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.
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Would be hard to chew properly with their misaligned teeth
Tap for spoiler
/s
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 ✅
I mean, I’ve had German and British food and I can confidently say it doesn’t seem like they love food, lol.
We absolutely love our bread in germany
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.
Very true, they’re bread (and beer) connoisseurs!
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
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!
Now I want to try this brand spanking new cuisine you speak of. It has become my life mission. 👀
Döner
Next do tacos and kebabs.
German food is underated. Apple strudel with vanilla sauce is amazing. Like a sweet lasagna. Genius!
That is more of a southern thing if not Austrian
I don’t think there even is a true Pan-German dish. Everything is regional in germany. And sourhern germany is still germany.
I’d wager bread and Bratwurst are the main pan-German dishes with minor differences in style
Bratwurst, minor differences? Mate, there are many generic Bratwürste and then there are things like Thüringer. They are world class. No need for ketchup or anything, eat it as is or in a bun, it is juicy and super tasty.
Sorry Germany, you lose again🤷
Apfelstrudel is definitely not just a southern treat. Germknödel / Hefedampfnudeln are a regional (and delicious) food. Other typical south german foods would probably be schweinshaxe and several types of sausages specific to that region. Also all the austrian versions of foods such as palatschinken
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
I accidentally ordered a wurstsalat once. I have opinions after that expirence
Hey it’s salad. Made out of sausages.
Tastes great.
You haven’t had the right german food then.
The Germans love their döner kebabs, possibly even more than the British love their chicken tikka masala
When I meet a German outside of Germany, it’s not german-style beer or doner they’re hurting for, it’s a german bakery.
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.
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?
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
Bro has never been to England
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.”
My kind of people. “We see food as necessary but not really a key part of enjoying life”
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!
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.
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.
There was an episode of some TV show (maybe Broadchurch?) where David Tennant microwaved his tea and it genuinely upset enough people that it made the news lol.
edit: https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a823432/broadchurch-david-tennant-tea-microwave-twitter-reactions/
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i mean. have you encountered soylent culture? white people get marketed to like eating sucks and all your nutrients should come in a tube
This is not meant to be a counter, I’m curious: have you? Cause I haven’t, and I’ve always wondered who the target audience for that stuff is. Everybody I know thinks it’s stupid, and I’ll at most use drinkable food for health reasons (as in, if they have really sore teeth and can’t chew or sth like that, or can’t keep solids down) or if they’ve misplanned and can’t have real food (like between two appointments).
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For many cultures food is just nutrition, something that you have to do. This doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate good food or that your traditional recipes are bad, just that 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
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.
When everyone but you thinks your food is shit, it probably is.
See e.g. Germany
German food is incredible; I didn’t even know hating German food was a thing. Gimme those sausages, sauerkrauts, cheeses, cold cuts, schnitzel and hot potato salads every day.
The breads, cakes, chocolate, and pastries are next-level too.
See, you highlighted why the German cuisine is not that great. There’s simply not much variety in what you just listed. The German cuisine is kinda shallow, focusing mostly around the same stuff. If you’re not that into cheese or meat, then that’s 75% of the German cuisine eliminated.
One thing “food countries” have in common is that their cuisines have variety. Go to Spain or Turkey or China, and you’ll be drowning in mouth watering options no matter what kind of food you like. Hard to say the same for countries like Germany or the NL or Denmark or whatever. Yeah they can be very good at what they do, but they just don’t do a whole lot.
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.
Or even biscuits for that matter
Brits don’t know what proper biscuits or gravy are.
You mean scones?
M’fer calls a scone a biscuit and then has the audacity to tell us we don’t know what biscuits are. Probably hasn’t even had a party ring or a wagon wheel before.
Everyone does cookies, there’s nothing special about British or French or Japanese cookies.
Scones aren’t biscuits. But biscuits are scones.
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.
