Every country has some sort of "out there" food that others are repulsed by.
I've had natto (fermented soybeans) from Japan which weren't terrible but had a texture I couldn't get behind, and I've had surstromming (fermented fish) from Sweden that is probably the most horrific substance known to mankind.
I thought that surströmming was okay, it just depends on how you use it. The way it was explained to me is that you're actually supposed to use it more like a spice. So, rather than eating it alone, you add a little bit to a sandwich.
It smells terrible, so much that it's best if you submerge the can in water before opening it (plus it sprays everywhere if you don'). But adding it as a spice to something like a sandwich and it's actually not that bad.
Over a decade in Japan and I still struggle with natto and never order it. I got over the smell. I don't really care for the slimy/string texture of things, but I can eat other things. If I try to eat more than one or two beans at a time, I involuntarily gag. Some flavor component of it kills me. I make my own ferments (Korean-inspired daikon with fish sauce, chili, and some other stuff is the most recent, fermented at room temp for a few days then into the fridge) and have no trouble with them.
That's insane (from my North American perspective).
Peanut butter and sweet is the thing peanut butter is used for.
I am actually struggling to find a second example of peanut butter use that I know about that isn't "take something sweet but slap some peanut butter in there too" (I've heard of peanut butter and celery and that just sounds like a desperate way to make raw celery palatable)
Peanut butter and celery is actually great. The water in the celery compensates for any dryness in the peanut butter, so you can eat more peanut butter than if it was by itself.
Same. I tried it once as a kid and hated it. PB sandwich? Delicious. Toast with jam? Awesome. Put the two together? Nope. I think it was probably a texture issue, but I have no desire to try again now in my 40s.
It must be weird to grow up without being used to peanut butter in cooking. Chicken satay is a very normal thing to eat here in Australia. Fifty years ago, maybe not, but nowadays, it's as normal as sushi or peanut butter and jam sammies.
On google images, it looks like when kids have to cook for the first time in a sitcom with the "mom and dad leave them to run the house by themselves" episode. On wikipedia it looks nicer and more sensible.
Alarming to anyone who doesn't know about plantains, though i believe sweet bananas are also used. I think it would be a textural nightmare going from the banana to the rice.
Just found out about pickled hotdogs. Sounds disgusting.
Speaking of pickles, a lot of things that are pickled are really surprising. Pickled grapes for instance. I knew i'd love them but it takes some convincing to get people to try them.
That looks amazing. I'd like some chili and maybe some onion or something (and probably plantain rather than banana), but I'd definitely eat this if someone put it in front of me.
I don't really get the appeal of the big mound of rice with a bit of tomato sauce on top. Probably makes me sound ignorant food wise but it looks a bit bland? Rice is best mixed around with a bunch of other stuff
Okroshka. It’s a Russian summer soup served cold and slightly effervescent made with ham, boiled potatoes, raw cucumbers and radishes, served in a “broth” made of kvass (children’s beer made from fermented black rye bread) with a little smetana or buttermilk and oh my god so much dill. It’s still a pretty strange dish to me after having eaten it many times.
Kvass is yummy. It's either not hopped or not hopped very much. I get some every time I go to the closest big international market. I keep meaning to make some. The recipe is basically put bread in water, add sugar, wait, it's ready in two or three days.
Yeah. In the summer Russians have big tanker trucks of kvass on the streets, similar to what we use to transport gasoline in here in the states, and you bring like an empty two liter and give em a coin and they fill it up for you.
Sushi was rrrreal weird when we heard of it for the first time as kids. Now, I love it - the actual rice that's technically sushi and almost anything you can put on, in, over or around it
Also seaweed. One of the best savoury foods I know, but after growing up smelling the huge piles of different seaweeds on Australian beaches, I had trouble believing you could eat that stuff.
I was a child when I learnt of toast + sour cream and honey. From Germany. Before that I thought it only works with salt. Honey was not even on my radar I didn't even know of a radar existing.
Ohh being pre-teen was the time to learn new stuff!
Not a recipe, but durian. I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago fresh in Malaysia, and though the smell was enticing, the taste was not.
Haggis. Really wasn't keen on it when I first heard about it. Went to Scotland and tried it, and enjoyed it. Would not eat more than one portion, it is incredibly rich.
Balut. Haven't not gone to the Philippines yet, but this is something I'm not sure I'm game to try.
Sauerkraut. I never liked anything pickled when I was younger, and when I tried it, I didn't like it. I think it was probably because it was from a jar. I really like it now.
Edit: How could I forget this one. So I worked in the West Wimmera region for a while, and then I was told about this: The florrie. It is uniquely Horsham, Victoria. My colleague is not good as describing things so it sounded worse than it is.
Had to look that up. It actually just looks like kebab meat.
Which triggers another food item memory: the HSP. It's called this in Victoria, but other things in other states. I've not had one of these yet either.
I have asked my partner to share one with me in case I don't like it, but he doesn't want one unless he's been drinking. Apparently it is a late night sort of food, which might be the equivalent to KFC and Macca's at 3AM.
I know. What I don't know is where that came from. I can't read much of Reddit after they now try to force you to download their app, but an basic internet search came up with things like Atomic Bomb, AfterBirth, ABortion. ☠️
Brains. Anything to do with brains. Never had them but I once saw Graham Kerr, TV chef of the 70s and 80s, make sheep's brains on his show. I remember him saying they were very high in cholesterol. Of course we all know monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington DC, for what that's worth.
I learned about Korean kimchi in my teens. It was one of those things that white American people would talk about while eating mashed potatoes.
Apparently Korean people would bury cabbage in their backyard and then leave it there for a month and then dig it up and eat it!
Now I have kimchi 2-3 times a week. My favorite weekend breakfast is over-easy eggs with jasmine rice and kimchi, with a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha.
Man I'd love to have an entire drawer of different kimchis in my fridge.
Do young people make their own kimchi and store it in the drawer, or do most go buy it premade and stock the drawer?
We have some really good stores now in my part of the southeastern US where I can get pretty much any kimchi imaginable, which means I have stacks of round plastic containers in my fridge.
I would not have considered pork and tofu to have an affinity. Tofu here was mostly for vegetarian food. But kimchi jigae and ma po tofu are from different places and both combine pork and tofu, so delicious that now if I get ramen I also get pork belly and tofu. I'm completely converted. Pork and tofu are delicious together.
94 Comments
slazer2au@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 68d
Fairy Bread from Australia. Sprinkles on bread.
Very common as kids party food.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 68d
This is completely normal in the Netherlands. Behold: hagelslag, it comes in both chocolate and fruity variants.
slazer2au@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 68d
Na, Fairy Bread is way better then hs. Don't tell my Dutch wife though......
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 26 pts · 68d
For your crimes against Dutchness, I sentence you to having all the stroop in your stroopwafels replaced with Vegemite.
slazer2au@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 68d
Jesus mate, for the country having the ICC you sure know how to kick off a war crime like thatm
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 67d
A true Australian would still eat that. Probably with tears of patriotic joy.
Summzashi@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 67d
This isn't hagelslag.
Also the Australian variant is more akin to disco dip.
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 67d
I don't know why this is different, but it is.
piwakawakas@lemmy.nz · 1 pts · 66d
Oh man, hagelslag is so good!
coaxil@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 67d
And butter, don't forget that
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 25 pts · 68d
Molé. Chocolate with savory and spicy? Weird.
But damn, does it work.
zikzak025@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 68d
Every country has some sort of "out there" food that others are repulsed by.
I've had natto (fermented soybeans) from Japan which weren't terrible but had a texture I couldn't get behind, and I've had surstromming (fermented fish) from Sweden that is probably the most horrific substance known to mankind.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 9 pts · 68d
Is surstromming really that bad? I thought it was just shit tier YouTubers making click bait by eating it wrong.
Like marmite, it is going to taste bad if you eat it from a table spoon on it's own. But that is a skill issue.
QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social · 9 pts · 68d
I thought that surströmming was okay, it just depends on how you use it. The way it was explained to me is that you're actually supposed to use it more like a spice. So, rather than eating it alone, you add a little bit to a sandwich.
It smells terrible, so much that it's best if you submerge the can in water before opening it (plus it sprays everywhere if you don'). But adding it as a spice to something like a sandwich and it's actually not that bad.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 68d
Yeah that was the impression I had, you add small amounts to something else and don't open it in a confined area.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 3 pts · 67d
Over a decade in Japan and I still struggle with natto and never order it. I got over the smell. I don't really care for the slimy/string texture of things, but I can eat other things. If I try to eat more than one or two beans at a time, I involuntarily gag. Some flavor component of it kills me. I make my own ferments (Korean-inspired daikon with fish sauce, chili, and some other stuff is the most recent, fermented at room temp for a few days then into the fridge) and have no trouble with them.
lime@feddit.nu · 21 pts · 68d
the concept of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches disgusts me to this day.
Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 68d
That's insane (from my North American perspective).
Peanut butter and sweet is the thing peanut butter is used for.
I am actually struggling to find a second example of peanut butter use that I know about that isn't "take something sweet but slap some peanut butter in there too" (I've heard of peanut butter and celery and that just sounds like a desperate way to make raw celery palatable)
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 67d
Peanut butter and celery is actually great. The water in the celery compensates for any dryness in the peanut butter, so you can eat more peanut butter than if it was by itself.
alternategait@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 67d
lime@feddit.nu · 3 pts · 68d
peanut butter is just way too sweet on its own. peanuts are insanely calorie-dense. not to mention the awful texture.
HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 7 pts · 68d
People will say that and then use Nutella, which is basically frosting.
Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 68d
But that just sounds like you hate peanut butter, not that peanut butter and jam in a sandwich is an off putting combination.
lime@feddit.nu · 2 pts · 68d
no, that makes it way worse. and grape of all things...
Drusas@fedia.io · 4 pts · 68d
Why do so many non-Americans assume that it has to be grape? There are other fruits. Strawberry is popular. Blackberry. Raspberry.
lime@feddit.nu · 2 pts · 68d
because that's the one which only exists in the us.
swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 68d
Not true at all, I exclusively buy strawberry jams
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 68d
Because its the most common. But all those other fruits and peanut butter are gross too.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 1 pts · 67d
Same. I tried it once as a kid and hated it. PB sandwich? Delicious. Toast with jam? Awesome. Put the two together? Nope. I think it was probably a texture issue, but I have no desire to try again now in my 40s.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.net · 18 pts · 68d
I do this Jamaican-style peanut butter stew, which sounds mad but is delicious.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 68d
Yes! I have made an African peanut chicken stew and it sounded crazy but is so good! A Jamaican version is probably just as amazing.
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 67d
It must be weird to grow up without being used to peanut butter in cooking. Chicken satay is a very normal thing to eat here in Australia. Fifty years ago, maybe not, but nowadays, it's as normal as sushi or peanut butter and jam sammies.
frankPodmore@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 67d
Yeah, I still think of it as a spread, mainly, but it has loads of applications.
polotype@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 68d
You are going to have to explain yourself a bit better (i need the recipe)
frankPodmore@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 68d
I don't have it on me right now, I'm afraid, but it's in Melissa Thompson's book Motherland, and possibly online somewhere!
Nighed@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 68d
I have a recipe for a casserole with chicken, peanut butter, coconut and sweet chilli sauce... sounds totally random, but it's delicious
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 68d
Arroz a la cubana
On google images, it looks like when kids have to cook for the first time in a sitcom with the "mom and dad leave them to run the house by themselves" episode. On wikipedia it looks nicer and more sensible.
Alarming to anyone who doesn't know about plantains, though i believe sweet bananas are also used. I think it would be a textural nightmare going from the banana to the rice.
Speaking of pickles, a lot of things that are pickled are really surprising. Pickled grapes for instance. I knew i'd love them but it takes some convincing to get people to try them.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 67d
Looks like eating Che Guevara.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 2 pts · 67d
That looks amazing. I'd like some chili and maybe some onion or something (and probably plantain rather than banana), but I'd definitely eat this if someone put it in front of me.
FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 67d
I don't really get the appeal of the big mound of rice with a bit of tomato sauce on top. Probably makes me sound ignorant food wise but it looks a bit bland? Rice is best mixed around with a bunch of other stuff
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 17 pts · 68d
Okroshka. It’s a Russian summer soup served cold and slightly effervescent made with ham, boiled potatoes, raw cucumbers and radishes, served in a “broth” made of kvass (children’s beer made from fermented black rye bread) with a little smetana or buttermilk and oh my god so much dill. It’s still a pretty strange dish to me after having eaten it many times.
bunkyprewster@startrek.website · 10 pts · 68d
sounds crazy enough
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 68d
Kvass is yummy. It's either not hopped or not hopped very much. I get some every time I go to the closest big international market. I keep meaning to make some. The recipe is basically put bread in water, add sugar, wait, it's ready in two or three days.
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 7 pts · 68d
Yeah. In the summer Russians have big tanker trucks of kvass on the streets, similar to what we use to transport gasoline in here in the states, and you bring like an empty two liter and give em a coin and they fill it up for you.
bunkyprewster@startrek.website · 3 pts · 68d
What does it taste like?
devdoggy@piefed.social · 3 pts · 68d
I took Russian in high school and the teacher made kvass for us. It was ok...
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 67d
Never heard of it, but the ingredients make it sound amazingly good. Gotta try it.
akwd169@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 68d
Is smetana like sour cream?
CombatWombat@feddit.online · 4 pts · 68d
It's closer to mexican crema, but little sourer, like you mixed in a little sour cream.
akwd169@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 68d
Thats cool, I asked because sour cream in Romanian is smoantana which seemed similar to smetana
skye@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
it's smantana (smântână) in Romanian
akwd169@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 66d
Sorry 😅 I dont speak it but my ex did and I dont really know spelling just how they said it
ickplant@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 68d
Russian immigrant to the U.S. here. When I was a teenager and heard about peanut butter, I thought it was the weirdest and grossest thing.
When I first tried it I did think it was a bit gross, just… too much.
Now I eat it with enjoyment.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 67d
I had a couple friends who liked peanut butter and cheddar cheese sandwiches. I tried one - meh.
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 67d
Cheese and Vegemite though, that shit is delicious.
AA5B@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 67d
Provolone is better here than cheddar
piwakawakas@lemmy.nz · 1 pts · 66d
You need jam with that. Peanut butter, jam and cheese!
farmgineer@nord.pub · 1 pts · 67d
As a kid, I would alternate bites of peanut butter and cheddar. Never tried it in sandwich form, though.
amio@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 68d
Sushi was rrrreal weird when we heard of it for the first time as kids. Now, I love it - the actual rice that's technically sushi and almost anything you can put on, in, over or around it
teslekova@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 67d
Also seaweed. One of the best savoury foods I know, but after growing up smelling the huge piles of different seaweeds on Australian beaches, I had trouble believing you could eat that stuff.
CannonFodder@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 68d
Don't know where it comes from - probably England, but: cottage cheese mixed with applesauce.
Eric@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 68d
Richard Nixon loved ketchup on his cottage cheese
Melobol@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 68d
I was a child when I learnt of toast + sour cream and honey. From Germany. Before that I thought it only works with salt. Honey was not even on my radar I didn't even know of a radar existing.
Ohh being pre-teen was the time to learn new stuff!
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 68d
TIL this is a thing in germany, I have been puttign honey, jelly and all types of sweeteners on cream cheese and bagels for decades.
StickyDango@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 68d
Not a recipe, but durian. I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago fresh in Malaysia, and though the smell was enticing, the taste was not.
Haggis. Really wasn't keen on it when I first heard about it. Went to Scotland and tried it, and enjoyed it. Would not eat more than one portion, it is incredibly rich.
Balut. Haven't not gone to the Philippines yet, but this is something I'm not sure I'm game to try.
Sauerkraut. I never liked anything pickled when I was younger, and when I tried it, I didn't like it. I think it was probably because it was from a jar. I really like it now.
Edit: How could I forget this one. So I worked in the West Wimmera region for a while, and then I was told about this: The florrie. It is uniquely Horsham, Victoria. My colleague is not good as describing things so it sounded worse than it is.
Okokimup@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 68d
Florrie sounds surprisingly good. Like Steak-umms in the US.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 68d
Steak-umms are absolutely shit tier food but so damn good for some reason.
StickyDango@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 67d
Had to look that up. It actually just looks like kebab meat.
Which triggers another food item memory: the HSP. It's called this in Victoria, but other things in other states. I've not had one of these yet either.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 67d
That looks and sounds really good.
StickyDango@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 67d
I have asked my partner to share one with me in case I don't like it, but he doesn't want one unless he's been drinking. Apparently it is a late night sort of food, which might be the equivalent to KFC and Macca's at 3AM.
SirActionSack@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 67d
Lol at Wikipedia saying the SA version is called an "AB".
StickyDango@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 67d
I know. What I don't know is where that came from. I can't read much of Reddit after they now try to force you to download their app, but an basic internet search came up with things like Atomic Bomb, AfterBirth, ABortion. ☠️
SirActionSack@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 66d
It is definitely "abortion" and afaik came from one specific shop (Blue and White Cafe maybe) in North Adelaide.
StickyDango@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
Oh gods. Really, can SA have an even worse reputation than it already does. 😂😭
frischkaesbagett@feddit.org · 6 pts · 68d
Yea basically all traditional french "food"
Akasazh@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 68d
Boeuf Bourguignon, coq au vin and steak au poivre aren't too bad.
I mean it's cherry picking a bit. Like swedish cuisine is a bit more than only surstromming
hot_mocha_decaf@lemmy.cafe · 5 pts · 68d
Not that I've had this, but going through an old cookbook of my mom's, I came across a recipe for Mock Turtle soup, which called for calf brains.
Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 68d
ರ╭╮ರ
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu · 5 pts · 68d
Cola or sprite chicken in Asia.
farmgineer@nord.pub · 3 pts · 67d
As someone who lives in Asia: huh?!
/ Asia be big, yo.
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 67d
You're right. Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand, I think Philippines too.
dolcedoll@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 68d
Drusas@fedia.io · 3 pts · 68d
Blood pudding
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 67d
Brains. Anything to do with brains. Never had them but I once saw Graham Kerr, TV chef of the 70s and 80s, make sheep's brains on his show. I remember him saying they were very high in cholesterol. Of course we all know monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often to be found in Washington DC, for what that's worth.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 67d
Main dish as breakfast.
pH3ra@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 68d
I know many recipes from MY country that would sound disgusting...
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 67d
I learned about Korean kimchi in my teens. It was one of those things that white American people would talk about while eating mashed potatoes.
Apparently Korean people would bury cabbage in their backyard and then leave it there for a month and then dig it up and eat it!
Now I have kimchi 2-3 times a week. My favorite weekend breakfast is over-easy eggs with jasmine rice and kimchi, with a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha.
napkin2020@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 67d
Korean here, and the tradition is basically dead, partly because no one has a backyard anymore and partly we all have kimchi fridges.
The idea is pretty much the same. It keeps a lower temperature than normal fridges, just like how buried kimchi would be kept in.
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 67d
Man I'd love to have an entire drawer of different kimchis in my fridge.
Do young people make their own kimchi and store it in the drawer, or do most go buy it premade and stock the drawer?
We have some really good stores now in my part of the southeastern US where I can get pretty much any kimchi imaginable, which means I have stacks of round plastic containers in my fridge.
napkin2020@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 67d
Complicated! Kimchi that goes into the drawer is gimjang kimchi. Anything else doesn't necessarily go into the drawer.
Gimjang kimchi making is very much a communal thing; often we make a year's worth of kimchi around November, with all the family members gathered round. It's almost ceremonial.
A lot of people still do it, including my family, but it's dying out as well.
pomodoro@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 67d
Sour cherry soup from Hungary, served with sour cream. It's delicious!
RBWells@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 66d
I would not have considered pork and tofu to have an affinity. Tofu here was mostly for vegetarian food. But kimchi jigae and ma po tofu are from different places and both combine pork and tofu, so delicious that now if I get ramen I also get pork belly and tofu. I'm completely converted. Pork and tofu are delicious together.
Strider@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 67d
A lot of English food. Doesn't even taste good, too.
Sorry mates. (🫶 UK)