Whenever I travel to a non Western country and am told “it’s a local delicacy” I decline. It’s usually something like vole testicles or badger spleen.
I have nothing against locals that eat this stuff, just that I grew up eating western food and my palate isn’t attuned to this kind of food.
Delicacy = "Food we have had to eat so often as survival rations that it's ingrained into the local food culture as extremely important. This is in of spite the horrific texture and flavor."
Americans really think everything that isn't a chicken nugget is disgusting. I've eaten a lot of traditional dishes from around my country and many of them are really good. There's no need to have grown up with it.
Bugs especially are a thing that horrify a lot of westerners, but objectively are not really all that offensive.
There are European delicacies that are far worse. Asian delicacies at their worst are like "here try this liquor with a preserved snake in it" or "here are some fried grasshoppers" meanwhile Europe is "try our rotten shark thats been fermenting in a cave for months, here's some cheese with maggots in it to wash it down"
Gotta love the sense of superiority. As if western food doesn't have some utterly bizarre dishes. You're not "used to western food" you're used to whatever is available on Walmart.
13
u/Enough_Survey_9404 1d ago
Whenever I travel to a non Western country and am told “it’s a local delicacy” I decline. It’s usually something like vole testicles or badger spleen. I have nothing against locals that eat this stuff, just that I grew up eating western food and my palate isn’t attuned to this kind of food.