Submitted 2 weeks ago by bytesonbike@discuss.online to [deleted]
https://discuss.online/pictrs/image/3436d3da-2d78-4d03-ba07-1cd24d253221.png
I have met people in Britain who genuinely seem to hate food. They have a plain cheese sandwich, the worst imaginable bread or eat Huel every day.
That doesn’t necessarily reflect all Britons, but I do think they genuinely care about food less on average than other cultures.
I hate food. It’s hard to explain but it’s kinda like most food triggers my fight or flight response. It takes me a lot of willpower to eat through a regular meal. As a kid I was severely underweight because I was always avoiding food. When I moved out I took the easier approach and started eating only the stuff that was easier to eat (mostly fried and dried stuff, and some ultra processed stuff like chips and cookies). I went from one end of the BMI table to the other in ~5 years.
Yeah that’s not cultural, that actually sounds like an eating disorder.
Would be hard to chew properly with their misaligned teeth
/s
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.
Bro has never been to England
Or a Presbyterian church service.
Or is from England and cannot imagine that a good food culture can mean more than: “I like the taste of some stuff and everyone else in my country consumes food too.”
What about sis?
🤣🤣🤣
I admit, i made a bold assumption based on the name Kenny, but Ken is genderless, so my bad.
OP is British
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.
He’s british i guess.
British food is unironically great, and based on WW2 rationing. It’s made funnier that the people who say it comes from a country where people spray cheese from a can
British food is unironically great, and the stereotype is based on experiences during WW2 rationing
I think this overstates things. A substantial number of countries have their modern culinary culture defined in the post-war decades, though.
Japanese culinary identity came together after World War II, and many of the dishes and traditions defining their cuisine are recently invented or have evolved considerably during the post-war period: the popularization and evolution of ramen, katsu, Japanese curry, yakitori, etc. Even ancient traditions like sushi and Modern Japanese food draws a lot of influence from classic pre-war cuisine, but the food itself is very different from what was eaten before the war.
Even French cuisine underwent a revolution with nouvelle cuisine, heavily influenced by Japanese kaiseki traditions. Before the 20th century, French cuisine was about heavy sauces covering rich, slow-cooked foods (see for example the duck press and how that was used), and it took a few waves of new chefs pushing back against the orthodoxy to emphasize lighter, fresher ingredients. The most notable wave happened in the 1960’s, when Paul Bocuse and others brought in small, lighter courses as the pinnacle of fine dining.
Korean, Italian (both northern and southern), and American culinary traditions changed pretty significantly in the second half of the 20th century, as well, through changes in food supply chains, political or economic changes, etc. And that’s true of a lot of places.
Britain’s inability to shake off an 80-year-old culinary reputation comes in large part from simply failing to keep up with other more food-centered cultures that continually reinvent themselves and build on that classic foundation. Some of the criticism is unfair, of course, but it’s not enough to point at how things were 100 years ago as if that has bearing on what is experienced today.
I was in London for a couple of days, Ate at a hotel, a couple cafes, two pubs, a chip shop with one hell of a line. I must have missed something; flavors were low-key, under-seasoned, and under-spiced. The closest thing I got to flavor was breakfast; the sausage was decent, I think you fully understand sausage there. The beans and eggs were just kinda meh.
Then you have places like this catering to local tastes. oldelpaso.co.uk/…/extra-mild-super-tasty-fajita-k…
I think things are changing. People are starting to crave a little more spice. There’s no lack of curry shops with plenty of spice, but they’re not strictly British food.
Look I have been to britain and the best british food I had was indian. “Indigenous” British food is rarely anything special. It isn’t usually god awful but I’ve never had British food that made me want to eat it again
Brits: I like my food like I like my trousers. Beige and tasting of cotton.
I would say this holds true for the USA considering all this fast “food” they eat. A culture that loves food doesn’t do this.
Not drowns every flavor in corn syrup!
Their fast “food” which is consumed all over the globe? Clearly, a lot of people in general like eating it.
There are large sections of the US that don’t have consistent access to great food, so crappy fast food is what they get.
Then there are other parts of the US where the fast food is amazing. Also the other food.
Those food companies have spent decades doing chemical research on how to make that food as addictive as possible. Then of course there’s all the marketing on top of that. Most people can’t break free of it.
For many cultures food is just nutrition, something that you have to do. This doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate good food, but it’s not the same as cultures where there is a lot of importance on both the food and the context of consuming it with others
Absolutely. And in the less extreme variants, there are cultures for which good food is the base of socialization - you mostly meet up for dinner or similar - and others where good food is the exception, happening for big occasions and parties but not an every day occurrence.
I live in Norway. I can confirm this. Norwegian food
People keep making this broad assertion and then not following up.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if there are many cultures for whom food is merely nutrition, could you name one?
From an anthropological standpoint, I’d be fascinated.
Like, this thread is full of jokes about how some cultures have shitty food, but that subjective assessment is very different than the idea that food’s mere purpose is nutrition. It implies it has no ceremonial use.
So, of the many, just even tell us one.
And you can basically divide these cultures by latitude. Like in Europe the further north you go the less people care about gastronomy. Since these cultures were formed around food scarcity and pure survival, since they had very harsh winters ( before global warming), and the days up north are short in the winter. And before you go “but China and Japan”. Beijing is on the same latitude as Madrid and Tokyo is even further south, so that still tracks.
The Chinese for “how do you do” translates as “have you eaten yet?”
The alternative to loving food is to eat as a necessity and seek to optimise it. Various combinations of industrialisation, the Protestant work ethic/disdain of unproductive hedonism, neoliberal financialisation of food production/distribution (hence the flavourless “water bomb” tomatoes that last longer in the supply chain, for example) and possibly endemic low-level depression could do this, to the point where the norm is just to get the necessary calories and a dopamine hit from some sugar/salt/fat and anything else seems suboptimal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I once saw a post where the guy said he was from Minnesota and he thought ketchup was too spicy.
I wanted to burn the heretic.
The cultural equivalent of:
“So what do you like to do?”
“I like to have fun.”
I’ve moved to England 5 years ago. I can confirm a worrying amount of people don’t care for food at all here.
Instead of a nice meal, when they want to enjoy a convivial moment, they burn shredded black leaves in boiling water, add milk to it to cover the terrible taste, and call that tea. And if you don’t ruin it in the exact specific way that they designed, they get angry (but they don’t understand why e.g. Italian and French people are so particular about their traditional recipes).
Send help.
i mean. have you encountered soylent culture? white people get marketed to like eating sucks and all your nutrients should come in a tube
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.
Cmon, fish & chips with vinegar is not food. That’s a snack at best.
Kenny must be dutch.
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.
My kind of people. “We see food as necessary but not really a key part of enjoying life”
This is what I imagine elves are like.
Wasn’t there some variant of christians that considered the pleasure of eating a sin thus that area has dull food?
Remember that episode of Enterprise with the web alien and the other aliens that didn’t eat in public?
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 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!!! ✌✌✌
Ok but we legit do hate food here in america for the same reason we hate healthcare, non-automotive travel, art, education and housing. Anything that is some kind of human need that doesn’t fit neatly into commodification has been turned into man-made horrors beyond imagination.
you’ve nearly described autism
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I mean, I’ve had German and British food and I can confidently say it doesn’t seem like they love food, lol.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
We absolutely love our bread in germany
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Very true, they’re bread (and beer) connoisseurs!
PacMan@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I recently learned about German bread and damn it looks legit af! But I’m a sucker for a lot of Bavarian food. Been lucky to eat a HOFBRÄUHAUS in the States and it was really good
derfunkatron@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Good lord, the funniest thing I remember from college German was how easy it was to distract Frau Professorin from her lecture by just mentioning bread.
Alphonsus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I would like to have a taste too 😋
groet@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Lots of Germans defending German cuisine, so as another German: you are absolutely right!
Germany has some great food and some Germans love making good food but German culture is absolutely not about food. The food culture we have is a development of the last ~40 years. Traditional German food is supposed to make you sated so you can go back to the fields and work! And the go to the army and fight! And then go to the ruins and rebuild!
Tasty and awesome food? Yes! A culture that tells you it loves food? No!
Lemminary@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Now I want to try this brand spanking new cuisine you speak of. It has become my life mission. 👀
Sergio@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
This is frickin awesome. Ima tell this to my German-American relative. They come from a family of farmers, come to think of it.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Swedish food is the same!
Echolynx@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
As someone who enjoys the satiety of eating a good meal but not necessarily the flavors… I think this clicks for me now, why I seem to like Nordic/German styles of cuisine. It need but be flavorful, but it is hearty! Also, my tongue hates spices (sadly).
fartographer@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There are German towns surrounding San Antonio, such as Gruene (pronounced Green, because we’re heathens), with everything from traditional to fusion German foods. Anyone who treats mustard like its own food group is alright with me.
gray@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
German food is underated. Apple strudel with vanilla sauce is amazing. Like a sweet lasagna. Genius!
RidderSport@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
That is more of a southern thing if not Austrian
arrow74@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I accidentally ordered a wurstsalat once. I have opinions after that expirence
RidderSport@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
And to add on that, yes German food can be very good. If you try it out though, be aware of what is regional in the area you’re in. To familiarize yourself, just read the wikipage on German food
jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
You haven’t had the right german food then.
AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 2 weeks ago
The Germans love their döner kebabs, possibly even more than the British love their chicken tikka masala
mcforest@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Have you tried Currywurst or Spätzle or Sauerbraten or any kind of German sausage or Mettbrötchen or German bread and still think we don’t love food?
schmorpel@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I have used Mettbrötchen with success to scare foreigners away from my German food. “Yes zis bread has ze raw meat on it. Salmonella? Das ist eine possibility. Schweinepest? Worth it.”
Ougie@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Lived in Germany for years and had all of these. Love mettbrötchen, krustenbraten etc etc. BUT. I believe Germans don’t prioritize food. They will eat any cheap shit and save the money for beer. In the office a bunch of people - mainly foreigners - got together and arranged for a restaurant to be bringing food every day for a relatively cheap price. It was great. But most Germans would still prefer to go to Lidl and eat canned pasta for lunch. It’s not that they couldn’t afford it. They just didn’t want to spend €8 for food every day. Canned pasta and Birckenstock with white socks dude. Every day.
Miaou@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
Lol sausage and ketchup, let’s pretend you didn’t mention Currywurst.
Spätzle might be the one exception, although the Swiss make it better.
Sausages, I don’t get your fetishization of it here. A random merguez from the local Arab place is still better than these.
And bread… Yeah, a billion sorts of it, still worse than a random French bakery’s baguette.
Germans never wonder why there’s no German restaurants abroad, go figure
zout@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
I don't think I've ever had bad food in Germany. In England my limited experience is mixed, some good, some bad and some interesting lunch choices like salted peanuts.
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I could literally live on plain potatoes for the rest of my life and I’d be fine with it. My ancestors must have been as culinarily boring as possible.
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
TBF, potatoes slap. Potatoes and rice are like 80% of my fatass diet, lol.
Alphonsus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Haha 😄 kinda funny but I love the part you mentioned Ancestors. I like seeing people mentioning their Ancestors 👌✌❤
plyth@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
You wouldn’t and life would be short. There are not all nutritions in potatoes.
robocall@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Sounds like you’ve never had Finnish food
ArgumentativeMonotheist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I haven’t had the pleasure yet.
Echolynx@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
The best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had was in Finland… I still miss it.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And then, even Englishmen look down on Scots who think oats porridge is human food.