What gross things do we do?

I was viewing the japanese ice cream website recently. Man that stuff made my flesh crawl. Especially the “Raw Horseflesh Ice Cream.” Of course, everyone I sent the link to was grossed out too. So based on that microscopic sampling I will venture that americans are pretty well nauseated by the thought of eating ice cream with chunks of raw horseflesh in it.

But then I wondered, “What stuff do we eat here in the U.S. that grosses out other cultures?” After all, enough people in Japan will eat the pony-sicles that it’s worth marketing. So just because we won’t touch it doesn’t mean others won’t gallop down to the store and round up a mess O’ stallion parfait. What would Ben & Jerry call that flavor?

I remember a coworker from Hyderabad who was disgusted by seeing sausage links on the same plate as syrup covered pancakes. He said the combination of Meat and Sweet was considered nasty back in his home.

Anybody have examples of what American food is considered disgusting by other countries?

Here’s the link to the Ice Cream site for those who missed it on Weird Earl’s:

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/photospecials/0406/ice-cream04/00.html

For the record, I’m Japanese and I find the idea of ice cream with meat or seafood to be disgusting. And I’ve never seen any such product in a store. Horse sashimi itself doesn’t bother me, however - I’ve had it a few times. I also had duck sashimi once - much better than horse IMHO.

As for American food, I think most Japanese would find the idea of catfish and Rocky Mountain Oysters to be disgusting.

I have to agree about the rocky mountain oysters. Yuck. I could see how catfish would be gross to an outsider. I like catfish however. Especially catfish from the Warrior river right there in your lovely state. Now that I think about it, eating catfish from a river flowing through polluted coal mining country could explain a lot about my family.

Interesting you should ask this, as my next-door neighbors will be hosting a Japanese visitor soon. I am having a dinner party the night she arrives and am serving hearty comfort food like meatloaf, mac and cheeze (homemade, not the orange boxed stuff), garlic mashed potatoes, etc.

I don’t think of this food as disgusting (far from it!) but it may be a shock to the system of this person? Thoughts?

One of my brother’s friends, a Japanese, found any kind of cheese extremely disgusting. At first he couldn’t even stand watching someone else eat it. However I have no real idea how typical that is.

Might be too simple carbey. Make sure you have some amount of not-cooked to death vegetables as well.

Per the OP, I have a friend from the Democratic Republic of Congo who grew up eating deep fried caterpillars, insects and other creepy-crawlies. I asked her once, “what do we eat that y’all think is gross?” She laughed and said: “Cucumbers! Salad! Raw vegetables! Ick - they’re hard and slimy and cold!” Turns out that every food there is cooked, nothing is eaten raw (probably due to climate and bacterial concerns.) When she was a teenager, a wealthy friend invited her to dinner - and had a French chef. When she was presented with raw sliced cucumbers in a light vinegrette sauce, she choked down a couple, then had to excuse herself to run to the bathroom and vomit.

Many years travelling around the world have opened her pallate to many fresh vegetables, but cucumbers are still beyond her! :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m pretty sure the visitor will find your comfort food unappealing. I agree with Whynot that undercooked and even raw veggies would be good. How about some shrimp? Plain noodles?

To answer for myself, what I find gross that Americans eat are cookies and sweet pies with garish amounts of food colouring. Christmas cookies with bright green trees are just totally unappealing to me. There is a lot of distrust of excess food colouring usage in europe.
That said I enjoy Haggis, so who am I to comment on what other people eat :wink:

Bippy,

What I find interesting is your use of the term “Sweet pies.” I know what you mean and how it’s different than “Meat pie,” but it does indicate a different culture than my own. The Haggis-love (haggiphilia?) means you’re a Scot, right?

I went to school with a kid from Germany, and he thought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sounded pretty weird.

Sounds good to me. Hamburger steaks in Japan are kind of similar to American meatloaf, and pasta is fairly common in Japan, so your menu won’t be a big shock. Just don’t make them too greasy.

I’d watch out for the dessert though, many Japanese feel American dessserts are too sweet.

This isn’t very typical of a Japanese. Not many people eat cheese by itself on a regular basis, but foods containing cheese (e.g. pizza, cheeseburger) are ubiquitous.

My dad is German, and peanut butter and root beer are absolutely disgusting to him, and all my German family members.

So I guess a root beer with a big scoop of peanut butter is not appealing to them, eh?
Me neither.

Well for the last half month or so, my big toe had been infected, and the progress it’s making has just been facinating. Everytime I take off my socks after coming home from work or school, it looks like my toe vomited all over itself, and is covered with all sorts of gooey substances with a stunning variety of colors. I’ve been pouring peroxide on it, but it doesnt seem to be having much effect on it.

Of course, this is something that disgusts just about everyone but me, including other Americans.

Hmmm…perhaps all this was best left unsaid :slight_smile: .

When ever the topic of disgusting food arises I have to ask if you eat pork. Anyone that eats filthy swine should eat anything.

By sweet pies I am trying to describe those things from Baker’s Square, where they use flavourings and colouring rather than real chocolate. I am of distant Scottish decent, but I consider anything I don’t like to simply be something I haven’t yet acquired a taste for. So on a recent trip to Scotland I tried the Haggis and found that I have now got a taste for it. Blood pudding is still too herby for my liking (I am not very keen on too much sage).

I should also mention Root Beer. In England and I’m sure much of Europe the most common antiseptic liquid (think Detol) is called TCP. This TCP smells precisely like Root Beer. So drinking Root Beer reminds Europeans of antiseptic, and so is unpleasent for us.
I beleive pigs are very clean animals when not over farmed and forced to live in confined sties.

Why do you consider swine to be disgusting? Of the animal world, they are considered to be very close to us humans genetically [we can actually use skind and IIRC bone as reduced-rejection graft materials]. Dietarily they will eat pretty much a human diet by choice [as to being fed ‘slops’ on many small privately owned farms slops are simply leftovers from the owners meals, extra milk or produce in addition to hog kibble] On commercial hoggeries, they are fed various commercial swine feeds [ like this purina information - commercial link to nutritional info, not a reseller link ] And left to themselves they do not roll around in mud and shite, it is too easy to get different human-communicable diseases and ruin your possible sale for human consumption. Like with veal calves, too-small accomodations are not safe, nor desired for a number of reasons.

Swine as a food item is not unsanitary, and with the USDA inspections, veterinary care and routine cleanliness not a disease risk [even trichinosis is fairly rare, though rare or raw pork is not recommended in the US, when properly stored, handled and cooked pork is perfectly safe.]

I saw a show on Discovery the other day about this very subject. They showed a Japanese family eating “1000 year eggs” - extremely disgusting fermented duck eggs. They loved them. But that same family wouldn’t eat Stilton cheese, and the British family loved it, and of course hated the eggs. Interesting.