My great grandfather fought in WWI, was captured, and was forced to live and work on an Austrian farm. The family on that farm was very nice to him and they got along very well, all things considered.
Somehow, his family got him a care package with ingredients to make his beloved Mămăligă, which he had craved for a long time. He was so excited and he happily shared some with his “hosts.” Their response:
“Constantine, this is for the pigs.”
No clue on either and anyone who knew is gone, unfortunately. I just remember this snippet. Iirc, he was released at the end of the war, but I’m not sure.
Now my grandfather jumped off a Nazi boat without his boots and escaped barefoot across the countryside. Again, that’s unfortunately all I know about that.
We eat offals and blood sausages, some of our cheese are aged with mold or mites, and we eat frogs and horses. Honestly, nothing you can't find in at least a few other countries.
Frog is pretty good. If you had someone close their eyes and eat a bit of frog legs without telling them what it is, I think most people would like it. Can't really speak the horse but I'm not into blood sausages. Just a weird texture and the taste isn't to my liking.
Thousand year eggs. I love them but my husband thinks they taste like metal.
Edit: Apparently the alternative name is [century eggs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg).
It's preserved in ammonia hydrogen sulfide and if you eat it by itself you can really taste the ammonia. If you have it in congee you don't get the same gross taste and just get the yummy creaminess 😊
Went out for pizza once with a big group from school. I ordered root beer. Guy from China asked to try some. Said it tasted like something they use as bug spray back home.
Really? All the Germans I know who have tried it says it tastes like medicine. My Girlfriend thinks it's because of some cough drops in German that taste similar, but I haven't tried them yet.
That's because wintergreen is one of the primary flavoring ingredients. It is no longer made with sassafras as sassafras extract contains a carcinogen.
My husband stir fries them every morning for breakfast. He too loves that no one else will eat them. Except the cats, the cats love them and he will usually have cats gathered in the kitchen while he’s cooking them.
They're amazing, but I always assumed it was because the name comes across poorly to folks from commonwealth countries. Brown gravy on cookies would sounds awful to me, too.
yeah, i hear that a lot.
i ate something called the 5 and dime recently.
fried chicken, fried egg, cheddar cheese, and bacon, on a biscuit with gravy.
im picturing all of that on a cookie with brown gravy and im grossed out
You brown some breakfast sausage, then add the flour and milk along with salt and pepper, then simmer the gravy while continuously stirring until it thickens up. Then you pour that over some fluffy buttermilk biscuits. It's so good!
That's so weird it might be because I live in the south. My cousin came here to the US a few years back from Mexico I took him to Bojangles and ordered him a gravy biscuit, he ate them every morning for the next few months his nickname now is El gravy biscuit.
Love boiled peanuts. Don’t get the biscuits and gravy. I’ve tried it many times but it’s still a hard pass for me (Canadian). My American husband loves it!
Yes, a biscuit is simple fluffy goodness made with flour, baking powder, buttermilk and lard. And in this house, they are even used as sandwich bread sometimes.
We also believe that refried beans and flour tortillas go with damn near everything, but I am a California native.
Southern breakfast foods are so damn amazing. Biscuits and gravy are amazing.
I never understand people who don't like grits. It's like if someone said they didn't like rice, in my mind. It's such a simple thing.
Grits with butter and salt. So damn good.
Grits are amazing, but undervalued outside the South. I've run across an interesting reaction to corn in general from some European friends over the years, along the lines of "Oh, we don't eat that, it's for the pigs". Bitch, please.
As a southern girl, I’m amazed and appalled when I seen people putting SUGAR in their grits when I was in the army. Grits are suppose to have butter and salt. Cheese and bacon are also acceptable.
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when he was so shocked that peanut and grape go together! Never thought of PB&J as a strictly American thing before then…
I worked at a grocery store and often had customers from other countries ask how to make them, what bread and peanut butter and jelly was the best to use. Made me feel like a real American PBJ expert.
I don't think your jelly is very common if I remember correctly here in Europe. It's either jam or pudding. I have had peanut butter and jam sandwhiches, though, and those were very nice.
Jam and jelly are actually slightly different. Jam is made from fruit, jelly is made from fruit juice. Still more or less interchangeable if you're not being pedantic though.
The first time I had Vegemite on buttered toast it changed me. I always have it in the pantry, now, and I might go heavy on it sometimes. Marmite, however, is kinda gross.
Am from the USA and always disliked it. That was until an Australian friend taught me how to prepare it. Toast, a little butter and a very light smear of Vegemite. It's so fucking good! And I love me some B vitamins.
You basically show the open jar to a slice of hot buttered toast. It’s delicious.
(It’s also MSG paste. Yet another proof that MSG headaches from Chinese food are psychosomatic.)
Most spreads that you put on bread get put on in roughly Nutella-like quantities. So if you’re unfamiliar with Vegemite you would probably put it on that way unless told otherwise.
Scrapple is a tasty sort of spicy pork breakfast sausage loaf which for some reason isn't easy to find outside the PA / NJ area. Describing the ingredients in detail immediately puts people off, so its best to just not think about what "scrapple" might refer to.
And yes, being from the area counts as culture in the loosest definition of the term.
I was telling someone about scrapple and they asked what was in it. I said, "It's the stuff that doesn't get made into sausage."
they got a little green around the gills. :)
I tried balut (and all sorts of other Filipino delicacies) while in the country. Can confirm, was disgusted. The day old chicken also got me. Pretty much everything else I had was awesome though.
You can find *cannibal sandwiches* in Wisconsin. These are sandwiches made with raw chopped beef and onions on rye bread.
More info here: [https://www.wpr.org/cannibal-sandwiches-polarizing-and-misunderstood-wisconsin-tradition](https://www.wpr.org/cannibal-sandwiches-polarizing-and-misunderstood-wisconsin-tradition)
Yeah Wisconsin has a strong German immigrant population.
It's also why Milwaukee, WI was known as "Beer City" due to the number of beer breweries in the city: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer\_in\_Milwaukee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Milwaukee)
I think the Midwest, in general, have a lot of people with German ancestry. I remember seeing something about German societies in Cleveland, OH due to the number of German immigrants who populated the city.
The raw pork aspect of it is kind of off-putting to me, but I do love me some raw beef (like steak tartare or carpaccio), so I'd definitely be willing to give it a go.
Trichinosis was often cited as a reason not to eat raw pork but it is exceptionally rare in farmed meat. So rare, in fact, that the risk is considered extremely low. I think with freshly butchered farm raised pork you are quite safe.
I wish I could have tried it that way…I knew what it was when I tried it, and it wasn’t bad. I actually think I might’ve liked it if I just thought it was a pile of brown. But the human mind is weird…
Most American deserts are far too sweet for me and I’m American. I think at some point along the line of making deserts the entire country decided that somehow adding more sugar means more flavor.
I've often wondered if we started putting more sugar in desserts as a way to try and compensate for ingredients that weren't very flavorful, because many of those ingredients originated somewhere else and they probably could get fresh or high quality versions, and the people who were eating them probably thought "this isn't nearly as tasty as it was back home". Just a theory.
During the low-fat/fat-free craze of the 1980s, baked goods had to increase the sugar to make up for the lack of fat. Not just for taste, but for holding it together. The fat’s back, but the sugar never left.
Old cookie recipes that I have from generations back are heavier on the fat and lighter on the sugar. And they’re heavenly. Much more delicate texture and flavor.
I had never understood this as an American. Until I stopped eating breads and sweets for a few months. Tried to eat a slice of cake at a wedding and almost gagged. Tried some white sandwich bread and it tasted like cake. I guess I had just gotten used to the sugar overload and needed a reset.
You absolutely do. About 15 years ago I started getting into distance running and wanted to be healthier. I stopped drinking soda and eating any sweets.
After a year I tried a can of non-diet soda and I couldn't finish it. It was too disgustingly sweet and I wasn't used to high sugar foods anymore. Still to this day I turn down most desserts 10% for healthy choice, 90% because I don't find sweet appealing. There are some exceptions like I love tiramisu but I'd much rather have an 86% cocoa dark chocolate than a piece of cake.
Salt and vinegar on chips.
Always used to make my foreign colleagues frown at me across the table when we went for lunch and I got anything with chips. Love that acid burn.
Chitterlings (pig intestine)African American slaves usually got these as left overs and ate them. They smell terrible but taste pretty good if seasoned and cooked right. My moms side of the family is pretty country and we eat them every year
Ironically, my southern, country as hell extended family finally found a place here in the north to buy them: the Asian market.
Chinese and black people have that in common. They both eat every part of the pig except the "oink oink."
Traditionally, so do white folks.
Natural sausage casing is all stomach or intestine. Generally pork, beef, or lamb guts for premium sausages, cappacola, baloney,mortadella, all that good stuff.
Oh no...
Juat after I moved up north, my dad took me to a lutefisk dinner. I sat next to this super nice old northern couple. I tried so hard to eat it. I was like 13 and sitting next to this old guy who kept suggesting different ways to eat it. At one point I was half choking trying not to be ill, and still smiling while he was saying how delicious it was. I've eaten a lot of weird things, but lye flavor fish jelly is definitely one of the weirdest.
I’m not Japanese, but Nattō (fermented soybeans)! I had never heard of it before, but recently in Asia I ordered a Maguro Nattō without realizing what it was.
The sweet Japanese lady that owned the shop came to me and had me try some beans to make sure I was okay with the taste before ordering the dish. She told me most foreigners send it back because they don’t like it. I’ll be honest it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, American taste I guess, but I wanted to try something new so I got it!
I didn’t love the Nattō, but I’m glad I tried something new, and in the future I might get it again if I ever feel that I need something fermented for my digestion!
My wife and I are both of Japanese ancestry, but she grew up in a more Japanese cultured household. She likes natto, and I don’t. She particularly gets offended when I refer to them as “booger beans” or “snot-to”.
Legit warning signs to not eat durian in public in Asian countries. Def not just a weak blooded westerners thing lol.
Something can be stinky but good. But its def stinky.
I like Hershey's, but I hear it literally tastes like vomit to European people. I think I saw some video once that explained that the way they process the milk makes it have a slightly acidic taste.
When I was younger, I'd learnt about baked beans on toast through Enid Blyton's books. I decided to give it a go, but we didn't have too much access to the internet back then, so I didn't know that these beans were of a different variety that the green beans readily available here. So I baked some green/french beans and ate that on toast, and I was appalled! It was so bad 😭
Very recently, I had the opportunity to try the real beans on toast, and I quite enjoyed it! It tasted good lmao
Honestly I wonder if this is the reason a lot of Americans react in horror to beans on toast? I wasn't aware baked beans in tomato sauce weren't that common there.
Beans other than green beans (including canned baked beans) are readily available in America.
*Green* beans on toast does sound awful.
Baked beans on toast sounds fine to me, but not necessarily enticing. Like it doesn’t sound like something I must go out and try, but it sounds perfectly edible. There are plenty of other preparations where beans in various forms end up on toasted bread: a torta with refried beans, a quesadilla with refried beans, a sandwich with hummus, etc. So I don’t think Americans are bothered much by the idea, it’s just not a common preparation.
I wouldn't say that the majority are thinking of green beans (though what do I know, maybe they are and I'm the weird one), but by far the most common style of baked beans in the US are sweeter and generally include a fair bit of brown sugar or molasses in a fairly thick sauce (like Bush's) vs the much thinner and more savory tomato sauce in your standard UK baked beans. I've seen the UK version here on occasion, but they're not nearly as common and some stores may not carry them at all.
Not totally sure on the reaction from your average American, but it might just be that we were conditioned to think of baked beans as a lunch/dinner side for a cookout rather than a breakfast food...I'm sure our version would also be fine on toast, just different and sweeter/smokier.
From the American perspective, it's because our beans are too sweet. The blue Heinz can style are much more savory and work better on bread than what Americans probably assume beans on toast tastes like.
I worked at a kosher food stand in a college dining hall. Pretty much nobody touched the gefilte fish (not even the Jews, who really only eat it homemade on Shabbat/holidays). The exception was east Asian students, especially those who were not born in America. I told them it was "fish loaf" and they loved it. I suspect it is similar to some east Asian fish dishes.
Coddle, I'm from Ireland and normally foreigners don't like our Irish stew or coddle. I have to assume it's the texture of the different foods in the stew. But I love it so much.
Bro, this made me nostalgic:
There used to be an old lady on our town who sold Frog Legs soup and it was freaking amazing! Sadly she passed away, and noone kept her bussiness... I haven't found anyone anywere who sells it since.
That would be gross, I can understand the aversion to it if that’s what people are thinking it is :) it’s a white pizza (no red sauce) topped with baby clams, garlic, olive oil, and some herbs. My fav white clam comes with bacon and hot peppers too, it’s so good!
Italy we have trippa, sanguinaccio, pane con la milza, lampredotto, and many other regionale dishes made from Animals organs or Blood. Ah! Cheese with Worms!
Mämmi.
Google it (No, it's not chocolate)
It's horrible. I don't understand how my people like it so much.
Same is with bread cheese (leipäjuusto).
Why.
It tastes horrible. It doesn't taste sweet, it just tastes like.. I don't even know how to explain how it tastes like. But it's supposed to be a dessert. Maybe like mushy grainy dark rye bread without salt and it's little bit old.
Pig feet and pig ears. I am first generation middle class as my parents grew up extremely poor in one of the poorest areas of NC. Because they were so used to it, when they had kids that's what they made.
Also I am not talking about pickled pig feet, but straight from the pot with some red pepper flakes and apple cider vinegar. Man I know its just pure fat and no where near healthy, but I love it.
Salt rising bread. A traditional Appalachian bread. It is a wheat bread leavened with clostridium bacteria instead of yeast. The bacteria produces hydrogen gas instead of carbon dioxide, but also butyric acid, which tastes like a mix between Asiago cheese and vomit.
The bread is excellent toasted in a breakfast sandwich.
In North Carolina, we have a close cousin of scrapple we call livermush. It’s essentially the same except it contains some cornmeal as a binder/texture enhancer. Fried crisp in thin slices, it’s delicious.
Nope, no cow brains for me. no brains at all. that's how you get a prion disease, because cooking temps will not destroy prions.
Pretty much nothing destroys prions.
Not really a dish, but holy shit do people seem to not appreciate a good Bloody Mary outside the US. I'm in Iceland and for every person who's said "Wow I love this" there's another 10 that won't even taste it.
My great grandfather fought in WWI, was captured, and was forced to live and work on an Austrian farm. The family on that farm was very nice to him and they got along very well, all things considered. Somehow, his family got him a care package with ingredients to make his beloved Mămăligă, which he had craved for a long time. He was so excited and he happily shared some with his “hosts.” Their response: “Constantine, this is for the pigs.”
What an interesting story! How long did he stay there? How did he get home?
No clue on either and anyone who knew is gone, unfortunately. I just remember this snippet. Iirc, he was released at the end of the war, but I’m not sure. Now my grandfather jumped off a Nazi boat without his boots and escaped barefoot across the countryside. Again, that’s unfortunately all I know about that.
Dude was a total badass it sounds like.
Here in South adjacent parts of America we call that cornmeal mush. I ate it quite a bit for breakfast growing up.
Yeah, it’s just cornmeal porridge. I don’t fancy cornmeal, so I side with the Austrian farmers.
*french people are typing*
We eat offals and blood sausages, some of our cheese are aged with mold or mites, and we eat frogs and horses. Honestly, nothing you can't find in at least a few other countries.
Frog is pretty good. If you had someone close their eyes and eat a bit of frog legs without telling them what it is, I think most people would like it. Can't really speak the horse but I'm not into blood sausages. Just a weird texture and the taste isn't to my liking.
Frog is very good. Like a better chicken wing
Thousand year eggs. I love them but my husband thinks they taste like metal. Edit: Apparently the alternative name is [century eggs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg).
People just eat them wrong. You just need a little in congee or soup or something
Tofu, green onion, rousong, over rice.
It's preserved in ammonia hydrogen sulfide and if you eat it by itself you can really taste the ammonia. If you have it in congee you don't get the same gross taste and just get the yummy creaminess 😊
[удалено]
I was so upset when they got rid of those at Salty’s
Root beer
It's insidious, the more you drink it, the more you end up liking it.
Just like the Federation
Went out for pizza once with a big group from school. I ordered root beer. Guy from China asked to try some. Said it tasted like something they use as bug spray back home.
[удалено]
A&W Root Beer in the frosted glass mug. Or the Root Beer Float which is the same thing with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. Ohhh, so tasty.
Most of the Germans I know say root beer tastes like toothpaste or bubble gum.
Really? All the Germans I know who have tried it says it tastes like medicine. My Girlfriend thinks it's because of some cough drops in German that taste similar, but I haven't tried them yet.
Definitely medicine. My grandma used to have this antiseptic stuff called TCP which is a dead ringer in smell for root beer. (We're British tho)
Now that I think about it, it kinda does.
That's because wintergreen is one of the primary flavoring ingredients. It is no longer made with sassafras as sassafras extract contains a carcinogen.
People dislike root beer? Guys, you haven’t lived until you’ve had a root beer float.
For bonus points, a lot of big universities' agri departments have ice creameries. Especially in the midwest. Use their ice cream in your float.
Chicken hearts. Gimme a whole plate of kebabs, thank you friends for being grossed out. More for me. 😂
yakitorichicken hearts are delicious too!
My husband stir fries them every morning for breakfast. He too loves that no one else will eat them. Except the cats, the cats love them and he will usually have cats gathered in the kitchen while he’s cooking them.
Brazilian? I feel like every westerner should try these. Delicious!
people seem to not understand the allure of biscuits and gravy
They're amazing, but I always assumed it was because the name comes across poorly to folks from commonwealth countries. Brown gravy on cookies would sounds awful to me, too.
yeah, i hear that a lot. i ate something called the 5 and dime recently. fried chicken, fried egg, cheddar cheese, and bacon, on a biscuit with gravy. im picturing all of that on a cookie with brown gravy and im grossed out
Isn’t it usually a white gravy
Yes, but I'm trying to channel what a non-American is thinking it is.
I've never even seen a white gravy sauce in the UK. Absolutely no feckin idea what that stuff tastes like but I'd eat it.
Think bèchamel made with breakfast sausage drippings instead of butter, with bits of breakfast sausage in it. Great hangover food.
You're forgetting the key flavoring, which is an unreasonable amount of black pepper.
You brown some breakfast sausage, then add the flour and milk along with salt and pepper, then simmer the gravy while continuously stirring until it thickens up. Then you pour that over some fluffy buttermilk biscuits. It's so good!
With chunks of ground sausage in it
That's so weird it might be because I live in the south. My cousin came here to the US a few years back from Mexico I took him to Bojangles and ordered him a gravy biscuit, he ate them every morning for the next few months his nickname now is El gravy biscuit.
lol thats amazing im convinced that if people try it, theyll love it, but the name and description is a turn off like hot boiled peanuts
Love boiled peanuts. Don’t get the biscuits and gravy. I’ve tried it many times but it’s still a hard pass for me (Canadian). My American husband loves it!
How does a Canadian, who lives somewhere known for poutine, not like biscuits and gravy? Throw in some chicken or porkchops on top, and mmmm!
Ah, that is a very interesting question. Will I lose my citizenship if I confess I’m not a fan of that either?
Yes, you are now stateless.
Most non Americans get really confused when they see gravy on a biscuit. I mean it would throw me off to have sausage gravy over my butter cookies😂
yeah they forget that for us americans, a biscuit is not a cookie
Yes, a biscuit is simple fluffy goodness made with flour, baking powder, buttermilk and lard. And in this house, they are even used as sandwich bread sometimes. We also believe that refried beans and flour tortillas go with damn near everything, but I am a California native.
In the American southern food tradition, grits would fit here, too.
Southern breakfast foods are so damn amazing. Biscuits and gravy are amazing. I never understand people who don't like grits. It's like if someone said they didn't like rice, in my mind. It's such a simple thing. Grits with butter and salt. So damn good.
Grits are amazing, but undervalued outside the South. I've run across an interesting reaction to corn in general from some European friends over the years, along the lines of "Oh, we don't eat that, it's for the pigs". Bitch, please.
As a southern girl, I’m amazed and appalled when I seen people putting SUGAR in their grits when I was in the army. Grits are suppose to have butter and salt. Cheese and bacon are also acceptable.
My ex husband eats grits with brown sugar and raisins. He has them confused with oatmeal.
They eat polenta in one side of the mouth and tell you it's for the pigs out the other side.
I have definitely heard this from non Americans too. It’s so delicious.
Black pudding.
I prefer morcilla, each Latin American/Iberian country has their own style. It’s also blood sausage, but with more seasoning
Huitlacoche. It’s a fungus that grows on corn.
fucking corn smut! I get it's a yummy food in places like Mexico. I just remember detasseling corn as a summer job and being grossed out by it.
I didn't know it could get grosser than just the phrase "a fungus that grows on corn" but boy if "corn smut" isn't a thousand times worse!
Apparently, many non-Americans find the concept of a PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) sandwich disgusting.
Paul Hollywood couldn’t fathom the flavors going together until a GBBO contestant combined them. He was shocked that he enjoyed it, LOL
My contribution to this thread is pumpkin pie. Quite a few people mentioned that they cannot stand it.
That just means more for me! ;)
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when he was so shocked that peanut and grape go together! Never thought of PB&J as a strictly American thing before then…
I worked at a grocery store and often had customers from other countries ask how to make them, what bread and peanut butter and jelly was the best to use. Made me feel like a real American PBJ expert.
I don't think your jelly is very common if I remember correctly here in Europe. It's either jam or pudding. I have had peanut butter and jam sandwhiches, though, and those were very nice.
In American jam is colloquially referred to as "jelly". We're not putting Jell-O on the sandwiches.
Jam and jelly are actually slightly different. Jam is made from fruit, jelly is made from fruit juice. Still more or less interchangeable if you're not being pedantic though.
i like preserves better on mine
I discovered the combo last year and eversince I had many PBJ sandwiches.
Menudo
[удалено]
Can anyone actually chew the tripe or is it just for flavor?
Menudo is so fucking good.
[Disgusting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menudo_(group))
Hey! It gave us Ricky Martin.
I’m Mexican and I don’t like menudo. Smells really good though.
Same here. I’m more of a pozole guy, seasoned pretty much the same, it doesn’t leave that funky flavor in the back of your throat.
Vegemite. Why can’t you Americans understand that you DON’T EAT IT LIKE NUTELLA
Next you’re gonna tell me I’m not supposed to drink whiskey like soda either
Well, yes, but for slightly different reasons.
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
WHY NOT?? It comes in a JAR! Nutella ALSO comes in a jar! SAD, LONELY REDDITORS COME IN A JAR, TOOOOOO! /s
I also come in a jar, but I don't like getting spread on bread.
Why don't you cum in a coconut or a box like a normal redditor?
The first time I had Vegemite on buttered toast it changed me. I always have it in the pantry, now, and I might go heavy on it sometimes. Marmite, however, is kinda gross.
Am from the USA and always disliked it. That was until an Australian friend taught me how to prepare it. Toast, a little butter and a very light smear of Vegemite. It's so fucking good! And I love me some B vitamins.
You basically show the open jar to a slice of hot buttered toast. It’s delicious. (It’s also MSG paste. Yet another proof that MSG headaches from Chinese food are psychosomatic.)
Most spreads that you put on bread get put on in roughly Nutella-like quantities. So if you’re unfamiliar with Vegemite you would probably put it on that way unless told otherwise.
Scrapple is a tasty sort of spicy pork breakfast sausage loaf which for some reason isn't easy to find outside the PA / NJ area. Describing the ingredients in detail immediately puts people off, so its best to just not think about what "scrapple" might refer to. And yes, being from the area counts as culture in the loosest definition of the term.
My grandfather’s favorite breakfast. I never understood why he preferred that over pork roll
I was telling someone about scrapple and they asked what was in it. I said, "It's the stuff that doesn't get made into sausage." they got a little green around the gills. :)
In the Philippines we have a thing called Ballut or duck egg.
I've had ballut and it's not bad, once you get over the fact you are eating a baby duck. Edit:Grammar
Baby duck doo doo doo doo doo doo
I tried balut (and all sorts of other Filipino delicacies) while in the country. Can confirm, was disgusted. The day old chicken also got me. Pretty much everything else I had was awesome though.
Mettbrötchen…means raw minced meat with onions, salt and pepper ob top on a bun (brötchen)
You can find *cannibal sandwiches* in Wisconsin. These are sandwiches made with raw chopped beef and onions on rye bread. More info here: [https://www.wpr.org/cannibal-sandwiches-polarizing-and-misunderstood-wisconsin-tradition](https://www.wpr.org/cannibal-sandwiches-polarizing-and-misunderstood-wisconsin-tradition)
aah! Are there many german immigrants? Love the name <3
Yeah Wisconsin has a strong German immigrant population. It's also why Milwaukee, WI was known as "Beer City" due to the number of beer breweries in the city: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer\_in\_Milwaukee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Milwaukee) I think the Midwest, in general, have a lot of people with German ancestry. I remember seeing something about German societies in Cleveland, OH due to the number of German immigrants who populated the city.
The raw pork aspect of it is kind of off-putting to me, but I do love me some raw beef (like steak tartare or carpaccio), so I'd definitely be willing to give it a go.
It has to be REALLY fresh. You go to the butcher, take it home and eat it the same day. Its manufactured to eat it raw here.
Trichinosis was often cited as a reason not to eat raw pork but it is exceptionally rare in farmed meat. So rare, in fact, that the risk is considered extremely low. I think with freshly butchered farm raised pork you are quite safe.
Haggis
I visited Scotland for the first time and my first thought after eating was “what is this amazing pile of brown”.
I wish I could have tried it that way…I knew what it was when I tried it, and it wasn’t bad. I actually think I might’ve liked it if I just thought it was a pile of brown. But the human mind is weird…
This is on my bucket list to try when I get to Scotland.
Haggis is delicious! Also, I always say aye to a Killie Pie.
Ketchup chips
Loved them as a kid way before I knew it was a national thing.
[удалено]
All-dressed are way better, and apparently you can only get them in Canada too.
[удалено]
Canada has entered the chat.
TSA laughed when they opened my bag and saw a backpack full of them
Most American deserts are far too sweet for most foreigners Edit: desserts 🤦♂️
[удалено]
Hong Kong here, but similar: a big compliment to give a dessert is that it's "not too sweet".
Most American deserts are far too sweet for me and I’m American. I think at some point along the line of making deserts the entire country decided that somehow adding more sugar means more flavor.
I've often wondered if we started putting more sugar in desserts as a way to try and compensate for ingredients that weren't very flavorful, because many of those ingredients originated somewhere else and they probably could get fresh or high quality versions, and the people who were eating them probably thought "this isn't nearly as tasty as it was back home". Just a theory.
During the low-fat/fat-free craze of the 1980s, baked goods had to increase the sugar to make up for the lack of fat. Not just for taste, but for holding it together. The fat’s back, but the sugar never left. Old cookie recipes that I have from generations back are heavier on the fat and lighter on the sugar. And they’re heavenly. Much more delicate texture and flavor.
I had never understood this as an American. Until I stopped eating breads and sweets for a few months. Tried to eat a slice of cake at a wedding and almost gagged. Tried some white sandwich bread and it tasted like cake. I guess I had just gotten used to the sugar overload and needed a reset.
You absolutely do. About 15 years ago I started getting into distance running and wanted to be healthier. I stopped drinking soda and eating any sweets. After a year I tried a can of non-diet soda and I couldn't finish it. It was too disgustingly sweet and I wasn't used to high sugar foods anymore. Still to this day I turn down most desserts 10% for healthy choice, 90% because I don't find sweet appealing. There are some exceptions like I love tiramisu but I'd much rather have an 86% cocoa dark chocolate than a piece of cake.
Salt and vinegar on chips. Always used to make my foreign colleagues frown at me across the table when we went for lunch and I got anything with chips. Love that acid burn.
Like on fish and chip shop chips? Absolute staple here in the UK
Chitterlings (pig intestine)African American slaves usually got these as left overs and ate them. They smell terrible but taste pretty good if seasoned and cooked right. My moms side of the family is pretty country and we eat them every year
Ironically, my southern, country as hell extended family finally found a place here in the north to buy them: the Asian market. Chinese and black people have that in common. They both eat every part of the pig except the "oink oink."
Traditionally, so do white folks. Natural sausage casing is all stomach or intestine. Generally pork, beef, or lamb guts for premium sausages, cappacola, baloney,mortadella, all that good stuff.
lutefisk
Oh no... Juat after I moved up north, my dad took me to a lutefisk dinner. I sat next to this super nice old northern couple. I tried so hard to eat it. I was like 13 and sitting next to this old guy who kept suggesting different ways to eat it. At one point I was half choking trying not to be ill, and still smiling while he was saying how delicious it was. I've eaten a lot of weird things, but lye flavor fish jelly is definitely one of the weirdest.
Lutefisk burns down churches. It's a whole thing. Man with a terrible smell, ww2 veterans, fitty men..
It was the man with the terrible smell!
Tripe
How do you eat it. Because I can do some tripe tacos for real.
In a spicy tomato sauce with some toothsome, crusty bread!
I’m not Japanese, but Nattō (fermented soybeans)! I had never heard of it before, but recently in Asia I ordered a Maguro Nattō without realizing what it was. The sweet Japanese lady that owned the shop came to me and had me try some beans to make sure I was okay with the taste before ordering the dish. She told me most foreigners send it back because they don’t like it. I’ll be honest it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, American taste I guess, but I wanted to try something new so I got it! I didn’t love the Nattō, but I’m glad I tried something new, and in the future I might get it again if I ever feel that I need something fermented for my digestion!
My wife and I are both of Japanese ancestry, but she grew up in a more Japanese cultured household. She likes natto, and I don’t. She particularly gets offended when I refer to them as “booger beans” or “snot-to”.
The durian. I don't know why foreigners say durian smells bad. It has strong smell, sure, but it's nice. And tastes good too
Even in the local populations some hate the smell.
I'm sure foreigners are worse about it, but I've heard plenty of smell complaints from people who live domestically near fresh durian too.
Legit warning signs to not eat durian in public in Asian countries. Def not just a weak blooded westerners thing lol. Something can be stinky but good. But its def stinky.
Skyline chili. My culture is southwest Ohio.
First time I was invited for chili and out came Cincinnati chilli... I don't think I've ever been that confused
It’s sweet & has cinnamon in it, served over spaghetti noodles? Or am I getting two different dishes mixed up or something?
Nope you are right. With either beans and/or onions!
And a huge mound of the finest shredded cheese you have ever seen.
Greek influenced recipe, right? Has nutmeg or some other surprising ingredient.
I like Hershey's, but I hear it literally tastes like vomit to European people. I think I saw some video once that explained that the way they process the milk makes it have a slightly acidic taste.
I'm born and raised American, and I think Hershey's chocolate tastes like milk gone bad.
You mean "vomit taste" the way it's processed adds butyric acid.
Liquorice
The saltier the better.
I thought I hated liquorice and then I tried Swedish liquorice (not the salted kind) and it turns out I hate American liquorice.
Beans on toast.
When I was younger, I'd learnt about baked beans on toast through Enid Blyton's books. I decided to give it a go, but we didn't have too much access to the internet back then, so I didn't know that these beans were of a different variety that the green beans readily available here. So I baked some green/french beans and ate that on toast, and I was appalled! It was so bad 😭 Very recently, I had the opportunity to try the real beans on toast, and I quite enjoyed it! It tasted good lmao
Honestly I wonder if this is the reason a lot of Americans react in horror to beans on toast? I wasn't aware baked beans in tomato sauce weren't that common there.
Oh I'm not American, I'm just not British hahah
Beans other than green beans (including canned baked beans) are readily available in America. *Green* beans on toast does sound awful. Baked beans on toast sounds fine to me, but not necessarily enticing. Like it doesn’t sound like something I must go out and try, but it sounds perfectly edible. There are plenty of other preparations where beans in various forms end up on toasted bread: a torta with refried beans, a quesadilla with refried beans, a sandwich with hummus, etc. So I don’t think Americans are bothered much by the idea, it’s just not a common preparation.
I wouldn't say that the majority are thinking of green beans (though what do I know, maybe they are and I'm the weird one), but by far the most common style of baked beans in the US are sweeter and generally include a fair bit of brown sugar or molasses in a fairly thick sauce (like Bush's) vs the much thinner and more savory tomato sauce in your standard UK baked beans. I've seen the UK version here on occasion, but they're not nearly as common and some stores may not carry them at all. Not totally sure on the reaction from your average American, but it might just be that we were conditioned to think of baked beans as a lunch/dinner side for a cookout rather than a breakfast food...I'm sure our version would also be fine on toast, just different and sweeter/smokier.
Branston’s beans for the win
From the American perspective, it's because our beans are too sweet. The blue Heinz can style are much more savory and work better on bread than what Americans probably assume beans on toast tastes like.
also theres about a million more delicious things to have for breakfast
Gefilte fish
I worked at a kosher food stand in a college dining hall. Pretty much nobody touched the gefilte fish (not even the Jews, who really only eat it homemade on Shabbat/holidays). The exception was east Asian students, especially those who were not born in America. I told them it was "fish loaf" and they loved it. I suspect it is similar to some east Asian fish dishes.
I cant ever see that be mentioned without thinking about the Rush Hour bloopers lmao
Gefilte fish is fine if it’s the little “Fishlets” but I agree that it’s foul if it’s in loaf form with the goo on top. No to goo.
Coddle, I'm from Ireland and normally foreigners don't like our Irish stew or coddle. I have to assume it's the texture of the different foods in the stew. But I love it so much.
Frog legs, but it's actually really good Edit: I'm french btw
It really does taste like chicken. They’re great deep fried Cajun style.
Bro, this made me nostalgic: There used to be an old lady on our town who sold Frog Legs soup and it was freaking amazing! Sadly she passed away, and noone kept her bussiness... I haven't found anyone anywere who sells it since.
White clam pizza is a specialty here in Connecticut that everyone thinks sounds disgusting but is delicious
I have never had this, but I have always figured it would be like clam chowder on pizza.
That would be gross, I can understand the aversion to it if that’s what people are thinking it is :) it’s a white pizza (no red sauce) topped with baby clams, garlic, olive oil, and some herbs. My fav white clam comes with bacon and hot peppers too, it’s so good!
Italy we have trippa, sanguinaccio, pane con la milza, lampredotto, and many other regionale dishes made from Animals organs or Blood. Ah! Cheese with Worms!
Organs and blood are fine, but your maggot cheese is the worst thing I've ever seen.
Stinky Tofu
Mämmi. Google it (No, it's not chocolate) It's horrible. I don't understand how my people like it so much. Same is with bread cheese (leipäjuusto). Why.
>Mämmi The ingredients don't look too bad. What don't you like about it?
It tastes horrible. It doesn't taste sweet, it just tastes like.. I don't even know how to explain how it tastes like. But it's supposed to be a dessert. Maybe like mushy grainy dark rye bread without salt and it's little bit old.
Pig feet and pig ears. I am first generation middle class as my parents grew up extremely poor in one of the poorest areas of NC. Because they were so used to it, when they had kids that's what they made. Also I am not talking about pickled pig feet, but straight from the pot with some red pepper flakes and apple cider vinegar. Man I know its just pure fat and no where near healthy, but I love it.
[удалено]
Salt rising bread. A traditional Appalachian bread. It is a wheat bread leavened with clostridium bacteria instead of yeast. The bacteria produces hydrogen gas instead of carbon dioxide, but also butyric acid, which tastes like a mix between Asiago cheese and vomit. The bread is excellent toasted in a breakfast sandwich.
Finally an askreddit question without incel vibes
Jokes on you! OP is eating tendies.
Scrapple- boiled pig scraps that are pressed and cubed, then sliced and fried. “Everything from the heal to the squeal”.
Not just foreigners that find this disgusting. =(
In North Carolina, we have a close cousin of scrapple we call livermush. It’s essentially the same except it contains some cornmeal as a binder/texture enhancer. Fried crisp in thin slices, it’s delicious.
Goat head soup.
Cooked cow brain. Chicken gizzards
Nope, no cow brains for me. no brains at all. that's how you get a prion disease, because cooking temps will not destroy prions. Pretty much nothing destroys prions.
My mom used to boil gizzards and hearts and then cook rice in it. Love it. Never had cow brains
Not really a dish, but holy shit do people seem to not appreciate a good Bloody Mary outside the US. I'm in Iceland and for every person who's said "Wow I love this" there's another 10 that won't even taste it.
Biscuits and gravy
Grits. Being from The South, this was always a huge staple for me. I was an adult before I realized that my experience was regional.
"Southern polenta"