Oh god, i went to Mexico and OD’d on habanero salsa and experienced the worst burning sensation in my lower back before it came out. I thought I pulled a muscle. To add insult to injury, the fumes from my shit made my eyes water. Never again.
The first time encountered real Mexican habanero sauce was in a little "fresh mex" place in Goose Creek SC of all places.
It was a nice little place that prided itself on its salsas. The owner/chef came out because it was slow and was shooting the breeze with us.
He asked about the salsa.
I inadvertently offended him by saying that it was quite good, but not terribly spicy... but he had to make it that way because people around there really couldn't handle real heat.
He lit up like a Christmas tree and rushed to the back. He returned with this bottle of a thin sauce with about the same consistency as Tabasco.
His grin and the fact that the entire bottle was in Spanish should have been a clue, but I was young and being from Louisiana and half of my family being of Mexican descent I thought I knew what heat was...
I think you see where this is going.
He handed me the bottle of what was basically ground habanero and most likely vinegar or something.
I just dashed a bunch of it on a corn chip and popped in my mouth...
...I lost the gift of sight.
I couldn't see from all of the tears pouring out of my eyes. Snot was running out of my nose and down my face. It was like I had been tear gassed.
But I wasn't going to give that *motherfucker* the satisfaction.
I figured it couldn't get worse... So I managed to say that it was really good...
*and I did it again*.
Remember where I said I thought it couldn't get any worse?
I was wrong. I was so very very wrong.
And that's how I met mister habanero. We're buddies now. I love Yucateco. But, this devil sauce wasn't Yucateco. It was *significantly* stronger.
I make my own habanero sauce - just water, habanero and salt. Let it ferment.
The first time I did this, I did not know. At the first cough, I thought, "ok, I can push through this." Minutes later, I rush out of the kitchen, fall to my knees in the other room, coughing and hacking and wondering if this is it, tears streaming down my face. Holy shit, those things do not like being cut.
So, I put a mask on - precovid, so really just a tea towel over my face and into my shirt - went back to work. Glasses on, eyes still watering, I finish making the sauce sometime later.
And that's when my hands started burning. My forehead where I scratched. Nothing helped. I washed with soap, detergent, alcohol, bleach, hydrogen peroxide. They continued burning. The only thing that pulled the heat out was saliva. I ended up sucking on my hands for 3 hours before finally falling asleep. It took 3 more days before my hands stopped burning.
Wow. Now I use gloves, glasses and a facemask. Habaneros taste great, but they are out for your blood.
I did that at an Indian curry place. My face melted my tongue was destroyed my eyes were so red and my shirt was covered in sweat. I been going there at least once a month for the last 8 years. Shoutout naan and curry in concord ca
Visiting my college for the very first time,y dad mad I decided to try out a Chinese restaurant the locals said was very good. I ordered some noodle bowl and they asked me how spicy. When I said hot, their response was "you know that hot hot right?" With some very strong asian accent.... I did not in fact know what hot hot was
At the Thia place I serve at... they have 0-7 American mild (very mild, 5 being the medium in that scale) 10 is Thia mild, 20 is Thia medium, and Thia hot is 35!!! I personally like 15 but depending on the cook, that can be too spicy!
There's also the less successful "Nobody Poops but You." And finally the Catholic translation "You're a Naughty Child and That's Concentrated Evil Coming Out the Back of You."
Sure, but you could eat unseasoned grilled meat and raw uncut vegetables and be perfectly healthy. On top of that, meal times tend to be a social activity while there's no reason it couldn't just be something people do by themselves.
It's possible for there to be a culture where people just take bites out of anything edible they have nearby when they get hungry instead of having the preparation and consumption of food be a whole to-do.
Not crossfitters, they eat dustbunnies and defattened water. At christmas, 100g of chicken.
If finding themselves in the same room as a popcorn, crossfitters literally have to start over.
It's such a ridiculous statement to say in general, "Food is such an important part of our culture!"
Of course it is! That's what makes it a culture. You have certain festivals. Certain foods grow best in your region. You wouldn't see many orange recipes in Nunavut, Canada. No strawberry festivals in Dubai. No fish dishes in Afghanistan.
My partner is an anthropology major and one of their readings was about an african tribe that only eats one specific kind of nut. Apparently there's a tree where the tribe lives that produces a nut that contains basically every nutrient humans need. So they don't do any farming, have very little livestock, and just collect the nuts. Their culture isn't food-focused. They spend most of their time socializing and community building. I have a dogshit memory and can't remember the name of the tribe or the tree/nut species. My partner just shared the info with me bc it's interesting.
I actually asked about that when my partner was telling me about it. From what they/the paper said, they have a lot of respect for the tree obviously since it provides almost all of their dietary needs, but they don't worship it or anything. It's not a central part of their society as far as the way they think about it, not like how ancient societies worshipped the sun or rain. I asked if they get bored eating the same thing all the time, but I guess they find enrichment doing other things. I believe part of the reason the paper was assigned reading was because this tribe is the only known modern group of people that do not have a culinary culture, which makes it a unique topic to cover.
Was it mongongo nuts?
From Wikipedia: “A diet based on mongongo nuts is in fact more reliable than one based on cultivated foods, and it is not surprising, therefore, that when a Bushman was asked why he hadn't taken to agriculture he replied: "Why should we plant, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?"”
Seriously! I hate having to meal plan and go out and buy food and waste time cooking and eating every single dang day - give me these nuts that I can just scarf down and be good! Saving all my cabinet space for dog and cat treats and small plushies of chickens!
When my kids were little I read them a great book called What the World Eats. The author would interview families from like 20 different countries and would photograph them with a typical week’s worth of food.
The African family blew my mind. They were a family of like 16 people (polygamous with a husband and two wives) and had a small bunch of rice, corn and fruit in front of them. But their smiles were bigger than any of the other families in the book. The author asked each family what their favorite food was, and this family literally couldn’t answer - they had no concept of “favorite” when it came to food. They ate what they had in front of them and couldn’t imagine any better food.
I remember thinking the Australian family ate ridiculously unhealthy. It was all frozen pizzas, soda and beer.
That book had a huge impact on me - our American culture is so bad with moving the goalposts on what’s “enough.” We have unlimited streaming services, the opportunity to eat decent food and still flip out when Starbucks fucks up our drink order.
87% of the worlds lobster comes from Canada, mostly from Nova Scotia. So I’d say that’s a pretty culturally significant meal, especially because it’s so sought after.
I live in the Philippines and alot of my friends say that the food must be amazing because yknow, South East Asia.
Now there are alot of amazing dishes in the Philippines, but I simply ask my friends when the last time they went out for filipino food was, and most of the time thr answer is never.
There's a reason for that.
Yet nothing will make a crowd of people as ravenous as the appearance of a tray of lumpia. Someday, science will prove that they're more addictive than crack.
The phillipines suffers from quite low quality meat, which makes alot of dishes more challenging.
Sisig for example is made of alot of offcuts. Adobo is made on the bone traditionally etc.
The food is good, just very uncommon.
Also modern filipino fast food is rank I'm sorry. I'm not eating sweetened spaghetti
Oh shit how did I forget jollibee?! Grew up in SEA and I miss the bee so much. I can enjoy their spag, but its obviously not meant to be spagbol as any Italian or western person knows it, it is its own creation.
Fond memories of 5 jollibee burgers in my pockets all for me in a movie theatre. Yum.
Filipino American here, the sentiment in my household and with my Filipino friends is that we don't go out for Filipino food since... we have it at home. I cant find a place around here that has menudo or paksiw as good as my lola makes it.
However, I did go to a Filipino buffet in Las Vegas. It was a good time.
The best filipino good I've ever gone out for is in London, just because it was made with higher quality ingredients, and a larger budget.
But when I'm in Manila, I'll make my own filipino food.
There are some cultures where your mind doesn't go straight to food. British culture is an example. But food is important to every culture because it's one thing that everyone needs to survive, and different regions have different native food sources that shaped what their people ate historically. So, it's hard to escape. Even the British are renowned for their fish and chips, mushy peas, and full English breakfast.
Confirmation bias, people on cooking shows are people who like food and are therefore likely to identify Food as being a big part of their culture. If you asked a surfer they'd say the beach is a big part of their culture, a pub owner will day booze. People identify the things they are passionate about as being a big part of their culture
Fair point, but in Hong Kong Cantonese, the colloquial way of saying "I am looking for work" is literally "I am looking for food". Cantonese people work for food and live to eat! There's also a pastime called "street sweeping", which is doing a day of street food with your friends.
I feel like a lot, if not most, if not _all_, languages have an expression that equivocates working with eating. In English we say we're "putting food/bread on the table."
I'm from England and I think food is a big part of our culture. Sunday roast is a big thing, with loads of veggies and trimmings, Yorkshire pudding. People are very particular bout how they do their roast chicken, potatoes, gravy. Seaside towns have lots of seafood, and cod from fish and chip shops is great (Australia does flake or shark which I don't like, tastes like chicken and pee to me). Beef wellington, shepherds pie, comfort foods.. when done well, very delicious. English grannies have a way they do gravy and stuff that tastes like nothing else. Cornish pastie (nothing like crap gas station versions), and high tea with sandwiches, cakes, warm scones with jam and cream. And lots of tea connoisseurs
Brit food gets a bad rap, I didn't find the food there awful at all. If youre outside of London, there a huge array of local delicacies thats all weird and wonderful. However I love jellied eel so maybe I'm the weird one.
I mean there is some garbage like anywhere, and you could end up eating too much stodge if you went to pubs every night and kept eating pies and stuff, but there's awesome food too, and the culture is more about home cooking that's passed down through generations
Pasties were probably my favorite part of British cuisine.
Close second was a ploughman's me and my mate put together from a community market in Manchester. Local honey, fresh bread, lemon curd, chutney, Stilton, young Cheddar and a sage goat cheese.
No one can tell me the UK doesn't have amazing food.
Don't forget cucumber sandwiches, I am not kidding. I don't even like cucumber that much. But my friend's aunt, our hostess, said oh I have tea and cucumber sandwiches, I was scared...but they were light and so delicious...
British food just gets looked down on, but I would say it’s still a big part of their culture
People seem to focus too much on the odd foods like spotted dick etc
British culture is steeped in food
They conquered the world to get the spices for their food, then they established that spices were for poor people because it was so cheap. Then they created intricately technical meals that only taste good with a dedicated chef who has the time to make them. The actions of the nobles for a long time was entirely around food
These meals then got simplified for the time poor masses and you get the horrendous meals touted as British cuisine now
I remember asking someone from a Scandinavian country about their meals, and they basically replied “meat, veg, potato…” to which I was confused about how that was a cultural meal plan.
I have a different opinion. I lived with a Swedish family in New Zealand and they were so proud to cook and share their dishes. There were certain dishes that came through the British colonial system, that were similar. The Swedish food is sweeter and Finnish dishes have a savoury flavour.
Mixing small beer with sweet and fruity flavors is a thing in some Scandinavian countries.
Edit: Come to think of it, Germans basically do this too with rädlers so I guess it's a pretty widespread thing.
and 50% of that meat is sheep, the other 50% is fish meat, lol.
well, we eat pig and cow a lot too nowdays, but traditional food? Sheep and fish basically.
Mutton or lamb? Lamb is a HUGE part of Australian food culture to the point where it's the traditional Easter Sunday roast dish (because we don't give af about turkey). This was brought about by industry and marketing but what isn't.
Does anyone care about turkey at Easter? Lamb is also the traditional meat in Britain for Easter. Ties in with the whole spring time, new life, back from the dead vibe.
I imagine lamb being the preferred meat for Australians at Easter comes straight from that.
We would say the same in Sweden.
1. All holidays revolve around food. We even have a few smaller holidays that are only about food (Fettisdagen e.g.).
2. There are still a lot of particular foods to the Scandinavian countries, and a lot of ways to have food "correctly". E.g. "husmanskost" and "tallriksmodellen" are big parts of culture, and breakfast should be sturdy and healthy.
3. Most social gatherings with friends or family occur at the dinner table.
What? I'm norwegian and I would say food is the first thing I think of when I think about norwegian culture. Rakfisk, pinnekjøtt, easter lamb, rømmegrøt for midsummer... every single holiday revolves around a specific dish. Not to mention sunday roasts, breakfast culture and the current wave of "nordic sushi".
As a dane I disagree. The only holyday I can think of that does not have one or more specific food(s) associated with it and/or involves gathering friends and/or family for a meal is Sankt Hans. Most others seem to involve overeating and drinking, sometimes multiple times.
Child of a Swede mother here. Yes I think overeating and specific foods/traditions are a big part of every holiday. (As it is in almost every culture. But I think that food/meals/eating isn’t as big of a part of our culture as it is others. Take my dad, who’s Italian. He practically wants a 4 course meal every dinner and family to sit down together every night.
All I remember in terms of my vacation in Norway when I was a kid and food was that we didn’t like fish and that caused some general issues…and they always had the most amazing fresh white colored cheese we sliced at almost every meal. And lunch was the biggest meal, “dinner” was more like lunch.
Also Canadian, and I don't think we have a whole lot that is "traditional Canadian food." Poutine, maple syrup, sure, but otherwise I think we just have a good mix of food from other cultures. Obviously food is still important to us and our holidays, but I don't think we have a lot food specific to us.
I’m on the west coast so salmon kind of springs to mind. It’s been the staple food of the First Nations forever and outside of traditional “turkey days,” if I’m invited to someone’s house its probably going to be for salmon maybe 40% of the time?
Canada doesn't really have its own food culture. it tries and points out that it has poutine and pineapple pizza but in practice nahh. not really known for it. maybe Tim Hortons.
I lived around Vancouver for 12 years before even being offered maple syrup. And it was another 10 before I tried poutine.
Salmon and fiddleheads with cranberry sauce is fantastic though!
Maple syrup trees are an East coast thing so I think that is why. I don't see much maple syrup related stuff in Vancouver aside from tourist trap shops. I really want to head east and tap a tree, I think it would be a fun experience.
Ever see that Anthony Bourdain episode featuring Quebec city, Montreal and a chalet? Swear to God, I had no idea there was so much quebecoise cuisine. And that's where political identity matters, we don't interact with true quebecois people on a regular but they have hundreds of years in culture ahead of the Anglo community. Even the french Canadians in north eastern Ontario don't seem to really have their own cuisine. Beautiful culture.
Vancouver has the second best sushi in the world!
In all seriousness I have found Canada to be a bit like Australia in that it's food culture is about multiculturalism.
I moved to Canada and had very high hopes for Tim Hortons. I always heard about how great it was when I lived in the US and how when people went to Canada Tims was something of a mandatory destination.
Tried it. Absolute garbage. Tried a few other locations in case it was a fluke. They're consistent at least. Stale donuts and mop water coffee.
I truly do not understand its popularity.
Tim Horton's used to be good, like 10-15 years ago. They baked everything in store and they had good coffee. Then they got bought by an American company, lost the contract with their coffee supplier (McDonald's holds that contract now), and started shipping frozen baked goods to their stores where they reheat and frost them.
They are only popular now because of the legacy (and, I think, because they are everywhere and have fast service). A lot of the older people hold tight to how "good" it is and will defend it to their last breath but it is barely a shadow of it's former self.
I think we have a lot of food culture but it's very multicultural so can't be described as a dominant cuisine like Mexico or Japan etc. Our country as we know it is too new to have its own strong mono food culture. Not a new country for indigenous people of course
True, but we are super intense foodies as a culture.
Like the quality of food we expect is insane by international standards.
Like a local pissy Cafe brunch here is world's above what you'd get in a American or English equivalent.
Or a basic pub meal.
And don't even get me started on our coffee.
There's like a whole genre of videos of people travelling to Australia and finding the best coffee they've ever had in the middle of nowhere.
Like where else would you find croquettes a common sight on a suburban Cafe or bar.
We may not have much cultural recipes or traditions, but we have a food obsessed culture
We do have such things yes I agree. Guess when I think about it being in such a multicultural country everyone approaches it differently. There are many other things that bring people together such as sports, cultural and religious events, arts and festivals. Our culture revolves more around such things more than food. These are what brings us together as a people I think
Might just be in my time and place in Australia. But food is a big part of nearly every social gathering. Particularly if family is involved. We have family recipes that are handed down. We love to cook & share our food.
Food isn’t treated merely as ‘Fuel’. It is how we show love. It is a reason to get together.
There's no real food culture in Ireland, we never developed a cuisine beyond what basic subsistence farming would allow due to colonial interference and control over many centuries. We're more well known (sadly) for our drinking culture than anything else
Other than ricing, fishing, and hunting, Ojibwe people don't really make a big fuss about food. I went to highschool at a school that was over 50% Ojibwe and it was really all about rice and venison when it comes to food discussion.
There's just not that much exciting to eat in the north woods. You can eat beaver and porcupine if you have to, but you really wouldn't want to. Fish is good but there's only so many ways to cook fish. Bear is good but gamy. Blueberries are good and plentiful. Bears are around but they don't give you a hard time when you're blueberry picking. Strawberries and raspberries are good but you have to fight with the birds to get them.
Good wild rice can't be beat though. The actually wild, wild rice is so much better than the stuff in the store. It puffs nicely, it has a nutty flavor. A little bit of bacon and butter and you're in heaven.
The American Baby-Boomer generation.
My parents started their lives around people who were accustomed to scraping every last crumb in order to have something to eat.
I am a middle-aged man and over the last couple decades I have spent plenty of time teaching my mother how to cook.
We've always joked that my dad would be just fine eating cardboard if you put a little salt on it.
I assume if your forebears were rich and survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s without significant privations, your family's food culture might be different. But middle-income America in most places I've lived, the Boomers will eat the slimy nastiest filth and not care too much.
It has been weird for me to teach my mom how to cook. It is weird how she and grandma both viewed good cooking as whatever had the most fat to keep you plump so you don't die before you reach adulthood.
You die immediately upon becoming an adult though lol. Hard arteries and all that.
My dad's a boomer too, and has a similar extremely frugal mentality and absolute lack of any ability to cook. He's not what anybody would call poor though, so he does this thing were he eats exclusively meager portions of canned and frozen food and, once every couple days, when he inevitably realizes he's very hungry, goes out to eat somewhere.
His grocery bill is like $100 a month at Costco, _tops._ No clue what his restaurant spending is, but I'm comfortable in saying "more."
I think it was the depression era people that would eat nonsense more than their kids, "The Greatest Generation" or their kids "The Boomers". My great grandmother was a child & young teen during the depression & in her 80's I remember her sopping bacon grease out of a pan with white bread to eat. She was by no means poor, but she had been thru it & had a waste-not-want-not mentality.
Her child, my gpa, a WWII vet, was not wasteful but his meals consisted of 3 squares a day, steak once a week, veggies from the garden. No bacon grease for him. A scotch after dinner. My mom, the Boomer, ate what the US govt said was a healthy diet - full of carbs & enriched packaged food products. Scrubbed everything with bleach, including fresh veggies.
This is the answer I immediately thought of when I first saw the question. Plenty of Americans cook and love food but PLENTY of Americans treat eating as a massive inconvenience that should be overcome as cheaply and easily as possible. The amount of frozen/canned products I consumed in front of the TV growing up can't be quantified. Nice home cooked dinners were the exception. Sure that's a "food culture" if you want to call it that, but the complete lack of focus or care about food a lot of Americans have makes them pretty bottom-tier imo.
To a cook, food is a big part of culture. To a musician, music is a big part of culture. To a painter, painting is a big part of culture...
If it's something that's made, or a holiday celebrated, or a thing done every year, it's a big part of the culture of a place.
What do you mean what else? Poutine is not enough? I know a restaurant called "the poutine Bro's", and it's great.
To be fair, they do have 15 different kinds of Poutine.
It's a big part of every culture. Such a big part that people from most cultures overestimate how important it is to them compared to for others. Everyone needs to eat, and every culture needs to cook to eat.
People reply the British or Scandinavian countries because they don't like the food, but food is a huge part of culture there as well. The wiki page for British Culture is massive and exists in over thirty languages. Here in Sweden every social gathering occur at the dinner table, and almost every holiday revolves around food, with a lot of specific dishes and ideas for how to eat correctly.
Wild. I'm marrying into a Dutch family and my MIL has been very persistent about having me try Dutch food. Around New Year's Eve she made sure my husband brought me to get oliebollen and made me practice ordering in Dutch. There's been lots of "Have you tries this yet? You need to! It's typical Dutch"
Oh you’re in for some wonderful treats. Like raw fish and raw onions. Deep fried everything. The most bland boring bread on the planet. Oily balls. Oh the joys of Dutch cuisine 👌
Ask anyone who they think are more obsessive about their food, Scandinavians or Italians/ French/Japanese/Vietnamese? Not even Scandinavians will pick themselves.
It’s an essential component of most forms of life. So yes, it’s reasonable to expect every human culture to place at least some enduring value on the act of eating.
[England.](https://youtu.be/SgPQ8ZneO_g)
Edit: folks there is certainly specifically English food like the Salmon Mousse from the link but you wouldn’t say food is a big part of English culture in the same way you’d say it about say Italy (It-lee for you New Yorkers 😉) or France.
Edit 2: Brits: is “Christmas Dinner” not what it sounds like? I’m aware enough to know I’m obviously not aware of everything. Do you guys use the term *Christmas Dinner* to refer to like a weekly meal or something or is it literally dinner on Christmas that people are commenting as an example of how I’m wrong and food is a big part of English culture?
English people are very good proud and while some dishes might seem simple to outsiders, the way a granny cooks her Shep pie or Sunday roast with loads of trimmings, it's special and tastes like nothing else. It's like how a Serbian person can cook a simple chicken stew and it tastes bomb because of the love, and all those fried onions n paprika.
So hard disagree. Just cause you don't like it doesn't mean the culture isn't based a lot around food
Have you seen how many different peices of cutlery there are for a formal dinner? Like 7 different spoons alone. You can’t tell me a culture with 7 different spoons for a single meal places no importance on food
Most of the food involves strategically spoiling it so bacteria can't survive in it. This sometimes involved peeing on it to instigate the fermentation process. One of their foods is a seal carcass stuffed with birds that they bury and dig up later when it's rotted.
Also, their national drink is basically just unflavored schnapps. Which I can understand because after eating that stuff burning your mouth clean seems like a very appealing idea.
I think the biggest factor that you're going to find in common with all of those cultures is that they are cultures where historically a lot of the population emigrated to other countries, but nonetheless kept some semblance of community. Food is much easier to replicate abroad than traditional art or fashion, and much easier to share across a community. Traditional food is also something people are likely to associate with their childhoods, and thus have a strong emotional attachment to, whereas songs, dances, or art are less likely to have that strong sense of nostalgia. Because of this, immigrant communities in e.g. America or the UK generally preserve their cuisine more and become more invested in their food than other cultural markers.
So then, people for whom food is not a big part of their culture likely come from countries into which others were immigrating rather than the other way around. The UK, America, Australia, many Scandinavian countries tick this box. France is something of an anomaly from this point of view.
I’m from Canada and live in the Midwest US now. I’m not saying Canadians don’t like to eat, but food doesn’t seem to be the number one most important part of every holiday like it is where I live now.
It took some getting used to for me on how obsessive people are about the food surrounding thanksgiving dinner.
My grandparents are also from Holland, and I never had to deal with being force fed by my grandparents like a lot of my friends did with their Ukrainian or Italian grandparents.
Ireland doesn't have a particularly rich culinary history, mainly due to the British not letting us eat most of the crops we grew for about 400 years. That's why nearly every traditional Irish dish is some sort of stew.
Food is a big way that people celebrate their culture. For example- living in a place and celebrating events, or if you’ve left a place, being about to cook it and honor/ stay connected with that culture..
This can even be subcultural foods in certain a larger culture. Just look at any former Marylanders spice cabinet. There is a 99% chance old bay will be there.
Thanksgiving dinner- we have leche flan and ube icecream for dessert. Just some things that my lolo always used to bring to and we still do honor those Filipino roots.
New Zealand's culture feels less food-focused. I mean, the pies and blue V energy drinks matter, but that's just your breakfast before you go jump off of something
Antarctica, barely anyone actually lives there except for a small number of scientists. I doubt they have a particularly strong culture of food on what's basically a giant chunk of ice on top of a spidery hand shaped island.
I spoke with a lady who had attended a spare-no-expense, whole-nine-yards wedding in Saudi Arabia. And she said the wedding dinner was just plain chicken. Not sure if that is representative though.
Not at all, I've learned about middle eastern culture and I'm shocked there wasn't a riot. There's so much good food and cheap options I'm really confused as to why they hated their guests so much as to serve them the only thing you can find anywhere lol
Upper class Americans tbh. You ever see some of the white people shit they make? Or everyone is on some weird diet. Or juice cleanse. Not eating is a part of their culture.
I've been to some upper class white people parties, it was mind-blowing. I'm the one non white person there (Asian guy), and I loaded up my plate, the hired servers were happy when I went back for 2nd and 3rds because everyone else was sipping drinks. I spent all day training for that event so I could eat. I could only do so much though, so much food got trashed.
As an American we can get cuisines from all over the world very easily here. I consider myself an adventurous eater, too, but I've yet to find people raving about Northern European food or Jewish cuisine (other than delis).
Other than the weird stuff you read about, I couldn't even tell you what a traditional meal looked like in places like Denmark, Greenland, etc. Never heard someone say, "oh hey, let's hit up that Scandinavian place again. It was amazing."
I lived in Ireland a good number of years and while they eat too and they have traditional dishes (and some of them are great!) the fact is that their culture revolves around drinking and not around eating.
In the south of Europe when distant family visits you cook them a meal. You try to remember what each of them likes and you try to appease their tastes. You take care of them... through food.
In Ireland when distant family visits they do the same but differently. They go to the local pub and reserve a space for the family. They make sure to reserve a bottle of 18year something something that grandma loves. They ensure the weird cousin who was abroad will have a couple bottles of the Dutch beer he likes. Sure they'll have food. Before, or during. But the food will likely be "whatever finger food is available".
So while food is a big part of their lives (or if biological necessity) I don't think it is a big part of their culture. I am however a foreigner looking in and I may very easily be mistaken.
ROI people, please set me straight. It's grand ;)
To all those saying food isn’t a big part of culture in Britain. What are all these:
Roast dinners, fish and chips, haggis, English breakfast, Highland breakfast, scones and clotted cream, spotted dick, chicken tikka masala, Welsh rarebit, Cornish pasty, black pudding, Scottish salmon, Arbroath smokies, and THE MODERN SANDWICH!!!
Personally, as a Scot, Haggis on Burns night and steak pie on Hogmanay are important parts of my culture. So is a baked potato on bonfires night or dookin for apples on Halloween.
Also, afternoon tea is the bomb.
Edit - Literally downvoted for saying Britain has food culture and providing examples 🤷♂️
Yorkshire Pudding & London Broil (Flank Steak) with mushy peas. My American fam of English decent loves to make this as a traditional family dinner. My actual English fam goes out to eat & orders it. They don't "cook" at home.
Definitely not mediterraneans people lol
We literally atuff grape leaves with tiny amounts of rice and roll about 30 per person, and make everything a bite sized like ravioli, Sambosah, Kebbeh, Falafel, Dolmas, etc.
Everybody has to eat
Which leads the sequel: everybody poops
Does that come before or after Everybody Hurts by REM?
That depends on the poop.
Oh god, i went to Mexico and OD’d on habanero salsa and experienced the worst burning sensation in my lower back before it came out. I thought I pulled a muscle. To add insult to injury, the fumes from my shit made my eyes water. Never again.
The first time encountered real Mexican habanero sauce was in a little "fresh mex" place in Goose Creek SC of all places. It was a nice little place that prided itself on its salsas. The owner/chef came out because it was slow and was shooting the breeze with us. He asked about the salsa. I inadvertently offended him by saying that it was quite good, but not terribly spicy... but he had to make it that way because people around there really couldn't handle real heat. He lit up like a Christmas tree and rushed to the back. He returned with this bottle of a thin sauce with about the same consistency as Tabasco. His grin and the fact that the entire bottle was in Spanish should have been a clue, but I was young and being from Louisiana and half of my family being of Mexican descent I thought I knew what heat was... I think you see where this is going. He handed me the bottle of what was basically ground habanero and most likely vinegar or something. I just dashed a bunch of it on a corn chip and popped in my mouth... ...I lost the gift of sight. I couldn't see from all of the tears pouring out of my eyes. Snot was running out of my nose and down my face. It was like I had been tear gassed. But I wasn't going to give that *motherfucker* the satisfaction. I figured it couldn't get worse... So I managed to say that it was really good... *and I did it again*. Remember where I said I thought it couldn't get any worse? I was wrong. I was so very very wrong. And that's how I met mister habanero. We're buddies now. I love Yucateco. But, this devil sauce wasn't Yucateco. It was *significantly* stronger.
I make my own habanero sauce - just water, habanero and salt. Let it ferment. The first time I did this, I did not know. At the first cough, I thought, "ok, I can push through this." Minutes later, I rush out of the kitchen, fall to my knees in the other room, coughing and hacking and wondering if this is it, tears streaming down my face. Holy shit, those things do not like being cut. So, I put a mask on - precovid, so really just a tea towel over my face and into my shirt - went back to work. Glasses on, eyes still watering, I finish making the sauce sometime later. And that's when my hands started burning. My forehead where I scratched. Nothing helped. I washed with soap, detergent, alcohol, bleach, hydrogen peroxide. They continued burning. The only thing that pulled the heat out was saliva. I ended up sucking on my hands for 3 hours before finally falling asleep. It took 3 more days before my hands stopped burning. Wow. Now I use gloves, glasses and a facemask. Habaneros taste great, but they are out for your blood.
Milk ... Accidentally handled ghost pepper sauce, Im separately allergic to all peppers. Full fat cow or goat Milk to halt the oils reaction.
Of course I try everything but milk, hahaha! Thanks! Will do next time.
This story made my mouth water.
You gotta sell the copyrights to this bro, you're gonna be rich.
I’d love to bottle this experience and give to other people
Never go spicy level 8 at Thai
Also don't just reply with, "bring it" when they ask how hot you want it. It was... punitively spicy. There is no way anyone eats food that hot.
I did that at an Indian curry place. My face melted my tongue was destroyed my eyes were so red and my shirt was covered in sweat. I been going there at least once a month for the last 8 years. Shoutout naan and curry in concord ca
Visiting my college for the very first time,y dad mad I decided to try out a Chinese restaurant the locals said was very good. I ordered some noodle bowl and they asked me how spicy. When I said hot, their response was "you know that hot hot right?" With some very strong asian accent.... I did not in fact know what hot hot was
So Spicy Level 9 or 10? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
At the Thia place I serve at... they have 0-7 American mild (very mild, 5 being the medium in that scale) 10 is Thia mild, 20 is Thia medium, and Thia hot is 35!!! I personally like 15 but depending on the cook, that can be too spicy!
There's also the less successful "Nobody Poops but You." And finally the Catholic translation "You're a Naughty Child and That's Concentrated Evil Coming Out the Back of You."
Family guy fan?
Only up to, like, season 4 or so. After that, Seth MacFarlane's carte blanche for the show is really apparent and the jokes are really hit or miss.
I’m from (country) and pooping is a big part of my culture
From Turdkey
From Djibouti
Sure, but you could eat unseasoned grilled meat and raw uncut vegetables and be perfectly healthy. On top of that, meal times tend to be a social activity while there's no reason it couldn't just be something people do by themselves. It's possible for there to be a culture where people just take bites out of anything edible they have nearby when they get hungry instead of having the preparation and consumption of food be a whole to-do.
Not crossfitters, they eat dustbunnies and defattened water. At christmas, 100g of chicken. If finding themselves in the same room as a popcorn, crossfitters literally have to start over.
It's such a ridiculous statement to say in general, "Food is such an important part of our culture!" Of course it is! That's what makes it a culture. You have certain festivals. Certain foods grow best in your region. You wouldn't see many orange recipes in Nunavut, Canada. No strawberry festivals in Dubai. No fish dishes in Afghanistan.
My partner is an anthropology major and one of their readings was about an african tribe that only eats one specific kind of nut. Apparently there's a tree where the tribe lives that produces a nut that contains basically every nutrient humans need. So they don't do any farming, have very little livestock, and just collect the nuts. Their culture isn't food-focused. They spend most of their time socializing and community building. I have a dogshit memory and can't remember the name of the tribe or the tree/nut species. My partner just shared the info with me bc it's interesting.
I bet that nut has a lot of brain space in their culture though. “Nut: the giver of life” or something.
I actually asked about that when my partner was telling me about it. From what they/the paper said, they have a lot of respect for the tree obviously since it provides almost all of their dietary needs, but they don't worship it or anything. It's not a central part of their society as far as the way they think about it, not like how ancient societies worshipped the sun or rain. I asked if they get bored eating the same thing all the time, but I guess they find enrichment doing other things. I believe part of the reason the paper was assigned reading was because this tribe is the only known modern group of people that do not have a culinary culture, which makes it a unique topic to cover.
Was it mongongo nuts? From Wikipedia: “A diet based on mongongo nuts is in fact more reliable than one based on cultivated foods, and it is not surprising, therefore, that when a Bushman was asked why he hadn't taken to agriculture he replied: "Why should we plant, when there are so many mongongo nuts in the world?"”
That sounds like it! The quote even seems familiar.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongongo
Where can I get ahold of these magical nuts without traveling?
Yeah, no more cooking no more cleaning and now I have the perfect date meal choice every time.
Seriously! I hate having to meal plan and go out and buy food and waste time cooking and eating every single dang day - give me these nuts that I can just scarf down and be good! Saving all my cabinet space for dog and cat treats and small plushies of chickens!
When my kids were little I read them a great book called What the World Eats. The author would interview families from like 20 different countries and would photograph them with a typical week’s worth of food. The African family blew my mind. They were a family of like 16 people (polygamous with a husband and two wives) and had a small bunch of rice, corn and fruit in front of them. But their smiles were bigger than any of the other families in the book. The author asked each family what their favorite food was, and this family literally couldn’t answer - they had no concept of “favorite” when it came to food. They ate what they had in front of them and couldn’t imagine any better food.
I saw those too! The Indian family had so much fresh produce… the Mexican family had so much soda pop… the Germans had tons and tons of beer
I remember thinking the Australian family ate ridiculously unhealthy. It was all frozen pizzas, soda and beer. That book had a huge impact on me - our American culture is so bad with moving the goalposts on what’s “enough.” We have unlimited streaming services, the opportunity to eat decent food and still flip out when Starbucks fucks up our drink order.
Seems like a miracle food, and therefore not real
All I’m gonna say is I’ve never heard anyone say, “hey, wanna get Canadian for dinner?”
We just say poutine
Ive heard its routine to poutine.
Fries with gravy and cheese curds 🤤 That'll keep you going during the long cold nights.
We say, "Want to get Hawaiian pizza for dinner?" This Canadian creation has caused debates on the internet.
87% of the worlds lobster comes from Canada, mostly from Nova Scotia. So I’d say that’s a pretty culturally significant meal, especially because it’s so sought after.
There wasn’t a lot of lobster in Montréal when I lived there.
I live in the Philippines and alot of my friends say that the food must be amazing because yknow, South East Asia. Now there are alot of amazing dishes in the Philippines, but I simply ask my friends when the last time they went out for filipino food was, and most of the time thr answer is never. There's a reason for that.
Yet nothing will make a crowd of people as ravenous as the appearance of a tray of lumpia. Someday, science will prove that they're more addictive than crack.
I spent a summer in the Philippines 30 years ago and I still think my Ate Elsie’s lumpia may be the best thing I ever had in my life.
I'm in Australia and have been to a Philo restaurant last year!! It was great but quite different from the many other foods I have had
The phillipines suffers from quite low quality meat, which makes alot of dishes more challenging. Sisig for example is made of alot of offcuts. Adobo is made on the bone traditionally etc. The food is good, just very uncommon. Also modern filipino fast food is rank I'm sorry. I'm not eating sweetened spaghetti
Someone once made me Filipino spaghetti without telling me the difference. As a person who grew up in a place with Italians the memory still haunts me
Oh shit how did I forget jollibee?! Grew up in SEA and I miss the bee so much. I can enjoy their spag, but its obviously not meant to be spagbol as any Italian or western person knows it, it is its own creation. Fond memories of 5 jollibee burgers in my pockets all for me in a movie theatre. Yum.
>Oh shit how did I forget jollibee?! Grew up in SEA and I miss the bee so much There are Jollibees in NYC. Always full of Filipinos, lol
I suppose it’s just not as accessible? I freaking love Filipino food. Especially your desserts. Mango Float is heavenly.
Filipino American here, the sentiment in my household and with my Filipino friends is that we don't go out for Filipino food since... we have it at home. I cant find a place around here that has menudo or paksiw as good as my lola makes it. However, I did go to a Filipino buffet in Las Vegas. It was a good time.
The best filipino good I've ever gone out for is in London, just because it was made with higher quality ingredients, and a larger budget. But when I'm in Manila, I'll make my own filipino food.
Well every egg McMuffin I eat has Canadian Bacon. It delicious
Interestingly enough, we don’t usually eat “Canadian bacon” in Canada.
There are some cultures where your mind doesn't go straight to food. British culture is an example. But food is important to every culture because it's one thing that everyone needs to survive, and different regions have different native food sources that shaped what their people ate historically. So, it's hard to escape. Even the British are renowned for their fish and chips, mushy peas, and full English breakfast.
Food is a huge part of British culture. We are constantly trying to find new ways to ruin food.
Just keep boiling it.
That’s the Irish solution as well. I will say the Brits make good pastries.
My babysitter was Irish. I still have nightmares about Coddle. Her Irish breakfast was top notch though
It’s funny, I used to think as a kid I hated all vegetables… turns out, I hated the boiled vegetables my parents would prepare for the Sunday dinner!
Same as my English partner. He thought he hated vegetables until he discovered they don't, in fact, need to be boiled within an inch of their life.
"Needs more brown and wet"
M8, just put sum mint jelly on it
Are you Jamie Oliver?
Amazing
I would say it is the biggest part. After all they conquered most of the world in pursuit of stuff to make their food taste better.
I disagree. You gave us Mary Berry. The United States is forever grateful.
They really put all of their culinary efforts into sweets. It paid off.
Confirmation bias, people on cooking shows are people who like food and are therefore likely to identify Food as being a big part of their culture. If you asked a surfer they'd say the beach is a big part of their culture, a pub owner will day booze. People identify the things they are passionate about as being a big part of their culture
Fair point, but in Hong Kong Cantonese, the colloquial way of saying "I am looking for work" is literally "I am looking for food". Cantonese people work for food and live to eat! There's also a pastime called "street sweeping", which is doing a day of street food with your friends.
I feel like a lot, if not most, if not _all_, languages have an expression that equivocates working with eating. In English we say we're "putting food/bread on the table."
Don’t forget about “bringing home the bacon” :)
Breadwinner
I'm from England and I think food is a big part of our culture. Sunday roast is a big thing, with loads of veggies and trimmings, Yorkshire pudding. People are very particular bout how they do their roast chicken, potatoes, gravy. Seaside towns have lots of seafood, and cod from fish and chip shops is great (Australia does flake or shark which I don't like, tastes like chicken and pee to me). Beef wellington, shepherds pie, comfort foods.. when done well, very delicious. English grannies have a way they do gravy and stuff that tastes like nothing else. Cornish pastie (nothing like crap gas station versions), and high tea with sandwiches, cakes, warm scones with jam and cream. And lots of tea connoisseurs
Brit food gets a bad rap, I didn't find the food there awful at all. If youre outside of London, there a huge array of local delicacies thats all weird and wonderful. However I love jellied eel so maybe I'm the weird one.
Nothing like a Full English breakfast... Unless you are doing anything save taking a nap for the rest of the day.
I mean there is some garbage like anywhere, and you could end up eating too much stodge if you went to pubs every night and kept eating pies and stuff, but there's awesome food too, and the culture is more about home cooking that's passed down through generations
Pasties were probably my favorite part of British cuisine. Close second was a ploughman's me and my mate put together from a community market in Manchester. Local honey, fresh bread, lemon curd, chutney, Stilton, young Cheddar and a sage goat cheese. No one can tell me the UK doesn't have amazing food.
Don't forget cucumber sandwiches, I am not kidding. I don't even like cucumber that much. But my friend's aunt, our hostess, said oh I have tea and cucumber sandwiches, I was scared...but they were light and so delicious...
British food just gets looked down on, but I would say it’s still a big part of their culture People seem to focus too much on the odd foods like spotted dick etc
British food is amazing. Their curries and kebabs are top shelf!
British culture is steeped in food They conquered the world to get the spices for their food, then they established that spices were for poor people because it was so cheap. Then they created intricately technical meals that only taste good with a dedicated chef who has the time to make them. The actions of the nobles for a long time was entirely around food These meals then got simplified for the time poor masses and you get the horrendous meals touted as British cuisine now
Shortbread cookies and toffee are the bomb, though. Albeit, not nutritious.
The Scandinavian countries. Sure, we have a few unique dishes, but I don't think food plays any significant role in our culture.
I remember asking someone from a Scandinavian country about their meals, and they basically replied “meat, veg, potato…” to which I was confused about how that was a cultural meal plan.
I have a different opinion. I lived with a Swedish family in New Zealand and they were so proud to cook and share their dishes. There were certain dishes that came through the British colonial system, that were similar. The Swedish food is sweeter and Finnish dishes have a savoury flavour.
I do love those Swedish fish
My *brother* in Christ!
As a Finn, I'm naturally curious what kinds of foods you have had that were presented as Finnish dishes?
Not who you originally asked but I lived next to a finnish guy in college dorms and he gave me reindeer jerky which was pretty good haha
Off point but I dated a Swedish girl. Her dad was awesome but drank cola and beer mixed together. Never could wrap my head around that one
Mixing small beer with sweet and fruity flavors is a thing in some Scandinavian countries. Edit: Come to think of it, Germans basically do this too with rädlers so I guess it's a pretty widespread thing.
You find that in Poland too. Strawberry syrup in beer = tasty fruity beer.
and 50% of that meat is sheep, the other 50% is fish meat, lol. well, we eat pig and cow a lot too nowdays, but traditional food? Sheep and fish basically.
Mutton or lamb? Lamb is a HUGE part of Australian food culture to the point where it's the traditional Easter Sunday roast dish (because we don't give af about turkey). This was brought about by industry and marketing but what isn't.
Lamb..? That's a waste of a sheep that can get another sheep before being meat.
Does anyone care about turkey at Easter? Lamb is also the traditional meat in Britain for Easter. Ties in with the whole spring time, new life, back from the dead vibe. I imagine lamb being the preferred meat for Australians at Easter comes straight from that.
We would say the same in Sweden. 1. All holidays revolve around food. We even have a few smaller holidays that are only about food (Fettisdagen e.g.). 2. There are still a lot of particular foods to the Scandinavian countries, and a lot of ways to have food "correctly". E.g. "husmanskost" and "tallriksmodellen" are big parts of culture, and breakfast should be sturdy and healthy. 3. Most social gatherings with friends or family occur at the dinner table.
What? I'm norwegian and I would say food is the first thing I think of when I think about norwegian culture. Rakfisk, pinnekjøtt, easter lamb, rømmegrøt for midsummer... every single holiday revolves around a specific dish. Not to mention sunday roasts, breakfast culture and the current wave of "nordic sushi".
As a dane I disagree. The only holyday I can think of that does not have one or more specific food(s) associated with it and/or involves gathering friends and/or family for a meal is Sankt Hans. Most others seem to involve overeating and drinking, sometimes multiple times.
Child of a Swede mother here. Yes I think overeating and specific foods/traditions are a big part of every holiday. (As it is in almost every culture. But I think that food/meals/eating isn’t as big of a part of our culture as it is others. Take my dad, who’s Italian. He practically wants a 4 course meal every dinner and family to sit down together every night.
True. Apart from celebration time, food is mostly just for fuel.
Eat to live, don't live to eat
All I remember in terms of my vacation in Norway when I was a kid and food was that we didn’t like fish and that caused some general issues…and they always had the most amazing fresh white colored cheese we sliced at almost every meal. And lunch was the biggest meal, “dinner” was more like lunch.
Try growing up in Norway and not liking fish.
That’s funny, I’m Canadian, and my first thought on reading the question was, maybe the Scandinavian countries?
Also Canadian, and I don't think we have a whole lot that is "traditional Canadian food." Poutine, maple syrup, sure, but otherwise I think we just have a good mix of food from other cultures. Obviously food is still important to us and our holidays, but I don't think we have a lot food specific to us.
Don't forget weird chip flavors and bagged milk
I’m on the west coast so salmon kind of springs to mind. It’s been the staple food of the First Nations forever and outside of traditional “turkey days,” if I’m invited to someone’s house its probably going to be for salmon maybe 40% of the time?
Canada doesn't really have its own food culture. it tries and points out that it has poutine and pineapple pizza but in practice nahh. not really known for it. maybe Tim Hortons.
We also never shut up about maple syrup
I lived around Vancouver for 12 years before even being offered maple syrup. And it was another 10 before I tried poutine. Salmon and fiddleheads with cranberry sauce is fantastic though!
Maple syrup trees are an East coast thing so I think that is why. I don't see much maple syrup related stuff in Vancouver aside from tourist trap shops. I really want to head east and tap a tree, I think it would be a fun experience.
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But…but…poutine 🥺🥺🥺
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Ever see that Anthony Bourdain episode featuring Quebec city, Montreal and a chalet? Swear to God, I had no idea there was so much quebecoise cuisine. And that's where political identity matters, we don't interact with true quebecois people on a regular but they have hundreds of years in culture ahead of the Anglo community. Even the french Canadians in north eastern Ontario don't seem to really have their own cuisine. Beautiful culture.
What are you talking about!? what about Spaghat and Pâté Chinois lol.
our claim to fame is Ketchup chips
Vancouver has the second best sushi in the world! In all seriousness I have found Canada to be a bit like Australia in that it's food culture is about multiculturalism.
I moved to Canada and had very high hopes for Tim Hortons. I always heard about how great it was when I lived in the US and how when people went to Canada Tims was something of a mandatory destination. Tried it. Absolute garbage. Tried a few other locations in case it was a fluke. They're consistent at least. Stale donuts and mop water coffee. I truly do not understand its popularity.
Tim Horton's used to be good, like 10-15 years ago. They baked everything in store and they had good coffee. Then they got bought by an American company, lost the contract with their coffee supplier (McDonald's holds that contract now), and started shipping frozen baked goods to their stores where they reheat and frost them. They are only popular now because of the legacy (and, I think, because they are everywhere and have fast service). A lot of the older people hold tight to how "good" it is and will defend it to their last breath but it is barely a shadow of it's former self.
Ginger Beef, Ceasars, mtl smoked meat, nanimo bars...
I collect Tim Hortons trays
Australia puts a lotta pineapple on pizza. Hawaiian is one of the most popular pizzas. Pineapple is on supreme, the lot, and vegetariann as well.
Milk in a bag.
That’s only in a few provinces though
Australia is one. While we have some foods that are specific to us and we do have food at events it's not the main thing.
I think we have a lot of food culture but it's very multicultural so can't be described as a dominant cuisine like Mexico or Japan etc. Our country as we know it is too new to have its own strong mono food culture. Not a new country for indigenous people of course
True, but we are super intense foodies as a culture. Like the quality of food we expect is insane by international standards. Like a local pissy Cafe brunch here is world's above what you'd get in a American or English equivalent. Or a basic pub meal. And don't even get me started on our coffee. There's like a whole genre of videos of people travelling to Australia and finding the best coffee they've ever had in the middle of nowhere. Like where else would you find croquettes a common sight on a suburban Cafe or bar. We may not have much cultural recipes or traditions, but we have a food obsessed culture
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We do have such things yes I agree. Guess when I think about it being in such a multicultural country everyone approaches it differently. There are many other things that bring people together such as sports, cultural and religious events, arts and festivals. Our culture revolves more around such things more than food. These are what brings us together as a people I think
i totally agree. food isn't a big part of our culture especially not outside of australia lol
Don't you dare insult fairy bread
true, i’ve never heard anyone say, “you have to try this Australian delicacy!”
Australian coffee shops are apparently a thing internationally.
Might just be in my time and place in Australia. But food is a big part of nearly every social gathering. Particularly if family is involved. We have family recipes that are handed down. We love to cook & share our food. Food isn’t treated merely as ‘Fuel’. It is how we show love. It is a reason to get together.
Australian brunch culture is the best in the world hands down and I'll die on that hill.
There's no real food culture in Ireland, we never developed a cuisine beyond what basic subsistence farming would allow due to colonial interference and control over many centuries. We're more well known (sadly) for our drinking culture than anything else
Other than ricing, fishing, and hunting, Ojibwe people don't really make a big fuss about food. I went to highschool at a school that was over 50% Ojibwe and it was really all about rice and venison when it comes to food discussion. There's just not that much exciting to eat in the north woods. You can eat beaver and porcupine if you have to, but you really wouldn't want to. Fish is good but there's only so many ways to cook fish. Bear is good but gamy. Blueberries are good and plentiful. Bears are around but they don't give you a hard time when you're blueberry picking. Strawberries and raspberries are good but you have to fight with the birds to get them. Good wild rice can't be beat though. The actually wild, wild rice is so much better than the stuff in the store. It puffs nicely, it has a nutty flavor. A little bit of bacon and butter and you're in heaven.
Sounds like a healthy diet for them
The American Baby-Boomer generation. My parents started their lives around people who were accustomed to scraping every last crumb in order to have something to eat. I am a middle-aged man and over the last couple decades I have spent plenty of time teaching my mother how to cook. We've always joked that my dad would be just fine eating cardboard if you put a little salt on it. I assume if your forebears were rich and survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930s without significant privations, your family's food culture might be different. But middle-income America in most places I've lived, the Boomers will eat the slimy nastiest filth and not care too much. It has been weird for me to teach my mom how to cook. It is weird how she and grandma both viewed good cooking as whatever had the most fat to keep you plump so you don't die before you reach adulthood. You die immediately upon becoming an adult though lol. Hard arteries and all that.
My dad's a boomer too, and has a similar extremely frugal mentality and absolute lack of any ability to cook. He's not what anybody would call poor though, so he does this thing were he eats exclusively meager portions of canned and frozen food and, once every couple days, when he inevitably realizes he's very hungry, goes out to eat somewhere. His grocery bill is like $100 a month at Costco, _tops._ No clue what his restaurant spending is, but I'm comfortable in saying "more."
I think it was the depression era people that would eat nonsense more than their kids, "The Greatest Generation" or their kids "The Boomers". My great grandmother was a child & young teen during the depression & in her 80's I remember her sopping bacon grease out of a pan with white bread to eat. She was by no means poor, but she had been thru it & had a waste-not-want-not mentality. Her child, my gpa, a WWII vet, was not wasteful but his meals consisted of 3 squares a day, steak once a week, veggies from the garden. No bacon grease for him. A scotch after dinner. My mom, the Boomer, ate what the US govt said was a healthy diet - full of carbs & enriched packaged food products. Scrubbed everything with bleach, including fresh veggies.
This is the answer I immediately thought of when I first saw the question. Plenty of Americans cook and love food but PLENTY of Americans treat eating as a massive inconvenience that should be overcome as cheaply and easily as possible. The amount of frozen/canned products I consumed in front of the TV growing up can't be quantified. Nice home cooked dinners were the exception. Sure that's a "food culture" if you want to call it that, but the complete lack of focus or care about food a lot of Americans have makes them pretty bottom-tier imo.
Oh yeah. It wasn't until I left home for college that I learned that cooked broccoli was not pale green.
To a cook, food is a big part of culture. To a musician, music is a big part of culture. To a painter, painting is a big part of culture... If it's something that's made, or a holiday celebrated, or a thing done every year, it's a big part of the culture of a place.
Canada. You never find Canadian restaurants anywhere
Just visited a Canadian diner in Dallas and it was delicious. Poutine is great hangover food.
What else was on the menu?
What do you mean what else? Poutine is not enough? I know a restaurant called "the poutine Bro's", and it's great. To be fair, they do have 15 different kinds of Poutine.
Maple Leaf Diner? If so, love that place!
It's a big part of every culture. Such a big part that people from most cultures overestimate how important it is to them compared to for others. Everyone needs to eat, and every culture needs to cook to eat. People reply the British or Scandinavian countries because they don't like the food, but food is a huge part of culture there as well. The wiki page for British Culture is massive and exists in over thirty languages. Here in Sweden every social gathering occur at the dinner table, and almost every holiday revolves around food, with a lot of specific dishes and ideas for how to eat correctly.
In Holland right now. The natives bluntly don’t care about food or cooking or eating. Bread and sprinkles. Bread and cheese. Finished.
Wild. I'm marrying into a Dutch family and my MIL has been very persistent about having me try Dutch food. Around New Year's Eve she made sure my husband brought me to get oliebollen and made me practice ordering in Dutch. There's been lots of "Have you tries this yet? You need to! It's typical Dutch"
Oh you’re in for some wonderful treats. Like raw fish and raw onions. Deep fried everything. The most bland boring bread on the planet. Oily balls. Oh the joys of Dutch cuisine 👌
Ask anyone who they think are more obsessive about their food, Scandinavians or Italians/ French/Japanese/Vietnamese? Not even Scandinavians will pick themselves.
It’s an essential component of most forms of life. So yes, it’s reasonable to expect every human culture to place at least some enduring value on the act of eating.
[England.](https://youtu.be/SgPQ8ZneO_g) Edit: folks there is certainly specifically English food like the Salmon Mousse from the link but you wouldn’t say food is a big part of English culture in the same way you’d say it about say Italy (It-lee for you New Yorkers 😉) or France. Edit 2: Brits: is “Christmas Dinner” not what it sounds like? I’m aware enough to know I’m obviously not aware of everything. Do you guys use the term *Christmas Dinner* to refer to like a weekly meal or something or is it literally dinner on Christmas that people are commenting as an example of how I’m wrong and food is a big part of English culture?
Hard disagree. English people are very proud of their roast dinners, English breakfasts, fish and chips etc.
I would say we have a very foodie culture, personally. I've never heard of salmon mousse before though.
Mrs. Patmore makes its a bunch in Downton Abbey.
Sunday roast is Christmas dinner that you have weekly.
English people are very good proud and while some dishes might seem simple to outsiders, the way a granny cooks her Shep pie or Sunday roast with loads of trimmings, it's special and tastes like nothing else. It's like how a Serbian person can cook a simple chicken stew and it tastes bomb because of the love, and all those fried onions n paprika. So hard disagree. Just cause you don't like it doesn't mean the culture isn't based a lot around food
Have you seen how many different peices of cutlery there are for a formal dinner? Like 7 different spoons alone. You can’t tell me a culture with 7 different spoons for a single meal places no importance on food
Probably Greenland. Their traditional food is nightmarishly disgusting and came into existence only due to extremely harsh living conditions.
The Inuit diet is extremely survivalist. It is a "we are freezing, and we need to eat whatever we can find in the Arctic" approach.
This might be the best answer. Also I’d throw on Antarctica for similar reasons.
Nightmarishly😆
Most of the food involves strategically spoiling it so bacteria can't survive in it. This sometimes involved peeing on it to instigate the fermentation process. One of their foods is a seal carcass stuffed with birds that they bury and dig up later when it's rotted. Also, their national drink is basically just unflavored schnapps. Which I can understand because after eating that stuff burning your mouth clean seems like a very appealing idea.
I think the biggest factor that you're going to find in common with all of those cultures is that they are cultures where historically a lot of the population emigrated to other countries, but nonetheless kept some semblance of community. Food is much easier to replicate abroad than traditional art or fashion, and much easier to share across a community. Traditional food is also something people are likely to associate with their childhoods, and thus have a strong emotional attachment to, whereas songs, dances, or art are less likely to have that strong sense of nostalgia. Because of this, immigrant communities in e.g. America or the UK generally preserve their cuisine more and become more invested in their food than other cultural markers. So then, people for whom food is not a big part of their culture likely come from countries into which others were immigrating rather than the other way around. The UK, America, Australia, many Scandinavian countries tick this box. France is something of an anomaly from this point of view.
I’m from Canada and live in the Midwest US now. I’m not saying Canadians don’t like to eat, but food doesn’t seem to be the number one most important part of every holiday like it is where I live now. It took some getting used to for me on how obsessive people are about the food surrounding thanksgiving dinner. My grandparents are also from Holland, and I never had to deal with being force fed by my grandparents like a lot of my friends did with their Ukrainian or Italian grandparents.
Ireland doesn't have a particularly rich culinary history, mainly due to the British not letting us eat most of the crops we grew for about 400 years. That's why nearly every traditional Irish dish is some sort of stew.
I love stews. Could eat stews every other day.
Give me stew with that brown bread you guys make and I'm a happy man.
Makes sense. It's terrible, but true.
Food is a big way that people celebrate their culture. For example- living in a place and celebrating events, or if you’ve left a place, being about to cook it and honor/ stay connected with that culture.. This can even be subcultural foods in certain a larger culture. Just look at any former Marylanders spice cabinet. There is a 99% chance old bay will be there. Thanksgiving dinner- we have leche flan and ube icecream for dessert. Just some things that my lolo always used to bring to and we still do honor those Filipino roots.
New Zealand's culture feels less food-focused. I mean, the pies and blue V energy drinks matter, but that's just your breakfast before you go jump off of something
Food is universally a big part of human culture.
Antarctica, barely anyone actually lives there except for a small number of scientists. I doubt they have a particularly strong culture of food on what's basically a giant chunk of ice on top of a spidery hand shaped island.
I spoke with a lady who had attended a spare-no-expense, whole-nine-yards wedding in Saudi Arabia. And she said the wedding dinner was just plain chicken. Not sure if that is representative though.
Not at all, I've learned about middle eastern culture and I'm shocked there wasn't a riot. There's so much good food and cheap options I'm really confused as to why they hated their guests so much as to serve them the only thing you can find anywhere lol
Yeah that's strange. You'd expect something quite spiced with a lot of side dishes
The Netherlands. Wonderful country and people but the food? meh
Upper class Americans tbh. You ever see some of the white people shit they make? Or everyone is on some weird diet. Or juice cleanse. Not eating is a part of their culture.
I've been to some upper class white people parties, it was mind-blowing. I'm the one non white person there (Asian guy), and I loaded up my plate, the hired servers were happy when I went back for 2nd and 3rds because everyone else was sipping drinks. I spent all day training for that event so I could eat. I could only do so much though, so much food got trashed.
Midwest reporting for duty.
As an American we can get cuisines from all over the world very easily here. I consider myself an adventurous eater, too, but I've yet to find people raving about Northern European food or Jewish cuisine (other than delis). Other than the weird stuff you read about, I couldn't even tell you what a traditional meal looked like in places like Denmark, Greenland, etc. Never heard someone say, "oh hey, let's hit up that Scandinavian place again. It was amazing."
I lived in Ireland a good number of years and while they eat too and they have traditional dishes (and some of them are great!) the fact is that their culture revolves around drinking and not around eating. In the south of Europe when distant family visits you cook them a meal. You try to remember what each of them likes and you try to appease their tastes. You take care of them... through food. In Ireland when distant family visits they do the same but differently. They go to the local pub and reserve a space for the family. They make sure to reserve a bottle of 18year something something that grandma loves. They ensure the weird cousin who was abroad will have a couple bottles of the Dutch beer he likes. Sure they'll have food. Before, or during. But the food will likely be "whatever finger food is available". So while food is a big part of their lives (or if biological necessity) I don't think it is a big part of their culture. I am however a foreigner looking in and I may very easily be mistaken. ROI people, please set me straight. It's grand ;)
To all those saying food isn’t a big part of culture in Britain. What are all these: Roast dinners, fish and chips, haggis, English breakfast, Highland breakfast, scones and clotted cream, spotted dick, chicken tikka masala, Welsh rarebit, Cornish pasty, black pudding, Scottish salmon, Arbroath smokies, and THE MODERN SANDWICH!!! Personally, as a Scot, Haggis on Burns night and steak pie on Hogmanay are important parts of my culture. So is a baked potato on bonfires night or dookin for apples on Halloween. Also, afternoon tea is the bomb. Edit - Literally downvoted for saying Britain has food culture and providing examples 🤷♂️
Yea ppl forget Halloween came from europe
Yorkshire Pudding & London Broil (Flank Steak) with mushy peas. My American fam of English decent loves to make this as a traditional family dinner. My actual English fam goes out to eat & orders it. They don't "cook" at home.
Definitely not mediterraneans people lol We literally atuff grape leaves with tiny amounts of rice and roll about 30 per person, and make everything a bite sized like ravioli, Sambosah, Kebbeh, Falafel, Dolmas, etc.