Getting acquainted with traditional foods from around the world can be an exciting experience. Or something absolutely terrifying, depending on your taste buds and, of course, the meal itself. Some cuisines, such as Italian, Mediterranean, or Japanese are praised by people from all over. Others, as you’re about to see, are way less appreciated.
A curious redditor, u/KPH102, recently addressed the 'Ask Reddit' community in hopes to find out which country has the overall worst food. The answers provided not only locations, but some amusing commentary as well, which we put on this list for you to giggle at. Sadly, for some countries, they appeared there quite a few times.
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The Vatican has the worst cuisine. The bread is so flat that you have to wash it down with mediocre wine. And they have outlets for the stuff all over the world.
got the joke, but... The wine used at the Vatican functions is actually very, very, VERY good. There are a few, but the preferred one is a Sagrantino especially produced in a monastery in the small town of Montefalco. It's a ruby red wine, tannic with red fruit and wood undertones. It's very limited in production but can be found for tasting in Umbria with the right connections.... Sometimes, depending on preference, Vin Santo (literally, "Holy wine") is used, an amber-colored liqueur wine tipical from central Tuscany, very sweet with dry fruit and honey notes.
and was mistranslated slightly into English! (like homosexual was never even in the bible in the first language. We can't even know what the word means exactly because the dude who wrote it made it up! It was originally "arsenokoitai" and was only translated into homosexual in 1946)
Load More Replies...Am I crazy for thinking communion wafers are kinda good? Like if they weren't sacred, I would definitely munch on em with some hummus
You'll want the larger size that the priest consecrates - it divides into wedges for maximum scoopage. (Divides into living sections - does that make Jesus Voltron??)
Load More Replies...And it turns out the bread is Jesus’s body and the wine is his blood. Cannibals!!
England. They spent centuries conquering the world in search of spices and decided not to use any of them.
Chicken tikka masala is regularly reported to be our favourite national dish. Basically we went searching for the spices and then invited the chefs over. There is not a village in England without a curry house.
As an Indian, y'all really starved and looted us, destroyed our culture to eat beans on toast?
Load More Replies...Just because a cuisine does not heavily rely on spices does not make it bad. I don't need curcuma on my fish and chips ffs.
While I could criticise England for days about various things after living there, the food isn't one of them. While the "traditional" food was pretty good if you know where to go, the best thing is the variety - go out in most British cities and you could find anything you want, high quality. Trying to find a decent sushi restaurant in Bilbao - much more difficult. Also (and my Italian ex hated this), the best pasta dish I ever had was in a Michelin star Italian joint in London. Yes, even better than my Italian ex's mother's...
Tell me you’ve never eaten in England without telling me you’ve never eaten in England😂
I live in England and use herbs and spices all the time, I hate bland food.
Rubbish. That may be true back in the 60's & 70's but we have some of the best chefs and restaurants in the world now. We are extremely cosmopolitan. Our supermarkets are stacked with all kinds of world goods and the average British person knows their paprika from their Asafoetida. American people are far worse, on average, with their cuisine and understanding of foreign food and spices. The U.K. is in Europe FFS. We have France, Italy, Spain etc on our doorsteps. This OP statement is wrong and silly on all levels.
Lol, Britain takes a small hit on BP, and instantly the response is: "But Americans are worse"! 😂. Just to settle things on the food issue, we're a country made of a massive amount of European immigrants, who brought their cultural traditions and family recipes with them. I promise we have a well developed understanding and appreciation of "foreign food and spices".
Load More Replies...Well, not true. Curry is one of the national dishes of England. Why perfect your own recipes when you can steal everyone else's. Plus, Shepherds pie is amazing.
Our (English) entire culture is based on a combination of theft and stuff left behind by invaders (Danes, Romans, Norman's...). Basically cherry picking.
Load More Replies...probably never been to England, but stereotypes die hard, we also have good teeth.
Obviously never tried Chicken Tikka Masala or a Balti. Both with plenty of spice & originate from the UK.
Unfortunately: Iceland.
I can handle bland or bad food…but when I’m paying 5x normal prices for that same bland food…it just pisses me off.
Iceland was one of my favourite places I’ve ever seen. But the food situation there is brutal.
franknorth2010 added:
Iceland. Ever had fermented shark? Horrible.
Entity0027 added:
If I Recall Correctly, Iceland was the one place Anthony Bourdain couldn't wait to leave. When a guy who made a living eating his way around the world, comes to your nation and concludes even the alcohol is disgusting, there be a lot of problems.
Iceland: Pack A Lunch
I'm sure Icelandic people don't only eat fermented shark. That comes up constantly and it makes me laugh. That's like saying Americans only ever eat hot dogs every day and nothing else.
No, I'm an American, and I can confirm we only eat hot dogs.
Load More Replies...I am lcelandic. We have many truly delicious kinds of food (including better lamb than anywhere else). Tourists, however, will sometimes go straight for fermented shark and then claim to be experts on lceland's "terrible cuisine." It's pathetic, really. Also, nobody actually eats fermented shark.
I promise, I never went for the fermented shark, and aside from a tasty fish stew, the rest of the week was terrible food. In my opinion. Love the country though!!
Load More Replies...We had amazing fish and chips (oddly) at a place called Icelandic Fish and Chips and some incredible noodles near the cathedral. And getting a Hekla pastry at one of the bakeries was also a highlight. But, no, we didn't eat fermented shark nor did we eat poor little puffins.
We had exactly the same experience. Obviously we're now bankrupt, but the food was pretty good
Load More Replies...Naw, this is garbage. I ate delicious food in Iceland: lamb, tomato soup, pastries. I even had a decent bahn mi. They have hot houses with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, etc, all grown with geothermal energy. The food IS expensive, but it was good!
I'm dying to go to Iceland - I'm assuming they have bread? That's all I need.
Right? If there is bread or rice, my stomach will last through an international vacation much longer than my wallet will last!
Load More Replies...I have been to Iceland a couple times... not one menu had puffin, whale, or fermented shark. If you want it, I am sure it can be had - just like horsemeat. But the fish platters I had there were spectacular - seafood, potatoes, and vegetables in a yummy sauce with hearty bread and beer... I could eat that on a regular.
There is actually a really good food scene in Iceland but definitely on the pricier side. I have had some truly excellent meals throughout the island across several visits, though I do avoid the fermented shark 🫤. I tend to go for the lamb or arctic char, however there are a couple of restaurants that have excellent horse steaks, if you are adventurous. I also had some of the best pizza I found anywhere in Europe (outside of Italy) in Reykjavik.
"Technically, all Australian cuisine is prison food" - Jimmy Carr
Is that a nod to the fact that Australia was a penal colony? What about the truly native food the aborigines ate before colonization?
The aborigines effectively became prisoners of the colonists.
Load More Replies...Australia today is such a multi cultural country there are so many cuisines to choose from. I presume this is a supposed joke regarding the first convict settlers.
Coming from a British comedian it most certainly is.
Load More Replies...Rosella jam, emu, crocodile, bush tomato, lemon myrtle. There's a heap of native fruits and spices etc which have only come to the fore in the last decade or so.
Load More Replies...Yeah, no. He was not referring to quality of food, but making a pun about Australia being a penal colony...
With about 130 different nations/cultures living here our food is nothing short of fantastic! Come to Melbourne, the city of food!
There must be a reason why I've never seen a Finnish restaurant outside of Finland.
roygbiv-it replied:
I went out to lunch in Finland. It was a buffet. I s**t you not, everything on the buffet was a form of potato.
Have you tried our potatoes disguised with potato?
Load More Replies...I think I can get on board with Finland-low homelessness, potatoes, general lack of people getting in your space-pretty much introvert heaven.
There's reasons it's won best nation in the world so many times
Load More Replies...Fresh fish from the lake, with new potatoes and butter – doesn't get better than that. But yeah, Finnish cuisine all in all is pretty bland.
I think we heard of spices other than salt and pepper around late 20th century.
Load More Replies...Finnish cuisine is actually pretty good Sauteed reindeer venison with lingonberry? hell to the yes.
As far as I know, there is a large Finnish community in a town here in Ontario with a famous restaurant actually. I think it’s special pancakes people flock there for. My best friend’s parents are from Finland so I got to have treats like meat pies with an almost donut like shell, and a delicious spongy cake with whipped cream, strawberries and bananas. I even know how to say the words. She’s an artist and painted me a Marimekko-like picture of poppies that I’m looking at right now on my wall in bright orange and red. Love Finland and its people!
Thunder Bay has the biggest. Lots of saunas there too which is also a Finnish invention and the only Finnish word that's in global use
Load More Replies...Barley, oats and rye, maybe accompanied with some fish and birds. Well we still do 😁
Load More Replies...
Russia. It's not even a question.
Yzzy1 added:
Never been to Russia, but had dinner at a Russian family's apartment in Israel. They served chicken feet in a jello mold. What the f**k?
Francesca_N_Furter added::
I've never been to Mongolia or Iceland (the clear winners in this thread), but Russian food is the stuff of nightmares. Mystery soups seem to be big there - you will put bones out of several different species, and the flavor will give you no clue to the origin of those bones. I also saw bread that made me think of the war years....seemed to be made of sawdust and plaster.
Russians cuisine is for getting you ready for the cold. It's warm and provides energy. It's not all for me, but there are some dishes I really like. Like the different style of dumplings they have. Or blinis, pancakes filled with minced meat, folded like springrolls, deep-fried. Last but not least, a rice dish called plov. Similar rice dishes in other parts of the world are known as pilaw or pilau.
I've lived my whole life in Russia (Siberia), and I have never seen (let alone had) deep-fried springroll-folded blinis. And I doubt any Russian thinks plov is Russian cuisine, since everybody knows we learned it from Uzbek people. Now, pelmeni dumplings and pirozhki pies, on the other hand, are thought of as truly Russian, really ubiquitous here. Delicious, too!
Load More Replies...Well, I was going to mention borscht, but apparently that originated in Ukraine. I believe pelmeni originated in Russia, though, and those are delicious little pillows of goodness.
I love Borscht 🥰 it's one of my favorite stews that I grew up on (Estonian here)
Load More Replies...The original russian cuisine is lost in history. The communist revolution of 1917 and the WWII killed it.
True. One more thing is that supplement chains changed and an instruction starting "go down to your ice basement and take a lamb's stomach, melted pigs lard and moor flower seeds" puzzles everyone. Some courses were cooked in a russian brick oven for many hours.
Load More Replies...Went to St Petersburg and ate in local restaurants. The food was delicious
it is called kocsonya in Hungary and it is delicioous...not everything is pizza and fried chicken....
Russian food is kinda a hit or miss in my opinion. However, it doesn't taste bad if you have vodka/whiskey apparently, because me and my mother shared some stew and I swear, it tasted like actual s**t, but she loved it.
Yum chicken feet is yummy and Russian food is Devine, I make (and I’m gonna spell it wrong) coolebyeka all the time, so fun, their deserts are amazing too
Totally wrong...That jellied dish is called Kholodetz with gelatin deriving from natural sources, one of those being chicken feet. However, they should never be a part of the dish that is quite savory with a lot of flavor if it is done right. Although, i have to admit it is an acquired taste
Yes it is probably kholodets except we usually make it with pork. Its actually pretty good with some vinegar.
Load More Replies...
I'm a chef, and I've cooked all over the world.
This is my *opinion*, but Norway and Russia have the worst local cuisine.
Truth. I lived in Norway. Had to travel to ENGLAND for a decent meal. England, whose cuisine and feminine beauty resulted in the English producing the finest sailors in the world....
I found a wonderful pie shop in Saint Petersburg . They had tons of choices, all stuffed full of interesting filling, meats, cheeses, fish, eggs. In another place the vegetarian meal was a microwave can of peas and carrots dumped on a plate, could still see the marks from the can.
Russian cuisine is weird. The staples are basically a choice between roadkill-quality venison, watered down soups with overboiled vegetables, or cardboard bread with stuff on it. Then, after you soldiered through the main courses, when you just settled on the preferable alternative of dying on hunger over a few days, they present you with amazing desserts. Makes no sense.
An honest question from a Russian: in what circumstances have you been offered those things you described? Because it sounds like you were a guest to a host that simply doesn't know how to cook/doesn't care about the quality of the ingredients (which unfortunately happens quite often, especially with the older generation), but has a hobby of making desserts.
Load More Replies...Hey! How’s Norways cuisine worse than ours? Swedish cuisine isn’t all that great either, I just want to point out! We have surströmming and everything! I’m sorry, but as a Swede I’m obliged by ancient custom to always low key compete with Norway and Denmark. That’s just the way it is.
I was going to mention watching videos of people eating surstromming...
Load More Replies...The original russian cuisine is lost in history. The communist revolution of 1917 and the WWII killed it.
Scottish cuisine is basically based off a dare.
CharityMacklin added:
I was once gifted a Scottish cookbook and nah I’m good
It's not that bad. For a wee Northern country. Various salmon dishes, Cullen Skink, Arbroath Smokies, Millionaire Shortbread, Whisky, Cranachan, Scotch Broth, Stornoway black pudding, Venison stew, mince and tatties, tattie scone, crispy rolls, lorne sausage. Raspberries and wild strawberries here are amazing. If you are looking only at the sleazy options, fair enough.
Proper scottish haggis. Where I am right now they have this plastic wrapped stuff which has a really moist, soft texture and they sell it at the butchers in slices. It's just wrong.
Load More Replies...A native lady once told me (taking care to speak very slowly because when she talked naturally I didn't understand her) that their national cuisine is taking anything that's available and boil it until it's grey. Then batter it and fry the living daylight out of it. Potentially repeat. I never actually tried anything authentic Scottish while I lived in the UK but this description sure made me laugh.
Funny post, but nae at aa- Ats a buddy that canna cook
Load More Replies...Pizza Crunch. Its really for 3am, your steamin', its January, raining, the nights are 18 hours long, and your starting to go a bit mental. Or for the classy option mixed pakora, with Irn Bru. Ignore the winter. Embrace the sleazy food!!
Load More Replies...I'm Scottish and to be honest, I'm sick of hearing our food is bad. Most of the time the people saying it haven't even tasted any of it. For example- people turn their nose up at haggis but if they tried it without knowing what it was then they would love it. It's so versatile- I sprinkle it on salad and even have it on pizza and it's delicious. We have some of the freshest and tastiest food in our supermarkets.
obviously never tried the stornoway black pudding, square sausage and mortons rolls then.
Surströmming, the fermented fish from Sweden, smells very bad, tastes very salty and fermented, and has a gooey texture. Surströmming might just be the ultimate disgusting food. Disgust has a very important evolutionary function, it warns us of weird foods that could be potentially dangerous or deadly.
Apparently you are banned from bringing tins of this onto a plane in case they explode
That's true. I've been told that the smell is impossible to get rid of - like when you're sprayed by a skunk.
Load More Replies...I have had this. Mind you, I am Italian and I like things like anchovies on my pizza and smoked sardines (*not* on my pizza) very much. This is not that. Swedish fermented fish is nasty, even though the anchovies I like are similar in concept.
It really is delicious eaten the way it's supposed to. Just chewing away on the fish as in every YouTube video is ridiculous.
I worked with a Swedish guy who used to lament about all the ethnic foods. He asked when would it be Sweden’s turn for a day. I told him as soon as he could figure out something besides rotten fish, he could have at it.
I have ate balut eggs, silk worm chrysalis, grasshoppers, ants, a variety of wild life, Korean pickled fish intestines but surströmming has been the only food that I couldn't keep down put me off all kinds of herring. Too bad since pickled herring is served at every, EVERY Swedish holiday feast, and I live in Sweden
And let's be clear, it's only eaten once year at best in very small quantities, by very few people. It's not like the Swedish equivalant to burgers or tacos. Also it isnt my tbing, but it doesnt taste as bad as people say it does. It's meant to be eaten with other things like sliced potatoes on hard tack with some creme fraiche and onions. People arent just dropping it in their mouths with a fork.
Pro tip: don’t get Mexican food in Switzerland
InPredicament4ever replied:
I would expand the scope - don’t get Mexican food in any European countries except Spain.
Don’t do Mexican food in Spain - very different flavour profiles
Of course, they are very different countries with different cultures. Spanish food is fantastic though, as is Mexican food.
Load More Replies...And don't get sushi in Mexico... I don't care if it is in Cabo and the chef looks Japanese... they actually had to hold my flight and the flight attendant told me I could use the restroom even if the seatbelt sign was lit.
Sushi can be very good in los Cabos, lots of fresh fish. Sorry what you ate didn't agree with you shouldn't generalize but from your one experience somewhere in Mexico.
Load More Replies...I got invited to a birthday party at a Mexican restaurant in Berlin. You know the usual "rice and beans" sides? The beans were Hunts baked beans in maple syrup.
I like baked beans and once served them at a bar-b-que where I invited many Mexican friends. They all hated the beans. The general sentiment was, "Beans shouldn't be sweet." The root beer didn't go over well either.
Load More Replies...I have a theory that the further you get from a country, the harder it's going to be to find a decent version of their food. Even just crossing the US the difference is notable. Near the southern border you can find delicious Mexican food anywhere, but up north the authentic options are fewer and far between
Don't get Mexican food anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, or East of the Rockies and the Rio Grande. New Mexico has excellent New Mexican food, and Texas has excellent Tex-Mex food.
Don't get Mexican food in NYC either. Unless some new restaurant has opened up since I've been there. Now their Cuban and Puerto Rican/ Dominican food is the bomb!
Long before the Tex-Mex thing became common in the UK there were actually a couple of decent 'real' Mexican restaurants in London, Sadly I don't think they survived. But Switzerland, yeah, it's bad. Only a couple of decent Indian restaurants in the whole country too.
I used to love Chiquitos as a kid. Colouring sheet, crayons, messy tacos... was awesome
Load More Replies..." People Share What Country Has The Worst Cuisine In Their Opinion " So y'all travelling thousands of miles to Europe for only a couple of weeks in general and whine because you can't get good mexican food !!! OK GOT IT ! pleure-641...b2b013.png
Specific cuisine so not what food you can buy in the country it’s absolutely hands down Dutch food. Boiled potatoes, boiled vegetables, a piece of overcooked meat and some packaged gravy is what most Dutch kids eat 5/7 days a week. The other day it’s bread for dinner(no joke) and Sunday more than likely you’re eating Fries and some other deep fried snacks.
It’s the most underwhelming cuisine I can think of. Granted I have never been to Russia, North Korea or Antartica.
Edit: if we’re counting take out or restaurants then definitely not the Netherlands lol. There’s such a variety of restaurants and the food is honestly great.
NinjaSelect3581 added:
The Netherlands. As soon as I could drive we’d go to Belgium for dinner with my high school class mates.
The biggest problem with dutch food is that it ain't really a dish most of the time. You can make something really nice out of those potatoes, vegetables, and meat however you would need to add something like spices and you know not overcook them
I struggle to come up with a Dutch national dish that isn't a stamppot. Most other dishes are rather regional. For instance, I live in the South, near the German and Belgian borders. You don't get a lot herring here, unless you are buying herring from a tin or jar at the supermarket. On the other side, local traditional food from here like zuurvlees, knien in ut zoer (rabbit stew), tête de veau and koude schotel most likely won't ring a bell for many Dutchies.
What's wrong with an AVG-tje? ;) (lots of people don't like typical Dutch food, it's not true that most kids eat it 5 days a week. However, yes, it's not that interesting).
You can pry my AVG from my cold, dead hands. I'll always be a sucker for it. XD
Load More Replies...I am Dutch. I have never come across anything as revolting as salted herring.
Load More Replies...How do you know what most Dutch kids eat? Potatoes was a main dish thing, but nowadays regular meals are with rice or pasta just as much as potatoes. which are also often fried or mashed. Eating fries on Sunday must be a very local thing - I don't see a particularly large crowd at the snackbar on Sunday. Yes, many families I know eat "easy" once a week (takeout, fries, pizza). But I don't think that's a typical Dutch thing. It's mainly a "I don't want to cook" thing.
My favorites are: * Boerenkool met worst - kale potato sausage bacon bits and gravy * Broodje Bal - meatball sandwich ask with bit of butter and mustard * Kroket/Bitterballen - the best are from Van Dobben * Paling - Eel * Kibbeling - battered cod fried * Pannekoek - Pancake * Erwten Soep - Pea Soup with bacon bits and sausage * Patatje Oorlog - War fries, which comes with chopped onion, mayo and sate sauce If you haven’t tried any of these, i suggest you do
My dad was Dutch and yes. This was how we ate boiled veg, well cooked meat and no spice
Don’t they also eat chocolate sprinkles on buttered bread for breakfast? Like they have huge boxes of sprinkles - probably whole shelves for the different brands and jumbo family sized boxes in the supermarkets. Whom I kidding? I would have loved to try that as a kid.
Cambodia.
Never seen something good from there... But I've seen literal fried spiders...
The deep fried baby bats and the battered scorpions took a bit of getting used to as well.
The way those spiders are prepared is beyond cruel and disgusting... No thanks...
Weird that spiders are getting sympathy from your comment, and yet if a picture of one of them alive on a wall was posted, the sentimennt "Kill it with fire" would be popular.
Load More Replies...Honestly, i loved the fried tarantulas and crickets. Crispy and well seasoned.
You have to consider that there is a difference between a country's traditional "cuisine" and the modern food that you can get in that country.
For example, everyone is talking about how bad traditional English food is, but when you actually go to England, their modern cuisine like Chicken Tikka Masala (probably due to Colonization) is actually pretty good.
A similar example is Japan. Almost all the food that Westerners love from Japan like ramen, teriyaki, okomomiyaki, etc. are modern incarnations. Traditional Japanese food is a bowl of white rice, a few pickles, a bowl of miso soup, and a little fish if you are lucky.
Anyway, from my experience around the world, I would say that the worst food experiences I have had were in Myanmar and the Philippines.
You were clearly not in the right areas in the Philippes, Filipino food is some of the best I've ever had.
I agree! We have a local Filipino shop that has a modest array of prepared foods, and while I don't like all of them, most are great. My friend from the Philippines used to cook dishes from there and bring them in for work potlucks. Wonderful, and always eaten down to the last noodle, rice grain, or crumb.
Load More Replies...Uh… that’s not my experience with Japanese food, but ok. I’ve always loved Japanese
I ate cooked chicken hearts on a stick when I visited Japan and it was surprisingly very tasty!
Load More Replies...Hey, the traditional Japanese food is good too! I love natto (fermented soy beans) and tsukemono (pickled veggies).
Wow that's impressive, my dad eats natto and it'll clear the kitchen from the smell.
Load More Replies...I don't know what cuisine is like in Myanmar itself these days. I've only had Burmese food from local restaurants in the US and it was delicious. I could say the same about Philippino food. I've only had it cooked by friends who immigrated here or in restaurants, but it was lovely. Of course, I'm probably being served special dishes, and dishes that might require the cook to have money and access to ingredients that might be prohibitive to many people in the cuisine's home country.
Not colonization, more like emigration, this whole post is made to cultivate hatred for other cultures, food is subjective, its all about your personal preference, to say a country's food is bad is (in my opinion) to say they have no taste. not a good post at all
Probably had some drunk Filipinos give him balut or tamilok and he REALLY wasn't ready :p
Load More Replies...But... miso soup and pickled daikon are two of the most delicious things on the planet.
I'm Irish, I do plenty of family get-togethers centered around a big Irish table of food, I love it, I love the feeling of sentiment and history. The food is always just a wad of boiled ingredients. We eat it lovingly, and there's nothing wrong with it. But it's not like there's anything *right* with it. SnowMiser26 added: Ireland My grandparents emigrated to the US from Ireland in the 1940s, and holy hell the food they made was godawful. Everything was boiled and gray, there were no spices or sauces, and the only sides were root vegetables. Maybe my experience was unique - please let me know if it is. It's entirely possible my grandmother was just a terrible cook as an individual, apart from her heritage.
Grew up in Ireland in the 70s. A lot of boiled food, ovens are expensive, Ireland was poor. Not sure why we didn't fry much, Maillard obviously never visited Ireland. Things are a lot better now.
Ovens? What's wrong with cooking over a campfire? Some of the best food you've ever eaten I guarantee
Load More Replies...Grandpa used to make corned beef and cabbage I don't know if it is a traditional Irish or not he claimed it was. I loved it.
Irish here; I never had corned beef until I was 20, and visiting Chicago.
Load More Replies...Irish stew and fresh, warm soda bread (no currants) with butter is one of my all time favorite meals. Though I prefer O'Hara's over Guinness. Oh, and Knappogue Castle 14 whiskey... I could live off that combo.
Our local Baker does treacle farls-soda farls made with black treacle. Lovely toasted for breakfast with marmalade on.
Load More Replies...I was going to say the same- my parents would cook like that for us in the 90s (dad still does for himself) because that's what their parents cooked for them. Once my parents separated my mum began branching out which was great.
Load More Replies...We used to have an Irish restaurant here in Detroit in Corktown (old Irish immigrant neighborhood) and they had spectacular Irish dishes. They were smoke-free before that was a thing. The entire interior was wood and windows from an old church that was being torn down in Ireland. They had a map of Ireland over the fireplace made from stones that came from every county. Saw some great Celtic musicians in their lower level. The bartender was awesome and made us feel like we were regulars even though we were only there once a month due to the drive. They were lost to the economy in 2008... I miss Baile Corcaigh.
Butter is the key to Irish cooking. Colcannon-mashed spuds with cabbage and lots of butter, champ-mashed spuds with spring onion and butter. Wheaten bread slathered with butter accompanies most meals, sofa bread and potato bread fried in butter for breakfast. Everything tastes better with added butter.
What butter or whiskey does not cure cannot be cured.
Load More Replies...It's the Isle of Saints and Scholars, not the Isle of Bakers and Chefs for a reason lmao
And my grandmother said they never ate corned beef and cabbage. Beef was too expensive, they ate mutton
Mongolia
Given its harsh climate necessitating a largely nomadic and pastoral lifestyle, just not a lot of crops that could historically be incorporated into traditional meals. So everything is either straight up dairy or meat, with little spices of any kind to add any flavor.
Maverick1-618 added:
"Mongolian is definitely the worst cuisine I have ever had. It’s just fermented horse milk and boiled meat (like mutton and marmots). Vegetables don’t exist and they literally don’t season anything because they don’t have any spices at all."
"I don’t like Russian cuisine (it’s pretty mid) but Russian cuisine actually helps to improve Mongolian food at some of the trendier Mongolian restaurants (which don’t serve pure traditional Mongolian food)."
"Generally, cold places with a lack of access to spices or not much agricultural history make the worst food and Mongolia checks all those boxes. Kazakhstani food is similar, but they have more ethnic diversity so you can get some decent Georgian or Korean hyphenated foods."
I feel like I need to go to some of these places and open a Caribbean restaurant lol
Starting to think that Chang's Mongolian Grill doesn't actually feature traditional Mongolian food...
Explains the Mongolian horde they weren't mean and cruel just incredibly hungry
I lived in Mongolia for seven years and yeah, the food is pretty bad. I used to call Mongolian food "survival food," as in you eat it to avoid dying. Think gristley, chewy meat wrapped in dough and either steamed or fried. That's buuz and huushur, the two most popular Mongolian foods. Mongolians call it "Mongolian national food." What makes it even more depressingly hilarious is that Mongolians who have never been outside of Mongolia think that Mongolian food is the best food in the world.
A lot like my peoples tradition food, it’s not that bad 😂 the alcohol milks are definitely each to their own on preference.
Phew. At least we had agriculture and spices in Sweden, even we didn’t know what to do with them. Probably helped down the line.
I made a Mongolian stew/curry thing once. Beef coated in fermented milk first. It stank to high heaven when cooking, but once it was cooked it was delicious. Didn’t make it twice though
If you used curry, it wasn't Mongolian. Mongolians don't use curry.
Load More Replies...There used to be a Mongolian barbecue restaurant near me-it was a bit like a buffet with large containers of very thinly sluced vegetables and then thinly sliced meats and fish of different types, and then various sauces and spices. You got a bowl, then chose your own selection of veg and meat and flavoured it, and handed it to the chef who stir fried it on a giant griddle very quickly, and served over rice. You were allowed to go back as many times as you wanted (although 3-4 bowls was what most people got through). I doubt it bore any relation to real Mongolian food, but it was very nice.
Mongolian BBQ actually started in the U.S. and it's delicious. It's nothing like authentic Mongolian food.
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North Korea. Cold noodles and whatever the hell pine mushrooms are.
I’ve actually had soju (weak liquor) made in North Korea. It tasted like a cleaner version of the watered down vodka you can buy at gas stations where I live.
These idiots in this thread are making my blood boil. You are eating food in a place that is under a brutal dictatorship and people are starving-- OF COURSE IT IS GOING TO BE BAD.
I've had Soju from South Korea. I liked it fine. The liquor store near me sells an Asian Pear Soju, which is okay. I still prefer Sake though.
Soju has become very popular in Melbourne in recent years. Partly because it's cheap, but I like the taste too. Sake I wasn't all that fussed about but my siblings both love it.
Load More Replies...Soju is the world's best selling spirit so they must be doing something right.
I thought you were going to say it tasted like cleaning fluid, and I was going to wonder why you ever tasted cleaning fluid.
Aren’t the poor people there basically starving? Like having to forage for food like wild turtles I read somewhere? Very sad how that crazy a*s dictator controls so much.
Grape soju, mango soju, and blueberry soju from South Korea are really yummy!
I like the green apple one, but now I'm going to have to find a grape one.
Load More Replies...I won't say it's the worst but I grew up my entirely life thinking I liked Chinese food. After dating a woman from Shanghai for 3 years I can now honestly say that I do not like Chinese food. Anyone that grew up on a western diet and abruptly switched to eating authentic Chinese food on a regular basis knows exactly what I'm saying.
Chinese food as sold in western restaurants has been modified to local tastes and quite different to what Chinese people eat at home.
That's why Chinese food in the u.s. is completely different than the stuff they sell in Europe
Load More Replies...Authentic vs fast food versions are always so different, even with Indian food.
To say 'chinese' kitchen is like to say 'european kitchen', they have so much variety and it is the most sophisticated cuisine there is.
I didn't want to go to China because the food in American Chinatowns is so disgusting, with the meat battered and fried and then swamped in a sugary, artificially-colored sauce. I went anyway and THE FOOD WAS BRILLIANT. Mmm ... handmade noodles, Peking duck, Szechuan anything. Now I'm dying to go back.
Yeah, I'm sure people who go to China having only eaten "Americanized" Chinese food are going to be surprised that it's nothing like what they are used to.
Load More Replies...I've had good Chinese food here (USA) and in China. The sweet / Cantonese style stuff is popular in the US but they have a lot of good food in addition to some weird. China is so huge with different style regions I don't think you can eat Chinese food from one area (e.g. Shanghai) and say you don't like Chinese. For anyone interested - link has a map showing roughly the different food regions / descriptions. https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/cuisine_drink/cuisine/eight_cuisines.htm
A Chinese friend told me that most of the dishes served in the European/US restaurants don't actually exist in China. I don't imagine kids over there are having General Tso's Chicken for dinner. :)
Real Chinese cuisine is a bit hardcore is you are not used to it. I wish I could have stayed longer there to start enjoy it
Yeah, I'm not sure my mouth could ever get used to the amount of spices. :)
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Antarctica. Just those disgusting meat paste pouches
Walrus- or seal- blood popsicle ... penguins are rumored to be tough and chewy.
Load More Replies...LOL! I don't think you can count this region of the world as having a "cuisine". People actually need to live there in order to cook traditional meals.
Umm that's Swedish soft cheese not Antarctican meat paste or whatever. Ost means cheese. Its clearly labelled on the tubes.
Considering only scientists are allowed on this continent, and then only temporarily, I'm not surprised that the food supply is lacking. It's probably as varied as what they get on the Space Station - tubes of whatever....LOL!
Ummm, I think those are Swedish spreadable cheeses in this photo and not meat paste...
Kenya. Poor refrigeration meant that meat was often cooked until extremely chewy. I lost so much weight in the six months I lived there.
Disagree. A well cooked plate of ugali (cornmeal), spinach and fish or meat with a tomato based sauce, eaten outdoors with friends and a supply of White Cap (other Kenyan beers available) is heavenly.
OMG thank you! I loved the food in Kenya. All the different cuisines I had in East Africa are fantastic. I still think Ethiopia is my favorite though.
Load More Replies...Cant agree i'm afraid - traditional Kenyan food depends on where you are as there is geographic and tribal differences. But when i was there, outside the big cities, it was fresh and tasty - often rice based, maybe a bit simple, but tasty. also, with regards to freshness and meat, i once saw a small goat being taken round the back before appearing on my plate and another time a crab being taken out of the harbor and brought into the restaurant - you don't get fresher than that!
That's true. In the big cities you get lots of variety. When i was up north, it was much simpler food. Still very good, but lots of rice and grilled or stewed meat. Nairobi is where I spent most of my time though (gov contract).
Load More Replies......imagine vegetables are also an option... (Waits to be downvoted)
Makes me wonder what daily meals look like in Kenia?
Load More Replies...My home sweet home, traditionally, meat is cooked on fire known as "nyama choma" and its the most tastiest meat you'll ever enjoy, with a plate of fresh salads etc. there is nothing like poor refrigeration !
Nyama choma, couldn't remember that second word. It is good. I remember it well, it melts in your mouth like butter. There was a mashed potatoes thing i had in Nairobi that had corn and beans in it that was so good too. I can't remember the names anymore. It's been 20 years since I was in Kenya. It's just a magical place.
Load More Replies...yess absolutely with the local made salad kichumbari and masala, yummy 👍👍👍
Load More Replies...There is more to it. Nearly every African person I have worked with in the kitchen demands their meat be.cooked to shoe.leather. it's not just poor refrigeration, anthrax is also an issue among other things like parasites etc.
So you went to Kenya 🇰🇪 and ate meat for 6 months? Pants on fire..Kenya's cuisine is very versatile..And being a Kenyan and a chef for that matter, I should know..
Worst I experienced as a national cuisine - Kazakh. There are good restaurants there, but they are more Uzbek, Uighur or Dungan.
I am not a fan of boiled meat, especially if it is horse; fermented horse milk, or dried fermented milk. There are a few dishes that are ok, but the lack of strong spices or seasoning make this something I don't enjoy much.
That said, I always eat it when we go to family events with my wife (from KZ!) - I respect the culture, but it is not something I would ever actively choose to eat!
guessing they are talking about powdered fermented milk?
Load More Replies...Not a country, but speaking as a snobby east coast native, the U.S. state of Minnesota has the overall worst food I've personally experienced. It's all like weird bland casserole "hotdish"; "salads" made with stuff like jello, marshmallows, canned pie filling, and Cool Whip; and Swedish cultural holdovers like lutefisk (dried whitefish brined in lye). Also, people just really aren't into veggies there! Even at nicer restaurants, I've never had a dish where I was like: "Wow, this was amazing! I'll have to come back to this place." Restaurant food ranged from "pretty good" to "tolerable." Oddly, though, the food in neighboring Wisconsin was great! Still, after reading this thread I think I would rather dine in Minnesota vs. Iceland or Mongolia. ETA: I just remembered...if you're vegetarian, in parts of Minnesota, you really have to double-check to make sure that baked goods aren't made with lard! I once got sick after eating a doughnut I later found out was fried in lard. One bakery I encountered even used lard to make their cake frosting.
I went to Wisconsin while on Keto. I had the choice to either go off my diet... or starve. (I chose Option A lol) Not a lot of healthy options out there, but definitely a few tasty dishes.
I live in northern MN, I hate all the things you mentioned above, I never tried the lutefisk because it looks and smells like evil. It sounds like you spent all of your time here at an american legion potluck, and for that I feels sorry for you.
As a Wisconsinite, I absolutely agree with this. We make everything better with cheese. :)
This is interesting to me. I'm a native Californian who lived in Wisconsin for over a decade and spent a lot of time in Minnesota. In the larger cities in both places, restaurant food is excellent. In the smaller towns, not so much. Madison WI has the highest number of restaurants per capita in the US, and several James Beard award winners. But home cooking and the stuff brought to potlucks is an entirely different animal. I saw some seriously weird stuff: "salads" with marshmallows and fruit cocktail, casseroles with pickle juice and cream of mushroom soup, appetizers that were nothing more than finger-sized sausages in a slow cooker with grape jelly (no, I'm not kidding). I gained 15lbs the first year I lived in Wisconsin because of the abundance of fried foods and cheese, whereas on the West Coast I ate a lot of sushi, Thai food and fresh fruit. Interesting to compare notes.
I'll never order another grilled cheese in Wisconsin because they seem to believe a grilled cheese sandwich consists of all the cheese in the world. Complete cheese overload, and I love cheese. One of the cheeses wasn't even melted. Not enjoyable. A soggy, stringy, greasy mess.
You clearly weren't eating in the Twin Cities. I mean, rural Minnesota is terrible, but that's gotta be true of rural anywhere - Minneapolis/St Paul is an amazing place to eat (speaking as a lifelong (47yr) vegetarian.
A lot of Midwestern cookery is recombinant cuisine. Add a can of this to a box of that and top with a bag of tater tots.
A friend moved to a house in Manteca, California, and asked him he liked living in Lard.
Ah, lutfisk (without an “e” here). The scourge of our nation every Christmas.
I don't know about the rest of Canada, but Quebec's everyday cuisine was pretty much boiled meat and potatoes and shepherd's pie until the 1970's, when the province underwent a foodie revolution fueled in part by immigration and in part by the increasing sophistication of cooking shows.
Boiled meat? I've lived in this province my entire life, and I honestly don't know one person that boiled their meat. Quebec traditional meals are tourtiere, pâté chinois, creton, pea soup and lets not forget the wonderful poutine and none are made with boiled meat. As for the boiled potatoes, well, how elese are we going to make mashed potatoes.
I'd agree if it was Quebec circa 1650: Jellied moose nose, literal beaver tail....
Mums side is Scots Canadian. My Grandfather used to "roast"...aka boil lamb in a covered roasting pan til it was Grey, then toss in canned veggies, taties & cook it some more until all had reached maximum greyness...This was Ontario, Quebec had French influence, Ontario hardscrabble.
Other than a few regional snacks and poutines, if you want real, authentic Canadian cousine you'll have to find Native chefs. If you go up north, in the territories they eat raw caribou meat, fish and whale blubber. I've not tried it but I hear it's an acquired taste. But it's likely the most affordable thing to eat considering other foods have to be flown in, and that triples the price of what you would be paying in the southern provinces.
Years ago I went to a Somalian restaurant with an African friend. They had some sort of…soup….that was basically liquid grass fat. Ugh.
Never been to Somalia, but when I was in Kenya, one of my coworkers was married to a Somali woman. Went to their house and had some traditional soup from her home, and I enjoyed it very much. Not sure what was in it, didn't ask.
Disagree. I LOVE Somalian food. eaten at quite a few Somalian restaurants but I'd imagine that's not their everyday food
I got stuck on that too. Grass has never given me the impression of being very fat, in general.
Load More Replies...Somalia is a desperately poor country. Hence the pirates trying to make money by hijacking ships.
New Zealand is pretty sh**t. Everything is borrowed, and the native cuisine is just meat and vegetables cooked in the ground. We don’t seem to have a defined dish or taste.
Um, crayfish and seafood are our "native food" too if hāngī is not to someone's taste. A lot is from around the world, but we have great fresh ingredients, good wine, good coffee, craft beers, cheese, chocolate. I really don't know what this person has been eating.
Grass fed beef, lamb and venison too, without growth hormones and antibiotics. Plenty of wild meat if you're a hunter. Veggies grown without chemicals. Fresh caught seafood and fish. Just taking a walk down to the local beach/seashore and casting a line to literally catch your dinner.
Load More Replies...I like that we don't have a national cuisine. I get to pick the best dishes from around the world every week.
I read in John Cleese's memoirs that he and others were touring New Zealand, and one of them ordered an omelette with three eggs. The waiter looked at him strangely and asked several times if he really meant that. Finally he brought in - an omelette with three fried eggs on top.
I mean, you could say the same about Australian food, but that doesn't make it bad. Even our purely national food is disputed by New Zealanders as to origin.
I was there about 20 years ago, so maybe things have changed a bit, but NZ food was a bit odd. I got served pizza that had brocoli and cabbage on top-edible, but odd. The only thing I couldn't eat was whitebait sandwiches-apparently it was a local delicacy and was served with the whitebait lined up and fried with egg to make an omelette sort of thing, and put between two slices of squidgy white sliced bread. I couldn't face all those little fish heads looking at me. But they've got some amazing baked goods-their cakes and biscuits/cookies were lovely.
I had some truly terrible food in Ukraine, particularly in the Chernobyl exclusion zone workers cafeteria, which we were kindly allowed to use when touring. The best food I had there was in Kyiv in an Indian restaurant!
I am wondering what this person was expecting before using the workers cafeteria of the Chernobyl exclusion zone
I ate in the Chernobyl workers cafeteria and even our guide couldn't identify one of the ingredients. The group consensus was that it may have been a chicken at some point.
Load More Replies...That is a picture of borscht. Borscht is DELICIOUS, especially with sour cream and a little fresh dill.
Love borscht. Anyone care to share an authentic recipe? I've had only at restaurants here in New York and it was delicious and I would love recipes
Load More Replies...I'm not sure if it is still there given current events, but there is/was a restaurant next to Kyiv main rail station called Mafia. Amazing food of all descriptions.
Ukrainian food is amazing! Borscht, those little yeast pancakes, vereniki (which are like little dumplings with sweet cheese or jam) nalesniki (they are thin crepes filled with sweet cheese and are eaten with jam and sour cream) and my grandma makes this delicious honey cake that's sweet and spongey with just the right amount of honey flavour
Ukrainian food is f*****g delicious. What are they on about? It probably wasn't made right what they had.
That cantine is infamous! But honestly, Ukrainian food is bland. But you can (could) get really good Georgian food in Kiev
One of the most disgusting dishes I’ve ever had was from Nicaragua, called “Indio Viejo” which literally translates to “Old Indian”. It’s a stew made out of fermented corn and shredded beef. I’ve had some nasty s**t before, but this tasted like carcass.
Sounds like the name of the dish is a warning. Or a description of the main ingredient…
Thanks, I really needed to snort coffee today....
Load More Replies...I looked online because for me this dish sounded like Chicha (traditional Latin American drink made of fermented corn) turned into a soup. But all the recipes I found for Indio Viejo have normal corn, it is not fermented. I know Latin American dishes are sometimes hard because we usually put A LOT of stuff in them. So I completely understand why this person didn’t like it. But it sounds like a normal stew with a lot of ingredients.
Not having tasted a (human) carcass, I will have to take your word for that
Just about everywhere I've been in Sub Saharan Africa had some offerings that were pretty unappetizing to me. A lot of pasty starches and stews, some of them rather funky. Perhaps acquired tastes I didn't spend enough time acquiring
I think the pasty starches referred to would be things like ugali/pap/sadza (maize meal or sorghum based) and fufu (cassava based). Lol. They're pretty much like rice or potatoes to folks in most of Africa.
Another person who thinks that anything but Americanized bland food is yucky. I've had Somali food, Ethiopian food, Nigerian food, Ghanan food, and more. Some when I visited, others at restaurants that cater to immigrants from those countries. It's not typical European tastes, but it's all pretty good to excellent.
One of my friends is from Nigeria and I can't wait until they take me try Nigerian food and some of their favourite restaurants.
Load More Replies...There are 54 countries IN Africa. If you could understand how large Africa is . . . you can fit in the U.S., China, India, Japan, Mexico, and many European nations. To say there is a specific "African" cuisine is ridiculous.
I guess so, there's some great food there. Nothing better than Egusi soup or Banga soup with Amala, pounded Yam or Garri.
It happens. If you travel to a different continent, where they serve food to which your palate is not accustomed to, you might find the culinary experience underwhelming. The same is probably not true for the people who live there.
I looked at booking a week in Kyrgyzstan a couple of years ago and the consensus was that the food is pretty terrible. I still haven’t been but by the sounds of it they could be in with a shout.
I've wanted to go to Kyrgyzstan forever. The food wouldn't be a deal breaker unless I HAD to drink fermented mare's milk. Just thinking about it...NOPE! And I'll try almost anything once.
So, just to clarify. . . You realize you didn't have to specify "mare" right? Could've just said horse
Load More Replies...I wasn't a huge fan of the food in Myanmar. But it was interesting.
Everything is edible. Some things only once. T. Pratchett
Load More Replies...We used to do an international food day at the school I teach at. Consistently, the one cuisine that was inedible was that from Myanmar. The smell alone - like you were sealed inside a fish sauce fermentation vat! The visuals - are those tentacles from an Octopus or from a Shoggoth? The feelings afterwards, like you ate a pound of sugar free gummi bears. Just....no. No.
I had lovely food when I went there for two weeks, but I didn’t eat any street food, as I was worried about getting ill.
Out of the countries I’ve visited, Tunisia was the worst.
It’s probably prudent to answer this question if you’ve actually tried the cuisine, which I suspect a lot of people haven’t, looking at the answers
No, disagree on this one. Great mix of French, Italian and North African cuisine.
I've eaten Tunisian food. A had many friends in Israel whose parents were immigrants from Tunisia. The food was excellent. I would guess that the OP doesn't eat much except Americanized pizza and other fast food.
Also disagree - chicken cooked in a hard pastry shell (which is discarded) and a wonderful vegetable cous cous. Perfect.
Some items on this list are really weird. Just because one person's taste disagreed with a certain dish they had in a certain country does not mean that all food there is generally terrible.
The Tunisian Cafe I go to is delicious. Shares a lot in common with Moraccan food I've had. Have also been treated to food by Tunsian Jews in Israel and it was fantastic. I've never been to the country or region itself, but in general I've found North African cuisine to be quite enjoyable with some crossover with other parts of the continent as well as mediteranian and middle eastern cuisine. Not to mention the influence from French colonization (I know, colonization is bad, but it did great things for food). Pretty awesome mix in my opinion.
For the places I've been:
Colombia is the worst overall. Not saying there is bad food there, but next to other countries I've been to (20) it's just not good. It seems that all the restaurants there are just hamburgers and pizza, with some empanada or arepa street stalls sprinkled around. Went to San Andres Island and all of the Ceviche street stalls would smother the amazingly fresh seafood with ketchup. From what I have experienced, Mexico has the best food in Latin America, but I'm really looking forward to Peru. No cuisines measure up to what Asia has to offer though.
Sounds like that person only went out for Streetfood but never bothered to learn about the local cuisine?
What I find most surprising about Peru cuisine is they proudly grow thousands of potato varieties, but I never tasted one that would be even remotely nice. All of them tasted like wet flour. They also eat guinea pigs, not that I had the heart to try. Guinea pigs are pets where I come from.
yes, yes, and yes about the potatoes (and corn)!...the guinea pig isn't that bad...and i do like how it seems to always be on the plate in front of christ in the last supper murals in the churches..like guinea pig is kosher!
Load More Replies...I loved the food in Bogota. So many great places. I lived in Mexico for many years, and the food there is great, but I prefer the southern cuisine to the northern. Particularly yucatec food is so good. Guatemalan tamales are one of the best dishes in the universe. But I think my favorite food in Latin America is probably a tie between Cuba and Argentina (very different cuisines but both are excellent). Cuban food is more like the food in my country (Brazil), but they do magical things with plantains. Argentinian food is very influenced by Italian immigrants, but then they have this steak that is so good it makes me cry.
i feel the same about peru...if you eat where the rich or tourist eat maybe it is good...but i had only a little money and ate with the locals...not good...bland and unseasoned small waxy potatoes and large-kerneled but starchy corn...over cooked guinea pig and llama's foot soup...no flavor and just not good...they may have the "orginal" potatoes and corn, but thank god for cultivation...i could eat "modern" corn and potatoes with nothing added...but not this stuff....had a few decent meals in lima but it really wasn't what the vast majority of peruvians eat
Peruvian food is the best in Latin America. I love the different Mexican cuisines, but I still think that Peruvian is better.
that isn't saying much about the cuisine in south america then
Load More Replies...Pechuga Con Salsa De Champiñones (chicken breast with mushroom sauce) is a common Colombian dish that is one of my favorite dishes of any cuisine!
There is a Peruvian restaurant near where I live and the food is pretty amazing. A weird mix of different cuisines, since Japanese stayed there quite a bit) but reall tasty.
the peruvian food served in u.s. restaurants is NOT the peruvian food eaten in peru
Load More Replies...Cuba has some of the worst food. There is a lack of high quality ingredients. One particular meal was accompanied by a side salad made entirely of raw cabbage with a vinegrette that consisted of white vinegar and canola oil. I ate a hamburger from a government run burger joint and the texture of the patty was dubious to say the least. Most of the food was bland, poorly seasoned and improperly cooked. Government pizza and pasta places have such an array of toppings as cheese, processed ham, onion or some combination of the three. The pizza is essentially doughy bread. But I did go to place that served pizzagetti - a pizza topped with spaghetti (and some variation of the three toppings). Suffice to say any thoughts of great Cuban food is more likely to come from Miami than Cuba. bjeans_1945 added: We went to Cuba for 15 days. We were very surprised that the foods were so bland. No spices! The only decent meal we had was at the Evan Chef restaurant. Probably because he, Evan, was Fidel's chef. There was a root vegetable with the consistency of a potato. It was Gray and tasted like it looked- like rot. Butter is very scarce. Coffee is the best- it's very Strong. No one drinks the tap water. Bottled water served at the Casa Particulares (think B&Bs) we were allowed to stay at.
"There is a lack of high quality ingredients" my man you know that Cuba is incredibly poor, right?
The starchy vegetable you were seved was probably Yuca. It's like a very rich potato, usually a bit tangy - it's one of my favorite. And I suspect that the problem with the cuisine is that Cuba is extremely poor, and embargoed by a lot of nations, largely because of pressure from the US. People have been struggling for generations.
So no Jibaritos, or Ropa Vieja? they only ate pizza a burger and a salad? cmon man
I adore the food in Cuba. Not sure what this dude is talking about.
Im pretty sure Cuba is the way it is now because they're trying to keep their citizens in check 😬
financial hardship will bring the level of food down...but cuban food cooked by a cuban in miami...will make you weep...very much like puerto rican food (which a cuban would fight you over saying)...but both are delicious cuisines
Typical idiot American..."hee haw dang, i went to foreign country and ate only pizza and hamburger..." Jog on
Brazil. I spent three months there and literally everything tasted like a*s. Even the best pizza tasted like American cheese on white bread.
I don't get all these posts about the pizza from various countries being bad. If you go to Brazil, Cuba, etc and your go-to is pizza, or (insert any dish you enjoy in your home country), you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Ask the locals what they eat, and where the best places to go are.
So São Paulo is actually quite famous for their pizza. Southern Brazil and Argentina, both had huge waves of Italian migration in the 19th century and into the 20th century. It was large enough to influence our languages (the Portuguese spoken in Brazil is very sing-songy, and has a similar cadence to spoken Italian). So there is a heavy influence also of Italian cuisine, particularly in the South East. So you have these Portuguese and Italian influences, and you get a very local Pizza Paulista. It's very good, but it's different than the pizza of Italy.
Load More Replies...Ai. No way. Our food is excellent. But it's quite varied, we're a big country you know. In my town, Rio de Janeiro, you get fresh seafood that's so tasty. You go to the little bars on the beach and have barbecued fish right out of the ocean. The steak from the south is so good. And in the north we have all of those African spices and dishes, that can't be beat. I've never been to the interior, and don't know their cuisine, so maybe that's not so good. Also, we never use American cheese on anything. The pizza in São Paulo is excellent. Then we have pão de queijo and empadões which have that combo of sweet pastry and salty proteins. Bolinhos de bacalhau which are like crab-cakes but made with salted cod. The only thing that may be an acquired taste I think is Farofa (which is a toasted cassava flour which some people like to add to their rice and beans dishes). Speaking of toasted, toasted coconut desserts, and lots of treats made with dulce de leite (condensed milk) like brigadieros!
I can't imagine any place in the whole of Brazil where food is constantly as bad as this. There are hundreds of local dishes for all tastes. Pizza is Sao Paulo is one of the best in the world! Street food is sensational as well.
Yeah! I was friends with someone who lived in Brazil and moved her to the US and we went to her house and had some food and it was some of the best I ever had
Load More Replies...Maybe try the local food, I'm sure if OP tried the native foods of Brazil, rather than a food that originated thousands of miles away? (Not that that matters much)
What an complete whiner. Why in the world are you eating pizza in Brazil when you could be trying some of their traditional dishes like Feijoado?
Pizza Portuguesa and Pizza de Frango e Catupiry are both traditional dishes in the south east of Brazil. Catupiry is a mild spreadable cheese, and may be an acquired taste for foreigners. São Paulo has the city with largest Italian population in the world, outside of Italy. And so there was a mixture of cuisines over the last 100 years, and you get a very traditional Brazilian pizza. Pizza Portuguesa is an example of this. It's a traditional Italian type pizza but it will ham, sausage, onions, olives, and hard-boiled eggs. It can also sometimes have corn or peas (I don't like it with peas). So, it's not so strange that you would go to my country and have pizza. Especially if the OP was in São Paulo, but even Rio de Janeiro has some Brazilian Pizza places. There's also a very large Japanese population in Brazil, so our food has been heavily influenced by the Japanese as well. Like the Temakerias, which are like brazilian-sushi-fast-food places.
Load More Replies...You went to Brazil and ate Pizza, this is entirely on you. Authentic Brazillian food is fantastic. feijoada, pão de queijo, moqueca de camarão, Vatapa, Paçoca... I love the Brazillian restaurant in my hometown, and I bet the authentic thing is even better.
All things my grandmother would make (except paçoca which is really just a candy). There's a company that makes the candy Paçoquinha, that you can find in the US. It's been a long time since I went home. This talk about food is giving me saudade. My grandmother's best dish was a seafood feijoada, that she would make with fish, clams, and sausage. It was very good (kind of a cross between a moqueca and feijoada)
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Hands down. Philippines.
I’ve tried so many times to like it but it’s just too damn sweet. There’s no umami in their cuisine in general.
But then I’ve tried the fried chicken skin and lechon and it’s always been so over salted that it’s inedible.
I really want to love it because there’s so many Filipinos in my country and they’re amazing but honestly …. Wouldn’t want to be invited to dinner.
It’s bad. Doesn’t work with my pallet.
Disagree. I like Filipino food. Not top nation in the world for me but far better than other stuff mentioned in this thread. And much of it isn't sweet. Also not always that salty if you don't want it to be. Rice and roast pig are both pretty plain. usually served with some soy sauce w/ little chilis in it. Source - I've been there several times (Olongapo and Cebu areas) and Filipino social events here in the states due to my brother is married to a Filipino woman.
Wow, what an absolutely nasty comment. It is alright not to like a cuisine, but to call someone's traditional food a disgrace is pretty darn cruel.
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Hungarian food. I worked there for 6 months and the canteen had a stew consisting of chicken, peaches and vinegar. One day they served what I thought was lasagne. It’s was actually glass noodles in ketchup with cottage cheese on top. Another day they served spaghetti with butter, sugar and cinnamon. I ended up going to a Chinese restaurant where they put your cold food on a plate and microwaved it in front of you. It’s was far better than the canteen.
I dont know what you did eat there, but that is not hungarian food. I am hungarian and stew with vinegar and peaches are unknown to me. Glass noodles, ketchup and cottage cheese? I thouhgt you would say its gross that we have a pig feet stew, or pig jello. But none of the above mentioned food are vaugely hungarian...
pig jello is pretty common in the southern United States and Caribbean too. It's called Saus Loaf in the US. I am not a fan.
Load More Replies...I'm afraid you have been pranked. Or you're mixing up your countries. I've been to some of the pretty lowest "canteens" in Hungary and none of them would've served sh** like that. Hungary's traditional cuisine is deeply rooted in poverty and farming, meaning we're extremely good at making very filling and delicious food out of very few basic ingredients. Lard bread with onions is a good example, it's really simple, maybe doesn't sound good on paper, but it is lovely and fills you up. Most of our signature foods are comfort foods. We also don't usually mix fruit and meat unless it's game, and that would be very expensive, so not something you find in a canteen. Glass noodles are obviously not part of our traditions, even though you can find it in oriental shops nowadays. We have something similar to angel's hair, caller "thread noodles" , but they go into meat broth, not eaten on their on. We do have very simple pasta dishes like just grits on pasta with sugar, but none of them have cinnamon in them. So nothing you've eaten was "Hungarian" . It's like me going to Botswana, have a frozen meal prepared by a Finnish expat who only had access to beer and baking powder, and then making judgment on the "local food" .
You were eating in a crappy canteen, that has nothing to do with amazing Hungarian cuisine. Are you honestly saying that is the only "Hungarian" food you've had for 6 months being there? I'm sorry but, you sir, are an idiot.
Ok, but is canteen food an accurate representation of a country's cuisine? I feel like sometimes folks need to give countries a proper chance to showcase what they can do!
Ketchup isn't a thing we have in my country. The first time I tried it, I thought, why did you ruin these perfectly good tomatoes. It is horrible.
Agreed. Ketchup is VERY popular in my country, but I don't get why. It's vile stuff.
Load More Replies...Hungarian food is much more than this, maybe one shouldn't judge it based on a centeen :D At least, that canteens are very bad here, it's true :D
Hungarian food is awesome ... This guy complains about some weird canteen, that doesn't actually serve Hungarian food...donkey
As an American I'd prefer foreign food.
That's fine because there's no shortage of that here either. Say what you will about America but one thing I feel we excel in is food and consumption, which is not necessarily a good thing. The variety of food choices available to us is ridiculous. Our grocery stores are the size of factories.
This country is 416 years old (counting from the first English settlement in 1607). That's probably half the age of most European countries. Also due to the fact that this land was colonized by Europeans whose first and foremost task was to eliminate the First Nations' culture including cuisine it's not a big surprise the our food is mostly based on old European dishes
I didn't learn until I was older that most of my favorite "Italian", "Mexican", "Chinese", and other dishes were actually American. But I also love BBQ, soul food, cracker (this is a legit SE US culture - not a racial slur) food, New England seafood, geez there are so many choices thanks to the vastness/variety of the landmass and abundance of resources! But everybody's welcomed to their own opinion!
Everyone has their own pallet from what they grew up eating, so it's hard to say who has the best cuisine. As a US American, I do love my Tex-Mex, BBQ, and a lot of Americanized dishes from other countries. To those countries, the Americanized version may be an abomination but GIMME MORE OF IT!
Not all of it. We do eat a lot of foods the Native Americans hunted, grew, and cooked. Corn, beans, squash, pumpkin, venison, turkey, etc are all native to North America.
Load More Replies...You DO realize we have Natives here in America, right? They are hardly "foreign" and have some absolutely delicious dishes and recipes.
Load More Replies...Austria is pretty bad.
I strongly disagree. The austrians really know how to cook. Especially the sweet dishes are fabulous. Have you ever tried Kaiserschmarrn?
Seriously. No. Austrian food is one of the best I've ever tasted and in my top 3.
Load More Replies...Dumbest comment I have read this year so far. If there's history behind something, there's a certain culture behind it. If you like it or not is a whole other story.
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Can't say overall.
But for my tastes Thailand.
I cannot even eat a tiny bit of spice.
100% percent. I spent time in Thailand and the food there is SOOO GOOOD!!!. Perhaps best in the world.
Load More Replies...That's just a personal preference, not the general opinion on Thai food, which is generally very well regarded.
At least they did specify "for my tastes" and admit they can't handle "even a tiny bit of spice." Because of that though, this person is probably not the best reviewer of food
Load More Replies...I love Thai food. I do like spices but Thai food doesn't have to be hot/spicy.
If you order something in Thailand which says it has chilli in it, you better prepare for chilli!
Load More Replies...I feel like OP shouldn't have given an opinion based on spice tolerance... Honestly, this thread is totally opinion based, but this is one step too far.
This person is clearly wrong! Lol .. who doesn't like Thai food?? I could live on Pad Thai!! Tom Yung soup .. my gods it's good!!
Just because you can't eat spice doesn't make their food bad. What a stupid thing to say.
i could eat thai food or vietnamese food every day for the rest of my life and be quite content
I always thought I hated thai food, because in the UK, Thai food that is sold in supermarkets is just overpowered with lemongrass or lime leaf, which just tastes like soap to me. It's took me until THIS YEAR to realise that authentic thai food isn't all like this, and it can in fact be delicious!
gee man good gracious, the onslaught of answers all saying UK.. have you ever experienced German food? It's like they don't have anything of their own and douse it in schokolade to make it taste better, that's not how it works!! I especially get disgusted by that kind of gingerbread they call pumperknickle and it is coated in chocolate. How can anyone possibly like that?
I am German and I have no idea what they are talking about... We very much have dishes of our own, but we sure share similarities with countries close to us. Pumpernickel is dark bread NOT doused in chocolate and I can't fathom any savoury dish that would be...
Totally agree! I'm thinking, did they confuse pumpernickel with lebkuchen? Lebkuchen is delicious!
Load More Replies...I am German (and live since 20+ years in NL). I have no clue what this person is talking about. Obviously the knowledge of german food is based of having googled blurred photos of meals. "Pumpernickel" is slowly baked bread, due to the baking technique it gets sort of lightly caramelized and very dark. It has a slightly sweet taste, which fits very well with strong flavoured cheese. Maybe this person is talking about "printen" of "lebkuchen", which is indeed some sort of hard or soft gingerbread, left blank or iced with chocolate. And "nothing of their own"? Please... google it.
Where on earth was he? It sure wasn't Germany. I never had (or even saw) a hearty meal doused in chocolate. And I am actually living there. Plus – Pumpernickel is no gingerbread by a longshot, it's a grainy rye bread. And never coated in chocolate. I mean, yes, there is a lot to criticize about German cuisine (too focused on meat, too heavy, drowned in sauce/gravy, not enough variation in vegetables, often boiled to death), but if you never tried any, you simply have no right to judge.
Cannot confirm. Doused in chocolate? Dear OP, WTF are you even talking about?
This sounds completely absurd to me as a German, as absolutely nothing of it sounds familiar... I am unable to think of a single dish that would be covered in chocolate, apart from some sweets. "Pumpernickel" is a very dark full grain bread, but I have never heard of someone covering it with chocolate. It is savoury, and definitely has no ties to ginger or simlar spices. Your Description sounds more like "Lebkuchen", which is not a dish, but a christmas sweet. German cuisine mostly consists of savory roasts, several types of dumplings, stews, fish at the coast... If anything, is is a bit meat-centered and on the heavy side calory-wise.
Pumpernickel is a special traditional sourdough bread made out of coarse rye meal and actually very tasty. There is no chocolate in it. Have you actually even tried real german food?
OP has never had my oma's cooking! Her schnitzel and homemade spaetzle was divine, and no one can make an apfelkuchen quite like she did!
Two words; Wiener schnitzel. The authentic stuff must have before you die.
Wiener Schnitzel is Austrian, but I agree. It's great.
Load More Replies...Pumpernickel is a dense dark bread and has noting to do with chocolate. Or gingerbread.
I seriously cannot stand Indian food.
Taste is so subjective...This basically is a list of a few random persons in a world of trillion people saying they don't like x. And we are reading it and commenting on it...
Load More Replies...This is a bit like saying I don't like European food. India is massive and has a wide range of cuisines.
Awww.. you havent tried real indian cuisine. What you get is just a fraction
Honestly, if I was forced to choose only one type of cuisine for the rest of my days, I'd choose Indian. Such a wide array of spice blends and sauces...one of my all-time favorite cuisines!
Load More Replies...That is a personal preference..this article is stupid and repetitive like most on BP
I have never been to India. I have been to plenty of expatriate Indian restaurants, and never had a bad experience. True, they probably cook to local taste. True, my palate is not used to the spiciness that Indians seem to take for granted. But I highly doubt that 1.5 billion Indians can all be wrong.
Look, I get it that this whole thread is opinion based, but this is wayyy too much. Like, OP didn't even explain. I can disagree strongly, mostly cause I've grown up eating Indian food (I'm indian), but let's be honest. Why post/ comment something without any explanation?
Depends on where you are in India and what you prefer to eat. Eg: West Bengal is chicken and fish-centric, so the vegan food( with some exceptions) is pretty bland.
This article tells more about the people posting their opinions than it does the countries they are criticising.
Wish I could upvote you 10,000 times. I quit after 10 b/c this is just one big collection of bigotry.
Load More Replies...This whole article is just complete rubbish. People thinking that the National dish of a country is a reflection on what everyone eats, categorising their personal dislike of 'Indian food' to say that all Indian food is rubbish and eating like one dish and arrogantly stating that is why the country's food is c**p. Wasted five minutes of my life reading this and posting!
I agree, a lot of advice is based on one or two local dishes.
Load More Replies...A couple of exceptions aside: Most of these just prove that 1. the person in question did not understand the limits and preferred taste of the local cuisine, 2. had no interest in other foid than served at tourist spots and 3. didn't do any effort as to simply verify their assumptions with googling it. This would not be a problem as lobg as thus stories were not read by others, who likewise won't verify this.
Your second remark is interesting. I suspect all these people have only eaten standardized international food because that's what restaurants serve in tourist spots, and thought it was representative of the local food.
Load More Replies...There's bad cooking and then there's bad cooking, but saying "I went to this incredibly poor country for vacation or work and the food was terrible" seems a little unfair to me.
This whole listicle is about as valuable as listening to a person who eats at a McDonalds in every country they visit, and then saying: "Oh, this and that country is the worst. The cheese had not melted yet on my burger."
I do love a positive post on a Friday. Really sets you up for the weekend with love for your fellow meatbags.
Ignoring the overly woke crowd in the comments, Lithuania (home of Bored Panda) had intriguingly bland dishes. Learning the history of the country explains this, but much like traditional cuisine here in the UK, it is a little uninspiring. The desserts were good though.
I upvoted you simply for the "intriguingly bland". Never ate *in* Lithuania, but other Eastern European nations were pretty zingy compared to, say, "traditional UK/German/etc.". (Which is the basis of the "traditional US", ugh IMO).
Load More Replies...Man these negative articles... Who wants to read about ignorant people s******g on other people's culture. So much arrogance in the comments from people thinking they are superior because they think their food tastes better. Might as well go on Reddit and have a proper argument over nothing.
This article tells more about the people posting their opinions than it does the countries they are criticising.
Wish I could upvote you 10,000 times. I quit after 10 b/c this is just one big collection of bigotry.
Load More Replies...This whole article is just complete rubbish. People thinking that the National dish of a country is a reflection on what everyone eats, categorising their personal dislike of 'Indian food' to say that all Indian food is rubbish and eating like one dish and arrogantly stating that is why the country's food is c**p. Wasted five minutes of my life reading this and posting!
I agree, a lot of advice is based on one or two local dishes.
Load More Replies...A couple of exceptions aside: Most of these just prove that 1. the person in question did not understand the limits and preferred taste of the local cuisine, 2. had no interest in other foid than served at tourist spots and 3. didn't do any effort as to simply verify their assumptions with googling it. This would not be a problem as lobg as thus stories were not read by others, who likewise won't verify this.
Your second remark is interesting. I suspect all these people have only eaten standardized international food because that's what restaurants serve in tourist spots, and thought it was representative of the local food.
Load More Replies...There's bad cooking and then there's bad cooking, but saying "I went to this incredibly poor country for vacation or work and the food was terrible" seems a little unfair to me.
This whole listicle is about as valuable as listening to a person who eats at a McDonalds in every country they visit, and then saying: "Oh, this and that country is the worst. The cheese had not melted yet on my burger."
I do love a positive post on a Friday. Really sets you up for the weekend with love for your fellow meatbags.
Ignoring the overly woke crowd in the comments, Lithuania (home of Bored Panda) had intriguingly bland dishes. Learning the history of the country explains this, but much like traditional cuisine here in the UK, it is a little uninspiring. The desserts were good though.
I upvoted you simply for the "intriguingly bland". Never ate *in* Lithuania, but other Eastern European nations were pretty zingy compared to, say, "traditional UK/German/etc.". (Which is the basis of the "traditional US", ugh IMO).
Load More Replies...Man these negative articles... Who wants to read about ignorant people s******g on other people's culture. So much arrogance in the comments from people thinking they are superior because they think their food tastes better. Might as well go on Reddit and have a proper argument over nothing.
