# Worst national cuisine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134 "2015-08-06T05:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/121 "2015-08-10T12:21:05Z")
Oh no. Those’re just a guilty pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/122 "2015-08-10T17:30:38Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > And yet you guys get cross when people abroad say you’re as decadent as the late Roman Empire. You eat steak and/or gravy for breakfast, people. That is wrong. WRONG and TWISTED and SELF-INDULGENT, I say ! And I’m talking from the country that invented the almond and chocolate\* croissant\*. > But see, we did not do it for your lazy, greedy, gluttonous, self-indulgent reasons, no no. We eat those in the morning, and then have a bout of vigorous sex with a wife not our own, only so that it can only go downhill from there for the rest of the day. It’s about _ennui and metaphysical soul pangs caused by a buttery je ne sais quoi_ and just the right touch of existential despair over the next 12 to 14 hours. > > Y’all are just pigs in a trough with a credit card. It’s sickening, quite frankly. That was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/123 "2015-08-10T17:36:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > There may be historical reasons, too. England has been a politically and culturally unified country far longer than France and especially Italy, which means that people and goods always circulated more freely between its various parts, leading to greater uniformity. Weeell, mebbe. On the other hand, England shares its island with Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. Those countries might gently disagree with the notion that they shared a common culture with the English for longer than the last two centuries … ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/124 "2015-08-10T17:43:07Z")
German breakfasts where strange to this US-American. Now these where at small hotels, but a pretty good cross of travelers. These where buffets. Always lunch meat, cheese and bread. Sandwich bread and hard rolls. Not what I would consider breakfast bread. You could get very runny scrambled eggs if you asked. Don’t think i saw anything resembling hot sausage or potatoes/hash browns. We where in southern Germany for 3 weeks. All in all though the food was fine to quite good. Very disapointed in the saurkraut though. Sweet and mushy. ☹ Not sort of crunchy and well, sour/powerfull. ---
**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 10, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/125 "2015-08-10T17:47:17Z")
> [@funky\_little\_lee](#): > > I’m going to generalize a little and say Asian food–at least in the U.S. > > Chinese restaurant food: heavy, greasy, chunks of meat with gristle still attached, gloppy sauce that oozes all over the meat and the soggy vegetables, which inevitably include broccoli and baby corn (shudder). > > Thai food: See above, but with about a pound of hot peppers to further unbalance the flavor. > > Japanese: Sweet when it should be savory, savory when it should be sweet. Raw fish. > > Pho: Slippery noodles in insipid broth with chunks of overcooked meat and the ubiquitous soggy vegetables. > > Korean: kim chee. No can do. > > The only Asian food I find even remotely palatable is miso soup and sate chicken. Of course, I can’t count how many times people have said, “Well, then, you’ve never had\* real\* [insert country here] food!” And then I wonder why no one seems able to serve _real_ [country name] food when they came to the U.S. from those very countries. > > Ah well, that’s the story of my life, always in the minority. The Wrong is strong with this one. Americanized Cantonese in the Midwest, maybe. But everywhere else, it is no problem getting fresh, light, delicious Chinese food, Americanized and otherwise. Thai food is amazing and what they serve in Heaven. Any comments about unbalanced apply more to the poster than the dishes. Japanese food sucks. That I’ll agree with. Pho is overrated, but still good. Kimchi lives in my fridge. Great for midnight snacking. A good Korean restaurant can be life-altering. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2015, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/126 "2015-08-11T02:03:14Z")
Thai food _can_ be pretty darned good, and it’s almost always good to varying degrees in the West thanks to good sanitation standards and the like, but really a lot of what is served in Thailand is grotty. Howzabout a big helping of raw fermented fish, the top source liver fluke in this country? Maybe I’m just used to the cuisine, but overall I’d rate it as just average. Give me a good pizza anytime. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/127 "2015-08-11T02:23:42Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Weeell, mebbe. On the other hand, England shares its island with Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall. Those countries might gently disagree with the notion that they shared a common culture with the English for longer than the last two centuries … Who said anything about those? **Alessan** was merely saying that England has been a unified country for a very long time, not that the UK has. And that’s what I was trying to get at with my comment of “England being England for a very long time”, but he articulated it much better. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/128 "2015-08-11T02:39:44Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > And yet you guys get cross when people abroad say you’re as decadent as the late Roman Empire. You eat steak and/or gravy for breakfast, people. That is wrong. WRONG and TWISTED and SELF-INDULGENT, I say ! And I’m talking from the country that invented the almond and chocolate\* croissant\*. > But see, we did not do it for your lazy, greedy, gluttonous, self-indulgent reasons, no no. We eat those in the morning, and then have a bout of vigorous sex with a wife not our own, only so that it can only go downhill from there for the rest of the day. It’s about _ennui and metaphysical soul pangs caused by a buttery je ne sais quoi_ and just the right touch of existential despair over the next 12 to 14 hours. > > Y’all are just pigs in a trough with a credit card. It’s sickening, quite frankly. What are you talking about? I distinctly included “grapefruit”. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/129 "2015-08-15T08:19:41Z")
English food is the worst, amirite or amirite? Sure, my English parents had a catering business for 25 years and I might have had the odd acceptable meal, but there’s only a couple of ways you can boil meat and cabbage. As to my choice of ‘worst’ (or least appetising to my palate) cuisine, I’d have to choose any that don’t include delicious pork. That’s not a dig at any abstract influences on why it isn’t included, just that the literal prohibition of a very versatile, tasty and cheap form of protein gets my goat. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/130 "2015-08-19T02:01:35Z")
Italian- Don’t really care for it outside of pizza, which isn’t even really Italian anyway, if anyone has a claim on pizza it’s America, but I digress, everything is either pasta, which I don’t care for, or sitting on a bed of pasta. No thanks. Mexican & Chinese- Plenty of great stuff in each, usually eat them each a time or two per week British- Fish & Chips is great, haven’t heard of much else that doesn’t sound like a disgusting joke. German- Haven’t had much but what I have tried I liked, kinda wish there was more of it around Indian & Thai- The smell makes me want to vomit, will not eat Nordic (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)- Makes British cooking sound good French- Pretentious & overrated Middle Eastern (a lot of crossover between countries)- The more mediterranian stuff (like gyro) is okay, I’ve never ventured more beyond that, and probably won’t. Some just sounds weird on the menu like “beef cream chop”. Wha? Japanese- Great stuff, and a great show! ---
**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 19, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/131 "2015-08-19T02:41:17Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Italian- Don’t really care for it outside of pizza, which isn’t even really Italian anyway, if anyone has a claim on pizza it’s America, but I digress, everything is either pasta, which I don’t care for, or sitting on a bed of pasta. No thanks. > > Mexican & Chinese- Plenty of great stuff in each, usually eat them each a time or two per week > > British- Fish & Chips is great, haven’t heard of much else that doesn’t sound like a disgusting joke. > > German- Haven’t had much but what I have tried I liked, kinda wish there was more of it around > > Indian & Thai- The smell makes me want to vomit, **will not eat** > > Nordic (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)- Makes British cooking sound good > > French- **Pretentious & overrated** > > Middle Eastern (a lot of crossover between countries)- The more mediterranian stuff (like gyro) is okay, I’ve never ventured more beyond that, and probably won’t. Some just sounds weird on the menu like “beef cream chop”. Wha? > > Japanese- **Great stuff, and a great show**! Strike one. Strike two. Foul tip. Thai food is fantastic. Indian I might be willing to agree to, as I’ve never been blown away by any I’ve had, but it’s a big sub-continent. I haven’t tried every area yet. French food IS modern cuisine. Get away from the frou-frou tourist places and eat French Provencial food. Magnificent! I personally think Japanese food is a war crime, but different strokes. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/132 "2015-08-19T03:31:11Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > But then there’s lutefisk … Have you tasted it? It is actually a very mild tasting fish dish. A bit bland even. The peas and the bacon it is served with has more flavour. Norwegian cuisine has lots of fish, fresh or cured in various ways, and other creatures of the sea. Whale can be quite tasty if you get a good cut. Otherwise it tends to taste a bit like cod liver oil. Lamb is also traditionally used, presumably because sheep were easier to keep than cattle in rocky terrain. The most famous, or infamous lamb dish is also one that few tourists will have actually eaten: smalahove (lamb head) . Let’s see, what else - a variety of cheeses, we have a sort of goat cheese wich is pretty much unique. Looks and tastes a bit like caramel. Game is also eaten a lot, especially deer, moose and reindeer. There’s plenty to choose from, but it can be hard to find restaurants that has good traditional food. That’s what we make at home so we don’t go out to have that. ---
**Author:** ![Toy\_varen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Toy\_varen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toy_varen)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/133 "2015-08-19T03:41:43Z")
I personally can’t eat Korean food in Korea anymore. For whatever reason, they decided that monosodium glutamate was unhealthy for you, verging on poisonous. It is nearly impossible to get black pepper or soy sauce in the average restaurant. Red pepper paste, unseasoned, is used as the main spice for virtually everything. Salt is sparsely used or even not used at all in most dishes, although finding salt on the table is much more common, but it usually comes in the rock salt form making it virtually impossible to salt say a boiled egg. Also, it’s virtually impossible to get fresh meat of any type. For whatever reason, all meats are frozen for a certain time period before being served, even though the major docks and shipyards are a few hours away. They are also one of the countries in the world that can only cook beef “well done.” Also, they believe that their form of bacon (samgyupssal) is superior to the American version, so western-style bacon is very rare, expensive, and difficult to get (except in Western style fast food places like Burger King or Subway.) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/134 "2015-08-19T04:06:41Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Cullen skink? I had to [look that one up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullen_skink). I’m not much of a fan of smoked fish, so I doubt I’d ever order it. But truly I can’t look at that name without thinking of someone’s [pet](http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/images/esskiltonsisk.jpg) [skink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skink) named Cullen :). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/135 "2015-08-19T17:04:47Z")
I had a Vietnamese roommate in college. He ate what he regarded as “authentic” Vietnamese cuisine. As far as I could tell, it consisted largely of [ul] [li]exotic animal body parts most Americans wouldn’t eat on a dare[/li][li]embryos – the infamous “blood eggs” especially[/li][li]using decay to add flavor[/li][/ul] He was an active roommate, always on the go. My memories of our time together largely consist of visions of him sucking a pickled embryo out of an egg while dribbling cold blood down his chin, then crunching the tiny bones while he talked. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/136 "2015-08-19T17:31:08Z")
I am an adventurous and very catholic eater. I don’t like everything, but I am willing to give most things a try just for the experience. It surprises me somewhat how little I care for Japanese food. I don’t like sushi at all. To me, it’s repugnant. And I’ve been to some very fine sushi restaurants, so it isn’t the quality of the product. I just don’t like it. Most of it is lovely to look at, but ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/137 "2015-08-19T17:34:15Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Italian- Don’t really care for it outside of pizza, which isn’t even really Italian anyway, if anyone has a claim on pizza it’s America, but I digress, everything is either pasta, which I don’t care for, or sitting on a bed of pasta. No thanks. Your experience is limited. One could eat a year of Italian food without needing to touch pasta (and without privation). While the prevailing style of pizza in America is indeed American, there is, assuredly, distinctively Italian pizza. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/138 "2015-08-22T23:55:04Z")
Chinese. Tastes good but bad for you, the environment, and especially for lassie. ---
**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:** [August 23, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/139 "2015-08-23T01:49:02Z")
Well, which Chinese? There are at least four major cuisines that are all very different from each other. For example, Shanghainese is noted for being heavy and oily and is many people’s least favorite. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134/140 "2015-08-23T02:04:28Z")
Cantonese mostly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-national-cuisine/727134.md?page=8)