Somehow I ended up talking with my 7 year old son about how some cultures eat dogs and eyes and snails and other nasty things. Strange how the conversations always turn in such directions with him. He asked why they eat such gross things, and I told him that it was cultural; that there are likely things we eat that other cultures would find offensive. And he asked, “like what?” And I really couldn’t think of anything that we Americans eat that others would find offensive. Meat was the only one that came to mind, but I don’t think that really counts.
What American foods are found to be disgusting by other cultures and why?
Bill, this is a great question. American food is such a mish-mash of world cultures I honestly can’t think of anything other than beef to Indians. Though I’ve heard rumors that one is pretty big over there.
I haven’t been to India, but I’ve been to Nepal, which is also (basically, mixed with an idiosyncratic Buddhism) Hindu. You can easily order a nice, juicy, yummy water buffalo steak, which is nearly identical to (cow) beef on the plate but by the letter of the law isn’t cow.
This leads me to believe that beef isn’t so much “disgusting” to the Hindu as it is ethically/morally/legally (in a religious sense) undesirable. Come to think of it, you’re not making a sacrifice for your religion unless something is banned that you might want.
I don’t think people in South Asia have the “ewww” reaction to beef eaters we might have to eyeballs or insects, etc.
Here is a list of things I can think of straight off the top of my head. Foreigners are likely to find disgusting, or find the idea of eating it disgusting.
That spray cheese stuff, Peanut Butter and Jelly combined, Root Beer, Rocky Mountain Oysters, pumpkin pie, grits…
Yeah, but we eat it. And it’s gross, if you think about it. I try not to. I’ve heard, anyway, that Asians generally find our heavy consumption of dairy products somewhat icky . . . and if you think about drinking a big glass of something that came out of a cow’s tits, well, I can’t blame 'em.
[shameless hijack/] Well, you can’t really tell geographically where this particular family tradition is supposed to be taking place, but it does illustrate that…well…we’re a resourcefull species.[/hijack]
I personally don’t have any conceptual heebie-jeebies about food products made from the milk of other animals, or even cross-species wetnursing. I think there are quite a few folks who would be disgusted by that picture while with the next breath they would “awwww!” over the image of a cat nursing a baby squirrel, which boggles my mind. o_O
I also think that quite a few other cultures would probably be more upset by the things that your average US citizen would refuse to eat, as opposed to what we do eat. We’re pretty comparatively fickle, and often wastefully have eyes for only choice cuts of meat (or plants for that matter).
I’ve known Muslims who have the “eeww, gross!” reaction to pork. Pork in its many forms is certainly a major part of the American diet, or it was until recent years, especially down South.
Crandolph: *This leads me to believe that beef isn’t so much “disgusting” to the Hindu as it is ethically/morally/legally (in a religious sense) undesirable. *
Don’t be misled by the many varieties of Hindu dietary practices. Not only are there buffalo-eating Hindus in Nepal, there are beef-eating Hindus (Brahmins, some of them!) in West Bengal and Kerala.
That doesn’t mean that many, many other Hindus aren’t totally grossed out by the thought of eating beef or buffalo. A Hindu lady I stayed with once in India had an anecdote about her visit to a German hospital when she was living in Europe during a difficult pregnancy, and the hospital staff accidentally gave her beef broth and as soon as she found out what she’d eaten, she threw up. Lots of Hindus feel that way about meat.
It may be a religious prohibition in origin but it definitely expresses itself in terms of the visceral “ewwww” factor for many Hindus.
And yeah, I’ve known Chinese people who found cheese pretty disgusting.
European and Asian visitors to Canada always comment on the disgusting portion-sizes here-- --and from the Canadian point of view, American portions, which are even bigger, are pretty repulsive.
I’ve heard it said that it’s a bit of a shock the first time you see Americans drinking Coca-Cola out of a dustbin, while grabbing crisps out of something the size of a bin-liner. :eek:
According to my Swede wife, things she thought were gross/strange when she first came here are peanut butter (still doesnt like it), root beer (she cant stand it, tastes like toothpaste…and since she said that, thats all I can taste when I drink root beer now), Ranch and Blue Cheese salad dressing, artichokes and a few other things I cant think of now. Most of these things they have in Sweden, they just prepare them a different way, like artichokes. They have blue cheese of course, but on salads youll get cheese crumbles rather than a creamy dressing. And she ~still~ eats pizza with a knife and fork, though shes used to americans using their hands now. It was fun going to the Pizza Hut in Stockholm and being the only one eating it with my hands.
Corn on the cob. From the viewpoint of much of Europe, this is “animal food”. Supposedly because they aren’t very familiar with sweet corn, as opposed to field corn. BTW, can one find corn-based processed foods in Europe, such as corn chips? If so, are they primarily imported products?
And, yeah, the rest of the world just doesn’t seem to understand peanut butter. Or pumpkin pie (though sweet potato pie is better, IMO).
Someone from France mentioned to me that he thought the American habit of eating overly sweet, overly cinnammony food for breakfast was pretty gross. (But I don’t imagine “gross” like mountain oysters).
On the other hand, I live in a part of the country where we eat bait as a delicacy.
A Chinese friend at work told me about the time when she was in school (in China) when the students were going to get a treat of American soda – Coke. They were really looking forward to it, but when they tasted it they wondered how anyone could drink the stuff.
