Culture Shock

[sageoftruth]

Places where corruption ran rampant hit me pretty hard. The two places where I've experienced it were Costa Rica and St. Petersburg, Russia.
The sight of people going, "Pay me extra, or I won't do what you paid me to do" (or in Russia's case, "Bribe me, or I'll arrest you") made me feel absolutely livid. It wasn't my money they were asking for but even seeing them do it to other people just seemed so wrong.

 

[L. Declis]

EDIT: Not worth it. Delete this post.

 

[L. Declis]

Firstly, wow, that comment was up for about 30 seconds before I edited it away, so well done on the speed.

Secondly, I am a British white bloke. Not that much of an outsider, per se. I won't even get started on how they treated my Han Chinese girlfriend, who had to convince me to not start an argument everytime. A notable time being when she and her parents flew back to China, and one of the border agencies said to his friends, thinking that the Chinese people cannot understand, "It's always those fucking chinks who think they can bring water".

A government official speaking in such a way at all is worrying, but saying so in front of those people because he assumes they don't understand? If I had been there, I wouldn't have left until he had his fucking job taken from him.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Huh I don't really get this "British food is bad" thing. Given how fat America is compared to Britain, is this just a case of taste > health?

More likely a case of "My taste > Other taste". I found that guests from western countries absolutely can't stomach our local canteen food (and huge state-owned public canteens are still a big thing here), and therefore have to stick with restaurants and home cooking. Meanwhile I and most of locals find a bowl of borscht from a big canteen pot rather good.

Yeah I think it must be this. I'm raking my brain trying to think of what's so bad about British food and it's like, I can't think of anything that would be so alien to an American.

Pastry, beef or chicken, and gravy? Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that was odd, but like do they not have gravy in America or something?

Bacon, eggs, and a mushroom for breakfast. Do they not have bacon and eggs in America? Or is there like, a time limit on what time foods should be eaten?

Like from what I know about the differences between British and American food is they add a ton of salt to everything, which is extremely unhealthy, so maybe that's where all the "bland" comments are coming from? They also tend to not like healthier food, I remember that Jamie Oliver changed the way the country ate and the way schools ate, right to the extent that in our school we only got chips once a week, but he tried that in America and he got chased out basically.

Trying to wrap my head around it but it but I can't see what's so exotic about British food that makes it so unusual. It's like meat, veg, potatoes and gravy. Somebody even mentioned Glasgow being bad a lot and I live in Glasgow, so that's ground zero, and even round here it's.. fine.

Depending on where you live in the US, the US is so big nothing applies to the entire US really, you can fit 4 countries just in the state of Texas alone.. Not salt, PEPPER and peppers. Black pepper, white pepper, jalapeno pepper, green, yellow red and orange bell pepper,habanero pepper, Cayenne pepper, chili, chipotle, .. we use peppers in everything we cook here in Texas. We also use dry rubs with cumin, chili, garlic, thyme, onion on the meat prior to the marinade and then cook in more flavor with smoked woods such as hickory, mesquite, maple and pecan. This is how food is prepared here, so not using spices when cooking just often makes it taste like cardboard to others. We do use gravy here but gravies also vary greatly they should not be too greasy or oily.
To prepare meat here, you rub it in spices paste it in marinade let it soak in over night then slow cook it in woods that provide even more flavor. I usually eat my veggies raw and plain or with Caesar, Italian or Ranch dressing . I don't care much for cooked fruits or vegetables at all really. Cooking these usually make them taste soggy and gross to me for the most part. I personally cannot stand the taste of anything canned or frozen, and get all of my ingredients fresh. I would have to be starving to eat canned foods.. LOL

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

It's really simple, but I think for some reason you're choosing not to hear it.

Cooking technique.
Cooking duration.
Spicing.
Variety.

These are the principle complaints if you sift through this thread. You keep focusing on "it's meat and veg", while ignoring that in many cases it's been "horribly overcooked, boiled meat and veg that never even heard of spices". Is that really so hard to "wrap [your] head around"?

Reprocessed pork, smooshed into a vague "rib" shape, breaded, fried, and covered in what I will generously call "sauce". OK, McDonalds does a similar nightmare version of food called the "McRib", sometimes, but thankfully it's not a dietary staple. By contrast it's outselling fish and chips in your neck of the woods.

Boiled meat, as in stews? I never realised a stew was so alien. It's just meat, veg and spices, generally leftovers to not waste food.

When it comes to veg that "have never heard of spices" do you mean like making your veg spicy? Which sounds horrible but would explain the culture shock, or adding a bit of salt and pepper? Which is relatively normal, but again for even that to be considered not enough spice it just goes back to that "tons of salt" thing. It's a case of taste > health. Veg shouldn't have loads of salt, that's just taking something healthy and making it unhealthy.

Googled McRib there, and it seems to be similar to what you said, but that looks like the sort of thing you'd get from corner chip shops if you were drunk, like Indians or Chinese.

I guess the reason why I was so confused is because is it's not a common thing to eat from those shops because they're incredibly unhealthy (and even those shops tend to just sell fried fish or chips and maybe a sausage or burger) or add tons of salt to everything, and I guess food has changed a lot compared to 30 years ago when you were in Britain.

We cook stews here as well, but still dry rub the meat, marinade it and cook it prior to adding it to the stew pot so it has a very different flavor. I do not add salt to anything, we mix minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, fennel, actual peppers and onions in with them, not salt. When I make stews I generally use fresh ingredients, not leftovers. I cook and chop up actual steak for it, not use fatty or bad meats.

 

[Shiftygiant]

When I got to Berlin, I suddenly realized how rude I was to servers and decided to make personal changes. When I went to Poland in April I was first shocked by the sight of Deep Snow (South England, yeeaaaahh), then by the food. Nice, but looked a little gross.

Want to comment on British Food, healthy stuff isn't hard to find, it's just fucking expensive. Also, try to avoid London, you'll get more variety in other cities. Also go to restaurants, not take away's.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Depending on where you live in the US, the US is so big nothing applies to the entire US really, you can fit 4 countries just in the state of Texas alone.. Not salt, PEPPER and peppers. Black pepper, white pepper, jalapeno pepper, green, yellow red and orange bell pepper,habanero pepper, Cayenne pepper, chili, chipotle, .. we use peppers in everything we cook here in Texas. We also use dry rubs with cumin, chili, garlic, thyme, onion on the meat prior to the marinade and then cook in more flavor with smoked woods such as hickory mesquite maple and pecan. This is food is prepared here, so not using spices when cooking just often makes it taste like cardboard to others. We do use gravy here but gravies also vary greatly they should not be too greasy or oily.
To prepare meat here, you rub it in spices paste it in marinade let it soak in over night then slow cook it in woods that provide even more flavor. I usually eat my veggies raw and plain or with Caesar, Italian or Ranch dressing . I don't care much for cooked fruits or vegetables at all really. Cooking these usually make them taste soggy and gross to me for the most part. I personally cannot stand the taste of anything canned or frozen, and get all of my ingredients fresh. I would have to be starving to eat canned foods.. LOL

That sounds really nice. From what I've gathered some people who were talking about British food were talking about corner shops almost universally, which are just glorified burger vans (there's a high chance the shop wont even have tables or seats) whereas what you're talking about sounds like something you'd find in a cafe, restaurant, or home of some sort. It would be like saying US food is bad and then talking universally about fast food restaurants.

Yea I cannot even digest fast food ( if you can even call it food) so I never eat any of it, fast food in the US is pretty gross. The places I ate at in the UK were recommended, however, coming from Texas, I do not think I was going to be able to adjust to the flavor differences. It also didn't help that I cannot eat wheat or dairy without becoming ill. I actually do not even really eat eggs, bacon or breads.. I eat very thin tortillas instead of other breads.. HAHAH

Even in the US there are huge differences in the same food. Take Tacos for example, here this is what taco meat looks like before it goes in the tortilla:

but while I was visiting another state they tried to serve me something and called it a Taco, I have no idea what it was but it was not a taco. I could not even eat one bite of it due to it being so gross.

 

[Callate]

Pastry, beef or chicken, and gravy? Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that was odd, but like do they not have gravy in America or something?

Americans have a very odd relationship with gravy.

Now I will say for the record: I like gravy. I make very nice gravy. Roux (very broadly, flour cooked in oil or butter) is the basis of all kinds of wonderful sauces, soups, and stews, gravy among them. I try not to make it very often because I weigh quite enough as it is, but I approve of the general idea.

But I think for much of America- at least in the west, where I live- gravy is something you see during the Thanksgiving holiday on mashed potatoes and possibly the stuffing. And maybe again on Christmas. That's about it.

The rest of the year, gravy is the hallmark of bad frozen dinners, mediocre buffets, and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Gravy is what senior citizens eat because salt is one of the few flavors that still stands out, and they grew up with it. Gravy is the addition of salt and fat in a diet that already has way too much of both.

Gravy comes from a packet or a pre-made mix; it's brown, salty, and kind of awful. It has no relationship with any kind of real food in its making; no roast or fowl or even root vegetable seems to have been harmed in its creation. It's understandable why many people have an almost visceral dislike of it.

British food can be awful. But I've also had British food that was quite good. Like so many things, it's a matter of the ingredients used and the care that goes into turning them into a dish. I think I'd sooner have a good shepherd's pie than frog's legs any day, though.

 

[McElroy]

They dub American movies in Central Europe... French John Travolta, German Kurt Russell and so on. We always get subs.

Funny how I kinda like how this thread has been even though I'm almost an antithesis to food snobism as I don't really waste time cooking.

 

[Lightspeaker]

While the Brits love Naan and curry, Americans (often without knowing it) love foods from all around the world.

You know reading this makes me feel like your views on British food are about fifteen years out of date at least. >_>

Having grown up here I can verify that when I was about ten years old a huge amount of what you said is true. My childhood 'out for a meal' was typically the local Beefeater. But these days, at least up here in Liverpool, things are rather different these days (a combination of the fact me and my family have more disposable income now plus the huge boost to the culinary scene around here over the past decade). Can't speak for the entire country, of course.


Anyway, since we seem to be throwing food criticisms back and forth across the pond: I personally was absolutely horrified when I tried a milk chocolate Hershey bar for the first (and only) time. I couldn't believe it was actually supposed to be edible. It was probably the most revolting thing I've had in my entire life.

Twinkies though...America gets 10/10 for the invention of Twinkies. Glorious treat. Even if they are a bit too sweet to eat more than one every few days.