food looked pretty good, I love game, berries are great [wonder what sea buckthorn taste like:confused:] can’t eat mushrooms, but I can avoid those. The whole pastry thing looks pretty good - I bet they are a lot less sweet than the american versions would be. Only thing I would really miss is salads, though I do frequently exist with a chopped cabbage based raw salad for my main meal of the day [lunch] instead of a romaine based salad [sometimes the romaine at the store looks yucky so I grab for cabbage instead] That rye based pastry looks interesting - we may have to hit Finland for vacation some summer. We both like rye a lot. ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/105 "2010-09-02T19:32:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Huh? If you like Indian, Indonesian, and Thai, you like SE Asian cuisine. > > India is South Asia, not Southeast Asia, and Vietnamese and Korean food are nothing like Thai (or each other). Korea certainly isn’t in SE Asia, either. While India isn’t in SE Asia, there are plenty of Indian influences in parts of SE Asia. (I vaguely recall meals in Myanmar that seemed similar to Indian to me, and there’s plenty of Indian in Singapore.) But basically, I can’t imagine that someone would love Thai and Indonesian food, but not like what’s on offer in Vietnam or Malaysia. ---
**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:** [September 2, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/106 "2010-09-02T20:35:11Z")
It’s been a long time since I’ve had Vietnamese food, so maybe I’m just not remembering well, but the only thing I see in common between Vietnamese and Thai (or Indian, for that matter) is that they use a lot of rice. Which is really more of an “everywhere but Europe” thing. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/107 "2010-09-03T04:36:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s been a long time since I’ve had Vietnamese food, so maybe I’m just not remembering well, but the only thing I see in common between Vietnamese and Thai (or Indian, for that matter) is that they use a lot of rice. Which is really more of an “everywhere but Europe” thing. Vietnamese cuisine differs quite a bit among the different regions. Hue alone has its own, thanks to one of the more culinary-oriented emperors based there. ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/108 "2010-09-03T11:35:58Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > > > Japanese food is more than sushi bar fare. You really couldn’t get by on udon or donburi or something? Or McDonald’s, I hear Japan has modern things now. > > No fast food of any sort. No McDonald’s. No ramen. why the heck is ramen disallowed? ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/109 "2010-09-03T11:44:56Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > > [@RickJay](#): > > > > The places I couldn’t eat would be Norway, Sweden et al., where the traditional dishes are boring, spiceless fish. Oh, look, another herring. How can you eat such boring food so often? > > Herring boring?! It doesn’t even need anything, just serve it to me raw. Raw herring, yum! I’ve been to Norway and had fish only once. Okay, it wasn’t imaginatively prepared but it had been freshly caught just hours before (I went on the fishing trip) and didn’t really need any flavour apart from its awesome freshness. I mainly ate meat, potatoes and veg there, which wasn’t wildly interesting but I did like the addition of berry sauce for the meat. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/110 "2010-09-03T16:19:33Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > > [@silenus](#): > > > > No fast food of any sort. No McDonald’s. No ramen. > > why the heck is ramen disallowed? Perception that it’s some cheap crap with a freeze dried paste packet (which it often is), instead of realizing that it is commonly a quality restaurant staple? ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/111 "2010-09-04T03:22:22Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > > [@GovernmentMan](#): > > > > why the heck is ramen disallowed? > > Perception that it’s some cheap crap with a freeze dried paste packet (which it often is), instead of realizing that it is commonly a quality restaurant staple? wow people seriously think ramen is just the stuff you see in supermarkets? ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/112 "2010-09-04T03:44:45Z")
I think I’d do fine in just about any country. I’ve certainly had bad food experiences in a few places but after a few days of trial and error I can confidently identify what I would or would not eat. I have no known allergies or dietary restrictions. I don’t much care for fish or eggs so I lean away from them given the option but I’d be munching it down before I went a few a day without food. Eating in Japan can be an experience for many people, not a good one in some cases. It takes time to learn the food landscape. Much of it I won’t eat myself(that whole not liking fish thing plays a role) but there is much tasty food to be found when you’ve learned what to look for. The fall back for me is Korean BBQ you can find a place in any Japanese city. It’s pretty hard for anyone to screw up. You order small cuts of meat and vegetables and cook them on the grill built into your table. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/113 "2010-09-04T03:47:59Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#): > > > [@silenus](#): > > > > No fast food of any sort. No McDonald’s. No ramen. > > why the heck is ramen disallowed? I asked that too, but got ignored. My name is less authoritative. 😃 ---
**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:** [September 4, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/114 "2010-09-04T03:59:12Z")
It’s my thread, so I can disallow anything I want. 😛 I didn’t allow it because I ate too much of it in college, and not just the cheap crap. If I never taste it again it will be too soon. ---
**Author:** ![lshaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e36b37/32.png) [@lshaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lshaw)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075/115 "2010-09-15T21:37:56Z")
I’d starve in Mexico. Not that I find the cuisine repulsive or anything, but something about the food there makes it kryptonite for my stomach. I’ve been fine eating food off the streets of shady places in third world countries, but even eating from five star hotels in Mexico makes me violently ill. I wouldn’t last more than a week there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-would-you-starve-in/552075.md?page=5)