Ah, a Dutch person
What, artificial chocolate sprinkles on buttered white bread isn’t peak cuisine?
Hagelslag is tasty, at least. Can’t say that for beans on toast.
OP is British
Nah, ask us about savouries and you might hear about pies and curries and chippies - the stuff you’ve heard a million times before. But ask a Brit about their favourite pudding or cake and you might want to book some time off for the reply.
Agreed. People think British food is dull because they’ve not seen what British people have as a treat. Cases in point:
England
- Roast Dinner with Yorkshire Pudding.
- Melton Mowbray pies
- Cornish Pasties.
Scotland
- Haggis (yes, I’m citing this, Haggis is actually fucking delicious and versatile).
- Cullen Skink
- Shortbread
Wales
- Welsh Cakes
- Bara Brith
- Glamorgan sausage
Northern Ireland
- Fifteens
- Paris bun
- Gravy ring
That’s not even getting into the weird shit like Scottish Fast Food or what we’ve done with immigrant cuisine. Fuck, if you want a tour of Britain, try a fry up in every home nation because other than Sausage and Bacon, there’s a different spin on it in every home nation. People shit on British cuisine because they shit on Working Class food, or food people have when they’ve just come home from work and need something in their stomach. Beans on Toast is what people have for Lunch when they need something quick and filling, Mince and Tatties is what people have when they have mouths to feed. I don’t see Americans having home-fried chicken every day or making Clam bake or something, why would we have full on roast dinners every night?
The dishes you listed are not really exciting to me, I’ll be honest. The one type of food English (not sure about other British parts) people can be relatively proud of are deserts. I really appreciate an Eton mess for example.
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carrot… carrot cake? That’s my quick answer, but I’ll take the day off just to be safe
Why can’t you get a good lemon meringue pie any more?
I thought I’d worked out my favourite, and then you spring that shit! (It’s obviously rhubarb and apple crumble though) (or cream teas)
Or even biscuits for that matter
Brits don’t know what proper biscuits or gravy are.
You mean scones?
Everyone does cookies, there’s nothing special about British or French or Japanese cookies.
Scones aren’t biscuits. But biscuits are scones.
Only if you truly fuck up your biscuit.
lol I was gonna make that joke (I am British too)
I do think it’s overstated about how bad British food is, at least nowadays but at the same time, we’re self-deprecating so lines up.
Well, seeing the chemical waste people eat in the US, I do think they hate real food. Also in my culture (Dutch) food isn’t as important as it is in Italy for example. We eat rather healthy, but the best quality food we produce we export because we love money more than food apparently. For the best quality food produced in the Netherlands you need to go to a supermarket in France. It’s stupid.
“Real food”😂 you probably have never seen real American food. Only what you see on the internet and tv.
you probably have never seen real American food
Objection: speculation.
Yes I have. I’ve seen local dishes from several locations in the US, however I wasn’t impressed. It generally consisted of too much meat and far to few vegetables. It’s far from a healthy balanced diet. There are too many sugars and fats in most dishes. Even when ordering dinner often there’s sugar in it. There’s even sugar injected into supermarket meats. What the actual fuck. I’ve also had the pleasure (not really) to have meals on US war ships on too many occasions. Including the USS Enterprise. Yes, the one from Top Gun, now decommissioned.
I’ve also seen reports on the food safety regulations, or lack thereof. This is the reason why many American food isn’t allowed in Europe. It doesn’t even come close to meet our minimum standards. I’ve seen reports on the issue of real food like fruits and vegetables (still not meeting European standards in most cases though) being extremily expensive while fast food is relatively cheap, forcing people living in poverty, which is a massive part of the American population, to eat chemical waste causing loads of health issues. You know, the stuff you need heath care insurance for, which they can’t pay for either.
In your picture is herring with pickles and onions. It’s healthy, but I don’t like it. The Dutch cuisine used to be Bourgondisch but since the second world war it became very plain as people had to make healthy food fast and simple with whatever was available, to rebuild the country. Our rich cuisine never returned. However, these days you can order food originated from all over the world. Yet again, going for Americans style food, it’s very much not healthy at all.
The US is large, diverse, and has a ton of cultural influence from all over. Micro and macro. An amalgam. Mass production and corporate influence notwithstanding, surmising that it is one bad thing is very simplistic and limiting.
Fair, but so far the European influences in American cuisine that I’ve seen have been greatly Americanized, meaning the balance is out and the fats and sugars are in. For example, any Italian style food in America would give any Italian a heart attack. Both from the shock and fats. And even if there’s a healthy dish, the ingredients are still very unhealthy. Capitalism prioritized profits over heath safety, plus those “healthy” fresh ingredients are insanely expensive compared to a burger from McDonald’s. So many don’t have the choice to buy fresh. Of course not every ingredient is unhealthy, there is also a lot of import and organic. But that’s even more expensive. So there is an option to consume healthy, it’s just not an option to most due to cost.
This is just not true. It is not absolute nor ubiquitous like that. I think the commenter was right who said it is the view from TV and the internet. A funhouse mirror version of some true things taken as reality.
So how to get the correct view? If eating there (all across the US) isn’t good enough apparently.
Listen to locals who have lived there their whole lives.
You are right ✅
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Sadly Africa isn’t great everywhere due to conflicts, but it sure is an amazing and beautiful continent with amazing people. I’ve been to many places along the east coast. Next year I’m going to south Africa.
Yeah! You are absolutely right👌 💯
If you check the comment I post there very well, you would see where I mentioned about the ongoing crisis in Africa. I’m a honest and transparent person, so I will forever stand by truth.
You are welcome to Africa, how I wish you will visit Nigeria 🇳🇬 too.
Whoa, this person really is Dutch!
I feel like a lot of people are taking the post too literally (or maybe I’m not). I once knew a girl who posted a photo of her dad watching football on a plane captioned “Persian dads really need their football lol” and it’s like. That’s just a universal dad thing. Lots of dads in every culture do that.
Some people just do not think about cultures outside their own. Like, at all.
Certain things are constant across cultures. Among them: food, sports, and music.
And when I say “food”, I mean beyond just biological sustenance. It’s part of culture and an important part of social gatherings.
But the importance of food can be very different still. As a German I would say food is not a huge part of social culture. Like yes we eat together when we celebrate, but the food is usually just a necessity instead of the main focus
which is a shame because schupfnudeln fried in blutwurst and sauerkraut should be sang to high heaven
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Oktoberfest is not exactly not about food and drink though.
Drinks jeah, food I would say partially only. I mean it’s good high quality food, but again it’s more like you have it because you need it. It’s not like you will have multiple things or food to share on the table at all times like in other cultures.
Fair enough
Some people just do not think about cultures outside their own. Like, at all.
Hey that IS my American culture!
You are speaking facts 💯 👌
The only thing that varies is the type of football. Looking at you America, but I think that is going to change very soon.
Soon it will be FootWar, sponsored by Pete Hegseth and the War Hawks as well as sports betting.
The cultural equivalent of:
“So what do you like to do?”
“I like to have fun.”
“I like to laugh”
I mean, I’ve never seen someone have a giggle and then frown and say: “that fucking sucked”
In my culture we like to have sex. My culture enjoys producing 2.1 children per woman in prosperous times. In less prosperous times my culture still likes to make babies, but it might be more or less.
Sometimes we even include women
Greece
People say that about food, music/dancing, and stories because they are the least antagonistic thing they could bring up while boasting about their culture. Its the least likely to get attacked as well, its a non-controversial aspect they can sing the praises of and its something easily shared
If they bring up their cultural religion, values, politics, philosophy, or social dynamics, suddenly things can become an area of controversy and even ethical debate. Most people are too fragile or cowardly to investigate that stuff.
If they bring up their cultural religion, values, politics, philosophy, or social dynamics, suddenly things can become an area of controversy and even ethical debate
Italians will go three rounds in the ring over which neighborhood has the best ice cream shop. I wouldn’t even say its uncontroversial. But these also tend to be attributes that vary heavily even at relatively short distances in older communities. A certain meal prepared a certain way or a dance/music style that originated in your neighborhood becomes a unique touchstone to your community.
I might note that this is something “Planned Communities” tend to lose out on. Everyone gets a Chilis. Everyone gets a radio station franchise that plays the same six songs on a loop. Everyone gets an AMC that shows the same ten movies as everywhere else. Everyone gets a Catholic Church and a Methodist Church book-ending the local elementary school.
Then you leave your provincial cookie-cutter suburb and visit London, a city where the dialect of the language changes by intersection. Or you do a road trip in Italy and find out how every tiny township has this one kind of dish they’re all really proud of. Or you just drop into inner city Houston and get an earful of Chop’n’Screw music played by guys with spinners on the wheels of their lowered Cadalliacs. Then you find some weird old bookshop in Montrose that sells pagan bumper stickers.
Yeah, like I can tell you about our communist history, or our surrealist poetry. But then you’ll call me an extremist, or even worse, a nerd.
So I keep those for when I get drunk and overshare, and just talk about fish recipes and desserts.
Haha 😄 🤣 😂
In my culture we had nothing but roadkill and weeds to eat, so we got really good at making stuff palatable. << Most cultural food legends.
Appalachian?
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Ok but the only thing better than good food is cheap good food.
Some cultures value food more than others. Pretty obvious there’s a spectrum between “we eat for sustenance” and “holy shit taste this recipe I’ve been honing for decades”. This is a shit post, not a shitpost.
My kind of people. “We see food as necessary but not really a key part of enjoying life”
I used to think that way in general, and personally I am still a bit like that. It’s just one piece of figuring out how to get my brain & body to cooperate with me.
But something I have learned, for me at least, is that leaning into things that engage a variety of your senses in a positive way is often a good thing. And even better if it leads to good interactions with other people that matter to you (insert boo-hiss from my introverted recluse AuDHD side).
I think in the US especially, we often treat food as a necessary evil rather than just a necessity. People don’t have time to waste on preparing healthy food and then eating it with their family. They need to focus on the “important things” like putting in long hours at the office so that they can afford to drive a BMW home instead of some pleb Honda shit. They’ll just grab some fast food or something in a box that will fill stomachs provide some macros to sustain life in the near term, and everything will be just fine.
The alternative is thinking food is more important than working toward securing a house that you own, or paying off your student loans, or retraining yourself so you don’t go broke, or any number of other things. Food is cool but it’s just not all that.
Nah I don’t think that’s the alternative. It’s not about dedicating your life to it. It’s about allowing yourself some nice experiences to enhance your daily life even though you have very important bills to pay and can’t just buy whatever food you want.
I didn’t even comment because I’m some kind of cooking or dining enthusiast. It was more about the general attitude (which I very much grew up with) essentially that it is silly and self-indulgent to stop and smell the roses when there’s money to be made or work to be done. Basically the conservative culture where being a good human means being a productive boot-licking worker bee and not getting into all that touchy-feely human stuff.
The thing is, I just don’t enjoy food that much. It’s not that enjoyable most of the time. If you’re eating the way your doctor wants you to it’s going to be unpleasant. It’s better to just treat it as a slog that it is instead of using it as an escape. Imo.
Yeah, there’s some real truth to that, not gonna argue at all. With my ADHD and weak appetite I’ll just forget to eat, or not want to eat in the first place.
But even with whatever I enjoy in moderation whether it’s due to the excellent food or the environment (thinking holiday family dinners this time of year) or both, I don’t look at it like an escape. It’s just a nice enhancement to your day that engages your senses. In that way I think of the occasional amazing meal the same way I think of the occasional spirited drive home on a twisty road in beautiful weather with all the windows down.
However, I do want to acknowledge that we are all different and have to figure out what works for our particular brain given our experiences and environment. Food might just never be a contributor for you. And it’s not a huge one for me either, but over the past few years I’ve learned to value and hold on to any little incremental positive life improvements I run into.
👌👌👌
The word “zeitgeist” makes more sense to me than the word culture. I know what “zeitgeist” means but the use of the word word culture is applied more generally to the point of being vague or anthropological. I grew up eating lots of McDonald’s so is my culture Scottish, or fast foody?
I was watching a Rob Reiner interview today (Rest in Peace 😭) and he paused to think of the best word to complete his thought, and while he paused I thought “zeitgeist” is the perfect word to describe what he’s talking about, and I KNOW that’s the word he was searching for, but he used three other words as a synonym to describe it, and now I see you using the word zeitgeist, and hey, thanks for making me feel a little more complete today.
Season’s Greetings!
IMO, English Canadians don’t really have a food that they can call their own. Quebec has poutine, tourtieres, pea soup, and other things. English Canada eats many of those things, but also a lot of generic North American or European things: hamburgers, steaks, North-American style pizza, pasta, stew, etc.
Where I think Canada might be a bit different is that after decades of high levels of immigration, Canada has a lot of foods from other parts of the world. It’s common to find South Indian, Pakistani, Punjabi, Turkish, Persian, Carribean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Mexican, etc. restaurants in a city. Many of them cater to immigrants from those countries, so they’re authentic tasting.
A lot of that is made at home too. While a home-made stir fry probably wouldn’t taste authentically Chinese to someone from China, there are many meals from around the world that have been adapted for Canadian tastes. Very white people in Canada often cook adapted versions of Indian curries, Chinese stir fries, Mexican tacos, Thai curries, etc.
Agreed, but as a young nation of immigrants, it kinda comes with the territory. As a Canadian who lives abroad, people have asked me to cook ‘Canadian food’ for a dinner party more than once… I don’t even know what that is.
Timbits. English Canadians have Timbits. Those aren’t just doughnut holes, they’re Tim Horton’s doughnut holes.
Well my culture loves watching TV and vegging out!
This is what I imagine elves are like.
Cmon, fish & chips with vinegar is not food. That’s a snack at best.
You need to find a better chippy
If you’re not bursting you didn’t have fish and chips
I trust everywhere round the globe has it’s own culture and heritage but some places are great with Culture, Cultural Food, Cultural Music, Cultural Dance, cultural History and Mysteries.
I’m originally from Nigeria 🇳🇬 In Africa and as a citizen of the Giant of Africa, I can bet with my mother land that Africa is the true definition of Culture and Heritage.
Regardless the ongoing crisis, which is also happening in other places in the world. Africa has been great and will forever be great!!! ✌✌✌
