35 People Share What Stereotypical Foods From Their Nation They Don’t Actually Eat
While it’s easy to imagine Parisians living on a steady diet of wine and croissants, or Bostonians downing their doughnuts with some coffee in lieu of a meal, the reality is that people tend to eat all sorts of things.
Someone asked “What's a food in your country that is stereotyped for your country but really, nobody eats?” and people from around the world shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, bring a snack, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments down below.
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People act like all Irish people eat is potatoes but we have a super diverse food culture. We also eat cabbage.
What's even more interesting is that potatoes were first discovered in South America where they would be brought back to Europe by the Spanish.
Fortune cookie. We dont even have this in China.
Its actually American food created in California.
They were originally sold in American Japanese restaurants. With Pearl Harbor, all those restaurants closed so the distribution switched over to Chinese ones and stayed there.
Most "Chinese" food consumed in US is not Chinese food.
A friend of mine who used to live in New York City told me that she was on the subway once and overheard a Chinese girl say to her friend, "Let's go get Chinese. But not good Chinese. I mean bad American Chinese."
Corned beef and cabbage. ~~Literally **nobody** eats that here~~ **Edit:** Seems it's a thing in parts of Munster, based off what people are commenting here. I'm from Mayo, so maybe it's a regional thing or a reimport.
The original meal is bacon and cabbage, which people do eat. When Irish people emigrated to the US they were often in the same neighborhoods as Jewish people, so bacon was replaced with corned beef.
And "bacon" in Ireland, at least when I visited there recently, was nothing like what Americans think of as bacon. It's more like ham. But substituting corned beef is an upgrade, IMO.
Nobody in Iceland eats the fermented shark. We just foist it on unsuspecting foreigners for a laugh.
Ha! I like eating local food, but still was not falling for this one.
Canada’s stereotype buffet: apparently we eat poutine three meals a day, chug maple syrup straight from the tree, and ride our pet moose to Tim Hortons. Reality check: most Canadians barely eat poutine, maple syrup is a once-in-a-while thing, and moose will stomp you if you get too close. Sorry to ruin the fantasy.
Poutine is amazing, fries with cheese curds and gravy, what more can you ask for? Plus, Tim Hortons isn't even Canadian anymore given it was sold to a Brazilian Conglomerate. That's when their quality began to deteriorate, their coffee tastes nothing more that boiling muddy water.
I think in Germany lots of people really do eat stuff like pretzels, potato salads and sausages somewhat regularly (not every week but they are a regular occurrence). However, I know many Germans who really dislike beer and never drink it. Speaking of beer, most Germans have never been to Oktoberfest and don't want to go.
With the caveat of prepackaged waffles, most Belgians don't really eat all that many waffles. All the fresh waffle stands are mostly kept afloat by tourists.
Frog legs? I mean. Frog are better eating up mosquitos than being chased for food. But we do eat snails and they are very good.
With enough garlic and butter, just about any savory food is delicious.
Jellied eels, 99.9% of British people have never had them. They are only found to my knowledge in one area of London.
If what's in the picture is actually jellied eels, I'm not surprised 99.9% of British people have never had them. It looks absolutely revolting.
Yes, we produce a lot of maple syrup and yes, we love it but really there’s only so much you can do with it. It’s not an every day thing. It’s very tasty but also very sweet.
Chicken Tikka masala. Not the main thing in India.
I would love to say surströmming. But people eat that rancid stuff every summer. I don't know why.
It's served on thin bread with boiled almond potatoes, different kinds of chopped onion, tomatoes and crème fraîche, amongst other ingredients depending on what part of Sweden you're from. The bread can be crispy or soft, and like any other food culture, people will die on their preferred hill... The herring adds salt and a hard to describe sensation that for example Jamie Oliver described as "delicious". And don't forget the beer and akvavit (liquor with different herbs) and drinking songs in a beautiful swedish summer garden by a lake together with likeminded surströmming fans and you have an evening to remember for a long time!!!
What I've seen in American Chinese restaurants. Well most of them. No one in China ever heard of general tso chicken.
I personally don’t know anyone who eats spray-on cheese
I’ve had it before, but it’s not something I’d buy. And it doesn’t seem all that popular with people I know. I imagine the only people who eat it don’t care about their health or food quality and have the palates of raccoons.
Edit: Ok so apparently the main (human) consumers of spray cheese are people from Pennsylvania. I’ve never lived there so I didn’t know that was a popular thing.
It's really only good on crisp crackers. Or straight out of the can. Some folks.... IMG_201110...d8462f.jpg
I realize it's regional but when tourists come and try Cincinnati style chili and leave thinking THAT is chili, I get really upset. Cincinnati chili is an abomination and a war crime. Cincinnati isn't even in Ohio. Don't believe me? Fly to Cincinnati and let me know where you land. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
“Canadian bacon”
If you ask for bacon in Canada, you get regular ol, “streaky bacon” from the pork belly.
What Americans refer to as “Canadian bacon” is called back bacon and is a more standard bacon in the UK (and Ireland) and what you get when you order a “Full English breakfast.”
Canadians do have back bacon, but isn’t nearly as common. And when we do have it, we typically cure and prepare it differently, then roll it in cornmeal and we call it “Peameal bacon”.
And peameal bacon sandwiches are delicious.
The stuff in the picture is absolutely not what I would expect as Back Bacon, on Indeed Canadian, as I've seen it in the US. I've seen it in France though, but usually more thinly cut, whereas what I would call (streaky) bacon is just called "poitrine", fumé or not fumé. Clipboard0...7ec039.jpg
I’m Hungarian, and I don’t know anybody who eats goulash regularly. I wouldn’t say that nobody eats it ever, but I really don’t think it’s as common as tourists believe.
Hungarian here. On the photo it's a goulash soup. What tourists call goulash is actually a stew, a saucy meat without vegetables, served with bread or potatoes. The meat can be anything, its the other ingredients and cooking method that makes it a stew (goulash). Personally I make stew about once a month, its a very heavy dish so thats enough...
Curry
Most of India doesn't eat curry all day the food is so diverse every 2
100 km the food changes even languages to.
I don’t think I’ve ever had curry and I’ve lived in India most of my life lol. Also the thing about food and languages is true, we literally have a saying in Hindi “kos kos par badle paani, char kos par vaani” and it basically means that every mile the water changes but every 4 miles the language itself changes
Probably cucumber sandwiches, it’s something a small number of people have occasionally but pretty uncommon.
We don’t eat Schnitzel and Kaiserschmarrn near as much as anyone thinks we do. It’s delicious, but generally a once a week thing, max.
Once a week is a lot! I'm assuming this is Germany. As a member of a tour group, we were fed schnitzel regularly in restaurants and I remember the last restaurant we ate at, we were all like, "Schnitzel again??" and the owner was really disappointed we weren't more enthusiastic about the meal.
Trdelník for 🇨🇿, it’s not even czech but is everywhere in Prague for tourists.
This looks really good, though. What kind of filling is that? Wikipedia says it's Slovakian food.
Not a food a drink. Sangría, people drink tinto de verano which has less alcohol but tastes better imo.
I wouldn't say that nobody in Thailand eats Phad Thai, it's certainly a relatively popular dish.
But certainly not something eaten daily or even weekly for most people here.
Despite being the big dish tourists tend to enjoy, that is on every menu and touristy night market.
The actual local favourite is Kra Pao (Garlic/Chili/Basil Stir Fry) with rice and of course, a fried egg.
I have Thai friends that also operate a small restaurant in our house. If I had to pick one cuisine to eat for the rest of my life, I would be Thai for the diversity
Turkish delight.
Yes, it is sold here, and when it is well-made it is tasty, but it is just one out of a few thousand traditional candies and sweets available, and not remotely the most popular one. Honestly, they are kinda bland compared to the other options. Even candy coated roasted chickpeas probably get more mileage, and those are so old fashioned they have become nostalgia bait.
Surströmming - the fermented herring that comes in a can and smell like a dead body rotting in a sewage. First of all, it’s only a specialty in Norrland, the northernmost part of Sweden where 10 % of the country’s population lives. Second - even there, they eat it once a year.
I literally have no idea what fettuccine Alfredo are and i don't care to waste 10 seconds to check online, but i bet that many people believe it's something we eat regularly.
Deepfried mars bars in Scotland, tbh they deep fry anything here lol....
Deep fried pizza, gads.
I had one at a fish and chip restaurant for dessert once. It's basically a deep fried chocolate bar with caramel inside with a side of vanilla ice cream and it was heavenly.
Mango lassi? Don't get me wrong, we do drink a lotta lassi (in punjab, del) but I haven't really heard of anyone drinking mango lassi regularly.
Mango lassi is amazing during summers though. And there’s a lot of stereotypes about the South as well such as the fact that we all eat only on banana leaves and have idli, dosa with coconut chutney and sambar, curd on everything etc but there’s a lot more variety of foods that varies with each state you go to
The Schabziger. A green cheese (yes, green) that is said to last very long and who has a flavor as strong as Parmesan. Typical east swiss, from the Alps, but I don't know anyone eating it at all.
Sounds interesting, though. But it's not exactly a famous Swiss speciality, is it?
Many people especially in the USA think that falafel and hummus is a Greek thing but we don't eat them in Greece. Like my mum has no idea what these thinks are.
“shrimp on the barbie” it’s legit just not a thing. not sure where the stereotype came from.
"Shrimp on the barbie" was uttered by Paul Hogan in an advertisement for visiting Australia
That deep-fired butter thing kinda looks like smoutebollen (or Oliebollen if you're Dutch). Probably less butter in the stuff we have at our fairs though.
I don't think we have a stereotypical food that nobody actually eats, though. Waffles are genuinely popular to the point we have different versions, we love us some chocolate, beer, moules frites or more standard chips/fries.
Anything you see in the US section of a European grocery store. Except peanut butter. Peanut butter rules.
Although I've only seen it online in pictures of the "American" section of UK stores, the one that makes me "wtf" most is the hot dogs in *jars*. I have NEVER seen them sold that way in the US, only in plastic in the refrigerated meat section. Jars just seem so wrong to me for hot dogs.
In Australia, Fosters beer.
Except my parents because they're migrants (to Australia) who thought that's what all Australians drink. They aren't beer drinkers themselves so they didn't realise that it's disgusting (they only bought it for guests). Once my oldest brother became an adult and learned about beer he told them to stop buying it.
Surströmming. I wouldn't say nobody eats. But only about ish 20% of Swedes eat it "at least once a year". Out of those, half eat it specifically only once a year (a seasonal tradition, eaten the third thursday in august every year). A lot of those will be from the region of Norrland up north in Sweden where it is the regional traditional food.
So 80% of Swedes you meet don't eat it and there is a high likelyhood they haven't even tried it. I have, not a fan. But when prepared and done properly, it is nowhere near as bad as the internet challenges to eat it straight out of the can make it out to be.
Scorpion I guess, every tourist seems to try it but Thai people will not touch it with a 10 meter pole.
Worms are fine, I also eat them from time to time.
Casù Marzu. I’m from Sardinia and it’s very uncommon to eat some but tourists love to pay a lot to have a bite of this cheese ( which is illegal to sell at now).
I asked for Swedish pancakes around Stockholm a few times and everyone looked at me like I was a weirdo. Apparently Swedish pancakes are only for little children and rarely served in a restaurant anywhere.
A what now? OK, a quick search reveals that this is just an American term for thin pancakes such as are common in the UK - just called pancakes or regionally flapjacks - and across Europe as Frenche-style crêpes . Wiki tells me that a real Swedish variation is an oven-baked dish more similar to a Yorkshire pudding than a pancake.
Toast sandwich, I tried it because it’s often brought up on the internet as an example of how dumb British food is (and I did actually think it was nicer than I expected) but no one else I’ve spoken to in the UK has even heard of it, let alone tried it.
I thought that was gulab jamun for a second.
Burritos
I have been looking all over what a burrito is and it matches other Mexican dishes, so I am not sure what is called a burrito.
Burritos are indeed of Mexican origin. Mexican food is not uniform throughout Mexico, so asking one Mexican's opinion is nothing more than a reflection of the food from that person's region. According to most sources,, the burrito originated in Northern Chihuahua (or possibly Sonora), which is indeed Mexico.
Even though lamb is one of our biggest exports it is often quite expensive here and kind of seen as a luxury . international market pressure and our isolation means they're not going to sell it to us cheap( when they can earn more for it by exporting ) and there isn't really cheap imported alternatives. often what is left are the lower quality cuts anyway.
Reindeer meat. I mean, yeah, you can find it in some form in most stores and a lot of restaurants have some sort of reindeer dish or two on their menu. But that stuff is expensive, no one is eating that stuff daily or weekly.
When you are visiting a country, you want to try foods unique to the area. We don't get reindeer sausage in the US. If it's offered as Norwegian street food, I'm eating it.
Im not Thai but it was quite surprising how Thai dont actually eat pad thai that often or ever at all.
Had some for lunch today... With extra peanut sauce and fried eggs. Yum.
I am surprised not one Australian has mentioned Fosters yet.
Not a food but a drink for Turkiye: apple tea! Every tourist who has been there raves about it, meanwhile Turks be like “?????”.
And definitely surströmming for Sweden, which only became a thing outside of Sweden because of social media and internet challenges. I remember getting such a kick out of them bringing it out in an episode of a Japanese variety show (Arashi no Shukudai-kun) in the 00’s, before social media. It was such a novelty then. .
Mainly all the insane fried foods you hear about. Most of those are fair foods. They're absurd novelties that come once a year during special festivities and are actually rather expensive because they're novel. You don't eat it because it's good, you eat it because you won't find it anywhere else and it's the curiosity of it.
Okay, here's a deep, dark secret I have...I have eaten a deep fried Twinkie covered in white chocolate and macadamia nuts. I was at the Iowa State Fair. It was delicious and I regret nothing! And I've never had another one.
I don't really know are there any stereotypical Finnish foods that no one seems to eat but couple of days ago some tourist wrote that Finnish people always do campfire sweet buns on stick. I had never heard about that before. I googled that and apparently some people make campfire bread and sweet buns in many countries, by twisting the dough around a stick. I have visited camp sites several times in Finland and every time people just put sausages and marshmallows to the end of the stick.
It's also popular in the north of Germany. Stockbrot. Literally stick bread.
For Canada I would say beaver tails. I've had them once and it's way too sweet.
I have never heard of deep fried butter when talking about US food. I associate every crazy deep-fried food to Scotland.
In Spain it would be a drink: Sangria. The wine based summer drink that is really much more common is Tinto de Verano.
Most French people have never eaten snails and find the idea off putting. I’m not one of them. I have eaten snails and I’m gonna say it: it’s pretty good.
I'm French and I agree with the first sentence, it's a super hyper gross thought.
Kholodets and rassolnik. It's not that no one eats them (the older generation might), but if they're offered to a foreigner, it's likely a test of their strength.
Honestly, I don't think any of the mainstream foods in the Levantine cuisine are rarely eaten, all of them are regularly consumed
Though there are foods that are commonly eaten in the levant but are not known outside the levant.
I'm not sure how stereotyped it is, but not everyone likes guinea pigs here. It's more of a mountain people food, ans even then, it's something that's eaten in special occasions.
I do like them, tho, even if I'm not from the mountains myself.
Fruit cake. Nobody eats that for Christmas.
Okay, I'm ready for the hate.I love a good fruitcake. Notice I said good admittedly there are some really terrible ones out there.
Deep dish pizza in Chicago.
People in Chicago eat deep dish pizza. Maybe not everyday. But it is eaten. Again, not an uncommon food for people who live in the area.
Beans on toast, people here do eat beans but beans on toast is 100% not a thing like Americans always claim it is, it’s something the older generations ate during ww2 and for a while afterwards when a lot of people were poor, but it’s died out as a common meal and isn’t really a thing anymore. Some people will eat it as a rare nostalgia thing like, and students still do at times, but it’s not some common daily British meal like the Americans think, it’s something people eat very rarely, tastes nice but isn’t a common meal.
Like we do like the taste of beans on toast, it is nice, it’s just not something we all eat a lot like the Americans seem to think, it’s a rare meal people might have just because they feel like it.
Burritos, it's more of a northeners dish, the states at the US border.
I live in Arizona, and tacos seem to be much more popular than burritos here. Having said that, a green chile chicken burrito can be pretty darn good, as are some shrimp burritos.
Probably going to generate some hate here. Hot Dogs aren't as popular in America as people think. In my experience it's almost a 50/50 on whether people like them.
Hot dogs are a pretty well known toddler friendly meat. Especially if you get reduced fat or chicken dogs. And hot dogs are eaten at barbecues all the time. I wouldn't say it's an uncommon American food at all.
I don't know where OP lives, but hot dogs are INCREDIBLY popular where I live (California) and they are everywhere. We even have a hot-dogs-only fast food chain (Wienerschnitzel.) If you're going to the beach, going camping, or BBQing, hot dogs are ALWAYS served XD
wait... you have a hot dog chain named after veal Schnitzel? I would be so disappointed
Load More Replies...Hot dogs are everywhere in the USA. They're sold hot in gas stations, ffs, and are a default option for grilling.
Umm, obviously hasn't heard of "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet". It's rare to find people who don't like them. There are so many varieties. It's an American staple.
I don't generally buy hot dogs for home, but the smell of a hot dog cart on a sidewalk just sets the stomach rumbling. Luckily I live rural so don't encounter them too often. And BTW, have you priced the good hot dogs in stores these days? Yikes!
I'll order a veggie hot dog any and every time if restaurants would make it an option. Veggie chili dog, veggie cheese dog, all of them. I've always loved hot dogs.
Been in USA 15yrs. Every american I've met likes (or LOVES) hotdogs, and they're everywhere.
We eat them all of the time. AND Bratwurst, here at my house. I wish we had hotdogs in jars here in Amerika.
Every American I know eats hotdogs regularly, especially those with kids. I always have them They are cheap, easy, can be added to Mac and cheese, fried rice, canned beans, and when the weather is nice, can be thrown on the grill. Its not about liking them, its about eating them regularly. Eating something once a month is pretty regular, we eat hot dogs or something like it, i.g. corn dogs, about 1x/week.....mainly due to having kods.
Some are better the cheaper the hot the worse it tastes. They are full of filler that gives it a bad taste. That being said I only eat them when im very hungry.
Apparently, they are super-popular in Denmark. So the tour guide in Copenhagen said.
A Danish hotdog is however quite different from the US version.
Load More Replies...
Chili, nobody here eats that, maybe in the northern states but is definitely more of a TexMex (American influenced by Mexican) thing.
Copy/paste from Reddit, so not entirely the fault of Justin!
Load More Replies...I like trying out local foods. However, there are certain specialties I'd still boycott, such as whale meat (Iceland, Japan) or dog meat (if it's even true that people still eat it in places such as Korea?)
When my ex was still my boyfriend, he spent a semester in China while he was in law school (his school had a branch of NAPALSA at it, for Asian/Pacific Islander law students.) He's Chinese himself, but was born in the US (though his parents are immigrants.) The group was staying in the Guangdong province. He said one time he and his group were walking through an area that had a lot of street food stalls, and a vendor offered him some meat on a stick, which he took and ate. The vendor then informed him it was dog meat. Ex said it was tough, gamy, and not tasty at all, though he's not sure it was ACTUALLY dog or if the vendor was just trying to shock him. It's illegal to eat dog meat anywhere in China nowadays except for in the city of Shenzhen (which is in Guangdong) as it's apparently a tradition to do so there. And yes, dog meat IS still consumed in Korea as well, though its popularity is declining as more people come to view dogs as pets. There's even a breed, the Nureongi, specifically bred as a "meat dog". Though, in 2027, it will become fully illegal to breed and s!aughter dogs for meat in South Korea. I'd personally never eat dog meat myself unless it was the literal apocalypse and I had no other food source - and even then, I'd probably die before I ate one of MY dogs. I'd be willing to be THEIR food source before I'd be willing to let them be MY food source XD
Load More Replies...Writer could've excluded those already multiple times listed foods.. In Finland we have this town that is known for (among many things) blood sausage. Yes some eat it there, some regularly but not everyone there likes it, but many "outsiders" always jokes about them eating it all the time. Quite annoying.
In South Africa we absolutely do eat pap en boerewors (corn porridge and long sausage). We also do eat bunny chow (half a loaf of bread filled with curry). Our food is also very diverse and you can get cuisines from all over the world here.
Was wondering when we would appear on the list... but we didn't. Saffa cuisine is popping up a lot in London and we have several decent restaurants now as well.
Load More Replies...im always gonna say im surprised sweden isnt more known for eating sasuages than meatballs. we even have our very own falukorv which we make loads of different cheap dishes with and it tastes great! korv deserves better, away with you meatballs.
What a bunch of "oh no, we don't eat it daily, only every other day"... Dude - every other day is already enough for a typical and frequent.
So many of these are for the same foods. Yes, we get that Chinese food in the US isn't from China. It was created by Chinese immigrants in the US trying the best they could to create dishes from home in 19th century US. Okay, so only tourists eat rancid canned fish from somewhere in Europe. Did we really need 5+ entries on it? lol
Copy/paste from Reddit, so not entirely the fault of Justin!
Load More Replies...I like trying out local foods. However, there are certain specialties I'd still boycott, such as whale meat (Iceland, Japan) or dog meat (if it's even true that people still eat it in places such as Korea?)
When my ex was still my boyfriend, he spent a semester in China while he was in law school (his school had a branch of NAPALSA at it, for Asian/Pacific Islander law students.) He's Chinese himself, but was born in the US (though his parents are immigrants.) The group was staying in the Guangdong province. He said one time he and his group were walking through an area that had a lot of street food stalls, and a vendor offered him some meat on a stick, which he took and ate. The vendor then informed him it was dog meat. Ex said it was tough, gamy, and not tasty at all, though he's not sure it was ACTUALLY dog or if the vendor was just trying to shock him. It's illegal to eat dog meat anywhere in China nowadays except for in the city of Shenzhen (which is in Guangdong) as it's apparently a tradition to do so there. And yes, dog meat IS still consumed in Korea as well, though its popularity is declining as more people come to view dogs as pets. There's even a breed, the Nureongi, specifically bred as a "meat dog". Though, in 2027, it will become fully illegal to breed and s!aughter dogs for meat in South Korea. I'd personally never eat dog meat myself unless it was the literal apocalypse and I had no other food source - and even then, I'd probably die before I ate one of MY dogs. I'd be willing to be THEIR food source before I'd be willing to let them be MY food source XD
Load More Replies...Writer could've excluded those already multiple times listed foods.. In Finland we have this town that is known for (among many things) blood sausage. Yes some eat it there, some regularly but not everyone there likes it, but many "outsiders" always jokes about them eating it all the time. Quite annoying.
In South Africa we absolutely do eat pap en boerewors (corn porridge and long sausage). We also do eat bunny chow (half a loaf of bread filled with curry). Our food is also very diverse and you can get cuisines from all over the world here.
Was wondering when we would appear on the list... but we didn't. Saffa cuisine is popping up a lot in London and we have several decent restaurants now as well.
Load More Replies...im always gonna say im surprised sweden isnt more known for eating sasuages than meatballs. we even have our very own falukorv which we make loads of different cheap dishes with and it tastes great! korv deserves better, away with you meatballs.
What a bunch of "oh no, we don't eat it daily, only every other day"... Dude - every other day is already enough for a typical and frequent.
So many of these are for the same foods. Yes, we get that Chinese food in the US isn't from China. It was created by Chinese immigrants in the US trying the best they could to create dishes from home in 19th century US. Okay, so only tourists eat rancid canned fish from somewhere in Europe. Did we really need 5+ entries on it? lol
