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30 Foods That Foreigners Consider To Be Delicacies But For Locals They’re Common, Shared In This Online Group
I guess we can all agree that now it’s easier to get whatever you can think of: accessories, clothing, shoes, electronics, books, magazines, etc., from all around the world. However, there are still some things that are hard to get in a certain country. Especially when we talk about food and drinks.
Reddit users were asked: “What common foods in your country are considered delicacies by foreigners?” The list of things that people love but find hard to get in their country goes on and on, from common things such as tap water or bread to caviar, rare meat, or maple syrup. These not only include products but also various dishes that are hard to make right. One of the things that some people named were French pastries. Even though you can find a baguette or croissant in almost every country, people still find these pastries to be best made by the French. And it seems that people who find them seize the opportunity to savor them as much as possible. So, if you are French, don’t be surprised to see a person with 12 or so baguettes going down the street. Also, some people were surprised to find that caviar is found as a delicacy, while for them, it’s a common food. The question that has almost 47k upvotes received many more funny yet understandable answers.
Do you have any foods that didn't make it to the list? Then don’t forget to leave them in the comments down below!
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Stroopwafel
I'm part Dutch, and I found a small market here (US, Michigan) that sells them. Michigan has a fairly large Dutch population, and I'm starting to see Stroopwafel more regularly. They're lovely.
French here so, a lot of our food. If there's one thing we know how to do, it's exporting our food as fancy delicacies.
The truth is, apart from pastries/desserts which can be pretty complicated to put together (the effort to make even just twelve croissants...), most French food is just peasant stuff spruced up for the modern times. The logic is almost always:
Take a cheap-ish cut of meat
Cook it either in wine or in broth for a few hours with a bunch of onions and whatever herbs grow nearby
Add carrots/potatoes, enjoy
That's the basis for bœuf bourguignon, coq au vin, gigot d'agneau, pot-au-feu, blanquette de veau, etc. If you want to get fancy you can wrap it in pastry, and that's another dozen French specialties right there.
There's not really a way to f**k it up, really. It's meat, cooked at low heat over several hours, with a bunch of aromatic herbs; as long as you've got a sturdy pot and you don't let it dry, you'll get something in the range from edible to delicious.
Water, our tap water is perfect and no local ever buys bottled (iceland)
A lot of people are mentioning the sulfur smell of the hot water, and that depends on the area. For example where I live the hot water comes directly from a nearby hot spring area so naturally its gonna have a smell. Locals dont smell it though.
For drinking water you just need to run the tap for a bit, that will get any hot water outta the pipes and bring you spring water.
i lived in Alaska for awhile and the tap was better than anything bottled
We had some Japanese exchange students at our university in the US, and when they saw the cubed melon on the salad bar (the standard watermelon/cantaloupe/honeydew mix), they thought we were living like royalty. Apparently melon is a really expensive, special occasion food over there.
Hmm, forest berries perhaps.
I live in Finland. We have a lot of forests, so lot of berries such as blueberries and lingonberries. Everyman's Rights mean that you can just go and pick as much as you can find. It's kinda one of those things where if you live near any forested area, and are willing to spent time there come late summer, you'll probably have enough to last until next year in your freezer.
We have so much berries that people from poorer countries (Thailand is a common one for some reason) are hired to pick them up, because doing berrypicking enough to actually profit monetarily is heavy work, and apparently the pay isn't worth it for most Finns.
At the same time, forest berries are considered a superfood around the world, very healthy and trendy. Dunno about actual delicacy status, but definitely a difference in how we think about them.
It is a delicay because they aren't abundant and only in certain climates. I lived in the area around Lake Superior (only u.s. ares with majority Finnish heritage) and tourists are surprised they can just almost wherever they want, and pick berries and mushrooms while they do it. (Though locals don't tell them all the spots, lol) Sigh... miss it.
a good baguette. I've seen american tourist walk out of a bakery with like 12 of them. Slow down dude, they are made all day long, you don't need that many
I have yet to find a local bakery that makes a good, crusty baguette. The last time I had truly good, crusty bread was in France almost 30 years ago.
Hawaii has somehow turned spam into a sought after food, especially by visitors from Japan.
I worked for a charity in Iraq for a year and we'd buy a dozen lamb chops for the equivalent of $5. That's like $60 to buy in the US and it's worse quality.
UK here. I used to love eating cheap cuts of meat, oxtail etc. However, because TV chefs championed these cuts, it drove the prices up.
Good french pastries and stuff like croissant and "pain au chocolat", we call them "viennoiserie" in french, no idea if there is a specific word for it in english.
Obviously in France they are super easy to find in any bakery and they are cheaper. It's so common that honestly not a lot of people do go buy some croissants every day.
Macarons are also relatively easy to find, usually they are made in special shops but some bakery do make them.
Oh, and if you go to France or go to a (GOOD) french bakery in your country, try a Paris-Brest . You will not regret it.
Speculaas/Speculoos/Biscoff cookies. Delicacy might be a big word but people seem to loose their minds over these cookies.
They're originally from Belgium & the Netherlands.
Jamón serrano, here in Spain is really common and you can find very good product for a very affordable price.
Halloumi cheese. It's a huge staple in Cyprus and we eat it all the times but in the US I only ever see it as Barbaques and sometimes at exotic cheese plates.
For the halloumi lovers out there try white bread, halloumi and strawberry jam. You are welcome
Try halloumi with watermelon. A groundbreaking combo that is the staple of many summer evenings
It was supposed to be caviar, but now it's also unaffordable for us. cries in Russian
A friend of mine went to Russia probably 15 years ago--they stuffed themselves with caviar, and they said it was cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap. I'm sorry to hear this has changed.
Fried Chicken, it's actually become a special holiday meal in countries like japan where you have to reserve your bucket weeks in advance! (mainly because of clever marketing)
But here, people would laugh so hard at that, cause it's just fried chicken!
Not exactly true it isn't really a special occasion meal, you can get Karaage chicken or KFC at any time any place in Japan, but it is true that for some reason it has become a popular tradition to have Fried Chicken (often KFC) at christmas time, and yes, people do order and reserve their buckets well in advance. xP
I'm from Russia and I had an acquaintance who was going to marry an Irish guy. They lived in Russia for some time the guy went completely bonkers for caviar of capelin fish. It's not really a delicacy, it's not rare or expensive at all (probably approx $2.5-3 a can) but he liked it so much he wanted to bring a crate of it for their wedding in Europe. Needless to say his soon to be wife wife was not amused (imagine wanting to bring a crate of peanut butter or something to your wedding).
Russians used to ask me to bring peanut butter from the states all the time before it was available in stores
Do maple syrup or poutine count? I know at the least, in university I had a friend who came up from the US and thought poutine was the greatest thing ever. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised more of the US hasn't adopted it. Fries, cheese curds, and gravy, sounds more like an American thing. Not sure what other country's opinions on it are.
Reindeer meat, wild blueberries and cloudberries.
Finland, I presume? I've had venison before, but not had reindeer meat/venison until visiting finland, oddly enough the first time I had it was on a pizza at Kotipizza in Helsinki, the first time I flew over there to meet my now-fiance.
Never had reindeer, but I have had moose meatballs up in Maine. They were actually quite good.
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On our way back to the US from France we had a layover in Finland and my daughter and I tried Reindeer jerky, it was actually really good! I also bought a can of bear meat (YES BEAR MEAT in a can!). I have not opened it, I just bought it for the kitsch. I would like to go back and stay longer than a few hours.
There is currently an overflow of bear meat in Sweden from the current hunting season. Not very popular in general since the meat is very dark and a little similar to liver, taste wise. I like it though!
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I'm in Alaska and we use reindeer meat quite a bit. A lot of our restaurants have a reindeer dish on the menu. I have some reindeer hotdogs in my fridge right now!
Barbecue.
I live in Texas and any time anyone comes from out of state we HAVE to go get barbecue.
I live in Japan but I’m from the US. Whenever I go back home I buy a few bags of Lindt chocolates from the drugstore as souvenirs. They’re dirt cheap in the US, but for whatever reason they’re a luxury chocolate in Japan, and the same bags would cost $30 here.
As Italian living in Germany I can say that basically every food from my culture is considered fancy here.
A couple of days ago I saw an Arancino ( cheap fried rice cake ) sold for 5€
In Italy a good Arancino is 1€
Butter Chicken.
As an Indian staying in Europe, I hate butter chicken because it has taken over Indian cuisine in Europe and noone wants to try the real stuff.
Depends on how you define "the real stuff". The version of Butter Chicken you are eating in Europe has existed almost as long as the ones in India. The dish has only existed since the 1950s. It isn't like it is some sort of traditional food that pre-dates European contact.
Depending on where in the US you live, lobster, king crab, Dungeness crab, abalone, spotted prawns, geoduck, etc. can be pretty cheap, normal food but for foreigners they go nuts over these things because they are so expensive elsewhere.
Right? When i lived in Alaska, things like crab/salmon were dirt cheap. we used to just go to the docks and buy it for literally nothing. but elsewhere....$$$$$
Krainer wurst or carniolan sausage, protected by EU for being slovenian speciality that can only be made here but loved and eaten by milions of germans and austrians.
It's the name that can't be used if made outside of Slovenia and sold commercialy not the actual sausage.
An indian prepared bajji on master chef Australia
Bajji is available at every 5 blocks or so.
The whole recipe is cut onion/potato, coat it with gramflour and spice and fry. Indians who saw that surely laughed
(In south indian states bhaji is called bajji)
We used to do the same but with wheat flour. Called them scallops. Yes we were poor and inland. But bhaji and pakiras are good stuff. Though I usually grate the potatoes.
Pheasant. I grew up in South Dakota and we hunted pheasants every day during the season. In college it was a cheap source of food and ate it all the time. In Central and South American countries it is a delicacy and people could not believe I ate it every day.
Once upon a time, the same could be said for the UK - pheasants are still everywhere, but it seems like it's not exactly a popular dish unless you're one of those "uppity" rich country folk like that...
Especially in my region its called "blutwurst" roughly translated as "blood sausage" or "black pudding" and i hate it
Black Pudding or blood sausages are common in the UK too, I think it's common all over Europe and some asian countries, such as Korea with it's "Sundae" have equivalents, I personally love it!
are quail eggs delicacies? because I could just buy them at a grocery store here like normal eggs but I rarely ever hear of them anywhere else
Can buy them cheap in grocery stores in Russia too. In the US I think they are expensive
In my experience a lot of common everyday French foods are high-end specialty foods here in the US. In France, every corner store I went to sold the type of cheese, charcuterie, and pâté that you'd have to go to Whole Foods for here. And it isn't particularly expensive, it's just normal food. Like I went to a little grocer in Paris and got pieces of 4 different cheeses, and I thought, this is going to be like $28. No, it was like $6. I'm just used to what Whole Foods charges. I went to a big department store in the Paris suburbs and there was just an aisle that had all the dry-cured ham and such and tins of pâté, laid out as casually as Lunchables in the US. It's just regular food.
Piña Coladas i guess. Here in PR you can get them absolutely everywhere with or without alcohol, its mostly just a refreshing drink.
Any kind of sheep meat. Lamb, mutton, etc.
In non-sheep countries it can be quite expensive. Here it is the cheapest meat and commonly used instead of pork as the "filler meat" in grocery store products such as sausages.
Also, fresh fish - the fish processing time is pretty short here, with fish instantly getting unloaded and sent to factories after the boats arrive, and then quickly processed and sold to consumers - so that the fish is even fresher than in some other seaside countries.
I've had American friends ask me to send over Cadbury chocolate. IMO it's not as nice as it used to be since it was bought out by Kraft (the irony!) but people still go nuts for it.
The US exchange students at the college I worked at would take boxes of Cadbury’s Flake bars home with them at the end of term - even though I advised them that Galaxy Ripples were far superior. Mind you, after trying Hershey’s “chocolate” even our crappiest chocolate is a step up from that soapy abomination.
Carnitas, literally something i see prepared on the side of the street everyday
We have a lot of Mexicans and South Americans in my area. The food from the food trucks is FANTASTIC! Carnitas, Arepas and enchiladas are so good freshly made by someone's abuela.
Timtams
Target has had them in US stores for a while now, but TimTams continue to fly under the cookie radar.
Fried plantains, or mofongo, Wich is just more fried plantains mashed with garlic and some Bs toppings.
Mofongo is wonderful! But you'd be surprised how it can be messed up. I had it at a restaurant once and it was dry and nasty. I think they used old left over tostones from days past. So disappointing, especially when you are craving it!
Kofta: it's so simple to make, you need ground beef and tons of spices and cook them in the grill or bbq.
Goji berries. We put that stuff in our soups and many people pick that out when they drink the soup.
Morel Mushrooms. I never had them though.
Very, very, very, very, very, very good. I only eat it for christmas or on special occasions because they are expensive. I want to know where the OP live because i never saw cheap morels?
Durian. The number of durian farmers who have found overnight wealth are astonishing due to export demand
Due to land scarcity, the durian you have tasted are either from Malaysia (where I'm from) or Thailand. Singapore and China are our biggest exporters.
Also, during pre-covid times, hundreds of coaches ferrying Chinese tourists would visit these commercialised durian orchards on a daily basis for their durian fix. They are offered an all-you-can eat service for a fix price. In other words, it's a durian buffet !
My family owns about few hundred trees of durian on our land but it's only for own comsumption and we'll share it with our friends&family when the harvest is huge. We are far from commercial scale.
Durian is an acquired taste and very polarizing. You either love it or hate it. I'm the latter and the only one in my family, to the dismay of my family. Growing up around the scent, it doesn't bother me. Just dislike the taste. However, I still respect it as the King of the Fruit!
It is polarizing where you hate it or love it but there's a genetic component to it as well. Different people taste/smell different things in a durian. Cilantro is like that as well. To most people near me, its the world's greatest herb and it is in everything. I'm part of the ~13% that anything with cilantro only tastes like dish soap. Best way to ruin a taco is make it taste like a punishment for profanity.
Gulyás in Hungary is a common soup dish. But for other countries it is uncommon.
Not just my country but my locality... scallops.
I live in a landlocked part of the world. Most of the scallops we get aren't even scallops, they're cookie cutter slices from fish or ground up and pressed into molds and called "medallions". Around here, if all of them are the same size and shape, good chance they aren't the real thing.
Feijoada. In its core it's working class food, though usually a fancier version is considered a delicacy. And it's rarely as good as the real thing btw.
Also those are not as known but when I lived abroad I blew people's mind with pão de queijo and brigadeiro, which are incredibly common and easy to make.
Stella Artois, apparently. I've seen it being served on a tray with a little glass of nuts and whatnot abroad. You don't get that with a Stella or in fact any pils-style beer over here...
Poutine or maple syrup
Here maple syrup only comes in tiny bottles and although it says "real" on the label it just tastes like sugar syrup so I'm quite sure it is not real. We do have chips and gravy, cheap to buy or to make. Have been putting mild cheese on mine, but don't know if that really is the same.
KFC in China. They can't get enuff of that sh*t.
Tell people in China that anything is "American" and they go nuts about it. That is why there are now obese children and teenagers never before seen.
HotDogs :D I'm a foreigner and I consider HotDogs and Taco Bell Delicacies.
I gave up reading this list. Why would you leave a comment about "here" without telling us where "here" is? It's not a guessing game. I'd be interested in your entry if you just told me which freaking country you're talking about. Basic writing 101. WHOOOSH!
Every time I travel to North Europe I'm shocked how expensive are the tomatoes the cucumbers the potatoes and this staff... in Greece these are really cheap!! Same with feta cheese which I'm expecting it would be more expensive but in some countries is extreme i think...
Among many other things, I think it would be wine for us. I live in a region in northern Italy where you can get a glass of wine for 1 euro. And it is very common and usual to have wine during dinner in normal households, it's just part of the culture and not a special treat.
Where is this magical place and how do I get there
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no mention of haggis? its banned in america but thats their loss. and vegetarian haggis just isn't haggis
Really? It's not banned in Canada, I can't imagine why it would be.
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Sacher cake from Vienna, the real one from the Hotel Sacher. As far as I know, no one from Vienna eats it. It's dry, crumbly, and expensive. It's only the tourists that go nuts over it.
Wow, I thought that local people liked it that way. I tasted the original one in Vienna years ago. But honestly I prefer the "false Sacher" they made in my usual supermarket in Italy because they use much more apricot jam. I love the version with extra jam
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In Maine it's Lobster. "Out of staters" come here and spend like $100 for two people when us "locals" get them for free because we all know someone with a lobster boat.
exact same scenario here in alaska (except fish not lobster).
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My mother use to tell me that growing up in Prince Edward Island, Canada; if you went to school with lobster sandwiches you were considered poor and laughed at.
I worked in Burundi a few times. One of the worlds poorest countries but super fertile. The local crew always found it hilarious how much the uk people paid for a pitifully small avocado while their huge ones grew with abundance.
Salmon. It is expensive in Texas and a delicacy on the level of a beef steak. I think I just paid $10 a lb at the local grocery for it. When we went to Whistler, BC they had it on hamburger buns real cheap.
Artichokes are in Germany delicatessen, but here in Greece its a common cheap meal..
I didn't know they were a delicatessen somewhere. I love them but they're almost considered a "poor" thing, because you left on the plate more than you eat.
Load More Replies... Decent steak in China. Imported from the U.S., Australia and South America it can cost a fortune.
The Australian Coat of Arms has two animals on it ... a Kangaroo and an Emu...We eat both of them.... and so can you. 96cib1_1-6...5ae0ad.jpg 
A bucket of Kentucky Fried Emu drumsticks must be something to behold.
Load More Replies... Can I just say that the delicious bottle of Serah that I bought in Paris for $5 would be $30 here.
Tomato jam. Once in a while someone will make it in one of the American or British cooking shows and everyone will ooh and aah like it's ever so creative, but it's such a staple here in Portugal you'd be hard pressed to find a brand of jams that doesn't sell tomato jam.
SALMIAKKI! A very special black licorice type of treat from Finland. Totally different than salted licorice- I'm obsessed with it- one of my Finnish friends and I do a snack exchange- I send hot sauce from Arizona, and he sends Salmiak! Winning!
Throughout Scandinavia it's just known as bog-standard salt liquorice.
Load More Replies... In the UK, "craft beers" have been a thing since forever. Tell me what bitter you drink and I can tell you where in the country you come from, sometimes which exact town. This is not a rare skill. Very ordinary pubs will usually stock a selection of local brews and at least one or two "guest ales". Then it got trendy in the rest of the world, and we were like...great, my grandad's a hipster now. Nobody tell him about flat caps and rimless glasses, ok?
My neck of the woods is spoiled for choice : Abalone and Local Oysters... Award winning Fresh farmers and aged cheese, mead made from herbal honeys from local farms... Farmstand eggs where you can watch the Great Pyrenees act as chicken security guards as they graze freely, and line caught smoked fishes(trout and salmon) ... Dungeness crabs... My stomach loves Northern California...Best suggestion for the culinarily curious : Favorite Avocado's EVER :Reed, huge rock hard softballs in a gorgeous green that turn black and buttery when ripe... Only available a few months of the year and get very expensive but worth every penny!
Everything mentioned here is available in Toronto, except for the crayfish, and I could be wrong about that.
I gave up reading this list. Why would you leave a comment about "here" without telling us where "here" is? It's not a guessing game. I'd be interested in your entry if you just told me which freaking country you're talking about. Basic writing 101. WHOOOSH!
Every time I travel to North Europe I'm shocked how expensive are the tomatoes the cucumbers the potatoes and this staff... in Greece these are really cheap!! Same with feta cheese which I'm expecting it would be more expensive but in some countries is extreme i think...
Among many other things, I think it would be wine for us. I live in a region in northern Italy where you can get a glass of wine for 1 euro. And it is very common and usual to have wine during dinner in normal households, it's just part of the culture and not a special treat.
Where is this magical place and how do I get there
Load More Replies... no mention of haggis? its banned in america but thats their loss. and vegetarian haggis just isn't haggis
Really? It's not banned in Canada, I can't imagine why it would be.
Load More Replies... Sacher cake from Vienna, the real one from the Hotel Sacher. As far as I know, no one from Vienna eats it. It's dry, crumbly, and expensive. It's only the tourists that go nuts over it.
Wow, I thought that local people liked it that way. I tasted the original one in Vienna years ago. But honestly I prefer the "false Sacher" they made in my usual supermarket in Italy because they use much more apricot jam. I love the version with extra jam
Load More Replies... In Maine it's Lobster. "Out of staters" come here and spend like $100 for two people when us "locals" get them for free because we all know someone with a lobster boat.
exact same scenario here in alaska (except fish not lobster).
Load More Replies... My mother use to tell me that growing up in Prince Edward Island, Canada; if you went to school with lobster sandwiches you were considered poor and laughed at.
I worked in Burundi a few times. One of the worlds poorest countries but super fertile. The local crew always found it hilarious how much the uk people paid for a pitifully small avocado while their huge ones grew with abundance.
Salmon. It is expensive in Texas and a delicacy on the level of a beef steak. I think I just paid $10 a lb at the local grocery for it. When we went to Whistler, BC they had it on hamburger buns real cheap.
Artichokes are in Germany delicatessen, but here in Greece its a common cheap meal..
I didn't know they were a delicatessen somewhere. I love them but they're almost considered a "poor" thing, because you left on the plate more than you eat.
Load More Replies... Decent steak in China. Imported from the U.S., Australia and South America it can cost a fortune.
The Australian Coat of Arms has two animals on it ... a Kangaroo and an Emu...We eat both of them.... and so can you. 96cib1_1-6...5ae0ad.jpg
A bucket of Kentucky Fried Emu drumsticks must be something to behold.
Load More Replies... Can I just say that the delicious bottle of Serah that I bought in Paris for $5 would be $30 here.
Tomato jam. Once in a while someone will make it in one of the American or British cooking shows and everyone will ooh and aah like it's ever so creative, but it's such a staple here in Portugal you'd be hard pressed to find a brand of jams that doesn't sell tomato jam.
SALMIAKKI! A very special black licorice type of treat from Finland. Totally different than salted licorice- I'm obsessed with it- one of my Finnish friends and I do a snack exchange- I send hot sauce from Arizona, and he sends Salmiak! Winning!
Throughout Scandinavia it's just known as bog-standard salt liquorice.
Load More Replies... In the UK, "craft beers" have been a thing since forever. Tell me what bitter you drink and I can tell you where in the country you come from, sometimes which exact town. This is not a rare skill. Very ordinary pubs will usually stock a selection of local brews and at least one or two "guest ales". Then it got trendy in the rest of the world, and we were like...great, my grandad's a hipster now. Nobody tell him about flat caps and rimless glasses, ok?
My neck of the woods is spoiled for choice : Abalone and Local Oysters... Award winning Fresh farmers and aged cheese, mead made from herbal honeys from local farms... Farmstand eggs where you can watch the Great Pyrenees act as chicken security guards as they graze freely, and line caught smoked fishes(trout and salmon) ... Dungeness crabs... My stomach loves Northern California...Best suggestion for the culinarily curious : Favorite Avocado's EVER :Reed, huge rock hard softballs in a gorgeous green that turn black and buttery when ripe... Only available a few months of the year and get very expensive but worth every penny!
Everything mentioned here is available in Toronto, except for the crayfish, and I could be wrong about that.
