Food Culture – What Would you Eat?

"Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin -1825

Spoiler:  If you're squeamish, you might want to skip this post...

Food tells us a lot about different cultures.  Food is part of our identity. Everything about eating—what we eat, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who’s at the table—communicates something about culture. "Our attitudes, practices, and rituals surrounding food are a window into our most basic beliefs about our world and ourselves."

Americans have a different kind of relationship with food than people in many other parts of the world.  Most Americans are increasingly removed from the actual production of food; we don't really want to know that the meat we're eating was once a living animal.  Nowadays many Americans rarely cook or eat at home.  Compared to people from other countries, most Americans have a fairly narrow palate:  chicken, beef, pizza, pasta, fruit, salad, dessert.  And many of us have bad eating habits:  we eat too much sugar, snack between meals, eat on the run, and enjoy large portions.  (If you want to learn more about how Americans eat compared to other cultures, see this article from Harvard magazine:  The Way We Eat Now)

Butcher shop display in Italy

People in other countries eat a lot of foods that aren't on the typical American menu.  They eat different types of meat; eat different parts of the animal, bird or fish; and enjoy their food prepared and presented in different ways.  Many Europeans and Asians are much closer to the source of food.  Many of you have probably visited open-air markets in Europe and Asia.  It's fairly common to see people buying birds and animals that they'll take home to slaughter and eat.  Slaughtering an animal is often a social event for family and friends.

Rabbits and birds are often sold at the grocery store with their heads on so you can be confident you're getting the real thing.  You can even buy a pig's snout or head at modern supermarket or butcher's shop.. like this one I saw in Italy.

France is especially known for its culinary emphasis.  Food is very important in France, and the discussion about food can occupy much of a meal.  The French eat a variety of foods that many Americans aren't familiar or comfortable with:  duck, goose, rabbit, horse, wild boar, snails.  Organ meat is considered a delicacy, especially "foie gras" or goose liver.  "Andouillette" sausages, "fromage de tête," and  "pieds et paquets" are other French specialties...  I'll let you google on these and see what you learn.

The food I had in China and Hong Kong last year was outstanding, but many in my group weren't comfortable with it.  Sometimes at our banquet meals, we had absolutely no idea what we were eating.  I know I ate ostrich, chicken feet, seaweed, and many kinds of unusual fish.  Food was often presented to showcase the original animal... something we don't often do in the USA.

Here are a few food photos from my international food adventures:

Fish in Guangzhou, China

At the same meal-- this was definitely a different presentation of chicken!

This was a lunch option at a cafeteria near Shanghai.

Fresh seafood for sale at a fish market in Hong Kong

I ordered this seafood platter on the Cote d'Azur in France.



Choucroute is a specialty in Alsace, France--
an assortment of pork and sausages served with potatoes and sauerkraut.



I really like calamari, but I had a hard time with this preparation in Croatia.

This "Chianti sushi" in Italy was almost raw hamburger... but delicious!

When you travel abroad for business, you'll likely find yourself out to dinner with clients, vendors or colleagues.  They'll want to honor you with a special meal of local specialties and the very best delicacies.  You might find yourself served one of the dishes in the photos above.  How would you handle this?  What would you eat... and what couldn't you eat?

Have you had some experiences with "different" food?  What's the most unusual thing you've eaten in another country?

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Here are a couple of other resources about "different" food around the world:

Gross Me Out!  (interesting article about what Americans consider "gross" food)

Weird Food website

Gonna Eat That?  (resource from a PBS series, The Meaning of Food)